Mike Daisey is doing something very different in the world of theatre: a 29-night monologue, which will clock in at 44 hours of performance. Mike says that every night of All the Faces of the Moon will be a stand-alone piece, to which anyone could “walk in cold at any point and have a very satisfying evening,” but that experiencing every night’s monologue will expose a fully realized story. Now, I’m amazed at the pure chutzpah and daring of this... Read more
Last year, I made a little photo montage video as a gift for my wife on our fifth anniversary. Today is our sixth, and I have her permission to share it with you now, one year later. I’m not posting it because I think it’s amazing, but I don’t often enough tell the universe how much she means to me. So this is one way of doing that. Read more
Stephen Fry says Russia’s treatment of gays and lesbians must have international consequences. In an eloquent and moving post, he declares: An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world. Meanwhile, Obama is asked about a potential boycott by the U.S., and he responds: We’ve got a bunch of Americans... Read more
Amazon, Kobo, and Sony are lobbying the FCC not to consider e-readers as the same product category as tablets and other computers, in order to be exempt from certain disability-related regulations. From The Verge, “[A]s it would detract from the core experience and push up the price.” To further enhance its argument, the coalition says many Americans are now choosing to own both a tablet and an e-reader and that the differences between them are widely understood. I’m not so... Read more
Horace Dediu compares popular perceptions of Apple and Amazon: Whereas Apple is perpetually given an expected lifespan of less than a decade, Amazon is expected to have an indefinite lifespan. This is because Amazon is seen as having no competition and Apple is seen as having infinite competition. In other words, Amazon is perceived as a monopoly and Apple is perceived as the innovator that is in a permanent state of being disrupted by the low end. I think these... Read more
Earlier this week, the first out-of-beta, “official” first episode of the Obcast went up, a conversation with my friend, performer Gia Mora. I have to tell you, I had no idea that she and her work were so close to my work in so many ways. Gia’s been deeply involved in science communication and skepticism, and incorporating that into her stage and performance work, with more on the way. I hope the folks in the skepto-atheist community catch wind... Read more
In a previous post, I mentioned how Emily Hauser directed me to a revelatory article on introversion by Jonathan Rauch. One of the things I like about that piece is that it says to the planet-dominating extroverts, hey guys, it simply can't just be about you. We have to figure out how we're all going to be okay together (and in the Rauch piece, specifically it was about how intros and extros can get along in a relationship). Read more
I am in no way qualified, and in no way inclined, to judge between the arguments over the existence or nonexistence of free will. Let me just get that out there. I’m not smar enough, nor am I at all trained in philosophy or neuroscience. But this is the Internet, where that kind of thing, I am told, doesn’t matter. Anyway, I am a fan of the work of Sam Harris, but I certainly found his book Free Will his... Read more
Wow! The new Nexus 7 has a Retina-level screen AND gets nine hours of battery life! What’s your excuse, Apple? Oh. In my test, the new Nexus 7’s battery life was underwhelming. Compared with the same battery test of the iPad Mini and first Nexus 7, it fell short at just six hours; the others clocked in at 10 hours and 27 minutes and 10 hours and 44 minutes, respectively. That’s Katherine Boehret at WSJ. So where did the nine-hour... Read more
Philosopher Gary Gutting at the New York Times, I think, might be trolling us. Why? He is using his platform at the Times to argue for the possibility of the existence of…wait for it…Zeus. Reminiscing about this recently, I asked the kids if they had thought that Zeus was real. “Well,” one said, “I knew he didn’t exist anymore, but figured that he did back in ancient Greece.” This set me thinking about why we are so certain that Zeus never existed. Of course, we... Read more
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