Perez-Pena shows a web of Catch-22s which depress the level of care that diabetics requiring dialysis face in New York state: the gaps left by large chains with well-trained staffs, due to half-century-old state business laws, are filled by smaller, sometimes undertrained firms; yet even these are in such short supply that if closed down, for delivering substandard treatment, the patients---usually poor from inability to work, and enervated by their disease---cannot find easily find a new service. When the National Renal Administrations Association director says he has not read the latest government reports, one asks: why not? Isn’t this your job? When Perez-Pena reveals that neither the federal government nor many states set ... More »

Taking her cue from the respective Alexa ratings of these two sites, Ackerman assumes we know about Digg and focuses on NewsTrust, which will not hurt the feelings of us aficionados. In lieu of soliciting users’ evaluations, Ackerman wisely substitutes a survey of one day’s top stories on Digg, Reddit, and NT which neatly encapsulate the differences. (Given Juan Cole’s fame, “Informed Comment” ought to be identified by name, and his University of Michigan post acknowledged.) Though NT is well characterized, this is the second major story posted on NT itself which claims that members “rate a story on the basis of 10 factors,” when by using your toes as well you can count that there are 12. (Didn’t the reporter give the ... More »

Anytime that a certain set of facts, or a certain situation, is pronounced “unacceptable,” be prepared for simulated outrage followed by inaction. Thus it proves with the FDA which, as Alonso-Zaldivar shows, has been ridiculously underfunded for the job it is charged with doing. $450 million dollars, in today’s government budget, is peanuts---and oversight of food impacts millions more people than airport security, which you can bet receives plenty of dough. But then the FDA priorities are shown to be peculiar as well: on the date of this review, 28 December, meat from cloned animals has been pronounced “safe” by them---though this reader was unaware there was a huge pool of such meat waiting for market. Two former FDA ... More »

Markoff’s article begins with an air of the inevitable: it had to happen---despite years of development, Microsoft’s vaunted new OS has chinks. Two quotations from MS (security manager and spokeswoman), two from software protection firm Determine (vice-prez and researcher), another indirect one from security firm TrendMicro---all pretty unsurprising. (Reavey’s expression of having “every confidence that Windows Vista is our most secure platform to date” recalls that announcement heard repeatedly a decade ago: “the cosmonauts aboard space station Mir are in absolutely no danger.”) Markoff describes the customary procedure for detecting, announcing, and repairing glitches; but in describing the innovative precautions Vista ... More »

“They talk so long of Christmas that it comes,” wrote seventeenth-century British poet George Herbert; and the pressure becomes so intense that when the Great Day comes, anticlimax is inevitable. That is when you resort to the daily familiarity of the Web. The title (which may not be Tomkins’s own) is a tad misleading, as though you were breaking some Church Blue Law, or trespassing on the prohibition not to toil on the Sabbath. He does a good job of surveying the spectrum of reasons for facing off with your monitor instead of your kin, friends, and fellow citizens. Some people live far from their relations and cannot travel (for reasons of money or weather---vide Denver, Colorado); have outlived relatives who “knew how to ... More »

A far from trivial subject if indeed “Almost one-quarter of U.S. adults have at least one tattoo.” (Maybe so, if the American Academy of Dermatology conducted their survey of 500 in L. A., whence Shari Roan’s deft and professional article originates.) She gives the set-up (“I want it OFF!”); the new removable ink available; the current expensive and protracted procedures for removal. She cites a dermatologist who helps develop Freedom-2 (and explains what makes it eradicable), and its CEO; two dermatologists, from opposite sides of the country, not involved in the company; a tattoo association director against such pigments, and a tattoo artist enthusiastic at the increased business traffic it might make possible. As in the ... More »

