Meet the man who flew the SR-71 Blackbird —the world’s fastest jet Pilot Brian Shul discusses his unique trajectory—in life and in flight—ahead of his Hiller Aviation Museum event By Kali Shiloh Speed demons: pilots of the Blackbird SR-71 looking as top secret as the plane itself. (Image courtesy of Lockheed Martin) The ups and downs of Brian Shul’s life have been both literal and extreme. Shot down over Vietnam, the fighter pilot suffered extensive burns and broken ...
Read MoreFrom Stanford to NASA, the Peninsula has a lot to talk about By Emily Olson (Illustration by Kaz Palladino) This New Year’s, resolve to choose local and learn something new by changing up your podcast game. We’ve done the long-range listening for you, cutting out well-worn topics (read: tech), and narrowed it down to a curated list of our seven favorite Peninsula podcasts. Just listen in for 10 (or 30, or 60) minutes a day to get ...
Read MorePEZ Palace: Inside Silicon Valley’s quirkiest museum In Burlingame, collector Gary Doss has compiled a sweet tribute to a candy classic By Kasia Grobelny From Daffy Duck to Darth Vader: Pez has reflected pop culture for more than 60 years. (Photo by Charles Russo) Candy has a way of bringing out everyone’s inner kid, and Pez — the ubiquitous candy known as much for its dispenser as its taste — has remained perennially popular over the years. Dating back more than ...
Read MoreStanford Design Professor Bill Burnett recounts his time at Kenner (and how Star Wars ruined the toy industry) By Charles Russo Partial disintegration: a couple bounty hunters short of a collection. (Photo by Charles Russo) I still have my childhood Star Wars lunchbox. It’s the same one I took to my first day of pre-school…a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (which is to say — about 40 years ago in northern New Jersey). My lunchbox ...
Read MoreRedwood City resident Robin Schreiber reflects on her unexpected fame as the Golden State Warriors’ most well-known fan. Something like a phenomenon: Robin Schreiber, AKA The Dance Cam Mom, at her home in Redwood City. (Photo by Charles Russo) It can take Robin Schreiber upwards of an hour to reach her car after a Warriors home game, even though it’s really just a 10-minute walk. Swamped in every direction by selfie-hunting fans, Schreiber — a ...
Read MoreThe dark horse literary star discusses his new book ahead of his upcoming Mountain View event. By Mark Noack Astronauts activities during Extravehicular Activity (EV)-1. Here Astronaut Robert Stewart during Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) Exercise untethered above the Earth; February 11, 1984. (Image via NASA on FLICKR Commons) For Andy Weir, these are indeed stellar times. Just a few years ago, the Mountain View native was penning a story, between shifts as a software engineer, about an astronaut ...
Read MoreStanford historian Leslie Berlin discusses her new book on the forgotten figures of tech history By Emily Olson Bunch of troublemakers: early Silicon Valley engineers responding to a reporter’s question—“What do you think of Texas Instruments?” (Images Courtesy of the Computer History Museum) It’s possible to explain the history of Silicon Valley using only two types of characters — and no, we’re not talking binary. There’s the “innovators … the typical heroes in our story of technological process,” as Atlantic Senior ...
Read MoreThe secret life of a Silicon Valley airport In San Carlos, SQL is code for an aviation ‘cult’ that flies organ donations and rescued pets By Kali Shiloh Photos by Philip Wartena The San Carlos Airport, also known as SQL, is one of about 20 small airports in the Bay Area. (Photo by Philip Wartena) Bennett Taber steers his small aircraft toward the San Francisco Peninsula at 25,000 feet in the air, keenly aware that he is flying between tragedy ...
Read MoreSeasonal celebrations for the centennial of a Peninsula landmark By Laura Ness The meticulously manicured gardens of the Filoli Estate. (Image courtesy of Gretchine Nievarez/Filoli) This year marks the 100th anniversary for the Filoli Estate, the beloved local landmark in Woodside. While many of the official centennial celebrations have already been held and chronicled, the holiday season provides a unique opportunity to pay a visit and toast the existence and persistence of this historic ...
Read MoreThe titans of tech talk around the turkey. Let’s hope they don’t consume all the privacy. Illustration by Kaz Palladino Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon all sit together at Thanksgiving dinner. Per annual tradition, they traveled away from Silicon Valley and rented out a cozy Airbnb near a quaint and air-conditioned server farm. INTERIOR: DINING ROOM (APPLE walks in, carrying a giant turkey) APPLE: Dinner’s ready! AMAZON: That looks amazing! (FACEBOOK snaps a photo and updates its status) FACEBOOK: Mind if I tag you guys? (They ignore ...
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