• The Color of Feeling Better
• A Nostalgic Look at Crayons
• Meet Crayola’s Newest Crayon Color: Bluetiful
• Why There Are so Few Words for Blue
• Dulux’s Colour of the Year, Heart Wood, Soothes Against the ‘Instability’ of the World
• The Real Difference Between Warm and Cool Colors
Spies & Secrets
• Spy Mystery of British Sisters Who Helped Jewish Refugees Flee the Nazis
• Can You Solve It? Secrets of Russian Intelligence
• How a Master Grifter Taught the FBI to Crack Open the Art of the Deal
• The Homemaker Who Helped Solve One of Geometry’s Oldest Puzzles
• The Hidden Meaning of Kid…
Feel the Earth Move
• Scientists Are about to Test a Devastating Hypothesis: 2018 Will Suffer a Lot of Big Earthquakes
• Could a Change in the Earth’s Spin Lead to More Earthquakes Next Year? – Rocky Planet
• The Real Science Behind the Unreal Predictions of Major Earthquakes in 2018
• Why Do Lights Sometimes Appear in the Sky During an…
Slip into the Library
• Salting Roads Saves Lives, But Also Takes a Major Environmental Toll
• A Hilarious Japanese Game Show Featuring Contestants Struggling to Climb Slippery Stairs
• Slippery Stairs Is the Japanese Game Show the World Never Knew It Needed
• The Stairs in a Viral Sensation Public Library in Ch…
All at Sea
• Range of Pinnipedia
• The Colossal Squid Is a Real-Life Sea Monster
• Is the Mysterious Sea Cucumber Slipping out of Our Grasp?
• 10 Juicy Facts about Sea Apples
• Even Scientists Were Blown Away by These Weird Sea Creatures They Found
• 8 Fascinating Facts about…
Always New Old Things to Find
• Titanic Was Found During Secret Cold War Navy Mission
• Ancient Fortress Found at Bottom of Lake in Turkey
• San Francisco Shipwreck: Divers Find ‘Cannonball Clue’
• Archaeologist Uncovers Rich History at Bradford’s Lost Football Ground
• Evidence of World’s Earliest Winemaking Uncovered by…
Flat Earth Will Get You Nowhere
• What Do Aliens Look Like? Oxford Astrobiologists Draw a Picture, Based on Darwinian Theories of Evolution
• New Keys to Help Extraterrestrials Unlock Our Messages
• Life on Earth Arrived on Super-Fast Clouds of Cosmic Dust, Study Suggests
• Here’s the Weird Alphabet…
Trash to Treasure
• The Weird, Wooden Future of Skyscrapers
• High-Tech Skyscrapers Could Be Built with Low-Tech Wood
• The Skyscrapers of the Future Could Be Built with the Garbage of Today
• Boaters Stumble on Massive Caribbean Gyre of Plastic Garbage
• Sweden’s Recycling Program Is Doing So Well They’ve Run Ou…
Face Recognition
• Named-Cow Researcher Recognizes Merit in Research on Sheep Recognizing People
• How Do Animals Recognize Each Other?
• People Can Accurately Read Dogs’ Facial Expressions
• How to Have a Well-Behaved Puppy: Make Sure It Sees a Man with a Mustache Within Six Weeks of Birth
• Dog Ownership Is Linked t…
Let’s Talk Turkey
• The Dreaded ‘Turkey Drop’: Here’s Why Couples Break up around Thanksgiving
• Here’s the Deal with All Those Turkeys Terrorizing the Suburbs
• Meet the Turkey’s Glamorous Mexican Cousin
• How to Win the Wishbone Wish
• Why Do U.S. Presidents Pardon Turkeys, Anyway?
• 25 Things You Didn’t Know about Turkeys
Worth the Weight?
• #WeirdThanks…itions Is the Holiday Hashtag You Never Knew You Needed
• The Most-Googled Thanksgiving Pies and Sides in Every State
• The Cranberry: America’s Founding Fruit
• The Pawpaw: The All-American Fruit the Country Forgot
• U.S. Pumpkin Growers Toast Nontraditional Demand for Frui…
Thanks for the Clarification
• Most Everything You Learned about Thanksgiving Is Wrong
• A Few Things You (Probably) Don’t Know about Thanksgiving
• The True Story Behind Plymouth Rock
• Thanksgiving Is an Annual Reminder of America’s Refugee Origins
• At Thanksgiving, the Search for a Black Pilgrim Among Plym…
Device Advice
• Humorous PSA Videos Promoting Device-Free Dinners Starring Will Ferrell as a Phone Addicted Dad
• Our Smartphone Addiction Is Killing Us: Study
• 69% of Millennials Stress out When Away from Their Phones
• Does ‘Phone Separation Anxiety’ Really Exist?
• Which Computer Keys Wear Out First…
Viewing Pleasure
• The Art of the Japanese Teapot: Watch a Master Craftsman at Work, from the Beginning until the Startling End
• New Book on Practical Geometry for Designers, Builders and History Lovers: ‘From Truths to Tools’
• Why Do We Get So Much Pleasure from Symmetry?
• Don’t Look at My Nipples
• The Faces on Every U.S. Bil…
Eco-Effects
• Percent of Forests by Land Area in Europe
• Rare Victory for Rainforests as Nations Vow to Stop ‘Death by Chocolate’
• Which Costs More in Electricity Use: Using a Hairdryer or Microwaving a Meal?
