Slate Magazine

Slate V: Grand Unified Weekly: Zapping Memories

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:59:00 -0800

The first episode of Slate V's new science roundup feature looks at Obama's victory, research into zapping individual memories, and how scientific journals fall victim to hype.

How much can an incoming president change White House décor?

Juliet Lapidos — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:29:39 PST

Ever since Barack and Michelle Obama toured the White House on Nov. 11, the press has been speculating about the couple's redecoration agenda. On Thursday, the Associated Press asked several interior designers to offer advice. Taniya Nayak of HGTV's Designed To Sell said the "stone, fabrics, and flooring" of the Green Room should be made from green products; Charles B. Smith of Charles Smith & Associates thinks the state dining room should glow "with soft colors" like "pale yellows, 'pêche,' creams and white." But how much control does the first family really have over the appearance of the White House?

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When do soldiers face execution?

Brendan I. Koerner — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:18:03 PST

On Dec. 10, America's first military execution since 1961 will take place in Terre Haute, Ind. Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on death row since 1988 for rape and murder. In 2003, Brendan I. Koerner explained the history of military executions in the United States and the circumstances under which they happen. The article is reprinted below.

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Why Timothy Geithner is a strong choice for treasury secretary.

Daniel Gross — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:25:13 PST

On Friday afternoon, the markets shot up nearly 7 percent following the news that President-elect Obama was poised to name Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, as the next Treasury Secretary. Why was this leak worth several hundred billion dollars in market capitalization?

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Web video ads are annoying and repetitive. Here's how to fix them.

Farhad Manjoo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:20:48 PST

Last week, I logged onto 60 Minutes' Web site to watch Barack Obama's first post-election interview. About 20 minutes into the show, the screen faded to a commercial: A middle-aged man is digging through his attic when he comes across a box marked "wedding stuff." A mischievous smile crosses his face, and next thing you know he's decked out in his old powder-blue tuxedo, skipping downstairs to present his still-dishy wife with a bouquet of roses. Yes, this was an ad for Viagra. For the next 45 seconds, the couple danced around their house while an announcer warned of the dangers of drug interactions and four-hour erections. While they engaged in safe-for-work foreplay, I switched over to my e-mail.

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Could Secretary of State Clinton disagree with President Obama without undermining him?

John Dickerson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:58:42 PST

The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton has said yes. She will be President Barack Obama's secretary of State. The Clinton selection will occasion another 10 rounds of discussion about the wisdom of no-drama Obama bringing all the Clinton troubles into his house. Will Hillary Clinton undermine him to keep her political options open? What about Bill's flare for controversy? And how's that first meeting going to go between Hillary Clinton and Obama's White House Counsel Greg Craig, who claimed during the campaign that Clinton exaggerated her foreign policy experience?

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How many Clinton loyalists are there in Obama's White House?

Chris Wilson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:55:40 PST

As President-elect Obama forms his administration, he's including a lot of familiar faces. Many of Obama's picks—for his transition team, his staff, and his Cabinet—are people who worked in the Clinton administration. Where else is a Democratic president going to find people with executive branch experience?

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Slate on Day to Day for the week of Nov. 17.

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:41:07 PST

Slate stories on NPR's Day to Day.

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Why Barack Obama should keep his BlackBerry.

Michael Agger — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:04:12 PST

Imagine you're Barack Obama. You just ran "the most technologically sophisticated presidential campaign in history." Your operatives played social media like a fiddle while coordinating field operations via text message, e-mail blast, and iPhone app. You proved yourself to be a modern info-executive with your 3 a.m. e-mails and your preference for reviewing docs on your BlackBerry. (Sure, clipping the 'Berry to your belt was lame, but I assume that you did this to signal your gotta-check-the-inventory-back-in-Tucson regular-guy-ness. Nice.)

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Kids' questions about Obama's victory, and their parents' attempts to answer.

