Technology
The Inevitability of Being Hacked
We built a fake web toaster, and it was compromised in an hour.
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Artur Debat / Getty The Dark Web Isn’t All Dark
Despite its reputation for illegal activity, much of what goes on underneath the surface of the internet is legit.
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Randy Montoya / Sandia National Laboratory America's Nuclear-Waste Plan Is a Giant Mess
An explosion caused by cat litter at a storage site was just the beginning.
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Joel Page / Reuters ‘Scum,’ ‘Madman,’ and Other Words Used Most in Trump Coverage
A computer analysis of 60,000 articles about the presidential race finds distinct language referring to the Republican and Democratic nominees.
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Beawiharta Beawiharta / Reuters How the Internet Is Changing Pronunciation
Quick: How do you say the “read” in “read receipts”?
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Thomas Mullaney Chinese Characters Are Futuristic and the Alphabet Is Old News
The QWERTY keyboard was once the envy of the world, but not anymore.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters How Twitter Bots Are Shaping the Election
Between the first two presidential debates, a third of pro-Trump tweets and nearly a fifth of pro-Clinton tweets came from automated accounts.
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Library of Congress Predictions of a Presidentess
A century ago, prognosticators saw a future in which a woman could be the chief executive—and men would be made obsolete.
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Reuters Facebook Is Overwhelmed With Check-Ins to Standing Rock
… though there’s no evidence that protesters made the request.
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Track of the Day: ‘Toccata’ by Mungolian Jetset
It’s rare to see something end well on the internet. Most ongoing projects—whether blogs, podcasts, or novelty Tumblrs—don’t really ever…
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Dado Ruvic / Reuters How Facebook’s Ad Tool Fails to Protect Civil Rights
The company’s platform lets advertisers exclude people of certain races from seeing their content. That’s a serious problem when it comes to promotions such as housing, credit, and jobs.
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Núria Talavera / Getty How a Sculptor Adapted to Today's Economy
"I found myself unemployed five years ago for the first time in my life. That was unsettling, but it was not undoing."
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Joshua Roberts / Reuters The Future of Privacy Is Plausible Deniability
In a hackable world where neither the NSA nor Sony Pictures nor John Podesta could safeguard their private communications, the surest way to keep data secure may be surrounding it with decoys.
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Michael Bonfigli / The Christian Science Monitor Inside a Hacking Competition to Take Down a Water-Treatment Plant
This is how hackers play capture the flag.
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Maxim Shemetov / Reuters Whither Vine?
Twitter is shutting down the social network, which was one of the web’s most vibrant communities.
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Bettmann / Getty When Typists Were Feared as 'Love Pirates'
At the turn of the century, some women sued stenographers for seducing their husbands. An Object Lesson
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Owen Sweeney / Invision / AP It’s Bill Murray: A Facial Recognition Algorithm Settles the Debate
Actually, though, maybe it’s Tom Hanks.
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Robert Buckley / AP Not Doomed Yet: The Climate’s Best Month All Year
… at least on the diplomatic and renewable-energy fronts
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Catherine H. Palczewski Postcard Archive / University of ... The Weird Familiarity of 100-Year-Old Feminism Memes
A century ago, widely circulated images and cartoons helped drive the debate about whether women should have the right to vote.
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Xiaolong Wang Would You Buy a Genetically-Engineered Cashmere Sweater?
Scientists in China have used CRISPR to make a modified goat that produces more of the fine wool.
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Adam Berry / Getty Who’s Responsible When Your DVR Launches a Cyberattack?
The companies who make the devices could be held accountable.
