‘Birds Are My Eyesight’

Jim Wilson/The New York Times. On an average morning, Susan Glass can sit on the patio at her condominium complex in Saratoga, Calif., and identify as many as 15 different bird species by ear: a steller’s jay, an acorn woodpecker, an oak titmouse. For her, birding is more than a hobby. “Birds are my eyesight,”…

How to Create a Groundbreaking Watch

Mr. Büsser had invited Mr. McDonnell to dinner because he couldn’t wait to show off the vintage Tiffany chronograph pocket watch that he had just bought. “I was so proud of it,” he recalled recently. But Mr. McDonnell was not impressed: “I could just see all its technical faults.” “Its precision is rubbish; all chronographs…

IJBOL Is In. LOL Is Out.

First there was LOL (“laugh out loud”), an acronym that first appeared in the 1980s and became the reigning shorthand online for what people found funny. Then came ROFL (“rolling on the floor laughing”), LMAO (“laughing my ass off”) and even nonverbal cues like smiling emojis. Still, most type these terms straight-faced, relegating them to…