Slate is the Internet's informed look at news, politics, and culture. This channel is auto generated - new Slate content is added automatically. http://myprops.org/channels/Slate-Magazine/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:00:05 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ This feed has moved to http://feeds.slate.com/slate. http://myprops.org/content/Feed-has-moved/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:53:34 GMT Like some gothic serial novelist, the Bureau of Labor Statistics delivers another chapter of the same grim tale on the first Friday of every month. In October, the unemployment rate spiked to 10.2 percent, the highest since April 1983. Since December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.3 million jobs. The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings is 6.1 to 1; in December 2007, it was 1.7 to 1. http://myprops.org/content/The-job-market-will-rebound-a-lot-sooner-than-you-expect/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:59:46 GMT When it comes to any issue that involves Islam, President Obama starts with an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that he's seen as sympathetic to Muslims. The disadvantage is also that he's seen as sympathetic to Muslims. http://myprops.org/content/Does-Obama-need-to-speak-more-harshly-about-Islam/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:59:36 GMT The Republican Party is having its Thanksgiving family fight early-and for that it can thank Sarah Palin. Palin, whose book is officially out Tuesday, is has set off a new round of fighting with former McCain aides. Dede Scozzafava, the Republican who Palin refused to endorse in the race for a New York congressional seat, is firing back. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, who once worked for Mitt Romney, is the latest to question Charlie Crist, the ... http://myprops.org/content/Sarah-Palin-gives-the-GOP-an-early-start-on-its-Thanksgiving-family-fight/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:38:40 GMT Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people at Fort Hood last week, was indicted on Thursday. Most news stories covering the incident-including those on Slate-refer to Hasan as the "alleged," "accused," or "suspected" killer, even though several eyewitnesses have fingered Hasan and there are no other suspects. Why can't newspapers drop all these modifiers and just go with killer? http://myprops.org/content/Why-are-newspapers-calling-Maj.-Nidal-Hasan-the-alleged-Fort-Hood-shooter/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:28:40 GMT Omar Khadr saw more legal action today in the span of an hour than he's experienced in the seven-plus years he's been held at Guantanamo Bay. Just as Khadr's plight was the subject of an inquiry before the Canadian Supreme Court, which was looking into whether Khadr needs to be forcibly extricated from his American captors, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made his American captors appear even more suspicious by announcing that, unlike some of the other detainees at Guantanamo, Khadr will never ... http://myprops.org/content/How-the-United-States-never-ending-legal-mess-at-Gitmo-is-spilling-over-into-Canada/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:50:41 GMT This past year, during a brave attempt to weather the sweaty show floor of the video-game industry's annual E3 conference, I stopped by the enormous display dedicated to Nintendo. Unlike many publishers that show videos of their upcoming titles but won't let the public play them, Nintendo had bushels of flat-screen televisions pumping its biggest game of the year, the New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The most marketable feature of this new version of the franchise is the addition of four-player ... http://myprops.org/content/Murder-looting-pizza-theft-and-other-hazards-of-cooperative-video-gaming/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:00:40 GMT The physicist Robert Oppenheimer, upon witnessing the first test explosion of the atomic bomb he helped develop, famously thought of these words from the Bhagavad-Gita: "Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Gazing upon the far more massive destruction he wreaks on our planet in his end-of-the-world blockbuster, 2012, director Roland Emmerich must feel an analogous awe. But my guess is he'd express this feeling more pithily. "Rad," perhaps. Sixty-five years ... http://myprops.org/content/Roland-Emmerichs-2012/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:49:39 GMT At least 24 gallons of water were discovered on the moon when NASA researchers slammed a satellite into a lunar crater last month. "We practically tasted it with the impact," said one member of the mission team on Friday. In a pair of "Explainer" columns first published in 2006, and excerpted below, Daniel Engber reviewed the significance of extraterrestrial water. http://myprops.org/content/A-couple-of-questions-about-water-on-other-planets/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:28:40 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/Reviews-of-2012-Fantastic-Mr.