It was April 2016, and Mark Zuckerberg, clad in his usual incredibly expensive cotton t-shirt, told the world that his website – and thus, the entire Internet – was headed to a video-filled future, where live broadcasts and snappy, “snackable” content would push out the old, boring world of words. Mark told the world that […]
Tag: writing
Facebook Destroys Everything: Part 1
I want to tell you a real bummer of a story about Facebook. The kind of no-fun, downer tale that Alex Mosseri, the head of Threads, Meta’s new social media service, said he doesn’t want his website to support. I arrived in Myanmar for the first time in November 2012, the same week that the […]
The World is Dependent on Drones Made by Just One Chinese Company – And That’s a Problem (And More)
What’s the Deal With All These Chinese Drones? I’ve been watching the rise of China’s DJI consumer drone company for over a decade, ever since DJI launched the cheap drone epoch we’re living in today with the release of the original Phantom back in 2013. The Phantom was revolutionary, the first drone that pretty much […]
DIY Drones and the FAA’s Drone Registration Plan
The FAA has decided that drone registration may be its best bet for making sure drones don’t become a national nuisance after the Christmas gift-buying rush. But will it really work? And does it take into account DIY drones? I’m skeptical. You can read my take at Slate. A Major Problem With the FAA Plan […]
Drone Racing at MakerFaire – Slate Piece
I wrote about the new sport – and yeah, it’s a sport – of drone racing for Slate. I headed to World Makerfaire in Queens at the end of September, which was definitely the first time I’ve ever been out to Queens. (It takes a long time when you’re heading in from Brooklyn, as it […]
The Arsenal of Democracy: WWII Planes in Washington D.C
On Friday, I saw the WWII flyover on the National Mall. They called it the “Arsenal of Democracy” after FDR’s famous phrasing in 1940, a name which in our modern age are both comically overwrought and entirely American – perhaps representations of the same thing. It was the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, […]
Some Thoughts on Orwell’s Essays (And Doom)
I’m reading Orwell’s Essays, pretty much on a total impulse: there they were in swiftly bootlegged format (the Penguin edition) on the shelves of a bookshop in a Cambodian river town. And I needed something to read. I harbor the intelligent child’s usual vague fondness for Orwell (or Eric Blair, of course), crafted from close […]