Mike Pilewski writes about life, politics and culture in the United States
The popular culture of today’s youth has focused on witches, wizards, hobbits and comic-book superheroes long enough. It’s time for science to reclaim its role as a source of inspiration. There are signs that this is starting to happen: not just the popularity of the film Gravity, but the explosion in recent years of TV documentaries about science, and space … >>
Recent news events have made clear just how easy it is for America — or shadowy, undemocratic entities that claim to act in its interest — to panic. This emotion isn’t just the product of 9/11, however. It was always there: fear that the Native Americans would attack; fear that the slaves would revolt; fear of crop failures and bank … >>
You’ve got to love Michio Kaku. The smiling American physicist knows the answer to everything, and because he does, he appears in every single science documentary these days — at least those produced by the Discovery Channel. Kaku’s 2009–10 series Sci-Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible, currently showing on German TV, underscores the extent to which science fiction inspires today’s … >>
I’m sure you’ve heard that on Monday afternoon, local time, horrible things happened in Boston. Near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, two bombs went off, killing three people and hitting perhaps 200 more with shrapnel. Doctors have said they “had to finish the work of the bombs”, performing amputations on a number of the injured. Horrible, horrible stuff. … >>
American filmmaker Oliver Stone is fascinated by history and those who make it. His JFK, Nixon, World Trade Center and W. have attempted to fill the gaps in our knowledge of what happened and what may have happened at key points in US history. Now he’s filled the gaps in his own timeline in an ambitious documentary called Oliver Stone’s … >>
This column was meant for September, but as fate would have it, a few other things got in the way — the presidential election, various school shootings, the demise of Twinkies — that deserved some commentary. However, the start of a new year is just as good a time to talk about this subject: the future. What was special about … >>
There have been three generations of Batman on the screen. There was the comedic Batman of 1966–68 (one of the first TV series in color); the movie Batman of 1989–97 (which suffered from a lot of bad acting); and the dark Batman of 2005–12 (which explores the origins of the title character). Inspiration came from the original Batman comic from … >>
Pay attention: There will be a quiz! This Sunday, July 1, is an important day for America’s northern neighbor. It’s Canada Day. Happy Canada Day, everybody! I wish I could tell you how Canadians actually celebrate this, but it’s one of many things about Canada that Americans know nothing aboot — I mean, about. Aside from a few clichés about … >>
Back when I was a newsreader for my college radio station, I was shown one of the thickest books I’d ever seen: a binder containing, I guess, about 500 pages. Those were all the rules an American radio station had to follow, as laid down by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). While I found the book daunting, my contemporaries found … >>
German is an easy language to learn, but it’s not an easy language to pronounce. The umlauts and the “ch” are only the first hurdle. Letters like “l”, “r” and “y” are tricky. You have to know where to split compound words, and it takes a while to get the intonation right. Tourists sound horrible when they try to pronounce … >>