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The 1774 Novel Blamed for Youth Suicide
The Sorrows of Young Werther was blamed for a supposed youth suicide epidemic
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Louis Anslow
The 'War of the Worlds' Panic was Anti-Radio Propaganda
Radio was a new competing medium, so newspapers invented a panic to blame it for
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Louis Anslow
8
Einstein Blamed Automation for the Great Depression
Not even Einstein was immune from the lump of labor fallacy...
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Louis Anslow
The 1912 War on Fake Photos
Concern about deceptively edited photos feels like a very modern anxiety, yet a century ago similar worries were being litigated...
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Louis Anslow
The Eiffel Tower was Called Techno-Dystopian
The Eiffel Tower is just as iconic of France as croissants and baguettes, and equally emblematic of Paris, standing alongside landmarks like Notre-Dame…
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Louis Anslow
Skateboarding: from Nuisance to Olympic Sport
Skateboarding was considered a silly and childish phenomenon for much of its existence, its emergence in the late 1950s would see opposition almost…
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Louis Anslow
2
When the Surgeon General Warned About Pac-Man
This week U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a ‘Warning Label on Social Media Platforms’, this…
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Louis Anslow
2
The New York Times Banned Word Games Before Embracing Them
The following newsletter is syndicated from a 2022 BigThink.com article we wrote inspired by The New York Times acquisition of Wordle. In April it was…
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Louis Anslow
2
Why Steve Wozniak Dismissed PCs and Steve Jobs Didn't
In March 1976 Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak presented the design of a circuit board for an early home PC at the now legendary ‘Homebrew Computer Club…
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Louis Anslow
5
The Forgotten War on Beepers
30 years before parents and lawmakers sought to save youth from smartphones via age limits and bans in schools, a similar conversation took place about…
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Louis Anslow
8
The Original AI Doomer: Dr. Norbert Wiener
Long before Geoffrey Hinton and Eliezer Yudkowsky sounded warnings about artificial intelligence, there was Dr.
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Louis Anslow
4
Joe Biden Kicked Off the Encryption Wars
The Crypto Wars, Part - 1
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Louis Anslow
2
Aeroplanes, Airships and Beta Bias
"We cannot understand to what practical use a flying machine that is heavier than air can be put." - Manchester Guardian, 1908
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Louis Anslow
2
When the Mac was a Munition
The US Government Classed the Power Mac G4 as a Weapon of War
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Louis Anslow
2
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