• Google Is Mapping Out Air Pollution Levels on Google Earth
• Big Meat and Big Dairy Emit Enough Carbon to Put Exxon M…
Democracy in Peril
• Climate Policy Can Help Avert Modern Liberalism’s ‘Doom Loop’
• The Doom Loop of Modern Liberalism
• Democracy Is Like Fun: You Can’t Set Your Mind to Having It
• The Death of Liberalism in Japan
• We Have to Rethink What “Educated” Means in a Post-Truth World
• A Philosopher Ponders the…
Unspeakable Horrors of Japan’s Rail System
• New York’s Holiday Nostalgia Trains
• Japanese Rail Company Apologises after Train Departs 20 Seconds Early
• Japanese Rail Company Apologises after Train Leaves 20 Seconds Early
• Tokyo Train Company’s Apology for 20-Second-Early Departure Is One of the Best Things about Japa…
Demography in Turmoil
• Six Words Fresh Off the Boat, a Powerful Six-Word Compilation about Cultural Identity and Immigration
• My Travels in White America — A Land of Anxiety, Division and Pockets of Pain
• One Weird Trick to End Gerrymandering: Cake-Cutting Game Theory
• Researchers Propose a Gaming Solution to Gerrymanderin…
Tuition & Intuition
• University of California’s 8 Personal Insight Questions
• Oxford University Releases New Round of Interview Questions
• Solving the Riddle of Getting into Oxford
• ‘We Aren’t Trying to Wrong-Foot Them’: The Truth about the Oxbridge Interview
• A Yale Psychologist’s Sim…
Pacific Gravity
• The Most Popular World Leaders
• Asians Talk about Expectations for Trump’s Visit
• Abe and Trump to Rekindle Friendship, But Not All See Rapport as Positive for Japan, Survey Says
• South Korea Can’t Resist Shading Japan at Its Dinner for Trump
• The All-Female Police For…
Getting Cold
• Can You Freeze Eggs to Keep Them Longer?
• New Study Could Explain the Elusive Reason Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold
• What Does the Cold Virus Get in Return for Making Its Host Feel Grotty?
• The Real Reasons We All Get Sick at This Time of Year
• Why Some People Can’t Sleep Without a Fa…
Another War That Wasn’t
• Soviet Submarine Officer Who Averted Nuclear War Honoured with Prize
• When the World Lucked Out of a Nuclear War
• 10 of the World’s Weirdest Wars (and Where to Remember Them)
• During WWII, Mathematician Arne Beurling Made One of the Greatest…
• How the Tech Workers of WWII Thwarted the Nazis with H…
Around Japan 6
• Abandoned Land in Japan Will Be the Size of Austria by 2040
• Mount Fuji Has Become So Congested with Tourists That It Has Reached Breaking Point
• How Japanese High-Speed Trains Handle Earthquakes
• The Greatest Earthquake Zones on Earth
• What Do Volcano Warning Signs Really Tell Us?
Of Bottles & Ships
• Picking Up Beer Bottles with an Excavator Is Harder Than It Sounds
• This Man Has a Collection of 1200 Messages in Bottles
• $450,000 Antique Treasure Map Found in Attic
• Unusual ‘Coffee Table’ Is a Mosaic from One of Caligula’s Party Ships
• Historians May Have Been Wrong about This Ancient Ro…
Harrassment Claims Spread
• Sexual Harassment Allegations Hit the Restaurant Business
• When Will the ‘Harvey Effect’ Reach Academia?
• Confronting Sexual Harassment in Science
• ‘It’s Hurting Everyone’: The Truth about Sexual Misconduct in the Art World
• 2,000 Women Are Speaking out Against Rampant Sexual Harassment in the Art Worl…
Meals on Wheels, Wings, & Instagram
• A Japanese Convenience Store Used Drones to Deliver Fried Chicken to Fukushima
• Drone Delivers Food to Japan Town Hit by Nuclear Disaster
• How to Buy Milk at the Store in Japan, Even If You Don’t Read or Speak Any Japanese
• Meals on Wheels ‘Should Dish Out Keep-Fit Tips’ to Stave Off Infirmit…
Runway Showstopper
• Even Earless Oysters Clam up over Noise Pollution
• The Plight of the Sea Otter
• This 450-Pound Seal Removed from Alaska Airport Runway
• Huge Sunbathing Seal Brings Alaskan Airport to a Halt
• Huge Bearded Seal Blocks Airport Runway in Alaska
• Climate Change and Overfishing Bring Explosion of Jellyfish
Animal Attraction
• A Giant Flock of Birds Inexplicably Descends upon the Lawn of a Laurel, Montana Home
• Thousands of Venomous Portuguese Man O’ Wars Wash Ashore in Australia: ‘It Was the Stuff of Nightmares’
• Thousands of Venomous Sea Creatures Have Invaded Australia’s Shores
• Senility, Storms, Global …
Squirrel World News
• 10 Things You Don’t Know about Chipmunks
• How Does a Red Squirrel Cross the Road? French Local Authority Thinks It Has the Answer
• Fall Is for Squirrels
• Medieval Love of Squirrel Fur May Have Helped Spread Leprosy, Study Reveals
• Bolve Like a Stag
• Bison Comeback Story Has Bronx Accen…
Around Japan 5
• The Secret Lives of Japanese Families: 8 Unusual Household Rules Revealed
• Japanese Artist Reveals the Truth Behind All Those Happy Photos on Social Media
• Japanese Artist Illustrates the Right and Wrong Ways to Carry an Umbrella on Public Transport
• Why Do Japanese People Wear Medical Masks in Public?
• A Japanes Teenager is S…
Breathe & Sleep Deep
• Neuroscientists Have Identified How Exactly a Deep Breath Changes Your Mind
• Science Says Controlled Breathing May Help Alleviate Stress
• People with Certain Blood Types Appear to Be More at Risk from Air Pollution
• Napping on the Job May Turn out to Be a Very Good Idea for a Sleep-Deprived Natio…
Trees & Trimmings
• Trees in Some Cities Grow Faster Than in the Wild, and Here’s the Crazy Reason Why
• A Lovely Scientific Appreciation of Trees
• Giant Fungus Covering over 2,200 Acres Is the Largest Living Organism Ever Discovered
• 2,190 Miles on the Appalachian Trail
• Christmas Trees: Science Has Finally Found the Answ…
Robot Roundup 1
• Should Children Form Emotional Bonds with Robots?