This article, which originated with the Times of London, highlights the unhappy truth that military actions supposedly designed to bring “democracy” to the Middle East are instead destroying interfaith cooperation and coexistence, and leading the region into unprecedented sectarian hatred and violence. The outspoken Bishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has never been afraid to speak truth to power, and he is here joined by three other senior Anglican bishops, while British Defense Secretary Browne repeats the Blair government lines, unchanged, despite the conflicting testimony given by the head of the British Army. Gledhill and Evans start out a bit repetitiously; but by the fifth paragraph, which summarizes and quotes from ... More »

A brief, straightforward report of what Governor Bush told reporters in Miami about his political aspirations following the end of his term next month. “Bush did not elaborate,” says this anonymous article; but unless one could see the speaker’s face and gauge the tone of his voice, one has doubts whether Bush’s friend, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback was giving “a backhanded slap at President Bush,” or merely stating a fact by saying that Jeb Bush’s abandonment of political service was partly based on “a heritage issue.” That a Republican Congressman can observe that “People may be wanting to see a different name” hints at how deeply disappointed those who supported this President have become after six years. One cannot ... More »

In-depth presentation of the behavioral change in one species of bear because of shorter, and warmer, winters. What marks out this study for special consideration is the density of information and focused attention on this once-endangered type of bears, in Spain---far nearer the equator, and more temperate zones, than other types of wildlife whose activities have altered markedly in recent years. Only three experts are quoted directly, but their judgments are given in given: the head of the organization that monitors these bears; a geography professor who specializes in climate; and a scientific adviser to the British World Wide Fund for Nature. No one can claim definitively that global warming is responsible for these changes; ... More »

A report on a report. Normally one would like to know more about the phraseology of questions that evoke said responses (like another such study, about teen drug and drink usage, out 21 Dec.: what steps are taken to encourage non-lying?). But here the question would seem to be pretty wiggle-proof, and the results can only surprise the naive. Jayson presents the straightforward facts; highlights the ideological importance of the results; offers one characteristic quote apiece from both sides of the divide. Note how, in the penultimate paragraph, the director in charge of the study makes the commonly-heard claim that “he had no control over when the study was published”---just in time for the newly-constituted Congress to ... More »

Fluff to distract the holiday-wearied reader? Not a bit: chocolate sales climb 3% annually ($15.8 billion 2005), and that’s a sizable chunk of the candy industry---and Dark is making inroads. Brophy Marcus covers with subject with entertaining clarity and plenty of substance: she brings to bear the pertinent comments of two professors, an alternative medicine consultant, two analysts from Mars (the candy company---no doubt the planet will follow suit in time), three smaller companies and, of course, the ingesting consumer. Unlike the latter after too much indulgence, there’s not a gram of flab in the presentation, which cites---with concise specificity---the findings of no less than three medical studies, which point out the ... More »

Urgent! Urgent! Too bad the center of attraction was not available for comment; nor is any historical perspective provided on how previous title-holders may have thrown their caps over the windmill, as the Dutch say when somebody goes on a tear. If you came from a very small town as Tara does (the name rather makes you wonder about the genes she inherited), you'd sympathize instead of sneering. One wonders what lesser stories were shoved aside to make room for this one. Yippee-tie-one-on!

Fine for its purpose---to highlight the most striking findings of an upcoming publication and scientific meeting about what comets are comprised of. But this is one of those irritating stories that no sooner engages your interest than it is over. All sourced information is drawn strictly from the upcoming article and editorial. Writing clear and concise; but while "Stardust has certainly brought us plenty of food for thought," there's not enough nutrition for the reader here. Perhaps a NewsTrust member can spot a more in-depth article, after the AGU meets on Thursday?

