--- description: 1. Where Nobody Knows Your Name Can you name your neighbors? More than half of Americans say they can't. And we're not alone. Between the... title: Why People Don’t Know Who Their Neighbors Are Anymore and Other Fascinating News on the Web image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why People Don't Know Who Their Neighbors Are Anymore and Other Fascinating News on the Web  by [Dave Pell](/author/dave-pell/)  ## Dave Pell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 11, 2014 9:00 PM CUT  by [Dave Pell](/author/dave-pell/)  ## Dave Pell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 11, 2014 9:00 PM CUT  ## 1\. Where Nobody Knows Your Name Can you name your neighbors? More than half of Americans say they can’t. And we’re not alone. Between the Internet, the over-scheduling of kids, and parents who spend longer hours at work, suburban neighborhoods have undergone a dramatic shift in recent years; to the point that a third of Britons said “they couldn’t pick their near neighbors out of a police lineup.” _McClean’s_ Brian Bethune on [the end of neighbors](http://www.macleans.ca/society/the-end-of-neighbours/ "undefined"). \+ And then there are those with no neighbors at all. _Wired_ shares [some shots of people living off the grid](http://www.wired.com/2014/08/powerful-portraits-of-people-living-off-the-grid/ "undefined"). (If I see an HD movie start to buffer, I panic.) ## 2\. Mike Mike Michael Brown’s nickname was _Mike Mike_ and he was scheduled to begin college courses today. Instead, he was an unarmed [victim of a controversial police shooting](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/11/339509078/st-louis-area-rally-for-teen-killed-by-police-turns-violent "undefined") that led to riots and fires in suburban St Louis over the weekend. \+ _St. Louis Dispatch_: Clean up, calm Monday morning [after violent night in Ferguson](http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/violence-breaks-out-near-site-of-vigil-for-teen-killed/article%5Ff9d627dc-e3c8-5bde-b2ab-7f0a3d36a083.html "undefined") \+ From _The Wire_: “Whether it’s the racial bias of photos used to represent the victim, or the fact that his shooting isn’t as newsworthy as the looting and riots that followed, [major news outlets are playing into the stereotypes](http://www.thewire.com/culture/2014/08/the-media-keeps-failing-black-teens/375857/ "undefined") about young black men that will lead to the next death of an unarmed teenager.” \+ _The Root_ reports on a very powerful hashtag campaign that attempts to show how black people are often portrayed in the media: [If they gunned me down](http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the%5Fgrapevine/2014/08/%5Fiftheygunnedmedown%5Fshows%5Fhow%5Fblack%5Fpeople%5Fare%5Fportrayed%5Fin%5Fmainstream%5Fmedia.html "undefined"). ## 3\. They Keep Pulling Us Back In There is a certain irony that the first airstrikes aimed at ISIS in Iraq came from F-18s flying off the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush. Barack Obama is now the fourth straight president to bomb Iraq. _The New Yorker’s_ Robin Wright [on the Iraq Redux](http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/iraq-redux "undefined"). \+ _Vox_: “In a twist of such bitterly symbolic irony that it could only occur in the Middle East, [the US would also be bombing](http://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5982501/the-us-is-now-bombing-its-own-military-equipment-in-iraq "undefined") hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American military equipment.” \+ Bombs from the air, and [political chaos on the ground](http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/iraqs-embattled-al-maliki-deploys-militia-around-baghdad-to-prepare-for-coup/375849/ "undefined") in Baghdad. \+ _BBC_: An interactive video on [the rise of the Islamic State](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28116033 "undefined"). \+ _Slate_: [The Jihadi Gift Shop](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/roads/2014/08/need%5Fan%5Fisis%5Fhoodie%5Fthe%5Fworld%5Fs%5Fmost%5Fnotorious%5Fterrorist%5Fgroup%5Fhas%5Fa%5Fgift.html "undefined"). ## 4\. Paper and Fire Just about everyone I know who got one has complained about this year’s Restoration Hardware catalog. Weighing in at a cool seventeen pounds, the latest edition makes the Yellow Pages seem tree-friendly and surprisingly readable. [Why do they do it](http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/restoration-hardwares-mail-order-extravagance "undefined")? Because, for some reason, people supposedly buy more stuff from a catalog than they do online. ## 5\. Cats and Dollars _Buzzfeed_ took the “Which Startup Are You” quiz and found out they are the one [with an additional 50 million](http://nxt.fm/1lPxTfJ "undefined") in funding. (I assume that’s 40 million in cash and 10 million in animated GIFs). Some of the money will be used to fund [a motion picture division](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/buzzfeed-raises-50-million-creates-724513 "undefined"). The bottom line is that the venture market is keen on content, and that’s a very good thing. So in honor of the new funds, here are [10 surprising facts about the game Simon](http://www.buzzfeed.com/hasbrogames/10-surprising-facts-you-never-knew-about-simon "undefined"). \+ Mat Honan liked everything he saw on Facebook. [Here’s what it did