Your Car Is Spying on You
But motorists are finding ways to sidestep Big Brother.
Lifestyle
When Well-Intended Environmentalism Backfires
Housing bats, buying an E.V., and planting trees sometimes end up being counterproductive.
How To Prepare Your College-Bound Kids for a Successful Launch
An excursion into Facebook groups for empty nesters shows many of them could use a hobby, a job, or even a straitjacket.
Essentials for Van Life
How do you build a bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a workspace in a van?
Control Your Cardboard, Control Your Life
Cardboard is vital to modern life. But what happens when it piles up?
Small-Town Life Is the Anti-Twitter
The era of the internet could use a little of the discipline, moderation, and tolerance imposed by a familiar, physical community.
The Biomedical Testing Revolution Promises a Theranos That Actually Works
Most cancer diagnoses and deaths are due to cancers for which there are no recommended screening tests.
ChatGPT Planned My Dinner and I Have No Complaints
A.I. won’t kill cooking. Instead, it’ll help people become more creative and efficient in the kitchen.
The Morally Funky Math of Homeowner Handouts
The rich are getting richer under the Inflation Reduction Act.
To See the Country, Road Trips Are the Only Way to Go
When you meet folks in their natural environment, it's easier to appreciate their differences.
You Can Eat Better Than King Henry VIII, Thanks to Globalization and Burger King
Thanks to globalization, we plebes can pay just $6.49 for a whole Whopper meal fit for a 16th-century king.
One Foot off the Grid, Where We Don't Have To Deal With the City Water Department
Living without government services isn't necessarily cheaper or easier, but it sure beats putting up with municipal bureaucracies.
NASA's Costly, Delayed Mission To Update Its Spacesuits
NASA has spent more than $420 million on the development of spacesuits with very little to show for it.
Using Today's Economic Woes To Teach Teens Finance
At least we can treat the results of bad policy as case studies for what might otherwise have been dry lessons in economics and finance classes.
No, Google Isn't Dying. Internet Search Is Better Than Ever if You Know How To Use It.
Getting the best information when we need it will likely always be a challenge, but the Reddit hack helps.
Kids Can Learn Without Instruction
"It may be the case that [some American] children give up control of their attention when it's always managed by an adult," say some experts.
Getting Paid in Bitcoin
Unfortunately, an automatic crypto purchase made with after-tax earnings won't lower your taxable income.
Misunderstanding Trauma—and Resilience
Perhaps our culture is accidentally creating PTSD by expecting it, assuming that no one could possibly emerge from a trauma psychologically intact.
Some People Love a State of Crisis
Why do so many people seem eager to fret and impose emergency measures even as COVID-19 becomes endemic and restrictions take a growing toll?
Closing Schools To Protect Kids Made Them Sick
Children forced to Zoom into school ended up with suboptimal immune systems—the opposite of herd immunity.
COVID Power Proves Tough To Kick
Politicians and bureaucrats are addicted to foisting their arbitrary reopening rules on everyone else.
Camping Liberates Kids and Parents
Something about camping seems to turn 21st century worriers into parents with positively Spielbergian nonchalance.
The Pandemic Will Make Kids or Break Them
During a pandemic, as always, life is about balancing risks, not eliminating them.
Reading, Writing, 'Rithmetic, and Zero About Jobs
Perhaps young people would be better served by having access to more job sampling opportunities.
Parents: Don't Be Boring, Relentless Teachers
No need to follow the stultifying advice from Parents magazine on how to "Supercharge Every Storytime."
Preserve Your Sanity by Preserving Food
Canning is a hedge against uncertainty, an education in self-reliance, and a pocket of calm amid tumult.
Murky Laws Make It Too Easy To Label Good Parents 'Neglectful'
Everyday parenting decisions should not put people at risk of getting arrested, losing their kids, or being listed on a state registry for child endangerment.
A Plague of Pandemic Restrictions Builds Herd Immunity to Arbitrary Rules
Expect widespread cynicism toward official dictates to linger after the virus is history.
Should We Quit Teaching Cursive in a Digital Age?
While script may wire the brain, connect to history, and come more naturally to many kids, digital print is winning.
Alone Together in the Pandemic
How we lost our social spaces and how we found them again
In Praise of Pointy Things
The gifting of a knife is the entrusting of a reliable tool, perhaps the most useful one that humans have invented and can own.
Is Passover the Most Libertarian Holiday?
The annual retelling of the Exodus story reminds us not to take freedom for granted.
Let Kids Have Recess Outside In Winter
What's with school districts canceling outdoor recess when the temperature dips below freezing?
Resolutions To See You Through a New (Election) Year
Too many of your friends and neighbors are tribal idiots, but they're not the worst tribal idiots in recent memory, by any means.
Halloween Is Supposed To Be (a Little) Scary
Halloween combines the two things we fear most in America today—kids actually leaving the house, and food other than hummus and baby carrots being fed to them.
Just Say 'No'
In a world in which terms like common sense too often serve as covers for coercion, the power of no is underappreciated.
From Blaming God to Blaming Parents
Religion can explain a tragedy as God's will, or as karma coming around. But in a secular world, blame is often shifted to parents.
Stop Treating Government With Respect
It's become nothing but a weapon fought over by people who want to smash each other—and you.
Starve the Tax Man
Americans are increasingly reluctant to pay the IRS. Who can blame them?