Some people are perfectionists, going great lengths and through punishing routines to achieve the perfect figure, the perfect score, the inimitable performance. But there are cultures around the world that have learned to abandon this rigid and obsessive behavior, and embrace the concept of imperfection. Artists and craftsmen of such cultures would deliberately introduce flaws into their works to remind themselves that flaws are an integral part of being human.

Bloody hell! That cockatoo just opened my bin, and it's eating my leftover pizza. We can't have that, I'll put a rock on the lid to stop it opening the bin. Problem solved…? And so began an arms race in the suburbs of southern Sydney: humans trying to deter sulfur-crested cockatoos from opening curbside bins, and cockatoos overcoming their deterrents to feast on our food waste.

Perhaps you've seen the word "longtermism" in your social media feed. Or you've stumbled upon the New Yorker profile of William MacAskill, the public face of longtermism. Or read MacAskill's recent opinion essay in the New York Times. Or seen the cover story in TIME magazine: "How to Do More Good." Or noticed that Elon Musk retweeted a link to MacAskill's new book, "What We Owe the Future," with the comment, "Worth reading. This is a close match for my philosophy."

Mick Miners was herding sheep on a four-wheeler last week when he stumbled upon a pointy black object that looked more than 9 feet tall. It reminded him of either a burned tree or a piece of farm machinery. “Pretty frightening, actually,” Miners, 48, said by phone on Thursday from his roughly 5,000-acre property in a remote corner of southeastern Australia.

LEONARDO NOTARBARTOLO STROLLS into the prison visiting room trailing a guard as if the guy were his personal assistant. The other convicts in this eastern Belgian prison turn to look. Notarbartolo nods and smiles faintly, the laugh lines crinkling around his blue eyes. Though he's an inmate and wears the requisite white prisoner jacket, Notarbartolo radiates a sunny Italian charm. A silver Rolex peeks out from under his cuff, and a vertical strip of white soul patch drops down from his lower lip like an exclamation mark.

Western culture today equates the pursuit of happiness with seeking out pleasure and comfort. But without the pursuit of experiences and goals that entail a certain degree of suffering, our lives would be meaningless, argues Paul Bloom in this interview.

Researchers who previously revived some brain cells in dead pigs succeeded in repeating the process in more organs.

Creating our Future is an initiative unlike any other. A national conversation on research in Ireland, it engaged the public on the future on a scale never seen previously. Between July and November 2021 the public were invited to submit their ideas about what researchers in Ireland should explore to create a better future. It sought to engage people who are not usually invited to brainstorm about research and its role in Irish society.

A scaly, finned creature that lived in water 385 million years ago descended from four-legged land animals, in a clear example of a “backward” step in evolution.

When anyone mentions Brian Cox, the first question invariably asked is: which Brian Cox are you talking about? Do you mean Prof Brian Cox, physicist, or actor Brian Cox, from Succession? So imagine how annoying it must be for professor Brian and actor Brian Cox! Which got us thinking: what would happen if we invited both Brians to sit down together for a lengthy chat – something they’ve never done before?

A woman has revealed how she earns more than £700 per month by chewing gum and blowing bubbles larger than her own head. Julia Forat, 30, charges strangers for provocative images and videos of herself showcasing her bizarre talent.

A CSB safety video about the May 3, 2019, reactive chemistry incident at the AB Specialty Silicones manufacturing facility in Waukegan, Illinois. Two incompatible chemicals were mixed and reacted, producing flammable hydrogen gas that ignited, causing a massive explosion that killed four workers.

One day, hopefully many, many years from now, you are going to die. Sometime after that, everyone who ever knew you, your family, friends, acquaintances and so on, will also die, until one day every trace of your existence will be wiped off the face of the earth.

When Blake Lemoine worked at Google as an engineer, he was tasked with testing whether a robot the company was developing exhibited any biases. Lemoine didn't realize that his job with the company's Responsible AI department — a division within Google Research that deals with things like accessibility, AI's use for social good, and the ethics of AI — would lead him down the avenue it did.

As storms moved across the country Tuesday, people in Sioux Falls, South Dakota witnessed a rare sight – a green-tinged sky.

In this age of inflation, when people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos don't need to blink about rising costs, a new book about a Minnesota oilman and his dynasty seems timely. In his day, J. Paul Getty was known as "the richest man in America."