First there was Montana’s law against government spying on cell phones. Now, New Jersey is moving in a similar direction: Staking out new ground in the noisy debate about technology and privacy in law enforcement, the New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday ordered that the police will now have to get a search warrant before […]
Eli Sanders
Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this, but he also once crashed his bike into a parked car while on his way to a staff meeting, never mind this, so… His website, which probably hasn't been updated in a while, is www.elisanders.net.
Posted inNews
Zimmerman Verdict Must-Reads
Jelani Cobb at The New Yorker: The most damning element here is not that George Zimmerman was found not guilty: it’s the bitter knowledge that Trayvon Martin was found guilty. Emily Bazelon at Slate: You can see the box the jurors might have felt they were in. Even if they didn’t like George Zimmerman—even if […]
Posted inGay Marriage
What, Exactly, Does the Supreme Court’s Marriage Ruling Mean for California?
It’s still a little unclear. However, SCOTUSBlog has parsed the opinion at length—ranging over the injunction question, the county clerk question, and the “Why bother?” question—ultimately concluding that one way or another, “Same-sex marriage in California is here to stay.”
Posted inTech
If You Think NSA Snooping Is Bad Now, Wait Until We Can Upload Our Brains to Computers
A top futurist at Google says it’s going to be possible by the year 2045: In just over 30 years, humans will be able to upload their entire minds to computers and become digitally immortal – an event called singularity – according to a futurist from Google. Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, also […]
Posted inMedia
Less Than a Quarter of Americans Have Confidence in Newspapers
The low number comes via the Gallup poll, which says exactly 23 percent of Americans think newspapers are worth trusting. But newspapers don’t stand alone. Confidence in television news has also been slipping — it’s tied with newspapers this year at 23 percent, which is slightly up from last year’s all-time low of 21 percent. […]
Posted inNews
The U.S. Will Send Arms to Syrian Rebels
President Obama has concluded that his “red line” on the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime was, in fact, crossed. As a result, “small arms” from the United States will soon begin flowing to the Syrian rebels.
Posted inNews
A “Surprising Slump” In the Number of White Americans
Many people will have things to say about this today, so let’s start with the facts as reported by the Washington Post: More white people died in the United States last year than were born, a surprising slump coming more than a decade before the Census Bureau says that the ranks of white Americans will […]
Posted inLGBTQIA+
Young Americans More Likely to See Being Gay as a “Choice”
There’s a new Pew Research study out on attitudes about gay rights, and among all the usual trends—older Americans being less supportive of gay rights, everyone nevertheless conceding that gay marriage is inevitable—comes one unusual finding. As Michael Dimock, director of the Pew Research Center explained it to NPR: Younger Americans are slightly more likely […]
Posted inScience!
White People More Likely to See Anger in Obama’s Expressions
You probably suspected it was true. Now a study says: It’s true.
Posted inGun Club
Gay Man Shot Dead Near Stonewall Inn
It happened on Friday night in New York, and now the police are calling it an apparent hate crime: The police say that Elliot Morales, 33, trailed and taunted two men, yelling antigay slurs and asking one of them, “You want to die tonight?” The police say it was the other man, Mark Carson, 32, […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Cultured Meat
Behold, the artificial hamburger, created in a plastic cylinder for your enjoyment: The hamburger, assembled from tiny bits of beef muscle tissue grown in a laboratory and to be cooked and eaten at an event in London, perhaps in a few weeks, is meant to show the world — including potential sources of research funds […]
Posted inHistory
Frank Bruni on Jason Collins
Read it: “I’m a 34-year-old N.B.A. center. I’m black. And I’m gay.” The gay part will now define him, in the public eye, more than any other. It will be the prompt for the loudest cheers he basks in and the nastiest jeers he sloughs off. But in the opening paragraph, it comes after his […]