The Secret Life of Leftovers — The New Atlantis

Cheese, curry, beer: We can thank our ancestors who put food scraps to creative use. What we’re leaving our children is garbage.

Human Tetrachromacy is Real. Here's What We Know

After decades of exhaustive study, scientists have determined that human tetrachromacy is real. It comes in two forms -- and one can actually be an acquired trait.

The Beautiful Life of Vin Scully

The legendary Dodgers broadcaster, who died Tuesday at age 94, was a modern Socrates, only more revered. He was simultaneously a giant and our best friend.

The Night That Grasshoppers Killed Texas League Baseball

Fifty years ago, a minor league game in Midland was postponed for the rarest of reasons—a swarm of grasshoppers biblical in its proportions.

The Humpback and the Killer

Oceans also have their vigilantes.

Into the Forbidden Forest

Famed American biologist Patricia Wright explores an astonishing breadth of biodiversity in the wilderness of Madagascar

The Quest to Save the Pink Apples of Italy

Fruit fans, assemble.

Romance, Politics, and Ecological Damage: The Saga of Sable Island’s Wild Horses | Hakai Magazine

They’ve roamed free for hundreds of years, but is that freedom harming the ecosystem they call home?

Inside the Mind-Boggling World of the Antiquities Theft Task Force

You can't make this shit up

The Case for Bad Coffee

Lately, something has changed. Lately, I've been reacting to fancy coffee the same way a child reacts to an accidental sip of red wine mistaken for grape juice. I don't know when it happened, but I've devolved into an unexpected love affair with bad coffee. It's not just instant…

Isolated and in crisis – Russia’s war in Ukraine has damaged football at home too

Football in Russia was booming after the 2018 World Cup - now, thanks to the invasion of Ukraine, it promises to keep on shrinking

The surprising afterlife of used hotel soap

Hotel guests leave behind millions of half-used bars of soap every day. A nonprofit is on a mission to repurpose them.

Is Music Universal?

From a neurological and evolutionary perspective, music is fascinating. There seems to be a deeply rooted biological appreciation for tonality, rhythm, and melody. Not only can people find certain sequences of sounds to be pleasurable, they can powerfully evoke emotions. Music…

Hacker News

The books that no-one can read

Some of the world's most celebrated authors have written manuscripts that won't be published for a century – why? Richard Fisher visits the Future Library in Oslo to find out.

‘More than a song’: the enduring power of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah

In a new documentary, fans and experts explore the legacy of a song that was originally shunned before becoming a timeless classic

Mark Manson, the Self-Help Guru Who Burned Out

He sold 12 million copies of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. Then he started taking his own advice.

And Then the Sea Glowed a Magnificent Milky Green | Hakai Magazine

A chance encounter with a rare phenomenon called a milky sea connects a sailor and a scientist to explain the ocean’s ghostly glow.

The Barkley Marathons: the hellish 100-mile race with 15 finishers in 36 years

Participants in the Tennessee race must negotiate extreme temperatures, wild terrain and more than 50,000 feet of accumulated ascent

A Mystery That Took 13,200 Years to Crack

Hidden in the tusk of a 34-year-old mastodon was a record of time and space that helped explain his violent death.

Whatever happened to the Bee Apocalypse?

Science News, Physics, Science, Philosophy, Philosophy of Science

The human sensory experience is limited. Journey into the world that animals know

In his new book, An Immense World, science writer Ed Yong explores the diversity of perception in the animal world — including echolocation, magnetic fields and ultraviolet vision.

India’s Untouchable Queen of the Dead

Legions of the sick and elderly go to great lengths to die in India’s holiest city. One mysterious woman guards this fiery entrance to eternal bliss.

THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE ON EARTH

In a showdown between Russia and NATO, the ‘Suwałki Gap’ would likely be the first point of contact.

Hacker News

Stranger Things: A Reading List of Unsolved Mysteries

Tales of odd phenomena stoke our imagination even as they tease us.

Animal magic: why intelligence isn’t just for humans

Meet the footballing bees, optimistic pigs and alien-like octopuses that are shaking up how we think about minds

What Really Happened to Malaysia’s Missing Airplane

Five years ago, the flight vanished into the Indian Ocean. Officials on land know more about why than they dare to say.

