A Creative Solution to ‘the Friendship Desert of Modern Adulthood’

“I knew many old couples who had happy and loving arranged marriages. I thought, If it worked for them, why couldn’t it work for friendships?”

U.S. life expectancy falls for 2nd year in a row

Despite the availability of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, so many people died in the second year of the pandemic in the U.S. that the nation’s life expectancy dropped for a second year in a row last year, according to a new analysis.

A doctoral student may have discovered fossils from the day the dinosaurs died

This story isn’t exactly breaking news since it’s about something that happened 66 million years ago, but there is a reason it’s getting fresh attention now. Next week the BBC is releasing a special narrated by David Attenborough titled “The Day the Dinosaurs Died.” The special focuses on a unique dig site in North Dakota called Tanis where evidence suggests a jumble of fossils were formed on the day a large asteroid struck the earth about 66 million years ago.xxx

How to Start Running: A Beginner’s Guide

Want to start a running habit but have no idea where to start? Here is everything you need to know to start running and actually enjoy it.

Klain Says Biden Doesn’t Believe Hunter Broke Any Laws

On Sunday, Joe Biden’s White House Chief of Staff told George Stephanopoulos that Biden doesn’t believe his son Hunter broke any laws, despite his past dealings that are currently under investigation by the Department of Justice, which a CNN analyst said earlier this week could result in his being indicted.

Know Who’s Bummed About Russia’s Military Failure In Ukraine? China

A goodly part of the world is pleased about the manifest failure of Vlad’s Big Ukraine Adventure, some are indifferent to it, but only Russia, client-state Syria, and puppet-state Belarus really seem upset about it.

Know who else is bummed? China.

Ex-Zelensky Aide Says Ukrainian Army Uses ‘Terminator’ Drones That Make Russians Think Skynet is Chasing Them

The Ukrainian army has come up with a clever way to save ammunition, a former advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky said, by modifying commercial drones to resemble something out of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator films, scaring Russian soldiers into thinking “something that belongs to Skynet” is chasing them so they lead the drone back to their base and the Ukrainians can then blast them into the afterlife.

10 Simple Things to Make You Happier At Home

Our homes are an extension of who we are: what we do within the walls of our abodes shapes our mood, affects our productivity, and influences our outlook on life. Scientific studies have shown that we can have an impact on our happiness by adjusting the tiny little habits and routines that constitute our daily lives—we are, in fact, in control of our outlook on life.

The Day Dostoyevsky Discovered the Meaning of Life in a Dream

“And it is so simple… You will instantly find how to live.”

Mental time travel is a great decision-making tool — this is how to use it

When the future seems largely unpredictable, is there anything you can do to prepare for it?

“Yes!” says futurist and game designer Jane McGonigal. All you need to do is to tap into your imagination and envision all your potential futures — using what she calls “futures thinking.” 

Losing My Ambition

I have abandoned the notion of ambition to chase the absolute middle of the road: mediocrity.

25 Tips to Follow for When You’re Walking for Weight Loss

Our experts share ways that you can burn fat and improve your overall health by walking.

Susceptibility to Mental Illness May Have Helped Humans Adapt over the Millennia

Psychiatrist Randolph Nesse, one of the founders of evolutionary medicine, explains why natural selection did not rid our species of onerous psychiatric disorders

The Oscars always get it wrong. Here are the real best pictures of the past 46 years.

With the perspective of time, we can now discern what movie was actually the best

What you should know about film photography today

Going back to film photography? Here’s what’s changed in the last few years.

How to stop catastrophising – an expert’s guide

A clinical psychologist suggests a three-pronged plan for tackling anxiety and approaching each day logically and positively

A Love Letter to Driving Alone

Embarking on a road trip by yourself is solo travel taken to another level.

Ancestral dreams

We’re not the only beings that dream. What visions might sleep bring to a cell, an insect, a mollusk, an ape?

