Back in October, a mere four months ago, there was only one story that I can remember competing with the pandemic for airtime: the testimony of Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower who left the company with thousands of pages of internal documents and went before Congress to accuse her former employers of knowingly causing harm to their users, particularly young adults. While I recognize that … Continue reading Why Did We Forget Frances Haugen?

The Governor of Missouri wants to prosecute a journalist for embarrassing his state. As Governor Parson described in a press conference in October, “Through a multi-step process, an individual took the records of at least three educators, decoded the HTML source code, and viewed the social security number of those specific educators. … This individual is not a victim. They were acting against a state … Continue reading Why Everyone Should Learn to Code

If Dune was the most epic premiere of 2021, The Matrix: Resurrections is perhaps the most enigmatic. A two decade old movie franchise, still beloved but saddled with the reputation of terrible sequels, is rebooted with modern CGI and an as of yet incomprehensible plot. Will it be good? I don’t know! But this latest trailer leans even deeper into a feeling of nostalgia reminiscent … Continue reading Hollywood Has a Nostalgia Problem

As Hawkeye is told in the second episode of his new Disney+ series, “your problem is branding.” And it’s true. The man is an Avenger, one of the MCU’s six biggest heroes, and yet he doesn’t have nearly the name recognition of Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, or even Hulk. He’s also now the only Avenger without his own movie, relegated to the world … Continue reading Hawkeye Deserves More Respect

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND — As the 26th Conference of the Parties, or COP26, drew to a close last week, now it is more imperative than ever that we reflect on our growing commitments to addressing climate change in a meaningful way. To begin, the Glasgow Climate Pact is meaningful and should be admired for its groundbreaking new commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the continued … Continue reading Meltdown at COP26

Facebook’s new name is Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new name last week at Facebook Connect (Meta Connect?) as part of a polished, shining sales pitch about his dreams of building the “metaverse”. The term is lifted directly from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 cyberpunk classic Snowcrash, which critics could be forgiven for thinking a bit of an odd choice. Snowcrash is, after all, a novel … Continue reading To Build the Metaverse, Facebook Needs to Give Up Control

Especially now, at the end of a marking period for City students, it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day. To quote XKCD, “we live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over.” That feels especially true when it comes to disasters, great staggering events that are so hard to comprehend that we simplify them to numbers. Degrees of warming, … Continue reading 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Photos are Stunning

The year was 1977, and a new sci-fi series was making its debut on the big screen. Star Wars: A New Hope was a resounding success when first released, and the Star Wars universe has grown consistently since then, creating a rich and detailed universe for fans to delve into. The success of the first movie prompted the release of the rest of the original … Continue reading The Future of Star Wars

While this year’s Homecoming themes are fun and playful, they sure are interesting choices. First, let’s talk about spirit week: This week’s themes were College Day, Twin Day, Barbie Day, Early 2000s Fashion Day, and, finally, House Shirt Day. Personally, I understand all but two: 2000s Fashion and Barbie Day. So seniors, can you explain? This year’s homecoming theme is Fairytopia, so Barbie Day ties … Continue reading All About Homecoming