• Saudi Arabia Bestows Citizenship on a Robot Named Sophia
• Saudi Arabia’s Robot Love Is Getting Weird
• Ford Built a Robot Butt to Test the Seats in Its Cars
• This Robot Snake Means You No Harm, Really
• Do Russian-Backed Bots …
2017 Book Lists
• ‘If Only I’d Been Warned!’ – Writers Choose Books to Give to Their Younger Selves
• The Best Books of 2017, If You Combine 21 “Best Books of 2017” Lists
• University of Iowa Cataloging 4,000 Tiny Literary Jewels
• Bill Gates: 5 Amazing Books I Read in 2017
• Here’s Bill Gates’s 2017 Holiday Reading Lis…
And No Russian Doubt?
• How the Apollo 11 Crew Reacted to Lunar Conspiracy Theories
• Speech Recognition Technology Used to Analyze Apollo Mission Tapes
• The Lame Reason NASA Gave Up on Sending Astronauts to Venus in 1973
• NASA Creates Amazing ‘Chain Mail’ Wheel for Future Mars Rover…
Junk Food News
• Naples’ Pizza Twirling Wins Unesco ‘Intangible’ Status
• Hold the Pineapple: Naples Celebrates as Pizza Awarded Special Status by Unesco
• ISS Astronauts Make Pizza in Zero Gravity
• Astronauts Making Pizza in Zero Gravity on Board the International Space Station
• Oreo Just Revealed Its ‘Mystery Flavor…
Nature’s Examples Abound
• Stretchable Fabric Battery Could Power Wearables with Sweat
• The Best Hearing Aid in the World Is Made of Spider Silk Dipped in Gold
• Weird Critter May Help Us to Heal Livers
• The Mud That Could Save the World
• Stuffed Animals Help Scientists Learn How Sea Lion Moms…
Recently Resurfaced
• Super Rich Shown to Have Grown Out of Ancient Farming
• Archaeologists Discover Ancient Tools That Actually Came from Space
• 13 Archaeological Discoveries That Puzzle Modern Scientists
• 13,000 U.S. Archaeology Sites to Be Flooded by Rising Seas
• These 12,000-Year-Old Fish Hooks Are the Oldest to Ever Be Discovered in a Grav…
Are We Happy Yet? Poor Us
• It’s Not Just You: Americans Say They Are More Miserable
• Not Only Are Americans Becoming Less Happy — We’re Experiencing More Pain Too
• Americans Are Drowning in Debt. Here’s Where They Have It the Worst
• Americans in Debt
• Millenials’ Troubling Future, by the Numbers
Animal Misbehavior
• Lioness Overjoyed to Reunite with Her Former Human Companion
• An Orangutan Stole My Camera and Took Close-Up Selfies
• Zoogle Selfies from Animals up Their Selfie Game
• Opossum Gets Drunk after Breaking into Liquor Store
• Angry Sea Lion Blocks Blue Planet II Crew from Leaving Docks They Were Filming On…
Birds of the Year 2017
• Pigeons Are Secretly Brilliant Birds That Understand Space and Time, Study Finds
• ‘Hummingbirds Are Where Intuition Goes to Die’
• It Took Almost 180 Years to Figure Out the Incredible Way Hummingbirds Drink
• Galapagos Finches Caught in Act of Becoming New Species
• Conquest Via Bird Poop: One Island at a Tim…
Sleight of Sight
• How Technicolor Revolutionized Cinema with Surreal, Electric Colors & Changed How We See Our World
• Tricks of the Brain: The Magic of Everyday Perception
• NASA Has an Easy Trick to Prove the “Moon Illusion” Is All in Your Head
• See Zig-Zags in This Optical Illusion? Then You’re Suffering from ‘Curvature Blindness’
Game Power
• Let’s Roll: The Best Board Games for Christmas 2017
• The Best New Board Games for Family Christmas Fun
• Check Out This Unlikely Long Distance Friendship Forged over Words with Friends
• He’s 22. She’s 81. Their Friendship Is Melting Hearts
• 22-Year-Old Man Travels to Meet 81-Year-Old He Befriended in Online Word Gam…
Muji International
• Akiko Katayama: Making the Leap from Business to Food in NYC
• How Muji, Japan’s Most Famous Anti-Brand, Plans to Win America
• Muji Is Now Selling $27,000, 98 Square Foot Micro-Home ‘Huts’
• I Rented a Friend in Japan, and It Made Me a Better Friend
• Strangers Fondle Japanese Woman’s Breasts as Part of ‘Fre…
Aging in Japan
• A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death
• A Lonely Death
• Osaka Mayor to End Sister City Status with San Francisco over ‘Comfort Women’ Statue
• Japan’s Osaka to Snap Sister City Link with San Francisco over ‘Comfort Women’ Statue
• One of Japan’s Few Female Shinto Priests Was Killed in a Samurai-Sword Attack. Was…
Do You Hear What I Hear?
• Can You Hear the Pylons Thud? The Silent Gif Dubbed an ‘Optical Illusion for the Ears’
• A Silent GIF That Somehow Makes You Hear a Sound
• Scientist Seeks to Learn Why Some People Are Able to Hear Silent a GIF of Power Lines Jumping Rope
• A Man Builds an Incredibly Loud, Leaf Blower Powered Train Horn out of a 55 Gallon Dru…
More on the Swostripenguiduckodile
• How to Tell If a Dinosaur Is Fake
• Duck-Dinosaur Hybrid Baffles Scientists with Mixed-Up Body
• This New, Duck-Like Dinosaur Is So Wacky Scientists Thought It Was Fake
• Ancient Penguins Were Giant Waddling Predators
• This Human-Sized Penguin Isn’t Even the Largest Ancient Penguin We Know Abou…
Weight for Santa
• How Much Weight Would Santa Gain from Eating Milk and Cookies at Every House He Visits?
