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What makes 'good science journalism'?

Aug 25, 2022 3 min read

From 'Your Doppelgänger Is Out There and You Probably Share DNA With Them', The New York Times, August 23, 2022: Dr. Esteller also suggested that there could be links between facial features…

The overlay bias

Dec 14, 2020 3 min read

Analysis Tech arXiv bias echo chamber NYT Pocket publishing social media technocracy The Atlantic The Baffler third world

I'm not very fond of some highly popular pieces of writing (I won't name them because I'm nervous about backlash from authors and/or their supporters) because a part of their popularity is…

The climate change of bad news

Oct 15, 2020 6 min read

Analysis Op-eds bad news Ben Smith caste cognitive dissonance fact-checking Jacob Silverman Jonah Lehrer journalism Miami Herald parachute journalism privileges Rafia Zakaria Rukmini Callimachi The Atlantic The New York Times The New Yorker

This post flows a bit like the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket. As one friend put it, “It starts somewhere and then goes in a different direction.” This year hasn’t been beset by the same old steady driz…

The technically correct strapline

May 14, 2018 2 min read

Life notes curiosity gap Facebook headline inverted pyramid journalism lichen social media The Atlantic Twitter

(Re)Stumbled upon this article, by Ed Yong in The Atlantic, July 2016, this morning. As usual, it is rivetingly packaged. The strapline in particular caught my eye: Biology textbooks tell us that lic…