Foraging for thimbleberries and gooseberries >> more
Rodney King engaged to "juror number 5" from his trial against the city of Los Angeles >> more
Combat meals >> more
The "exaggerated passion of adolescence": breaking into pools, drinking beer, driving beat-up old cars at night while reading aloud from a quiz in a women's magazine >> more
Degrees of beef marbling >> more
Crimes punishable by death in China include smuggling gold and passing forged checks >> more
Next edition of Oxford English Dictionary (third edition) will also be the last edition >> more
Guerrilla bike lane >> more
Types of bitches >> more
Photographs of slime molds >> more
The phenomenology of ugly >> more
Envy, or, dating Jonathan Franzen: ". . . what did his success prove if not that when the gift is prodigious enough, the world does need us?" >> more
Nine-day traffic jam >> more
Neuroscientist who studies the brains of psychopaths discovers he has the brain of a psycopath -- and is related to Lizzy Borden >> more
Chemical reason secondhand bookstores smell like "good quality vanilla absolute" >> more
"Freedom to do whatever we want and the freedom to not matter" >> more
Company hides opt-out clause in online legal disclaimer giving them ownership of your immortal soul >> more
Former food critic lives off $200 a month in food stamps >> more
Films that most frequently use the word "fuck" >> more
U.S. government's list of street terms for "pot" >> more
Bespoke, handknit sweaters >> more
Plans for a gay bar next door to the mosque near Ground Zero >> more
Spelling bee for cheaters >> more
Stereotyping people by their favorite indie bands >> more >> more
Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass ("White Swastika") >> more
Salvador Dali had a pet anteater >> more
Triceratops may have never existed >> more
U.S. states in which it is illegal to collect rainwater >> more
"People tell me, 'Your website makes me feel okay with collecting weird things, being messy, having weird shoes'" >> more
Items seized at New York's JFK airport >> more
Leaning Tower of Pisa has stopped leaning >> more
Origin of currency symbols >> more
Emailing while sleeping >> more
"Undiscovered public knowledge emboldens us to question claims to originality: Is a creative offering truly novel, or have we just forgotten a worthy precursor?" >> more
Russian speakers are better able to visually distinguish shades of blue than English speakers >> more
Portion sizes in depictions of the Last Supper have doubled since Medieval period >> more
On the menu at the Last Supper: grilled eel and orange slices >> more
Indigo dying DIY >> more
Laver's law: the lifecycle of fashion >> more
Olivier Theysken's corner deli shopping list >> more
Jeffrey Eugenides: "Bellow was good at writing about himself, but not me. I don’t know who I am." >> more
South pole of Jupiter >> more
Researchers create 'lesbian' mice by deleting a single gene >> more
Chicken came before the egg >> more
Live in a museum for a month >> more
Appeals court rejects FCC policy on "fleeting expletives" >> more
“I don’t even like to look at albums of my kids when they were little. This is today. Once it’s over, it’s over.” >> more
Al Qaeda launches English-language online magazine >> more
Iran bans the mullet >> more
"The idea that artists can treat the city like a canvas ends up suggesting that it is a lost cause, an entire metropolitan area written off as raw material for upcycling." >> more
Michael Jackson's patent for anti-gravity shoes >> more
It's true what he said: I often like the idea of a thing more than the thing itself >> more
Intellectual property among chefs >> more
Islands for sale >> more
Woodlands for sale >> more
eBay price guide for first issues of magazines >> more
Locked, writers-only private room in the New York Public Library >> more
Craving sassafras twig syrup: "Think root beer with a lot of lemon in it." >> more
"'Art is a way of showing the outside world what your inside world is like.' So is vomiting." >> more
Map of public art in Los Angeles >> more
What happened to King Tut's penis? >> more
Raids on illegal pinatas >> more
Landlocked countries >> more
Female, non-white Marvel superheroes >> more
There are more Ethiopian doctors practicing in Chicago than in all of Ethiopia >> more
We experience greater pain when we believe it to be intentionally inflicted, rather than by accident >> more
"Sometimes, we simply like pain; it confirms our sense of how the world is. . . . it appeals to our essentialism, our preference for the authentic . . . the quality of being profoundly true to life." >> more
Headless rooster lives for 18 months after non-lethal decapitation >> more
Contest: Turn your dissertation into an interpretive dance >> more
"When I can’t sleep, I think about what I’m missing. . . . I wonder what I would be dreaming about, if only I could fall asleep." >> more
Reuters working with Adobe on Photoshop component that would record changes made to photographs >> more
