Essaying Through Life
A youthful pledge to become an essayist gets lost.
Archive
A collection of 14232 issues
April 24, 2014
* Today the FCC ends the era of net neutrality, and will allow broadband suppliers to give preference to deep-pocketed companies. * Toxic West Virginia water will be pumped under Ohio, which may result in earthquakes. * Ineffective on climate change thus far, Obama has retooled his cabinet and restrategized new ways
April 23, 2014
* Rwanda's president gets a free pass on human rights abuses because of Western guilt over genocide. * The case for firing nearly the entire New York Times columnist pool: sloppy and tired to the point of making Gail Collins look good. * Divorce rate for piping plovers is 67%; flamingos
Who Goes There
The Heartbleed Bug exposed a well-known secret: Passwords suck. But that’s really nothing new—just ask the Romans. Explaining the password’s past and future.
April 22, 2014
* FDA approval of the first powdered alcohol, Palcohol, might have been made in error. * Putin signed recently two bills: one making it harder for non-Russian speakers to gain citizenship and the other expediting the process for Russian speakers. * LeBron James, the NFL, quarterbacks, and the Yankees: the most popular
The Internet Is So Loud
Large-scale abstract paintings that recall networks, maps, and schematic diagrams—and with each subsequent viewing can become anything at all.
April 21, 2014
* Columbine, 15 years later. * Three of the 10 US metro areas where residents feel the least safe have violent crime rates below the national rate. * Almost 100 people were killed in the last five years by members of the white supremacist forum Stormfront. * UK's soaring melanoma rates linked
April 18, 2014
* Planet Kepler 186f, made of iron, rock, ice, and liquid water, is "potentially the most Earth-like planet we’ve yet found." * Of the 2,028 days in Beijing between April 2008 and March 2014, only 25 had air considered “good” by US standards. * Turkey's Ottoman
April 17, 2014
* Ukrainian citizens on the ground, as of last month, found to be divided, cynical, and angry. * Primer on what's happening where in Ukraine. * Thousands of zoo animals starving in Ukraine, though it's barely a worsening of their situation, long affected by corruption. * Pakistan Taliban ends its
Demolish Me
The present-day lust for ruins is nothing new. In fact, it’s nearly as old as any ruins themselves. From a flattened Louvre to Percy Bysshe Shelley, a journey to the dawn of ruin porn.