As of Today

• Large Hadron Collider starts up, produces first collisions

  Smashing! : )
  After a series of complications and setbacks, the Large Hadron Collider sees its first particle-particle collisions after a weekend of furious activity. While there weren't at any significant energy, the milestone marks an important step in getting the mammoth machine up and running and filling in the last space on the' [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 6:00am EST
  

• Large Hadron Collider repaired for relaunch

  Scientists have repaired the world's largest atom smasher and plan by this weekend to restart the machine
  

  View from the central axis of the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) tunnel of the ATLAS underground facility with the eight toroids surrounding the calorimeter

  Scientists have repaired [...]

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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 4:03am EST
  

• Reporting from Iraq: Freedom at risk

  Editorial: The Guardian, Thursday 12 November 2009

  "We take our freedom for granted. But imagine not to be able to speak or discuss or debate or even question the society you live in," Tony Blair told the House of Commons in March 2003, urging [...]

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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 7:29am EST
  

• Impact of pope's decree begins to dawn on Church of England members

  Intriguing stuff right now in the world of Anglicans & Episcopalians:

  For many sitting in the pews of Saint Augustine's Anglican church in north London it was a particularly special Sunday. There were three confirmations and one man received his first communion.

  But amid the applause and smart outfits there was another sense of occasion, with [...]

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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:19am EDT
  

• In Surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy

  My thought is here that they are making a big statement -- not so much about the single individual's, President Obama's, accomplishments -- but as regards the Obama approach to the world vs our former US administration's approach to the world. With this statement I would agree.
  OSLO — The [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 6:33am EDT
  

• 'I questioned things at Guantánamo from day one'

  An absolutely intriguing profile:
  Six months into his stint as a guard at Guantánamo, Terry Holdbrooks converted to Islam. What made him do it, asks Sarfraz Manzoor
  
  

  Terry Holdbrooks arrived at Guantánamo detention camp in the [...]

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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 5:36am EDT
  

• China's big day, the short version

  Chris Amico, Eyes East, posts this fantastic video of the parade in Tiananmen Square to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China - produced by Dan Chung of the Guardian.
  
  China's big day, the short version [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 9:30am EDT
  

• Sixty years on: veterans of Chairman Mao's China remember

  The Guardian continues with their interesting coverage on the eve of the 60th anniversary of communist party rule in China. A video is included.
  

  Few could have imagined this day, when communist ideas first began to spread in China in the 1920s. The nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek's vicious crackdown in Shanghai [...]

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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 6:39am EDT
  

• Communist heritage is good business as China prepares for 60th anniversary

  China celebrates the 60th anniversary of party rule on Thursday, October 1.
  

  The bullet tore through Mao Guangrong's back and came out through his groin. It took five men to hold him down as they stuffed the wound with cloth to staunch the bleeding – the only treatment the troops could muster as [...]

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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 5:30am EDT
  

• Guinness celebrates 250th birthday

  Raising a glass! Happy 250th Dear Guinness!
  

  From here to Hong Kong and myriad ports in between, millions will pause today at 17:59 on the 24-hour clock and raise a glass to the 18th-century Irish brewer who made the day worth celebrating.

  The man: Arthur Guinness. While today is his 284th birthday, it [...]

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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 9:23am EDT
  

• Obama calls on world to reframe the UN

  From the UN NewsWire today:
  
  In his first speech to the UN General Assembly, U.S. President Barack Obama stressed the differences between his administration and that of his predecessor George W. Bush while calling on the world to consider a new chapter in global cooperation. Obama spoke in [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 10:28am EDT
  

• When doves fly: World celebrates International Day of Peace

  This day never does get enough recognition here in the US:
  
  From the releasing of doves in Kabul, Afghanistan to a massive concert in Havana, people around the world are marking the special day.
  

  Twenty-one white doves in Kabul? Hand-painted pinwheels in Texas? “Peace biking” in Phnom Penh? [...]

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  Posted: September 22, 2009, 8:38am EDT
  

• UN and G20 meetings: One week and the world

  With President Obama, can the US return to a role of leadership and value to the UN? Let's hope so.
  If ever there was a week for putting the world to rights, this is it. Tuesday sees a special UN summit of world leaders to jump-start the [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 7:52am EDT
  

• Tomorrow, September 19th, is International Talk Like A Pirate Day

  Round again, it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day on Saturday, September 19 ... Avast, me hearties! [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 11:15am EDT
  

• ABC World News visits Monticello High School

  Our own Albemarle County Schools were highlighted on ABC World News for new uses of technology in education. Today, also, from Brandon Shulleeta, a story in our daily newspaper, The Daily Proogress, iPods, cameras replacing pen, paper.
  

