The birth of smog in LA.
Los Angeles is known generally for smog, but its precise arrival date is actually known: July 8th, 1943. A brief story from Unfiction about how the haze got its start.
Archive
A collection of 14225 issues
Feedback is dumb.
In a major new JAMA study, patients on opioids do no better than those taking alternatives. 1/10 The White House sues California to invalidate three of its immigration laws, using a ruling that sided with Obama. California Gov. Brown calls it a "stunt." 2/10 Governors in
The Rooster crows.
Today in Trump-ville: Kushner goes to Mexico, economic adviser Cohn has left the building, and Stormy Daniels sues the president, alleging that he never signed their nondisclosure agreement. 1/16 The President seems prepared to blame Parkland on the gaming industry—catching gamers by surprise. 2/16 Only 13
Ultra-running in China.
While the world remembers Roger Bannister, look at where running's gone in the meantime: ultra-running in China's Changping Valley and Mt. Siguniang Scenic Park. See also: how a bad hangover turned nonathletic writer Graham Beck into an Iron Man.
Didn't The Phantom Menace begin with a trade war?
GOP strategists say Trump's threat of a trade war appears to be in part timed to Pennsylvania's March 13 special election. 1/13 An economic analysis of Trump's proposed steel and aluminum tariffs shows that for every US job they would create, five would
Kitchen aromas aren't very homely.
Trump's threats of a steel and aluminum trade war erupted without any prior review by officials—and may well be added to his heap of other random policy changes that come out of nowhere, and then go nowhere. 1/17 Interior Department emails show that Trump's
How far can you ride a wave.
A short movie in which the world's best longboarders try to ride the longest wave possible. See also, from this summer in the Paris Review: the great art critic Dave Hickey recalls his brief, doomed days as a teenage surfer in Los Angeles. I woke up in the
The origins of biathlon.
From a military exercise in Norway to the Olympics, the history of biathlon.
The best and worst of the Oscars.
Bob Hope opens the 34th Academy Awards in 1962—ranked 13 out of the Oscars' 66 best monologues and opening numbers.
Fifty ways to leave it alone.
Italy votes for a new parliament this weekend and Berlusconi is back. At the same time, Germany expects to get another four years of the "grand coalition." 1/23 Ireland is shut down and at least 55 people have died amid sub-zero temperatures across Europe. 2/23