-
+12 +4
The Invisible Island
Nearly one million people are buried in mass graves off of the Bronx. But the city prefers you know nothing about it.
-
+9 +2
What if rich people were given extra votes?
The Texas oilman who inspired J.R. Ewing once wanted to give millionaires seven extra votes. We put his modest proposal to the test.
-
+12 +5
World War II U-Boat Found With Skeletons
Researchers have apparently discovered the remains of a World War II-era German U-boat and the skeletons of its crew off the coast of Indonesia. Experts say it's an unprecedented find that could provide insight into how the war was fought in the South West Pacific theater.
-
+14 +2
An Oral History of Mao’s Greatest Crime
In four years, China’s Great Famine killed more than 45 million people. The forgotten survivors of a forgotten genocide tell their story.
-
+15 +5
The turkey pardon is America’s dumbest tradition
It's time once again for an absurd Thanksgiving ritual. On Wednesday, the National Turkey Foundation will carry two plump male turkeys over to the White House and lift them onto a table. President Obama will give them goofy names like Caramel and Popcorn. Then Obama will "pardon" the turkeys and, instead of lopping off their heads and tossing them in an oven, he will let them live out the rest of their lives at the estate in Mount Vernon.
-
+20 +2
1939: The Year of Two Thanksgivings
At the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency, Thanksgiving was not a fixed holiday; it was up to the President to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation to announce what date the holiday would fall on.
-
+13 +3
Giving thanks for the miracle of survival
Leon Gersten could not bear to watch “Schindler’s List,” the movie about Czech industrialist Oskar Schindler who saved 1,200 Jews from Nazi extermination camps. It was too painful for the Holocaust survivor, too close to reality.
-
+14 +3
What International Air Travel Was Like in the 1930s
Today we largely take international air travel for granted. Every major city in the world is little more than a hop, skip, and jump away. But what was it actually like to fly halfway around the world in the 1930s, when the very concept was still novel? Pretty incredible, as it turns out—provided you could afford it.
-
+8 +4
Legendary Akihabara Radio Store closing its doors after six decades
The Akihabara Radio Store, the shopping center of small merchants that pioneered the development of Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood as the world’s largest commercial district for electronics, will be open for the last time this Saturday.
-
+11 +2
Thanksgiving is for sociopaths
I don't have anything against turkey. But I can't abide a holiday that denies its genocidal historical context
-
+9 +2
Cranberries, a Thanksgiving Staple, Were a Native American Superfood
The cranberry was a staple in American Indian diets at the time of the Mayflower. It was a key ingredient in pemmican—an early version of the energy bar.
-
+12 +5
Was Humanitarian Intervention a Passing Fad?
In Syria, we have forgotten our promise of “never again.”
-
+12 +5
Has a Vermeer Mystery Been Solved?
David Hockney and others have speculated—controversially—that a camera obscura could have helped the Dutch painter Vermeer achieve his photo-realistic effects in the 1600s. But no one understood exactly how such a device might actually have been used to paint masterpieces. An inventor in Texas—the subject of a new documentary by the magicians Penn & Teller—may have solved the riddle.
-
+12 +2
For Nearly Two Decades the Nuclear Launch Code at all Minuteman Silos in the United States Was 00000000
Today I found out that during the height of the Cold War, the US military put such an emphasis on a rapid response to an attack on American soil, that to minimize any foreseeable delay in launching a nuclear missile, for nearly two decades they intentionally set the launch codes at every silo in the US to 8 zeroes.
-
+12 +2
Michigan-Ohio State: College Football's Greatest Rivalry
No other rivalry in the sport approaches the combination of rich history, balanced competition, and consistent championship implications.
-
+30 +8
India’s Mysterious Skeleton Lake
For decades, experts puzzled over hundreds of ancient dead bodies found at a remote lake. Were they victims of disease? Mass suicide? War? The answer is weirder than you think.
-
+13 +5
Rosa Parks’s official arrest report: She refused to give bus seat to white man 58 years ago today
Here’s a piece of history: the arrest report from Montgomery, Ala., police for Rosa Parks on Dec. 1, 1955, the day she rode a Montgomery city bus
-
+28 +2
Lamborghini Gallardo production ends
The last Lamborghini Gallardo has left the company’s production line in Sant’ Agata, marking an end to the Italian manufacturer’s most successful ever model. In total 14,022 Gallardos were made in a 10-year production run, almost matching the total number of all other Lamborghini cars built since the company was founded in 1963.
-
+11 +1
Watch the Rolling Stones Write “Sympathy for the Devil”
Jean-Luc Godard's 1968 film 'One Plus One' won't be remembered as his best. But it did contain a gem. The Rolling Stones writing and recording their hit, 'Sympathy for the Devil.'
-
+13 +1
Willis Ware, computer pioneer who foresaw privacy concerns of today, dies at 93
Computer pioneer Willis Ware saw the future, and it worried him. In 1966, Dr. Ware, who worked as an engineer at Rand Corp. in California, foresaw not only the omnipresence of personal computers but also social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
Submit a link
Start a discussion