Losing My Wi-Fi Is Like Going Deaf
I’ve started this column five times, and all I’ve really got is: “I’ve literally just gotten back from two weeks on the road and I have no idea what to talk about.” I am one million, two hundred and...
View ArticleNorth Korea's Newly-Tested Nuclear Warhead Is Reportedly Lighter and More...
North Korea's latest nuclear test, as captured by seismic monitors in South Korea. Image: Lee Jin-Man/AP North Korea has been on a bit of an aggressive bent lately, and the country just pushed things...
View ArticleThe Palette of T. Takemoto and the Dark Art of Asshole Mario 3
Some real talk on Super Mario: He’s important. He’s omnipotent. He’s omnipresent. There’s no argument that Super Mario is the cornerstone of modern game development--his influence on both 2D and 3D...
View ArticleThe Unlikely Pair of Brooklyn Designers Who Are Building a Better Space Suit
When they first met in 2007, Ted Southern and Nik Moiseev came from two very different worlds. Nik had spent over two decades working in the Soviet Union and Russia as an engineer of cutting edge...
View ArticleThe One Percent Captured All the Wealth in the Post-Recession Recovery
Here's what the new economy looks like: As firms have replaced workers with robots and eliminated them altogether to climb out of the Great Recession, the entirety of pre-tax wage growth during the...
View ArticleEvery State of the Union Has Been Exactly the Same
In the corporate world, this is what might be called synergy. For the leaders of the free world, however, reciting the same blathering shit sandwich responses— Good: America rules! I'll be your...
View ArticleWhat the Future of American Train Travel Will Actually Look Like
Last week, plenty of folks went nuts over this nice little piece of design fiction—a map of an imaginary future United States where every high-speed rail line proposed in recent years got built. It’s...
View ArticleAbraham Lincoln Would've Loved Drones
America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. -Lincoln So it's Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Where to even start? For...
View ArticleDogs Sneakily Steal Things Because They Understand Human Behavior
If you live with a dog, or hopefully several, you might already be aware of the vast underestimation on the part of science of the abilities of dogs to think, feel, and generally understand stuff in...
View Article“It Will Take At Least One More” Mining Tragedy Before Congress Listens to...
When Don Blankenship, was the CEO of Massey Energy, his company routinely ignored safety violations at the coal mines it operated until one of them blew up, killing 29 people and ruining hundreds of...
View ArticleRio 'Pacifies' Its Favelas with the Help of Military Occupation
Mega–sporting events traditionally go hand in hand with police clampdowns against the local population. As Rio de Janeiro gears up for the World Cup and Olympics, police have begun to patrol a...
View ArticleTen Radically Futuristic Ideas in Obama's State of the Union Address
Obama's first State of the Union Address since his reelection was largely and predictably dedicated to nearsighted deficit talk and weary calls to overcome Congressional dysfunction. But amidst the...
View ArticleA New Startup Lets You Buy Pizza with Bitcoins, But the Dollar Still Rules
Pizza For Coins is a deep internet enthusiast's dream start-up. The site allows users to order Dominos Pizza delivery with bitcoins, perfect for those who love eating cinna-sticks as they browse...
View ArticleA For-Profit, State-Funded Online Public School Told Teachers to Rig Grades
Students work on schoolwork for Tennessee Virtual Academy, via a good New York Times story on the school Format-shifting massively online open courses are currently the darling of Silicon Valley,...
View ArticleThe Antarctic Ozone Hole Is the Smallest It's Been in a Decade
South Pole July-December ozone monitoring data from 2011 (left) and 2012. Image: KNMI Wonderful news from the European Space Agency's atmospheric monitors: the hole the ozone layer above Antarctica...
View ArticleAaron Swartz and Bradley Manning Won't Be the Last Victims of the War Against...
“Remember how they outlawed acid soon as they found out it was a channel to something they didn't want us to see? Why should information be any different?” So says paranoid, stoner gumshoe Doc...
View ArticleTinder, a No-Bull Dating App, Is the End-All of Online Dating
I'm no good at this, I don't know where to start. I'm from California via Washington, I moved to NYC five years ago. I'm a student, a musician, I paint, I dabble in photography. I'm a freelance writer...
View ArticleThe Worst Thing About GMOs Is That They're Not In the Public Domain
The biggest threat posed by genetically modified foods is not to human health—there are plenty of reasons to be adamant in observing the impact of GMOs, but there’s not much credible science...
View ArticleShould Drones Have Been Used to Find Christopher Dorner?
Reports are still very, very sketchy, but it looks like Christopher Dorner maybe--maybe--met a fiery end after evading (and killing) authorities and generally terrorizing southern California for the...
View ArticleNextdoor Wants to Take Neighborhood Watch to the Next Level
Nowadays, you probably don't even know your neighbors, but that doesn't mean you can't meet them with the help of a new kind of social network. Think of it like online dating, only useful. Remember...
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