Published: The Good Men Project (February 13, 2016) First, I just want to add that I'm a big fan of Film Brain, the British movie critic whose web series "Bad Movie Beatdown" manages to intelligently deconstruct some of the worst motion pictures ever made. Since our...
The real power behind the rise of tech in the Iowa caucus
Feb 1, 2016 | Elections, Elections - Presidential (2016), Internet Culture, Science and Technology
Published: The Daily Dot (February 1, 2016) Regardless of which candidates triumph in the Iowa caucuses today, there is one winner whose victory no one will be able to dispute—digital technology. To understand how the Internet has fundamentally transformed the Iowa...
Technology should help, not hurt the workforce
Jan 21, 2016 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, Science and Technology
Published: The Daily Dot (January 21, 2016) Calling the recent boom in digital technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology the “fourth industrial revolution,” the World Economic Forum, determined that by 2020—just a few years from now—as many as...
Anyone else worried about snowless December?
Dec 26, 2015 | Climate Change and Other Environmental Issues, Science and Technology
Published: The Good Men Project (December 26, 2015) I've lived in Pennsylvania for 18 years and, despite the state's frosty winter reputation, this is the first time I've ever witnessed a snowless December. My personal observations aside, this has been a big month for...
Before “Steve Jobs,” there was “Pirates of Silicon Valley”: What a made-for-tv movie got right that Aaron Sorkin didn’t
Oct 26, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Science and Technology
Published: Salon (October 26, 2015) As the new biopic “Steve Jobs” continues to receive rave reviews, it seems appropriate to stop and take a look at its predecessor — the “Citizen Kane” of made-for-TV movies, “Pirates of Silicon Valley.” I’m not simply comparing...
We were promised hoverboards: Of course “Back to the Future II” got 2015 mostly wrong — here’s why
Oct 19, 2015 | Arts and Entertainment, Science and Technology
Published: Salon (October 19, 2015) Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Wednesday is October 21, 2015 – the date visited by Marty McFly in the time-traveling DeLorean 26 years ago in “Back to the Future: Part II” – and we do not have hoverboards. I repeat,...
How Bernie Sanders is spending $1 trillion to fix America’s Internet problem
Oct 13, 2015 | Class Issues, Economic Policy, Elections - Presidential (2016), Science and Technology
Published: The Daily Dot (October 13, 2015) On last Sunday’s Meet the Press, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) found himself in a familiar position—namely, defending his $1 trillion economic plan. Sanders’ program, known in the Senate as...
The worst thing about Uber’s predatory surge pricing is that everyone is doing it
Oct 6, 2015 | Plutocracy, Science and Technology
Published: The Daily Dot (October 6, 2015) Since early 2012, the mobile company Uber—a ridesharing app that helps consumers request cabs and other transportation services with their smartphones—has employed a form of price gouging known as “surge pricing.” The...
Can IQ Tests Make Misogynists’ Dreams Come True?
Oct 4, 2015 | Gender and Sexism, Science and Technology
Published: The Good Men Project (October 4, 2015) In a recent editorial for Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos is pushing for the argument that “the smartest people in the world are all men.” To support this claim, Yiannopoulos is relying on that old staple for...
Oliver Sacks’ brilliant & essential lesson: What the legendary science writer taught us about politics & the human mind
Aug 31, 2015 | Mental Illness, Salon.com, Science and Technology
Published: Salon (August 31, 2015) “We normals — aided, doubtless, by our wish to be fooled, were indeed well and truly fooled… And so cunningly was deceptive word-use combined with deceptive tone, that only the brain-damaged remained intact, undeceived. So wrote...