In an interesting video posted this past Friday, Mitt Romney describes a Chinese factory he visited back in his days at Bain Capital. The video was posted on YouTube by someone apparently pretending to be Rachel Maddow of MSNBC with the sensational title, “Mitt Romney admits to using Chinese slave labor at Bain.” Regardless of the source, however, … Continue reading
What is litter? What is trash? One could look for a definition given by an esteemed dictionary or Wikipedia, but we all know it when we see it. Trash is something we don’t want. It is waste. It pollutes. Its persistence in our environment makes us uncomfortable. We bag it and stick it in bins in … Continue reading
From time to time in my travels I have come across unusual things that seem to defy interpretation—inscrutable objects that intrigue me because they are so mysterious. In previous generations, perhaps an anthropologist in an unfamiliar place would have been captivated by unusual statues, unfamiliar religions, esoteric cultural habits or exotic totems. The museums of … Continue reading
