2,000-year-old toys discovered inside children's tombs in Turkey's Çanakkale

2,000-year-old ancient toys from the Hellenistic Period have been discovered inside tombs belonging to children in the ancient seaport city of Parion
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Yet Another Major Russia Story Falls Apart. Is Skepticism Permissible Yet?

Now we have the "Russia-hacked-the-voting-systems-of-21-states" to add to this trash heap of debunked official claims. Is this a healthy climate?
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How do you top ‘Hamilton’? Author Ron Chernow is about to find out.

His latest tome tackles the life of U.S. Grant, ‘a story unlike any I have ever written.’
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‘Earth Pyramids’ Captured in the Foggy Early Morning Light

Photographer Kilian Schönberger climbed the Alps late at night to capture one of the mountain range’s strangest segments, alien-like columns found in South Tyrol, an autonomous province in Northern Italy. His series Otherworld showcases the so-called “earth pyramids” in a hazy dawn light, strange creations that appear like stalagmites freed from their underground caves. The structures are created by erosion, rising from clay soil left behind by glaciers from the last Ice Age. Each features a large boulder resting on top which protects the soil below.
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Why is Africa building a Great Green Wall?

Eleven countries are planting a wall of trees from east to west across Africa, just under the southern edge of the Sahara desert. The goal is to fight the effects of climate change by reversing desertification.
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A fifth of young people are homeless

One in five young people in the UK have sofa-surfed in the past year and almost half of them have done so for more than a month. In a city – and a country – that is among the wealthiest in the world, how can this be possible? A new report by the London Assembly housing committee on hidden homelessness is a timely reminder of an issue that goes unseen by most of the public and by many local and national politicians.
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Almost 17,000 people were prevented from voting in a key swing state last November

Nearly 17,000 registered Wisconsin voters — potentially more — were kept from the polls in November by the state’s strict voter ID law, according to a new survey of nonvoters by two University of Wisconsin political scientists. The survey, summarized Monday on the university’s website, is certain to further roil an ongoing debate over whether President Donald Trump’s narrow victory in Wisconsin over Hillary Clinton was a result of efforts to depress Democratic turnout.
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People spend more time sitting on the toilet each week than exercising, study finds

People in the UK spend more time sitting on the toilet every week than exercising, a study has found.
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Air travel is better than ever. So why do we feel like it sucks?

At some point, we were socialized to hate flying.
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The Untold Story of the Assassins of North Korea

Two women had the most audacious task. Killing the brother of the North Korean leader. Right out in the open, using deadly chemical weapons in an international airport. And the craziest thing? They had no idea what they'd gotten into.
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Ancient Papyrus Reveals How The Great Pyramid Of Giza Was Built

In a new documentary, aired by Channel 4 on British television last week, archaeologists presented new evidence describing how the Great Pyramid was constructed. The new insight comes from papyrus discovered in the ancient port of Wadi al-Jarf, on the Red Sea. Among the documents discovered there over the last six years, a joint French-Egyptian team unearthed the diary of Merer, an official involved in the construction of the Great Pyramid.
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The Unlikely Return of Cat Stevens

He was giving us back the songs he’d taken away so many years ago, validating their worth again, and our love for them.
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Why you should really start doing more things alone

On any given Friday night, bars, restaurants and movie theaters tend to fill up with people spending time with friends, lovers, and family. But when the weekend comes, those who find themselves on their own are likelier to be found on the couch, at home.
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The Etruscans Were Expert Beekeepers, Ancient Honeycombs Suggest

The charred remains of 2,500-year-old honeycombs, as well as other beekeeping artifacts, have been discovered in an Etruscan workshop in northern Italy.
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The ancient abandoned city Teotihuacan was designed in a remarkably modern way

Entire city was planned on a carefully thought-through grid system.
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The Closing of a Great American Dialect Project

The lexicographic community learned this week that the Dictionary of American Regional English would be shutting down.
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"all this male nudity and gay sex!" – meet harris dickinson, star of 'beach rats'

Harris Dickinson is totally chill about playing a Brooklyn bro exploring cruising sites and his sexuality during one hot summer day in the city
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Post a boarding pass on Facebook, get your account stolen

Holiday time is in full swing. When you want to brag about your final destination, be careful of what you post on Facebook and Instagram. Leave your boarding passes (and other barcodes) for yourself (and get a shredder).
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Baseball Diamonds Aren’t Forever: Bygone Ballparks of New York

Much of the game’s history can be traced through these five ballparks, which have all been torn down.
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Turkey's Pladis looks at Nestle's U.S. candy as part of expansion

LONDON (Reuters) - Pladis, the Turkish company that owns Godiva chocolate and McVitie's biscuits, is considering making an offer for Nestle's U.S. confectionery assets, which could be valued at around $2 billion, as part of its international expansion plans.
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Spectacular "Light Bouquets" captured from Japan's summer fireworks festivals.

