Macworld: News: After New York investigation, Facebook to beef up safety

A brief MacWord item on Facebook security changes: Facebook users can now report complaints about pornography, harassment or inappropriate contact either by clicking on links on the Web site or by sending email to the abuse@facebook.com address. The company will respond to these complaints within 24 hours, and it will allow an independent examiner appointed…

The Grief That Made 'Peanuts' Good

Bill “Calvin and Hobbes” Watterson reviews the new Charles “Peanuts” Schultz biography in the Wall Street Journal. Lucy, for all her domineering and insensitivity, is ultimately a tragic, vulnerable figure in her pursuit of Schroeder. Schroeder’s commitment to Beethoven makes her love irrelevant to his life. Schroeder is oblivious not only to her attentions but…

Group Plans to Provide Investigative Journalism

The Associated Press and other news syndicates have long made spot news articles generated by local newspapers, available to other publications. Now the NY Times is reporting on a new outlet that will provide original investigative journalism. As struggling newspapers across the country cut back on investigative reporting, a new kind of journalism venture is…

Level Up : The Problem (and the Danger) of the Continued Infantilization of Videogames, Part I

Newsweek: The assumption that all videogames are toys for children rather than entertainment for a variety of different audiences is one of our pet peeves. It may seem innocuous, but it’s not only the foundation of continued attempts at the state and national level to regulate the sale and marketing of videogames, it’s also an…

Newswriting Peer Review Guidelines

Your grade for the peer-review exercise depends on the quantity and quality of the constructive feedback you provide to your peer. (So smile at the good and frown at the bad, but don’t make your peer feel very sad.) In the process, you will get specific, concrete peer feedback, which you can use to revise…

Convenience Wins, Hubris Loses and Content vs. Context, a Presentation for Some Music Industry Friends at FISTFULAYEN

A Yahoo! developer reflects on the missed opportunities caused by the economic demands of the recording industry: If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I’m not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I’ll be polite, say thank you, and…

Thou Shalt Not Kill, Except in a Popular Video Game at Church – New York Times

New York Times: Those buying it must be 17 years old, given it is rated M for mature audiences. But that has not prevented leaders at churches and youth centers across Protestant denominations, including evangelical churches that have cautioned against violent entertainment, from holding heavily attended Halo nights and stocking their centers with multiple game…

Purpose of appendix believed found

CNN/AP The function of the appendix seems related to the massive amount of bacteria populating the human digestive system, according to the study in the Journal of Theoretical Biology. There are more bacteria than human cells in the typical body. Most are good and help digest food. But sometimes the flora of bacteria in the…

Our Far-flung Correspondents: The Dark Side

From the New Yorker: It may seem strange that this last observation could have surprised anyone, but in Galileo’s time people assumed that the Milky Way must be some kind of continuous substance. It truly resembled a streak of spilled liquid–our word “galaxy” comes from the Greek for milk–and it was so bright that it…