December 20, 2009
Chillin’ on a Snow Day: Grasonville, Md.
Courtesy, Judy Micek, 12/19/09:
December 18, 2009
Science Friday: Why the Guinness Gurgles So
Who doesn’t love beer science?!? Below and here.
Support Science Friday.
December 17, 2009
End-of-the-Year Blogging: 2009 Lists | Books
Toward the end of every year, media outlets try their best to make “sense of it all,” usually by publishing lists — seminal and not-so-seminal events, ins and outs, ups and downs, what you missed, what you luckily avoided — ad infinitum, until our calendars are finally, and blissfully, turned to the new year.
So what’s a blog to do with all of these annoying lists? Well, of course, we point you to a few from time to time.
Here are some 2009 lists, in the book category:
- “What David Sedaris Read This Year,” from The New Yorker, the author’s list of audio and “eye”-books he absorbed in 2009.
- NPR’s Lynn Neary’s picks from 2009, for the book club set.
- From the New York Times, “The 10 Best Books of 2009” and, for the ambitious reader, “100 Notable Books of 2009.”
- The Washington Post killed its print edition of Book World in 2009, but nonetheless presents Jonathan Yardley’s favorites from this year.
- The Atlantic’s “Books of the Year.”
- The American Library Association’s “2009 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults.”
- Finally, The Guardian keeps it real by asking “What were your worst books of the decade?”
December 16, 2009
Health Care Blogging: Ditch It or Deal?
Stats guy Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com says progressives who support health care reform should stay on board, despite losing the battle for a public option (etc.) in the Senate and even as Dr. Howard Dean, dean of the liberal reform advocates, pulled his support for the measure.
Nate being Nate, he’s got a chart to illuminate his point that the Senate measure would, with all its flaws, be a big improvement over the status quo:
Read Silver’s post about how he came up with his numbers; TNR’s Jonathon Cohn’s take on recent developments is here.
Read here about the screwball Senate, where one lawmaker can keep an entire nation on edge.
Can that cooling saucer of our democracy finish its work by Christmas-eve-eve? Don’t break out the egg nog just yet.
December 15, 2009
NYT Magazine Reviews 2009 in The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas
Blog Alley’s periodic display of some of the fascinating items featured in the New York Times’ magazine The 9th Annual Year in Ideas issue.
Bicycle Super Highway
Denmark’s drive to create a vast infrastructure for bicycling commuters.
