CategoryAnti-Tech

Posted May 16, 2017 Anti-Tech

Riverboat Sam: “Our President is Singing Like a Canary”

By Riverboat Sam, technical specialist/digital skeptic If brevity is the soul of wit, Twitter is the home of witlessness. The problem as it strikes a very old guy like me is … Continue Reading Riverboat Sam: “Our President is Singing Like a Canary”

Posted June 3, 2015 Anti-Tech

Putting the Internet in its Place

(By Hartsook Photo [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. “Mary Pickford writing at desk.”) By John Kaufman To celebrate the 200th post on this website, I thought I’d try to put … Continue Reading Putting the Internet in its Place

Posted May 11, 2015 Anti-Tech

Riverboat Sam: To “Blog” is to Vomit

By Riverboat Sam, The Pacific’s “technical specialist” I am not against the newfangled on principle; typewriting seemed to me a great improvement over my wayward handwriting and having the means I got … Continue Reading Riverboat Sam: To “Blog” is to Vomit

Posted November 20, 2014 Anti-Tech

“What We Must Preserve”

(This poem of mine first appeared in the last issue of Verse Wisconsin, Issue 113, in April 2014.) What We Must Preserve by John Kaufman To hear … Continue Reading “What We Must Preserve”

Posted September 30, 2014 Anti-Tech

Facebook, Twitter no match for Local Reality

No, “local reality” is not some new social media term. To find it, turn away from your screen. No app for real faces, real books and real birds. Or a … Continue Reading Facebook, Twitter no match for Local Reality

Posted January 21, 2014 Anti-Tech

How UW can go all D2P with QE1 and CO2 [Satire]

Rumor has it that the Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison is looking to fill three high profile positions in keeping with its new mission: “the ideas factory and innovation center for the … Continue Reading How UW can go all D2P with QE1 and CO2 [Satire]

Posted November 7, 2013 Anti-Tech

Of Blogging and Tweeting

I returned about a month ago to the digital domain, but in truth I am an ambivalent blogger, a teetering twitterer. I have started and stopped a number of blogs … Continue Reading Of Blogging and Tweeting

Posted October 31, 2013 Anti-Tech

Amazon warehouse jobs coming to Wisconsin: A closer look

An Amazon.com distribution center is apparently in the process of being approved for land just outside of Kenosha; it reportedly would create over 1,000 full-time jobs and 2,500 temporary or seasonal jobs. Most … Continue Reading Amazon warehouse jobs coming to Wisconsin: A closer look

The Nation

Keep the Blame Where It Belongs August 18, 2017

Leslie Savan In the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville, too many media outlets used headlines that implied that both sides were at fault. The post Keep the Blame Where It Belongs appeared first on The Nation.

Leslie Savan

The Stain Steve Bannon Put on Donald Trump’s Presidency Cannot Be Washed Away August 18, 2017

John Nichols The White House chief strategist has had a profound influence on Trump and, tragically for America, that influence will linger. The post The Stain Steve Bannon Put on Donald Trump’s Presidency Cannot Be Washed Away appeared first on The Nation.

John Nichols

Trump’s White House Is Turning a Blind Eye to White-Supremacist Terrorism August 18, 2017

David Neiwert Right-wing extremists are behind numerous incidents of domestic terror, but the government has opted to ignore the threat. The post Trump’s White House Is Turning a Blind Eye to White-Supremacist Terrorism appeared first on The Nation.

David Neiwert

NY Review of Books

Charlottesville: Why Jefferson Matters August 19, 2017

It was not necessarily Thomas Jefferson himself, but the ideas associated with him that mattered that night in Charlottesville, and warranted forming a protective barrier around his statue on the University of Virginia campus. I have no doubt that the people trying to keep the tiki torchers away from the statue know about the problematic aspects of Jefferson […]

Annette Gordon-Reed

In the Flower Garden of the Brain August 18, 2017

It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that brain structures began to be uncovered, by a Spanish microscopist called Santiago Ramón y Cajal. As an undergraduate in neuroscience and then medicine I was given Cajal’s drawings to study—they have a timeless elegance and enduring value for students. A new book, The Beautiful Brain, collects some of his fines […]

Gavin Francis

Loving the Vicious Race August 17, 2017

Even those with no interest in bike racing might try watching the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and the Vuelta a España, which starts on August 19, on television: they are the best possible travelogues, with aerial shots of three countries ravishingly beautiful in different ways, landscape of mountains and valleys, meadows and vineyards, castles, cathed […]

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Foreign Policy in Focus

Breaking America’s Cold War Addiction in Korea August 18, 2017

The same risk of nuclear miscalculation that haunted U.S.-Soviet relations still hovers over the Korean peninsula.

Suzy Kim

Please Don’t Bring Muslims Into Charlottesville August 18, 2017

From Barcelona to Charlottesville, there’s an obvious double standard in how Trump treats terrorism. But let’s be careful how we talk about it.

Domenica Ghanem

Mulligan in Afghanistan August 9, 2017

Trump applies the rules of his golf game to foreign policy.

John Feffer