Matt Novak

9 Highlights From Today’s Supreme Court Cell Phone Privacy Decision

Today the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that police can no longer search your cell phone without a search warrant or an immediate threat of danger. There are plenty of caveats, but overall this is a victory for privacy advocates. Below are some of the highlights from the decision. https://gizmodo.com/supreme-court-cops-cant-search-your-phone-without-a-wa-1595858318 SCOTUS points out that we’ve…

This 1960s Computerized Desk Was Supposed to Make Classrooms Extinct

The technology of the future was going to provide all kinds of new possibilities for the classroom of tomorrow — including eliminating the classroom entirely. Interestingly enough, it would seem we’re still chasing that dream. https://gizmodo.com/15-technologies-that-were-supposed-to-change-education-1481232959 The December 18, 1960 edition of Arthur Radebaugh’s comic strip “Closer Than We Think” featured this home-schooling console of…

American Workers Are Getting Screwed

Over the past 50 years, Americans have increased their productivity and are working longer hours than their European counterparts. Yet we’re seeing few of the gains you’d expect of a modern society. American wages are stagnant, and things like paid vacation time or even paid maternity leave are luxuries afforded to few people. Technology was…

Wolf Parade: California Dreamer

Canadian band Wolf Parade’s “California Dreamer” is one of those songs that sounds like a warning — a cautionary ballad that Los Angeles exists as a town intent on swallowing people whole. Accurate or not, it was a warning I personally didn’t heed. “This city doesn’t belong to you anymore, California dreamer,” lead singer Spencer…

The Police Surveillance Drone of 1976

1976 Associated Press: Tiny robot helicopter caused a mild sensation at the opening of the Farnborough Air Show in Hampshire, England, Sept. 5, 1976. The remote-controlled Westland Wisp spy-in-the-sky helicopter has been developed for army or police use for aerial surveillance. The plane can be equipped for transmitting television pictures back to base and is…

When Radio In Every Room Was the Dream of the Future

In 1939 Radio-Craft magazine wrote a series of articles promising that they would build a home of the future in Teaneck, New Jersey. What fantastical, futuristic technology would they show off? Robot servants, newspapers printed by radiowaves, and glowing walls? Sadly, no. The tech of tomorrow in this house was old-fashioned radio — but with…

Here’s How One Optimistic Parent From 1989 Imagined 2014

Is it cruel to have children when the world is so terrible? That’s not a new question. And when a newspaper columnist in Michigan asked it in 1989, he came down on the side of no. The world of the future — the world of 2014, to be exact — was going to be just…

January 2000: Truck concept vehicle from Ford called “The 24.7” featuring technologies like internet, hands-free mobile phone, real-time route assistance, weather reports and stock read-outs. [Getty Images]

That Time a Lying Factbot Accidentally Told The Truth

The internet loves fun facts. But those images and facts we see floating around are often more fun than fact. Sometimes, these incorrect facts are distributed by people who simply haven’t done their homework. Other times, they’re the product of people who just want to throw a wrench in the machinery of social media. UK-based…

How Bell Labs Almost Put a Videophone in Every Home

From the 1950s until the 1970s Bell Labs spent over $500 million developing the videophone. But the technology failed to achieve mainstream success. Why? Bill Hammack from the University of Illinois has a great video explaining the tremendous promise and eventual demise of the videophone as a standalone appliance in the mid-20th century. Below is…

Circa 1935: Cortlandt Street’s “Radio Row” in lower Manhattan at night. The first radio shop on the street, City Radio, opened in 1921 and soon after other radio shops started opening nearby. New York’s “Radio Row” was torn down in 1966 to make room for construction of the World Trade Center. [Getty Images]

Was This The First In-Flight Movie?

The photo above, taken on April 6, 1925, shows a movie projector being loaded into an Imperial Airways airplane for the first in-flight movie ever. And the photo below shows the screen and interior set-up for this historical feat. But was it really the first in-flight film ever shown? Technically, no. Indeed is was one…

That Time I OD’d on Pot Drugs and Watched Apocalypse Now Redux

Remember that time columnist Maureen Dowd went to Colorado, holed up in her hotel room, ate some pot candy, and freaked out because she ate way too much? And remember how everybody was making fun of her? Well, I identified with that story a little too much. I know those feels, Maureen. Except in my…

Future Islands: Fall From Grace

Baltimore-based band Future Islands finally got some much-deserved mainstream attention this past March after appearing on Letterman. Suddenly, the band was everywhere with their new single Seasons (Waiting on You). But after listening to their new album on repeat for months, there’s still just one song that haunts me every time it comes on: Fall…

Behind the Scenes of 2001: A Space Odyssey

The short documentary, 2001 A Space Odyssey: A Look Behind the Future is a fascinating artifact of film history. As the folks at Coudal Partners point out, it might be a little “cornball” at times, but it still serves to give context for thoughts around space exploration from technical experts and artists in the late…

This Movie About the Grandfather of Debunkery Looks Amazing

“No matter how smart or well-educated you are, you can be deceived,” says James Randi in the trailer for the new film An Honest Liar. If you’re at all familiar with his work, I can bet you’re pretty damn excited to see a new documentary devoted to this man who knows a thing or two…

Whooping Cough Is Now a Full-Blown Epidemic in California

Well, it’s official. California’s whooping cough outbreak is now officially classified as an epidemic by the Centers for Disease Control. Thanks anti-vaxxers. California has reported 3,458 cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, so far this year, with about 800 cases in the past two weeks alone. Babies are at the greatest risk…

U.S. Government Investigates Recent Worker Deaths at Amazon Facilities

Amazon has an aggressive schedule for opening new distribution centers around the world. The company has opened over 50 new facilities since 2010 in an effort to make same-day delivery the norm rather than the exception. But are these facilities playing fast and loose with worker safety? The U.S. Department of Labor announced this week…

This Sleek TV of the Future Predates The Jetsons

Visitors to the National Radio Show at Earls Court in 1961 got a peek at the future of TV. Far from the enormous boxes that might sit on your living room floor, this TV was sleek and stylish — a preview of the TV modernist ideal that was slow to actually arrive. If the TV…

The Retro-Future Is Littered With Print-Outs

I print nearly everything: Boarding passes, itineraries, and all the online papers that I use for research to write this blog. I know this makes me a weirdo — these things don’t “need” to be converted to paper form. But believe it or not, I’m living much closer to the paper-filled future that was imagined…