- New York Times:
TECHNOLOGY:
OpenAI's board pushes outfirm's chief executive
(Sam Altman, the high-profile CEO of OpenAI, who became the face of the tech industry's
artificial intelligence boom, has been pushed out of the company by its board of directors,
OpenAI said in a blog post Friday aftrnoon. Mira Murati, who previously served as the
company's chief technology officer, has been named interim CEO, the company said.)
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, Nov, 18, 2023)
* TECHNOLOGY:
The Secret Ingredient of ChatGPT Is Human Advice
(Companies like OpenAI hone their bots using hand-tailored examples from well-educated workers.
But is this always for the best? Nazneen Rajani, a researcher with the artificial intelligence lab
Hugging Face, is among the scientists working to sharpen chatbots using hand-tailored examples
from well-educated workers. Yann LeCun, chief A.I. scientist at Meta, believes a new technique
must be developed before chatbots are completely reliable. Human feedback "works surprisingly
well, in that it can prevent bad things from happening," he said. "But it cannot be perfect.")
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, Sept. 25, 2023)
FOOD:
The Best Olive Oil You Can Buy at the Store
(Our goal was to find good all-purpose extra-virgin olive oils that could be used for cooking
but also for salad dressings and bread dipping. Best all around:
1. Graza Sizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
2. Cobram Estate California Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
3. Bertolli Extra Virgin Olive Oil Rich Taste,
4. Bono Sicilia PGI Organic Sicilian Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
5. Kirkland Signature Extra Virgin Olive Oil California)
(By Michael Sullivan, NY Times, August 31, 2023)
* BUSINESS:
Inside the White-Hot Center of A.I. Doomerism at Anthropic
(Anthropic, a safety-focused A.I. start-up, is trying
to compete with ChatGPT while preventing
an A.I. apocalypse. It's been a little stressful. Despite its small size— just 160 employees— and its
low profile, Anthropic is one of the world's leading A.I. research labs, and a formidable rival to giants
like Google & Meta. It has raised more than $1 billion from investors including Google & Salesforce,
Claude uses a messaging interface where users can submit questions or requests & receive highly detailed
and relevant responses. Claude has 52 billion parameters. Many of them believe that A.I. models are rapidly
approaching a level where they might be considered artificial general intelligence, or "A.G.I.", the industry
term for human-level machine intelligence. They fear that if they're not carefully controlled, these systems
could take over and destroy us. I came to find Anthropic's anxiety reassuring, even if it means that Claude—
which you can try for yourself— can be a little neurotic. A.I. is already kind of scary, and it's going
to get scarier. A little more fear today might spare us a lot of pain tomorrow.)
(By Kevin Roose, NY Times, July 11, 2023)
* ART:
Picasso Becoming Picasso
(A small, exquisite exhibition at the Guggenheim shows how the City of Light transformed
the 19-year-old Spanish artist. One painting says it all—
"Le Moulin de la Galette" of 1900,
and to make this beguiling, subtly refreshed work the centerpiece of "Young Picasso".
The prevailing darkness, in which the men's black coats alternate with the subtle colors &
fabrics of the women's garments, owes something to Picasso's love of Velázquez & Goya.)
(By Roberta Smith, NY Times, May 11, 2023)
ASTRONOMY:
Northern Lights Are Seen in Places Where They Normally Aren't
(The lights, driven by a large burst of energy from the sun, illuminated an unusually
wide area across North America & Europe and may be visible again on Monday night.
The phenomenon, known as aurora borealis or northern lights, occurs when particles
emitted by the sun collide with particles that are already trapped around Earth's
magnetic field, and can often be seen from parts of Iceland, Canada and Alaska.
These bursts are also known as coronal mass ejections.
In 1872, an article in
New York Times described a sky glowing so intensely that
"many persons supposed
a great fire was raging back of Brooklyn." In 1941, hundreds of
onlookers gathered
on the boardwalk of Rockaway Beach, N.Y., to view the phenomenon,
and in 1929,
many readers of The Times called the paper to report the dazzling sight.)
(By Livia Albeck-Ripka & Derrick Bryson Taylor, NY Times, April 24, 2023)
* TECHNOLOGY:
Google Releases Bard, Its Competitor in Race to Create A.I. Chatbots
(The internet giant will grant users access to a chatbot after years of cautious
development, chasing splashy debuts from rivals OpenAI and Microsoft. The release
represents a significant step to stave off a threat to Google's most lucrative business,
its search engine. A chatbot can instantly produce answers in complete sentences that
don't force people to scroll through a list of results, which is what a search engine
would offer. Like similar chatbots, Bard is based on a kind of A.I. technology called
a large language model, or L.L.M., which learns skills by analyzing vast amounts of data
from across the internet. This means the chatbot often gets facts wrong & sometimes makes
up information without warning— a phenomenon A.I. researchers call
hallucination.)
(By Nico Grant & Cade Metz, NY Times, March 21, 2023)
MUSIC:
Louis Armstrong gets the last laugh
(The film Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues"
explores Armstrong's multifaceted experience
as a Black American musician who came of age right along with the 20th century,
enduring the worst and somehow embodying the best. Armstrong faced blowback in
1957 for speaking against discrimination, and donated to the Civil Rights movement.)
(By Alan Scherstuhl, NY Times, November 6, 2022)
RELIGION:
My First Yom Kippur in Exile
(Moscow's Chief Rabbi Shmarya
Yehuda Leib Medalia shot by the Secret Police in 1938.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we had to support for the military. Being Moscow's rabbi
for 30 years, my wife & I decided to leave Russia. Blowing the shofar, let us remember that
it's the role of faith to counter evil, to fight for the basic human rights of liberty and life.)
(By Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, NY Times, 10-2-2022)
* TECHNOLOGY:
For Gen Z, TikTok Is the New Search Engine
(Need to find a restaurant or figure out how to do something? Young people are turning to
TikTok to search for answers. Google has noticed. More and more young people are using
TikTok's powerful algorithm— which personalizes the videos shown to them based on
their interactions with content— to find information uncannily catered to their tastes.)
(By Kalley Huang, NY Times, 9-17-2022)
* OBITUARY:
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91
(Adopting principles of glasnost and perestroika, he weighed the legacy of seven decades
of Communist rule and set a new course, presiding over the end of the Cold War and the
dissolution of the U.S.S.R. In little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev lifted
the Iron Curtain, decisively altering the political climate of the world. Gorbachev's visit
to the Vatican on Dec. 1, 1989. to meet Pope John Paul II was the first between a leader
of the Soviet Union and the head of the Roman Catholic Church.)
(By Marilyn Berger, NY Times, 8-30-2022)
WORLD NEWS:
As Pelosi Arrives, Quiet Defiance in Taiwan
(Public nonchalance about the tensions over Nancy Pelosi belies a political reality:
Many are tired of China's threats to shoot plane down and crave American support.)
(By Paul Mozur, Chris Horton & Amy Chang Chien, NY Times, 8-2-2022)
SCIENCE:
Why Woodpeckers Don't Mind Hitting Trees With Their Faces
(The birds hammer away, yet they don't get concussed. Scientists found that
assumptions about the animals' impact-absorbing skulls were wrong.)
(By Sam Jones, NY Times, 7-14-2022)
ART:
Hidden Artwork Revealed by X-Ray Appears to Be Van Gogh Self-Portrait, Experts Say
(A conservator at the National Galleries of Scotland uncovered the painting on the back
of another one by the Dutch artist, adding to the 35 known Van Gogh self portraits.)
(By Nina Siegal, NY Times, 7-14-2022)
How
Dylan Thuras, a Founder of Atlas Obscura, Spends His Sundays
(For someone who catalogs strange and unexplored corners of the globe, Dylan Thuras,
founder of Atlas Obscura and author of
"Atlas Obscura:
An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders"
keeps it pretty local. Mr. Thuras, 34, lives in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn
with his wife, Michelle J. Enemark, 34, an animator, and their 22-month-old son, Phineas. )
(By Annie Correal, NY Times, 10-28-2016)
Key Moments From the 2022 Scripps Spelling Bee
(Harini Logan & Vikram Raju were last spellers left onstage, having bested 227 other
spelling bee contestants. Harini wins spelling correctly charadriiform & tauromachian.)
(By Maria Cramer, NY Times, 6-2-2022)
The Only Living Pay Phones in New York
(As a curious crowd gathered in Times Square on Monday, a power saw cut through the base
of a pay phone on the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 50th Street. According to
the city's news release, this was "the final New York City public pay telephone".
In early 2000s, there were around 30,000 public street pay phones registered with the city.)
(By Ann Chen and Aaron Reiss, NY Times, 5-27-2022)
* Roger Angell, Who Wrote About Baseball With Passion, Dies at 101
(In elegantly winding articles for The New Yorker loaded with inventive imagery,
he wrote more like a fan than a sports journalist. Angell described Willie Mays
chasing down a ball hit to deep center field as "running so hard and so far that
the ball itself seems to stop in the air and wait for him.")
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 5-20-2022)
At House Hearing, Videos of Unexplained Aerial Sightings and a Push for Answers
(Pentagon officials testified at a rare public hearing about unidentified phenomena, and lawmakers
pledged to bring transparency to an investigation of unexplained reports by military pilots and others.)
(By Julian E. Barnes, NY Times, 5-17-2022)
The Strange Afterlife of George Carlin
(Carlin, the cantankerous, longhaired sage who used his withering insight and gleefully profane vocabulary to take aim at American hypocrisy, died in 2008. But in the years since, it can feel like he never really left us.)
(NY Times, 5-11-2022) (dnyuz.com)
* Warhol's
Marilyn at $195 Million, Shatters Auction Record for an American Artist
(By Robin Pogrebin, NY Times, 5-9-2022);
(Mercury News, 5-11-2022, A2)
The 40-inch-by-40-inch painting, a trophy given its vibrant colors
and glamorous subject matter,
eclipsed the previous high price of
$110.5 million for a Basquiat skull painting
at Sotheby's in
2017 as well as Warhol's auction high for
a car crash painting that sold for $105.4 million in 2013.
The Friends We Keep
[My colleague Catherine Pearson spoke to experts to determine how many friends a person
needs in order to stave off loneliness. (A 2010 meta-analysis found that loneliness is
"as harmful to physical health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day." In "The Writing Life",
Annie Dillard writes: "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." It's good wisdom
to keep in mind when deciding whom we spend our time with as well.]
(By Melissa Kirsch, NY Times, 5-7-2022) (Two articles cited linked below)
Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review
[Across 148 studies (308,849 participants), indicates a 50% increased likelihood of
survival for participants with stronger social relationships. Influence of relationships
on risk for mortality is comparable with well-established risk factors for mortality.]
(By Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, J. Bradley Layton, PLOS Medicine, July 27, 2010)
Relationships:
The Upside of Losing Touch During the Pandemic
(During stressful times when we have less emotional bandwidth, we're more inclined
to put friendship quality over quantity. It's not that
we should close ourselves off
to new people, but rather that we should periodically take stock of which
relationships are most fulfilling and proceed accordingly.)
(By Hannah Hickok, Glamour, October 7, 2021)
SCIENCE:
Hubble Space Telescope Spots Earliest and Farthest Star Known
(Its light twinkled some 900 million years after the Big Bang, astronomers say.
Dot of light that shone 12.9 billion years ago is nicknamed Earendel—
Old English for "morning star". It is some 50 times the mass of our sun.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 3-30-2022)
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK: Hollywood Bets Big on the Bad Entrepreneur
(Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was recently convicted of four counts of fraud...
With limited series like "The Dropout", "WeCrashed", and "Super Pumped", the
culture is saturated with ripped-from-the-headlines tales of self-immolating moguls.)
(By Amanda Hess, NY Times, 3-5-2022)
How to Get a Better Night's Sleep
(People who sleep seven hours a night are healthier and live longer. If you often feel tired
at work, your body is telling you that it's not getting enough sleep.)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 2-12-2022)
Sidney Poitier,
Who Paved the Way for Black Actors in Film, Dies at 94
(First Black performer to win Academy Award for best actor, for "Lilies of the Field"; also starred
in "To Sir With Love", "In the Heat of the Night", and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 1-7-2022)
* OP-ED:
What I Learned About Death From 7 Religious Scholars, 1 Atheist and My Father
[Asked my Dad "So, what are your thoughts now about dying?" He said "It's too complex."
Nine interviews in "The Stone" with religious scholars on death (2-3-2020 to 2-14-2021).]
(By George Yancy, NY Times, 1-2-2022)
OP-ED:
10 New Year's Resolutions That Are Good for the Soul
(Asked friends who are pastors, writers, scholars and spiritual leaders to offer suggested
"reSOULutions" for 2022. Take time to reflect; Plant seeds of humility; Care for the earth
in small ways; Think about the third person; Engage with the offscreen world first.)
(By Tish Harrison Warren, NY Times, 1-2-2022)
How
Betty White, a Television Golden Girl From the Start, Is Dead at 99
(Among the many highlights of a career that began in 1949 were star turns on
"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" in the 1970s and "Saturday Night Live" in 2010.)
(By Richard Severo & Peter Keepnews, NY Times, 12-31-2021)
* Wayne Thiebaud,
Playful Painter of the Everyday, Dies at 101
(Thiebaud's rich and luminous depictions of midcentury Americana separated him
from the classic Pop Art of the time. Famous for icing on his painted layer cakes.)
(By Michael Kimmelman, NY Times, 12-26-2021)
How
Nicole Kidman Learned to Love Playing Lucille Ball
(A career of dramas like "The Hours” and "Big Little Lies" was not enough to help Kidman
portray the "I Love Lucy" star in "Being the Ricardos". As she put it, "Funny's hard".)
(By Dave Itzkoff, NY Times, 12-26-2021)
* Desmond Tutu,
Whose Voice Helped Slay Apartheid, Dies at 90
(The archbishop, a powerful force for nonviolence in South Africa's anti-apartheid movement,
was awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1984. Cause of death was cancer. First diagnosed with
prostate cancer in 1997, and was hospitalized several times in the years since.)
(By Marilyn Berger, NY Times, 12-26-2021)
OP-ED:
How Christmas Changed Everything
(Christians make the strange claim that the one true Creator became, not only a human
and not only a baby, but one in poverty, with no great strength or power, a child born
to a lower-class family, an ethnic minority, who lived under an oppressive and violent
imperial power. He was marginalized & despised and died the shameful death of a criminal.)
(By Tish Harrison Warren, NY Times, 12-26-2021)
Sardi's
Is Back After 648 Days, Its Fortunes Tied to Broadway
(Sardi's, which has been operating on West 44th Street since 1927, employed nearly
130 people during peak seasons before the pandemic arrived; it's restarting with 58.
Sardi's has about 1,200 caricatures of famous people who have eaten in the restaurant.)
(By Michael Paulson, NY Times, 12-25-2021)
* AN APPRAISAL: Joan Didion Chronicled American Disorder With Her Own Unmistakable Style
(For half a century, Didion, who died on Thursday at 87, was the grand diagnostician of
American disorder in essays of strong, unmistakable cadence, churning with floods and fire.)
(By Parul Sehgal, NY Times, 12-23-2021)
A Box of Cash, a Secret Donor and a Big Lift for Some N.Y.C. Students
(City College physics professor Vinod Menon found anonymous donor sending a box
for physics department, containing bundles of $50 and $100 bills, adding up to $180,000.)
(By Corey Kilganno, NY Times, 12-21-2021)
A 'Master of What He Does', Steph Curry Now Stands Alone
(The Golden State superstar passed Ray Allen for the top-spot on the career 3-pointer list.
And he did it in 511 fewer games.)
(By Scott Cacciola, NY Times, 12-13-2021)
Anne Rice,
Who Spun Gothic Tales of Vampires, Dies at 80
(She wrote more than 30 novels, including the best seller "Interview With the Vampire", which
became a hit movie starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Her husband
Stan Rice, was a poet.)
(By Neil Genzlinger, NY Times, 12-12-2021)
Alana Haim Surprised Everyone With Her Movie Debut. Even Herself.
(When Paul Thomas Anderson asked her to star in "Licorice Pizza",
the musician had zero acting experience. Now she's winning rave reviews.)
(By Lindsay Zoladz, NY Times, 12-6-2021)
Bob Dole, Old Soldier and Stalwart of the Senate, Dies at 98
(Mr. Dole, a son of the Kansas prairie who was left for dead on a World War II battlefield,
became one of the longest-serving Republican leaders. Lost Presidency to Bill Clinton in 1996.)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 12-5-2021)
Jay Last, One of the Rebels Who Founded Silicon Valley, Dies at 92
(One of the traitorous eight who left William Shockley's lab to found Fairchild Semiconductor,
that became Intel; Gordon Moore is now the last surviving member of the "traitorous eight".)
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, 11-20-2021)
* ART:
Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait Sells for $34.9 Million
(Sale at Sotheby's was a benchmark for
Kahlo
and was the most valuable work of Latin American
art ever sold at auction. "Diego and I"
from 1949, painted 5 years before her death in 1954.)
(By Zachary Small, NY Times, 11-16-2021)
Star System With Right-Angled Planets Surprises Astronomers
(Two planets orbit the poles while another revolves around the star's equator,
suggesting a mysterious, undetected force at star HD 3167, 150 light-years from us.)
(By Jonathan O'Callaghan, NY Times, 11-6-2021)
Are You Missing Out on the Metaverse?
[Pitches for future of the internet are banking on an old trick: FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out);
Mark Zuckerberg's 81-minute video disquisition, rebranding of
Facebook as Meta. ]
(By John Herrman, NY Times, 11-2-2021)
EXIT INTERVIEW:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Daniel Craig
(The star of James Bond franchise bids farewell to 007 with "No Time to Die"
and learns for the first time about his life as an internet meme.)
(By Dave Itzkoff, NY Times, 9-30-2021)
FILM REVIEW:
'No Time to Die'— His Word Is His Bond
(The 25th episode in the venerable franchise— and Daniel Craig's
last as 007— finds its hero in a somber mood.)
(By A.O. Scott, NY Times, 9-29-2021)
* ART: Jasper Johns: Divide and Conquer
("Mind/Mirror", a monumental retrospective at the Whitney Museum and Philadelphia Museum
of Art, reveals an artist's protean talent, changing perspectives and resiliency over six decades.)
(By Holland Cotter, NY Times, 9-23-2021)
The Battle for Digital Privacy Is Reshaping the Internet
(As Apple and Google enact privacy changes, businesses are grappling with the fallout,
Madison Avenue is fighting back and Facebook has cried foul. Google outlined plans
to disable a tracking technology in its Chrome web browser.)
(By Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 9-16-2021)
OP-ED:
The sexism that led to the trial of Elizabeth Holmes trial
(By 2015, Ms. Holmes raised more than $400 million in funding & Theranos was valued at $9 billion.)
(By Ellen Pao, NY Times, 9-15-2021)
It's Never Too Late to Follow Your Spiritual Calling
(At 56, Ms. Vica Steel retired in June from her career as a public-school teacher for nearly 24 years.
She's studying at Wartburg Theological Seminary, in Dubuque, Iowa, on a scholarship with the purpose
of becoming a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (or E.L.C.A.)
(By Mainstream Machine, NY Times, 9-14-2021)
BOOKS:
The Contrarian Goes Searching for Peter Thiel's Elusive Core
(The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power
by Max Chafkin. A co-founder
of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook,
he had used his enormous fortune to bankroll Hulk Hogan's
relentless lawsuit against the website Gawker, driving the site and its owner to bankruptcy in 2016.)
(By Jennifer Szalai, NY Times, 9-13-2021)
* A Vermeer Restoration Reveals a God of Desire
(Restorers uncovered a strip underneath the painted rectangle, about part an inch broad.
Now not best was once the brushwork at the Cupid unmistakably Vermeer's)
(By Catherine Hickley, NY Times, 9-9-2021)
* The Many Faces of Mooncakes
(A celebration of the luminous autumn pastry— the signature dish
of the Mid-Autumn Festival, which commemorates the full moon and the fall.)
(By Taner Halicioglu, NY Times, 9-4-2021)
Willard Scott, TV's Clown Prince of Sun and Showers, Is Dead at 87
(Mr. Scott, who played both Bozo the Clown and the original Ronald McDonald on television,
was a longtime weather forecaster on the "Today" show who emphasized showmanship over science.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 9-4-2021)
OP-ED: What's wrong with sex between professors and students? it's not what you think.
(Teachers and students are not mere abstract intelligences, but incarnate beings.)
(By Amia Srinivasan, NY Times, 9-4-2021)
FILM: "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" Review:
House of Hidden Dragons
(A millennial slacker reckons with his past— and his family of warriors.
Film peppers its hero's tragic back story throughout but doesn't fully
acquaint us with him in the present before it jumps into his past.)
(By Maya Phillips, NY Times, 9-1-2021)
Ed Asner, Emmy-Winning Star of 'Lou Grant' and 'Up' Dies at 91
(Best known as the gruff newsman he first played on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show",
he was also a busy character actor and a political activist; won 7 Emmy Awards.)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 8-28-2021)
Deflecting asteroid before impact may take multiple bumps
[A roughly 525-foot piece of rock known as Dimorphos, is in no danger of hitting Earth.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission will meet this astroid.]
(By Katherine Kornei, NY Times, 8-27-2021)
David Roberts, Who Turned Adventure Writing Into Art, Dies at 78
(In a 2006 memoir, "On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined",
tells about his firsthand witness of three fatal accidents, costing four lives at age 22.)
(Native Newspost, NY Times, 8-25-2021)
MUSIC:
Charlie Watts, Bedrock Drummer for the Rolling Stones, Dies at 80
(Reserved, dignified and dapper, Mr. Watts was never as flamboyant, either onstage or off;
Keith Richards said in his 2010 autobiography, Life "Charlie Watts has always been the bed
that I lie on musically." Watts played 50 years with the Stones, but his first love was jazz.)
(By Gavin Edwards, NY Times, 8-24-2021)
* Tom T. Hall, Country Music's 'Storyteller', Is Dead at 85
(Known to his fans and fellow musicians as "the Storyteller", Mr. Hall
mbued country lyrics with newfound depth & insight in the 1960s and '70s.)
(By Bill Friskics-Warren, NY Times, 8-21-2021)
* How to Meditate
(Meditation is a way to train the mind. It brings us back to the present moment,
gives us the tools we need to be less stressed, calmer & kinder to ourselves & others.)
(By David Gelles, NY Times, 8-17-2021)
* A Madonna Who Shows the Beauty in Going Overboard
[Parmigianino's "Madonna of the Long Neck" (1540) pictures mother of Christ stretched
out like bubblegum. Her dainty head seems to be plopped on an oversized curving body.
Jesus is asleep. Yet, Parmigianino has made him look like he's already dead.)
(By Jason Farago, NY Times, 8-13-2021)
A Queen of 19th Century Opera
(Pauline Viardot was one of the premier opera figures of her time, a talented singer,
composer, teacher and entrepreneur. A London journal in 1848 wrote: "Her technical skill
alone is immense; in the completeness of her chromatic scale she is, probably, without a rival.")
(By Claire Moses, NY Times, 7-21-2021)
With Baseball Stamps, It Ain't Over Until the Rights Issues Clear
(Yogi Berra is first player in nine years to appear on a U.S.P.S. stamp. Despite many deserving
candidates— including Henry Aaron— it could be a long wait before we see another.)
(By Rob Neyer, NY Times, 7-2-2021)
What is a flying car?
(Kitty Hawk is run by
Sebastian Thrun, who is a computer science professor at Stanford
and also founded Google's self-driving car project. Thrun says this technology will be
in our lives soon. Marcus Leng's company,
Opener, says its vehicles could be sold this year.)
(By Cade Metz & Erin Griffith, NY Times, 6-28-2021)
Four Decades on, Martin Yan Faces a New Audience and a New World
(Mr. Yan, now 72, introduced legions of people to Chinese flavors,
and eventually to other Asian cuisines. "If Yan can cook, so can you!")
(By Priya Krishna, NY Times, 6-15-2021)
The Hunt for Clarity About van Gogh's Last Days Leads to Maine
(The 19th-century painter
Edmund Walpole Brooke occupies a tiny, but durable place
in art history. Not because of his own work, but because he offers a tantalizing
look into the tragic last days of Vincent van Gogh.)
(By Peter Libbey, NY Times, 6-4-2021)
F. Lee Bailey, Lawyer for Patty Hearst and O.J. Simpson, Dies at 87
(He was the stuff of courtroom legend: an audacious defender of O.J. Simpson,
Patty Hearst and others, who produced legal entertainment long before Court TV.)
(NY Times, 6-3-2021)
Lois Ehlert, Creator of Boldly Colored Children's Books, Dies at 86
(Her best-known book was "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom", made distinctive
collage artwork for readers ranging in age from infancy to 10, sold
more than 12 million copies; She won a Caldecott Honor for "Color Zoo".)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 5-30-2021)
A video interview with
Lois Ehlert
(Lois Ehlert's unique children's books, such as
"Color Zoo", reflect her creative and curious mind)
(YouTube, No date)
Anna
Halprin was a choreogrpher commited to experimentation
(Her work, which stressed improvisation, attracted students, disciples & enthusiasts
fascinated by the creative issues she explored and the way she explored them.)
(By Jack Anderson, NY Times, 5-26-2021)
Ruth Freitag, Librarian to the Stars, Dies at 96
(Known for her encyclopedic knowledge of resources in science and technology, Ms. Freitag
was sought out by leading interpreters of the galaxy. She developed a particular expertise
in astronomy early in her career. Her learnedness became so comprehensive that she opened
up new worlds to Asimov, the preeminent popular science writer of his day, and Sagan, the
astronomer who introduced millions of television viewers to the wonders of the universe.)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 5-21-2021)
Life and Death with the Dragon
(The volcano on Stromboli, a island northwest of the toe of Italy's boot
is always active; For those who visit, it is a spectacle like no other.)
(By Robin George Andrews, NY Times, 5-4-2021)
Mozambique Mints a New National Park— and Surveys Its Riches
(Located on the Zimbabwe border about 90 miles southwest of Gorongosa,
Mozambique's most famous national park, Chimanimani National Park
marks the latest triumph in an environmental renaissance.)
(By Jen Guyton, NY Times, 5-3-2021)
Fred Jordan, Publisher of Taboo-Breaking Books, Dies at 95
(Publishing partner of Barney Rosset, whose groundbreaking Grove Press and
Evergreen Review fended off censors of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover,
Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and William S. Burrough's Naked Lunch.)
(By Sam Roberts, NY Times, 5-2-2021)
*
Thunderous Plunges and Mossy Trickles: A Spring Guide to Waterfalls
(Waterfalls can range from thunderous plunges to delicate mossy trickles.
They can be backcountry pop-ups or centerpieces of parks, like Great Falls
Park in McLean, Va., and Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, Oregon)
(By Elaine Glusac, NY Times, 4-30-2021)
Look Fast: It's Spring Wildflower Season
(Read "Florapedia: A Brief Compendium of Floral Lore", the latest by naturalist
Carol Gracie. Under "E" is elaiosome: the lipid-rich structure attached to each
trillium seed that is the prize ants seek, grabbing one to carry back to the nest,
to feed to their developing broods.)
(By Margaret Roach, NY Times, 4-28-2021)
Are There More Tulips Than Usual This Year?
(NYC planted same number of tulip bulbs as it does most years: 110,000 citywide)
(By Ezra Marcus, NY Times, 4-27-2021)
Helen Weaver, Chronicler of an Affair With Kerouac, Dies at 89
(She was a respected translator from French and a writer on astrology,
but her magnum opus was a memoir of her time with Kerouac and the Beats.)
(By Alex Traub, NY Times, 4-26-2021)
SCIENCE: What Do You Call a Bunch of Black Holes: A Crush? A Scream?
(There are gaggles of geese, pods of whales and murders of crows. What term would
do justice to the special nature of black holes? A mass? A colander? A scream?)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 4-22-2021)
Prince Philip's Life in Pictures
(He carried his own suitcases, fried eggs while the queen brewed tea, and sent his
children to school, instead of continuing the royal tradition of educating them at home.)
(NY Times, 4-9-2021)
Prince Philip, Husband of Queen Elizabeth II, Is Dead at 99
[Prince Philip carried British passport No. 1 (the queen did not require one)
and fulfilled as many as 300 engagements a year, including greeting Presidents.]
(NY Times, 4-9-2021)
*
My Ridiculous Dating System Totally Works!
[She explained that my love life wasn't supposed to be good. She said
"I think the reason you're alone is because you have too many high standards.”)
(Daily ZBusiness Press, NY Times, 4-9-2021)
Biden Backs Taiwan but some call for a clearer view to China
(American officials warn that China is growing more capable
of invading the island democracy of nearly 24 million.)
(By Michael Crowley, NY Times, 4-7-2021)
A
Cyclist on the English Landscape
(Grounded by the pandemic, a travel photographer spent the year pedaling
the roads around his home, resulting in a series of poetic self-portraits.)
(Photos & text by Roff Smith, NY Times, 4-5-2021)
The
Perseverance of New York City's Wildflowers
(A park in Williamsburg awaits the miniature beauty of its spring.)
(By Sabrina Imbler & Andrew Garn, NY Times, 3-20-2021)
Here's
How Bored Rich People Are Spending Their Extra Cash
(1952 Mickey Mantle was sold through PWCC Marketplace for $5.2 million;
Clement Kwan, founder of Beboe, bought Michael Jordan's rookie cards @ $30,000,
sold @ $100,000; now selling @ $738,000. autographed 1985 Air Jordans fetched $275,000.)
(By Jacob Bernstein, NY Times, 3-20-2021);
Yahoo News
Why
an Animated Flying Cat With a Pop-Tart Body Sold for Almost $600,000
(A fast-growing market for digital art, ephemera and media is marrying the world's
taste for collectibles with cutting-edge technology. In the 10 years since Chris Torres
created Nyan Cat, an animated
flying cat with a Pop-Tart body leaving a rainbow trail,
the meme has been viewed and shared across the web hundreds of millions of times.)
(By Erin Griffith, NY Times, 2-22-2021, updated 3-11-2021)
How a 10-second video clip sold for $6.6 million
(A 10-second video artwork, 'CROSSROADS', authenticated by blockchain as one-of-a-kind,
was sold for $6.6 million— it is a new type of digital asset known as NFT that has
exploded in popularity with many willing to spend enormous sums on the items.)
(By Reuters, YouTube, 3-1-2021)
Lightning Strikes Twice: Another Lost Jacob Lawrence Surfaces
(Nurse has on her dining room wall for two decades the long-missing Panel 28
from Jacob Lawrence's series "Struggle: From the History of the American People".)
(By Hilarie M. Sheets, NY Times, 3-1-2021)
Reviewing the Book Review
(As the publication celebrates its 125th anniversary, Parul Sehgal, a staff critic and former
editor at the Book Review, delves into the archives to critically examine its legacy in full.)
(By Parul Sehgal, NY Times, 2-26-2021)
Patricia Lynch,
NBC Journalist Who Focused on Cults, Dies at 82
[She reported extensively on the
Rev. Jim Jones, who led more than 900 members of his
People's Temple of Disciples of Christ to mass suicide in Jonestown massacre in Guyana
in 1978. Born on 3-5-1938, in Floral Park, Long Island (where we lived 1956-1978).]
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 2-18-2021)
* What Makes for a Great Literary Romance?
(Passion, sacrifice, a twist: 125 years of book reviews offer the clue to Love Potion No. 9.)
(By Dan Saltzstein, NY Times, 2-11-2021)
Mary Wilson,
an Original Member of the Supremes, Dies at 76
(Ms. Wilson joined with Florence Ballard and Diana Ross— who later emerged
as the lead singer— to form one of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s.)
(By Derrick Bryson Taylor, NY Times, 2-9-2021)
The Mushrooms Will Survive Us
(Yellow oyster mushrooms at Smallhold, an indoor farm in Brooklyn sells at-home grow kits.)
(By Zoë Schlanger, NY Times, 2-7-2021)
TRILOBITES: A Natural Work of Art May Be Hiding Among Indian Cave Masterpieces
(Thousands of images in Bhimbetka Rock Shelters: men, women, a couple having sex,
dancers, children, hunts, battles, about 29 different animal species
and mythical beasts like a part-boar part-ox part-elephant.)
(By Joshua Sokol, NY Times, 2-5-2021)
Christopher Plummer, Actor From Shakespeare to The Sound of Music, Dies at 91
(His performance as Captain von Trapp in one of the most popular movies of all
time propelled a steady half-century parade of television and film roles.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 2-5-2021)
OP-ED: Why Are Republican Presidents So Bad for the Economy?
(G.D.P., jobs & other indicators have all risen faster under Democrats for nearly
past century. G.D.P. Ranking: FDR, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton, Reagan, Carter)
(By David Leonhardt, NY Times, 2-2-2021)
Hal Holbrook, Actor Who Channeled Mark Twain, Is Dead at 95
(He carved out a substantial career in television and film but achieved the widest
acclaim with his one-man stage show, playing Twain for more than six decades.)
(By Robert Berkvist, NY Times, 2-2-2021)
Tony Bennett Reveals He Has Alzheimer’s Disease
("He's not the old Tony anymore," his wife, Susan, said. "But when he sings, he's the old Tony.")
(By Sarah Bahr, NY Times, 2-1-2021)
* Sawing Someone in Half Never Gets Old. Even at 100
(On Jan. 17, 1921, the magician P.T. Selbit walked onstage at the Finsbury Park
Empire in North London, for the first time ever sawed someone in half.)
(By Tala Safie & Rumsey Taylor, NY Times, 1-29-2021)
Juan Carlos Copes,
Who Brought Tango to Broadway, Dies at 89
(Copes turned tango into dance for the stage, with complex, highly polished choreography
dubbed the "estilo Copes-Nieves" that would wow an audience for an entire evening.)
(By Marina Harss, NY Times, 1-26-2021)
*
25 Great Writers and Thinkers Weigh In on Books That Matter
(To celebrate the Book Review's 125th anniversary, we're dipping into the archives
to revisit our most thrilling, memorable and thought-provoking coverage.)
(By Tina Jordan, Noor Qasim and John Williams, NY Times, 1-25-2021)
A Quiet Life of Loud Home Runs: Hank Aaron in Photographs
(The slugging outfielder was a rock of consistency for 23 seasons.
He was a superstar unlike any before him— or any since.)
(By New York Times, 1-23-2021)
*
Hank Aaron, Home Run King Who Defied Racism, Dies at 86
(He held the most celebrated record in sports for more than 30 years.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 1-22-2021)
'A Great Friend, a Great American and a Great Player'
(Teammates, Hall of Famers and former presidents mourned the loss of Hank Aaron,
a player so terrific he could be taken for granted.)
(By David Waldstein, NY Times, 1-22-2021)
*
ON BASEBALL: There Are Hall of Famers, and Then There's Hank Aaron
(The Braves slugger occupied the rarefied space of a player who stands out
in every crowd— even one full of Hall of Famers..)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 1-22-2021)
Don Sutton, Hall of Fame Right-Hander, Is Dead at 75
(Don Sutton, a durable right-handed pitcher who won 324 games
over 23 years for five teams, most notably Los Angeles Dodgers,
and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998)
(By Richard Sandomir, NY Times, 1-19-2021)
He Climbed 800 Feet in a Wheelchair. Hong Kong Watched in Awe
(Lai Chi-wai didn't reach his goal of ascending a skyscraper, 1,050-foot
Nina Tower by rope. It hardly made his feat any less impressive.)
(By Tiffany May, NY Times, 1-18-2021)
Tommy Lasorda, a Dodger From His Cleats to His Cap, Dies at 93
("Cut my veins, and I bleed Dodger blue", said Lasorda, who managed the club
to two World Series championships in a decades-long Hall of Fame career.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 1-8-2021)
Infrared Drones, Search Parties and a Lasso: Chasing a Runaway Llama
(Gizmo the llama disappeared for 17 days before it was found.)
(By Sarah Maslin Nir, NY Times, 1-1-2021)
Eight-Armed Underwater Bullies: Watch Octopuses Punch Fish
(A day octopus takes a swat at a blacktip grouper in Portugal waters)
(By Elizabeth Preston, NY Times, 12-24-2020)
*
Pierre Cardin, Designer to the Famous and Merchant to the Masses, Dies at 98
(In a career spanning more than 3/4 of a century, he remained a futurist, reproducing
fashions for ready-to-wear consumption & affixing his brand to an outpouring of products.)
(By Ruth La Ferla, NY Times, 12-29-2020)
Phil Niekro, Hall of Fame Knuckleball Pitcher, Dies at 81
(A five-time all-star, he played in the major leagues for 24 seasons,
but never made it to World Series; 9-0 No-hitter against Padres in 1973.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 12-27-2020)
*
Barry Lopez, Lyrical Writer Who Was Likened to Thoreau, Dies at 75
(Mr. Lopez spent five years in the Arctic, and his books, essays and
short stories explored the kinship of nature and human culture.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 12-26-2020)
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
(Study by psychologist Arthur Aron that explores whether intimacy between two strangers
can be accelerated by having them ask each other a specific series of personal questions.)
(By Daniel Jones, NY Times, 1-9-2015, NY Times #62 most-read stories in 2020)
E. Margaret Burbidge, Astronomer Who Blazed Trails on Earth, Dies at 100
(She was denied access to a telescope because of her sex, but Dr. Burbidge
forged ahead anyway, going on to make pathbreaking discoveries about the cosmos.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 4-6-2020) (12-25-2020 NY Times top 25 stories of the year)
Russian Hackers Broke Into Federal Agencies, U.S. Officials Suspect
(In one of the most sophisticated & perhaps largest hacks in more than 5 years,
email systems were breached at the Treasury and Commerce Departments.)
(By David E. Sanger, NY Times, 12-13-2020)
John le Carré, Best-Selling Author of Cold War Thrillers, Dies at 89
(Breaking from the James Bond mold, he turned the spy novel into high art as
he explored the moral compromises of agents on both sides of the Iron curtain.)
(By Sarah Lyall, NY Times, 12-13-2020)
Charley Pride, Country Music's First Black Superstar, Dies at 86
(Began his career amid the racial unrest of the 1960s and cemented his
place in the country pantheon with hits like "Kiss an Angel Good Mornin'."")
(By Bill Friskics-Warren, NY Times, 12-12-2020)
How "The Queen's Gambit" Is Inspiring Women to Take Up Chess
(Fans of the Netflix series, including teenagers and the actress Beth Behrs,
are flocking to the game because "women can be rock stars" in chess.)
(By Dylan Loeb McClain, NY Times, 12-10-2020)
FireEye, a Top Cybersecurity Firm, Says It Was Hacked by a Nation-State
(Silicon Valley company said hackers— almost certainly Russian—
made off with tools that could be used to mount new attacks around the world.
It was a stunning theft, akin to bank robbers who, having cleaned out local
vaults, then turned around and stole the F.B.I.'s investigative tools.)
(By David E. Sanger & Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 12-9-2020)
California's epic wildfires in 2020 took deadly aim at the state's most beloved trees
(In a relative instant, countless ancient redwoods, hundreds of
giant sequoias and more than one million Joshua trees perished.)
(By John Branch, Photographs by Max Whittaker, NY Times, 12-9-2020)
Helen LaFrance, Folk Artist of Rural Kentucky, Dies at 101
(Her vibrant "memory paintings" which drew comparisons to the work of
Grandma Moses and other regional artists, brought her renown late in life.)
(By Penelope Green, NY Times, 12-8-2020)
Nepal and China Say Mount Everest Is Two Feet Higher
(In a sign of their increasingly close ties, the two countries jointly
announced a new measure for the peak: 8,848.86 meters, or 29,031.7 feet.)
(By Bhadra Sharma & Emily Schmall, NY Times, 12-8-2020)
*
The Social Life of Forests
(Trees appear to communicate and cooperate through subterranean networks of fungi.
What are they sharing with one another? Suzanne Simard's TED Talk, June 2016)
(By Ferris Jabr, Photographs by Brendan George Ko, NY Times, 12-6-2020)
Australia Gears Up for the Great Koala Count, Using Drones, Droppings and Dogs
(The marsupials are not easy to find, or count accurately, so officials will deploy
new methods. In 2016, scientists estimated over 300,000 koalas in Australia.)
(By Yan Zhuang, NY Times, 12-6-2020)
Candice Bergen, Woman Who's Had It All
(The wryest of Hollywood royals recalls life with Daddy's dummy,
marriage to Louis Malle and a comedic career for the ages.)
(By Maureen Dowd, NY Times, 12-5-2020)
This Japanese Shop Is 1,020 Years Old. It Knows a Bit About Surviving Crises.
(To survive for a millennium, Ms. Hasegawa said, a business cannot just chase profits.
It has to have a higher purpose. In the case of Ichiwa, that was a religious calling:
serving the shrine's pilgrims. Japan is home to more than 33,000 with at least 100 years
of history, over 40% of world's total. Around 140 have existed for more than 500 years.
19 claim to have been continuously operating since the first millennium.)
(By Ben Dooley & Hisako Ueno, NY Times, 12-2-2020)
*
London A.I. Lab Claims Breakthrough That Could Accelerate Drug Discovery
(Researchers at DeepMind say they have solved "the protein folding problem",
a task that has bedeviled scientists for more than 50 years.)
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, 11-30-2020)
STYLE: The World's Most Glamorous Quarantine Project
(John Hatleberg has been working on replicas of the Hope Diamond and its earlier
incarnations for the Smithsonian. Experts coated and recoated the replica using
a thick level of precious metals to match the lush blue of the Hope.)
(By Geraldine Fabrikant, NY Times, 11-28-2020)
ART: The Myth of North America, in One Painting
("The Death of General Wolfe" painted by Benjamin West in 1770, depicts the Battle
of the Plains of Abraham, outside Quebec City. It was the turning point in a war
that would end with the British takeover of French colonies from Quebec to Florida.)
(By Jason Farago, NY Times, 11-25-2020)
Meet GPT-3. It Has Learned to Code (and Blog and Argue)
(The latest natural-language system generates tweets, pens poetry, summarizes emails,
answers trivia questions, translates languages & even writes its own computer programs.)
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, 11-24-2020)
BOOK REVIEW: 100 Notable Books of 2020
(The year's notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction,
selected by the editors of The NY Times Book Review;
Brian Greene's Until the End of Time;
Katie Mack's The End of Everything)
(Book Review Editors, NY Times, 11-20-2020)
About That Maligned Christmas Tree (and That Owl) at Rockefeller Center
(The Norway spruce is 75-foot, 11-ton evergreen, arrived in
Midtown Manhattan after a 200-mile trip from upstate Oneonta.)
(By Ed Shanahan, NY Times, 11-18-2020)
'I Had to See That Owl': Central Park's New Celebrity Bird
(New Yorkers are so obsessed with Barry the barred owl that some are
concerned he could be scared away. So far, he seems to like the attention.)
(By Lisa M. Collins, NY Times, 11-17-2020)
Scary Is How You Act, Not Look, Disability Advocates Tell Filmmakers
[Anne Hathaway and producers of "The Witches" have apologized for
depicting her character with disfigured hands
(ectrodactyly) in the film.]
(By Cara Buckley, NY Times, 11-17-2020)
WORLD THROUGH A LENS: Have a Look at the Fabled Honey Forest
(Small town of Camlihemsin in northeastern Turkey, is home to community
of Hemshin people, an ethnic minority originating from Armenia who
sustain a distinctive tradition: black hive beekeeping.)
(By Daniel Milroy Maher, Photographs by Sarah Pannell , NY Times, 11-16-2020)
Egypt Unearths New Mummies Dating Back 2,500 Years
(Archaeologists unearthed more than 100 painted wooden coffins up to
2,500 years old in the Saqqara burial ground, many containing mummies.)
(By Isabella Kwai, NY Times, 11-15-2020)
Joanna Harcourt-Smith, 74, Dies; Lived a 'Psychedelic Love Story'
(She was a 26-year-old European socialite in Switzerland in 1972 when she met
Timothy Leary, the psychedelic Pied Piper to the flower children of the 1960s.)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 11-14-2020)
Sophia Loren Makes Her Return to Film: 'I'm a Perfectionist'
(The star, now 86, was looking for a personal connection to a script.
Then along came her director son and the Netflix drama "The Life Ahead".)
(By Simon Abrams, NY Times, 11-13-2020)
Could Listening to the Deep Sea Help Save It?
(A hydrothermal vent— or more precisely, one vent from the Suiyo Seamount
southeast of Japan— generates a viscous, muffled burbling that recalls an ominous
pool of magma or a simmering pot of soup;
Tzu-Hao Lin listened since 2008.)
(By Sabrina Imbler, NY Times, 11-10-2020)
Tom Heinsohn, Champion Celtic as Player and Coach, Is Dead at 86
(His blood always ran green: 8 titles with Boston as a Hall of Fame forward and
two as head coach followed by a 4-decade career as a die-hard Celtics broadcaster.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 11-10-2020)
Viola Smith, 'Fastest Girl Drummer in the World' Dies at 107
(She became first female star of jazz drumming, and performed at
President Truman's inauguration gala; Her showcase tune was a jazzy
arabesque "Snake Charmer" exhibiting her virtuosity in a flashy solo.)
(By Alex Vadukul, NY Times, 11-6-2020)
Looking
for Job Advice? Try TikTok
(J.T. O'Donnell's videos cover job-seeker F.A.Q.s, like whether a hiring manager will be
good to work for; how to write an impressive (but not self-aggrandizing) résumé; and what
to do when a potential employer ghosts you; She has more than 900,000 followers on TikTok.)
(By Yasemin Craggs Mersinoglu, NY Times, 11-2-2020)
Needle Update: What to Expect on Election Night
(Our three "needle" battleground states will be Florida, Georgia & North Carolina,
If Joe Biden wins even one of these states, he is a solid favorite to win the presidency.)
(By Nate Cohn and Josh Katz, NY Times, 11-2-2020)
A Local's Tour of Asturias, Spain's 'Natural Paradise'
(After a decade spent living abroad, a photographer returns to
her homeland— and revels in the breadth of its beauty.)
(Photographs & Text by Mónica R. Goya, NY Times, 11-2-2020)
Sean Connery, Who Embodied James Bond and More, Dies at 90
(Played the part in the first five Bond films and seven over all.
Connery won a best-actor award from the British Academy of Film
& Television Arts for "The Name of the Rose" (1986), based on the
Umberto Eco novel, in which he played a crime-solving medieval monk.)
(By Aljean Harmetz, NY Times, 10-31-2020)
Herb Adderley, a Packers Hall of Fame Cornerback, Dies at 81
(A defensive star in Green Bay— he ran back 7 interceptions for touchdowns—
he played on five championship teams under Vince Lombardi and one in Dallas.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-30-2020)
Cecilia Chiang, Who Brought Authentic Chinese Food to America, Dies at 100
(With her famed Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco, she enticed diners with dishes
she grew up with, leaving the American chop suey and chow mein era far behind.)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 10-28-2020)
DODGERS 3, RAYS 1 | LOS ANGELES WINS SERIES, 4-2:
Dodgers Win the World Series After Years of Frustration
(Mookie Betts delivered two runs in a Game 6 victory over the
Tampa Bay Rays that sealed the franchise's first title in 32 years.)
(By David Waldstein, NY Times, 10-27-2020)
Edith O'Hara, a Fixture of Off Off Broadway, Dies at 103
(The theater she founded, the 13th Street Repertory Company, has been
an eclectic presence on the New York scene for almost half a century.)
(By Neil Genzlinger, NY Times, 10-24-2020)
TRILOBITES: Footprints Mark a Toddler's Perilous Prehistoric Journey
(Mammoths and giant ground sloths roamed the same terrain that a young adult
swiftly moved through while toting a young child, several thousands years ago.)
(By Katherine Kornei, NY Times, 10-23-2020)
Marge Champion, Dancer, Actor and Choreographer, Dies at 101
(A model for Disney's animated heroine in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"; she & her
husband, Gower, epitomized clean-cut, all-American dance team of Hollywood musicals.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 10-22-2020)
Jacob Lawrence Painting, Missing for Decades, Is Found by Met Visitor
(Panel by renowned Black artist, part of his "Struggle" series, was last seen in 1960.
It had been hanging in her neighbors' Upper West Side apartment for decades.)
(By Hilarie M. Sheets, NY Times, 10-21-2020)
BOOKS: Richard Avedon, a Photographer Who Wanted to Outrun the Glitz Factor
(While reading What Becomes a Legend Most, Philip Gefter takes the reader
inside so many of Avedon's photo shoots, and so deftly explicates his work,
that you're thirsty to sate your eyes with Avedon's actual images.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 10-19-2020)
Rhonda Fleming, 97, Movie Star Made for Technicolor, Is Dead
[Ms. Fleming's roles
ranged from Wyatt Earp's love interest
to a princess in
King Arthur's court. Hitchcock's psychological thriller
"Spellbound" (1945)]
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 10-16-2020)
Joe Morgan, Hall of Fame Second Baseman, Is Dead at 77
(He later became a well-known television commentator, was among the smallest
great players in the history of the game and among the greatest second basemen.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 10-12-2020)
Whitey Ford, Beloved Yankees Pitcher Who Confounded Batters, Dies at 91
(Pitching for 11 pennant-winners and six World Series champions, Ford won
236 games, most of any Yankee, and had a career winning percentage of .690,
the best among pitchers with 200 or more victories in the 20th century.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-9-2020)
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to 2 Scientists for Work on Genome Editing
(Emmanuelle Charpentier & Jennifer A. Doudna developed the Crispr tool, which
can change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with high precision.)
