Culture & Religion

Personal ownership of drones is set to skyrocket in 2015. Here’s what you need to know if you’re thinking of buying one this holiday season.

What is the future of furniture? Paper and tape. At least that’s the solution coming from Bulgarian designer Petar Zaharinov, whose latest line of furniture is made entirely and solely of these two components. 

Much of what we were taught in school about how to learn has been shown to be comparatively ineffective, so what actually works?

The holiday season is a zone of attrition in which a lot of folks get dumped by their significant others. In a post from earlier today, Alice Pfeiffer of The Guardian says to let your wardrobe help you through your breakup.

Daniel Dennett: An Introduction to Intuition Pumps Daniel Dennett, one of the best-known living philosophers and a professor at Tufts University, believes it’s time to unmask the philosopher’s art and […]

In today’s Washington Post, a successful writer and former teacher offers a simple quiz for teachers to determine whether they’re cut out for the position.

Websites aren’t just bits of information floating in nothingness until appearing on a computer screen. They can have significant environmental impacts that ought not go unchecked.

Extroverts received the harshest evaluations from introverts, who consistently undervalued their outspoken coworkers’ abilities and contributions.

Reported cases of chickenpox, measles, mumps, and whooping cough are in the news. The keys to preventing their spread include vaccination and keeping away from communicable individuals.

Understanding how science uses certain key concepts can make the difference between parroting pure speculation and taking an evidence-based approach.

Sony Pictures has cancelled the Christmas Day release of the action-comedy film “The Interview” amid terrorist threats that may or may not be linked to North Korea.

Feeling is a form of thinking. Both are ways of processing data, one is just faster. Daniel Kahneman’s mysterious coinages (System 1 and System 2) show how new language can help sidestep centuries of confusion. 

We use words like “fight” and “battle” when we talk about cancer, as if it’s an enemy we can conquer if we’re strong enough. But a study shows this kind of thought may hurt chances of people taking preventative measures.

Florida-based startup Magic Leap has been the talk of the tech world ever since securing a major grant from Google. Now it’s hired a respected sci-fi author to help guide their work.

Scientific studies show that people like gifts that contradict the holiday giving etiquette.

Economist Larry Summers explains that there’s no better time than now for the U.S. to reinvest in its crumbling infrastructure. 

A British charity profiled this week by The Guardian takes an outside-the-box approach to helping patients in mental health wards.

Sports refs are human, however, they’re paid to be impartial during games. Researchers say if they don’t hail from a neutral place, they may let their bias get in the way, subconsciously.

An English teacher explains why parents who want their kids to love reading need to let them choose their own books.

Foraging for your own food sounds like a nice idea. But without years of study, it could be quite dangerous if you’re just setting out with a romanticized view of “living off the land.”

Second-guessing of Sony’s withdrawal of “The Interview”, and of CIA torture in the ‘War on Terror,” ignores a basic truth about human behavior: When we are afraid, reasoning and morality readily give way to whatever feels like it might keep us safe.

If something in the pit of your stomach is uneasy about the commercialization of the holiday season, spiritual leaders recommend you go a little easier on yourself.

Men take more risks than women, they also tend to take more idiotic risks that may result in a Darwin Award.

Xapo CEO Wences Casares calls Bitcoin “maybe the most important social experiment going on right now” that could one day replace the gold standard.

Bridesmaids have to walk a fine line between looking good and upstaging the bride. There’s also the monumental pressure of being judged by everyone at the service. One expert offers tips for maintaining composure.

Imagine standing in a bare room in which a small, 4-billion-year-old rock hangs from the ceiling by a thin wire as three vocalists whistle and breathe on it to make it swing. For some people, such a scenario might be the nightmare version of contemporary art run amok, so far “out there” that it’s never coming back. 

The bombshell announcement that Rolling Stone was backing away from its University of Virginia rape story has opened a societal window to the nature of story corrections and how publications handle journalistic errors.

Driving while tired creates the most likely conditions for a road accident, especially when drivers are on the road between 2am and 5am or received fewer than five hours sleep the night before driving.

The pope will deliver a speech on New Year’s Day entitled “No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters.” The firmly communicated anti-slavery stance continues a trend of Francis placing social justice at the top of his priority list.

Last month at The New Republic, before that venerable American periodical sadly imploded, Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick wrote an article lamenting that the Supreme Court is increasingly a bastion of elite […]