Blog

Worried that your life is boring? Especially compared to others? Don’t sweat it. All those smiling faces on social media are often masks. Earlier this month, Natalia Taylor recently pulled a stunt to make the point. She posted some photos on Instagram about her trip...

Air travel doesn’t always bring out the best in people. Maybe it’s the airport lineups, cramped quarters and long days. Wikipedia has a page on air rage, detailing incidents where passengers act violently, abusively or disruptively. Consider the woman who let loose...

Symbols can often speak more powerfully than languages. Anywhere you go, a circle with a slash through it says “no”. A skull and crossbones indicates poison. A red octagon means “stop”. No words needed. With Valentine’s Day approaching, another more positive symbol...

The other day on Twitter, I was following a thread about the most ridiculous demand a customer ever made of them. The responses were wild. One person wrote that when he was working at a gas station, a customer wanted a refund on the gas he had just pumped into his...

You have a least favourite word? One that makes you cringe or grosses you out? There’s a name for that: logomisia. It refers to a distaste for a certain word. The phenomenon is also called word aversion. In studies, moist often tops the most disliked list. Other words...

Only 36% of Americans can pass a multiple choice quiz that includes questions from the U.S. Citizenship Test. That’s according to a survey by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Don’t gloat. In Canada, Forum conducted a similar survey. They asked...

Wikipedia launched 19 years ago today, January 15, 2001. What is its greatest contribution? As someone who is always researching one subject or another, I’m on the site almost daily. Wikipedia has more than 40 million articles, and is the most popular general...

I’m not big on new year’s resolutions. But there’s something to be said about always trying to improve. You know the typical resolutions. Lose weight. Exercise more. Learn a new skill. Be in the moment. Spend less, save more. Enjoy family and friends. In that spirit,...

Anyone who has ever done public speaking understands the importance of breath control. The ability to regulate your inhales and exhales can help with your delivery. It always helps to take a deep breath before you speak. That’s a great tip for speeches, but too...

As Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the eastern U.S. coast in 2012, the author Jonathan Safran Foer was in Detroit. He was worried about his wife and kids back home in New York, but all the flights were cancelled. So Safran Foer found the last available rental car...