Emily Bazelon and John Dickerson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:00:02 PST

Garth and Christy Ross supported Barack Obama from the start. They raised money for him and knocked on doors to rally voters in Northwest Virginia. They involved their 7-year-old son and 5-year old daughter as much as possible, so when Obama won, it was a family celebration. And then, after the election, their son asked during dinner, "Why was he our first president with brown skin?" For the next 45 minutes, the couple, who are white, carefully described America's racial history, trying to add to what they'd already taught them without giving their children more of that history than they could handle. "We didn't want to give them an explanation that was laden with all of our baggage," says Garth.

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Can you trust the medical advice you hear on the radio?

Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:38:48 PST

The New York Times reported Thursday that over the past eight years, Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, who hosts the public-radio series The Infinite Mind, received at least $1.3 million for giving marketing lectures for drug companies that could have benefited from preferential treatment on his show. In a "Medical Examiner" published earlier this year, Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer detailed the profitable connections Goodwin and other doctors in the media have to the pharmaceutical industry. The article is reprinted below.

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When will Chinese Democracy reach Beijing?

Damien Ma — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:31:22 PST

Axl Rose understands, perhaps as well as the Chinese Communist Party, that creating Chinese Democracy requires patience. As Chinese Democracy hits stores in the United States, democracy is far from rocking China. But Rose may be consoled by the knowledge that in the 17 years it took the album to take shape, rock 'n' roll has made a ripple in China—indeed, "November Rain" can be found on the playlist of countless karaoke bars. Guns N' Roses surely owes its rising popularity with a new generation of Chinese to economic liberalization, even as its latest album's title track bemoans the state of the political system. As Rose wails that time's running out for the Chinese government, evidence suggests that, in fact, time is very much on Beijing's side.

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What's new in the Economist, Portfolio, and the New York Times Magazine.

Sonia Smith — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:38:31 PST

Time, Dec. 1The cover story performs a "collective physical" of the American public and finds many in need of a salad. "By too many measures, America is a lot less healthy than a developed nation has any business being." The health care system needs to be retooled to focus on prevention, the author argues. … When Barack Obama takes office, the time will finally be right for health care reform, an article argues. Fifteen years after Hillary Clinton's failed effort to overhaul the system, the issue is no longer "politically toxic." … As rumors swirl about Obama picking Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, some are calling the move shrewd, while others grumble about the new administration being filled with too many Clintonites. "Would this move, if it happens, be just the first manifestation of that new kind of politics that Obama was promising in his presidential campaign? Or proof that he understands the oldest kind all too well?"

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Great zinfandels to drink on Thanksgiving.

Mike Steinberger — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:47:13 PST

Produced on these shores for nearly two centuries, zinfandel has long been considered the all-American wine and the ideal choice for those looking to drink domestically on Thanksgiving. Some oenophiles even assumed that the zinfandel grape was indigenous to the United States. Seven years ago, researchers proved that it is actually Croatian in origin; what we (mercifully) renamed zinfandel is an old varietal native to the Dalmatian coast called crljenak kastelanski. However, this discovery has done nothing to erode the link between zinfandel and the most gluttonous of American holidays. But not all zinfandels are up to the task of washing down the turkey. While zinfandels are by nature rich, spicy, and mouth-filling, the market is flooded these days with monster-truck zins—dense, high-alcohol wines that, whatever virtues they may possess, tend to crush any food that gets in their way. Happily, there are still some producers who believe that table manners matter and who make zinfandels in a more genteel style—wines that will flatter the bird next Thursday rather than flatten it.

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Chinese Democracy reviewed.

