History and Society

History and Society

While Costco warehouses may remind shoppers of Walmart, this membership-only retailer has a business model that more closely resembles Amazon or Netflix.
Million Stories
Concluding that Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest was caused by the COVID vaccine requires accepting highly improbable leaps of logic.
The amazing life of “Gudrid the Far-Traveled” was unjustly overshadowed by her in-laws, Erik the Red and Leif Erikson.
Boredom isn’t the enemy; it’s a catalyst for changing your relationship to work.
15mins
Male inequality — the enormous cultural shift happening right under our nose.
In 1920, astronomers debated the nature of the Universe. The results were meaningless until years later, when the key evidence arrived.
sleep duration
If you want to sleep more, try working less, eating better, and exercising more. Alternatively, you could emigrate to Albania.
As time goes on, dark energy makes distant galaxies recede from us ever faster in our expanding Universe. But nothing truly disappears.
Passing chunks of ice can fertilize ocean waters and play a role in the planet’s carbon cycle.
Illustration of Earth with labeled axes, equator, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and magnetic and geographic poles. Orange lines indicate Earth's tilt and rotation.
4mins
Why do so many cultures celebrate holidays at the same time of year?
John Templeton Foundation
map of universe
In the grand scheme of the cosmic story, a single year isn't all that significant. But over time, the annual changes really add up!
Evolution repeatedly hit upon this solution simply because it works.
The shift from steam to electricity was inevitable — but some foresaw it earlier than others.
ice
Seneca thought the use of ice was a "true fever of the most malignant kind."
Close-up of two figures; one extends an apple towards the other near a tree trunk. The scene references the biblical story of Adam and Eve.
6mins
In 1965, six boys were stranded on an island. Fifteen months later, the survivors were rescued. How many were there?
John Templeton Foundation
In 2020, scientists took more than a kilo of moon rock and soil back to Earth for testing.
We might be dining on insect-based Christmas pies with robot-harvested algae on the side.
great books
These five great books should prompt us to work on what needs fixing the most in the world: ourselves.
"The Da Vinci Code" popularized the idea that Christians stole much of their theology. It's wrong, especially regarding Christmas.
3mins
Climate change. War. Civil unrest. Is it responsible to have kids today?
Ada Lovelace’s skills with language, music, and needlepoint all contributed to her pioneering work in computing.
Some analysts predict that Amazon's revenue will double over the next five years.
Million Stories
Never stop looking at the skies in wonder.
Despite their brief history, computers and AI have fundamentally changed what we see, what we know, and what we do.
sanskrit
A Cambridge Ph.D. student has solved a grammatical problem that has befuddled Sanskrit scholars since the 5th century BC.
If aliens are driven mostly by biological imperatives, humanity could be in big trouble if we ever meet technologically advanced beings.
Geminids
You can lead an overconfident chatbot to expert knowledge, but can it actually learn and assimilate new information?
globular cluster terzan 5
2022 was a year full of scientific discoveries and the dawn of the JWST. But Hubble's still going after 32 years. Here's the amazing proof!