Los Angeles and the 'great American streetcar scandal'

The last train on the last line of greater Los Angeles’ Pacific Electric streetcar network made its last run on 9 April 1961. You can see the final days of this once-robust public transport system for yourself in the short film Ride the Last of the Big Red Cars. This footage of the remaining “red cars” (as the Pacific Electric’s fleet was commonly known) strikes an elegiac tone, especially to modern Angelenos. They have little more than history books and the rose-tinted memories of old-timers...
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California's Old Series Trademarks

The explosion of commerce after the Gold Rush also led to California’s first-in-the-nation trademark law and a fascinating collection opens new window of product labels and logos registered with the Secretary of State. These images and more are showcased in a newly digitized collection of 3,940 trademark applications filed with the Secretary of State between 1861 and 1900.
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Why can't Europe create its own Facebook, Apple, Netflix, or Google? Here's what Europeans think

Europe is big, wealthy, and well-educated. It's where the Industrial Revolution and Great Enrichment began. So how come it's having so much trouble generating fast-growing technology companies?
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Apple is outdated, billionaire Chinese tech rival says

Apple is "outdated" and losing momentum in China, billionaire entrepreneur Jia Yueting told CNBC in his first international television interview. Jia is chief executive and chairman of Chinese conglomerate LeEco (formerly LeTV), which is best known for being the "Netflix of China," but has a product range that includes smartphones, televisions, mountain bikes and, most recently, electric vehicles. Last week LeEco launched the self-driving...
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Is China’s authoritarianism decaying into personalised rule?

Centralisation of power in China may reflect political decay, rather than the revival of the authoritarian state.
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Can Iran ever become a good neighbor?

The author writes that President Obama has blamed the escalating contest between Riyadh and Tehran for leadership of the region for proxy wars and chaos in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, arguing that both parties need to learn to "share the neighborhood."
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Lost treasures and how to find them

People love a lost treasure story. Whether it's a Rembrandt in the attic, sunken loot or an entire missing reef, part of us wants to believe there's riches just around the corner.
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