SPECULATIVE SCIENCEIn the film 'Sweet Home Alabama' it is implied that when lightning strikes sand, the quarz in the sand turns into a glass sculpture similar to a plant root. In one scene, someone is ramming steel rods into the sand, presumably to provoke such a strike. Is this fact or fiction? Christian Kuepers, Croydon Surrey
Lightning stikes do indeed fuse sand into cone- or root-like structures, but the phenomenon is rare. Read More...
Philosophy booksReviewAn examination of the internet age suggests that we should cultivate the heresies of secrets and silence
During a commercial break in the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple broadcast an ad directed by Ridley Scott. Glum, grey workers sat in a vast grey hall listening to Big Brother’s declamations on a huge screen. Then a maverick athlete-cum-Steve-Jobs-lackey hurled a sledgehammer at the screen, shattering it and bathing workers in healing light. “On January 24th,” the voiceover announced, “Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. Read More...
New YorkMembers of an outreach program that provides housing and behavioral health services aim to tackle the issue at its root
Like millions of New Yorkers, Antoinette Wilson and Ciarah Richmond spend time on the subway system. One day last week, they were on a platform at 168th street in Washington Heights, where the 1 and A lines connect at one of the system’s warmest stations.
That makes it a likely spot to meet people experiencing homelessness, an issue that appears to many to be observably worsening across the city. Read More...
