This story is excerpted and adapted from James Crawford’s book, Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of History’s Greatest Buildings. The most densely populated city on Earth had only one postman. His round was confined to an area barely a hundredth of a square mile in size. Yet within that space was…

On a sultry summer night in July 2019, the MV Manukai was arriving at the port of Shanghai, near the mouth of the Huangpu River. This busy tributary of the Yangtze winds through the city and includes the Bund, a historic waterfront area and tourist hot spot. Shanghai would be the American container…

Plötzlich ist der Regen da. Noch im Dezember plauderten die Insel­bewohner auf Lesbos vor den kleinen Cafés, machten Knie­beugen am Strand, die Sonne als ständige Begleiterin. Im Januar hasten die Menschen nur noch mit eingezogenen Köpfen die Hafen­promenade entlang. Die Strassen­hunde rollen sich…

On the night of 14 August 2010, the captain of a South Korean trawler, the Oyang 70, left Port Chalmers, New Zealand, for what would be his final journey. The ship was bound for fishing grounds about 400 miles east in the southern Pacific Ocean. When it arrived three days later, the captain, a…

There’s a popular thread on Hacker News with lots of people complaining about how Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is ruining their mobile web experience. Here’s what’s wrong with using Google AMP. This week I also got two AMP links sent to me via Telegram and to see those Google URLs replacing…

For Ryan Rucker, a dad in Vacaville, California, the weekly summons comes on Wednesday mornings, usually around seven. For Rosanne Sweeting on Grand Bahama island, in the Bahamas, it’s twice a week—Mondays and Thursdays, anytime from 6 to 8:30 a.m.—and for Whitney Schlander in Scottsdale, Arizona,…

The study of memory has always been one of the stranger outposts of science. In the 1950s, an unknown psychology professor at the University of Michigan named James McConnell made headlines—and eventually became something of a celebrity—with a series of experiments on freshwater flatworms called…

Why do humans drink? To the person waiting at the bar on a hot summer evening, the answer seems simple: drinking is a pleasure and a relief. To the public health official reading the latest reports of alcohol’s societal ruin, the answer might seem frustrating. Why would anyone drink, if it’s so bad…

Man kann zum Beispiel, ganz aktuell, die Büchner-Preis-Rede von Lukas Bärfuss lesen, um zu verstehen, was sich da vergangene Woche abgespielt hat zwischen «Weltwoche»-Chef­redaktor Roger Köppel und dem AfD-Politiker Björn Höcke, der zum Beispiel befreundet ist mit Thorsten Heise, einem der…

There’s a lot you can find in the depths of the dark web, but in 2013, photographer and artist Curtis Wallen managed to buy the ingredients of a new identity. After purchasing a Chromebook with cash, Wallen used Tor, virtual marketplaces, and a bitcoin wallet to purchase a fake driver’s license,…

It was morning and bright, and Reinhard Grubhofer, depleted and dehydrated, hoisted his body over a crest and rose uneasily. There, from the summit of Mount Everest, he could see everything. How the earth curved gorgeously in all direction; how wisps of clouds sailed beneath his boots. The view—out…

I did not intend to be single in the rural village where I live. I’d moved there with my fiance after taking a good job at the local university. We’d bought a house with room enough for children. Then the wedding was off and I found myself single in a town where the non-student population is 1,236…

Sloane Ryan / Roo Powell 16 min read· Dec 14, 2019 -- Note: This piece contains sexual content and descriptions of child sex abuse that could be disturbing to some readers. The messages, images, and conversations included here are real. (Si gustaría leer la version en español, haga clic aqui.)…

Published December 16, 2019 12:00AM “I was afraid to leave him. He didn’t tell me, ‘I’m thinking about killing myself.’ But I didn’t want to leave him alone during a several-week patch.” Christina Bauer sits with her hands clasped, and her posture is perfect. She’s worked all day in an office…

Afternoon shadows, Berlin Alexanderplatz Bahnhof A new word entered the Swedish language in 2019: flygskam. Pronounced fleeg-skam, it means “flight shame”. It describes the growing social stigma attached to travelling by air rather than train, which produces roughly a tenth as much carbon dioxide…

Ars Technica brings us today’s shocking privacy news: ‘Apple holds the master decryption key when it comes to iCloud security, privacy‘. Oh my. The story is definitely worth a read, though it may leave you shaking your head a bit. Ars’s quoted security experts make some good points, but they do it…

On a sunny July day in 2018, Alexis Stern was sitting behind the wheel of the red Ford Fusion her parents had given her the previous year when she’d learned to drive. Robbie Olsen, the boy she’d recently started dating, was in the passenger seat. They were in the kind of high spirits unique to…

Snowbrawl is a fun short film of a children’s snowball fight shot as if it were a John Wick or Mission Impossible action sequence. David Leitch, the uncredited co-director of John Wick and director of Deadpool 2, shot the whole thing for Apple on an iPhone 11 Pro. advertising Apple David Leitch…

Facebook has moved from merely being a walled garden into openly attacking its users’ ability and willingness to navigate the rest of the web. The evidence that this is true even for sites which embrace Facebook technologies is overwhelming, and the net result is that Facebook is gaslighting users…

