Mike Maney

Month: September 2008

  • The Gray Lady Links

    I recently canceled delivery Image representing The New York Times as depic...of the print version of The New York Times. I did so not because I stopped reading the paper, but because the paper in Web form is so much more accessible and powerful. That accessibility and power is most evident in today’s column by Frank Rich. Rich supports claims in his column by generously linking to a number of past articles and outside sources.

    Why is this important? Because the links allow smart readers to, in essence, fact-check Rich’s claims. By including the links, Rich (and The New York Times) begin to blur the lines ever so slightly between opinion and reporting. And in so doing, begin to reclaim the power and responsibility of The Fourth Estate.

    Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

  • A Smashing Success for Science

    Geeks. Pocket protectors. Propeller heads. Today, all of the playful, derogatory descriptors go away.

    Scientists — explorers, more accurately — fired up the Large Hadron Collider to recreate conditions of the Big Bang. Do they know what they’ll find? They have ideas, but the excitement of what they don’t know they’ll find makes this a brave and important experiment. Teachers from kindergarten to college should take a minute today to highlight this ambitious scientific advancement, to use it as an example of why science is so vital to what makes us human, and to encourage their students to break through the boundaries of the possible to push the boundaries of what might be possible.

  • Isn’t Al Qaeda Also on a "Task That is From God?"

    As if I needed another reason not to vote for McCain and Palin (courtesty of the Associated Press):

    Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the
    United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is
    from God.”