Category: Weird
How to Suspend Your Phone Service to Save Money (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint)
In the past few months, I’ve used very, very little cellular data. Yet my family has paid around $200 per month for our five-member unlimited-data…
It’s Ridiculous to Treat Schools Like Covid Hot Zones
On May 18, education ministers from the EU gathered on a conference call to discuss the reopening of schools. Children had been back to class…
‘Carbon Farming’ Could Make US Agriculture Truly Green
On a farm in north-central Indiana, Brent Bible raises 5,000 acres of corn and soybeans that go into producing ethanol fuel, food additives and seeds….
An Algorithm That ‘Predicts’ Criminality Based on a Face Sparks a Furor
In early May, a press release from Harrisburg University claimed that two professors and a graduate student had developed a facial-recognition program that could predict…
The Best Smart Displays (2020): Google Assistant, Alexa, Portal
Jeffrey Van Camp is an editor for WIRED, specializing in personal technology reviews and coverage. Previously he was the deputy editor of Digital Trends, helping…
Why the Arctic Is Warming So Fast, and Why That’s So Alarming
On Saturday, the residents of Verkhoyansk, Russia, marked the first day of summer with 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. Not that they could enjoy it, really,…
The Future of Commerce Belongs to the Frictionless
For a minute there, at the start of the global lockdown, it seemed to be an open question: Would we all be able to get…
Airbnb Quietly Fired Hundreds of Contract Workers. I’m One of Them
In April, with travel halted worldwide and revenue plunging, the cofounders of Airbnb raised $2 billion in debt and equity financing. Two weeks later, I…
Poker and the Psychology of Uncertainty
“You are going to be a gambler?” That’s my grandmother Baba Anya speaking. My last living grandparent. I’ve come to Boston for a family visit,…
5 Weird Concepts to (Theoretically) Supercharge Mask Fabrics
Zinc Zap Israeli startup Sonovia created tech—derived from research done at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University aimed at reducing disease spread in hospitals—that uses ultrasonic waves to…