Humans have long prized uniqueness. Many people wear it like a badge of honor if they are “not like other people” and march to the beat of their own drum. If you have a unique skill or ability, this is even more highly prized. After all, who wouldn’t want to be the best at something?…
Author: Ian Fortey
A wise man once said that time keeps on slippin’ (slippin’) into the future. On the other hand, he may have had that backwards and time is heading into the past. Or you could believe those who think time is cyclical and the present and the past are the same thing. For practical purposes it…
Food occupies an unusual place in our lives. It’s a basic human necessity, of course, but there’s so much more to it. Some of us don’t have enough, some of us have an abundance. Some don’t care either way. We have turned food into art, into an expression of wealth or creativity, and have made…
New York. They call it the Big Apple because of racing. It was the big city with the big prizes and stable hands in New Orleans called it the Big Apple because of it. A New York reporter overheard this and liked it. He started using it in his racing beat articles and the name…
Ahh, torture. That timeless art of inflicting pain on someone in terrible and creative ways. As a people we’re very good at being awful and our seemingly endless torture techniques have proven this time again. While many kinds of torture are well known or at least obvious, no one needs to claim to have invented…
Making movies isn’t always fun and games. Actors are often put through the ringer and have to endure extreme conditions. James Cameron famously pushed his actors so hard on the set of The Abyss that they broke down in tears and Ed Harris punched him after a scene in which he almost drowned. Stanley Kubrick…
Across the history of our world, from the beginning to this day, life has not had a good run. Sure, the planet is teeming with it, but relatively speaking it’s the barest hint of what has been. 99.9% of all life that has ever existed has gone extinct. We’re holding onto a tiny sliver of…
From the moment you’re born you’re on a one way street towards death. No one has avoided it yet, so there’s no reason to be too worried. Realistically, you probably avoid dozens if not hundreds of potential ways to die every day. From car accidents to falls to choking on a chicken bone, you could…
Every day we run across things that are perplexing in some way. Maybe it’s a complex idea or a strange new gadget. Even if we don’t understand a thing, however, there’s always the hope that it makes sense to someone. That there’s a purpose behind it. It actually does something. Depending on your outlook you…
Most of us are likely to think of a science lab when we hear the term “chemical reaction.” In reality, nature is full of endless chemical reactions occurring all the time. We either just don’t see them, like the ones that take place in our own bodies all day long, or we don’t even think…
Parents in public are often very different from parents in private. The internet is rife with parenting blogs and TikToks dealing with parenting tips, funny anecdotes, gushing praise and feel-good parenting moments that make it seem like being a parent is the best thing a person could ever be. The truth is being a parent…
Being a teacher is, for many, a calling. Helping educate children is a tremendous responsibility. It’s not a job just anyone can do or, at least, it’s not a job just anyone should do. But sometimes beggars can’t be choosers and school boards hire whoever shows up with a diploma. That has led to several…
“If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime” is a fairly well known saying that dates back some years now. The meaning of the idiom is simple enough – be prepared for the consequences of your actions. That sounds straightforward on the surface, but sometimes the consequences are curiously off balanced compared to…
If you make it through life without ever getting sick or injured, you may be entirely fictional. It’s nearly impossible to live without needing medical help at some point. If you’re lucky, you’ll only need minor help. For more in-depth issues, medical science has all manner of treatments and procedures that may be able to…
Some people will try to dismiss their poor behavior by insisting whatever they did was just a joke. True or not, the idea is that if something’s a joke you can’t take it seriously because who would ever take a joke seriously? That’s the whole point of a joke. As it happens, some jokes do…
Everyone makes mistakes, so the saying goes. The problem is that the word “mistake” doesn’t hold a lot of meaning. Sure, it means something wrong happened but you get no sense of gravity. Dropping your toast butter side down is a mistake, but so is forgetting to place a seal on a rocket ship that…
Have you ever awoken to discover you’d slept through something noteworthy overnight? Many of us can sleep through an alarm but some people can sleep through earthquakes or break-ins. Other people are adept at sleeping anywhere and can doze off on buses or planes despite being surrounded by strangers and loud engines. And there are…
Death is not something we generally take lightly or find a lot of joy in. Statistics about death are therefore not likely to be fun or joyful, either. But what you may not be aware of is just how dark and unbelievable some of the statistics about death truly are. Lucky for you, we’ve pulled…
The world is, was and seemingly will be full of misinformation. People misunderstand, make mistakes or outright lie about this or that and the next thing you know a rumor or myth gets loose into the wild and everyone hears it. Before long, more people know the fake story than the truth. Once that genie…
When you create something, no matter what it is, it’s natural to feel possessive of that thing. If it was something you thought up and brought to life, it’s literally yours. If that thing ends up in someone else’s hands, for whatever reason, it’s hard to watch that person make changes. Even the best-intentioned creator…
If you had to make a list of places you never want to go, a sewer has to rank on there somewhere. You don’t need to experience one to know you won’t enjoy it. Depending on the sewer and its location you can expect to find human waste, cockroaches, rats, trash and a whole host…
Hamlet once said “there are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” That was a very Shakespearean way of saying what we know as humans is limited. There are some things we don’t know and maybe we will never know. But there are also several things you may…
There’s a popular saying that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction which can be very true. But “stranger” is not the only adjective you can safely use in that sentence. The truth can also horrify sometimes and used to inspire fictional events and characters. We all hope and believe that the average horror story is…
It’s common to expect that medications are going to cause side effects. Some are barely noticeable and some may be worse than the condition the medication treats. We understand that’s a risk associated with medicine, though. Sometimes people seem to forget that side effects aren’t limited to the realm of medications. Many things we eat…