Jody Rosen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:38:28 PST

The news lede is simply: OMG. It's actually here. After 17 years, a reported $13 million, and countless rock critic invocations of Howard Hughes, white whales, and Fitzcarraldo, a new Guns N' Roses record will be released on Sunday. Chinese Democracy's album credits reflect the epic slog that brought it into existence, listing 14 recording studios, five guitarists, and multiple "digital editors." (British record producer Youth is cited for the "initial arrangement suggestion" on the song "Madagascar.") But the telling liner note detail is the absence of all but one of Guns N' Roses' founding members. There is no Slash, no Izzy Stradlin, no Duff McKagan. The last time a collection of original Guns N' Roses songs was released, it was 1991. Barack Obama was graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law; GNR was the biggest rock band on earth. In the years since, Axl Rose has dithered, tinkered, and obsessed; feuded with Kurt Cobain and Tommy Hilfiger; appropriated Christina Aguilera's cornrow extensions; and watched the zeitgeist, and his band mates, leave him behind.

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Slate's Political Gabfest for Nov. 21.

Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:28:36 PST

Listen to the Gabfest for Nov. 21 by clicking the arrow on the audio player below: insertAudioPlayer("SG08112101_Gabfest.mp3","false")20081121104620AMFridayNovNovember1011/21/2008 3:46:20 PM63362861180000000020081121104620AMFridayNovNovember1011/21/2008 3:46:20 PM633628611800000000You can also download the program here, or you can subscribe to the weekly Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

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A guide to Obama's national-security team.

Fred Kaplan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:28:53 PST

Looking over the list of top players on President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, one gets the sense that serious people are coming back to power. On the national-security team in particular, they're professional, thoughtful, cognizant of the world's complexities, engaged with cutting-edge ideas but not dogmatic about them. This may not sound exciting, but those who think it doesn't constitute "change" haven't paid enough attention to these last eight years of Jacobin zeal and blundering.

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A roundup of Explainer columns about the 2008 wildfires in Southern California.

Brad Flora and Sophie Gilbert — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:07:44 PST

Three wildfires have been moving through Southern California in the past week, burning though 17,000 hectares of land, causing "the worst loss of homes due to fire" ever in the city of Los Angeles, and adding considerably to the state's financial woes.

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A roundup of Explainer columns about food contamination.

Noreen Malone — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:07:14 PST

The Food and Drug Administration opened a new branch in Beijing on Wednesday in response to a spate of recent high-profile contamination scares. Meanwhile, the embarrassed Chinese government has promised to tighten inspection standards in the wake of the ongoing poisoned baby formula scandal. And last week, the United States implemented an "import alert" for any food products made in China to be sure they're both dairy- and melamine-free. Here's an Explainer roundup of all the ways your food can make you sick.

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Corrections from the last week.

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:05:49 PST

In the Nov. 20 "Jurisprudence," Dafna Linzer mistakenly stated that Ted Stevens has served in the Senate for 50 years. He has served for 40 years.

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Markets deflate.

Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 07:04:21 PST

A summary of what's in the major publications.

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As the stock market takes another dive, investors wonder who's in charge.

Daniel Politi — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:20:01 PST

The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal lead with yet another horrible day for stocks that sent one clear message: Investors are freaked out. Another grim milestone was reached yesterday as the broad Standard & Poor's 500-stock index plunged 6.7 percent and reached its lowest level since 1997. The NYT puts it in context and reminds readers that 1997 was "before the dot-com boom, the Nasdaq market bust and the ensuing bull market that drove stocks to record heights." The WP highlights that this latest downward spiral comes after a few weeks when it looked like things could get better, but now there are fears that the recession will be longer and deeper "than even many pessimists had expected." The LAT points out that those who followed the common advice to not sell when the market is down have continued to lose money at a terrifying rate and now many are choosing to give up and get out of the stock market before they lose more.

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Henry Waxman's victory over John Dingell is the biggest gift Obama could have asked for.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:08:27 PST

Out: Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, the tough, cantankerous eminence grise of the House Democratic caucus (he's 82), who was so deferential to Detroit as chairman of the House energy and commerce committee that Lee Iacocca once said he "stood up for the auto industry beyond the call of duty." In: Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the tough, mustachioed eminence slightly less grise of House Democrats (he's 69) known for his relentless investigations and aggressive proposals for combating climate change. Waxman's mustache—it even has a nickname—haunts Rick Wagoner's dreams.

