Continental Drift

Aylin Woodward shows a map of a hidden eighth continent .

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Tipping Practices

Charlotte Hilton Anderson explains tipping practices in U.S. Hotels.

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Mariana Trench

Rida Nasir provides information about the Mariana Trench - the greatest depth found in the ocean.

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Hotel Key Cards

Aaron Rasmussen explains how hotel key cards work, and how best to secure them against misuse or malicious duplication.

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Why Five Fingers and Toes

Michael Coates explains why most creatures have five digits as fingers and toes.

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Underwater Brine Pools

Kaushik Patowary writes about underwater brine pools . Unless the hot brine and methane found in these pools is continually refreshed from the rocks below, the brine would dissapate and the unique environment would perish.

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Knots

Alan Grogono explains simple knots .

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Death Rate Rising for U.S. Millennials

Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Andrew Stokes, and Jacob Bor wrote in an August 20, 2025 Slate article about the high mortality rates among U.S. millennials. The original article is paywalled, but a summary is available here.

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Polyphasic Sleep

Elana Spivack reviews the benefits and health perils of interrupted sleep .

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Earthquake Video

Jesse Kearse analyzes a video recording of a March 2025 earthquake which occured in Myanmar. A concealed fault is revealed in seconds in this video.

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Savants

Darold A. Treffert provides examples of some people were sudden geniuses in a specialization such as math or music.

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Inflation

Megan Cerullo explains why tariffs have been slow to ignite inflation .

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Success at Passing the Torch

Zack Beauchamp speculates that conservatives are better at training young people for success in media and politics.

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Toilet Seats and Disease

Sofia Quaglia answers whether toilets are significant in spreading disease.

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Weaponized Incompetence

Callie Ahlgrim explains the term " weaponized incompetence ", which describes a technique where a person declines to accept shared responsibilities.

This term is usually used to describe manipulative stubborness. However, sometimes this behavior can be fostered by a very "competent" person who sharply criticizes every effort of the "incompetent" individual. The result is that the "competent" person is percieved as domineering, and the passive "incompetent" gives up trying. Ahlgrim suggests communication and training tips that can motivate and emable willing individuals to fulfill mutually agreed responsibilities.

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Sacred Garments

Clara Hulet explains minor changes in the sacred garments Mormon women wear, freeing them to wear more contemporary clothing.

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Data Centers Consume Huge Amounts of Electricity and Water

Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins notes that consumer electric rates have typically jumped 30% since 2020 due to the cost of powering data centers for AI applications.

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UnitedHealth Data Breach

Amber Bouman reports on a data breach which could impact about 190 million UnitedHealth subscribers in the U.S. In another article Bouman reports that a Google database has been hacked, with Gmail users facing phishing attacks as a result.

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To-Do Lists

Lila Maclellan suggests shrinking a daily to-do list to one item , called the "Hunter Method" by Aytekin Tank.

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Ocean Currents

NASA has developed a map Earth's ocean currents .

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Cognitive Decline

Alice Park reviews behaviors associated with delaying cognitive decline .

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Extend Microsoft Security Support for Windows 10

Mauro Huculak lists three consumer options for maintaining security support for Windows 10 until October 13, 2026. Inaction results in no security updates after October 14, 2025.

For more information, see this post from Microsoft.

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"FluteTunes.com" Provides Free Flute Music

Flute Tunes is a source for sample sheet music for flautists . It is recommended by Alexandra Petropoulos, who also recommends the public domain score source [see sample score: International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)].

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Sunspots

Elizabeth Rayne reports on the forces responsible for sunspots . For the source information, see J. M. Borrero et al. (2025) "'The role of the Lorentz force in sunspot equilibrium'".

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Microsoft Windows Logo Development

Bradley Munkowitz describes how he developed the Windows 10 logo .

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Aging

Alice Park reviews the career of David Sinclair , a scientist who is researching the degredation of the epigenome as a cause of bodily aging.

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New Fees to Enter the U.S.

Monica Petrelli warns that visitors to the U.S. will need to pay an additional $250 (or more) in entry fees in addition to purchasing a visa.

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Inflammation and the Human Body

Arricca Sansone provides tips for battling the inflammation which causes premature aging and other diseases.

