Lists and Stories

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  Is the Oedipus Complex Real? Born in 1903, four-year-old Herbert Graf witnessed the collapse of a horse who had been pulling a heavy cart. It was a traumatic experience for the boy, who subsequently developed a fear of horses. Additionally, Herbert’s father noted that he developed particular anxieties: Herbert felt uneasy...
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  Is the Ozone Layer Finally Healing Itself? Earth is currently experiencing a host of environmental problems. Air and water pollution continue to plague much of the world; exotic plants, animals, and other organisms pop up in parts of the globe that have no natural defense against them; and, all the while, climate change lingers in the...
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  Is the Piano a Percussion or a Stringed Instrument? The piano is one of the most-popular musical instruments in the world. But peek inside it, and you’ll quickly discover that it is also among the more-complex instruments. You might also begin to wonder what type of instrument it is—percussion or stringed? Inside a piano, there are strings, and...
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  Is There a Cure for Coronavirus? At the moment, there is no cure for infection with the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic. However, different types of drugs are being tested in human patients for their ability to fight off infection or to reduce the severity of disease. Examples include an antiviral known as remdesivir, a...
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  Is There a Cure for HIV Infection? No, there is no cure yet for infection with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus. In fact, despite multiple reports of individuals having been cured of HIV infection, the virus has been eliminated from only one or two people thus far. One of these individuals, Timothy Ray Brown, underwent intensive...
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  Is Zero an Even or an Odd Number? Mathematical parity is usually one of the first rules learned in early arithmetic classes, though you might be unfamiliar with the name. It is how we split up all integers into two categories: even numbers and odd numbers. Determining the parity of an integer—a number that can be written without a...
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  ISIL: Horror, Outrage, Confusion Civil war in Syria and sectarian upheaval in Iraq allowed the radical Islamist group ISIL to seize control of a large piece of territory spanning the Iraq-Syria border in 2013 and 2014. The group’s sudden rise upended regional politics, and its brutal tactics provoked shock and anger around the...
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  It’s Winter! It’s Summer! Are you getting out your snow boots or your swimsuits? Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere think of December 21 as the first day of winter—but the solstice swings both ways. A winter solstice happens when a hemisphere’s pole is pointed farthest away from the Sun. It has a near point and a far...
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  Japan Maneuvers to Skirt Whaling Restrictions Japan informed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in October 2015 that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) would not have any jurisdiction over “any dispute arising out of, concerning, or relating to research on, or conservation, management or exploitation of, living resources of the sea.” This...
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  Jon Stewart’s Final Daily Show After 16 years, Jon Stewart ends his run as host of The Daily Show on August 6, 2015. Stewart took over for Craig Kilborn in 1999, sharpening the show’s focus on politics and media. During Stewart’s run, the show won 18 Primetime Emmy Awards and became the second longest-running show on Comedy...
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  Juneteenth: Celebrating the End of Slavery On September 22, 1862, during the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the freedom of all Confederate-held slaves starting January 1, 1863. The emancipation, however, became difficult to enforce in areas where Union presence was...
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  Just How Many Oceans Are There? Notwithstanding that Europa and Enceladus (moons of Jupiter and Saturn, respectively) are both covered in ice, Earth is the true water world of the solar system. Some 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by saltwater oceans, and the continents themselves possess lakes, rivers, and, in some...
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  Just How Old Is Homo sapiens? In scientific classification, human beings are tagged with the name Homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”). In his 10th edition of Systema Naturae, Swedish botanist and taxonomist Carl Linnaeus coined the term (describing himself as the type specimen). The genus name Homo refers to the group in which...
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  Korean War Timeline The Korean War was fought from 1950 to 1953, killing at least 2.5 million people. This timeline summarizes this war’s major events. list, Korean War, World War II, North Korea, South Korea, United Nations, MiG Alley, timelineJapan surrenders, ending World War II. That night, U.S. Army officers Dean...
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  Lay, Lie, Lied, Lain: When Do We Use Which? Ah, the English language. It’s so full of extraneous words and rules, so fantastically complicated and confusing. One of the many common misunderstandings within the language stems from the confusion between lay and lie. Lay is a verb that commonly means “to put or set (something) down.” Lie is a...
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  Leaders of World War I Here are the political leaders who shaped the course of World War I. list, World War I, Allies, Central Powers, leaders, Kaiser Wilhelm, Lenin, Nicholas II, Franz Ferdinand King Albert I led the Belgian army and remained with his troops while Germany occupied most of his country. Asquith led...
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  Leap Day, February 29 For adherents of the Gregorian calendar, Monday, February 29, 2016, is Leap Day. A leap day occurs in a leap year, which is a year with an inserted period of time. Leap days are necessary because an astronomical year—the time it takes for Earth to complete its orbit around the Sun—is about 365.25...
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  LGBTQ Pride Month Is Here Tired of socializing in seedy bars where they were likely to be harassed and arrested, sick of lying and denying, of withstanding humiliation, of being beaten up, and of living in constant fear of discovery that might get them fired or even killed, the “deviants” at Manhattan’s Stonewall Inn, a gay...
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  Libertarianism In the upcoming U.S. election on November 8, the Libertarian Party is likely to receive more votes than any other third (neither Democratic nor Republican) party in the country, and its presidential candidate, former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, is likely to receive more votes than any other...
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  Life in the Trenches: A World War I Photo Gallery In late July and early August 1914, the great powers of Europe embarked on a course of action that would claim millions of lives, topple empires, reshape the political structure of the continent, and contribute to an even more destructive conflict a generation later. Known at the time as the Great...