A brief note: The May print issue was written before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and turned all of our lives upside down. We hope all of these stories will be relevant again before too long, but meanwhile, stay safe, stay sane, and above all, stay away from...
Got stuck? No problem. Here’s the answers to this month’s puzzle:
Becoming a cyborg could have been liberating. In 1985, scholar Donna Haraway posited that as the categories of human, animal and machine became blurred, the rigid boundaries of gender, labor and other symbolic oppressors could collapse. In some ways, the smartphone has made progress toward this end: In cyborg fashion,...
It’s weeks into most states’ COVID-induced quarantine, and the change of routine is, for many of us, the new normal. Outside the house is now bad, and inside is our cocoon of safety. In an amazing display of ingenuity, that’s led to a number of innovations in...
In early January, as hordes of people were reminding themselves that working out sucks, a team of researchers from the University of Michigan released a promising study proposing what could someday become a miraculous pill that mimics the effects of exercise. Naturally, much of the media heard “exercise pill” and...
Under most normal circumstances, wearing pants is an advisable, if not imperative facet of daily life. But any semblance of normalcy was abandoned when the coronavirus struck and stay-at-home orders were implemented, and whether we need to wear pants while enduring the confines of our homes was...
Earwax comes in many guises, varying in color from amber to brown to gray to black, its consistency ranging from wet and gooey to dry and flakey. But whatever its form, it’s universally considered gross and unwelcome by the general public, which is unfortunate, because this nasty-seeming...
There you are, ready as ever to venture outdoors for your brief, but daily jaunt around the block — a few routine minutes of nature to remind yourself of the outside world, a pleasant place where humans were once allowed to travel freely, before the coronavirus struck...
There’s plenty of advantages to self-isolating indoors all the time: You’re away from the elements like rain and snow, you’ve (hopefully) got a warm place to sleep and, above all in trying times like these, you’re safe from the scourge of the coronavirus. Unfortunately, there’s one annoying...
The debate has raged on for more than half a century now — is pineapple an acceptable topping on pizza? It’s an ongoing, multi-thread argument on Reddit, a persistently insulting meme and I even got some hate for it when I ordered it as part of my investigation into a pizza delivery tracker. But I’m...
As I’m writing this, I’ve been in self-quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic for a few weeks. I am, of course, worried about getting the virus. Or maybe more so about it being dormant inside of me and passing it to someone else. But as I spend more...
Like a new cohort of workers affected by the coronavirus, I work remotely from my apartment. On a daily basis, my colleagues cooperate with my bulging head, projected like the Wizard of Oz on an enormous flat screen in our faraway headquarters. The same corkboard where I keep...
