Back in the Hall
No one made sketch comedy, that most Canadian of comic forms, like the Kids in the Hall — which makes their return to television a big deal
Google Android: on Inevitability, the Dawn of Mobile, and the Missing Leg
If for no other reason than the “Anyone but Apple” crowd NEEDS an alternative, there is an “inevitability” meme associated with Google’s Android initiative. After all, Google is formidable, has a strong brand, and their (relative) openness is the “zig” to Apple’s proprietary “zag.” And of course, mobile is strategic to Google’s future, so they can be expected to compete vigorously for market and mind share (via Android) over the long haul. But, do those ingredients combine into a recipe that makes their success in the market inevitable? Over a year after Android’s launch, I have to say that the jury is still out.
Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy
Erik Prince, recently outed as a participant in a C.I.A. assassination program, has gained notoriety as head of the military-contracting juggernaut Blackwater, a company dogged by a grand-jury investigation, bribery accusations, and the voluntary-manslaughter trial of five ex-employees, set for next month. Lashing back at his critics, the wealthy former navy seal takes the author inside his operation in the U.S. and Afghanistan, revealing the role he’s been playing in America’s war on terror.
The Ferality Show
This was the decade when the bottom fell out of just about everything — including the idea of authority itself. Is it any wonder that we all started screaming at one another?
Testing, Testing
The health-care bill has no master plan for curbing costs. Is that a bad thing?
The Post-Imperial Presidency
Even as Obama increases troop levels, he is scaling back American foreign policy.
Requiem for the Dollar
Dead Men Walking
Why 2009’s truly top thinkers are yesterday’s news.
The Charms of Wikipedia
The first thing I did on Wikipedia (under the username Wageless) was to make some not-very-good edits to the page on bovine somatotropin. I clicked the “edit this page” tab, and immediately had an odd, almost lightheaded feeling, as if I had passed through the looking glass and was being allowed to fiddle with some huge engine or delicate piece of biomedical equipment. It seemed much too easy to do damage; you ask, Why don’t the words resist me more? Soon, though, you get used to it. You recall the central Wikipedian directive: “Be Bold.” You start to like life on the inside.
The Way of the Sniper
What Scott Tyler does, and does well, is something that is essential in every war we’re fighting. And that is: eliminate important targets, sometimes from extraordinary distances, without anybody knowing he was ever there.
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