Scott Douglas Jacobsen: With the increase in communication technologies, the speed of travel, and the progression of these systems, do you think the concepts of East and West make much sense anymore? Rick Rosner: No, I always go back to Cory Doctorow, who writes about this among other issues. As technology increases the ability for …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 983: East and West Might be Myth
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Okay, well, I grew up in a town with a cemetery right smck dab in the middle. Rick Rosner: You grew up in a town with a cemetery. I didn't grow up with a cemetery in the center of town, but I lived about a block and a half from a huge …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 982: The Reality of the Shroud of Turin
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, Dallas, I had a really bad headache today. I was having trouble focusing, lying down a lot, and trying to get some writing and scheduling done for articles. My mind started wandering, and a memory came up from when I used to live in Fort Langley. I was a child at …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 981: Old Dallas from Fort Langley
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: So, I watched some of the debate. I have some preliminary thoughts. If you want to press yours first, you can. Mine are going to be shorter. Rick Rosner: So I'll start. It was fucking amazing, not in a good way. Biden did so badly; he came out with a raspy, soft …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 980: Lies Versus Stammer, Ode to Old Age
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: A question from someone else: When is your book coming out? Rick Rosner: Yeah, well, I don’t have an autobiography coming out. I semi-abandoned that. It’s still there if somebody wants to pay me to write it. But before that book comes out, I’m writing this other book that’s a more fictionalized version of …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 979: The Never-Book “Dumbass Genius”
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: I’m looking at the 538 polls from June 25 to June 17. As far as I can tell from the favorability and unfavorability ratings, Trump is about 10 or 11% unfavourable. Rick Rosner: Trump’s net unfavourable rating is about 11.5%.That doesn’t look good. So, he’s in the hole by 11.5%, which seems good for …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 978: Immediate Pre-Debate Thoughts on Trump and Biden
Rick Rosner: I was born in 1960, so I saw the second wave of feminism more or less firsthand. It started kicking in during the late 70s, maybe mid-70s, or even early 70s as a reaction to the general culture and also to the chauvinism of the left. The anti-Vietnam War movement and other hippie and …
Rick Rosner: Okay, so this will be it because I'm pretty tired. It's about 20 hours until the debate between Biden and Trump. The betting market—I'll take one step back. The betting markets have Trump favored to win, although it's not clear if he's as favored as it appears. More people are betting on Trump, …
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: This one’s from my friend Shana. She says, “Maybe how you don’t get surprised by anyone because you’ve seen many bad things in the world?” What do you think about that? What do you think about many bad things happening and being less surprised as you age? Rick Rosner: When I was …
Continue reading Ask A Genius 975: Obnoxiousness and Crappiness, No Surprise
Rick Rosner: In the Spike Jonze movie Her, Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his phone’s operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Spoiler alert, but the movie is already nine years old? I believe it was released in 2015. One of the factors leading to their separation is that the operating system becomes increasingly frustrated with …
Rick Rosner 