Snarkmarket

Good Point
/ matt

News sites have been all abuzz about the agreement by soft-drink distributors to pull fizzy lifting drinks out of schools. The AP article about this draws a nice observation from Fine Young Journalist:

Four reporters worked on the story. Six people are quoted, all of whom are either happy observers or proud of themselves. … A very significant change in behaviour is about to be imposed on students. Yet nobody appears to have talked to a kid, or anybody who works in a school. One of the four journalists could have located a student council president or student newspaper editor or somebody.

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links for 2006-05-03
/ matt

FinnegansWiki. Joyce 2.0. (if:book.)

(tags: literature social writing academia)
No aliens? Here’s why. (Delicious.)

(tags: article funny future culture philosophy science)
Cartoons for grown-ups. (Delicious.)

(tags: animation movies best list)

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Grand Theft Auto-matic
/ matt

DARPA’s next Grand Challenge (the one they usually hold in the desert, where they race robot cars over inhospitable terrain) will be held in a simulated city next year. The unmanned vehicles will have to handle traffic and deal with intersections. (Wired.)

One comment

links for 2006-05-02
/ matt

Awesome Coke commercial. (Ad blog.)

(tags: commercial cool beautiful)

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Last Month's Books
/ matt

Just ’cause we never mention it, and it’s the first day of the month, here’s what I remember reading last month:

David Leavitt, Collected Stories: I love this man’s short stories. So. Much. But for whatever reason, I’d never read a collection of them until now. Leavitt is a master of depicting the oddness of a family at the precise moment of dissolution. And the endings of his stories leave the world shifted just slightly askew. The cycle of stories about Lord Alfred Douglas near the end kind of disrupt the rhythm, though.

Anita Diamant, The Red Tent: I’ve always been fascinated by the Bible story of Leah, Jacob’s first wife. As the story goes, Jacob sees a beautiful woman named Rachel tending sheep one day, and he goes to ask her father Laban for her hand in marriage. Laban says, “Sure, if you work for me for seven years.” So Jacob does. Wedding day arrives, bride and groom are married, bride’s veil comes off, and surprise! It’s actually Rachel’s un-hott older sister Leah. Jacob’s totally disappointed, and he asks Laban, “WTF?” Laban says, “Yeah, sorry, here we marry off the older sisters first. But work for me another seven years, and you can have Rachel for realz.” So Jacob does.

links for 2006-05-01
/ matt

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The Outlaw Ombud
/ matt

I have big love for the fact that Dan Okrent’s book is titled “Public Editor #1”:

I didn

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End-of-Week Notes
/ matt

Oh my God! They killed Nnenna! Bastards!
Chris Daughtry’s performance of “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman” on American Idol this week was incredible. It a) made me not hate that song, and b) made me push Chris to the top of my favorites list, even ahead of my beloved Paris.
Check it: Journerdism.com, from ’05 Poynter summer fellow Will Sullivan.
So you wanna blog? LaFry breaks it down.
Why didn’t anyone tell me Newsvine CEO Mike Davidson’s blog is really awesome?