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Scab Cinema and Pseudo-Reality TV
May 29, 2014
When critics talk about movies or TV shows, they mostly treat them as self-contained texts to be described, interpreted, and “read.” This way of thinking similarly dominates the way most of the audience thinks about the work. If anyone talks about the production side, it is ...

Daily Bafflements
May 29, 2014
Yawn. / Photo by Shine 2010. • Gaby Holzwarth was a street-busking violinist until she got discovered by several tech executives in Palo Alto. She now plays regularly for Silicon Valley house parties, on private jets, and at tech conferences like yesterday’s Code ...

Philanthro-Capitalists Can’t Buy a Clue
May 28, 2014
“Humility” is not a term usually associated with former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, especially when it comes to his demonstrated views on the importance of wealthy people in American society. His mayoral tenure focused on luring the world’s richest to live and invest ...

Sheryl Sandberg at Harvard
May 28, 2014
At Harvard’s commencement ceremony today, the Class Day speaker is Facebook COO and Chief Lean-er In Sheryl Sandberg. She’s already had a lot of practice with commencement speeches; she has delivered them in past years at Barnard and the Harvard Business School, among other ...

Daily Bafflements
May 28, 2014
Pictured: not enough. / Photo by peddhapati • Forty-five cents questioned as a meaningful improvement in one’s quality of life. • Relevant woman old, says irrelevant old man. • Safe sex probably a good idea for people who have sex for a living, every day, all day; ...

Getting Real about Closing the Gender Pay Gap
May 27, 2014
The reasons why Jill Abramson was abruptly fired from her position as executive editor of the New York Times remain unclear, but a pay dispute is alleged to be among them. According to The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, Abramson’s starting salary in 2011 when she began the job ...

Commencement
May 27, 2014
Editor’s Note: Siddhartha Deb was the keynote faculty speaker for the 2014 commencement ceremony at Eugene Lang College at the New School on May 22. We’re glad to post his address here, with his kind permission. So, look at all of you in your gowns and your mortarboard ...

Daily Bafflements
May 27, 2014
• Today in Billionaires: Not a billionaire, but you want to dress like one? Well how about trying on some new duds by Italian luxury brand Billionaire? No one will be able to see the label on the inside of your clothes, but you’ll know it’s there, and it will make you feel ...

The Baffler’s Week That Was
May 23, 2014
Hello Bafflers, won’t you consider subscribing to the print magazine, if you have not done so already? For $30 a year, your mailbox will be graced thrice yearly by a perfect-bound collection of salvos, satire, and colorful art. Sign up now and receive our new issue, which is ...

The Trigger-Happy University
May 23, 2014
The “trigger warning” is an innovation that seems innocuous enough, in theory. But in practice, trigger warnings have a subtle but corrosive effect on the values of intellectual inquiry and gender equality. As such, they should be firmly resisted. Trigger warnings ...

Daily Bafflements
May 23, 2014
• Ned Resnikoff reports on the 138 arrests at the protest at the Oakbrook, Illinois headquarters of McDonald’s on Wednesday, over at MSNBC.com. • Traditional wealth advisers just don’t understand [millionaire] kids today, explains Reuters. • After the New York Times ...

Happy Birthday, Margaret Fuller
May 22, 2014
Friday, May 23rd marks the 204th anniversary of the birth of Margaret Fuller, literary icon and “America’s first true feminist.” Fuller, born in Cambridge in 1810, is lately enjoying a bit of a renaissance. She was a female editor in a man’s world of ...