When I first met Donald Rumsfeld in his offices in Washington, D.C., one of the things I said to him was that if we could provide an answer to the American public about why we went to war in Iraq, we would be rendering an important service. He agreed. Unfortunately, after having spent 33 hours over…

danah boyd’s SXSW keynote is sold out. When it’s over, a dozen fans rush the stage. These fans aren’t young groupies hoping to get a closer glimpse at their favorite rock star, but full-grown adults h

If Yukari Iwatani Kane’s Haunted Empire teaches us anything, it’s that a dogged newspaper reporter who wants to write a book about Apple needs a narrative hook to hang the story on. In Kane’s case it’

Haunted Empire: Apple After Steve Jobs is a terrific book title. Pity the book doesn’t live up to it. Or, indeed, provide us with any clear indication of whether the company best known for its iPhones

Team “Double X” poses at the Brearley School in New York, including, third from right, the author. In the FIRST Robotics Competition teams build and program a robot in six weeks. (October 2013 photo) The woman standing in front of us turned around to face me. “Are you the cheerleaders?” she beamed.…

Matt Taibbi, photographed by Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos/New York Magazine Photo: Christopher Anderson/Magnum Photos/New York Magazine Matt Taibbi, the ­former enfant terrible of ­political jou

A few days before the start of Christmas vacation, my family was in a post-dinner slump. The mere contemplation of the upcoming holidays—the travelling, the festivities—had exhausted us. Then my daugh

To all my fellow artisans that help make stories come alive, read this and take a moment to appreciate our endeavor: http://t.co/NpmW3JwbZ4

Apple has released a massive update to its “iOS Security” white paper for IT professionals. It contains more information on iOS security than Apple has ever shared publicly before, including extensive

In a perfect storm of corporate greed and broken government, the internet has gone from vibrant center of the new economy to burgeoning tool of economic control. Where America once had Rockefeller and

The dreaded semicolon. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons) Ever since Kurt Vonnegut slandered semicolons (“They are transvestite hermaphrodites,” he said, “representing absolutely nothing”), aspiring writer

Hugh Howey, author of the bestselling, indie-original science fiction series Wool , has published an eye-popping, and important data-rich report on independent author earnings from ebooks sold on Amaz

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts . People across the world are falling so far short on exercise that the p

What are mock objects? Read Martin Fowler's essay carefully. Lots of great advice. http://t.co/BW9NhhjbPo

Features Armadillos in Their Trousers: The Tragic Special Snowflakes of "This is Spinal Tap" February 10, 2014 "How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!"—"Henry IV", Part II, Act V, Scene 5 In an

This post discusses the plot of The LEGO Movie in extensive detail. At the beginning of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s 21 Jump Street , their 2012 cop comedy that was a repurposing the television show that ran from 1987–1991, Deputy Chief Hardy (Nick Offerman), explains to two young cops…

The artisan as scientist: baker Jonathan McDowell in the Bread Lab Photos: Tom Philpott Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. Washi

ICYMI, HULK REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY LIKED THE LEGO MOVIE AND WHAT IT HAD TO SAY: http://t.co/J9OSTrbAKz

"People prefer imperfect things," the creator of the incredibly popular, loved, hated and now-notorious Flappy Bird, Dong Nguyen, mused over Twitter last March, long before most anyone had ever heard of him or played his game. He was stating why he thought he'd be okay launching a video game that…

“The most important thing is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” – George Burns The Empathy Exams is a good piece about medical actors. You should read it. Most of the communicatio

David Dayen is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and a contributor to Salon. Jerry Brown is not, shall we say, America’s most conventional governor. In his State of the State address last month, he

Yes, these two iconoclasts have disrupted multiple industries, but TED curator Chris Anderson goes much deeper and argues that what Musk and Jobs really have in common is a rare form of design thinking powered by unfettered conviction. When future historians report human progress during the 21st…

Philip Seymour Hoffman's death was not on the bill. If it'd been the sacrifice of Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, that we are invited to anticipate daily, we could delight in the Faustian justice of the

Leila Madrone's earliest aspiration was to work for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “When I was seven, I wore a black NASA jacket every single day," says Madrone. A quarter century

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Jason Edward Harrington is a writer and MFA candidate in the creative writing program at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. Follow him on Twitter @Jas0nHarringt0n .

This teacher has a very clever idea. http://t.co/ktp2D4VlsC (c/o @testobsessed @Stepto)

Many business conferences are notable not only for the prominent people on stage, but also for those who are missing. For instance, at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this week, fewer than 18% of the speakers are women. Women’s under-representation at such events gets…

(You can suggest changes to this post.) Jan 25 , 2014 Source: Mueller and Dweck¹ This. Right here. Look at it. It’s a graph showing the performance of children after they’ve been praised fortheir inte

Meet the surprising proprietors of @HistoryInPics and other popular accounts: http://t.co/Vs0xBB6qtW

Monsanto discovers the power of conventional breeding (with a twist) and the limits of GM. Bellwether piece in Wired http://t.co/C0B7odXyYj

Damn, Ken, this is -good-. @Popehat on the risks of -ever- talking to law enforcement. http://t.co/PU51Ty5taD

The celebrated food author dishes on how to eat well: less meat, more microbes, and cook it yourself.

Bitrot and atomic COWs: Inside “next-gen” filesystems, by @jrssnet: http://t.co/wxmyUKx4Ro

My surprising lessons from one innocuous piece of data 5 min read · Jan 13, 2014 -- Despite living much of my life in public on the web, I’ve always understood the importance of personal privacy in th

Published in Monday Note · 4 min read · Jan 12, 2014 -- We count on WiFi and Bluetooth in our homes, but we don’t have appliances that provide self-description or reliable two-way communication. As a

The annual Consumer Electronics Show is all about showing off what's in the future of hardware and gadgetry. But although there are thousands of announcements and prototypes to sort through, most of what's announced at CES (if it comes to market at all) isn't practical or realistic enough for actual…