Sarah Outhwaite

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'The Pickup Artist': Chick Appeal?

Last night, I tuned in to The Pickup Artist with some male friends who wanted to hone and master their lady-skills. Frankly, I was curious: what were these secret, manipulative tricks, designed to draw women like a fly to honey? What could I learn about my gender through the other’s eyes? And most importantly, why did host "Mystery" wear ski goggles?... More

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Reading Between the (Top Chef Judge's) Lines

Parataxis: a lack of syntax.  In literary terms, it’s the placement of two seemingly unrelated statements next to each other, leaving the observer to create the unspoken connection.  Consider then the assembled statements - made in different places and at different times by Bravo head judge Tom Colicchio - regarding producer interference with elimination decisions on his... More

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Giving Steroid Sports a Cold Shoulder

Is this the autumn of the Tour de France? Its riders are dropping like leaves in the wake of a series of doping scandals. The hard line the Tour has chosen to take on the drug use that threatens its integrity is difficult to imagine replicating in America, and so is the even harder line that has been taken by the German public media. German public stations ARD and ZDF made an... More

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The Democrats V. The Cheek of the American People

Last night’s CNN/YouTube debate marked the first sweeping change to the presidential debate formula since the first one aired in 1960. It brought the democratic candidates closer than ever to the American people - including the side of the American people that relished the chance to sass the would-be-president face-to-face. This mixture of public access and entitlement may have finally... More

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Hands-On Technology, Hands Off the Remote

Television may yet shed its reputation for letting bodies atrophy in sluggish stupors. From the movement-sensitive Wii to finger-based iPhone controls to the stylus-operated Nintendo DS, screen technology engages the hands of users as never before. Now, Australian engineers have taken this a step further and replaced the hand-held remote with the hand itself. Their wave controller box... More