Leukerbad, Switzerland

Madness on the Wind

The eerie effects of the Foehn—folklore or fact?
Medical staff taking blood from a blood donor at the Princeton Medical Center in New Jersey, USA, circa 1950.

The Weird Ways People Have Tied Blood Types to Identity

Scientific racism. Paternity tests. And mass tattooing, just in case of nuclear attack.
Girls' Beating the Bounds' at a fence near St Albans in Hertfordshire, 1913

“Beating the Bounds”

How did people find out where their local boundaries were before there were reliable maps?
A tree with branches blown sideways by wind

When Europeans Feared the Wind

In early modern Europe, various sorts of winds were associated with illness and even death.
Murió la Verdad (The Death of Truth)

The Collapse of Meaning in a Post-Truth World

2016 was certainly an unstable time in history. Even the way we use language to convey our collective fears about the state of society seems fractured.
Chagos Islander

The Story and the Songs of the Chagos Islanders

For almost half a century, Chagos Islanders have been attempting to get back to their homeland in the Indian Ocean. Nostalgia may not be helping them.
Canadian flag

Happy Canada Day! Let’s Talk Reconciliation

Canada Day celebrates a country that, like so many in the world, is in fact a superimposition onto older lands and cultures.
Close-up of a gold pendant in the shape of the "@" symbol

How To Live With Your Digital Doppelgängers

Digital Doppelgängers may share your name, but you can still claim your own digital identity.
Alushta, Russia - October 25, 2015: Woman holding in the hand iPhone6S Rose Gold in cafe. iPhone 6S Rose Gold was created and developed by the Apple inc.

A Robot By Any Other Name

What happens when our AI is part of the family? Our tech blogger on how naming and talking to our devices changes our relationship to technology itself.