Daily Telegraph, Amish Culture, Plane Crashes, Russian Murder
Tumult At The Telegraph
Henry Mance | Financial Times | 27th March 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Britain's Daily Telegraph has lost five editors in a rocky decade; recent accusations that it spiked stories to please advertisers pose "the biggest threat to its credibility in living memory". Most newspapers have had a hard time adjusting to digital publishing; some have chosen poor strategies, and failed; but few have been quite as blindsided as the Telegraph, which has seemed unable to settle on any strategy at all (2,005 words)
On Amish Time
Arielle Zibrak | Avidly | 27th March 2015
Admiring notes on Amish culture, which is more pragmatic than you might think. There is no blanket ban on modernity; rules are constantly updated; the question is whether a technology will be good or bad for the Amish way of life. Video games are out. Debt is out. Automated farm machinery is usually out. Old-fashioned fun is in. "They have a fondness for trampolines, rollerblades, and board games" (2,100 words)
The Crash Of EgyptAir 990
William Langewiesche | Atlantic | 1st November 2001
James Fallows calls this "the most useful work of journalism to consider today" when trying to understand the recent Germanwings air crash. Langewiesche tells how EgyptAir Flight 990 was brought down in the Atlantic by a suicidal first officer in 1999, killing 217 passengers. Egypt denied the facts. "One of the world's really important divides lies between nations that react well to accidents and nations that do not" (10,900 words)
Interview With A Murderer
Ekaterina Loushnikova | Open Democracy | 25th March 2015
The interview begins in paragraph nine, and is astonishing throughout. Here, Valya quarrels with her sister-in-law: "I hit her over the head, but it didn’t finish her off, just left her brain damaged. She lost her wits, turned into an idiot. So I got done for attempted murder with aggravating circumstances, plus GBH, plus I was a repeat offender – 10 years altogether! There you go, Katyusha! But I’ll get her some day!’ (2,900 words)
Video of the day: Double-Blind No 1
What to expect: "Five artists are let loose with a goat, a gas-mask, and their imaginations" (Slightly NSFW) (1'39")
Thought for the day
Perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything
Professor Farnsworth (http://lesswrong.com/lw/i7t/rationality_quotes_august_2013/#comments)