When Abraham Lincoln came to the stage of the 1860 state Republican convention in Decatur, Illinois, the crowd roared in approval. Men threw hats and canes into the air, shaking the hall so much that the awning over the stage… Read More ›
Articles
The Toymaker Who (Actually) Saved Christmas
Alfred Carlton Gilbert was told he had 15 minutes to convince the United States government not to cancel Christmas. For hours, he paced the outer hall, awaiting his turn before the Council of National Defense. With him were the tools… Read More ›
How to Hide $400 Million
A few weeks after she realized her husband was finally leaving her, Sarah Pursglove flew down to the Bahamas to figure out how much money he really had. Like many women married to very wealthy men, she didn’t know much… Read More ›
Numbers
Over time I have come to realise that numbers, or rather real-time tracking, are becoming more prevalent in my life and I am starting to wonder what the benefits are. Fitness and sleep numbers are difficult to ignore after you… Read More ›
Can Technology End Poverty?
A ten-year-old boy named Dhyaneshwar looked up for approval after carefully typing the word “Alaska” into a PC. “Bahut acchaa!” I cheered—“very good.” It was April, 2004, and I was visiting a “telecenter” in the tiny village of Retawadi, three… Read More ›
The Day Kennedy Died
For nearly 15 minutes, McClelland held the retractor as blood ran over its edges. As the other doctors labored on Kennedy’s throat and chest or milled around the room, McClelland stood staring at the leader of the free world. His… Read More ›
A Commodore 64 has helped run an auto shop for 25 years
Apple’s Phil Schiller thinks it’s sad that people use 5-year-old computers. Well, Phil, there’s an auto repair shop in Poland that’s going to send you spiraling into a long depression. Why? Because one of the computers they’re using on a… Read More ›
RRP
Out of habit, I often look around for bargains and tend to look at certain online stores. Without looking for Black Friday deals (I hate Black Friday!) I have noticed a disturbing trend that many of you are no doubt… Read More ›
Squarespace vs WordPress
For a long long time I used Squarespace and was perfectly happy with the service, and then I stopped for a while because I realised that blogging wasn’t doing much for me anymore, and presumably not for you readers. Recently… Read More ›
What are all these Apple people working on?
I just read this. Last month, Apple told reporters that it was formally exiting the standalone display business and ceding it to partners like LG. According to a new report from Bloomberg, it may soon be doing the same thing… Read More ›