A stuffy article that suffers from j-school myopia. Alissa Quart's major error in this story is categorizing most "Found Media" creators as young. In my "found media" travels, I've become acquainted with many Found Media creators--a large majority of them are well over 40 (Gordon Joseloff of Westport Now comes to mind, as well as Jon Weber of New West-I could go on...) Further, Quart does not mention the numbers of non-journalists who are creating all sorts of "found media" every day. From history blogs to food blogs to blogs about tax issues in a town, there are many, many forms of "found media" that are solo voices providing that sense of both the personal and the editorial that is lacking from their local newspaper. Many ... More »

Remixing music "stems" might be to the 21 century what colored vinyl was to the 80's--a great publicity stunt that will interest a small fraction of the music buying public. Maney presents the facts clearly, and states his viewpoint succinctly--kind of what a reader wants from a tech observation.

A straightforward look at the move by many Americans to buy smaller cars--and how the big American car makers will have to adjust to this shift.

Gives good contrast of what is being said by Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the MDC. While it is difficult to know for sure the elections were rigged, as officials maintain, there is enough evidence, including the report from Botswana, that this is not a good situation for anyone opposing the standing government.

A good contrast to what is going on the the U.S. economy. Apparently, we are not alone.

Novel presentation of the material. However, the ad for CreditCardSearchEngine.com, which kept appearing every other page, became something of an ironic distraction. Perhaps we should start looking at the juxtaposition of advertising to content and cross-influences.

While I agree with what Mr. Nassar says about Wal-Mart (having been a Wal-Mart watcher for 20+ years) citing some studies would have been helpful. However, this is from HufPo, so it is more of a blog post than an article. That being the case, readers can either side with Mr. Nassar because of his position with Wal-Mart Watch, or go against him because of his position with Wal-Mart watch. Still, he makes some very good points.

Very basic, very general overview of the lay-off situation. Rather than being the fault of the reporter (sloppy writing) it could, perhaps be more of an issue with an editor, who may have chopped the story down to its perceived essential elements. The sound-byte quality of the story makes it feel like a great deal of information has been left out of the story.

Important look at an important unfolding story, nicely supported by the Timeline feature that directs readers to other related articles.

a good, quick overview of the important stories about the economy. Esp. liked the short feature on Rent-A-Center, a story that might have gone unnoticed in all the stuff about oil prices, yet very significant.

Whenever an opinion piece starts with "it costs more in Europe than in the U.S." I begin to have flashbacks to the oil crisis of the 1970's, when I first heard that argument. An editorial started with this level of ancient rhetoric gives me pause and causes me to take take whatever is said in the rest of the piece with a hefty grain of salt. Overall, what Stelzer says isn't all that enlightening. That he manages to mention Congress's "calls for "energy independence"" yet does not mention Bush admonishing the American public (or is it consumer?) for being too dependent on foreign oil, makes the piece little more than a partisan polemic.

Blog posts of this nature tend to be difficult to rate. The text of the post consists only of an excerpt from an email from a Marine--perhaps we would know if this Marine is real if we read the blog regularly. However, the issues raised in the post regarding Iraqi elections are interesting and could be something to keep in mind and follow over the next months. The comments, however, consist mostly of internecine squabbling over a "troll." This is a common occurrence on many smaller political blogs and, as a consequence, tends to drive down the level of comment discourse.

Eugene, OR will be directly affected by the recent cancellation of the chinook salmon fishing season. This editorial from a local papers gives the situation some context as well as pointing out that there are several different conditions contributing to the decline in chinook salmon in the region.

Pros and cons of the use of solar energy for country houses. Presents some interesting info that makes passive solar energy sound like a good value as well as a green solution to getting power in remote locations.

Straightforward announcement regarding a proclamation issued by California Gov. Schwarzenegger on the state of the Sacramento River Fall Run Chinook Salmon. Gives full text of Governor's Proclamation.

Even though this article presents the results of only one study, it does not mislead by purporting to be sole authority--only that there are some interesting findings in the correlation between dopamine disruption and child neglect. The report is much more cautious and lacks the soundbyte hype that dominates much reporting on similar studies. The column of Related Stories is quite helpful for putting this research in context.

It's a bit difficult to evaluate audio reports, but this one gives some eye-view accounts of what's going on in Zimbabwe, such as the intimidation tactics.

A fascinating look at what is going on with Brazil's Internet growth. The report at first seems overly-rosy, but is then countered with the sobering fact that there is much in Brazil (crime, bad economy) that won't be cured by internet access in the favelas. But it's a start.

An excellent report out of a region where the press is tightly controlled. We can see that there is a great threat to journalists in Zimbabwe, and that this is only a small part of the troubles of that nation. How the NYT's reporter will fare, though, is a story-within-a-story that should be watched.

Fascinating look at the purpose of "old fashioned" children's games and how they may help "executive control" (or impulse control) develop in young brains. Perhaps we don't really need all those newfangled video games after all....

While accurate, the story does a great deal of name-dropping, which made me think it borders on p.r. for the companies it mentions. The comments are even more of a distraction, with half mentioning/linking to other "human-powered" alternatives. Not informative as much as leading and spammy.

An exhaustive look at the decisions made that lead to the war in Iraq. Interviews from insiders and key sources add to credibility to the report.

Touches adequately on the potential for social networking, while also weighing whether or not a social networking site can--or should--turn a profit. What is more interesting are the comments, many of which consist of a great deal of verbal padding around pitches for other services or sites that can "do it better" than biggies like Facebook, or are making money (unlike Facebook.) These types of comments are often not conversation-makers but cleaver (or not so) conversational commercials. We used to call them "spam comments," but how can you call them that when the vocabularies of the posters are so eloquent?

A look-back/insider's view of Bear Stearns that can provide some personal context to the more fact-laden stories circulating in the major papers.