Ever since I published The Intimacy Gap a few months back, I've been on the lookout for books, movies, articles, stories, blog entries, or art exhibits that capture, in creative form, the unique kind of distance enabled by the way we use technology in modern American society. Finally,...

"Send Private messages to people by only sharing your post with them, disable reshare" --Google+ "CheatSheet"

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"Please read my letter // and promise me you'll keep // the secrets and the memories // we cherish in the deep." --Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, "Please Read the Letter"

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"The entire law school industry -- and it is an industry of sorts, representing a significant profit center for universities -- is a giant bubble."

This is a quote from Jonathan Chait over at the New Republic, and it's on my mind as I sit down at Elysian...

Last week I watched the Super Bowl on a cruise ship. Given that I observed at least one passenger on the boat listening to Kid Rock's "Amen" on an iPod during the relevant fourish hours in question, and also given that the ship's aft "Lido" deck buffet does in fact...

"The only person standing in your way is you."
-Thomas Leroy, to Nina, Black Swan

"Nothing's going to change. That means I've got to change."
-Michael Vick

"It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in:...

This past weekend, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200,000 Americans gathered on the National Mall for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. By all accounts -- size, scope, celebrity guest appearances, media coverage, blogosphere buzz, YouTube cell-phone-camera uploads, etc. -- the event was a resounding...

Late last month, the State Government of Selangor, Malaysia, released The Road to Reform: Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor, a collection of essays by prominent politicians, academics, and commentators aimed at assessing the Pakatan Rakyat government's performance since the coalition rose to power in March 2008.

It is difficult to...

A little over a year ago, my friend Robert Ellis Gordon posted an open letter to President Obama here at HuffPost in response to a query sent out by David Plouffe. The Obama campaign was searching for stories chronicling Americans' experiences with their healthcare system, and the challenges they've encountered...

Last week, the American Mock Trial Association released its 2010-2011 case packet, a 146-page document containing all the orders, instructions, stipulations, statutes, case law, affidavits, and exhibits needed for college students across America to try a case. If this list of fabricated legal documents doesn't exactly sound scintillating, that's because...

"You can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out the fire." --Peter Gabriel

"This is the first time I've seen the back of a police van," Tshiung Han See tweets.

He is sitting on a rickety rear bench seat with four of the thirty-seven...

The Pakatan Rakyat government of Selangor, Malaysia created history earlier this month by tabling the nation's first piece of Right to Information legislation in the State Assembly. But the bill has its flaws.

The Selangor Freedom of Information Enactment, introduced by Executive Counselor Elizabeth Wong, aims to "enhance disclosure...