  For generations, school meant books -- lots of books. But not [...]

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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 7:31am EDT
  

• Human space travel deserves a prepaid ticket

  Panel's report to Obama is right to demand firm funding of deep-space exploration.
  

  Nothing pushes frontiers in science and technology – and the human imagination – like space travel to other bodies in space. Breaking the bounds of Earth is now the pursuit of more than a dozen nations, all eager for the [...]

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  Posted: September 10, 2009, 8:50am EDT
  

• Obama tries to motivate students with speech

  The president shares personal stories about his education and holds a question-and-answer session with ninth-graders at a Virginia school in a non-political address. Some critics praise the speech.
  Reporting from Washington - President Obama today urged schoolchildren to rise above their mistakes and challenges to succeed in school, offering himself to students [...]
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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 11:51am EDT
  

• Douglas Coupland: the writer who sees into the future

  A read just for fun ... "In his new world, people don't do anything any more, but merely cut and paste from the past."
  

  Twenty years ago, Douglas Coupland was at work when he sneezed. It was December, he recalls, and snowing hard, and it was the biggest sneeze he'd ever had [...]

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  Posted: September 08, 2009, 7:23am EDT
  

• China and India Dispute Enclave on the Edge of Tibet

  Here's a great NYT slideshow that goes along with this interesting story.
  TAWANG, India — This is perhaps the most militarized Buddhist enclave in the world.
  

  Perched above 10,000 feet in the icy reaches of the eastern Himalayas, the town of Tawang is [...]

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  Posted: September 04, 2009, 5:51am EDT
  

• Editorial: Bob McDonnell's radical thesis

  Twenty years ago, Bob McDonnell wrote a master's thesis at Regent University. It contained a world view that has no place in modern Virginia, let alone in the governor's mansion.

  His thesis was no immature document penned by a 21-year-old for an undergraduate class. It is a 93page manifesto written by a 34-year-old [...]

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  Posted: September 02, 2009, 5:16am EDT
  

• Cheney's 'Fodder'

  Important today from Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR): Cheney's 'Fodder'
  Cheney's torture claims debunked; will the media say so?
  
  The release of a 2004 CIA inspector general's report on the agency's "enhanced interrogation" techniques, along with two other previously classified memos, has thrown a harsh spotlight on [...]
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  Posted: August 31, 2009, 6:13am EDT
  

• Don't Want a Public Plan? Well, What Do You Think of Medicare?

  Hello!? ... just figuring this point out?
  

  Opponents of health-care reform should be chanting "No more Medicare!" The arguments that have been made against the public option (a health insurance plan sold and administered by the federal government) apply with equal or greater force to Medicare.

  Plan designed by the government? Check. Government bureaucracy? Check. [...]

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  Posted: August 25, 2009, 8:49am EDT
  

• Without Explanation, China Releases 3 Activists

  Interesting ... wondering what China may want from the US?
  BEIJING — Chinese authorities unexpectedly released three political activists from detention on Sunday, including one whose case had drawn global attention.
  
  Officials offered no reason for the releases, but they occurred one day after the new American ambassador to [...]
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  Posted: August 24, 2009, 11:01am EDT
  

• U.S. senator secures release of American in Myanmar

  From the UNWire today:
  
  U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., successfully secured the release of John Yettaw, an American sentenced to seven years of hard labor for illegally visiting the compound of democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar. Webb met with Suu Kyi during his visit [...]
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  Posted: August 17, 2009, 10:40am EDT
  

• The Wrong Stuff - What we don’t know about how to correct misinformation

  This is probably one of the most important pieces I have read recently. This notion of "cognitive truculence" -- the difficulty to near impossibility of correcting a person's misinformed perceptions -- is not just important/vital to the news industry, but to society in general. It has recently seemed all too [...]
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  Posted: August 14, 2009, 8:43am EDT
  

• Unpopular Science

  It's no secret the newspaper industry is hemorrhaging staff writers and slashing coverage as its business model collapses in the face of declining readership and advertising revenues. But less recognized is how this trend is killing off a breed of journalistic specialists that we need now more than ever--science writers ...
  For twenty-three years [...]
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  Posted: August 06, 2009, 1:09pm EDT
  

• Dan Rather laments journalism's rapid decline in Aspen appearance

  "For what it's worth ..."
  ASPEN — Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather told an Aspen audience Tuesday that journalism has declined to such a point that it is time for the government to intervene.
  
