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September 29, 2008

The Global Economy

Robin says,

It's not just the U.S. markets; now the Nikkei-225 is down 5%, the Hang Seng is down 5.5%, Brazil's index is down 10%, etc., etc. For some reason, this creeps me out in a way the Dow, etc., did not.

What's the best source for smart reporting on this crisis -- from a global perspective? The Economist seems to be posting at magazine-pace... FT seems okay. What else is out there?

Comments (4) | Permasnark | Posted: 8:52 PM

Elements in the Basement

Robin says,

This video:

  1. dramatizes basic chemistry as interludes at a dance party
  2. is crazy
  3. was produced for the European Union's YouTube channel!

To all these things I say: YES.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 5:08 PM

September 28, 2008

Behold, the Maltese Falcon

Robin says,

WHOAH. Telstar Logistics has a couple of great shots of the coolest boat in the world. It sort of barely fits under the Golden Gate Bridge. I wish it belonged to an evil genius super-villain instead of a VC.

Comments (6) | Permasnark | Posted: 12:39 PM

September 25, 2008

Edward Hopper on Salvia

Matt says,

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The eerie art of Gregory Crewdson. (via)

Comments (1) | Permasnark | Posted: 8:32 PM

September 24, 2008

Trompe L'Oeil

Matt says,

coke.jpg

Julian Beever's three-dimensional sidewalk drawings are the new salvia. (Via.)

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 9:15 PM

September 21, 2008

Orchestra of One (Age Four)

Robin says,

Video of the day: Cutest kid ever = sound machine. Give it 'til 0:50 at least! And then you won't be able to stop.

It's like that video of the crazy-haired kid (which I cannot find, because all I can think of to search for is "video crazy hair kid") except cuter.

Comments (0) | Permasnark | Posted: 6:13 PM

September 19, 2008

Tim's thoughts: NB: I still think you are privileging production over consumption -- to the extent that consum... >>

Towards engagement

Note 1: Robin very subtly outed me early last week, but I needed a little while to get my groove on before announcing myself: I'm augmenting my blogging here with a blog about journalism, which will contain the insights and discoveries I encounter while doing a year-long research fellowship at the new Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri. I'll probably cross-post this over there, but I needed some of the brilliance of the Snarkmarket hive mind to help shape my thoughts on what follows. You'll find a little background for this post here.

Note 2: What follows is an attempt to thread several very obvious lines of reasoning together into something possibly slightly novel. Not at all assured of success, so consider this a preemptive apology.

I've often heard expressed a lamentation for the disappearance of a news commons. When we all no longer look to oracular information sources like Walter Cronkite and the New York Times, the thinking goes, we stand in danger of retreating into our narrow ideological corners. Under this model, the front pages of a daily general-interest newspaper form the foundation for civic dialogue.

In an intriguing paper, Indiana University professor Mark Deuze reminds us that this notion of a news commons was not presented hand-in-hand with the idea of democracy. Until recently, newspapers were constrained into having one front page for everybody. Over time, we've come to view this constraint as a feature, not a bug.

Under the news commons model, we aim for our citizens to come to the voting booth (or the city council meeting or the church supper) armed with the same information from a few reliable sources. So democracy means weighing our common set of facts against our diverse values, and reaching a conclusion respected by all. Cf. David Mindich, so you don't think I'm beating at straw men:

"One of the most powerful things about journalism itself is that it can communicate to a large audience and then we can have discussions about facts and where the facts bring us; but if we no longer are paying attention, then the facts don