Video of world record-setting free dive >> more
Hebrew University owns the rights to Albert Einstein's likeness >> more
Make something cool everyday >> more
Street vendors without a license in New York City can legally sell books and art >> more
Why Los Angeles is no place for a poet >> more
Displaying sun-faded paintings in a state of "simulated newness" >> more
As evidenced by my "About" section, I'm a big fan of subject postponement >> more
Frank Gehry: LEED certification has become fetishized, like "if you wear an American flag on your lapel." >> more
Supreme Court closes front door: "We are becoming a nation of moles, timorous creatures who scurry through side and subterranean entrances." >> more
Top 40 magazine covers of the last 40 years >> more
Kathleen Hanna bequeaths her papers to NYU, for the university library's Riot Grrrrl Collection >> more
The business of poverty >> more
Monkeys writing Shakespeare: "The appeal . . . has never had anything to do with monkeys, but rather with the notion of greatness through infinity." >> more
Fourteen-year-old Malcolm Gladwell running in a 1,500 meter race >> more
Portraits of rural Africans: one in typical poverty pose and one dressed “wochena” (“dressed to kill”) >> more
"Would you pay $109 for a notebook? >> more
The New York Times bans the word "tweet" >> more
Squid ink buns, taro rolls and sea salt lattes >> more
Columbia University Press to publish David Foster Wallace's undergraduate thesis >> more
Keanu Reeves is super-nice >> more
Reverse engineering McDonald's french fries >> more
The four signs of the apocalypse: "formulae for the creation of art; a narcissistic, self-reinforcing cult; the return of sentiment; and the alibi of cynicism" >> more
Shaquille O'Neal curates art exhibit about size >> more
Most bohemian cities in the United States, according to Richard Florida >> more
Should affirmative action consider class instead of race? >> more
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service auctions items seized from illegal animal trade >> more >> more
"Introverts are people who find other people tiring" >> more
Philosophy classes on YouTube >> more
Caviar vending machine in Moscow >> more
Free mini-album of collected sounds by Jarvis Cocker >> more
Black American babies cost $8,000 less to adopt than Hispanic or white babies; girls cost $2,000 more than boys >> more
Koreans and Greeks work the most: Average hours worked per year, by country >> more
Heinz ketchup changing its recipe for first time in 60 years >> more
Each 100 point increase in a woman's SAT score increases compensation for egg donation by $2,350 >> more
Stealing tiny fragments from priceless works of art >> more
Noam Chomsky denied entry into Israel >> more
Should artists have a right to a share of the profits from resale of their work? >> more
"Daria: The Complete Animated Series" released on DVD >> more
Fashion Law Institute, finally >> more
Subway applies to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for exclusive use of the term "footlong" >> more
Last Jew in Afghanistan >> more
Last of the Asian Godfathers >> more
Woolly mammoths had antifreeze blood >> more
Imelda Marcos running for congress >> more
NASA logo known in-house as "the meatball" >> more
Newsweek is for sale >> more
Hirshhorn Museum director asks staff to help make the lobby/gift shop look busy during donor visit >> more
Only 20 percent of the salt on a potato chip dissolves on the tongue; the rest is ingested with no contribution to taste >> more
On the duty to be happy: "How did we become unhappy about not being happy?" >> more
Blood type discrimination in Japan >> more
Peter Singer advocated eating oysters in Animal Liberation >> more
Lead a tour of something, somewhere: "Going Places, Doing Stuff" call for proposals >> more
How do you pronounce "Moleskine"? >> more
Somewhere in the world there is a sunset right now >> more
Sound of space dust colliding with Earth's ionosphere >> more
Ramp season! >> more
The words David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary >> more
Why are there so few female critics? >> more
Well-deserved Pulitzer Prize >> more
Does anyone care about the World Expo? >> more
"I Love You, Phillip Morris" trailer >> more
Shyness as a preoccupation with the self: "At the very least, if you’re shy, you’re never bored" >> more
History of Prussian blue, the first synthetic color >> more
Cake vs. pie bracket >> more
Tournament of books >> more
Writers' day jobs >> more
Ai Weiwei spends eight hours a day on Twitter >> more
The courage of the present >> more
Soldiers in Afghanistan wash their clothes in cement mixers >> more
Off-menu fast food items >> more
"You know that feeling when you see a little tennis star, she’s trying really hard and she breaks your heart. I don’t think you find that in women’s publishing at the moment, there isn’t a general enthusiasm for people" >> more
Condolence gift bag for Oscar nominees who didn't win includes one-year supply of Altoids and African safari >> more