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Why movie vampires always break all the vampire rules.

Christopher Beam — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:57:21 PST

There's a scene midway through Twilight, the new 'tween vampire flick, in which the heroine, Bella, arrives at the vampire Edward's house—a bright, spare, Modernist home that seems stocked with Calphalon pans and furniture from Design Within Reach. She looks around wonderingly. "What did you expect?" he says. "Coffins and dungeons and moats?" It's a familiar scene to anyone who knows vampire movies: the part where the vampire (or vampire expert) turns myth-buster and explains what vampires are really like.

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When you get pregnant from your twin's ovary, who's the mom?

William Saletan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:39:10 PST

What's the next best thing to having your own baby? Having your identical twin's baby.

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A roundup of Explainer columns about same-sex marriage.

Sophie Gilbert — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:38:38 PST

On Nov. 4, voters in California approved Proposition 8 to adopt a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. This week saw the California Supreme Court jump back into the debate with the news that it will review the legality of the ballot measure.

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How much gold can prospectors find in Washington's rivers and streams?

Jacob Leibenluft — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 18:36:04 PST

Gold prospectors in the state of Washington are up in arms about new restrictions on when they can search for gold. The rules, issued last week, are intended to limit digging and dredging in streams, which may put fish eggs at risk. Just how much gold is in those Pacific Northwest streams?

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Farhad Manjoo and Chris Thompson talk iPhones, Androids, and BlackBerry Storms.

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:24:22 PST

Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo and The Big Money blogger Chris Thompson were online at Washingtonpost.com to chat with readers about the iPhone features borrowed by Google's Android, and BlackBerry's Storm. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

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A roundup of questions about pirates with answers from our archives.

Noreen Malone — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:16:01 PST

Somali pirates seized a Saudi oil tanker worth $100 million on Saturday, and attacks on Thai and Indian vessels followed on Tuesday. So far, more than 95 ships have been attacked by pirates near Somalia this year. It's been a while since the last golden age of piracy, so the Explainer is here to get you up to speed on all the most crucial information about these high-seas renegades.

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A new translation of the Quran.

Reza Aslan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:03:14 PST

Reading the Quran can be a baffling experience. Unlike the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), the Quran is not a collection of books recounting the mythical history of a community of faith. It is not, like the Gospels, a pseudo-biographical sketch of a particular prophet in a particular time. It does not narrate the life of Mohammed, nor does it chronicle the rise of Islam (indeed, Mohammed is barely mentioned in it). Though the Quran is divided into 114 chapters (called suras), these are arranged neither thematically nor chronologically but rather from longest to shortest, the lone exception being the first and most important chapter, al-Fatiha, or "The Opening." The chapters are given evocative titles like "The Cow" or "The Feast," but these have almost nothing to do with the content that follows. The Quran itself states that its verses have multiple meanings, some of which are unfathomable to human beings and known only to God. And yet, in both style and content, the Quran is unique among scriptures.

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Twilight, reviewed.

Dana Stevens — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:20:49 PST

The paperback cover of Twilight, the first of four best-selling teen-vampire fantasy novels by Stephenie Meyer, shows a pair of pale female hands in close-up, proffering the reader an obscurely menacing apple. I haven't been able to make it through that book's 500-plus pages of turgid vampire-ogling. ("He lay perfectly still in the grass, his shirt open over his sculpted, incandescent chest, his scintillating arms bare. His glistening, pale lavender lids were shut, though of course he didn't sleep.") But after seeing director Catherine Hardwicke's flawed yet transfixing adaptation of the book, I can understand the appeal of that poisoned apple, and I think I might want another bite.

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Musical Numbers: Bonds

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:38:01 PST

A daily video from Slate V

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A string of grim economic news sends the Dow tumbling below the 8,000 mark.

