Category Archives: Institutional Conformity

Justus Rosenberg on rescuing victims of the Nazis

Justus Rosenberg was the youngest member of the team led by Varian Fry that rescued some of Europe's most famous artists, writers, and intellectuals who had taken refuge in France prior to the Nazi occupation.
I studied linguistics under Dr. Rosenberg at The New School in the Fall of 2008. This video tell his story from the 1940's, and in the post I tell a little story shared between us that fall.

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Health Care Reform: It is a Lie

Yep it’s a lie. After the summer of discontent, and the President’s speech last night (with its heckling) I’ve written up my thoughts on the current health care debate.

I wish we were talking about the issues that would actually solve the problem and stop all the lies. But then again, it’s not really about health care, right?

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Agenda for America

Agenda for America: After Quantanamo lets make Jet travel safe again.

The LAT reported that 208 passengers have been convicted of felony terrorist activity under the Patriot Act over the past few years, often for raising their voices to Flight Attendants.

I’m surprised the number isn’t in the thousands...

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Don’t jump to conclusions…

It’s human nature; we find the quickest way to apply a map to a simple fact and extrapolate from it grand conclusions. The biologists say it’s evolutionary. It’s hard wired in us, they say, and it’s part of what makes us greater than the apes.

“We are in an ontological pickle” a friend told me recently, and she was right.

To deal with this I suggest a “Rule of Three”, but be careful that you don't eat the pickle along the way...

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Old media brands are the answer to the “cesspool”? Naw…

Buzzing around the web has been the story that Google CEO Eric Schmidt called the internet a “Cesspool”. Cnet reported that “the Internet is a "cesspool" where false information thrives...Schmidt gave the magazine publishers hope for their future. Brands, he said, are the way to rise above the cesspool”

Really? Old media is the answer?

Looking to the mainstream media brands as a model of fair and accurate reporting is like looking for a pacifist at a prizefight. Here's why...

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The conformity of non-uniformity – Our day at the Apple store

After having someone's phone number ported to our iPhone, and spending the night getting it fixed, we think about the homogeneity of the rebellious Apple store employee

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