Eros – that is, love, lust, desire – as the foundation of all humanity only comes into focus when we realize that you, me, and every other human on earth would not exist were it not for a single night of eroticism between our parents. I know, you don’t want to think about that single [...]

Cell, origin Old English, from Old French celle or Latin cella meaning ‘storeroom or chamber.’ We often lock ourselves up in our cell phones. Earlier this evening after going for a solo run I was walking to the neighborhood taqueria when I bumped into a friend and neighbor. We both had our headphones on, plugged [...]

Whether or not you’ve read the novel or watched the movie, Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days is so embedded in Western culture that just about everyone knows the basic plot premise: wealthy and reticent Englishman Phileas Fogg makes gentlemanly bet with his chums that he can travel around the world in 80 [...]

A new category on this here blog: go global. I would be skeptical if I were you, dear reader, but the goal is to inspire more global curiosity with a new theme each week and two or three links to explore the theme. This week: African music. [Tangent: for all of you screaming that Africa [...]

I saw this on a giant HD flatscreen at the new Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria a couple days ago. It was one of the best visualizations of global data that I’ve ever seen. The experience isn’t one percent as compelling as a YouTube video, but it still gives you a basic idea. Riffing [...]

This was originally written for the (almost) weekly Rising Voices newsletter. You can subscribe here. I haven’t found a citation to verify this myself, but I’ve been told by quite a few people that when Alexander Bell was trying to promote his latest invention, the telephone, he assured anyone who would listen that this new [...]

Another video from our bloggers’ trip to South Africa. In March 1886, nearly forty years after the California Gold Rush, legend has it that Australian gold miner George Harrison stumbled across a rocky outcrop of gold in what was then the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek. Says Wikipedia: “Ironically, Harrison is believed to have sold his claim [...]