Essays
Junk science? Most preclinical cancer studies don't replicate
Published on Apr 6th, 2012
3 comments More by Ron Bailey • Gas, not water: A better fracking way to tap shale • Germ theory: What if disease causes autocracy? • How many? Numbers suggest a low terror deathcount When a cancer study is...
Excuses, excuses: Still fair to call farmers environmentalists?
Published on Mar 30th, 2012
20 comments By Michael Akey“Farmers are the original environmentalists.” That’s the phrase I heard several times during a recent state legislature committee hearing on a bill that would limit when farmers could...
Chipping away: True confessions of a juicer
Published on Mar 25th, 2012
19 comments Remember the chipper scene from Fargo? Frances McDormand is a cop investigating a homicide when she comes upon a man who is feeding, we are to believe, Steve Buscemi’s leg into a wood chipper.In...
Holy wars: Then, now, and Iran
Published on Mar 22nd, 2012
0 comments By Tony Perrino   Warfare is as old as humanity. Since the beginning of civilization, people have fought one another, justifying their aggression as a matter of survival. But the most vicious...
Irish flashback: Sowing the seeds of the Afghan massacre
Published on Mar 14th, 2012
25 comments When I heard the news of the American soldier charged with the slaughter of 16 people in Afghanistan, I instantly flashed back to a ferry trip in the early 1970s from Liverpool to Belfast. What could...
Real meaning: When a community rallies...
Published on Mar 6th, 2012
0 comments By Sheila Booth“It takes a village...” comes to mind when searching for a phrase to describe the essence of community. But if anyone really wanted to see these words in action, to know the meaning of...
Toasty trio: Three Charlottesville fireplaces worth visiting
Published on Feb 27th, 2012
0 comments Ol’ man Winter has given Central Virginians a break, but we still have to get through March before dogwoods bloom, so chances are good a bitter wind will blow a little more snow and ice our way. And...
Bad behavior: Huguely tests limits of lawyers
Published on Feb 23rd, 2012
1 comments By David L. Heilberg Whatever George Huguely gets convicted for (second degree murder seems most likely from what unfolded at trial), it won't be the result of his legal defense.  As...
Inner grown-up: Avoid mayhem by listening to it
Published on Feb 21st, 2012
7 comments “Die, you bastard, die.” My father was moaning on the other side of the bathroom door, as my mother listened out in the hallway. He’d made himself sick with a few too many Tom Collins cocktails and...
Juror 206: A sad tale of two Charlottesville cases
Published on Feb 12th, 2012
29 comments By Jennifer Niesslein At the Charlottesville Circuit courtroom, the jury box faces outward toward the audience. I sat in that jury box on the afternoon of February 7 as a potential juror for the...
Abe in Va.: Quiet rides and sad sojourn deserve note
Published on Feb 4th, 2012
17 comments About 20 years ago, I saw an illustration of Abraham Lincoln entering Richmond, the familiar Jefferson-designed Capitol building looming in the background. I figured the drawing was Union propaganda...
Fading faith: The unreported story of our time
Published on Jan 29th, 2012
14 comments By JAMES A. HAUGHT The sea of faithWas once, too, at the full, and round Earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furledBut now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating...
Dumb and dumber: Silly stuff that's supposed to be green
Published on Jan 22nd, 2012
18 comments With the recent Detroit Automotive Show focusing on electrics and the Sierra Club having an electric car columnist, America continues to believe technology will save us. Let's see how that's working...
Online specs: How I reframed the discussion
Published on Jan 17th, 2012
9 comments “Why would you want to line the pockets of the Chinese or whoever, when you can buy your glasses from an optician right here in Charlottesville? Tell me you won’t buy your glasses over the Internet.”...
Rich and powerful: Why won't they save themselves?
Published on Jan 7th, 2012
29 comments I spent a recent week at Occupy Miami and Occupy Fort Lauderdale. One question came up several times: What if the system responds– or pretends to respond– to our demands? What if the...
