So if there is intelligent life out there, why hasn’t anyone contacted us
It could be we are in a remote part of space that no one cares about. Â We are the Moose Jaw of planets. The Americas may have been colonized by Europeans long before anyone in a small Inuit tribe in...
View ArticleHow YouTube Reflects America
What you can learn about the American home from watching YouTube.
View ArticleThe ideological roots of Stephen Harper’s vendetta against sociology
From the Toronto Star by Jakeet Singh Stephen Harper really seems to have it out for sociology. In 2013, in response to an alleged plot against a VIA train, Harper remarked that we should not...
View ArticleHave modern stadiums taken the game away from the fans
I worry about the same thing happening with the new Rider stadium The first 49ers game I ever went to was against the Chicago Bears at Kezar Stadium. My dad took me. It was a December afternoon in...
View ArticleWhy the Trolls Will Always Win
Essay from Kathy Sierra This month is the 10-year anniversary of my first online threat. I thought it was a one-off, then. Just one angry guy. And it wasn’t really THAT bad. But looking back, it was...
View ArticleThe worst person in America
From Slate Dear Prudence, I live in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the country, but on one of the more “modest†streets—mostly doctors and lawyers and family business owners. (A few...
View ArticleThe Twilight of the Indoor Mall
The Awl looks at the death of the mall In the nineteen fifties, people with money began leaving the cities in unprecedented numbers. They were getting married, getting jobs, starting families, and...
View ArticleWhy Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes
From the BBC It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and it’s designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they’re from, an equal start in life. The maternity package – a...
View ArticleThe Top 10 Secrets of Grand Central Station
From Untapped Cities Like the rest of Grand Central, the Campbell Apartment serves as a testament to the grandiosity of another era. But this testament is one that can be imbibed. If appropriately...
View ArticleJapan has so many centenarians that the gov’t can’t afford to give them gifts.
From the department of cutting back. Japan’s government will no longer reward its centenarian citizens with a silver sake dish worth ¥8,000 ($64), saying the growing number of long-lived Japanese are...
View ArticleHow Snoopy killed Peanuts
As Kotaku sees it. But near the end of the 60s and well into the 70s, the cracks started to show. Snoopy began walking on his hind legs and using his hands, and that was the beginning of the end for...
View ArticleThe Clocks at Grand Central Station Are Permanently Wrong
… and they’re that way on purpose. There is very little to be done about all this when space is limited, crowds are large, and humans always — always — put things off until the last minute. But Grand...
View ArticleThe 501® Jean: Stories of an Original
Levi’s made a short documentary film about the history and cultural impact of the brand’s signature 501 jeans. We trace the 501 Jean’s roots as a utilitarian garment for coal miners, cowboys,...
View ArticleBest Podcasts of 2016
The Atlantic finds the best podcasts of 2016 so you don’t have to.
View ArticleParents lose minds when toy doesn’t fulfill child’s emotional needs on...
Parents plan to sue because toy didn’t work right For many people, Hatchimals just went from being the holiday season’s hottest toy to being one of the most heartbreaking presents around. Dozens of...
View ArticleIs the Met Museum ‘a Great Institution in Decline’?
According to the New York Times The bad news had been building for months at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even as crowds poured into shows on Hellenistic kingdoms and high-tech fashion, the Met’s...
View ArticleWhy Nobody Cares the President Is Lying
This is discouraging Mr. Trump understands that attacking the media is the reddest of meat for his base, which has been conditioned to reject reporting from news sites outside of the conservative media...
View ArticleMaybe there’s more that brings us together than you think
I love this It’s easy to put people in boxes. There’s us and there’s them. The high-earners and those just getting by. Those we trust and those we try to avoid. There’s the new Danes and those who’ve...
View ArticleWhy drink alone when you can drink with your pet?
Cat wines are the latest manifestation of a growing trend of pet owners treating them like people. Over the past 15 years, “the pet market has been transformed by humanization of pets,” said David...
View Article