Mike Pence has a tough job working for Donald Trump. When the president-elect lies, it often falls to his vice president-elect to defend him. For…
These are the best books Bill Gates read in 2016
The world’s richest man is studying up on tennis and electrical grids this year. Bill Gates, philanthropist and cofounder of Microsoft, has kept up his…
The unbearable sadness of being Taiwan, a liberal island other democracies refuse to talk to
An island, a territory, a self-governing entity, a renegade province, a breakaway part of China, the place formerly known as Formosa—call Taiwan any of those…
Amazon is opening a grocery store with no cashiers and no checkout lines
We’re getting closer to a future where we don’t ever have to talk to another human we don’t want to. Amazon announced on Dec. 5…
Airbnb is no longer the nice guy of the sharing economy
Scott Shatford didn’t bargain for criminal charges. The official complaint arrived at his front door in May, more than a year after Santa Monica, California,…
How China could react to Trump’s taunts, from the best to the worst-case scenario
Donald J. Trump’s phone call this past weekend with Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen has caused so much consternation among political analysts and advisors to both…
A Yale history professor’s powerful, 20-point guide to defending democracy under a Trump presidency
Americans are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from…
Broadway won’t document its dramatic race problem, so a group of actors spent five years quietly gathering this data themselves
One actor’s Facebook rant started a movement. In the spring of 2011 performer Pun Bandhu was rejected from the final-round of auditions for an Off-Broadway…
Here’s how to stop that annoying handwriting feature when you tilt your iPhone
For whatever reason, some people like to type in landscape mode on their iPhones. But in the latest iOS software, Apple changed the tried-and-true method…
Orwellian euphemisms like “post-truth” and “alt-right” are perfect for whitewashing fascism
The word of the year is “post-truth,” according to Oxford Dictionaries. Post-truth has been used a lot in 2016 to describe the successful Brexit and…
Trump’s housing secretary has only one opinion about housing: Desegregation is a bad idea
It’s fair to say Donald Trump’s choice for housing and urban development (HUD) secretary isn’t exactly passionate about the subject. Some have joked that retired…
Cannabis coffee pods are about to become compatible with millions of household Keurig machines
Early risers seeking a little extra from their morning buzz will soon be able to turn to their Keurig brewers. A San Diego, California, company…