“I have something really fun for you,” New York Times deputy obituaries editor Jack Kadden told Margalit Fox last Monday.

 

He handed the obit writer a copy of Adam Bernstein’s Washington Post piece on “professional adventurer” John Fairfax, who died Feb. 8.

Reading the obit, says Fox, “you could see immediately what a fantastic ripping good yarn this was” — one involving a man who left home at 13 to “live like Tarzan,” became a pirate’s apprentice and went on to become the first person in recorded history to row alone across the Atlantic Ocean.

Fruits in my fruit bowl tend to rot into a mulchy mess after a couple of weeks. Fruits that are chilled in permanent Siberian ice fare rather better. After more than 30,000 years, and some care from Russian scientists, some ancient fruits have produced this delicate white flower.

I'm a serial procrastinator. It's terrible. I get things done, but often, it's in a rush at the last minute. Like someone who wishes to lose weight but hasn't accepted the "eat less, exercise more" concept, I'm constantly on the hunt for a miracle cure.

Productivity Tips is a group where we can share articles and seeds with tips on how to be more productive and procrastinate less. If I don't procrastinate, I'll share my progress using the system I seeded here, from Lifehacker. That is, if I actually make any progress.

Essentially, I've created a group so that I can spend time curating it, instead of emptying the dishwasher or going through that stack of mail.

I've long been overwhelmed by an unwieldy list of goals that would sit, unaccomplished, in a long-term to-do list year after year. Then I came across a simple trick that solved my chronic problem. As gimmicky as it may sound, I'm now accomplishing everything I'd been putting off in just an hour a day. Here's how you can, too.

I’m a science geek as well as a Buddhist geek, and recently when I was leading a retreat on how to bring more joy into our lives I found myself making a lot of references to an article published in Yes magazine, which touched on ten things that have been shown by science to make us happier. It seemed natural to draw upon the article because so much of the research that was described resonated with Buddhist teachings.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but how much is a title worth? If the story that proceeds is any indicator, a title is worth over 6700 words and months of research. It all began Friday when the New York Times published an article “How Companies Learn Your Secrets“. It was an extremely long article which discussed how large companies like WalMart and Target collect data about your individual consumption patters to figure out how to most efficiently make you happy. It was a great piece but there was one problem: it didn’t have the title it deserved.

Hodder & Stoughton is to publish an original audio digital short story by bestselling author Stephen King, with plans to release through audible.co.uk and iTunes on 23rd February.

The relatively-elusive novelist Cormac McCarthy has deviated from his job as novelist from time to time, and whenever he does—whether a rare appearance for press duties on his book, or a project that isn’t a novel—it usually makes a fuss. This one’s no exception. Cormac McCarthy, copy-editor, has emerged, and with him are some strong ideas about punctuation.

It's been said that there are only seven basic plots in fiction. Pulp novelist William Wallace Cook would beg to differ.

According to Cook, there are a whopping 1,462 plots, all of which he laid out in his 1928 book, Plotto: The Master Book of All Plots.

Plotto has just been reissued for the edification of novelists everywhere. Author Paul Collins, who wrote the introduction to the new edition, tells weekends on All Things Consideredguest host Mary Louise Kelly that the book came out of Cook's need to sustain a punishing writing pace: In one year, 1910, he churned out more than a book a week.

It's been nearly a year since I put up the last Ask the Guides article. I really should put these up monthly. 

This thread is for general questions regarding the use of Newsvine. Newsvine Guides lauhal, Red Wolf, Rottlady andmyself will be tracking the thread and will provide answers where possible.

Previous Ask the Guides threads are here, here and here. You may find the discussions in those threads useful, informative or entertaining.

Any and all questions are permitted here, within the Code of Honor of course, though we may have to at times ask you to submit bug report directly to the tech team if we're unable to provide an answer for technical problems you may be experiencing.

Please feel free to direct other users who seem to be having issues using the site to this thread so we might help them.

If you're uncomfortable asking a question publicly in this thread, feel free to contact one of the Guides via the Contact the Author button on our columns, or use the Contact form.

Thanks.

As part of its independent assessment, the FLA will interview thousands of employees about working and living conditions including health and safety, compensation, working hours and communication with management. The FLA’s team will inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and other facilities, and will conduct an extensive review of documents related to procedures at all stages of employment.

Apple’s suppliers have pledged full cooperation with the FLA, offering unrestricted access to their operations. The FLA’s findings and recommendations from the first assessments will be posted in early March on its website, www.fairlabor.org. Similar inspections will be conducted at Quanta and Pegatron facilities later this Spring, and when completed, the FLA’s assessment will cover facilities where more than 90 percent of Apple products are assembled.

Though, I'm sure someone will find some reason to say that Apple could -- nay, MUST -- do even more. 

Over here, a question was posed by Belle42:

Is it possible on Vine 2.0 to include both "vote up" and "vote down" options? I've seen on other news-based sites with commenting and voting options that they have both a thumbs up and thumbs down option for voting. This might be beneficial to Newsvine so people can vote down comments they don't like rather than collapsing them.

A short discussion was had regarding voting down vs. reporting (and hence collapsing), in which Chasing made the following suggestion:

I would prefer a split system - upvote/downvote, and report, as two distinct things. We'd each get a daily allotment of votes, and each upvote would cost one, and each downvote would cost two. Downvoting would not cause a collapse. Separately, there would be a COH violation report button, with a drop down that included a list of common violations to choose from, with perhaps also an 'other' with space to write in a description of the problem, and an admonishment that a pattern of faulty reporting will lead to that option (reporting) being greyed out/blocked for that user, and perhaps an "Are you sure?" question before sending it off. Reporting, unlike downvoting, would cause collapse.