(By Katherine J. Wu, Carl Zimmer and Elian Peltier, NY Times, 10-7-2020)
Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to 3 Scientists for Work on Black Holes
(Prize was awarded half to Roger Penrose for showing how black holes could form and half to
Reinhard Genzel & Andrea Ghez for discovering supermassive object at Milky Way's center.)
(By Dennis Overbye and Derrick Bryson Taylor, NY Times, 10-6-2020)
Eddie Van Halen, Virtuoso of the Rock Guitar, Dies at 65
(His outpouring of riffs, runs and solos was hyperactive and athletic, making deeper or
darker emotions feel irrelevant. The band he led was one of the most popular of all time.)
(By Jim Farber, NY Times, 10-6-2020)
Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to Scientists Who Discovered Hepatitis C Virus
(Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly to Dr. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton
and Charles M. Rice for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, that "made possible
blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.")
(By Katherine J. Wu and Daniel Victor, NY Times, 10-5-2020)
Ron Perranoski, Ace Reliever in Dodgers' Storied '60s, Dies at 84
(He led National League in pitching appearances with 70 in 1962 and 69 in 1963,
when he saved 21 games, posted a 1.67 earned run average, with 16-3 record.
He won 4 World Series with LA Dodgers 1963, 1965 as pitcher, 1981, 1988 as coach)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-5-2020)
Nicole Kidman Leans Into the Pain
(Tom Cruise and I loved working with Stanley Kubrick in
Eyes Wide Shut for two years;
We were happily married; he wanted to explore sexuality, infidelity, and nudity in the film.)
(By David Marchese, NY Times Magazine, 10-5-2020)
Murray Schisgal, Who Brought the Absurd to the Mainstream, Dies at 93
(Wrote Tony Award-winning comedy "Luv" with Eli Wallach, & Hollywood hit farce
"Tootsie" the smash 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman as a struggling actor
who secures a role by auditioning as a woman. YouTube Trailer)
(By Will Dudding, NY Times, 10-2-2020)
Bob Gibson, Feared Flamethrower for the Cardinals, Dies at 84
(Retired after the 1975 season with a career record of 251-174 and ERA of 2.91;
Won both NL's MVP and Cy Young Award, as the league's best pitcher, in 1968,
when he won 22 games, struck out 268 batters, pitched 13 shutouts and posted
an ERA of 1.12; Threw 56 career shutouts; Record for most strikeouts in a
World Series game, 17, against Detroit Tigers in 1968; Hall of Fame 1981.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-2-2020)
Joe Laurinaitis, a Star as Tag Team's 'Animal', Dies at 60
(As one of the Road Warriors, he brought a muscled flamboyance to professional wrestling.
With his partner, Michael Hegstrand (Road Warrior Hawk), they revived tag team wrestling.)
(By Neil Genzlinger, NY Times, 10-1-2020) (YouTube)
Compact Nuclear Fusion Reactor Is 'Very Likely to Work,' Studies Suggest
(Series of research papers renews hope that the long-elusive goal
of mimicking the way the sun produces energy might be achievable.)
(By Henry Fountain, NY Times, 9-29-2020)
Helen Reddy Dies at 78; Sang "I Am Woman"
(Australian-born singer's first No. 1 hit became a feminist
anthem and propelled her to international stardom.)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 9-29-2020)
Lillian Brown, Makeup Artist to Nine Presidents, Dies at 106
(She did more than powder noses; she advised on diction and apparel and
helped commanders in chief put their best selves forward for television.)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 9-29-2020)
Jackie Stallone, Celebrity Astrologer and Sylvester's Mother, Dies at 98
[She was best known as mother of Sylvester Stallone,
who starred in Rocky & Rambo movies;
She was circus aerialist, chorus girl, wrestling promoter, gym owner— before gaining
notice as an astrologer, writing Starpower: An Astrological Guide to Super Success (1989)]
(By Julia Carmel, NY Times, 9-25-2020)
How Lenny Kravitz Keeps His Cool
(When you're 25, and you've released your first album. You write, "I didn't know then
that the life of a rock star is in equal measure a beautiful blessing and perilous burden.")
(By Rob Tannenbaum, NY Times, 9-23-2020)
The Biggest Wave Surfed This Year
(On Feb. 11, 33-year-old Brazilian Maya Gabeira, surfed a 73.5 foot wave
in Nazaré, Portugal. She flew down the face of the wave as it curled
overhead then crashed in a series of what felt like explosions, Gabeira
said, before engulfing her body in white water.)
(By Adam Skolnick, NY Times, 9-22-2020)
*
He Invented the Rubik's Cube. He's Still Learning From It.
(Erno Rubik, who invented the Rubik's Cube in 1974, wrote his book
Cubed,
There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 ways to arrange the squares, but just one
of those combinations is correct. Rubik finally did it, after weeks of frustration.
Yusheng Du of China set the world record of 3.47 seconds in 2018.)
(By Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 9-16-2020)
A Climate Reckoning in Fire-Stricken California
(Multiple mega fires burning more than three million acres. Millions of residents
smothered in toxic air. Rolling blackouts and triple-digit heat waves. Climate
change, in the words of one scientist, is smacking California in the face.)
(By Thomas Fuller & Christopher Flavelle, NY Times, 9-10-2020)
Scenes from around San Francisco where dark orange skies blankets city
(This apocalyptic hue is due to a combination of smoke
from various wildfires sitting above the marine fog layer.)
(By Jessica Christian, Twitter, NY Times, 9-10-2020)
BASEBALL: The Braves Scored 29 Runs. Their Player of the Game? Everyone.
(The Braves' run total against the Marlins was a National League record,
and all 10 men they sent to the plate got at least one hit.)
(By Victor Mather, NY Times, 9-10-2020)
IN HER WORDS: Why Are Men Still Explaining Things to Women?
(Mansplaining illuminates a much deeper problem than the bore of patronizing monologues.
"Entitled" author
Kate Manne unpacks the phenomenon. Men thinks they have more knowledge.)
(By Mary Katharine Tramontana, NY Times, 9-9-2020)
OBITUARY: Lou Brock, Baseball Hall of Famer Known for Stealing Bases, Dies at 81
(Brock's 118 stolen bases in 1974 eclipsed Maury Wills's single-season record of 104,
set in 1962, and his 938 career steals broke Ty Cobb's mark of 892. Won 1964 World Seies
for St. Louis Cardinals; Had 3,023 hits & hit .300 eight times; MLB Hall of Fame in 1985.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 9-6-2020)
STYLE: Jane Fonda, Intergalactic Eco-Warrior in a Red Coat
(I wanted to be schooled by Jane Fonda. From Black Panthers to the Green New Deal,
from a legendary sex life to no sex life, from plastic surgery to plastic prison handcuffs,
from "Barbarella" to Quentin Tarantino, from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump,
from Marilyn Monroe to TikTok, from bad vibes over Hanoi Jane to good vibrators.)
(By Maureen Dowd, NY Times, 9-2-2020)
OBITUARY: Tom Seaver, Pitcher Who Led 'Miracle Mets' to Glory, Dies at 75
(He won 311 games with 3,640 strikeouts in his 20 big-league seasons;
New York fans called him 'Tom Terrific' after they won 1969 World Series.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 9-2-2020)
*
MUSIC: 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Violin
(Hilary Hahn: I hold my breath every time I listen to it, or play it. It's an incredibly
special and personal experience. "The Lark Ascending" is all of art in one place: nature,
music, poetry, imagery and imagination. It lifts you immediately out of your seat, out of
the space you're in, and carries you through the ether, through intense emotions, through
joyful, sunny countryside revelry and through sheer orchestral lushness. The final note
returns you to your own soul, yet still you are soaring.)
(By 17 Music Professionals, NY Times, 9-2-2020)
OBITUARY: Gail Sheehy, Journalist, Author and Social Observer, Dies at 83
(She looked at what makes public figures tick and, in her Passages books, how
adults navigate life's inevitable changes; Showed how character was destiny.)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, NY Times, 8-25-2020)
SCIENCE: Why Some Tropical Fish Are Gettin' Squiggly With It
[A hybrid Venusta multifasciata, cross between multibarred angelfish and a purple
masked angelfish, produced hybrid offspring even more colorful than the parents.]
(By Sabrina Imbler, NY Times, 8-22-2020)
'It's Hard to See Your Memories Burn': Loss From Wildfires Grows in California
(The 118-year-old state park, California's oldest— has been devastated.
Its giant trees were the backdrop in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 Vertigo film
as Kim Novak strolled with James Stewart. Its headquarters, a one-story
building built in 1936 from stone and redwood logs is now gone.)
(By Shawn Hubler & Kellen Browning, NY Times, 8-21-2020)
IN THE GARDEN: The Late-Summer Lure of Asters and Goldenrods
[The migratory painted lady butterfly on seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens),
stocking up for its journey. Latin name Solidago translates as "becoming whole".]
(By Margaret Roach, NY Times, 8-19-2020)
Death Valley Just Recorded the Hottest Temperature on Earth
[At 3:41 p.m. on Sunday, 8/16, temperature at Furnace Creek reached 130oF,
equivalent of 54oC.
Previous High
(debated):
56.7 oC (134.1 oF) on 10 July 1913]
(By Concepción de León & John Schwartz, NY Times, 8-17-2020)
*
A Picture of Change for a World in Constant Motion
[Hokusai: "Ejiri in Suruga Province"— 10th image in his renowned cycle
"Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji" (1830) & its influence on Western art.]
(By Jason Farago, NY Times, 8-7-2020)
Olivia de Havilland, a Star of 'Gone With the Wind', Dies at 104
(She built an illustrious Hollywood career punctuated by
a successful fight to loosen the studios' grip on actors.)
(By Robert Berkvist, NY Times, 7-26-2020)
THE LONG VIEW: Jackie Robinson's Inner Struggle
(Robinson recalled in his 1972 memoir I Never Had It Made: An Autobiography;
After the 1947 World Series, Robinson observed "I cannot stand and sing the anthem.
I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a Black man in a white world. In 1972,
in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.")
(By Jon Meacham, NY Times, 7-21-2020)
239 Experts
With One Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne
(Whether carried aloft by large droplets that zoom through the air
after a sneeze, or by much smaller exhaled droplets that may glide
the length of a room, these experts said, the coronavirus is borne
through air and can infect people when inhaled.)
(By Apoorva Mandavilli, NY Times, 7-4-2020)
*
This Black Hole Blew a Hole in the Cosmos
(The galaxy cluster Ophiuchus was doing just fine until WISEA J171227.81-232210.7—
a black hole several billion times as massive as our sun— burped on it.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 3-6-2020)
Jack Welch, G.E. Chief Who Became a Business Superstar, Dies at 84
(Mr. Welch was named "manager of the century" after General Electric's
revenue jumped nearly fivefold during his tenure.)
(By Steve Lohr, NY Times, 3-3-2020)
Kirk Douglas, a Star of Hollywood's Golden Age, Dies at 103
(His rugged good looks and muscular intensity made him a commanding presence
in films like "Lust for Life", "Spartacus" and "Paths of Glory".)
(By Robert Berkvist, NY Times, 2-5-2020)
*
These Images Show the Sun's Surface in Greater Detail Than Ever Before
(Hawaiian Solar Telescope shows greater detail of the Sun; These cell-like structures—
each about the size of Texas— are the signature of violent motions that transport
heat from the inside of the sun to its surface, about 5,000 degrees Celsius.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 1-30-2020)
Kobe Bryant, Transformational Star of the N.B.A., Dies in Helicopter Crash
(Bryant, 41, who won five titles with the Los Angeles Lakers, was traveling with
his 13-year-old daughter when they and seven other people perished in the crash.)
(By Scott Cacciola, NY Times, 1-27-2020)
*
Diego, the Tortoise Whose High Sex Drive Helped Save His Species, Retires
(40% of the 2,000 tortoises repatriated to Española Island are Diego's descendants)
(By Aimee Ortiz, NY Times, 1-12-2020)
Buck Henry, Who Helped Create 'Get Smart' and Adapt 'The Graduate', Dies at 89
(An unassuming screenwriter & actor, Mr. Henry thought up quirky characters with Mel Brooks and
inhabited many more on "Saturday Night Live". Zelig-like figure in American comedy for 50 years.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 1-9-2020)
Just a Fainting Spell? Or Is Betelgeuse About to Blow?
(A familiar star in the constellation Orion, Betelgeuse, 730 light years away from Earth,
20x massive as our Sun, has dimmed noticeably since October. Is its explosion imminent?)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 1-9-2020)
*
Baba Ram Dass, Proponent of LSD Turned New Age Guru, Dies at 88
(Born Richard Alpert,
he first gained notice as a colleague of Timothy Leary
and later became even better known as the author of
Be Here Now)
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 12-23-2019)
MUSIC: Mystery That Remains Stubbornly Unsolved
(In 1975, the psych-folk musician Jim Sullivan
vanished in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
A new reissue of his self-titled album only deepens the puzzle of his life and career.)
(By Rebecca Bengal, NY Times, 11-14-2019)
China's Internet Is Flowering. And It Might Be Our Future
(What most Westerners don't know about China's highly integrated
approach to mobile apps. It's amazing.)
(By Yiren Lu, NY Times, 11-13-2019)
In Yoga, Blurry Lines Easily Crossed
(Practice of hands-on adjustments in contemporary yoga can create confusion between
teachers & students— especially when there hasn't been discussion about consent.)
(By Jamila Wignot, NY Times, 11-8-2019)
He Left His 310-Year-Old Violin on a Train. He Retrieved It in a Parking Lot.
(Stephen Morris left his 1709 violin worth $320,000 on British Southeaster Railway
on 10/22; Returned 10/25 three days later to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra soloist.)
(By Iliana Magra, NY Times, 11-3-2019)
BASEBALL: The Nationals Stayed in the Fight, Then Delivered a Knockout
(Defeated Huston Astros 6-2 in Game 7 of World Series, to win their
first World Series; Howie Kendrick hits two-run homer in 7th inning.)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 10-31-2019)
*
World's Largest Treehouse Burns to the Ground
(Horace Burgess built the 97-foot-tall castle-like structure in 1993
after a vision from God. It took less than 15 minutes to destroy it.)
(By Emily S. Rueb, NY Times, 10-26-2019)
Robert Evans, a Maverick Producer of Hollywood Classics, Dies at 89
(He was a force behind masterworks like The Godfather and Chinatown,
& his own story, of unlikely success and drug-fueled decline— was the stuff of legend.)
By Brooks Barnes, NY Times, 10-28-2019)
John T. Tate, Familiar Name in the World of Numbers, Dies at 94
(His explanations of ideas now bear his name, a much-honored one among mathematicians.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 10-28-2019)
Hildegard Bachert, 98, Dies; Championed Klimt, Schiele and Grandma Moses
(In her 78 years at the Galerie St. Etienne in Manhattan, she promoted German
and Austrian Expressionists as well as the celebrated American folk artist.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 10-23-2019)
*
CULTURE: How Can I Silence My Fear of Failure When Starting to Write?
("You are likely your own cruelest reader" says one of our advice columnists.)
By Ligaya Mishan, NY Times, 10-23-2019)
*
TECHNOLOGY: If a Robotic Hand Solves a Rubik's Cube, Does It Prove Something?
(AI Robotic hand solved Rubik's Cube color alignments in four minutes.)
(By Cade Metz, NY Times, 10-15-2019)
*
Ram Dass is ready to die.
(Studied with Hindu mystic Neem Karoli Baba;
Wrote Be Here Now that sold
2 million copies; Advice: Go to the spiritual heart, and there will be
a doorway to the next plane of consciousness: soul land)
(By David Marchese, NY Times, 9-2-2019)
*
What Makes People Charismatic, and How You Can Be, Too
[Three pillars of charisma: presence (residing in the moment),
power (remove self-doubt), warmth (signal kindness and acceptance)]
(By Bryan Clark, NY Times, 8-15-2019)
*
SELF_CARE: Move Over, Therapy Dogs. Hello, Therapy Cows
(Cow cuddling, invites interaction with farm animals via brushing, petting or heartfelt chats.)
(By Elisa Mala, NY Times, 7-12-2019)
Charles Reich, Who Saw 'The Greening of America,' Dies at 91
(In 1970, as the rebellious fervor of the 1960s appeared to be peaking, The New Yorker
published a 39,000-word excerpt from "The Greening of America," giving flower children
a powerful intellectual rationale and their worried parents a measure of comfort by casting
the younger generation's values, built on personal happiness instead of material success,
as constructive and benign.)
(By Sam Roberts, NY Times, 6-17-2019))
STYLE: Gloria Vanderbilt Dies at 95; Built a Fashion Empire
(She built a $100 million fashion empire selling designer jeans
Her son Anderson Cooper, CNN journalist confirmed her death, in a broadcast.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 6-17-2019)
Personal Health: Getting a Good Night's Sleep Without Drugs
(Alternatives to prescription drugs for insomnia offer better, safer & more long-lasting solutions.)
(By Jane E. Brody, NY Times, 6-17-2019)
Wealth Matters:
Retouching Mona Lisa Is Restoration, but Mickey Mantle? Collectors Cry Fraud
(Cards in pristine condition are highly valued by collectors and can fetch thousands of dollars
more than similar cards with scuffs or worn edges. Professional Sports Authenticator grades cards.)
(By Paul Sullivan, NY Times, 6-14-2019)
Smarter Living: How to, Maybe, Be Less Indecisive (or Not)
(Spend less time agonizing and more time enjoying. As Barry Schwartz, author of
The Paradox of Choice, said, "I'm reasonably confident we're operating with far,
far more options in most parts of our life than we need and that serve us.")
(By Susan Shain, NY Times, 6-13-2019)
In her words: Free Your Mind (From Self-Doubt)
(The workplace still isn't equal. Learn to dodge the land mines, fight bias and avoid burnout.)
(By Maya Salam, NY Times, 6-11-2019)
* NONFICTION:
Remember the '10,000 Hours' Rule for Success? Forget About It
(Review on David Epstein's RANGE: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World—
In the most rewarding domains of life, generalists are better positioned than specialists to excel.)
(By Jim Holt, NY Times, 5-28-2019)
Doris Day, Movie Star Who Charmed America, Dies at 97
(Freckle-faced movie actress whose irrepressible personality and golden voice made her America's
top box-office star in the early 1960s, died on Monday at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. at 97.)
(By Aljean Harmetz, NY Times, 5-13-2019)
* OP-ED: AI {artificial intelligence) still needs HI (human intelligence)
(Humans help when the chatbot gets stuck & can't answer at
[24]7.ai in Bangalore, India)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 2-26-2019)
*
In Don Newcombe, Baseball Got Its First Black Ace
(Newcombe won 20 games for the Dodgers, died at 92, and mentored Dave Stewart & Mudcat Grant.)
(By Benjamin Hoffman, NY Times, 2-15-2019)
OP-ED: To Deal with Trump, Look to Voltaire
(Voltaire, French philosopher who mobilized power of Enlightenment principles in 18th-century
Europe. In the face of crude bullying and humorless lies, try wit and a passion for justice.)
(By Robert Darnton, NY Times, 12-27-2018)
ESSAY: One Giant Step for a Chess-Playing Machine
(Google's AlphaZero played chess against itself millions of times and learned from its mistakes.
In a matter of hours, the algorithm became the best player, human or computer, the world has
ever seen, AlphaZero won by thinking smarter, not faster; it examined only 60 thousand
positions a second, compared to 60 million for Stockfish.)
(By Steven Strogatz, NY Times, 12-26-2018)
Obituaries:
Penny Marshall, 'Laverne & Shirley' Star and Movie Director, Dies at 75
(She became the first woman to direct a feature film that grossed more than $100 million
when she made Big in 1988. Four years later she repeated her box-office success with
A League of Their Own, a sentimentally spunky comedy about a wartime women's baseball league.)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 12-18-2018)
As Facebook Raised a Privacy Wall, It Carved an Opening for Tech Giants
(Internal documents show that the social network gave Microsoft, Amazon, Spotify and others
far greater access to people's data than it has disclosed; Allowed Microsoft's Bing search engine
to see the names of virtually all Facebook users' friends without consent, the records show,
and gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read Facebook users' private messages.)
(By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Michael LaForgia & Nicholas Confessore, NY Times, 12-18-2018)
OP-ED:
How You Can Help Fight the Information Wars
(Russian trolls have been really good customers of Facebook, Google and Twitter.
Fake social media accounts were used to slime the special counsel Robert Mueller.)
(By Kara Swisher, NY Times, 12-18-2018)
* SCIENCE: The Yoda of Silicon Valley
(80-year-old Donald Knuth, is author of The Art of Computer Programming,
a continuing four-volume opus that is his life's work.)
(By Siobhan Roberts, NY Times, 12-17-2018)
OP-ED:
Can the U.S. Stop China From Controlling the Next Internet Age?
(As critical 5G— fifth generation— wireless networks roll out over the world,
many are being deployed by Huawei. These are the networks that will usher in the next age
of innovation, & idea of Chinaר which pretty much exemplifies the surveillance economy—
dominating that age is troubling; Arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, CFO of tech giant Huawei)
(By Kara Swisher, NY Times, 12-7-2018)
George Bush,
Who Steered Nation in Tumultuous Times, Is Dead at 94
(41st U.S, president & father of the 43rd, died Nov. 30; His wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush
died 8 months earlier; Served as Vice President under Reagan; Ambassador to UN & China;
Director of CIA; two-term Texas Congressman; Chairman of Republican National Committee.)
(By Adam Nagourney, NY Times, 11-30-2018)
This Is the Way the Paper Crumples
(The dynamics of crumpling are in play everywhere: in the initial unfolding of an insect's wing;
in the way DNA packs into a cell nucleus, or how best to cram a giant solar sail into a small satellite.)
(By Natalie Prouix, NY Times, 11-26-2018)
Stan Lee Is Dead at 95:
Superhero of Marvel Comics
(Under Stan Lee, Marvel transformed the comic book world by imbuing its characters
with the self-doubts and neuroses of average people, as well an awareness of trends
and social causes and, often, a sense of humor.)
(By Jonathan Kandell & Andy Webster, NY Times, 11-12-2018)
OP-ED: When Your Boss Is an Algorithm
(For Uber drivers, the workplace can feel like a world of constant surveillance,
automated manipulation and threats of "deactivation".)
(By Alex Rosenblat, NY Times, 10-12-2018)
Leon Lederman, 96, Explorer (and Explainer) of the Subatomic World, Dies
(Received 1988 Physics Nobel Prize
"for the neutrino beam method and the demonstration
of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino.")
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 10-3-2018)
Use of Evolution to Design Molecules Nets Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 3 Scientists
(2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Frances H. Arnold of CalTech, (half of prize) with
George P. Smith & Gregory P. Winter (sharing other half) for their work in evolutionary science.)
(By Kennet Chang, NY Times, 10-3-2018)
Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to Scientists Who Put Light to Work
(2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Arthur Ashkin of the U.S., Gérard Mourou
of France and Donna Strickland of Canada for harnessing one of the most ineffable aspects
of nature, pure light, into a mighty microscopic force. Dr. Ashkin will receive half of the
prize, worth about $1 million; Dr. Mourou & Dr. Strickland will split the remainder.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 10-2-2018)
2018 Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to 2 Cancer Immunotherapy Researchers
(Nobel Prize for Physiology & Medicine was awarded to James P. Allison & Tasuku Honjo
for their work on unleashing the body's immune system to attack cancer cells.)
(By Denise Grady, NY Times, 10-1-2018)
Peter Frame, Ballet Dancer and Instructor, Dies at 61
(He performed in George Balanchine's "Episodes". The dancer Paul Taylor performed
this choreography in 1959, and Mr. Frame restaged it in 1986; Frame committed suicide.)
(By Julia Jacobs, NY Times, 9-1-2018)
Paul Taylor Dies at 88; Brought Poetry & Lyricism to Modern Dance
(As a strikingly gifted dancer in his 20s, Mr. Taylor created roles for the master choreographers
Merce Cunningham, Martha Graham & George Balanchine.
When he retired from dancing in
1974, both his dancers & his new creations
became even more magnetic draws for audiences.)
(By Alastair Macaulay, NY Times, 8-30-2018)
John McCain, War Hero, Senator, Presidential Contender, Dies at 81
(John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war
in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a
two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81.
McCain was embodiment of courage: a war hero who came home on crutches, psychologically
scarred & broken in body, but not in spirit. Lost to Obama in 2008 Presidential Election.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 8-25-2018)
OPINION: John McCain, a Scarred but Happy Warrior
(As a professed maverick, McCain, who died Saturday at the age of 81, was bound to make somebody
unhappy. Though his votes on the Senate floor were mostly along party lines, his periodic challenges
to Republican orthodoxy made him more popular among independents, Democrats and the tattered
remnants of his party's moderate wing than with the absolutists in the party's base.)
(By Editorial Board, NY Times, 8-25-2018)
Being Women: Poetry and Imagery
(This summer, we selected six poems by women and asked photographers to let the poems
inspire them.
Layli Long Soldier, "Edge"; Jennifer Chang, "The Winter's Wife";
Joy Harjo, "Praise the Rain":
Melissa Studdard, "Everyone In Me Is A Bird"; Nickole Brown,
"For My Grandmother's Perfume,
Norell"; Tonya Ingram, "Until the Stars Collapse"
(By Kerri MacDonald & Morrigan McCarthy, NY Times, 8-17-2018)
Aretha Franklin, Indomitable 'Queen of Soul', Dies at 76
(In a musical career of more than five decades, Aretha Franklin had more than 100 singles
on the Billboard charts. including 17 Top 10 pop singles and 20 No. 1 R&B hits. She received
18 competitive Grammy Awards, along with a lifetime achievement award in 1994.)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 8-16-2018)
Aretha Franklin's 20 Essential Songs
(The singer, songwriter & pianist's catalog showcased the range & power of one of the greatest
vocalists of all time. Had ability to strike a powerful note without ever losing her beautiful tone.)
(By Jim Farber, NY Times, 8-16-2018)
AN APPRAISAL:
Aretha Franklin Had Power. Did We Truly Respect It?
(Aretha Franklin turned Otis Redding's plea into the most empowering popular recording ever
made. The opening line is "What you want, baby, I got it." But her "what" is a punch in the face.
So Ms. Franklin's rearrangement was about power.)
(By Wesley Morris, NY Times, 8-16-2018)
When Aretha Franklin Brought Down the House at the Kennedy Center
(Aretha Franklin sang "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" during a tribute to Carole King
in 2015. "Carole was losing her mind, Obama was losing his mind," said Broadway actress Chilina
Kennedy. Cecily Tyson: "She had the most beautiful face. You could see her emotions in her face
as well as hear them
in her voice. It was no surprise when the audience stood up— you can't sit
& listen to her and not be moved."
Rita Moreno: "The moment she 'casually' dropped her massive
mink coat onto the stage was one for the ages.
She brought a prodigious talent, musicality, & down
stompin' woman's sass to all she does."
Chilina Kennedy: "She was up in the stratosphere with those
riffs, but every cell of her being seemed to be in the music.
There was nothing else, just her and the
song. That's what we try
to do as artists— we try to get to where she was that night.")
(By Gavin Edwards, NY Times, 8-16-2018)
Aretha Franklin Reigned as Queen, in Voice and in Image
(Yoking her formidable vocal powers to a brilliant sense of self-presentation, Ms. Franklin made
herself a model of empowerment and pride. She was, after all, the Queen of Soul and. just as another
famous monarch does, Ms. Franklin seldom went anywhere— onstage or off— without her handbag.)
(By Guy Trebay, NY Times, 8-16-2018)
OP-ED: We Are Merging With Robots. That's a Good Thing
[Artificial intelligences already outperform us at many tasks and are now able to train themselves
to reach competencies (in restricted domains such as chess or Go) that we can barely comprehend.
All this blurs the boundaries between body and machine, between mind and world, between
standard, augmented and virtual realities, and between human and post-human.]
(By Andy Clark, NY Times, 8-13-2018)
Google-Facebook Dominance Hurts Ad Tech Firms,
Speeding Consolidation
(Number of independent ad tech companies has fallen 21% since 2013,
to 185 as of the second quarter of 2018,)
(By Claire Ballentine, NY Times, 8-12-2018)
Parker Solar
Probe Launches on NASA Voyage to 'Touch the Sun'
(NASA's Parker Solar Probe will fly through punishing heat of the sun's outer atmosphere.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 8-11-2018)
Inside Twitter's Struggle Over What Gets Banned
(Jack Dorsey and Safety Team debate on what constituted dehumanizing speech; Criticism
against Twitter for its lack of action against the posts from the far-right conspiracy site
Infowars and its creator, Alex Jones, banned by Apple, Facebook & Google's YouTube)
(By Cecilia Kang & Kate Conger, NY Times, 8-10-2018)
CONVERSATION: Maria Konnikova Shows Her Cards
(The well-regarded science writer of New Yorker took up poker while researching a book.
Now she's on the professional circuit. Within a year, she had moved from poker novice
to poker professional, winning more than $200,000 in tournament jackpots.)
(By Claudia Dreifus, NY Times, 8-10-2018)
OBITUARIES:
Burton Richter, a Nobel Winner for Plumbing Matter, Dies at 87
(On Saturday, Nov. 9, 1974, Richter discovered the psi particle, while MIT's Samuel Ting
discovered J-particle at Brookhave National Laboratory. They gave it the combined name J/psi.
That set off what physicists called "November revolution"— a wave of ensuing excitement
in exploring a bounty of new particles that required revising the foundations of physics.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 7-23-2018)
OBITUARIES:
Shinobu Hashimoto, Writer of Towering Kurosawa Films, Is Dead at 100
(Screenwriter for Kurosawa's Rashomon, Ikiru), Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 7-20-2018)
OBITUARIES:
Alfred Alberts, Unsung Father of a Cholesterol Drug, Dies at 87
(In the late 1970s, Mr. Alberts discovered the chemical compound
that led to the drug lovastatin, a leading remedy for high cholesterol.)
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 7-3-2018)
Simply Perfect: Justify Wins the Triple Crown
(Ridden by 52-year-old ironman Mike Smith, Justify captured 150th Belmont Stakes
by a length & three-quarters to become 13th Triple Crown winner. Trainer Baffert,
became only second trainer to secure two Triple Crowns, joining James Fitzsimmons,
who was known as Sunny Jim and trained Gallant Fox and Omaha in the 1930s.)
(By Melissa Hoppert, NY Times, 6-9-2018)
Anthony
Bourdain, Renegade Chef Who Reported From the World's Tables, Is Dead at 61
(His darkly funny memoir about life in NYC restaurant kitchens made him a celebrity chef
and touched off his second career as a journalist, food expert and social activist, was found
dead on Friday of apparent suicide by hanging in his hotel room in France. He was 61.)
(By Kim Severson, Matthew Haag & Julia Moskin, NY Times, 6-8-2018)
The Best of Anthony Bourdain
(What to read, what to watch & what to listen to by and about the chef, TV host and author)
(By Tina Jordan, NY Times, 6-8-2018)
Paul D. Boyer,
99, Dies; Nobel Winner Decoded Enzyme That Powers Life
(1999 Chemistry Nobel Prize for enzyme research on ATP that stores energy)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 6-7-2018)
WHAT TO COOK:
Art and Craft
(Sifton: Argued my thesis that restaurants
are cultural expressions same as dance or music or poetry.
Gabrielle Hamilton said "No way. Cooking is craft."
Tom Colicchio: "I named my restaurant
Craft";
David Chang brought the Japanese concept of
"shokunin",
or mastery of a profession & one's work.)
(By Sam Sifton, NY Times, 5-16-2018)
How the Father of Computer Science Decoded Nature's Mysterious Patterns
(Mathematician & cryptologist Alan Turing was also a naturalist
who used math to explain patterns in nature.)
(By JoAnna Klein NY Times, 5-8-2018)
BASEBALL:
A No-Hitter by Oakland's Sean Manaea Tames the Red Sox
(Oakland A's pitcher Sean Manaea allowed two walks & struck out 10, throwing 108 pitches.
It's Oakland's first no-hitter since Dallas Braden's perfect game against Tampa Bay in 2010.)
(By Associated Press, NY Times, 4-22-2018)
U.S.:
Barbara Bush, Wife of 41st President and Mother of 43rd, Dies at 92
(The Bushes had celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January, making them the longest-
married couple in presidential history. She was only the second woman in American history to
have a son of hers follow his father to the White House. Abigail Adams,
wife of John Adams &
mother of John Quincy Adams, was the first. Mrs. Bush's distant relative was
Franklin Pierce.)
(By Enid Nemy, NY Times, 4-17-2018)
ARTS:
U.S. Radio Host and Conspiracy Theorist Art Bell Dead at 72
(Bell's popular syndicated show "Coast to Coast AM" was created in 1993 and was touted
as the country's most listened to overnight radio program. It featured Bell expounding
on topics as diverse as UFO sightings, Bigfoot and crop circles.)
(By Reuters, NY Times, 4-14-2018)
PERSONAL TECH:
I Downloaded the Information That Facebook Has on Me. Yikes.
(Facebook had even kept a permanent record of the roughly 100 people I had deleted from my friends
list over the last 14 years, including my exes. 500 advertisers had all my contact information.)
(By Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 4-11-2018)
POLITICS:
Investigators Focus on Another Trump Ally: The National Enquirer.
(The National Enquirer has taken a decidedly political, and pro-Trump, turn. Trump's close
friend David J. Pecker, is chairman of American Media Inc., which publishes The Enquirer.)
(By Jim Rutenberg, Emily Steel, & Mike McIntire, NY Times, 4-11-2018)
WEALTH MATTERS—
Trading Cards: A Hobby That Became a Multimillion-Dollar Investment
(Over the past decade, the 1952 Mantle card has appreciated 590%, the 1954 Aaron card 829%,
and the 1933 Babe Ruth card 305%. Top 500 baseball cards beat S&P 500 by more than double.)
(By Paul Sullivan, NY Times, 3-23-2018)
SCIENCE:
Stephen Hawking Dies at 76; His Mind Roamed the Cosmos
(A physicist and best-selling author, Dr. Hawking did not allow his physical limitations
to hinder his quest to answer "the big question: Where did the universe come from?".
Note: Hawkings died on 3-14-2018,
P-Day, 139 years since
Einstein was born 3-14-1879)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 3-14-2018)
ARTS:
6 Memorable Cultural Moments Inspired by Stephen Hawking
(1. "Star Trek 1993: The Next Generation"; 2. Pink Floyd 1994 Album: "Keep Talking";
3. Four episodes "The Simpsons (1999-2010); 4. Philip Glass 1992 Opera "The Voyage";
5. Sitcom 2012: "Hawking Excitation" on 'Big Bang Theory'; 6. Film 2014: "Theory of Everything")
(By Anna Codrea-Rado, NY Times, 3-14-2018)
EUROPE:
Stephen Hawking, in His Own Words
(1. "I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.";
2. "My goal
is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all."
3. "There is no god. I am an atheist.";
4. "Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.
try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.
Be curious.
And however difficult life may
seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.")
(By Yonette Joseph, NY Times, 3-14-2018)
SCIENCE:
Stephen Hawking's Beautiful Mind
(1970: Hawking & Roger Penrose show
that there had to be a singularity at the beginning of time—
in other words, a big bang. 1988: Hawking publishes
A Brief History of Time. It stays on the
London Times best-seller list for four years. 2015:
The Theory of Everything, a movie based
on a book by his ex-wife, Jane Wilde, wins an Oscar for
Eddie Redmayne.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 3-14-2018)
SCIENCE:
Stephen Hawking Taught Us a Lot About How to Live
[The cosmologist not only overturned our imaginations, he became an icon
of mystery, curiosity
and determination to understand this place we are in.
He was only 22 when he was diagnosed
with Lou Gehrig's disease,
which usually kills in 2-5 years.
By the time he died, he had lived
with it for half a century.
Stephen Hawking
liked to say he was born (1-8-1942) 300 years
to the day after
Galileo died (1-8-1642), and he died on Wednesday,
139 years after
Albert Einstein was born (3-14-1879).]
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 3-14-2018)
Artificial Intelligence: How We Help Machine Learn
(A.I. simplifies banking, enables our email to detect spam, our cars to brake automatically
and our phones to respond to voice commands. Video: Let's explain A.I. with help of this dog.)
(Paid Post by Facebook, Illustrated by Timo Kuilder, NY Times, 2-14-2018)
HEALTH: MIND—
The First Step Toward a Personal Memory Maker?
(Scientists developed a brain implant that boosts memory— an implantable "cognitive prosthetic")
(By Benedict Carey, NY Times, 2-12-2018)
OBITUARIES:
Vic Damone, Who Crooned His Way to Postwar Popularity, Dies at 89
(The velvet baritone of Vic Damone was an unforgettable groove in a soundtrack that also
included Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Tony Bennett, singers who arose in the big band era
and reached peaks of popularity in the 1950s. He died on Sunday in Miami Beach at age 89.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 2-12-2018)
BUSINESS:
Dow Jones and S.&P. Slide Again, Dropping by More Than 4%
(The S&P's 4.1% drop was the worst since August 2011.)
(By Matt Phillips, NY Times, 2-5-2018)
BUSINESS:
How Monday's Stock Plunge Ranks?
(DJIA plunged 1,175.21 points, or 4.6%, to 24,345.75 on 2/4/2018; Other major tumbles:
9-29-2008: -777.78, -6.98%; 10-19-1987: -507.99 -22.61%)
(By Stephen Grocer & Peter Eavis, NY Times, 2-5-2018)
OBITUARIES:
Mort Walker, Creator of 'Beetle Bailey' Comic Strip, Dies at 94
(Mr. Walker had the longest tenure of any cartoonist on an original creation, King Features,
which began its syndication of "Beetle Bailey" in 1950, said in a statement.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 1-27-2018)
BOOK REVIEW:
"Language Rules for the Digital Age"
[Review of
A WORLD WITHOUT 'WHOM':
The Essential Guide to Language in the BuzzFeed Age
by Emmy J. Favilla (BuzzFeed Copy Chief); She tells us "42 ways to type laughter".]
(By John Simpson, NY Times, 12-7-2017)
Most Everything You Learned About Thanksgiving Is Wrong
(In 1621, the Pilgrims celebrated a successful harvest with a three-day gathering that was attended
by members of the Wampanoag tribe. It's from this that we derive Thanksgiving as we know it.
The holiday wasn't made official until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln declared it as a kind
of thank you for the Civil War victories in Vicksburg, Miss., and Gettysburg, Pa.)
(By Maya Salam, NY Times, 11-21-2017)
ART:
That $450 Million Leonardo? It's No Mona Lisa.
(The painting, Salvator Mundi is the only Leonardo in private hands; Russian billionaire
Dmitry E. Rybolovlev sold it
at Christie's for record price of $450.3 million)
(By Jason Farago, NY Times, 11-15-2017)
ART:
Leonardo da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3 Million, Shattering Auction Highs
(Sold for less than $10,000 in 2005; Yves Bouvier bought it for $80 million in 2013;
Sold for $127.5 million to billionaire Dmitry E. Rybolovlev soon afterward.)
(By Robin Pogrebin & Scott Reyburn, NY Times, 11-15-2017)
MODERN LOVE: What love looks like
(Real stories that examine the highs, lows and woes of relationships in NYC)
(By Valeriya Safronova & Daniel Arnold, NY Times, 11-7-2017)
OP-ED: Buddhism Is More 'Western' Than You Think
(Practice mindfulness meditation: a calm, contemplative mind helps you see the world as it really is.
Mu Soeng's Heart Sutra: "Things exist but they are not real." The "abiding core" within is real.)
(By Robert Wright, NY Times, 11-6-2017)
MOVIES:
"Thor: Ragnarok" Hits Theaters With a Thunderclap
(A campy new villian like Hela, played by Cate Blanchett, helped "Thor: Ragnarok" beat superhero
sequelitis. Thor became less self-serious & much more comedic; Disney made $427 million so far.)
(By Brooks Barnes, NY Times, 11-5-2017)
MOVIES:
Review: "Thor: Ragnarok", of Gods, Monsters and Silly Jokes
(Chris Hemsworth plays a sunnier, sillier, and funnier Thor in Taika Waititi's new movie.
Director has idiosyncraic human touch & a gift for turning goofiness and gab into personality.)
(By Manohla Dargis, NY Times, 11-1-2017)
EDUCATION LIFE:
What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything)
(By Eric Hoover, NY Times, 11-1-2017)
EDUCATION LIFE:
10 Things to Know About Getting Into Your Dream College
(By Eric Hoover, NY Times, 11-1-2017)
OBITUARIES:
Michel Jouvet, Who Unlocked REM Sleep's Secrets, Dies at 91
(Neurophysiologist discovered region of the brain that controls rapid eye movement, and helped
define REM sleep as a unique state of consciousness common to humans and animals alike, )
(By Daniel E. Slotnik, NY Times, 10-11-2017)
OBITUARIES:
Y.A. Tittle, Quarterback Who Led Giants to 3 Title Games, Dies at 90
(Giants quarterback Y.A. Tittle after being slammed to the ground by a Pittsburgh Steelers lineman
in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, 1964. The photograph immortalized Tittle in football lore as an image
of the aging warrior who had finally fallen. He was a balding field general discarded by SF 49ers.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-9-2017) (Morris Berman's photo;
Post-Gazette;
Smithsonian)
* What is your love style
(Quiz by a California State University sociologist, can determine how you define love in a relationship.)
(By Terry Hatkoff, NY Times, 10-8-2017)
OP-ED: If Only Stephen Paddock Were a Muslim
(What happens when the killer was only a disturbed American armed to the teeth with military-style
weapons that he bought legally or acquired easily because of us and our crazy lax gun laws?)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 10-3-2017)
Las Vegas Shooting: Gunman's Rifle Had 'Bump Stock' to Make It Rapid-Fire Weapon
(At least one of the rifles the gunman had in his hotel suite on Sunday was outfitted with
a "bump stock", a device that would enable it to fire hundreds of rounds per minute)
(By NY Times, 10-3-2017)
U.S.:
Stephen Paddock, Las Vegas Suspect, Was a Gambler Who Drew Little Attention
(He was a high-stakes gambler recognized in the casinos of Nevada. He dabbled in real estate
investments. He was twice divorced, had a pilot's license & had owned two single-engine planes.)
(By Jose A. Delreal & Jonah Engel Bromwich, NY Times, 10-2-2017)
POLITICS:
Terrorizing if Not Clearly Terrorist: What to Call the Las Vegas Attack?
(Mass killing of innocents, even on the scale of Las Vegas, does not automatically meet the generally
accepted definition of terrorism, which requires a political, ideological or religious motive.)
(By Scott Shane, NY Times, 10-2-2017)
PAYBACK:
A Game to Help Students Pay the Right Price for College
(Tim Ranzetta has a free, interactive, web-based game called Payback.)
(By Ron Lieber, NY Times, 9-29-2017)
MOVIES:
The Record Bid for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Script Is From Tiffany's
(Audrey Hepburn's original working script for 1961 movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" sold Wednesday
night at Christie's in London for £632,750, or $847,000, appropriately enough to Tiffany & Co.)
(By Scott Reyburn, NY Times, 9-27-2017)
A New Kind of Classroom: No Grades, No Failing, No Hurry
(By Kyle Spencer, NY Times, 8-11-2017)
MUSIC:
Glen Campbell, Whose Hit Songs Bridged Country and Pop, Dies at 81
[Died of Alzheimer's disease; His autobiography, Rhinestone Cowboy (1994) was title from one of his
|
biggest hits in 1963; Sold 45 million records; inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005.]
(By Michael Pollak, NY Times, 8-8-2017)
BASEBALL:
Don Baylor, Slugging M.V.P. in the American League, Dies at 68
[Won American League's MVP Award in 1979; Was 1987 World Series champion with Minnesota
Twins; When he retired in 1988, he had been hit 267 times, a modern-day record at the time.)
(By Richard Sandomir, NY Times, 8-7-2017)
MOVIES:
Jeanne Moreau, Femme Fatale of French New Wave, Is Dead at 89
[The sensual, gravel-voiced actress who became face of the New Wave, France's iconoclastic
mid-20th-century film movement, most notably in François Truffaut's Jules and Jim died at 89)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 7-31-2017)
SCIENCE:
What We Finally Got Around to Learning at the Procrastination Research Conference
("In the end time is going to kill us. The only thing that limits us is time. You can get another job or
lover. But you can't get more time," said Jean O'Callaghan of University of Roehampton in London.
Dutch philosopher Joel Anderson defined proscrastination as "Culpably unwarranted delay.")
(By Heather Murphy, NY Times, 7-21-2017)
SMARTER LIVING:
This Is How You Get Stuff Done
(Tim Urban: We can break the things we have to do down into tiny, easily tackled mini-tasks; seek
external support for our goals; minimize distractions; and aim for steady, incremental accomplishments
instead of huge, goliath-size ones. "Write the intro" as opposed to "Write your presentation.")
(By Tim Herrera, NY Times, 7-10-2017)
What's
in Your Attic? Baseball Cards May Help a Collection Fetch Nearly $1 Million
(Collection of 1948 baseball cards found in an attic in unopened packs, and in exceptional condition,
are part of a trove of sports trading cards that an auction house said could fetch nearly $1 million.)
(By Christopher Mele, NY Times, 6-5-2017)
BASEBALL:
Jimmy Piersall, Whose Mental Illness Was Portrayed in Fear Strikes Out, Dies at 87
[Outrageous outfielder & broadcaster had emotional breakdown while a Boston Red Sox rookie;
Struggles with manic depression, (bipolar disorder), was treated with lithium & shock therapy.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 6-4-2017)
OP-ED: Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate
(We think of procrastination as a curse. 80% of college students are plagued by procrastination,
requiring epic all-nighters to finish papers & prepare for tests. 20% of adults report being chronic
procrastinators. While procrastination is a vice for productivity, I've learned that it's a virtue for creativity.)
(By Adam Grant, NY Times, 1-17-2016)
MOVIES:
Roger Moore, Who Played James Bond 007 Times, Dies at 89
(Moore had the longest run playing Bond, beginning in 1973 with Live and Let Die and ending
in 1985 with A View to a Kill; He was Unicef Ambassador since 1991 and knighted in 2003.)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 5-23-2017)
* 50 Years of Marriage and Mindfulness With Nena and Robert Thurman
(As one of the Dalai Lama's most famous, and oldest, Western pals,
Dr. Thurman is still his best and most passionate apologist.)
(By Penelope Green, NY Times, 5-20-2017)
ART & DESIGN:
Basquiat Painting Is Sold for $110.5 Million at Auction
("He's now in the same league as Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso," said dealer Jeffrey Deitch,
an expert on Jean-Michel Basquiat; Only
10 other artworks have broken the $100 million mark.)
(By Robin Pogrebin, NY Times, 5-18-2017)
Can Facebook Fix Its Own Worst Bug?
(Mark Zuckerberg now acknowledges the dangerous side of the social revolution he helped to start.
But is most powerful tool for connection in human history capable of adapting to world it created?)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 4-25-2017)
Europe:
Populism, Far From Turned Back, May Be Just Getting Started
(Since the 1960s, populist parties have doubled their average share in European elections and tripled
their share of seats in European legislatures; As Brexit proves, populist wave can do plenty at 13%)
(By Max Fisher & Amanda Taube, NY Times, 4-25-2017)
OP-ED: What Trump's Budget Means for the Filet-O-Fish
(The pollock is the most voluminously caught fish in the United States, accounting for a quarter
of everything Americans catch; More than half the imported seafood here comes from fish farms,
mostly in Asian countries, where there is little regulation of food safety )
(By Bren Smith, Sean Barrett, & Paul Greenberg, NY Times, 4-25-2017)
Science: People Are Seeing U.F.O.s Everywhere, and This Book Proves It
(Manhattan racked up New York State's second-highest tally of U.F.O. sightings in this century;
Cheryl & Linda Miller Costa's UFO
Sightings Desk Reference: United States of America 2001-2015
reports 100,000+ UFO sightings in the last 15 years )
(By Ralph Blumenthal, NY Times, 4-24-2017)
BOOKS: Robert M. Pirsig, Author of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,' Dies at 88
(His book published in 1974 to critical acclaim and explosive popularity, selling a million copies
in its first year and several million more since; novel contemplates relationship of humans
and machines, madness and the roots of culture.)
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 4-24-2017)
TELEVISION:
Don Rickles, Comedy's Equal Opportunity Offender, Dies at 90
[In 1965, he made the first of
numerous appearances on "The Tonight Show", treating
Johnny Carson with his trademark disdain to the audience's (and Carson's) delight.]
(By Peter Keepnews & Richard Severo, NY Times, 4-6-2017)
BOOKS:
Joanne Kyger, Zen-Infused Beat Generation Poet, Dies at 82
(One of the few women embraced
by the Beat Generation writers' fraternity, died on March 22
at her home in Bolinas, CA; Married to Gary Snyder in 1960, they lived in Japan for four years
and were divorced in 1965, after she had tired of playing wife and hostess to other Beat guests.)
(By Sam Roberts, NY Times, 4-6-2017)
BUSINESS:
David Rockefeller, Philanthropist and Head of Chase Manhattan, Dies at 101
(In silent testimony to his power and reach was his Rolodex, a catalog of some 150,000 names
of people he had met as a banker-statesman. It required a room of its own beside his office.)
