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Bike Lanes in Gomorrah
New Orleans is a puzzle for social engineers who think they know how to make people happy. As journalist Dan Baum wrote in Nine Lives, his book about Hurricane Katrina, “Long before the storm, New...
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Call Me i$Hm@eL
At the peak of his career in the late-2000s, a mysterious online figure from Eastern Europe attained the position of administrator of DarkMarket. He had climbed to the highest rung of one of the most...
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My Life as a Toastmaster
Founded in a YMCA basement in 1924, Toastmasters International was created to help young American men overcome their fear of public speaking. While groups like Rotary and the Shriners have seen their...
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Quick Study: More Psychiatrists = More Suicides?
Countries with better mental-health systems also seem to have higher suicide rates. That’s the counter-intuitive conclusion of researchers from Denmark and India who examined detailed data on 191...
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The Most Senseless Environmental Crime of the 20th Century
In the fall of 1946, a 508-foot ship steamed out of the port of Odessa, Ukraine. In a previous life she was called the Wikinger (“Viking”) and sailed under the German flag, but she had been...
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To Protect Battered Women, You Have to Protect Their Pets
Earlier this year, a New York City woman—I’ll call her Mary—tried to leave her abusive husband. She contacted a shelter, but the shelter wouldn’t take pets. Nor would any other shelter in the city....
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Why We Prefer Smaller Rewards Today Over Larger Rewards Tomorrow
You do it every time you bust your diet by scarfing a donut, puff “just one last cigarette” before quitting, or watch a dancing-penguin video instead of getting to work. You are performing the...
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Quick Study: Nike Was Smart to Continue Endorsing Tiger Woods
Despite his inconsistent athletic achievements and scandal-shredded reputation, Tiger Woods scored a new endorsement contract with Nike this summer. Recent research suggests that’s a smart move for the...
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Rise of the Robot Artist
I don't have much art in my apartment. But on an otherwise bare wall in the living room hangs a single canvas: a portrait of my girlfriend and our baby daughter. Their faces are spectral silhouettes...
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A Ghost Town's Second Life as a Climate Refuge for Rodents
You can't open your car door in the high desert town of Bodie, California, without hearing the piercing cries of its most prominent residents: thin-tailed, reddish-brown rodents known as Belding’s...
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In the Picture
Mouse over each of the 10 targets to learn more. Photograph by Pete Starman. In the Picture was first posted on November 20, 2013 at 10:00 am.©2013 "Pacific Standard". Use of this feed is for personal...
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The Big One
One state—Texas—carried out almost half of all prisoner executions (11 out of 23) in the first eight months of this year. One country—the United States—consumes nearly 25 percent of all the world's...
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Quick Study: Shop. Feel Bad. Shop More. Feel Better!
Have you ever tried on a pair of pants, find they fit perfectly, and then realize to your dismay that the trousers are two sizes larger than you thought your waist was? If so, continue shopping at your...
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Fan Fiction: The Next Great Literature?
In 1850, William Makepeace Thackeray was one of England’s most celebrated authors, thanks to his 1848 novel, Vanity Fair. He was, in his own words, “all but at the top of the tree.” It was from this...
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Shelf Help: Book Reviews in 100 Words or Less
• The Naked Society, Vance Packard (Ig Publishing) This spirited critique of government and corporate surveillance spent 23 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in 1964, long before the Internet...
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