  Appearing at the Greenwald Pavilion as part of the Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Rather said “traditional journalism is [...]
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  Posted: July 29, 2009, 10:12am EDT
  

• Space: Is the final frontier all it used to be?

  Something different. How very American: we want to be inspired anew. We hunger for it. And though it hasn't felt urgent in many years, space remains in position to feed that American urge for the next big thing, for pushing outward, for testing ourselves and renewing at the edges.
  

  MOON, Pa. — On' [...]

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  Posted: July 18, 2009, 12:36pm EDT
  

• Practice your magic skills with Harry Potter iPhone app

  Oh -- now -- this is too cool!
  

  This post is for all the Harry Potter fans out there. Now that you’ve probably already seen “Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince” (and most likely attended the midnight screening, too), why not practice your magic wand skills?

  A free iPhone app called Magic [...]

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  Posted: July 17, 2009, 6:09am EDT
  

• Editorial: To be the jobs governor

  Just the facts: Roanoke Times editorial calls out Bob McDonnell, Virginia republican candidate for Governor and current VA Attorney General.
  Check the record. Bob McDonnell voted to strip a job fund he now calls vital.
  

  Bob McDonnell is proving to be a clever campaigner as he works to get himself elected [...]

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  Posted: July 15, 2009, 5:38am EDT
  

• Rules for Time Travelers

  I'm loving this piece. Here's a quick list of the 10+1 "rules," but it's worth reading the whole of the story:
  
  0. There are no paradoxes.
  1. Traveling into the future is easy.
  2. Traveling into the past is hard — but maybe not impossible.
  3. Traveling through time' [...]
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  Posted: June 17, 2009, 11:52am EDT
  

• Deeds Surges to Stunning Win in Va.

  Well done!
  R. Creigh Deeds, a longtime state legislator from rural Bath County, won a stunning come-from-behind victory in the Democratic primary for Virginia governor last night, overwhelming a pair of better-funded and better-positioned opponents.
  
  Deeds beat Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe in every region of the state, including vote-rich Northern Virginia, despite [...]
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  Posted: June 10, 2009, 5:25am EDT
  

• Deeds for Dem nomination

  This is tomorrow folks! Vote! ... endorsement for Creigh Deeds from the Staunton News Leader:
  He came within a few hundred votes of taking the attorney general's seat he had worked so hard for four years ago, and should the vote go his way on Tuesday, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds [...]
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  Posted: June 08, 2009, 6:55am EDT
  

• Tiananmen anniversary muted by government suppression past and present

  From the UNWire today:
  In the face of government suppression of Web sites such as Twitter and house arrests of dissidents, few Chinese dared even to wear white -- the traditional color of mourning -- to Tiananmen Square on the 20th anniversary of the government's brutal massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators. [...]
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  Posted: June 05, 2009, 10:11am EDT
  

• 'Peace by Piece' at Henley Middle, Albemarle County, attacked by the ignorant in our town

  Right out of the embarrassed in Albemarle County & City of Charlottesville department is this little "piece" of absurdity on the part of one time Republican city-councilor, conservative talk-show host, and apparently sadly ignorant Rob Schilling. Please note first the Peace by Piece program at Henley announcement from Margie [...]
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  Posted: June 03, 2009, 9:25am EDT
  

• My Postcard from Maker Faire - Chris OBrien

  At that core, Maker has a very powerful message for everyone who is ready to listen. It reminds us of the simple joy of creating.
  This past weekend, I took the family to Maker Faire at the San Mateo County Expo Center.

  “What is Maker Faire?” is perhaps one of the [...]

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  Posted: June 02, 2009, 9:18am EDT
  

• Snoopy Celebrates 40th Anniversary of His Moon Flight

  Awesome! : )
  
  

  Snoopy, the irreverent dog from the "Peanuts" comic strip, took time from his World War I dogfights as world-famous flying ace to become a world-famous astronaut for NASA's Apollo 10 mission.

  The beagle now has a 5-foot-tall statue at Florida's Kennedy Space Center to' [...]

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  Posted: May 27, 2009, 12:14pm EDT
  

• Mr. Deeds on June 9

  Of three qualified candidates in the Democratic primary, the rural state senator is the best choice.
  
  Washington Post editorial, Friday, may 22, 2009
  

  WHO IS the best candidate for Northern Virginia? Judge by appearances and there are two obvious possibilities in the Democratic primary for governor: Brian Moran, the former Alexandria [...]

