The Challenge of Making YouTube a Better Place
Susan Wojcicki has a difficult job. As CEO of YouTube, she leads one of Alphabet’s biggest money makers and most popular platforms. But the company she helms is very different than the YouTube that launched in 2005, when the mission was “Broadcast Yourself.” In recent years, and particularly since the 2016 election in the US,…
What's Inside Squishy, Tasty-Looking Tide Pods?
Armed only with social media and a good data plan, teenagers today can make just about anything go viral. Or, in the case of Tide Pods, go viral again. Jokes about eating the squishy, day-glo detergent packs have been racing around the internet since Procter & Gamble introduced the pods in 2012. I mean, come…
Ski Resorts Fight Climate Change With Snow Guns and Buses
After a wimpy winter, spring break has arrived, and skiers and snowboarders from Maine to Mammoth Lakes are stoked. More than 18 feet of snow has dropped at Squaw Valley, Calif., in March; Utah’s famed powder resorts have finally broken the 100-inch mark; and New England has been pummeled by four big storms pushing closing…
The 2018 Internet Moments That Made Being Online Worth It
The internet, as recent Senate reports have shown, can be an awful and confusing place. Hate speech, election meddling, PewDiePie—and we still can't get Twitter to let us edit posts. But every now and then, the garbage fire calms down just a bit and some joy creeps in. This post is for those moments, the…
The Year the Alt-Right Went Underground
I was at what should have been a farmers’ market in Berkeley, California, last year when a throng of black-clad antifascists tried to scrap it out with far-right ralliers in the middle of a park named after Martin Luther King Jr. I watched scrawny college students get pummeled by hulking, be-swastika-ed ex-soldiers and ex-law enforcement…
Why Are So Many Dead Whales Washing Up in the Bay Area?
There’s no one way to describe the scent of a beached, rotting whale. See, it really depends on time and space: So long as you’re more than 20 feet away, you don’t smell a thing. But if you’re downwind, the sour stench will just about bowl you over. Its bite sits heavily instead of sharply…
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Isn't for Kids—It's for Oscars
In a piece of news no one was expecting to read Monday morning, Netflix announced that it's working on a reboot of the classic children's tale Pinocchio. OK, maybe that part wasn't entirely unforeseen. The story of a wooden puppet boy come to life is widely beloved—of course Netflix would want to make a movie…
How Fast Can a Tiny Van Go in Ant-Man and the Wasp?
It's time for another look at the Ant-Man and the Wasp trailer. Previously, I considered what would happen if you shrunk a building to the size of a suitcase while its mass stayed constant. But now I want to look at the van that gets tiny. So here's the scene (as far as I can…
Dark Phoenix Trailer Here to Remind You X-Men Still a Thing
Hello, and welcome to another edition of The Monitor, WIRED's look at all that's happening in the world of pop culture. Have you gotten over your Oscars hangover yet? Good, because we've got a new Dark Phoenix trailer, some sad news about The Suicide Squad, and Mahershala Ali's new sci-fi project all on deck. Step…
Darpa's Next Challenge? A Grueling Underground Journey
I can’t sit here and guarantee you a robot won’t take your job one day—capitalism kind of has a thing for automation. What I can tell you is that in the near future, robots will be doing jobs that no one wants to do. For instance, risking your life doing rescue operations after mining disasters.…