Afflictor: Thinking it’s suspicious that so many celebrities in their 80s are dying, as if someone with a vested interest wanted to eliminate them before they reached 90.
- Old Print Articles: Eccentric millionaire builds strange park (1909) + A blood-drinking religious cult arises in Kansas City (1890).
- Featured Videos: Frank Zappa promotes 200 Motels on What’s My Line? (1971) + “Mama” Cass Elliot demonstrates a Bell Labs innovation in voice-recognition dialing (1972) + Goodyear’s airplane-in-a-box, the Inflatoplane, is demonstrated (1956) + Touch-computing via stylus (1991) + Elio Motors is producing a three-wheel, $6,800 car + Tom Snyder welcomes embattled preacher Billy James Hargis (1970s).
- Recently Posted on NYC’s Craigslist: I’m terrible for cats + But I’m worse.
- Mae Young, lady wrestler, just nut-punched St. Peter at heaven’s gate.
- Steven Levy interviewed NSA officials about Snowden and surveillance.
- Walter Isaacson recalls the Homebrew Computer Club.
- Jared Diamond compares traditional and modern societies.
- A fascinating (and controversial) article about a golf-club manufacturer.
- David Gelernter further antagonizes the Singularitarians.
- Baseball’s neverending PED scandal has led to some silly suggestions.
- Daniel Ellsberg argues that everyone should fear government surveillance.
- Sen. Dianne Feinstein found a drone peeking into her window.
- Jeffrey D. Sachs did an Ask Me Anything at Reddit.
- Too Big Too Fail may have shifted but it has not been corrected.
- San Francisco is being divided by tech haves and have-nots.
- Valley Fever, that mysterious ailment, is spreading through regions of the U.S.
- Someone from 1914 travels to modern times and experiences a smartphone.
- Technology, no matter how awesome, is evolution, not revolution.
- Future warfare might be fought in dense urban environments. Maybe.
- Belief systems can be remarkably malleable.
- Jeffrey Wright, brilliant actor, is also a “radical capitalist.”
- Some circumstances can lead to innovative breakthroughs.
- A brief note from 1909 about flying bicycles.
- A brief note from 1907 about a cow autopsy.
- A brief note from 1899 about a lost party.
- This week’s Afflictor keyphrase searches.