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When the New York Times Tells You Sunday Means Saturday and Sunday

If there’s anything I love in the world of print journalism, it’s the Sunday New York Times. There are so many sections exploding with glorious information waiting to be devoured, from the Magazine to the special fashion inserts. This is precisely why, when I saw a New York Times sale booth a few weeks ago with lovely tote bags being offered for subscribers that I felt that I had to bite. I knew exactly what I wanted — the Sunday New York Times.

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Can Social Networking Replace Academic Peer Review?

Peer review is one of the essential cornerstones of scholarly publication.  Smart people with a vested interest in propagating correct knowledge get together and read and critique and fix what has been written for shared academic reasoning and publication.  The danger in peer review is that people tend to bring their own agendas and prejudices to the process and they can change and mold and even censor what has been researched and written to fit their own niche or to even destroy a new way of thinking that damages their self-believed right that what they know is only what other people should know.

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On Bill Murray Preventing a Train Wreck

When I was a child, I vividly remember my father telling me about the life cycle of an artist. There are only so many stories an artist has to tell and after that it is all repetition and rehashing of stories that he or she has already told. When that time comes, it is incumbent on the artist to recognize this and step aside for other artists to come and tell their stories.  This recognition does not get acknowledged when it takes place in the film industry. Based on some of the dreck that has been excreted upon the silver screen in the last handful of years some would say there is oblivion in this department. Not so with SuperGenius Bill Murray, who starred in the two Ghostbusters films and does not seem too keen in helping a third one get made.

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Computer Glitch Makes AMEX Serve an EPIC FAIL!

Today is April Fool’s Day, but what I am about to share with you has nothing do to with getting fooled — it is all too real and too corporate to rake any fun.  When American Express recently announced their Serve payment service for exchanging money, I was happy to sign up, just as I had done with Square last November.  I gave AMEX my banking information, a credit card and other personal identifying information.  After confirming two deposits in my bank account, I decided to take the next test step and transfer $10 from my bank account to my Serve account.  Oh, the woe that is me!

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Jerzy Kosinski and a Blank Piece of Paper

The great SuperGenius Howard Stein and I were recently discussing the writing process when I reminded him of his unforgettable advice to writers — found in the Secret of Good Writing — and we both shared a laugh.  Then, Howard told me a story about Jerzy Kosinski and writing.

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The New York Times Loses Control of their Content with a Paywall

Yesterday, I received this email notice from the New York Times that they would, once again, begin charging me for reading their content.

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Why Should We Save NPR from Slashing Its Own Throat?

The slimy attack on NPR by the same immoral idiots who previously tried to ravage Planned Parenthood makes it clear we are in the midst of a cultural jihad from the jingoistic hard right wing of the Republican party.  Good people need to stand up, and shout, “Enough!” against these crusaders — because the mainstream media won’t do it because they are too busy being led around like lost puppies by these dark and evil forces that survive only to cut down our free speech and temper any debate in their favor.

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Why I Love Indiespensable

As a general rule, I enjoy the feeling of being included in something special — whether that something is a club or a membership of some sort. Moreover, I like the notion that I could possibly be a member of something more exclusive for any reason — whether it is because I have opted into early or through my own efforts. This is why, for example, I keep paying the annual Pearl Jam Ten Club membership fee — being a member since September of 2002 gives me access to significantly better tickets than someone who may have joined this year.

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Drawing a Verbal Straight Line

Clement Valla created a fascinating test of human cooperation in a video project called — A Sequence of Lines Traced by Five Hundred Individuals — that proves how impossible it is to get one, let alone a set, of people to do a single thing in unison.  The idea of the video is genius in its simplicity:  Start with a straight line and then have 500 people draw that “straight line” as accurately as possible based only on the last drawn line.  As you can see below, the FIRST ATTEMPT to “follow a straight line” is already off-the-scale horrible that will inevitably lead to the entire breakdown of the line, and humanity, at the end of 500 swipes.

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The Trouble with Tradition

Traditions are what we now call “memes” and the danger in the covenant of a tradition merely for “tradition’s sake” is the unfortunate blind adherence to a policy or an ideal that is made valid merely by its relational occurrences.

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