top story in Not the Editor’s Letter
‘State of Minds’ Puts Research in the Spotlight
“State of Minds” scours the University of California for important research and then does something special: It makes it interesting.
Foreign Aid for a Frugal Age
There are international development programs that actually do help the world’s poorest people. Dean Karlan can show you the proof.
The Magic of Re-reinventing Government
Before the ideological war over entitlement reform begins, Congress should look to the ways technology can reduce the cost of government. All trillion of them.
The Gadget in the Gray Flannel Suit
Generation S and the coming humanization of the digital revolution.
Desert of Fear
John Dougherty, a journalist who helped make John McCain one of the Keating Five, is running a long-shot campaign to replace McCain as U.S. senator. Along the way, both will have to deal with the immigration monster under every Arizona bed.
Counterinsurgency Training by ‘Virtual Human’
Using artificial intelligence and the graphics techniques behind “Avatar,” a USC institute creates “virtual humans” and interactive immersions that train American soldiers to win hearts and minds in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Knowledge-Based Journalism Is Not an Oxymoron
The blandly titled Journalist’s Resource sits on the Web, ready — with a little help from Harvard’s Kennedy School — to throw substantive story ideas onto reporters’ desks.
Can California Redistricting Reform Change Congress?
An extraordinary, nonpartisan experiment in redistricting on the left coast.
Adventures in Capitolism
Federal plans for a green economic revolution need more discipline — and a long-term partnership with the venture capitalists who know startup winners from losers.
archive
Learning to Play the HARP
The Obama administration has a mortgage refinancing program that needs some tuning.
The Change I Almost Couldn’t Believe In
If the politicians in a sharp-elbowed place like Houston can work across party lines, why can’t yours?
The Science of Good Government
The Obama administration talks a lot about making policy based on evidence rather than politics. A basic question remains unanswered: Which evidence?
Nonprofit-Funded, University-Based News
Can journalism schools oversee the public-interest news organizations of the future? Yes, with caveats.
Work Out Plan
Waiting for the Byrd to squawk, or how to tell if Congress and the White House are serious about fixing the economy.
Deep Throat Meets Data Mining
In the nick of time, the digital revolution comes to democracy’s rescue. And, perhaps, journalism’s.
Gambling on Gary
If we’re going to rescue Wall Street, let’s bail out the industrial Midwest, too.
The New New Media
At the end of the fossil fuel era, America’s premier journalism schools have staked out their place in the Digital Age. It’s called News21, and it provides what may be the best multimedia coverage of the election season.
The Watchdogs of Academia
A call on the professorial classes to help check abuses of governmental power. And to start confronting the Alberto Gonzaleses of the world — before they wreak havoc.
Truth With Consequences
Why both political parties should support a truth commission on the human rights abuses of the war on terror
related to Not the Editor’s Letter
politics
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Who Owns Government-Funded Research Papers?
- Crafting Policy to Bridge the Red-Blue Divide
- Can Obama Keep His Technology Edge in 2012?
- Post-Gadhafi: What’s Next for Libya’s Government?
business
- EarthScope: A Seismic Shift in Data Gathering
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
- Pirate Party Docks at Berlin’s Parliament
- Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
science
- EarthScope: A Seismic Shift in Data Gathering
- Teens Weigh Ethical Animal Research Dilemmas
- Animal Research’s Changing Equation
- Feds Put Chimp Experiments in Cage
- ‘The Real Science Gap’ Receives Investigative Reporting Prize
culture
media
- Bitter About Your Life? Blame Facebook
- Securing Nebulous Privacy Rights in the Cloud
- How Google Disrespected Mexican History
- Welcome to Shelbyville: Loving, Fearing Thy Neighbors
- ‘State of Minds’ Puts Research in the Spotlight
legal affairs
- Five Orcas, Five Slaves or Five Persons?
- The FCC and Indecency: Here We Go Again
- Pets, Vets and Stalking Horses
- Should Animals Be Considered People?
- Neo-Nazis and ‘Defensive Democracy’
environment
- Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
- Endangered Species Act Candidates Getting Prioritized
- Clean Stoves for the Third World
- T.C. Boyle Interview: Nature and the Novelist
- Ten Ways the Feds Are Leading the Green Charge
health
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from the source
Gender Wage Gap Skewed By Survey Flaws
The wage gap between the sexes in America has been closing much faster than anyone realized, but that’s tempered by learning it’s been much wider than measurements had shown.
‘Orcas as Slaves’ Argument Sinks
An effort to identify five performing orcas as slaves failed in part, argues one scholar, because there’s no legal precedent establishing them as persons.
The Perceived Delicacy of the Female Conductor
New research finds listeners judge symphonic music differently when they’re told the conductor is a woman.
House Puts Transportation in Partisan Crossfire
Transportation used to be one of the few guaranteed areas of agreement when ideology trumped pragmatism in D.C. But that’s no longer the case.
Pressure to Conform Can Inspire Creativity
New research suggests less-creative people do more innovative thinking when they are told individualism is the norm, and instructed to conform.
Better Super Bowl Makes for Better Ads
A lot of people say they watch the Super Bowl mostly for the ads. But it turns out a good game surrounding those ads makes them seem better.
Overseas Troops Finally Get Fair Shot at Voting
After decades of obstacles hindering the voting process, new laws will allow overseas and military voters to submit their votes in time for the 2012 election.
Neglected Tropical Diseases Neglected No More?
World health leaders announce coordinated push to eradicate or control neglected tropical diseases.
Children’s Books Increasingly Ignore Natural World
A survey of award-winning children’s picture books from 1938 to 2008 suggests our increasing estrangement from the natural environment.
Traffic Solution: Make Drivers Less Lonely
Rather than moaning about too many cars on the road, the Ridesharing Institute says the real key to battling traffic congestion and pollution is filling empty passenger seats.
Hall of fame
Slugging — The People’s Transit
In Washington, D.C., commuters have taken thousands of cars off highways via a homegrown rideshare system known as “slugging.” Can the government create more slugs — without stepping on any?
Bacteria ‘R’ Us
Emerging research shows that bacteria have powers to engineer the environment, to communicate and to affect human well-being. They may even think.
A New Take on Political Ideology
An evolutionary psychologist proposes a new framework for understanding the root causes of our political beliefs.
The Real Science Gap
It’s not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It’s a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.
Triumph of the Cyborg Composer
David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?
