Lifestyle

One of my favorite TV shows as a teenager was a series called Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World. This was a 13-part British television series looking at all manner of unexplained events, weird phenomena, and urban myths from around the world, introduced by the famous science-fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke. The series divided up its subject...

In this summer's Thor: Love and Thunder, Chris Hemsworth straps on that famous Asgardian armor again as he leads one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's most anticipated entries to date. Tessa Thompson and Taika Waititi are also coming along for the ride, reprising their roles as Valkyrie and Korg, respectively. We'll also be introduced to the villainous Gorr the...

Honey bees know nothing. Literally. Honey bees have previously demonstrated to scientists they understand the concept of zero by selecting dotted paper based on a reward of sweetened water. Eventually, the paper with no dots that provided the treat was recognized.Apparently, their aptitude for math is even more impressive than initially believed. A new study has revealed honey...

Did you have an English teacher who read way too much into what a poem really meant? That teacher has nothing on fans of the Roman poet Virgil (also spelled Vergil): They believed his poetry could be used to predict everything from the outcomes of battles to who would be king. It was all there—if you knew how...

When people need to transport their life’s accumulation of material objects from one place to another, they get behind the wheel of a U-Haul. The moving and storage company rents trucks, trailers, and other cargo vehicles to people motivated to move themselves.These vehicles have an interesting quirk: Most of them carry license plates from Arizona, even though the...

The word Swiftie describes a Taylor Swift stan. Swiftae, meanwhile, is the second half of the scientific name of a millipede recently christened in the singer’s honor.As NPR reports, the full nomenclature is Nannaria swiftae—Nannaria referring to a genus of millipedes commonly known as “twisted-claw millipedes.” This particular species was discovered at Fall Creek Falls State Park, which...

The Windy City has given a lot to the world: the Ferris wheel, deep dish pizza, Al Capone … but it’s only fair that Chicagoans have kept a few things for themselves. The Midwestern accent alone is tricky to decipher, but admitting you don’t know the meaning behind any of the city’s long-standing slang terms is akin to...

Flip through enough 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts, and you're likely to come across a startling image in the margins: a group of bunnies roasting hunters over a fire and boiling their hounds. It’s called “The Rabbits’ Revenge,” and it was fairly popular among medieval texts.Today, rabbits are most commonly depicted through their softer side. People tend to emphasize...

Deep in the depths of time, there was the Ocean of Milk. The gods and demons both desired amrita, the nectar of immortal life, which could only be obtained from the great ocean. The supreme god Vishnu told them to use Mount Mandara as a churning stick, and to rotate the mountain with the giant serpent, Vasuki, as...

Amy’s job is pretty repetitive, but normally she doesn’t mind doing what she’s asked. Today, however, she’s working alongside Sidney. Amy can’t help noticing that Sidney is receiving a small reward every time he completes a task, while she gets nothing. After a few rounds of this treatment, Amy has had enough. She refuses to go on performing...