Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Imagine, if you can, walking into a movie theater in 1959, at the height of the conformist Eisenhower era, to see a comedy starring matinee idol Tony Curtis, sex symbol Marilyn Monroe, and up-and-comer Jack Lemmon. It’s directed by the guy who made Sunset Boulevard almost a decade earlier, and co-written by uber-talented I.A.L. Diamond….
Big, slow, sweeping strategy games expose their rules in a way no other game does. Call of Duty doesn’t have floating numbers above enemy heads, telling you their movement speed, for example. But in most 4X and grand strategy games, there is no attempt to hide exactly how everything works: the stats, their interactions, are…
This week, according to the Information, Jawbone shut down. That’s the company, valued at $3 billion, that brought us the Up fitness bands. So here’s the thing: Microsoft discontinued its fitness band in 2016. Nike discontinued its Fuel band in 2015. Meanwhile, Fitbit, the biggest remaining seller of fitness bands, is having a tough time….
The deconstruction of the State Department is well underway. I recently returned to Foggy Bottom for the first time since January 20 to attend the departure of a former colleague and career midlevel official—something that had sadly become routine. In my six years at State as a political appointee, under the Obama administration, I had…
Anyone who spends time on Instagram knows that celebrities are doing #ads, and also that there are lots of times a celebrity is clearly doing an ad but isn’t really admitting it, which is kind of shady. But there’s never been an attempt to actually find out how much #spon is out there – and…
Image: SyFy Channel While fighting climate change and providing health care are both just too economically burdensome for America, members of the House believe there’s still enough cash to fund a space army that would fight off… the space enemies? Military Officials Say We Need to Prepare for Space War What’s old is unfortunately new…
On July 2, President Donald Trump tweeted out a video showing himself, as he had appeared in a 2007 WrestleMania event, attacking a person whose head had been replaced with the CNN logo. Two days later, CNN reporter Andrew Kaczynski wrote an article about the origins of the video and the anonymous Reddit user who…
GIF Image Credit: Elena Scotti/Gizmodo/GMG, photos via Shutterstock In 2009, Gary Olhoeft walked into a Best Buy to buy some DVDs. He walked out with his whole body twitching and convulsing. Olhoeft has a brain implant, tiny bits of microelectronic circuitry that deliver electrical impulses to his motor cortex in order to control the debilitating…
Cover Photo Amy Pascal in TriBeCa. “The bigger the job you have in Hollywood,” she said, “the less you are actually connected to the creative process.” Credit Andrew White for The New York Times After a humiliating 2014 cyberattack that helped lead to her ouster at Sony Pictures, the producer decided her life in the…
Buying and selling “hunger bonds” is always more fun when you do it with friends. Optimal investing conditions. By JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images. Back in May, Goldman Sachs found itself in a bit of hot water when The Wall Street Journal reported that its asset-management arm had purchased $2.8 billion worth of Venezuelan bonds that had…