-Fox-and-Pirate-Radio/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:32:39 GMT Every week in the Middle East is more or less the same. On Monday, Iranians and Israelis spit fire at each other. On Tuesday, the leaders of the United States and Europe announce that the Iranians have agreed to stop enriching uranium. On Wednesday, Hamas and Fatah fail to reach agreement on a unity government that neither party wants, while the Israelis proclaim their willingness to discuss a peace agreement with a Palestinian government that doesn't exist. On Thursday, the Iranians suggest ... http://myprops.org/content/How-rockets-transformed-the-Middle-East-arms-race-and-made-Russia-the-big-winner/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:15:39 GMT "You've lost the warrior instinct," explained my friend's boss as he fired her after years of 100-hour work weeks. Delivered to a female employee, the comment contained an undercurrent of sexism and, when combined with some of her on-the-job experiences, probably constituted what civil rights lawyers call an "actionable statement." My friend, however, chalked it up to the macho, hyper-competitive environment of her chosen profession: investment banking. http://myprops.org/content/Are-men-really-more-competitive-than-women/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:25:38 GMT The experience of Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox Searchlight), Wes Anderson's stop-motion adaptation of the Road Dahl book for young readers, is like being magically shrunk down to 1:12 scale and set loose for ninety minutes in an exquisite, handcrafted, dizzyingly well-stocked dollhouse. If, like me, you're a lifelong aficionado of miniatures-someone who still presses their nose to toy-store windows filled with cunningly crafted furniture and tiny kitchen supplies-this movie will seduce you on tactile ... http://myprops.org/content/Fantastic-Mr.-Fox-reviewed/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:23:38 GMT Bagpipes were playing as President Obama arrived at the memorial service for victims of the Fort Hood shooting on Tuesday. The instruments were also heard at Veterans Day celebrations around the country Wednesday. What's the deal with all these funerary bagpipes? http://myprops.org/content/Why-were-they-playing-bagpipes-at-the-Fort-Hood-memorial-service/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:47:18 GMT Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is reportedly reconsidering tax options for health care reform. According to the Associated Press, Reid is thinking about raising the part of the payroll tax that pays for Medicare on families whose incomes exceed $250,000, the magic number below which President Obama has promised not to raise taxes. According to Bloomberg, Reid is also considering an alternative proposal that, rather than raise the Medicare tax, would apply a tax on investment income for ... http://myprops.org/content/Will-Sen.-Harry-Reid-tax-the-rich-to-pay-for-health-reform/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:28:39 GMT Eight months and eight national-security meetings after announcing a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan and sending the first wave of additional troops, President Barack Obama stands on the verge of deciding whether that strategy was right and how many, if any, more soldiers to send. http://myprops.org/content/What-do-they-talk-about-in-all-those-Afghanistan-strategy-sessions/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:52:13 GMT Psychologists who work with children and families tend to avoid mentioning to parents that the treatments they use are often based on research done on animals. It's no secret that the widely used technique of the timeout was developed in studies on rats or that important early research leading to treatments for anxiety in humans was done on dogs, cats, and other species-but the subject doesn't come up a lot in conversation. We will confess to doing our bit to perpetuate this professional shyness ... http://myprops.org/content/Animal-research-and-your-childs-behavior/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:46:38 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/Clinton-The-Rise-of-China-Is-Inevitable/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:02:43 GMT Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.) http://myprops.org/content/Im-too-plain-to-flirt/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:08:39 GMT In some social circles-those of dirty East Coast liberals, for instance-the fashionable new comedy of the season is Modern Family. Good for it. Good for wit that contributes to screwball tartness on network TV. But, for the record, the best new comedy is probably Glee (Fox, Wednesdays at 9 p.m., ET), created by Ryan Murphy and now back on air after a break for the World Series. And yet it happens that Glee is a musical comedy, and according to TV-biz conventional wisdom, many people feel such ... http://myprops.org/content/The-many-charms-of-Glee/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:57:40 GMT A Rasmussen poll released on Wednesday found that 60 percent of respondents want the Fort Hood shooting "investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act," while 27 percent "want the incident investigated by civilian authorities as a criminal act." Former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Sen. Joe Lieberman are on the 60 percent side-they've both referred to the massacre as "terrorism"; but President Obama has so far avoided using the term. Was the ... http://myprops.org/content/Is-accused-Fort-Hood-shooter-Nidal-Malik-Hasan-a-terrorist/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:32:38 GMT A couple months after the turn of the millennium, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett took to the floor of the Senate and declared victory over Y2K. "The record is fairly clear that had we as a nation not focused on this issue and dealt with it, we would have had very significant problems," he said. But by then, virtually nobody was listening, and Bennett, who chaired the Senate's Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem, pretty much knew it. http://myprops.org/content/A-two-part-series-on-the-lessons-of-Y2K/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:13:45 GMT To hear Josh Levin, Stefan Fatsis, and Mike Pesca discuss The Book of Basketball on Slate's sports podcast "Hang Up and Listen," click the arrow on the audio player below and fast-forward to the 27:30 mark: http://myprops.org/content/Bill-Simmons-The-Book-of-Basketball-reviewed/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:52:39 GMT As we dig out from the rubble of the financial sector's collapse, it's