• Santa Claus, Indiana Gets 20,000 Letters a Year — and ‘Elves’ Reply to All of Them
• Here Lies Santa Claus? Researchers Zero In on Bones of St. Nick
• Finally, Proof That Christmas Songs Really Do Your Head I…
Crispy, Crackly Pickleback Pop?
• Standard Measurement Scales for Crispy, Crackly, and Crunchy Foods
• Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?
• Scientists Discover Grass That Tastes Like Salt and Vinegar Crisps
• A Brief History of the Pickleback Shot
• What Is Cold Brew Coffee — a…
Oh, Christmas Tree
• Ridicule as Police Say Kissing Under the Mistletoe without Consent Is ‘Rape’
• Inside the Upside Down: The Murky Origins of a Puzzling Christmas Tree Trend
• A Day in the Life of a Christmas Tree Farm
• Cloverdale’s Only Christmas Tree Farmer Says, ‘It’s Not as Easy as People Think’
• Ho, No: Christmas Trees W…
The Purple Color
• Eye Doctors Still Use This 100-Year-Old Test for Color Blindness
• Pantone Project: A Photographer’s Quest to Capture Colour
• The Vibrant Color Wheels Designed by Goethe, Newton & Other Theorists of Color (1665-1810)
• Pantone’s Color Of The Year Is Here, and It’s As Nebulous As 2018 Looks…
Red All Over
• How an Italian Immigrant Rolled Out the Radio Flyer Wagon Across America
• There Never Was Such a Thing as a Red Phone in the White House
• Facebook Bans Artist’s ‘Sexual’ Robin Redbreast Christmas Cards
• Artist’s ‘Sexual’ Robin Redbreast Christmas Cards Banned by Faceboo…
Different Shades of Bad
• The Secret Behind ‘So Bad It’s Good’ Movies
• Why the Movies Are So Obsessed with Capes
• These Are the 61 Best Documentaries of All Time
• Lovely Film on 100-Year-Old St. Louis Landmark Crown Candy
Thinking Points
• Alan Alda: Relating Through Improvisation
• Nobel Prize Winners Are Put to the Task of Drawing Their Discoveries
• What to Do 30 Days, Hours, and Minutes Before A Brainstorming Session
• How Elon Musk Uses the Scientific Method
• Highly Intelligent Leaders Rated as Less Effectiv…
Reading Recollections
• Whole Earth Contributor Lloyd Kahn Walks Us Through a Rare First Edition of the Iconic Catalog
• How Many of These Jazz Age Classics Have You Read?
• Watership Down Author’s Personal Library Reveals Precious Treasures
• The 100 Best Nonfiction Book: No 93 — Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or a Brief Discourse of the Sepulchral Ur…
Women Continue to Speak Out
• Tom Colicchio’s Open Letter to Male Chefs: ‘Enough Sexist …Talk’
• He’s a Creep, But Wow, What an Artist!
• Women in Tech Warn of More Harassment Allegations to Come
• The Sexist Dinosaurs Aren’t Only on the Prowl in Old Media
• Silence Lifts in Statehouses as Harassment Scandals Bring S…
New York Life
• The Subtle Art and Serious Physics of Subway Surfing
• NYC Transport Replaces ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ with Gender-Neutral Announcements
• New York Today: Subway Announcements Get a Human Touch
• NYC Invalidates $26 Million Worth of Parking Tickets over Tiny Error
• Man Finds Car 20 Y…
Around Japan 8
• Raze, Rebuild, Repeat: Why Japan Knocks down Its Houses after 30 Years
• Bold as Brass: Trombonists Take over Last Train, Earn Twitter Fans and Critics
• Japan Anger over South Korea’s Shrimp Surprise for Donald Trump
• Japanese Company Tries to Create Motivational Poster, Accidentally Creates Demotivati…
Sly Cockatoos, Ferocious Otters, Irish Wallabies
• What the Heck Are Wallabies Doing in Ireland?
• Hibernating Turtles Are Still Aware of What’s Going on around Them
• Chimps Can Gesticulate with the Best of Them
• Tricky Cockatoos Match Shapes Better Than Primates
• The Bear That Inspired Winnie-The-Pooh
• Ancient Wolf-Size Otter H…
Knee Jerks
• Move Over, Gentlemen: ‘Womanspreading’ Is Now a Thing
• Watch Out, Manspreaders: the Womanspreading Fightback Starts Now
• Why Do Left-Handers Excel at Certain Elite Sports But Not Others?
• Why Lefties Have a Competitive Edge in Certain Sports
• Why Are Some People…
When the White Men Leave Their Huts
• UK Media Should Stop Peddling Colonial Era Narratives
• The White Man’s Blunders of ‘Explorer’ Benedict Allen Feed Racist Myths
• What’s the Difference Between Explorers, Anthropologists and Tourists?
• British Explorer Benedict Allen ‘Goes Missing in Jungle’ While Searching for Lost Tribe
• Family of British Explore…
AI Applications 1
• How Artificial Intelligence Could Revolutionize Archival Museum Research
• Using Digitized Botany Specimens, AI Excels in Simple Curatorial Tasks
• Can Swarming Robots and Cloud Umbrellas Help Save Coral Reefs?
• Drip by Kickstarter, a Continuously Funding Tool for Artists to Build Community a…
Think Back
• This New Study Shows That People Who ‘Think Backwards’ Are More Successful
• Daydreaming During Meetings? It Might Just Mean Your Brain’s Too Big to Not Wander
• People Who Daydream Are More Intelligent: Study
• Daydreaming May, in Fact, Be a Sign of Greater Intelligence
• Is There Any Benefit to Daydream…
Tech to The Future
• Are the Amish Right about New Technology?
