Society

Today on TAP: Exhibit A is the case of the EpiPen. It should cost a few dollars rather than the $600 or more charged by monopolist Viatris.

The fine for failing to yield is a $500 ticket. But lately, no one's been checking the images the bus cameras collect to catch violators.

Do you like reading articles in publications like Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal or the Economist, but can’t afford to pay what can be hundreds of dollars a year in subscriptions? If so, …

Social norms can be enforced formally or informally. That is, one can have either laws, or informal sanctions enforce by “mobs”. Both systems can discourage unwanted behaviors, and isolate unwanted people. So we usually face a choice: to discourage such things via law or via shunning (or both).

The rise of streaming services that pay music artists mere fractions of pennies for their work, will, I believe, take an even darker turn as AI-fueled technologies continue to converge, with no sense of moral balance, set to serve audiences with less and less aesthetic discernment.

The infamous cancelled-during-the-first-episode show, a lost-media legend, is on YouTube, which makes it the perfect time to analyze its legacy.

Unrealistic expectations and real-world problems like unwanted gifts and the temptation of “wishcycling” turned the trash jar from zero-waste influencer emblem to “elitist” cliché.

The bill would bolster expertise in territories as island communities face increasing threats from climate change.

This will be a long post. I'm going to discuss recent fedi 'drama', particularly around Stux/mstdn.social and Byron/Universeodon, to call...

We’ve written before about “Quiet Quitting,” a new name for an old phenomenon that started making the rounds in 2022, where employees commit to just doing

Some unfortunate news. AZ Central reported yesterday that James Larkin, who was a free speech pioneer who built an alt-weekly newspaper empire, and then spun out the controversial classifieds ads s…

Recently Wired had a pretty amazing cover article on the inside story on the DOJ’s legal war against Backpage that is superbly well-written and quite interesting. Wired found the perfect repo…

For years, it was the largest portal for sex on the internet. Now its fate could shape the future of Silicon Valley.

Shortly after 10 am on Saturday, July 29, Lake Forest Park unveiled its honorary street for Octavia Butler, a writer who spent the last seven years of her life in the city between Kenmore and Seattle's Lake City. Butler moved here from Southern California in 1999. She bought a simple but cozy-looking house at the top of a hill and near three things she could not live without: a nearby bus stop, a nearby bookstore,...

Science fiction has a longstanding love-hate relationship with the tech tycoon. The literature is full of billionaire inventors, sometimes painted as system-bucking heroes, at other times as megalo…

For years we’ve noted how broadband providers impose all manner of bullshit fees on your bill to drive up the cost of service post sale. They’ve also historically had a hard time being …

The hacktivist group Cult of the Dead Cow will release details about the system at Def Con next week.

One of the news industry’s longest-standing problems is that have failed to properly value the work they create. They should take a cue from the music industry.

Back in January, Bloomberg News published a story quoting an obscure government official named Richard Trumka Jr. He works with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates stuff like furniture and electronics and household appliances. Basically, the agency is supposed to make sure that the stuff we buy is safe, and won’t kill us or

Men suffer under patriarchy, too – and Ryan Gosling’s man-child Ken is a brilliant demonstration of that

North Carolina state Rep. Tricia Cotham shocked the country when the vocally pro women’s rights to healthcare legislator suddenly switched parties to vote against women’s rights. Turns …

Climate "doomers" believe it’s far too late to do anything about climate change - but they're wrong.

In a few days, Alyssa K. Watson’s interview with me on Carbon Culture Review will no longer be featured, replaced by an interview with Alia Gee or Claudie Arsenault. Not sure who’s next…

An outdated law prevents the federal government from responding to heat waves the way it does to hurricanes and wildfires.