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Fifty years ago this July, three men left Florida on a summer road trip. It wasn’t your typical excursion – some 240,000 miles away, a 21-hour and 36-minute stopover, then 240,000 miles back. Apollo 11 launched July 16, 1969, landed on the moon July 20 and returned...

Summer is the time for ice cream. But not like this. You may have heard about the vandal in Lufkin, Texas, the one with an appetite for destruction. On June 28, she opened a carton of Blue Bell Tin Roof ice cream at a Walmart, licked the top and returned it to the...

Of all the traits you could develop, which one might have the biggest impact on your achievements? Some studies and surveys have identified a single candidate above all. It happens to be correlated with higher performance across the board, in school, at work and for...

In the midst of the Raptors’ run to the NBA championship, Jimmy Kimmel sent a remote crew to downtown Toronto. An interviewer urged pedestrians to trash talk the Golden State Warriors. On his talk show, Kimmel aired some of the responses: “We don’t do that here.” “We...

What should you do if you mess up baking a cake? Here’s what a BBC food blog advised. One finalist in The Great British Bake Off show suggested that you can either flip the cake upside down, or disguise the cracks with a topping. “A liberal covering of frosting,” she...

I just read an article in The Atlantic about the practice of parents who post photos of their kids on social media. The author mentioned taking a shot of his 6-year-old, who was wearing a homemade superhero costume. The son declared: “Don’t put that online!” He...

Seventy-five years ago, on the eve of what was arguably the most momentous day of the 20th century, a general wrote two notes. Leadership is about action, not words. But the words that leaders select speak volumes. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied...

Here’s something you don’t see at the symphony: crowd members holding up lighters or phones. There’s a certain decorum expected at classical music concerts. Unlike at rock shows. Audiences have a different way to convey their appreciation, with polite applause at...

In any community, buildings get re-modeled and re-purposed all the time. It’s a sign of the times, though not always a sign of progress. Any time I walk by a certain location of a chain coffee shop, I recall how in a former life it was an indie bookstore. I spent...

On May 5, the singer Adele celebrated her 31st birthday. Weeks earlier, she had announced her separation from her husband Simon after almost eight years together. This prompted many people online to predict a new album called 30 full of tearjerkers, following her...