• Humans Are Bad at Predicting Futures That Don’t Benefit Them
• Advice on How to Predict the Future, from a Professor Whose Job Is to Predict the Future
• ‘Slightly Crazy’ 19th-Century Weathermen Who Braved Formidable Conditions Could Aid Climate Predictions
• Stephen Hawking Says the …
The Kids Are All Writing
• How Families and Feelings Built Human Culture
• Why Are Children so Annoying? You Asked Google – Here’s the Answer
• 31 Bizarre, Insightful and LOL-Worthy Quotes from Kids
• Photos That Show What Motherhood Looks Like around the World
• New Parenting Trend: Texting Kids from Inside the House
Undersea Wonders
• A Look Inside the Newly Discovered City Built by Octopuses
• Scientists Just Discovered the First Brainless Animal That Sleeps
• These Jellyfish Don’t Have Brains, But Still Somehow Seem to Sleep
• Jellyfish Sleep, and Now Scientists Wonder If Plants and Bacteria Sleep To…
Museum Musings
• The Guggenheim Caves to Threats — and Squashes Free Expression
• Selfies in Art Museums
• The Rise of the Made-For-Instagram Museum
• Welcome to the Age of the “Insta-View”: Instagram Interviews Become Popular in Japan
• Man Proposes to His Girlfriend With an Illustration of Him P…
Coffee Quickies
• Starbucks Closes Online Store to Focus on In-Person Experience
• Things You Might Not Know about Denny’s
• Tim Hortons Does Unthinkable, Creates Buffalo Sauce-Flavored Latte
• Start off Your Day with a Hot Cup of Buffalo Wing Coffee
• Is Egg Coffee the New Bulletproof-Style Caffeine Fix?
• Top 10 Japanese School Lu…
A Needle and a Haystack
• Japanese Rice Paddy Art
• Gorgeously Detailed Artistic Masterpieces Grown out of Rice Paddies in Inakadate, Japan
• Giant Straw Animals Invade Japanese Fields after Rice Harvest
• Incredible Animal Sculptures Made out of Rice Straw for the 2017 Wara Art Festival in Northern Japan
• Wara Art Festival 2017 Tim…
Just Say No to Overwork
• The Desire for Pregnant Japanese Women to Stay Thin Has Far-Reaching Effects on Their Babies’ Kidneys
• This 31-Year-Old Japanese Journalist Died Holding a Phone after Working 159 Hours of Overtime in a Month
• ‘I’m Physically and Mentally Shattered’: TV Reporter Worked Herself to Death
• Japanese Firm Fined Token…
Brief History
• Tokyo Is Preparing for Floods ‘Beyond Anything We’ve Seen’
• Twins of the Apocalypse: What Hiroshima and the Climate Threat Have in Common
• Q&A: Why Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Is Calling an Election
• Shinzo Abe’s Electoral Rival Yuriko Koike Is Vowing to Take down One of Japan’s Greatest Evils — Hay Feve…
Man Conquers World
• How the QWERTY Pattern Became the Industry Standard for Typewriters and Computer Keyboards
• How QWERTY Conquered Keyboards
• How Pinball Machines Are Made
• People Bingo Is a Great Ice Breaker for Adults
• Have Wife Will Carry: Couples Vie in Wife-Carrying Contes…
Library Stories
• Library of Mistakes
• Library of Congress Book Conveyor Tunnel
• New Documentary on a Weird & Wonderful Dutch Library Now Free to Stream on Amazon Prime
• How the University of New Hampshire Spun Blowing a Frugal Librarian’s Donation on a Stupid Football Scoreboard
• Why I’m Finally Shelving My Father’s 1,000-Volume Librar…
Kimi No Hitomi
• Scientists Discover Protein in Human Tears Can Create Electricity
• Why Seaweed, Not Solar, May Be the Energy of Tomorrow
• There’s Enough Wind Energy over the Oceans to Power Human Civilization, Scientists Say
• Why Wind Farms Make More Power over Water Than Land
• Study Shows North Atlanti…
Aging, Aji, & Cafe Culture
• Japanese Portable Alarm to Keep Laptops Safe When Working from a Cafe Smashes Crowdfunding Goal
• Modern Laundromat-Cafe in Japan Helps Customers Pass the Time
• Clothes Washing and Ironing in Japan
• Japanese People List Their Top Ten Fish, and Tuna Isn’t Number On…
Canoe Figure It Out?
• What Is This Thing Someone Found in a Creek Bed?
• Mysterious Object Makes Waves on Rhode Island Beach
• Wooden Canoe Found in Florida Could Be Linked to the 1600s
• Florida Has More Archaeological Canoes Than Anywhere Else in the World
• A Centuries-Old Frieze, Newly Deciphered, Tells the Story of the End of the Bronze Ag…
Living Language
• ‘Alt-Right,’ ‘Troll’ and ‘Dog Whistle’ Among New Entries Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• ‘Froyo,’ ‘Troll,’ and ‘Sriracha’ Added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
• Merriam-Webster Isn’t Trolling You, It’s Just Redefining What That Means
• Languages with a Synthetic Pluperfect Tense (Or… (Linguistic Map…
Bolshoe Spasibo, Colonel Petrov
• The “Man Who Saved the World” from Nuclear Annihilation Has Died
• Stanislav Petrov, Who Averted Nuclear War, Dies at 77
• Stanislav Petrov, Soviet Officer Who Helped Avert Nuclear War, Is Dead at 77
• Stanislav Petrov, the ‘Man Who Saved the World’ Dies at 77
• Soviet Officer Who Averte…
Isolation Stations
• What’s on US Astronaut’s Wish List after 9 Months in Space?
• Now Hiring: A Hairdresser for an Antarctic Research Station
• Designing a Better Antarctic Base for Science
• After 8 Months of Isolation, Mars Research Team Emerges
• Hopeful Martians Emerge from 8-Month Experiment to Find Earth Horrific as Ever
• ‘Not One Insult’: Briton …
The Accidental Rainforest
• What the Bark Is That? – The Giving Tree Isn’t Home Right Now
• Clear-Cut Tropical Forest Revitalized with Industrial Orange Peel Waste
• This 12,000-Ton Pile of Orange Peels Is Now a Lush Costa Rican Forest
• How Discarded Orange Peels Brought a Costa Rica Forest Back to Life
• The Hidden Memories of Plant…
Short Story Collections
• 50 Inspiring Quotes about Writing from the World’s Greatest Authors
• Tell a Story in Six Words — Mystery Writers Dare You to Try
• Drama Book Shop Celebrates Its Centennial. But Is It Too Late?
