The Baffler

• Ground sensors and satellites are being deployed to help predict and slow the crumbling of ancient Pompeii. As BLDGBLOG describes, “guards will receive electronic updates from the city itself while out on their daily rounds, including automated pings and alerts of ...

These operators are standing by to answer any questions you may have about military service. / Photo by davidd • Doctors are apparently already saving patients’ lives by using Google Glass in the ER, but they’re also risking patients’ lives by texting and reading ...

Ladies and gentlemen, pimps and hoes, prudes and Pulitzers, nannies, grannies, and ballers: let’s all take a look back at the past week on the Baffler blog. • The Pulitzers were awarded early this week, which gave us an occasion to return to two excellent pieces from the ...

Portrait of Gabriel García Márquez by Arturo Espinosa • “The more power you have, the harder it is to know who is lying to you and who is not. When you reach absolute power, there is no contact with reality, and that’s the worst kind of solitude there can be . . . . ...

Rocker Andrew WK with his famous pizza guitar. / Photo by rufus • Presented without comment, from Baffler contributing editor Eugenia Williamson in Boston Magazine, “A Failed Interview with Macaulay Culkin and Pizza Underground.” Pizza Underground is the ...

Wi-fi password: DRONE / Photo by Gabriel Garcia Marengo • “The Social Security Administration announced Monday that it will immediately cease efforts to collect on taxpayers’ debts to the government that are more than 10 years old,” reports the Washington Post. • ...

That’s a nice toilet seat. / Photo by Bartux • “Toys, and toys, and more and more toys.” – A small child, correctly answering the question “what does the government buy with your taxes?” Another good guess from the same video: ...

Bradenton Trailer Park, Bradenton, Florida, circa 1941. / Courtesy of Alden Jewell • It is the 199th anniversary of a volcanic eruption that you’ve likely never heard of, but which changed the course of the 19th century as much as Napoleon’s wars, says author Gillen ...