BEIRUT, Lebanon — The diplomatic situation had been looking bright for President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. With the help of Russia, he had consolidated his power, the rebels were on their heels and the United States had just declared that ousting him was not a priority . So why would Mr. Assad risk…

Craig Ruttle / AP By now, the idea that gut bacteria affect a person’s health is not revolutionary. Many people know that these microbes influence digestion, allergies, and metabolism. The trend has become almost commonplace: New books appear regularly detailing precisely which diet will lead to…

Even admen have souls, and some of them are enduring dark nights. Jeff Goodby is co-chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a San Francisco advertising agency responsible for some of the most famous campaigns of the 1990s, including ones for Nike and Budweiser. On his return from this year’s…

Nicholas Laborde Monday 3rd April 2017 Share this article Recommend My name is Nicholas Laborde, and I believe that games can change the world. I'm an indie "business guy" in Lafayette, Louisiana, the heart of Cajun culture. Here, we look at the world a little differently; whereas much of American…

Most of the world's great companies have a good creation myth. Nike was started from the trunk of Phil Knight's car. Apple, Google, and Amazon all started in a garage. Discogs —the music cataloguing database and marketplace founded in 2000 by Kevin Lewandowski—has a similar, albeit more cramped…

When 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 with it: a Coke-branded critique of capitalism. An accessory for Coke’s newly launched “ Taste the Feeling ” global ad…

How prepared is our president for the next great foreign, economic or terrorist crisis? After a little more than two months in office, President Trump has raised doubts about his ability to deal with what the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously described as the “known unknowns” and…

HONG KONG — President Xi Jinping of China will visit President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida next week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday, confirming details of the two leaders’ first summit meeting. #BREAKING : Chinese President #XiJinping to meet @POTUS @realDonaldTrump at his…

From “Ten little girls who are ready for the first woman president,” hillaryclinton. com, November 2, 2015. November 2016 It was going to be the most thrilling night of my life. As I walked the darkening streets of midtown Manhattan toward Jacob Javits Convention Center, from blocks away I could…

Anthony Levandowski is the key player in the unfolding legal fight between his former employer, Google’s self-driving car unit Waymo, and Uber, where he now runs the startup’s self-driving program. To put it lightly, the case has shown the dude has some seriously deep—but, crucially,…

It's happened. The nadir of brands using ethical consciousness to sell products has been reached with a (since pulled) Pepsi advert that reveals the secret weapon in combating police brutality: carbonated soft drinks. Here we break it down scene-by-scene: We open on a man virtuosically playing the…

Before it’s an ad for shampoo or cat food or cola, every advertisement is first an ad for capitalism. Without a privately-controlled industry jockeying to compete with one another for consumer dollars, there’s no need for advertising. People would wash their hair with Shampoo, and feed their cats…

The Senate has altered the long-standing practice for confirming Supreme Court justices after Democrats today blocked the nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch . Interested in Supreme Court? Add Supreme Court as an interest to stay up to date on the latest Supreme Court news, video, and analysis from ABC…

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Thursday engineered a dramatic change in how the chamber confirms Supreme Court nominations, bypassing a Democratic blockade of Judge Neil M. Gorsuch in a move that will most likely reshape both the Senate and the court. After Democrats held together Thursday…

Funny or Die at 10, an Oral History of a Comedy Juggernaut When Funny or Die launched on April 12, 2007, with “The Landlord” —a supercheap two-minute sketch pitting Will Ferrell against a swearing toddler—the premise was so simple even a 2-year-old could understand it: A user submitted a homemade…

Most mornings as I leave the Y after my swim and shower, I cross paths with a coterie of toddlers entering with their caregivers for a kid-oriented activity. I can’t resist saying hello, requesting a high-five, and wishing them a fun time. I leave the Y grinning from ear to ear, uplifted not just by…

Firewatch Campo Santo Just over a year ago, Firewatch released to positive reviews and commercial success. It was an intriguing exploration-puzzle story set in a beautiful wilderness. But its main strength was in creating believable characters — Henry and Delilah — who spoke like human beings. “I'm…

Everyone has biases. We all like to think that we are level-headed, rational people, but our brains are actually hard-wired to jump to conclusions. As designers, our biases seep into our work and cause us to create concepts that seem like a great idea at the time… until we expose them to the light.…

Ethan Klein, aka h3h3Productions Over the last couple of weeks, anger has been bubbling on YouTube over the news that major brands pulled advertisements on the platform in an effort to avoid being matched with objectionable content. The reports, which were published by the Wall Street Journal , were…

