In the world of toy marketing, triumphs are measured in units moved, but toy failures, too, can become their own kind of legend. We spoke with toy experts Tim Walsh and Cliff Annicelli to gain insight into some of the toys from recent decades that have caused crazes—and others that in retrospect seem just plain crazy.
Ignore the odds-makers. Forget the vote. Who should host the Olympics?
For a country that claims to be obsessed with protecting our privacy, we certainly enjoy eroding it ourselves. The explosion of Facebook and Twitter means that for the first time, huge swaths of our private lives are available to anyone with a computer screen and internet connection. It's not just the pictures and the step-by-step documentation of meals. A new algorithm can decipher a user's sexual orientation based on his profile and friends. NPR unveiled med… More »
A new project asks: what should children learn about 9/11? More »
Give the people a say in the news handed to them and what happens? The revival of the news business, hopes David Cohn, founder of Spot.us, a community-funded reporting organization in the Bay Area of California.Spot.us is a non-profit that lets the public propose stories for journalists to investigate, or fund ongoing stories pitched by freelance reporters. In contrast to the six stories Cohn expected his site to fund in its first year, it has thus far published… More »
Will the younger generation take lessons on how to pass health reform? More »
