Tag Archives: society

(Cough, Herd)

Posted on July 30, 2019 by

If past experience (cough, blogs) is any indication, a shakeout is nigh. (Jennifer Miller, “Have We Hit Peak Podcast?” NYTimes, 7-18-19) A bigger shakeout than podcasting (cough, climate change) is nigh. I’m reminded of a New Yorker cartoon in which … Continue reading →

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“The Skill of Deep Watching”

Posted on March 10, 2019 by

This essay by Salvatore Scibona, a novelist, speaks to me for its call to transcend the outrage bait, the incitements to be condemnatory, to which we are exposed in so much discourse. His reviving of a more “capacious” meaning of … Continue reading →

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“Moral Multiplier”

Posted on February 18, 2019 by

… The effects of individual lifestyle choices are ultimately trivial compared with what politics can achieve… Buying an electric car is a drop in the bucket compared with raising fuel-efficiency standards sharply… That is what is meant when politics is … Continue reading →

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“One Hospital, One Neighborhood, One City”

Posted on February 15, 2019 by

Temple University Hospital [in Philadelphia] treated 481 patients with gunshot wounds last year, and 97 died. In this one hospital in one neighborhood in one city. As a country, we lost nearly 40,000 lives to guns in 2017. (Eric Curran … Continue reading →

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Australian Bub Sledging

Posted on February 9, 2019 by

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/07/voting-in-cute-baby-competition-halted-after-parents-slam-hideous-rivals Public voting in an Australian clothing company’s baby pageant competition has been cancelled because of out-of-control parents sledging the appearances of other parents’ infants. (c) 2019 JMN.

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“All important problems are insoluble”

Posted on February 9, 2019 by

nyti.ms/2UPbVSf [Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. in his 1949 book “The Vital Center”] himself acknowledged that the center could never occupy a fixed location, and that it would continue to adapt to new challenges; “all important problems are insoluble,” he wrote. … Continue reading →

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Opinion | Warning! Everything Is Going Deep: ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ – The New York Times

Posted on January 30, 2019 by

Deep learning, deep insights, deep artificial minds — the list goes on and on. But with unprecedented promise comes some unprecedented peril. — Read on http://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/opinion/artificial-intelligence-surveillance.html … Deep trust and deep loyalty cannot be forged overnight. They take time. That’s … Continue reading →

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