Just another day surfing the series of tubes. At the Senate hearing titled "Protecting Kids Online," Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) displayed fundamental misunderstandings of Facebook's services. In an exchange between the… Read the rest of the article: The senators who are regulating social media show, once again, that they don't understand it
Seeing faces in inanimate objects isn't anything new, and the word pareidolia has been in use since the 1860s. An Instagram account called @things.faces documents some of the best. Our… Read the rest of the article: What goes on in the brains of people that see Jesus in burnt toast: a scientific study
Sorry to all budget-conscious visitors to NYC, but the red Ford Econoline van parked on the street in East Village is no longer available for short-term stays, according to a… Read the rest of the article: A $97/night van parked in Manhattan is officially off Airbnb
In an age of mobile orders, it's hard to remember a world when online ordering was novel, but at one time, it was a practice reserved for science fiction. One… Read the rest of the article: "Cyberslice" walked so delivery apps could run
The Genesis creation story describes God using Adam's rib to create Eve (Genesis 2:21-22), but one Biblical scholar doesn't think it was so simple. In a 2015 paper in Biblical… Read the rest of the article: Did God use Adam's penis bone to make Eve? Scholars discuss.
Instagram is no longer working on a version of its app designed for kids under 13. The decision comes after a Wall Street Journal report that revealed company documents acknowledging… Read the rest of the article: Facebook pauses the whole"Instagram for kids" idea
Tiktok's user demographics famously skew young, but that doesn't mean older adults can't make it big on the video-sharing app— the AP ran a story this month on "grandfluencers," adults… Read the rest of the article: "Grandfluencers" take Tiktok by storm
The Wall Street Journal reports that lawmakers are giving up on a bipartisan police reform effort. The legislation, sparked by nationwide protests in 2020, would have banned chokeholds and qualified… Read the rest of the article: Over a year after George Floyd's death, lawmakers abandon the police reform bill named after him
The Netherlands has the world's tallest population, with men averaging 6+ feet and women 5-foot-six. However, in the past few decades, the country has gotten a bit shorter. "In the… Read the rest of the article: The Dutch are shrinking
From September 29th to October 5th, Katmai National Park in Alaska conducts a competition to determine the fattest bear in the park, relying on voters like you to judge the… Read the rest of the article: It's almost Fat Bear Week, when online voters decide which bears have best prepared for hibernation
During the early weeks of quarantine, Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin gripped the nation. Netflix said that it "attracted 64 million households in the first four weeks after its March 2020… Read the rest of the article: Netflix announces Tiger King 2. Does anyone want it?
Young students don't remember a world without a search function. Teenagers likely completed high school assignments on cloud storage, not on local files. If they needed to access a report… Read the rest of the article: Students don't organize files anymore
I hope you're having a happy decorative gourd season! Gourds, the versatile fruits from one of the earliest domesticated plants, have a very long and storied history: they've served as… Read the rest of the article: Mind-blowing facts about gourds
September 25 has been National Lobster Day since 2014 when senators Angus King and Susan Collins of Maine brought a joint resolution to Congress. For the eighth annual holiday, check… Read the rest of the article: Consider the lobster: fun facts for National Lobster Day
How do earworms propagate? A study published this week in the Royal Society uses models from epidemiology to track the spread of music. The researchers use "data from MixRadio, comprising… Read the rest of the article: New mathematical paper shows songs spread like viruses
For years, the first sentence of the Wikipedia article "Pizza party" was unsurprising: "A pizza party is a social gathering at which pizza is served." But over the past month,… Read the rest of the article: Subtle humor in the"Pizza party" Wikipedia article
Have you ever felt like your friends were more popular than you? You may have been onto something. In 1991, the sociologist Scott Feld compared two numbers: how many friends… Read the rest of the article: Why your friends have more friends than you do
In late 2018, San Francisco launched an initiative to redesign its trash cans. Though previous receptacles were functional, the director of the Department of Public Works wanted more beautiful trash… Read the rest of the article: San Francisco's multi-million dollar quest for aesthetically pleasing trash cans
It's the first day of fall! Perhaps you'll celebrate by making squash soup, light a fall candle, or go on a walk to observe changing leaves. If you don't have… Read the rest of the article: I love sending animated e-cards for minor holidays
As Facebook faces relentless PR crises (privacy, misinformation, Russian interference, hate speech, monopolization, etc), it plans to promote positive stories about Facebook in its users' news feeds. The initiative, code-named… Read the rest of the article: Facebook initiative to present pro-Facebook news items
