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The Straight Dope

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David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Pinned

How a decade of nonfiction changed my appreciation

How a decade of nonfiction changed my appreciation. Please check it out at http://www.thestraightdope.net

1 min read

How a decade of nonfiction changed my appreciation
How a decade of nonfiction changed my appreciation

1 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·4 days ago

Why Facebook, Google, and every big data service is so annoying: a theory among endless ironies

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…

Life

10 min read

Why Facebook, Google, and every big data service is so annoying: a theory among endless ironies
Why Facebook, Google, and every big data service is so annoying: a theory among endless ironies
Life

10 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Mar 13

We are marching to Dystopia, separately and alone

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…

Life Lessons

6 min read

We are marching to Dystopia, separately and alone
We are marching to Dystopia, separately and alone
Life Lessons

6 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Mar 8

Consultants ruining everything for their own benefit in apparently totally legal scam

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. …

Business

7 min read

Consultants ruining everything for their own benefit in apparently totally legal scam
Consultants ruining everything for their own benefit in apparently totally legal scam
Business

7 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Mar 1

An outrage on every page: states making American children poor and criminals

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…

Life

9 min read

An outrage on every page: states making American children poor and criminals
An outrage on every page: states making American children poor and criminals
Life

9 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Feb 27

Poking the eye of the beholder: weird art is nothing new

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…

Art

5 min read

Poking the eye of the beholder: weird art is nothing new
Poking the eye of the beholder: weird art is nothing new
Art

5 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Feb 21

Where the CIA got its chops: dirty tricks in WWII

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…

History

5 min read

Where the CIA got its chops: dirty tricks in WWII
Where the CIA got its chops: dirty tricks in WWII
History

5 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Feb 14

A Hollywood Insider’s take on becoming a comedian today. How things have changed.

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. …

Life Lessons

6 min read

A Hollywood Insider’s take on becoming a comedian today. How things have changed.
A Hollywood Insider’s take on becoming a comedian today. How things have changed.
Life Lessons

6 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Feb 7

Red states much worse than you think and they pretend. Here’s the proof.

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…

Politics

8 min read

Red states much worse than you think and they pretend. Here’s the proof.
Red states much worse than you think and they pretend. Here’s the proof.
Politics

8 min read


David Wineberg

David Wineberg

·Feb 1

We are running out of ideas, never mind the resources to implement them. That means it’s too late to reverse climate change.

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…

History

6 min read

We are running out of ideas, never mind the resources to implement them.
We are running out of ideas, never mind the resources to implement them.
History

6 min read

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David Wineberg

David Wineberg

Author, The Straight Dope, or What I learned from my first thousand nonfiction reviews. 16 Essays. Free with Prime www.thestraightdope.net

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