(By Jonathan Kandell, NY Times, 3-20-2017)
MEDIA:
Jimmy Breslin, Legendary New York City Newspaper Columnist, Dies at 88
(What motivated Breslin the writer: "Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody
have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers."; 1986 Pulitzer Prize for commentary,)
(By Dan Barry, NY Times, 3-19-2017)
MUSIC:
Chuck Berry, Rock 'n' Roll Pioneer, Dies at 90
(With his indelible guitar licks & brash self-confidence, he was Rock 'n' Roll's master theorist
and conceptual genius, with hit songs like "Johnny B. Goode" and "Roll Over Beethoven".)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 3-18-2017)
BOOKS:
Derek Walcott, Poet and 1992 Nobel Laureate of the Caribbean, Dies at 87
(His intricately metaphorical poetry captured the physical beauty of the Caribbean;
"I come from a place [Saint Lucia] that likes grandeur; it likes large gestures")
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 3-17-2017)
ART & DESIGN:
Has the Art Market Become an Unwitting Partner in Crime?
("The art market is an ideal playing ground for money laundering," said Thomas Christ.)
(By Graham Bowley & William K. Rashbaum, NY Times, 2-19-2017)
BOOKS:
Barbara Gelb, Author, Playwright and Journalist, Dies at 91
(Author & journalist who, with her husband, Arthur Gelb, produced first full-scale biography of
playwright Eugene O'Neill, then decades later wrote two more volumes reconsidering his life.)
(By Joseph Berger, NY Times, 2-9-2017)
MEDIA:
Super Bowl Delivers Thrills, but No Ratings Record
(Super Bowl LI drew 111.3 million viewers on Fox, a high enough total to tie it for 4th place
among the most-viewed programs in TV history but lower than last year's 111.9 million.)
(By John Koblin, NY Times, 2-6-2017)
PRO FOOTBALL
| PATRIOTS 34, FALCONS 28 | OVERTIME:
Patriots Mount a Comeback for the Ages to Win a Fifth Super Bowl
(The Patriots trailed by 25 points 28-3 with 2 minutes 12 seconds remaining
in the 3rd quarter, and by 19 with 9:48 left in regulation, and they won.)
(By Ben Shpigel, NY Times, 2-5-2017)
FOOTBALL SUPER BOWL LI:
Patriots Julian Edelman's Outstanding Super Bowl Catch
(New England Patriots receiver, Julian Edelman, makes ridiculous
diving catch on the game-tying drive of Super Bowl LI!)
(Jayson's Photography, YouTube, 2-5-2017)
ARTS:
Mike Connors, Long-Running TV Sleuth in "Mannix", Dies at 91
(He found stardom in the late 1960s as a maverick private investigator on the CBS series
"Mannix", which went on to enjoy an eight-season run, earning $40,000 an episode.)
(By Eric Grode, NY Times, 1-27-2017)
TELEVISION:
Barbara Hale, Who Played Perry Mason's Loyal Secretary, Dies at 94
(The Emmy Award-winning actress typified the ideal mid-20th-century secretary as the
beautiful, loyal, confident but soft-spoken Della Street on TV series "Perry Mason".)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 1-27-2017)
TELEVISION:
Mary Tyler Moore, Who Incarnated the Modern Woman on TV, Dies at 80
(Mary Tyler Moore brought a new depiction of the American woman
to both "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Dick Van Dyke Show".)
(By Virginia Heffernan, NY Times, 1-25-2017)
ASIA-PACIFIC:
Zhou Youguang, Who Made Writing Chinese as Simple as ABC, Dies at 111
(Zhou Youguang, known as the father of Pinyin for creating the system of Romanized Chinese
writing that has become the international standard since its introduction some 60 years ago)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 1-14-2017)
EUROPE: Anthony Armstrong Jones, Photographer & Earl of Snowdon, Dies at 86
(Married Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, in 1960, and plunged into
a life of privileges, parties, quarrels and infidelities that ended in divorce 18 years later.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 1-13-2017)
BOOKS: William Peter Blatty, Author of The Exorcist, Dies at 89
(Blatty's novel about a girl possessed by the Devil created theological-horror genre,
became a hit movie and destroyed its author's hopes of ever writing comedy again.)
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 1-13-2017)
MUSIC: Buddy Greco, Singer Who Had That Swing, Dies at 90
(Jazz pianist, singer & sometime member of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack whose hard-swinging renditions
of "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Mr. Lonely" and "Around the World" were hits in the early 1960s)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 1-13-2017)
DANCE:
Martha Swope, 88, Who Etched Dance and Theater History in Photographs, Dies
(Swope chronicled working lives of George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins & other
key figures in 20th-century dance, producing hundreds of thousands of images of performers in action)
(By Sylviane Gold, NY Times, 1-12-2017)
BOOK REVIEW:
'A Really Good Day', Ayelet Waldman's Better Living Through LSD
(Waldman's 30-day trial with LSD— 10 micrograms every three days. A microdose, as she explains,
is anywhere from one-tenth to one-fifteenth of what one would find on a garden-variety tab of acid.)
(By Jennifer Senior, NY Times, 1-11-2017)
BOOKS:
The Revenge of Analog: See It. Feel It. Touch It. (Don't Click)
(Vinyl records sales rose to $416 million last year, the highest since 1988; Instant Polaroid-like
cameras have caught on among millennials and their younger siblings; A
new Pew survey shows
that print books remain much more popular than books in digital formats; even typewriters are
enjoying a renaissance.)
(By Michiko Kakutani, NY Times, 12-5-2016) Amazon Book Reviews
OP-ED:
My Passion for Literature Succumbed to Reality
(Mentors, peers and even literature professors warned me that an English degree held much less
weight than a pre-professional degree. An accomplished writer once warned me that if I were to
become a writer, I would have to work another job to make a living. I decided to get a political
science degree. May lead to work at the State Department or United Nations, or maybe a spot
at Harvard Law School.)
(By Bianca Vivion Brooks, NY Times, 12-5-2016)
U.S.:
Both Feeling Threatened, American Muslims and Jews Join Hands
(Jolted into action by a wave of hate crimes that followed election victory of Donald J. Trump,
American Muslims & Jews together in surprising new alliance;
Siserhood of Salaam Shalom)
(By Laurie Goodstein, NY Times, 12-5-2016)
WORLD:
Fidel Castro, Cuban Revolutionary Who Defied U.S., Dies at 90
(Castro brought Cold War to the Western Hemisphere, bedeviled 11 American presidents and
briefly pushed the world to brink of nuclear war; stepped aside in 2006 to brother Raul, now 85)
(By Jack Manning, NY Times, 11-26-2016)
FASHION & STYLE:
Bidding to Own a Piece of David Bowie
(London Sotheby auction "Bowie/Collector"
with 350 works from Bowie's art collection)
(By Roslyn Sulcas, NY Times, 11-13-2016)
ART & DESIGN:
David Bowie's Seal of Approval Bolsters Art at Auction
(Sale of 47 lots tripled its low estimates raising 24.3 million pounds, or $30.3 million.)
(By Scott Reyburn, NY Times, 11-11-2016)
SCIENCE:
The Supermoon and Other Moons That Are Super in Their Own Ways
(Supermoon on November 14 will be closest full moon to Earth since 1948. It will be
221,524 miles away instead of its average 238,900 miles away; 14% larger & 30% brighter;
Other special moons: blood moon, black moon, blue moon, strawberry moon and harvest moon.)
(By Nicholas St. Fleur, NY Times, 11-12-2016)
MUSIC:
Leonard Cohen, Epic and Enigmatic Songwriter, Is Dead at 82
(Around 1994, he abandoned his music career and moved to the
Mount Baldy Zen monastery,
where he was ordained a Buddhist monk and became the personal assistant of
Joshu Sasaki,
the Rinzai Zen master who led the center; Cohen recorded 2000 songs in five decades on
themes of love and faith, despair and exaltation, solitude and connection, war and politics.)
(By Larry Rohter, NY Times, 11-11-2016)
POLITICS:
Donald Trump Is Elected President in Stunning Repudiation of the Establishment
(Donald John Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, defying late polls that showed
Hillary Clinton with a modest but persistent edge, threatened convulsions throughout the world.)
(By Matt Flegenheimer & Michael Barbaro, NY Times, 11-9-2016)
POLITICS:
Donald Trump Rode to Power in the Role of the Common Man
(He grasped dynamics that political leadership of both parties missed or ignored— the raw frustration
of blue-collar and middle-class white voters who rallied to his candidacy with decisive force.)
(By Alexander Burns, NY Times, 11-9-2016)
WORLD:
Donald Trump's Victory Promises to Upend the International Order
(For the first time since before World War II, Americans chose a president who promised to reverse
the internationalism practiced by predecessors of both parties. Trump's win foreshadowed an
America more focused on its own affairs while leaving the world to take care of itself.)
(By Peter Baker, NY Times, 11-9-2016)
ELECTION 2016:
How Trump Won the Election According to Exit Polls
(Trump overwhelmingly won votes of whites without college degrees; Clinton's support from
minorities fell short; Trump gained among men and barely lost ground with women; Party support
shifted dramatically at nearly every income level.)
(By K.K. Rebecca Lai, Alicia Parlapiano, Jeremy White, & Karen Yourish, NY Times, 11-8-2016)
OP-ED:
How Hillary Handles Pain
(We do know that voters disproportionately punish women who are seen as dishonest. We do know
it's hard for strong, assertive & ambitious women to be seen as likable & competent at the same time.)
(By Susan Chira, NY Times, 11-9-2016)
OP-ED:
Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded
(Pain and indignation are sweeping through prosperous countries. Problem is not a lack of material
riches. It is the growing number of people who feel they are no longer useful and no longer needed.
Scientific surveys confirm that those who serve others are more happy than those who do not.
Selflessness & joy are intertwined. The more we are one with rest of humanity, the better we feel.)
(By The Dalai Lama & Arthur C. Brooks, NY Times, 11-4-2016)
MOVIES REVIEW:
Doctor Strange and His Most Excellent Adventure
(Doctor Strange is part of Marvel movies's strategy for world domination, yet it's also
so visually transfixing, so beautiful and nimble that you may even briefly forget the brand.)
(By Manohla Dargis, NY Times, 11-4-2016)
BASEBALL: Javier Baez Is Conquered, This Time, in a Game Bursting With Pressure
(Coco Crisp's pinch single in 7th is only run; Cody Allen strikes out Baez with two on.)
(By Michael Powell, NY Times, 10-30-2016)
BASEBALL: INDIANS 1, CUBS 0— Indians' Pitchers Roar to Life, and the Cubs' Bats Fall Silent
(Tomlin pitched 2-hitter in 4-2/3 innings; Relievers Miller, Shaw, Allen shut Cubs out.)
(By Billy Witz, NY Times, 10-29-2016)
PRO BASKETBALL:
Echo of Jeremy Lin's Glory Days as Nets Win Home Opener
(Brooklyn Nets 103-94 victory over Indiana Pacers as Jeremy Lin scored 21 with 9 rebounds
and 9 assists in their home opener; Lin gave game ball to 1st-year coach Kenny Atkinson)
(By Scott Cacciola, NY Times, 10-29-2016)
BASEBALL: DODGERS 1, CUBS 0— Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw Leaves Cubs Flustered in Game 2
(Kershaw spun 7 scoreless innings against the Cubs. He has thrown 19 1/3 innings over past 10 days in
4 appearances in two playoff series. He fired 84 pitches, retiring first 14 batters he faced. He allowed
only three base runners. He dominated. Adrian Gonzalez's homer in 2nd inning was only run of game.)
(By James Wagner, NY Times, 10-17-2016)
MUSIC:
Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize, Redefining Boundaries of Literature
(His hit songs "Like a Rolling Stone", "Blowin' in the Wind", and "The Times They Are a-Changin'"
made him famous; Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates and Salman Rushdie celebrated Nobel's award.)
(By Ben Sisario, Alexandra Alter, & Sewell Chan, NY Times, 10-14-2016)
MUSIC:
Bob Dylan, the Musician: America's Great One-Man Songbook
(He has taught writers of all sorts— not merely poets and novelists— about strategies of both pinpoint
clarity & anyone's-guess free association, of telegraphic brevity and ambiguous, kaleidoscopic moods.)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 10-14-2016)
MUSIC:
Bob Dylan the Writer: An Authentic American Voice
["Dylan's in an art in which sins are laid bare (& resisted), virtues are valued (& manifested), & graces
brought home", Christopher Ricks wrote. "Human dealings of every kind are his for the artistic seizing."]
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 10-14-2016)
CUBS 6, GIANTS 5: Cubs Oust Giants to Reach N.L.C.S., for Once on Good Side of a Big Rally
(Cubs manager Joe Maddon dreaded going back to Chicago for 5th game against Johnny Cueto;
With Matt Moore pitching a 2-hitter through 8 innings, Cubs scored 4 runs to win in the 9th inning.)
(By Billy Witz, NY Times, 10-12-2016)
BASEBALL: Joe Maddon Makes Most of Unconventional Moves
(Maddon's most unconventional move was removing Gold Glove right fielder Jason Heyward,
whom he had just put into the game for defensive purposes; With pitcher's spot due to bat fourth
in the ninth inning, Maddon did not want to be forced to hit for Chapman in case the Giants tied
the score or took the lead. So he replaced Heyward, who had struck out to end the eighth, with
Albert Almora Jr. on a double switch with Chapman, who entered in Heyward's spot.)
(By Billy Witz, NY Times, 10-12-2016)
OP-ED: I Have Diabetes. Am I to Blame?
(I've been diabetic for about 6 years, since age 22. Type 2; Diet and exercise,
that's all it takes, and oral drugs and insulin to prevent amputation & blindness.)
(By Rivers Solomon, NY Times, 10-12-2016)
BASEBALL:
Cubs Lose, but It's Too Early for Ghosts to Rise
(Giants have now won 10 straight potential elimination games in the postseason. Conor Gillaspie:
"There's absolutely no reason to let my happiness depend on whether I get a hit or not.")
(By Michael Powell, NY Times, 10-12-2016)
GIANTS 6, CUBS 5: Giants Prevail in a Marathon Thriller and Prevent a Sweep by the Cubs
(Joe Panik hit a game-winning double in the 13th inning to score Brandon Crawford and end a
13-inning, five-hour thriller, the Giants staved off elimination with 6-5 victory over Chicago Cubs.)
(By Billy Witz, NY Times, 10-11-2016)
INTERNATIONAL ARTS:
Wolfgang Suschitzky, Photographer and Cinematographer, Dies at 104
(His photographs aimed to highlight social distinctions, and depicted his subjects as content;
Cinematography for Joseph Strick's 1967 film Ulysses
and 1971 Michael Caine film Get Carter.)
(By Jennifer Szalai, NY Times, 10-9-2016)
TECHNOLOGY: Defending Against Hackers
Took a Back Seat at Yahoo, Insiders Say
(Hackers backed by an unnamed foreign government stole the credentials of 500 million users
in a breach that went undetected for two years since 2014; New chief information security officer,
Alex Stamos clashed with CEO Mayer on more funding, and left for Facebook in 2015.)
(By Nicole Perlroth & Vindu Goel, NY Times, 9-29-2016)
BASEBALL:
Marlins Pitcher Jose Fernandez Is Killed in a Boating Accident
(Jose Fernandez, though very young, was on a Hall of Fame trajectory, with a 2.58 ERA for his
career and 589 strikeouts in just 471.3 innings; Miami Marlins organization is devastated.)
(By Lizette Alvarez & Niraj Chokshi, NY Times, 9-26-2016)
TECHNOLOGY:
Hackers Trawl User Data in Hopes a Small Target Will Lead to a Big One
(Hackers working on behalf of governments can match stolen Yahoo account data with their own
material or information available on the criminal underground & published on website WikiLeaks.)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 9-24-2016)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Says Hackers Stole Data on 500 Million Users in 2014
(User information— names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords
and, in some cases, security questions— was compromised in 2014 by some "state-sponsored actor.")
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 9-23-2016)
MOVIES:
Charmian Carr, Liesl von Trapp in The Sound of Music Film, Dies at 73
[Ms. Carr is perhaps best remembered for singing "I'm Sixteen Going on Seventeen"
with with Daniel Truhitte in The Sound of Music (1965). She was 21 at the time.]
(By The Associated Press, NY Times, 9-19-2016)
THEATER:
Edward Albee, Trenchant Playwright Who Laid Bare Modern Life, Dies at 88
(Albee's career began after death of Eugene O'Neill and after Arthur Miller & Tennessee Williams
had produced most of their best-known plays; His "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" won a Tony in
1963 for best play; 1966 film adaptation, starring Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor won Oscars.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 9-17-2016)
MEDIA:
Yahoo and the Online Universe According to Verizon
(Verizon Communications' $4.83 billion acquisition of Yahoo after its AOL buyout
is preparing for the day when its most important clients are advertisers, not users.)
(By David Gelles, NY Times, 7-30-2016)
MOVIES:
Marni Nixon, the Singing Voice Behind the Screen, Dies at 86
(She did the singing for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story
and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady; Newspapers called her "ghostess with the mostest".)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 7-26-2016)
The Met and a New Logo
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new official design, which generated strong negative reactions
this week, is part of a larger rebranding effort that the museum says is meant to signal a more
welcoming, accessible, current institution. The current logo— which features the letter "M"
& was based on a woodcut by Fra Luca Pacioli, who taught mathematics to Leonardo da Vinci—
has been in use since 1971. Architecture critic Justin Davidson, called it a "graphic misfire".)
(By Robin Pogrebin, NY Times, 2-18-2016)
David Bowie: In Memoriam
("60 Minutes" Running Previously Unaired 2003 David Bowie Interviews)
(NY Times, 1-24-2016)
FASHION & STYLE:
David Bowie: Invisible New Yorker
(David Bowie lived in New York City for more than 20 years, with his spiky orange hair
and snow-white tan— could walk the city streets unrecognized.)
(By Steven Kurutz, NY Times, 1-17-2016)
THE UPSHOT:
The David Bowie Song That Fans Are Listening to Most: 'Heroes'
(Popularity of Bowie songs on Spotify: "Heroes", "Let's Dance", "Life on Mars?", "Space Oddity")
(By Quoctrung Bui, Josh Katz, & Jasmine C. Lee, NY Times, 1-12-2016)
MUSIC:
David Bowie Dies at 69; Star Transcended Music, Art and Fashion
(David Bowie, infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of
musicians about power of drama, images & personas, died Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday.)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 1-12-2016)
MOVIES:
Maureen O'Hara, Irish-Born Star Who Played Strong-Willed Beauties, Dies at 95
(When a journalist asked her in 2004 how she remained so beautiful, she explained:
"I was Irish. I remain Irish. And Irish women don't let themselves go.")
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 10-24-2015)
PERSONAL HEALTH:
Is It Ordinary Memory Loss, or Alzheimer's Disease?
[Neurologists say the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), an 8-minute test in use since 1975 is less
discerning than the slightly longer Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) introduced in 1996]
(By Jane E. Brody, NY Times, 5-18-2015)
BOOKS—
Philip Levine, Former U.S. Poet Laureate Who Won Pulitzer, Dies at 87
(His work was vibrantly, angrily and often painfully alive with the sound,
smell and sinew of heavy manual labor;
Levine died on Saturday morning,
Feb. 14, at his home in Fresno, Caifornia)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 2-16-2015)
BOOKS—
An Appraisal: The Poet Philip Levine, an Outsider Archiving the Forgotten
(Poem "The Fox"— "I think I must have lived / Once before, not as a man or woman /
But as a small, quick fox pursued / By ladies and gentlemen on horseback.")
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 2-16-2015)
Sunday Review: OPINION—The Epidemic of Facelessness
(Everyone in the digital space is, at one point or another, exposed to online monstrosity,
one of the consequences of the uniquely contemporary condition of facelessness.)
(By Stephen Marche, NY Times, 2-15-2015)
BOOKS— CRITICS NOTEBOOK— Making Rare Appearace:
People and Their Appetites
(The work of Philip Levine, America's new and 18th poet laureate, is welcome because
it radiates a heat of a sort not often felt in today's poetry, that transmitted by grease, soil,
factory light, cheap and honest food, sweat, low pay, cigarettes and second shifts.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 8-10-2011)
BOOK REVIEW—
In Jorie's Graham's 'From the New World', Flux Is a Whirling Constant
(Wild is the wind that rushes through so many of Jorie Graham's poems. It sends
birds spiraling aloft. It ripples lakes and ponds, making the sun glint.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 2-11-2015)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Executing Them Softly
(Philosopher Ernst Jünger's essay "On Pain"— "Of all animals that serve as nourishment to man,
lobster must suffer the most torturous death, for it is set in cold water on a hot flame.")
(By Zachary Fine, NY Times, 2-9-2015)
Opinionator:
MENAGERIE— Swan Lovers
(Tundra swans fly from the Arctic to Ohio; they make us love the collective nature of life,
the way, together, we are all enthralled. They renew our faith in doing things together.)
(By Sharona Muir, NY Times, 2-9-2015)
BOOK REVIEW:
The Poet's Keeper: Rereading
Eileen Simpson's
Poets in Their Youth
(Poets, John Berryman, Delmore Schwartz, Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, all of them dead before
their time from madness, self-neglect or suicide, paid a noble price for their pursuit of truth and beauty.)
(By Lee Siegel, NY Times, 2-8-2015)
Sunday Review:
NEWS ANALYSIS—
The Futility of Vengeance
(Australian entrepreneur created a service that allows you to send your enemies an envelope full
of glitter. When opened, bits of sparkly spite will fall out and stick— as glitter and grudges do.
Response to the site was so overwhelming, that Matthew Carpenter
sold his one-day site for $85,000.)
(By Kate Murphy, NY Times, 2-8-2015)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Philosophy's Lost Body and Soul
(Ultimate aim of philosophy, is not description but prescription: how can we come to understand
ourselves better, to know better, to understand our world better, and to treat each other better.)
(By George Yancy & Linda Martin Alcoff, NY Times, 2-4-2015)
MUSIC:
Aldo Ciccolini Dies at 89; Pianist Interpreted Satie
(Critics praised his playing for its technical virtuosity, airy lyricism and cool, assiduous elegance.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 2-4-2015)
BASEBALL:
Ernie Banks, the Eternally Hopeful Mr. Cub, Dies at 83
(Banks hit 512 homers, NL's MVP 1958 & 1959, Hall of Famer 1977, 19 years with Chicago Cubs.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 1-24-2015) 1954 Topps Rookie BB Card #94
WELL:
Writing Your Way to Happiness
(Students who took part in the writing or video received better grades than those in a control group.)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 1-19-2015)
THE UPSHOT: Digital Dilemmas—
Technology Has Made Life Different, but Not Necessarily
More Stressful
(Pew Research
studies: Frequent Internet & social media users do not have higher stress
levels than those who use technology less often. Women using certain digital tools decreases stress.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 1-15-2015)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Why Life Is Absurd
(Absurdity and meaningfulness don't go together. Removing the obstacle of absurdity does not entail
that meaning rushes in. But if we cannot remove the obstacle of absurdity then it will
be hard to
conclude that life has meaning or determine what that meaning might be.)
(By Rivka Weinberg, NY Times, 1-11-2015)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Know Thy Self— Really
(Self-knowledge which matters to us as human beings is substantial rather than trivial self-knowledge.)
(By Quassim Cassam, NY Times, 12-7-2014)
BOOKS:
Claudia Emerson, Pulitzer-Winning Poet, Dies at 57
[First poem "Natural History: Exhibits" in Late Wife (2005)— I was young, / New in my marriage bed,
but regret was already / Sunk sharp in me. Like any blade, it would grow / Dull slowly.]
2013 Interview
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 12-6-2014)
SMALL BUSINESS:
As Start-Up Strategies Evolve, So Does the Role of a Business Plan
(Business plans are not just for start-ups, they help owners set goals & respond to changing conditions.
Rhonda Abrams' Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies; Brant Cooper's
Lean Entrepreneur)
(By Eilene Zimmerman, NY Times, 12-3-2014)
BOOKS:
Mark Strand, 80, Dies; Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate
["Keeping Things Whole" in Sleeping With One Eye Open (1964)—
When I walk / I part the air /
and always / the air moves in / to fill the spaces / where my body's been. / We all have reasons /
for moving. / I move / to keep things whole.] (By William Grimes, NY Times, 11-30-2014);
Mark Srand: U.S. Poet Laureate 1990-1991;
Paris Review Interview #77, Fall 1998
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Evolution and the American Myth of the Individual
(Old Testament is about our relationship with God; New Testament is about our responsibilities to one
another. Philosophers: basic unit of human social life is not and never has been selfish & self-serving.)
(By John Edward Terrell, NY Times, 11-30-2014)
STYLE:
The Slippery Slope of Silicon Valley
(Uber, Facebook, Snapchat, and Others Bedeviled by Moral Issues.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 11-27-2014)
ARTS:
Shakespeare Folio Discovered in France
(The book, the 233rd known surviving first folio, was found in a public library near Calais.)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 11-26-2014)
N.Y. REGION:
A Passion for Writing, About War and Love, Is Celebrated Decades Later
(John J. Donaldson had a dedicated corner at home where he wrote. He died last month at 95,
kept carrying mail and writing. Wrote from the battlefields of Europe during World War II.)
(By Jim Dwyer, NY Times, 11-26-2014)
BASEBALL:
No Disguising It: Red Sox Are Eyeing a Title Run
(Red Sox add Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to revamped roster.)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 11-25-2014)
PRO FOOTBALL:
Catching the Catch on Camera
(Even Under Microscope, Catch by Giants' Odell Beckham Jr. Earns Applause)
(By Jeffrey Furticella, NY Times, 11-25-2014)
OP-ED:
Our Cats, Ourselves
(Domestic cats' forebears join us in the skeletal record only about 9,500 years ago.
Dogs domesticated 30,000 years ago.
Dogs want to be "man's best friend"; cats, not so much.)
(By Razib Khan, NY Times, 11-25-2014)
OP-ED:
Is Harvard Unfair to Asian-Americans?
(In 2008, over half of all applicants to Harvard with exceptionally high SAT scores were Asian,
yet they made up only 17% of the entering class (now 20%). Asians are the fastest-growing racial
group in America, but their proportion of Harvard undergraduates has been flat for two decades.)
(By Yascha Mounk, NY Times, 11-25-2014)
An Illustrated History of Great Films
(New $100 coffee-table book Criterion Designs from Criterion Collection, is a visual index of every
cover the New York-based art-house and cinema video distribution company has ever produced.)
(By J. C. Gabel, NY Times, 11-24-2014)
BASEBALL:
Ray Sadecki, Who Helped Cardinals Win World Series, Dies at 73
(Won 20 games with St. Louis Cardinals in 1964 & helped in winning World Series;
In May 1966, Cardinals traded Sadecki to San Francisco Giants for Orlando Cepeda.)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 11-24-2014)
THE INNOVATIONS ISSUE:
Virtual Reality Fails Its Way to Success
(Virtual reality has always sounded fantastic in theory but felt in practice like brain poison.)
(By Virginia Heffernan, NY Times, 11-16-2014)
THE INNOVATIONS ISSUE:
Welcome to the Failure Age!
(Down the block from Yahoo is a 27,000-square-foot warehouse of Weird Stuff,
a 21-person company that buys the office detritus that start-ups no longer want.)
(By Adam Davidson, NY Times, 11-16-2014)
THE INNOVATIONS ISSUE:
A Brief History of Failure
(Gallery of technologies we lost or an invitation to consider alternate futures)
(By Ryan Bradley, NY Times, 11-12-2014)
OP-ED: A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.
[Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (A.D.H.D.) is now the most prevalent psychiatric illness
afflicting 11% of young people in America; A.D.H.D. people are hard-wired for novelty-seeking.]
(By Richard A. Friedman, NY Times, 11-2-2014)
EDUCATION LIFE:
This is Your Brain on Drugs
(Was the brain adapting to marijuana exposure, rewiring the reward system to demand the drug?)
(By Abigail Sullivan Moore, NY Times, 11-2-2014)
DISPATCH: Mired in Mediocrity
(Welcome to "new mediocre". It's not quite the New Look, or the New Deal, but it's the new normal.)
(By Vanessa Friedman, NY Times, 11-2-2014)
EUROPE:
A Writer Whose Pen Never Rests, Even Facing Death
("The voices who speak to me now, here at the ending of my life, are mainly poets.")
(By Steven Erlanger, NY Times, 11-1-2014)
EUROPE:
Hungary Drops Internet Tax Plan After Public Outcry
(Viktor Orban: "We govern together with the people. So this tax, cannot be introduced.")
(By Rick Lyman, NY Times, 11-1-2014)
OP-ED: Our Machine Masters
(The age of artificial intelligence is finally at hand. Will we master it, or will it master us?)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 10-31-2014)
BASEBALL | GIANTS 3, ROYALS 2:
Bumgarner, a Three-Ring Master, Leads San Francisco
to Its 3rd Title in Five Seasons
(Likened to Twins' Jack Morris 1991 & Royal's Bret Bret Saberhagen 1985)
(By David Waldstein, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
BASEBALL:
World Series 2014: Madison Bumgarner Rises to the Moment, and Jaws Drop
(After pitching 5-0 shutout in Game 5, he pitched 5 scoreless innings in relief on 2-days rest in
Game 7 for save as Giants beat Royals 3-2; his 0.25 ERA in World Series is better than anyone.)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
BASEBALL'S BEST:
Madison Bumgarner, Earning His Place in History
(Matty Scores ranked Mathewson, Bumgarner, Koufax, Gibson, Plank, best in World Series pitching.)
(By David Leonhardt, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
BASEBALL:
'OMG. You're So Much More Than Awesome.'
(A Visit to Madison Bumgarner Country in North Carolina, and a Proud Father's Home)
(By David Leonhardt, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
BASEBALL:
Win or Save? A Rule With Room for Judgment
(In Reversal, Scorers Give Giants' Madison Bumgarner a Save and Jeremy Affeldt a Win)
(By Benjamin Hoffman, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
Opinionator | DRAFT: Peering Into the Darkness
(Compulsion to peer into darkness, & wonder about what's there, is a distinctly useful & adaptive trait)
(By Joe Hill, NY Times, 10-30-2014)
BOOKS:
Galway Kinnell, Plain-Spoken Poet, Is Dead at 87
(Former Vermont's Poet Laureate won both Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award in 1983.)
(By Daniel Lewis, NY Times, 10-29-2014)
Cave
Paintings in Indonesia May Be Among the Oldest Known
(Paintings of hands and animals in seven limestone caves on Sulawesi had previously been
dismissed as no more than 10,000 years old, are now estimated to be at least 39,900 years old.)
(By John Noble Wilford, NY Times, 10-9-2014)
SCIENCE:
Nobel Laureates Pushed Limits of Microscopes
(Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell, and Wiliam E. Moerner circumvented a basic law of physics
and enabled microscopes to peer at the tiniest structures within living cells.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 10-7-2014)
SCIENCE:
Nobel Prize in Medicine is Awarded for Discovery of Brain's 'Inner GPS'
(John O'Keefe, Edvard Moser, and May-Britt Moser discovered positioning system
in the brain that makes navigation possible for virtually all creatures.)
(By Lawrence K. Altman, NY Times, 10-7-2014)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Can Wanting to Believe Make Us Believers?
(Princeton's philosopher Daniel Garber: Since 17th century, science & religious faith have
exchanged places, and a general faith in science has replaced earlier general faith in God.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 10-5-2014)
Opinionator:
MENAGERIE— How to Make Music With a Whale
(Whales have three times the number of spindle neuron cells in their brains than we do.
Humpback whale songs have rhythm, form, themes, variations, repetition and innovation.)
(By David Rothenberg, NY Times, 10-5-2014)
OP-ED: Order vs. Disorder, Part 4
(Israel chose to deliberately leave Hamas in power in Gaza because it did not want
to put Israeli boots on the ground and try to destroy it.)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 10-1-2014)
WELL: How Exercise May Protect Against Depression
(Exercise cushions against depression. Working out makes people & animals emotionally resilient.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 10-1-2014)
BASEBALL:
George Shuba, 89, Dies; Handshake Heralded Racial Tolerance in Baseball
(Shuba shook Jackie Robinson's hand when he homered on April 18, 1946 for Montreal Royals.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 10-1-2014)
BASEBALL:
With Outfielder's Help, Jordan Zimmermann Notches Nationals' First No-Hitter
(Steven Souza Jr. made diving catch in left field for final out in a 1-0 victory over Miami Marlins;
Zimmermann allowed only two base runners, finishing with 10 strikeouts and one walk.)
Video
(By Associated Press, NY Times, 9-29-2014)
BASEBALL:
The Rise of the Middle Relievers
(Royals' Wade Davis has earned run average of 1.0; Yankees' Dellin Betances has ERA of 1.40)
(By Benjamin Hoffman, NY Times, 9-29-2014)
BOOK REVIEW:
Acquainted With the Dark— Louise Glück's 'Faithful and Virtuous Night'
(What makes Glück's Faithful & Virtuous Night so powerful is inventiveness with which
she responds not only to her own mortality, but to entirely new vantage on the world
that her predicament affords.)
(By Peter Campion, NY Times, 9-18-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Apple Is Back, Better Than Ever
(Timothy D. Cook, Apple' s CEO, introduced a smartwatch, a wearable device
that combines health and fitness tracking with communications.)
(By Farhad Manjooardt, NY Times, 9-10-2014)
BOOKS:
Mining the Depths of Loss, Faith and Mortality
(Edward Hirsch's Gabriel and Christian Wiman's Once in the West.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 9-10-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS: The Moon Comes Around Again
(At the nearest point along its egg-shaped orbit, its perigee, the moon
may be 26,000 miles closer to us than it is at its far point.)
(By Natalie Angier, NY Times, 9-9-2014)
The UPSHOT:
Top Colleges That Enroll Rich, Middle Class and Poor
(Over the last decade, dozens of colleges have proclaimed that recruiting
a more economically diverse student body was a top priority.)
(By David Leonhardt, NY Times, 9-9-2014)
OP-ED: Becoming a Real Person
(William Deresiewicz offers a vision of what it takes to move from adolescence
to adulthood in his book Excellent Sheep; Pinker suggests the university' s job is cognitive.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 9-9-2014)
EDUCATION:
So Bill Gates Has This Idea for a History Class
(Bill Gates likes Australian Professor David Christian, with a new approach to teaching history.)
(By Andrew Ross Sorkin, NY Times, 9-7-2014)
SCIENCE: Exploring a Tree One Cell at a Time
(plant cell biologist Michael Knoblauch sets himself 40 feet high in a red oak tree in a 20-year
quest to prove a longstanding hypothesis about how nutrients are transported in plants.)
(By Henry Fountain, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
SCIENCE: Tiny, Vast Windows Into Human DNA
(Genes found on chromosomes of the fruit fly are regulated much like
those of humans though they are but distant relatives.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
SCIENCE:
The Oldest Known Muscle Tissues Are Found
(560-million-year-old fossil bears an impression of muscles as fibers arranged in parallel bundles.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
A Call for a Low-Carb Diet that Embraces Fat
(People can sharply reduce their heart disease risk by eating fewer carbohydrates
and more dietary fat, with the exception of trans fats.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
OP-ED: The New History Wars
(Learning history means engaging with aspects of the troubling past, as well as those that are heroic.)
(By James R. Grossman, NY Times, 9-2-2014))
SCIENCE:
An Icy Answer to the Mystery of the Moving Death Valley Stones
(Stones are pushed by wind-driven ice that forms and then breaks up under certain conditions.)
(By Henry Fountain, NY Times, 9-2-2014))
SCIENCE: Exploring a Tree One Cell at a Time
(Plant cell biologist Michael Knoblauch sets himself 40 feet high in a red oak tree in a 20-year
quest to prove a longstanding hypothesis about how nutrients are transported in plants.)
(By Henry Fountain, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
SCIENCE: Tiny, Vast Windows Into Human DNA
(Genes found on chromosomes of the fruit fly are regulated much like those
of humans though they are but distant relatives.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
SCIENCE: The Oldest Known Muscle Tissues Are Found
(560-million-year-old fossil bears an impression of muscles as fibers arranged in parallel bundles.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
A Call for a Low-Carb Diet that Embraces Fat
(People can sharply reduce their heart disease risk by eating fewer carbohydrates
and more dietary fat, with the exception of trans fats.)
(By Anahad O' Connor, NY Times, 9-2-2014)
OP-ED: Is Your Student Prepared for Life?
(83% of college seniors graduated without a job this spring.
Students are missing an education in career training.)
(By Ben Carpenter, NY Times, 9-1-2014))
OP-ED: When Did We Get So Old?
(We can take comfort in knowing there are around 77 million boomers, the largest generation
in the United States population. Someone turns 50 every seven seconds.)
(By Michele Willens, NY Times, 8-31-2014))
RETIRING:
Increasingly, Retirees Dump Their Possessions and Hit the Road
(American retirees have downsized to the extreme, choosing a life of travel
over a life of tending to possessions.
And their numbers are rising.)
(By David Wallis, NY Times, 8-30-2014)
SCIENCE: Brainy, Yes, but Far from Handy
(Building a Robot With Human Touch; the master manipulator of a DaVinci surgical robot.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 8-30-2014)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— Peace Through Friendship
(Interpersonal contact theory: foster understanding, humanize enemy & lessen bigotry.)
(By Juliana Schroeder & Jane L. Risen, NY Times, 8-24-2014)
YOUR MONEY:
Moving to a Smaller Home, and Decluttering a Lifetime of Belongings
(Kimberly McMahon of Let's Move: "Downsizing is the hardest because it is emotionally
difficult for people to release their history. It's the worst anxiety associated with any move.")
(By Elizabeth Olson, NY Times, 8-23-2014)
FINANCIAL
PLANNERS: An Emerging Price War in the World of Investment Advice
(Fidelity and BlackRock's new offering will cost 0.55 to 1.10% annually.)
(By Ron Lieber, NY Times, 8-23-2014)
ART & DESIGN:
Two Silent Men, Deep in Conversation
('Men in Armor': El Greco and Pulzone at the Frick Collection)
(By Roberta Smith, NY Times, 8-22-2014)
HEALTH:
Study Finds That Brains With Autism Fail to Trim Synapses as They Develop
(Columbia neurobiologist David Sulzer: explained symptoms of autism like oversensitivity
to noise, as well as why many people with autism also have epilepsy.)
(By Pam Belluck, NY Times, 8-22-2014)
ART & DESIGN:
In Redesigned Room, Hospital Patients May Feel Better Already
(When moved to new room, patients also asked for 30% less pain medication.)
(By Michael Kimmelman, NY Times, 8-22-2014)
OP-ED: Why Jews Are Worried
(Rising Anti-Semitism in Europe. It's not another Holocaust, but it's bad enough.)
(By Deborah E. Lipstadt, NY Times, 8-21-2014)
MOVIES:
Lauren Bacall Dies at 89; in a Bygone Hollywood, She Purred Every Word
(With an insinuating pose and a seductive, throaty voice— her simplest remark sounded
like a jungle mating call.
Playing opposite Humphrey Bogart in To Have and Have Not,
they married afterwards.)
(By Enid Nemy, NY Times, 8-13-2014)
Excellent Sheep, William Deresiewicz's Manifesto
(Deresiewicz's Excellent Sheep takes aim at America's elite universities & graduates they produce.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 8-13-2014)
TELEVISION:
An Alien at Home on TV— Robin Williams Was Always Perfect for
the Small Screen
(Williams's inspired nonsense was elastic, stretching a joke way out of shape before snapping
it back neatly into place.)
(By Alessandra Stanley, NY Times, 8-13-2014)
MOVIES:
Robin Williams, Oscar-Winning Comedian, Dies at 63 in Suspected Suicide
(Academy Award-winning actor, imbuing his performances with wild inventiveness
and a kind of manic energy, died at 63 at his home in Tiburon, California)
(By David Itzkoff, NY Times, 8-12-2014)
MOVIES:
An Appraisal: Robin Williams, Improvisational Genius, Forever Present in the Moment
(Robin Williams was one of the most explosively, exhaustingly, prodigiously verbal
comedians who ever lived. And the only thing faster than Williams's mouth was his mind.)
(By A. O. Scott, NY Times, 8-12-2014)
Apple's
Diversity Mirrors Other Tech Companies'
(55% of Apple employees are white, 30% women, 15% Asian, 11% Hispanic & 7% black.)
(By Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 8-12-2014)
SCIENCE: Harassment in Science, Replicated
(Almost two-thirds of the respondents said they had been sexually harassed in the field.)
(By Christie Aschwanden, NY Times, 8-12-2014)
OP-ED: Hillary Clinton, Barbed and Bellicose
(The question is whether she can belittle Barack Obama as much as she must
in order to win, but not so much that it plays as an act of sheer betrayal.)
(By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 8-12-2014)
Opinionator:
DRAFT— Writing Is a Risky, Humiliating Endeavor
(To be clear, my work is not in the "based on real life" camp; I write
about vampires, ghosts, gangsters and sexy cloned spies)
(By David Gordon, NY Times, 8-11-2014)
ArtsBeat: Remembering Robin Williams
(Williams first broke out with mainstream audiences with his hit ABC sitcom,
"Mork and Mindy," a "Happy Days" spin-off that starred Mr. Williams as an alien.)
(By Jeremy Egner, NY Times, 8-11-2014)
ROOM for DEBATE:
Will 3-D Printers Change the World?
(But for all the hype, it's still unclear exactly how and when 3-D printing will have
an impact on our daily lives.)
(Six Debaters, NY Times, 8-11-2014)
OP-ED:
Hit the Reset Button in Your Brain
(We consume 174 newspapers' worth of information daily, 5x more than 1986.
We watch an average of five hours of television per day. For every hour of
YouTube video you watch, there are 5,999 hours of new video just posted! )
(By Daniel Levitin, NY Times, 8-10-2014)
BOOKS: A Dylan Insider's Back Pages
(A new memoir, Another Side of Bob Dylan, features stories from a longtime
sidekick of the musician's, offering a glimpse behind the scenes)
(By Sam Tanenhaus, NY Times, 8-10-2014)
SCIENCE: Origami Inspires Rise of Self-Folding Robot
(First robot that can fold itself and start working without any intervention from the operator.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 8-8-2014) Science 345 (August 8, 2014)
SCIENCE: A New Chip Functions Like a Brain, IBM Says
(IBM's TrueNorth chip tries to mimic the way brains recognize patterns, relying on
densely interconnected webs of transistors similar to the brain's neural networks.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 8-8-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Aiming to Be the Netflix of Books
(Netflix supplies endless amount of TV & movies; Spotify does the same for music with subscriptions.
Monthly subscription services from Amazon, Oyster and Scribd offer access to unlimited e-books.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 8-7-2014)
BITS: MACHINE LEARNING— In Fight With Hackers, We Are on Our Own
(Hold Security now offers, for $120 per month, what it calls a Breach Notification Service.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 8-7-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Russian Hackers Amass Over a Billion Internet Passwords
(Hold Security discovered a Russian crime ring stealing 1.2 billion user name and password
combinations and more than 500 million email addresses from 420,000 websites)
(By Nicole Perlroth & David Gelles, NY Times, 8-6-2014)
U.S.—
A Summer of Extra Reading and Hope for Fourth Grade
(About 1,500 students— or one of every eight who completed third grade in Charlotte,
North Carolina in June— ended up enrolling in literacy school for the summer.)
(By Motoko Rich, NY Times, 8-5-2014)
SCIENCE ESSAY: In Darwin's Footsteps
(Weiner's Pulitzer Prize book The Beak of the Finch on
Peter & Rosemary Grant's
20 years research
at Galapagos archipelago's Daphne Major, noting evolution of finches by the hour.)
(By Jonathan Weiner, NY Times, 8-5-2014)
OP-ED: Plato and the Promise of College
(Columbia Professor Roosevelt Montás teaches
summer seminar to 15 minority students hungry
for big ideas, to see their place on a historical continuum participating in political debate.)
(By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 8-5-2014)
OP-TALK:
This Is What an Ivy League Education Will Get You
(William Deresiewicz's
New Republic July story:
"Ivy Leaguer is acutely anxious, depressed, aimless,
isolated & chronically dispassionate. Prospect of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them.")
(By Jake Flanagin, NY Times, 8-5-2014)
OP-TALK: Should Literature Be 'Relatable'?
(Part of literature's power may be in its ability to offer two very different experiences: That of feeling
oneself represented, and that of inhabiting the consciousness of someone totally unlike oneself.)
(By Anna North, NY Times, 8-5-2014)
Opinionator: DRAFT—
The Jargon Trap
(Thickets of jargon & numbers obscured whatever profound points I thought I was making.)
(By David Tuller, NY Times, 8-4-2014)
OP-TALK:
How Wikipedia Could Improve Your Internet Surfing
(Wikipedia sends you down a rabbit hole has been a central part of its success. Its designer: "We want
you to jump around article to find different entry points & support curiosity in a design sort of way.")
(By Anna North, NY Times, 8-4-2014)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— What Would Krishna Do? Or Shiva? Or Vishnu?
(Interviewed Jonardon Ganeri
on Hindu philosophy: There is something strongly anti-individualistic
in this practice of inwardness, since the deep self one discovers is the same self for all.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 8-3-2014)
SCIENCE:
New Find Hints at More Feathered Dinosaurs
(The dinosaur, (Science July 25, 2014),
was about five feet long and belonged to a group
of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs known as Ornithischia.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 7-29-2014)
FASHION & STYLE:
The Emoji Have Won the Battle of Words
(Long stories can be reduced to a small string of symbols. Comprehension may still be a problem.)
(By Jessica Bennett, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
SUNDAY REVIEW: GRAY MATTER—
Are the Rich Coldhearted?
(Can people in high positions of power— presidents, bosses, celebrities, even dominant spouses—
easily empathize with those beneath them?)
(By Michael Inzlicht & Sukhvinder Obhi, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Much Ado About Everything
(Mark 's Miodownik's Stuff Matters is about hidden wonders, the astonishing properties of materials
we think boring, banal and unworthy of attention— paper, concrete, glass, plastic.)
(By Rose George, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Devilish Audacity: Philip Ziegler's Olivier
(Since boyhood he had wanted to be "the greatest actor in the world", and damned
if he did not achieve it, with some help from Shakespeare and the movies.)
(By John Simon, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
BOOK REVIEW:
Marlon's Method— Susan L. Mizruchi's Brandon's Smile
(Brando made the movies he appeared in better, therefore the films belonged to him.)
(By Wesley Morris, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Is Moore's Law Less Important to the Tech Industry?
(If chips doubled in power every two years, people wrote device software anticipating the increase.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 7-25-2014)
OP-ED: Don't Teach Math, Coach It
("When I multiply it by 2 and add 7, I get 29; what's the mystery number?"
And already you're doing not just arithmetic but algebra.)
(By Jordan Ellenberg, NY Times, 7-25-2014)
BITS:
STATE OF THE ART: How to Charge Your Phone in 15 Minutes
(Use Ultrapak battery pack, an external charger made by a firm called Unu Electronics.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 7-25-2014)
MAGAZINE: Why Do Americans Stink at Math?
(The new math of the '60s, the new new math of the '80s and today's Common Core math all stem
from the idea that the traditional way of teaching math simply does not work.
Akihiko Takahashi)
(By Elizabeth Green, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
THEATRE: Wicked Tongues Rule the World
(Several productions in London prove there's nothing so enthralling as gossip.)
(By Ben Brantley, NY Times, 7-27-2014)
WELL: The Workout— Practicing His Own Medicine
(Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician, developed an extreme total-body workout routine
called Ironstrength. He now teaches free exercise classes all around New York City.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 7-24-2014)
POLITICS:
Thesis by Montana Democrat Presented Others' Work as Own
(Senator John Walsh Confronts Questions of Plagiarism: He appropriated at least a quarter of his
master thesis on American Middle East policy from other authors' works, with no attribution.)
(By Jonathan Martin, NY Times, 7-24-2014)
SCIENCE:
Inside Man's Best Friend, Study Says, May Lurk a Green-Eyed Monster
(Any dog owner would testify that dogs are just as prone to jealousy as humans.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 7-24-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Facebook's Profit Soars Past Expectations, Fueled by Mobile Ads
(Mobile devices accounted for 2/3 of Facebook's revenue, rising 61% over same quarter last year.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 7-24-2014)
MOTHERLODE: 5 Ways To Help Your Kid Not Stink At Math
(1. Listen to What's Going Wrong; 2. Do Everyday Math Out Loud; 3. Reclaim the Dreaded Dots;
4. Combine Memorization With Understanding; 5. Introduce Big Ideas Early.
Children's Mathematics)
(By Elizabeth Green, NY Times, 7-23-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS: Brand New Look at the Face of Mars
(New map of Mars showing landforms & different geologic terrains that make up the planet's surface.)
(By Joshua A. Krisch, NY Times, 7-23-2014)
WELL: Acetaminophen No Better Than Placebo for Back Pain
(Pills like Tylenol and Anacin worked no better than a placebo, but could help with other pains.)
(By Nicholas Bakalas, NY Times, 7-23-2014)
BUSINESS:
A Seattle Retailer Builds on the Lessons of a Failed Store in New York
(Glassybaby closed its NY store but took away valuable lessons & now has opened in San Francisco.)
(By Julie Weed, NY Times, 7-23-2014)
SCIENCE: Beyond Energy, Matter, Time and Space
[Thomas Nagel's Mind & Cosmos
proclaims Neo-Darwin's evolution theory is almost certainly false;
Max Tegmark's Our
Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
(Review)]
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 7-22-2014)
SCIENCE: Blind as a Bat: A Case of Mind vs. Body
(40 years before his Mind and Cosmas, Thomas Nagel wrote an
essay "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?")
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 7-22-2014)
LETTERS:
Markers on the Road to Understanding the Brain
(Responses to Gary Marcus's July 12 Op-Ed "The Trouble With Brain Science")
(By Kelsey Martin, Joel Braslow, & Jeffrey B. Freedman, NY Times, 7-22-2014)
EUROPE: INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION—
Short Courses for the Long Haul
(Adult education eases path to career change)
(By Ginanne Brownell, NY Times, 7-21-2014)
1939: Sign of Life on Mars Reported
(Dr. V. M. Slipher, director of Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona reports color photograhs
of Mars show gradual change in planet's appearance, suggesting growth of vegetable matter.)
