This week, one of the NYT’s advice columnists responded to a question about inviting unsupportive relatives to a wedding. I’ve thought about this question before, and not just in the context of LGBT couples: For me, the point of being present at a wedding is to bear witness to the relationship at the heart of […]
PHD Comics: Science News Cycle
A fun comic on science news and public science from Jorge Chan’s PHD: The “cycle” shows how science is converted from empirical research into institutional PR and from there, to wire service content, blog conspiracies, lurid cable news and local news, until its last stage as family folklore. Of course, this isn’t a complete cycle unless […]
Confusing Clear English
A Fresh View of George Orwell (Salon) The essential promise of Politics and the English Language was that “if you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies of orthodoxy.” Does this ring true in 2013? From the US State Department’s carefully-worded missives to the tightly-constructed soundbites of Whitehall Britain’s counterpart to the White House, our […]