Steinn Sigurðsson points out that the New York Times‘ ridiculous pay-only access to its op-ed content is now free to University students and faculty. Despite claims by Brits to the contrary (and despite a series of newsgathering mishaps over the last few years), the NY Times remains the newspaper of record even outside of the US. Moreover, my new access led me to discover that our newest graduate student is co-writing an astronomy blog for them!