common to hear analysts fret that the United States may now be facing a Japan-style "lost decade." Throughout the 1990s, after its real estate and stock bubble burst, Japan struggled with low growth for more than 10 years. It emerged from the decade shrunken and sapped of confidence, with very little to show for a large amount of government spending and near-zero interest rates. http://myprops.org/content/Why-the-last-decade-has-been-an-economic-disappointment-for-most-Americans/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:47:00 GMT Since the Food and Drug Administration announced last month that it plans to ban the sale of unprocessed Gulf of Mexico oysters from April through October, people in New Orleans have been gobbling the things down as if there's no tomorrow. That's the Big Easy for you. Risky as it is just to live there, you think dey go worry about itty-bitty bacteria? http://myprops.org/content/Is-protecting-consumers-from-uncooked-oysters-a-rotten-plan/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:09:48 GMT Do you have a real-life do-gooding dilemma? Please send it to ask.my.goodness@gmail.com and Sandy will try to answer it. http://myprops.org/content/Are-holiday-adopt-a-family-programs-a-waste-of-my-charitable-giving/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:29:04 GMT Patrick, are you guys staying at the Paris Hilton? http://myprops.org/content/Mad-Men-The-TV-Club-has-been-sold-to-McCann-Erikson/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:28:55 GMT On Christmas Day, 1978, photojournalist David Burnett arrived in Iran to cover the unrest that became the Iranian revolution. On one side was Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the nation's West-leaning but authoritarian and unpopular ruler; on the other, a coalition of angry opposition interests from secular leftists to ultra-conservative mullahs. For six weeks, Burnett photographed everything from the shah posing outside his lavish palace to scenes of horrific, sudden violence; massive protests on ... http://myprops.org/content/A-photojournalist-recalls-the-tumultuous-days-of-the-Iranian-revolution/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:28:39 GMT If American independent cinema could be said to have a birthday, Nov. 11 is as good a date to celebrate as any. On that night 50 years ago, John Cassavetes, an actor then best known for his TV roles, unveiled for a downtown New York audience his directing debut, Shadows. Cassavetes had financed the production with his paychecks from Hollywood and made the film with a cast and crew of novice actors from his drama workshop. The finished product betrayed their inexperience: mismatched cuts, shots ... http://myprops.org/content/How-John-Cassavetes-Shadows-changed-American-movies-forever/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:16:38 GMT Conservative arguments against health care reform tend to be monochrome: too many pages, too costly, too much government interference in our lives. But while the right supplies nearly all opposition to the health care bill, it does not have a monopoly. There is also an emerging opposition from liberals and the left. Thus far, it remains small, but its arguments are more diverse and more interesting-though ultimately, I think, mistaken. Among left-liberal opponents, I count three factions. http://myprops.org/content/A-taxonomy-of-left-liberal-opposition-to-the-health-care-reform-bill/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:37:39 GMT President Obama's speech at Fort Hood was a small masterpiece-less than 15 minutes-in part because it was so modest. The president had great material and he knew not to get in its way. http://myprops.org/content/President-Obamas-small-masterpiece-of-a-speech-at-Fort-Hood/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:29:55 GMT John Allen Muhammad, the "Beltway sniper" who went on a two-week shooting spree in the Washington, D.C., area in 2003, is scheduled for execution in Greensville, Va., Tuesday night. In death row tradition, Muhammad requested a special last meal, but he asked the Virginia Department of Corrections not to announce the menu. Can a death row inmate request anything he wants for his final meal? http://myprops.org/content/Can-a-prisoner-request-anything-for-his-last-meal/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:29:47 GMT Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad will be executed Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET. In the fall of 2002, Muhammad and his accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, killed 10 people and wounded three others in a series of attacks in the D.C. metropolitan area. Sean Hemmerle of Contact Press Images photographed each crime scene from two points of view: the snipers' vantage point (on the left) and the place where the victim fell (on the right). http://myprops.org/content/Photographs-of-the-places-where-the-D.C.-shooters-struck/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:15:09 GMT Rupert Murdoch knows two modes: doing things and talking about doing things. http://myprops.org/content/Whats-behind-Rupert-Murdochs-trash-talking-of-Google/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:14:59 GMT From all across this great nation (and Canada), entries arrived in my inbox for Slate's Google Suggest contest. The question at hand: What's the best example of "less intelligent" Google query contrasted with a "more intelligent" Google query? http://myprops.org/content/The-winner-of-the-Google-Suggest-contest/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:54:47 GMT The ability to blast messages to large numbers of people at very little cost has been a boon to marketers, although it is frequently inefficient and always annoying. The overwhelming majority of customers brush off the pitches, reminders, come-ons, exhortations-Subscribe to our magazine! Stop Nancy Pelosi! Buy gold!