As a sarcastic teenager circa 1970 I used to say, “I’ll see it when I believe it.” Offering many examples, some scholarly kibbitzing, a dissent from the Catholic establishment, and few conclusions, Haldane examines the related phenomenon of “pareidolia,” “the perception of patterns where none are intended”---especially when they seem to bear religious significance. The Mother Theresa Cinnamon Bun exemplifies the genre, to which each of us can supply instances not cited here: The Holy Name “written” inside a cross-cut eggplant, the Virgin’s face visible in a sawn-off tree in Brooklyn. (Lexicographer Michael Quinion mentions that an auditory form of pareidolia called “electronic voice phenomena [EVP], in which people ... More »

Apparently all that bottled water is being used to wash down all that fructose: if Americans are growing both taller and fatter, can complete sphericity be far behind? But to construct important trends from the entertaining factoids Roberts displays here is to indulge in statistical “pareidolia” (see article elsewhere on this site, “Seeing is believing”), i.e., seeing meaningful patterns where none may exist. He issues caveats that the Census Bureau doesn’t, warning against “false precision”: “nearly as many injuries involve beds as bicycles” because “most people use beds.” Perhaps beds & breakfasts need to convert to bed & bicycles to work off all that avoirdupois? And can all “media usage” really be lumped ... More »

To write an in-depth, informed feature article, the reporter needs to talk to every sort of person involved in the story being covered. That realization came to me while reading Henderson’s study of what one must call overweight high school football players: he starts with one of these young men---talks to a team doctor---a medical researcher---a sports medicine writer who oversees the training of trainers---a college conditioning coach---two team coaches---and another provider of trainers to high schools. The facts, and the dangers, are clearly spelled out, in a well-constructed piece that circles back to the player with whom it starts, and who has made changes that improved both his health and his game. (It’s heartbreaking ... More »

Tight, clean writing: O’Dell presents the facts in logical order, and lets us ask the spoilsport questions. What was the hurry to revamp 22-year-old test standards? Why wait so long after the SUV’s popularity soared to test them? And what vehicle-buyer took the old ratings seriously to begin with? The EPA spokesman is followed up with four other viewpoints---two car-makers, an environmental group, and a Puente Hills CA owner of several dealerships, who points out that people research the real facts on the Net before they set foot in a showroom: “And in the end, people find a reason to buy what they want to buy,” which shows why he is a successful car salesman. The note at article’s end about automakers meeting federal fuel ... More »

King’s survey of IT outsourcing covers the globe. Note the structure: beginning with an anecdote of how swiftly the Bangalore Miracle has altered---then, while assuring that India retains its dominance, providing further contrasts. No fewer than ten sources are cited to illustrate various angles of the story, backed up with specific figures and further challenges; and the trail she follows leads all over the earth before returning to the opening anecdote, and the solution that Ping Identity found to its problems---for now. Throughout, there’s an insistent subtext: you can always find cheaper workers, but when is a bargain not a bargain? When the work isn’t done well, due to shifting workforce, cultural differences, or ... More »

Only haste to scoop the most “extraordinary details” of the latest official report on Princess Diana’s death can explain this disheveled “Observer” story, which in its repetitions, errors, and ambiguities raises as many questions are it purports to quell. The “conclusion”---that Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed thanks to Henri Paul’s drunk driving while being pursued by paparazzi---is exactly the same put forth at the time of the accident. Twice we are told Paul was “three time over the French drink-drive limit” without specifying what it is; we are told he “was in the pay of the French equivalent of M15” [sic]---the M-Fifteen being a rifle, the M[ilitary] I[ntelligence] 5 being the UK Security Service which handles ... More »

Apparently the rush of blood away from the brain has deprived the Indian Council of Medical Research of common sense. Assuming a full erection, a condom will fall off not because the member inside is too short, but because its circumference is smaller than that of the condom’s tube, especially at the base where a snug fit is mandatory. That such rudiments of anatomy and male contraception seem unknown to the personae in this article, and seemingly the Delhi correspondent as well---whose name, “Damian Grammaticus,” only adds to the dubious air---makes the suspicious reader ask: is this some kind of joke, guys? English major will note how the concluding allusion---“for inches and centimetres, let fools contend”---has totally ... More »

