![theatlantic:
Choosing Our Own Adventures, Then and Now
If you were a kid during the ’80s and read any books at all, you probably read at least one Choose Your Own Adventure, probably by either R.A. Montgomery or Edward Packard. And if you read one, you read more than one. They were addictive, candy for our brains, but also, they empowered us in a way that normal books did not. At key plot points, the reader got to make decisions that actually changed the course of the story. For example: “If you make a hasty retreat to your car, [upon being attacked by a bunch of monkeys] turn to page 29.” Alternatively, “If you decide that the chimpanzees are not as dangerous as they look and rush to give aid to the man, turn to page 3.” Many of us simply could not choose, or chose both, and so we read them twice, or thrice, or we simply read all of the endings, or we read the whole book with our fingers placed at various points so we could backtrack and try again if things didn’t go as hoped. For a lot of us, growing up as we did in our early-computer existences (remember Atari?), this was our first dose of “interactivity.”
That doesn’t mean that the era of the Choose Your Own Adventure has ended, even if it is some 30 years (egad) after the original series began.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire.
Libros adictivos esos… Interactividad primitiva y entrete!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m46pyq1dXZ1qcokc4o1_500.png)
Choosing Our Own Adventures, Then and Now
If you were a kid during the ’80s and read any books at all, you probably read at least one Choose Your Own Adventure, probably by either R.A. Montgomery or Edward Packard. And if you read one, you read more than one. They were addictive, candy for our brains, but also, they empowered us in a way that normal books did not. At key plot points, the reader got to make decisions that actually changed the course of the story. For example: “If you make a hasty retreat to your car, [upon being attacked by a bunch of monkeys] turn to page 29.” Alternatively, “If you decide that the chimpanzees are not as dangerous as they look and rush to give aid to the man, turn to page 3.” Many of us simply could not choose, or chose both, and so we read them twice, or thrice, or we simply read all of the endings, or we read the whole book with our fingers placed at various points so we could backtrack and try again if things didn’t go as hoped. For a lot of us, growing up as we did in our early-computer existences (remember Atari?), this was our first dose of “interactivity.”
That doesn’t mean that the era of the Choose Your Own Adventure has ended, even if it is some 30 years (egad) after the original series began.
Libros adictivos esos… Interactividad primitiva y entrete!
![theatlantic:
Yes, America, We Have Executed an Innocent Man
At 11 p.m Monday, the Columbia University Human Rights Review published and posted its Spring 2012 issue — devoted entirely to a single piece of work about the life and death of two troubled and troublesome South Texas men. In explaining to their readers why an entire issue would be devoted to just one story, the editors of the Review said straightly that the “gravity of the subject matter of the Article and the possible far-reaching policy ramifications of its publication necessitated this decision.” […]
The Review article is an astonishing blend of narrative journalism, legal research, and gumshoe detective work. And it ought to end all reasonable debate in this country about whether an innocent man or woman has yet been executed in America since the modern capital punishment regime was recognized by the Supreme Court in 1976. The article is also a clear and powerful retort to Justice Scalia in Kansas v. Marsh: Our capital cases don’t have nearly the procedural safeguards he wants to pretend they do.
Read more. [Image: Corpus Christi Police Department]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m42illHuOP1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
![theatlantic:
Guy in Charge of Economy Has No Idea Why It’s Getting Better
Fed Chief Ben Bernanke is dumbstruck by the decline of the U.S. unemployment rate in recent months, and can’t explain why it’s happening.
At a Monday meeting of economists and academics, Bernanke said the drop in the unemployment rate from 9 percent to 8.3 percent was “out of sync” and a “puzzle” given that GDP growth hasn’t changed much during the same time period. ”The improvement in the labor market over the past year — especially the decline in the unemployment rate — has been faster than might have been expected, given that the economy during that time appears to have grown at a relatively modest pace,” he told the National Association for Business Economics. “The combination of relatively modest GDP growth with the more substantial improvement in the labor market over the past year is something of a puzzle.”
Far from suggesting incompetence, it’s actually pretty refreshing to hear the head of the U.S. central bank admit he doesn’t know what’s happening with the economy—an admission that stands in stark contrast to an election season where every candidate knows exactly what’s going on with this $14 trillion behemoth and exactly how to fix it.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: Reuters]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1i5ztrkoI1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
