News That Stays News

The Jennings Test, Day One February 15, 2011

They’ve started to broadcast the Jeopardy matches between Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and Watson, the computer made by IBM.

Credits: The Browser

Redistricting and St. Louis February 15, 2011

1. Russ Carnahan may end up in a district with William “Lacy” Clay or Todd Akin after the redistricting process ends. Why is that? Ask Dick Gephardt.

2. How much can the GOP get out of redistricting?

Credits: The Fix

Browsings February 14, 2011

1. The revolution in Egypt, in pictures.

2. Authorial Intent and Harry Potter

American Meritocracy February 12, 2011

A fascinating trove of JFK papers are available on the web, including his application to Harvard back in 1935.

His main college essay was a response to the “Why Harvard” question- his entire essay is below:

“The reasons that I have for wanting to go to Harvard are several. I feel that Harvard can give me a better background and a better liberal education than any other university. I have always wanted to go there, as I have felt that it is not just another college, but is a university with something definite to offer. Then to, I would like to go to the same college as my father. To be a ‘Harvard man’ is an enviable distinction, and one that I sincerely hope I shall attain.”

Credit: GOOD magazine

Notes on Camp February 12, 2011

1. Chinese applicants to American colleges have a mortifying habit of sending cutesy color brochures to admissions officers.

2. Signs of a new arms race in Asia.

3. The US response to Egypt looked haphazard because of infighting between the State department and the White House.

4. The Secret Service gives Marc Ambinder some access. I think the most interesting part of the story is its subtext- why did they let him in?

Among the nuggets:

It is a sorely underappreciated fact that both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were the subjects of relatively close-call assassination attempts. During a speech Bush gave at Tbilisi’s Freedom Square in Georgia on May 10, 2005, an assailant threw a live grenade at the president. The would-be assassin, who was later caught, had been among the throng of Georgians who had burst through the perimeter fencing when it was compromised an hour before the event. (Luckily, the grenade fell more than 30 yards away from Bush, outside of its effective range, and it did not explode.) The Secret Service had warned the president and his staff that it was not able to screen everyone within the standard range, and that as a result, he was potentially in danger. According to former administration officials, Bush insisted on giving the speech anyway.

Clinton’s brush with death was closer still, and his life may have been saved by a gut decision made by his detail leader. The incident was disclosed only recently by the historian Ken Gormley in his book The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr. The context was Independent Counsel Ken Starr’s effort to force members of the Presidential Protective Detail to disclose particulars of Clinton’s movements and any conversation they might have heard that was germane to his case. Then–Secret Service Director Lewis C. Merletti argued to Starr that a president needed to have complete trust in his protective detail, offering the following example: in 1996, President Clinton was in Manila for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and had on his agenda a visit with a local official. He was running late, in a surly mood, and eager to get going. According to Gormley, just moments before the motorcade was about to move, agents using a special intelligence-gathering capacity—one that remains classified—picked up radio chatter mentioning the words wedding and bridge. Knowing well that wedding was often a code word for a terrorist hit, Merletti changed the route, which happened to include a bridge. Clinton was angry at the decision, which would cause further delay, but he did not override it. When agents arrived at the bridge, they indeed found explosives: had Clinton taken the prescribed route, he very likely would have been killed. (Within the past decade, the service has added an electronic-countermeasures vehicle— theoretically capable of jamming remotely controlled explosives—to the presidential protection package.)

Credits: The Browser

The Jennings Test February 10, 2011

1. Can a computer beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy!? A great article in the WSJ, courtesy of the Browser.

2. The best Super Bowl ad this year:

Federal Taxes At Record Lows February 8, 2011

Only 14.8% of GDP will be paid out in federal taxes this year, which is the lowest mark since the Korean War.

Credits: The Daily Beast

Egyptian Demographics February 5, 2011

An analysis of the population dynamics that made Egypt into a tinderbox. Egypt’s raw economic numbers- 8.9% unemployment, 6% GDP growth- don’t look so bad, but they educated their citizens faster than they could find jobs for them.

The article vindicates a lot of the hand-wringing that occurs in the Chinese press about the Jiuye Wenti (the question of finding jobs for new graduates) and the need for Bao Ba (to preserve 8- as in 8% GDP growth.) Looks like the CCP knows what it needs to do to stick around.

Top 40 February 3, 2011

1. A look at who got paid what, and why, in Hollywood in 2010.

2. Why do people think Mitt Romney is an opportunist?

Credits: The Daily Beast

Minds and Matter February 2, 2011

PTSD might be a bigger problem for the army than Al Qaeda or the Taliban.

For the second year in a row, the U.S. military has lost more troops to suicide than it has to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Credits: Kottke.org