This is poor work. Are Arendt’s ideas so acclaimed yet so dangerous that her reputation demands dismantling? Only belatedly is it revealed that “Why Arendt Matters,” by longtime advocate Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, stung the author into action. Had he organized his article around analyzing that study’s claims, pitting Arendt’s strengths against her weaknesses in organized fashion, it could have given his critique structure. Instead (to adopt a term used to sideswipe Isaiah Berlin) it “waffles.” All critics are named, but only two “devotees”: why did the editor not require all sources to be specified? By testimony cited here, Arendt never set herself up as a “philosophical hero”; she is known for one thing---the concept of ... More »

The ability to clarify a complex institution such as the Supreme Court is one of Linda Greenhouse’s great strengths (as attested during her frequent appearances on PBS’s “Washington Week in Review,” performing such analyses extempore). Unassuming on the surface, this article---describing the paucity of cases reaching the Court this term---has the structure and balance of a literary essay. The current situation is described; then seven contributing explanation: the disinclination to issue another decision as unpopular as Bush v. Gore; more uniform decisions in the lower courts means fewer conflicts to adjudicate; justices are unwilling to take on cases where their views might lose; the government’s solicitor general is ... More »

An important and interesting science story, somewhat hampered by its presentation. McKee understands the material---the major requirement for such an assignment---and conveys the researchers’ excitement. But when writing about black holes, you need some other word than “holes” to designate gaps in knowledge (para. 3), and estimating a black hole’s mass is not exactly the same as “weighing” it (which suggests putting it on scales---though admittedly the scientists use the same verb). Syntax needs attention too: “Colossal black holes at the centres of galaxies are thought to swallow stars that wander too close to them about once every 10,000 years” has a wobble in the middle. Asking someone to visualize a quadrant of the ... More »

Hagenbaugh has researched this paradox in depth---that while the perception is that American manufacturing is in irrevocable decline, a great many products are still made in this country, either for reasons of complexity, size, or proximity to point of usage. The perception is also that job security in the skill trades is not what it was---probably transferred from the sorry example of the auto industry. She has talked to everyone, young and old workers, manufacturers and analysts, and presents the picture in great detail, buttressed by details and figures whose sources are always given. The only thing she does not do is make some deductions and draw some conclusions. One sees ads in local papers for welders all the time---with ... More »

Cover story for 5 Dec. print edition. A brilliant, comprehensive opening sentence establishes suspense at once: how did this happen? McCoy takes us, step by step, into this debacle. Note that the IRS is still using one mammoth mainframe computer for fraud assessment, instead of distributing the same program across several machines; and that they shut down the old one before testing the new one---something you’d never do at home. Nor would you regard a system upgrade as “low-risk and low-complexity”---so why view such a massive change so cavalierly? The estimated $200 million lost is but 1% of the agency’s annual take, but it’s still a lot of money---and if it isn’t, in their eyes, why were they spending only peanuts---$21 ... More »

This story was featured on the print edition’s front page, right-hand-most column---its prominence accounting for information included and omitted. For this is a story about both Rx and $. Davis and Schmit stress first that the drug study’s failure is bad news for patients who could benefit from aggressively increasing good cholesterol---but also for Pfizer, and thus for its investors. (As well as those patients who hastened deaths might have resulted from the drug’s properties.) Three sources are cited: a financial expert, a cardiology expert, and the FDA. Certainly the study was administered to a large sample group; the protocol for monitoring is clearly set forth, and the unacceptable death rate figures given, along with ... More »

An announcement story, interesting for the information, with no thanks to the presentation. Those who have not been keeping tabs on NASA may be surprised that a planned moon visit is planned for 2018, nor that current chief Mike Griffin thinks the agency’s program for the past thirty years has been “a mistake.” (This reader also felt unsophisticated for not knowing about the “the requirement for Britons who join Nasa as astronauts to take US nationality,” which of course comes in handy for clearing Customs in outer space.) But the style is lumpy, and some observations oddly naive---there’s a world of difference, so to speak, between visiting nearby planets in the Sun system, and investigating their nearest possible such ... More »

