PicoBlog

Every day, people ask Jensen Karp if he finally figured out what was going on with the shrimp in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I know this because I search his name on Twitter once a month, curious to see if the remnants of that particular discourse are still rattling around in the benthic regions of cyberspace. It has become one of my recurrent brainsick rituals, and reader, I am always horrified by what I find.

This piece was originally published back in May 2015 on the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, before Syfy debuted its adaptation of the series in December. I’m reprinting it now with some minor edits. If you enjoy this post, please consider signing up as a subscriber or sharing this post on social media. It’s March 2015, and I am standing on the bridge of a starship. The crew work stations look worn, the walls are covered with warning signs, and the grated floor looks like something designed to be functional.

I was introduced to Peter Tuchman by my buddy Matt Bradley over the last few months, but it was indeed a face that I’d seen before. Google image search Peter Tuchman and you’ll know exactly who you’re about to read about. The skinny: Peter Tuchman’s a renowned stock trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, often dubbed the 'most photographed trader on Wall Street.' Tuchman began his career in 1985 and has been a fixture on the NYSE floor ever since, currently working for Quattro Securities.

I just got back to Brooklyn after a weekend with my family. And there’s something about a combination of toddler nephews, a quiet neighborhood, a birthday party, and very little phone time that is both very exhausting but also energizing. Being away from New York gives me a lot of perspective on my life and all the work I do on easygayoven, and makes me excited to return to my rickety old apartment (if anyone thinks my life is glamorous, my roommate’s ceiling has been leaking on and off for a year-and-a-half!

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Here’s a special Wednesday installment of the Zogblog in honor of Walter Yetnikoff, one of the most entertaining people I’ve ever interviewed. The first time I spoke with Walter Yetnikoff, I couldn’t tell whether I was interviewing him or vice versa. We’d just shuffled into the Upper East Side location of the 2nd Avenue Deli, confusingly located on First… ncG1vNJzZmiyn5yvrbvGZ6qumqOprqS3jZympmegZMSiuNOeqWaxlam7qrfOn51maWlogG5%2Bj2to

Wanderer over a Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)If you’ve ever played a video game in which a character explores an immersive world, say “Skyrim” or “Zelda: The Ocarina of Time”, then you’ll already be familiar with a key stylistic feature of so-called “Romantic” art in the 19th century that has carried over into contemporary pop-culture: what is known as “Rückenfigur”, which translates from the German into “Back-Figure.”

Even in the midst of heartache and destruction, culture keeps moving. In Israel, despite the violent attacks by Hamas in the Gaza perimeter and Israel’s military response that has placed Gaza under siege, despite the endless funerals and pleas for the return of hostages, despite the sorrow so many families feel over the loss of loved ones, despite the fear and anxiety over the war and its outcome, we’ve seen so many expressions of humanity online, in the form of celebrity activism, social messaging, and even humor.

Ward Farnsworth is Dean and John Jeffers Research Chair at the University of Texas School of Law. He formerly was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the Boston University Law School. He’s the author of The Socratic Method and The Practicing Stoic. The Socratic method as an orientation of mind, is different from the orientation of mind that we use by default and therefore challenging. It's a humbler, more inquisitive frame of mind, a path toward intelligence.