Culture & Religion

The National Sleep Foundation finds that our busy American culture homogenizes sleeping tendencies across cultures, resulting in all ethnicities sacrificing some of their Z’s.

The Christian Science Monitor traces the origins of Daylight Savings Time to WWI Germany, where an extra hour of work was desired before nighttime air raids; the tradition continues for tradition’s sake.

A Japanese man has fallen in love with and married his large body pillow with a female anime character drawn on it; the Japanese word ‘otaku’ means ‘obsessive’ or ‘nerd’.

For art world junkies, access to the secret corners of museums can be an addictive substance. On the few behind the scenes tours I’ve been on, the restoration areas have […]

In 1882, American novelist Henry James concluded that there was “nothing more to be said” about Venice, Italy. Artists of all stripes had trod and sloshed through the streets and […]

When competing for the ever-shrinking entertainment dollar in this ever-struggling economy, art museums and galleries compete to find bigger and better gimmicks to catch the public eye. In the new […]

The Chicago Tribune disavows Illinois’ own Ulysses S. Grant in an editorial arguing to replace the Civil War general and President’s image on the fifty dollar bill with Ronald Reagan’s.

Ferguson’s piece in the new Foreign Affairs, “Complexity and Collapse: Empires on the Edge of Chaos,” considers the question of how history moves, and whether the conventional assumptions concerning, as […]

Rusty McMann is the alias of a real male escort living in Las Vegas who has written his version of “Confessions of a Call Girl” to cast further light on his profession.

“The Wizard of Oz,” which starred Judy Garland, has a place in cinematic history. But with three rival studios preparing new versions of the classic musical, which Wizard is which?

The New York Times’ Earl Wilson ponders the disorganisation and chaos of beautiful Italy as he attempts to board an airplane from an airport that looks the same as it did in 1944.

I’m writing a novel, titled Anamorphosis, that revolves around the challenges an African American auteur experiences when he agrees to direct a film because he needs the money. I’ve never […]

A century after International Women’s Day was founded to promote gender equality a stark gender gap still exists in the workplace in countries across the world.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s grip on power appears to be loosening as in recent weeks she has faced a series of subtle but significant challenges to her authority, Politico reports.

Global Post’s Michael Goldfarb awards the Oscar for best world leader to…Turkey’s Recip Erdogan, who he says is the most outstanding democratic leader in the world today.

Claude Parent’s new Paris-based exhibition re-establishes him as a pivotal force in European architecture after decades of neglect, writes The New York Times.

If only financial reform was as funny as the comedy sketches being played out on popular comedy website funnyordie.com sighs The Washington Post’s Katrina vanden Heuvel.

Barbra Streisand said it: “The time has come.” Watching Bigelow ascend the stage was meaningful for many people for many reasons, but meaningful for all women for one: it can […]

For once the Oscars is acting “sanely” in awarding Best Picture to a low budget indie film “Hurt Locker” over “Avatar.” Why, then, is The New Republic still frustrated by it?

“I told you so,” writes The Washington Post’s Stanley Fish, who predicted back that within a year of leaving office George W. Bush would be regarded with affection and nostalgia.

Ultra-violet rays have been used by restoration experts in Florence, Italy to shine new light on the work of Giotto di Bondone, one of the West’s most important painters.

He’s been happy to lend his celebrity to causes in an effort to broaden their scope. Despite his background and image, few people in his industry have been as unapologetically […]

Pakistani security agents have denied that an American al Qaeda promulgator with a $1 million US bounty on his head has been arrested, saying there has been an ID mix-up.

Blogger Jeff Jarvis wades into the television fight by suggesting that Cablevision customers switch to the “better service” Verizon Fios—but that doesn’t mean he’s siding with ABC!

It was a red letter day for women in the film industry yesterday as Kathryn Bigelow became the surprise first woman to win Best Director at the Oscars for “The Hurt Locker.”

While most of the world waits to hear who will take home which Oscars, some of us might be as content to watch playwright Martin McDonagh ascend a separate stage, […]

Just when you think you’ve seen them all, a new Vincent Van Gogh painting rises from seemingly nowhere. An 1886 painting titled Le Blute-Fin Mill (pictured) recently became the first […]

A new conservation report finds that the American bison population could be rehabilitated if new government policy allowed the animal to roam free across the prairies.

A referendum will be held his weekend in Switzerland to decide if government attorneys should be deployed to represent animals in court cases that involve animal rights.

David Gelernter is not a man known for conventional thinking, so perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Yale computer science professor—whose digital-world achievements include the development of […]