Daniel Politi — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:09:09 PST

The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal lead with yet another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the stock market. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 5.1 percent and closed below the 8,000 mark for the first time since March 2003. The market is now down 43.5 percent from a high point hit a little over a year ago. USAT notes that the market has "wiped out nearly $10 trillion in wealth since the October 2007 peak" and the WSJ highlights that the recent plunges have nearly wiped out "all the gains from the last bull market, which lasted from October 2002 to October 2007." Optimists who had hoped the market had nowhere to go but up after the lows of last month were hit with a cold dose of reality by a string of grim economic news made it clear that the pain is far from over.

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The West must not be distracted by Russian—or Georgian—propaganda.

Anne Applebaum — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:07:11 PST

The New York Times has now done it; so, recently, have European cease-fire monitors, the BBC, and NPR. These organizations, along with a whole host of other investigators, have looked once again into the events surrounding Georgia's Aug. 7 incursion into South Ossetia, the event that led, in turn, to the massive Russian invasion of Georgia on Aug. 8.

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Bush's top pardon prospects.

Dafna Linzer, ProPublica — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:00:11 PST

Attention, convicts: Time is running out to get applications to the pardon attorney at the Justice Department if you're hoping President Bush will be your decider. Few of you should get your hopes up—Bush has rejected a record number of requests for pardons and commutations. In the last eight years, he has pardoned 157 people—a miserly sum compared with his predecessors. But you don't have to give up entirely: More are expected in the coming months, most notably for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

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Why NCIS became a hit show.

Troy Patterson — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:59:43 PST

By some thermometers, NCIS (CBS, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET) is the hot show of the moment. Last week's installment played to a record-high 18.8 million viewers—"more than any other show on television for the week," the New York Times reported on Monday, further noting that it's also been a smash in Friday-night repeats and cable-network reruns. The Los Angeles Times cocked an eyebrow at those numbers the same day, likewise observing that the six-year-old series has achieved its success in the absence of any industry accolades, critical praise, or rousing racket of buzz: "The media try very hard to ignore the show." On that last point, I demand a correction. Until this week, ignoring the show hasn't required the slightest effort.

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Why mailmen don't deliver the mail.

Paul Collins — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:59:22 PST

It's a discovery worthy of a murder mystery: In a parking lot in the mountains outside Santa Cruz, Calif., a truck is found abandoned, the keys still hanging in the door. Inside the police find … a note? A body?

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My family thinks an exorcism will cure my mental illness.

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:58:44 PST

Get "Dear Prudence" delivered to your inbox each week; click here to sign up. Please send your questions for publication to prudence@slate.com. (Questions may be edited.)

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Life classes on the Isle of Wight.

Peter Terzian — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:56:40 PST

The School of Life is housed in a sleek storefront on Marchmont Street in London's Bloomsbury neighborhood. The ground-floor shop, painted in cool gray with bright yellow signage, reflects the school's tongue-in-cheek approach to its own mission. Aphorisms are typeset on large sheets of paper and suspended in the street-facing window; a quotation from Emerson was on rotation the week that I visited. ("All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients.") Clusters of cedar trunks rise from floor to ceiling. A carefully curated selection of books is shelved by the reader's immediate need rather than by subject: books for those in love or for those worried about death. If you stand looking out through the window at the street, you can watch the faces of the passers-by as they try to puzzle out what kind of establishment the School of Life is. A jar of free candy bars on a front counter is popular with local children.

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How do you total up the greenhouse-gas emissions for an entire country?

Brian Palmer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:57:58 PST

The United Nations reported this week that Kyoto Protocol signatories have reduced greenhouse-gas emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels, four years ahead of the treaty schedule. Is it really possible for a country to measure how much carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and other greenhouse gases it's putting out?

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How to profit from Barack Obama's inauguration.

