Friday poll results

Would you pay to read a magazine that only published online?

• Sure: 2 votes (9%)


• It would have to be a really good magazine: 14 votes (63%)


• No way: 6 votes (27%)

He knew how the bombs worked

The School: "On the first day of school in 2004, a Chechen terrorist group struck the Russian town of Beslan. Targeting children, they took more than eleven hundred hostages."

Winner, reporting, American Society of Mag. Editors' "Best American Magazine Writing, 2007." (C.J. Chivers, Esquire magazine)

Red Sex, Blue Sex

Why do so many evangelical teenagers become pregnant? (new yorker)

ASME's Top 40

American Society of Magazine Editors' Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years. See also: ASME's 2008 Best Magazine Cover Winners and Finalists

Tuesday coffee break

20 Wonders of the Microscopic World (Env. Grafitti)

Friday poll results

If your favorite (non-URMA) print magazine decided to suspend printing and publish only online (for free), would you still read it regularly?

• Yes, I'd check the site all the time: 3 votes (13%)


• Sure, I'd read it once a week or so: 6 votes (27%)


• I guess I'd visit the site if/when I remembered: 12 votes (54%)


• No way: 1 vote (4%)

genetics shemetics

Everyone see this?

Sarah Palin does science.

I kid you not. Genetics research. who needs it.

The things he carried

As I stood in the bathroom, ripping up boarding passes, waiting for the social network of male bathroom users to report my suspicious behavior, I decided to make myself as nervous as possible. I would try to pass through security with no ID, a fake boarding pass, and an Osama bin Laden T-shirt under my coat. I splashed water on my face to mimic sweat, put on a coat (it was a summer day), hid my driver's license, and approached security with a bogus boarding pass... (The Atlantic Online)

Friday poll results

On average, how many times per year do you travel for magazine-related work?

• More than four times: 1 respondent (5%)


• Four times: 1 respondent (5%)


• Three times: 3 respondents (15%)


• Two times: 5 respondents (26%)


• One time: 6 respondents (31%)


• Travel? What's that? 3 respondents (15%)

Monday coffee break

• WWII Posters (flickr)


• 50 Beautiful Movie Posters (smashing magazine)


• Jazz for the Eye: jazz photography by William Claxton (1928-2008)


• Too weird: Zombie Animals and the Parasites that Control Them (disover mag)

Friday poll results

(Jason here, posting as Margarite because there's something screwy with my Google account.)

Last week's poll:

Did the VP debate change your opinion of the VP candidates?

• Nope. 17 votes (50%)


• Palin looks better to me now. 6 votes (17%)


• Palin looks worse to me now. 4 votes (11%)


• Biden looks better to me now. 14 votes (41%)


• Biden looks worse to me now. 3 votes (8%)

Asexual reproduction in sharks

Although CNN seems to think "virgin birth" sounds better.

"In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male."

DNA test proves it -- baby shark has no father (CNN.com)

What My Copy Editor Taught Me

What My Copy Editor Taught Me (New York Times)

"Helene had no literary theories — she had literary values. She valued clarity and transparency. She had nothing against style, if it didn’t distract from the material. Her blue pencil struck at redundancy, at confusion, at authorial vanity, at the wrong and the false word, at the unearned conclusion. She loved good writing, therefore she loved the reader: good writing did not cause the reader to stumble over meaning."

Street cred in Southwest Virginye

Bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley lends his voice.

http://www.folo.us/2008/10/02/ralph-stanley-cuts-the-best-radio-ad-of-the-cycle/

Listen for the unofficial URMA anthem, "Rank Stranger," playing in the background.

Nature makes a funny

"Yes, these are really the front and back covers of this week’s issue of Nature. Really. The dog on the left looks so hopeful. The dog on the right... confused." (The Scientific Activist)
Tip of the hat to: Melissa Blouin.

Friday poll results

Realistically, who do you think will win the U.S. presidential election?

• Obama, and I will rejoice: 30 votes (75%)


• Obama, and I won't be happy: 3 votes (7%)


• McCain, and I'll be happy: 0 votes


• McCain, and I am checking New Zealand's citizenship requirements: 7 votes (17%)

Scientists trace AIDS virus origin to 100 years ago

The AIDS virus has been circulating among people for about 100 years, decades longer than scientists had thought, a new study suggests. (From CNN.com)

I'm betting this is gonna make a really cool story in the Univ of Arizona magazine.

U. of Richmond's Road Warrior

University of Richmond Chancellor E. Bruce Heilman, 82, sets off on October 1 to ride his motorcycle from Richmond, Va., to San Diego -- covering up to 250 miles per day for 19 days. It's a reverse route across the states he hitchhiked through as a 20-year-old post-World War II Marine. (Chronicle of Higher Ed)