Jonathan Miller's Blog, page 407
June 29, 2011
The RP's Top 5 Guilty Pleasures: What Are Yours?
Ready or not, it's time for my latest top five pop culture list.
(If you missed my earlier gems, check them out here: My Favorite Breakup Song, My Favorite Hoops Books, The Most Jew-ish Gentiles, My Favorite "Docs" who Weren't Doctors, and Pretty Boys I Begrudgingly Admire).
In today's Facebook culture, we all have an opportunity to share with the world our favorite pop culture: books, magazines, musicians, movies, etc. Head to my page, and you get a candid look at the artists and writers...
June 28, 2011
The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Recovery
If you read nothing else today, read this. Former Washington Post reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas writes of his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. [NY Times]
A little humor to brighten your day: The New Yorker contemplates how Al Qaeda can rebrand itself for the twenty-first century. [New Yorker]
Girl power! Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor discusses overcoming sexism as a law student and her path to an amazing career. [The Atlantic]
Something that...
The WP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Film
The Politics of Film
I went to see Cars 2 over the weekend. It is terrible. I don't understand how Pixar, who up until this point had never made a bad film, did such a shoddy job with this film. The best part of Cars 2 was the preview for their next film, Brave, which will hit theaters next summer. You can watch the trailer at the link. [The Movie Blog]
The film world lost a key member last week when Peter Falk died. Falk was probably most famous for playing Columbo on television...
The Politics of Fashion: An American Girl in Paris, Part 1
The Politics of Fashion
Wow. It is almost here. In two more days, I will board my first flight ever and embark upon an unforgettable adventure. As I prepare to leave for Paris later this week, I am reminded of how much I despise packing. I was forewarned to not shop before leaving for Paris, but I could not resist consistently stalking Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, and American Apparel throughout the summer in hopes of turning my college-girl wardrobe, i.e. the typical t-shirts and jeans...
The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of the Media
Rest in peace, Nick Charles. CNN's first sportscaster died on Saturday after a two-year struggle with bladder cancer. [CNN]
New York legalized gay marriage over the weekend, and you better believe that Twitter went crazy. Here's a list of the 11 best celebrity tweets from the weekend. [Time]
Speaking of gay marriage… Jon Stewart let the New York Senate have it when, during the time they could have been working on passing gay marriage, they debated about making sweet corn the state vegetable. [
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Pursuit of Happiness: What the Founders Meant—And Didn't
Last week, I wrote about my father, Robert Kennedy, and his critique of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the measure of national well-being. He said, "It measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
Had my father lived, we might have started work a lot sooner on truer ways to measure the state of the nation. Sadly, that did not happen. His critique of the GDP was forgotten. Instead...
June 27, 2011
The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Tech
The Politics of Tech
Net Neutrality has been a hot topic in the U.S. for a while now. While we have made little progress, across the pond in Europe, strides have been made. The Netherlands recently became the first European nation to adopt Net Neutrality as a law. [BBC]
Many of us have access to the latest wireless network, 4G. We know 4G is fast. How fast is it? That is something we aren't really sure of. However, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) recently introduced a bill that would force wireless ...
The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of Faith
New York's same-sex marriage law protects religious organizations from lawsuits and government penalties for refusing to provide their buildings or services for same-sex marriage ceremonies. The New York Civil Liberties Union accepts the exemptions–its executive director says the legislation "respects the right of clergy, churches and religious organizations to decide for themselves which marriages they will or will not solemnize or celebrate in keeping with our country's principles of r...
The RP's Weekly Web Gems: The Politics of the Web
The Politics of the Web
Upgrade or else: In rush to release Firefox 5.0; Mozilla neglected to tell users of 4.0 that they were no longer being protected from the latest malware. [Tech News World]
Regulating the internet in our multifaceted world. [New York Times]
The Federal Trade Commission's investigation into Google: is Google abusing its dominance? [Christian Science Monitor]
The theology of Apple's iCloud. [Mac World]
Apple iCloud vs. Google Music vs. Amazon Cloud. [KPTV]
Hacker group...