[By International Herald Tribune (7-22-1939), NY Times, 7-21-2014]
Opinionator: MENAGERIE— One Degree of Separation
(Hong Kong's Kam Shan Country Park: Rhesus macaques,
giant Mormon butterflies, lots of mosquitoes)
(By Thaddeus Rutkowski, NY Times, 7-20-2014)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— A Fight for the Right to Read Heidegger
(There is a profound disconnect between Heidegger's anti-Semitic prejudice and his philosophy.)
(By Michael Marder, NY Times, 7-20-2014)
BUSINESS:
Who Routinely Trounces the Stock Market? Try 2 Out of 2862
(Recent five-year study of mutual funds, consistently strong performance found to be remarkably rare.)
(By Benjamin Felix, NY Times, 7-20-2014)
Opinionator:
DRAFT— What Writers Can Learn From Goodnight Moon
("Goodnight nobody" is an author's inspired moment that is inexplicable and moving and creates
an unknown that lingers... I'll never crack its meaning, moments like that make rereading a genuine joy.)
(By Aimee Bender, NY Times, 7-19-2014)
THE UPSHOT:
What the Future Holds— Tech World's Challenge: Staying New
(To fight that looming fear, Silicon Valley seeks refuge in its shibboleth, innovation.
Cisco's CEO John Chambers: "To survive, you must disrupt yourself.")
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 7-19-2014)
WOMEN IN TECH:
Some Universities Crack Code in Drawing Women to Computer Science
(Only 18% of computer science graduates in the U.S. are women, down from 37% in 1985.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 7-18-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Maxing Out Gmail Storage
[Google gives each standard Gmail user a free on its servers
(or 30 gigabytes for corporate and educational users)]
(By J.D. Biersdorfer, NY Times, 7-18-2014)
STYLE: His Fair Ladies
(In Andalusia, Ala., Bill Alverson, a lawyer, teaches would-be beauty queens to express themselves.)
(By Samantha Stark, NY Times, 7-18-2014)
E-COMMERCE: Coming Soon to Social Media: Click to Buy Now
(Twitter lets users load various discounts onto their cards through tweets.
Facebook was testing a buy button on its desktop site and its mobile app.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 7-17-2014)
WELL: Let's Cool It in the Bedroom
(After four weeks of sleeping at 66<oF, the men had almost doubled their volumes of brown fat.
Their insulin sensitivity, which is affected by shifts in blood sugar, improved.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-17-2014)
PERSONAL TECH:
Easier Ways to Protect Email From Unwanted Prying Eyes
(One of Virtru's big selling points: working with web-mail services like Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 7-17-2014)
OP-TALK:
This Procedure May Improve Your Brain— and Uncover the Real You
(A noninvasive, 20-minute procedure called transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS,
may be able to help us learn a language faster, increase our alertness and curb food cravings.)
(By Anna Altman, NY Times, 7-17-2014)
WELL: PHYS ED— Train Like a German Soccer Star
(Mark Verstegen, the team's trainer, was brought in to improve the players' fitness, agility,
nutrition and resilience. 2014 Book:
"Every Day Is Game Day")
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-16-2014)
SCIENCE: Bigfoot and Yeti, as Elusive as Ever
(Bryan Sykes analyzed 36 Bigfoot hair samples and found all belonging to known species.)
(By Rachel Nuwer, NY Times, 7-15-2014)
PERSONAL HEALTH: We Are Our Bacteria
(We are host to about 100
trillion bacterial cells. They outnumber human cells 10-1
and account for 99.9% of the unique genes in the body.)
(By Jane Brody, NY Times, 7-14-2014)
MAGAZINE: Innovation— Who Made That Ice Pack?
(In 1971, Jacob Spencer filed a patent for the first versatile pack: "A hot and cold
compress comprising a tough flexible sealed envelope, and a neutral gel within.")
(By Melanie Rehak, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: The Fault in Our DNA
(In 2007 book A Farewell to Alms, the economic historian Gregory Clark argued that the English came
to rule the world largely
because their rich outbred their poor, and thus embedded their superior genes
and values throughout the nation. Migration from Africa
to Europe & East Asia improved one's DNA.)
(By David Dobbs, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: School for a Scoundrel
(James Romm's Dying Every Day explores Seneca's consuls to Nero.
"It is the mind that makes us rich," Seneca once wrote to his mother.)
(By David Dobbs, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Unlikely Warriors
Vicki Croke's Elephant Company on Lt. Col. James Howard Williams, known as Elephant Bill.)
(By Sara Gruen, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
GRAY MATTER: Measuring Ramadan
(During Ramadan holy month, Islamic followers abstain from eating & drinking.
Does religion— specifically, practice of religious rituals— affect economic growth?)
(By Filipe Campante & David Yanagizawa, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
OP-ED: Look Homeward, LeBron
(LeBron's migration in reverse, returning to the battered Midwestern city he famously betrayed.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
PRO BASKETBALL:
In Going Home, James May Be Ending an Exile From Himself
(LeBron James joins Jackie Robinson, Arthur Ashe, Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali,
Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson in a class of black athletes who understood
responsibility to their people and communities.)
(By William C. Rhoden, NY Times, 7-13-2014)
PRO BASKETBALL:
Star Reconnects With a Special Place in His Heart
(LeBron James Bares His Soul in Announcing Return to Cleveland)
(By Michael Powell, NY Times, 7-12-2014)
OP-ED: Bury My Heart on West End Avenue
(Yuwipi ceremony conducted by Sioux Leonard Crow Dog in Manhattan apartment.)
(By Dick Cavett, NY Times, 7-12-2014)
OP-ED: The Trouble With Brain Science
(There must be some lawful relation between assemblies of neurons and the elements
of thought, but we are currently at a loss to describe those laws.
Human Brain Project)
(By Gary Marcus, NY Times, 7-12-2014)
OP-ED: Rules to Run By
(Political pointers for candidates of the future: don't change your name)
(By Gail Collins, NY Times, 7-12-2014)
ARTS BEAT:
'The Escape Artist': Thomas Beller Talks About J. D. Salinger
(Roger Angell: “'Always think of the reader' is the best advice for a young writer.”)
(By John Williams, NY Times, 7-11-2014)
BUSINESS DAY:
A Provocateur's Book on Hillary Clinton Overtakes Her Memoir in Sales
(Blood Feud vs. Hard Choices in Hillary Clinton Book Battle)
(By Amy Chozick & Alexandra Alter, NY Times, 7-11-2014)
OP-ED: Baseball or Soccer?
(Baseball is a team sport, but it is basically an accumulation of individual
activities. Soccer is a game about occupying and controlling space.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 7-11-2014)
OP-ED: Crack Down on Scientific Fraudsters
(Dr. Han Dong-Pyou faked tests, spiking rabbit blood with human proteins
to make it appear that the animals were responding to the vaccine to fight H.I.V.)
(By Adam Marcus & Ivan Oransky, NY Times, 7-11-2014)
U.S.—
Detroit's Art May Be Worth Billions, Report Says
(New expert appraisal of Detroit Institute of Arts' collection, worth $2.7 billion to $4.6 billion.)
(By Randy Kennedy, NY Times, 7-10-2014)
U.S.—
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Jewish Pioneer, Dies at 89
(He befriended psychedelic guru Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Thomas Merton. Tried LSD & said:
"I realized that all forms of religion are masks that the divine wears to communicate with us.")
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 7-9-2014)
HEALTH: Probing Brain's Depth, Trying to Aid Memory
(Unlike brain imaging, direct brain recording allows scientists to conduct experiments while listening
to the brain's internal dialogue in real time, using epilepsy patients as active collaborators.)
(By Benedict Carey, NY Times, 7-9-2014)
SCIENCE:
European Effort for Computer-Simulated Brain Draws Fire
(Neuroscientists attacked Human Brain Project, Europe's flagship contribution to neuroscience.)
(By Joshua A. Krisch, NY Times, 7-9-2014)
OP-ED: Should Germans Read Mein Kampf?
(Hitler's Mein Kampf has been officially suppressed in Germanysince end of World War II.)
(By Peter Ross Range, NY Times, 7-8-2014)
PROFILES IN SCIENCE:
Seeker, Doer, Giver, Ponderer
(Billionaire star of mathematics & private investments, James H. Simons's
career is mind-boggling.)
(By William J. Broad, NY Times, 7-8-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE—
Does Evolution Explain Religious Beliefs?
(Knowledge interprets experience through human cultural understanding and experience. Metaphor is
the key. Metaphor helps you move forward. It is heuristic, forcing you to ask new questions.)
(Interview of Michael Ruse by Gary Gutting, NY Times, 7-8-2014)
HEALTH: The Fault in Our Stars
(The star ratings say "Really good!" but the residents say "Not so good.")
(By Paula Span, NY Times, 7-8-2014)
WELL: MIND— What the Therapist Thinks About You
(Within days of a session, patients can read their therapists' notes on their computers or smartphones.
The hope is that this transparency will improve therapeutic trust and communication.)
(By Jan Hoffman, NY Times, 7-7-2014)
OP-ED: The Fallacy of 'Balanced Literacy'
(Lucy Calkins: "Teaching writing must become more like coaching a sport and less
like presenting information", a joyful exploration unhindered by despotic traffic cops.)
(By Alexander Nazaryan, NY Times, 7-7-2014)
GRAY MATTER: The Secret of Effective Motivation
[A conscientious student learns (internal motive) and gets good grades (instrumental).
A skilled doctor cures patients (internal) and makes a good living (instrumental motive).]
(By Amy Wrzesniewski & Barry Schwartz, NY Times, 7-6-2014)
THE UPSHOT: Debate that Divides— When Beliefs and Facts Collide
(Dan Kahan finds divide over belief in evolution between more and less religious people
is wider among people who otherwise show familiarity with math and science.)
(By Brendan Nyhan, NY Times, 7-6-2014)
OP-ED:
Rethinking the Wild: The Wilderness Act Is Facing a Midlife Crisis
(Environmental titans of the 20th century— John Muir, Marshall, Leopold, Zahniser—
handed us an awesome responsibility in America's wilderness legacy.)
(By Christopher Solomon, NY Times, 7-6-2014)
WELL: PHYS ED—
Can Exercise Reduce Alzheimer's Risk?
(Exercise helps to keep brain robust in people with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-2-2014)
HEALTH: Weaning Older Patients Off Sleeping Pills
(Older people should wean themselves from benzodiazepines, widely used for insomnia and anxiety.
Brand names are familiar: Ativan, Ambien, Halcion, Klonopin, Lunesta, Sonata, Valium and Xanax.)
(By Paula Span, NY Times, 7-2-2014)
HEALTH: Older People Often Overtreated for Diabetes
(Most diabetic patients treated with metformin that don't put them at risk of low blood sugar.)
(By Judith Graham, NY Times, 6-30-2014)
ARTS: Allen Grossman, a Poet's Poet and Scholar, Dies at 82
("Poetry is a principle of power invoked by all of us against our vanishing.")
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 6-30-2014)
ART & DESIGN: Boxed In, With Room for Creativity
(The box is a large yellow crate made by Brooklyn packing & art transport company BOXART, built
for a bulbous sculpture by Wendell Castle. The crate is part of "NYC Makers: The MAD Biennial".)
(By Ted Loos, NY Times, 6-30-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Why Not Just Weigh the Fish?
(First Western philosopher Thales fell into a well because he was looking up to the stars.
Scientists think they already have the answers to all these philosophical questions.)
(By Robert Pasnau, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
Opinionator: MENAGERIE— Little Lambs: A Pastoral
("Why do people like feeding lambs, Daddy?" It was hard to know where to start to answer.)
(By Ian Gately, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
BOOKENDS:
When We Read Fiction, How Relevant Is the Author's Biography?
(Mallon: Novelists' lives are considerably less interesting than they used to be. Biographical fact can
deepen our emotional pleasure in a novel. Kirsch: It is impossible to read Pride and Prejudice
without developing a vivid sense of the kind of person Jane Austen must have been.)
(By Thomas Mallon & Adam Kirsch, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
BOOK REVIEW:
Killer Plot— The Silkworm by J. K. Rowling, as Robert Galbraith
(Publishing is currently undergoing a period of rapid changes and fresh challenges,
but one thing remains as true today as it was a century ago: Content is king.)
(By Harlan Coben, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
GRAY MATTER: The Trauma of Parenthood
(42% of mothers and 26% of fathers exhibit signs of clinical depression.)
(By Eli J. Finkel, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
TECHNOPHORIA:
When a Health Plan Knows How You Shop
(There may be a link between your Internet use and how often you end up in the emergency room.)
(By Natasha Singer, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
OP-ED: Why Teenagers Act Crazy
(Adolescents have a brain that is wired with an enhanced capacity for fear and anxiety,
but is relatively underdeveloped when it comes to calm reasoning.)
(By Richard A. Friedman, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
THE UPSHOT:
Behind Ivy Walls— Americans Think We Have the World's Best Colleges. We Don't
(In PISA's math test, the United States battles it out for last place among developed countries,
along with Hungary and Lithuania.
Among people ages 16 to 29 with a B.A. degree or better,
America ranks 16th out of 24 in numeracy.
No reason to believe American colleges are best in the world.)
(By Kevin Carey, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
TRAVEL: San Francisco Noir
(Dashiell Hammett's writing was obsessive, almost comically so, about San Francisco geography.)
(By Dan Saltzstein, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
MAGAZINE:
How to Solve an 88-Year-Old Literary Mystery
(Fatal 1926 train crash of Franklin sedan that killed Edward Cummings, father of e.e. cummings.)
(By Susan Cheever, NY Times, 6-29-2014)
Opinionator: DRAFT— The Right to Write
(Who owns the story, the person who lives it or the person who writes it?)
(By Roxana Robinson, NY Times, 6-28-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: VOWS—
A Catch of the Hand
(Both stars of the New York City Ballet, Tiler Peck and
Robert Fairchild have been
dancing together
since they were young.
Tiler: "I think you could tell by the way we look at each other.")
(By Samantha Stark, NY Times, 6-28-2014)
WORLD CUP:
Don't Call It Luck: The Divine Powers of the Soccer Fan
(Fervent soccer fans in Salvador & beyond believe outcome of matches is somehow in their control.)
(By Fernanda Santos, NY Times, 6-28-2014)
OP-ED: The Spiritual Recession
(Without faith, leaders grow small; they have no sacred purpose to align themselves with.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 6-27-2014)
OP-ED:
They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To
(Inferior Products and Labor Drive Modern Construction.)
(By Henry Petroski, NY Times, 6-27-2014)
ART REVIEW:
Shapes of an Extroverted Life
(Jeff Koons: A Retrospective' Opens at the Whitney.)
(By Roberta Smith, NY Times, 6-27-2014)
THE GREAT WAR:
The War to End All Wars? Hardly. But It Did Change Them Forever.
(World War I destroyed kings, kaisers, czars and sultans; it demolished empires;
it introduced chemical weapons; it brought millions of women into the work force.)
(By Steven Erlanger, NY Times, 6-27-2014)
SCIENCE: That's So Random: Why We Persist in Seeing Streaks
(N.B.A. legend Walt Frazier has been vocal about the powers of hot hand.
Thomas Gilovich:
The hot hand was an illusion caused "by a general misconception of chance.")
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 6-26-2014)
THE UPSHOT:
By the Numbers— Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.?
(A composite ranking of where Americans are healthy and wealthy, or struggling.)
(By Alan Flippen, NY Times, 6-26-2014)
BASEBALL:
Pirates' Gamble Produces a Star
(Gregory Polanco burst into the majors this month by reaching base in his first 14 games.)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 6-26-2014)
OP-ED; Breaking the Law to Go Online in Iran
(In Iran, the government officially blocks access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and almost all other
social media platforms. Meanwhile, top Iranian officials enjoy what they deny to their citizens)
(By Setareh Derakhshesh, NY Times, 6-25-2014)
BOOKS: Daunting Path to Publication
(Kevin Birmingham's new book about the long censorship fight over James Joyce's Ulysses braids
eight or nine good stories into one mighty strand. Book's most important champions were women.)
(By Dwight Garner, NY Times, 6-25-2014)
Pediatrics
Group to Recommend Reading Aloud to Children From Birth
(Highly educated, ambitious parents who are already reading poetry and playing Mozart
to their children in utero may not need this advice to read more to their kids.)
(By Motoko Rich, NY Times, 6-24-2014)
DealB%k:
A Hunt to Find the Next Generation of Financial Planners
(Of the 315,000 financial advisers working in the U.S., only 5% are younger than 30.)
(By Rachel Abrams, NY Times, 6-24-2014)
SCIENCE: A Mystery Character in the Story
('The Remedy': A 19th-Century Bid to Cure TB— Pasteur, Robert Koch, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.)
(By Abigail Zuger, NY Times, 6-24-2014)
BOOKS: Leaping From Marvel to DC in a Single Bound
(Superman was #48 on the list of comic book best sellers
with just over 40,000 copies sold of Issue 31.
Batman was #4 with over 107,000 copies. At No. 1 was Original Sin, a mini-series from Marvel
that has revealed dark secrets about its well-known heroes, selling over 147,000 copies.)
(By George Gene Gustines, NY Times, 6-23-2014)
CULTURE: Sketching Superman's Power
(Illustrator John Romita Jr., a decades-long veteran of Marvel Comics, is now
making his DC Comics debut. His first assignment: Drawing Superman. Video)
(By George Gene Gustines, NY Times, 6-23-2014)
EDITORIAL: The Hidden Cost of Trading Stocks
(Stock brokers routinely send orders to venues that paid the highest rebates to them.)
(By The Editorial Board, NY Times, 6-23-2014)
SCIENCE:
The Multimillion-Dollar Minds of 5 Mathematical Masters
($3 million each Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics by Yuri Milner & Mark Zuckerberg
awarded to Maxim Kontsevich, Terence Tao, Jacob Lurie, Simon Donaldson, Richard Taylor.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 6-23-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: Reinventing Emily Gould
(Gone are the days when Ms. Gould, now a novelist, applied her sting to American celebrity culture,
in particular the Manhattan media elite. She's no longer looking for attention and vanity.)
(By Ruth La Ferla, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
Opinionatior: THE STONE— Is Real Inclusiveness Possible?
(Experience of time & conceptualization of the past have been different in India than in Europe.)
(By Justin E.H. Smith, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Wants You to Linger (on the Ads, Too)
(Marissa Mayer, the chief executive, wants to make Yahoo a "daily habit" for its users,
its strategy includes digital magazines like Yahoo Food and Yahoo Beauty.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
BUSINESS DAY: A Job Seeker's Desperate Choice
(Shanesha Taylor, homeless single Mom, arrested after leaving kids in car while on job interview.)
(By Shaila Dewan, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
OP-ED: The Coming Climate Crash
(Carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants should be taxed to spur energy innovation.)
(By Henry M. Paulson Jr., NY Times, 6-22-2014)
U.S.— Rite of the Sitting Dead: Funeral Poses Mimic Life
(Woman wanted to be seen for the last time standing over her cooking pot before burial.)
(By Campbell Robertson & Frances Robles, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
BASEBALL: An Ace Agent Finally Has a Hall of Famer
(Scott Boras's longtime client Greg Maddux will be inducted to Baseball Hall of Fame.)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
OP-ED: But I Want to Do Your Homework
(Kids who are being helped by parents are the ones who are struggling to begin with.)
(By Judith Newman, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
NEWS ANALYSIS— Hacker Tactic: Holding Data Hostage
(Cybercriminals are getting better at circumventing firewalls and antivirus programs.)
(By Ian Urbina, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
MATTER: Our Moral Tongue
(Moral Judgments Depend on What Language We're Speaking.)
(By Boaz Keysar & Albert Costa, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
BOOKENDS: Has the Electronic Image Supplanted the Written Word?
(Discussion whether we are living in a new revolutionary age, or just a continuation of the old one.)
(By Dana Stevens & Rivka Galchen, NY Times, 6-22-2014)
BUSINESS DAY: Stephanie L. Kwolek, Inventor of Kevlar, Is Dead at 90
(DuPont chemist invented technology behind Kevlar, a virtually bulletproof fiber
that has saved the lives of 3,000 police officers from bullet wounds.)
(By Ian Urbina, NY Times, 6-21-2014)
THE UPSHOT: EDUCATION— A College Major Matters Even More in a Recession
(Finance, Computer Programming, & Engineering earn 20% more than average;
Majors in Philosophy & Religion, Music & Drama, Art History earn 30-40% less.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 6-21-2014)
OP-ED: The Solstice Blues
(Junichiro Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows: "Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.")
(By Akiko Busch, NY Times, 6-21-2014)
SPORTS: A Chiseled Bodybuilder, Frail Clients and a Fitness Story for the Ages
(Martin Luther King Addo helps frail seniors restore their balance, mobility and strength.)
(By Louie Lazar, NY Times, 6-21-2014)
Opinionator: MENAGERIE: Streaming Eagles
(Online cameras set up around the world to funnel real-time activities of various wild animals.)
(By Jon Mooallem, NY Times, 6-20-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS: Astronomers Hedge on Big Bang Detection Claim
(Bicep team said in March that its South Pole telescope detected waves from the start
of the Big Bang. On Thursday, it said Milky Way dust may have skewed the findings.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 6-20-2014)
SCIENCE: This Is Your Brain on Writing
(Neuroscientist Martin Lotze used fMRI scanners to track brain activity of experienced
& novice writers.
Better writers' brain waves are similar to those skilled at other complex
actions, like music or sports.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 6-19-2014)
OP"TALK: Our Robot Nightmares
(Vaughan Bell, clinical psychologist & writer, noted rising "killer robot anxiety" on Twitter.)
(By Anna North, NY Times, 6-19-2014)
ART & DESIGN: Sharing Cultural Jewels via Instagram
(26-year old Dave Krugman earned his V.I.P. access to Metropolitan Museum of Art because he is
helping them, free of charge, build their profiles on Instagram, an app for sharing photos & videos.)
(By Leslie Kaufman, NY Times, 6-18-2014)
ECONOMIC SCENE: A Smart Way To Skip College
(Udacity-AT&T 'NanoDegree' offers an entry-level approach to college with online degree)
(By Eduardo Porter, NY Times, 6-18-2014)
THE UPSHOT: As Robotics Advances, Worries of Killer Robots Rise
(From driverless cars to delivery drones, a new generation of robots is about
to revolutionize the way people work, drive and shop.)
(By John Markoff & Clair Cain Miller, NY Times, 6-17-2014)
BASEBALL: Tony Gwynn, Hall of Fame Batting Champion, Dies at 54 of Cancer
(Tony Gwynn won a record 8 National League batting championships, amassed 3141 hits)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 6-17-2014)
On Baseball: In a .338 Lifetime Average, Every Day Counted
(He learned something new at the ballpark every day; Two hitting seccrets: work and more work)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 6-17-2014)
OP-ED: The Structures of Growth (Learning Is No Easy Task)
(Scott H. Young points out, progress in most domains is not linear. In learning
a language or taking up
running, improvement is logarithmic. As you get better, it gets harder and harder to improve.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 6-17-2014)
Opinionatior: DRAFT— Writing in the Here and Now
(Someone writes: "Here and now I am here and now." Period. I invite that person to sit at
the head of the class as a sign that he or she has attained some kind of Zen Writer satori state.)
(By Perry Garfinkel, NY Times, 6-16-2014)
ARTS BEAT— Poetry Profiles: Octopus Press
(We're devoted to poetry either because we're obsessed with being awake or because we're obsessed
with being asleep. On the one hand poetry is the easiest way to induce wakefulness into language.)
(By Dana Jennings, NY Times, 6-16-2014)
FASHION & STYLE— Ayahuasca: A Strong Cup of Tea
(They paid $150, listened to a Colombian shaman, and receive a cup of thick brownish liquid with a
muddy herbal taste. It was ayahuasca (eye-uh-WAH-skuh) tea, hallucinogenic brew from the Amazon
that they hoped would open them to personal insights through optic and auditory hallucinations.)
(By Bob Morris, NY Times, 6-15-2014)
THE UPSHOT: A Balanced Flavor for the Modern Father
(American fathers today do an increasing share of the housework and child care.
They see their primary role as nurturer, not breadwinner.
Men are also more stressed
about work-life balance than their fathers.)
(By Clair Cain Miller, NY Times, 6-14-2014)
POETRY— Analytics: Poem by Committee
(People sent out more than 1,000 tweets using hashtag #NYTpoem during our poetry-writing session
with Patricia Lockwood on May 30; 8% rhymed, 4% formal verse, 46% free verse, 24% news allusions,
18% personification)
(By The Staff, NY Times, 6-14-2014)
NY REGION: Walking in a Graduation Procession, 50 Years Late
(Richard Zirpolo didn't get high school diploma in 1964 because he didn't attend rehearsal at
Xavier High since driver ran stop sign & crashed into his car & he received 30 stitches on his jaw.)
(By Monique O. Madan, NY Times, 6-14-2014)
Opinionatior: THE GREAT DIVIDE— No Money, No Time
(Harvard economist Sendhil Mullainathan's book Scarcity: "There are three types of poverty—
There's money poverty, there's time poverty, and there's bandwidth poverty.")
(By Maria Konnikova, NY Times, 6-14-2014)
ART & DESIGN: A History of Awesome in One Room
(Papyrus fragments of Sappho poems are part of the "Marks of Genius" show at the
Morgan Library.)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 6-13-2014)
OP-ED: How to Explain Americans
(Americans are great to work with, but obsessed by three C's: control, competition & choreography.)
(By Beppe Severgnini, NY Times, 6-12-2014)
DEBATE THAT DIVIDES: Polarization Is Dividing American Society, Not Just Politics
(Pew Research's study shows a divided society where liberals & conservatives increasingly keep apart.)
(By Nate Cohn, NY Times, 6-12-2014)
BOOKS: Charles Wright Named America's Poet Laureate
(Library of Congress announced next poet laureate is Charles Wright, author of 24 books of verse.)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 6-12-2014)
BOOKS: Selected Poems by Charles Wright
(Lullaby, Chickamauga, Body and Soul, Whatever Happened to Al Lee)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 6-11-2014)
Elodie Lauten, Who Wove Opera From Allen Ginsberg's Poetry, Dies at 63
(Ms. Lauten's best-known composition, "Waking in New York", is a chamber-opera
setting of a cycle of poems by Ginsberg about the life of the city and its people.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 6-11-2014)
YOU'RE THE BOSS: The Father's Day Audit
(Each Father's Day I take a moment to think about how I did over the previous year as a father.)
(By Jay Goltz, NY Times, 6-11-2014)
SPORTS
California Chrome's Co-Owner Apologizes for His Outbursts
(Two days after a nationally televised outburst about how fresh horses had deprived horse racing
of a Triple Crown champion, Steve Coburn, a co-owner of California Chrome, apologized to
those affiliated with the Belmont Stakes winner, Tonalist, and to the horse racing world.)
(By Joe Drape, NY Times, 6-10-2014)
SPORTS
Tonalist's Owner Savors Victory but Offers Some Criticism of His Own
(Robert Evans knew the depth of Coburn's disappointment. He was 37 when his
father's colt Pleasant Colony narrowly missed out on a Triple Crown in 1981)
(By William C. Rhoden, NY Times, 6-9-2014)
OP-ED: The Biology of Risk
(Risk is more than an intellectual puzzle— it is a profoundly physical experience,
and it involves your body. Risk by its very nature threatens to hurt you.)
(By John Coates, NY Times, 6-8-2014)
BUSINESS: Planting for Profit, and Greater Good
(Jason Aramburu examining a sensor he developed that monitors the condition of soil in gardens.)
(By Claire Martin, NY Times, 6-8-2014)
SPORTS: Tonalist Wins Belmont Stakes, Denying Triple Crown for California Chrome
(California Chrome finished 4th as Tonalist wins 146th Belmont Stakes.)
(Triple Crown winners; 12 photos of losers)
(By Melissa Hoppert, NY Times, 6-8-2014)
SPORTS: The Masters of Place and Time for Belmont's Races
(Sentell Taylor Jr., has worked at New York racetracks for 50 years and is now a placing judge
at Belmont Park; He watched as Secretariat, Seattle Slew and Affirmed won the Triple Crown.)
(By Melissa Hoppert, NY Times, 6-8-2014)
VIDEO: Remembering Maya Angelou
(Former President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and the first lady, Michelle Obama,
eulogize Maya Angelou at a memorial service in Winston-Salem, N.C.)
(Reuters, NY Times, 6-7-2014)
SPORTS: California Chrome's Crew
(Belmon Stakes contender's biggest fans are probably the people inside his barn.)
(By Melissa Hoppert, NY Times, 6-7-2014)
SPORTS VIDEO: Horse Racing's Dark Side
(Sports columnist W.C. Rhoden questions if horse racing industry deserves a Triple Crown winner.)
(By William C. Rhoden, NY Times, 6-7-2014)
Chester Nez, 93, Dies; Navajo Words Washed From Mouth Helped Win War
(Guadalcanal message: "Enemy machine gun nest on your right. Destroy".)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 6-6-2014)
OP-TALK: Feeling Old on the Internet
(Interesting stuff at website You're Getting Old; Jenny Diski's Problems of Ageing;
39-year old Bronwen Clune's Age Disgracefully;
Molly Crabapple's On Turning 30)
(By Anna North, NY Times, 6-6-2014)
MOTHERLODE: Three Things Students Wish Teachers Knew
(1. Be Fair; 2. Don't give so much homework; 3. Treat us more like people.)
(By Jesica Lahey, NY Times, 6-5-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS: A Star-Gazing Palace's Hazy Future
(A Save Lick Observatory campaign, led by Alexei Filippenko,
tries to raise money and
plead the observatory's case— discovery of dark energy,
resulting in 2011 Nobel Prize.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 6-3-2014)
OP-ED: Tiananmen, Forgotten
(Twenty-five years after the massacre, the topic "liu si— June 4" remains taboo in China)
(By Helen Gao, NY Times, 6-3-2014)
SCIENCE: What's Lost as Handwriting Fades
("When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated," said
Stanislas Dehaene)
(By Maria Konnikova, NY Times, 6-3-2014)
REACTIONS: Complicated Brains, Walking Well Into Old Age, To Teleport Data
(Instantaneous communication irrespective of distance will absolutely transform space travel)
(By Alex of Indiana, NY Times, 6-3-2014)
SPORTS: The Race Not Run
(After a rough start, I'll Have Another shows promise as a stud horse at Japan's Big Red Farm.)
(By Ken Belson, NY Times, 6-1-2014)
SPORTS: Triple Crown Bid Is a Long-Awaited Anniversary Gift
(With six Belmont Stakes winners, Eddie Arcaro, a two-time Triple Crown rider
during a 30-year career, said in 1986 interview, "You'll never see another.")
(By Brad Telias, NY Times, 6-1-2014)
SPORTS: Pushing to Change the Triple Crown's Grueling Schedule
(Growing momentum to radically alter grueling 3-races-in-5-weeks format helps make feat so rare.)
(By Tom Pedulla, NY Times, 5-31-2014)
EDUCATION: America's 'It' School? Look West, Harvard
(Riding a wave of interest in technology, Stanford University has become America's
"it" school, by measures that Harvard once dominated.)
(By Richard Pérez-Peña, NY Times, 5-30-2014)
ART & DESIGN: Friendship Was Their Medium
(Degas and Cassatt, Paired at the National Gallery as a platonic power couple.)
(By Karen Rosenberg, NY Times, 5-30-2014)
Scientists Report Finding Reliable Way to Teleport Data
(Dutch physicists reported in Science
on teleporting information between two quantum bits
separated by three meters, or about 10 feet,
overriding Einstein's "spooky action at a distance".)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 5-29-2014)
ARTS | AN APPRAISAL:
In a Commanding Literary Voice, Maya Angelou Sang Out to the World
(When I was named President Obama's inaugural poet after his 2008 election, Ms. Angelou
called me on the telephone, the second poet to read for a presidential inaugural calling
the fourth, her sense of history and of community fully evident in the gesture.)
(By Elizabeth Alexander, NY Times, 5-29-2014)
ARTS:
Maya Angelou, Lyrical Witness of the Jim Crow South, Dies at 86
(Delivered the inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of Morning" at swearing-in of President Bill Clinton.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 5-29-2014)
PERSONAL TECH:
The Soylent Revolution Will Not Be Pleasurable
(Robert Rhinehart invented Soylent, with over 30 listed ingredients in the shake.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 5-29-2014)
FOOD & DINING: Everything New Is Old Again
(The new golden age of Jewish-American deli food: artisanal gefilte fish, slow-fermented bagels.)
(By Julia Moskin, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
POLITICS: Obama Meets Scientists, One Age 6
(Teenage girl, after dropping her cellphone, created concussion-reducing cushions for football helmets.)
(By Emmarie Huetteman, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
OP-ED: Maya & Me & Maya: What Maya Angelou Meant to Me
(She demonstrated to me, even as a child, the overwhelming power of a great story well told,
the way it could change hearts and change history. I am forever in her debt for that.)
(By Charles M. Blow, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS:
Andromeda and the Milky Way: A Merger of Galactic Proportions
(Hubble Space Telescope measurements have confirmed that the Milky Way will collide
with a sibling galaxy known as the Andromeda nebula in about two billion years.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
Matter: Stronger Brains, Weaker Bodies
(A study of metabolism among different species suggests that humans evolved
to send more energy to our big prefrontal cortex and less to our muscles.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
Opinionator: FIXES: The Push to End Chronic Homelessness Is Working
(It's a significant milestone: It means that many American cities are currently on track
to end chronic and veteran homelessness by the end of the decade or earlier.)
(By David Bornstein, NY Times, 5-28-2014)
WELL: PHYS ED— To Age Well, Walk
(Regular exercise, including walking, reports in JAMA, significantly reduces
the chance that a frail older person will become physically disabled.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 5-27-2014)
FINDINGS: How to Win the Lottery (Happily)
(The key to winning the lottery and remaining happily may simply be to first
win the jackpot. The "curse" part is being debunked.)
(By John Tierney, NY Times, 5-27-2014)
SCIENCE: All Circuits Are Busy
(H. Sebastian Seung's book
"Connectome:
How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are":
85 billion brain cells, 10,000 connections for each one: Mapping them all will take 20-30 years)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 5-27-2014)
TED talk
SCIENCE: Recruiting Help: Gamers
(More than 130,000 players in 145 countries are playing Eyewire, from H. Sebastian Seung's MIT lab;
Cube of retina tissue, like 3-D coloring book, tracing piece of yarn through an extremely tangled ball.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 5-27-2014)
BOOKS: Finding Lightness in the Dark
(The author Rosemary Mahoney went from equating blindness to "being buried alive"
to a realization, over time and around the world, of what blind people experience.)
(By Abigail Zuger, NY Times, 5-27-2014)
WELL: THE CONSUMER— Information Not on the Label
(FDA does not require clear identification and labeling of food products made with GMO.)
(By Roni Caryn Rabin, NY Times, 5-26-2014)
SCIENCE VIDEO: Citizen Neuroscience
(Crowd-sourced science has exploded in recent years. An Internet game called Eyewire, from
Sebastian Seung's lab at M.I.T., asks volunteers to trace the fine details of neurons.)
(By Zach Wise, NY Times, 5-26-2014)
Well: Vision Training to Boost Sports Performance
(Recent studies show that vision training has helped athletes improve performance,
though it has more to do with the brain than with the eyes)
(By Kate Murphy, NY Times, 5-26-2014)
MAGAZINE: Can the Nervous System Be Hacked?
("Mirela Mustacevic, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, had a nerve stimulator
implanted as part of a medical trial. Her symptoms have lessened significantly.)
(By Michael Behar, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
MAGAZINE: My No-Soap, No-Shampoo, Bacteria-Rich Hygiene Experiment
(Horse like to roll in the dirt so they pick up ammonia oxidizer: N. eutropha.
Cambridge, Mass. start-up AOBiome selling AOB, ammonia-oxidizing bacteria.)
(By Julia Scott, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
MAGAZINE: A Revolutionary Approach to Treating PTSD
(After studying with Martha Graham, dancer Albert Pesso developed psychomotor therapy,
and taught it to Bessel van der Kolk, who's teaching "Trauma Memory & Recovery of the Self".)
(By Jeneen Interlandi, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
MAGAZINE: Must the Captain Always Go Down With the Ship?
(If a ship is sinking, maritime tradition dictates that the captain ensures the safe
evacuation of every passenger before he evacuates himself.)
(By Chuck Klosterman, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: Transference? I'll Take It
(She fell in love with her psychotherapist, and wished to be friends, but he said no.)
(By Michelle Huneven, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
PRO BASKETBALL: No time but present for the Heat and LeBron James
(James leads team playing for a "3-Peat" but next season almost all Miami players could be gone.)
(By Andrew Keh, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
BOOKENDS: The Demands of Book Promotion: Frivolous or Necessary?
(Promotion, however tricksy or inglorious, is just a way to find your people, or to let them find you.
For first-time authors & authors from marginalized communities, promotion can make difference.)
(By James Parker & Anna Holmes, NY Times, 5-25-2014)
IHT RETROSPECTIVE 1914: The Most Radiant Stars Shine in the May Skies
(French astronomer Camille Flammarion wrote about highlights of star-studded skies in May, 1914.)
(By International Herald Tribune, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: Apps for the Lovelorn
(Apps to spy on your boyfriend, but you need to install it on his cellphone.)
(By Joyce Wadler, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
MEDIA: Others Fade, but Judge Judy Is Forever: At 71, She Still Presides
(CBS keeps her on that bench because, at 71 years old and finishing her 18th season
in daytime syndication, Judge Judith Sheindlin is a viewer-grabbing machine.)
(By Brooks Barnes, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
NY REGION: Comeback for the Lindy Hop (Give Credit to Sweden)
(Lindy hop, a dance with roots in the Depression-era ballrooms and clubs of Harlem,
but that in recent years has had something of a global resurgence.)
(By James Barron, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
THE UPSHOT: Did Thomas Piketty Get His Math Wrong?
(Financial Times: Is the most influential economics book of the year built on bad math?)
(By Neil Irwin, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
THE UPSHOT: History Source— Baseball's Role in J.F.K.'s Life
(28-year-old JFK poses at Fenway Park in Boston in April 1946 with Ted Williams
and Eddie Pellagrini of the Red Sox and Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers.)
(By Michael Beschloss, NY Times, 5-24-2014)
SCIENCE:
Gerald M. Edelman, Nobel Laureate and 'Neural Darwinist' Dies at 84
(Won 1972 Medicine Nobel for chemical structure of antibodies;
May 2, 1994 New Yorker: "Can you
ask the question in such a way as to facilitate the answer? And I think the great scientists do that.")
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
Raw Data: A Creationist's Influence on Darwin
(Decades before On the Origin of Species, a theologian proposed—
and rejected— a version of natural selection, and Darwin read about it in college)
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
SINOSPHERE A Scholarly Response to 'Tiger Mom': Happiness Matters, Too
(Four child psychologists say that while "Tiger Mom" parenting, popularized by Amy Chua
and associated with China, gets results, it leads to "dampened" self-worth and happiness.)
(By Didi Kirsten Tatlow, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
TENNIS: Chang vs. Lendl: 25 Years LATER
(In 1989, few people thought a 17-year-old American Michael Chang would beat
the No. 1-ranked tennis player, Ivan Lendl, in the fourth round of the French Open.)
(By Vijai Singh & Erik Olsen, NY Times, May 23, 2014)
BITS: As Publishers Fight Amazon, Books Vanish
(Amazon has been discouraging customers from buying titles from Hachette.)
(By David Streitfeld, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
OP-ED: Really Good Books, Part I
(George Orwell's A Collection of Essays; Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina;
Michael Oakeshott's Rationalism in Politics; Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men;)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
SCIENCE:
A Theory on How Flightless Birds Spread Across the World: They Flew There
(600 pounds elephant bird in Madagascar now extinct with egg the size of 160 chicken eggs.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
SCIENCE:
Even Fruit Flies Need a Moment to Think It Over
(Researchers found that when faced with hard choices, fruit flies take more time to make a decision.)
(By Douglas Quenqua, NY Times, 5-23-2014)
TIMES INSIDER: The Ethic of The Ethicist
(The Ethicist, proved that he is man worthy of the title, role model, teacher, and an Ethics Hero.)
(By Chuck Klosterman, NY Times, 5-22-2014)
OP-ED: Depressed, but Not Ashamed
(We took a risk sharing our experiences with depression, but we found a support system.)
(By Madeline Halpert & Eva Rosenfeld, NY Times, 5-22-2014)
WELL: MIND— Is Work Your Happy Place?
(Using saliva samples, researchers found levels of cortisol— which is a biological marker for stress—
were on the whole much lower when the person was at work than when he or she went home.)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 5-22-2014)
T MAGAZINE: On View | A Belgian Sculptor Takes Antwerp by Storm
(Belgian sculptor Johan Creten's newest show
"The Storm", an outdoor installation of 25 monumental
works cast in bronze, clay & resin, speaks to the storm within us all, as individuals and as a society.)
(By Gay Gassmann, NY Times, 5-22-2014)
T MAGAZINE: Viewfinder | The Universal Appeal of the Ice Cream Cone
(Perhaps no sound heralds the start of the summer season better than the singsong melody
of the ice cream truck. Click Full Screen: Slide show of 11 ice cream cones, trucks, and locales.)
(By Jamie Sims, NY Times, 5-22-2014)
OP-ED: Four Words Going Bye-Bye
(Four words are becoming obsolete and destined to be dropped from our vocabulary.
And those words are "privacy", "local", "average' and "later".)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 5-21-2014)
SCIENCE:
Mice Run for Fun, Not Just Work, Research Shows
(Wheel-running is not a neurotic behavior found only in caged mice. They like the wheel.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 5-21-2014)
MEDIA:
Arthur Gelb, Critic and Editor Who Shaped The Times, Dies at 90
(By sheer force of personality, he dominated newsroom at The New York Times for decades,
lifting its metropolitan and arts coverage to new heights; he retired at end of 1989.)
(By Sam Roberts, NY Times, 5-21-2014)
EDUCATION— College Is Torn: Can Darwin and Eden Co-Exist?
(Bryan College now says Adam and Eve "are historical persons created by God
in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.")
(By Alan Blinder, NY Times, 5-21-2014)
SCIENCE: Creation, in the Eye of the Beholder
(When we see intricate symmetry, our brains automatically assume there was an inventor. Jan. 1987
Scientific American's cover had object of unnerving beauty— AIDS virus, now called H.I.V.)
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
OP-ED; The Big Debate
(It's now clear that the end of the Soviet Union heralded an era of democratic complacency.
Without a rival system to test them, democratic governments have decayed across the globe.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
OP-ED: A Cancer Treatment in Your Medicine Cabinet?
(2010 study in Journal of Clinical Oncology: Women with breast cancer who took aspirin
at least once a week for various reasons were 50% less likely to die of breast cancer.)
(By Michelle Holmes & Wendy Chen, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
SCIENCE:
A Math App That Offers an Unusual Human Touch
(Tabtor offers something unique: an instructor who tracks a child's progress and offers feedback.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
SCIENCE:
Prehistoric Skeleton in Mexico Is Said to Link Modern Native Americans to Siberians
(Analysis reveals that the girl, who lived at least 12,000 years ago, belonged
to an Asian-derived genetic lineage seen only in Native Americans.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
SCIENCE: An Ancient Shrimp's Big Sperm, Preserved
(World's oldest sperm has been found in tiny shrimp called ostracods that lived at least
17 million years ago in Australia; Sperm can reach up to ten times body length of its producer.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 5-20-2014)
ARTS BEAT: First Wolverine Comic Art Is Sold for Nearly $660,000
(The Wolverine page was drawn by Herb Trimpe, who gave it to a fan, as a gift, in 1983.)
(By George Gene Gustines, NY Times, 5-19-2014)
WELL: MIND— Remembering, as an Extreme Sport
(Scientists are learning among memory competitors, key to remembering to knowing how to forget.
One-minute matches between 16 "memory athletes" in Extreme Memory Tournament, or XMT.)
(By Benedict Carey, NY Times, 5-19-2014)
Opinionatior: DRAFT— Writing About a Life of Ideas
(Intellectuals stop writing when they die, but they don't stop publishing. Ideas are immortal.
Indeed the true measure of intellectual greatness, according to Goethe, is "posthumous productivity.")
(By Richard V. Reeves, NY Times, 5-19-2014)
OP-ED: Always Hungry? Here's Why
(Factors in the environment have triggered fat cells in our bodies to take in and store
excessive amounts of glucose and other calorie-rich compounds. JAMA article)
(By David S. Ludwig & Mark I. Friedman, NY Times, 5-18-2014)
NEWS ANALYSIS: Medicine's Top Earners Are Not the M.D.s
(Biggest bucks are currently earned not through delivery of care, but from overseeing business
of medicine. $584,000 for an insurance CEO, $386,000 for a hospital C.E.O. and $237,000 for a
hospital administrator, compared with $306,000 for a surgeon and $185,000 for a general doctor.)
(By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NY Times, 5-18-2014)
BOOKENDS:
What Are the Draws and Drawbacks of Success for Writers?
(Writing fiction is, in many ways, like a religion. Jalaluddin Rumi: "If you want money
more than anything, / you'll be bought and sold. / If you have a greed for food, /
you'll be a loaf of bread. / This is a subtle truth: / whatever you love, you are.")
(By Francine Prose & Mohsin Hamid, NY Times, 5-18-2014)
Opinionatior: THE STONE— A Life Beyond 'Do What You Love'
(How today's gospel of self-fulfillment severs the traditional link between work and duty.
Miya Tokumitsu's article in Jacobin magazine argued that the "do what you love" ethos so
ubiquitous in our culture is in fact elitist because it degrades work that is not done from love.)
(By Gordon Marino, NY Times, 5-17-2014)
TELEVISION: A Pioneer Says Goodbye, Unfiltered
(Barbara Walters's Farewell and Legacy: Guests paying respects include Hillary Clinton,
Oprah Winfrey, Diane Sawyer and Jane Pauley, with all 11 Co-Hosts of ABC.)
(By Alessandra Stanley, NY Times, 5-17-2014)
MEDIA:
As Barbara Walters Retires, the Big TV Interview Signs Off, Too
(No traffic on NY's Fifth Avenue in March 1999 as 50 million tuned for Barbara Walter's
two-hour interview with Monica Lewinsky about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.)
(By Jonathan Mahler, NY Times, 5-16-2014)
MEDIA: Barbara Walters's Biggest Moments
(Clips of Barbara Walters interviews with Monica Lewinsky, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro.)
(By Quynhanh Do, NY Times, 5-15-2014)
BUSINESS: Museum Interpreters Breathing Life Into History
(Many older adults have found a home or a second career as historical interpreters
at living history museums or as docents at historic house museums.)
(By John Hanco, NY Times, 5-15-2014)
OP-ED: The Problem With Confidence
(Katty Kay & Claire Shipman, "The Confidence Code":
women have too little self-confidence.
Daniel Kahneman's
Thinking, Fast and Slow:
overconfidence is our main cognitive problem.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
OP-ED: Read, Kids, Read
(Fewer than 20% of 17-year-olds now read for pleasure "almost every day".)
(By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
BASEBALL:
Who's on Third? In Baseball's Shifting Defenses, Maybe Nobody
(In 2013, with the infield shift, Pirates turned 419 double plays instead of 339 in 2012,
fourth most in the league. Their pitchers' earned run average dropped to 3.26 from 3.86.)
(By David Waldstein, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
ENVIRONMENT: Scientists Warn of Rising Oceans From Polar Melt
(Rise of less than four feet would inundate land on which some 3.7 million Americans
live today. Miami, New Orleans, New York and Boston are all highly vulnerable.)
(By Justin Gillis & Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
SCIENCE: Profiles in Science | Geoffrey W. Marcy: Finder of New Worlds
(Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, has discovered
scores of alien worlds, so-called exoplanets circling distant stars.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
SCIENCE: The Social Life of Spiders Thriving in a Social Web
(Of the world's 43,000 known varieties of spiders, overwhelming majority are peevish loners.)
(By Natalie Angier, NY Times, 5-13-2014)
BITS: CLOUD COMPUTING—
A Closer Look Inside IBM's Cloud Challenge
(IBM is largest technology supplier to corporate data centers, but growth of cloud technology has been
threatening that business model. Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and EMC face same threat.)
(By Steve Lohr, NY Times, 5-12-2014)
WELL: MIND— Exercising the Mind to Treat Attention Deficits
(Stephen Hinshaw: Time was ripe to explore utility of nondrug interventions like mindfulness.)
(By Daniel Goleman, NY Times, 5-12-2014)
EDITORIAL: A Long Way to Privacy Safeguards
(Most Americans think current laws are insufficient to protect their privacy,
Pew Research survey.)
(By The Editorial Board, NY Times, 5-12-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: THIS LIFE—
For the Love of Being 'Liked'
(For Some Social-Media Users, an Anxiety From Approval Seeking)
(By Bruce Feiler, NY Times, 5-11-2014)
OP-ED: Lost Booksellers of New York
(Gotham Book Mart with sign outside the store: "Wise Men Fish Here".)
(By Larry McMurtry, NY Times, 5-11-2014)
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding
(Since December, 20,000 teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade
have introduced coding lessons, according to What most schools don't teach.)
(By Matt Richtel, NY Times, 5-11-2014)
OP-ED: What's So Scary About Smart Girls?