These are some of the best Japanese fireworks photos by photographer Keisuke during the summer "hanabi taikai" festivals in 2017.
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How to Win a War on Drugs

Portugal treats addiction as a disease, not a crime.
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How flying seriously messes with your mind

Travelling by plane has become an everyday activity – but our bodies and brains are still affected by it.
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Flight of the Year // Trains, Bridges, Rapids, Mountains, Sunset, Gapping, Perching, Powerlooping

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How Alexander Calder Became America's Most Beloved Sculptor

In an exclusive excerpt from his new book, Calder: The Conquest of Time, Jed Perl reveals a hidden side of the artist
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Homes of Los Angeles' (architectural) stars

Los Angeles is a beacon for modern architecture and an ideal place to explore the work of innovative 20th-century home architects. Here's where to go.
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Afghanistan Again?

The American Military’s Repetition-Compulsion Complex. By Ann Jones.
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Summer in the Heartsick Mountains

On a nearly moonless night in late May, as I stumbled down a wide, smooth path near a large campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it suddenly occurred to me that I can’t see in the dark anymore... By Ellie Shechet.
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An Artist for the Instagram Age

Is Yayoi Kusama’s new participatory-art exhibit about seeking profound experiences—or posting selfies?
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Is this Britain’s most influential bridge?

Nestled upon the banks of the River Severn lies the Shropshire town of Ironbridge, a modest Victorian settlement with a world-changing history.
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The Madness of Donald Trump

The pressures of the presidency have pushed Donald Trump to the edge, but is he crazy enough to be removed from office? By Matt Taibbi.
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Anatomy of terror: What makes normal people become extremists?

It takes more than religious fanaticism or hatred to make someone take innocent lives, but recognise the true roots of ISIS-inspired terror and they can be addressed.
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China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency trading – a sign of things to come

The recent crackdown on cryptocurrencies in China is a prelude to the assertion of control over this area by the Chinese authorities.
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The Renaissance artist who cast live snakes, frogs, and lizards to make his ceramics.

French 16th-century artist Bernard Palissy was known to capture live plant and animals species to create his vibrant ceramic plates, basins and vessels.
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How Party Bosses, Not Voters, Pick Candidates in New York

In one of the last, most powerful vestiges of Tammany Hall-style politics, New York party bosses pick the politicians when vacancies occur. By Shane Goldmacher.
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North Korean People's Army Funky Get Down Juche Party

Daddy did it better.
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How British colonialism ruined a perfect cup of tea

On the colonial colouring of the culinary calamity the British call a cup of tea. By Hamid Dabashi.
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US considers shooting down NK missiles that don't pose a direct threat

As tensions continue to ratchet up with North Korea, CNN has learned that the US is considering shooting down a North Korean ballistic missile even if it does not directly threaten the US or its allies.
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Surface to Unlimited: A Visit to Spaceport America

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, has long depended on tourism. Now spaceflight has been folded into its mythos, at the dawn of the Second Space Age. By Jack Murphy.
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The blue city of Jodhpur.

Located in the Thar Desert, the dynamic city of Jodhpur, India breaks the starkness of its surroundings with intense punches of color. The metropolis is cloaked in blue not just for aesthetic purposes; the hue historically demarcated the residence of the Brahmin, a caste of priests and protectors, and thus was meant to deter looters should the city ever come under siege.
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Lithium in tap water seems to both raise and lower dementia risk.

A study has found that high levels of lithium in drinking water is linked to a lower dementia risk, but medium levels are linked to a raised risk.
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Atomic City

On January 3, 1961, a nuclear reactor the size of a small grain silo exploded in the Idaho desert, causing one of the only recorded nuclear fatalities on U.S. soil. By Justin Nobel.
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This Is What It's Like Inside North Korea's Luxury Ski Resort

Get a glimpse of what life is like in North Korea, a country rarely seen by foreigners. Britain's fastest snowboarder Jamie Barrow is our guide around the DPRK’s capital city Pyongyang before he heads up to the slopes of Masikryong.
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We have a new word for that feeling when travel makes everything new

On a double-decker bus from Dublin airport to Drumcondra early one June morning, a young lad stretched out on the back seat and started to rap. What he lacked in talent he made up for in gusto. I was with a dozen of my students who were travelling...
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The German schoolboy jailed for writing to the BBC

How the East German secret police caught a young man who wrote letters to the BBC during the Cold War.
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A Recognition That We’re All Getting Screwed

Winning the [U.S.] white working class for criminal justice reform. By Vanessa Baker.
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The last Nazi hunters

Since 1958, a small department of Germany’s government has sought to bring members of the Third Reich to trial. A handful of prosecutors are still tracking down Nazis, but the world’s biggest cold-case investigation will soon be shut down.
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The day that destroyed the [U.S.] working class and sowed the seeds of Trump

Forty years ago, on Sept. 19, thousands of men walked into the Campbell Works of Youngstown Sheet and Tube along the Mahoning River before the early shift... By Salena Zito.
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Brexit’s Irish Question

People, money, Ireland. By Fintan O’Toole.
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A Very Scary Fish Story

The vanishing of an iconic river creature in Alabama poses terrifying questions about the water we swim in and fish in and drink. (Jul 24, 2017)
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