My Take on The Times

I have to admit, I could probably stand to spend some more time reading and researching the New York Times (as well as both of my other blogs). I read them (almost every day), but just scroll through the headlines and read whatever is interesting to me. Now that I've just re-read that last sentence, I think that's probably the whole idea of this assignment, but I feel like I could be doing more. I've read in some of my other classmates' blogs that they're finding specific categories of news within The New York Times that they're in to. I haven't poked around the site enough to do so, as I'm slightly ashamed to say, but I hope to find something to keep coming back to. It would be cool to read something religiously every day. (And of course, by 'religiously,' I don't mean reading to find Jesus or words by which to live my life. I just mean reading to fill a need. Maybe 'regularly' would have been the better word there?)

So far, some particular stories that have caught my eye have been those concerning child development issues and parenting styles. (I'm a babysitter and a psychology major, if you couldn't tell.) I read one article about how Baby Einstein products, which are an overwhelming retail item in the baby department, have (surprisingly) not actually made babies into geniuses. What's more, Walt Disney, which owns Baby Einstein is offering $15 refunds for every Baby Einstein product that is returned before March 10. There is a limit to returning only four items, but still, that's an easy $60 and you don't even need a receipt. Another particular article that I found interesting was about the future increase in the world's population and the concern of whether or not we'll be able to produce enough food to feed everyone. Some scientists are predicting we'll need to increase our food production by 50% over the next twenty years in order to feed everyone. While the details of this issue are difficult to know for sure, it is a topic that is receiving more and more attention, and rightly so I think. So, I'm in to news about kids and larger, world-scare stories? What does that say about me?

In addition to spending more time reading The New York Times in general, I could also spend more time reading political and/or economical articles covered in The New York Times. I tend to avoid the articles about healthcare, and I get annoyed with news on the Swine Flu, but those are the big issues of today, which I should probably know more about. I guess that's something I can focus on for this next week of news.