What I’ve Learned From My Students’ College EssaysMost high school seniors approach the college essay with dread. Either their upbringing hasn’t supplied them with several hundred words of adversity, or worse, they’re afraid that packaging the genuine trauma they’ve experienced is the only way to secure their future.
Read 20 Short Stories From Nobel Prize-Winning Writer Alice Munro (RIP) Free OnlineNote: Back in 2013, when Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature, we published a post featuring 20 short stories written by Munro.
Five Types of Trees You Can Safely Plant Close to Your HouseIf you would like to plant a tree in your yard but you’re not sure that you have the space because you've heard it's a bad idea to plant a tree too close to your house, you’re in luck.
Wild Life: Prairie Dog LanguageEach week, Atlas Obscura is providing a new short excerpt from our upcoming book, Wild Life: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Living Wonders (). In the early twentieth century, some prairie dog towns stretched for hundreds of miles.
Can You Lose Your Native Tongue?It happened the first time over dinner. I was saying something to my husband, who grew up in Paris where we live, and suddenly couldn’t get the word out. The culprit was the “r.” For the previous few months, I had been trying to perfect the French “r.
These Electric School Buses Are on Their Way to Save the GridThe big yellow school bus is a US icon, but perhaps not one that future Americans will remember fondly. Chugging through neighborhoods, idling in front of kids’ houses, the vehicles spew both noise and fossil-fuel pollution all across town.
The Seven Best Ways to Organize Notes in Google KeepNotetaking Jedis know the power of organization. Creating a system for your Google Keep notes isn't any different, even if the sticky notes app doesn't have an obvious tier of folders and sub-folders.
What Myths About the Anthropocene Get WrongThe concept of the Anthropocene epoch was born in February 2000 out of a moment of spontaneity. Chemist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen had been listening to a narrative emerging at an international convening of scientists in Mexico.
Israel’s Politics of ProtestLast Saturday night, a few days after protesters against the war in Gaza occupied a building at Columbia University, a reporter for Israel’s Channel 12 interviewed Eric Adams, the Mayor of New York.
DOJ Filing: Steve Bannon Is a “Co-Conspirator” in a $1 Billion Fraud CaseIn a little-noticed court filing earlier this month, federal prosecutors described Steve Bannon as a “co-conspirator” in a massive criminal fraud and racketeering case against a flamboyant, far-right Chinese fugitive, compounding the legal headaches of the former Donald Trump adviser.
Anti-war protests, a Chicago DNC: Is it 1968 all over again? Some historians say noIn late April, with election season in full swing and pro-Palestinian demonstrations sweeping college campuses across the U.S., a historian named Keith Orejel voiced an observation. "I just can't believe the parallels with 1968," the Wilmington College professor wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Progressive Brooklyn School Being Divided Over IsraelAt Brooklyn Friends School, progressive Quaker values are part of the curriculum. A required seminar for ninth-grade students encourages them to explore matters of identity and social justice, and there are land acknowledgments on the walls.
Is Netanyahu Choosing a War of Attrition Over Biden’s Wider Plan?Eleven days ago, the C.I.A. director, William Burns, arrived in Cairo to join the negotiations over Gaza, which have also been brokered by Qatar and Egypt.
Teen graduates after earning doctoral degree at age 17Dr. Dorothy Jean Tillman II was only 10 when she became a freshman at the college of Lake County, majoring in Psychology. In 2020, she earned her Master of Science from Unity College.
An early retiree explains the IRS rule he uses to withdraw $20,000 a year of his retirement money penalty-free even though he hasn't reached age 59 ½Eric Cooper received memorable money advice from a boss in his early 20s. "He said, very sternly, 'Make sure to contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) with each paycheck.