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When Class Is Run by a Robot
AS 400 DB / CorbisThe first “teaching machine” was invented nearly a century ago by Sydney Pressey, a psychologist at Ohio University, out of spare typewriter parts. The device was simple, presenting...
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The Wire Hanger's Flexible Symbolism
Uniformed attendants wait to check guests' coats at an event at Lincoln Center in New York Mike Segar / ReutersThe average wire hanger measures 17 inches lengthwise and 44 inches when straightened....
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Colorful Lights Are Turning Skyscrapers Into Tacky Billboards
The Empire State Building is lit in rainbow colors during the celebration of the annual Gay Pride Parade in New York, June 2015. Eduardo Munoz / ReutersAfter the sun went down on April 29, 1942, in New...
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The Strange Rituals of Silicon Valley Intern Recruiting
Employees on Facebook's Menlo Park campus Jeff Chiu / APThe Wozniak Lounge, located on the northern side of campus at the University of California, Berkeley, looks like it was decorated by engineers,...
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Orbital View: The U.S. Capital, Covered in Snow
Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. as seen on January 24 (NASA / USGS) A lucky coincidence happened this weekend—and it’s good news for anyone who likes beautiful pictures from space.On Friday and Saturday,...
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Will Today’s Kids Be Stumped by the Technology of the Future?
A young boy watches a virtual drive at the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany. Ralph Orlowski / ReutersIf it sticks to its current cycle, Apple will proudly release iPhone 24 in the year 2050. An...
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People Thought Machine Guns Might Prevent Wars
A man poses with a machine gun aboard the U.S.S. Indiana, in 1895. Library of CongressHiram Maxim didn’t set out to invent a killing machine. But a lifetime of tinkering and building eventually led...
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A New and Stunning Way to See the Whole Earth
One part of one frame from Glittering.Blue, capturing Indonesia, much of South Asia and mainland China, and Typhoon Sudelor JMA / Charlie LoydThe Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8 sits 22,000 miles...
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The Global Cities Where Tech Venture Capital Is Concentrated
Beck Diefenbach / ReutersOnce the province of U.S. tech hubs such as California’s Silicon Valley, venture capital has gone global. In a new report from the Martin Prosperity Institute, Rise of the...
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Teens Aren't Ruining Language
The 1995 film 'Clueless' had its own lexicon, including slang like "as if!" Paramount Pictures“Don't grill, dude,” was a thing the boys I knew in high school would say to each other a lot. It meant,...
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An Unprecedented Threat to Privacy
Jonathan Ernst / ReutersThroughout the United States—outside private houses, apartment complexes, shopping centers, and businesses with large employee parking lots—a private corporation, Vigilant...
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Are Slack Messages Subject to FOIA Requests?
Alan Graf / CorbisIn offices the world over, email servers are gathering dust as workers flock to group instant-messaging platforms to communicate. Slack, one of the most popular platforms, lets users...
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A Second Chance for an Old Road-Sign Font
Rick Wilking / ReutersIn a notice posted in the Federal Register on Monday, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration announced a small change that has huge implications for the nation. The agency...
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A Search Engine for Your Memories
A girl explores a huge model of the brain at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, in 2003. Claro Cortes / ReutersPeople are always forgetting names. That’s because, at least in part, names are...
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When the Coffee Machine Is Just a Human
Carlo Allegri / ReutersOne of the greatest challenges of the sleepy morning: making coffee without first having coffee to kickstart the neurons necessary to make coffee in the first place. This...
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The Difficulty of Talking About Doomsday
A Peacekeeper missile deploys eight warheads during a re-entry test on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. David James Paquin / WikimediaThe American public doesn’t talk enough about nuclear...
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Things You Can’t Talk About in a Coca-Cola Ad
The Coca-Cola CompanyWhen Daniel Joseph, a York University doctoral student studying labor and technology, found out about Coca-Cola’s GIF the Feeling promotion, he knew exactly what he wanted to make...
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The Trouble With Writing Future History
A photo from the Bikini Islands atom bomb tests of 1946 (U.S. Air Force / AP) Earlier this week, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced that the Doomsday Clock wouldn’t tick any closer to...
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An Electric-Powered Road That Melts Its Own Snow
The U.S. Capitol dome obscured by piles of snow Jonathan Ernst / ReutersAs much as 42 inches of snow covered the ground last week after a historic blizzard slammed the East Coast. Days later, cities...
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Snowed in at NASA, Keeping Watch Over a Space Colossus
Kara Gordon / The AtlanticOn Friday, January 22, as the first snowflakes of a historic blizzard began piling atop America’s east coast, a team of more than twenty engineers and scientists hauled food,...
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