For months — has it only been months? — UK neuroscientist and baronnes Susan Greenfield has been blasting Twitter and other social media for destroying the minds of the young. Today over at the invaluable Mind Hacks, the inestimable Vaughan Bell, who has tangled many times with Greenfield’s Twitter attacks, brings us the latest development.…
Monthly Archives: February 2012
Uncategorized
“Just Give Me Som Funky Shit Footage”: Neil Young Plays A Glasgow Sidewalk
by David Dobbs •
Neil Young – Old Laughing Lady (1976) by Julos77 This incredibly fantastic footage comes via the irreplaceable Open Culture: 1976, and Neil Young, greeted by filmmakers on arrival in Glasgow, takes them out on the street for some filmmaking — and then, with banjo, sits on the sidewalk by the train-station entrance to play “The…
Uncategorized
When a Smile Turns Ugly: My Review of TED Books’ “SMILE”
by David Dobbs •
Is there such a thing as too much good cheer? I argue more or less that over at the new science e-book site Download The Universe, where in dismay I’ve reviewed the TED Book “SMILE: The Astonishing Power of a Simple Act.” As I noted last week, Download The Universe is a collaborative effort of several…
Uncategorized
Your Genome As Circus Clown: How DNA Packs Itself Small
by David Dobbs •
One of my favorite blogs of late is The Last Word on Nothing, where several particularly literate, imaginative, restless, and thoughtful writers post on science, culture, and life. The most recent posts, for instance, consider science and music; magic; crying; and the universe, twice. Why think small? Yet today, actually, one of the regulars there, Virginia…
Uncategorized
Why the Longform Boom? It’s the Data, Stupid
by David Dobbs •
Over at Forbes, Lewis DVorkin, who once ran big bits of AOL, has written a fine smart post on the boom in longform stories on the web. The longform surge, both at magazine and newspaper sites and in new venues such as The Atavist, may seem surprising, but as DVorkin tells it, it’s surprising mainly in that…
Uncategorized
David Foster Wallace’s Wincing Worries About Wisdom
by David Dobbs •
John Jeremiah Sullivan on DFW, via David Quigg: It’s this quality, of being inwardly divided, that risks getting flattened and written out of (David Foster) Wallace’s story by his postmortem idolization, which would make of him a dispenser of wisdom. We should guard against that. We’ll lose the most essential Wallace, the one that is…
Uncategorized
A’Glitter in the Net: Bees, E-Books, Abandoned Children, Reclaimed Phone Booths
by David Dobbs •
What to do with seldom-used phone booths? In New York, architect John Locke is turning them into micro-libraries. (photo above by the artist). Atlantic Cities brings the story. Pretty much everything Alexis Madrigal writes is worth the trip, but this elegaic look at an outdated, massive satellite receiver from the Cold War days is especially…
Uncategorized
Elsevier Boycott Not a Petition, But “A Declaration of Independence”
by David Dobbs •
So says computer programmer and sauropod fan Mike Taylor in a particularly rich rallying cry at Discover’s “The Crux” blog. The ongoing boycott of academic-publishing giant Elsevier — almost 7000 researchers and counting — writes Bristol, [has] sometimes been described as a petition, but isn’t trying to persuade Elsevier to do something. It’s a declaration of independence.…
Brains and Behavior, Uncategorized
How to Do Much Without Seeming To Hurry
by David Dobbs •
The answer is apparently to be more like Anthony Shadid, the extraordinary war reporter who died last week in Syria. Here’s a remembrance of him in The Atlantic from Thanassis Cambanis, a friend and fellow journalist: Anthony Shadid never seemed to be in a hurry. If you needed him, or simply wanted his company, he would linger…
Uncategorized
Download the Universe Right Here: A New Site for Science E-Book Reviews
by David Dobbs •
I’m pleased to announce a new site I’m part of. I’m one of an otherwise distinguished handful of reviewer-editors for Download the Universe, a site conceived by Carl Zimmer in an off-hand remark last month during a ScienceOnline session on e-books. We aim to meet a simple but stark and urgent need: While lots of…