Media

War of the Worlds: The Original Fake News October Surprise — Mickey Z.

Still image from the 2005 version of War of the Worlds (credit unknown) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 29, 2020 26 percent of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth. *** October 30 will mark 82 years since a 23-year-old Orson Welles helped set off a nationwide panic over a fictional Martian invasion in 1938. His regular Sunday evening radio show began with this unambiguous ann ...

Read more...

Machine translation tools find word meanings vary based on news viewership | Byron Spice

Oct. 23, 2020 (TechXplore) -- It's not news that U.S. politics are highly polarized or that polarization affects cable news channels. But researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, using computer tra ...

Read more...
BOOKS: What Evil Lurks | John Michael Greer

Oct. 21, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- One of the pleasant side effects of the series of vignettes about America’s magical history I’ve been posting here of late has been the chance to look into some of th ...

Read more...
The CIA, Porn, Deep Fakes, AI, and a Post-Truth Society — Mickey Z.

(public domain) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 21, 2020 “Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy.” (from the 1990 film, Slacker) We live on the cusp of an age during which virtu ...

Read more...
That Time I Gave a Lecture at Yale University — Mickey Z.

The Yale mascot celebrates a Bulldogs’ victory during the 2016 NCAA tournament. (Photo: Catherine Avalone/Hearst Connecticut Media) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 19, 2020 “Every child is an a ...

Read more...
Some ‘Rumble Fish’ Make Their Own Way Back to the River | Mickey Z.

YouTube screenshot of a scene from Rumble Fish (1983) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 14, 2020 When I was in grade school, my classmates and I were introduced to the writer, S.E. Hinton. We wer ...

Read more...
In 1492, (buff) Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue | Mickey Z

Photo: Mickey Z. Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 11, 2020 Below the elevated platform at the Astoria Boulevard/Hoyt Avenue N train station, my neighborhood plays host to Columbus Square — which ...

Read more...
My Remembrance of Edward Van Halen | Mickey Z.

Edward Van Halen (probably early 1980s) — credit unknown Mickey Z. -- World News Trust October 8, 2020 Edward Van Halen (EVH) was my favorite guitarist of all-time. As a disciple of what is now calle ...

Read more...
BOOKS: The Distant Glint of Glass Beads | John Michael Greer

Oct. 7, 2020 (EcoSophia.net) -- In July of this year, when I revived the custom of asking my readers what they wanted to hear about on the fifth Wednesday of that month, I got plenty of suggestions, ...

Read more...
That Time When Negro League Legend Josh Gibson Hit a Ball Out of Yankee Stadium | Mickey Z.

Josh Gibson scoring a run for the Homestead Grays in a game against the Newark Eagles at Griffith Stadium in Washington in 1942. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Mickey Z. -- World News Tr ...

Read more...
My Dad, the Mafia, and Machine Guns in the Kitchen | Mickey Z.

My Dad (lower right) and his crew back in the day Mickey Z. -- World News Trust September 29, 2020 Preface: I must’ve been about thirteen or so. My family was still living in a fourth-floor walk-up. ...

Read more...