Neil deMause: The Website

Yes, it’s happened: As threatened previously, I’ve changed this page to a blog-style format. This enables me to do a few things:

• Post continuous updates here, rather than the every-month(-or-so) schedule I was on before.
• Add an RSS feed for links to my articles, for those of you who care to be notified when I’ve written something new. (And if you want an RSS feed for all entries on this page, I have that too.)
• Post about side topics that I think might be of interest, like when the heck is the new B-52s record coming out?

This is still a work in progress, so expect more tweaks to the design and features here as I perfect my WordPress wrangling skills. And drop me a line if you have comments or requests for things you’d like to have added.

It’s the last weekend of the season for Coney Island - okay, really the next-to-last, and some attractions will stay open into October - and the start of what should be the most momentous winter in the neighborhood’s history. Locals are hoping for a reprieve from the wrecking ball, but girding for the worst, as neither the city nor developer Joe Sitt will tip their hands as to what comes next.

The coming Labor Day weekend marks the traditional end of summer at Coney Island, the final blowout before the ride operators pack up and fly south for the winter. And if it’s more a theoretical than an actual milestone—Astroland and Deno’s Wonder Wheel Park will still be open for business next week, not to mention the Cyclones haven’t held their Brooklyn Bridge Bobblehead Night yet—it packs more emotional punch this year for one simple reason: No one knows what the beachfront will look like when the warm weather returns… [read more]

New York City makes would-be Coney Island condo developer Joe Sitt an offer he’d be stupid to refuse.

In a Coney Island summer that has mostly been devoted to rumors and the report of rumors - Carol Albert is putting Astroland’s rides on the block! Now she’s taking them off again! - yesterday’s report of an attempted deal between the city and developer Joe Sitt has more intrigue than most… [read more]

A tornado hit my neighborhood. For the first time. Ever. See the photos (and description) here.

While the Bay Ridge tornado got all the initial press, Mother Nature opened up a major can of whoop-ass on Ditmas Park (aka “Victorian Flatbush”) as well… [read more]

For the Voice’s summer education supplement, Stacy Cowley and I examine the program that brings people with no educational training to teach in New York City schools. The result: Teacher desks are filled, but are students getting the short end of the stick?

The subway ads promise inspiration, fulfillment, and the kind of career satisfaction rarely found in an office cube. “Your spreadsheets won’t grow up to be doctors and lawyers,” one gently chides. “You remember your first-grade teacher’s name. Who will remember yours?” asks another… [read more]

Reports on climate change look very different depending on whether you’re getting your news from British media or U.S. ones. (In the subscribers-only print edition, so you’ll need to order Extra! to read it - or look for it on Nexis if you have an account there.

If 2006 was the year that the issue of global climate change broke through into greater public consciousness–thanks in large part to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, plus books like Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe–2007 could be the year that it becomes old news.

Between February and May of this year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a joint project of the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization, issued a series of three comprehensive reports designed to present the scientific evidence for climate change, as well as the likely consequences and how the most catastrophic effects can be avoided. By the end of it, “Live Aid” organizer Bob Geldof could be moved to harrumph on hearing of Al Gore’s planned “Live Earth” concerts to raise consciousness of the issue: “We are all fucking conscious of global warming.”

How conscious you are, though, likely depends largely on where you live–and how you get your news…