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In the 20th century, only the brave would make bold political or social statements in public places. Whether sprayed with an aersol can, wheatpasted with a bucket and a broom, or stencilled with a piece of cardboard, graffiti became the ultimate form of artistic anarchy. Despite being illegal, the art form became a mainstay of […]

In 1929, 17-year-old Mary Anne MacLeod left Glasgow on the SS Transylvania to join a “well-established community of countrymen and women,” which included two of her sisters, in New York City. Scots like MacLeod had been emigrating for years in search of a better life, the New Yorker’s Mary Pilon writes. MacLeod would later become […]

The White House is bracing for a tax reform fight, with Democrats already on guard against any plan rewarding the rich (US president Trump now denies this will happen: “The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan,” he said on Sept. 13). On the other end of the spectrum (and the country), […]

Perhaps you’ve stumped Siri before, asking Apple’s automated assistant things like, “What is the meaning of life?” or “How can I be healthier and happier?” If so, you’re not alone in turning to your phone for existential guidance and serious, practical life advice. According to an Apple job posting, lots of people do it. That’s […]Read More

Can you imagine what you would want to see if you were stuck for years in a cell with no windows, a place small enough for you to be able to touch both drab, bare walls if you stretched out your hands? Where you had very limited access to books, magazines, any stimulation from the […]

Doctors are starting to use genetic testing for preventive care, but they’re still nowhere near perfect and they’re not particularly well monitored. In one recent and very striking example, the San Francisco-based company Invitae announced last month it would be re-testing 50,000 saliva samples after discovering that it had accidentally given one patient a false […]Read More

Our Facebook news feeds are littered with dreadful crap. Well aware of this issue, the social-media behemoth is testing out a new solution: the Snooze button. As TechCrunch reports, the new feature allows you to temporarily “snooze,” or mute, a Facebook friend, Page, or Group for either 24 hours, one week, or 30 days. Snooze […]

A “girl” in the strictest sense is a young female person. But “girly” or “girlish” or “like a girl” stereotypically suggest pink, curlicues, high-pitched, fruity, not athletic, not serious—in opposition to stereotypes of masculinity as mature, tough, rough, boyish, high in alcohol content. (Since the 1990s, in a backlash to the word’s connotation of weakness, […]Read More

Three women, all former employees, filed a class action suit against Google on Sept. 14, alleging that women are paid less than men at the search giant and are routinely shoved into lower paying jobs despite excellent performance and qualifications. The suit follows one from the US Department of Labor, which is seeking pay data […]

The number of Rohingya refugees pouring into Bangladesh since Aug. 25 is nearing 400,000, and UN secretary general Antonio Guterres seems exasperated. “We are very much active in relation to the Rohingya crisis but unfortunately it has not been easy because the government of Myanmar until now has been completely deaf to our requests,” Guterres […]

1. Horse and buggy software “If you can just look it up on the internet, you’re not thinking. The more people rely on technology, the more we want to sit behind a desk. But you can’t build a house sitting behind a desk. My concern for our future, for our own children is that they […]Read More

The thriving, technology-driven wealth of the Bay Area is the envy of the rest of America, with good reason. According to the latest data from the US Census Bureau, San Francisco tops the list of the 25 largest metropolitan areas by household income. The median household in the San Francisco area earned nearly $97,000 last […]