Blog – Page 8

Judging a Book by Its Cover

I’m intrigued by the art of book design. Some designs are great, some less so. A few deserve to be placed in museums, they’re that good. I’m a huge fan of the Crude World cover that Peter Mendelsund designed for Knopf. Now comes the cover for the British edition of CW, which ... (Read more)

Baby Einstein Is Not So Smart, After All

A few years ago, inquiring journalists began writing about the deception behind Baby Einstein videos, which promised to make toddlers smarter. Not only were the videos of no educational value, they could be harmful; the American Academy of Pediatrics advises that children under the age of two ... (Read more)

The Page 99 Test

A few weeks ago I received an email from Marshal Zeringue, who runs several literary blogs including one that’s called “The Page 99 Test.” Its title comes from Ford Madox Ford, who once advised, “Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will ... (Read more)

The Fate of Environmental Journalism

Columbia University has suspended its environmental journalism program. Not because the world needs fewer journalists who are schooled in environmental sciences. Actually, the world needs ... (Read more)

Maassapalooza, 5

Because you can never get enough…
—Grist (Interview by Jonathan Hiskes)
—The Economist (A review)
—SeattlePI.com (Story by Joel Connelly)
—Zocalo Public Square (Interview)

Slightly Cleaner Coal, Much Dirtier Water

A devastatingly great story in today’s NYT about Allegheny Energy installing scrubbers at a coal plant to reduce carbon emissions. The problem, however, is that the scrubbing is done by spraying ... (Read more)

Maassapalooza, 4

—CBC Dispatches (Interview by ... (Read more)

Maassapalooza, 3

—San Francisco Chronicle (Review by Adam Lashinsky)
—Tech Ticker (Yahoo!Finance interview with Aaron Task)
—TakePart.com (Question-and-answer interview by Adriana Dunn)
—CNAS.org (Review by Christine Parthemore at the Center for a New American Security)

Maassapalooza, 2

—Approval Matrix (New York Magazine)
—KERA-FM (NPR station in Dallas-Fort Worth)
—The Business Insider

What Makes Europe Greener than the U.S.?

That’s the headline over a wonderful story Elisabeth Rosenthal wrote for e360, the webzine published by Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Rosenthal, who covers environmental issues ... (Read more)