Author: Jesse Clark

Listen, we live in a big, strange world. So big and so strange, in fact, that the weirdest possible day would be one where nothing weird happens at all. Coincidences are a perfectly normal and expected part of life, in other words – usually nothing more than unrelated events being strung together by human brains…

Nobody who seeks the highest office in the land – arguably the most powerful position in the modern world – can really be considered “normal.” They’re usually born with a silver spoon in their mouth and a terrifying, borderline sociopathic level of personal ambition. So perhaps it’s not that surprising that bizarre facts, stories and…

Bad advertising are annoying, repetitive, try too hard to be funny, don’t try hard enough to be interesting, and get in the way of whatever movie you’re watching. But some bad ads go well below and beyond even that dismal expectations most people have for commercials, and get pulled from websites and airwaves. These ads…

Everyone’s heard of the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and the Great Barrier Reef. But on a planet this big and beautiful, there’s a whole lot more out there to see. And some of the natural wonders that don’t make headlines or the cover of postcards are just as mesmerizing and unforgettable as those that do…

Everyone’s heard of Ghengis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Epstein. But, sadly, history is filled with mass murderers, psychopaths, child abusers, tyrants, and dictators that you’ve probably never heard of. As delicious as it is to think of these power and fame-hungry monsters dying in obscurity – undoubtedly a fate worse than death…

Everyone’s heard of Einstein, Newton, Galileo, and Darwin. But they weren’t the only people who advanced our understanding of the physical universe by leaps and bounds. Sadly, many other men and women (emphasis on women, whose contributions to science have historically but unsurprisingly been criminally overlooked) never got the recognition they deserved for their hard…

There’s no shortage of armchair experts on World War 2, due to the humongous scale and impact of the war, and its relative proximity to today. While widespread passion for history is great, it’s important to not fall for the huge number of myths and misconceptions surrounding the conflict. From winter saving Stalin’s neck to…

Nearly 160 years after the guns fell silent, it seems we’re still fighting the Civil War in our own way. What was it really about? Slavery, or state’s rights? Was this general or that leader really as brilliant or stupid as they’re often cracked up to be? Were there really Black Confederates? And what’s the…

They say that no matter what, the show must go on. But is that really the case when you’re facing high speed winds capable of toppling a massive stage, clubs packed beyond capacity that aren’t up to fire code, stampedes and human crushes, and Axl Rose? Let’s take a look at some concerts that didn’t…

Well, if the current, ever-worsening COVID-19 pandemic isn’t the best time to talk about doomsday prepping, we don’t know what is. With markets crashing, jobs going up in smoke, borders slamming shut and hospitals being overwhelmed, it’s easy to catch yourself staring nervously out from behind the window blinds, scanning the street for looters, zombies,…

Listen, fossil fuels have been great. They’ve provided such an abundance of cheap energy over the last century and change that we’ve ridden their wave from horses and muskets all the way to rocket ships and the internet. But there are costs to burning them (you know, like how you also burn the planet). As…

Obviously any article dealing with ‘future’ anything is largely speculation. This is doubly true in an industry that, despite seeing plenty of technological breakthroughs over the years, hasn’t really changed much in all that time because major overhauls are rarely worth the cost to implement. Regardless of what type of engine or propulsion system the…

Here’s a secret about architectural disasters: well-made structures don’t simply fall apart for no reason. So whenever you hear about bridges, factories, scaffolding, oil rigs or apartment complexes listing over and collapsing into dust and rubble, assume one of two things caused the incident: natural disasters (think earthquakes or hurricanes), or human error. More often…

Airplanes have only been around for a little over a century, but they have a history as storied as nearly any other invention in the history of the world. There’s a reason for that, too: their military value is hard to overestimate. Therefore, like other weapons systems, their advancement has been supercharged by the billions…

If you keep swapping out the old planks of a ship for newer ones, at which point do you have a new ship entirely? Maybe the Ship of Theseus can apply to cities as well. If a city’s been destroyed and rebuilt from ash and rubble, is it even the same place? Maybe there’s no…

Fashion fads are like any fad, really. Some of it works. Some of it doesn’t. And you don’t know which of those two categories the one you’re participating in now will end up falling into until enough time has passed for society to gain some perspective. Before you dive into the latest trend, though, keep…

Space, it turns out, is large. And until we humans figure out how to move faster than almost standing still, we won’t be going anywhere interesting in it any time soon. So we can count out exploring the cosmos on foot for the time being. But what we can do is observe. We do that…