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Daily Bafflements

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Daily Bafflements
May 08, 2015
  • A new app called Split helps users divide a restaurant bill “fairly, not equally,” thus reducing the amount of human interaction needed to have dinner out with friends. • Today in the jet set: don’t worry if your spring social calendar isn’t ...

Daily Bafflements
May 07, 2015
• Earlier this spring, the construction site for German intelligence agency BND’s new headquarters suffered from what the Twitterverse is dubbing its own #Watergate, a set of literal leaks caused by the theft of some newly installed faucets. We at The Baffler are holding ...

Daily Bafflements
May 06, 2015
• It is the eve of a UK general election so neck-and-neck that it seems no party will gain an outright majority—again. We know how this plays out, from the booing and catcalls of the conservative Murdoch press, to the main parties’ commitment to just carrying on. So ...

Daily Bafflements
May 05, 2015
• Today in Billionaires: Harvard is renaming its public health school, according to an overfond profile of donor Gerald Chan in the Boston Globe (title: “Meet Boston’s Invisible Billionaire”). Chan, a mammonish yet modest real estate magnate, is buying up Harvard ...

Daily Bafflements
May 04, 2015
•According to the data, we’re in a such a deadzone for romance that love songs aren’t being written anymore. •Yet Billionaires, that rare breed, overwhelmingly have long, slow, protracted marriages. •This begs the question: Did they marry “women with ...

Daily Bafflements
May 01, 2015
• App nauseum: TechCrunch reports on Dufl, an app-based service that will pack your suitcase for you, deliver it to your hotel, and ship it back home at the end of your trip. Now if only you could get it to sit next to that screaming baby on the plane for you. • Elon’s ...

Daily Bafflements
April 30, 2015
• Today in the sharing economy: CBC News reports that the popularity of “social dining apps,” companies that allow you to eat a home-cooked meal—in someone else’s home—is growing. Just book your meal with the app, take an Uber from your AirBnB sublet, and ...

Daily Bafflements
April 29, 2015
• It is with a heavy heart that Bud Light said sorry for dubbing itself “The perfect beer for removing ‘No’ from your vocabulary for the night.” Part of its “Up for Whatever” campaign, this joke was, the company said, not a joke about ...

Daily Bafflements
April 28, 2015
•Google has made a friendship pact with eight European newspapers. How nice! Essentially, the company is setting up a €150 million fund to promote, you guessed it, innovation. This follows arguments with publishers about its “anti-competitive” behavior (read: ...

Daily Bafflements
April 27, 2015
• Corinthian Colleges, the vast, for-profit education company, has closed the twenty-eight schools it had left. The historic overnight shutdown operation leaves 16,000 students in the lurch (and in debt). • Vice Media has launched a little something to keep you ...

Daily Bafflements
April 24, 2015
• We’ve covered the problems with governor Jerry Brown’s measures for California drought relief. Luckily, William Shatner is here with a plan to save the day, and you’ll soon be able to back it on Kickstarter. The actor has started a website, Shatner’s ...

Daily Bafflements
April 23, 2015
• Massachusetts has appointed Katie Stebbins as assistant secretary of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship. In an interview, Stebbins tells of her plans to turn the whole state into an innovation district, a la Kendall Square. John Summers saw it coming in ...