Life With and Within the Robot

Dear Friend and Reader: The other night I went to the movies with my cousin Dominick Vanacore, and we saw Ex Machina. One of my principles of film is that any movie worth seeing once is worth seeing twice, and Ex Machina qualifies. It’s the story of a programming genius (modeled after a search-engine billionaire who goes into … Read more

Marketing Crisco

BY SUSHAMA GOKHALE Reprinted from Wise Traditions magazine. The FDA is creeping toward banning trans-fats, or what are technically called partially hydrogenated fats. I saw this article in Wise Traditions magazine and asked the author if we could reprint it — thanks for that permission, Sushama. I think you’ll love this work of journalistic art. … Read more

Moving Mountains

Published Aug. 2, 2013 | Link to original Dear Friend and Reader: Nearly everyone who lives in the Hudson Valley of New York is familiar with the land preservation efforts of Mohonk Preserve. The name has a national reputation, synonymous with forests, trails and the most famous rock climbing area in the Northeast — the … Read more

A Fine Line: Roe v. Wade at 40

By Eric Francis Coppolino | Link to original Dear Friend and Reader: Tuesday, the Roe v. Wade decision of the U.S. Supreme Court has its 40th anniversary. As I imagine most people know, this was the court’s 1973 landmark ruling that defines a woman’s right to terminate an early-term pregnancy, in consultation with her doctor. Less often … Read more

Storm Warnings: Astrology and the Assassination of JFK

Link to original Dear Friend and Reader: My original plan for this week was to write an interpretation of the chart for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, prior to the Mercury retrograde election on Tuesday, but then the storm intervened. I will get to Sandy and the election in a moment. First, let’s make … Read more