New York Times’ On-Line Revisions: No Notice? No Comment? No Correction?

I thought the New York Times had a policy that, if the on-line version of a story was changed to reflect some error, a note would indicate that at the bottom of the story. And if the error was also in the original print story, the paper would soon publish a correction.  

In Friday’s print edition, David Brooks’ column, The Nudge Debate, focused on possible applications of techniques discussed in Nudge, by Cass Sunstein’s, and which Prof. Sunstein has recently expanded upon in a lecture at Yale (and which will be the subject of his next book, Nanny Statecraft). “Nudge” is all about small measures governments can take to influence public behavior: making organ donation on drivers’ license application forms opt-out, instead of opt-in, that sort of thing. 

In Brooks’ print column, he says the Obama administration has created a “Behavioral Insights Team” to apply such techniques to their policy goals. But the on-line version only says that the administration has “announced that it is creating” such a team. Big, big difference, and no indication in the on-line article, or on the corrections page, about this change:

  
Did Brooks rush his original column and confused the Behavioral Insights Team established in the UK with possible similar efforts here? Does he do his research at InfoWars.Com? The Obama administration is really just at the applicant solicitation stage. So, New York Times? What’s up with the on-line change and no correction (as of today)?
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Weekend Plans

I’m thinking about competing in a cross-country backpack trail run this weekend, but I’m worried I might bomb out - I’ve heard those can be a real pressure cooker.
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Lil' Baby Possum!

Well, maybe not a baby, but a tiny little fellow - hope it wasn't his mother that I caught back in November.

They're so cute at this age! If that was his mother, they are reunited in City Park:



(Blue marker is our neighborhood, green marker is City Park; red marker is Audubon Park, the closest large park where you would think you would find possums around here.)

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Dear NSA

Dear NSA,
   ATF DOD WACO RUBY RIDGE OKC OKLAHOMA CITY MILITIA GUN HANDGUN MILGOV ASSAULT RIFLE TERRORISM PIPE BOMB DRUG KORESH PROMIS MOSSAD NASA MI5 ONI CID AK47 M16 C4 MALCOLM X REVOLUTION MOON LANDING FAKED CHEROKEE HILLARY BILL CLINTON GORE GEORGE BUSH OBAMA MUSLIM WACKENHUT HAARP TERRORIST 9/11 WTC WMDS DEATH SQUADS SECOND AMENDMENT RTKBA NEWTOWN HOAX BOSTON MARATHON BENGHAZI COVERUP
   Have a nice day!

- Brian
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Time Magazine 1988: Robert A. Heinlein Obituary

Today is the 25th anniversary of the death of Robert A. Heinlein, one of the greatest scifi authors ever, and a personal favorite of mine. Thanks to my father, I grew up reading his books and still have a shelf full of them. I’ve always recalled a strange thing that Time magazine stuck in his obituary and I looked it up recently to verify my memory:

Yes, they listed time travel as a “future commonplace” that Heinlein included in his fiction. I guess that is, technically, true.

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