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Fear of a Red-Headed Emoji
Last week, news came that the great emoji disparity would finally be addressed: In Apple’s next version of its phone and desktop operating systems, users would be able to type emoji people of color....
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A Symphony for Cats
Have you ever tried grooving with your cat to some song, only to have your feline friend shake you off? Perhaps your pet is apathetic about music. Typical. But new research shows that cats do enjoy...
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What Makes an Electric Guitar Sound Like an Electric Guitar
There’s an old joke in the technology industry: If a product has a problem, simply sell it as a feature. The electric-guitar-effects industry is no different. Music has often thrived on transforming...
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The State Secrets in Chappaqua
Like a salmon returning to its home stream, the Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy, in which the former secretary of state exclusively used a private e-mail address to conduct government business...
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The Failed Attempt to Destroy GPS
On May 10, 1992, the activists Keith Kjoller and Peter Lumsdaine snuck into a Rockwell International facility in Seal Beach, California. They used wood-splitting axes to break into two clean rooms...
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Lost Civilizations, Found by Drones
Beneath the barren New Mexican desert, there are remnants of an ancient Pueblo society that thrived some 1,000 years ago. John Kantner, an archeologist from the University of North Florida, has...
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How Air-Traffic Controllers Sound When They Have to Close the Airport
It's obviously good news that no one appears to have been hurt when a Delta Air Lines flight skidded off a runway this morning at LaGuardia airport. Here's an aspect of the whole process I find...
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Slow TV and the Excruciating Present
There are many ways to kill time on the Internet. Late one night in January, I found myself on Reddit and came across a thread titled, "This guy streams himself sitting and smiling for hours. I'm not...
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Was Marijuana Really Less Potent in the 1960s?
One of the strongest known strains of marijuana in the world is called Bruce Banner #3, a reference to the comic-book scientist whose alter ego is the Hulk. This is probably an appropriate nickname....
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A Brewing Problem
Loskutnikov/RobHainer/WarrenPrice/littleny/Shutterstock/TheAtlantic“I don't have one. They're kind of expensive to use,” John Sylvan told me frankly, of Keurig K-Cups, the single-serve brewing pods...
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If Apple Watch Isn't a Watch, What Is It?
The Apple Watch is a watch in as much as a DVD player or a microwave is a watch. (A DVD player is a machine that people used to play movies at home before Netflix.) That is to say, there is a clock on...
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Interesting Software Update: Tinderbox How-To, Jerry's Brain
It's been a while since the latest update on this front, so here is a quick mention of developments in two programs I've followed over the years. 1) "Getting Started With Tinderbox." For the past few...
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The Age of Never-Ending Internet Chats
A few years ago, I moved across the country from my friend Phoebe. I missed her a lot—but it helped that I was talking to her on Gchat multiple times a day. Instant messaging turned out to offer each...
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Do Tech Companies Owe It to the Public to Cooperate With Surveillance?
The greatest new threat to American security is that thousands of Westerners will return from the Middle East and Africa with the training and intent to commit acts of terrorism. Given that it is...
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With Its $10,000 Watch, Apple Has Lost Its Soul
In 1997, Steve Jobs returned to the struggling computer company he founded. It was not in good shape. Apple, which had pioneered the category of the personal computer, was barely staving off...
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The Real Politics of a Virtual Society
Around this time last year I started getting wind of “The Bloodbath of B-R5B.” The epic battle took place in the massive multiplayer online-space-simulator EVE, and according to the game’s developer,...
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Finding Out What the Past Smelled Like
It was the smell that hit me first, a heady mixture of roasting meat, woodsmoke, and farmyard manure. Nearby I could hear a low murmured conversation—but the words were muffled and unclear. I could see...
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Inspector Gadget, but for Nuclear Waste
It's not safe for humans to spend much time at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plant anymore. Four years ago, a massive tsunami hit the facility, triggering a core meltdown that earned the most severe...
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Medical Technology Makes 'Time of Death' Harder to Pinpoint
We tried our best, but CPR, an injection of epinephrine, and 360 joules of electricity all failed to restart Mrs. Melnyk’s heart. When everybody on the resuscitation team agreed that we could do no...
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How Chameleons Change Color
Skin that changes color according to one’s emotional status may be the stuff of human nightmares; for chameleons, though, it’s essential to survival. The lizards’ hue-changing skin, for one thing,...
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