I once asked some of my Turkish friends, “If the world was a high school and every country was a student, what would some of the students be like?” One friend answered without hesitation, “Turkey would be the homeschooled kid.” I was once a homeschooled kid, and I understood exactly…

If you grew up in the 2000s American Southwest, the Ying Yang Twins / Lil Jon track “Get Low” (2003), was undoubtedly on your radar. The Ying Yang Twins also subsequently produced a second track with Lil Jon: 2003’s Salt Shaker, which carried Get Low’s synths and bass forward into bold new textural territory. More enigmatic, however, was the Twins’ track Hanh; clearly an homage and rallying cry for advocates of Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk…

You’ve probably got the guns already. You’ve probably filled notebooks with logistical plans; spent hours out in the forest or the desert practicing your aim. You’ve probably got a kill list, and a (very short) list of people you’d like to spare. You’ve probably gone over the notes of previous…

I played chess almost every day in high school. I lost just about every game. Most of my childhood was spent in the vicinity of Lubbock, Texas — an arid quilt of cotton fields, their almost-surreal flatness punctuated only by isolated houses, oil derricks and irrigation pumps. One might speculate on that environment’s influence on my interest in chess-playing; on whether I developed an unconsciously…

As technological evolution hurtles ever-forward, I often find myself reflecting on how primitive our current era truly is. That is, from the perspective of a person of a century — or a few centuries — in the future: in 2120, in 2520 or in 3020. For example, if we hit the limit of Moore’s law by 2100, computing power may remain relatively static for the next century or…

“For God’s sake, let us sit upon the ground And tell sad stories of the death of kings.” — “Richard II,” Act 3, Scene 2 Soundtrack for this story:

You know who you are. And you know we love you. — Hey there! As you know, we’ve shared a lot of challenging feelings and experiences over the past few weeks. I’m deeply honored that you’ve expressed so much concern for my safety and well-being — and for my fellow peaceful protestors. …

I arrive on a disaster scene. Twin fire trucks flash lights outside Austin Police Department Headquarters, while platoons of cops in full riot armor tighten up their ranks along the street. …