Marcus' World

Scientific communication returning to its roots

This week Richard Smith, a sometimes way-over-the-top advocate of open access, offers a nicely balanced blog post about how post-publication peer review is one way to return scientific publishing to its roots.  Extrapolating from the Economist's recent argument that the consolidation of news media was an historical anamoly, Smith argues that journals too will reclaim their foundations as a scholar-mediated form of discourse.

I hope so.

Of course, for this to happen the prestige and imprimatur functions that today's journals serve will need to be replicated in some other fashion.  Michael Clarke's brilliance on this point remains an essential read. The moral imperative for open access will not carry the day.

So I think a strategic imperative is in order, in which librarians stop allocating collection dollars to models of dissemination we do not support.  Not overnight and not in raging moralistic fashion.  But if we believe that scholarly communication should change and that post-pub peer review is worthy we should put our money where our mouth is.   We can't always allow fear of what our users might think to prevent us from making changes.  Advocacy and boldness are part of the job.

Perverse Incentives and the Women's World Cup Final

In today's World Cup women's final, I cheered for the United States but was happy to see Japan win. This has been an especially challenging year for the Japanese and the country has responded with great dignity.

The game itself was a classic, with two late goals by Japan that leveled the score.  The second came with just three minutes to go in overtime, on a head goal that echoed the head goal Abby Wambach delivered to send the US up 2-1. Japan won on penalty kicks.

The first ever red card in a women's World Cup final came at the very end of overtime, when Japan aggressively prevented a strong shot on goal that could have secured a 3-2 US victory.  The US earned a penalty kick but didn't convert, leading to the shootout in which Japan prevailed.

Was it a dirty play by Japan, or smart strategy? Both. Here was a pristine example of perverse incentives, because the right thing to do (play fairly) was not the way to win the game.  In basketball flagrant fouls make more sense than letting the other team score easily at the end of a close game...but, of course, flagrant fouls are wrong.  There are many perverse incentives in other areas of life, a sampling of which are here.

The US women would have done the same thing if the tables were turned. Winning trumps ethics, in athletics as in politics.  But in sports this is more forgivable.

In Praise of View from Nowhere Journalism

The latest Economist has a special report on the state of the news business.  The key reminder is that our current, more overtly opinion based journalism is actually a throwback to older models. In the Revolutionary era there was no pretense of objectivity; Thomas Paine wrote deliberately polemical pamphlets.  And yellow journalism also offered stridently opinionated reporting.  Seen in this light, our hyper-partisan journalistic mode is the norm.

And yet, the conceit of the objective journalist--someone who reports the facts and lets the reader or viewer decide--persists.  I think this ideal has value, even if it is a historical anomaly.  NYU's JSchool professor Jay Rosen criticizes this as an unrealistic "view from nowhere," since everyone must have some point of view.  And Rosen is right that news reports often provide tit-for-tat quoting from people on opposing sides of an issue, creating an illusion of true controversy when in fact there is a consensus that one side is correct. Global warming is a case in point. Almost all scientists believe it is a serious, man-made problem. But news reports create the impression that there is signficant disagreement.

So, score some points for Rosen.  But he goes too far in seeking to banish all disinterested journalism.  Many issues are nuanced and complicated, offering a clash of legitimate competing views.  For example, are taxes harmful to the economy or a spur to useful public investment?  Pundits on all sides of this issue will debate it until the end of time, using competing think tank reports and intellectual sleight of hand.  For these types of discussions, disinterested journalism sheds the most light. 

True, journalists needn't be automatons who blindly quote people on opposite sides of every issue in equal proportion.  But journalists shouldn't become indistinguishable from think tank pundits either.  We still need the view from nowhere.

The Summer of Food

One of the great things about this summer, and one of the many great things about living with Pi Wen, is the opportunity to explore adventurous home-cooked meals.  I tried my hand at cooking classes a year or so ago, and enjoyed them...but that wasn't enough impetus to actually get down to the business of cooking.  Now we've found our new place and settled into the summer of food, as we documented over on Four Pairs of Eyes.

Go on and click the link! But if you don't, you can still look at the food pics below.

           

Learning to Enjoy San Francisco

When I lived in SF from 2009-2010 I hated it.  That's a strong word, hate, but it accurately sums up how I felt.  Friends would tell me that my chosen location at the corner of 16th/Mission was a big reason why, as this was a well-known corridor for drug dealing or at least crazy-acting in the plaza above BART.

But my apartment wasn't the issue.  Given that Helen and I had just decided to get a divorce, I would have been unhappy anywhere on earth. At least in SF I had the chance to walk home after work, which I did many times.  I also nursed my love of fancy coffee shops, making a gradual shift in loyalties from Ritual to Four Barrel as the year ground on.  And I tried fruitlessly to pick up women in bars, and maintained my disgust at the mindless conformity that marks SF's supposedly daring political culture. As the year's lease grew close to merciful release, I met Pi Wen and moved back to the sunnier and more congenial East Bay.

The rest is history.

Now we often venture to the city together. For example, today we'll be at Ft. Mason, the Fillmore Jazz Festival, and then a friend's potluck holiday barbeque. Later this month we'll be back at Ft. Mason for a "Forks and Corks" event that pairs Sonoma County wines with food from SF food trucks.  It's all very yuppie and all quite pleasant.  Even as I retain my belief that SF politics are ridiculous, these days I find myself focusing on the city's beauty and charms.

What a difference a new life makes.