(The greatest threat to extremism isn't drones firing missiles, but girls reading books.)
(By Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, 5-11-2014)
Opinionatior: THE STONE— Young Minds in Critical Condition
(As debunkers, students contribute to a cultural climate that has little tolerance
for finding or making meaning. But this cynicism is no achievement.)
(By Michael S. Roth, NY Times, 5-10-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Alibaba Bets on a Growing Chinese Economy and New Consumers
(New market is China itself, particularly its ascendant middle class and
its growing appetite for spending rather than saving.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 5-8-2014)
PERSONAL TECH:
MACHINE LEARNING— An App That Knows You
(Contextual computing, which uses information collected on a person's habits
and interests, could enrich our lives, but at the cost of privacy.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 5-8-2014)
SCIENCE: Advance Cited in Creating Artificial Genetic Code
(Scientists created for first time organism with artificial building blocks in its genetic code.)
(By Andrew Pollack, NY Times, 5-8-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
The Unlikely Ascent of Jack Ma, Alibaba's Founder
(Jack Ma has long served as a flamboyant motivator to his Alibaba staff
and a relentless opponent to those who have competed against him.)
(By Neil Gough & Alexandra Stevenson, NY Times, 5-8-2014)
BITS: ENTERPRISE COMPUTING—
The Consumer Revolution of Enterprise Computing
(Workday 22 keeps evolving & has 347 new features, some 68 of which came from customers.
A new version of Oracle or SAP, would come out every couple of years & months to install.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 5-7-2014)
BITS: CLOUD COMPUTING—
HP Makes $1 Billion Bet on Open Cloud
(Under the name HP Helion, HP will spend $1 billion over the next two years on products
and services around OpenStack, as the open source cloud software is known.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 5-7-2014)
BITS: MACHINE LEARNING—
With Update, Snapchats Get a Little Less Private
(People who like Snapchat's disappearing messages should know that anyone can simply tap
on a text message to save it in a thread forever; Photo screenshots would be notified.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 5-7-2014)
BITS: INTERNET— Alibaba, by the Numbers
($248 billion in annual sales; 231 million buyers who placed 11.3 billion orders in 2013;
136 million active mobile users; 49 average purchases per buyer each year; $1 billion IPO.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 5-6-2014)
BUSINESS: From Netscape to Alibaba
(In the early years, Internet companies helped people gain access to nascent technology; Then came
e-commerce boom in companies selling wide range of products; Latest stage has been companies
creating virtual communities and entertainment as well as established Internet players in China.)
(NY Times, 5-6-2014)
AN APPRAISAL:
How Gary Becker Transformed the Social Sciences
(Gary Becker was the most important social scientist in past 50 years and possibly longer.)
(By Justin Wolfers, NY Times, 5-6-2014)
ECONOMY:
Gary Becker, 83, Nobel Laureate, Dies; Applied Economics to Everyday Life
(Professor Becker, the 1992 Nobel winner in economics, was original and provocative
in research on marriage, crime, addiction and racial discrimination.)
(By Robert D. Hershey Jr., NY Times, 5-5-2014)
TELEVISION:
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Star of '77 Sunset Strip' and 'The F.B.I.', Dies at 95
(Zimbalist was an actor whose mellifluous voice and air of European sophistication
left a distinctive stamp on two popular television crime series.)
(By Susan Stewart, NY Times, 5-4-2014)
Gerald Guralnik, a 'God Particle' Pioneer, Dies at 77
(Guralnik is one of six pioneering physicists who in the 1960s came up with
a theory that would lead to the discovery of a subatomic particle.)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 5-4-2014)
POLITICS:
In Surveillance Debate, White House Turns Its Focus to Silicon Valley
(The questions about the N.S.A. are strikingly similar to those about how Google,
Yahoo, Facebook and thousands of application makers crunch their numbers.)
(By David E. Sanger, NY Times, 5-3-2014)
When Hitting 'Find My iPhone' Takes You to a Thief's Doorstep
(With smartphone theft rampant, apps like Find My iPhone can recover their devices.)
(By Ian Lovett, NY Times, 5-3-2014)
OP-ED: China's Censored World
(China is both the world's newest superpower and its largest authoritarian state.)
(By Evan Osnos, NY Times, 5-3-2014)
BUSINESS: Steve Jobs Defied Convention, and Perhaps the Law
(Steve Jobs was driving force in a conspiracy to prevent competitors from poaching employees.)
(By James B. Stewart, NY Times, 5-3-2014)
BITS: The New Firefox Is Fantastic. So Is Every Other Web Browser.
(Using Firefox 29, I've found it to be quite speedy and free of bugs.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 5-2-2014)
OP-ED: Love Story
(Isaiah Berlin & Anna Akhmatova's one night in Leningrad in 1945: communication between people
who think that knowledge most worth attending to is not found in data but in great works of literature.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-2-2014)
WELL: DIABETES— Coffee Tied to Lower Diabetes Risk
(Drinking more coffee may decrease your risk of Type 2 diabetes.)
(By Nicholas Bakalar, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Alibaba I.P.O. May Unleash Global Fight Over Users
(China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba, could surpass combined amount raised in the I.P.O. of
Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, AOL & Yahoo; Alibaba has 80% of online purchases in China.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
PERSONAL TECH:
With HD Voice, Better Call Quality Is Coming. Text Your Friends
(HD voice expands the sound of a cellphone call from about four octaves to more like seven.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: T-Mobile's discounted plans boost
(T-Mobile shares jumped 7.3% as the company that has billed itself as the "uncarrier" signed up
2.4 million new customers in the first quarter, topping estimates of 932,000.)
(By Marina Lopes, Reuters, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
BITS: SOCIAL— Snapchat Goes After Mobile Messaging With a New Design
(Snapchat's core service is ability to send photo messages that disappear after a few seconds.
Plan to deepen those interactions with a real-time video conversation & trade text messages.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
BITS: SECURITY—
Attackers Use Microsoft Security Hole Against Energy, Defense, Finance Targets
(Hackers infect a popular website with malware, then wait for victims to click to the site and
infect their computers. Vulnerability affected all of Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser.)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Facebook to Let Users Limit Data Revealed by Log-Ins
(Facebook announced that when its 1.3 billion users log in to other websites or mobile apps through
their Facebook identities, they will be able to limit what they reveal to the site or app to just their email
addresses & public profile information, like name & gender. No personal info revealed to outsiders.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 5-1-2014)
WELL: PHYS ED— Want to Be More Creative? Take a Walk
(For millenniums, writers and artists have said that they develop their best ideas during a walk.
Stanford's Marily Oppezzo's paper: Walking boosts creative ideation in real time and shortly after.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 4-30-2014)
SCIENCE: The Continuing Evolution of Genes
(We carry just over 20,000 genes that encode everything from keratin in our hair down to the muscle
fibers in our toes. Studies of fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, have found that some species have
new genes, suggesting recent evolution. New genes come into being at an unexpectedly fast clip.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 4-29-2014)
OP-ED: Saving the System
(As far back as Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, dominant powers tried to establish procedures and
norms to secure national borders. Today that system is under assault in Egypt, Ukraine, Syria, China.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 4-29-2014)
WELL: MIND— Reading Pain in a Human Face
(Real pain & fake facial expressions: Humans are 55% accurate while a computer's success is 85%.)
(By Jan Hoffman, NY Times, 4-28-2014)
SCIENCE: Overriding Their Animal Impulses
(Great apes did very well. Dogs & baboons did pretty well. Squirrel monkeys, marmosets & some
birds were among the worst performers. Absolute brain size is a much better predictor of success.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 4-28-2014)
OP-DOCS: Verbatim— What Is a Photocopier?
(In this dramatization of transcripts from a legal deposition, a lawyer becomes
embroiled in an absurd argument about the definition of a photocopier.)
(By Brett Weiner, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
Opinionatior: THE STONE— What Does Buddhism Require?
(Buddhist encourages seeing ourselves as impermanent, interdependent individuals, linked to
one another and to our world through shared commitments to a reduction of suffering.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
Opinionatior: THE GREAT DIVIDE— No Accounting Skills? No Moral Reckoning
(Good books are "balanced" in a moral sense. They are the very source of accountability,
a word that in fact derives its origin from the word "accounting". Cosimo de' Medici himself
did yearly audits of the books of all his bank branches & kept accounts for his household.)
(By Jacob Soll, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
THE UPSHOT: Getting Into the Ivies
(Top colleges are admitting fewer American students than they did a generation ago.
Spots filled by Americans at Harvard dropped 27% since 1994; Yale & Dartmouth by 24%.)
(By David Leonhardt, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
APPLIED SCIENCE: The Search for Our Inner Lie Detectors
(Leanne ten Brinke's work: "our own bodies know better than our conscious minds who is lying".)
(By Matt Richtel, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
OP-ED: Religion for $1,000, Alex
(Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy: "Americans are both deeply religious and profoundly
ignorant about religion". Can you find the mistakes in Kristof's Bible Quiz?)
(By Nicholas Kristof, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: A Student-Data Collector Drops Out
(inBloom made it possible to categorize students with sensitive labels: Autistic. Tardy. A.D.H.D.)
(By Natasha Singer, NY Times, 4-27-2014)
GRAY MATTER: Friends Can Be Dangerous
(Teenagers did far more reckless things when with their friends than when alone.)
(By Lawrence Steinberg, NY Times Sunday Review, 4-27-2014)
OP-ED: The Bodies That Guard Our Secrets
(Visit to a kosher slaughterhouse: Cattle have the filet mignon, and we have
the psoas major muscle. They have the rib eye, and we have the erector spinae.)
(By Jonathan Reisman, NY Times Sunday Review, 4-27-2014)
It's the Economy:
If a Bubble Bursts in Palo Alto, Does It Make a Sound?
(Facebook bought mobile-messaging application WhatsApp for $19 billion, or about $350 million per
employee and $40 per user.
1,700 big, nonfinancial companies were holding on to $1.53 trillion in cash
and short-term securities at the end of 2013.
That is enough liquidity to purchase Google, Apple,
General Electric, McDonald's, General Motors and Walmart outright, with a few billion to spare.)
(By Annie Lowrey, NY Times Magazine, 4-27-2014)
RETIRING: Welcoming Love at an Older Age, but Not Necessarily Marriage
(Older people lived together unmarried for an average of nine years.)
(By Stanley Luxenberg, NY Times, 4-26-2014)
OP-ED: The Global Diabetes Epidemic
(25 million diabetics in U.S., 65 million in India, 98.4 million in China)
(By Kasia Lipska, NY Times Sunday Review, 4-26-2014)
LETTERS: Skills Sought by Google
(Study of literature is is one of the best ways to develop "formal and logical and structured" thinking.
Laszlo Bock encourages students to work hard, not take an easy path, whatever classes they take.)
(By Wayne J. Guglielmo & Cathy Raines, NY Times, 4-25-2014)
OP-ED: The Piketty Panic
(What's new about Piketty's Capital is
way it demolishes most cherished of conservative myths,
the insistence that we're living in a meritocracy in which great wealth is earned and deserved.)
(By Paul Krugman, NY Times, 4-25-2014)
OP-ED: The Piketty Phenomenon
(Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the Twenty-First Century argues that the real driver
of inequality is not primarily differences in human capital. It's differences in financial capital.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 4-25-2014)
OP-ED: End College Legacy Preferences
(Public and private colleges routinely give preferential treatment to children of alumni.
Children of alumni had a 45% greater chance of admission. Acceptance rate is 30% at Harvard.)
(By Evan J. Mandery, NY Times, 4-25-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Conjuring Images of a Bionic Future
(Dick Loizeaux, 65, who began suffering hearing loss nearly a decade ago, recently had a
"comfortable conversation" in a noisy New York nightclub using
GN ReSound Linx hearing aid.)
(By Farhad Manjoo, NY Times, 4-24-2014)
CreatureCast: Cuttlefish Camouflage (Video)
(Cuttlefish can alter their color, texture, and apparent shape. This extraordinary
camouflage allows them to hide in plain sight against many different backgrounds.)
(By Jacob Gindi & Casey Dunn, NY Times, 4-24-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Making Your Selfies the Talk of Instagram
(Frontback is my favorite selfie app because it's unique. It takes two shots, one from the phone's
main camera and one from the camera that faces the user. Then it combines them into a single image.
The result is a self-portrait in context, with a sense of the scene around you.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 4-24-2014)
With Farm Robotics, the Cows Decide When It's Milking Time
(Farms in upstate New York and elsewhere are using automatic milkers
that scan and map the underbellies of cows to extract the milk; Video)
(By Jesse McKinley, NY Times, 4-23-2014)
RIGHT LESSON, WRONG TIME: Why Economics Failed Us, in 297 Words
(2011 Economics Nobel Laureate
Thomas Sargent's 2007 speech to Berkeley graduates is making
the rounds on the Internet. Business Insider called it the "greatest graduation speech ever".)
(By Josh Barro, NY Times, 4-23-2014) Nobel Banquet Speech
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World's Richest
(Family at 20th percentile of the income distribution in United States makes significantly less money
than a family in Canada, Sweden, Norway, Finland or Netherlands. 35 years ago, reverse was true.)
(By David Leonhardt & Kevin Quealy, NY Times, 4-23-2014)
BITS: Americans Predict a Future Like Science Fiction
(People want the ability to travel through time in a driverless flying car.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
LETTERS: Mozilla, Brandeis and Free Expression
(As the philosopher David Hume noted, "Truth springs from argument amongst friends."
Agree with Ross Douthat's OP-ED
that universities need most is diversity of ideas.)
(By J. Martin Rochester, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: The Broadband Revolution Is Not Nigh
(A handful of cable companies still dominate this important market— AT&T, Google, Comcast.)
(By Vikas Bajaj, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
SCIENCE: How This Renoir Used to Look
(Conservators and scientists use a high-power microscope and X-rays to examine
the pigment particles and individual brushstrokes of Renoir's Madame Léon Clapisson, 1883.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
SCIENCE: Brain-Mapping Milestones
(Research paper measured activity of 20,000 genes in 300 different human brain structures.
Mouse research paper connections among 295 mouse brain regions to create Atlas.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
SCIENCE: Brain Control in a Flash of Light
(Stanford psychiatrist & neuroscientist Karl Deisseroth
developed optogenetics, technique that allows
researchers to turn brain cells on & off with combination of genetic manipulation & pulses of light.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
SCIENCE: An Apple a Day, and Other Myths
(Green vegetables helped ward off lung & stomach cancer. Colon & thyroid cancer might be avoided
with broccoli, cabbage & brussels sprouts. Onions, tomatoes, garlic, carrots & citrus fruits also good.)
(By George Johnson, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
ARTS: As Varied as an Ark Full of Animals
(The children's exhibition "Noah's Ark" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles,
helps exemplify that center's mission to record Jewish heritage and serve a diverse audience.)
(By Edward Rothstein, NY Times, 4-22-2014)
AMERICAS: Aracataca Journal— Magic Ebbs From García Márquez's Hometown
(Aracataca served as the model for the fictitious town of Macondo in One Hundred Years of Solitude.)
(By William Neuman, NY Times, 4-21-2014)
MAGAZINE: RIFF— How Hollywood Killed Death
(How is an audience supposed to feel that a death matters when the movie doesn't bother to lend it
meaning? Death has become a transition device. Neither Kirk nor Pepper Potts nor Loki actually dies.)
(By Alexander Huls, NY Times Magazine, 4-20-2014)
REAL ESTATE: Elizabeth Gilbert's New Chapter Begins
(Elizabeth Gilbert,
author of Eat, Pray, Love and
Signature of All Things is selling her house,
four-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath, at 3 Reading Avenue in Frenchtown, N.J. for $999,000.)
(By Robin Finn, NY Times, 4-20-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Gone in 0.001 Seconds—
Flash Boys by Michael Lewis
(In Brad Katsuyama, Lewis has found a good guide into the esoteric
and highly technical world of high-frequency trading.)
(By James B. Stewart, NY Times, 4-20-2014)
TELEVISION: Versatility Is a Virtue in Fantasy of Identity
(Tatiana Maslany Plays Many Characters in 'Orphan Black'; She devised musical playlists
and a style of dancing for each clone; Won 2013 Television Critic's Choice Award.)
(By Margy Rochlin, NY Times, 4-20-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: Is God Just Not That Into Me?
(I never thought much about God, certainly never wondered whether God
was thinking about me, until I fell in love with a Zen Buddhist priest.)
(By Stacey D'Erasmo, NY Times, 4-20-2014)
Analytics: Is Unfair Trading Fair Game?
(Nearly 500 readers commented on Michael Lewis's article about high-frequency trading)
(By the Staff, NY Times, 4-19-2014)
BITS: How Urban Anonymity Disappears When All Data Is Tracked
(People in cities have anonymity from their neighbor, but not from an entity collecting
data about them such as Nautical Technologies using license plate recognition.)
(By Quentin Harday, NY Times, 4-19-2014)
OP-ED: How to Get a Job at Google, Part 2
(First thing Google looks for "is general cognitive ability— ability to learn things and solve problems".
Good Résumé: Key is to frame your strengths as: "I accomplished X, relative to Y, by doing Z.")
(By Thomas Friedman, NY Times, 4-19-2014)
TELEVISION: Versatility Is a Virtue in Fantasy of Identity
("Orphan Black" on BBC America is a science-fiction adventure series with wild conspiracy plot
whose hook is cloning; Critics praised Tatiana Maslany with Golden Globe acting nomination.)
(By Mike Hale, NY Times, 4-19-2014)
BUSINESS: When Diamonds Are Dirt Cheap, Will They Still Dazzle?
(Technique called chemical vapor deposition heating mixture of hydrogen & methane in a chamber at
very low pressures can produce diamonds, that are virtually indistinguishable from mined diamonds.)
(By Robert H. Frank, NY Times, 4-19-2014)
BOOKS:
Gabriel García Márquez, Conjurer of Literary Magic, Dies at 87
(Colombian novelist whose One Hundred Years of Solitude established him
as a giant of 20th-century literature, won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.)
(By Jonathan Kandel, NY Times, 4-18-2014)
SPACE & COSMOS:
'Earth Twin' Is Found, Or Perhaps a Cousin
(500 light-years away, planet Kepler 186f has a diameter of 8,700 miles, 10% wider than Earth,
and its orbit lies within the "Goldilocks zone" of its star, making it potentially hospitable for life.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 4-18-2014)
OP-ED: Capitalism and the Dalai Lama
(We need a "sense of concern of others' well-being" he declared, of shared humanity and brotherhood.
Only activities motivated by a concern for others' well-being, could be truly "constructive".)
(By Arthur C. Brooks, NY Times, 4-18-2014)
FILM REVIEW: I Am My Own Monster (Technology Rules!)
(Johnny Depp stars in Transcendence a science-fiction film about a futurist whose consciousness
is uploaded onto the Internet. He expands like the universe, growing larger and mutating into a
being who is godlike and yet far from divine, sort of like a star at the apex of his popularity.)
(By Manohla Dargis, NY Times, 4-18-2014)
OP-ED: There's a Moon Out Tonight
(We survived an end-of-the-world moment again this week when a lunar eclipse
made the moon look sort of reddish.)
(By Gail Collins, NY Times, 4-17-2014)
BOOKS:
Combative Director, Even in Letters
(Elia Kazan's autobiography A Life
really ought to be read first to provide context
for The
Selected Letters of Elia Kazan on a man that's both loved and hated.)
(By Janet Maslin, NY Times, 4-17-2014)
BOOKS:
After Years of Writing, an Author's Own Epic Fantasy Comes True
(Brandon Sanderson tops Best Sellers with 1,087 pages book
Words of Radiance.)
(By Dana Jennings, NY Times, 4-17-2014)
BOOKS:
Conquering Displacement With Words
(Andrés Neuman latest book is Talking to Ourselves in Granada, Spain. At age 37,
with 20 books to his name, he's a significant fixture in Spanish-language literature.)
(By Valerie Miles, NY Times, 4-17-2014)
MOVIES REVIEW:
His Résumé Before the Age of 4: 'I Saw Jesus on a Horse'
(Greg Kinnear stars in Heaven Is for Real, story of almost-4-year-old Colton Burpo
who returned from a near-death experience claiming to have detoured through heaven.)
(By Jeannette Catsoulis, NY Times, 4-16-2014); (Colton Burpo Video;
Trailer)
HEALTH: PET Scans Offer Clues on Vegetative States
(PET scans study has found that a significant number of people labeled vegetative had received an
incorrect diagnosis and actually had some degree of consciousness and the potential to improve)
(By Denise Grady, NY Times, 4-16-2014)
SPORTS: Zander Hollander, Sports Trivia Shepherd, Dies at 91
(He annually provided statistics-filled tomes of several sports that he titled, "Complete Handbooks".
Sports Illustrated called him "the unofficial king of sports paperbacks"; He edited & wrote 300 books.)
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 4-15-2014)
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION: Out in Front, and Optimistic, About Online Education
(Former Yale President Richard C. Levin is now CEO of Coursera, the largest provider
of massive open online courses, or MOOCs with 7 million users & 25 million enrollments.)
(By D.D. Guttenplan, NY Times, 4-14-2014)
OP-ED: My Ideas, My Boss's Property
(Workers are being forced to sign over their ideas to their employers.)
(By Orly Lobel, NY Times, 4-14-2014)
Opinionator: DRAFT— The Book That Didn't Exist
(Seventeen years ago I wrote a book called Goths, which you can find on Amazon and Google
and elsewhere online. This is unusual only because my book was never published.)
(By Jason K. Friedman, NY Times, 4-14-2014)
MAGAZINE: Can I Spy?
(When is it ethical to pretend to be someone you're not to learn information that could be
beneficial to society? But on rare occasions, that is necessary for the greater good.)
(By Chuck Klosterman, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
MAGAZINE: Inside Baseball
(Mike Escamilla photographed the game from some new angles at Dodgers' training camp.)
(By Julie Bosman, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
EDUCATION LIFE: BLACKBOARD | ADMISSIONS—
Ivy League Ups and (Yes) Downs
[Applications to the University of Pennsylvania rose by more than 14% this year and fell
by as much at Dartmouth. Admission at Penn was tougher (10% this year; 12% last year)]
(By Laura Pappano, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
BITS— Bend It, Charge It, Dunk It: Graphene,
the Material of Tomorrow
(Graphene is the strongest, thinnest material known to exist. A form of carbon, it can conduct
electricity and heat better than anything else; Not only hardest material but also one of most pliable.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Happiness and Its Discontents
(Misleading to equate satisfaction with happiness; Happiness is pleasure, and unhappiness is pain,
or suffering. Philosophers call this view "hedonism" about happiness; this approach is also wrong.)
(By Daniel M. Haybron, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
OP-ED: Diversity and Dishonesty
(Harvard undergraduate Sandra Y. L. Korn's column
on how universities should approach academic
freedom; Academic culture should conform to left-wing ideas of the good, beautiful and true.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Michael Lewis— By the Book
(Best book on Wall Street by Edwin Lefèvre Reminiscences
of a Stock Operator (1923) a thinly veiled
biography of Jesse Livermore, the speculator,
most famous for betting against the U.S. stock market
before the crash of 1929; Overlooked writer is
Jim Holt who wrote
Why Does the World Exist?)
(By Chris Hayes, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: The Cubs of Wall Street
(Kevin Roose's Young Money chronicles first
two years of 8 young Wall St. investment banker's life.)
(By Chris Hayes, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
EDUCATION LIFE: 10 Courses With a Twist
(Professors are capitalizing on what computers can't do— like take walks,
serve pizza, chase tornadoes and teach through experience.)
(By Laura Pappano, NY Times, 4-13-2014)
U.S.: At Phillips Exeter, a World of Religious Diversity
(18-year-old Milton Syed says "Money, prestige, success— they have become slave masters". School
has Muslim prayer room, Hindu puja room, ark holding Torah scrolls, Buddhist meditation spaces.)
(By Mark Oppenheimer, NY Times, 4-12-2014)
OP-ED: The Self-Sort
(We are facing another, worsening kind of segregation, one not codified but cultural.
We are self-sorting, not only along racial lines but also along educational and income ones.)
(By Charles M. Blow, NY Times, 4-12-2014)
OP-ED: Raising a Moral Child
(What does it take to be a good parent? We know tricks for teaching kids to become high achievers.)
(By Amy Grant, NY Times, 4-12-2014)
Opinionator: THE GREAT DIVIDE— Parental Involvement Is Overrated
(Most forms of parental involvement yielded no benefit to children's test scores or grades,
regardless of racial or ethnic background or socioeconomic standing.)
(By Keith Robinson & Angel L. Harris, NY Times, 4-12-2014)
YOUR MONEY: RETIRING—
Childhood Dreams Can Inspire Rewarding Second Careers
(After retiring at 68 from Time Warner Cable in 2012, Sandra Colony started Personalized Odysseys,
which organizes group trips of 10 or fewer women, 50 or older, and has visited 90 countries.)
(By Kerry Hannon, NY Times, 4-12-2014)
OP-ED: The Moral Power of Curiosity
(Michael Lewis's book Flash Boys on how a small number of Wall Street-types
figured out that the stock markets were rigged by high-frequency traders who used complex
technologies to give themselves a head start on everybody else. Book is really a morality tale.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 4-11-2014)
MOTHERLODE: The Sixth Stage of Grief: Buying a Puppy
(Suspected well-known five stages of grief— denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance—
are not phases at all. Instead, they are random responses to reduction and despair.)
(By Joel Yanofsky, NY Times, 4-11-2014)
SCIENCE: Watch Proteins Do the Jitterbug
(Video by XVIVO: Proteins jostle past one another like commuters in a busy train station.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 4-10-2014)
SCIENCE: The Moral: Aesop Knew Something About Crows
(Thirsty crow drops pebbles into a pitcher to raise water level of high enough to get a drink.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 4-10-2014)
SCIENCE:
Papyrus Referring to Jesus' Wife Is More Likely Ancient Than Fake, Scientists Say
(Analysis by professors at Columbia University, Harvard University and MIT,
who reported that it resembled other ancient papyri from the 4th to the 8th centuries.)
(By Laurie Goodstein, NY Times, 4-10-2014)
OP-ED: Why Liberalism Needs Pluralism
(Liberals should hesitate a little longer the next time they're inclined to think that
the rights of the individual must trump the liberty of institutions, communities, and groups.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 4-10-2014)
OP-ED: How to Study the Numinous
(Perhaps, instead of a better fMRI machine, we're waiting for
a new William James or James Frazer or Carl Jung.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 4-9-2014)
EDUCATION: Best, Brightest and Rejected: Elite Colleges Turn Away Up to 95%
(Stanford rejected 95% of its 2018 class applicants, admitted 2138 out of 42,167)
(By Richard Pérez-Peña, NY Times, 4-9-2014)
OP-ED: APPRECIATIONS—
Mickey Rooney's Quietest Role
(Forget Andy Hardy and his MGM highlight reel, hoofing & crooning with Judy Garland,
remember his 1981 "Bill" playing an old feeble man struggling to make it on his own.)
(By Lawrence Downes, NY Times, 4-8-2014)
OP-ED: What Suffering Does
(Unspoken assumption was that the main goal of life is to maximize happiness.
People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering, and ennobled by it.)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 4-7-2014)
ARTS: Mickey Rooney, Master of Putting On a Show, Dies at 93
(Most famous American teenager from 1937-1944; Number 1 box-office star 1930-1941; Earned $12
million before he was 40; Made over 200 movies; Starred in
Sugar Babies musical 1979-1982.)
(By Aljean Harmetz, NY Times, 4-7-2014)
OP-ED: Eight (No, Nine!) Problems With Big Data
(Biochemists like to infer 3-dimensional structure of proteins from their underlying DNA sequence,
but cannot solve this problem by crunching data alone, no matter how powerful the statistical analysis.)
(By Gary Marcus & Ernest Davis, NY Times, 4-7-2014)
MAGAZINE: The Wolf Hunters of Wall Street
(An Adaptation From Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt by Michael Lewis)
(By Michael Lewis, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Technology's Man Problem
(Women hold only about one-quarter of all information technology jobs.
Among the women who join the field, 56 percent leave by midcareer.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
MAGAZINE: The Selfish Selfie
(What are the ethics of celebrating a public figure if the true motive is to ridicule him?)
(By Chuck Klosterman, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
OP-ED: A Rationalist's Mystical Moment
(At age 17 in Lone Pine, California, saw the world— the mountains, the sky,
the low scattered buildings— suddenly flame into life; felt ecstatic & shattered.)
(By Barbara Ehrenreich, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
EDUCATION LIFE: Inventive Teaching— My So-Called Opinions
(David J. Mahan said that with his popular CS50 at Harvard, "Introduction to Computer Science",
he was "setting out to create not a course for students, but a college experience.")
(By Joseph Ong, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
ARTS: Peter Matthiessen, Lyrical Writer and Naturalist, Is Dead at 86
(Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould called Mr. Matthiessen "our greatest modern nature writer in the
lyrical tradition"; Became Zen priest; Snow Leopard won 1979 National Book Award for nonfiction.)
(By Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE— My So-Called Opinions
(Pluralism calls for people to embrace differences among individuals. It has been a part
of the millennial generation accused of been apathetic, lazy and narcissistic.)
(By Zachary Fine, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— Is That Jesus in Your Toast?
(In 2004, a Florida woman Diane Duyser sold a decade-old grilled cheese sandwich
that bore a striking resemblance to the Virgin Mary. She got $28,000 for it on eBay.)
(By Ana Gantman & Jan Van Bavel, NY Times, 4-6-2014)
OP-ED: Michael Lewis's Crusade
(Book preceding Michael Lewis's Flash Boys
excerpted in NY Times is Scott Patterson's
Dark Pools: The Rise of the Machine Traders and the Rigging of the U.S. Stock Market)
(By Joe Nocera, NY Times, 4-5-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Weights or Measures, Converted on the Fly
(Convertible: The Ultimate Unit Convertor on iOS organizes units into length, weight, speed.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 4-3-2014)
TECHNOLOGY:
Creator of a Virtual Reality Sensation
(Facebook's acquisition of Oculus VR has brought attention to its co-founder Palmer Luckey
and the Southern California tech scene where his company took root.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 3-27-2014)
ROOM for DEBATE:
How Can Bookstores Stay Alive?
(Stores that sell books are disappearing in the face of new technology
and online venues. What does this mean for readers and the industry?)
(Discussion, NY Times, 3-26-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: App Smart: Messaging
(Several apps, including WhatsApp, Kik and Viber, offer alternatives
to SMS for communicating with others from your phone.)
(By Dallas Jensen, NY Times, 3-25-2014)
Opinionator: DRAFT—
Keep It Short
(In writing, brevity works not only as a function of space on a page,
but the time that an audience is willing to spend with you.)
(By Daniel Heitman, NY Times, 3-24-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE—
When Nature Looks Unnatural
(Why scientists were so excited about last week's cosmological announcement.)
(By Sean Carroll, NY Times, 3-23-2014)
WELL: Running as Therapy
(I started distance running in 2007 because, in the short space of six months,
the person I was dating left me for another woman, I bought a house & my grandfather died.)
(By Jen A. Miller, NY Times, 3-20-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Interview | Philip Roth— My Life as a Writer
(The thought of the novelist that matters most is the thought that makes him a novelist.
The novel, then, is in itself his mental world. A novelist is not a tiny cog in the great wheel
of human thought. He is a tiny cog in the great wheel of imaginative literature.)
(By Daniel Sandstrom, NY Times, 3-16-2014)
MAGAZINE: Silicon Valley's Youth Problem
[In start-up land, the young barely talk to the old (and vice versa). That makes for a lot
of cool apps. But great technology? Not so much. Cisco bought Meraki for $1.2 billion]
(By Yiren Lu, NY Times, 3-16-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: Quiet Desperation— The Wherewithal by Philip Schultz
(Philip Schultz's novel-shaped poem is about evil & suffering and human capacity for compassion.)
(By Adam Plunkett, NY Times, 3-16-2014)
OP-ED: The Rise of Anti-Capitalism
(Technological revolution making goods and services nearly free— book publishers and
newspapers unprofitable as consumers share info, audio, video and text free on the web.)
(By Jeremy Rifkin, NY Times, 3-16-2014)
OP-ED: The Incessant Selling of the Self
(Young people educated to believe that self-promotion is essential. Quick personal advancement
is mandatory. Writing recommendation letters for former students for fellowships & internships.)
(By Ann Beattie, NY Times, 3-16-2014)
ART & DESIGN: A Medicine of Oneness, Body, Soul and Stars
("Bodies in Balance" at the Rubin Museum of Art's Exhibition on Tibetan Healing. Medicine
is astrology because the forces governing the body are the forces governing the heavens.)
(By Edward Rothstein, NY Times, 3-15-2014)
ASK WELL: Laser Treatments for Nail Fungus
(Lasers selectively heat and destroy harmful fungi while sparing healthy surrounding tissue,
but laser treatments produced no improvements with toenail fungus, even after five sessions.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 3-14-2014)
WELL: Activity Trackers Don't Sense Everything
(Wearable technology— those wristbands, watches and belt gadgets that track your every move
do not detect light-intensity activities very well, only when you're jogging or brisk walking.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 3-10-2014)
BOOKS: Justin Kaplan, Prize-Winning Literary Biographer, Dies at 88
(Kaplan was Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer renowned for his lives of Mark Twain, Walt Whitman
and Lincoln Steffens, and who was later known as the editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 3-4-2014)
BASEBALL: Eddie O'Brien, Who Played for Pirates With His Twin, Dies at 83
(Though only 5'9", O'Brien & brother Johnny were also basketball stars at Seattle University.)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 3-3-2014)
BITS: Now Facebook Has a Drone Plan
(Facebook negotiating to buy a manufacturer of drones, Titan Aerospace, for about $60 million.
It'll give Mark Zuckerberg an intriguing new technology to further the cause of Internet.org.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 3-4-2014)
BITS: Steven Ballmer Reflects on Missteps & Ponders the Future of Microsoft
("If you want to start something, be all in," ex-Microsoft CEO Ballmer bellowed at
Oxford University. "You have to be hard core as anything if you want to be successful.")
(By Mark Scott, NY Times, 3-4-2014)
BITS: A Conversation with Venture Capitalist Ben Horowitz on the 'Hard Things'
(Co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, on his new book,
The Hard Thing About Hard Things)
(by Nick Bilton, NY Times, 3-4-2014)
MOVIES: Alain Resnais, Acclaimed Filmmaker Who Defied Conventions, Dies at 91
(Introduced literary modernism to films like Hiroshima Mon Amour and
Last Year at Marienbad.)
(By David Kehr, NY Times, 3-3-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: The Monuments of Tech
(Big Internet companies love to talk about how they are "disrupting" one thing or another,
but they still want workplaces that memorialize their products and values.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 3-2-2014)
OP-ED: What You Learn in Your 40s
(There are no soul mates. Not in the traditional sense, at least. In my 20s someone
told me that each person has not one but 30 soul mates walking the earth.)
(By Pamela Druckerman, NY Times, 3-1-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Peering Into Tech's Monuments of Innovation
(Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., is a cluster of 11 buildings enclosing
a Disney-like pedestrian square and a two-way promenade. Short meetings take place on foot.)
(12 slides on Facebook, Google, Twitter By Jim Wilson, NY Times, 2-27-2014)
OP-ED: The Return of the Happy Atheist
(Modernity wasn't just delivering peace and plenty; it was delivering chaos,
tyranny, war, and monstrous evils on a scale pre-modern world had rarely seen.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 2-27-2014)
OP-ED: Religious Experience and the Modern Self
(Advance of secular world-picture changes the nature of numinous experience itself, so we don't
experience enchantment. It doesn't just close intellectual doors, it closes perceptual doors as well.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
SCIENCE: THE MAPMAKERS— The Brain's Inner Language
(Decoding the mind requires learning what the neurons are saying to one another.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
Opionionator: THE STONE—
Arguments Against God
(Is the existence of a supreme deity merely unproven? Or is it false?)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
Opionionator: DRAFT—
Confessions of a Lifelong Eavesdropper
(You could say it's a hobby. These slices of language come through
the air, begging to be heard, mini vacations into other lives.)
(By Margaret Hawkins, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
DealB%k:
Defending Bitcoin, Andreessen Says Mt. Gox Is 'Like MF Global'
(Marc Andreessen said Mt. Gox "has been obviously broken & possibly outright crooked for months.")
(By William Alden & Rachel Abrams, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
DealB%k: Geithner's Book Has a Title: 'Stress Test'
("We saved the economy from a failing financial system, though we lost the country doing it.")
(By William Alden, NY Times, 2-25-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Aims to More Deftly Blend Ads With Content
(To Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer, fashion magazines like Vogue & InStyle have achieved
the holy grail of advertising; ads in them are as interesting as the articles & photo shoots.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 2-24-2014)
EDITORIAL: A Picasso in Trouble
(Largest & most endangered Picasso "Le Tricorne" (1919) many of us have
never seen lives on Park Avenue, in the Seagram Building, East 52nd Street.)
(By The Editorial Board, NY Times, 2-23-2014)
START-UPS: Disruptions: After WhatsApp Deal, Visions of Magic Numbers
(David Karp sold Tumblr for $1.1 billion, Evan Spiegel turned down $3 billion for Snapchat.
Brian Acton & Jan Koum sold WhatsApp with 50 employees to Facebook for $19 billion.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 2-23-2014)
OP-ED: How to Get a Job at Google
(GPA and college degrees not as important as soft skills— leadership,
humility, collaboration, adaptability and loving to learn and re-learn.)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 2-23-2014)
YOUR MONEY: Working to Block Those Advertising Annoyances
(Free ways to stop unwanted ads, telemarketing phone calls, and glossy catalog mail.)
(By Alina Tugend, NY Times, 2-22-2014)
YOUR MONEY: Dream of Moving Abroad in Later Life, With Good Health Care
(Health insurance costs 78-year old Joseph Coyle & his wife $13,720/year in Paris.)
(By Tim Gray, NY Times, 2-22-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: WhatsApp Deal Bets on a Few Fewer 'Friends'
(Address Book like Snapchat, Secret, Kik & WhatsApp used for more intimate social connections.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 2-22-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Founders of an Anti-Facebook Are Won Over
(Jan Koum fled the former Soviet Union with his Mom when he was 16, worked at Yahoo for 10 years
before start-up WhatsApp with brian Acton; sold his 5-year old company to Facebook for $19 billion.)
(By Brian X. Chen & Vindu Goel, NY Times, 2-21-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: The Founders of WhatsApp
(Jan Koum & Brian Acton: No Ads, No Games, No Gimmicks, $1/year for users)
(By Zena Barakat & Vijai Singh, NY Times, 2-21-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: These Apps Are Made for Walking
(Smartphones that keep us sitting can also encourage us to get up & walk more by tracking our steps.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 2-20-2014)
BITS: GAMING—: Disruptions:Using Addictive Games to Build Better Brains
(First it was Doodle Jump. Then Dots. And now Flappy Bird. UCSF Researchers tries
to figure out what makes games addictive & use video games to improve our minds.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 2-16-2014)
GRAY MATTER: Is the Universe a Simulation?
(In "Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation",
physicists Silas R. Beane, Zohreh Davoudi
& Martin J. Savage outline method for detecting
our world is actually a computer simulation.)
(By Edward Frenkel, NY Times, 2-16-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Intel's Sharp-Eyed Social Scientist
(Genevieve Bell, as a cultural anthropologist at Intel Labs, runs a team of about 100 researchers.
They study how consumers interact with electronics & develops new technology experiences for them.)
(By Natasha Singer, NY Times, 2-16-2014)
FASHION & STYLE: Twitter, Can You Hear Me Now?
(Too woo Twitter followers, a trail of self-promotional tweets.
Your content has to be useful to people otherwise it's seen as spam.)
(By Henry Alford, NY Times, 2-16-2014)
INNOVATION: Who Made That Pop-Up Ad?
(In May 1995, Brendan Eich, Netscape programmer & amateur gymnast, worked up
a new way to program on the web using JavaScript to have pop-up windows)
(By Daniel Engber, NY Times, 2-16-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: A List of Favorites From a Man Who Knows His Apps
(Michael Galpert is my go-to person for the most obscure and often most useful apps
that would otherwise be lost to me amid the million-plus options in the App Store.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 2-15-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: The Plus in Google Plus? It's Mostly for Google
(Google Plus may not be much of a competitor to Facebook as a social network, but it is central
to Google's future— a lens that allows the company
to peer more broadly into people's digital life.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 2-15-2014)
ASK WELL:The Problem With Dogs and Chocolate
(The darker the chocolate, the more toxic it is. For a 20-pound dog, 9 ounces of milk
chocolate can cause seizures, but it takes only 1.5 ounces of baker's chocolate.)
(By Catherine Saint Louis, NY Times, 2-14-2014)
ART & DESIGN: Phoenixes Rise in China and Float in New York
(Xu Bing installs his sculptures at Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine)
(By Carol Vogel, NY Times, 2-14-2014)
ARTS: Shirley Temple Black, Screen Darling, Dies at 85
(With 56 perfect blonde ringlets, she starred in 23 films; from 1935-1939 she was the most
popular movie star, with Clark Gable a distant second; became US diplomat from 1969-1989)
(By Aljean Harmetz, NY Times, 2-12-2014)
THE NEW OLD AGE: What Makes Older People Happy
(When we're older, ordinary experiences become central to a sense of self & therefore more valued.)
(By Judith Graham, NY Times, 2-11-2014)
WELL: The Real World Is Not an Exam
(Critics pointed out that test-taking savvy may have little to do with job performance.)
(By Abigail Zuger, M.D., NY Times, 2-10-2014)
WELL: Movie Date Night Can Double as Therapy
(Hollywood's sappy relationship movies can actually help strengthen relationships in the real world.)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 2-10-2014)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Is Atheism Irrational?
(PhilPapers survey showed 62% of philosophers are atheists; Alvin Plantinga: "problem of evil" is
strongest evidence against theism; Belief in God is grounded in experience, or in sensus divinitatis.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 2-9-2014)
BUSINESS: The Path to Reading a Newborn's DNA Map
(One of the drawbacks of DNA tests for children, as well as for adults, is that
they reveal many mutations that don't pose problems for the people who carry them.)
(By Anne Eisenberg, NY Times, 2-9-2014)
BITS: Search for a Market Niche, and You Might Find a Crowd
(Tristan Walker wants to revolutionize skin-care & beauty-product industry for African-Americans.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 2-9-2014)
BOOKS: Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer-Winning Poet With a Naturalist's Precision, Dies at 88
(Kumin's finest poems were those that trained their focus close to home.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 2-8-2014)
BASEBALL: Ralph Kiner, Slugger Who Became a Voice of the Mets, Dies at 91
(During his first seven seasons, all with Pittsburgh, Kiner led the National League
in home runs every year, still a record streak for either league.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 2-7-2014)
Taking Down Picasso
(Real estate mogul Aby Rosen is planning to remove a historic Picasso stage curtain
for Le Tricorne, at Four Seasons Restaurant from Seagram Building on February 9.)
(By Martin Filler, NY Review of Books, 2-7-214)
SMALL BUSINESS: A Social Network That's Just for College Students
(Over last 3 years, number of teenagers using Facebook has declined by 25%, while number
of users 55 and older has gone up more than 80%; Blend's mantra is "share, snap, score.")
(By Eilene Zimmerman, NY Times, 2-6-2014)
BITS: How Google Glass and Netflix Will Fill the Air
(Cisco found that a person wearing Google Glass queried the Internet, took pictures
and video and sent enough messages to use about 7 gigabytes of data a month.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 2-5-2014)
Today in Small Business: Spying on Employees
(Here are 10 ways that manipulative marketing tactics are used to sell things.)
(By Gene Marks, NY Times, 2-5-2014)
BUSINESS DAY: At Four Seasons, Picasso Tapestry Hangs on the Edge of Eviction
("Le Tricorne", a canvas 19 feet high that Pablo Picasso painted for Ballets Russes, is in peril.)
(By David Segal, NY Times, 2-3-2014)
BOOMING: Knocking Once Again on the Poet's Door
(Reminisced about interviewing poet W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009) before he died &
obituary)
(By William McDonald, NY Times, 1-31-2014)
Pete Seeger, Champion of Folk Music and Social Change, Dies at 94
(Seeger, who spearheaded the folk revival that transformed popular music in the 1950s, spent
a long career championing song as both a vital heritage and a catalyst for political action.)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 1-29-2014)
BUSINESS: With Ad Dollars Elusive, Yahoo's Revenue Falls
(The Internet portal and web publisher said its fourth-quarter revenue
was $1.27 billion, down 6% from the same quarter a year ago.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 1-29-2014)
José Emilio Pacheco, Mexican Author, Dies at 74
(Pacheco, who emerged as a poet of note in the 1960s, won many awards.)
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 1-28-2014)
DealB%k: A Swipe at Traditional Banking at a Forum Illuminating Bitcoin
(Bitcoin aficionados argue that digital money could provide a way
to dispense with the transaction fees and penalties charged by banks.)
(By Nathaniel Popper, NY Times, 1-28-2014)
HEALTH:
The Older Mind May Just Be a Fuller Mind
(New research study suggests that it's not so much that the mental faculties
of older people are rapidly declining, it's that their databases are fuller.)
(By Benedict Carey, NY Times, 1-27-2014)
HEALTH: Me Versus the Scale
(Many of us can recite intimate details of our friends' sex lives, their pharmacological
habits, their rents. But question their weights and their mouths clamp shut.)
(By Abby Ellin, NY Times, 1-27-2014)
Martin S. Bergmann,
Psychoanalyst and Woody Allen's On-Screen Philosopher, Dies at 100
(Bergmann became known to a wide general audience for his unplanned, much-praised
role as a philosopher in Woody Allen's 1989 film, Crimes and Misdemeanors.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 1-27-2014)
OP-ED: What Drives Success?
(Associate Justice of Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor is Puerto Rican descent, in the
5th grade
she asked smartest girls in her class on to "how to study" and got good marks,
and went to Princeton.
2% of Americans are Jewish, and comprise 1/3 of U.S. Nobel laureates.)
(By Amy Chua & Jed Robenfeld, NY Times, 1-26-2014)
BITS: Disruptions:
The Holodeck Begins to Take Shape
(AMD's holodeck is shaped like a dome and is covered with wall-to-wall projectors. The room
uses surround sound, augmented reality and other technologies to recreate the real world.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 1-26-2014)
PRO FOOTBALL: Seahawks' Richard Sherman Is Much More Than Just Talk
(Sherman believes that he can create his own reality through visualization.
Whatever he wants, whatever he needs— if he envisions it happening, it will.)
(By Ben Shpigel, NY Times, 1-25-2014)
ART & DESIGN: The Next Big Picture
(With Cameras Optional, New Directions in Photography. There is no easily identifiable
subject,
no clear representational form. The show
"What Is a Photograph?" poses the question.)
(By Philip Gefter, NY Times, 1-25-2014)
OP-ED: How Long Have I Got Left?
(Kaplan-Meier survival curves, are one way to measure progress in cancer treatment.)
(By Paul Kalanithi, NY Times, 1-25-2014)
Google Pushes Back Against Data Localization
(If data localization and other efforts are successful, then what we will face
is the effective Balkanization of the Internet and the creation of a 'splinternet')
ARTS BEAT: Live From Canada, It's Alice Munro
(Ms. Munro appeared by video during an event at Symphony Space on Wednesday night.)
(By John Williams, NY Times, 1-23-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: An Extra 2 Seconds Means the World
(Perfect: A Novel, an eerie look at life via a child's eyes by Rachel Joyce covers a lot
of ground: a beautiful, obeisant mother, two kids, a car accident and maybe a scam.)
(By Janet Maslin, NY Times, 1-23-2014)
BOOKS: Language by the Book, but the Book Is Evolving
(Oxford English Dictionary, now under the leadership of Michael Proffitt,
is looking to serve traditionalists and the users to come.)
(By Tom Rachman, NY Times, 1-22-2014)
BOOMING: I WAS MISINFORMED— Hit 60 and the Must-Have Lists Change
(A plastic pill box with the days of the week becomes one of the hottest,
and strangest, things to own when you reach a certain age.)
(By Joyce Wadler, NY Times, 1-22-2014)
WELL: How Inactivity Changes the Brain
(Being sedentary appears to alter the brain in ways that may affect heart health.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 1-22-2014)
THE NEW OLD AGE: When They Don't Know They Are Ill
(Frequently a result of dementia, anosognosia is the inability to recognize
one's own impairment— a phenomenon caregivers know too well.)
(By Judith Graham, NY Times, 1-22-2014)
WELL: What's in Your Fish Oil Supplements?
(Millions of Americans take fish oil supplements to promote heart and vascular health.
But a new analysis suggests that some consumers may not always get what they are paying for.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 1-22-2014)
SCIENCE: Seeing X Chromosomes in a New Light
(Scientists have enlisted color coding in the effort to better understand X chromosomes,
how they are shut down in certain cells and what it all means for men and women.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 1-21-2014)
BOOKS: Poet's Archive Goes to University of Texas
(Billy Collins, former United States poet laureate, can now claim another feather in his cap:
a sale of his archive to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin.)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 1-21-2014)
INTERNATIONAL ARTS: Juan Gelman, Argentine Poet Who Challenged Junta, Dies at 83
(Social commentary, some of it born of personal tragedy, was just one hallmark of Gelman's work.)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 1-20-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Swindlers Use Telephones, With Internet's Tactics
(New techonology has led to an onslaught of Internet inspired fraud.)