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Phone Case Protection

Thomas Germain tries carrying his thousand dollar iPhone without a case . His phone receives a visible dent the first month, but remains functional. His friend who tried the same experiment was not so lucky.

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Bibliotherapy

Alexis Jones explains the benefits of bibliotherapy .

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Sleeping Six Hours Each Night Is Insufficient

Jill Duffy reports on a study of the cost of sleeping only six hours each night, which found measurable cognative impairment after several consecutive days (Van Dongen et al., 2003).

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Guest Star

Elizabeth Rayne traces 1408 Chinese records of a "guest star" to a nova , CK Vul.

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Independence Day

The National Parks Service provides a history of Independence Day which in the U.S. is celebrated on July 4. Following safety practices will maximize enjoyment of the day for everyone.

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Mediterranean Diet

The Mayo Clinic endorses a Mediterranean diet for better health. The Clinic offers helps for those who wish to follow their recommendations.

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Skin Care

Zaria Gorvett shares the importance of dermatology .

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Sleep Hygiene

Ellie Hunt suggests snacks and evening rituals which encourage sound sleep at night.

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Burt's Solar Compass

Alexis Dahl explains the invention of Burt's solar compass .

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Parkinson's Disease

Cleveland Clinic has written a guide to Parkinson's Disease .

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Dostoyevsky

Maria Popova shares Dostoyevsky's musings on what it means to be human . For example, "To love someone means to see them as God intended them."

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Risk and Reward

Alice Barraclough notes that the greatest rewards require taking some risks .

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Washing Machine Uses

Hallie Levine offers a list of unusual things one can wash in a washing machine .

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Hurricane Preparedness for Travelers

Ann Abel suggests how tourists can prepare for hurricanes . Hurricane season in the southern United States began May 1st, and continues to November 30.

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Group Dynamics

Priya Parker writes about hosting uplifting gatherings and developing apt questions to spark insightful conversations.

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Summer Solstice

Anelisa Nokoyo provides an overview of the science and celebration of June 20th's summer solstice .

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Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

Roberta Angheleanu explains Alice in Wonderland syndrome .

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Earthworms Invading North America

Rob Jordan writes about the earthworm invasion which began in the late 1800's.

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Medicare Changes for 2026

Kiplinger unveils "Five Medicate Changes Coming in 20126 ."

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Carrington Events

Sean Mawbry reviews the 1859 Carrington Event , and estimates that such solar electrical disruptions strike the earth every few centuries. He also cites literature documenting even stronger solar events which are deduced to have occurred thousands of years ago.

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Safe Retirement Destinations

International Living lists its ten safest countries for retirement , from Portugal to Bali.

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Microplastics and the Brain

Korin Miller warns that middle-aged human brains may have absorbed enough microplastic to cause functional problems. Diets with highly processed foods, such as chicken nuggets and hot dogs, are thought to transfer the most microplastic to individuals.

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Family Meals

Dawn Teh comments on the social values and barriers to nightly family meals with the entire household present. She notes that the reported frequency of families dining together has been declining for decades due to family members having busier schedules. Teh cites a systematic review of the scholarly literature by Middleton et al. (2020) which did not establish a "causal relationship between family meals and health and wellbeing outcomes."

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Measles

Jessica Booth says what to do if someone contracts measles .

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Drone Warfare

Mia Jankowicz discusses how drones will change military tactics in the future.

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Software Used for Decades

Thomas Germain tells of employees still using ancient Microsoft Windows software .

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Convert Two Twin Beds to One Short King Sized Bed

Eric Ridenour writes how to approximate a king sized bed from two twin beds .

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Roanoke, The Lost Colony

Michael Natale recounts a possible solution to the mysterious disappearance of the colonists at Roanoke, North Carolina .

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Genesis of the Cheez-It Cracker

Leo DeLuca tells of the development of the Cheez-It cracker

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Diet and Weight Gain

Ruth Alexander discusses the link between diet and weight gain , with the microbiome being the likely link factor.

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Imaging Nuclear Particles

Elizaabeth Rayne describes the efforts of physicists to capture images of atomic particles .

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Private Letters

Richard Fisher recounts techniques used for centuries to conceal the text of posted letters using letterlocking.

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