-that arrive via e-mail and text message. Like older forms of direct marketing (telemarketing, direct mail), texting and e-mails are a low-percentage business. http://myprops.org/content/How-nagging-text-messages-can-make-you-healthier-and-richer/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:19:38 GMT Week 13: Would Betty have brought sandwiches? http://myprops.org/content/Mad-Men-Would-Betty-have-brought-sandwiches/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:25:39 GMT I know you can buy local or buy organic, but I've heard that some crops are simply more resource-intensive than others, regardless of how or where they are grown. So what's the key to picking foods that have the smallest environmental footprint? http://myprops.org/content/Which-fruits-vegetables-and-other-crops-have-the-smallest-environmental-footprints/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:08:11 GMT The onset of winter is accompanied by numerous hassles-nagging colds, miserable commutes, enormous puffy coats-but for me the worst part is just getting out of bed in the morning. When the temperature drops, my apartment's feeble radiators can't keep up, and pretty soon my early-a.m. routine starts to feel like a new leg of the Shackleton expedition. Which is why, this winter, I decided I needed to do something drastic. I decided I needed to buy a bread machine. http://myprops.org/content/The-best-automated-breadmaker/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:08:02 GMT Back when I was a young viewer of Sarajevo TV, there was a cult show along the lines of Monty Python that once featured a skit with a poem presumably found in the papers of a deceased genius poet. An actor ponderously declaimed the newly discovered verse-"Bread/ Milk /Cooking oil ."-as it became clear that the masterpiece was in fact a grocery list. The last, crushing line was: "And some fish, if you can find any." http://myprops.org/content/Nabokovs-The-Original-of-Laura-Dying-Is-Fun/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:18:51 GMT Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Wyn Cooper read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.. http://myprops.org/content/Daily-Threads/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:18:38 GMT In honor of 40 years of Sesame Street, today's Dispatch is brought to you by the letters L, W, O, and P (stands for life with out parole). And by the numbers 13, 17, and 2,574. And 73. And 9. And also 2. And by many, many other numbers that make you wonder how a roomful of people who went to law school presumably to avoid doing math could possibly spend two hours in a protracted exercise of freewheeling public accounting. http://myprops.org/content/The-Supreme-Court-looks-at-life-sentences-for-teen-offenders/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:17:49 GMT President Obama on Sunday celebrated the House's passage of health care reform with a vivid metaphorical message to the other side of the Capitol. "Now it falls on the United States Senate," he said, "to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people." He wishes this were as simple as a relay race. The legislative process does work in stages, it's true, but in other ways, the president's metaphor falls apart. First, the competitors ... http://myprops.org/content/A-guide-to-the-shifting-political-factions-in-the-health-care-debate/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:17:39 GMT Planned Parenthood is incensed that the House of Representatives accepted an eleventh-hour amendment to its health reform bill sponsored by Rep. Bart Stupak, D.-Mich, and embraced by the U.S. Conference of Bishops, that prohibits the sale, through a proposed new health insurance exchange for the previously-uninsured, of virtually any private health insurance policy that covers abortions. The National Organization For Women is pretty angry, too. Even President Obama, after some initial ... http://myprops.org/content/Why-insurers-arent-complaining-about-the-House-bills-anti-abortion-amendment/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:01:38 GMT Lobbying-in Washington, it's often called "issue advocacy"-is a game of carrots and sticks: Support our issue and we'll make life good for you. Oppose it and we'll make it hell. Sometimes groups take a moment to just pause and say, "Thank you." But what looks and sounds like gratitude is just another form of persuasion. http://myprops.org/content/Health-care-reformers-million-dollar-thank-you-card-to-moderate-Democrats/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:34:57 GMT Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the army psychiatrist accused of gunning down 13 people at Fort Hood on Thursday, managed to fire 100 rounds with a semiautomatic handgun between the start of his rampage at 1:20 p.m. and the time he was shot at 1:27 p.m. How many rounds can a handgun shoot in seven minutes? http://myprops.org/content/Was-it-difficult-for-the-Fort-Hood-shooter-to-fire-100-shots-in-seven-minutes/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:34:46 GMT The most important elections of last week took place not in Virginia or New Jersey or even in New York's 23rd congressional district, but in Westchester, Nassau, and Rockland counties, New York suburbs voting for county executive. These are three prosperous suburbs of NYC that voted solidly Democratic recently in almost all races but are actually dominated by independent, nonideological voters. In Westchester and Nassau, incumbent Democrats who were expected to coast to victory were either ... http://myprops.org/content/Obama-needs-to-show-Americans-how-health-care-reform-Wall-Street-reform-and-the-stimulus-are-connected/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:16:37 GMT The Spot: It's move-in day at a college dorm. A student asks his new roommate's mom whether she'd care for a Halls Refresh. The young man and the middle-aged mom suck on their lozenges, staring lasciviously into each