Brave New World
It took a moment to grasp the misanthropic message of this bumper sticker, spotted in Cranston recently. When it fully registered, I was shocked. (Yes, that’s a stork off on the right, carrying a “bundle”.)
Though I didn’t quite know how to react at first – technically, isn’t an Apple store a public place? – this man’s actions were undoubtedly weird, if not creepy. The US Secret Service has raided the home of an artist who collected images from webcams in a New York Apple store. Kyle McDonald is said…
In an essay that is, unfortunately, behind a subscriber wall, Rob Long casts Charlie Sheen as the harbinger of the entertainment industry’s Internet doom: … Charlie Sheen is the living embodiment of what everyone in Hollywood fears. Leaving aside, for a moment, the creepy prurience of his 2 mil1lion Twitter followers, or the death-watch quality…
Now here’s a wrong way to address the complexities of society in the Information Age: Under the legislation students could still carry phones in school, but they couldn’t use them during school hours, including study hall and lunch. A first offense results in a warning. A second violation would lead to administrators confiscating the phone…
Well, this really isn’t a surprise: Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data. Google and Apple are gathering location information as part of…
As a carpenter, I’m very aware of the risks that materials and labor present. Asbestos, lead, mold, on the one hand; falls, sprains, cuts, on the other. Not surprisingly, as a new media blogger type, I’ve also been concerned about this sort of thing: “All this information is done in short, quick bursts,” [Tom Kersting,…
From Friday’s Washington Times via the Daily Caller. As a public service, British researchers are proposing that fast-food eateries dole out complimentary cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to offset the hazardous glories of their fatty cuisines. “When people engage in risky behaviors like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take measures that minimize their risk, like wearing…
This is the sort of thing about which all Americans should strive to be aware: Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S. authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the…
I have to say that the name of Angus Davis’s new social networking site seems predestined for irony: Backed by $8.5 million in early-stage funding, Swipely.com is a social networking site that allows consumers to share and rate their everyday purchases. Got a great deal on a pair of jeans? You can post news of…
People don’t like the idea of human cloning, and large constituencies aren’t comforted by proposals that would require scientists to kill the humans whom they create through that process. Fr. Nicanor Austriaco notes that the supposedly pro-life Congressman Jim Langevin has come across a curious means of skirting objections: The proposed legislation permits cloning-to-kill by…
