Why Feathers Are One of Evolution’s Cleverest Inventions
Fossil and living birds reveal the dazzling biology of feathers
Curious Loop
Flying Aircraft Carriers
From the flying British aircraft carriers in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to the helicarriers of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The Forgotten War on Beepers
30 years before parents and lawmakers sought to save youth from smartphones via age limits and bans in schools, a similar conversation took place about a pre-cursor to the cellphone: pagers Through the 1980s pagers became increasingly popular with teens, and also:
Cow Magnets | Stanford Magnets
Cow magnets are very popular with farmers, ranchers, and veterinarians since they are a well-known method of preventing hardware disease in cattle.
Rebirth of a Legend: Reviving an 800-Year-Old Tea Farm
The city of Uji in Kyoto has been famed for tea for more than eight centuries, but much has been lost in the depths of that time. Now a group of locals are working to revive Asahien, one of Uji’s seven famed tea farms of the past, with plants discovered on the grounds of a city temple.
The 37signals Guide to Internal Communication
The how, where, why, and when we communicate. Long form asynchronous? Real-time chat? In-person? Video? Verbal? Written? Via email? In Basecamp? How do we keep everyone in the loop without everyone getting tangled in everyone else’s business? It’s all in here.
A Lego Model of Financial Capitalism
Unboxing the dark arts of finance
Philly Typewriter
Welcome to the home of the world's largest typewriter company.
The Rise and Fall of Silicon Graphics
or How a Rebellious Youth Briefly Conquered the World
Anatomy of a credit card rewards program
Credit card rewards are mostly funded out of interchange, a fee paid by businesses to accept cards.
Tips for Linking Shell Companies to their Secret Owners
At a recent panel at the 2024 NICAR conference, Karrie Kehoe, deputy head of data and research at ICIJ, offered a series of tips for investigating the true owners of shell companies.
Making Old Orchards New Again - Modern Farmer
Wherever you find an old homestead—a house and barn with a little bit of land that has stood from sometime in the 1800s or early 1900s—you’ll find an
Saffron: The Story of the World’s Most Expensive Spice - JSTOR Daily
Appearing in the written record as early as 2300 BCE, saffron can be traced in foodways around the globe, despite the finicky nature of its harvest.
The Brazilian Special-Forces Unit Fighting to Save the Amazon
As miners ravage Yanomami lands, combat-trained environmentalists work to root them out.
He Turned 55. Then He Started the World’s Most Important Company.
Morris Chang had decades of experience before he founded a business that’s indispensable to the global economy. What can other middle-aged entrepreneurs learn from him?
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There Is No Point in My Being Other Than Honest with You: On Toni Morrison’s Rejection Letters | Los Angeles Review of Books
Melina Moe writes about the rejection letters Toni Morrison sent as an editor at Random House....
Wokeism and Societal Collapse
The world faces many troubles. Pervasive social media is stealing innocence from children; there is the breakdown of the family in the…
From sun to plate: India yet to embrace solar cooking benefits
For the past four years, at 9 a.m. every day, Reva Malik heads to the terrace of her independent house in Bengaluru. She sets up a solar cooker and places dishes in trays for a three-course meal. Unlike conventional cooking, she does not have to stir the veggies or add spices at intervals. Judging by […]
Why Did Supersonic Airliners Fail?
Progress in aviation has traditionally been associated with speed. Following the Wright Brothers’ flight in 1903, aircraft speeds steadily increased each decade, and increasing aircraft speeds was one of the primary goals of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA’s predecessor).
Inkjets Are for More Than Just Printing
They can build DNA arrays, 3D structures, and much more
‘He was always voraciously watching’: Scorsese’s secret life as an obsessive VHS archivist
The Oscar-winning director has donated over 50 storage boxes of tapes that show a devoted interest in recording films and shows from the '80s to the 2000s
Why Is It So Hard to Build an Airport?
Building new airports or expanding existing ones is extremely difficult due to strong opposition from various interest groups and local residents.
The introduction of jet airliners in the 1950s-60s led to a significant increase in aircraft noise, which became a major source of public opposition and lawsuits against airports.
Efforts to address aircraft noise through technology improvements, noise regulations, and operational changes had limited success in quelling public opposition.
Locating new airports far from urban areas to minimize noise impacts is challenging, as airports need to be reasonably close to the population centers they serve.
The large physical footprint of modern airports, along with their environmental impacts, make them prime examples of "NIMBY" (not-in-my-backyard) infrastructure that face fierce local resistance.
Despite the difficulty of building new airports, the air travel system has been able to accommodate growing demand through measures like increasing aircraft capacity, improving air traffic control, and redirecting traffic to regional airports.
Airports are highly profitable enterprises that can finance expansions through bond issuances, but legal and regulatory constraints limit what they can do to address issues like noise.
The US has built more commercial nuclear reactors in the past 25 years than major new commercial airports, despite a large increase in air travel over that period.
The pre-jet era of aviation was characterized by smaller, noisier aircraft and more limited air travel, while the modern jet age has transformed air travel into a mass transportation mode despite the challenges of building infrastructure.
The air travel system appears to be constantly bumping up against capacity limits, leading to periodic bouts of severe flight delays, though innovative solutions have so far prevented a full-blown crisis.
U.S. Sues Apple, Accusing It of Maintaining an iPhone Monopoly (Gift Article)
The lawsuit caps years of regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s wildly popular suite of devices and services, which have fueled its growth into a nearly $3 trillion public company.
Why Are (Most) Sofas So Bad?
The most important piece of furniture in your home is in need of assistance. How did we end up here? And how can we fix it?
How Arnold Schoenberg Changed Hollywood
He moved to California during the Nazi era, and his music—which ranged from the lushly melodic to the rigorously atonal—caught the ears of everyone from George Gershwin to James Dean.
What Monks Know about Focus
It’s Never Been Easy to Battle Distraction. Reviewing Jamie Kreiner’s New Translation of John Cassian in ‘How to Focus’
Rahul Gandhi’s Political Odyssey: Unravelling The Enigma Of Remaining Supporters
From that ‘Frankly Speaking’ interview of Arnab Goswami in 2014 to the time Rahul Gandhi adopted the slogan "Chowkidar Chor Hai" in 2019 and plunged recklessly into what appeared to be an Adani-Ambani tirade, his efforts to connect with the public seemed to misfire
In Pursuit of Conservatism
(The article was originally published in Indian Express on March 9, 2024 as a part of Dr Madhav’s column titled ‘Ram Rajya’. Views expressed are personal.) Should we call ourselves “conservative”? A section of India’s ruling right-wing establishment appears to be mulling over this. As Prime M
The Extraordinary Lives Of Coast Redwoods | NOEMA
Oddities, marvels and revelations proliferate in groves of the tallest trees on the planet.
Leadership Is A Hell Of A Drug — Ludicity