A remembrance: Alicia Bowler Lugo
Published on Jan 2nd, 2012
8 comments My daughter was 11 when she told me, “I want to meet Alicia.” I had talked about my boss, but I guess I never realized how much, until my young Margaret wanted to meet her based on my larger-than-...
My minute with Hitch
Published on Dec 16th, 2011
11 comments I got word this morning, December 16, that the most iconoclastic journalist of his time, Christopher Hitchens, died yesterday. I thought you might like to hear of my one interaction with him. It was...
Starts with you: How to get your democracy back
Published on Dec 14th, 2011
4 comments I’m no genius; anyone who knows me will confirm that. If you asked me to explain why our economy has been shot to hell over the past few years, I’d be hard-pressed to explain what happened. I know it...
Great people? Steve Jobs, the Occupy movement, and us
Published on Dec 1st, 2011
9 comments by Bill GundersonSteve Jobs was a Great Man. Not always a Nice Guy. That is the secret the Occupy Wall Street crowd does not know.Apparently, the greatest industrialist in American history would yell...
Accidental plagiarism: It has a long prominent history
Published on Nov 9th, 2011
5 comments Now that the Cavalier Daily’s Honor Code issues have passed, let’s remember that privacy, plagiarism, and free speech are often in conflict in any real world, not just on the Internet or in a college...
Happy endings: Throwing off the bad boy-- Kindle
Published on Nov 3rd, 2011
1 comments I’m a little embarrassed. Not so long ago (Has it been two years? Seriously?) I spouted off in this public forum about my love– well, let’s call it infatuation– for you, my Kindle e-...
Power check: The vanishing jury trial in Virginia
Published on Oct 27th, 2011
10 comments Many people think trial by jury is a bedrock of American government, but according to statistics from the Virginia judicial system, fewer than two percent of our state's criminal cases are now...
ABC...F: What's wrong with state alcohol laws
Published on Oct 20th, 2011
0 comments By Don Harrison "The ABCs of Virginia Alcohol Law” packs an awful lot of absurdity into its five-minute running time. The award-winning short-form documentary, made by filmmakers Austin Bragg and...
Steve's magic: The irony behind Apple's success
Published on Oct 6th, 2011
9 comments By Andrew Potter The internet chatterbots still weren't finished complaining about the underwhelming iPhone 4S Apple's first major product launch under new CEO Tim Cook when it was announced that...
How many? Numbers suggest a low terror deathcount
Published on Oct 6th, 2011
0 comments How many Americans have been killed in terrorist attacks inside the United States since the September 11, 2001, atrocities? Arguably 16. Egyptian Hesham Mohamed Hadayet killed two Israelis at the...
Like Halprin: Passonneau had a vision for Charlottesville
Published on Sep 29th, 2011
5 comments Joseph Passonneau, a renowned American architect-engineer, died in Washington, D.C. in late August at the age of 90. Among his accomplishments was his design of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in...
After Ike: Can Charlottesville love both peace and war?
Published on Sep 7th, 2011
50 comments If I told you I would support women's rights as long as I didn't have to oppose rape, you’d think I needed lessons in both logic and basic human decency. If I said I would favor freedom as long as I...
Socialism: Relax, it could be coming to your living room
Published on Aug 31st, 2011
50 comments So you’ve got a solid grip on your middle-class status, right? You have a decent job, you take care of yourself, and you don’t need no stinkin’ handout from the government. Handouts count as...
Game over: Whites 2, blacks 0 in Democrats' firehouse primary
Published on Aug 25th, 2011
62 comments By Rob Schilling A 32-year reign of engineered, single-seat black representation on Charlottesville’s City Council crashed to a screeching halt on Sunday, August 21 with the early morning release of...
Shaken and stirred: Why Winehouse's death can help kids
Published on Aug 18th, 2011
0 comments By Bruce Kluger I was unexpectedly shaken when I learned the news about singer Amy Winehouse, who was found dead in her North London home just hours after her manager had announced that she was...