Achenblog - The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach on whatever strikes his fancy - April 5, 2009

College Touring Again!

All I do these days is tour colleges. I've now seen roughly 1,473 colleges in the past year. This is because high school kids routinely apply to 15, or 35, or 75 colleges, all of which must be visited....

The News From Planet Hannity

Did you hear about Obama's trip overseas? He apologized. He groveled. He bowed to the Saudis!!! He said America is a bad place, and he spouted all that rhetoric he learned at the feet of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright...

Somali Pirates vs. U.S. Navy

The Somali pirates are, at last report, in a lifeboat, holding a hostage, the captain of the Maersk Alabama. Here's what they may not know: No American vessel has been attacked by pirates since 1804. In that time, the...

Feeling Browsey

I sent some links over to The Post's Political Browser. I like politics, but I confess: Right now I want to read about gardening. What's the latest from Adrian Higgins? Anywhere, here are some of the linky bits I...

Commuting by PUMA

So GM and Segway have unveiled the PUMA, a new muscle car -- if the muscle you're talking about is, say, the eyelid. Or whatever it is that makes the nostril flare. The PUMA could be a game-changer. It's...

Whither NASA?

Here's a name to add to the NASA Administrator-to-be Rumor Mill: Rep. Bart Gordon, head of a House science committee that oversees NASA. I asked him the other day if he was going to be administrator, and he said...

Pulsar B1509

Looks to me like the universe is left-handed. Sinistral. But then there's no up or down in space, nor "palm" or "back of the hand." So it's hard to say. This is an image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory....

'Slate on Paper'

Mike Kinsley gets all Darwinian about the demise of newspapers: "Industries come and go....Sorry, but people who have grown up around computers find reading the news on paper just as annoying as you find reading it on a screen....

Achenblog: April 5, 2009 - April 11, 2009