Christopher Beam — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:44:48 PST

Everything about Barack Obama's inauguration will be historic: his speech, the turnout, the oath itself. And if residents of Washington, D.C., are smart, there will be historic levels of opportunistic profiteering.

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Why are there so many powerful Michelles in Washington?

Abby Callard — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:58:50 PST

When Michelle Obama moves into the White House next year, she will immediately become the most famous member of one of Washington's most powerful and exclusive clubs: the Michelles. Here's a short list:

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Grand Unified Weekly from Slate V.

Andy Bowers — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:53:34 PST

With all the time we now spend watching online video, who's got a few spare minutes to keep up with science news? Now you don't have to choose. Introducing "Grand Unified Weekly," Slate V's new series that harvests the wheat grass of news from the lab and distills it into a power-boost shot directly to your desktop.

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Slate's Culture Gabfest for Nov. 19, 2008.

Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:35:56 PST

Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 21 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:You can also download the program here, or you can subscribe to the Culture Gabfest podcast feed in iTunes by clicking here.

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Abandoned Wal-Marts that become schools and churches.

Julia Christensen — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:06:05 PST

Big-box buildings are the large, free-standing, warehouselike structures that have become dominant in the American landscape, constructed by one-stop-shopping retailers, grocers, and category-killers. Hundreds of new big-box buildings are built each year—and hundreds are vacated. In a healthy economy, retailers often leave behind one store to build an even bigger one nearby. In tough times, weaker chains are forced to close stores. Circuit City recently announced it will close 155 stores before the holiday season. What happens to big-box buildings when a retailer abandons them?

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The case for immunizing everyone against the flu.

Sydney Spiesel — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:05:30 PST

Problem: Influenza is a common viral disease. Because it's so common (in any one year, somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent of Americans will get the flu) and because people tend to call any illness with fever, sore throat, vomiting, or diarrhea a "flu," it is often taken casually—more a fact of life than a cause for anxiety. Many of these misnamed infections are pretty minor, but true influenza is often quite a serious disease, leading to more than 200,000 annual hospitalizations in the United States and about 36,000 deaths every year. Unfortunately, catching the flu doesn't guarantee immunity—the virus's unstable genetic makeup changes frequently, and the immunity stimulated by an infection or a shot probably won't be helpful in the next year if even a minor change occurs and a new strain emerges. And sometimes those new strains are exceptionally dangerous. The "Spanish flu," the worst of these varieties, appeared in 1918 and is thought to have killed somewhere between 50 million and 100 million people worldwide—between 2.5 percent and 5 percent of the world's population—during a two-year period.

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Sleater-Kinney's guitarist tries out Wii Music.

Carrie Brownstein — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:04:45 PST

One summer, when I was elementary-school age, my neighbors and I built guitars and keyboards out of scrap wood, painted them in bright colors, and formed the cover band Lil' "D" Duran Duran. We didn't make our own noise or even pretend to play our fake instruments. We merely had props to stand in for the real thing; it gave us something to do with our arms. We made no effort to look like the members of Duran Duran or to emulate their glamorous pop-star world. Instead, with mutts and thumb-sucking siblings as our audience, we jumped and pranced around to their songs as they emanated from a boombox in the backyard.

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The Big Three ask for a bit of money but lawmakers are skeptical.

Daniel Politi — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:51:05 PST

The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post lead with the chief executives of Detroit's Big Three begging lawmakers for taxpayer-funded aid to prevent a possible collapse. But senators were less than receptive to their plight and it looks increasingly unlikely that the automakers will get a bailout from Washington anytime soon. Even senators who are generally supportive of the industry weren't shy about criticizing the companies. "Their discomfort in coming to the Congress with hat in hand is only exceeded by the fact that they are seeking treatment for wounds that are to a large extent self-inflicted," Sen. Christoper Dodd said. "No one can say they didn't see this coming."

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How did an iffy study on the neuroscience of bullies end up in a New York Times blog?

