Noah Shachtman goes to the moon for his latest Big Story. Just kidding—he wishes. I will say I’ve always wanted to send a writer to space. And why not? WIRED likes to take big, stunty swings. “Moonshots,” as they’re (in this case literally) called.
Two reasons why that won’t happen: (1) It’d bankrupt us, and (2) the next moon-goers probably won’t be American. They’ll be, as Noah writes in his piece, Chinese.
The headline says it all: “Trump Declared a Space Race With China. The US Is Losing.” (Perfectly descriptive, though I still prefer my original suggestion: “One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for China.”) Noah surveys the lunarscape, with his usual aplomb, and egos, of course, rule the day, Trump’s and Musk’s and everyone else’s. At a certain point, the obvious question arises: Why do we care about the moon?
Strategic this, helium-3 that. I don’t know. I think it really does come down to that ego thing. And President Xi’s face kind of has a moonlike roundness to it, doesn’t it? Pretty soon, it might be staring down at all of us, from the heavens. P.S. Want more China? Well, check WIRED.com early next week …
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Story originally published in September 2021 |
On Thursday, Wikipedia turned 25. It took just a quarter-century for the crowdsourced digital encyclopedia to become the world’s foremost source of information. Four years ago, journalist and Wikipedia editor Noam Cohen wrote a quintessentially Wikipedia story: the tale of a history buff’s campaign to purge the site—and, by extension, our predominant historical record—of revisionist efforts to rehabilitate the Nazi military. As a journalist, I’m impressed by how deftly Noam waded through the tens of thousands of granular edits, obscure editing policy posts, heated debates, and less-heated forum discussions to produce a narrative summary that doesn’t just make sense, but transfixes. As a reader, I appreciate how well his story gets to the core of what Wikipedia is, and what it represents: obsessive dedication, collaboration, deliberation, and a certain reverence for quality source material. Most of the time.
Wikipedia’s scope is perhaps its most fascinating feature. (I’m a big fan of an Instagram account that collects the site’s most niche pages, @depthsofwikipedia.) This week I’m asking you to send me your favorite, most offbeat Wikipedia pages, or include them in a comment below the story.
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With federal agents storming the streets of American communities, there’s no single right way to approach this dangerous moment. But there are steps you can take to stay safe—and have an impact. |
Hundreds of records obtained by WIRED show thin intelligence on the Venezuelan gang in the United States, describing fragmented, low-level crime rather than a coordinated terrorist threat. |
As vehicles grow more software-dependent, repairing them has become harder than ever. A bill in the US House called the Repair Act would ease those restrictions, but it comes with caveats. |
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Last week’s Classic is one of my favorite WIRED stories. In it, Adrienne So recounts her experience competing in Portland’s Disaster Relief Trials, a bike race/obstacle course meant to simulate conditions after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake hits the Pacific Northwest. Adrienne discusses the various preparations Portlanders have made to ensure they are ready when the Big One strikes. As an East Coaster with not even a go bag to my name, I wanted to hear about your disaster prepping. One reader, an Oregonian named Don, described having 100 gallons of water in his garage, shelf-stable food (and additional stocked refrigerators and freezers), a “tri-fuel inverter” generator, and 30 propane tanks. I need to step it up.
Tell us about your favorite WIRED stories and magazine-related memories. Write to samantha_spengler@wired.com, and include “CLASSICS” in the subject line. |
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