Early TV and Human Performance
"The luminous screen in the home carries fantastic authority," radio and TV historian Erik Barnouw writes. "Viewers everywhere tend to accept it as a window on the world... It has tended to displace or overwhelm other influences such as newspapers,…
UFOlogy: It’s Weather Balloons All the Way Down
We're constantly being treated to new or newly reexamined evidence of UFOs–now called UAPs–and the Pentagon's commitment to taking them seriously has accompanied additional (contentious) evidence such as video and FOIA documents floating around the…
State Laws on Crypto Campaign Money
My friend says that the recent crash in crypto is the result of its being treated too much as a hot commodity and not enough as a tool of liberation. "It was never meant to be just another financial choice," she says, "not just a scam like an…
Cooperation and Deception in the Hail HYDRA Game
Cooperative board and card games have come a long way, and the idea of collaboration is almost normal in gaming now. Marvel's Hail HYDRA Board Game is collaborative, but with a twist — there are traitors in the midst. Everyone is supposed to be on…
Problem: Semiconductor Supply Chains–Solution: Increase Trade with Taiwan
The U.S. has a semiconductor problem. There aren't enough being made, not enough being imported, just not enough. The White House has warned of "escalating vulnerabilities" from the shortage. But there's a solution: the U.S. could pursue a broad…
Mortgage Lenders, Interest Rates, and Data Management
From being underwater, shooting up faster than we can see it go, to being many kilometers above water: that's the best metaphor to describe the dramatic changes in the housing industry and mortgage rates over the last several months. COVID had…
Is Bad Data Better Than No Data?
TLDR: We should always be working to improve our specific data. But let’s keep in mind that the process itself builds our general knowledge of the world. And the real solution is to increase the number of people viewing and contemplating the data.…
Why Not Just Let Us Be Spaceships?
Sure, we manage your data, but what if that data were to gain consciousness? AI sentience scenarios are ubiquitous, but one important subset of them, sentient spacecraft, is worth considering more closely. Sentient spacecraft are now a staple — a…
The Impact of Animal Testing on the Environment
We often process information and advocacy about animal testing in “ethical” terms, but there are “utilitarian” reasons (or secondary harms) to consider even if one prioritizes the ethics. The Faunalytics website platformed a great 2014 study by a…
Military Space Tech Enables Commercial Internet in Space
Imagine waking up in a hotel room overlooking the moon. You eat breakfast in the hotel lobby, from which you can see Earth — a blue marble in the distance — and a space station compound in a geostationary position relative to both. You drink your…