From Beijing With Love

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When you write a novel that extrapolates current events to create fictional drama, there’s no greater satisfaction than seeing what you predicted actually come true in real life–unless, of course, you’re talking about space herpes or the zombie apocalypse, in which case everyone’s fortunes take a turn for the worse. With pretty much everything else, though, an author can’t help but say, “I told you so!” hopefully while doing a cable news or national radio ...

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The Dangers of Googlethink

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As a child of the 80s, the definitive historical event of my young life was the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger.  To this day, I can remember exactly the circumstances when I heard the news:  I was a senior in high school, sitting in Ms. Figley’s anatomy and physiology class, when Mr. Davis–a revered teacher who had been at the school for what seemed like forever–opened the door and told all of us, “The space shuttle just blew up.”  My classmates ...

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Faking It

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Although journalists would be loath to admit it, the “news” business is actually a lot like the fashion industry.  First off, reporters tend to glom on to whatever the meme of the day happens to be, the same way that fashionistas attach themselves to a hot trend.  In this, they reinforce their own sense of relevance while demonstrating to viewers how hip they are (though, in my humble view, in doing so they only end up looking like Dr. Evil ...

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Opus Trek

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Back when I was a kid, I begged my mom to buy me what I thought of as the Holy Grail of Star Trek reference books, The Star Trek Compendium by Allan Asherman.  Of course, it didn’t help that I told her that the name of the book was The Star Trek Emporium–but eventually, trusty mom figured it out and it picked the book up just in time for my birthday.  Unwrapping that puppy, I couldn’t wait to jump in and read about ...

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Tweetle Dumb

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It seems as if MSNBC didn’t think it had courted enough controversy lately, what with Melissa Harris-Perry’s Sesame Street riff on Mitt Romney’s adopted grandson and Piers Morgan’s airing of his excretory fantasies vis-a-vis Sarah Palin.  No, the network that professes to “lean forward” had to keep the party going with a tweet from one of its erstwhile staffers, bringing racial politics into, of all things, a cute Cheerios commercial slated to run during the Superbowl:

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