Think Different: Apple, the Counterculture, and Digital Culture, 1976-2026
Join us for this talk on the counterculture's significant influence on Apple's origin story as the company turns 50 on April 1st.
As we approach Apple's 50th anniversary, I'll be talking with John Markoff and Steven Levy about the counterculture's influence on Silicon Valley. Monday, March 16, at Manny's in San Francisco. Steven Levy was a late addition so not mentioned in this copy. www.eventbrite.com/e/think-diff...
10.03.2026 03:09
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Where to, Nick?
07.03.2026 00:14
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Experts note that 1939 was a peak year in American film history ("The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind"), but it was also a stellar year for Los Angeles literature ("The Big Sleep," "The Day of the Locust"). Global conflicts were roiling, local corruption was in the news, and criminal syndicates were consolidating their grip on local unions and businesses, including film studios. In this course, we will consider Los Angeles during what may have been its most incendiary year, paying special attention to film, literature, politics, and organized crime before the Second World War.
I will teach my Los Angeles course live and online through Cal State Monterey Bay's OLLI program. We will focus on one incandescent year (1939), with special attention to film, literature, politics, and organized crime. Click for details. olli.csumb.edu/courses/view...
13.02.2026 15:37
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Course Sessions
Cal Lutheran is offering my online course on Rolling Stone magazine's first decade. Four two-hour courses, one per week, starts March 3. Click for more info.
10.02.2026 00:34
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The Intellectual Edgelords of the GOP
The mainstreaming of transgressive ideas is the culmination of a yearslong conservative project.
Please stop calling them intellectuals. Intellectuals tell the truth and expose lies about the major issues of the day. Edgelords try to shock or provoke by posting extremist views.
07.02.2026 18:45
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The cavalry isn't coming. Or rather, we ARE the cavalry.
06.02.2026 23:54
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I don't assume that, sorry if that's how my remark came off. Do you agree that many tenured faculty are OK with a two-tiered system? Now it looks like the wrong tier is becoming the norm.
06.02.2026 18:53
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Tenure has been phasing out for many years now. The vast majority of college instructors don't have tenure or the prospect of tenure. In fact, they have no reasonable expectation of continued employment. Would have been nice if tenured faculty objected to the obvious inequity of that system.
06.02.2026 15:48
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They are the vast majority of college instructors.
05.02.2026 22:52
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How about the Parable of the Bad Samaritan?
05.02.2026 15:35
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The Post lost $100m in 2024. If it did that every year for two centuries, it would lose $20b. Bezos's net worth today is $250b. He could publish a great newspaper if he wanted to. He doesn't.
04.02.2026 18:30
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CM's prose style causes me to feel fatigue and hostility.
03.02.2026 16:04
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Keeping David in my thoughts.
03.02.2026 15:07
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As you say, the money comes from television. Sports is more valuable to television now because it's the only thing viewers will watch in real time. That means they will sit through the ads.
03.02.2026 15:03
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bsky.app/profile/star...
31.01.2026 00:53
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I also have deep misgivings about this beard.
31.01.2026 00:44
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Can the Counterculture Rise Again?
Donald Trump and tech billionaires have killed the counterculture that thrived in past eras of protest. Can today's artists lead the resistance again?
Jonathan Taplin's piece for Rolling Stone never mentions Theodore Roszak, who named and parsed the counterculture and technocracy back in 1969. In the 1980s, he also predicted Silicon Valley's glide to surveillance and control. His absence here makes it harder to answer the article's main question.
30.01.2026 22:19
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They Wanted a University Without Cancel Culture. Then Dissenters Were Ousted.
Inside the civil war at the anti-woke university backed by Bari Weiss.
The university under the leadership of Bari Weiss, Niall Ferguson, and Joe Lonsdale isn't a bastion of free speech and open inquiry? Shocker.
16.01.2026 22:42
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Completely impractical for a public research university.
16.01.2026 19:37
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Very low crime rates. High wages. Impressive literacy rates and life expectancy. All the children are above average. But somehow they're all desperados now? Save that for the rubes.
15.01.2026 21:57
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Early days.
14.01.2026 23:42
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The original headline was "Videos Show Increasingly Aggressive Federal Crackdown in Minneapolis."
14.01.2026 15:32
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βLike a Military Occupationβ: Clashes Rise With Federal Agents in Minneapolis
How does any of this make us safer?
14.01.2026 15:29
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Now scheduling events and interviews to promote "Brand New Beat," my forthcoming book about the first decade of Rolling Stone magazine. Publication date is April 7. Let me know if you have something in mind. More info at bookselling websites of your choice.
09.01.2026 18:04
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Oy.
04.01.2026 21:09
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I'm thinking about the two faculty committees. Why have them at all? Demoralizing and a big waste of time. This decision (and the one in Oklahoma) will also make it harder to recruit.
27.12.2025 14:55
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I reread the paper. It's essentially a sermon about God's plan for men and women, fortified with an appeal to her 1A rights, submitted for credit in an upper-division psychology class. She also rebukes her classmates for going along with the effort to eliminate gender. (Huh?)
26.12.2025 20:37
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