On the Random Discovery of Life-Changing Books

Bruce Bauman on the books that have been his greatest teachers, from unlikely and wildly different sources.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1NJwiaP

Why Are Old Women Often The Face Of Evil In Fairy Tales And Folklore?

Evil stepmothers, witches and crones: When they aren't poisoning princesses, they're mangling mermaids or trying to eat children. One writer traces these villains' roots to a fear of female power. By Elizabeth Blair.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1KOyXvb

What's the Point If We Can’t Have Fun?

My friend June Thunderstorm and I once spent a half an hour sitting in a meadow by a mountain lake, watching an inchworm dangle from the top of a stalk of grass... By David Graeber.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PY6XNI

The private lives of 'Star Wars' Stormtroopers

In "Star Wars," we've seen stormtroopers in military roles. Now, "The Other Side," a new photo series, places them in mundane scenes of everyday modern life.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1MzRzXo

Why are most hazardous food recalls voluntary?

FDA product recalls seem to be almost ordinary, with fears of salmonella poisoning and undeclared allergens making regular appearances on primetime news. But up until recently, these recalls were merely suggestions made by the FDA—whether the product was actually removed from shelves was completely up to the company, putting most of the responsibility into the hands of the consumer in terms of knowing what produce was safe to buy and eat.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PXW8es

The Illusion of Taste

Sitting in a pub one night a dozen years ago, Charles Spence realized that he was in the presence of the ideal experimental model: the Pringles potato chip. Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at Oxford University, runs the Crossmodal Research Lab there, which studies how the brain integrates information from the five human senses to produce a coherent impression of reality. Very often, these modes of perception influence one another on the way...
Read more: http://ift.tt/1N3aggc

Why daylight saving time could be even more awesome than you think

Making daylight saving time permanent -- by never "falling back" again -- could save the country billions a year in social costs by reducing rapes and robberies that take place in the evening hours, according to a forthcoming paper by researchers at the Brookings Institution and Cornell University. In 2007, Congress increased the period of daylight saving time (DST henceforth) by four weeks, adding three weeks in the spring and one in the fall.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1N307jM

Sotheby's Is Auctioning Off What Might Be the World's Largest Cat Painting

Titled 'My Wife's Lovers,' the oil work was commissioned by a wealthy 19th century feline fancier.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1KNYjJw

Wallchemist Squad WCHS

First post on snapzu. Production with my mates Tinus and Mista.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1M85RfF

I Photograph My Experiments With Moving Water

I have always been fascinated with photographing water, a photograph of moving water is like a frozen moment in time that will never be quite the same again. I experiment a lot throwing water around to see what happens - I get wet a lot and have wrecked a couple of cameras, but hopefully the results are worth the effort.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1iuID7y

Acorns and Mast Years: Masses of Acorns and Why

If you've been clocked on the head more than once this autumn by what can only be described as a missile-launched tree-nut, you may be wondering "what's up with all of the acorns this year?"
Read more: http://ift.tt/1k0akqg

So Weird

No Pink Ponies - Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Read more: http://ift.tt/1NIaKLH

These bats look exactly like teddy bears and cute little piggies

Bat expert Merlin Tuttle explains why we should learn to love the winged mammal.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1kizgc8

Halloweens Past: Wacky Pranks With Wagons

When America was younger: Ladies wore hats, men sported spats and Halloween could be hard on the family buggy or wagon. By the late 19th century, All Hallows Eve had become a night for playing tricks on neighbors. One of the favorite capers was to "borrow" someone's wagon and send it — driverless — down a hill. Or place it — by some mysterious method — in a remote spot, such as the top of a barn or house.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1HiEIRK

Getting to the Bridge

Washington Irving's “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in three paintings. By Colin Fleming.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PWuHBC

How to Cut Coffee's Bitterness

Coffee is my go-to choice for a cognitive boost. I enjoy a morning cup of joe (almost every alternate day), but like a lot of people I’m not a fan of coffee’s bitter flavor. So to mask it, apart from adding lots of milk, I guiltily dump in a sugar cube (or maybe two). I’m not alone. Even connoisseurs of coffee, such as the Specialty Coffee Association of America, treat bitterness as a defect, describing it as “caustic,” “phenolic,” “creosol,” and “alkaline.” So, recently when my...
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Mojhjx

