A new Louisiana law demands that school classrooms and state-funded universities display the biblical Ten Commandments on a poster-sized display in a “large, easily readable font” in every classroom by next year. Is this a violation of the Constitution? And more interestingly, do the Ten Commandments reflect values we want to uphold as Americans? Of course…
Social media is addictive and harmful to children. There’s plenty of evidence for that. As a result, surgeon general Vivek Murthy has recommended that Congress require a warning label on social media. Let’s be real. A warning label would do little. The problem’s in the algorithms. And that’s where the solutions, if any should come…
You already know what you think today. There’s no point in my attempting to share some witty insight. And there’s no point in competing with news this pervasive. Talk amongst yourselves. See you Monday.
A new politics arises from the ashes of the American disaster, AI proponents and doomsayers wrestle, books as chatbots, plus three people to follow, three books to read, and a chance to see me debate at Berkeley. The inspirational rise of the muscular middle I’ve freakin’ had it with the American political system. It’s time…
Newsletter 26: Incumbent vs. incumbent, writing better than machines, Amazon under fire, three people to follow, three books to read, and the gathering of the ghosts. The easiest election choice ever We are about to enter the extended, loud, contentious, and tedious US presidential election season. In some election years this is a difficult choice….
Newsletter 24: Why Claudine Gay had to go, a Mickey Mouse horror film, Tolkien’s victorious ghost, plus three people to follow, three books to read, and how to successfully write your book in 2024. Reflections on the plagiarism that brought down Harvard president Claudine Gay Harvard president Claudine Gay has now resigned. She made the…
I was fascinated to read how silliness and puns energized the people of Somerville, Massachusetts to solve a common problem — and it made me wonder about whether home-grown humor could to save the world from everything else that threatens it. A grate idea in Somerville Here’s Boston Globe writer Steve Annear on how Somerville…
Amanda Gorman composed her poem The Hill We Climb for Joe Biden’s inauguration. Now, based on one feckless parent’s complaint, an elementary school in Miami has removed it so children can no longer access it without a parent’s permission. Here’s the whole poem; judge for yourself. Is this text going to corrupt young people? I’ve…
Logline: When a band of smart thieves successfully steals a $1 trillion coin minted by the US government, they hold the country hostage in a daring game of cat-and-mouse. Opening Scene: We see the interior of the US Treasury building in Washington D.C. – an ornate and imposing structure filled with busy bureaucrats and security…