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Absurdism
How the simple act of watching twilight can radically transform our perception of the world and our role within it.
John Templeton Foundation
If cocaine affects sharks at all, it does so as an anesthetic, not as a stimulant.
Probability, lacking solid theoretical foundations and burdened with paradoxes, was jokingly called the “theory of misfortune.”
When done right, dark humor can help us face inconvenient truths and question stifling social conventions.
The key to its success lies not in its understanding of technology, but in its understanding of human nature.
An insect? A vermin? An unwanted animal? What in the world is Franz Kafka talking about?
Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature's most unreliable narrators.
Mary Toft staged an elaborate hoax, but the pain was real.
For the clarity of a “beginner’s mind” and a path to true and lasting wisdom, one must fully embrace "not-knowing."
Is there an ultimate answer to the age-old question?
Would you confess your crimes to a skeleton with "an unnatural ghastly glow"? One inventor thought you would.
We know that everything changes, but we long for something more permanent.
For many years, some cosmologists embraced the idea of an eternal, steady state universe. But science triumphed over philosophical prejudice.
The multi-leveled constructions of metaphysics are the collective workings of a fantastical virtuality. Did you get that?
Always look on the bright side of death.
Monsters have always represented societal fears, but narrative art also casts doubt on whether we fully understand our monsters — and their slayers.
“Like real dreams, it does not explain, does not complete its sequences," film critic Roger Ebert once wrote about "Mulholland Drive."
"Of course, the spleen is the biggest organ in the body."
Telegrams were the “Twitter of the 1850s and 1860s” — and they elicited the exact same overblown fears as Twitter does today.
X marks the spot. The Dutch town of Ommeren has been swamped by detectorists armed with shovels looking for $20-million treasure.
Adopting a healthy scepticism towards inherited ideas means “emptying the container of the Self.”
Most popular songs are about love and heartache. But some great songs — albeit underrated and perhaps a bit weird — are about the cities we love.
"Tristram Shandy" trolled its way to fame.
"All moments past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist."
When the great American tradition of the road trip meets the great Jewish tradition of the deli, we get the Great American Deli Schlep.
We can never hope for a future with no problems. The solutions to problems create new problems, which in turn require new solutions, as WIRED founder Kevin Kelly explained recently.
On New Year's Eve 1899, the captain of this Pacific steamliner sailed into history. Or did he?
Is "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch a condemnation of sin or a celebration of hedonism? Art historians still aren’t sure.
Science and the sacred both allow us to retain our sense of wonder, even as disaster seems to swirl around us.
It is little more than a fancy excuse for escapist fantasizing.