This chalk talk by Kurt Vonnegut on story arcs is making the rounds on the Internet for the main reason all great comedy works: because it’s true. Of course, it’s not a “recent” post — a) Kurt’s dead, Jim; and b) he gave this lecture back when computer hard drives had less than half a [...]

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I hate opinion pieces like these. Peter Beinart advances the useless notion that President Obama’s address to the West Point Academy wasn’t stirring enough: Obama is clearly trying to ensure that the Afghan war no longer be run on a blank check. That’s why he famously brought OMB Director Peter Orszag to be photographed at [...]

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The BBC has it in for fat people. It’s not that the new organization merely reports on the findings of various studies purporting to explain obesity; nor that they pass on this information without question or challenge. They do those things, certainly, but it’s the way these articles are written the show such incredibly smug [...]

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Glenn Greenwald has been on a roll pointing out revisionism and hypocrisy (not to mention complicity) among the big media commentariat on subjects like the War on (t)Error, Iraq, imperialism and torture and detainment. Joe Klein and Tom Friedman have distinguished themselves as happy-talking fools in defense of the most egregious actions of state power [...]

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Charlie Jane Anders has posted a personal list of favorite first sentences from science fiction, provoking a lively discussion in the comments as people debate their merits and make their own suggestions. I tend to agree with AlfaCharger that the first line from Slaughter-House 5 is my favorite: “Billy Pilgrim was unstuck in time.” I [...]

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