The Pew Research Center has an online news IQ quiz consisting of 12 questions. I got one wrong, and another one right only because I just read it today.

Harry Markopolos, the man who tried futilely for 10 years to expose the largest Ponzi scheme in history, has written a book about his failed crusade called “No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller.” In it, Markopolos relives his tragic tale, how he discovered Bernard Madoff was a fraud, how he tried for years [...]

What did newspaper front pages look like the day after health care reform passed? Someone collected screen shots of over 200 of them and put them on the Web. Click to see a pretty amazing collection.

…at least one New York Times headline. The blog Line By Line is a “daily graphic capture of New York Times headlines.” Here are three of the entries with their accompanying source material. For Consumers, Clarity on Health Care Changes Stores Land in Gun-Control Crossfire Huge Deficits May Alter U.S. Politics and Global Power More [...]

On Sunday, former Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay defended Sen. Jim Bunning’s recent blocking of an unemployment benefits extension.

From the The Huffington Post:

Some reaction from various sites:

From Hullabaloo

I would guess that this is going to catch on among the dittoheads. The right is reasoning that they can appeal to a good number of the majority who are employed and make them question why they should subsidize all those losers who are not. It worked with health care. Empathy for your fellow man, or even a selfish sense that you might personally need some assistance someday, is being attacked by the right wing head on. And I would guess that there are more than a few people who secretly have thought these things but didn’t have the social support necessary to say it out loud. Now they do.

This isn’t a widely accepted point of view. Yet. But its infecting the body politic.

Anthropologist/marketer Grant McCracken thinks he’s found what’s driving the success of USA Networks’ programming. This post called “The secret script at USA Networks (aka the enmeshed male)” explains: I know you have watched something on USA Networks. After all, its a hit machine. It has given us “Burn Notice,” “White Collar,” “Royal Pains,” and “In [...]

Ever hear “Intelligence Squared“? Rethink your point of view with Intelligence Squared U.S., a live debate series in New York City. Intelligence Squared U.S. is a public charity supported by individuals and foundations who share our mission of raising the level of public discourse on the most critical issues of the day. Launched in 2006, [...]

Who says reality TV shows are out of touch? Miss Pink Slip is a “34-year old formerly unemployed girl in Atlanta,” who writes about reality TV, the Super Bowl, Oscar nominations — pretty much anything in the entertainment world — and finds a way to connect it to the economy. She poured her slightly snarky [...]

The dot-com collapse, Enron, September 11th, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami, and an historic real estate bust, financial panic, and recession. The good times just never seemed to end in the 2000s, which Time called The Decade from Hell. Now the Magazine Publishers of America and the American Society of Magazine Editors have created this [...]

This ad for Volkswagen in France is called “Save The Traders,” a parody of musical charity events involving lots of pop stars. Gawker noted more recession-themed ads back in February.