Reflections on Media and Politics
On the first Friday of most months, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases a single number that shapes political debate, financial markets and Federal Reserve decisions: the unemployment rate. In its report for September 2026, re…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
Over the past few years, microplastics have been reported in almost every part of the human body that researchers have examined: blood, lungs, placentas, testes, arterial plaque a…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
Air-quality apps, weather forecasts and news reports now routinely give a number for fine particulate matter, usually written as PM2.5. A city might report an annual average of 9…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
In May 2023, Disney told investors it would remove dozens of titles from its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services, including shows the company had commissioned itself. Among them w…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
The American criminal trial is one of the most familiar institutions in the world. It fills courtroom dramas, true-crime podcasts and civics lessons. It is also, statistically, cl…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
Collective memory is the shared pool of events, stories, and images that a society holds in common — and it is far from a neutral or complete record of the past. Societies remembe…
MHB Admin · August 25, 2026
The Streisand effect is the phenomenon in which an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information ends up drawing far more attention to it than it would ever have recei…
MHB Admin · August 20, 2026
There is a strange assumption buried in modern ownership: that buying something entitles you to use it, but not necessarily to fix it. Break the screen on your phone, and repairin…
MHB Admin · August 13, 2026
There is an entire industry built around you that you have never knowingly interacted with, whose products are dossiers about your life, and whose customers are anyone willing to…
MHB Admin · August 5, 2026
Most people assume that in a country built on the presumption of innocence, the government cannot take your property unless you have been convicted of a crime. Most people are wro…
MHB Admin · July 28, 2026
On television, forensic science is infallible. A technician glances at a hair under a microscope, matches it to a suspect, and the case is closed. The jury nods; the audience is s…
MHB Admin · July 22, 2026
In May 2023, Disney told investors it would remove dozens of titles from its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services, including shows the company had commissioned itself. Among them w…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
Collective memory is the shared pool of events, stories, and images that a society holds in common — and it is far from a neutral or complete record of the past. Societies remembe…
MHB Admin · August 25, 2026
The Streisand effect is the phenomenon in which an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information ends up drawing far more attention to it than it would ever have recei…
MHB Admin · August 20, 2026
There is an entire industry built around you that you have never knowingly interacted with, whose products are dossiers about your life, and whose customers are anyone willing to…
MHB Admin · August 5, 2026
The Freedom of Information Act, signed in 1966, was built on a radical and democratic premise: that government records belong, by default, to the public, and that officials should…
MHB Admin · June 19, 2026
Ask someone why they play a game of chance and they will usually mention winning. Ask them, weeks later, what they actually remember, and you will hear something else entirely — t…
MHB Admin · June 5, 2026
Over the past few years, microplastics have been reported in almost every part of the human body that researchers have examined: blood, lungs, placentas, testes, arterial plaque a…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
Air-quality apps, weather forecasts and news reports now routinely give a number for fine particulate matter, usually written as PM2.5. A city might report an annual average of 9…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
No other wealthy country produces medical debt at industrial scale. People get sick everywhere; only in the United States does illness routinely convert into a collections account…
MHB Admin · July 15, 2026
On the first Friday of most months, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases a single number that shapes political debate, financial markets and Federal Reserve decisions:…
MHB Admin · October 8, 2026
There is a strange assumption buried in modern ownership: that buying something entitles you to use it, but not necessarily to fix it. Break the screen on your phone, and repairin…
MHB Admin · August 13, 2026
The non-compete clause was invented for a specific, narrow problem: an executive walks out the door with the customer list, the pricing model, and the product roadmap, and sets up…
MHB Admin · July 11, 2026