Seattle Post-Times

The hierarchy of victimhood

Jack Shafer, Slate's media writer, takes a look at the Balloon Boy case and explains why newsies are such suckers for stories like that — why they forgo the discipline of verification that is supposed to inform good journalism. In doing so, he offers this simple hierarchy to explain newsworthiness:

... in the hierarchy of victimhood, young beats old, female beats male, domestic beats foreign, fur beats scales, defenseless beats well-armed, pregnant beats nonpregnant, and kittens beat everything.

... A keen reader of media manners and former Wife Swap participant, [Richard] Heene obviously appreciates that a 6-year-old in peril is irresistible media bait. God knows what fiendish stunt Heene would have attempted if the family's cat had just given birth to a litter of tabbies.

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• Cynical reporters have a soft spot for anybody who claims victimhood. (slate.com)

Accepting life inside the box

While I work on a substantive post about journalism, you can has this cat video pleeze.

The space program: We planned it with the apes

National Geographic reminds us that 50 years ago NASA sent monkeys into space and returned them safely to Earth, a couple of years before the first manned flights. The first mammal to orbit the Earth was a chimp.

At the time, we thought they were animals. Today we know that their DNA was 98 percent human.

Here's to Ham (above) and all the rest memorialized in this NG photo gallery.

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• New Panel Will Review NASA's Shift in Spaceflight (nytimes.com)

Inside and outside a box

As some of you know, I'm a cat person, and this is one of the best vids I've seen in a long time.

The answer to all your litter-box problems

Somebody has too much time on their hands

It's been a while since I posted a silly cat video, and it will be a while longer. For this is a hamster. On a piano. Eating popcorn. On a piano. 

What deer do when it snows

They hunker down and wait it out.

This was taken through the window of my parents' house in Albion, Mich.

T.G.I.Feline

And I thought I spent too much time on the computer.

Have a great weekend.

Cat drives Zamboni machine