On Friday last week, a Q&A appeared on The New York Times website between journalist James Estrin and photographer Ami Vitale. The story pertains to the now widely recognized hashtag campaign #BringBackOurGirls, meant to raise awareness and perhaps pressure officials in our own countries to do everything possible to rescue nearly 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamic terrorists in Nigeria. At ...
WARNING: There be spoilers here! Despite the bad reviews, I had to go see the film Transcendence last weekend. Given that its plot is based on certain theories pertaining to the technological singularity, how could I not go see it? Indeed, it was very much not a good movie, and although film criticism is outside the editorial scope of this ...
More than a decade ago, a book editor managing her own imprint at one of the big publishing houses gave me some insight into her world that I’ll never forget. “I have to publish about five diet books,” she told me, “in order to invest in one new novelist.” It’s important to understand that this is not a comment on ...
Rules are meant to be broken. It’s not a bad aphorism inasmuch as it contains the spirit of innovation that leads to things like democratic republics in favor of monarchies, cures for horrendous diseases, brilliant works of art, and…yes…iPods. Of course, as the better English teachers used to say about grammar, it’s okay and even necessary to the task of ...
“You won’t know who to trust . . .” It’s a familiar refrain in any number of thrillers in which protagonists find themselves entangled in webs of overlapping conspiracies. You think you have a position, an ideology, and allies; and it turns out you’re being played by a powerful manipulator pulling strings on both sides of the battle. The lines ...