other's eyes. We hear their thoughts. "So juicy!" thinks the mom. "Yeah, she likes it," thinks the student. The woman's husband and son walk in on this intimate moment. "Mom!" shouts the horrified son as the dad recoils. "New Halls Refresh with ... http://myprops.org/content/An-off-puttingly-sexual-ad-for-Halls-Refresh/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:46:40 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/Dear-Prudence-Live-In-In-Laws/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:58:39 GMT It's not the pyrotechnic pieces that are the most difficult, Cecilia Bartoli says. "The beautiful sad arias are the hardest to sing, because I am moved almost to tears. I know they were singing those arias out of their own sorrow." Bartoli is talking about her new recording, Sacrificium, which concerns the most exquisitely unsettling episode in the history of music: the castrati and the music written for them. http://myprops.org/content/The-music-of-the-castrati/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:54:39 GMT Taxi drivers of New York, rejoice-Rebecca Pryce is here to stay. http://myprops.org/content/Mad-Men-Dont-put-Bert-Cooper-on-an-ice-floe-just-yet/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:37:39 GMT For many doctors, the malpractice case against a family physician named Daniel Merenstein epitomized how the broken medical liability system drives up costs. In 1999, Merenstein, then a resident, saw a 53-year-old man for a routine checkup and discussed with him the dubious value of a blood test to screen for prostate cancer. Since the test leads to many false positives and pointless treatments that can cause impotence and other harm, neither the American Cancer Society nor U.S. Public Health ... http://myprops.org/content/How-to-reform-the-broken-medical-malpractice-system/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:30:46 GMT BERLIN-For some time now, I've been trying to put my finger on what has been bothering me about the exhaustive and perfectly blameless celebrations of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. There is nothing wrong with holding dozens of conferences, after all, and I'm all in favor of the many new books. In Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed a joint meeting of Congress. In Los Angeles, a fabulously kitschy "Wall" was constructed and then knocked down by ... http://myprops.org/content/After-the-Fall-of-the-Wall-Central-Europes-fate-was-supposed-to-be-uncertain-and-bleak.-Today-the-region-prospers-more-than-ever/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:51:43 GMT Somewhere, a set designer is crying. It's painful to think that the gorgeous suite of offices occupied for three seasons by the venerable Sterling Cooper has been consigned, along with the Seinfeld apartment and Cheers, to some back-lot scrap heap. I'd like to propose that AMC put the whole elaborately detailed edifice on mothballs, preserving it for posterity, like Tim Russert's office at the Newseum. But when Bert Cooper's Rothko has left the building-along with Bert, Roger, Don, Pete, Peggy, ... http://myprops.org/content/Mad-Men-Dons-most-ambitious-pitch-ever/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:21:56 GMT Abortion rights have been sold out for health care reform. http://myprops.org/content/Selling-out-abortion-rights-for-health-care-reform/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:40:40 GMT Lenin once defined a revolutionary situation as one that occurred when the rulers could not go on in the traditional way and the ruled did not wish to continue in that old way. Engels was more metaphorical, saying that revolution was the midwife that delivered a new life out of an older body. Both images come to mind in remembering the revolutions of 1989, which humbled a ruling system that believed itself to be based on the historical wisdom of Lenin and, indeed, of Engels. http://myprops.org/content/The-lessons-of-1989/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:30:39 GMT Everything comes around again, in the end; every debate needs to be held twice. For the past few years, the Russians have been conducting an extraordinary national argument about whether Stalin was bad, a question one would have thought was settled long ago. And now, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 1989, we have two books, both by eminent historians, both seeking to start an argument about whether there was an anti-Communist opposition in Central Europe. In Uncivil Society Stephen Kotkin, a ... http://myprops.org/content/Two-books-about-the-revolutions-of-1989/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:10:38 GMT Thanks, Julia. That experience of wanting characters on a TV show to get together is the sort of thing I'd expect the Germans to have a single word for, but once again, the Internet has the Germans beat. It should be no surprise to readers of this dialogue that I big-time ship Roger and Joan. I suppose I occasionally share your shipping of Don and Betty, too. But when it comes to Betty and Henry Francis, really, who gives a ship? http://myprops.org/content/Mad-Men-Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Pryce/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:57:38 GMT Think the House health care reform bill's too long? Not after the Senate whittles away at it. http://myprops.org/content/How-the-Senate-will-whittle-away-at-the-House-health-care-reform-bill/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:51:38 GMT Voters in Dudley, Mass., passed a ballot measure on Tuesday making it illegal to own more than three cats without a special license. The new law came about after residents complained that one woman's 15 cats were running amok in neighbors' yards. In an Explainer column first published in 2005 and reprinted below, Daniel Engber gets to the bottom of the "cat lady" phenomenon. http://myprops.org/content/Whats-the-deal-with-cat-ladies/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:14:38 