Column

…but must expect far more from its audience to be an effective one After seeing “The Social Network” in 2010, its phenomenal acting, writing and directing convinced me that it indeed deserved to be a major awards contender. It wasn’t the overly hyped portrait of college life, Silicon Valley and a stupid website that I […]

The oldest unsettled refugee population didn’t come to be solely at the hands of Israel If you think Israel is the only nation guilty of violating the human rights of Palestinians, then you are sorely mistaken. For all the condemning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Arab states, these countries are far from blameless when it […]

Social media isn’t simply about connecting with others Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg testified in the United States Senate from April 11 to 12 on his company’s actions during the Cambridge Analytica data breach that took place more than a year ago. Most controversially, both Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, his chief financial officer, were aware that […]

Riding the Trans-Siberian Railway On a dark Sunday night, with hints of moisture floating down on indifferent passersby, I stood in front of a trio of train stations in Moscow, mentally preparing to ride the Trans-Siberian railway. The streets were gloomy — it’s a noticeable attribute that doesn’t steal from the city’s splendor and prestigious […]

Headlines about “record-breaking” temperatures dissuade readers from addressing the issue properly Once, my father and I took a walk around the edge of Lake Tahoe. It was early April — the start of spring — but the weather was fair for that time of the year. Even the surrounding peaks were stark, devoid of the […]

Long-standing religious divisions could keep Syria and Iraq from democratizing As easy as it may be to reduce the conflicts in the Middle East to “red team versus blue team,” it’s not that simple. The Middle East is a region tangled within its own cold war: the Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy conflict. There are many players […]

What do Cambridge Analytica’s actions imply for today’s Facebook users? Facebook users have become increasingly startled this month as revelations regarding Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in social media privacy breaches have been made public. Cambridge Analytica is a firm that develops voter profiles based on data harvested from social media. In tandem with an app company, […]

Rising temperatures could drive coffee to extinction Each day brings with it damning forecasts of the consequences of global warming:  intense and prolonged droughts, rising sea levels and stronger storms. And each day, this data falls on deaf ears as we struggle to understand how to incorporate it in our daily routines: How can I […]

Division and cognitive dissonance often stem from religious institutions Religion can be a saving grace for some — a gleam of hope, a source of comfort, enlightenment and guidance. But it can also be the source of guilt, division and cognitive dissonance — which is derived from the organization of religion. Ironically, for a system […]

The far-right news site manipulates readers with outrageous headlines From an ecological perspective, Breitbart News and President Donald Trump have enjoyed an extraordinarily healthy symbiotic relationship over the past several years. Many people might argue that this is because “both are racist” or “both are sexist” or “both are homophobic.” With both Trump and Breitbart […]

Pushing beyond social media testimonials I’m 19 years old, and I can’t stop talking about #MeToo. Understand, this is not a confession or a testimonial of any sort. The lines between right and wrong, between equality and sexism, are not drawn clearly, as they usually are. They’ve been blurred, erased, even redone, in the midst […]

Global warming threatens all areas of life, future generations On Dec. 27, 2017, President Donald Trump posted a tweet implying that the extreme cold weather blasting the eastern U.S. stands as further proof against the existence of climate change, noting that the North sure could “use a little bit of that good old Global Warming.” […]