(By Nick Wingfield, NY Times, 1-20-2014)
N.Y. | REGION:
Remembering Amiri Baraka With Politics and Poetry
(Thousands of people attended funeral services for Mr. Baraka, the poet and playwright
who helped forge the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and who died Jan. 9.)
(By Annie Correal, NY Times, 1-19-2014)
Technology Is Not Driving Us Apart After All
(Keith Hampton used William H. Whyte's methodology, taking time-lapse films of four major
urban nodes to better understand how people used the spaces and how they might be improved.)
(By Mar Oppenheimer, NY Times Sunday Magazine, 1-19-2014)
EUREKA: Breathing In vs. Spacing Out
(Using mindfulness to discover inner truths and letting go to wander the universe)
(By Dan Hurley, NY Times Sunday Magazine, 1-19-2014)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo's Asian Lifeline
(Yahoo's 24% stake in China's Alibaba & stake in Yahoo Japan makes it worth $50 a share)
urban nodes to better understand how people used the spaces and how they might be improved.)
(By Jeff Sommer, NY Times, 1-19-2014)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— Stop Trusting Yourself
(Trust is a double-edge sword. You can put your faith in others, doing so leaves you vulnerable.)
(By David DeSteno, NY Times, 1-19-2014)
BOOK REVIEW: E. L. Doctorow: By the Book
(Author of Andrew's Brain and Ragtime sometimes puts down a book because he can see
where the story's going. "As you practice your craft, you lose your innocence as a reader.")
(By Jeff Sommer, NY Times, 1-19-2014)
Opionionator: DRAFT— How I Stopped Procrastinating
(Best brain for creative writing is your right brain before you're fully awake.)
(By Merrill Markoe, NY Times, 1-18-2014)
BITS: A Conversation With T-Mobile US Executives
(T-Mobile US, the fourth largest carrier in the U.S. offered to pay for customers'
termination fees to break up with a rival carrier and switch to T-Mobile.)
(By Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 1-14-2014)
DealB%k: Target's Woes May Be a Boon for Security Firms
(Target hired Experian to provide customers with a free year of credit-monitoring.)
(By Rachel Abrams, NY Times, 1-13-2014)
ASIA PACIFIC: Saving Relics, Afghans Defy The Taliban
(70% of National Museum's collection were destroyed or stolen; now being reassembled.)
(By Rod Nordland, NY Times, 1-13-2014)
Ariel Sharon, fierce defender of a strong Israel, dies at 85
(Sharon was both vilified and admired for his belief that Jews must assert
and defend their collective needs without embarrassment or fear of censure.)
(By Ethan Bronner, NY Times, 1-12-2014)
All the News That's Fit to Forget
(We remember recent news, but forget most details in 4-8 years.)
(By Claudia Hammond, NY Times, 1-12-2014)
Rethinking How Baseball's 'Greats' Are Chosen
(Christina Kahrl: Times have changed; So should the voters.)
(Debate among five journalist, NY Times, 1-10-2014)
SCIENCE: Designing the Next Wave of Computer Chips
(Nanomaterials arranged on a chip before being cut into their final forms
at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 1-10-2014)
ART & DESIGN:
The Fascination of the Unfinished
(Nothing inspires a young artist like a close look at how an earlier one worked.)
(By Roberta Smith, NY Times, 1-10-2014)
PERSONAL TECH: Carriers Step Up Battle for Wireless Customers
(T-Mobile US, the country's No. 4 carrier, will give customers $650 in credit
after trading in their phone; Verizon #1, AT&T #2, Sprint #3)
(By Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 1-9-2014)
BITS: Gmail Plans to Allow Google Plus Users to Send Anyone an Email
(Google said the new capability would be useful for people who know
one another but have not yet exchanged email addresses.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 1-9-2014)
SCIENCE: What Your Cat Is Thinking: 'Cat Sense' Unravels Some Mysteries
(Biologist John Bradshaw's
Cat Sense provides best answers after 30 years research)
(By Nicholas Wade, NY Times, 1-7-2014)
BOOMING: Don't Ask. Please Don't Tell.
(You're still young if your hair products outnumber your digestive aids)
(By Joyce Wadler, NY Times, 1-8-2014)
BITS: Stop Asking Me for My Email Address
(Target doesn't need to store your debit card PIN.)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 1-8-2014)
BUSINESS: Target Breach Affected Up to 110 Million Customers
(Scope of the theft is now rivaling the largest theft ever of retail data,
including mailing and email addresses, phone numbers and names.)
(By Elizabeth A. Harris & Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 1-11-2014)
BOOKS:
C. T. Hsia, Scholar of Chinese Literature, Dies at 92
(Taught at Columbia for three decades; introduced modern Chinese literature to the West in 1960s)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 1-9-2014))
DealB%k: Five Lessons From Bitcoin
(Bitcoin is not over yet. Pseudo-currency is close enough to collapse to merit an early retrospective.)
(By Edward Hadas, NY Times, 1-8-2014))
DealB%k: Chinese E-Commerce Giant Alibaba to Ban Bitcoins on Its Sites
(Alibaba Group is considering IPO early this year and is valued at more than $150 billion.)
(By Chad Bray, NY Times, 1-8-2014))
U.S.: A Lonely Quest for Facts on Genetically Modified Crops
(Greggor Ilagan initially thought a ban on genetically modified organisms was a good idea)
(By Amy Harmon, NY Times, 1-5-2014)
MUSIC: Phil Everly, Half of a Pioneer Rock Duo That Inspired Generations, Dies at 74
(With songs like "Wake Up Little Susie", "Bye Bye Love", "Cathy's Clown",
"All I Have to Do Is Dream"
and "When Will I Be Loved?" Phil Everly & brother Don
were consistent hitmakers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 1-5-2014)
APPLIED SCIENCE: You Can't Take It with You, but You Still Want More
(Deeply rooted instinct to earn more than can possibly be consumed,
even when this imbalance makes us unhappy.)
(By Matt Richtel, NY Times, 1-5-2014)
SCIENCE: Viewing Where the Internet Goes
(While the Internet's global capability to connect anyone with anything has affected
every nook and cranny of modern life, its growth increasingly presents paradoxes.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 12-31-2013)
SCIENCE: I Had My DNA Picture Taken, With Varying Results
(Kira Peikoff, 28, had her DNA tested by three direct-to-consumer companies, the results didn't agree.)
(By Kira Peikoff, NY Times, 12-31-2013)
SCIENCE
OBSERVATORY: Playing With How We Keep Faces Straight
(Computer algorithm can subtly modify image of person's face to make it
easier or harder to remember.)
(By Sindya N. Bhando, NY Times, 12-31-2013)
SCIENCE: Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience
(Google network scanned database of 10 million images, in doing so trained itself to recognize cats.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 12-29-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: For Pros, a Sleek Computer with Power Inside
(Review: Apple's new Mac Pro computer is daring, extravagant and elite.)
(By Molly Wood, NY Times, 12-26-2013)
BITS: A Lot Changes in Tech Over Four Years and 1,000 Blog Posts
(In 2009 there was no Apple iPad. By 2013, Apple has sold more than 170 million of them.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 12-24-2013)
OP-ED: A Christmas Manners Quiz
(You arrive for Christmas dinner. Your mother has left your father for a woman
and you are meeting her for the first time. What do you say, tweet, text?)
(By Delia Ephron, NY Times, 12-24-2013)
EUROPE: Alan Turing, Enigma Code-Breaker and Computer Pioneer, Wins Royal Pardon
(Nearly 60 years after his death, Alan Turing, received a formal pardon from
Queen Elizabeth II for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality)
(By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, NY Times, 12-24-2013)
BITS: Is the Internet a Mob Without Consequence?
(Today's riots online are different in that the influential douse them with more anger & hate.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 12-24-2013)
BITS: U.S. Mobile Internet Traffic Nearly Doubled This Year
(Two big shifts happened in American cellphone industry over past year:
Cellular networks got faster, and smartphone screens got bigger.)
(By Brian X Chen, NY Times, 12-24-2013)
BITS: The Last Minute Geek's Guide to Gadgets
(The GoPro Hero cameras are incredibly versatile and can go into space or deep underwater.)
((By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 12-23-2013)
BITS: Silicon Valley's New Obsession With Beauty
(Design has become more important in software, because software has become more intimate.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 12-23-2013)
BITS: A Start-Up Moves Teachers Past Data Entry
(Clever improves class management, by enabling teachers to enroll & track students,)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 12-23-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Master of His Virtual Domain
(George Yao spent six months on top of the virtual world of the online game Clash of Clans.)
(By Matt Bai, NY Times, 12-22-2013)
Harold Camping,
Radio Entrepreneur Who Predicted World's End, Dies at 92
(Camping, who founded the Family Radio network, repeatedly prophesied
the date of the apocalypse, and apologized when it turned out to be wrong.)
(By Robert D. McFadden, NY Times, 12-18-2013)
MOVIES: Audrey Totter, Actress in Noir Films, Dies at 95
(Femme-fatale star of Hollywood's noir films of the 1940s—
The Postman Always Rings Twice and
Lady in the Lake)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 12-18-2013)
BOOKS: Hugh Nissenson, Novelist, Dies at 80
(For The Tree of Life, a finalist for National Book Award in 1985, Mr. Nissenson
spent years studying the Ohio frontier of the early 19th century to portray his protagonist.)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 12-17-2013)
BOOKS: Buddhists With Issues and Hopes of Nirvana
(Bruce Wagner's 'Empty Chair' Novellas Explore Guru Territory)
(By Michiko Kakutani, NY Times, 12-17-2013)
OP-ED: 'What Is Good Teaching?'
(Kevin Greer engaged students by asking them what their own definition of poetry was—
and they responded eagerly.)
(By Joe Nocera, NY Times, 12-17-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— Secrets and Contradictions
(By giving a character something to hide— a secret— we create the illusion of depth:
interior and exterior, seen and unseen. Few drives are as strong as the one to find out—
ask Pandora, or Psyche or Bluebeard's wife.)
(By David Corbett, NY Times, 12-16-2013)
HEALTH: Should We Toss Our Vitamin Pills?
(Most supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death,
their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.)
(By Roni Caryn Rabin, NY Times, 12-16-2013)
MOVIES: Peter O'Toole, Star of Lawrence of Arabia, Is Dead at 81
(Lost much of his Lawrence earnings in two nights with Omar Sharif at casinos
in Beirut & Casablanca.)
(By Benedict Nightingale, NY Times, 12-16-2013)
ARTS: Joan Fontaine, Who Won an Oscar for Hitchcock's Suspicion, Dies at 96
(Fontaine was 24 when she won her 1942 Oscar, youngest best-actress winner at the time,
winner over Bette Davis, Greer Garson, Barbara Stanwyck, & her sister Olivia de Havilland.)
(By Anita Gates, NY Times, 12-16-2013)
OP-ED: The Documented Life
(Aziz Ansari offered a conversation, but people wanted documentation.
We interrupt conversations for documentation all the time.)
(By Sherry Turkle, NY Times, 12-16-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— In Praise of Failure
(Failure, it seems, is what philosophy feeds on, what keeps it alive.
As it were, philosophy succeeds only in so far as it fails.)
(By Costica Bradatan, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
OP-ED: Skip the Supplements
(F.D.A. estimates approximately 50,000 adverse reactions to dietary supplements occur every year.)
(By Paul A. Offit, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
OP-ED: A Formula for Happiness
(After 40 years of research, scientists attribute happiness to 3 major sources: genes, events & values.)
(By Arthur C. Brooks, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
OP-ED: LOOSE ENDS— Leaked! Harvard's Grading Rubric
(A longtime government professor at Harvard lashed out Tuesday at what he deemed
a system of rampant grade inflation after learning that students are receiving mainly A's.)
(By Nathaniel Stein, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
Google's Road Map to Global Domination
(In the battle for digital dominance, victory depends on
being the first to map every last place on the globe.)
(By Adam Fisher, NY Times Magazine, 12-15-2013)
FASHION & STYLE: The Agony of Instagram
[Instagram, rather, is about unadulterated voyeurism. It is almost entirely a photo site,
with a built-in ability (through the site's retro-style filters) to idealize every moment.]
(By Alex Williams, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
The Selling of Attention Deficit Disorder
(Keith Conners: "Concoction to justify giving out of medication at unprecedented & unjustifiable levels")
(By Alan Schwarz, NY Times, 12-15-2013)
Opinionator: THE GREAT DIVIDE— We Are Not All in This Together
(If a few of us are better off, then many are not. If many are better off,
then the few will be constrained.)
(By Shamus Khan, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
OP-ED: What Tech Hasn't Learned From Urban Planning
(Tech tenants now fill 22 percent of all occupied office space in San Francisco—
and represented a whopping 61% of all office leasing in the city last year)
(By Allison Arieff, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
MUSIC: Remembering Days of Miracle and Wonder
(Paul Simon on Mandela's Role in 'Graceland')
(By Paul Simon, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
OP-ED: The Great War's Ominous Echoes
(World War I still haunts us, partly because of the sheer scale of the carnage—
10 million combatants killed & many more wounded; empires destroyed & societies brutalized.)
(By Margaret MacMillan, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
OP-ED: A Poor Apology for a Word
(Average British person says "sorry eight times a day, or "204,536 times in 70 years.")
(By Henry Hitchings, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Google Adds to Its Menagerie of Robots
(Boston Dynamics' four-legged robot named WildCat can gallop at high speeds.
Video)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 12-14-2013)
BOOKS: Colin Wilson, Author Acclaimed at 24 for 'The Outsider', Dies at 82
[Colin Wilson's first book
The Outsider (1956)
championed outsiders as critics,
visionary, and prophetic.]
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 12-13-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: TOOL KIT— An App That Will Never Forget a File
(Evernote provides a comprehensive single archive of your digital life, giving you
one location to store and find practically everything saved on a computer or phone.)
(By Paul Boutin, NY Times, 12-12-2013)
BITS: ONE ON ONE— Interview With Kevin Kelly, Author of 'Cool Tools'
(Each "tool" in the book Cool Tools is associated with a QR code
that allows readers to scan and buy the object from their mobile phone.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 12-10-2013)
BITS: Be Careful With Coin
(Coin, the San Francisco company promoting device of the same name, promises to declutter
your wallet because you'll no longer need to carry all your credit and ATM cards.)
(By Damon Darlin, NY Times, 12-10-2013)
TECNOLOGY: BITS— Samsung: Uneasy in the Lead
(A child played with a tablet at a Samsung showroom in Seoul.
Long a follower of trends, it is now trying to be the trendsetter.)
(By Eric Pfanner & Brian X. Chen, NY Times, 12-10-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— A Feminist Kant
(Our rational nature, Kant argues, is what makes us morally valuable
and what makes us deserve an important sort of respect.)
(By Carol Hay, NY Times, 12-8-2013)
Opinionator: MEASURE FOR MEASURE— On Getting Stuck (and Unstuck)
(Dare to be bad and let perfectionism fly out the window. Less thinking more creating.)
(By Darrell Brown, NY Times, 12-6-2013)
MOVIES: Tom Laughlin, 82, Star of 'Billy Jack' Movie Series, Dies
(1971 film Billy Jack
rereleased in 1973, made $80 million
and caused Hollywood to rethink its approach to releasing films.)
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 12-6-2013)
Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Liberator as Prisoner and President, Dies at 95
(Mandela's Death Leaves South Africa Without Its Moral Center.
Mr. Mandela had long said he wanted a quiet exit)
(By Bill Keller, NY Times, 12-6-2013)
The Life & Legacy of Nelson Mandela: 1918-2013
(Nelson Mandela's quest for freedom in South Africa's system of white rule took him
from court of tribal royalty to liberation underground to prison cell to presidency.)
(NY Times, 12-5-2013)
DealB%k: VENTURE CAPITAL— Glassdoor, a Jobs Website, Raises $50 Million
(Glassdoor, a job listings site that has gained some infamy for letting people rate
their employers and leave anonymous reviews;
lets workers vent about— or praise—
their superiors and colleagues.)
(By Michael J. De la Merced, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
DealB%k: LEGAL— For Bitcoin, a Setback in China and an Endorsement on Wall Street
(The price of Bitcoin reached a high of $1,240, before falling to around $1,085
on Thursday, at one point touching a low of $870 after China restricted its trading.)
(By William Alden, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
DealB%k: BREAKING VIEWS— Shaking the Bitcoin Believers
(Chinese regulators have barred country's banks from trading Bitcoin, while denying
the pseudo-money legal status and cracking down on anonymous users.)
(By Peter Thal Larsen, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: TOOL KIT— The Path to Happy Employment, Contact by Contact on LinkedIn
(LinkedIn, the networking site for professionals, can raise your profile
and help you find a new job, but only if it is used properly.)
(By Erica Taub, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: APP SMART— Quickly and Easily, Scanning and Storing Documents on the Go
(Printers, photocopiers, scanners and even fax machines still play a role
in many of our lives, but that can be cut back with the right mobile apps.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
FASHION & STYLE: A Millennial D.I.Y.-er With the Digitized Touch
(Brittany Morin is not the first millennial to style herself as the
digitized heir to Martha Stewart, but she may be the most successful.)
(By Sheila Marikar, NY Times, 12-5-2013)
Opinionator: DISUNION: The South's Forgotten Painter
(The Southern painter Conrad Wise Chapman
is not nearly so well known as his Northern
colleagues Winslow Homer and Sanford Gifford, but he deserves historical attention.)
(By Eleanor Jones Harvey, NY Times, 12-4-2013)
BITS BLOG: Dear Internet, Thank You for Introducing Us
(An online photography project created by a pair of Brooklyn artists
explores the ways we make romantic connections online.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 12-4-2013)
BITS BLOG: IBM's Big Plans for Cloud Computing
(IBM plans to introduce a slew of new products & services to its cloud computing offerings in 2014.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 12-4-2013)
BITS BLOG: Anne Wojcicki Speaks Out About the F.D.A. Crackdown on 23andMe
(Anne Wojcicki, co-founder & CEO of 23andMe, the genetic testing company backed by Google,
said 23andMe was trying to satisfy Food and Drug Administration's requests for information.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 12-4-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
(Led by Andy Rubin, who built the Android software, Google has acquired seven companies
with hopes to automate manufacturing and even rival Amazon in retail delivery.)
(By John Markoff, NY Times, 12-4-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: NEWS ANALYSIS— Amazon Delivers Some Pie in the Sky
(The plan announced by Jeff Bezos to use drone aircraft to deliver packages
is visionary, far-fetched and loopy, as well as a useful distraction.)
(By David Streitfeld, NY Times, 12-3-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Apple Buys Topsy, a Social Media Analytics Firm
(The hardware maker acquired Topsy Labs, which focuses on analyzing
the half a billion messages sent over Twitter every day.)
(By Brian X. Chen & Vindu Goel, NY Times, 12-3-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Google Joins a Heavyweight Competition in Cloud Computing
(The search giant, which for years has been evasive about its plans for the cloud,
announces rates & features for wide-ranging workloads hosted on Google's infrastructure.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 12-3-2013)
U.S.: Humanities Studies Under Strain Around the Globe
(In the global marketplace of higher education, the humanities are
increasingly threatened by decreased funding and political attacks.)
(By Ella Delany, NY Times, 12-2-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Out of Print, Maybe, but Not Out of Mind
(Some features of physical books may be getting a second life online, but efforts
to completely reimagine the core experience of the book have yet to catch on.)
(By David Streitfeld, NY Times, 12-2-2013)
BITS BLOG: The Allure of the Print Book
(A number of new research reports and surveys are finding that teenagers and adults
are continuing to read print books and often prefer them over digital e-books.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 12-2-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: NOVELTIES— When Algorithms Grow Accustomed to Your Face
(Companies are developing software to analyze our fleeting facial
expressions and to get at the emotions behind them.)
(By Anne Eisenberg, NY Times, 12-1-2013)
OP-ED: The Shocking Sex Secrets of Insects
(Recent discovery of two bugs fossilized as they coupled 165 million years ago)
(By Marlene Zuk, NY Times, 12-1-2013)
NY REGION: The Masculine Mystique
(Custom suits to make transgender and female clients feel handsome)
(By John Leland, NY Times, 12-1-2013)
BOOKS: Through a Novel, a Window to an Author's Beliefs
(Oscar Hijuelos
died October 12, 2013 at age 62 after writing
Mr. Ives' Christmas;
"Nothing will ever quite capture the human inner voice and the spirit, the way that books do.")
(By Samuel G. Freedman, NY Times, 11-30-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: The Real Humanities Crisis
(Business majors start with salaries 26% higher than humanities majors and move to salaries 51% higher.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 11-30-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: In Silicon Valley, Partying Like It's 1999 Once More
(Bill Gurley twitted:
"Man, it feels more and more like 1999 every day. Risk is being discounted.")
(By David Streitfeld, NY Times, 11-27-2013)
ARTS BEAT BLOGS: Noted Philosopher Moves to N.Y.U.— and Beyond
(Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, known for his wide-ranging and accessible writings on
cosmopolitanism, identity & global ethics, will be leaving Princeton for NYU at end of the year.)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 11-26-2013)
U.S. TECHNOLOGY: Backlash by the Bay: Tech Riches Alter a City
(San Francisco's technology industry is booming. As housing costs increase some worry that
the city's colorful neighborhoods, like the Mission, are at risk of losing their character.)
(By Erica Goode & Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 11-25-2013)
OP-ED: The Year the Monarch Didn't Appear
(On Nov. 1, "Day of the Dead", monarch butterflies are believed to be souls of the dead, returned.)
(By Jim Robbins, NY Times, 11-24-2013)
SPORTS: In a Powerful Comeback, Pacquiao Batters Rios Through 12 Rounds
[Pacquiao (55-5-2) won by unanimous decision over Rios (31-2-1).]
(By Greg Bishop, NY Times, 11-24-2013)
OP-ED: Why the Y?
["Since only females can give birth, why should nature bother with males?"
Fertilization (meiosis)
beats cloning (parthenogenesis) because, as genes mutate,
"males provide females with spare parts."]
(By Maureen Dowd, NY Times, 11-24-2013)
FASHION & STYLE: Every Picture Tells Anjelica Houston's Story
(Anjelica's secret word "Witchturla!" got her attention to comment on her photos.)
(By Judith Newman, NY Times, 11-24-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: Looking Into the Black Box
(Why do we want something beyond predictive power? What is understanding?)
(By Michael Strevens, NY Times, 11-24-2013)
OP-ED: Kennedy's Legacy of Inspiration
[Journalist Thomas E. Ricks: "John F. Kennedy probably was the worst American president of the
previous century. He spent his 35 months in the White House stumbling from crisis to fiasco.)
(By Robert Dallek, NY Times, 11-22-2013)
BOOKS: Dad Was a Film Giant, Mum Was Mona Lisa, Perfect, Right?
(Anjelica Huston grew up in such a bedazzingly beautiful place at St. Clerans,
Ireland, that she couldn't see beyond its magic, A Story Lately Told)
(By Janet Maslin, NY Times, 11-21-2013)
Frederick Sanger, 95, Two-Time Winner of Nobel
and Pioneer in Genetics, Dies
(British biochemist's research led to decoding of human genome and development of human
growth hormone, earned him two Nobel Prizes, a distinction held by only 3 other scientists.)
(By Denise Gellene, NY Times, 11-21-2013)
GREAT HOMES: ON LOCATION | ATLANTA— The Peak of Chic: Borrowing From the Best
(Jennifer Boles, creator of Peak of Chic design blog, a love letter to— nay, an epic poem
in celebration of— the sort of effusive, ebullient and, yes, very traditional decorating.)
(By Penelope Green, NY Times, 11-21-2013)
U.S. SLIDESHOW: Technology Boom Breeds Hostility
(Code Jockeys moving from Silicon Valley to San Francisco are crowding out middle-class workers.)
(By Jason Henry, NY Times, 11-20-2013)
LETTERS: The Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy
["Textbooks Reassess Kennedy, Putting Camelot Under Siege" (Nov. 11) reminds us that historical
reputations are always in flux. Kennedys lifted us out of gray America into an Oz-colored world.)
(By Bernard von Bothmer, et. al., NY Times, 11-18-2013)
MEDIA & ADVERTISING: LINK BY LINK— History Comes to Life With Tweets From Past
(German historians using "historical tweeting" at @9Nov38 provides hour-by-hour updates of
horrors of Kristallnacht, culminating in a night of anti-Jewish terror 75 years ago in Nazi Germany.)
(By Noam Cohen, NY Times, 11-18-2013)
BOOKS: Doris Lessing, Novelist Who Won 2007 Nobel, Is Dead at 94
(Her breakthrough novel, The Golden Notebook, a structurally inventive
and loosely autobiographical tale, that remained her best-known work.)
(By Helen T. Verongos, NY Times, 11-17-2013)
ARTS VIDEO: Doris Lessing on the Nobel Prize
(When told she had won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature, she said, "I couldn't care less.")
(NY Times, 11-17-2013)
BOOKS: Reaching for Silicon Valley
(In September 2010, Prof. Laskar, at Georgia Tech, was arrested on racketeering charges.
Academics-turned-entrepreneurs have to navigate as they try to turn classroom concepts
into successful companies.)
(By Nick Wingfield, NY Times, 11-17-2013)
BUSINESS: Strategies— Lars Peter Hansen, the Nobel Laureate in the Middle
(Hansen received Nobel for developing a statistical technique, generalized method of moments.)
(By Jeff Sommer, NY Times, 11-17-2013)
ECONOMIX: A Talk With Lars Peter Hansen, Nobel Laureate
(We're very much interested in rational agents who are coping with uncertainty.)
(By Jeff Sommer, NY Times, 11-16-2013)
EUROPE: Young and Educated in Europe, but Desperate for Jobs
(Fiscal crisis forced young people with degrees to make painful adjustments & migrate to find jobs.)
(By Liz Alderman, NY Times, 11-16-2013)
OP-ED: Who's Right on the Stock Market?
(Since 1965, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increased 19.7% while Dow increased 9.4%.)
(By Steven Rattner, NY Times, 11-15-2013)
ECONOMIX: Women Gain in Some STEM Fields, but Not Computer Science
(Women received 29.6% of computer science B.A.'s in 1991, compared with 18.2% in 2010.)
(By Catherine Rampell, NY Times, 11-15-2013)
Opionionator: THE STONE— The School of Arthur Danto
(Danto's 1983 classic work in aesthetics The
Transfiguration of the Commonplace
was a synthesis of the sensual and the intellectual.
Goodreads;
NY Times Review)
(By Crispin Sartwell, NY Times, 11-14-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Rejecting Billions, Snapchat Expects a Better Offer
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 11-14-2013)
BITS: Twitter Introduces Tool to Make Collecting and Sharing Tweets Easier
(Twitter introduced a tool Tuesday, "custom timelines", allowing its users to drag and
drop tweets to form custom lists of Twitter messages on whatever topic interests them.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 11-12-2013)
SCIENCE: High Above Sea Level, Evolutionary Hot Spots
(Páramos, mountainous grasslands that flourish thousands of feet above sea level in the Andes,
are hot spots of evolutionary change. Noted in 1799 by great naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 11-12-2013)
YOUR MONEY: THE SKETCH GUY— Tidying Up Your Financial Life
(Musician Brian Eno's wise words:
"When in doubt, tidy up." 1. Realize that the universe
doesn't like order. 2. Throw away some stuff. 3. Automate as much as possible.)
(By Carl Richards, NY Times, 11-11-2013)
U.S.: Textbooks Reassess Kennedy, Putting Camelot Under Siege
(Picture has evolved from a charismatic young president who inspired youths around
the world to a deeply flawed one whose oratory outstripped his accomplishments.)
(By Adam Clymer, NY Times, 11-11-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: To Grow, Twitter Looks Outside Its Own Walls
(For Twitter to justify high valuation of its stock, the micro-messaging company must spread
the gospel of tweeting far beyond its current active user base of 232 million accounts.)
(By Vindu Goel, NY Times, 11-11-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Big Data's Little Cousin
(By analyzing the photos of prices and the placement of everyday items
and matching that to other data, Premise is building a real-time inflation index.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 11-11-2013)
BOOMING: I WAS MISINFORMED— The Sex Toys in the Attic
(Disposing of sex paraphernalia before you die so your children won't be embarrassed.)
(By Joyce Wadler, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
BOOMING: UNHITCHED— When Nest Emptied, Discontent Entered
(When their last child left for college, both 64-year-old couple divorced.)
(By Louise Rafkin, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
ASIA PACIFIC: New China Cities: Shoddy Homes, Broken Hope
(As China pushes ahead with government-led urbanization, Huaming might be
an example of another transformation: the ghettoization of China's new towns.)
(By Ian Johnson, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
BUSINESS: A Founder of Twitter Goes Long
(Evan Williams' net worth has jumped nearly $2.5 billion, owing to his 10.4% stake in Twitter.
He wants Medium, a longer-form writing to thrive, apps like Longform, Longreads & the Verge.)
(By Matt Richtel, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
TECHNOPHORIA: They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets
(Students' social media and digital footprint can sometimes play a role in the admissions process.)
(By Natasha Singer, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
BOOK REVIEW: What Would Aldous Huxley Make of the Way We Consume Media and Popular Culture?
(Kirsch: Huxley's predictions about sexual freedom have largely come true, but Brave New World was wrong
about the essentials;
Szalai: Like so many intellectuals of his time, Huxley feared
the advent of "mass man" of conformity and homogenizing media empires.)
(By Adam Kirsch & Jennifer Szalai, NY Times, 11-10-2013)
OP-ED: Why Do Brits Accept Surveillance?
(Only 19% of Britons believed the security services had too much power)
(By Jonathan Freedland, NY Times, 11-9-2013)
PRO FOOTBALL: Prized for His Aggression, Incognito Struggled to Stay in Bounds
(Incognito's uncompromising aggression & noted mean streak have so often been prized in football.)
(By Bill Pennington, NY Times, 11-9-2013)
OP-ED: The Passion of Parenting
(People sometimes say that parenting is the toughest job you'll ever love.)
(By Charles M. Blow, NY Times, 11-7-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: STATE OF THE ART— Conquering Android's World of Themes
(Android phone is endlessly customizable, down to the last pixel.)
(By David Segal, NY Times, 11-7-2013)
BOOMING: ASK AN EXPERT— Advice on How to Research Family History, Part 1
(Christine Rose & Kay Germain Ingalls, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy;
George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, Advance Genealogy Research Techniques;
Marsha Hoffman Rising, Family Tree Problem Solver: Tried-and-True Tactics
for Tracing Elusive Ancestors)
(By Elizabeth Shown Mills, NY Times, 11-6-2013)
ART & DESIGN: German Officials Provide Details on Looted Art
(Discovery of the works was first reported by Focus magazine on Sunday)
(By Melissa Eddy, NY Times, 11-6-2013)
LETTERS: Role of Humanities, in School and Life
(Students need to develop the capacity for open-ended inquiry cultivated by the liberal arts,
and also the problem-solving skills associated with science and technology.)
(By Alison Byerly, Burton Richter, et. al., NY Times, 11-5-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: When Socrates Met Phaedrus: Eros in Philosophy
(Philosophical eros is the effect of rhetoric, of language used persuasively.
The dialogue brings Phaedrus to love philosophy by loving philosophically.)
(By Simon Critchley, NY Times, 11-3-2013)
EDUCATION LIFE: The Disrupters— Innovation Imperative: Change Everything
(Online Education as Agent of Transformation— theory predicts that, be it steam or online education,
existing consumers will ultimately adopt disruption; universities have jumped on MOOC bandwagon.)
(By Clayton M. Christensen & Michael B. Horn, NY Times, 11-3-2013)
Opinionator: MEASURE FOR MEASURE— Tale of the Seed and the Song
(The epic Douglas firs that rule the Oregon woods grow from something small
and inconceivable. So does a song.)
(By Eric Earley, NY Times, 11-1-2013)
EDUCATION: Welcomed With Kisses, Stanford Freshmen Risk the 'Kissing Disease'
(Full Moon on the Quad— normally celebrated beneath the academic year's first full moon
but this year held on Oct. 22 because of a conflict with Homecoming Week: an orgy of interclass kissing.)
(By Donald G. McNeil Jr., NY Times, 11-1-2013)
EDUCATION: As Interest Fades in the Humanities, Colleges Worry
(Some 45% of faculty members in Stanford's main undergraduate division are clustered in humanities,
but only 15% of the students. Harvard had a 20% decline in humanities majors over last decade.)
(By Tamar Lewin, NY Times, 10-31-2013)
Opinionator: FIXES: Protecting Children From Toxic Stress
(Children can be shielded from the most damaging effects of stress
if their parents are taught how to respond appropriately.)
(By David Bornstein, NY Times, 10-30-2013)
SCIENCE: Jump-Starter Kits for the Mind
(Repetition creates neural pathways in the brain, so the behavior eventually becomes more automatic,
and outside distractions have less impact. It's called being in the zone.)
(By Kate Murphy, NY Times, 10-29-2013)
*
ART: Forging an Art Market in a Newly Rich China
[The demand is so great that last year, in a country that barely had an art market
two decades ago, reported auction revenues were up 900% over 2003— to $8.9 billion.
(The U.S. auction market for 2012 was $8.1 billion.) Three years ago, an oil painting
attributed to the 20th-century artist Xu Beihong, which sold at auction for more than
$10 million, turned out to have been produced 30 years after the artist's death by a student
during a class exercise at one of China's leading arts academies.]
(By David Barboza, Graham Bowley & Amanda Cox, NY Times, 10-28-2013, A1, A11-A13)
HEALTH: Ask Well: Glucosamine and MSM for Joint Pain?
(Glucosamine research,
published in 2006: Glucosamine had been no more effective than a placebo.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 10-28-2013)
HEALTH: Love Well: Now, a Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss
(Researchers concludes kissing helps people
assess potential mates & maintain those relationships.)
(By Jan Hoffman, NY Times, 10-28-2013)
ART & DESIGN: Arthur C. Danto, a Philosopher of Art, Is Dead at 89
(Author of some 30 books, including Beyond the Brillo Box and After the End of Art,
Danto was also art critic for The Nation magazine from 1984 to 2009 and a longtime
Columbia philosophy professor.)
(By Ken Johnson, NY Times, 10-28-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: Is the 'Dumb Jock' Really a Nerd?
(Neuroscience has not vindicated the cultural distinction between practical and theoretical activities.)
(By Jason Stanley & John W. Krakauer, NY Times, 10-27-2013)
OP-ED: 'An Industry of Mediocrity'
(31-year classroom veteran Bill Jackson teaches math ratios to inner-city 7th graders)
(By Bill Keller, NY Times, 10-21-2013)
OP-ED: The Good Men of India
(Indian men can also be among the kindest in the world.)
(By Lavanya Sankaran, NY Times, 10-20-2013)
OP-ED: Why We Make Bad Decisions
(We typically focus on anything that agrees with the outcome we want.)
(By Noreena Hertz, NY Times, 10-20-2013)
ECONOMIX: The Gap Between Schooling and Education
(Lant Pritchett)
(What can schools and countries do to make sure students are learning while they are in school?)
(By Annie Lowrey, NY Times, 10-18-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Struggles in Display Ad Market
(Yahoo's share of the display advertising market is expected to fall to 7.7% this year,
from 8.6% share last year, while Google's share of the market is expected to grow to
17.4% and Facebook's to 17%.)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 10-16-2013)
FILM REVIEW: The Watchful Years, Before the Howling Began
("Kill Your Darlings" stars Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg in 1944 as Columbia freshman;
Lucien Carr's mantra, "First thought best thought" is opposite film's title.)
(By A. O. Scott, NY Times, 10-16-2013)
OP-ED: A World Without Privacy
(Dave Eggers's new novel, The Circle
has three short, Orwellian slogans
and his book could wind up being every bit as prophetic as 1984.)
(By Joe Nocera, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
OP-ED: Love and Politics
(Martha Nussbaum's book Political Emotions:
Why Love Matters For Justice maps out the routes
by which men and women who begin in self-interest and ingrained prejudice can build a society
in which what she calls "public emotions" operate to enlarge the individual's "circle of concern".)
(By Stanley Fish, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
BOOKS: Roll Over, Stradivarius
(Robert Shaw & Peter Szego's book Inventing the American Guitar
explores 1840s innovations of Christian Friedrich Martin's company.)
(By Larry Rohter, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
BITS: Dear Twitter, Please 'Like' This
(Social media Web sites like to copy one another. Facebook adopted the hashtag and follow
features from Twitter.
Twitter knocked off fancier profile pages from Facebook. Instagram added
Twitter's @-symbol. Twitter introduced filters after Instagram.
Twitter hasn't copied one of the biggest,
most understood and most important features on the social Web today: the "Like" button.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
BITS: A Day to Remember the First Computer Programmer Was a Woman
(October 15 is Ada Lovelace Day: In 1842, "enchantress of numbers" wrote first computer program.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
OP-ED: Conjuring Up Our Own Gods
(Religious scholar Jeffrey J. Kripal
said at Esalen
"Americans are obsessed with the supernatural".)
(By T. M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 10-15-2013)
EUROPE: Tapping the Potential of Graduate Ties
(Alumni visiting Riga Technical University in Latvia in June. The university aims to showcase
some university success stories to encourage a sense of pride in their alma mater.)
(By Jenny Marc, NY Times, 10-14-2013)
BITS: How to Opt Out of Google's Plan to Use Your Name and Comments in Ads
(Users are unsure to tick the opt-out box because it reads like you're actually opting in.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 10-14-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT: When the News and the Novel Collide
(A novel set in Cairo in the year 2000, at the height of Mubarak's power,
can't help but contain the story of the revolution that would follow.)
(By Michael David Lukas, NY Times, 10-14-2013)
BOOKS: Oscar Hijuelos, Who Won Pulitzer for Tale of Cuban-American Life, Dies at 62
(First Latino to win fiction Pulitzer Prize for his 1989 book, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 10-14-2013)
OBITUARY: Chuck Smith, Minister Who Preached to Flower Children, Dies at 86
(Southern California minister shepherded flower children and rock 'n' roll into
the conservative
wing of the evangelical movement. was never a fiery preacher
and rarely appeared on television.)
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 10-14-2013)
All Is Fair in Love and Twitter
(Seven years after Twitter was founded, the company with a catchy name had more than 2,000 employees,
more than 200 million active users and a market value estimated at $16 billion.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times Magazine, 10-13-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: What Do We Owe the Future?
(Contemporary life is overloaded with visions of the future.
We are now suffering from an obsession with what lies ahead.)
(By Patricia I. Vieira & Michael Marder, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
BITS: Disruptions: Bit by Bit, Virtual Reality Heads for the Holodeck
(Virtual-reality device Oculus Rift immersed me in an icy scene straight out of "Game of Thrones.")
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
OP-ED: Is Music the Key to Success?
(Many high achievers told me music opened up pathways to creative thinking.)
(By Joanne Lipman, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
The Soaring Cost of a Simple Breath
(Pulmicort, a steroid inhaler, retails for over $175 in the U.S. and $20 in UK.)
(By Elisabeth Rosenthal, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
The High-End Matchmaking Service for Tycoons
(Singles mixer by Kelleher International in January 2014 on
Necker Island with base fee of $45,000)
(By Dan Crane, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— Evolution and Bad Boyfriends
(Parents have tried to influence the love lives of their children— with mixed success.)
(By Piet van den Berg & Tim W. Pawcett, NY Times, 10-13-2013)
YOUR MONEY: Class on the Web, for Students of All Ages
(Joshua Rauh, a finance professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business,
opened a course on the finance of retirement and pensions to the masses.)
(By Tara Siegel Bernard, NY Times, 10-12-2013)
A Bridge Between Western Science and Eastern Faith
(Dalai Lama has started a project Emory-Tibet Science Initiative
to translate science textbooks for use
in monasteries. He hopes to meld the interior world of meditation with the exterior world of matter.)
(By Kim Severson, NY Times, 10-12-2013)
BOOKS: Alice Munro Wins Nobel Prize in Literature
(Munro, 82, has written 14 story collections, is a "master of the contemporary short story". She was 37,
publishing her first book Dance of the Happy Shades; Quote: "The constant happiness is curiosity".)
(By Julie Bosman, NY Times, 10-11-2013)
BOOKS: AN APPRAISAL— Master of the Intricacies of the Human Heart
(Nobel winner Munro mines inner lives of girls & women; She observed: "The complexity of things—
the things within things— just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.")
(By Michiko Kakutani, NY Times, 10-11-2013)
EDITORIAL: A Nobel Prize for Alice Munro
(Her world lies just outside the small town of Dalgleish, Canada. Life doesn't bring them many blessings
for the nerves, but neither does it seem to crowd them with tragedy. Of all the things worth admiring in
her work, it is perhaps the pace of Ms. Munro's storytelling that seems most admirable.)
(The Editorial Board, NY Times, 10-11-2013)
HEALTH: Ask Well: Leaving Nail Fungus Untreated
(Drug Lamisil, is associated with rare cases of liver damage;
new topical treatments Efinaconazole & avaborole to be released next year.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 10-11-2013)
BASEBALL: N.L.C.S. Preview— For the Dodgers, a Model in the Opposite Dugout
[In 1951, the Dodgers' Carl Furillo #6 caught a fly ball (photo) from the Cardinals' Stan Musial #6,
who hit .359 at Ebbets Field. Branch Rickey who signed Jackie Robinson with Preacher Roe (photo).]
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 10-11-2013)
SCIENCE: Without Test Tubes, 3 Win Nobel in Chemistry
[Martin Karplus (Harvard), Arieh Warshel (USC), Michael Levitt (Stanford) used computer models
to study macromolecules; Note: Professor Karplus taught my physical chemistry class at Columbia.]
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
ARTS BEAT: A Mighty Honor for Munro, a Humble Writer
(Most of us are lucky to get a gold pen when we retire. Alice Munro got
the Nobel Prize.
12 NY Times Munro book reviews; 4 features articles; Links to CBC, Paris Review & New Yorker)
(By John Williams, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
BOOKS: Alice Munro— Excerpts From Her Work
("Royal Beatings" fro Beggar Maid; "Too Much Happiness"; "Amundsen" from Dear Life)
(Reprinted from Alfred A. Knopf, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
THE CREATIVE MID-LIFE: Yo-Yo Ma and the Mind Game of Music
(When he reached middle age, Yo-Yo Ma said, "I realized that of all the things I'm
interested in, the thing I'm most interested in is figuring out what makes people tick.")
(By Joan Anderman, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE: The Dangers of Pseudoscience
("Demarcation problem"— the issue of what separates good science
from bad science and pseudoscience (and everything in between.)
(By Massimo Pigliucci & Maarten Boudry, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
MEDIA & ADVERTISING: A Novel Prompts a Conversation About How We Use Technology
(Dave Eggers's new novel The Circle resembles Google & made
Michele Filgate quit Twitter.)
(By Julie Bosman & Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 10-10-2013)
SCIENCE:
Higgs and Englert Are Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics
(Peter Higgs, 84, University of Edinburgh, & François Englert, 80, University Libre de Bruxelles
suggested in 1964 that an invisible ocean of energy suffusing space is responsible for the mass and
diversity of the particles in the universe; Higgs boson, or "God particle" was discovered in July 2012.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 10-9-2013)
Opinionator:
FIXES— Turning Education Upside Down
(Three years ago, Clintondale High School, just north of Detroit, became a
"flipped school"— one
where students watch teachers' lectures at home and do what we'd otherwise call "homework" in class.)
(By Tina Rosenberg, NY Times, 10-9-2013)
SCIENCE:
Focusing on Fruit Flies, Curiosity Takes Flight
(Michael Dickinson has spent his career studying how flies fly and researchers
in his lab have invented new devices to investigate the complex feat of insect flight.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 10-8-2013)
SCIENCE:
Tiny Particle Looms Large on Eve of Top Physics Prize
(Will theoreticians of Higgs boson, or "God particle" discovered in July 2012 win Nobel?)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 10-8-2013)
Opinionator:
DISUNION— David vs. Goliath
(A diminutive Confederate ship helped revolutionize naval warfare.)
(By Rick Beard, NY Times, 10-8-2013)
BOOKS:
Scratching a Muse's Ears— Mary Oliver's Dog Songs Finds Poetry in Friends
(Mary Oliver lived for 50 years in Provincetown, Mass., and just migrated to a town
on the southeastern coast of Florida; She walks the woods with Ricky, a plucky Havanese.)
(By Dana Jennings, NY Times, 10-7-2013)
TRAVEL:
Treasures of the Cinque Terre
(Cinque Terre, Italy on the Mediterranean has sun, sea, and sweeping scenes.)
(By Liesl Schillinger, NY Times, 10-6-2013)
Opinionator:
THE GREAT DIVIDE— Rich People Just Care Less
(People with the most social power pay scant attention to those with little such power.)
(By Daniel Goleman, NY Times, 10-5-2013)
HEALTH:
For Better Social Skills, Scientists Recommend a Little Chekhov
(Psychology research shows that reading Chekhov or Alice Munro will help you
navigate new social territory better than a potboiler by Danielle Steel.)
(By Pam Belluck, NY Times, 10-3-2013)
HEALTH:
Can You Read People's Emotions?
(Above 30/36 score: quite good at understanding someone's mental state based on facial cues;)
Below 22/36 score: difficult to understand a person's mental state based on their appearance.)
(By New York Times, 10-3-2013)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Can We See Philosophy? A Dialogue With Ernie Gehr
(Whether or not one accepts the film-is-philosophy assertion, Gehr's work falls firmly into
the realm of direct experience and inquiry;
Manohla Dargis
2011 article on films of Ernie Gehr.)
(By Peter Catapano & Ernie Gehr, NY Times, 10-3-2013)
Opinionator:
FIXES— Who Will Heal the Doctors?
(Rachel Naomi Remen: "The Healer's Art"
doesn't purport to fix the health care system. It's about how
to help people in medicine survive the system. Many physicians experiencing burnout & exhaustion.)
(By David Bornstein, NY Times, 10-2-2013)
SCIENCE:
In Fragmented Forests, Rapid Mammal Extinctions
(Thailand experiment: Fragmenting wilderness can put species at risk of extinction.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 9-27-2013)
BITS: Google Alters Search to Handle More Complex Queries
(Google's Hummingbird is culmination of a shift to understanding the meaning of phrases
in a query and showing people Web pages that more accurately match that meaning.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 9-26-2013)
BITS: EBay Buys Braintree, a Payments Start-Up for $800 million in cash
(Braintree provides technology to companies to help process payments on Web & mobile devices.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 9-26-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: TOOL KIT— A Surge in Growth for a New Kind of Online Course
(Coursera has partnerships with 84 universities and offers more than 400 courses.
29 universities signed up to participatein EdX offered by Harvard and MIT.)
(By Alan Finder, NY Times, 9-26-2013)
BITS: On YouTube, 'Lyrics Videos' Mark a New Genre
(Top 500 lyrics videos pulled in 624 million views this year, compared with 84 million in 2011.)
(By Amy O'Leary, NY Times, 9-25-2013)
Opinionator:
PRIVATE LIVES— The End of Quiet Music
(I was a singer, not a saleswoman. Not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur.)
(By Alina Simone, NY Times, 9-25-2013)
Opinionator:
FIXES— Escaping the Cycle of Scarcity
(Worrying about money when it's tight captures our brains, reducing cognitive capacity—
especially our abstract intelligence, which we use for problem-solving.)
(By Tina Rosenberg, NY Times, 9-25-2013)
OP-ED: Losing Is Good for You
(When children make mistakes, our job should not be to spin those losses into decorated victories.)
(By Ashley Merryman, NY Times, 9-25-2013)
ARTS:
24 Recipients of MacArthur 'Genius' Awards Named
(Dancer-choreographer Kyle Abraham, who relied on food stamps just three years ago,
was among winners of $625,000 MacArthur fellows paid over five years.)
(By Felicia R. Lee, NY Times, 9-25-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS:
The Sun That Did Not Roar
(At height of the 11-year solar cycle, "solar maximum", the Sun has been tranquil, almost spotless.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 9-24-2013)
DEALB%K:
A Hedge Fund Manager Who Doesn't Mind a Losing Bet
(Mark Spitznagel, founder of Universa Investments, managing $6 billion in assets,
says the stock market is going to fall by at least 40% in one great market "purge".)
(By Alexandra Stevenson, NY Times, 9-24-2013)
LETTERS:
Investing in Early Childhood Now, for a Payoff Later
(Response to James J. Heckman's 9/15 "Lifelines for Poor Children")
(By Kendra Hurley, NY Times, 9-23-2013)
Eat, Pray, Love, Get Rich, Write a Novel No One Expects
(Viking will publish Gilbert's sixth book, a novel titled The Signature of All Things.)
(By Steve Almond, NY Times Magazine, 9-22-2013)
BOOKENDS: How Well Does Contemporary Fiction Address Radical Politics?
(Fiction by women seems most sensitive to the variety, ambiguities and contradictions of radicalism.)
(By Pankaj Mishra, NY Times Book Review, 9-22-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS:
Life on Mars? Well, Maybe Not
(Mars casts a long shadow in science & pop culture, inspiring
novels & TV shows, including "My Favorite Martian.")
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 9-20-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Science's Humanities Gap
(In his recent sermon to humanists, "Science Is Not Your Enemy", psychologist
Steven Pinker makes an impressive plea for humanists to pay more attention to science.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Winds of Change
(In his reflection on the Harmelin decision, Justice Stevens offered tantalizing
idea that longevity on the bench makes justices "more civilized.")
(By Linda Greenhouse, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
Opinionator: FIXES— Medicine's Search for Meaning
(50% of doctors report symptoms of burnout— emotional
exhaustion, low sense of accomplishment,
detachment. Medicine is facing a crisis,
but it's not just about money; it's about meaning.)
