• An AI image of "1940s Ladies Smoking a Cigar at the Cliffs of Moher"
    Analysis,  Articles,  Humanity

    On the New Nature of Reality

    Imagine coming across this picture on the internet: A person is viciously hitting an old lady, who is leaning back on her walker for support, face horrified. A stream of blood flows from her nose while the perpetrator gleefully mugs…

  • Desert Scene for Asteroid City
    Analysis,  Discussion,  Movies

    Wes Anderson on Lockdown

    Interpreting “Asteroid City” through the filter of the COVID Pandemic NOTE: This analysis discusses the film in depth, and therefore necessarily contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film, you might want to avoid this article. The descriptions will hopefully…

  • Read Between the Lines
    Articles,  Humanity,  Technology

    Quarantine Cyberterrorism

    A number of years ago, I was hired by an IT firm to help test their network defenses at a secure facility. I went on-site in plain clothes, sat in a public area, got on the public WiFi, and attempted…

  • Me by a Christmas tree with a drink, 1988
    Articles,  Personal

    Thirty Years in Florida

    Exactly thirty years ago today, on my 21st birthday, I arrived in Naples, Florida. Around 11 am the 15th of May, 1989, I took my Spanish Literature final at LSU. When everyone was done, our small class walked together to…

  • Sqzlflik Goats
    Humor

    Sqzlflik, the New Prescription Drug

    Do you ever get that feeling? You know. Yeah, that one. If so, you may need Sqzlflik. In people aged 22 years and 8 months to 73 years and 5 days, Sqzlflik has been shown to alleviate that feeling.  Some…

  • Brevity
    Articles

    Brevity

    In Hamlet, Polonius begins a speech with, “Since brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.”  Centuries later, an episode of the Simpsons (“Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington”) cleverly edits Shakespeare…

  • Closeup of the Moon
    Articles,  Humanity

    First, Mankind

    Last Sunday, I saw “First Man”,  a film about NASA’s run-up to the Apollo 11 moon landing. It’s told primarily through the eyes of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and his family. I was just over a year old when the…

  • Avocado Statue of Liberty
    Personal

    Bounty

    The moment we bought the land where we would build our house, I started preparing it for a garden. That was March, 1995. Since then, we’ve overcome various pest infestations, minor floods, severe drought, several tropical storms, and a pair…

  • Articles,  Personal

    The Morality of Eating

    After reading this article recommended by my brother Adam, we discussed whether all forms of eating are equally moral or immoral. Put another way, why do some consider eating a plant — a living thing — inherently more acceptable than eating…