InterestingThings2

                                                                                             from climate.nasa.gov

Venezuela imploding. Syria exploding. Record levels of carbon dioxide in the Antarctic. Record temperatures throughout the planet. Record numbers of refugees everywhere. A widening gap between the wealthiest and the poorest. "Powerful groups, especially in corrupt states, use their power to capture resources," explains political scientist ...

                                                                           from Institute of Neuro Innovation

After all the disconcerting information we've gotten over the years about Alzheimer's comes reason for hope. A study ~ admittedly, a small and still short-term one ~ found that a multi-pronged treatment called metabolic enhancement for neurodegeneration (MEND) ...

It seems that every time one turns around, there's another international crisis brewing somewhere. One that's been slowly building up steam (to continue with the cooking metaphor) is the dispute over the South China Sea. China is laying claim to a large part of it, and the reason ...

Where, besides South Korea, will you find K-pop stars in the making? Would you believe Mexico? Anyone needing proof of the power of music ...

As our 60,000-year-old history of human migration continues, we are bearing witness to its many repercussions, both positive and negative, intended and not. One of those that may come as a surprise is the recent news ...

                                                                       Jaime Espinoza/Aesthetic Magazine

It's funny how families evolve (and devolve) over time. A person who had incalculable positive influence on and in the world can be followed, generations later, by descendants who live in the same insignificant anonymity as most of the rest of us. And then, ...

MIchael Jackson is mentioned in the series         David Baltzer/Zenit/IAIF/Redux

Many famous novels started out as serialized installments in magazines ~ The Count of Monte Cristo, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Madame Bovary, In Cold Blood, and The Bonfire of the Vanities, to name a few (also, every one of Charles Dickens's novels, to name a few more). In a more contemporary take on that fine tradition, ...

                                                                                                       Richard Renaldi

There's another photography project on the streets of the Big Apple. First, there was HONY (Humans of New York), and now, for something a little different, we have Touching Strangers. Photographer Richard Renaldi poses people who've never met ...

celebrating in Bern                                                          Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Somewhere not too long ago, I read a piece about the workplace of the future ~ or rather, the non-workplace of the future. The idea was that with so much work being automated, there will be that many fewer jobs for humans, so our whole system and way of thinking will have to change to accommodate the reality of people not having to actually work. There is a concurrent thread ...

Eyes are amazing, but even more amazing, if that's possible, is the fact that some creatures can "see" without them. It's a finding that has mesmerized ~ and frustrated ~ the scientists who study it. "We're not just focusing on eyes that look like our eyes," ...

taking a break from the climb                                                     Chinatopix via AP

It's hard to believe this is true, but apparently it is. There is a small mountain village in southwest China whose children ~ ages 6 to 15 ~ have what is possibly the world's most dangerous and thrilling jaunt to school. Because home is 800 meters (2,625 feet) ...

Mahogany L. Browne

" 'litany' was written," writes poet Mahogany L. Browne in what is the best possible introduction to this poem, "after the anniversary of 'I Wish I Knew How It Felt To Be Free,' made famous by Nina Simone. And I sat with what that meant, years later— ...

butterfly hunting in Switzerland   Horst Tappe/Getty Images

Who knew? Russian-American author Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977) is most well-known ~ and venerated ~ for his seminal novel Lolita. But who knew he was also a lepidopterist? And that he created chess challenges? And ...

In honor of Towel Day May 25 (see post immediately below this one), which, in its turn, is in honor of everyone's favorite geek-author, Douglas Adams (1952-2001), and in a spirit of unending generosity toward those ...

For a nicely and thoroughly detailed explanation of exactly why it is that the simple towel, at one time (prior to 1979) taken for granted, has gained so much respect ~ and why we all ...

Catherine Dickens

This account of the marriage of Charles Dickens and Catherine Hogarth, written by their great-great-great granddaughter, reminds me of the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre. The couples are similar in that both spouses are talented but only one, ...

The story of the dynasty started by Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) affirms the long-suspected fact that money in politics is nothing new. Also that money is power. And that, of course, should come as no surprise. But check out this book's subtitle: The Secret Origins of the First World War. This is about more ...