All posts tagged New York Times

The Thomas Tamm Legal Defense Fund

December 16, 2008

One of the key whistleblowers on the Bush administration’s illegal spying on U.S. citizens has just gone public with his identity in a long Newsweek article: Thomas Tamm, a 56-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor who called the New York Times after a long period of misgivings about the program.

If you can stand Michael Isikoff’s fatuous centrism (“Gee, is he a hero or a criminal?”), the whole article is worth reading; otherwise try Threat Level’s summary.

And according to firedoglake, to give to his legal fund, send a check here:

Thomas Tamm Legal Defense Fund
Bank of Georgetown
5236 44th Street
Washington, DC 20015

Charles Blow gets paid for this?

December 16, 2008

And sits atop the “Most Emailed” list?

The comments at least are interesting.

Science Times roundup

May 28, 2008

All three above-the-fold cover stories in the NYT Science Times this week hit on different aspects of what’s becoming a major interest of mine – the interface between the harder sciences and more right-brained aspects of being human.

The main article is about mindfulness meditation being used in therapy. I find this interesting, but the article points out that the science supporting whether it is beneficial is pretty thin at this point, and there’s a risk of it becoming a fad.

Next is an article about a new curriculum at Binghamton University (NY) aimed at putting the sciences and humanities in dialogue. I was not encouraged by the inane statement by one of the creators that “There are more similarities than differences between the humanities and the sciences,” but otherwise it looks very good.

But perhaps most intriguing was an article on a woman who is marketing a placebo for parents to give to their children when all else fails Continue reading →

David Brooks gets Obama right

May 6, 2008

From his column today — Obama isn’t flawlessly honest, but “there are some inner guardrails that prevent the spin from drifting too far from the truth.” Which I think is as much as you can hope for in a politician.