A few years ago, I did something kind of odd. I talked to prostitutes to see if I could learn why they would try to take money from people for sex. I just couldn't understand why anyone would treat someone else like that. It really baffled me. And so, every once… Read full post »

Over the last several decades, a new idea about freedom has, slowly, eroded our beliefs about what freedom really means. Politicians, business leaders, economists, and even scholars, have been telling us that the one true freedom — the freedom that can safely replace all those older notions abo… Read full post »

If you aren't doing anything wrong, then what do you have to hide from us?

And, if I'm not doing anything wrong, then why am I under surveillance?

Or, what if privacy and surveillance don't have much to do with wrongdoing at all?

What if… Read full post »

When I was in high school, sex-ed was an elective class which, unfortunately, didn't cover the things students most wanted to know about, like interesting sex positions. It did, however, cover the other basics, like hygiene, what contraceptives and prophylactics were, and how pregnancy occurred. We d… Read full post »

Perhaps you woke up to an acne-creme commercial shouting at you on your clock radio. If not, it was probably something similar to that. It seems like almost half of radio is advertising.

Maybe, after you woke up, you thought you'd catch some news on the morning show. There's a… Read full post »

Telecommunications companies want you to believe that their wireless gadgets make you better connected and more in-touch.

But do they?

Yes, you can talk, or send text messages, to the people you aren't with whenever you want with these gizmos, but this requires you to choose between… Read full post »

I've always had a thing for the natural sciences. You see, when I was a kid, I was something of a bookworm. Okay, I still am, sort of, but back then I had lots of time to read, and play, and do all that other childish stuff that we should all… Read full post »

So, was anyone surprised that the FDA told us cloned livestock is okay to eat because, "it is beyond our imagination to even find a theory that would cause the food to be unsafe," on the very same day they also pointed out that, "currently, it is not possible to draw… Read full post »

How can you think without numbers?

This might seem like an odd question to some of you, but in business school it was a rhetorical question. The people who asked it didn't offer, and never expected to hear, an answer. To them, the notion of thinking without mathematics was… Read full post »

Imagine a society where everything you use contains a radio tag. Your clothing, food containers, toiletries, credit cards, and identity cards have tiny transmitters embedded in them that broadcast information to receivers built into floors, walls, desks, computers, cabinets, or lamp posts. Your phone… Read full post »

Depressed consumers give more than $10 billion a year to drug companies, hoping that corporate chemists really have found a cure for the melancholy that afflicts them. But even our psychiatrists' certainty that chemical imbalances trigger depression has begun to waver. After all, the doctors of the c… Read full post »

I'm sure you've noticed how poorly the American political system represents its citizens' interests. Bluntly put, our government is broken. But I could never figure out exactly why it didn't work right until I witnessed an election for the student-government's presidency in my first year at a univers… Read full post »

My video player reboots itself three times a day. And it won't record anything on tape if an optical disk is in its other drive, even though the 79-page owner's manual says it will. I'd replace it, but it is a replacement. The first two I bought were even buggier.… Read full post »

The founders of the U.S. guaranteed citizens certain protections against the most powerful institutions of their time. It was an afterthought, but it was a valuable one. And while they prevented governments and religious institutions from colluding with one another, and forbade governments from viola… Read full post »

A few months ago, I went to see my school’s career counselor, a former human resources manager, who told me that I needed to prepare an “elevator speech.” This, she said, is a 20-second characterization of who I am and what I do. I expressed some doubts that anyone could really… Read full post »

Just the other day, I finally got sick of the way the computing industry was treating me and decided to "opt-out" of the market.

You didn't think that was possible, did you? Corporations like Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe don't like to talk about it much, but it turns out that… Read full post »