• “15 Short Story Collections Every Guy Should Read”
• “The Man’s Essential Library”
• 5 Classic Novels Everyone Should Read
Very Special Delivery
• Parrot Goes Viral after Placing Amazon Order
• Woman Couldn’t Explain Mysterious Amazon Orders until Her Parrot Talked
• Madonna Can’t Convince FedEx She Is Really Madonna
• UPS Denies Delivering Package That Trapped Man in Home
• UPS Driver Accidentally Traps Customer in Flat with Terrible Parcel Placemen…
Cold Cases
• Can You Help Decipher This Note about Antarctic Explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton?
• Activist Urges Walrus Rafts in Absence of Arctic Sea Ice
• Why Didn’t Russia Sell Alaska to Canada?
• Mårket Island: The Bizarre Border Between Sweden and Finland
• How This Giant Sphere in Iceland is Keeping Track of…
Book Drops
• Twitter Helped Get Literature up to Date with #MakeClassicNovelsModern
• The Horse-Riding Librarians of the Great Depression
• Blood, Bookworms, Bosoms and Bottoms: The Secret Life of Libraries
• Terry Pratchett’s Unfinished Novels Destroyed by Steamroller
• Terry Pratchett’s Unfinished Works Were Just Crushe…
Back to School Special
• The First Day of School
• What the First Day of School Looks Like around the World
• Why Adults Still Experience Back-To-School Anxiety
• 11 Cool, Funny or Just Plain Strange Patents for Back to School
• Why Is This so Hard for People to Figure Out? The Daily Hell That Is School Drop-Off and Pickup
• A Brief History of Schoo…
Home Cooking
• The True Identity of Cup Noodle’s “Mystery Meat”
• New Japanese Cat Cafe Is so Stylish It’d Be Worth a Visit Even If It Was Feline-Free
• Japan’s Top Twenty Roadside Service Stops, Destinations in Their Own Right
• What Is Panko, and How Is It Different from Bread Crumbs?
• Vending Machine That Serves Homemade Gyoza Found in…
Poo Corner
• How Poop Makes the World Go ‘Round
• Scientists Explain Why Coffee Makes You Poop
• The Secret Life of Burning Man’s 1,700 Porta Potties
• First Date Involves Human Poo and Firefighters
• Woman on Tinder Date Gets Stuck in Window Trying to Retrieve Her Own Poop
• Woman Rescued by Fire Bri…
Cats, Cukes, & Penguin Poo
• Why Are Cats Afraid of Cucumbers?
• Cats on a Train! Japan Railway Lets Felines Roam to Raise Awareness of Strays
• Cat Crosses City Street Like a Boss
• The Scientific Reason You Love Taking Your Dog on Walks
• Animals Did Things for the First Time, and Had the Funniest…
2296 Toes, 486 Lives
• What Actually Happens When You Shoot a Bullet into a Hurricane
• Behind-the-Scenes Pics Show How Disney World Prepared for Hurricane Irma
• Hemingway’s 54 Six-Toed Cats Survive Hurricane Irma Inside the Museum
• Hemingway Museum and Six-Toed Cats Ride out Irma Unscathed…
Frozen, Foamy, Floating World
• Checking How Much Air Is in Ice Cream with a Vacuum Chamber
• Videos Capture the Wonder of Self-Expanding Foam Packaging
• Pouring Water on My Hot Crucible
• Bowling Balls 12 Lbs or Less Float in Water
• What’s Causing These Egg-Shaped Rocks to Form on a Cliff in China?
Drs. Doolittle Do a Lot
• “Birdman of Gujarat” Has Been Feeding around 3,000 Birds Every Day, for 17 Years
• Chinese “Guardian of Dogs” Has Rescued over 700 Strays in the Last 8 Years
• When Disaster Strikes, the Zoo Must Go On
• The Lesser-Known Side Effects of Natural Disasters
• What Happens to Wild Animals in a Hurricane…
I Say Ouch!
• Tripp and Tyler Engage in a Hilarious Conversation Full of the Typical Faux Pas That Many People Make
• Funny Examples of Awful Language Usage
• What Do You Call a Small Piece of Wood Under the Skin?
• ‘A Language We Use to Say Sentimental Things’: How Shoegaze Took over Asia
• Found: The Oldest Example…
Around Town 1
• Driverless Shuttles Could Help Seniors Get around in Rural Japan
• Where Does ‘Taking Back Control’ Leave Our Shopping Streets? In Cloud Cuckoo Land
• One Italian City’s Ingenious Plan to Combat Xenophobia with Design
• Vending Machine Startup Hopes to Put Bodegas out of Business
Hidden Treasures 1
• Boston University Students Discover 1915 Time Capsule Hidden in Storage
• English School Caretaker Discovers Medieval Coin Hoard Buried in Playground
• New Zealander Finds Photos in Antique Japanese Sewing Box, Requests Internet’s Help Tracing Them
• Garage Sale Jewelry Turns out to Be Worth $30,000
Connect the Dots
• Visually Speaking: 14 Podcasts That Draw out the History of Art
• Discover 3 Incredible Cave Art Sites in Europe
• 15 Things You Should Know about Jacques-Louis David’s ‘Death of Socrates’
• 15 Things You Should Know about Jacques-Louis David’s ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’
• Experts Believe Leonardo DaVinci Drew Nude Mona Lis…
World of Color
• Disney Has Invented 3D Coloring Books
• Color Psychology: How Colors Affect Human Behavior
• Japanese Internet Can’t Agree on What to Call This Color. What Do You Think It Is?
