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Chartered Waters
Being gatekeepers, music charts have a massive influence on the songs we hear on the radio. And that influence isn't exclusive to Billboard, by the way. Today in Tedium: As a fan of the underdog, I...
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Purple Copyright Eater
When Prince died this week, he left behind a massive legacy of music. He left behind an equally massive legacy of copyright enforcement. Here's why. Today in Tedium: In losing Prince Rogers Nelson,...
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Our Annoying National Upgrade
The benefits of digital television conversion were clear, but convincing everyone to upgrade their sets? For the U.S. government, that was the hard part. Today in Tedium: The move of the television...
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The Other Windows
Before Windows became a fact of life for most computer users, a scrappy upstart named GeoWorks tried taking Microsoft on. It failed, but it gave us AOL. Today in Tedium: Back in the early '90s, it...
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Stop Stealing My Sign
Yard signs are everywhere during political campaigns, but campaign organizers don't think they actually work. So why do campaigns spend so much on them? Today in Tedium: Today's issue of Tedium is all...
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Let's Talk Toner
The Xerox photocopier was an impressive display of technology that seemed to come out of nowhere. But it was artists who really tested the device's limits. Today in Tedium: In an era where paper is...
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America The Processed
One of the broadest possible geographic terms is, for now, the new name of Budweiser. Does Budweiser deserve "America," and if not, what does? Today in Tedium: How arrogant do you have to be to name...
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When Signal Beats Noise
The concept of "DXing"—basically, trying to capture TV or radio signals from far away—is nearly as old as the antenna. It's a great rabbit hole. Today in Tedium: For decades, television owners haven't...
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We All Make Mistakes
If you make a mistake today, don't fret. Everyone else around you has made a bunch, too. Errors, in a lot of ways, give us our wrinkles as human beings. Today in Tedium: People make mistakes often....
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Bizarre String Theories
Most guitarists don't tend to think it's a good idea to put foreign objects on their prized rock instruments. But some do, and they make the craziest music. Today in Tedium: Of the many fascinating...
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The Ballad of Yo! Noid
In the '80s and '90s, advertisers got the idea to market products to kids through video games. The games aren't half-bad (mostly), but they're still ads. Today in Tedium: Here's a challenge for you:...
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Hot Pocket Diaspora
Jim Gaffigan jokes aside, Hot Pockets made a family of expat Iranian Jews into billionaires—billionaires who have jumped into philanthropy with both feet. Today in Tedium: Laugh all you want, but Hot...
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Let 'Er Rip
Today in Tedium: Last week, there was a tag on an item on my clothing that was so uncomfortable that there was nothing I wanted to do more than pull it off—to send that miserable tag to a recycling...
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A Banner Decade
Today in Tedium: The desktop publishing era, short as it was, did something really important: It turned the process of publishing into something anyone could do cheaply and professionally. But...
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We Could Be Happy Underground
Today in Tedium: These days, urban dwellers think nothing of traveling under the surface as part of their average day. We'll dive into the Metro without thinking anything about it. But would you spend...
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Clouds In My Coffee
Today in Tedium: If you know anything about me, it's that I'm a guy who likes his coffee—preferably simple, unadorned, and in most cases, iced. I wasn't always such a coffee geek, Aeropressing my way...
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Honey, I Shrunk The Page
Today in Tedium: Do me a favor while you read these opening lines. Pick up your phone, and open up your photos app. Scroll through the many pictures of you, your dumb friends, and your crazy family....
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The Lost (And Found) Levels
Today in Tedium: It took a while for us to culturally admit it, but video games are a form of art on the level of many films—and that means that game developers are very much auteurs in the way that...
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The Taboola of the 1930s
Today in Tedium: When I see people complaining about the images and links shared through the "content discovery" platform Taboola and its cousin Outbrain—something I admittedly have been known to do—I...
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Let’s Destroy the White House … Again
Today in Tedium: It was an explosion that only the aliens saw coming. Almost exactly 20 years ago, the film Independence Day hit theaters and featured perhaps the single most iconic visual effect of...
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