GMT Health care reform has arrived on the floor of the House of Representatives, with a final vote that could come as early as 6 p.m. today. The proceedings (live C-span stream) aren't easy to follow without quick access to government documents, blog updates, academic studies, news sites, and public statements from interested parties. Slate has gathered links to the most important of these, with summary descriptions of their significance. http://myprops.org/content/An-online-guide-to-following-todays-floor-action-on-health-care-reform/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:57:40 GMT Some companies came through the recently ended recession with flying colors. In the fast-food realm, we've argued, McDonald's was a victor. But in a time of pinched consumer spending, business has frequently been a zero-sum game. In every sector, it seems, if there's a winner, there's got to be a loser. And in the fast-food industry, it sure looks like Arby's has been one of the losers of this recession. http://myprops.org/content/Why-Arbys-is-so-low-on-the-restaurant-food-chain/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:15:00 GMT The Labor Department announced Friday that the unemployment rate hit 10.2 percent in October, the first time since 1983 that it has been in the double-digits. Two government surveys suggested that the month's job losses reached 190,000 and 558,000, respectively. That's not far off from the results back in August, when the economy lost about 300,000 jobs. In an "Explainer" column first published two months ago, and reprinted below, Brian Palmer goes over where these numbers come from. http://myprops.org/content/How-does-the-government-keep-track-of-job-loss-numbers/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:14:52 GMT A summary of what's in the major publications. http://myprops.org/content/Profit-not-Satanic-says-wealthy-banker/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:14:43 GMT Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the only suspect in Thursday's lethal spree at the Fort Hood, Texas, military base, reportedly killed 13 people and wounded 30 before a civilian police officer shot him four times. The incident raises many questions, a number of which we try to answer here. http://myprops.org/content/Can-you-carry-a-concealed-weapon-on-military-bases-And-other-Fort-Hood-questions-answered/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:46:38 GMT If you've got a tech problem you want solved, please send a note to farhad.manjoo@slate.com, with "I've got a tech question!" as the subject line. (Your question may be edited.) http://myprops.org/content/Slates-Farhad-Manjoo-answers-your-questions-about-Facebook-Gmail-and-more/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:13:47 GMT Robert Zemeckis may have found the way to spend his late career: making 3-D motion-capture versions of literary classics that, while they threaten to vulgarize their sources, wind up remaining curiously true to them in spirit. His adaptation of Beowulf wasn't perfect, but it barreled along with admirable energy, fueled by Zemeckis' notion that the oldest poem in the English language was a predecessor of the superhero comic. With A Christmas Carol (Disney), though, Zemeckis (who also wrote the ... http://myprops.org/content/A-Christmas-Carol-reviewed/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:13:38 GMT Maj.  Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and injured 30 yesterday at Fort Hood before a civilian policeman shot him four times. An Army spokesperson has announced that Hasan is in "stable" condition while of some of the victims are listed as "critical." But what does that mean? In July 2001, the Explainer probed vague medical conditions after an 8-year-old boy was listed as "critical but stable" following a shark attack. http://myprops.org/content/What-do-stable-critical-and-other-medical-conditions-mean/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:48:45 GMT The Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, but few of the news stories marking the anniversary have explained the event's full significance. The Cold War had been raging for a quarter-century before the wall went up on Aug. 13, 1961. How could its collapse, on Nov. 9, 1989, have heralded the Cold War's demise? http://myprops.org/content/Why-was-Berlin-the-key-to-the-Cold-War/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:33:46 GMT Fort Hood, Texas, hosts tens of thousands of men who are trained to fight for their country. But none of them stopped Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan as he blew away 13 of their colleagues Thursday afternoon. It was a civilian police officer, Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who shot him. For her trouble, Munley took a bullet in her leg. Maybe the president will also pin a medal on her. http://myprops.org/content/If-women-can-defend-Fort-Hood-they-can-defend-America/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:33:38 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/Reviews-of-The-Men-Who-Stare-at-Goats-Precious-and-A-Christmas-Carol/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:41:55 GMT The big TV-business story of the week reached its resolution yesterday with news of a deal valuing the Travel Channel at $975 million. The only justification for such a price tag is that network's modest audience-about 370,000 households in prime time-represents the kind of niche market advertisers can't resist pandering to. In a week of flying the network frequently, I caught commercials for online travel agencies and chain restaurants-and also tourism-themed ads for LensCrafters, Subaru, ... http://myprops.org/content/A-journey-through-the-Travel-Channel/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:24:43 GMT Observing the Nov. 5 protest march against Obamacare on Capitol Hill, Dana Milbank of the