links for 2009-01-17

"They're calling it a miracle--the successful landing of a US Airways jet in the Hudson and subsequent rescue of all 155 passengers. They're detailing the heroism of all involved, starting with the pilot and including cabin crew, ferry crews, and first responders. What they're not telling you is that just about every single one of these heros is a union member."

"Whatever objections I have to the Berkshire Eagleâs charming habit of making yesterdayâs weather the lead story in the dayâs paper, I donât want it to go out of business. And I really donât want the New York Times to go under. But Iâm starting to worry about the irrationality of the model thatâs supported journalism for the past several decades."

"I'm pretty sure there's a law against social scientists teaching anybody how to write. I once had an article rejected because the reviewer found my prose too âbreezy.â Compared to most of what gets published in my field, he had a point: you could actually discern my argument without Advil. If we started saying clearly what we meant, well, then how would we intimidate anybody?"