• The Harvard Library That Protects the World’s Rarest Colors
• Dinosaurs Laid Blue Eggs — And That’s a Big Dea…
Take This Job
• The Reason Every Cool Guy Wants to Be a Butcher or a Bartender Now
• Twitter Employee Shuts Down Trump’s Account on Last Day of Work
• ‘Eff You and Goodbye’: How the Bravest Among Us Quit Their Jobs in Style
• Last Laugh: What Did You Do on Your Last Day of Work?
• He Quit JetBlue by Slidin…
Human Nature 2
• Seven Things We Wish We Didn’t Care About But Do
• 13 Questions That Will Change Your Life
• ‘Screw It, Just Do It’: Life Advice from Sir Richard Branson
• Why Adults Need to Play More Often
• The Science Behind Why People Who Prefer the Window Seat Are More Selfish
• The Art of Thinking Wel…
Bedtime Stories
• How Many of Us Still Read a Book in Bed?
• 11 Ridiculously Overdue Library Books (That Were Finally Returned)
• The 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time: No 92 — The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1660)
• Umberto Eco on Unread Books
• Found: A Long-Lost Copy of John Donne’s Fart-Filled Satire
• 12 of the World’s Most …
Splitting Words
• The Guardian View on Translation: An Interpretative and Creative Act
• ‘Battle of the Dictionaries’ Ends in Victory for Casino as Court Rules Star Poker Player Cheated
• What Is ‘Edge-Sorting’ and Why Did It Cost a Poker Star $10 Million in Winnings?
• Supreme Court Delves into Semantics of English in a Capital Cas…
Language Universals
• German Untranslatable Words
• What English-Language Courtroom Dramas Sounds Like to Swedes
• 25 Words You Didn’t Know Were in the Dictionary
• Is an All-English Classroom Good for Students?
• What Is Universal Grammar?
• What Is Neurolinguistics?
• Grammarly Debuts IOS Keyboard App to Help Improv…
Grammar School
• Cross-Linguistic Onomatopoeias
• How to Arrange (and Rearrange) Prepositional Phrases
• Become an Expert in Using Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases
• What Are the Parts of a Prepositional Phrase?
• List of the Principal Parts of Some Common Irregular Verbs in Englis…
Embodiment of Art
• Could a Farting Statue Unite Brexit Britain?
• 25 Million Images from 14 Art Institutions to Be Digitized & Put Online in One Huge Scholarly Archive
• 2,000+ Impressionist, Post-Impressionist & Early Modern Paintings Now Free Online, Thanks to the Barnes
• Barnes Collection Online
• When Claude Monet Slashed…
Sugar, Cream, Or Sake?
• Caffe Latte with Sake: The Newest Way to Relax in Kyoto
• Trendy Coffee Shops Are Now Adding Oat Milk to Your Brew
• Crushing an Egg into Your Coffee Sounds Disgusting — But It Makes an Amazing-Tasting Drink
• What’s the Price of Coffee in Japan? Twitter User Investigates
• Starbucks Is Bringing an Italian Bakery Chain to th…
Pet Tales
• Scientists Rated 25 Animals for Who Makes the Best Pet. The No. 1 Spot Is Surprising (It’s Not a Dog)
• Some Humans Seem to Care More about Pets Than People … But Why?
• Dogs Are Better Than People, and a New Study Says Everyone Feels the Same
• Dogs Smell Your Emotional State and It Affects Their Moo…
Costume Creativity
• 4,626 People in Japan Set World Record for the Largest Gathering of People Dressed as Waldo
• School Sets Record for Number of People Dressed Like Penguins
• Halloween 2017: The Costumes That Won the Internet
• Justin Trudeau Dressed as Clark Kent for Halloween and It Was Super, Man
• One Legged Athlete Josh …
Mammoth Findings
• Male Woolly Mammoths Were the Wile E. Coyotes of the Ice Age
• Male Woolly Mammoths Lived Fast, Died Young, and Left More Corpses
• Huge News: Scientists Solve Mystery of Dead Male Woolly Mammoths
• Male Mammoths Tended to Die in Really Silly Ways
• Humans Didn’t Outsmart th…
Character Reference
• Apple Revealed Which Emoji Americans Use the Most
• Apple Says ‘Face with Tears of Joy’ Is Most Popular Emoji in United States Among English Speakers
• Think Twice Before You Use Emoticons. People from Other Countries Might Not Understand You
• These 69 New Emojis Have Arrived — Which Is Your Fav…
The Sound of Fear
• NASA Rocket Scientists Carve the Most Incredible Pumpkins
• Get in the Halloween Spirit with a NASA-Curated Playlist of Spooky Space Sounds
• NASA Playlist of the Incredible ‘Sounds of Space’
• A “Spooky Sounds” Playlist Direct from Outer Space, Compiled by NASA for Halloween
• What Song Terrifies You?
• Fear Can Make You a Bette…
Treedom
• From Tennessee to Japan, Here Are 9 Otherworldly Forest Bathing Destinations
• A Biologist Believes That Trees Speak a Language We Can Learn
• The Wisdom of Trees: Walt Whitman on What Our Silent Friends Teach Us about Being Rather Than Seeming
• When You Think of Freedom, Remember the Charter of the Forest, Not the Ma…
Wanderlist 1
• 10 Simple Ways to Travel without Looking Like a Tourist
• Egypt’s Capital Cairo Is Worst Megacity for Women Worldwide, London Best
• Scotland’s Northeastern Scenery Circuit — 500 Miles of Sheep, History and Whisky
• Stonehenge Builders Feasted on Animals Brought from Scotland, Study Shows
• From Andes to Amazon: …
Books to School
• Jimbocho: Spending a Day in Tokyo’s Book District
• Drawn and Quarterly’s Incredible Montreal Book Store
• A Love Letter Fell out of an Old Paris Guidebook — and Set a Filmmaker on an Obsessive Quest
• New Zealand Library Cracks Case of the Missing Books
• New Zealand Library Solves Mystery of Missing Book…
Long Live Nature
• Why Forests and Rivers Are the Most Potent Health Tonic around
• The Philosophical Appreciation of Rocks in China & Japan: A Short Introduction to an Ancient Tradition
• How the Japanese Practice of Forest Bathing Helps Candice Kumai Stay Grounded
• Ikigai Is the Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
• The Latest Longevity H…
Science Guides
• Bill Nye Had a Fixed View on GMOs. Then Something Happened
• The Earth’s Interior Is Teeming with Dead Plates
• Temperature Is Not What You Think It Is
• A Schlieren Wave Using Cellophane and a Flaming Ping Pong Ball to Make Air Visible with Bright Colors
• How Balloons Are Made fro…
The Shows Must Go On
• Netflix: Which Shows Are Being Binged the Fastest?
