THE ATLANTIC – Technology | Internet & Technology

In middle age, some sports fans become reactionaries. Due to dwindling neuroplasticity, or some general souring toward the world, they can no longer appreciate how a game evolves. It’s similar to when a music fan stops checking for new artists and plays only albums that they loved in high school. As an aging NBA fan, I’m trying to stay vigilant. I never want to catch myself ranting endlessly at the bar about the inferiority of younger stars. When I watch them on the court, I look for fresh expressions of basketball beauty. And yet, despite my best efforts, I’m having a hard time getting into Victor Wembanyama.Wembanyama, the league’s most promising young player, is only 21 years old and he’s French, but I don’t hold either of these things against him. Nor do I resent him for playing for San Antonio, a rival of my beloved Lakers. In fact, his… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

You’d be forgiven if you can’t hum the 18th-century Cumbrian folk song “Do Ye Ken John Peel.” But in 1942, a version of that tune, reworked with lyrics about Pepsi-Cola, was the most recognized melody in America.Three years earlier, two men walked into the office of Pepsi-Cola’s president, carrying a phonograph. They played a demo of what would become one of America’s earliest advertising jingles. To the tune of “Do Ye Ken John Peel,” it went: Pepsi-Cola hits the spot / Twelve full ounces, that’s a lot / Twice as much for a nickel, too. Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you. The jingle became a hit. People played it on jukeboxes around the country; it was translated into 55 languages. Electronic chimes atop a Pepsi-Cola plant in New York rang the first seven notes on the half hour. Other companies recognized the power of hummable commercials, and there were soon… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

This particularly cursed holiday week kicked off in earnest last night when my father turned his iPad in my direction. On its screen was a terribly disturbing post on X containing two images. In the first, Jeffrey Epstein was hugging and kissing a little girl. In the second, that girl was bound and gagged on a bed.Dad was rightly outraged and disgusted. He asked me if I’d seen the photos in my time going through the Epstein files. I immediately recognized the first image of Epstein and deduced that it had been Photoshopped from a widely distributed photo of Epstein hugging Ghislaine Maxwell. The second image seemed to be an AI rendering. (To add to the confusion, images reportedly do exist of Epstein cuddling children.) I let him know that the imagery was fake, and a distinctly non-yuletidy conversation ensued. Yes, Epstein was a heinous pedophile and convicted sex trafficker.… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

A friend of mine had just traveled across the country to see his family when he texted me, deeply concerned. The chaos of holiday travel is always a drag, but usually, it was offset by getting a break and watching his kids spend quality time with their grandparents. But this year was different, he said: “They were just absorbed in their phones a lot of the time, and distant.” He wasn’t talking about the kids, but the grandparents.I’ve heard similar anecdotes in recent years—adult children worried about their parents slipping into screen addiction as they age. Stories like this pervade the internet. (One representative thread from the Millennials Subreddit: “Are all of our parents addicted to their phones?”) These accounts are striking in part because they mirror the concerns parents have been expressing for years about their children—that young minds are being influenced and warped by devices designed to seize… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.

When I rode the escalator into the lobby of the Phoenix Convention Center on Thursday, one of the first things I saw was a two-story-tall picture of Charlie Kirk with his arm reaching out to the sky. The late co-founder of Turning Point USA was an inescapable presence at AmericaFest, the organization’s annual gathering. In the VIP area, a large screen played clips of Kirk on repeat. I watched people line up to get their picture taken next to a portrait of Kirk underneath a tent that read Prove Me Wrong on the front. It was a replica of the structure that Kirk toured the country with—and that he was sitting under when he was assassinated, in September.AmericaFest has long been one of the biggest events on the right, but this year, the conference saw a record turnout of roughly 30,000. When I asked attendees why they had decided to… ...[TheTopNews] Read More.