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+9 +3
The Political Science of Global Warming
The U.N.'s latest climate-change report should be its last.
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+12 +3
Can Intelligence Really Be Measured?
Every year, the MacArthur Foundation bestows large financial grants on a group of people who are doing exceptionally creative or important work. MacArthur fellowships are often called “genius grants,” and grant-winners tend to be unusually motivated, passionate and forward thinking. But are they geniuses?
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+12 +4
Why Finland loves saunas
The only Finnish word to make it into everyday English is "sauna". But what it is, and how much it means to Finns, is often misunderstood - and it's definitely not about flirtation or sex.
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+10 +1
A brief history of 'What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas'
Las Vegas' "What Happens Here, Stays Here" slogan is one of the more famous taglines in modern tourism marketing and one of the most quoted, talked about, and recognized ad campaigns in any industry. The phrase has not only been a spark that's helped drive millions of visitors to Sin City, but it's also inspired an Usher song and the trilogy of Hangover movies, been quoted by Laura Bush, closed an Oscar ceremony, and been banned from Super Bowl time slots.
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+9 +2
Where Are All the Miracle Drugs From Sequencing the Human Genome?
The human genome was sequenced about 13 years ago. We were supposed to have major medical advances in a decade.
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+11 +1
What is stevia?
The sweetener has been known to science for more than a century, but it's enjoying a pop-culture bounce this week thanks to its role in the finale of 'Breaking Bad.'
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+12 +3
6 people who survived their own executions
The belief that a person who survives execution cannot legally be executed again is, for the most part, a myth. That is why the pronouncement of many death sentences ends with the words "until dead." That means whatever it takes, however long it takes, you're riding this train to your final destination.
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+10 +4
The Birth of Cool
Coul, coole, koole: How we got from cool temperatures to cool cats.
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+15 +1
Why other countries don't shut down their governments
When U.S. politicians talk about American exceptionalism, it's a positive thing: The United States is singularly stable and prosperous because of its unique political, economic, and cultural history. But the U.S. is peerless in some less desirable ways, too. No other country makes its legislature vote to raise the country's borrowing limit, for example, to pay for spending the legislature has already approved.
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+16 +4
Deadly 13th-Century Volcano Eruption: Mystery Solved?
One of history's great disaster mysteries may be solved—the case of the largest volcanic eruption in the last 3,700 years. Nearly 800 years ago, the blast that was recorded, and then forgotten, may also have created a "Pompeii of the Far East," researchers suggest, which might lie buried and waiting for discovery on an Indonesian island.
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+8 +3
Who Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World?
I am on a hunt to find the most beautiful woman in the world. She’s lurking out there somewhere. I just know it.
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+12 +4
Should Bitcoin Be Illegal?
As the Silk Road came tumbling down today, and its signature currency—Bitcoin—has been pushed into the spotlight again. Will Bitcoin survive? Should it survive? Should people keep using it if it does?
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+2 +2
The NSA is Making Us All Less Safe
Cory’s right, of course. And that’s why the recent New York Times story on the NSA’s systematic effort to weaken and sabotage commercially available encryption used by individuals and businesses around the world is so important—and not just to people who care about political organizing, journalists or whistleblowers.
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+15 +3
How Studying Mummies Could Cure Modern Diseases
By comparing diseases from then and now, researchers can learn how they spread. Maybe they can learn how to stop them, too.
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+14 +6
Supervolcanoes! Mars Had ‘Em; So Could We
It’s no news that Mars is teeming with extinct volcanoes. The biggest, Olympus Mons, towers some three times higher than Mount Everest, spreads so wide that it could cover most of France and is so prominent that its snowy summit was first spotted from Earth in the late 1800’s. Astronomers now know of literally thousands of smaller volcanoes as well, sprinkled liberally around the Red Planet, some of them as much as 3.5 billion years old.
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+13 +3
Influential Apple designer calls Steve Jobs biography 'disappointing'
Through a decade-long relationship with Steve Jobs, Hartmut Esslinger came to understand and influence early design at Apple more than most others at the company. His firm Frog Design was responsible for designing several computers including the Apple IIc — which introduced the "Snow White" design language Apple would adhere to throughout the 1980s — and a number of Macintosh devices.
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+12 +3
The Abandoned Poison Gas Plant of Okunoshima Island
The exterior of a former poison gas factory building
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+11 +3
Today’s Coke, Heroin, and Pot Are Incredibly Cheap and Pure
Researchers tried to find out what was in chicken nuggets from two fast food chains, with disconcerting results.
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+9 +2
The Oldest Alcoholic Drinks on Earth
A long-preserved historical artifact always carries an air of heady mystery with it. You're touching something that people touched hundreds of years ago. But when it's an alcoholic beverage, preserved for centuries, that head-spinning feeling has the potential to become real. Here are the oldest drinks still in existence.
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+14 +3
How many spaces should there be at the end of a sentence?
The question of whether you should put one or two spaces after the period at the end of a sentence elicits strong reactions on both sides. On the one-space side, this 2011 Slate article by Farhad Manjoo (which has over 165,000 Facebook likes) lays out the argument for why "typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong."
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