Kindness matters. It’s just that our politicians have their own reasons for their own kind behavior.

In Elizabethan England, strict sumptuary regulations made sure that people dressed according to their rank in life, but many transgressed.

Maroon societies in Jamaica and the rest of the Americas have survived for hundreds of years.

Where did we get the idea that using psychic or telekinetic powers makes a person's nose bleed?

A new technology allows ships to dredge the ocean for plastic, then compress it into bricks. But plastic recycling has proved difficult in the past.

Extra Credit: Our pick of stories from around the web that bridge the gap between news and scholarship.

Gene Wilder and the fan letters he got...from Gene Wilder.

Eleven years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the city and some of its citizens remain in precarious recovery.

Marriage and relationship advice has changed as the institutions evolve.

Did you know that ballot position can have an effect on voting? The first-listed candidate is more likely to be voted for.