In the 1990s, Microsoft created a virtual assistant in Microsoft Office that users found annoying — so it was swiftly retired. For Seattle Met, Benjamin Cassidy recounts the history of an unloved and doomed office assistant that has lived on in pop and nerd culture. These days, an annoying Word creature might seem eminently tolerable […]
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Silicon Savanna: The Workers Taking on Africa’s Digital Sweatshops
“Kenya has become ground zero in a battle over the future of content moderation in Africa and beyond.”
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‘It Changed the World’: 50 Years On, the Story of Pong’s Bay Area Origins
“How Atari created the world’s most famous video game.”
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The Business of Scenery
“In Zion National Park, crowding is such that one of the most popular trails had to be temporarily closed in 2017 to airlift eight tons of human excrement from public outhouses that a journalist described as an “open sewer.””
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Tim Cook on Shaping the Future of Apple
“Tim Cook takes pride in not hiding his email address, which is readily available on the search engine of your choice.”
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Jacked
“How Tulsa cops brought down a $500 million catalytic converter crime ring.”
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The Teeth Makers of Kandahar
Haji Muhammad Sultan owns a business in the center of Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, dedicated to handcrafting high-quality dentures. Founded by his grandfather 80 years ago, the shop was a place that Sultan came as a child to learn the family craft; he became a military doctor during the U.S.-led occupation and made teeth for […]
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How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero
For many years, Barnes & Noble was the Walmart of bookstores, crushing independent sellers through economy of scale. Then a new big bad entered the arena. As it turns out, though, neither pandemic nor Bezos could crush B&N — and now, armed with renewed focus, it’s staging one hell of a comeback. (Still shop independent […]
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Inside Snapchat’s Teen Opioid Crisis
“Law-enforcement sources and grieving families allege that the social media giant Snapchat has helped fuel a teen-overdose epidemic across the country. Now, their parents are fighting back.”
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Weed Between the Lines: A Longreads Cannabis Collection
No matter how you choose to celebrate this year, take some time to revisit Longreads’ many 420-friendly original pieces and recommendations.
