How Thailand resisted colonization
Its royal family used a charm offensive where military power failed.
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Daycare pseudoscience
If it had a clear effect on children we would know by now.
Will farm animals always suffer?
Economic growth gives us cleaner air, healthier rivers, and safer workplaces. Happier animals could be next.
Every disease is a policy failure
Few people know how much medicine has progressed in their lifetimes. Fewer know how much faster it could be progressing.
The ultimate horse
Selective breeding has pushed horses to the limits of biology. But at what cost?
Beauty In My Backyard
Ugly architecture stops homes getting built.
Did medieval people love their children?
Is it really plausible that children survived the hardship of medieval life without devoted parents?
Lessons from a high-fertility subculture
Modernity has meant fewer children in virtually every culture around the world. Holdouts like Orthodox Jews might have lessons for the rest of us.
How Amsterdam invented the fire department
Two Dutch brothers invented a system that transformed a city previously ravaged by fires
On the origin of continents
Continental drift is as fundamental to geology as natural selection is to biology. Why did it take us hundreds of years to discover it?