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  Posted: May 22, 2009, 5:28am EDT
  

• The Astronaut's Dilemma

  See, I'm not the only one how uses vulgar language to help in household mechanical projects! Lucky not to be an astronaut, only my family members and dogs must suffer through my time-tested, effective, problem solving, expressions of frustration.
  ... And so the astronauts kept turning and twisting and kvetching' [...]
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  Posted: May 15, 2009, 12:46pm EDT
  

• Secret Memoir Offers Look Inside China’s Politics

  I told myself that no matter what, I would not be the general secretary who mobilized the military to crack down on students.
  
  An excerpt from the memoirs of former Chinese Communist party chief Zhao Ziyang, as quoted inThe New York Times.
  ... in this long, enforced retirement, [...]
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  Posted: May 14, 2009, 10:38am EDT
  

• Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me" a possible model for local news organizations willing to experiment

  I absolutely love Playing for Change!
  
  Says, John Temple, Playing for Change offers "... exciting possibility for newspapers that want to bring a sense of understanding and connection to their readers ... Journalism at its best builds a common sense of humanity among different people."
  
  Temple Talk, [...]
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  Posted: May 13, 2009, 6:27am EDT
  

• White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

  President Obama and Wanda Sykes at the 2009 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner via Al Giordano, The Field and Narco News ' [...]
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  Posted: May 12, 2009, 10:40am EDT
  

• World Press Freedom Day

  Yesterday, May 3, was World Press Freedom Day. [...]
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  Posted: May 04, 2009, 9:13am EDT
  

• UNESCO, U.S. Library of Congress and Partners Launch World Digital Library

  Wow!
  Paris, Washington DC, 21 April - UNESCO and 32 partner institutions today launched the World Digital Library, a Web site that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site – located at www.wdl.org – includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound [...]
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  Posted: April 21, 2009, 8:33am EDT
  

• Solar power captured in space, beamed to Earth

  Now this is an idea I like!
  

  West Coast energy giant PG&E unveiled a plan this week to put solar panels in orbit and wirelessly beam energy down to Earth by 2016.

  Satellite solar cells would capture the sun’s rays 24 hours a day, without fear of cloudy mornings or dark [...]

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  Posted: April 15, 2009, 7:24am EDT
  

• GOP Turns Deaf Ear to Jobless Virginians

  The Virginian Pilot calls out shortsighted Virginia Republican delegates. Do I need to even check how our own Rob Bell voted?
  With nearly 300,000 Virginians out of work, every elected leader should be working tirelessly and together to help constituents endure the worst recession since the 1930s. Instead, on [...]
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  Posted: April 10, 2009, 4:53am EDT
  

• The scorched Earth of the future is here -- in Australia

  Today from the UNWire:
  
  Scientists believe Australia, once home to a dry climate that nevertheless allowed for an enviable lifestyle, is living proof of the fears of catastrophic global climate change. A decade of drought has wrought raging bush fires, monsoon flooding, mosquito fevers and the transformation [...]
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  Posted: April 09, 2009, 10:31am EDT
  

• Why Local Newspapers Are the Basis of Democracy

  The truly literate and involved American should be reading the local newspaper. Weekly newspapers and the internet are also vital to maintaining an educated citizenry. We must ensure that they continue to flourish because they are all important resources for maintaining a healthy democracy.
  Charlottesville, VA, local John Whitehead, founder and president of the [...]
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  Posted: April 09, 2009, 5:11am EDT
  

• Knights Templar hid the Shroud of Turin, says Vatican

  So that's where it was!
  

  Medieval knights hid and secretly venerated The Holy Shroud of Turin for more than 100 years after the Crusades, the Vatican said yesterday in an announcement that appeared to solve the mystery of the relic’s missing years.

  The Knights Templar, an order which was suppressed and disbanded for alleged heresy, [...]

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  Posted: April 08, 2009, 10:26am EDT
  

• House Passes Shield Law For Journalists

  WASHINGTON, DC (March 31, 2009) – The House on Tuesday passed by voice vote a bill to protect journalists from being compelled to reveal their confidential news sources.

  Last week the House Judiciary Committee passed the Free Flow of Information Act (HR 985), sending it to the House for a full [...]

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  Posted: April 03, 2009, 7:31am EDT
  

• G20 communiqué: Point by point analysis

  Nice - and understandable - point by point analysis of one of the most significant international meetings (significant as in the US actually took part as both leader AND world team player). This from The Telegraph, UK.

  Hundreds of billions of dollars in extra money was pledged along with a [...]

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  Posted: April 03, 2009, 6:12am EDT
  

• Religion: With God on Our Side

  ... believers think they're doing the Lord's work—sometimes a dangerous inclination.
  
