Current Issue
Vol. 39 Issue 7, Nov 01 2019
From the Editors
It is mid-semester. My hair is too long. Brown still has $1.4 billion dollars squirrelled away in tax havens in the Cayman Islands and I’m walking in the rain to my haircut, sucking on my split-ends like a small child, wiping raindrops off my lockscreen as I ignore yet another email from CareerLAB and futilely attempt to reschedule yet another lunch with another friend—leaving me to wonder darkly when my social life will transcend the fluorescent confines of my GCal—and I JUST WANT TO PROPOSE that all my friends being busy on a Wednesday night is not not politically significant. PERMIT ME TO SUGGEST that Christina Paxson is not not plotting to prevent us from creating connections and daily communal spaces that would allow us to see beyond the pervasive capitalist religion of individual success—or maybe she’s just keeping everyone from hanging out with me—and we should, THEREFORE, google Brown’s tax returns, ignore our emails, and get our friends to cut our hair.
– SVHRead More
Current Issue
Vol. 39 Issue 7, Nov 01 2019
Fire Power
PG&E and the California wildfire crisis
Images of firestorms, burning hills, and charred neighborhoods in California are becoming the horrid icons of the future’s climate. The state’s …
God in the Dataset
Opening the black box of machine learning
There will be no edges, but curves. -Tracy K. Smith The black box is a metaphor for a device whose inner …
Great Streets, Mobile City
Envisioning an equitable transportation system for the creative capital
Zooming down College Hill last weekend on our bikes, a friend and I criss-crossed our way downtown, barely avoiding cars and …
Paddling to the Source
The canoe in Canadian past and present
On day 19, my trip arrived at Wapekeka First Nation after weeks of sun, the most difficult leg of our journey …
The Perfect Companion
How sexbots yoke intimacy to exploitation
“Goodbye loneliness!” reads the homepage of RealDollX, where anyone can purchase a life-size, silicone, human-looking sex robot for the price of …
+++
Read More
From the Archive
Brunt of the Blade
Aspirational recycling in a post-National Sword world
For decades, barges of recyclables slowly dragged across the Pacific, acting as overrun vessels of the United States’ environmental hope. This …
The Fire to Release You
A conversation with Providence songwriter La Neve
On “A Pretty Red,” the opening track of her debut LP The Vital Cord, released October 14, La Neve sings over …
Besotten
Was Hamlet’s death Hamlet’s fault? she asked. I’m not so sure. The play is named after him, though, Ira-Taylor replied, half-laughing. …
Week in Ornaments
BRAINTREE's Monster house Halloween is under siege, and it’s a whole lot more personal than Starbucks’ red cups. The battleground for …