After Trump's Speech, Twitter Fact-Checks the Fact-Checkers
If President Trump's tenure in office has any lasting impact on the jobs market, it might just be his ability to keep fact-checkers gainfully employed. Going back to the election debates in 2016, diligent researchers at nearly every major news outlet have made it their business to find the truth (and fiction) in the claims…
How We Learn: A WIRED Investigation
That Johannes Gutenberg guy was on to something. He may not have been the first person to print texts on paper using movable type—systems in China and Korea predated his—but his printing press made it faster, and cheaper, to create a record of a thought. One by one, those thoughts spread across Europe, philosophy and…
How to Stop Netflix from AutoPreviewing Inappropriate Kids Shows
Parental controls were not a big thing in my household growing up. Both of my parents had acted in iconic horror films—Jaws and The Last House on the Left—and as such, didn't have much of an argument when I wanted to watch R-rated content. Now, as the parent of a 3-year-old, I'd like to shield…
First Man Lifts Off as an Indie Blockbuster—and Lands Perfectly
First Man is a rare bird. It’s a big, adventure movie that goes from the flats of the Mojave Desert to the surface of the moon; and it’s a deft, thoughtful film about overcoming grief. It’s got wrenching performances, and an entire sequence shot in IMAX that looks best on the biggest screen possible. The…
Women Will Dominate—and Dismantle—the Music Industry in 2019
When Ariana Grande issued thank u, next earlier this month, she was staying true to a long-held promise. In a move rarely seen from an artist of imposing status, the album marked the pop enchanter's second studio release in just six months. (Her previous album, Sweetener, dropped last August.) Still, if you've followed the whirlwind…
While You Were Offline: But (Ivanka's) Emails …
It's Thanksgiving Week, which means that the tryptophan haze has caused us to produce a shorter look back at online chatter in a week during which the stock market tanked, romaine lettuce was revealed to be potentially poisonous, and California remained on fire. There was, as that list might make clear, a lot going on…
How Trumpy Bear Divided the World—and Conquered the Internet
Trumpy Bear’s two-minute commercial begins with a prophecy. A baritone voice intones it: “The wind whispered through the forest, ‘A storm is coming. You cannot defeat the storm … I fear nothing.'” When the wind’s monologue concludes, the ad offers up campy endorsements of Trumpy Bear from salt-of-the-earth archetypes: firefighters, law enforcement officers, pizza shop…
While You Were Offline: That's One Way to Stop Trump's Wall
Even by 2019 standards, this last week has been a doozy; we've had police allege Empire actor Jussie Smollett faked his attack in an attempt to promote his career, a new election called in North Carolina, and another potential government revolt in the UK over Brexit, which has also resulted in the formation of a…
Making a Stormtrooper Out of Bodies Is Easier Than You'd Think
If the work of Pilobolus looks familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen them on the Oscars. Or on YouTube. Though the dance troupe was founded in 1971 at Dartmouth College, the group’s most recent spate of notoriety comes from its projected shadow play routines, multi-person performances done behind a screen that give the illusion that…
Frozen 2 Trailer: Twitter Asks, Where Is Elsa's Girlfriend?
One hour. That's all it took for the tweets to start coming in. No sooner had Disney dropped the trailer for Frozen 2 than the question started popping up: Where was Elsa's girlfriend? Was she gonna be a lesbian, or nah? Disney fans and LGBTQ advocates alike were demanding: Make Elsa Gay, Dammit. Related Stories…