Culture You shouldn’t trust them with your spine or any other part of your body. The first time I dealt with a chiropractor was in 1999 at a mall kiosk, which seemed like an odd place to encounter a medical professional. I was a teenager working a few storefronts down selling butterfly clips, and I made the mistake of looking at one of the kiosk’s spinal models. The chiropractor on duty promptly came over to let me know how he could fix all my health ailments. Back issues! Period pain! Even weight loss! Whatever was ailing me, this chiropractor was on it.The problem with his sales pitch? I...…Culture You shouldn’t trust them with your spine or any other part of your body. The first time I dealt with a chiropractor was in 1999 at a mall kiosk, which seemed like an odd place to encounter a medical professional. I was a teenager working a few storefronts down selling butterfly clips, and I made the mistake of looking at one of the kiosk’s spinal models. The chiropractor on duty promptly came over to let me know how he could fix all my health ailments. Back issues! Period pain! Even weight loss! Whatever was ailing me, this chiropractor was on it.The problem with his sales pitch? I...WW…

The Future A proposed partnership with Google’s Sidewalk Labs is shaping up to be a calamity. In October 2017, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau extolled to a buzzing crowd the promise of what would become one of the biggest public-works boondoggles in recent Canadian history. Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government organization that manages Toronto’s waterfront revitalization, and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, had just entered a to develop a 12-acre unused industrial site on the city’s eastern waterfront, Quayside. The planned neighborhood would include new residences and...…The Future A proposed partnership with Google’s Sidewalk Labs is shaping up to be a calamity. In October 2017, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau extolled to a buzzing crowd the promise of what would become one of the biggest public-works boondoggles in recent Canadian history. Waterfront Toronto, a tri-government organization that manages Toronto’s waterfront revitalization, and Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Alphabet, had just entered a to develop a 12-acre unused industrial site on the city’s eastern waterfront, Quayside. The planned neighborhood would include new residences and...WW…

The Future Beiwe is one of a handful of apps doctors are using to passively monitor and study patients. What does it change? zenstock / Shutterstock From the moment he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep, Robert Smith* keeps a digital remote in his pocket. The remote keeps a tally: each time he presses the button, it updates a daily count and uploads it to an . Smith, a 29-year old engineer living in Dover, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with schizophrenia six years ago. He uses the remote to keep track of his auditory hallucinations — how many he hears every day, and at what times.“People...…The Future Beiwe is one of a handful of apps doctors are using to passively monitor and study patients. What does it change? zenstock / Shutterstock From the moment he wakes up to the time he goes to sleep, Robert Smith* keeps a digital remote in his pocket. The remote keeps a tally: each time he presses the button, it updates a daily count and uploads it to an . Smith, a 29-year old engineer living in Dover, New Hampshire, was diagnosed with schizophrenia six years ago. He uses the remote to keep track of his auditory hallucinations — how many he hears every day, and at what times.“People...WW…

Power I admire Warren, but Bernie Sanders is the best Democrat for the future of America. Getty Images At the end of 2014, while I was working as a political journalist in D.C., for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president. I didn’t know much about Warren and after some research, I came away with an admiration for her clear vision about the grip financial institutions hold on our political institutions and on the millions of Americans living in debt.I wanted Warren to run for president in 2016, and was happy when she announced her run in 2020. But what is clear now, after...…Power I admire Warren, but Bernie Sanders is the best Democrat for the future of America. Getty Images At the end of 2014, while I was working as a political journalist in D.C., for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president. I didn’t know much about Warren and after some research, I came away with an admiration for her clear vision about the grip financial institutions hold on our political institutions and on the millions of Americans living in debt.I wanted Warren to run for president in 2016, and was happy when she announced her run in 2020. But what is clear now, after...WW…

The Future The nearsighted population has increased by 14 percent in the U.S. and almost 15 percent in western Europe. Is society on the verge of going blind? Shutterstock How far can you see?More than 32 percent of the world’s population has myopia, or nearsightedness, according to a 2019 study in the Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science journal. The study predicts that by 2050, almost 60 percent of the global population will have some level of myopia, predominantly in developed countries.The highest levels of myopia exist in urban Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and...…The Future The nearsighted population has increased by 14 percent in the U.S. and almost 15 percent in western Europe. Is society on the verge of going blind? Shutterstock How far can you see?More than 32 percent of the world’s population has myopia, or nearsightedness, according to a 2019 study in the Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science journal. The study predicts that by 2050, almost 60 percent of the global population will have some level of myopia, predominantly in developed countries.The highest levels of myopia exist in urban Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and...WW…

