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Debates

Texts and Tweets: On the Rules of the Game
8 years ago

Texts and Tweets: On the Rules of the Game

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Why is there Twitter? One generic answer concerns SMS protocol: Twitter takes text messages (including the 140-character limit designed three decades ago by Friedrich Hillebrand to permit cell carriers to …
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Gay Essentialism in a Eugenic Age
8 years ago

Gay Essentialism in a Eugenic Age

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The search for a gay gene has intensified since the publication in the early 90’s of the now famous research by Simon LeVay and Dean Hamer. Their findings were reconfirmed …
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By Sea and by Land: European Migration Routes
8 years ago

By Sea and by Land: European Migration Routes

The situation is fluid and rapidly changing, information is not easily available through official news agencies (which, in and of itself, is remarkable), but it appears that the formidable migratory …
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And God Said
8 years ago

And God Said

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PREFATORY NOTE

A few years ago I wrote a series of short lyrical mediations about objects that appeared in a collection called The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday …
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The Dehumanization of the Enemy
8 years ago

The Dehumanization of the Enemy

THE WORLD TODAY appears divided into two opposing camps: the realm of Good and the empire of Evil, the free world against the world of slavery, “crusaders” vs. “martyrs.” Yet, …
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Chernobyl as an Event: Thirty Years After
8 years ago

Chernobyl as an Event: Thirty Years After

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THERE ARE THOSE EXCEPTIONAL INSTANCES, in which a date or a place stands for a particular event that happened then and there. “9/11” and “Chernobyl” symbolize in a recognizable shorthand …
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Social Media and the Lack of Consent
8 years ago

Social Media and the Lack of Consent

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SOCIAL MEDIA SUCH AS FACEBOOK, Snapchat, and Tinder were invented as part of a culture that objectifies and denigrates girls and women. It is well known that the Facebook founder …
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In Praise of Suicide
8 years ago

In Praise of Suicide

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WE SEEK FREEDOM. Is this not the rallying cry of American democracy, endlessly repeated, endlessly intoned as its most durable credo? We seek freedom to do as we want without …
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Inside Out
8 years ago

Inside Out

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THE BODY IS NOTHING but the outside: skin exposed, a network of sentient receivers and transmitters. All outside and nothing like “me” that would be held inside that wrapping. There …
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Brexit: The Importance of Being Able to Leave
8 years ago

Brexit: The Importance of Being Able to Leave

EVERYTHING THAT PRECEDED the announcement of a referendum on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the European Union was a political absurdity — demagoguery, irresponsibility, shameful concessions ­— with …
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