From an early age, my life’s goal was to get at “the truth.” There were only two obvious career paths: Science, or investigative journalism. I went the first route, becoming an academic researcher. Proud of the path I chose, and always admiring the other one.
Image credit: DepositphotosIn 2025 it’s hard to argue that social media are not to blame for much antisocial and suicidal behavior among preteens and teens (e.g., Orben and Matias 2025). The harms of online bullying, deepfake nudes, and fringe conspiracies, all present on social media, were exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, years in which young people were buried in their screens.
Darn right, we are. Though not in the way argued for or against by my fellow Science2.0 bloggers.
What are sustainable cities, and can we build them? I put my Institute Fellows’ decades of experience together with the content of this fine conference, and conclude: (1) A sustainable city will attend equally to innovation, to human opportunity and dignity, and to the Earth. (2) Cities are not yet doing that. (3) There are obstacles.
By 1980 few could doubt that something important was happening in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stanford University Provost Frederick Terman, who believed “the business of engineering is business,” had graduated two students, Hewlett and Packard, who started a company we all know.
The book is author Alex Hannaford’s lament about changes in Austin, Texas, since his initial visit to the city in 1999. This at first spurred your reviewer, who moved to Austin in 1969, to think, “1999? Well, isn’t that just too precious?”
(Image by Henry Reich) One thing, singular. Two or more things, plural.
Subjects must agree with verbs in number: It is, they are.
For convenience, let’s say it started with Photoshop. That program made it obvious not only that we couldn’t believe our eyes any more, but that photographic evidence could no longer be admissible in court. Socioeconomic implications were even wider, as new industries popped up with products purporting to tell unretouched photos from photoshopped ones. (And the trademarked noun gave rise to a verb!)
This column deals with political opposition, resistance, and the
future of the nation. It dissects the Trump-Musk financial bromance and
the role of VP Vance. Bear with me to its end, then please comment pro,
con, or in between.
Shadow action
Our outrage over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is due to our
preference for democracy over autocracy, and to the danger of Russia
pushing further westward into Europe. Perhaps most of all, we abhor the
idea of one country violating the borders of another one.
1. January 6 was a shocking aberration.
2. Whether due to term limit or a lost election, each US
president up through Barak Obama, and each presidential candidate up
through Al Gore, gracefully yielded when the time came, because that’s
how the American system works.
Sarah Green Carmichael, in a Bloomberg News item titled “You don’t need more resilience, you need friends, and money” debunks the business gurus who tell us all resilience comes from inside us. Sarah’s thesis is that our environments determine our resilience, or at least can shield us from the traumas that necessitate resilience.
A job interview, some years back, at No Name University (NNU). I was the candidate. The diversity question, pitched right on schedule. The surprise was who asked it. Of the seven search committee members (plus the search firm rep) only one was a person of color, and guess who they stuck with asking the diversity question? A clear signal I would not want to work at their institution, but I gave it my best game anyway.
