Every Last Isolated Tribe Explained in 8 Minutes
Check out this video from The Paint Explainer featuring all the last known isolated tribe in just 8 minutes!
Category Archives: Culture
An 83-year-old short story by Borges portends a bleak future for the internet
Fifty years before the architecture for the web was created, Jorge Luis Borges had already imagined an analog equivalent. Sophie Bassouls/Sygma via Getty Images Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis How will the internet evolve in the coming decades? Fiction writers have explored some possibilities. In his 2019 novel “Fall,” science fiction author Neal Stephenson […]
Is Safety Worth the Loss of Privacy? A Thought-Provoking Dilemma
In a world where reckless drivers are a growing concern, one planet’s government has proposed a radical solution: assigning driver credit scores to monitor driving behavior. By installing cameras and microphones in vehicles, the government plans to reduce accidents and reward safe driving—but at the cost of individual privacy. Drive safely? Your score goes up. […]
Women Who Shaped Geek Culture [Comic]
From Andrew Dobson: So much of geek/nerd culture has been shaped by women over the years, and yet people often overlook it all. They’ve not part of some new “SJW agenda,” they’ve been there since the beginning. [Source: Andrew Dobson]
Flappers Who Fought: How 1920s Women Kicked Gender Norms with Jiu-Jitsu
Forget the flapper dresses and Charleston dances—this video takes us back to the 1920s to uncover a side of women’s history rarely explored! While the world was busy dancing, some women were busy fighting—literally. Suffragettes used jiu-jitsu to defend themselves during protests (because why just march when you can armbar your way through?) and everyday […]
Carl Sagan’s scientific legacy extends far beyond ‘Cosmos’
Carl Sagan at his Cornell University laboratory in Ithaca, N.Y., in 1974. Santi Visalli, Inc./Archive Photos via Getty Images Jean-Luc Margot, University of California, Los Angeles On Nov. 9, 2024, the world will mark Carl Sagan’s 90th birthday – but sadly without Sagan, who died in 1996 at the age of 62. Most people remember […]
Henry VIII: A Reign of Scandals, Power Plays, and Wild Excess
Henry VIII’s reign was a rollercoaster of drama, power moves, and lavish feasts. Famous for his six marriages, the larger-than-life king left his mark in ways that went well beyond romance. From costly banquets featuring peacock and swan, to dramatic showdowns with France, Henry’s rule was as extravagant as it was ruthless. He even changed […]
Linguist Answers Word Origin Questions from The Internet
Curious about the origins of the words we use every day? Join linguist Gareth Roberts as he dives into the etymologies of English words in the latest episode of Etymology Support on WIRED! From exploring how the first languages formed to the evolution of words like “dude” and “bro,” Gareth tackles some of the internet’s […]
Your next favorite story won’t be written by AI – but it could be someday
AI language models are getting pretty good at writing – but not so much at creative storytelling. Moor Studio/DigitalVision Vectors via Getty Images Haoran Chu, University of Florida and Sixiao Liu, University of Central Florida Stories define people – they shape our relationships, cultures and societies. Unlike other skills replaced by technology, storytelling has remained […]
The Most Gruesome Ways Pirates Killed People
Forget the charming rogues from the movies—real pirates weren’t exactly handing out invitations to a life of adventure. More like a ticket to being brutally thrown overboard! Sure, the hooks, peg legs, and eyepatches seem like fun pirate accessories, but they were basically the result of pirate “team-building exercises” gone terribly wrong. Captains kept their […]