What Are The Chances You'll Die In A Plane Crash?
AdultsLifeTransportationTravel...Planes are incredibly safe, so these are the reasons you shouldn't worry next time you fly.
The Importance of Vulnerability
AdultsPsychologyRelationshipsSelf...We often imagine that what will win us friends and esteem is strength. But surprisingly, it's vulnerability that's at the core of friendship and likeability. This is an invitation to make friends with one's own weaknesses.
How to survive if you get stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere
AdultsEnvironmentLifeWorld...What is one supposed to do, if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere? Here are some tips and advice on how to stay alive in the most deserted places.
How To Open Coconuts Without Any Tools
AdultsCreativityFoodHow-to...If you're not a coconut cracking ninja from Samoa, then you'll need an easier way to bust coconuts for pleasure, or for survival. This is the easiest and most effective way I've found to do it, when you don't have any tools.
Why do we harvest horseshoe crab blood? - Elizabeth Cox
AdultsAnimalsNatureScience...During the warmer months, especially at night during the full moon, horseshoe crabs emerge from the sea to spawn. Waiting for them are teams of lab workers, who capture the horseshoe crabs by the hundreds of thousands, take them to labs, harvest their cerulean blood, then return them to the sea. Why? Elizabeth Cox illuminates the incredible properties of horseshoe crab blood.
Do You Really Have Two Brains?
AdultsBiologyHumanNeuroscience...Are you a left-brained person or a right-brained person? Spoiler: You're neither. Each of us uses both sides of our brain for most of what we do. But still, there are a number of brain functions that do show lateralization, where they are localized to one side or another. Why is this? And how does it influence our definition of consciousness? People with "split brains" can help us figure it out.
Why Public Transportation Sucks in the US
AdultsBusinessEconomyTransportation...Access to transportation is the single most important factor in individual's ability to escape poverty.
I Talked Behind My Best Friend's Back
AdultsRelationshipsSocietyFriendshipWhen Shannon first got to her new school in third grade, she was on her own, lonely, and the other kids seemed to think she was weird - until, finally, she met a great group of girls - five of them - and they all became the best of friends.
How to Make Life-Changingly Good Cream Puffs | From the Test Kitchen
AdultsCreativityFoodHow-toThe cream puff is the Eiffel Tower of Parisian pastries: iconic, beloved, and displayed everywhere. The recipe is so irrefutably timeless that even Pierre Herme, France's most famous (and endlessly innovative) pastry chef, still uses the formula he learned as a 14-year-old apprentice.
Three anti-social skills to improve your writing - Nadia Kalman
AdultsArtBooksCreativity...You need social skills to have a conversation in real life -- but they're quite different from the skills you need to write good dialogue. Educator Nadia Kalman suggests a few "anti-social skills," like eavesdropping and muttering to yourself, that can help you write an effective dialogue for your next story.
How to solve problems like a designer
AdultsCreativityDesignVisual Design...The design process for problem-solving, in 4 steps.
What's the definition of comedy? Banana. - Addison Anderson
AdultsCreativityHumorPsychology...What makes us giggle and guffaw? The inability to define comedy is its very appeal; it is defined by its defiance of definition. Addison Anderson riffs on the philosophy of Henri Bergson and Aristotle to elucidate how a definition draws borders while comedy breaks them down.
Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani
AdultsPsychologySciencePhilosophy...Our bodies - the physical, biological parts of us - and our minds - the thinking, conscious aspects - have a complicated, tangled relationship. Which one primarily defines you or your self? Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? Maryam Alimardani investigates.
In on a secret? That's dramatic irony - Christopher Warner
AdultsCreativityFilmMedia...You're in a movie theater, watching the new horror flick. The audience knows something that the main character does not. The audience sees the character's actions are not in his best interest. What's that feeling -- the one that makes you want to shout at the screen? Christopher Warner identifies this storytelling device as dramatic irony.
Situational irony: The opposite of what you think - Christopher Warner
AdultsCreativityHumorMedia...Leaps and bounds separate that which is ironic and that which many people simply say is ironic. Christopher Warner wants to set the record straight: Something is ironic if and only if it is the exact opposite of what you would expect.
A brief history of banned numbers - Alessandra King
AdultsHistoryMathCulture...They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and authorities have often agreed. From outlawed religious tracts and revolutionary manifestos to censored and burned books, we know the potential power of words to overturn the social order. But as strange as it may seem, some numbers have also been considered dangerous enough to ban. Alessandra King details the history behind illegal numbers.
What is verbal irony? - Christopher Warner
AdultsCreativityHumorLanguageAt face value, the lines between verbal irony, sarcasm, and compliments can be blurry. After all, the phrase 'That looks nice' could be all three depending on the circumstances. In the final of a three part series on irony, Christopher Warner gets into the irony you may use most often and most casually: verbal irony.