Academics 03/28/17 10:09pm Credit: Photo from Justin McDaniel / The Daily Pennsylvanian Some students struggle to sit through an hour-and-a-half lecture. But what if the class went on for seven hours straight? Professor Justin McDaniel, the chair of the Department of Religious Studies , will be…

by – on Apr 02, 2016 in Wrestling Wrestler's Court is a type of "kangaroo" court that was brought into the WWE by Zeb Colter as a way for two guys to settle any beefs that they may have with each other before things come to blows or get out of hand. It's meant as a fun way for all the guys to get…

With so many new platforms, buzzwords, technologies and mediums in the digital industry, if you’re not thinking about what to learn next you’ll end up lagging behind. If you want to stay relevant as a designer, you need to keep pushing forward and honing your design skills. Successful UX designers…

A proper sharing feature has been part of iOS for years. It has a consistent, system-level UI that’s available from most any app with anything worth sharing and yet no one seems to use it. Well, no one but us geeks, right? Everyone else just takes screenshots—which require mastering an unintuitive…

This was first published on my mailing list The Looking Glass . Every week, I answer a reader’s question. Photo by Garry Knight What are some things that help you not take feedback on your work personally? I recently had a situation where my team was re-doing something I had worked on for a couple…

Ars at SXSW 2017 A chat with Ron Howard after watching his Einstein series premiere American Gods may have finally nailed the modern-fantasy formula on TV In Sylvio , anthropomorphic ape scenery stretches from six seconds to 80 minutes How to get a Vulcan salute from Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan…

The tech industry has a problem with “bro culture.” People have been complaining about it for years. Yet nobody has done much to fix it. That may finally change, if the people in charge of Silicon Valley — venture capitalists, who control the money — start to realize that the real problem with tech…

Ars at SXSW 2017 A chat with Ron Howard after watching his Einstein series premiere American Gods may have finally nailed the modern-fantasy formula on TV In Sylvio , anthropomorphic ape scenery stretches from six seconds to 80 minutes How to get a Vulcan salute from Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan…

“Plundered Hearts was a game I wanted to play.” A screen shot of Plundered Hearts for the Atari 8-bit. (YouTube) A my Briggs read hundreds of romance novels while researching her video game. Released in 1987 by Infocom, Plundered Hearts follows the maritime adventures of a maiden captured by…

Shia LaBeouf Illustration by Tom Bachtell A few years ago, after he starred in “Transformers,” the actor Shia LaBeouf seemed poised to become the next Johnny Depp; instead, he started behaving more like the next James Franco. In 2014, he showed up at the Berlin Film Festival wearing a tuxedo, with a…

Roast in the Shell. Joshua Rivera, GQ.com contributor: It's barely April, and 2017 is already a banner year for Hollywood being utterly clueless when it comes to Asian culture on screen. Ghost in the Shell , a live-action remake of the seminal 1995 film by Mamoru Oshii (itself based on a manga by…

I t was no secret during the campaign that Donald Trump was a narcissist and a demagogue who used fear and dishonesty to appeal to the worst in American voters. The Times called him unprepared and unsuited for the job he was seeking, and said his election would be a “catastrophe.” Still, nothing…

Amazon Amazon’s first cashier-free convenience store was supposed to open to the public early this year, but apparently some big technology issues have the launch on hold. According to The Wall Street Journal , Amazon’s Go store currently only functions if there are fewer than 20 shoppers inside.…

LISBON (Reuters) - While the European left is largely struggling where it holds power, Portugal’s government alliance stands out as a remarkable exception; it is raising wages and gaining popularity and yet delivering the lowest budget deficit in living memory. The unlikely alliance of center-left…

Theresa May would be prepared to go to war to protect Gibraltar as Margaret Thatcher once did for the Falklands, former Conservative leader Michael Howard has suggested, in comments that were immediately criticised as inflammatory. Lord Howard’s suggestion that the prime minister would be ready to…

A Comprehensive Review of Jeremy Renner’s App, “Jeremy Renner” Heeding the call of his biggest fans (we’re assuming?), Jeremy Renner has released a personal app that could not be more Renner-esque (Getty Images/Ringer illustration) Actor, musician, and app developer Jeremy Renner — the thinking…

Gizmodo's Ashley Feinberg (almost certainly) figured out that James Comey's secret Twitter handle was @projectexile7 , because America's top G-man failed at some of the most basic elements of operational security. Comey's mistakes are simple and devastatingly compromising: he used the same handle in…

Last week, big advertisers such as AT&T pulled ads from YouTube, in reaction to being matched with content that was deemed racist or inappropriate . YouTube has since said they are fine-tuning how people make money on YouTube in general, but content creators on the platform say their channels are…

What did Facebook buy for $2 billion? The acquisition was rushed , according to testimony heard during the ZeniMax lawsuit, leaving little time for due diligence or a detailed look at the VR industry as a whole. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg thought Oculus was far ahead of the competition . Facebook…