No one could possibly be THE voice of Gen X, but Cobain was certainly A voice of my generation. In their seminal 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail?, published in 1993, Neil Howe and William Strauss argued that the only thing Generation Xers really agreed on was that there was no such thing as Generation X. Given the inherent irony
Read moreDear Parents: if your son goes to college, joins a fraternity and screws up, you could lose your home. Do I have your attention yet? How many times in my adult life have I heard this? YOU were in a fraternity? Yes I was. Theta Chi, Gamma Omicron chapter, Wake Forest University. I know, I don’t fit the stereotype. Neither
Read moreIABC Communicator of the Year has a pattern of bad behavior. I’m not sure “I’m sorry” is enough. We all screw up. When we do, it’s our responsibility to acknowledge it and apologize to those our mistake in someway damaged, hurt, disadvantaged or inconvenienced. Hopefully we learn and move on, never repeating the mistake. But sometimes … sometimes apologies are
Read moreWomen – and men – in online dating communities are acting like goddamned sociopaths. This needs to stop. Okay, not all of you. But some of you. Men, too – I’m guessing this isn’t just women. See if you recognize yourselves below. On multiple occasions I’ve been talking to women I met through OK Cupid. Things going great, we really
Read moreAmerican businesses are anti-intellectual. American universities are anti-relevance. The gods help the overeducated schmuck stuck in the middle. Hi. I’m Sam, and I’m a PhD. Hi Sam! For those of you who don’t know me, I have a doctorate. Communication, University of Colorado, 1999. Some days it’s the thing I have done in life that I’m most proud of. Other
Read moreTEDx: It’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death” for the Techoliterati crowd. Happy New Year, a few hours early, from the staff of Scholars & Rogues. Have fun tonight, but please be careful. Big holiday occasions are amateur night and we don’t want you getting run over by drunken idiots. It goes without saying that we don’t want you being drunken idiots.
Read moreNo, this clever program isn’t 100% there yet, but listen to the audio and think about it for a second.
Read more
The nation gives thanks … for what? I was never a William Burroughs fan, but I nonetheless find myself thinking about his 1986 “Thanksgiving Prayer,” surely one of the most caustic (and insightful) takes on our great American holiday. I’m in this sort of mood for a reason. Or two, or three. First off, you may have noticed all the
Read moreI have a great idea for a wearable technology app. What if you had a little mobile device you could wear around your wrist, kind of like a bracelet. And it had an app that would tell you what time it was? You could maybe have advanced functionality that would give you the date.
Read more
One in six Americans commutes an hour and a half a day. It makes us more angry, less happy, increases back pain and triples our risk of heart attack. I hate commuting. Hate. It. Not only is it simply no fun sitting in a rush hour parking lot, I’m stingy about my time. Even if I’m wasting it sitting on
Read moreOnline dating sucks, especially for a guy like me. There has to be a better way. Match.com sucks. eHarmony sucks. OK Cupid sucks. Plenty of Fish really sucks. (Although, it should be noted, at least those last two have the advantage of being free.) I assume that Christian Mingle sucks, although perhaps in ways I haven’t thought about yet. I
Read more
Our social media activities would benefit from a dose of critical thinking. A lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on. – Terry Pratchett I had an exchange with my sister earlier about something she had shared on Facebook. If you haven’t seen it, it’s the one alleging that 11 US states now have
Read moreI mean, come on, this has Texas written all over it, don’t you think? Iowa grants gun permits to the blind No one questions the legality of the permits, but some officials worry about public safety. DES MOINES, Iowa — Here’s some news that has law enforcement officials and lawmakers scratching their heads: Iowa is granting permits to acquire or
Read more
The United States spans six time zones. I have now lived in four of them (Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific), visited a fifth (Hawaiian-Aleutian) and flown over the sixth (Alaskan), so I feel comfortable addressing the question of which one is best with some authority. Eastern Time Zone I begin with a certain bias. Like most kids, I hated going
Read more
This post has moved — click here.
Read more
lullaby pit 