  Psychologist Nick Epley explores how we attribute beliefs and attitudes to other minds, including those of deities ...
  A surprising find? I think not. Look man, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!
  [...]
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  Posted: April 01, 2009, 11:50am EDT
  

• The Christian Science Monitor has published its final daily print edition, dated March 27

  Mayhaps the way to go for news:
  

  Dear readers:

  The Christian Science Monitor has published its final daily print edition, dated March 27.

  The key words in that sentence are "daily print." As of today, we are shedding print on a daily basis. But the Monitor itself – the century-old [...]

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  Posted: March 27, 2009, 5:48am EDT
  

• The Fourth Estate and the Governance of the Country

  Speech by former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles (Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at University of Virginia) upon his acceptance of the 2009 VPA Virginian of the Year Award:
  Thank you for this wonderful award. It is a pleasure to receive it in the company of my wife, [...]
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  Posted: March 26, 2009, 8:58am EDT
  

• AG Holder Directs Agencies to be Transparent

  A welcome change, "In the face of doubt, openness prevails."Attorney General Eric Holder released his much anticipated memorandum on how federal agencies should apply the Freedom of Information Act yesterday. The new memo rescinds one issued by John Ashcroft in 2001, which backed agencies’ withholding of information and [...]
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  Posted: March 23, 2009, 6:43am EDT
  

• The pioneering P-I slips into the past

  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the region's pioneer newspaper and the city's oldest continually operating business, a newspaper that both shaped and was shaped by the community it covered, prints its last edition Tuesday -- nearly a century and a half after its forebear first rolled off a hand-cranked Ramage press promising to be "the best" [...]
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  Posted: March 18, 2009, 9:50am EDT
  

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer to become largest daily newspaper to switch to an all-digital model

  Will it work??

  NEW YORK, March 16, 2009— Hearst Corporation announced today that the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (P-I) will become the nation’s largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product. The announcement was made by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and chief executive officer, Hearst Corporation, and Steven R. Swartz, president of [...]

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  Posted: March 17, 2009, 11:23am EDT
  

• The Roanoke Times: First Place | Documentary Project of the Year

  Pictures of the Year International
  Documentary Project of the Year
  
  The Roanoke Times/roanoke.com
  "Age Of Uncertainty"
  
  Most excellent job!
  
  Got it here: First Place | Documentary Project of the Year [...]
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  Posted: March 10, 2009, 9:08am EDT
  

• Nasa launches search for second Earth

  Exciting news -- and the Guardian has a nice video:
  

  The launch of the Kepler spacecraft from Cape Canaveral in Florida today marks the beginning of the most ambitious hunt for planets like ours in distant solar systems.

  The Kepler telescope will spend three-and-a-half years staring deep into a starry region [...]

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  Posted: March 07, 2009, 9:36am EST
  

• GOP Officials File Petition to Oust Virginia Party Chairman

  Can't we at least keep him through November's election ... please?
  Many ranking Virginia Republicans are seeking to oust Del. Jeff Frederick, R-Prince William County, as chairman of the state GOP less than one year after picking him for that post.
  
  Frederick's tenure as party chairman has been checkered' [...]
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  Posted: March 06, 2009, 3:59am EST
  

• Post-9/11 Memos Show More Bush-Era Legal Errors

  Errors?
  The number of major legal errors committed by Bush administration lawyers during the formulation of its early counterterrorism policies was far greater than previously known, according to internal Bush administration documents released for the first time by the Justice Department yesterday.
  

  Those policies were based on at least 10 legal [...]

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  Posted: March 03, 2009, 4:22am EST
  

• RIP Rocky Mountain News

  Local DP columnist Byran McKenzie gives his own perspective on the sad news of the day:
  
  ... The imminent death of the Rocky Mountain News tabloid in Denver, has been the subject of much discussion, conjecture, speculation and supposition. Yesterday, the paper’s owners and editors ended the guesswork and [...]
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  Posted: February 27, 2009, 6:43am EST
  

• Commerce Pick Carries Lengthy China Résumé

  Mr. Locke would be a good pick. For far too long we have ignored China, dealing with China with a great deal of ignorance - policy and perspective we cannot continue.
  SEATTLE — Top slots in the Obama administration were filling up fast when Gary Locke was asked by a [...]
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  Posted: February 25, 2009, 4:05am EST
  

• Gerrymandering Disgrace

  Disappointing but not surprising:
  The House Privileges and Elections Committee has killed a bill to create a bipartisan redistricting commission. The vote ranks as the most deplorable of the session.
  
