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Vicks VapoRub and Me
In 1894, the Greensboro pharmacist Lunsford Richardson II developed a mentholated topical ointment, Vicks Magic Croup Salve, to cure a common infant affliction: congestion and a barking cough. Named...
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Facebook Has All the Power
Amid growing calls for formal investigations into Facebook's disturbing mood manipulation research, media scholar Jay Rosen has a reminder for journalists, editors, and personal social media users...
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Why Crossovers Conquered the American Highway
Something extraordinary is happening in the American automobile market. A new style of vehicle is taking over the supermarket parking lots, rural highways, and city streets. It's part SUV, part car,...
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The Lost and Found Legacy of Barbara Ringer
I came across a quote a few weeks ago—one that so perfectly encapsulates the outdatedness and skepticism surrounding copyright law—that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen before: “The 1976 Copyright Act...
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Down but Not Out: The Uncertain Future of the Crossword Puzzle
While the world warns of an impending print collapse, it might take down an innocent bystander with it—those little black and white squares that have long inhabited the back pages of newspapers and...
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California High-Speed Rail—the Critics' Case
Every big peacetime project that any democracy has ever undertaken has generated controversy. In retrospect, both the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and the Alaska Purchase of 1867 look like Heaven-sent,...
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Where Online Services Go When They Die
Michael Doino approached the late hours of October 1, 1999, with a lingering sense of dread. It was finally time, after 11 years, to pull the plug on Prodigy Classic, a commercial online service he...
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What Does Your City Look Like From Space?
Who isn’t moved by images of the Earth at night? In the contrast it shows between nature and settlement—in the civilizational network it reveals—it gestures at the mystery of human society. These...
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What Happens When Digital Cities Are Abandoned?
I stand at the junction of several dusty, well-traveled roads. Passersby hurry through, chattering and laughing as they make their way from the city looming in the distance to the north, along the...
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Sunday Evening Tech Tips, en Français
The site I'm about to mention will be most appealing to you if you use Macs, and more worthwhile still if you're either able to read French or in the mood to cope with online translations. If you're...
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First Comes Skype, Then Comes Marriage
I only met my wife eight times, in person, before we got married. It all began on a late evening in Toronto when a woman from Los Angeles messaged me on OkCupid to say she liked my look, and that it...
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California High-Speed Rail No. 3—Let's Hear From the Chairman
First, a word about the roadmap for the series I have in mind here. Last week, in installment No. 1, I tried to put California’s proposed north-south high-speed rail (HSR) system in perspective, and...
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7 Ways in Which High-Speed Rail Would Help California, According to its Chairman
This is a follow-on to the post earlier today, in an ongoing series about the most important infrastructure project in America today, the attempt under Gov. Jerry Brown to build a north-south...
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The Most Burning Man Thing Ever
Where else might a person encounter a retrofitted school bus topped with a giant, climbable, light-up, model of an actual human brain but at Burning Man? In technology circles, the enormous...
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Why Poor Schools Can’t Win at Standardized Testing
You hear a lot nowadays about the magic of big data. Getting hold of the right numbers can increase revenue, improve decision-making, or help you find a mate—or so the thinking goes. In 2009, U.S....
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Cats Deserve a Better Video Game
Tablet gaming has been revolutionary. And yet, its importance is often under-recognized. Its intuitive and basic design has made gaming a more accessible hobby for an audience that spans from small...
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Teju Cole's Favorite Images From 'The Time of the Game'
When we talked Monday about his collaborative Twitter project The Time of the Game, I asked writer Teju Cole if he had any favorite images from the submissions. These are the ones he highlighted. Our...
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When the World Watches the World Cup, What Does That Look Like?
We still don’t know how many people watched Sunday’s World Cup final, but the numbers from the last go-round provide a clue. In 2010, FIFA claimed that 900 million people watched at least one minute of...
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How Coolness Defined the World Wide Web of the 1990s
Summer is the ideal season to contemplate that perennial, overused, and ever-elusive concept of cool. This summer is particularly ripe, for August marks the 20th anniversary of an early web phenomenon...
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Iron Dome—Savior, or Sales Job?
In its lead story this morning, the WaPo tells us that Israel's famous "Iron Dome" air defense system has been a huge technical success that has changed the realities of battle. The system, for the...
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