China's latest fashion icon: the "Handsome Vagabond" >> more
“Broadly speaking, girl groups correlate with economic expansion, boy bands with stagnation" >> more
The pleasures of boredom >> more
Kit Kat flavors worldwide, including Salt-Watermelon and Chestnut >> more
"Real criticism is not about distinguishing good from bad; it is about distinguishing good from great. . . . The curse of our time, in the arts, is mediocrity and ordinariness . . ." >> more
Transcriptions of a sleeptalker >> more
Rejected New York Times slogans: "Always decent; never dull" >> more
Taxing the human body >> more
NBA projects losses of $400 million next year, says David Stern >> more
Job opening: Obama's twitterer >> more
Buy seeds and grow your own Nicotiana Tabacum >> more
Intersex people aren't allowed to serve in the U.S. military >> more
Art idea #21: Pour a glass of water to look at. Brilliant >> more
Five cent shopping bags and behavioral economics >> more
Is this work of art really "uncollectable"? Or just always on sale? >> more
Rebel artist's tragic ending >> more
After five years of deliberate spending, works by women now account for 17 percent of Centre Pompidou's collection >> more
Top corporate and special-interest donors to federal-level politics >> more
In the history of material culture, the Makapansgat pebble represents "the birth of want" >> more
What typeface are you? >> more
History of the ampersand >> more
"Can we ever find 'perfection' or 'certainty' or 'truth'? No! Then let us stop using such words in our formulations.": An argument for eliminating all forms of the verb "to be" >> more
How to guarantee your luggage won't be lost >> more
There are 35,000 stray dogs in Moscow. Some have even learned how to ride the Metro >> more
New book about the Getty: "Chasing Aphrodite: Decline and Fall of the World's Richest Museum" >> more
Snowballs made by wind >> more
In defense of a "general and massive easing-up on widows and orphans" >> more
How to be insulting without being ill-bred, or, the only thing written by Bertrand Russell that I've ever wanted to read >> more
Bravo announces new reality show competition for artists >> more
Roman dialect has word to describe the act of stabbing someone in the butt >> more
Neanderthals wore make-up and were thus "capable of symbolic thinking" >> more
On art projects that are never completed: "It is the “unbuilt” or unfulfilled nature of the future that drives manifestos" >> more
Helvetica in Arabic >> more
State of Illinois sued for serving prison inmates too much soy >> more
Dim sum visual dictionary >> more
Say what you will about Adam Gopnik, this line is sticking: "To trust in luck is to be courageous, and courage, the one essential virtue, on which all others depend, is also the one ambiguous virtue . . ." >> more >> more
"Life Before Death": Walter Schel's photographs of people before and right after they have died >> more
The morality of selling babies >> more
Sensor-studded clothing that records domestic violence >> more
The only writer to graduate from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters >> more
"I will seriously consider eliminating the penny," Obama said >> more
Walking drunk vs. driving drunk vs. biking drunk >> more
Journalism corrections of the year >> more
Is art blogging really that bad, asks Christopher Knight in the Los Angeles Times >> more
Michael Stipe's capsule line for Maison Martin Margiela >> more
Idi Amin and gallerist Robert Fraser had a sexual liaison? >> more
Italian anthropologists to run DNA tests on Caravaggio's exhumed remains >> more
Terranaut II: A fish-powered bicycle >> more
First time there will be live nudity at the MoMA >> more
Duke University Press publishes two-decade-old doctoral dissertation by S. Ann Dunham, Barack Obama's mother >> more
Switzerland bans minarets >> more
Was just debating this the other day: The fashion trends for which this decade will be remembered >> more
Bush's lawyer in Bush v. Gore leading Prop. 8 legal challenge >> more
Forty-six percent of people who own a fake designer handbag buy the real thing within two years: "People were becoming increasingly attached to the real brand even though they never possessed it at all." >> more
The Paradox of Choice, revisited >> more
Maybe this is why art matters: People are willing to pay a lot for it >> more
Should conservatives reappropriate the term "teabagger"? >> more
Gallery show opens at 1 p.m. today. At sundown, all the art will be set on fire >> more
What's the world's most-stolen artwork? >> more
PETA considered "domestic special-interest terrorist" organization by U.S. government >> more
"Eternal Sunshine": Drug wipes out single, specific memory in mice while keeping others intact >> more
Filler words such as "um" and "like" in different languages >> more
I can't believe I hadn't seen this before. A three-way tie on Jeopardy! >> more >> more
Corduroy skirts are a sin >> more