Daniel Engber — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:21:54 PST

A year ago this month, the New York Times published one of the most notorious pieces of neuromarketing propaganda ever to show up in a major daily. Two Novembers ago, the Times science pages hawked a witless brain-imaging study of speaking in tongues. (In that case, converging evidence from scientists and journalists revealed a useful fact: If you think you're babbling incoherently, then you probably are.)

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Is a homeless felon really expected to pay $101 million?

Christopher Beam — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:50:41 PST

A homeless man in California was sentenced Monday to four years in prison and ordered to pay $101 million for setting fires that burned down 160,000 acres of national forest. How's a guy who sleeps in a tent supposed to pay $101 million?

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What's new in New York, the Weekly Standard, and TheNew Yorker.

Sonia Smith — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:18:18 PST

Newsweek, Nov. 24Karl Rove offers a 10-point plan for the Republican Party, stressing the importance of adapting the GOP's core values for the new era. "The party should embrace both tradition and reform; grass-roots Republicans want to apply timeless conservative principles to the new circumstances facing America." The party must make inroads among young people by promoting a "green" agenda and should focus on retaking Congress in 2010. … The cover story likens Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln, which the 44th president himself did in the pages of Time in 2005. Both men are known for their humility, strong rhetoric, and taking the helm during a pivotal historical moment. … The lame-duck Bush administration is being flooded with pardon requests, but those hoping for one are likely to be disappointed as Bush has granted fewer pardons than any modern president.

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The quotidian beauty of Law & Order.

Troy Patterson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:52:34 PST

Law & Order (NBC)—not to be confused with the grislier, kinkier Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, or the flashier, friskier Law & Order: Criminal Intent, but the durable old L&O—lugged itself back to the airwaves this month for a 19th season. Series creator Dick Wolf long ago made plain his ambition to see the show through a 20th, at which point scholars of pop and keepers of trivia will be obliged to place it next to Gunsmoke as TV's longest-running prime-time drama. It may get there yet: Though its recent ratings are, by any normal standard, mediocre, mediocrity goes a long way these days at subnormal NBC. And despite the show's excesses, its signs of deterioration and ossification, its laughable mannerisms, Law & Order still displays a singular feeling for pace. It's snappier than a procedural of its advanced age has any right to be.

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Why is Barack Obama obsessed with reforming college football?

Josh Levin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:41:01 PST

Barack Obama has revealed his first major policy initiative: college football reform. In Obama's first televised interview since winning the presidency, he explained what's wrong with the current system, in which computers help determine the two teams that play for the national championship. "I think any sensible person would say that if you've got a bunch of teams who play throughout the season, and many of them have one loss or two losses—there's no clear decisive winner—that we should be creating a playoff system," Obama said. "I don't know any serious fan of college football who has disagreed with me on this. So, I'm gonna throw my weight around a little bit. I think it's the right thing to do."

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In Idaho's First District, they don't make right-wing nuts like they used to.

Bruce Reed — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:02:02 PST

After a glorious, nearly uninterrupted three-decade run, Idaho's First Congressional District has lost its claim as the nuttiest House seat in the country. The state just elected a new congressman so normal, the nation won't have Idaho to kick around anymore.

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Cubez: Google

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:06:23 PST

A daily video from Slate V

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Is getting takeout that much worse for the planet than cooking at home?

Jacob Leibenluft — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:24:32 PST

Is it better for the environment to eat takeout or cook at home? The downsides of takeout containers are obvious, but I live alone—and it seems pretty inefficient to cook for just one person. Can I justify ordering to-go on environmental grounds?

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Why you really do need to see Buster Keaton's The General.

Gary Giddins — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:04:17 PST

Those of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, when television was awash in classic movies (Million-Dollar Movie, Shock Theater, The Late Show, and Silents Please were among the first schools in cinema—just ask Scorsese, Spielberg, or Coppola), are aghast to find that our children are often reluctant to watch black-and-white films, let alone silent ones. Especially those deemed to be among the greatest ever made. The imprimatur of the experts turns pleasure into obligation, and suddenly the notion of sitting through a comedy that had for decades convulsed audiences takes on all the promise of reading The Merry Wives of Windsor—the most annoying and witless of Shakespeare's plays, yet once upon a time thought to be a riot.

