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What if factories had gotten the data center treatment?

When American manufacturing was truly coming into its own in the early 20th century, workers sometimes labored 12-hour days seven days a week and risked life and limb working near dangerous machinery, while factories blackened the skies of American cities. Yet some of the same people who insist that we need to reindustrialize to return to a version of those halcyon days can’t bear the thought of the construction of industrial-scale computing facilities. They complain that data centers are unsightly and use lots of energy and water. But what do they think major factories are like? ...

An app a day keeps the parents away from school

Well, it’s back-to-school season again, and parents across the country know what that means: It’s time to download some new apps. Yes, you already have 10 apps; that’s true. There’s one for the park district, one for summer camp, one for your oldest kid’s teacher to post weekly updates, one for your youngest kid’s teacher to post weekly updates, one for the PTA to inform you of another request for a “suggested donation,” one for fuzzy pictures of children’s backs as they color, one for grades with a dropdown menu written in Cuneiform, one for a fifth grade parent ...

Ohio, W.Va. reputations for work slip

WalletHub recently produced its “Hardest-Working States in America (2026)” report. Readers in West Virginia and Appalachian Ohio are likely thinking “Finally! A report in which our region will not be dead last.” About that … Both the Buckeye and the Mountain states fall in the bottom 10, which WalletHub labels “least hardworking.” West Virginia is 42nd, Ohio is 47th — those residents will be pleased to note that ranks above Michigan, which did, indeed, come in dead last. This study looked at direct work factors, including metrics such as average workweek hours, ...

Don’t fear Flock cameras

We have met the enemy — and it is watching us. There’s a growing backlash against Flock cameras, the automated license plate readers that have become ubiquitous across the country. The cameras take images of license plates, which are then stored in a searchable database that police departments can query in the course of investigations. Opponents of the cameras consider them an instrument of Big Brother, who’s not only watching, but constantly recording and tracking. Vandals have disabled and stolen the cameras and shot them. There’s a movement to get jurisdictions to ...

Old nuclear order dead; What next?

The world is sleepwalking into a new nuclear arms race. As arms-control treaties hashed out over decades lapse, countries that formerly rejected possessing nuclear weapons are starting to reconsider. The Doomsday Clock is set at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s ever been to the symbolic hour of the apocalypse. The United States and Russia, which control 86% of the world’s nuclear arsenal, are without an arms-limitation treaty for the first time since 1972. The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, signed by President Barack Obama in 2010 and extended under President Joe ...

Who is Natalie Harp? Americans need to know

It’s summertime, and the living is uneasy, particularly in Washington newsrooms and bureaus. At this time of year, historically, serious news can be harder to find than the newspeople available to cover it. The result is what journalists call “the silly season,” when you can never guess what pseudo-story will get elevated to the headlines. Searching for silly news in seriously serious Washington can be easier than you might think, and of late it is becoming difficult to draw the line between the consequential and the absurd. Consider the kerfuffle raised around a remark by ...