End the week on a happy note with some of the more inspiring stories that happened over the last few days. If, in addition, you would like to read about bizarre and outlandish occurrences, check out the offbeat list right here. This week, we look at several people who show us that age is just

History is replete with people who’ve accomplished great things and were duly recognized. From Nobel laureates to soldiers decorated for valor, many exceptional persons have been honored for their actions. But what happens after that recognition? Being honored once doesn’t mean the rest of your life will live up to your one great accomplishment. Even

As far as we know, every animal must rest at some point. We didn’t used to think so. Some animals, like the dolphin or bullfrog, simply have sleep habits that look an awful lot like not sleeping to the human eye. But even those that don’t sleep at all still rest. Most insects enter into

These days, the word “stranger” is mostly one-dimensional. It conjures up the image of a blurry-faced human who might do something criminal if shown too much trust. However, some do earn our trust for no apparent reason. People even tell their secrets to strangers. This field is also rich for experiments. Sociologists have buzzed strangers

Several famous photographs of Adolf Hitler are forgeries. While Hitler did fake some of his photos for propaganda purposes, authors, social media users, and the media have also made their own fakes for different reasons. Some were even faked while Hitler was still alive, and he had a hard time proving they were forgeries. Some

Historical records do a good job of telling us what history was like in umbrella terms. They often fall far short of recreating exactly how people at a given time would have experienced the world around them. For example, we weren’t really sure what popular music in ancient Greece was like, nor did we have

Everyone loves going to a concert. There is a certain thrill to seeing your favorite artist live and up close in front of your very eyes. Even in the biggest of stadiums, you can feel completely at home surrounded by people who share a love and appreciation for something. But what happens when gigs go

The European Middle Ages lasted a thousand years, running roughly from AD 500 to AD 1500. A lot of history took place during this time, but textbooks often fail to reconnect the living with the past as much as artifacts do. Some items prove that certain things never change—people cheated at games, carried deadly weapons,

Fashion has changed quite a bit from our hunter-gatherer days, when the most fashionable thing someone could wear was anything at all. What we wear now has less to do with adapting to the environment and more with self-expression and what everyone else is wearing. Modern fashion has been a long time in the making,

The 19th and 20th centuries were a period of unprecedented change in human history. In 1807, the Napoleonic Wars were raging; in 2007, smartphones were becoming a thing. No other era in human history comes close to matching this rate of change. And in no other place was this change faster than in Europe. As

Known as the human form of mad cow disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) is an incredibly rare yet terrifying illness. Scientists currently do not know as much as they would like to about this condition. But what they have discovered is fascinating and has led to increased health regulations for cattle meat production. For example,