to him](http://www.wired.com/2014/08/i-liked-everything-i-saw-on-facebook-for-two-days-heres-what-it-did-to-me/ "undefined"). \+ The _NYT_ takes you [inside Apple’s internal training program](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/11/technology/-inside-apples-internal-training-program-.html "undefined"). ## 6\. Hill Street Ooze “Silva parked and went inside to see the manager. After introducing himself as _LADWP_, Silva said loudly, ‘You know there’s a drought.'” When the reservoirs run low in California, [the Water Police hit the streets](http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-water-cop-20140811-story.html "undefined"). \+ A lot of the bottled water people still foolishly drink [comes from the most drought-ridden places](http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/08/bottled-water-california-drought "undefined") in the country. If I were you, I’d tap that instead. ## 7\. Now What? “Distinct from the idea of a malevolent pedophile ring, these young men – and occasionally young women – said they didn’t want to hurt children and were trying find a way to make sure they never would.” In _Matter_, Luke Malone tackles a tough subject: You’re 16\. You’re a Pedophile. You Don’t Want to Hurt Anyone. [What Do You Do Now](https://medium.com/matter/youre-16-youre-a-pedophile-you-dont-want-to-hurt-anyone-what-do-you-do-now-e11ce4b88bdb "undefined")? \+ _The Awl’s_ Choire Sicha [talks to Luke Malone about his reporting](http://www.theawl.com/2014/08/the-pedophiles-who-didnt-want-to-hurt-children "undefined") of this story, which started out as his Columbia journalism school thesis. ## 8\. Oddly Smart Occasionally there is a person so dominant in in their field that they blow away even the second-best competitor. Nigel Richards even stands out when compared to others in this rare breed. _FiveThirtyEight_ looks at what makes him [the best Scrabble player on Earth](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-makes-nigel-richards-the-best-scrabble-player-on-earth/ "undefined"). \+ _BoingBoing’s_ Mark Frauenfelder introduces you to [his genius friend who went to high school for ten years](http://boingboing.net/2014/08/08/gweek158.html "undefined"). (He wanted to get it right.) ## 9\. In Vinyl Veritas “I’ve gone to therapy for 40 years to try to explain this to myself.” _NYT Magazine’s_ Monte Reel with the story of the Brazilian [who’s buying up all the world’s vinyl](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html "undefined"). (I bet he’ll wish he chose another hobby when all the hipsters show up…) \+ Listen to your new favorite rock/blues/punk artist. Courtesy of _NPR_, [this is Benjamin Booker](http://www.npr.org/2014/08/10/337769856/first-listen-benjamin-booker-benjamin-booker "undefined"). \+ Booker taps into some of rock’s history. The [fantastic documentary Muscle Shoals](http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70267584?trkid=13462100 "undefined") puts it on full display. Great stuff. \+ An [oral history of the Beatles at Candlestick Park](http://blog.sfgate.com/thebigevent/2014/08/10/the-beatles-at-candlestick-in-1966-an-oral-history-from-the-fans "undefined") in 1966. \+ A new study found that musical training [can improve language and reading](http://www.bbc.com/news/health-28703013 "undefined"). My wife and I took our kids (5 and 8) to see Tom Petty at the Outside Lands music festival. I’m not sure it improved their reading, but they definitely have a better idea of what it looks like to pass out drunk at a music festival. (We turned it into a teachable moment and told them that the person didn’t eat their vegetables.) \+ And in cased you missed it, here’s my old _McSweeney’s_ piece: An [open letter to the guy who puked next to me at the heavy metal festival](http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-the-guy-who-puked-next-to-me-at-the-heavy-metal-festival "undefined"). ## 10\. The Bottom of the News Want to live a more ordered life? Forget the self-help books. [Just do what the chefs do](http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/08/11/338850091/for-a-more-ordered-life-organize-like-a-chef "undefined"). (This is like other forms of organizing advice, but with an added cube of butter.) \+ Looking for the teenager who is going to redefine the way women are viewed in baseball? Check out [Mo’Ne Davis and her 70 mph fastball](http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/8/10/5989425/mone-davis-pitcher-little-league-world-series-shutout-taney-dragons "undefined"). \+ Why are names [so easy to forget](http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/08/why-do-we-forget-names-as-soon-as-we-meet-people/375815/ "undefined")? \+ Here’s [why a chicken can live without its head](http://modernfarmer.com/2014/08/heres-chicken-can-live-without-head/ "undefined").  ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3101555/why-people-dont-know-who-their-neighbors-are-anymore-and-other-fascinating-news-on-the-web/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3101555/why-people-dont-know-who-their-neighbors-are-anymore-and-other-fascinating-news-on-the-web/"},"headline":"Why People Don't Know Who Their Neighbors Are Anymore and Other Fascinating News on the Web","datePublished":"2014-08-11T21:00:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:30.428Z","description":"1. 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