Annie Londonderry Barely Knew How to Ride a Bike When She Set Off Around the World

The record-setting 19th-century adventure was the result of a bet.

Garth Greenwell on Writing Fiction like a Poet

“I did, in a weird way, write a novel like a poem.”

What Have Two Years of ‘Two Weeks to Slow the Spread’ Taught Us?

Two years ago this week, everything changed. We had heard the threats of COVID-19 for a couple of months by then, but by the middle of March, we were in full-blown pandemic mode.

The Putin Doctrine

A Move on Ukraine Has Always Been Part of the Plan

NASA is launching a new quantum entanglement experiment in space

The researchers will test if their tech can produce and detect quantum entanglement on the International Space Station.

What is a law of nature?

Laws of nature are impossible to break, and nearly as difficult to define. Just what kind of necessity do they possess?

A Decade of Music Is Lost on Your iPod. These Are The Deleted Years. Now Let Us Praise Them.

From 2003 to 2012, music was disposable and nothing survived.

“Fast fashion” furniture has given us a world of crappy couches

Sure, that couch you bought on Wayfair is too uncomfortable to sit on, but at least it looks nice.

The bizarre deep-sea creatures living on the Endurance shipwreck

Check out these animals that have colonized the 1915 wreck.

What If Russia Loses?

A Defeat for Moscow Won’t Be a Clear Victory for the West

The Eagles are Back!

I have been avidly following the saga of the young pair of Bald Eagles at White Rock Lake here at Dallas. A local school has a streaming webcam of their new nest.

The Changing Geography of U.S. Talent

Coastal metro areas continue to dominate the market for knowledge and creative workers. But other cities in the middle of the country are starting to gain ground.

The chronic stress survival guide: how to live with the anxiety and grief you can’t escape

Stress can feel like a baseline condition for many of us – especially during a pandemic. But there are ways to help alleviate the very worst of it, whether through support, sleep or radical self-care

Can We Move Beyond Food?

Some powders and drinks boast all of the necessary nutrients a body needs — no grocery trips required. But it isn’t clear how drinking our meals might affect our health.

The Dark Side of Resilience

There is no doubt that resilience is a useful and highly-adaptive trait, especially in the face of traumatic events. However, it can be taken too far. For example, too much resilience could make people overly tolerant of adversity. At work, this can translate into putting up with boring or demoralizing jobs — and particularly bad bosses — for longer than needed. In addition, too much resilience can get in the way of leadership effectiveness and, by extension, team and organizational effectiveness. Multiple studies suggest that bold leaders are unaware of their limitations and overestimate their leadership capabilities and current performance, making them rigidly and delusionally resilient and closed off to information that could be imperative in fixing — or at least improving — behavioral weaknesses. While it may be reassuring for teams, organizations, and countries to select leaders on the basis of their resilience — who doesn’t want to be protected by a tough and strong leader? — such leaders are not necessarily always good for the group as a whole.

There is Such a Thing as Talent: Elizabeth Hardwick on Writing

Today, on Elizabeth Hardwick’s birthday, the best thing to do is to pick up a copy of Sleepless Nights, or perhaps her Collected Essays, and find a quiet corner in which to read them. This may, however, leave you wondering how such literary magic is possible, and maybe even wishing you had a small compilation of Hardwick’s comments about the art and the making of it.

Micromanipulation: the covert tactic that narcissists use in arguments to reassert control

Micromanipulation is a subtle form of emotional abuse that narcissists use in their closest relationships to regain a sense of control: here’s how to recognise its damaging effects. 

2 Tips I Wish I Learned Before I Bought This Cast Iron Skillet

Sylvia Plath and the Loneliness of Love

The Crystal Hunters of Chamonix

This Is the Most Bizarre Grammar Rule You Probably Never Heard Of

No, Shawn Bradley Wasn’t Paralyzed in a “Bicycle Accident”

A Kansas Bookshop’s Fight with Amazon Is About More Than the Price of Books

A Bard’s Eye View