This subject is dear to me at the moment: I’ve been working forever on a short, cheap news story on the National Security Agency. One thing I’m learning — or I think I’m learning, with this stuff you can’t be sure — is more or less what AG is saying, that an internet without back doors […]
Month: September 2013
23 – 27 September Have you ever wondered what it’s like to attend a wild horse and burro auction? This week, Mary Caperton Morton reports. Christie tried her hardest not to eulogize newsprint. Helen ate whale. Verdict? Underwhelming. “A lot of us hoped that once we had the Internet we might have more information about the […]
I died a little inside when I heard about the recent Today Show interview in which Jeff Bezos said, “I think printed newspapers on actual paper may be a luxury item. It’s sort of like, you know, people still have horses, but it’s not their primary way of commuting to the office.” As founder of Amazon.com […]
Whales are impressive, enormous, beloved animals. Whaling has been banned since the 1980s, but it still goes on in a few pockets of the world. I spent three years of my life in two of those pockets, Norway and Japan, but somehow had never eaten any whale meat. Until this spring. Over the 17th of […]
Malaria causes more deaths in sub-Saharan Africa than car accidents, cancer, AIDS or war, even though the disease can be easily cured with an inexpensive pill. I find that fact incredibly disturbing, so I’ve traveled to Africa multiple times to write about this problem. But honestly, I mainly go to Africa because I like it. […]
The first time I heard Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” there were a lot of things I was on the verge of understanding. My first contact with the song was in the movie Wayne’s World, which also highlighted some of this dawning awareness. I knew it was funny when the main characters, Wayne and Garth, said “Schwing!” but […]
Two summers ago I did something reckless: I went to a wild horse and burro auction in Bernalillo, New Mexico. I managed not to place any bids, but I fell in love many times over. Nothing is more beautiful than a wild mustang and these were going for a song. The 50 yearlings, mares and geldings were separated […]
Canada’s oil sands region has been gaining international recognition as a monstrous environmental liability, its vast tailings ponds made beautifully ghastly by Ed Burtynsky’s aerial photography. By some measures, though, Canada’s most polluted site is located less than three miles from where I put my son to bed, with a cup of tap water, every […]
