OPINION

Prepare Yourself for Battle With an Army of Bots

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The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In preparation for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, I went back and rewatched Star Trek: The Motion Picture, released in 1979, recalling that it was one of the first science fiction movies to depict a computer machine nearly destroying…

The News Suffers from Mad Cow Disease: Just Call Me a Peacenik Please

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The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson –  WASHINGTON, D.C. — There is a desperation coming through over the airwaves that is making people sick. It’s no wonder so many people in the United States have stopped paying attention to news, and that includes me. It’s all just too much. Too much sensationalism. Too much…

The Tenth Anniversary of the New American Journal May be the Last

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Have we reached the ‘singularity’ from science fiction when computer robots take over? – The Big Picture –  By Glynn Wilson –  WASHINGTON, D.C. — This is no longer science fiction. The computer robots are taking over, if they haven’t already. In 2007, the year Steve Jobs announced that Apple had invented the iPhone and…

Secret Vistas: A Day Trip to Shenandoah to Focus the Mind

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Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — So in between everything else that’s going on in the news and my life at this time, which has been pretty busy and productive of late, I had a chance on Thursday to get out on the road for a day trip to Shenandoah National…

The Osgood Files: When the Cutting Edge Becomes Obsolete

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — When the news broke in the New York Times this past week that Charles Osgood Wood died, I knew there would be a retrospective on CBS’s “Sunday Morning” show. I made it a point to get out of bed at 9 a.m. in time…

When the Press is In League with Nazis

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — It would be nice to wake up one winter morning in America and turn on the news to find out that the world is at peace, prosperity abounds. How about this for a lede story banner headline? THE WORLD IS AT PEACE, THE ECONOMY…

If A Tree Falls in the Forest, Will it Ever Be Heard From Again?

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Under the Microscope – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound? This, of course, is an age old thought experiment that is tinged with the stink of Anthropocentrism, homocentricism, or if you like, human…

Year in Review for 2023: Democracy on Trial, the Planet in Peril

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In one sure sign that traditional press and media outlets have been influenced, for good or ill, by the rise of social media, look no further than the end of the year review stories. For a couple of centuries, newspapers filled space between the…

The End of Innocence: Everybody Cheats, Even Facebook and Harvard

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Everything has changed since Donald Trump cheated and got himself elected president in 2016. All of us true believers in American democracy were naive, including the top public opinion pollsters and journalists. Almost no one gave him a chance. Now many of the same…

Learning How to Deal With Anxiety by Communing With Nature

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Editor’s Note: It has long been claimed by nature writers, scientists, psychologists and even the National Park Service that spending time outdoors in nature is good for human physical and mental health. My good friend Edward O. Wilson (no relation) put forward the theory of Biophilia in a book by that name in 1984. The…

Is a Trump Dictatorship Inevitable?

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The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Everyone should remember this day elevon months from now on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Election Day — because of what I’m about to say. As the one American journalist and public opinion analyst who predicted that Donald Trump would win the presidential election of…