April 22, 2011
The NYT Mag Health and Wellness Issue
Health and wellness nuts and us regular Janes alike can find something interesting to read in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. I realize I’ve been griping about the publication’s recent changes but this issue has it all: What is the best exercise? Are cell phones safe? How much sleep do you need? And, most provocatively, is sugar toxic? (And sitting! Sitting is very bad!)
I especially like the way several articles—sugar and cell phones, for example—sort through the prevailing evidence to help us distinguish between studies that have merit and those that might be fatally flawed (yet strangely persistent in the public consciousness, i.e., vaccinations). The articles present much to think about, and so if you blow your free allotment of 20 articles here, you won’t be sorry.
(Support great journalism by going all in here.)
Science Friday: Building a Better Biker
Science Friday: Bikes in balance. Here or below.
April 21, 2011
Tim Hetherington’s “Diary”
Tim Hetherington, a Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent who, with Sebastian Junger, filmed the documentary “Restrepo” and spent years covering the folly of war, was himself killed this week in Libya, another victim of the civil war that’s broken out in that North African country. A friend told me about Hetherington’s 2010 film, “Diary,” which he crafted to juxtapose scenes of Western life with scenes of conflict from around the world. It’s a moving piece of work from a journalist who saw too much and died too young.
April 15, 2011
Science Friday: Ratting Them Out
Science Friday: The secret life of rodents. Here or below.
April 14, 2011
Pat Tillman’s Mom to ABC: President Looks “Foolish”
After watching the documentary about the circumstances surrounding Pat Tillman’s death by friendly fire, and learning more about Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s involvement in covering up the true facts about it, I was shocked to hear President Obama would appoint the now-disgraced general to co-chair a position to support military families.
Pat Tillman’s mother Mary, it turns out, agrees with me and many others who are sickened at this choice. She told ABC News that the president’s appointment of McChrystal to this position makes Obama look “foolish.” (I would add it also taints the first lady’s important work in this area.) I, for one, could not concur more with Mary’s disappointment in the president. She is a hero for all she has done to bring the facts about her son — the facts McChrystal and others worked so hard to hide — to light and is rightly affronted that the man who did so much to hurt the Tillman military family would now be in charge of helping other such families.