More Matthew Pate ↓
Tiptoeing through reader comments
Matthew Pate Comments May 03, 2013 1:45pmAt the risk of painting myself a lemming, I like to read online reviewers’ comments. I use them as research in buying decisions. I also use them as a temperature gauge for public sentiment.
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Martian Bigfoot Joins NRA
Matthew Pate Comments Updated: Apr 26, 2013 1:57pmFans of the classic sci-fi drama the X-Files will recall the poster hanging in Fox Mulder’s office. It showed a grainy gray disk hovering above a wooded horizon. The words “I want to believe” were...
Worse than a Kreelon invasion
Matthew Pate Comments Apr 19, 2013 1:07pmIn the 1997 sci-fi comedy “Men in Black,” Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) tells his partner, Agent J (Will Smith), an important thing about humanity: “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky,...
Smith’s invisible hand cracks whip
Matthew Pate Comments Updated: Apr 12, 2013 1:35pmRecently, Forbes.com released an interesting tidbit about global wealth. Of the roughly seven billion people roaming our bright blue sphere, just 1,426 of them have amassed a net wealth in excess...
Pipeline furthers energy pipedreams
Matthew Pate Comments Updated: Apr 05, 2013 10:04amWe’ve been down this road a hundred times. Even so, distorted facts gushing from lobbyists ensure we’ll be here again.
As has been widely reported, residents of the tiny town of Mayflower...
Bumpy-headed natural criminals
Matthew Pate Comments Mar 29, 2013 1:13pmThe scientific process is one that requires equal doses of hopefulness and skepticism. Scientists have to enthusiastically proffer theories as to how things work and then try to figure out every...
Fighting crime among saints
Matthew Pate Comments Mar 22, 2013 5:49pmWhether the police themselves would admit it, they exercise a great deal of discretion in deciding who “needs” a formal sanction. This is to say the police have a lot of latitude in determining...
Roman doughnut beats predictions
Matthew Pate Comments Mar 15, 2013 11:30amThe middle of March is an auspicious time. On the one hand, there’s Pi Day (3/14), the annual celebration of the irrational number, 3.14159… that’s used to describe the ratio of a circle’s...
Arkansas: Land of Opportunists
Matthew Pate Comments Updated: Mar 08, 2013 6:24pmIt would be hard to overstate my love of Arkansas. My colleagues in New York can certainly attest to the fact that I hardly shut up about it. I am lucky to live here.
Like most Southern...
Broiling chicken coop politics
Matthew Pate Comments Updated: Feb 22, 2013 7:02pmSome of my earliest memories are of visiting with my great-grandparents (my maternal grandfather’s folks). They were sharecroppers for nearly two-thirds of the 20th century. Even in their dotage,...