Which I like very much.

I don't get too worked up over collapsed comments. I don't believe there is an organized gang or two of serial collapsers running rampant on the Vine. I think there's just lots of people who find the same things to be inflammatory, of no value, or advertising (which is kind of a 'duh' and we'll just leave that out of this equation).

If you have a comment of yours collapsed, you're free to contact admin and ask that it be restored. You will want to have some reasons why you don't believe it should have been collapsed. Often, comments are un-collapsed by Tyler/Sally. You may think they should un-collapse more often.

What, pray tell, is the solution to this problem?

My first instinct is to say: Get over it. Shrug. You got collapsed. Move on.

But, what if there were a better way? My response to Belle42 was that it's likely we'd just end up with people complaining about mass-down-voting. Maybe what we really want is a way to not have to listen to anybody complain about collapsing anymore (that'd be nice).

Please participate in the poll to your right, and discuss below. And if you have a better idea, by all means, share it!

FYI, this is specifically addressing COMMENTS, not articles or seeds being "collapsed." Just COMMENTS. Thanks.

Blood streaked the edge of an overturned television in the tiny, sparsely furnished living room where 13-month-old Shaun Brown had been playing just hours before.

The Chicago toddler was playing in the upstairs apartment in the 11300 block of South Edbrooke Avenue around 1 p.m. when he "tagged" the TV, which rested atop a narrow wooden stand meant to hold fish tanks, said Michael Jennings, the toddler's cousin.

When Stone Park’s village government authorized a new strip club to come to town, officials did more than enhance its reputation as a “sin city” of the western suburbs.

They upset a group of nuns.

Turns out the Stone Park village board approved the project even though the club – which is still under construction and hasn’t yet opened – is adjacent to a convent that includes a complex for elderly and sick nuns, and another building for young women wishing to enter the Roman Catholic sisterhood.

“What are we trying to teach the children in the neighborhood?” said Sister Marissonia Daltoe, of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo – Scalabrinians.

The religious order occupies the property next to the club, which will feature partially nude performers and alcohol.

CHICAGO — A commission created by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn nearly two years ago with the ambitious goal of righting the wrongs of Chicago's police torture scandal is quietly falling apart, another apparent victim of the state's budget mess.

The Illinois Torture Inquiry and Relief Commission hasn't even met since August or reviewed a single case. It is operating with a quarter of the money commissioners sought, which has delayed the hiring of a staff attorney.

City Clerk Susana Mendoza is investigating claims that the city’s 2012-13 vehicle sticker — intended for every Chicagoan’s windshield — includes symbols honoring the gang that Police Supt. Garry McCarthy vowed to destroy.

The city sticker design, which includes the city’s skyline inside a heart, with hands pointing up towards a police hat, fire department helmet and paramedic symbol, was advertised as honoring Chicago’s emergency responders.

UPDATE: MIKE DAISEY'S RESPONSES ADDED IN. Mike Daisey, for those who aren't familiar with his work, is a monologist. I knew quite a bit about Mike Daisey before I knew what a monologist was so, as is often the case, thank God for Wikipedia:

Inspired by Rottlady's Leap Day sun photo challenge, I thought I'd post one of the eight hundred thousand photos I took of sunrises in Florida when I was there over the holidays. This is one of my favorites. Makes it worth getting up at 7 a.m. when on vacation.

Music in Chicago is about to get a cyber-boost, thanks to an innovative collaboration between Boeing and the Elastic Arts Foundation, a non-profit presenting organization.

Boeing has contributed an initial $150,000 to an interactive website that Elastic will create, first to promote Chicago jazz, and soon thereafter to champion other genres identified with this city, including blues, gospel, house, R&B, classical and more. If the project proves successful, Boeing is prepared to continue its funding for another two years, while encouraging support from other Chicago corporations and foundations.

Memo to: U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan

Dear Mr. Secretary,

We've often heard you talk fondly about your days as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. You may have heard that the schools face a huge budget crisis. You want to do something good for the schools and set an example for everyone who works there?

Write a check for $50,297.

Make it out to Chicago Public Schools. On the memo line put "Re: unearned pay."

It's high time to lay to rest the shopworn canard that American musical theater works are somehow unsuitable for presentation by the big American opera houses. As a matter of fact, no piece in the cavalcade of American musicals has a more legitimate right to be taken under the wing of a major company like Lyric Opera than the landmark known as "Show Boat."

That's because only a theater such as Lyric's has the resources to satisfy the enormous musical and production requirements of the 1927 classic, with its tune-laden Jerome Kern score and finely-wrought book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein 2nd, based on the sprawling novel of Edna Ferber.

Pundits and bishops warn President Obama he could lose the white Catholic vote over requiring a contraception option for insurance plans. But Catholic women side with Obama on this, a new survey says.

The pivot point is how you see this. Is it a battle over birth control -- used by 98% of U.S. women at some time in their lives -- or over government intrusion into the right of religious organizations to live by their teachings?

Josh Powell, the father who authorities say meticulously planned the double murder-suicide of himself and his two young sons, reportedly left a recording beforehand saying that he couldn't live without the boys and didn't want to go on anymore.

More than three years after California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage, an appeals court on Tuesday is set to decide whether Proposition 8 violates the federal Constitution.

A wealthy Frankfort teen who pleaded guilty last year to reckless driving after running a stop sign and smashing into a retired Downers Grove couple sought permission Monday to attend the Grammy Awards even though the injured couple have yet to receive his court-ordered apology letters.