“Link In Bio” is a slow knife 10 Dec 2019 2019-12-10 2019-12-10 /images/slow-knife.jpeg culture, design, tech, web, best-of, most-popular We don’t even notice it anymore — “link in bio”. It’s a pithy phrase, usually found on Instagram, which directs an audience to be aware that a pertinent web... 1…

Kann eine Paarbeziehung funktionieren, wenn einer der Partner an Narkolepsie leidet? Sarah und Sascha haben sich darauf eingelassen. Boah, du musst den jetzt küssen, denkt Sarah. Sie sitzt neben Sascha auf der Couch in ihrer Wohnung. Zweites Date, die Pasta aufgegessen. Scheiß drauf, denkt sie, der…

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Exactly today (Dec. 26th 2016) I haven’t had a single drop of alcohol or coffee in 27 months. If you're reading this later, you can do the math yourself. A couple of my friends on Facebook & Twitter asked me to write about my experience, so here it is, in a nutshell. With over a year of no alcohol &…

Get Tom Whitwell’s stories in your inbox Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer. Remember me for faster sign in In 2014, men and women were 39% more likely to click on an image of a bearded man than the same man clean-shaven [Julian Scharman]For the first time ever, the tech industry…

Press enter or click to view image in full size Bleep-O-Matic mini synths soldered together by 7–11 year-olds at a workshop in June. Tom Whitwell 6 min read· Dec 9, 2015 -- This year I got an amazing new job (at Magnetic) and continue to be surprised by the number of things still to be learned in…

Press enter or click to view image in full size Carving swans from apples at a Blenheim Forge workshop in April. Tom Whitwell 7 min read· Dec 1, 2016 -- My first full year working at Magnetic on a series of fascinating projects and learning about... Call Me Baby is a call centre for cybercriminals…

Press enter or click to view image in full size Instructions for carrying heavy equipment at the Columbia University Computer Music Centre. Tom Whitwell 7 min read· Dec 1, 2017 -- Between projects at Magnetic, and editing a book, I learned several learnings. In Silicon Valley, startups that result…

Treating prostate cancer through traditional means such as surgery or radiotherapy carries certain risks, with some patients experiencing impotence, urinary problems and bowel trouble, among other unwanted side effects. Safer and less invasive treatment options could soon be on the table, however,…

Frozen Christmas The teenage migrants trapped in Bosnia's bleak forests Frozen Christmas The teenage migrants trapped in Bosnia's bleak forests As Europe basks in the glow of festive lights, migrants

In this video I demonstrate the workings of a Tesla Valve using the combustion of propane as a visible medium. If you enjoy these videos consider supporting my channel on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/NightHawkProjects A special thanks to my top patrons: Enzo Breda Lee & TheBackyardScientist!…

► Subscribe: https://MaxCooper.lnk.to/Subscribe ► Sign up & join Discord: https://os.fan/MaxCooper/SignUp Listen to Repetition here: https://ffm.to/pdn5ban Album mini-site with all explained: https://www.yearningfortheinfinite.net I wanted to make something huge and intense for the new live show, so…

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Press enter or click to view image in full size Dad’s paint samples in Bristol, August 2018 Tom Whitwell 7 min read· Dec 2, 2018 -- This year I edited another book, worked on fascinating projects at Magnetic, and learned learnings. A well-reviewed restaurant in Maine now only accepts reservations by…

Press enter or click to view image in full size Inside the control room of the IFA1 Interconnector connecting British and French national grids. Tom Whitwell 8 min read· Dec 2, 2019 -- This year I edited another book, worked on fascinating projects at Magnetic, and learned many learnings. Get Tom…

The Berlin Study In the early 1990s, a trio of psychologists descended on the Universität der Künste, a historic arts academy in the heart of West Berlin. They came to study the violinists. As described in their subsequent publication in Psychological Review, the researchers asked the academy’s…

Cryptoqueen: How this woman scammed the world, then vanished 24 November 2019 BBC Ruja Ignatova called herself the Cryptoqueen. She told people she had invented a cryptocurrency to rival Bitcoin, and persuaded them to invest billions. Then, two years ago, she disappeared. Jamie Bartlett spent months…

5G-Mobilfunk: «Je tiefer die Grenzwerte, desto mehr Antennen» Nr. 32 – 8. August 2019 Das 5G-Netz spaltet die Geister. Sind die Grenzwerte für den Mobilfunk zu tief oder zu hoch? Was ist weniger gesundheitsschädigend: tiefere Grenzwerte und dafür mehr Antennen – oder umgekehrt? Ein Gespräch mit dem…

Als Podcast anhören Gemäss einer Umfrage des Online-Magazins «20 Minuten» ist mittlerweile mehr als die Hälfte der Schweizer Bevölkerung für einen Stopp beim Ausbau des neuen Mobilfunknetzes 5G. Der Kanton Waadt hat ein Moratorium verhängt. Und es läuft die Unterschriftensammlung für eine…

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/olidorn www.instagram.com/saymahalo Oli and I have been working on a couple projects together and one day he said: " Hej, let's do a traildog video with my dog Balu!" Balu is supersweet, but young and wild and kinda crazy. And since this is a passion…