Day: August 11, 2019

The Weird, Dark History of 8chan

The story behind the online message board 8chan: “an anonymous digital safe haven for the type of discussions that made many of its users unwelcome elsewhere on the web: abhorrent racism, violent misogyny, and rampant anti-Semitism.” The site is in the news again after the El Paso shooting as the shooter used it to post an anti-immigration screed just a few minutes before opening fire.

What Happened to Aung San Suu Kyi?

Ben Rhodes, a former advisor to Barack Obama, writes about Aung San Suu Kyi’s journey from icon of democratic protest, to working as part of a regime committing ethnic cleansing. Some readers are suggesting that her former position only ever amounted to Western democracies projecting what they wanted to see.

The business of sleep

A piece looking at the science of sleep, and how this essential human need is in conflict with the new attention economy.