Markoff does a fine job of easing the reader into the concept of Nicholas Negroponte’s outside-the-box computer for the world’s underserved children. The vested interests snub the idea, having invested so much in more expensive, more conventional “cheap” laptops (especially those who don’t use Linux’s open source OS); the haves say the have-nots need something else, instead---which they aren’t likely to get. The resistance to a machine where children can take responsibility shows how ingrained is adult underestimation of the young mind: give the children in these five target countries these computers, and they will grow up with them as second nature, and focus on what they teach, rather than the medium that teaches them. ... More »

A clear, concise introduction to NT, useful for recruiting friends to join, and for alerting the cybersphere to a new model for civic-reader participation. Pertinent links provided, and a good potted history of the site’s development (though you may note we answer 12 rating questions, not just 6---the sole slip). As FF notes, “everyday citizens don’t always have the resources to factcheck the press,” and I’d say that with 95% of the stories I review, I am trusting the reporter to get the facts right: that’s why I’m reading---to learn. It’s the inconsistencies, the unsourced sources, the “studies have shown” maneuver (without naming who sponsored them, or any approaching exact figures) that raise the warning flags. Of ... More »

Just landing on Second Life’s site, with its invitation to create your own avatar, can act upon the passerby with the suction of a black hole. Others are finding a kind of South Seas Bubble-land there, as Wagner James Au (another avatar?) explains, helping us foreigners understand how virtual real estate can be worth anything in $Linden or $US. Plainly, you’d have to make your own virtual investigation to real grasp it all; but for those who find NewsTrust sufficiently beguiling for one’s “computer leisure face-time,” Au does an exemplary job of explaining the gimmick---and prompting uncanny parallels with what we shall call First Life. Many “millionaires” would only be so if they cashed everything in; few have heaps of ... More »

Crisply written and packed with facts---there’s not an unnecessary word or superfluous detail---Giridharadas and Rai present an unsparing picture of the meteoroid-like impact which Wal-Mart’s will make as it plunges into the center of the Indian subcontinent’s economy. We are shown the full picture, from the lack of other new commercial frontiers to conquer, to the least subsistence farmer in the country. Intent upon expansion after ill-fated ventures in other countries, Wal-Mart wormed its way through India’s entangling restrictions, and now repeats its promises of spreading “prosperity by creating new markets for local businesses” which we have seen the truth of elsewhere. Critics and criticisms are given a voice, but ... More »

Not only does Anderson link us to Chesney’s study---presented with precis and the full text---but also hooks us up with the much-debated comparison in “Nature” between Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica, and the latter’s riposte. I do not find Chesney’s results perplexing; and offer two examples to explain why. Wikipedia’s article on the late (and controversial) operatic soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf is gracefully, expertly, and candidly written, analyzing not only her artistry but providing a judicious overview of her years in Nazi Germany (and putting paid to the urban legend that she is related to Norman Schwarzkopf). Plainly an opera enthusiast, familiar with an encyclopedia’s claim to evenhandedness, contributed ... More »

“Show, don’t tell,” says the old shibboleth for good writing, when the secret is to know when to show and when to tell, and what. Poitras draws powerful attention to the plight of grandparents forced by circumstance to raise their grandchildren by judging precisely when to provide an anecdote; when to cite facts and quote experts; tying these matters into a current event; and underplaying pathos, letting it emerge by itself. And the Catch-22 situation Poitras describes in Connecticut replays itself in every state across the country: the local and the personal become the national and the political. The three specific situations described, where brave, broke women nonetheless provide love and care for their grandkids, bring ... More »

