The Secret History of Facial Recognition
Sixty years ago, a sharecropper’s son invented a technology to identify faces. Then the record of his role all but vanished. Who was Woody Bledsoe, and who was he working for?
Showing 25 articles matching physics of music.
Sixty years ago, a sharecropper’s son invented a technology to identify faces. Then the record of his role all but vanished. Who was Woody Bledsoe, and who was he working for?
Shaun Raviv Wired Jan 2020 25min Permalink
Lee Holloway programmed internet security firm Cloudflare into being. But then he became apathetic, distant, and unpredictable—for a long time, no one could make sense of it.
Sandra Upson Wired Apr 2020 35min Permalink
In November 2019, James Le Mesurier, the British co-founder of the Syrian rescue group, fell to his death in Istanbul. What led an internationally celebrated humanitarian to take his own life?
Martin Chulov Guardian Oct 2020 25min Permalink
A humble Scotsman saw something strange in the water—and daringly set out to catch it—only to have lecherous out-of-towners steal his fame and upend his quest.
Paul Brown Narratively Dec 2020 25min Permalink
The country’s cyber forces have raked in billions of dollars for the regime by pulling off schemes ranging from A.T.M. heists to cryptocurrency thefts. Can they be stopped?
Ed Caesar New Yorker Apr 2021 40min Permalink
Outdated textbooks, not enough teachers, no ventilation — for millions of kids like Harvey Ellington, the public-education system has failed them their whole lives.
Casey Parks New York Times Magazine Sep 2021 40min Permalink
The Atlanta Braves-New York Mets game from Sept. 21, 2001, remains a historic moment of grief, mourning, and hope after 9/11.
Ryan Hockensmith ESPN Sep 2021 20min Permalink
On a remote island in Maine, a group of friends thought they witnessed one man killing another with an ax. But no one was ever arrested. In a small town far out at sea, justice sometimes works a little differently.
Jesse Ellison Esquire Dec 2021 25min Permalink
The American yam is not the food it says it is. How that came to be is a story of robbery, reinvention, and identity.
Lex Pryor The Ringer Nov 2021 20min Permalink
Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman were friends. Until they weren’t.
Matt Canham, Thomas Burr Politico Jun 2015 20min Permalink
On America’s combat canines and their handlers.
Michael Paterniti National Geographic Jun 2014 20min Permalink
From Norwegian waters to European plates.
Franz Lidz Smithsonian Aug 2014 10min Permalink
When a child has a condition that’s new to science.
Seth Mnookin New Yorker Jul 2014 25min Permalink
The author, age 96, on the end.
Diana Athill The Guardian Sep 2014 10min Permalink
How a surfing writer kidnapped by Somali pirates was freed.
Joshua Hammer Outside Oct 2014 25min Permalink
An essay on African-American fatherhood.
Ta-Nehisi Coates Washington Monthly Mar 2002 15min Permalink
The elusive director’s early years.
John H. Richardson Esquire Sep 2008 25min Permalink
The last men who ride the rails, “where silence and lawlessness still reign.”
Aaron Lake Smith Vice Oct 2012 30min Permalink
The revolutionary and the silver screen.
Mike Dash Smithsonian Nov 2012 Permalink
Ashlyn Blocker, 13, has a “congenital insensitivity to pain.”
Justin Heckert New York Times Magazine Nov 2012 20min Permalink
A wedding photographer catches up with his past clients.
Matt Mendelsohn Washingtonian Dec 2012 40min Permalink
How business incentives impact local economies.
Louise Story New York Times Dec 2012 50min Permalink
Elegy for Aleppo.
Amal Hanano Foreign Policy Dec 2012 30min Permalink
On serving time for crimes not yet committed.
Rachel Aviv New Yorker Jan 2013 30min Permalink
An obituary.
Robert D. McFadden New York Times Feb 2013 25min Permalink