There were several interesting articles in the recent New York Times Magazine annual “Year in Ideas” edition (which was short on ideas, somewhat perturbingly) that focused on technologies and how they have been changing the warp and woof of our social fabric. This one, on DUI calling, just got me wondering why my cel phone provider doesnt have it. Not…

In Silence of the Lambs, an FBI agent played by Jodie Foster hunts two serial killers in a chase that unfolds on a therapist’s couch as much as it does in backlot abductions. Each killer wants to transform himself (according to the explanation provided by Mr. Lechter), has the psychological need to change his identity. One does so by consuming…

You may not have realized it, but navel gazing can be a social activity after all. You need only direct your gaze towards the navel of another. There’s pleasure in autonavelgazing and in othernavelgazing, but scale it up, add fashion brandnames, put it on the air and run a campaign, and wa la, you have fashionnavelgazing and tube tops to…

From New York Times, Dec 5, 2005Ms. Rice insisted she could not confirm the existence of secret prisons because that would involve discussion of classified activities. “One of the difficult issues in this new kind of conflict is what to do with captured individuals who we know or believe to be terrorists,” she said. Many are “essentially stateless, owing their…