How Phillipe Kahn invented the camera phone
A historical reenactment of how Phillipe Kahn invented the camera phone to document—and immediately share—the birth of his daughter in 1997.
Archive
A collection of 14227 issues
June 22, 2017
The schoolchildren who saw Philando Castile every day miss him—and now grapple with the reality of an unjust world. / The Huffington Post In caring for defectors from the North, South Korean doctors see firsthand the effects of prolonged malnutrition. / Undark “I think the word that was actually used is
Slowdive, Sugar for the Pill, NPR Field Recordings
Slowdive is back with their first new album in 22 years. Perhaps it's just enthusiasm talking, but "Sugar for the Pill" is the best song anyone has recorded in the past 22 years. Here they are performing it live for NPR Music's Field Recordings.
June 21, 2017
Election experts on thwarting Russian meddling: machines with paper backups and auditors to check accuracy. / The Washington Post Georgia’s special election showed Democrats may surge, but Republicans can win with tried-and-true marginalizing. / Vox Antitrust laws need to evolve—and fast—before Amazon’s Whole Foods acquisition becomes
The Rooster Summer Reading Challenge: Week Three
We've wrapped up our first book in the Rooster Summer Reading Challenge, and now we're waist-deep into The Night Ocean. Joining us to discuss is this month's judge, Victor LaValle, who, lucky for us, knows his Lovecraft.
A journey through French cinema
Hey, film nerds: the trailer for writer-director Bertrand Tavernier's My Journey Through French Cinema. See here for a light background on the film. See also "La Vache Qui Rit and Another Cow Altogether," by Kari Kiernan, in which a shared passion for French cinema turns
June 20, 2017
Eighty-one percent of Japanese, but only 14% of Americans, draw circles clockwise. / Quartz The Mexican government tracks human rights lawyers, journalists, and anti-corruption activists with spyware. / The New York Times Summer is officially here, but no one told California’s Sierra snowpack. / Climate Central It costs gas stations
This comedian is eating infinite jest instead of reading it
Note to this woman who's documenting her literal consumption of Infinite Jest—yes, eating it instead of reading it: may contain substances. See also: "From Here You Can See Everything," on David Foster Wallace and binge-watching the so-called golden age of television.
Learn guitar from Moroccan masters
We're a little late to discovering the pretty great Guitar Moves with Matt Sweeney—e.g., with Dan Auerbach, with Scarface—but this desert footage suits our Monday armchair traveling lust.
How fire is basically stored sunshine
Famed physicist Richard Feynman clearly gets a lot of joy from explaining how fire is basically stored sunshine, and why trees come out of the air, not the ground. From Kottke's "If you can’t explain something in simple terms, you don’t understand it."