New York Times
laelaps | May 8, 2010
Written in Stone is now available for pre-sale on Amazon.com (as well as a few other online stores)! The description of the book, author bio, etc. will have to be updated, but otherwise it is good to see it get its own page, and many thanks to the several of you who have already pre-ordered copies.Yet another cool new paleo blog - Crurotarsi: The Forgotten Archosaurs. Looks like I am going to have to update my blogroll again.In the "online first" section of Evolution: Education and Outreach there is a new paper on science communication (which also covers the Darwinius kerfuffle) by Carl…
ddobbs | March 17, 2010I'll try doing this now and then, maybe regularly, to gather the more notable tweets I get in my twitter feed.
Darwin2009: Population-level traits that affect, and do not affect, invasion success http://ow.ly/1mMUp
jayrosen_nyu: "The New York Times is now as much a technology company as a journalism company." <--- Bill Keller http://jr.ly/2pfz
dhayton: âH-Madnessâ is a new blog on the history of psychiatry, madness, etc. For and by scholars: http://historypsychiatry.wordpress.com/
stevesilberman: The brains of psychopaths may be hypersensitive to dopamine rewards - http://bit.ly/daP9Go…
ddobbs | July 9, 2009Both Mind Hacks and Jonah Lehrer took interesting note -- Jonah's the longer, and a pretty nice summary itself -- of the fascinating NY Times piece on ultramarathoner Diane Van Deren, who began running long distances after brain surgery removed much of her right temporal lobe. This gave her a great advantage: the lack of memory of the run behind her, and thus of any dread of the punishment still to come. Downside: significant memory problems, and she can't read a map.
Speaking of memory ...
Newsweek has a good piece on unconscious plagiarism -- that is, how genuine lapses in "source memory…
ddobbs | July 1, 2009
Among the many treats in Carl Zimmer's new Times piece on fireflies and sex -- go, and be enchanted -- I particularly liked this quick peek at how a life and a career can take a sharp turn for the most unplanned of reasons:
It was on a night much like this one in 1980 when Dr. Lewis first came under the spell of fireflies. She was in graduate school at Duke University, studying coral reef fish. Waiting for a grant to come through for a trip to Belize, she did not have much else to do but sit in her backyard in North Carolina.
"Every evening there was this incredible display of fireflies…
bioephemera | May 11, 2009This week, Nieman Journalism Lab is running a fascinating series of video interviews with the New York Times' R&D group on the possible future face of news media. I know - you're wondering why the supposedly financially moribund NYT is wasting money on nerds who play with Kindles. Who do they think they are, Google? But it might be a good strategy after all.
As Fortune and the Columbia Journalism Review recently pointed out, with outlets all around them slashing premium content (like science), the NYT's best strategy may be to instead become increasingly "elite:"
Meanwhile, the company is…
sb admin | April 27, 2009
Temnothorax marked for studies of individual behavior at the University of Arizona
Today's New York Times is carrying a profile of myrmecologist Anna Dornhaus. It is nice to see Anna's work receiving such attention, great and important, blah blah blah, but the really important part is this. The editors had the excellent taste to illustrate their piece with some ant and bee photographs of mine.
The online edition also hosts an ant slide show to accompany the story. The Times trimmed the 22 photos I suggested down to an efficient 15, but I've preserved the director's cut here. For…
ddobbs | January 23, 2009In explaining How Not to Fix the New York Times, Felix Salmon identifies many assets that help make the Times so invaluable -- and which may be hard to replicate in a more fragmented media world.
The challenge for a New Media that seeks to replace newspapers rather than supplement them will be to either replace those assets, which include not only sources and clout but long-digging reporters and ever-vigilant editors -- or somehow find substitutes that get the same jobs done.
Hat tip: Daily Dish
ddobbs | January 22, 2009
In response to my post on himself, the NY Times, Zyprexa, Infinite Mind, etc.
ddobbs | January 20, 2009While some have chided Michael Hirschorn for offering the Huffington Post the as the most promising template for replacing print newspapers, another candidate Hirschorn mentioned has been strengthening its bid to combine access, clout, and experience with a Media 2.0 agility and energy (as recommended by top self-appointed MSM/blogosphere observers). Talking Points Memo just launched TPMDC, a DC office, and just substantially strengthened its DC bureau by adding the print-journo veteran Matt Cooper, most recently of Portfolio.
The premise is simple. Though the phrase is endlessly…
ddobbs | January 19, 2009I stirred some ire last week when I asserted that the Times (for -- disclosure dept -- whom I sometimes write) and similar mainstream papers offer a public good through their unique combination of a) access to information and 2) clout with the public and government. Several readers took me to task (see the comments section of the post linked above), arguing that these papers have failed their public mission by dropping the ball several times lately, most notably during the run-up to the Iraq War. "Let the dinosaur die," is the argument. In a similar vein, some science bloggers (see this post…
ddobbs | January 13, 2009
Caleb Carr Crain on why he remains pessimistic about reading despite the recent National Endowment of the Arts report showing a reversal last year in a 25-year decline in reading. It's a good consideration of several ways i which the data might be a mismeasure or a misleading anomaly.
Why aren't I celebrating the new numbers about the reading of literature? First, the numbers are good, but they're not that
Second, another of the NEA's measures shows a continued, stubborn decrease. To the question "With the exception of books required for work or school, did you read any books during the last…
ddobbs | January 13, 20091. Andrew Sullivan trashed Bono for his Times column (judge it yourself and summarize it in a contest if you'd like) -- and trashed Bono's lyrics as well.
2. A reader objected, saying Bono's lyrics weren't ALL so bad.
3. Sullivan half-conceded -- and posted this video.
Mess not with Andrew.
ddobbs | January 13, 2009
Steven Waldman: Why the Huffington Post Can't Replace The New York Times
The idea that the Huffington Post, or the explosion of interesting internet news or blogging sites, can replace journalistic institutions like the New York times or other newspapers or dinosaurs of the mainstream media truly misunderstands the web, newspapers, journalism and the serious threat posed to democracy if the news gathering institutions fail.
I think Waldman has this right. Michael Hirschorn's Atlantic piece pondering the death of the Times is plenty interesting, and good food for thought. But -- even aside…