On a cloudy afternoon in November 1971, a well-dressed middle-aged man boarded a domestic flight leaving Portland, Oregon. Soon after the plane took off, the man calmly alerted air hostesses to a bomb he had wired inside his briefcase and communicated his ransom demands to the police on the ground. The man, who had used

The idea that life often mirrors art is one with which many of us are familiar. In most cases, these parallels between fact and fiction feel like harmless fun. There are times, however, in which the blurred line between the two can start to feel unsettling, as though there was more at play than simple

It is tempting to think life in the 21st century is a world away from the 1800s, but despite the communication revolution that we are all living through, we still owe much of our daily life to the inventions of back then. More modern amenities than you might think first showed up during the 19th

Methods of preserving food have been present since ancient times. From fermentation to salt, our ancestors used everything available to them to preserve the flavor and longevity of their food. However, as time went on, the desire to preserve the color, flavor, and “shelf life” of food intensified. Soon, dozens of food additives and preservatives

Music has been a part of human life since time immemorial. It penetrates our souls and becomes a part of us, just as we, its creators, are a part of it. We and our creations grow and learn together, and each phase of human development brings with it new tools to create the aural extension

At times, evolution takes a wrong turn. When it does, all we can do is stare in fascination at what it produces for us. Sometimes, it gives us something wonderful like the octopus. Other times, we get something terrible like the bobbit worm. But every now and then, we get an animal that’s just so

As sure as we all are born, we will someday die, and when that day comes, something is going to have to be done with our remains. People are generally content to be interred in a cemetery or to have their ashes occupy a treasured place on a loved one’s mantle. But sometimes, the deceased

The Shakespeare authorship question encompasses around 70–80 alternative theories on the traditionally held view that William Shakespeare wrote his own works. As Shakespeare was born in the lower class, was not educated formally, and didn’t have a large social circle, theorists believe it is virtually impossible that he created the masterpieces that we all believe