Announcement

Dear Readers,

As of April 1st, Polymeme goes into a planned hiatus. As conversations get even more fragmented and move from blogs to social networks to Twitter, our meme-discovery technology - initially built for the world of blogs - needs a major upgrade to stay accurate; without accurate and comprehensive meme-tracking mechanism, we are only as good as the next link-blog... In the next few months, we'll ponder our options and decide what to do next; in the meantime, we'll keep our web-site up and running but wouldn't be updating it. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please feel free to email us at info@polymeme.com

Best,
Polymeme Team

The coming nuclear renaissance

THE BOSTON GLOBE : Thirty years ago this month, an accident at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania inflamed public opposition to nuclear power... READ MORE

Media distortion damages both science and journalism

NEW SCIENTIST : WHEN media reports state that scientist X of Y university has discovered that A is linked to B... READ MORE

Introducing the new Huffington Post Investigative Fund

PRESSTHINK : "The announcement of its birth, along with the $1.75 million starter budget, is really the launch of a new Internet-based news organization with a focus on original reporting... READ MORE

Are computer games a literary genre?

GUARDIAN : Sci-fi has a nobler literary tradition than you might think. Doris Lessing, Iain Banks trading as Iain M Banks and Toby Litt have all turned their hand to it... READ MORE

Number of US Facebook Users Over 35 Nearly Doubles in Last 60 Days

INSIDE FACEBOOK : Don’t look now, but the number of Americans over 35, 45, and 55 on Facebook is growing fast. In the last 60 days alone... READ MORE

Black is back for California drivers (actually, it never left)

LA TIMES BLOGS : The California Air Resources Board said Friday that it has no plans “at this time” to regulate car paint as part of a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions... READ MORE

Among Climate Scientists, a Dispute Over ‘Tipping Points’

NEW YORK TIMES : The language was apocalyptic. Last month, a leading climate scientist warned that Earth’s rising temperatures were poised to set off irreversible disasters... READ MORE

Expanded Americorps has an authoritarian feel

WWW.WASHINGTONEXAMINER.COM : With almost no public attention, both chambers of Congress in the past week advanced an alarming expansion of the Americorps national service plan... READ MORE

Tipping Back the Scales

WWW.WASHINGTONMONTHLY.COM : I n 2003, a thirty-two-year-old lawyer named Bradley Schlozman became deputy assistant attorney general of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice... READ MORE

Let us merge or we'll die, say local papers

GUARDIAN : Local newspaper publishers will submit a report to the Office of Fair Trading on Tuesday calling for a massive shake-up of competition laws that could herald a wave of mergers and acquisitions once financial markets stabilise... READ MORE

Newspapers last bastion against political corruption, says creator of The Wire

GUARDIAN : Fictional corrupt politicians are a mainstay of The Wire, David Simon's celebrated television series about life on the Baltimore streets... READ MORE

A Familiar Refrain

MITALI'S FIRE ESCAPE : Why are children's books still so white?" we asked on the Fire Escape last year... READ MORE

Kureishi on the Rushdie affair

PROSPECT MAGAZINE : Twenty years after The Satanic Verses, Anshuman A Mondal talks to young British Muslims about faith and politics... READ MORE

Did Goldman Goose Oil?

FORBES : When oil prices spiked last summer to $147 a barrel, the biggest corporate casualty was oil pipeline giant Semgroup Holdings... READ MORE

Is the Bail Out Breeding a Bigger Crisis?

WWW.COUNTERPUNCH.ORG : At his March 24 press conference President Obama demonstrated that he is capable of understanding issues as presented to him by his advisers and able to pass on the explanations to the press... READ MORE

Does exporting improve firm performance?

VOXEU : Many emphasise the importance of export growth in economic development, but does exporting increase economic growth or does growth increase exports... READ MORE

Berlin's art boom goes bust

GUARDIAN : For Moll Morgengrau, it was not a happy day. The Berlin-based artist, whose name translates literally as "morning gloom... READ MORE

Under attack: how medics died trying to help Gaza's casualties

GUARDIAN : Medical staff and ambulance drivers who attempted to assist casualties of the Israeli invasion of Gaza have told the Guardian that they were attacked by Israeli forces while trying to carry out their job... READ MORE

Foreign men not so attractive

SHANGHAI DAILY : FOREIGN men have been losing their attraction as potential husbands for unmarried Chinese women since the global financial crisis started... READ MORE