(By David Bornstein, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
U.S: Signs of Mental Illness Seen in Navy Gunman for Decade
(A month before murderous rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, Aaron Alexis called
Rhode Island police to complain that he had changed hotels three times
because he was being
pursued by people keeping him awake by sending vibrations
through the walls.)
(By Trip Gabriel, Joseph Goldstein, Thom Shanker, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: In Arrival of 2 iPhones, 3 Lessons
(Heavily promoted feature is 5S's fingerprint sensor. You push Home button to wake the phone, leave
your finger there another half second, Boom: you've unlocked
a phone that nobody else can unlock.)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Firm That Sent 42 Million Texts Settles in Spam Case
(Rentbro and its principals, Daniel Pessin & Jacob Engel, agreed to turn
over all remaining assets and to repay up to $377,321.)
(By Edward Wyatt, NY Times, 9-18-2013)
BITS: Content Creators Use Piracy to Gauge Consumer Interest
(Netflix looks at pirate Web sites to determine which genre of shows people are interested in.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 9-17-2013)
SCIENCE: Dancing With Black Widow Spiders
(Black widow spider's venom can lay out a heavyweight boxer for days.)
(By Jackson Landers, NY Times, 9-17-2013)
SCIENCE: The Rational Choices of Crack Addicts
(Carl Hart, associate professor at Columbia University, is author of book
High Price, a mix of memoir & scientific research about drug addiction.)
(By John Tierney, NY Times, 9-17-2013)
BITS: Google Buys Bump for $40 million, Maker of Apps for Sharing Photos and Files
(Bump reinvented itself, as a tool for exchanging business cards, then a social network,
then a file-sharing service. Recently, it added a photo-sharing app called Flock.)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 9-16-2013)
BOOK REVIEW: Still Shining and Spooked, but Hopeful
(Doctor Sleep is Stephen King's sequel to The Shining.)
(By Janet Maslin, NY Times, 9-16-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— Time to Write? Go Outside
(Nothing coaxes thoughts into coherent sentences like sitting under
a shade tree on a pleasant day.)
(By Carol Kaufmann, NY Times, 9-16-2013)
OP-ED: How to Fall in Love With Math
(With math you can reach not just for the sky or the stars or the edges
of the universe, but for timeless constellations of ideas that lie beyond.)
(By Manil Suri, NY Times, 9-16-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: For Retailers, New Gmail Has One Tab Too Many
[For Google, it's another moneymaking avenue (note the ads that look like e-mails that now
appear at the top of the promotions folder). Google says it wants to fix e-mail overload.]
(By Claire Cain Miller & Stephanie Clifford, NY Times, 9-16-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— The Banality of Systemic Evil
(Robert Jackall's Moral Mazes
explored ethics of decision making within corporate bureaucracies.
Just as Hannah Arendt saw that combined action
of loyal managers can give rise to unspeakable systemic evil,
so too generation W has seen complicity within surveillance state can give rise to evil as well.)
(By Peter Ludlow, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
EDUCATION: How to Get a Job With a Philosophy Degree
(To preserve liberal arts, universities need to help humanities majors find jobs.)
(By Susan Dominus, NY Times Magazine, 9-15-2013)
NY REGION: The Two Wills of the Heiress Huguette Clark
(Copper heiress Clark who died in 2011 at 104, left all relatives out of her $300 million will.)
(By Anemona Hartocollis, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
ART & DESIGN: A Hallucinatory Blaze, via Tibetan Ritual
(Zhang Huan's colorful skull paintings at the Pace Gallery)
(By Barbara Pollock, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
OP-ED: Two-State Illusion
(A negotiated two-state "solution" is not probable between Israel & Palestine.)
(By Ian S. Lustick, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
EDUCATION: The Boy Genius of Ulan Bator
(Battushig Myanganbayar, then 15, became one of 340 students out of 150,000 to earn
a perfect score in Circuits and Electronics, a sophomore-level MOOC class at M.I.T.)
(By Laura Pappano, NY Times Magazine, 9-15-2013)
EDUCATION: How to Get a Job With a Philosophy Degree
(If universities want to preserve the liberal arts, they have a responsibility to help
those humanities majors know how to translate their studies into the work world.)
(By Susan Dominus, NY Times Magazine, 9-15-2013)
BUSINESS: Taste-Testing a Second Career, With a Mentor
(Melissa Owen, in her new coffeehouse in Plano, Tex., which opened with help from a career mentor.)
(By Mark Oppenheimer, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— It's Not 'Mess', It's Creativity.
(Anthropologist Mary Douglas noted almost 50 years ago a connection between
clean, open spaces
and moral righteousness. Conversely, people were found to
associate chaotic wilderness with death.
New Study: clean spaces might be too
conventional to let inspiration flow.)
(By Kathleen D. Vohs, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
REAL ESTATE: Living Apart Together.
(Some couples, both those in longtime relationships and officially married,
follow a less-traveled path. They live in separate homes.)
(By Constance Rosenblum, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
BOOK REVIEW: Richard Dawkins— By the Book
Book of greatest impact: Darwin's Origin & Fred Hoyle's Black Cloud.)
(By Richard Dawkins, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
EDUCATION: No Child Left Untableted
(American habits now ascendant: overvaluing of technology & undervaluing of people.)
(By Carlo Rotella, NY Times Magazine, 9-15-2013)
MODERN LOVE: Age Is No Obstacle to Love, or Adventure
(What astonished us was that the electricity we generated was
as strong and compelling as love had been 50 years before.)
(By Nora Johnson, NY Times, 9-15-2013)
EDUCATION: Can Emotional Intelligence Be Taught?
(Social-Emotional Learning instill psychological intelligence that helps
children regulate their emotions.)
(By Jennifer Kahn, NY Times Magazine, 9-15-2013)
OP-ED: Overpopulation Is Not the Problem
(Humans are niche creators. We transform ecosystems to sustain ourselves.)
(By Erle C. Ellis, NY Times, 9-14-2013)
BUSINESS ECONOMY: New Metric for Colleges: Graduates' Salaries
[PayScale's rankings quantify college education based on economic factors
like income
& employment. Harvey Mudd College (16 on U.S. News ranking, first on PayScale's).]
(By James B. Stewart, NY Times, 9-14-2013)
U.S.: Girl's Suicide Points to Rise in Apps Used by Cyberbullies
(Rebecca Sedwick signed on to new applications— ask.fm, and Kik &Voxer—
which kick-started the messaging and bullying once again.)
(By Lizette Alvarez, NY Times, 9-14-2013)
NY REGION: Jews Make a Pilgrimage to a Grand Rebbe's Grave
(Old Montefiore Cemetery in Cambria Heights, Queens, where Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson,
seventh grand rebbe of the Lubavitcher group of Hasidic Jews, is buried.)
(By Sarah Maslin Nir, NY Times, 9-14-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: The Payday at Twitter Many Were Waiting For
(CEO Dick Costolo's $25,000 investment is probably worth more than $10 million.)
(By Nick Bilton & Vindu Goel, NY Times, 9-14-2013)
BITS BLOG: Twitter vs. Facebook: A Tale of Two Sites
(Twitter functions as a real-time news, entertainment and information network, tapping
into the ideas and preoccupations of people who live online and the events that affect them.
Facebook, on the other hand, primarily functions as the yellow pages for the Internet.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 9-13-2013)
OP-ED: The Twitter I.P.O: Investor Beware
(Jump-Start Our Business Start-Ups, or JOBS Act of 2012 put the interest of the company—
its backers, its executives, its bankers— ahead of the interests of investors.)
(By Teresa Tritch, NY Times, 9-13-2013)
SCIENCE: In a Breathtaking First, NASA Craft Exits the Solar System
(Since the launch of this spacecraft in 1977, Voyager 1 has traveled over
11.7 billion miles. That is like traveling to the moon & back almost 25,000 times.)
(By Brooks Barnes, NY Times, 9-13-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: New Devices Mind Pets While Owners Are Away
(Stainless steel tag Whistle, embedded with an accelerometer registers
your dog's every move and feeds you the data via a smartphone app.)
(By Mike Hendricks & Roxie Hammill, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
OP-ED: Selling the Fantasy of Fertility
(Of the 1.5 million assisted reproductive cycles performed worldwide, only
350,000 resulted in the birth of a child. That is a 77% global failure rate.)
(By Miriam Zoll & Pamela Tsigdinos, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
DEALB%K: An Initial Filing, in Fewer Than 140 Characters
(Twitter can fly under the radar because of the rules in the Jump-Start
Our Business Start-ups or JOBS Act, which became law in 2012.)
(By Steven M. Davidoff, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: An App to Lend an Artsy Blur to Photos
(Tadaa 3-D lets users mimic dimension in images typically reserved for Digital Single-Lens
Reflex cameras by highlighting parts they want to focus and applying blur and effects to the frame.)
(By Roy Furchgott, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: Q&A: Scanning Printed Documents for Editing
(Once the scanner captures an image or PDF file of document and saves the file on your computer,
you can use an optical character recognition (O.C.R.) program to analyze scanned document
and convert it to text that can be edited in Microsoft Word.)
(By J.D. Biersdorfer, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: It's Your Words Against Others' in Games for the Mobile Screen
(In Letterpress, a player can "protect" letters against use by an opponent.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
OP-ED: A Plea for Caution From Russia— What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria
(A strike against Syria would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.)
(By Vladmir V. Putin, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
SCIENCE: Middle-Aged Men, Too, Can Blame Estrogen for That Waistline
(Estrogen, the female sex hormone, turns out to play a much bigger role in men's bodies.)
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 9-12-2013)
HEALTH: How Exercise Can Help Us Eat Less
(Strenuous exercise dulls the urge to eat afterward better than gentler workouts.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 9-11-2013)
Opinionator: FIXES— The Next Wireless Revolution, in Electricity
(More than 25% of world has no electricity; half have no piped water,
2.5 billion have no piped gas.)
(By Tina Rosenberg, NY Times, 9-11-2013)
MY STORY: Bad Dog
(It's easy to love a well-behaved dog. It's harder to love Chance,
with his bristly personality and tendency toward violence.)
(By Rachel Maizes, NY Times, 9-10-2013)
BOOKS: A Numerical Love Story
(Daniel Tammet's Thinking in Numbers Dwells on a Pure Love)
(By Katie Hafner, NY Times, 9-10-2013)
ECONOMIX: The Rich Get Richer Through the Recovery
(Top 10% of earners took more than half of the country's total income in 2012.)
(By Annie Lowrey, NY Times, 9-10-2013)
ART & DESIGN: A van Gogh's Trip From the Attic to the Museum
(Van Gogh's Sunset at Montmajour
painted in Arles in 1888, declared genuine.)
(By Nina Siegal, NY Times, 9-10-2013)
TECHNOLGY: Judges Hear Arguments on Rules for Internet
(If Internet service providers charges fees to reach customers more quickly,
large, wealthy companies like Google and Facebook would have an edge.)
(By Edward Wyatt, NY Times, 9-10-2013)
OP-ED: The Pop! of the Wild
(Put your head underwater in Sea of Cortez, you'll hear a crackling sound.
Pistol shrimp make their pops by shooting the "thumb" of one claw into
a socket on the larger, opposing part of the same claw.)
(By Aaron Hirsh, NY Times, 9-9-2013)
Opinionator: Digital Natives— A Defense of the Internet Community
(While face-to-face communication has its advantages, so does the online medium.)
(By Daphne Koller, NY Times, 9-9-2013)
BITS: The Cloud Era Begins for Enterprise Tech
(Microsoft bought Nokia as it tries to be relevant in a new world of cloud computing,
smartphones and tablets, with eroding personal computer demand.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 9-9-2013)
U.S.: A Quest to Save AM Before It's Lost in the Static
(Long surpassed by FM and more recently cast aside by satellite radio and Pandora,
AM is now under siege from a new threat: rising interference from smartphones and
consumer electronics that reduce many AM stations to little more than static.)
(By Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 9-9-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Things Fall Apart
(Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos
has paved the way for a religious world-view.)
(By Philip Kitcher, NY Times, 9-8-2013)
OP-ED: GRAY MATTER— The New Science of Mind
(Helen Mayberg can discern complex neural circuit that
becomes disordered in depressive illnesses.)
(By Eric R. Kandel, NY Times, 9-8-2013)
TRAVEL: 3 Quiet Museums in Rome
(Museo di Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, Centrale Montemartini and Museo delle Anime dei Defunti.)
(By Francine Prose, NY Times, 9-8-2013)
EDUCATION: Harvard Business School Case Study: Gender Equity
(Attracting and retaining female professors was a losing battle; from 2006 to 2007,
a third of the female junior faculty left.)
(By Jodi Kantor, NY Times, 9-8-2013)
Opinionator: THE GREAT DIVIDE— The Great Stagnation of American Education
(After leading the world in college completion, America has dropped to 16th.)
(By Robert J. Gordon, NY Times, 9-7-2013)
Opinionator: THE DRAFT— The Short Sentence as Gospel Truth
(On July 19, 1975, Tom Wolfe said: "If you ever have a preposterous statement to make...
say it in five words or less, because we're always used to five-word sentences as being the gospel truth.")
(By Roy Peter Clark, NY Times, 9-7-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: An App That Sorts Your E-Mail Shopping Offers
(New, free app for iPad and iPhone, bizarrely called PeeqPeeq, is a good start.)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 9-5-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Academia's Fog of Male Anxiety
("I'm afraid to form relationships with female students— they might take it the wrong way.")
(By Louise Anthony, NY Times, 9-5-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— The Disappearing Women
(Socrates banished the weeping women, as prelude to real business of philosophizing.)
(By Rae Langton, NY Times, 9-4-2013)
HEALTH: Some Fruits Are Better Than Others
(Grapes, apples and grapefruit reduced the risk of Type 2 diabetes.
Eating 1-3 servings of blueberries a month decreased risk by 11%.)
(By Nicholas Bakalar, NY Times, 9-4-2013)
SCIENCE: Expecting the Best Yields Results in Massachusetts
(If Massachusetts were a country, its 8th graders would rank
second in the world in science, behind only Singapore.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 9-3-2013)
SCIENCE: Guesses and Hype Give Way to Data in Study of Education
(Choice of instructional materials— textbooks, curriculum guides, homework,
quizzes—
can affect achievement as profoundly as teachers themselves; a poor
choice of materials is at
least as bad as a terrible teacher, and a good choice can help
offset a bad teacher's deficiencies.)
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 9-3-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Online Attack Leads to Peek Into Spam Den
(Igor Artimovich has been linked with a prolific illegal network
of virus-infected computers that send spam worldwide.)
(By Andrew E. Kramer, NY Times, 9-3-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Women in Philosophy? Do the Math
(As recently as 2010, philosophy had a lower percentage
of women doctorates than math, chemistry and economics.)
(By Sally Haslanger, NY Times, 9-2-2013)
BITS: Disruptions: More Connected, Yet More Alone
(We're addicted to that little screen and that maybe life
is just better led when it is lived rather than viewed.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 9-1-2013)
BITS: Stealth Wear, Coming to a Store Near You
(The OFF Pocket works as an electromagnetic barrier, preventing
the penetration of signals that transit data and audio.)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 8-31-2013)
ARTS: Seamus Heaney, Irish Poet of Soil and Strife, Dies at 74
(Heaney was enraptured, by "words as bearers of history and mystery." His poetry,
had an epiphanic quality, was suffused with Celtic myth and of ancient Greece.)
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 8-31-2013)
BOOKS: AN Appraisal— Capturing Rhythms of Nature in Poems
(Regardless of a poem's subject, there are continuities in Seamus Heaney's work,
including an awareness of mortality and the precariousness of life.)
(By Michiko Kakutani, NY Times, 8-31-2013)
ARTS: Seamus Heaney's 'Journey Into the Wideness of Language'
(In 1997 interview in Paris Review, Mr. Heaney described winning the Nobel
as "a bit like being caught in a mostly benign avalanche.")
(By John Williams, NY Times, 8-30-2013)
The Opt-Out Generation Wants Back In
(Those women who joined Opt-Out Revolution in 2003 now wants to work again.)
(By Judith Warner, NY Times Magazine, 8-11-2013)
SCIENCE:
Internet Study Finds the Persuasive Power of 'Like'
(New research is trying to answer the question: Is something popular because it is actually good
or just because it is popular? A positive nudge, they said, can set off a bandwagon of approval.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 8-9-2013)
LATITUDE: Bringing God Along For the Ride
(16 million of Vietnam's 86 million adhere to a religion; 43% Buddhists, 36% Catholic, with many
believing in ancestor worship, animism, karma, the afterlife; some embraces even Victor Hugo.)
(By Lien Hoang, NY Times, 8-8-2013)
SCIENCE:
A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years Later
(Henrietta Lacks was only 31 when she died of cervical cancer in 1951;
Her HeLa cells have been the subject of more than 74,000 studies.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 8-8-2013)
ARTS: Leonardo da Vinci Notebook Coming to Smithsonian
(Smithsonian will display
Leonardo's "Codex on the Flight of Birds" from Sept. 13 to Oct. 22, 2013)
(By Ashley Southall, NY Times, 8-8-2013)
OP-ED: Crazy Pills
(Mefloquine hydrochloride, brand name Lariam, protects from malaria, but develops
psychiatric symptoms like amnesia, hallucinations, aggression and paranoia.)
(By David Stuart MacLean, NY Times, 8-8-2013)
N.Y. REGION: Tech Magnates Bet on Booker and His Future
(Tech moguls made Cory Booker a partner in start-up
Waywire, supporting him for the Senate.)
(By David M. Halbfinger, Raymond Hernandez, & Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 8-7-2013)
SCIENCE: Smarter Anti-Clotting Tools
(Researchers using nanoparticles of gold have been able to stop blood
in test tubes from clotting, and then make it clot again.)
(By Sindya N. Bhanoo, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS: Stars, Gold, Dung Beetles and Us
(Scarabs were sacred to ancient Egyptians for their ability to create life from waste.
These dung beetles
can use the Milky Way as their guide, rolling a dung ball to their nests.
Current Biology:
"Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way for Orientation")
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
SCIENCE BOOKS: Travels in the Fourth Dimension
(Claudia Hammond's Time Warped
looks at how we perceive and misperceive time; Excerpt)
(By Jascha Hoffman, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
SCIENCE: Navigational Cells Located in Human Brains
(Scientist found grid cells,
neurons that emit pulses of electricity in a regular pattern that maps the animal's movement.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
BITS: Drawing the Line on Altering Human Minds
(It's one thing to digitally enhance our memories with gadgets like iPhones and Google Glass,
it's something entirely different to delete or change past memories using technology.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
SCIENCE: Seeing Narcissists Everywhere
(Professor Jean M. Twenge)
(Finding fault with culture of self-esteem in the U.S., in which parents praise every child as "special.")
(By Douglas Quenqua, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
HEALTH: How Sleep Loss Adds to Weight Gain
(Sleep deprivation changes brain activity so the sleepless eat more high-calorie junk foods.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 8-6-2013)
OP-ED: Addicted to Prayer
(When people use prayer to enhance their real-word selves, they feel good. When it disconnects
them from the everyday, as it did for the student, they feel bad.
"Solace in Prayer" article)
(By T. M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 8-4-2013)
BITS: Computer-Brain Interfaces Making Big Leaps
(Scientists haven't yet found a way to mend a broken heart, but they're edging closer
to manipulating memory and downloading instructions from a computer right into a brain.)
(By Nick Bilton, NY Times, 8-4-2013)
OP-ED: The Trauma of Being Alive
(88-year-old Mom still upset her husband of almost 60 years died four years ago.)
(By Mark Epstein, NY Times, 8-4-2013)
OP-ED: Return of the Jesus Wars
(Reza Aslan's book offers a more engaging version of the argument Hermann Samuel Reimarus
made 250 years ago. His Jesus is an essentially political figure, a revolutionary killed because he
challenged Roman rule, who was then mysticized by his disciples and divinized by Paul of Tarsus.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 8-4-2013)
EDUCATION: Testing, Testing: More Students Are Taking Both the ACT and SAT
(By Tamar Lewin, NY Times, 8-4-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— Writers as Architects
(In architecture, once you remove the skin— "language" of walls, ceilings and slabs—
all that remains is sheer space. In writing, once you discard language itself, the actual words,
what's left? How does one design and build using emptiness as a construction material?
How do we perceive space?)
(By Matteo Pericoli, NY Times, 8-3-2013)
Opinionator: THE GREAT DIVIDE— Crumbling American Dreams
(Port Clinton, Ohio, population 6,050— was in 1950s a passable embodiment of the American dream.
50 years later, wealthy kids park BMW convertibles in Port Clinton High lot next to decrepit "junkers"
where homeless classmates live. American dream has morphed into a split-screen nightmare.)
(By Robert D. Putnam, NY Times, 8-3-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: Chromecast, Simply and Cheaply, Flings Web Video to TVs
(Google's Chromecast, which can display Netflix and YouTube on your television.)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 8-1-2013)
HEALTH: AGING— The Ticktock of the Death Clock
(Death Clock's algorithm calculated: "Your personal day of death is Wednesday, April 23, 2031.")
(By Steven Petrow, NY Times, 8-1-2013)
Crowds Return to Las Vegas, but Gamble Less
(More than 39.7 million visitors came here in 2012, a record. But they spent notably less money per
trip than during last upturn— $1,021 per visit last year, compared with $1,318 spent by those in 2007.)
(By Adam Nagourney, NY Times, 8-1-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Did Zeus Exist?
(Robert Parker's On Greek Religiion:
"The greatest evidence for the existence of gods is that piety works...
the converse is that impiety leads to disaster".
Zeus's reality remained widely unquestioned
to ancient Greeks. Socrates regularly followed the dictates of his
daimon, a personal divine guide.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 7-31-2013)
EDUCATION: Efforts to Recruit Poor Students Lag at Some Elite Colleges
(Federal Pell Grants go to students whose families earn less than $30,000 a year.)
(By Richard Pérez-Peña, NY Times, 7-31-2013)
HEALTH: How Exercise Changes Fat and Muscle Cells
(Exercise may affect risk for Type 2 diabetes & obesity by changing DNA methylation of those genes.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-31-2013)
HEALTH: Making the Case for Eating Fruit
(Increased fruit consumption is tied to lower body weight & lower risk of obesity-associated diseases.)
(By Sophie Egan, NY Times, 7-31-2013)
HEALTH: Moon Phases Tied to Sleep Cycles
[Melatonin levels, total sleep time and delta sleep time (the deepest sleep, as recorded by EEG)
reached their lowest levels at full moon, and their highest as the moon waxed and waned.]
(By Nicholas Bakalar, NY Times, 7-31-2013)
HEALTH: Tracing Germs Through the Aisles
(Dr. Lance B. Price)
(Spread of antibiotic-resistant germs to people from animals raised on industrial farms.)
(By Sabrina Tavernise, NY Times, 7-30-2013)
OP-ED: Pope Francis in Context
(Pope: "A gay person who is seeking God, who is of good will— well, who am I to judge him?")
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 7-30-2013)
Opinionator: "Tunnel Vision"
(Video: Best seating is standing, at the head or rear of the subway train, eyes glued to the window.)
(By Jeff Scher, NY Times, 7-29-2013)
SCIENCE: A Race to Save the Orange by Altering Its DNA
(Emerging scientific consensus held genetic engineering would be required to defeat citrus greening.)
(By Amy Harmon, NY Times, 7-28-2013)
BOOK REVIEW: Francis S. Collins: By the Book
(My life was turned upside down 35 years ago by reading C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity";
Next book to read: "C.S. Lewis: A Life"— a new biography from Alister McGrath.)
(By Francis S. Collins, NY Times, 7-28-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Found in Translation
(Works of philosophy— and their readers— gain in translation not just because their authors begin
to breathe in a new language but because the text signals a world alien to its initial composition.)
(By Hamid Dabashi, NY Times, 7-28-2013)
OP-ED: Can Genetic Engineering Save the Orange, and Vice Versa?
("It's not where a gene comes from that matters," one researcher said. "It's what it does.")
(By Andrew C. Revkin, NY Times, 7-28-2013)
TELEVISION: Don't Mind Us. We'll Just Watch
('Masters of Sex' recalls the work of Masters and Johnson)
(By Dave Itzkoff, NY Times, 7-28-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— A Writer by Any Other Name
(New York Times asked several writers to choose a hypothetical pen name and
describe what kind of book they might write under— or perhaps behind— that name.)
(By Draft Contributors, NY Times, 7-27-2013)
Opinionator: MEASURE FOR MEASURE— Staring at Two Suns
(When I first sent Eleanor what I had of the lyrics of "Stare at the Sun", she sent me
two acoustic versions labeled "fast" & "slow": I gravitated towards slower version,
and that's what we then wrote to.)
(By Wesley Stace, NY Times, 7-26-2013)
OP-ED: Sylvia Plath's Neighborhood
(There is blue-and-white English Heritage plaque: "Sylvia Plath 1932-1963 Poet lived here 1960-61.")
(By Roger Cohen, NY Times, 7-26-2013)
Under Code, Apps Would Disclose Collection of Data
(Mobile apps will display info on collecting certain personal details from users)
(By Natasha Singer, NY Times, 7-26-2013)
Its Reign Was Long, With Nine Lives to Start
("Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt" at Brooklyn Museum has 30 cats)
(By Holland Cotter, NY Times, 7-26-2013)
Come See Detroit, America's Future
(Detroit files for bankruptcy. What does this mean? Pay close attention because
it may be coming to you soon, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia)
(By Charlie LeDuff, NY Times, 7-26-2013)
Opinionator:
THE STONE— Return of the Stingy Oddsmaker: A Response
(Response to readers on his 7/21 post "Nothing to See Here: Demoting the Uncertainty Principle";
Quantum mechanics can be formulated in ways that treat the observer as part of the quantum system.)
(By Craig Callender, NY Times, 7-25-2013)
In the Universe of Printers, One Worth Talking About
(Hewlett-Packard Pro P1606dn is 15" wide, weighs 15 lbs and goes to sleep
when you are not printing; get 2,000 pages from each $78 cartridge)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 7-25-2013)
OP-ED: Look Who's Teaching Smartphone
(77-year-old Teruko Miyata teaches seniors at SoftBank Mobile store counter)
(By Kumiko Makihara, NY Times, 7-25-2013)
Dominant Countries, Lost in Transition
(Debate about China's rise and the decline of the U.S. continues)
(Eight Debaters, NY Times, 7-25-2013)
BOOKS: A Religious Legacy, With Its Leftward Tilt, Is Reconsidered
(Today's "spiritual but not religious" phenomenon, Matthew S. Hedstrom argues in
The Rise of Liberal Religion, owes a strong debt to midcentury liberal Protestantism;
David A. Hollinger's 2011 address on Protestant Dialectic;
Elesha J. Coffman's blog
The Christian Century;
Religion in American History)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 7-24-2013)
OP-ED: Bonjour, America!
(From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, nearly a million French Canadians poured
across our northern border to take jobs in New England textile and shoe mills.)
(By Stephen R. Kelly, NY Times, 7-24-2013)
FOOD: THE FLEXITARIAN— The Whole Story
(The Complex World of Whole Grains, Made Simple)
(By Mark Bittman, NY Times, 7-24-2013)
HEALTH: Can You Get Too Much Exercise?
(Research: More fibrosis— meaning scarring— in heart muscle of competitive endurance
athletes than men of the same age who were active but not competitive athletes.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-24-2013)
HEALTH: Searching for Meaningful Markers of Aging
(Men appear to age on average 4% faster than women, which may largely explain
why women's life expectancy exceeds men's by about 6% worldwide. NIH Research)
(By David Stipp, NY Times, 7-23-2013)
SCIENCE: Faster Than the Speed of Light?
(NASA physicist Harold G. White works on the concept of warp drive, like on "Star Trek".)
(By Danny Hakim, NY Times, 7-23-2013)
Opinionator: The End of Anxiety
(Last week brought the final installment
in Opinionator's Anxiety series. In more than 70 essays,
the series explored everything from OCD to being
overscheduled to getting
groped on the subway.)
(By The Editors, NY Times, 7-22-2013)
HEALTH: The Kitchen as a Pollution Hazard
(Woody Delp's Berkeley research lab: how to remove harmful contaminants caused by cooking.)
(By Peter Andrey Smith, NY Times, 7-22-2013)
HEALTH: Nightmares After the Intensive Care Unit
(Registered nurse in Texas, had traumatic hallucinations while in I.C.U. after abdominal surgery)
(By Jan Hoffman, NY Times, 7-22-2013)
OP-ED: Of Love and Fungus
[LAT ("Living Apart Together")— 6% of American couples married & unmarried don't cohabitate.]
(By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 7-21-2013)
OP-ED: Fast Time and the Aging Mind
(Greater the cognitive demands of a task, the longer its duration is perceived to be. If you want time to
slow down, become a student again. Learn something requiring sustained effort; do something new.)
(By Richard A. Friedman, NY Times, 7-21-2013)
EDITORIAL: You (and Your Cellphone) on Candid Camera
(Retailers track shoppers in stores, using security cameras and devices that can monitor the location
of customer cellphones.
Retailers say they need to monitor customers to help them find what they want.)
(By The Editorial Board, NY Times, 7-19-2013)
OP-ED: The Dating World of Tomorrow
(Debating the wisdom of pairing off in college or looking for love on the internet.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 7-19-2013)
Two Tips for Facebook Users
(Writer's "Other" folder, whose messages, by the time he discovered them, were ancient & outdated.)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
OP-ED: Love in the Time of Hookups
(On sexual culture of strings-free hookups is brilliantly suited to today's socioeconomic landscape.)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
HEALTH: Dementia's Signs May Come Early
(People with memory complaints may in fact be detecting early harbingers of Alzheimer's.)
(By Pam Belluck, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
HEALTH: Alternatives for Back Pain Relief
(Most popular nonsurgical medical treatment for low back pain has been injection therapy, or shots
into the lower back of cortisone, liquid ibuprofen, morphine & vitamin B12. But benefits do not last.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
HEALTH: In a Culture of Disrespect, Patients Lose Out
(Dismissive attitudes of doctors toward nurses, students, administrators, and patients—
are as corrosive as outward manifestations of disrespect. Patients bear brunt of this toxic atmosphere.)
(By Danielle Ofri, M.D., NY Times, 7-18-2013)
SCIENCE: Changing View on Viruses: Not So Small After All
(Influenza virus measures about 100 nanometers across, and has just 13 genes.
Pandoravirus is 1000 times bigger than the flu virus & has nearly 200 times as many genes.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
OP-ED: Yes We Can to Yes We Scan
(Obama's wearing headphones in "Yes We Scan" posters with phrases "Obey Us", "Control"
& "We Are Watching You"—
implies that a tyrannical, Orwellian government— can also change the person.)
(By Juliet Lapidos, NY Times, 7-18-2013)
HEALTH: Exercise in a Pill? The Search Continues
(Scripps reported that a compound they had created & injected into obese mice increased activation of
a protein called REV-ERB, known to partially control animals' circadian rhythms &
internal biological clocks.
Injected animals lost weight, even on a high-fat diet, & improved their cholesterol profiles.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-17-2013)
HEALTH: New Radiation Therapy Prolongs Prostate Cancer Survival
(New radiation therapy, Xofigo, can extend lives of men with most advanced form of prostate cancer.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 7-17-2013)
SCIENCE: Study Finds Spatial Skill Is Early Sign of Creativity
(Vanderbilt's David Lubinski:
Differential Aptitude Test measures spatial relations skills in
manipulating 2-D & 3-D objects and is a greater predictor of future creativity or innovation.)
(By Douglas Quenqua, NY Times, 7-16-2013)
SCIENCE: A Low-Tech Mosquito Deterrent
(Small electric fan that swept back and forth, sending a gentle breeze, kept mosquitos away.)
(By William Broad, NY Times, 7-16-2013)
HEALTH: Ask Well— Trying to Avoid Statins
[Statins are widely prescribed for lowering cholesterol, but cardiologists often don't discuss
(or sometimes even dismiss) one of the significant side-effects: muscle pain.]
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 7-16-2013)
BUSINESS: Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell
(Brick-and-mortar stores are looking for a chance to catch up with their online competitors by using
software that allows them to watch customers as they shop, and gather data about their behavior.)
(By Stephanie Clifford & Quentin Hardy, NY Times, 7-15-2013)
PERSONAL TECH:
High-Tech Eyeglasses, Not Made by Google
(Not Google Glass that brings Internet to your eyeball, but 3 new eyeglass technologies
that improves
your vision: Adlens Variable Focus,
O2Amp Color-Assisting Glasses,
Glasses.com 3-D)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Upheaval in the E-Book World
(People who bought e-books from Barnes & Noble may wind up with libraries they can't read.)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
PERSONAL TECH:
APP SMART— Apps for Digital Note-Taking
(Stylus-friendly Noteshelf, a $6 iPad app by Ramki, lets you write on plain or ruled pages.)
(By Kit Eaton, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
OP-ED: Broken Promises
(American Indian kids living in poverty are paying a very high price for this misguided abandonment
of Congressional decision-making.
1868 Fort Laramie Treaty broken by U.S. Government with Sioux.)
(By Byron L. Dorgan, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
MOSCOW JOURNAL:
Step Right Up, Kids, the Predator Is Ready
(Russian circus rituals: photographing small children with Siberian tiger during breaks in the show.)
(By Andrew E. Kramer, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
LENS: On a Trapeze, Reaching for an Elusive Dream
(Christian Rodriguez has pictures of upside-down people and upside-down elephants in the circus.)
(By Kerri MacDonald, NY Times, 7-11-2013)
ROOM FOR DEBATE: Summertime and the Reading Is Easy
[Some willing novelists have shared what their guilty (literary) pleasures are.]
(New York Times, 7-11-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: Tip of the Week:— Test-Drive Android Apps Online
(Thousands of programs in the Amazon Appstore for Android
include a Test Drive feature
that lets you fire up a version the app in your browser window to try before you buy.)
(By J.D. Biersdorfer, NY Times, 7-10-2013)
HEALTH:
Cornell Scientist's Quest: Perfect Broccoli
(Thomas Bjorkman is developing
a new broccoli that is crisp, subtly sweet and utterly tender.)
(By Michael Moss, NY Times, 7-10-2013)
HEALTH:
How Faith Can Affect Therapy
(Patients who had higher levels of belief in God demonstrated more effects of treatment.)
(By Ashley Taylor, NY Times, 7-10-2013)
HEALTH:
Depression Alters Young Brains
(Using magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have found brain changes in preschool-age
children with depression that are not apparent in their nondepressed peers.
(JAACAP, Vol. 52, July 2013)
(By Nicholas Bakalar, NY Times, 7-10-2013)
Opinionator:
THE CONVERSATION— How to Be Old
(People who are most intellectually creative in later life are experimentalists rather than conceptualists.)
(By David Brooks & Gail Collins, NY Times, 7-10-2013)
LETTERS:
Happy 80th: 'Grow Old Along With Me!'
(Loving relationships are critical for health and happiness at all stages of life; Robert Browning:
"Grow old along with me! / The best is yet to be, / The last of life, for which the first was made.")
(By David Kernis, Mary & Michael Brabeck, & Mary Percifield, NY Times, 7-9-2013)
SCIENCE:
What Is Nostalgia Good For? Quite a Bit, Research Shows
(Dr. Constantine Sedikides:
"Nostalgia made me feel that my life had roots and continuity.
It made me feel good about myself and my relationships.
It provided a texture to my life
and gave me strength to move forward." Nostalgia counteracts loneliness, boredom & anxiety;
Southhampton Nostalgia Scale)
(By John Tierney, NY Times, 7-9-2013)
HEALTH:
Using a Robot to Ease a Child's Pain
(Children who engaged with the robot MEDi who greets a child with a high-five, while receiving
a flu shot had much less pain and distress than children who got a shot the usual way.)
(By Sophie Egan, NY Times, 7-9-2013)
HEALTH:
Culprits in a Child's Headaches
(An eye exam may find that a child's headache is caused by eye strain.)
(By Perri Klass, NY Times, 7-8-2013)
HEALTH:
CARING & COPING— High Disability Rates Persist in Old Age
(Despite massive investment in geriatric medicine, we can sometimes delay or slow down disability,
but we can't prevent it; A vast majority of elderly people live with disability or a mobility problems.)
(By Paula Span, NY Times, 7-8-2013)
OP-ED:
The Joy of Old Age. (No Kidding.)
(A friend who, walking with Samuel Beckett in Paris on a perfect spring morning, said to him,
"Doesn't a day like this make you glad to be alive?" to which Beckett answered, "I wouldn't go
as far as that.")
(By Oliver Sacks, NY Times, 7-7-2013)
STYLE:
PARENTING— Don't Make Your Children the Exception to Every Rule
(Father's blind defense of his daughter's "innocence" in plagiarism was most likely undermining
what he was aiming to protect: his daughter's future well-being. Children who are industrious,
orderly and have good self-control are more likely than their careless or undisciplined peers
to grow into happy adults.)
(By Lisa Damour, NY Times, 7-7-2013)
HEALTH:
How Exercise Can Calm Anxiety
(Exercise creates vibrant new brain cells— then shuts them down when they shouldn't be in action.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 7-3-2013)
BOOKS:
Alice Munro Puts Down Her Pen to Let the World In
(After her 14th story collection Dear Life, Munro said
"I'm probably not going to write anymore.")
(By Charles McGrath, NY Times, 7-2-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS: A Quantum of Solace—
Timeless Questions About the Universe
(Lee Smolin's new book Time Reborn reopens debate settled by Einstein a century ago:
whether time is real or an illusion;
Niels Bohr said that great truth is a statement
whose opposite is also a great truth.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 7-2-2013)
SCIENCE: From the Mouths of Babes and Birds
(Insights into mysteries of human language acquisition are coming from
songbirds. Dina Lipkind:
"babbling is not only to learn sounds, but also to learn transitions between sounds." (Nature)
(By Tim Requarth & Meehan Crist, NY Times, 7-2-2013)
HEALTH:
Feeling Stressed? It's Probably Harming Your Health
(Those who said that stress affected their health "a lot or extremely" were 49% more likely
than other participants to have a heart attack or die of heart disease. Research)
(By Nicholas Bakalar, NY Times, 7-1-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— How to Listen
(The first lesson for writers, or anyone, who conducts interviews: If you want someone to talk,
you've got to know how to listen. And good listening is a surprisingly active process.
The interviewee is your focus of attention; you are there to hear what he says & thinks, exclusively.)
(By Lee Gutkind, NY Times, 7-1-2013)
ROME JOURNAL:
When Italians Chat, Hands and Fingers Do the Talking
(Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico in
The New Science (1725) argued that gesture might have been
the earliest form of language. Gestures that insult, beg and swear offer a window into Roman culture.)
(By Rachel Donadio, NY Times, 7-1-2013)
Opinionator: DISUNION—
What Gettysburg Proved
(If there was a legacy to Gettysburg, it would not belong to Lee or to Meade. It would reach beyond
even the limits of the Civil War. It would be a legacy for democracy itself, a "new birth of freedom.")
(By Allen C. Guelzo, NY Times, 7-1-2013)
RIFF:
The All-Important Present Moment
(Our experience of time & space has radically shifted as technology has collapsed,
compressed, chopped,
flipped and scrambled it, teppanyaki-style. Douglas Rushkoff's book
Present Shock:
When Everything Happens Now about technology and time:
"Our society
has reoriented itself to the present moment.")
(By Carina Chocano, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
BOOKS:
ESSAY— Method to the Madness
(Having drawn us into Montresor's paranoia with his very first sentence in
"The Cask of Amontillado",
Poe will not let us escape.
Like poor Fortunato, we too are walled up in the dank vaults.)
(By Patrick McGrath, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
OBITUARY:
Philip E. Slater, Social Critic Who Renounced Academia, Dies at 86
(His 1970 book The Pursuit of Loneliness sold 500,000 copies; Resigned in 1971
as chairman
of the sociology department at Brandeis to pursue a simple life; Founded Greenhouse, personal
growth center with Jacqueline Doyle & Morrie Schwartz;
He says Wealth Addiction
is not
human nature, but a disease)
(By Paul Vitello, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
BOOKS: Extreme States of Mind—
Metaphysical Dog Poems by Frank Bidart
(How memory works, what poetry does, & what either of them can do for souls, and bodies,
past a life's midpoint.
His poems are doors best opened with cautious attention: behind them
you might see yourself.)
(By Stephen Burt, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
THE ETHICIST:
Is It Wrong to Skip the Commercials?
(No moral obligation to consume advertising. It's the advertiser's burden to attract your attention.)
(By Chuck Klosterman, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
POETIC CONNECTIONS | SUMMER LOVE:
Stanzas for a Romantic Season
(Poems were "found" last week in the Missed Connections section of newyork.craigslist.org.)
(By Alan Feuer, NY Times, 6-30-2013)
WEALTH MATTERS:
Two Paths for Charitable Giving— From the Head or From the Heart
(What motivates people to give? For selfish reasons, a name on a building is at the top of the list.
But some people want to effectuate something that has some personal interest to them.)
(By Paul Sullivan, NY Times, 6-29-2013)
Opinionator: DISUNION—
Buford Hold the High Ground
(On June 30, 1863, John Buford led 3,000 men of his First Cavalry Division into Gettysburg)
(By Ron Soodalter, NY Times, 6-29-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE—
The Gospel According to 'Me'
(Booming self-help industry, and the cash cow of New Age spirituality, has one message: be authentic!
New version of American dream: "Live fully! Realize yourself! Be connected! Achieve well-being!")
(By Simon Critchley & Jamieson Webster, NY Times, 6-29-2013)
SCIENCE: Scientists Unlock Mystery in Evolution of Pitchers
(Adult chimps throw at 20 miles/hour; 12-year old human pitcher throws at 60 miles/hour; Humans
are able to store elastic energy, using a cocking motion, to throw much harder than other primates.)
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 6-27-2013)
SCIENCE: DNA Buried 7,000 Centuries Is Retrieved
(Paleogenomics, study of ancient genomes reconstructed from fossil bones; Horse genome from
700,000 years ago in Yukon, showed genus Equus arose 4 million years ago, twice as far back as before.)
(By Nicholas Wade, NY Times, 6-27-2013)
SCIENCE: Studying Tumors Differently, in Hopes of Outsmarting Them
(Cancer geneticist Bert Vogelstein's
paper:
hit tumors with two or more targeted cancer therapies at once)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 6-27-2013)
FOOD: Meaty and Mighty—
Praising the Versatile Eggplant
(Not a stretch to see the eggplant as useful as any one cut of meat)
(By Mark Bittman, NY Times, 6-26-2013)
OP-ED: C. S. Lewis, Evangelical Rock Star
(In 2005, Time magazine called C.S. Lewis
"hottest theologian" of the year— 42 years after his death;
In Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis created the lion
Aslan, to represent God/Jesus;
Joshua Landy argues in
How to Do Things with Fictions that fiction teaches us how to think about what we take to be true.)
(By T.M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 6-26-2013)
HEALTH: A Popular Myth About Running Injuries
(When your foot flattens & rolls inward as you strike the ground, that is, when it pronates— it absorbs
some of the forces generated by impact of landing. Contrary to received running wisdom, those who
overpronated or underpronated were not more likely to get hurt than runners with neutral foot motion.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 6-26-2013)
BOOKS: Scholar Asserts That Hollywood Avidly Aided Nazis
(Ben Urwand's The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact With Hitler argues that Hollywood studios,
in an effort to protect the German market for their movies, not only acquiesced to Nazi censorship
but also actively and enthusiastically cooperated with that regime's global propaganda effort.)
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 6-26-2013)
SCIENCE BOOKS: Millions of Years On, Still Evolving
(Brian Switek's book My Beloved Brontosaurus
looks at how dinosaurs have changed)
(By John Noble Wilford, NY Times, 6-25-2013)
PERSONAL HEALTH: Steps for More, and Better, Sleep
(Adolescents should get 9 to 10 hours, though most teenagers sleep only about seven hours.)
(By Jane E. Brody, NY Times, 6-24-2013)
REALLY? The Claim: Taking a Walk After a Meal Aids Digestion
(Post-meal stroll helps clear glucose from bloodstream because more of it is taken up by the muscles;
A brief 15-minutes walk, instead of the couch, after a meal improves digestion & blood sugar control.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 6-24-2013)
DealB%k: When Brevity Is the Soul of Wall Street Research
[Oppenheimer's Chief market technician, Carter Braxton Worth, sent clients Monday morning: "Sell";
Shanghai Index dropped 5%; Dow dropped 1% on 6/24/2013 (-139.84);
Worth: "An expression:
exaggeration weakens argument." Banker
Joshua M. Brown: "Greatest. Research Note. Ever."]
(By William Alden, NY Times, 6-24-2013)
EDITORIAL: The Decline and Fall of the English Major
(In 1991, 165 Yale students graduated with a B.A. in English literature. By 2012, that number was 62.
In 1991, top two Yale majors were history & English. 2013: they were economics & political science.)
(By Verlyn Klinkenborg, NY Times, 6-23-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Privacy and the Threat to the Self
(Google creates deeply complex psychological profiles by tracking your Internet searches. To the
extent we risk loss of privacy we risk, the loss of our very status as subjective, autonomous persons.
(By Michael P. Lynch, NY Times, 6-22-2013)
Opinionator: MEASURE FOR MEASURE— Songwriting on Demand
(Poet Paul Muldoon & musician Wesley Stace taught
Princeton class
"How To Write A Song".
Each week had an emotion as its theme— Jealousy, Anger, Joy, Defiance, Revenge. Good songs
can be written on demand.
The course valorized emotion in an unlikely and thoroughly cerebral setting.)
(By Wesley Stace, NY Times, 6-21-2013)
Kenneth Wilson, Nobel Physicist, Dies at 77
(1982 Physics Nobelist
"for his theory for critical phenomena in connection with phase transitions";
Cause was complications of lymphoma; Cornell professor for 25 years; enjoyed folk-dancing)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 6-21-2013)
HEALTH: How the Hum of a Coffee Shop Can Boost Creativity
(Coffitivity, was inspired by research showing that whoosh of espresso machines
& caffeinated chatter
typical of most coffee shops creates just the right level of background noise to stimulate creativity)
(By New York Times, 6-21-2013)
LENS: Henri Cartier-Bresson— 'There Are No Maybes'
(Sheila Turner-Seed's 1971 interview of Henri Cartier-Bresson in his Paris studio found)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 6-21-2013)
Are Blogs Outdated? The Times Eliminates Several, and Explains Why
[Gone are Green blog, Media Decoder, The Choice (getting into college), and Sports blogs;
Blogs]
(By Margaret Sullivan, NY Times, 6-20-2013)
OP-ED: Why India Trails China
(Among all Indians 7 or older, nearly 20% males and 33% females are illiterate.
India needs a better-educated and healthier labor force at all levels of society.)
(By Amartya Sen, NY Times, 6-20-2013)
OP-ED: How to Tweet in Mandarin
(Fashion editor Hung Huang has 7.5 million followers on microblog
Weibo;
Kai-Fu Lee has 43 million followers on Weibo that may be censored by the government.)
(By Joe Nocera, NY Times, 6-20-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— Andy Warhol and the Persistence of Modernism
(Warhols are, to put it in Walter Benjamin's terms, "works of art in the age of mechanical
reproduction." As the ur-postmodernist, Warhol's entire artistic practice and persona stood,
quite intentionally, in opposition to modernist ideas. Warhol blithely swiped subject matter
from mass media.)
(By Crispin Sartwell, NY Times, 6-19-2013)
ARTS: Humanities Committee Sounds an Alarm
(Only 20% of Harvard undergraduates in 2012 majored in humanities, drop from 36% in 1954;
Nationwide, a mere 7.6% of bachelor's degrees were granted in the humanities in 2010;
People talk about the humanities and social sciences "as if they are a waste of time.")
(By Jennifer Schuessler, NY Times, 6-19-2013)
OP-ED: Our Genes, Their Secrets
(Myriad Genetics, was awarded two patents in the late 1990s for human genes BRCA1 & BRCA2
& offered exclusive test to detect inherited mutations in them. Since then, nearly one million patients
have taken Myriad test & have had their genetic data compiled in the company's proprietary database.)
(By Eleonore Pauwels, NY Times, 6-19-2013)
ARCHITECTURE REVIEW:
Celebrating a Poet of 3 Dimensions
(Exhibit "Le Corbusier: An Atlas of Modern Landscapes" June 15-Sept. 23 at Museum of Modern Art;
Completed in 1954, Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp is "an acoustic landscape" seashell.)
(By Michael Kimmelman, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
Firebrand for Science, and Big Man on Campus
(On TV and the Lecture Circuit, Bill Nye aims to change the world; His
video clip from BigThink.com
site on theories of evolution and the origins of the earth has been viewed some five million times.)
(By John Schwartz, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS: Dwarf Galaxy May Be Answer to Predictions
(The dwarf galaxy on the outskirts of our Milky Way, Segue 2,
consists of just 1000 stars held together
by a clump of dark matter.
By comparison, the Milky Way contains at least 100 billion stars.)
(By Douglas Quenqua, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
SPACE & COSMOS: Depicting the Colors of Space
(A dying star in the constellation
Draco, the Cat's Eye Nebula, may appear in images
in psychedelic shades of pink and green or in soothing tones of beige and aquamarine.)
(By Rachel Nuwer, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
SCIENCE:
An Invisibility Cloak, a Melting Continent and Angry Legos
(Real-life cloaks fashioned from "thin panels of glass that make objects invisible by bending light
around them";
Demo Video:
Only parts of the cat and goldfish that are not behind the cloak are visible)
(By Jennifer A. Kingson, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
OP-ED: Beyond the Brain
(When somebody tells you what a brain scan says, be a little skeptical. The brain is not the mind.