• This Country Has More Netflix Ultra Binge-Watchers Than Anywhere Else in the World
• BingeClock, a Website That Lets You Know How Long It Takes to Watch an Entire TV or Movie Series
• The 50 Best TV Shows to Binge-Watch Right Now
• You Thought Downton Abbey…
Mind & Machine
• The Ethical Knob: Ethically-Customisable Automated Vehicles and the Law (New Study)
• Stephen Fry’s Lecture on a Hopeful, Cautious, Excited Vision of a Better Technological World
• Here Is How Modern Science Approaches the Phenomenon of Soul
• The Dark Side of Laughter
• Body Atlas Reveals Where …
Inspiration Is Where You Find It
• Gecko-Inspired Gripper May Soon Snag Space Junk
• A Better Touch Screen, Inspired by Moth Eyes
• Dancing Balls Lead to a Physics Discovery
• Snow-White Beach in Australia Is Made up of Billions of Cockle Shells
• Snail in the Coffin: Left-Coiling Mollusc Jeremy Dies after Finding Lov…
Meh
• Why Sheep Calls Have That Unmistakable Vibrato
• Scientists Investigate Why Crows Are so Playful
• Listen to the Impossibly Adorable Sounds of a Baby Sloth
• Raccoons Pass Famous Intelligence Test — By Upending It
• There’s Nothing Squirrely about a Squirrel’s Memory for Puzzles
• Chimps Understand Ro…
Bug Changes Ahead?
• Monarch Butterflies Migrate 3,000 Miles — Here’s How
• Why Stink Bug Populations Are Booming in 2017 (and What You Can Do about It)
• These Ants Seem to Prefer Living on Tectonic Faults
• To Find Nectar, Bees Follow Blue Halos
• Flowers Have Secret Blue Halos That Bumblebees Can See
• 7 Surprising Insect …
Field of Drones
• Albatross Teaches Drones the Art of Marathon Flights
• Drones Are Keeping Watch on the Arctic’s Polar Bear Population
• Drones Save Fawns from Terrible Fates
• Defibrillator Drones Aim to Respond in 911 Calls
• Drones Help Discover Lost City with Ties to Alexander the Great
• Engineers Invent Folding Delivery Drone That Carries C…
Slices of Life
• What America Is Losing as Its Small Towns Struggle
• Smalltown America Finds Ecstasy at Dollar General
• Photographer’s Spot-On Photo Series Reveals What Women Want from Their Partners
• These Family Photos Don’t Sugarcoat the Everyday Chaos of Parenting
• Photographer Shoots the Same People Going to Work Over 9…
Food for the Senses
• Grocery Shoppers Buy More Food When the Music Is Slower
• This Song Is So Relaxing, Scientists Recommend NOT Listening While Behind the Wheel
• More Songs’ Emotional Moods Inverted with Key Changes
• The First Batch of 2018 Colors of the Year Is Here
• What You Call a Color Depends on How You Use It
Disruptive Evolution
• Birds as Our Spiritual Messengers
• Great Tits May Be Evolving Bigger Beaks. Here’s Why.
• Bird Feeders Might Be Changing Bird Beaks
• Birds Might Be Evolving to Eat from Bird Feeders, Study Says
• See How Human Activity Is Changing Animal Migration Patterns
• The Inner Life of An…
Civic Improvement?
• A Beautiful Italian Town Will Pay You up to $2350 to Move There
• Charming Italian Town Will Pay You to Move There
• Google Wants to Run Your City. That’s Not a World We Should Live In
• Amazon Counts Its Suitors: 238 Want to Be Home for 2nd Headquarters
• Amazon Receives 238 Bids for Its Second Head…
Tree Knowledge
• Ancient Tree That Tore Itself Apart Only to Regrow ‘Most Complicated’ Ever Found
• The Life of Johnny Appleseed
• Alarm as Study Reveals World’s Tropical Forests Are Huge Carbon Emission Source
• Tropical Forests Used to Protect Us from Climate Change. Now, Scientists Say, They’re Making It Worse
• Forest Loss Means Tropics…
Popcorn, Pooh, & People Power
• How a Piece of Popcorn Inspired a Hit Children’s Book
• The 10 Best Children’s Books for Adults
• Children’s Books Roundup: The Best New Picture Books and Novels
• Goodbye Christopher Robin Review: Not-So-Cuddly Biopic Reveals the Sadness Behind Winnie-the-Pooh
• Only Children’s Books wit…
Mother Tongues
• Naming Your Baby in These Foreign Countries Will Give You a Headache
• Parents around the World All Speak “Motherese” to Their Babies
• 6 Traits All Middle Children Share
• Why Your Kids Might Be Able to See Better If They Play Outdoors More Often
• These Are the Best and Wo…
Work Developments
• The Best Time of Day to Get Things Done, According to Data
• This Is the Least Productive Time of the Day
• The Concept of Productive Procrastination Is a Myth
• Germany Wants to Scrap the 8-Hour Workday: Here’s What You Should Know
• This Woman Won the Best Job on the Planet
• Dream Job – Squishing…