Story

Should I Delete My Tweets?

Posted on

Q: Should I delete my tweets? A: Tweets, by design, suffer from context collapse, the phenomenon by which the common understanding that existed when something was created dwindles and vanishes over time. Perhaps it would be better to erase your history than face the possibility of being misunderstood. Such functionality is not currently built into […]

Story

Love, Death & Robots and the Rise of NSFW Netflix

Posted on

If you haven't figured it out by the time you see a young Hitler being fellated by a Viennese sex worker, Love, Death & Robots isn't your average Netflix show. Of course, if you haven't figured it out, you probably haven't been paying attention: "Alternate Histories," which features said act being performed upon said icon […]

Story

How Will Houston Handle the Deluge of Hurricane Harvey?

Posted on

This story has been updated as of 4:45 pm EDT on Tuesday, August 29. Hurricanes are classified according to their wind speed. But a truer measure of their destructive potential would also include their moisture level. Just before making landfall on Friday night, Hurricane Harvey jumped up to become a category 4 hurricane, with sustained […]

Story

What It's Like to Attend an Electronic Music Conference Where the Beat Never Drops

Posted on

Halfway into her 90-minute live set at Loop, Ableton's electronic music conference in Los Angeles, Juana Molina put down her Gibson SG guitar, stepped back from her synthesizer, and started dancing. The Argentine songwriter—who clothes herself in music woven from threads of looped percussion, finger-picked electric guitar, and airy vocals—cut loose with a hip-swinging shimmy […]

Story

Grande Arrival: The Year Digital Native Pop Stars Took Over

Posted on

Within the first 24 hours that Ariana Grande’s music video for “thank u, next,” went live in late November, it broke the internet. Well, sort of. YouTube reported that comments on the video, an extended homage to rom-coms like Mean Girls, Legally Blonde, Bring It On, and 13 Going on 30, were delayed from posting—likely […]

Story

There's Still Time to Prepare Yourself for the Apoceclipse

Posted on

For years, the total solar eclipse of August 21—the first to be visible in the mainland United States since 1979—has been in stealth mode. With the exception of the enthusiasts who’ve been snatching up all the hotel rooms along the eclipse’s 70-mile-wide, 2,800-mile-long path from Oregon to South Carolina, nobody really knew it was coming. […]

Story

The Oscar Nominations Prove We're in a New Age of Documentaries

Posted on

There comes a moment in Minding the Gap when everything shifts. A Sundance darling that won the 2018 Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking and was later acquired by Hulu, the movie focuses on a trio of skateboarding friends in Illinois to delve into the unending cycle of generational abuse in poor communities ravaged by joblessness. […]

Story

The Crowdsourced Maps Guiding Puerto Rico's Recovery

Posted on

This story originally appeared on CityLab and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Almost three weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the island is in a grim state. Fewer than 15 percent of residents have power, and much of the island has no clean drinking water. Delivery of food and other necessities, especially to remote areas, has […]

Story

MTV Wants Young People to Guilt Their Friends Into Voting

Posted on

If you were watching MTV in 1990, you might remember seeing Madonna, draped in an American flag, bopping around between snapping backup dancers, and encouraging viewers to vote in that year's midterm elections. It was the first-ever ad for Rock the Vote, the youth-focused voter engagement group that has partnered with MTV in splashy, celeb-studded […]