NASA’s $US349 million abandoned test tower, an investigation into how
online media works through the eyes of one ambitious startup, and
philosophical look at the growing popularity of the “shitpic.” Curl
yourself around some boozy eggnog, and enjoy the some the best sentences
on the internet this week.
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The epic battle for ebook supremacy is over, and Amazon is the
winner. A look inside the shipping giant’s Kindle facility, Lab126,
shows how Amazon became a dominate force in the digital publishing
industry and how it plans to retain control.
- Seven years ago, NASA broke ground on a new testing tower at Stennis
Space Center in Hancock County, Miss. Now, it sits in disuse, soaking
up $US700,000 a year just for upkeep — and it was never used once. This
is the story behind that failed project and how an idea so ambitious
quickly became one of NASA’s biggest money pits.
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Media in the digital age is a strange beast. Wired’s Mat Honan
breaks down online media’s “war for eyeballs,” the true costs behind
advertising, and how we are all now part of media’s new distribution
system.
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One obvious advantage of digital photography over its analogue
ancestor is there is no decay, no yellowing over time. A perfect copy
forever stored in megabytes. Then why do so many people like
crappy-looking digital photos? The Awl considers the rise of the
“shitpic,” and how digital decay can be a measure of online popularity.
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