Several days ago, this story at Slate, by Brendan Borrell, argued that habitat destruction posed a more immediate threat to wildlife and biodiversity than climate change. That makes obvious sense. Until recently, ecological degradation, be it from deforestation or overfishing, was the pre-eminent environmental concern of our time. “Now, writes Borrell, “being green is all…Continue Reading…
On April 22, four years ago, I spent the day with Richard Cizik for this story. A lot has happened since then. In 2005, Cizik was the vice president for government affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), an influential group consisting of 45,000 churches and some 30 million members. He had been NAE’s…Continue Reading…
If licking envelopes or dog walking isn’t bringing home the bacon, you might want to take a look at this hot new growth industry: The best studies we can find say we are a nation of over 20 million bloggers, with 1.7 million profiting from the work, and 452,000 of those using blogging as their…Continue Reading…
In 2003, Bill McKibben published an essay in the literary magazine Granta ($$ Req), titled, “Worried? Us?” What he rued then still holds true today: People think about “˜global warming’ in the way they think about “˜violence on television’ or “˜growing trade deficits’, as a marginal concern to them, if a concern at all. Hardly…Continue Reading…
I always thought the term “green ammo” was an oxymoron. Let’s face it, no matter how you slice it, war isn’t great for anyone’s health.
I can understand why anthropologists have become a wee bit more defensive about their profession in recent years. But this reaction to a popular i-phone application over at Savage Minds strikes me as a clinical case of overcompensation: I just wonder how it is that Apple finds an application in which people can throw shoes…Continue Reading…
The Washington Post talks with Jeff Jarvis, leading new media maven. Money quote: WP: In all the bad news for newspapers stories, there’s always a lot of nostalgia. JJ: Horses are very nice. Cars belch pollution and get us into the mess of the oil economy. But we’re not going back to horses.
You don’t hear this often coming out of an archaeological dig in the American southeast: It’s some of the oldest stuff in the country. We definitely have a major find. As reported by The State, a newspaper in South Carolina, The site, about a mile below the Lake Murray dams, apparently was a longtime meeting…Continue Reading…
I haven’t seen State of Play yet, but this review essay by Alyssa Rosenberg at the Atlantic makes some interesting observations about the journalistic enterprise. Two are worth highlighting. The first is on the humanness of reporters: In a climate in which reporters are expected to be as detached as jurors, and against the backdrop…Continue Reading…
As I discussed here, the economic downturn is impacting archaeologists who work in the private sector. But not everyone is hurting, apparently. This guy, who sounds like an Indian Jones knock-off, says his business is booming, thanks to the government stimulus.