Washington Post momentarily turned his attention from signs that said "Stop Obamunism" and "National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945" to "a man standing just beyond the TV cameras" who "apparently suffered a heart attack 20 minutes after [the] event began." Here's what happened next: http://myprops.org/content/Socialized-medicine-intrudes-on-the-march-against-Obamacare/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:18:40 GMT The director Richard Kelly recently told the New York Times that he hopes his new thriller, The Box (Warner Brothers), will prove to Hollywood that he can make a successful mainstream movie. He has a lot of proving to do. Despite the cult status enjoyed by his 2001 debut, Donnie Darko, his sophomore effort, the thoroughly wacko Southland Tales, starring Justin Timberlake and Dwayne Johnson, took in just $275,000 in domestic receipts. Give me Timberlake and The Rock for a day and I could make ... http://myprops.org/content/Richard-Kelly-tries-to-direct-a-mainstream-movie-in-The-Box/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:02:38 GMT When you're a doctor, you sometimes have to come to terms with making a mistake: giving a patient the wrong diagnosis or the wrong treatment, causing an injury, or perhaps something worse. http://myprops.org/content/The-financial-and-personal-ramifications-of-a-doctor-apologizing-to-a-patient/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:19:38 GMT Whether it was billing the event as a "Super Bowl of Freedom" or challenging conservatives to "scare" members of Congress, it worked. Rep. Michele Bachmann got thousands of protesters to flood the lawn in front of the Capitol building Thursday afternoon, joining her for what was originally described as a "press conference" but turned out to be a full-blown rally against health care reform-a mini-sequel to the 9/12 protest of two months ago. http://myprops.org/content/Michele-Bachmann-invites-tea-partiers-to-Washington-for-another-swig/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:49:38 GMT An Army psychiatrist who was about to deploy to Iraq went on a two-gun shooting spree at Fort Hood in Texas on Thursday afternoon. Twelve people died in the attack, and 31 were wounded. How often do soldiers commit crimes on their bases? http://myprops.org/content/Are-shootings-at-military-bases-common-or-was-Fort-Hood-unusual/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:49:54 GMT Harshing on Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (Lionsgate Films), the awkwardly titled Lee Daniels adaptation of an "urban fiction" bestseller, makes a critic feel almost as mean-spirited as Mary, the monstrously abusive mother of the film's eponymous heroine. Parked in front of the TV in the grim Harlem walkup they share, Mary (played with a fearsome lack of vanity by the standup comedian Mo'Nique) pelts her 16-year-old daughter, Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) ... http://myprops.org/content/Sorry-I-didnt-like-Precious/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:02:38 GMT During this fall's inaugural wolf-hunting season in Montana, hunters killed the matriarch of a Yellowstone wolf pack that researchers had been studying for more than a decade. Park officials suspect that her mate and three other pack members were also killed. A Los Angeles Times story about the hunt claims that wolves are known to kill for "pure pleasure." Do wolves really attack their prey just for the fun of it? http://myprops.org/content/Do-wolves-kill-for-sport/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:27:38 GMT An up-to-the-minute update from the Associated Press. http://myprops.org/content/President-Obama-on-the-Fort-Hood-Shootings-120306/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:32:38 GMT AP Video: President Barack Obama comments on the tragic shooting at Fort Hood http://myprops.org/content/President-Obama-on-the-Fort-Hood-shootings/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:04:40 GMT Two people have died, and 28 have fallen sick, due to an E. coli outbreak in ground beef, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week. This latest scare follows an October New York Times article on pervasive flaws in the beef-inspection process, featuring a woman who became paralyzed after eating hamburgers tainted with E. coli in 2007. Panicked? Here's an Explainer roundup on food contamination. http://myprops.org/content/An-Explainer-roundup-on-food-contamination/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:32:43 GMT Next week, the Supreme Court will hear a case testing whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment prohibits sentencing a teen to life in prison without parole. Punishment is generally deemed "cruel" if it's more than "graduated and proportional." It is constitutionally "unusual" if imposed so infrequently "that a national consensus has developed against it." If those concepts sound squishy and vague to you, well, you can just imagine ... http://myprops.org/content/Death-is-different-but-is-it-all-that-different-from-life-without-parole/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:15:39 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/Microsofts-Marketing-Misfires/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:57:56 GMT A once-endangered species is staging a robust comeback: the deficit hawk. Hunted nearly to death during the Bush years, many varieties not seen in Washington in a decade are now perching on branches and dropping their wisdom. Look, there's the puff-chested congressional peacock hawk, frequently seen strutting about Sunday-morning-TV-show sets complaining about pork while emitting loud honks on the receipt of stimulus funds. The furrowed-brow warbler hawk (natural habitat: the op-ed pages) ... http://myprops.org/content/Much-of-the-current-deficit-debate-is-for-the-birds/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:57:47 GMT Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there. http://myprops.org/content/The-Political-Gabfest-for-Nov.