History Lessons from the Toronto Mob Targeting a 19th-Century Gay Icon
Allan Stratton
· 15 min read
How D.B. Cooper and the Golden Age of Air Piracy Changed Aviation Fiction
Frank Sinatra's “Come Fly With Me” was the best-selling album in the United States for five weeks in 1958, but the irony of its popularity (or, perhaps, the source of its aspirational appeal) is that practically none of us could take up the offer to "glide,
Kevin Mims
· 33 min read
Flying Cars: What, How, When, and Why?
Even though electric and self-driving cars have yet to saturate the market, dozens of companies are at various stages of launching flying cars in a variety of models.
Randall Mayes
· 10 min read
High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism—A Review
A review of High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism by David S. Wills. Beatdom Books, 555 pages. (November 2021) I. In High White Notes, his riveting new biography of Hunter S. Thompson, journalist David S. Wills describes Thompson as America’s first rock star reporter and
Kevin Mims
· 26 min read
The Scout Mindset—A Review
A review of The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t by Julia Galef. Portfolio, 288 pages (April, 2021) Julia Galef’s The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't is a brisk introduction to a particular way of
Razib Khan
· 7 min read
Deliberately Divided—A Review
A Review of Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart by Nancy L. Segal. Rowman & Littlefield, 520 pages (November, 2021) When I first heard about the Louise Wise Services-Child Development Center (LWS-CDC) twin study, I was shocked but also skeptical. A doctor
Bo Winegard
· 8 min read
Machine Learning, Deep Fakes, and the Threat of an Artificially Intelligent Hate-Bot
Fake news isn’t new. More than a century ago, newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer helped stir up enthusiasm for war against Spain by hyping the dubious claim that Spanish agents had used explosives to sink the USS Maine in Havana Harbor. The cry of “Remember
James D. Miller
· 6 min read
A Perfect Storm: The Chocolate, Coffee, and Climate Crises
The major food staples are essential to human survival. Chocolate and coffee are not essential, but try to imagine a world without them. One of the numerous concerns with climate change is that many species will lose their habitats. Scientists are projecting that, in the coming decades, this could lead
Randall Mayes
· 10 min read
Does Christine Brown Deserve to Burn in Hell?
In the pitiless moral universe of writer-director Sam Raimi’s 2009 horror film ‘Drag Me to Hell,’ guilt isn’t easily absolved and debts must always be paid in the end.
Jamie Palmer
· 12 min read
‘It works! It works! It works!’: Jonas Salk and the Vaccine that Conquered Polio
Americans turned on their radios, department stores set up loudspeakers, and judges suspended trials so that everyone in the courtroom could hear what Francis was about to say.
Paul A. Offit
· 8 min read
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Meaning of Human Suffering
Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.
Samuel Kronen
· 27 min read
Vaccine Rejectionism and the Left
The coronavirus pandemic has caused massive backtracking and spin-doctoring among progressive parties over bioengineered vaccines.
Jon Entine, Patrick Whittle
· 17 min read
Autonomous Vehicles: Hype or Reality?
AVs are essentially robots with the same requirements as human-driven vehicles—driving and parking skills, the ability to communicate with other cars and the infrastructure, navigation skills, and access to a source of energy.
Randall Mayes
· 14 min read
The Exhibitionist Economy
Upcoming generations will not thank us for gifting them a world devoid of the concept of personal privacy.
Ari David Blaff
· 7 min read
Technology and the Golden Age of Taxonomy
After decades of experience, the sharpest naturalists in history may have been able to identify a few hundred species in the field.
Malcolm Cochran
· 6 min read