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Why hiring a new coach won't solve your favorite NBA team's problems.

Ryan McCarthy — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:02:29 PST

For almost one-quarter of the NBA's 30 teams, 2008 is a year of change. Whether it's Mike D'Antoni's fast-paced offense in New York or Larry Brown getting the lowly Charlotte Bobcats to "play the right way," fans in seven cities have new head coaches and great expectations. They shouldn't get their hopes up. Despite years of careful analysis, nobody has determined what it is that NBA coaches actually do.

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"Omaha Beach"

Piotr Florczyk — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:43:07 PST

Click the arrow on the audio player to hear Piotr Florczyk read this poem. You can also download the recording or subscribe to Slate's Poetry Podcast on iTunes.

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The Iraqi government quietly gets rid of corruption oversight officials.

Daniel Politi — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:48:56 PST

The New York Times leads with word that the Iraqi government has been firing inspectors general who are supposed to keep an eye out for corruption. These oversight officials were put in place in every cabinet-level ministry at the behest of American officials in order to bring some level of transparency to the Iraqi government. But as claims of corruption in the Iraqi government increase, it seems Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government would rather get rid of the watchdogs quietly rather than dealing with the growing problem. USA Today leads with a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction that reported the Pentagon spent around $600 million in more than 1,200 Iraq reconstruction contracts that were canceled. Almost half of these contracts were canceled due to problems with the contractor, including a simple failure to deliver and poor performance.

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Barack Obama's life will be somewhat normal for exactly 64 more days. So why not wash the dishes?

John Dickerson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:39:46 PST

In Barack Obama's first interview since winning the election, he made an odd but revealing confession: He found it soothing, he said, to do the dishes. I knew exactly what he was talking about (though for me it's light carpentry). He is experiencing the bends associated with the post-campaign re-entry into daily life. This afflicts not only candidates but the reporters who travel with them.

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What would a Republican "green" agenda look like?

Christopher Beam — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:14:59 PST

If the Republican Party wants to recover from the Great Drubbing of 2008, it shouldn't waste too much time worrying about how to turn blue states red. It should be thinking about how to turn itself green.

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Harvard University's investment errors.

Daniel Gross — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:03:12 PST

The recent market turmoil portends hard times for even the wealthiest universities. Last week, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust told stakeholders that, with the research service Moody's projecting "a 30 percent decline in the value of college and university endowments in the current fiscal year," Harvard needs "to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial constraint."

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Can you be a gay Mormon?

Nina Shen Rastogi — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:20:53 PST

Since the passage of California's Proposition 8, which repealed the rights of gays and lesbians to marry, the Mormon Church has been dealing with widespread protests of its support for the measure. What is the official Mormon policy on homosexuality?

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Does Hamid Karzai really want to negotiate with Mullah Omar?

Fred Kaplan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:29:30 PST

What's up with Hamid Karzai? The Afghan president told reporters on Sunday that he would welcome peace negotiations with Mullah Mohammed Omar, the former leader of the country's Taliban regime, and would guarantee his security if he came back to Kabul for the talks.

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What the Google phone stole from the iPhone.

Farhad Manjoo — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:41:53 PST

There is a story that Steve Jobs likes to tell about fonts. In 1972, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Ore.; after a semester, seeing little value in college, he dropped out. But Jobs hung around Portland—he crashed in friends' dorm rooms, recycled Coke bottles to buy food, and sat in on several courses that he found interesting. One of these was a calligraphy class; it was there that Jobs first realized the simple, underappreciated beauty of the written language on a page. Calligraphy, he recalled in a 2005 commencement speech at Stanford, was "beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating."

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