
The Lonely Death of George Bell
Each year around 50,000 people die in New York, some alone and unseen. Yet death even in such forlorn form can cause a surprising amount of activity. Sometimes, along the way, a life’s secrets are revealed. // This might not always be a good way to live (that is, in solitude), but according to Buddhist teachings, it can be a good way to die. We die alone anyway, and dying without other people's laying their trips around us might help us stay focused in a moment when most people can't really help, but can possibly annoy.

To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider the Janitors at Two Top Companies, Then and Now
To Understand Rising Inequality, Consider the Janitors at Two Top Companies, Then and NowFocusing on core competence and outsourcing the rest has made U.S.…

Geoff Dyer’s ‘Zona’ Examines the Film ‘Stalker’
Geoff Dyer on the Soviet-era cinematic masterpiece.

Roman Ruins Found in France Are Called ‘Exceptional’
The ruins were uncovered near the southeastern city of Vienne and have been called “probably the most exceptional find from the Roman era in years.”

Hunting for the Origins of Symbolic Thought
Archaeologists are discovering Paleolithic art outside Europe, rewriting the history of human creativity.

Building A.I. That Can Build A.I.
Google and others, fighting for a small pool of researchers, are looking for automated ways to deal with a shortage of artificial intelligence experts.

Semicolons: A Love Story
How Kurt Vonnegut taught one writer to hate the semicolon; how William James convinced him to love it.

Crows May Learn Lessons From Death
A new study suggests the birds pay careful attention to their dead as a way to gather information about threats.

Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.
U.S. unemployment is down and jobs are going unfilled. But for people without much education, the real question is: Do those jobs pay enough to live on?

Can Crows Make Mental Pictures of Tools?
New Caledonian crows were trained to seek rewards by tearing paper of a certain size, demonstrating what researchers say is quite advanced toolmaking.

‘The Story of Ain’t,’
“A lot had happened to English since the early ’30s, including a world war and most of the New Deal. Also television, the civil rights movement, superhighways, Dr. Spock, rock ’n’ roll, the Bomb, rocket science, the cold war, Superman and the Kinsey reports. New words — and new meanings of old ones— were everywhere, like 'astronaut,' 'beatnik,' 'den mother' and 'satellite.' Into Webster’s Third they went.” Webster’s Third New International was scorned for being less judgmental than its predecessor.

Dark Clouds Over the Internet
Governments have legitimate reasons to seek user data beyond their territorial reach, and privacy advocates ignore that need at their peril.

How to Stop Eating Sugar
If you’re like most Americans, you eat more sugar than is good for you. But it’s entirely possible to eat less sugar without sacrificing much — if any — of the pleasures of eating. Surprising as it may sound, many people who have cut back on sugar say they find their new eating habits more pleasurable than their old ones. This guide will walk you through why sugar matters, how you can make smart food choices to reduce sugar consumption, and how you can keep your life sweet, even without so many sweets.

Maybe Your Sleep Problem Isn’t a Problem
The conventional wisdom is that morning people are high achievers, go-getters, while late risers are lazy. But what if going to bed in the wee hours is actually an advantage?

Eyeing Pornography That Uses the Holocaust as Titillation
In early-1960s Israel pornographic, possibly anti-Semitic novels that detailed sensational tales of the torture and rape of male concentration camp prisoners by curvaceous female Nazi guards rapidly rose from marginal pulp reading to mass-market popularity.

Archaeologists in China Discover the Oldest Stone Tools Outside Africa
Chipped rocks found in western China indicate that human ancestors ventured from Africa earlier than previously believed.

Gala Dalí’s Life Wasn’t Quite Surreal, but It Was Pretty Strange
Salvador Dalí‘s “Gala Placidia. Galatea of the Spheres” from 1952, for which his wife, Gala Dalí, was the model and muse. A new exhibition in Barcelona examines Gala as someone willing to play those roles, but also as a person eager to forge her own path as an artist.

Raskolnikov Says the Darndest Things
Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment” changed my life. It strengthened my resolve to be a writer and inspired me to learn Russian so I could read the novel in the original. But I never did. It had all stayed too fresh in memory. Finally, some 30 years later, in order to review these two new translations, I read it in Russian and was back in that world of dark staircases and ax murders. Of course, the original read at the age of 50 could never shake you like a translation read at 20.

Why Prosperity Has Increased but Happiness Has Not
Our well-being is local and relative — if you live in a struggling area and your status is slipping, even if you are relatively comfortable, you are probably at least a bit miserable.

Writing Rules! Advice From The Times on Writing Well
Recent Times features, including a new series on the art of writing, inspire us to create this list of 10 rules for writing well. In it you'll find links to advice on everything from using punctuation to reading the…

The Libertarian Fantasy
Phosphorus and Freedom. Free markets can’t solve all our problems. Just ask Toledo.

Did You Just Forget, or Is It Something More Serious?
Memory lapses that disrupt daily living or cause a person to withdraw from family are more serious than absent-mindedness or confusing names, experts said.

Mindfulness: Getting Its Share of Attention
What is the sound of one hand texting? A term for mental training reaches the height of trendiness, and like yoga before it, may be leaving its mark. What is the sound of one hand texting?

Maria Popova Has Some Big Ideas
Maria Popova is the mastermind of Brain Pickings, one of the faster growing literary empires on the Internet, yet she is virtually unknown.

Yes, the Octopus Is Smart as Heck. But Why?
It has eight arms, three hearts — and a plan. Scientists aren’t sure how the cephalopods got to be so intelligent.

The Superfund Sites of Silicon Valley
Inside these plain vanilla buildings, where C.E.O.s in hoodies and jeans stockpile more money than the G.D.P. of developing countries, newly minted techies complain that “S.V.,” the world’s largest wealth generator, is too expensive and that its exhausting work culture is toxic. So, too, is the land beneath their feet.

The Thing Inside Your Cells That Might Determine How Long You Live
You may have forgotten about the nucleolus since you took biology class, but scientists think this structure inside every cell in your body may play an important role in aging.

Dalai Lama: Behind Our Anxiety, the Fear of Being Unneeded
In many ways, there has never been a better time to be alive. Violence plagues some corners of the world, and too many still live under the grip of tyrannical regimes. And although all the world’s major faiths teach love, compassion and tolerance, unthinkable violence is being perpetrated in the name of religion. ... what unites the two of us in friendship and collaboration is not shared politics or the same religion. It is something simpler: a shared belief in compassion, in human dignity, in the intrinsic usefulness of every person to contribute positively for a better and more meaningful world.

Why Fiction Trumps Truth
We humans know more truths than any species on earth. Yet we also believe the most falsehoods.