  Legislation banning smoking in bars tramples on the property rights of restaurant and bar owners, but at least there [...]
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  Posted: February 20, 2009, 3:55am EST
  

• Melt-pools 'accelerating Arctic ice loss'

  This I find frightening:
  New research has revealed that melt-water pooling on the Arctic sea ice is causing it to melt at a faster rate than computer models had previously predicted.

  Scientists have been struggling to understand why the northern sea ice has been retreating [...]

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  Posted: February 18, 2009, 9:43am EST
  

• Space crash: satellites collide 500 miles above Earth

  What is amazing is that this hasn't happened before:

  A US and a Russian satellite have collided in space hundreds of miles above Earth in what is believed to be the first major crash of two spacecraft in orbit.

  The collision – which occurred nearly 500 miles over Siberia on Tuesday – caused massive' [...]

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  Posted: February 12, 2009, 8:29am EST
  

• Today: Bob Marley’s 64th world-wide birthday celebration

  This came across my desk today:
  In conjunction with Bob Marley’s 64th world-wide birthday celebration on February 6th, Playing For Change, the cross-cultural global musical movement, will debut their version of Marley’s timeless classic “One Love” on www.BobMarley.com. This five-minute video is a song from around the world featuring [...]
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  Posted: February 06, 2009, 6:04am EST
  

• John Updike

  From Washington Post's Joel Achenbach:

  There was a time when a novelist could bestride the American cultural landscape. You could get on the cover of Time magazine. Reporters sought your opinion on politics, culture, sports, anything. Your short stories appeared in Esquire and Playboy. Needless to say, it was the men who ruled the [...]

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  Posted: January 28, 2009, 6:35am EST
  

• On First Full Day, Obama Will Dive Into Foreign Policy

  The shift finally begins --
  

  President-elect Barack Obama will plunge into foreign policy on his first full day in office tomorrow, finally freed from the constraints of tradition that has forced him and his staff to remain muzzled about world affairs during the 78-day transition
  

  As one of his first actions, Obama [...]

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  Posted: January 20, 2009, 9:51am EST
  

• Not-so-fond Farewell: Vanity Fair’s Oral History of the Bush White House

  Friend, former coworker and journalist Scott Weaver does a fine job highlighting material from Vanity Fair's Oral History of the Bush White House. Nice little reminder as we enjoy tomorrow's inauguration of President Barak Obama:
  
  Not-so-fond Farewell: Vanity Fair’s Oral History of the Bush White House [...]
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  Posted: January 19, 2009, 5:45am EST
  

• 2009: The International Year of Astronomy

  Apparently --- and Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post has an interesting article noting what a big year it'll be for the telescope!

  The big bang, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, extrasolar planets, brown dwarfs, quasars, pulsars, cosmic rays, the space-time continuum, galaxies and more galaxies. Do you see what Galileo [...]

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  Posted: January 14, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Seattle Post-Intelligencer up for sale or else

  The Hearst Corp., owner of the Seattle P-I, has put the paper up for sale and given it 60 days. If no buyer is found, the 146 year-old paper will either go online only or cease operations all together.

  Economic reasons have forced the state's oldest morning newspaper into a sale, Steven [...]

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  Posted: January 12, 2009, 6:58am EST
  

• Rebricking Charlottesville's Downtown Mall

  Charlottesville is undertaking a bold -- and somewhat risky in these financial times -- face-lift (or would it be a foot-lift?) of its "Historic Downtown Pedestrian Mall." It's pulling up old bricks and laying down new bricks in a staged manner with an aim toward helping to keep downtown businesses [...]
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  Posted: January 08, 2009, 4:41am EST
  

• Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders

  Mr. Obama will be taking on the rebuilding of nations, including our own, on multiple fronts.

  BAGHDAD — An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into [...]

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  Posted: December 15, 2008, 5:12am EST
  

• The Battle for Human Rights

  Further from the UNWire:
  

  Sixty years ago, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This concept of universal rights is under attack by some who think it is a Western construct, writes Barbara Crosette in The Nation. "Probably one of the existential issues in international human [...]

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  Posted: December 10, 2008, 9:53am EST
  

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights Marks 60th Anniversary

  Wednesday, December 10, marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Spearheaded by former U.S. first lady and U.N. delegate Eleanor Roosevelt, the UDHR guaranteed the political and civic rights of all people, including the right to freedom from torture, slavery, poverty, homelessness and other forms [...]

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  Posted: December 10, 2008, 5:44am EST
  

• Workers Pay for Debacle at Tribune

  Good journalism on the end of good journalism:

  Sam Zell acknowledged from the start that his deal for the Tribune Company was flawed.

