Light at End of Tunnel for Newspapers

The New York Times made an announcement that, years from now, will be seen as the turning point in newspapers' near death experience. The NYT plans to begin charging readers for full access to the newspaper's Web site, beginning in 2011. Back to the future, you say? Didn't the NYT try this before, more than once? Yes, but earlier implementations were fatally flawed by locking out casual readers. The new implementation promises to allow free access to the first few articles for each reader. Heavy users will find access cut off at a certain point unless they become paid subscribers. The doors remain open, so to speak, for window shoppers and samplers, but if you come through the door often enough, you'll be expected to buy something.

After the jump, why this will work.

Everybody* Hates Avatar

* Well, not everybody. After all, a hundred million moviegoers have pushed Avatar's box office over $1.5 billion. But for a movie that is putting so many people in theater seats Avatar is sure upsetting a lot of people.

After the jump, who doesn't like Avatar.

Open Mic Night: Yes, Maybe, and Hell No

Richardson Gymnastics Center

It's Monday, time for Open Mic Night at the Richardson City Council. Three speakers took the time to speak to the council, with three quite different messages.

After the jump, the descent from yes to maybe to hell, no.

Poor, Pitiful Haiti (Part 2)

The scale of death and destruction of the Haiti earthquake was just the beginning of the ongoing story of ever-increasing disaster. If you haven't done something to aid the survivors, please reconsider. If you have, thank you, now consider doing even more. Things are that bad.

24 Questions for Elementary Physics

The State Board of Education (SBOE) has been meeting in Austin to set the curriculum standards to be used in Texas schools for the teaching of social studies. The board is split, with eight of the fifteen members solidly or frequently in the conservative camp. And by conservative, I'm talking Texas conservative. For example, former chairman of the board Don McLeroy wants to rehabilitate communist witch hunter Joseph McCarthy in our children's history books ("Read the latest on McCarthy. He was basically vindicated."). Read the Washington Monthly article for scary details about this powerful faction setting standards not only for Texas schoolchildren, but for textbook publishers who will sell into states all across the country.

After the jump, what century-old math questions can tell us about teaching social studies in the 21st century.