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James Fallows

James Fallows - James Fallows is a national correspondent for The Atlantic and has written for the magazine since the late 1970s. He has reported extensively from outside the United States, and once worked as President Carter's chief speechwriter. His latest book, China Airborne, will be published in May.
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James Fallows is based in Washington as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He has worked for the magazine for nearly 30 years and in that time has also lived in Seattle, Berkeley, Austin, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, and Beijing. He was raised in Redlands, California, received his undergraduate degree in American history and literature from Harvard, and received a graduate degree in economics from Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. In addition to working for The Atlantic, he has spent two years as chief White House speechwriter for Jimmy Carter, two years as the editor of US News & World Report, and six months as a program designer at Microsoft. He is an instrument-rated private pilot. He is also now the chair in U.S. media at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, in Australia.

Fallows has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award five times and has won once; he has also won the American Book Award for nonfiction and a N.Y. Emmy award for the documentary series Doing Business in China. He was the founding chairman of the New America Foundation. His two most recent books, Blind Into Baghdad (2006) and Postcards From Tomorrow Square (2009), are based on his writings for The Atlantic; he is at work on another book about China. He is married to Deborah Fallows, author of the recent book Dreaming in Chinese. They have two married sons.

Fallows welcomes and frequently quotes from reader mail sent via the "Email" button below. Unless you specify otherwise, we consider any incoming mail available for possible quotation -- but not with the sender's real name unless you explicitly state that it may be used. If you are wondering why Fallows does not use a "Comments" field below his posts, please see previous explanations here and here.
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Security theater: now in improved, online version (updated x2)

By James Fallows

Jan 26 2009, 2:30 PM ET

Yesterday I mentioned the toy industry's patriotic attempt to build proper security consciousness into the kiddies. (I also like the detail that this was no doubt made in some factory in southern China, by workers who had yet another reason to marvel at the consumer tastes of their foreign customers. UPDATE: Who wudda thunk!? It turns out that Playmobil toys are mostly made in Europe, with only a few from China. Sorry for mistaken assumption.) Here, again, is the Playmobil item as offered on Amazon:

SecurityTheater.JPG


Thanks to many correspondents I learn that this item has been around for several years and has attracted a lot of customer reviews and comments. If you start with this one you'll get the idea. BONUS UPDATE: The last word that need ever be said about the Playmobil TSA set appears to have been said several years ago! By Daniel Solove here.

Also, and even more patriotic and heartening, I learn that there is an online Airport Security game! You play the role of a TSA screener, pulling prohibited items out of purses and backpacks -- and trying to keep up with changing lists of what's allowed and what's taboo.

AirportSecurityGame.jpg


Someday they'll put this stuff in museums about our era. (Thanks to Allen Knutson and Carl Malamud.)



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