  “I’m here to tell you that the transaction from hell is done,” Mr. Zell said last December [...]

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  Posted: December 09, 2008, 8:56am EST
  

• 'Several Cities' Could Have No Daily Paper As Soon As 2010, Credit Rater Says

  Doom & gloom, my friends. And what shall become of our own Daily Progress?
  

  CHICAGO Newspaper and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year -- leaving "several cities" with no daily newspaper at all, Fitch Ratings says in a report on media released [...]

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  Posted: December 05, 2008, 8:53am EST
  

• Episcopal Split as Conservatives Form New Group

  Widening the breach ... neither one any longer the Episcopal Church in which I grew up, but should it (they) be? Progression in belief and understanding is a natural and positive tenet of reality. My money is NOT on the proposed new conservative Anglican Church in North America being capable [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2008, 4:45am EST
  

• UNA-USA strongly supports nomination of Susan E. Rice as US-UN Ambassador

  Susan Rice receives strong support from UNA-USA as UN ambassador. Could this be the start of renewed US actual leadership in the UN?
  

  Ambassador William H. Luers, president of the United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA), issued the following statement December 1st concerning President-elect Barack Obama’s nomination of Susan [...]

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  Posted: December 02, 2008, 4:32am EST
  

• Virginian-Pilot cuts 125 jobs, plans to reduce paper's size

  The Virginian-Pilot - one of my favorite Virginia dailies - takes a hit, and is apparently for sale: "The newspaper's owner, Landmark Media Enterprises LLC, continues to negotiate a sale of the newspaper. A buyer is trying to get financing, Jones said."

  Plagued by advertising declines, The Virginian-Pilot is cutting at least 125 positions [...]

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  Posted: November 25, 2008, 5:27am EST
  

• In a First, Astronomers Report Viewing Planets of Other Suns

  Oh Boy!
  
  [Joel's blog post on the story is a good read too: Pale White Dots]

  Staring at his computer screen in May, poking through images of the bright star Fomalhaut, astronomer Paul Kalas found himself staring at a tiny white dot. The dot appeared amid a great ring of [...]

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  Posted: November 14, 2008, 4:55am EST
  

• Leadership for the 21st Century

  October 11, 2008 – Stanford University
  
  2008 Roundtable at Stanford
  
  Wanted: Courage, Compassion and Character
  Leadership for the 21st Century - Moderated by Tom Brokaw
  [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2008, 4:44am EST
  

• API Hosting 'Crisis Summit' for Newspaper Industry

  Blow it up!
  

  CHICAGO The American Press Institute (API) will host an invitation-only, closed-door "summit conference" Nov. 13 in which 50 CEO-level executives will ponder ways to revive the newspaper business.
  
  The one-day conference at API's Reston, Va., headquarters will be "a facilitated discussion of concrete steps the industry can take to reverse [...]

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  Posted: November 11, 2008, 8:19am EST
  

• UNA-USA congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama and urges active United States engagement in the United Nations

  From UNA-USA: Nov. 7, 2008: Ambassador William H. Luers, president of the United Nations Association of the USA, issued the following statement concerning the election of Sen. Barack Obama as the forty-fourth President of the United States.
  

  The United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA) congratulates [...]

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  Posted: November 10, 2008, 4:18am EST
  

• Newspapers dying?

  Maybe not: What's Next: Innovations in Newspapers has been covering this story - The day after the election of Senator Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, major papers were hard to find ... because they were SOLD OUT!
  

  France Presse reports:

  Leading US newspapers said [...]

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  Posted: November 06, 2008, 7:56am EST
  

• Michael Crichton Dies

  Michael Crichton's The Andromeda Strain was the first sci-fi novel I read as a kid - haven't put down science-fiction since.
  
  From the NYT:
  

  Michael Crichton, the author of the blockbuster science-fiction novels “Jurassic Park,” “The Andromeda Strain” and “State of Fear,” has died. He was 66. [...]

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  Posted: November 05, 2008, 8:23am EST
  

• Bruce McClellan, Eighth and Second-Longest Serving Head Master of The Lawrenceville School, Dies at age 84

  Bruce McClellan was Head Master of The Lawrenceville School during my time there as a student, 1979-83. Being a house president my 3rd year, I had the honor of joining Mr. McClellan at a monthly lunch. From a student perspective Mr. McClellan was extremely approachable, willing to listen to [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2008, 9:31am EDT
  

• A Final Thank You to 'Wire' Fans, From Show Creator David Simon

  So says David Simon:
  

  ... We are a culture without the will to seriously examine our own problems. We eschew that which is complex, contradictory or confusing. As a culture, we seek simple solutions. We enjoy being provoked and titillated, but resist the rigorous, painstaking examination of issues that might, in the end, bring [...]

