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Revenge on the Nerds: Why It's So Cool to Laugh at the Tech World Now
In a lavish Silicon Valley mansion, amid ridiculous liquid-shrimp appetizers and a performance from Kid Rock— “the poorest person here” in a room full of Eric Schmidts and Elon Musks—a handful of...
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An Assistant That Helps You Text Message
1. WhatsApp + Siri = Emu. "If you text a friend to ask if she’d like to grab lunch, you’ll both see a little bubble you can tap to make a calendar appointment. If your friend suggests a restaurant, Emu...
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How to Turn a Pencil Into a Diamond
The "lead" in your pencil is misnamed. The gray stuff is actually composed of graphite, which is the stablest form of the element carbon. Its bonded atoms are arranged in planar sheets, layered on...
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The Fall of Internet Freedom: Meet the Company That Secretly Built ‘Cuban...
The United States discreetly supported the creation of a website and SMS service that was, basically, a Cuban version of Twitter, the Associated Press reported Thursday. ZunZuneo, as it was called,...
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Google Is Trying to Trademark the Word 'Glass'—and It's in Good Company
This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google, which long ago trademarked "Google Glass," is experiencing some difficulty in the next stage of its IP journey: trademarking the word "glass"...
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Fire + Tornado = Fire Tornado
On March 14, 2014, in a wildlife preserve near the Denver airport, firefighters started a fire. It was a "controlled burn," a practice typically made during cooler times of year—meant to prevent the...
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Why a Video of a Two-Legged Boxer Puppy Went Viral
My dad called me this weekend to inform me that my home county in southwest Washington had a new celebrity: a two-legged boxer named Duncan, from Vancouver. Duncan was born with two severely deformed...
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For Shame: The Giant Poster That Shows Drone Pilots the People They're Bombing
A new project, initiated by a collective of artists from around the world including the French JR, has tried to reach the people pulling the trigger in America's drone wars—the drone operators...
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Victorian Buzzfeed: 'The 25 Stages From Courtship to Marriage'
The Internet did not invent the listicle. Lists-as-arguments—lists-as-stories—have, of course, been around since long, long before Buzzfeed came along. And they haven't just been around; they've also...
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The Meteoric Rise in Boys’ Names Ending in This Letter
Ryan. Ethan. Aidan. Mason. Since 2011, four of the 10 most popular names for baby boys have ended in the letter "n." To the extent that letter currently concludes a whopping 36 percent of boys' names....
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But Seriously Now, Why Do Doctors Still Make You Fill Out Forms on Clipboards?
We'll get back to St. Marys, Georgia, later today. For now, let's dip back into the mailbag for the latest array of views -- most from doctors or other medical professionals, some from technologists,...
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What an Autopilot Could Never Do
Last week I posted a video of airliners whose pilots skillfully executed the "crab into kick" technique for landing in a crosswind. As a reminder: the airplane approaches the runway at a "crab" angle,...
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These Emojis Would Like to Help You Structure Your Data
Last week, as a result of its most recent hackathon, Yelp rolled out a new system for its mobile apps: the ability to search business listings with emojis. So: looking for a nearby pizza spot? Type a...
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The Minds of Other Things
1. Oliver Sacks on what plants and earthworms and insects think. (Or how they think.) (Or if they think.) "For Darwin, the ability to modulate responses indicated 'the presence of a mind of some kind.'...
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How to Drill for Oil in the Brutal Conditions of the North Sea
Meet the Maersk Intrepid. It's the first in a series of four "ultra harsh environment XL enhanced jack-up" rigs being rolled out by Maersk, the Danish business conglomerate, through 2016—to be deployed...
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'Being a Programmer, I Decided to Build a Mathematical Model for the Decay of...
When my wife and I were shopping for houses, it never occurred to us to look at the curtain rods for the showers. They’re all the same, right? As it turns out, the ones we inherited when we bought our...
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The 5 Things To Do About the New Heartbleed Bug
[Please see important UPDATE in a newer post, and repeated at the bottom of this post.] Most flaps about scary new Internet bugs are just typical scary Internet flaps. This latest one, the Heartbleed...
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In 1893, Someone Predicted We’d Wear Leggings as Pants
Predicting the future is no easy task. Fifty years ago, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov imagined the technology of 2014 and saw underground suburbs, cube-like televisions, and a widening gap...
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What an Energy Revolution Doesn't Look Like
When I started writing about energy in 2007, it seemed like a revolution was on the way! Concern about climate change seemed to be growing and the cost of wind and solar power were declining. Fast...
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The 'Survival Selfie'
Why do people take selfies? You could say it's because of narcissism. You could also say it's because of insecurity. You could also say it's because of fun and whimsy and anyway let's not overthink it...
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