Books: Sally Satel & Scott O. Lilienfeld, Brainwashed:
Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience;
Robert G. Shulman,
Brain Imaging:
What it Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About Consciousness;
Jerome Kagan,
The Human Spark: The Science of Human Development,
Psychology's Ghosts)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 6-18-2013)
Opinionator: Moving On— Part Two
(Readers: "Sell, give away, or throw away your books. They're parasites draining away a part of your life";
"It's a wonderful world out there, put down the books for a while and hike and bike"; "Time to play like
a child"; "Accepting death, accepting you are not needed, and accepting your failing body")
(By Stanley Fish, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
Opinionator: DRAFT— Writing Fiction and Nonfiction
(In fiction, creativity is the glue that holds the work together, an author sells herself on the idea that
a sense of childish make-believe will pull her through. In nonfiction, curiosity becomes the cement.)
(By Sally Koslow, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
FAMILY: When the Bully Is a Sibling
(Aggression between siblings can inflict psychological wounds as damaging as the anguish caused
by bullies at school. Parents who fail to intervene & play favorites can inadvertently encourage conflict.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
ASIA PACIFIC: Japan's 'Science Women' Seek an Identity
(Studying science could be the kiss of death for a young Japanese woman's romantic life;
Women accounted for 14%
of the science and engineering students at Japanese universities;
Japanese women who studied the humanities were seen as being more polished and attractive.)
(By Miki Tanikawa, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
OP-ED: Our Schools, Cut Off From the Web
(50% of Americans don't own a smartphone, 33% lack a broadband connection; 20% don't use Web;
Schoolchildren in poor neighborhoods can't access free web online courses as connection is too slow.)
(By Luis A. Ubiñas, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
PERSONAL HEALTH: Cheating Ourselves of Sleep
(Millions who sleep 5-6 hours unwittingly shortchange themselves on sleep; research shows
we need 7-8 hours of sleep to function optimally, otherwise we may even shorten our life.)
(By Jane Brody, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
REALLY? The Claim: Biofeedback Devices Can Lower Blood Pressure
(Biofeedback devices that claim to help lower blood pressure probably have little long-term impact.)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
HEALTH: The Consumer— The Heart Perils of Pain Relievers
[Common pain relievers like ibuprofen and naproxen, called Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (Nsaids),
in high doses increase their cardiovascular risk by as much as a third compared to placebo.]
(By Roni Caryn Rabin, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
INVESTMENT BANKING: "Wolf of Wall Street": Boiler-Room Antics on the Big Screen
(Before going to prison, Jordan Belfort amassed more than $100 million while still in his mid-20s;
His fast cars & debauched partying lifestyle depicted in
Scorsese's film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.)
(By William Alden, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
VIDEO: A Warrior for Science
(John Schwartz looks at Bill Nye and his quest to change the world through science literacy.)
(By Jeffery DelViscio, NY Times, 6-17-2013)
SPORTS: In Golf, Moments Good and Bad Are Well Remembered
(Ernie Els: "The majors, I really remember my wins, I really remember almost every shot.";
Joel Fish: "Golfers can remember significantly more than athletes in other sports.")
(By Jeré Longman, NY Times, 6-16-2013)
INNOVATION: Who Made That Mouse?
(In 1963, at Stanford Research Institute, Doug Engelbart, now 88, envisioned a computer
fast enough to react instantly to commands. He invented a box on wheels that you rolled
around the desk like a toy car
to move the cursor on the computer screen. It was
affectionately nicknamed the mouse.)
(By Pagan Kennedy, NY Times Magazine, 6-16-2013)
BOOKS— Jeannette Walls: By the Book
(Not a huge fan of experimental fiction, fantasy or so-called escapist literature.
Reality is just so interesting, why would you want to escape it?
Favorite book:
Graham Greene's The End of the Affair; Favorite novelists: Updike, Steinbeck,
Balzac & Mona Simpson;
Book having the greatest impact: Finding a friend
Francie Nolan in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; Book couldn't finish: Finnegans Wake)
(By Jeannette Walls, NY Times Sunday Book Review, 6-16-2013)
NEWS ANALYSIS: Facebook Made Me Do It
(In social exchange systems like Facebook, when people were told that their networks liked the content
they were sharing, they shared more; so more risqué behavior posted to gain favor of web onlookers)
(By Jenna Wortham, NY Times, 6-16-2013)
GRAY MATTER: Where We Are Shapes Who We Are
(Who we are— litterbug or good citizen, depends on where we happen to be; Blue lights deter crime;
Honesty box with eyes ended up with more money; Lost letters not delivered by crowded dorm students)
(By Adam Alter, NY Times, 6-16-2013)
OBITUARY: Paul Soros, Shipping Innovator, Dies at 87
(Brother of financier George Soros,
build Soros Associates, which has dominated the port-building
industry and shifted international trade and production patterns through its shipping innovations.)
(By Robert D. Hershey Jr., NY Times, 6-16-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— The Faulty Logic of the 'Math Wars'
[Goal of education: to awaken individuals' capacities for independent thought; John Dewey:
"to enable individuals to continue their education"; Reform math taught in high school fails
to prepare students for studies in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.]
(By Alice Crary & W. Stephen Wilson, NY Times, 6-16-2013)
OBITUARY: Jerome Karle, 94, Dies; Nobelist for Crystallography
(Karle & Herbert A. Hauptman
won 1985 Chemistry Nobel Prize for developed X-ray crystallography,
now routinely used by scientists to determine the shapes of complex molecules like proteins.)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 6-15-2013)
OP-ED: The Other Side of the Story
(NSA arrested Brandon Mayfield based on erroneous fingerprints, suspecting that he was terroist
bomber of commuter trains in Madrid, Spain in 2004, even though he had never been to Spain.)
(By Gail Collins, NY Times, 6-15-2013)
OP-ED: These Children Are Our Future
(Shameful statistics of high school class of 2013: 71% experienced physical assault; 28% victimized
sexually; 64% had sexual intercourse; 39% bullied physically or emotionally; 34% are overweight)
(By Charles M. Blow, NY Times, 6-15-2013)
Opinionator: ANXIETY— I Know What You Think of Me
(The single most devastating cyberattack a diabolical and anarchic mind could design would simply
to simultaneously make every e-mail & text ever sent universally public. Civilization would collapse.)
(By Tim Kreider, NY Times, 6-15-2013)
Opinionator: Hel-LO! You're... Who Again?
(Going to 50th Lincoln High School Reunion— rows of classmates photos who had passed away;
beauty queen divorced & toiling as cafe waitress; Adonises were fat & balding; Time taketh away.)
(By Dick Cavett, NY Times, 6-14-2013)
Opinionator: The Real War on Reality
(Greek word deployed by Plato in "The Cave"— aletheia is translated as truth, but is more
aptly translated as "disclosure" or "uncovering"— literally, "the state of not being hidden."
Essay of Martin Heidegger: process of uncovering was actually a precondition for having truth.)
(By Peter Ludlow, NY Times, 6-14-2013)
EDUCATION: Study Gauges Value of Technology in Schools
(Are investments in computers worth it? Steve Ritter: benefits of technology to use cognitive
science to help students gain a deeper understanding of concepts rather than simply drills.
(By Motoko Rich, NY Times, 6-14-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: Q&A: Protecting a PC From Spam and Spoofs
(Friend's email to you has been spoofed. PC World's on minimizing exposure to e-mail spoofing.
Free Antivirus Programs;
Free downloads: Malwarebytes; Spybot Search & Destroy)
(By J.D. Biersdorfer, NY Times, 6-13-2013)
Opinionator: THE CONVERSATION— Data, Data, What Do You See?
(At their core people want government to provide order. By 62-34, Americans put a higher priority
on government investigating terroist threats and allow NSA to keep invading our privacy.)
(By David Brooks & Gail Collins, NY Times, 6-12-2013)
SCIENCE: Hold Off on the Alpha Centauri Trip
(Alpha Centauri B, part of a triple star that is Sun's nearest neighbor, only 4.4 light years from us.
Earth-size
Planet found there in Oct. 2012 may not exist according to Thuringian State Observatory.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 6-11-2013)
OP-ED: Kennedy's Finest Moment
(JFK's June 11, 1963 speech announcing National Guard had peacefully enrolled two black students
at University of Alabama over Wallace's racist objections and our moral obligations to civil rights.)
(By Peniel E. Joseph, NY Times, 6-11-2013)
SPORTS:
The Healer Behind the Belmont Winner of 1963
(On June 8, 1963 Chateaugay won Belmont Stakes in 2:30.20 establishing a track record for 1.5 miles;
On July 4, 1962, Dr. Brennan did ventriculectomy surgery on Chateaugay to ease his breathing.)
(By Helene Conway & Nancy Brennan, NY Times, 6-11-2013)
EDITORIAL: N.S.A. Monitoring and Partisan Hypocrisy
(PEW's new survey of Americans: 56% think it's "acceptable" while 41% think it's "not acceptable"
for National Security Agency's surveillance program in secret tracking of phone records.)
(By Juliet Lapidos, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
Opinionator: In the Soul's Dark Night, a Digital Solace
(Some take drugs, others a stiff drink; when my neurons get overheated, I chill them in digital seas.)
(By Alexander Nazaryan, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
Opinionator: Writing and Fear
("Write What Scares You"— the fear that spilled out onto the page made scene ring true to readers.)
(By Sarah Jio, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
EDUCATION: Grouping Students by Ability Regains Favor in Classroom
(Gifted and talented programs help smarter kids excel but can stigmatize
lower-tier groups)
(By Vivian Yee, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
MUSIC: Weaned on CDs, They're Reaching for Vinyl
(Record collectors prefer LP's grooves yielding warmth & depth that CD's digital code couldn't match.)
(By Allan Kozinn, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
OP-ED: The Ghosts of Europe Past
(Holy Roman Empire failed to reform & disintegrated after its defeat by Napoleonic France in 1806.)
(By Brendan Simms, NY Times, 6-10-2013)
Opinionator: The Myth of 'Just Do It'
(George Balanchine tells his dancers, "Don't think, dear; just do." Thinking about what you are doing,
as you are doing it, interferes with performance. Experts, performing at their best, act intuitively.)
(By Barbara Gail Montero, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
OP-ED: Only Children: Lonely and Selfish?
(Don't buy the general assumption that children without siblings are loners, misfits and always selfish.)
(By Lauren Sandler, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
OP-ED: Don't Take Your Vitamins
(Beta carotene and vitamin E seem to increase mortality, and so may higher doses of vitamin A)
(By Paul A. Offit, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
GRAY MATTER: Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing
(When pleasurable music is heard, dopamine is released in the striatum of our brain.)
(By Robert J. Zatorre & Valorie N. Salimpoor, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
* OP-ED: How Not to Be Alone
(Technology celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat. Simone Weil wrote,
"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity."
By this definition,
we are becoming increasingly miserly.)
(By Jonathan Safran Foer, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
TRAVEL OVERNIGHTER: Finding Solitude at Monet's Gardens
(Experience silence & solitude at Claude Monet's gardens in Giverny on weekday mornings.)
(By Alexander Lobrano, NY Times, 6-9-2013)
OP-ED COLUMNIST: Intelligence for Dummies
(Telephony metadata: NSA collecting telephone calls and personal emails from Internet companies.)
(By Gail Collins, NY Times, 6-8-2013)
Opinionator: Waving My Tweak Flag High
(A small, even accidental, lyric changes can greatly improve or screw up a song.)
(By Jeffrey Lewis, NY Times, 6-7-2013)
Think Like a Doctor: A Cough Solved
(Dr. Andrea Glassberg, pulmonologist, gave correct cough diagnosis as Lady
Windermere syndrome)
(By Lisa Sanders, M.D., NY Times, 6-7-2013)
RECIPES FOR HEALTH: Soup Up Your Spinach
(Five spinach soup recipes: Spinach
& Tofu Wontons in Broth)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 6-7-2013)
HEALTH: This Is Your Brain on Coffee
(Caffeine may reshape biochemical environment inside our brains that could stave off dementia.)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 6-6-2013)
HEALTH: Empathy Without Boundaries
(Emotional contagion is heightened in people with mild cognitive impairment (M.C.I.) & Alzheimer's]
(By Judith Graham, NY Times, 6-6-2013)
PERSONAL TECH: Remember All Those Passwords? No Need
(Dashlane is free password memorization program so you could make up long unguessable passwords)
(By David Pogue, NY Times, 6-6-2013)
MUSIC: That Instrument Known as the Eiffel Tower
(Using drumsticks and mallets, composer Joseph Bertolozzi
is turning Paris' Eiffel Tower into a giant percussive instrument.)
(By Maia de la Baume, NY Times, 6-5-2013)
OP-ED: Jewish Identity, Spelled in Yiddish
(Spelling Bee winner spelled "knaidel" Yiddish for matzo ball; should be "kneydl")
(By Dara Horn, NY Times, 6-5-2013)
SCIENCE: Growing Left, Growing Right
(1788 report of situs inversus occurring in 1 out of 20,000 people. Our bodies start out symmetrical,
the left side a perfect reflection of the right; asymmetry appears in six weeks.)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 6-4-2013)
BOOKS: In the Pursuit of Longevity
(Lauren Kessler's "CounterClockwise:
My Year of Hypnosis, Hormones, Dark Chocolate,
and Other Adventures in the World of Anti-aging" reveals her trials
of anti-aging methods;
Dr. Hilary A. Tindle's
"Up:
How Positive Outlook Can Transform Our Health & Aging";
Cynical hostility hiked death 16%)
(By Abigail Zuger, M.D., NY Times, 6-4-2013)
Opinionator:
Does Great Literature Make Us Better?
(Can't conclude that literature either does or doesn't have positive moral effects.
Martha Nussbaum's
Love's Knowledge:
literary fiction has power to generate moral insight.
Daniel Kahneman's
Thinking Fast and Slow: failures of expertise to predict the future.)
(By Gregory Currie, NY Times, 6-1-2013)
Colum McCann's Radical Empathy
[Colum McCann's wall: "Keep yourself away from answers,
but alive in the middle of the question."
His book
Let the Great World Spin
won 2009 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. Title is from
Tennyson's "Locksley Hall":
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.]
(By Joel Lovell, NY Times Magazine, 6-2-2013)
ANDREW M. GREELEY, 1928-2013:
Priest, Author, Scholar, Scold
(Before religion became creed, it was poetry: images and stories that defy death with glimpses of hope,
and with moments of life-renewing experience that were shared and enacted in communal rituals.)
(By Peter Steinfels, NY Times, 5-31-2013)
A Lone Voice Raises Alarms on Lucrative Diabetes Drugs
(Dr. Peter C. Butler found Merck's diabetic drug Januvia led to pancreatic cancer in rats)
(By Andrew Pollack, NY Times, 5-31-2013)
Queens Boy, 13, Wins Scripps Spelling Bee With 'Knaidel'
(Arvind V. Mahankali spelled correctly cyanophycean, tokonoma, and knaidel, winning $30,000 cash)
(New York Region, NY Times, 5-31-2013)
OP-ED: Belief Is the Least Part of Faith
(Belief is the reach for joy, and the reason many people go to church in the first place.)
(By T.M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 5-30-2013)
OP-ED: How to Get a Job
(Tony Wagner: the world doesn't care anymore what you know;
all it cares
"is what you can do with what you know." Employers don't care how those skills
were acquired: home schooling, an online university, open online course, or Yale.
They just want to know one thing: Can you add value?)
(By Thomas L. Friedman, NY Times, 5-29-2013)
ASK AN EXPERT:
Tips on Archiving Family History, Part 1
(This first set of answers deals with questions of preserving audio, converting analog to digital files)
(By Bertram Lyons, NY Times, 5-29-2013)
Opinionator: Moving On (sold most of his books)
(Books sustaining his life for 50 years are gone— now acres of empty white bookshelves.)
(By Stanley Fish, NY Times, 5-27-2013)
OP-ED: The Gift of Siblings
(Jeffrey Kluger's
Sibling Effect:
"Siblings are the only relatives, and perhaps the only people
you'll ever know,
who are with you through the entire arc of your life"; George Howe Colt's
Brothers)
(By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 5-26-2013)
How Jeannette Walls Spins Good Stories Out of Bad Memories
(Walls' 2005 memoir The Glass Castle sold 4.2 million copies and been translated into 31 languages.)
(By Alex Witchel, NY Times Magazine, 5-26-2013)
Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That
(New drug called Lybrido, created to stoke sexual desire in women)
(By Daniel Bergner, NY Times Magazine, 5-26-2013)
Opinionator— THE STONE: The Essayification of Everything
(Essay is short nonfiction prose with meditative subject at its center & tendency away from certitude.
Phillip Lopate's The Wayward Essay: on the relationship between essay and doubt.
Sarah Bakewell's How to Live: elegant portrait of the 16th-century essayist Montaigne.)
(By Christy, NY Times, 5-26-2013)
HEALTH: What's in Your Green Tea?
[Americans drink 10 billion servings of green tea each year. Antioxidants like epigallocatechin gallate
(EGCG) not found in Diet Snapple Green Tea,
60% less in Honest Tea's Green Tea With Honey,
most in Teavana's Gyokuro;
less in Lipton and Bigelow green tea which has small amount of lead.]
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 5-23-2013)
HEALTH: Can Statins Cut the Benefits of Exercise?
(Statins, the cholesterol-lowering medications, may block some of the fitness benefits of exercise)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 5-22-2013)
Opinionator— THE STONE: Why Do I Teach?
(Judge teaching not by amount of knowledge it passes on, but by enduring excitement it generates.)
(By Gary Gutting, NY Times, 5-22-2013)
OP-ED: What Our Words Tell Us
(Google database of 5.2 million books shows shifts in language reflect tectonic shifts in culture)
(By David Brooks, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
OBITUARY:
Ray Manzarek, 74, Keyboardist and a Founder of the Doors, Is Dead
(Manzarek founded
The Doors in 1965 with the singer
and lyricist Jim Morrison)
(By Jon Pareles, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
Before Tumblr, Founder Made Mom Proud. He Quit School.
(At 19, Karp helped Fred Seibert design
Next New Networks bought by Google for $50 million)
(By Jenna Wortham & Nick Bilton, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
CONVERSATION WITH BRENDA MILNER:
Still Charting Memory's Depths
(Amnesia patient Henry Molaison showed memory rooted in specific brain regions)
(By Claudia Dreifus, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
HEALTH BOOK: 'Semi-Invisible' Sources of Strength
(Lee Gutkind's "True
Stories of Becoming a Nurse" Anthology of Essays by 21 nurses)
(By Jane Gross, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
SCIENCE: Solving a Riddle of Primes
(Twin Prime Conjecture
proof by
Yitang Zhang)
(By Kenneth Chang, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
DealB%k: Buffett, With His Magic Touch, May Be Irreplaceable
($28 billion buyout of Heinz Company by Berkshire Hathaway shows Buffett's deal-making skills)
(By Steven M. Davidoff, NY Times, 5-21-2013)
BITS: Tumblr Founder Says Site Will Stay an 'Independent' Effort
(Tumblr's users worry that Yahoo will introduce clutter & banner ads to their minimalist platform)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 5-20-2013)
TECHNOLOGY: Yahoo Acquiring Tumblr: What It Means
(Jenna Wortham on the reaction to Yahoo's acquisition of Tumblr and what it means for users)
(By Ben Werschkul, Pedro Rafael Rosado and Alyssa Kim, NY Times, 5-20-2013)
PARENTING: Punched and Poked by Their Pride and Joy
(UPA, "unintentional parent abuse" where infants' sudden jabs, bites, kicks inflict injuries)
(By David Wallis, NY Times, 5-20-2013)
Some of My Best Friends Are Germs
(Microbiome made of 100 trillion bacteria on our skin and inside our body)
(By Michael Pollan, NY Times Sunday Magazine, 5-19-2013)
YOUR MONEY: Standing Out From the Crowd
(High school students' essays about money, working, and class;
4 college application essays)
(By Ron Lieber, NY Times, 5-18-2013)
Opinionator: What the Woodpecker Told Me
(Woodpeckers can hear larvae slithering inside a tree trunk as they are flying past overhead.)
(By Rennie Sparks, NY Times, 5-17-2013)
Opinionator: The Role of a Dictionary
(As one lexicographer put it, "Nothing worth writing is written from a dictionary.")
(By David Skinner, NY Times, 5-17-2013)
VIDEO: The Sweet Spot: Villains in Black Hats
(A.O. Scott and David Carr talk about villains in the movies. Scary, huh?)
(By Gabe Johnson, NY Times, 5-17-2013)
FILM REVIEW: Kirk and Spock, in Their Roughhousing Days
(Militarization of "Star Trek" has sacrificed the large-spirited humanism that sustained it)
(By A.O. Scott, NY Times, 5-16-2013)
SCIENCE: From Fearsome Predator to Man's Best Friend
(Dogs evolved from wolves, but minds of the two canines are profoundly different)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 5-16-2013)
HEALTH: No Benefit Seen in Sharp Limits on Salt in Diet
(No rationale for us to aim for sodium levels below 2300 milligrams a day)
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 5-15-2013)
Jolie's Disclosure of Preventive Mastectomy Highlights Dilemma
(Breast cancer experts applauded Ms. Jolie's manner in making informed decisions)
(By Denise Grady, Tara Parker-Pope, & Pam Belluck, NY Times, 5-15-2013)
OP-ED: My Medical Choice
(Decision to have double mastectomy after her mother died of cancer at 56)
(By Angelina Jolie, NY Times, 5-14-2013)
BOOKS: On a Scavenger Hunt to Save Most Humans
(Review of Dan Brown's Inferno
as Robert Langdon & Sienna goes on scavenger hunt; Quotes Dante:
"The darkest places in hell are for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.")
(By Janet Maslin, NY Times, 5-13-2013)
Considering the Universe From Deep in West Texas
(34th Texas Star Party at Fort Davis drew more than 500 amateur astronomers)
(By Anne Saker, NY Times, 5-11-2013)
Opinionator— Missing: Jonathan Winters. Badly.
(Jonathan Winter can improvise an entire western movie with wagon train & dozen of characters)
(By Dick Cavett, NY Times, 5-10-2013)
WELL— Owning a Dog Is Linked to Reduced Heart Risk
(Dog owners walk more and have less stress with decrease in heart rate & blood pressure)
(By Anahad O'Connor, NY Times, 5-9-2013)
FITNESS— The Scientific 7-Minute Workout
(12 exercises provides fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training in much less time)
(By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, 5-9-2013)
From Fresno to Key West, a Proliferation of Poets Laureate
(James Tyner
chosen as Fresno's Poet Laureate; 35 larger U.S. cities have poets laureate)
(By Norimitsu Onishi, NY Times, 5-8-2013) ("Fresno, California. 2013")
Psychiatry's Guide Is Out of Touch With Science, Experts Say
(Dr. Thomas R. Insel says
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, D.S.M.,
does not reflect complexity of mental disorders; should focus on causes rather than symptoms)
(By Pam Belluck & Benedict Carey, NY Times, 5-7-2013)
SCIENTIST AT WORK:
In Pursuit of an Underwater Menagerie
(Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka
created glass jellyfish based on Cotylorhiza borbonica)
(By C. Drew Harvell, NY Times, 5-7-2013)
BOOKS: A Place to Hang Out (Read, Too)
(53rd Street Donnell Library Center built in 1955 and closed in 2008, replaced with new design
by Enrique Norten with "bleacher steps" staircase, 141-seat auditorium & a technology hub)
(By Robin Pogrebin, NY Times, 5-7-2013)
Opinionator: ANXIETY— I Am Not This Body
(Plato called the body the prison of the soul & "Soul is the master, and matter its natural subject")
(By Brian Jay Stanley, NY Times, 5-6-2013)
How I Became a Hipster
(You know you're in hipster Brooklyn when someone who looks like a 19th-century
farmer tells you that his line of work is "affinity marketing.")
(By Henry Alford, NY Times, 5-2-2013)
OP-ED: Is That God Talking?
(1984 Study of 375 college students
found 71% reported vocal hallucinations)
(By T. M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 5-2-2013)
DealB%k: Buffett Speaks and Tweets
(Warren Buffett, a technophobe, debut on Twitter on May 2 and had 1000s of followers in minutes)
(By William Alden, NY Times, 5-2-2013)
OP-ED: Here Comes the Buzz
(Brood II cicadas
growing 17 years underground will emerge soon on the East Coast)
(By Craig Gibbs, NY Times, 5-2-2013)
BASEBALL: A No-Hitter So Rare It Took 6 Pitchers
(Brad Lidge, Kirk Saarloos, Billy Wagner, Octavio Dotel & Peter Munro combined with Roy Oswalt,
for a no-hitter against Yankees on June 11, 2003, first no-hitter against Yankees in Bronx sincee 1952.)
(By Benjamin Hoffman, NY Times, 5-2-2013)
One Entrepreneur's Favorite Start-Up Tools
(Test an idea; For user feedback; Iteration process; E-mail marketing, Analytics, Project management)
(By Adriana Herrera, NY Times, 5-1-2013)
FILM REVIEW: Revisiting a Rossellini Classic to Find Resonances of Today
(Rossellini's Voyage to Italy with George Sanders & Ingrid Bergman is not driven by plot,
but by a successsion of moods, reflected by volcanic pools at Vesuvius & ruins of Pompeii.)
(By A.O. Scott, NY Times, 5-1-2013)
Deanna Durbin,
Plucky Movie Star of the Depression Era, Is Dead at 91
(Deanna Durbin Society newsletter quoted her son
Peter H. David that Deanna died "a few days ago")
(By Aljean Harmetz, NY Times, 5-1-2013)
WELL: Yoga After 50
(Carrie Owerko: "Yoga can be practiced fully and deeply at any age,
the practice has to change
as the body changes."; Dr. Loren Fishman:
"Yoga was at times an old person's sport, and that
it has prolonged the life and liveliness of people over the millennia")
(By Kelly Couturier, NY Times, 5-1-2013)
SCIENCE: Grid Cells: 'Crystals of the Brain'
(Edvard I. Moser & May-Britt Moser's review article "Crystals of the Brain")
(By James Gorman, NY Times, 4-30-2013)
Janos Starker, Master of the Cello, Dies at 88
[He was part of a vaunted triumvirate that included Gregor Piatigorsky (1903-76) and
Mstislav Rostropovich (1927-2007), collectively the most celebrated cellists of the day.]
(By Margalit Fox, NY Times, 4-30-2013)
Kenneth I. Appel,
Mathematician Who Harnessed Computer Power, Dies at 80
(Proof of 4 colors would suffice for any map required 1200 hours of computer time & 10 bilion
logical decisions all made automatically by an IBM computer at Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 4-29-2013)
Opinionator: On Borges, Particles and the Paradox of the Perceived
(Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle (1927)
& Borges' Funes the Memorious (1942):
"we have dreamt the world... mysterious, visible... so that we know it is false.")
(By William Egginton, NY Times, 4-28-2013)
Opinionator— With Winters Gone, Can We Be Far Behind?
(Jonathan Winter was doubtless the greatest of improv comics, standing on no predecessors' shoulders)
(By Dick Cavett, NY Times, 4-26-2013)
François Jacob,
Geneticist Who Pointed to How Traits Are Inherited, Dies at 92
(Discovery of gene regulation with Jacques Monod won the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 4-26-2013)
Shakuntala Devi, 'Human Computer' Who Bested the Machines, Dies at 83
(She extracted 23rd root of a 201-digit number in 50 seconds, beating Univac computer's 62 seconds)
(By Haresh Pandya, NY Times, 4-24-2013)
SCIENCE: A Virtual Pack, to Study Canine Minds
(Dogs can find ball when you point left or right, but chimpanzees cannot do it)
(By Carl Zimmer, NY Times, 4-23-2013)
The 6 People Barbara Streisand Wants at Her Dinner Party
(Barbra Streisand wants: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Edward Hopper,
Gustav Klimt, and Fanny Brice. She didn't scratch "Barbra '59" on Erasmus High School desk)
(Arts Beat Blogs, NY Times, 4-22-2013)
From Phenom to Everyday N.B.A. Player
(Houston Rockets' Jeremy Lin has been the achievement of the unremarkable)
(By Jeré Longman, NY Times, 4-22-2013)
How Therapy Can Help in the Golden Years
(Psychotherapists tell seniors that depression is not a sign of moral weakness)
(By Abby Ellin, NY Times, 4-22-2013)
A Moment From the Boston Marathon
(4:09:43 into the Boston Marathon when the first of two bombs exploded near the finish line)
(Audio & Stories, NY Times, 4-22-2013)
OP-ED: The Benefits of Church
(Recent scientific discoveries: Religious attendance, at least, religiosity, boosts the immune system
and decreases blood pressure. It may add as much as two to three years to your life.)
(By T.M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 4-21-2013)
Opinionator: Is American Nonviolence Possible?
(America's penchant for violence stems from competitive individualism, insecurity, & neoliberalism)
(By Todd May, NY Times, 4-21-2013)
Dragnet Paralyzes Boston as One Suspect Eludes Capture
(Manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev essentially shut down Boston and its environs)
(By Katharine Q. Seelye, William K. Rashbaum, & Michael Cooper, NY Times, 4-20-2013)
Two Promising Places to Live, 1,200 Light-Years From Earth
(Exo-planet Kepler 62 in constellation Lyra is half size of Earth and may harbor life)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, 4-19-2013)
Fish's DNA May Explain How Fins Turned to Feet
(Coelacanth genome with 2.8 billion units of DNA similar in size of human genome)
(By Nicholas Wade, NY Times, 4-18-2013)
Broadcaster's Trove Is Calling All Ears
(Bob Wolf's 74-year career is the longest in sports broadcasting history)
(By Tyler Kepner, NY Times, 4-17-2013)
Pat Summerall, Star Kicker With Giants and a Calm Voice on TV, Dies at 82
(His 49-yard field goal for Giants beat Cleveland Browns 13-10; soothing broadcasting voice)
(By Richard Goldstein, NY Times, 4-17-2013)
CONVERSATION WITH ERIC D. GREEN: Human Genome, Then and Now
(Human genome with 3 billion bases sequenced for $1 billion ten years ago; now costs only $5000)
(By Gina Kolata, NY Times, 4-16-2013)
AN APPRAISAL: A Madman, but Angelic
(Jonathan Winters: "I'm a great white hunter of squirrels. I aim for their little nuts")
(By Robin Williams, NY Times, 4-16-2013)
Colin Davis, a British Conductor Known for His Exuberant Approach, Dies at 85
(Davis exuded an air of security & generosity giving his performances a dignity
that balanced their bounding exuberance; he won 10 Grammys)
(By Paul Griffiths, NY Times, 4-16-2013)
2013 Pulitzer Prizes for Letters, Drama and Music
(2013 Pulitzer Prize:
Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son wins Fiction;
Sharon Olds'
Stag's Leap wins Poetry)
(By NY Times, 4-16-2013)
Opinionator: Stepping on Jesus
(Students asked to write the name "Jesus" on a piece of paper and then step on it)
(By Stanley Fish, NY Times, 4-15-2013)
Price of Gold Takes a Flashy Fall; Other Markets Follow
(Gold prices tumbled 9% to $1343.80, the sharpest drop in 30 years; Silver dropped 12% to $22.09)
(By Nathaniel Popper, NY Times, 4-15-2013)
Why E.T.F.'s Won't Solve Our Behavioral Problems
(ETF's (Exchange-Traded Funds) are essentially index funds that trade on an exchange like stocks)
(By Carl Richards, NY Times, 4-15-2013)
Booksellers Hoping for Pulitzer in Fiction
(In 2012, no Pulitzer for fiction was awarded for the first time in 35 years)
(By Julie Bosman, NY Times, 4-15-2013)
Data Science: The Numbers of Our Lives
(Data about users' browsing history on the web is gold to e-commerce marketers)
(By Claire Cain Miller, NY Times, 4-14-2013)
Robert Byrne, Chess Grandmaster, Dies at 84
(He was chess columnist for New York Times, analyzed top-flight matches from 1972 through 2006)
(By Bruce Weber, NY Times, 4-14-2013)
OP-ED: When God Is Your Therapist
(Evangelical churches offer a powerful way to deal with anxiety and distress,
not because of what people
believe but because of what they do when they pray.
Books teaching us how to pray read a lot like cognitive
behavior therapy manuals
such as Rev. Rick Warren's
"Purpose Driven Life"
chapter.)
(By T.M. Luhrmann, NY Times, 4-14-2013)
Jonathan Winters, Unpredictable Comic and Master of Improvisation, Dies at 87
(Winters was at his best when winging it, re-enacting Hollywood movies, complete with sound effects)
(By William Grimes, NY Times, 4-13-2013)
Martyl Langsdorf, Doomsday Clock Designer, Dies at 96
(Langsdorf drew Doomsday Clock or the June 1947 cover of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
(By William Yardley, NY Times, 4-11-2013)
Paolo Soleri, Architect of Counterculture, Dies at 93
(Soleri developed a philosophy he called arcology— architecture coupled with ecology;
Arcosanti)
(By Fred A. Bernstein, NY Times, 4-10-2013)
Annette Funicello, Mouseketeer and Beach Movie Actress, Dies at 70
(Frankie Avalon & Annette were the Fred & Ginger of their rock 'n roll generation)
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 4-9-2013)
Margaret Thatcher, Conservative Who Reforged Britain, Dies at 87
(She was first woman prime minister of Britain, had great resolve and known as the "Iron Lady")
(By Joseph R. Gregory, NY Times, 4-9-2013)
Lilly Pulitzer Dies at 81; Heiress Who Gave Elite Clothes a Tropical Splash
(Her tropical print shift dresses like flamingo pink sold more than $100 million annually)
(By Eric Wilson, NY Times, 4-8-2013)
OP-ED: The Slow Death of the American Author
(Numerous pirate sites supported by advertising are offering new and old e-books free)
(By Scott Turow, NY Times, 4-8-2013)
BITS: The Potential and the Risks of Data Science
(Columbia University's April 5 symposium "From Big Data To Big Ideas";
Privacy violation)
(By Steve Lohr, NY Times, 4-7-2013)
Opinionator: For the Anxious, Avoidance Can Have an Upside
(After 9/11, urged people to go back to work instead of staying at home)
(By Joseph Ledoux, NY Times, 4-7-2013)
OP-ED: The Secrets of Princeton
(Princeton alumna Susan Patton's
letter urging Ivy League women to find a mate)
(By Ross Douthat, NY Times, 4-7-2013)
Matthew Warren, Son of Influential Minister, Dies at 27
(Son of Rev. Rick Warren, one of America's most influential religious leaders, committed suicide)
(By Ravi Somaiya, NY Times, 4-7-2013)
Ebert Was a Critic Whose Sting Was Salved by Caring
(Ebert reviewed 5 films a week, but found time and energy to respond to his commenters on Twitter)
(By A.O. Scott, NY Times, 4-6-2013)
Roger Ebert Dies at 70; a Critic for the Common Man
(Ebert had 800,000 followers on Twitter as people believed in his film reviews)
(By Douglas Martin, NY Times, 4-5-2013)
Finding a Coder When You Don't Know How to Code
(If learning to code is too hard, then they are never going to make it as an entrepreneur)
(By Adriana Herrera, NY Times, 4-2-2013)
Monarch Migration Plunges to Lowest Level in Decades
(Monarch butterflies winter migration to Mexican forest sank to lowest level in two decades)
(By Michael Wines, NY Times, 3-14-2013)
The New Pope: Bergoglio of Argentina
(The 266th pontiff, Pope Francis is the first non-European Pope in over 1000 years.)
(By Rachel Donadio, NY Times, 3-14-2013)
Google Concedes That Drive-By Prying Violated Privacy
(Scott Cleland: Google violated people's privacy during a mapping project)
(By David Streitfeld, NY Times, 3-13-2013)
The Professor, the Bikini Model and the Suitcase Full of Trouble
(World-renowned physicist Paul Frampton duped by model
Denise Milani to smuggle cocaine)
(By Maxine Swann, NY Times Magazine, 3-10-2013)
With Positions to Fill, Employers Wait for Perfection
(Employers giving tests in proficiency, personality, psychology, math, and spelling in interviews)
(By Catherine Rampell, NY Times, 3-7-2013)
On Campus, Costly Target of Brazen Thefts: Nutella
(Students eating and hoarding 100 pounds of Nutella a day from Columbia dining halls)
(By James Barron, NY Times, 3-7-2013)
Yahoo Says New Policy Is Meant to Raise Morale
(Marissa Mayer wants Yahoo workers on-site for more innovation & collaboration)
(By Claire Cain Miller & Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 3-6-2013)
OP-ED; Reading God's Mind
(Jeff Chu's Does Jesus Really Love Me?:
A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America
on his struggles with gay marriage); (By Frank Bruni, NY Times, 3-5-2013)
Opinionator: Was Wittgenstein Right?
(Wittgenstein has extreme pessimism on the potential of philosophy in discovering truth)
(By Paul Horwich, NY Times, 3-3-2013)
FILM— A Word With: Ai WeiWei: He May Have Nothing to Hide, but He's Always Under Watch
(Alison Klayman's film "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" focuses on period 2008-2011.)
(By Larry Rohter, NY Times, 2-25-2013)
OP-ED: On Keeping On
(John Borling's poems were tapped out in code, letter by letter, on the walls
of a wretched cell in Hanoi during his six and a half years as a prisoner of war.)
(By Bill Keller, NY Times, 2-25-2013)
ANALYSIS: Lin Does a Lot by Not Doing Too Much
(Lin, 24, has been a solid if unexceptional Rockets' contributor with 12.8 points & 6.2 assists a game)
(By Beckley Mason, NY Times, 2-24-2013)
Hackers in China Attacked The Times for Last 4 Months
(Chinese hackers infiltrated NY Times computer system reporting on Wen Jiabao)
(By Nicole Perlroth, NY Times, 1-31-2013)
HEALTH: Ask Well— Help for the Deskbound
(Take 20 seconds to look at something 20 feet away from computer, and repeat every 20 minutes;
Every 20 minutes, walk 20 feet away for 20 seconds or more. Just don't sit at your computer.)
(By Tara Parker-Pope, NY Times, 1-15-2013)
Opinionator: THE STONE— The Myth of Universal Love
(Cicero: "society and human fellowship will be best served if we confer
the most kindness on those with whom we are most closely associated.")
(By Stephen T. Asma, NY Times, 1-5-2013)
BOOK REVIEW: Fraternity of Men: Brothers by George Howe Colt
(Riveting melodramas enacted by brothers Booths, van Goghs, Marxes and Kelloggs)
(By Phillip Lopate, NY Times, Dec. 23, 2012)
A Basketball Fairy Tale in Middle America
(Kevin Durant: "Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.")
(By Sam Anderson, Sunday New York Times Magazine, Nov. 11, 2012)
GRAY MATTER: I Heart Unpredictable Love
(Unpredictable rewards cause more dopamine release and more pleasure of inconstant love)
(By Richard A. Friedman, NY Times, Nov. 4, 2012)
NY REGION: In Storm Deaths, Mystery, Fate and Bad Timing
(Uprooted trees cracked by furious winds, became weapons flattening cars, houses and pedestrians.)
(By N. R. Kleinfield & Michael Powell, NY Times, Oct. 31, 2012)
You're the Boss: Why I Manage My Own AdWords Campaigns
(No one better than the boss to oversee the entire sales operation.)
(By Paul Downs, NY Times, Oct. 31, 2012)
* PROFILES IN SCIENCE PETER G. NEUMANN: Killing the Computer to Save It
(By John Markoff, NY Times, Oct. 30, 2012)
For Dakota Paleontologist, It All Started With a Turtle
(Fossil record shows that turtles evolved at least 220 million years ago)
(By Sean B. Carroll, NY Times, Oct. 30, 2012)
DRAFT: Mutant Verbs (Any noun can be verbed. So can many adjectives:
we prettify a room, neaten our desk and brown a piece of meat.)
(By Helen Sword, NY Times, Oct. 27, 2012)
SCIENCE: New Planet in Neighborhood, Astronomically Speaking
(Geneva Observatory found planet the same mass as Earth's in Alpha Centauri,
a triple star system that is Sun's closest neighbor, only 4.4 light-years away.)
(By Dennis Overbye, NY Times, Oct. 17, 2012)
Opinionator: Me, Myself and Math: Visualizing Vastness (Part 6)
(Ithaca's Sagan Planet Walk is 3/4 mile long in 15 minutes from Sun to Pluto;
5000 miles to Hawaii's Hilo campus representing Alpha Centauri, Sun's nearest star.)
(By Steven Strogatz, NY Times, Oct. 15, 2012)
Opinionator: "Leaf and Death"
(Placed leaves on a sheet of frosted glass and lit them from underneath and on top at the same time.
It made them glow. They crackle in flickering reds, yellows and electric greens.)
(By Jeff Scher, NY Times, 10-12-2012)
Opinionator: One Among Many
(Miguel Cabrera's winning the Triple Crown— truly a mark of excellence.)
(By Doug Glanville, NY Times, 10-12-2012)
BOOK REVIEW: Under the Influence My Poets by Maureen N. McLane
(Lineated poem-games like centos: poems where every line is taken from someone else)
(By Daisy Fried, NY Times, Aug. 17, 2012)
OPINIONATOR: Sartre and Camus in New York
(In December 1944, Albert Camus, editor of Combat, main newspaper of the French Resistance,
made Jean-Paul Sartre an offer he couldn't refuse: the job of American correspondent. Sartre
arrived in New York in January 1945 with Camus coming in 1946; their experiences diverged.)
(By Andy Martin, NY Times, July 14, 2012)
BOOK REVIEW: A Great Awakening— "When God Talks Back" by T.M. Luhrmann
(New way to deal with disturbing voices offers hope for those with other forms of psychosis)
(By Molly Worthen, NY Times, April 27, 2012)
SCIENCE ESSAY: Death Knell for the Lecture— Technology as a Passport
to Personalized Education
(Placed 3 Stanford computer science courses online. In first four weeks, 300,000 students registered
or these courses, with millions of video views & hundreds of thousands of submitted assignments.)
(By Daphne Koller, NY Times, 12-6-2011)
MOVIES: No Blockbusters Here, Just Mind Expanders
(Ernest Gehr's 1970 short film Serene Velocity in a hallwalk corridor from midnight till sunrise.)
(By Manohla Dargis, NY Times, 11-13-2011)
Opinionator— LINE BY LINE: The Road to 'Ten Unknowns'
(Process of conceptual thinking, sketching, research photos,
painting and lettering that led to a finished theater poster)
(By James McMullan, NY Times, Dec. 2, 2010)
OP-ED: The Perils of Progress
(Repackaging the future as a basketful of promise is a con.)
(By Eduardo Porter, NY Times, March 30, 2009)
BUSINESS DAY: The Feng Shui Kingdom
(When building the new entrance to Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney executives
decided to shift the angle of the front gate by 12 degrees. They did so after consulting
a feng shui specialist, who said the change would ensure prosperity for the park.)
(By Laura M. Holson, NY Times, April 25, 2005)
MAGAZINE: The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Deer
(Dr. Mark Mahowald's sleep-lab videos are so spooky— a class of disorders called "parasomnias",
which are defined as unwanted and involuntary behaviors during sleep and are by definition occult,
because they appear when most people are unable to witness them. Mel Abel was struggling with
a deer, trying to snap its neck when asleep, not knowing he was strangling his wife Harriet in bed.)
(By Chip Brown, NY Times, Feb. 2, 2003)
SCIENCE: When the Brain Disrupts the Night
(Awake, Jim Smith was an amiable & popular man. Asleep, he would shout obscenities, kick the walls,
punch the pillows. Sometimes, he hit his wife, Dee, in the back or grabbed her by the hair.)
(By Erica Goode, NY Times, Jan. 7, 2003)
BOOK REVIEW: Non-Art for Non-Art's Sake— "The Madonna of the Future" by Arthur C. Danto
(Danto declares we have reached "the end of art", a time when the line
between art objects
and ordinary objects is invisible. Henry James
story of Theobald painting Madonna)
(By Sarah Boxer, NY Times, Aug. 6, 2000)
*
Frauds! Fakes! Phonies!
(Book Review of "Unweaving the Rainbow" by
Richard Dawkins; He attacks superstitions, fantasies
and every kind of pseudoscience; argues that scientific fact is both intellectually and esthetically more
pleasing than pseudoscientific fantasy; writes "we are walking repositories of wisdom out of the old days.
You could spend a lifetime reading in this ancient library and die unsated by the wonder of it.")
(By Timothy Ferris, NY Times Book Review, January 10, 1999, p. 7)
*
God Help the Spiritual Writer
(What I mean by spiritual writing is poetry or prose that deals with the bedrock
of human existence— why we are here, where we are going and how we can comport
ourselves with dignity along the way. Whitman got it right in
"A Clear Midnight".)
(By Philip Zaleski, NY Times Book Review, January 10, 1999, p. 27)
'The Web Made Me Do It'
(Matt Drudge "disposes of all the journalistic conventions and
simply recycles the most sensational gossip that's going around.")
(By Jack Shafer, NY Times Magazine, February 15, 1998, pp. 24-25)
Our Memories, Our Selves
(Sherashevsky
could recite elaboate lists of nonsense words, complicated math
formulars, even stanzas of Dante in Italian after hearing them only once.")
(By Stephen S. Hall, NY Times Magazine, February 15, 1998, pp. 26-33, 49, 56-57)
SCIENCE WATCH: Singing Sands
(Marco Polo heard mysterious booming noises in 13th century China.)
(By Malcolm W. Browne, NY Times, March 18, 1997)
BOOK REVIEW: Bickering With Mom And Making His Boxes
(Deborah Solomon's Utopia Parkway: Life & Work of Joseph Cornell)
(By placing seemingly disconnected objects within a box, Cornell was not only claiming them as
symbols in his own dream life, but trying to recapture imaginary past, preserving the evanescent:
dime store ephemera, magazine and newspaper clippings— in the unforgiving amber of his art.)
(By Michiko Kakutani, NY Times, March 18, 1997)
ARTS: Victor Vasarely, Op Art Patriarch, Dies at 90
(Although ultimately eclipsed by the more restrained style of Minimalism, Op Art was an immensely
popular form of abstraction, and Mr. Vasarely, who had experimented with optical patterns since the
1930's, was widely accepted as its "grandfather." The movement with the spatial tricks he invented
was celebrated in an exhibition titled "The Responsive Eye" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965.)
(By Roberta Smith, NY Times, March 18, 1997)
ARTS: Glimpses Into a Private World: 25,000 Phots by One Artist
(Aaron Rose has made more than 25,000 images and printed each one by hand only once, so that each
picture is a unique work of art. Photos of New York City rooftops & the Milky Way. "An artist
doesn't
have to get acclaim from the outside. Maybe it is much better if he can get validation from within.")
(By Paul Goldberger, NY Times, March 17, 1997)
CHENGDU JOURNAL: A Browsers' Bookshop, but There's No Espresso
(Chen Yunzhen runs the One Heart Bookstore, which has become a center of intellectual life—
and less serious pursuits— in Chengdu. Her 6'x6' store is a civilized contrast to junk movie culture.)
(By Seth Faison, NY Times, March 17, 1997)
MOSCOW JOURNAL: Burst of Pride for a Staccato Executioner: AK-47
(One of this city's proudest exhibits is not a religious icon or a portrait. It is the Kalashnikov
assault rifle that a North Vietnamese soldier used to kill 78 Americans in the Vietnam War.
Effective Range: 325 yards; Rate of Fire: 10 rounds/second; Capacity: 30-round magazine.)
(By Michel R. Gordon, NY Times, March 13, 1997)
OBITUARIES: Mother Devi, 88; Led Religious Order
(Rev. Mother Gayatri Devi, spiritual leader of a religious order rooted in Hinduism, died on Sept. 8;
The first Indian woman to teach her Vedanta philosophy to Americans, she inherited leadership
of Cohasset, Mass and Crescenta, CA centers after death of her uncle Swami Paramanananda.)
(NY Times, September 16, 1995)
Confessions of an American Guru
(Maharaj-ji read Richard Alpert's mind that his mother died of spleen cancer,
and named him Ram Dass after he studied with him; Came back as an Amerian Guru
in 1969; He met Joya Santayana in 1975, whom he regarded as enlightened and
studied under her; Students seeing them holding hands said it's physical love;
In Sept. 1975, He left Joya, saying she misled him, and is not "Divine Mother".)
(By Colette Dowling, NY Times Magazine, December 4, 1977)
SCIENCE: 'The Interpretation Of Dreams'
(Freud says the dream represents a "safety valve" where the unconscious wishes wear disguise
in order to slip past dozing censors of the conscious mind, and these wishes are largely sexual.)
(By Edwin Diamond, NY Times, February 12, 1967)
SCIENCE: Sleep From Alpha to Delta
(Alpha: on edge of sleep; REM: Rapid Eye Movement in dream state; Delta: deepest stage of sleep)
(By Gay Gaer Luce & Julius Segal, NY Times, April 17, 1966)
Meditations of a Man of Action
(Hammarskjöld, whom the world had revered as statesman was also, a man of quite extraordinary
inner life. He says "In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.")
(By Henry P. Van Dusen, NY Times, October 18, 1964)
Clues to the Hammarskjold Riddle
[Hammarskjöld's Vagmarken sold 95,000 in Sweden & 2.5 million in the U.S. as Markings;
Nothing on his U.N. tenure (1953-1961); It'file:///Volumes/8-3-2021/InterestingNews.htmls his mystical dialogue with God & love of Nature.]
(By Oliver Clausen, NY Times, June 28, 1964)
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