site: www.theatlantic.com
No One Is Prepared for Hagfish Slime
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/hagfish-slime/581002/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2021-03-06 07:01
tags:
article
biology
chemistry
It expands by 10,000 times in a fraction of a second, it’s 100,000 times softer than Jell-O, and it fends off sharks and Priuses alike.
Something in the Air
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/great-5g-conspiracy/611317/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2020-05-18 02:37
tags:
article
policy
science
tech
wifi
The coronavirus pandemic is sparking baseless theories about the dangers of 5G. But the fear that wireless technology is slowly killing us isn’t new—and it doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.
Augmented Reality Is Now Mainstream on Instagram
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/05/augmented-reality-instagram-zoom/611494/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2020-05-12 05:47
tags:
ai
graphics
social
web
I am alone in my apartment, as always, and I’ve just replaced my left eyeball with an orange springing out of its peel. A mile away, a friend, also home alone, is taking her seat—every seat, actually—at the table in The Last Supper, yelling as the camera pans down the row of disciples and her face replaces that of one man after another. Another friend is watching a mouse dressed as the Pope dance across her kitchen floor. A third is smiling while a strange man wraps his arms around his throat.
The Atlantic Makes a New Mark
https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2019/11/atlantic-makes-new-mark/601810/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-11-14 17:33
tags:
design
media
New visual identity and product experience launch today, with redesigned print magazine and reimagined iOS App.
Mostly fluff, but the logo is now just an A because words are hard.
source: K
The Model Estonian Soldier Who Spied for Russia
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/06/estonia-russia-deniss-metsavas-spy/592417/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-07-01 22:51
tags:
article
hoipolloi
interview
opsec
I spoke to Metsavas under the auspices of KAPO, which gave The Atlantic virtually unrestricted access to him, but not to his friends or family. Notably, I was not allowed to speak with his wife, his mother, or his father, the last of whom played an integral role in his son’s ordeal. The rules of engagement were simple: I could ask my subject anything I liked, but he had been instructed beforehand not to divulge information that might compromise KAPO’s counterintelligence investigation, particularly any details that would telegraph to the Russians what the Estonians knew about their tradecraft and the secrets they had stolen. “They don’t deserve it,” Toots said.
For KAPO, the interview was an opportunity to publicize its already legendary reputation of catching Russian spies. For me, it was an unmissable chance to speak to a contemporary spy and raise the curtain on the inner workings of a Russian intelligence agency whose century-long history of skulduggery—from election tampering to dirty wars, from attempted coups to assassination plots—shows no sign of abating. And for Metsavas, it was a chance to atone for his high crimes against his country, his comrades in the army, his friends and family. I believe he had little apparent incentive to lie: Everything he said would be within earshot of at least one KAPO case officer, tasked with ensuring that he didn’t speak out of turn, or embellish or misrepresent his autobiography. I got the impression that Metsavas, as much as the men who had unmasked him, took such matters earnestly. In general, there was a strange camaraderie between Metsavas and the KAPO case officers who flitted in and out of the interrogation room as our interview wore on. All interacted with him not as an enemy of the state, but as an old acquaintance, with an intimacy born of close proximity and repetition. I asked Metsavas whether he felt compelled in any way to talk to me. He said he didn’t and insisted that this whole thing was his idea in the first place. I eventually saw why.
source: K
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370: Where Is It?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/mh370-malaysia-airlines/590653/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-06-18 19:02
tags:
flying
investigation
The mystery surrounding MH370 has been a focus of continued investigation and a source of sometimes feverish public speculation.
How to Stop Hating Your Least Favorite Food
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/02/how-to-like-food-you-hate/582985/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-04-24 22:33
tags:
food
life
Cucumbers are my nemesis. I want to fight every food in the melon family and many melon-adjacent foods, but melons avoid my primary disdain because they usually take their rightful place as easily avoidable fruit-salad filler. Cucumbers, though. Cucumbers. They hide in all kinds of things that otherwise seem safe to put in my mouth: sushi rolls, salads, sandwiches, the takeout “lunch bowls” that restaurants near my office sell for $14.
As far as I can remember, I’ve never liked cucumbers, mostly because they taste bad. If they’re present, they’re the first thing I notice, and it’s like someone has sprayed a middle schooler’s eau de toilette from 2002 on my food. Most other people appear to live on slightly different planes of cucumber reality from mine, which I’ve learned over several decades of watching people somehow eat them voluntarily.