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  Posted: October 30, 2008, 10:45am EDT
  

• Mourning Old Media’s Decline

  Come on people: Where's the new business model?
  

  The news that Google settled two longstanding suits with book authors and publishers over its plans to digitize the world’s great libraries suggests that some level of détente could be reached between old media and new.
  

  If true, it [...]

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  Posted: October 29, 2008, 8:31am EDT
  

• PERRIELLO FOR VIRGINIA'S 5TH DISTRICT

  Roanoke Times Editorial: Goode's nativist fear-mongering has been shameful. Perriello would be a refreshing and smart change.
  

  U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, R-Rocky Mount, gives conservatism a bad name.
  
  His nativist appeals to the worst instincts of some of his constituents reached a crescendo with his shameful rhetoric following [...]

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  Posted: October 27, 2008, 5:29am EDT
  

• Barack Obama for President

  New York Times editorial: Very well said.
  

  The United States is battered and drifting after eight years of President Bush’s failed leadership. He is saddling his successor with two wars, a scarred global image and a government systematically stripped of its ability to protect and help its citizens — whether [...]

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  Posted: October 24, 2008, 5:01am EDT
  

• Risking China's wrath, EU gives Sakharov award to Hu Jia

  Uh Oh! ... should have added earlier that I feel this is a fine move by the EU, Hu Jia being a strong and brave voice for people's rights, freedom and respect within the Peoples Republic of China.
  

  The European Union honored Chinese dissident Hu Jia with its top [...]

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  Posted: October 23, 2008, 10:45am EDT
  

• William Shatner lashes out at George Takei

  While India launches a rocket to the moon, the original heroes of TV space exploration have a public cat fight: Who cares? Be gay. Don't be gay. That's up to you, George. — William Shatner
  

  LOS ANGELES (AP) — William Shatner is setting his phaser to stun against his [...]

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  Posted: October 23, 2008, 5:55am EDT
  

• The media-created narratives that derail election coverage

  FAIR gives us the Top Troubling Tropes of Campaign '08:
  

  1. John McCain, Straight-Talking Maverick
  Despite a recent voting record that makes him one of the Senate's most conservative lawmakers, the press has clung fiercely to the notion that, as U.S. News & World Report put it, "McCain [...]

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  Posted: October 21, 2008, 12:29pm EDT
  

• Secret UFO files released by UK government

  LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's Ministry of Defense has released files on UFO sightings dating back to the 1970s, including witness accounts and the government's response.
  
  The ministry on Wednesday released the files as part of a four-year project to transfer all of the UFO documents to the National Archives to make them [...]

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  Posted: October 20, 2008, 5:56am EDT
  

• Va. Ruling Bolsters Breakaway Parishes

  Oh those wacky whisk'a-palians: from the spiritual to the mundane, when a church splits, who gets the house?
  

  Five years after the consecration of an openly gay bishop, conservatives who have left the Episcopal Church have organized into a cohesive movement, creating a de facto, if small, separate Anglican church in the United [...]

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  Posted: October 16, 2008, 9:35am EDT
  

• Now Showing: Star Trek on YouTube

  Oh yeah.
  

  YouTube has started screening 50-minute episodes of the Star Trek series - 5 of them to be precise on the website heralding a new era in content advertising. The videos comprise of a 15-second pre-roll ad section with mid-roll and post-roll ads joining in as well.
  
  [...]

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  Posted: October 13, 2008, 5:41am EDT
  

• Note To News Orgs: McCain And Palin Are Largely Responsible For Unhinged Tone At Their Rallies

  But here's the most important point: To my knowledge neither McCain nor Palin has uttered a single syllable of protest as their crowds indulged their fear and loathing of Obama. It's hard to overstate how reckless and lacking in leadership this is -- and how dangerous this is, too.
  

  The news orgs are [...]

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  Posted: October 10, 2008, 11:38am EDT
  

• Uighurs Sold to U.S. Military for Bounty?

  How? Where? Does one in these circumstances return to a "normal" life.
  

  Seventeen ethnic Uighur men will stay in prison at Guantanamo Bay on Friday despite a U.S. district judge’s unprecedented order that they should be released. A Washington, D.C. appeals court on Wednesday granted a temporary stay at [...]

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  Posted: October 10, 2008, 7:58am EDT