Coalition of artists files FOIA to reveal which songs were used to interrogate detainees: "Mohammed al Qahtani, the so-called twentieth hijacker, said that whenever he fell asleep, the guards would crank up Christina Aguilera" >> more
The two main types of lists, according to Umberto Eco: "etcetera" and "everything included" >> more
Most of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions come from sheep burps? >> more
While growing up on Catalina Island, D.'s mom used to feed pickles to the wild bison. Now, those bison's descendants are getting contraceptive injections >> more
Two butterflies are born on the space shuttle Atlantis >> more
Has sleepwalking ever been captured on tape? Why researchers know so little about people who kill in their sleep >> more
The BBC's artist reality TV competition premiered this week. I'm scared to watch >> more
Pope urges artists to make works that are beautiful >> more
Is Design Within Reach in trouble? >> more
Yemen will be first country to run out of water >> more
Galileo's fingers discovered in a jar >> more
S. A. Andrée's ill-fated balloon journey to the North Pole >> more
How to choose a pen name >> more
Do assassinations matter? An analysis of all 298 assassination attempts from 1875 to 2004 and their political repercussions >> more
Creating the signage that will warn future generations about toxic waste dump sites: "There will always be someone who studies ancient languages." >> more >> more
Make your own Sriracha hot sauce >> more
The importance of a museum's permanent collection >> more
"Two Month's Salary" >> more
The two humanistic enterprises that most loudly declare their commitment to truth are barely on speaking terms. Why we need a Philosophy of Journalism >> more
Jeanne-Claude, dead at 74 >> more Daul Kim, dead at 20 >> more
Is there such a thing as a publicly owned image? Or are there only not-yet copyrighted images? >> more
President of Ultimate Fighting Championship becomes first head of major sports league to welcome openly gay athletes >> more
Discontinued McDonald's menu items, including corndogs and the Jason Kidd burger >> more
Morehouse College dress code bans men from wearing "clothing usually worn by women" >> more
Is Call of Duty 2 an anti-war game? >> more
TSA bans snowglobes in carry-on luggage >> more
Naming an aesthetic: "Modern Hemingway" or "New Antiquarian" or "Haute Americana"? >> more
An ongoing, eight-decade science experiment, unseen by anyone: "It took eight years for the first drop to fall." >> more
The 15 Fortune 500 companies run by women >> more
Revisiting the death of the American Dream >> more
Instead of a communal water font, machines that dispense single servings of holy water >> more
I ate my first mangosteen last month. I'm drinking bilberry tea right now. Next up: paw paw gelato >> more
The quest to create a new, rational language, absent redundancies and irregularities >> more
Top 200 artists of the 20th century to now, according to an online poll >> more
Paleontologists made stew from the neck of an extinct steppe bison that had been frozen for 36,000 years >> more
Mars Rover is stuck in a pit. "The choice on which way to drive will not be made lightly." >> more
Finally, a decent newspaper in San Francisco? Too bad the San Francisco Panorama is a one-off >> more
Twenty least powerful people in the art world. Rosalind Krauss makes the cut: "We couldn't remember who she is and we were too lazy to Google her." >> more
Claude Levi-Strauss is dead >> more
The weirdest people in the world? Great academic paper topic I can't believe hasn't been covered before >> more
Ron Artest raps about violence against women in Afghanistan, seriously >> more
Anti-rape condom >> more
Meatless Mondays in Baltimore's public schools has drawn ire from something called Pork Magazine >> more
Yale University Press refuses to publish controversial Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons in book about the controversy >> more
Economics experiment demonstrates benefits of backstabbing >> more
Royalties from The Great Gatsby totaled $8,397 in F. Scott Fitzgerald's lifetime >> more
"No Woman No Cry": Does this lyric mean "There is no woman that does not cry" or "Don't cry if you don't have a woman"? A philologist weighs in >> more
Is there really no word to describe the person at whom a stare is directed? >> more
Slavoj Zizek lecture on new book, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, interrupted by bomb threat >> more
Editor of WaPo says he "failed to reconcile language with intentions." >> more
Tom Cruise was Christian Bale's inspiration for Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho' >> more
ACLU considers destroying tapes of board meetings, claiming verbatim recordings are "working papers" not official record >> more
Most popular submission titles to Virginia Quarterly Review more
Genocide in Iraq against homosexual men and boys, who are publicly tortured, mutilated and killed >> more
one of my favorite artist….. powerful and such subtle work….