Public Faces: Photography as Social Media in the 19th Century

Many of the traits we associate with our selfies were also present in the most popular photographic format of the 1860s, the carte de visite....
Read more: http://ift.tt/1ituHKM

These Ice Cellars Fed Arctic People for Generations. Now They're Melting

Native people in Alaska and Russia store their whale meat and other traditional foods in permafrost. But their underground freezers are thawing, causing food problems. By Eli Kintisch.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PbDCO4

6 Spooky Ways Local Law Enforcement Is Watching You

A day in the life of the surveillance state.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1NfsEXU

Tainted Treats: Racism And The Rise Of Big Candy

Halloween's iconic candy corn first appeared in stores in the 1920s. The decade saw a boom in the retail candy business — and in advertising and production divided along racial lines.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1M2q4QA

The rise and rise of pumpkin spice everything.

America is awash with pumpkin spice everything during Halloween. But when did this craze start and is it here to stay?
Read more: http://ift.tt/1GDq9NX

Made in Holland: The Chanel of Africa

A small town factory in the Netherlands might not seem like the obvious birthplace for African haute couture. Helmond is a place most people (Dutch or African) wouldn’t be able to point out on a map and yet, this unassuming little town is where one of the most iconic fashion brands of West and Central Africa was created. By Inge Oosterhoff.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1MyHRo1

Al Molinaro, Big Al on ‘Happy Days’ actor, dead at 96

Al Molinaro, the actor best known for playing diner owner Big Al Delvecchio on “Happy Days,” died Thursday, according to reports.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PVPB3M

The Invention of Pad Thai

By coup-plotting standards, Plaek Phibunsongkhram was in a good position. The year was 1938. Six years earlier, Phibunsongkhram, better known as Phibun in Western historical accounts, had played a prominent role as a military officer in a coup that stripped Thailand’s monarchy of its absolute powers. A year later, he became the equivalent of the Minister of Defense after crushing a rebellion launched by royalists, and in 1938, he became prime minister.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1LI7jUp

The Sum of All Parts

Most people thought that the recently deceased and much accoladed neurologist Oliver Sacks—he of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat fame—whose non-fiction works have been turned into operas, plays and even films, could really never have a worthy successor. At least not worthy of his style... By Mukul Sharma.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1isVerQ

Jordan’s Rage: Fighting ISIS through Poetry

Muhammad Fanatil al-Hajaya's memorial poem for the executed Jordanian pilot Mu'ath al-Kasasbeh is a rallying cry for all Jordanians to rise up against ISIS.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1P2q9cQ

People in Sweden are hiding cash in their microwaves because of a fascinating — and terrifying — economic experiment

Sweden is shaping up to be the first country to plunge its citizens into a fascinating — and terrifying — economic experiment: negative interest rates in a cashless society. The Swedish central bank held its benchmark interest rate at -0.35% today, the level it has been at since July. Although retail banks have yet to pass on that negative to rate to Swedish consumers, the longer it’s held there the more financial pressure there is for banks to pass the costs onto their customers.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Nf5q4a

Three years on: My country still kills women.

Savita Halappanavar died three years ago today. She died of septicaemia. She died from a drawn-out miscarriage that went untreated too long. She died after spending a week in hospital. Savita may have died of blood poisoning, but she was killed by the Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution. Two decades of Irish governments have blood on their hands. They were too cowardly to legislate to protect pregnant people’s lives.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Mnyotn

How Big Ag Stampeded Over Science and Reason to Keep Sustainability Out of Our Dietary Guidelines

Did Big Ag’s beef-loving cowboys just lasso the 2015 Dietary Guidelines? It sure does look that way. By Jeff Turrentine.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1REnx2r

Extreme haunted house: inside the real life kingdom of masochists

At McKamey Manor, people pay to be kidnapped, bound, masked, slapped, stomped on and held under water over an eight-hour ‘tour’. But unlike other ‘extreme haunts’ of the same variety, here there’s no safe word to make it stop. By Rory Carroll and Mae Ryan.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1irAuRl

