technology may be making me dumber.

my favorite newspaper offers all of its stories and editorials in audio format. it's free. it's quick. it's easy. in fact, i'm listening to a story about darfur as i type. i don't have to read it at all.

it sounds as though all words are pre-recorded and arranged in the order of the article. so it's a little impersonal and free from human emotion (sort of). i suppose that's good, as it's not the standard anchor's voice and style. still, it loses something in the translation.

i still like reading the iht. i wish more of its stories had the old reading format with the "prev" and "next" options rather than the long-form presentations, but the content is consistently impressive.

in any case, listen to some of the best international reporting you'll find anywhere: international herald tribune audionews


p.s.: i had a column run today that i'm proud of and that, evidently, people liked. it was a top-five viewed story on dailynebraskan.com for quite some time today (beaten out by letters to the editor! damn you, discourse!).

it was also picked up by u-wire, the university wire service akin to the associated press. that means it ran nationally and other newspapers can pick it up and print it. it was even linked at u-wire's front page.

here it is:
(at the daily nebraskan)
(at u-wire)