Believe it or not, the massive gourd pictured above is small potatoes compared to the current Guinness World Record holder for heaviest pumpkin — but it still turned heads at an annual produce contest, where it had to be forklifted into place.
7 World Records Smashed at Giant Vegetable Competition in England Continue Reading »
I recently typed a simple question into Google search: How much screen time is too much for teenagers? Instead of presenting links, as Google had been doing for many years, it gave me an AI-generated answer. The artificial intelligence agent cited a number, then complicated that reply, noting that quality and balance of time could matter more than the number of hours, and that “too much” time could depend on a teenager’s sleep, exercise, school demands and mood.
How to Know If You Can Trust an AI’s Answer to Your Question Continue Reading »
He started by filming himself picking up litter near his apartment in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in northern Manhattan. Now, he’s raised over $55,000, rallied a network of volunteers, and transformed an entire block. Most importantly, in a time when so much feels out of our control, he’s offered people in his community — and
In the mid-19th century, some 400,000 people traversed the Oregon Trail to settle in the American west. Given that this migration occurred nearly two centuries ago, none of the settlers who made the journey are alive today — but something belonging to them purportedly is. A sourdough starter believed to date back to an 1847
The right to vote, the right to freedom of speech, the right to due process, and … the right to read? You may not think of the ability to dive into a good book as a civil right, but one nonprofit does — and it’s changing the lives of thousands of students across the country.
Can you entice kids away from screens with a screen? A new kid-friendly phone called Freckle is betting on it. The phone resembles a handheld gaming device (think Tamagotchi or Game Boy) but works like a cell — that is if your cell didn’t have social media or web access and instead had a cute
Meet Freckle: The Retro Phone Designed to Encourage Kids to Explore the World Continue Reading »
Fifty years ago, disco was dominating nightclubs, punk had emerged from underground, and the nascent hip-hop scene was budding in the Bronx. Stevie Wonder released his masterpiece album Songs in the Key of Life, and the Eagles delivered their hit Hotel California. Not a bad time to have a set of ears. Since then, genres
Some of the Top-Performing Songs From the Past 50 Years, by Decade Continue Reading »
For decades, researchers have been working on different interventions to reduce suicide rates. It’s notoriously difficult, but a recent project revealed some encouraging insights into prevention strategies, finding that small joys may not be so small. The project started with a Reddit post. University of Maryland Professor Philip Resnik found a thread in which a
What does a child need to prepare themselves for kindergarten? I’m not talking about a new water bottle and a backpack, though certainly those come in handy. I mean what it takes to try to make new friends, be brave, resilient, inventive, and hopeful — no small tasks for anyone.
Six decades ago, Julie Andrews burst into song atop Salzburg, Austria’s rolling hills, and the world fell in love with The Sound of Music. The 1965 film, adapted from the 1959 Broadway musical and based on the von Trapp family’s escape from the Nazis, has proven itself an enduring international success. Now, a year after
