culture
We might be dining on insect-based Christmas pies with robot-harvested algae on the side.
Ada Lovelace’s skills with language, music, and needlepoint all contributed to her pioneering work in computing.
A Cambridge Ph.D. student has solved a grammatical problem that has befuddled Sanskrit scholars since the 5th century BC.
Goodbye, Arabica? Learn to love Liberica.
Is the dumpster in the alley worthy of a poem?
The most important events in history have nothing to do with politics or wars.
We all see beauty the same way.
The popular game has a backstory rife with segregation, inequality, intellectual theft, and outlandish political theories.
Use words with plosives and affricates if you really want to make sure everyone knows you mean business.
For decades, cinemas have earned more from concessions than ticket sales. But can their current business model survive in the streaming age?
Bilingualism confers various mental health and social benefits. Perhaps knowing a second alphabet confers even more.
These ten maps provide a fascinating insight into the impact that soccer (sorry, football) has had worldwide.
The word “turkey” can refer to everything from the bird itself to a populous Eurasian country to movie flops.
You want your baby’s name to be unique, but so does everyone else.
They believe in meritocracy, yet leave their kids massive wealth.
Late-night shows, developed during the “golden age” of TV, are no longer as relevant in the age of streaming services and Donald Trump.
“Oosouji” or “big cleaning” is much more than a chance to tidy up.
Using physics, Ross Chastain floored it during the final turn, scraping the wall and passing 5 cars to advance to the NASCAR championship.
Today’s scary clowns are not a divergence from tradition, but a return to it.
The value of art does not lie in the artwork itself but is instead determined by curators, collectors, critics, and other participants in the modern-day art market.
Nothing meaningful is done quickly.
Because Dylan “samples and digests” songs from the past, he has been accused of plagiarism. But imitatio isn’t the same.
Like his “Mona Lisa,” Leonardo da Vinci’s “Lady with an Ermine” depicts a woman in a way that flouted the conventions of its time.
Forget about Tinkerbell.
Urban legends help personify the anxieties that arise from living in a modern city.
How many tins of beans make a stockpile, and when does a basement become a bunker?
You can buy over 400,000 products tagged “witch” on Etsy, from candles to spell bottles to pentagram necklaces.
Between 30% and 50% of the US population says they believe in ghosts.
When the great American tradition of the road trip meets the great Jewish tradition of the deli, we get the Great American Deli Schlep.