Of all the foods to have as nemesis.
source: K
Why Every Influencer Has a Discord
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/03/how-discord-went-mainstream-influencers/584671/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-03-16 23:21
tags:
social
valley
Over the past few months, seemingly all the pet- and animal-themed Instagram accounts I follow have begun interspersing their videos with pleas. “Join our bird-themed Discord community!” one posted. Another urged me to connect with a group of like-minded reptile lovers on Discord. A commenter touted a dog-lover Discord server.
How Hackers Are Stealing High-Profile Instagram Accounts
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/hackers-are-stealing-influencer-instagram-accounts-promising-lucrative-brand-deals/575662/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2019-01-18 02:09
tags:
hoipolloi
malware
social
web
But the link Brooks sent wasn’t to iconosquare.com—it was to lconosquare.biz, a cloned version of the site set up for phishing. Once the influencer logged in with the Instagram username and password, Brooks seized control of the account. Within minutes, he was spamming the influencer’s millions of followers with offers for a free iPhone.
When reached for comment, Brooks replied by email: “becauze im a savage bitch Guciiiiii 4 lyyyffeee skrt skrt.”
See also: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/59vnvk/hacked-instagram-influencers-get-accounts-back-white-hat-hackers
Super-Black Is the New Black
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/super-black-is-the-new-black/549869/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2018-01-12 06:48
tags:
biology
physics
Feathers on birds of paradise contain light-trapping nanotechnology that makes some of the deepest blacks in the world.
Mark Twain, Tech Prophet
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/mark-twain-cyberprophet/549140/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2018-01-09 21:27
tags:
fiction
future
life
A short story published in The Atlantic in 1878 may contain the first literary reference to a telephone—along with striking insights into modern dating.
Plus crypto!
source: grugq
Parking for Gold
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/parking-for-gold/549407/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2018-01-05 00:39
tags:
cars
hoipolloi
sports
Competitive parking may not inspire the popular imagination like NASCAR or the NBA, but a handful of enthusiasts are hoping to change that. Welcome to the National Valet Olympics.
What’s College Good For?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/01/whats-college-good-for/546590/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-12-23 21:06
tags:
academia
finance
life
Prepare for the New Paywall Era
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/the-big-unanswered-questions-about-paywalls/547091/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-12-04 04:53
tags:
business
media
web
The first time around, many paywalls simply did not work. But times have changed. The New York Times’ success in transforming itself into a company that is markedly less dependent on advertising than it has been in recent years has emboldened many other publishers. The Times now makes more than 20 percent of its revenue on digital-only subscriptions, a number which has been growing quickly.
As We May Think
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-11-10 05:38
tags:
academia
article
best
future
history
ideas
tech
July 1945.
Now, says Dr. Bush, instruments are at hand which, if properly developed, will give man access to and command over the inherited knowledge of the ages. The perfection of these pacific instruments should be the first objective of our scientists as they emerge from their war work. Like Emerson’s famous address of 1837 on “The American Scholar,” this paper by Dr. Bush calls for a new relationship between thinking man and the sum of our knowledge.
Introducing the memex.
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-11-06 03:57
tags:
article
hoipolloi
social
tech
What happened in 2012 to cause such dramatic shifts in behavior? It was after the Great Recession, which officially lasted from 2007 to 2009 and had a starker effect on Millennials trying to find a place in a sputtering economy. But it was exactly the moment when the proportion of Americans who owned a smartphone surpassed 50 percent.
Dramatic, perhaps, but some results of studies and changes in behavior.
Power Causes Brain Damage
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-09-13 19:17
tags:
article
hoipolloi
ideas
life
Knowledge is supposed to be power. But what good is knowing that power deprives you of knowledge?
Can Technology Rescue Democracy
https://www.theatlantic.com/projects/can-technology-rescue-democracy/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-05-03 16:22
tags:
essay
hoipolloi
ideas
policy
series
social
tech
valley
The Very Serious Lessons of Juicero
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/juicero-lessons/523896/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-04-22 01:30
tags:
business
food
ioshit
valley
A boring juice product feels the need to become the next great technology story. Humiliation ensues.
But none of these products or their manufacturers are subject to a withering, or even financially threatening, round of mockery, because they didn’t attempt to differentiate themselves in a crowded market with a gratuitous and easily falsifiable narrative about platforms, aircraft-grade machines, and the life force of diced vegetables.
How the Diving Bell Opened the Ocean's Depths
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/03/diving-bell/520536/ [www.theatlantic.com]
2017-03-31 01:24
tags:
history
physics
tech
The simple device ushered in a new age of exploration—and burst many ear drums in the process.