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Today we’re excited to announce that we are acquiring Longreads, the pioneering service that helps readers find and share the best longform storytelling around the world, for reading on mobile devices. 267 more words

It’s National Poetry Month, and you’re probably thinking: “I should really read more poetry. But where oh where do I start?” Well, sound the trumpets, because here is Flavorwire to the rescue! 2,269 more words

Like many in the South, I grew up thinking that faith required conviction, and that uncertainty, or doubt, was what we experienced in moments of duress or weakness. 469 more words

Last week, a blog post went viral about why parents should stop trying to give their kids a magical childhood. 

One of my friends shared it on her Facebook wall and yesterday a speaker at a sustainability conference even recommended it, saying that parents today spend too much time “on those things like Pinterest” and “working so hard to make their children’s live magical.” 682 more words

In my last post, I took issue with the PayScale college rankings, as well as with how economics reporters framed these rankings, citing their low calculated Return on Investment as evidence that these colleges “make” students poor. 2,970 more words

Hi there! How are you? We have been pretty good over here. Enjoying the beautiful Spring blossoms everywhere and the more frequent sun breaks too! 734 more words

I have a challenge for you.

Go ask Google if there is anything that people should stop posting on social media sites. Just type in “things people need to stop posting on facebook,” or something to that effect. 833 more words

I cannot believe it’s been 20 years – April 5, 1994.

I was 14-years-old. My best friend was coming over to my house after school to do what we always did then – listen to music in our baggy shorts, Converse/Doc Martens, Pearl Jam/Nirvana t-shirts and contemplate life. 1,026 more words

I was twenty-seven, in my fifth year of study in an English Ph.D. program, when the director of the program called me into his office. 947 more words

Sloth-moth symbiosis. Dinosaur-devestating asteroid impacts. Girl’s preference for pink. Are these fact, or fiction?

Sometimes, what we think we know about the natural world is based more on story-telling than the scientific method. 875 more words

The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.  -  H.L. 610 more words

I don’t usually blog about controversial topics, but I’ve seen so much about this and I have some thoughts, so I figured I would get them out. 879 more words

Last week I told M. that I had arranged for her to have a play date with N.  I had already told her about how N. 560 more words

I don’t remember the eighties. And it’s not because I was high on hairspray, squeezed into fluorescent spandex, and roller skating around Pat Benetar shows. 445 more words

My twins will be having their B’nai Mitzvah – that’s a Bar/Bat Mitzvah for two – just over a year from now.  But this being NY, and me being neurotic, I’ve already started planning. 887 more words

I hated New Orleans from the first moment I set foot in it. I hate Tulane for giving me a scholarship. I hate the Newcomb girls for being so ugly and overdressed all the time. 1,017 more words

I have a lot of thoughts about how to write strong female characters, but first I wanted to address the idea of “strong.” For female characters, strength tends to be equated with physical prowess. 632 more words

In military slang, Predator drone operators often refer to kills as ‘bug splats’, since viewing the body through a grainy video image gives the sense of an insect being crushed. 218 more words

Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please look all around.
Something is missing that needs to be found.

Those are the words my mother would recite every time something was lost in our household. 504 more words

Here’s a guest post from New York-based and friend of the Big Show, Alina Simone.

Remember being a sad weirdo in high school and feeling so insecure, you just kind of cop other people’s style and hope no one will notice? 757 more words

I recently revisited a Temple Grandin TED talk, The world needs all kinds of minds, from February 2010. I have watched this before and my son and I even saw her speak on this topic at the local University. 1,063 more words

There’s a modern phenomenon among cyclists that, until you understand what is going on, might seem baffling. One minute you are riding along with your companion, chatting away and happily talking nonsense, when suddenly and without apparent warning your friend is up out of the seat, jumping on the pedals, and straining every sinew like a sprinter heading for some imaginary finishing line – sometimes he keeps this up for 200 metres, sometimes he’s eyeballs out for a mile for two. 684 more words

Last week President Dilma Rousseff called on the Brazilian army to contain the most recent favela wars. The plans to pacify the favelas seemed to be going well up until now but since the beginning of 2014 Rio has seen 19 murdered police officers. 835 more words

I know that there are people who actually enjoy sports but I never thought that there would be such a thing as a dodgeball enthusiast. Well, there isn’t really.

There is no shortage in this world of bad poetry, or of doggerel that someone is trying to pass off as genuine art. But when poetry is really bad – I mean,  676 more words

Is Formula 1 in crisis? No. But you’d never know it given the hullabaloo in the press. Red Bull saying this isn’t Formula 1. Ferrari saying this isn’t Formula 1. 852 more words