Let’s all talk about gifted and talented programs for a few minutes

This is an interesting topic, and a lot has been written about it recently because of a new study in American Economic Journal: Economic Policy that essentially says studying with other high-achieving peers has no real benefit. After 1.5 years of gifted and… Continue Reading

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These Amazon Studios original shows — “Betas” and “Alpha House” — are actually pretty good, as is Amazon’s model

I’ve been devouring these two new shows on Amazon Prime Video, Betas and Alpha House. I say “devouring” but that’s probably not the right word — more on that in a second. Just quick backstory: Betas is about an app launch in… Continue Reading

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake might save SNL tonight

Fallon is hosting, and Timberlake — a five-time host himself — is the “musical guest.” It’s been an uneven season for Saturday Night Live (Kerry Washington episode was good, John Goodman episode was meh, and some episodes were entirely forgettable), but this… Continue Reading

The Tyler Hadley story is one of the craziest, most awful things you’ll ever encounter

Rolling Stone just released a long-form article on the Tyler Hadley case, which you can read here. I won’t go too deeply into the background or even into this post because the whole thing is fairly depressing, but essentially, Hadley was a… Continue Reading

Why isn’t Rian Johnson doing more TV?

Rian Johnson is a director/writer/editor. You may know him from Brick, The Brothers Bloom, or Looper, which are some of his main films (the latter, Looper, did pretty well at the box office). If you were a fan of TV in 2013, though, you… Continue Reading

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The Milken Best Performing Cities list tells us to move west of the Mississippi and/or embrace Columbia, Missouri

The Milken Institute released its annual Best Performing Cities list this week. Here’s the methodology, and here’s the list of “best large cities” and “best small cities.” There are a bunch of cool features, including the ability to compare different cities,… Continue Reading

What’s the best holiday season ad of all-time?

This Apple ad about how the teenage generation is digitally misunderstood dropped a couple of days ago. It’s pretty good and fairly emotional (you might cry, as it seems like Time Magazine did). Got me thinking: the holiday season is really the… Continue Reading

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On loving lists, or how I learned to stop worrying and embrace the future of the Internet

December is inextricably tied up with lists. One of the main songs we hear during the month contains the phrase “making a list, checking it twice…” We want to recap the year and rank everything possible — movies, TV shows, searches,… Continue Reading