Few of us who were there for the early aughts look back on them with any kind of fondness. (Remember the second Bush administration? How about UGGs?). But for Matt James, the 19-year-old proprietor of popculturediedin2009, “fondness” is a bit of an understatement. After four years fastidiously archiving the tabloid moments that made the early 2000s unique — from Paris Hilton’s memorable exit from jail to Donald Trump’s protracted war with Rosie O’Donnell — James has built a cultish lifestyle brand with nearly a quarter of a million devotees across Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. James recalls, with impressive clarity, some of the decade’s most iconic moments — despite the fact that he was in elementary school when they happened. “I distinctly remember watching a countdown of…

Hassan Ammar/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.The legendary African-American novelist James Baldwin once noted on his trip to France, in 1949, the extent of violence “Paris policemen could do to Arab peanut vendors.” The crime of an Arab, it seems, was to be visible, and therefore it was safer for Arabs to be invisible, with the help of the French authorities – be it through the prison cell or the ironing out of their cultural distinctions in the public sphere. Yet I have always found it quite peculiar, this French manner of discriminating against the visible in order to make them invisible – often the people France needs the most.…

For more than two decades, fans of Monday Night Football were greeted with Hank Williams Sr.’​s less talented son, Hank Williams Jr., singing “Are you ready for some football,” (aka “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight”), at the the start of each broadcast. But, after Barack Obama was elected, Williams Jr. started saying moronic things and it went south for him. Williams went on Fox and Friends one morning in October of 2011. He told the hosts that Obama and John Boehner meeting on the golf course was like “Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.” That comment left the ​Fox and Friends ​hosts dumbfounded. They asked the country singer for clarification. And he yelled…

Quito. Cotopaxi, 2015. Flickr/Bob. Some rights reserved.Cities, not nation states, are defining the shape and character of security and development in the twenty first century. Decisions being made in fast-growing cities in Africa, Asia and the Americas are determining the future trajectories of everything from climate change to migration. Although many commentators are mesmerized by the power and potential of 100 or so global cities, virtually nothing is known about thousands of cities that are much less prepared to cope with tomorrow´s crises. The good news is that some cities are stepping-up to solve major global challenges. Mayors are forging networks within and across international boundaries to address shared problems.…

There’s no shame in not being able to keep up with all the social media platforms out there, especially if you hail from an older generation. But when you’re running for office, as Javier Zapata is, you’re a public figure, so even if you don’t a retweet from a subtweet from a Snapchat, you might want to enlist the help of people who do.  It appears from the Mexican politician’s social media campaign that Zapata didn’t have those people around. If he did, he should probably fire them and find some new ones.  Why?  Because his election team landed on “#campaignhashtag” as his, uh, campaign hashtag.  For what it’s worth, the hashtag…

Newspapers headlines read in Spanish; "Colombia said No", in Bogota, Colombia, Monday, Oct. 3, 2016. AP Photo/Fernando Vergara. All rights reserved. On 2nd October 2016, Colombians were invited to the ballot to vote on whether to accept the terms of a peace deal between the government and FARC rebels, which had been several years in the making. Voters rejected the landmark deal, with a slim majority of 50.2% voting against it. Whilst the referendum’s failure to deliver public endorsement for the deal came as a surprise to many international observers, at a national level there have been signals of public discontent and fatigue with the peace process for some time.…

If you were ever bullied as a child, 10-year-old Kheris Rogers is about to become your new hero. After the Los Angeles-based student spent years being harassed at school due to her dark brown complexion, she became a social media darling for the very thing that had earned her scorn. I look like a burned biscuit. I look like a dead roach. I was in the oven too long. Kheris says the cruel comments came from both black and white classmates: “I look like a burned biscuit. I look like a dead roach. I was in the oven too long. They were just harsh comments that I couldn’t take.” In…

Capt. Jack Sparrow is well-known for his partiality to rum, guns, and women. But it seems even pirates — and The Walt Disney Company — have decided that ladies shouldn’t be props for sale. The company has decided to ax its controversial “Take a Wench for a Bride” auction scene from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at its theme parks around the world. The ride, which made its debut in 1967, shows animatronic pirates doing the kinds of things they do in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films: stealing, getting so drunk that they pass out in a pigpen, and fighting. But on one section of the attraction, riders of all ages…

Interior view of a Ground Contol Station for the Remotely Piloted Air System (RPAS) Reaper at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire.Rui Vieira/ Press Association Archive. All rights reserved.Drones, like nuclear weapons, are here to stay. Unlike nuclear weapons, whose ostensible purpose is to deter, drones will be used more and more frequently as they get smaller and cheaper. They could be used by terrorists. There is talk of ‘suicide drones’. The Ministry of Defence, true to form, was initially extremely reluctant even to admit the RAF was deploying drones, first in Afghanistan. Now, as they are used in Syria and Iraq, the MoD cannot avoid commenting on attacks by armed ‘remotely-piloted air…

+[ My 5-year-old daughter burst into tears when I told her about the election results. We had talked about supporting Hillary, but I had no idea she would take it so hard. When my 3-year-old announced that “Donald Trump is a bad person,” his sister agreed. Was this for real? My babies, already knee-jerk liberals, feeling empowered to call the president-elect names? As much as my insides were screaming, You got that right, kid, being a parent means always looking ahead 20 years to the kind of adult you want your kid to be. I know I don’t want my kids furthering the chasm that is splitting this country in two. And when…