-6-2009/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:32:41 GMT Are we anti-science, or are we inconsistent? http://myprops.org/content/On-Denialism-and-the-role-of-science-in-America/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:18:04 GMT What's the lesson of the 2009 New York Yankees? With the Bronx Bombers taking an early 7-1 lead in Game 6, we had more time than usual to bat around the clichés of sports championships to see which ones might fit. Had the Yankees redeemed the long suffering of their supporters? Did they stand for youthful vigor or quiet professionalism? Did they represent the idea that pride and excellence can't be bought and sold-or the exact opposite? http://myprops.org/content/How-the-old-as-dirt-New-York-Yankees-won-the-2009-World-Series/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:26:41 GMT Too often, we see history as inevitable. What was had to be, the culmination of seemingly tectonic forces. We tend to forget that history is also defined by the logic of human messiness. Happenstance, chance, even accident always loom large in grand events. http://myprops.org/content/The-unanswered-phone-calls-and-misunderstood-memos-that-helped-bring-down-the-Berlin-Wall/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:05:51 GMT Get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.) And become a fan of Prudie on the official Dear Prudence Facebook page. http://myprops.org/content/Im-16-and-I-want-a-vibrator/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:05:38 GMT For you constitutional-law scholars out there with casebooks to update, you may soon have an addition to the growing chapter of cases called "It Sucks To Be You." The facts of Pottawattamie County v. McGhee, the case the Supreme Court hears today, are spectacularly awful. But they may also prove spectacularly immaterial. In the Roberts Court era, "It Sucks To Be You" is a booming industry: Instances of shocking constitutional wrongs that cannot be corrected by constitutional http://myprops.org/content/Does-the-Constitution-protect-prosecutors-who-fabricate-evidence/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:34:47 GMT There is very little to like about private health insurance as it exists today in the United States, but it does have one advantage over health insurance funded by the federal government: You can use it to pay for an abortion. Now antiabortion groups and their allies in Congress want to whittle away at that distinction. The vehicle is the health care reform bill. http://myprops.org/content/Abortion-foes-and-Rep.-Bart-Stupak-meddle-with-private-health-insurance/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:34:39 GMT A Taliban member who'd infiltrated the Afghan police force killed five British soldiers in Helmand Province Tuesday afternoon. A similar incident occurred last month when a policeman on patrol with U.S. troops opened fire on American soldiers, killing two. How does the United States make sure the Afghan policemen aren't really terrorists? http://myprops.org/content/How-does-the-U.S.-make-sure-Afghan-policemen-arent-terrorists/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:23:38 GMT Listen to Gabfest No. 59 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, June Thomas and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below: http://myprops.org/content/Slates-Culture-Gabfest-on-ABCs-Modern-Family-Tad-Friends-Cheerful-Money-and-100-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:38:39 GMT The Big Money presents Every Day I Read the Book, featuring Daniel Gross. Dan's guest is Gregory Zuckerman, author of the book The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History. http://myprops.org/content/The-Greatest-Trade-Ever-A-podcast-with-author-Gregory-Zuckerman/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:49:50 GMT BEIJING-The first time Hu Jing tried to have sex with her college boyfriend, there was a technical difficulty. "We knew we had to use a condom," she said. "But we didn't know how." http://myprops.org/content/Despite-the-one-child-policy-millions-of-Chinese-citizens-dont-know-how-to-have-sex-without-getting-pregnant/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:09:57 GMT Tamarisk, a Eurasian shrub, is your classic invasive species-designated one of America's "least wanted" plants by the National Parks Service. In recent decades, it has spread along Southwestern riverbanks, replacing native trees such as willows and cottonwoods. For nature lovers in the region, tamarisks (also known as saltcedars) rank somewhere between Land Rovers and James Inhofe. Measures to thwart them include burning, herbicides, and "tammy whacking" (physical removal ... http://myprops.org/content/Are-invasive-species-really-that-bad-for-the-environment/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:54:40 GMT A daily video from Slate V. http://myprops.org/content/This-Bitch-Owns-Her-Own-Harley/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:46:49 GMT Next week the Supreme Court will hear arguments, in Sullivan v. Florida, about whether sentencing a 13-year-old boy to prison without the possibility of parole violates the cruel-and-unusual-punishment clause of the Constitution. Joe Harris Sullivan is one of two teenagers that young currently doing life without parole for a nonhomicide offense in the United States. His lawyers are hoping that the court will extend its 2005 bar on executing criminals who committed crimes as juveniles to ... http://myprops.org/content/Did-Joe-Harris-Sullivan-have-a-fair-trial/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:46:38 GMT You don't see great public sculptors like Augustus Saint-Gaudens anymore. http://myprops.org/content/Augustus-Saint-Gaudens-Americas-greatest-public-sculptor/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:15:38 GMT