The sheer breadth of American eccentricity is breathtaking, as you discover after a few days tucking into the newspapers over here.
An MIT PhD student has come up with the idea of Enemybook “an antisocial utility that disconnects you to (sic) the so-called friends around you,” says the developer, Kevin Matulef. You can slag off your ex-wives, bosses, and friends you’ve fallen out with. Pure genius.
With investigative reporting dying out in the US, as a result of newspapers’ editorial budgets getting cut, a group of the great and the good of US journalism, led by a former editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Steiger, is seeking to resurrect investigative journalism in the US. The group, called Pro Publica, has obtained commitments to a $10m a year funding for the project, which will research and write investigative pieces, and make them available free to US newspapers.
“You got these guys coming to your house, what would you do?” asked a Texan after he’d shot three policemen (two fatally) who had been called at his house after receiving a domestic disturbance call.