Even to those who aren’t into computer games, not even “casual” ones---the sort you can see to play on a handheld device---this is an interesting, well-constructed story. This overlooked genre “didn’t even have a name until the late 1990s,” but it’s now a sizable, little-regarded segment of the industry, and the efforts to ramp up the product’s looks and appeal is told with ample input from the designers, the players, the industry analysts, and backed up with sourced statistics. Just when you’re wondering, “Surely these companies offer you some free games, so you can make sure it’s worth a $30 download,” Konrad reveals that players are given an hour’s free time---a length that’s important, for to succeed in this ... More »

A blistering challenge, by the health editor of Britain’s “Guardian,” that casts its argument in the strongest no-nonsense terms possible, to pierce the hypocrisies which surround the reality of sex in today’s world. She starts with Britain---moves to Africa---castigates the US’s immoral policies---then takes the responsibility back upon British shoulders, to launch an unprejudiced assault upon oppression and disease. In the tradition of this paper’s hard-hitting op-eds which do not just complain, but challenge, and lay out a course of action.

Setting: The Mid-South, 17 Sept. 2006. Scene: Office of doctor’s suite. Personae: 2 female nurses, discussing new TV season. #1: “Did you see the season opener of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’? It was two hours. It really made [the main romantic leads] a lot more Human.” #2: “I Tivo’d it to watch later because Thursday I go to the Pentecost church my brother leads. It’s small but they make you feel really welcome.” #1: “That makes all the difference with a church,” and they go on to discuss Nancy Grace on Court TV. Plainly they do not “increasingly emulate . . . their media counterparts,” nor do they buy the notion that “all doctors do at hospitals is have sex.” Yet on this anecdotal basis Nilsson deploys the trappings ... More »

It just keeps swelling, the chorus of critics---composed of past government officials, high-ranking judicial and military leaders---protesting the “indefinite detention of U.S. terrorism suspects,” without trial, charges, or accountability. Clearly, cogently, tersely reported: we’ve heard the other side many times, and their case never gets more persuasive. Mr. Gonzales should keep in mind that public promises of job security are nothing if one becomes an embarrassment to the regime; and should he dislike the American definition of “freedom,” he has the freedom to emigrate to many countries where his warrantless surveillance is the normal modus operandi.

When veteran journalist Robert Siegel has particularly difficult subjects to interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered”---usually political celebrities---he employs the time-tested tradition of allowing them sufficient rope to hang themselves. So does Brian Wheeler in this self-portrait of Blair’s chief strategist, giving clues as to why he’s departing. “The end of deference” does seem to be what he laments, for never once in his remarks does he consider that the media might have cause, in some cases, to regard some politicians as “corrupt or ‘mendacious’” (read: liars), because the electorate has been lied to by people who are indeed “out there to shaft you.” It is not so much anti-establishment sentiment, as ... More »

That science writing for an untrained readership is one of the most difficult reportorial assignments is graphically demonstrated in this unsatisfying article. A profusion of misapplied figurative language obscures the Collider’s mission. These “hi-tech retina scans” (are there lo-tech ones?) presumably vet workers in this subterranean complex, but that’s neither clear, nor relevant. The Collider is both a sledgehammer to crack mysteries, but also a crowbar to prise open alternate dimensions. (How?) The elaborate metaphor conjuring up Mrs. Thatcher covered in molasses is amusing, not illuminating; the cavern holding the Atlas detector is “large enough to house the nave of Westminster Abbey,” which only helps if you’ve ... More »

At first sight, one is glad to read this headline, especially if you were a skeptic who expected litigation to prolong the midterm election into December. (In Florida, it apparently will.) Especially in trouble-plagued Ohio. As another reviewer points out, 7% of polling places had trouble---which doesn’t seem overwhelming unless, of course, you were trying to vote at one---and most troubles were cleared up by lunchtime---which isn’t much consolation during a one-day election period, when not everyone can take a second shot at the booth (as one woman here does). When you count up the voters, vs. the poll-workers or –observers, you find 7 who “encountered difficulties,” versus five who “were pleasantly surprised” that ... More »