LONG LIVE THE DVD! NO, BLU-RAY! UH...
The Last VCR Will Be Produced This Month
Surprising fact: there’s a company still making video-cassette recorders, or VCRs. But that will change at the end of this month.
Quartz
IT'S NOT THE HEAT, IT'S THE LIQUIDITY
It’s Getting Too Hot To Work, And It Could Cost The Global Economy Trillions
New research suggests that climbing temperatures will make it harder for workers to do their jobs, particularly in the world’s poorest economies, and it could cost the global economy $2 trillion by 2030.
LAKE WOE-BEGON
How Summer Camp Went From Urban Escape To Rich-Kid Refuge
Sleepaway camp was the highlight of my summer all the way into high school. But such experiences are increasingly unattainable for the average American kid.
LET ME CALL THEM FOR YOU
The New York Public Library’s 'Human Google' Service Answers Any Question By Phone
Does the Pope have to be a virgin? If you’ve got fingers and a smart phone, it’s a simple matter of Googling to find out. (The answer is: No.) But there’s another, more congenial service that takes only a few jabs of the finger: Just call 917-ASK-NYPL, and a live librarian will try to answer your question, using vast archives collected over 120 years.
BEAUTIFUL BARRICADES
Secret Anti-Terror Architecture Makes Your City Safer Than You Realize
No one wants to live behind barricades and barbed wire, but everyone wants to feel safe, but erecting fortress-like protections is, in a way, giving into terror. But what if cities could be secured against terror, without looking like war zones? Yours might be, already.
LEADING FROM AFAR
Was This Reclusive Religious Scholar In Pennsylvania The Cause Of The Attempted Coup In Turkey?
As tanks took up positions in the streets and jets flew overhead in a dramatic coup attempt in Turkey, suspicion fell on Fethullah Gulen, a US-based Turkish religious scholar and political enemy of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the strongman Turkish president.
AN UGLY TRANSITION
The UK's Prime Minister's New Letterhead Is Horrific
The UK’s new prime minister Theresa May revealed several names of outgoing ministers yesterday, July 14, with a rather regrettable piece of official government stationery. Inserted under the dignified royal coat of arms is a blue bar with an off-centered white text box bearing the words “press release.”
BECAUSE WE KEEP EATING CUPCAKES?
Why Our Weight Fluctuates On A Daily Basis
The idea that our weight is a single number is kind of a misnomer. Throughout any given day, our weight fluctuates over about a 5lb. range as our bodies work to balance sodium with water.
YOU NEED TO MAKE IT DYNAMIC
You're Probably Stretching Wrong
Although the American College of Sports Medicine recommends static stretching, or holding a pose that lengthens a muscle group, for 15 to 30 seconds three to five times at least twice a week, evidence to back up the benefits of this kind of stretching is pretty murky.
PANAMA PAPER TRAIL
How The Largest Investigative Journalism Project Happened
"It turns out not only to be more than anything I’ve ever seen; it’s bigger than any leak that any journalist has ever seen."
THE SKY IS THE LIMIT, NOW
Apollo 11 Source Code Is Now On GitHub
For years, the very code for the Apollo Guidance Computer existed in paper and digital scans. Now that it's available on GitHub expect programmers to have a little bit of fun with one of humanity's most important computer science achievements.
A VERY JUSTIFIED TIME TO FAKE SICK
'Syndrome K,' The Fake Disease Used To Save Jews From The Nazis
In Rome, a group of doctors saved at least 20 Jews from a similar fate, by diagnosing them with Syndrome K, a deadly, disfiguring and very fake disease.
LINE IN THE SANDBAR
The Line On A 70-Year-Old Map That Threatens To Set Off A War In East Asia
Tensions are escalating in the South China Sea, where China and other countries are disputing how borders of the sea are drawn.
LITERATURE REPEATS ITSELF
Nearly All Novels Follow One Of Six Emotional Arcs
Researchers from University of Vermont mapped the sentimental fluctuations of over 1,700 books. Turns out, you can change the details, but the narrative arcs stay the same.
H&M AND HAW
Three Simple Questions To Figure Out If You Should Buy Those $40 Pants
Buy better clothes. Buy less of them. Wear them more.
FINDING THE BOMB LOCUST
The US Navy Expects To Have Bomb-Sniffing Bugs Within A Year
Last week, the US Office of Naval Research awarded researchers at the University of Washington in St Louis, Missouri $750,000 over three years to alter locusts to remotely sense bombs and other explosive devices.
WHAT ELSE ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW?
Neuroscientists Say Multitasking Literally Drains The Energy Reserves Of Your Brain
When we attempt to multitask, we don’t actually do more than one activity at once, but quickly switch between them. And this switching is exhausting.
IT'S DESIIGNER
Clothes Made Out Of Sound Waves?
Fashion has long had a close relationship with technology, through the invention of the sewing machine, the loom, and beyond. In the computer age, the infatuation has reached a new pitch.
POWERING UP
Why Elon Musk Is Bringing Tesla And Solar City Together
It might be difficult to see the value of the Solar City purchase right now, but there is a logic to the deal, and it has to do with something called "net metering."
ME, MYSELF AND IPHONE
The Importance Of Being Alone In The Digital Era
“If a person is alone in the forest when a tree falls, but they don’t notice it because they’re texting, does it still count as solitude?”
