The race later expanded to include all five boroughs of New York City in 1976, and slowly become a global event — drawing runners and fans from all over the world each year. Lebow helped turn running from a solitary and eccentric pursuit into a major sport and a staple of American participatory culture.

Lebow's ability to sense and shape a new trend breathed new life into the city. In the mid-’70s, the city was suffering from a crisis of order and morale. In this setting, encouraging thousands of people to jog through all five boroughs was seen as ridiculous, even dangerous. But now, the race serves as a reassuring sign of life even in dark times for the city and the world. 

Lebow didn't run the legendary New York City Marathon he conceived for decades. He led from behind, growing the race from a niche event to a massive fall spectacle. Twenty years later, while fighting brain cancer, he finally participated in his own creation. While doctors encouraged him not to complete the full marathon, he managed to finish. 

More than 50,000 participants came out to run the New York Marathon, with more than one million fans cheering them on throughout the five boroughs, and even more glued in to coverage in the comfort of their own homes. From the early-morning bus ride for the start to the triumphant finish, fans took to the internet to document their top moments of the race. 

Services like Peloton, which draw followers with the structure and group-aspirational ethos characteristic of religion, are often dismissed as cult-like. But more and more Peloton aficionados say the latest exercise craze gives them a sense of community they sorely missed.

Laughter is complex. In real life it can be hard to tell the real from the fake. Online, it is even harder, with fewer visual cues and a wider range of tools to express laughter. As internet language develops, new forms of laughter spread like a cold in a classroom.

“Ok boomer” has become Generation Z’s endlessly repeated retort to the problem of older people who just don’t get it, a rallying cry for millions of fed up kids. Teenagers use it to reply to cringey YouTube videos, Donald Trump tweets and basically any person over 30 who says something condescending about young people — and the issues that matter to them.

Emotion recognition was the crime prevention buzz-phrase on everyone’s lips this week at China’s largest surveillance tech expo, held in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen. The technology, which is being rolled out at airports and subway stations to identify criminal suspects, is the latest development in crime prediction systems in the world’s largest surveillance market, which already relies on facial and gait recognition, eye tracking and crowd analysis.

With its new vertical Launcher, The Washington Post is the latest big outlet to dedicate resources to covering video games in a comprehensive manner. But past efforts have failed at publications like Rolling Stone and Variety — so why is this time going to be different?

Technology is one reason why editorial illustrations are looking flatter, sharper and arguably more generic. It’s hard to miss the trend.

Like some sort of catchy techno-pop mash-up, self-driving scooters are now trending in the dance halls of micro-mobility. Uber has said that it’s developing robotic versions of its dockless scooters and bikes currently operating in cities around the world. The manufacturer Segway has a three-wheeled trike that can be driven remotely. And a start-up called Shared is pursuing a self-driving prototype of a mopedlike electric conveyance.