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Folks, 

From time to time I'll send out emails asking you to take a look at articles. Here are a few that struck me as I read through the paper this week. Please read a few of them before class tomorrow. You can also access these links via my blog: 

http://progressivelyprofressing.blogspot.com/

Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/us/politics/26calif.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

An important issue facing the next president will be global warming. According to this article, 20% of carbon that effects global warming comes from cars. The article spells out an important development in the attempt to insist that cars get better gas mileage.

Green-Light Specials, Now at Wal-Mart

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25walmart.html?pagewanted=1&em

Wal Mart has done an about-face and is now balancing their concern with "always the lowest price, always" with a concern for the environment. Read about about their about-face (as a result of media-pressure).

Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama.html?pagewanted=1&em

If you haven't read it yet, it's really worth a read.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall/

This is a photo essay in which the blogger speaks with three photographers about their favorite images from the 8 years of the Bush presidency. If you're interested in images, photography, this is a long piece, but an interesting read.

A Win for Free Speech Online (Editorial)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27tue2.html?th&emc=th

It appears that the internet will remain uncensored (for now...)

What Life Asks of Us (Columnist David Brooks)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/opinion/27brooks.html?th&emc=th

Brooks is one of my favorite columnists--in this column he calls into question a belief which we, Americans, have so internalized we're no longer even aware it is one of our central beliefs: individualism.

Ron Pitt: The nature of ‘critical inquiry’ in the academy (Ron Pitt, guest columnist)

http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_pitt26_01-26-09_AQD1O87_v12.3a8be0a.html

Our new Vice President of Academic Affairs, Ron Pitt, explains what critical thinking means.

Presidential Speeches and Words:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/17/washington/20090117_ADDRESSES.html

Poem from Inauguration

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html?8bu&emc=bub2

Barack Obama's Prose Style:

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/barack-obamas-prose-style/?em

Obama's Inaugural Speech

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama.html?em

Credit Cards and Colleges

Colleges Profit as Banks Market Credit Cards to Students

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/business/01student.html?pagewanted=1

EAST LANSING, Mich. — When Ryan T. Muneio was tailgating with his parents at a Michigan State football game this fall, he noticed a big tent emblazoned with a Bank of America logo. Inside, bank representatives were offering free T-shirts and other merchandise to those who applied for credit cards and other banking products.

On Stupidity

http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2008/08/2008080101c.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

"No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public," said H.L. Mencken in the era of Babbitt and the Scopes "monkey" trial. Several generations later, one might speculate that no publisher has ever lost money with a book accusing Americans — particularly young ones — of being stupid.

Online Literacy Is a Lesser Kind

http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i04/04b01001.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

When Jakob Nielsen, a Web researcher, tested 232 people for how they read pages on screens, a curious disposition emerged. Dubbed by The New York Times "the guru of Web page 'usability,'" Nielsen has gauged user habits and screen experiences for years, charting people's online navigations and aims, using eye-tracking tools to map how vision moves and rests. In this study, he found that people took in hundreds of pages "in a pattern that's very different from what you learned in school." It looks like a capital letter F. At the top, users read all the way across, but as they proceed their descent quickens and horizontal sight contracts, with a slowdown around the middle of the page. Near the bottom, eyes move almost vertically, the lower-right corner of the page largely ignored. It happens quickly, too. "F for fast," Nielsen wrote in a column. "That's how users read your precious content."