What Klingon and Other Constructed Languages Reveal

Christine Schreyer is a linguistic anthropologist who researches the people who invent new tongues and seek to sustain ancient ones.

How Animals Perceive the World

Every creature lives within its own sensory bubble, but only humans have the capacity to appreciate the experiences of other species. What we’ve learned is astounding.

Hong Kong’s Floating Restaurant Sinks at Sea, Laden With Memories (Published 2022)

Jumbo Floating Restaurant, which closed in 2020, capsized in the South China Sea after being towed from the city. The sinking triggered nostalgia for a happier period of Hong Kong history.

The Incredible Journey of Three African Wild Dogs

Three sisters braved lions, crocodiles, poachers, raging rivers and other dangers on a 1,300-mile transnational effort to forge a new dynasty.

[Miscellany] The Crow Whisperer, By Lauren Markham | Harper's Magazine

What happens when we talk to animals?

Drew Houston's Commencement address

'I stopped trying to make my life perfect, and instead tried to make it interesting.'

How to Feel Better Naked

Whether you want to find joy in your body, or just greater self-acceptance, these four strategies from psychologists and activists — and, yes, nudists — might help.

You May Want to Marry My Husband (Published 2017)

After learning she doesn’t have long to live, a woman composes a dating profile for the man she will leave behind.

Inside the Brilliant, Heartbreaking First 10 Minutes of ‘Up’

"We figured the best way to make the audience understand—and care—would be to connect his house to a relationship, and unfinished business," says director Pete Docter

Visiting Vladimir Putin’s Lost Russia

An ex-Soviet state’s national myths—as well as the forces of nationalism, economics, culture, and religion—all pull it away from Moscow. Can Russia really compete?

When Baking and Real Estate Collide

Tartine, a beloved San Francisco bakery, wanted to grow. Partnering with a developer was one way to rise.

Meet the Yucca Whisperer of West Texas

Near Fort Stockton, Hoven Riley has been quietly growing more than 20,000 of the prized plants, which are being illicitly uprooted from public and private lands to meet a growing demand.

At 88, Poker Legend Doyle Brunson Is Still Bluffing. Or Is He?

The Texas gambler has been winning at poker for seventy years—long enough to become an icon and watch an outlaw’s game become an industry.

Raiders of the Looted Assets: Inside the High-Stakes Race to Recover Qaddaf

While spooks, treasure hunters, and lawyers search for cash, gold, and antiquities, Libya offers a lesson—and 1,001 cautionary tales—about how to recoup loot from kleptocrats.

“I'm Still Alive but Sh*t Is Getting Wild”: Inside the Siege of the Amarula

When vast gas reserves were discovered off the idyllic coast of northern Mozambique, a crew of roughnecks flew in from around the world to make their fortunes. But in March 2021, Islamist rebels attacked, and the foreigners and thousands of Mozambicans were abandoned. Two…

‘The Soundtrack of Your Mistakes In Stereo’: Documenting Every Detail of Life Behind Bars

"Jail is its own kingdom. The basic rules of engagement do not apply here," Keri Blakinger writes in this excerpt from her new memoir.

Kai Lenny Surfs the Unsurfable

The big-wave surfer tackles some of the most fearsome swells on the planet. On the surface, it looks like he’s just having fun.

The people who rescue giant ships

Enormous container ships ferry goods all over the world, but when one of them gets into trouble – as happened with the Ever Given and Ever Forward recently – how can they be saved?

42 years ago, the "Mother of Yoda" conquered Hollywood — then she vanished

You might not recognize the name Wendy Froud (née Midener), but in the practical effects world, she’s a legend. Her work even earned her one of pop culture’s greatest monikers: the Mother of Yoda.

This Old Man

“I know how lucky I am, and secretly tap wood, greet the day, and grab a sneaky pleasure from my survival at long odds.”

Loki’s Place in Trickster Mythology

Smithsonian’s James Deutsch says that behind the character in the Marvel Studios series lies the oft-told story of “guile” outsmarting authority.

When Major Leaguer Eddie Grant Made the Ultimate Sacrifice

The Harvard-trained lawyer and professional baseball player Eddie Grant volunteered to serve in World War I. He fought as he'd played: selflessly