There are many ironies in cyberspace. One is that it promised to bring people together from all over the world because they had the same interests, passions and positions. Today, we damn the internet for bringing people together from all over the world with the same interests, passions and positions…

Among the crazier metaphors of American society is bootstrapping. It refers to leather flaps at the top of tall, tight boots, that were the only way to pull them on. Two hundred years ago, someone used that to refer to succeeding in life. It begat the “self-made man”. And they…

Consulting is an evil that is hollowing out government, dumbing down the civil service and profiting massively while enjoying corruption like conflict of interest and insider information. That is the essence of The Big Con, by Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington. …

Daniel Hatcher is a powerful writer. He gathers the facts and lets loose, in an unimpeachable salvo of accusations, all vetted and verified (and footnoted). Readers will be left reeling from the Introduction alone. Hatcher is the only author I know who does that. As I said when I reviewed…

Art books — and coffee table books in general — are not the stuff I like to review. They tend to be forgettably similar. There’s boring text demonstrating the author’s erudition, text fitted around sculpture, and enormously monotonous commentary. Not the best scenario for a review that will rock readers…

Fear of missing out had numerous countries building dirty tricks departments in the lead up to World War II. They developed spies, cover stories, secret weapons, tools and lots of code-named plans to annihilate each other. So with USA. Franklin Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Office of Special Services…

Comedy is and always has been difficult to discuss, much less write about. Unless you’re telling stories about other comics, it tends to get serious, dry, and boring. So it was with some trepidation that I accepted to review The Revolution Will Be Hilarious by Caty Borum. …

After all the slander and name calling calms down, someone needs to check the facts on red states vs blue states. That assignment was taken up by William Kleinknecht, in States of Neglect. As readers might glean from the title, states with Republican governments are being dismantled and impoverished, while…

Vaclav Smil is guaranteed interesting. He is a numbers man, a scientist and an analyst. His take on any topic is carefully thought out, and so has impact. His latest book, Inventions and Innovations was going to be a bit iffy, because there are already so very many books laughing…