Patrick Anderson Jr.'s Blog, page 6

FICTION FRIDAY: Drift (Earth’s Microbes Find Europa)

What if Earth’s tiniest survivors escaped extinction and found a new world?

FICTION FRIDAY: Drift (Earth’s Microbes Find Europa)

What if Earth’s tiniest survivors escaped extinction and found a new world?

Kendrick vs. Drake: How Hip Hop’s Genre Fracture Became Its Strength

Explore how the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake feud reveals deeper fractures within hip hop and what these splits mean for the genre’s evolution.

Kendrick vs. Drake: How Hip Hop’s Genre Fracture Became Its Strength

Explore how the Kendrick Lamar vs. Drake feud reveals deeper fractures within hip hop and what these splits mean for the genre’s evolution.

The Observer Effect: How Quantum Superposition Explained My Life’s Hardest Choices

Back in 2001, I got a letter from University of Florida offering me a full ride to study Computer Science. I remember the acceptance letter was printed on this thick, textured paper, expensive. I flipped it over then back, half-expecting the words to vanish off the page as I read it twice and laughed like…this […]

Whose Fault Is It Our Boy’s Dead?

Please, if you will, imagine a fictional scenario with me. We’re in an auto repair shop in Kendall. The air smells like oil, rubber, and sweat, and that’s just another Wednesday. Our protagonist works in this shop and he’s elbow-deep in the engine of a Toyota Corolla with one of the new apprentices standing behind […]

Defending Democracy Is Every American’s Duty

Historically, most failed democracies don’t collapse all at once. They erode quietly, piece by piece, each law individually bent by the will of authoritarian power until their sharp ends are pointed back at the public, the whole process made easier by citizens choosing momentary comfort over confrontation. Right now, in the United States, we’re experiencing […]

The Only Thing That Trickles Down Is Chaos

Finishing Derek Thompson’s recent Atlantic article “The №1 Rule for Understanding Trump,” I found myself not just fearing what happens when a portion of the nation confuses strength and chaos, but also asking what do large federal governments such as the United States’ pass down to the people they’re governing? I’ve been hearing about the […]

There’s No Such Thing As Your Final Form (Unless You’re Dead)

I dead ass used to think there’d be a single moment where I just sort of…got there. You know? Like in my late 20s/early 30s I’d eventually become whoever I was meant to be, for better or worse, and that would be that. Wipe my hands, wrap it up folks, I got it from here. […]

Why Slashing Science Funding Today Will Kill Innovation Tomorrow

“When governments cut research funding, they are quite literally cutting their future discovery path and hence their future economic capabilities.” — “Who Should Fund Science?”, Quillette.com A recent New York Times article reported that the 2026 budget bill currently headed to the Senate, if passed, will cut 56% of the National Science Foundation’s budget “to […]