The New York Times published a devastating and detailed piece on decades of sexual advances by powerful movie producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein responded with a strange statement about taking a leave from his movie company to take on the NRA and President Trump. Weinstein’s statement is bizarrely sensible — but only if you believe, in…
In the wake of emotion comes an assault on the truth. Here are a few of the questionable or false things that surfaced in surprisingly authoritative places in the last week. The Las Vegas shooter was a liberal activist . . . except that he wasn’t. According to top search results on Google, Stephen Paddock,…
Words With Friends has just added 50,000 new pop-culture words. This is horrifying. According to the AP: WORDS WITH FRIENDS ADDS 50,000 POP CULTURE WORDS by Mark Kennedy, AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER NEW YORK (AP) — Tell your bae or your bestie: The mobile game Words With Friends is adding thousands of pop culture words as part…
You know everything there is to know about how Donald Trump thinks and acts. You want your government to be transparent? You got it. His every utterance get blanket coverage on cable from MSNBC to Fox News, and everything between. We have Politico, Talking Points Memo, and Breitbart dissecting his burps and asides, magnified by…
Robert Scoble had predicted the next iPhone would be focused on augmented reality (AR) and transparent, like a piece of glass. It wasn’t. But his description of why he was wrong is revealing, both about Scoble and about the future of both AR and iPhones. I’m a little deeper into this story than most people reading…
Martin Merzer spent over 40 years reporting from places like Jerusalem, Iraq, and Afghanistan — and hurricanes in Miami. As I read the note he shared with reporters preparing to report on hurricanes, I was struck by how relevant it is for anyone writing in a crisis — and these days, it seems we’re always…
Investor Shervin Pishevar wrote a letter defending his friend, former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, as investors attempted to eject him from Uber’s board of directors. It’s the most florid business communication you’ll ever see. In a moment of passion, you may be tempted to write like this. Don’t — it’ll come back to haunt you….
Here are a few words on what it feels to successfully create art, and why we can never really understand it. This weekend I attended “The Fabrication of Imagination,” a show put on by the Arts League of Lowell, Massachusetts. The people there were fascinating. I met Judith Wombwell, an artist originally trained as a choreographer…
Hurricane Harvey looks like a devastating storm. But with the media deploying superlatives so frequently, is there any capacity for alarm left for this actual emergency? I analyze the lead hurricane article from The Weather Channel for precision, clarity, and effectiveness. The lesson here: context is crucial when describing a potential disaster. Start with this:…