Rigging of Foreign Exchange Market Makes Felons of Top Banks

For the world’s biggest banks, what seemed like the perfect business turned out to be the perfect breeding ground for crime. The trading of foreign currencies promised substantial revenues and relatively low risk. It was the kind of activity that banks were supposed to expand after the 2008 financial crisis. But like so many other seemingly good ideas on Wall Street, the foreign exchange business was vulnerable to manipulation...
Read more: http://ift.tt/1NezGfx

Atheistophobia: It’s time to talk about the most persecuted minority in the world

While apologists create mendacious claims of the “New Atheist” threat that is persecuting Muslims – very little attention is given to how atheists have been a persecuted minority for centuries
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Neu7xv

The benefits of getting older

Most of us dread getting older. But there’s mounting evidence that old age brings happiness, intellect and even better sex.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Mn5Xvw

China's 'leftover' women

How a growing number of Chinese women are shunning societal pressures to marry – and the labels attached to them.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1P1SK26

Halloween's 5 Favorite Animals

Halloween is often associated with many iconic, spooky animals. From spiders, to black cats, ravens, werewolves and vampire bats, innocent creatures seem to get a bad rep for the fear they instill in humans. But are the animals really all that spooky?
Read more: http://ift.tt/1kYW7Kz

Lush Carpets of Flowers Thrive in the World's Driest Desert

Receiving barely a half-inch of rainfall per year, Chile's Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, but that all changes when El Niño rolls around every few years.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1iqxRPu

Why One Museum Is Fiercely Fighting the Return of Nazi ‘Looted’ Artworks

Inside the protracted $250 million battle for the Guelph Treasure.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1GBBz4L

Bead Up, Don’t Wet Out: How to Wash Your Waterproof Jacket

Not ready to let your favorite rain jacket go? Consider treating it with Nikwax Tech Wash and stay dry on those rainy day outings and adventures.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1kYQ5tq

Final volume of Mark Twain’s autobiography now on shelves

The third and final volume of the autobiography of legendary American author and humorist Mark Twain was published this week, courtesy of editors at the Mark Twain Papers and Project at UC Berkeley…
Read more: http://ift.tt/20gc5QE

Who owns Dumbledore – JK Rowling or the Harry Potter fans?

JK Rowling has come under fire for signing an open letter opposing a cultural boycott of Israel. The form of the complaints, and Rowling's response, tell us much about the author-fan relationship.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1NFvHab

Performers from Cirque du Soleil take part in a full dress rehearsal for their show Kooza

Photograph: Liang sen/Xinhua Press/Corbis
Read more: http://ift.tt/1iqgpuE

Halloween Pinups Of The 1940s

Read more: http://ift.tt/1iqgpuu

Bucatini with Bacon, Kale and Winter Squash

Bucatini, a pasta that is slightly thicker than spaghetti and has a hollow center, is a good choice for this hearty autumn bacon, kale, and squash pasta.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1P9Zt8q

The Riddler

Meet the Marquis de Sade of the puzzle world. A 2002 profile of Henry Hook, the world’s best crossword puzzler, who died this week.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PZqdJN

Haute dogs fill social calendars — and closets — for Halloween

The National Retail Federation estimates that 20 million pet owners will dress their pets this Halloween, spending $350 million on the costumes.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1HgFizr

The future is the Internet of Things—deal with it

IoT is about to explode, perhaps literally, if privacy and security issues aren't fixed.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1HgFfU3

Close-Up Photos of Insect Eyes from the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab

An incredible gallery of macro photographs that show insect eyes in extraordinary detail and clarity.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1Wo4g6M

Biological concrete for constructing 'living' building materials with lichens, mosses

The Structural Technology Group has developed and patented a type of biological concrete that supports the natural, accelerated growth of pigmented organisms. The material, which has been designed for the façades of buildings or other constructions in Mediterranean climates, offers environmental, thermal and aesthetic advantages over other similar construction solutions. The material improves thermal comfort in buildings and helps to reduce atmospheric CO2 levels.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1kYlex5

24 Healthy Oatmeal Recipes That Aren’t Overnight Oats

These oatmeal recipes are *anything* but basic.
Read more: http://ift.tt/1ipJXIK

Dance-off defuses confrontation between US police, teenagers

A police officer defuses a confrontation between teenagers in Washington DC not by force, but by dance.
Read more: http://ift.tt/20fqWLe