DD on CNN: Trayvon Martin, Social Media and the Race Question

Do Magazines Have a Future?

The options we have for reading magazine journalism in the digital format are pretty sad. We live in an era of self-driving cars, augmented reality, and we can keep a map of the entire planet in our pocket, but we are stuck reading magazine journalism the way it has always been presented: in dead print load-dumped onto unfeeling pages, tied up into inseparable bundles (even if they are digital).

Tablet computers may well be the saviors of magazines, but even in the face of declining circulations, magazines are doing little to save themselves. Magazine reading on tablets is proving to be almost as cumbersome as it is on paper, with an anachronistic page-turning mentality baked into the apps and a copied-and-pasted design lifted directly from the versions you buy at the drug store. But the worst part is the distribution.

Take Apple’s Newsstand for the iPad. It’s okay. You can have all your digital magazines stored in one folder. The magazines are easy to get, relatively cheap, and pleasant enough to look at. But it’s not good enough.

The Stanford Experiment That Could Change Higher Ed

Stanford University has opened three classes to anyone with a web connection. Demand has exploded, with 160,000 people signing up. But there's a catch: you have to know about subjects like linear alegbra. Maybe that's why so many of the online hordes are dropping ...

Opinion: We Can't Seem To Stop Sharing Our Opinions

Free speech is a marvelous thing, perhaps the most important designation made by our founding fathers. It’s simple to forget that for many throughout the world and nearly everyone throughout history, it’s been an unattainable luxury. Within a few hours from now you could be in a country where certain things you say could land you in jail. In short: I’m a fan.

But outside the Supreme Court? Today? Why bother? Probably because people can't help it.

Could Staring At a Computer Screen....Kill You?

New research says that, for people 45 and older, sitting at a computer screen 11 hours or more a day leads to increased risk of death. From all causes. Even if you also exercise. Excuse us while we go keel over. Read more at Washington Post

Dumbest Post - OMG, I'm Dating a Republican!

Tarama Shayne Kagel is--horrors!--dating a Republican. Dripping with condescension, she asks: "How did I come to date a man who told me he 'liked a lot of Mitt Romney's ideas' and that he thought John Kerry wasn't really a war hero and that cap and trade is a ...