The big guy's had it with smarty scientists suggesting that his life's work violates some silly natural laws. He explains in a Science Creative Quarterly post: "We collect and maintain data on what kids want and what kids deserve. Then we use our proprietary matching algorithm to reconcile the two." Distribution, payments, inventory, and marketing are all outsourced. "Our business model is a mash-up of Google, Amazon, PayPal, and Tupperware."
Science writing news
If you can lay off the eggnog and Meyers's rum for a little longer, the 10,000 Words site has three computer-related skills that journalists can teach themselves over the holidays. For example, "If you’re looking for a job or looking to network, there’s no better time than time off your day job to round up your clips/photos/reel/etc. and corral everything into a simple, personalized blog on WordPress or a similar site," Meranda Watling writes.
The British phone hacking inquiry may soon expand to science journalism, Curtis Brainard warns in CJR's The Observatory. An official board seems likely to examine coverage of the MMR vaccine, global warming and similar issues, Brainard writes: "Journalists should be open to and learn from reasonable criticism. But the emphasis there is on reasonable. In turning its gaze toward science journalism, the Leveson inquiry must take care not to become a witch hunt."
So says Robert Niles of the Online Journalism Review in a followup to his recent three-part series on eBook publishing. Niles placed his self-published book with those two as well as Barnes & Noble and Google Books. The latter two disappointed. "While Barnes and Noble sells millions of eBooks, it banishes self-published authors into a virtual ghetto called 'Pub It!'," Niles writes. As for Google, it "has little presence on the Web, and generated almost no sales."
Journalism schools barely teach it but interviewing can be the difference between good and mediocre stories, J. Maureen Henderson writes on forbes.com. "If done right, interviewing is actually a neat little game – you use all of your investigative and interpersonal talents (asking, listening, analyzing) to engage another person in conversation, mine that interaction for useful information and then use that information to create or augment a compelling story."
Its stated goal may be to prevent copyright and trademark infringement, but the Stop Online Piracy Act "would violate the constitutional rights of free speech and due process, and stifle innovation in the news business," the American Society of News Editors said in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee last week, when the panel was expected to vote on it. The vote was delayed after ASNE and numerous Internet experts raised their concerns.
Book editor Peter Ginna sees more than a few weak proposals, he writes in this Nieman Storyboard post: "The most critical difference between a book and a magazine or newspaper article is that the publisher has to convince someone to part with 25 dollars or more for this story and ... to invest several hours of his or her life in reading it," Ginna says. "You need a story that has a significance beyond itself, and you need to convey that significance to the reader."
Travis Saunders writes on the Obesity Panacea blog about coverage of a study linking television to heart disease. The finding was noted in headlines around the world, Saunders notes, but then quotes a second study blaming video games, not television. "You might begin to question why these researchers can’t get their act together and figure out what’s actually going on, rather than making one claim and then following it up with a contradictory one," Saunders writes.
Some success at last for gene therapy. Microbes in living color. Whither the Higgs boson, not to mention particle physics? Brief hiatus.