Power Money printer go brrrrrrr. Getty Images One (yes, one) month ago, on February 24, during a CNN town hall, Chris Cuomo asked Sen. Bernie Sanders how he planned to pay for his free college plan. At this point, Bernie was the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary (yes, that was one month ago). He had been asked dozens of times, over and over and over, how he would pay for his ambitious agenda: Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, free childcare, cancelling medical and student debt. You could set your watch to it; some portion of every debate would involve 10 to 15 minutes...…Power Money printer go brrrrrrr. Getty Images One (yes, one) month ago, on February 24, during a CNN town hall, Chris Cuomo asked Sen. Bernie Sanders how he planned to pay for his free college plan. At this point, Bernie was the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary (yes, that was one month ago). He had been asked dozens of times, over and over and over, how he would pay for his ambitious agenda: Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, free childcare, cancelling medical and student debt. You could set your watch to it; some portion of every debate would involve 10 to 15 minutes...WW…

The Future The seventh part of "As Told To," our ongoing series about how the coronavirus is reordering peoples’ lives. A San Esteban chuckwalla. Photo courtesy of Heather DeBord. Stories about the way the world works, in the words of people living in it.Heather DeBord is a 48-year-old zookeeper at Zoo Knoxville, a 53-acre zoo in the Tennessee city known for successfully breeding endangered species like red panda and rare turtles. She’s worked as a zookeeper in the herpetology department, caring for reptiles and amphibians, for the last six years. She spoke with The Outline about working at...…The Future The seventh part of "As Told To," our ongoing series about how the coronavirus is reordering peoples’ lives. A San Esteban chuckwalla. Photo courtesy of Heather DeBord. Stories about the way the world works, in the words of people living in it.Heather DeBord is a 48-year-old zookeeper at Zoo Knoxville, a 53-acre zoo in the Tennessee city known for successfully breeding endangered species like red panda and rare turtles. She’s worked as a zookeeper in the herpetology department, caring for reptiles and amphibians, for the last six years. She spoke with The Outline about working at...WW…

Power There is nothing but time for creative pursuits. Getty Images Every now and then, the world produces a perfect news story: a wondrous gem of sheer happening, in which the world stands revealed in a hyperreal strangeness and profoundness and hilarity. The story of , Knickers, who was literally too Big to process into meat, was one such story; another was when that baboon polycule escaped from a scheduled vasectomy and .This Monday, we received another one, just when it seems we needed it most. In Australia (actually all these stories happened in Australia), The Guardian revealed, as...…Power There is nothing but time for creative pursuits. Getty Images Every now and then, the world produces a perfect news story: a wondrous gem of sheer happening, in which the world stands revealed in a hyperreal strangeness and profoundness and hilarity. The story of , Knickers, who was literally too Big to process into meat, was one such story; another was when that baboon polycule escaped from a scheduled vasectomy and .This Monday, we received another one, just when it seems we needed it most. In Australia (actually all these stories happened in Australia), The Guardian revealed, as...WW…

Power The story of how I spent two years on the U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted list as a fugitive from justice. I sat on the edge of a cliff at Great Falls National Park, smoking a joint and drinking a bottle of vodka, preparing to fake my own demise. Death, or at least “death,” was the most preferable option, considering the alternative was spending my youth in prison.I’d spent my late teenage years dealing weed and psychedelics while following the Grateful Dead, only to get busted by cops in Northern Virginia for selling LSD and marijuana at East Coast colleges back in 1991. In my...…Power The story of how I spent two years on the U.S. Marshals’ Top 15 Most Wanted list as a fugitive from justice. I sat on the edge of a cliff at Great Falls National Park, smoking a joint and drinking a bottle of vodka, preparing to fake my own demise. Death, or at least “death,” was the most preferable option, considering the alternative was spending my youth in prison.I’d spent my late teenage years dealing weed and psychedelics while following the Grateful Dead, only to get busted by cops in Northern Virginia for selling LSD and marijuana at East Coast colleges back in 1991. In my...WW…

Culture Billy Swan is a genius at ridding your home of things that bite and terrorize in the middle of the night (and keeping you from going insane in the process). Photo by Pete Voelker Millions of overlapping, private Brooklyns make up the borough. They vary in almost every way people’s lives can; rich, poor, happy, sad, fulfilled, lonely, and all the Brooklyns in between.The majority of residents glimpse, at most, dozens of these private realities. But a certain category of workers — plumbers, movers, and electricians, among others — see a far larger slice of the city. Frequently,...…Culture Billy Swan is a genius at ridding your home of things that bite and terrorize in the middle of the night (and keeping you from going insane in the process). Photo by Pete Voelker Millions of overlapping, private Brooklyns make up the borough. They vary in almost every way people’s lives can; rich, poor, happy, sad, fulfilled, lonely, and all the Brooklyns in between.The majority of residents glimpse, at most, dozens of these private realities. But a certain category of workers — plumbers, movers, and electricians, among others — see a far larger slice of the city. Frequently,...WW…