Uri Bram

1 month ago | boingboing.net | Uri Bram

Stop me if you've heard this one: imagine a world where people's consciousness is split in two. Twice each day, they cross the invisible chasm between their parts, living first as one part (let's call it their "Outie") and then as the other part (shall we say, an "Innie"). The Outie exists in the regular outside world, while the Innie lives in a constrained reality that they can't really escape from.

1 month ago | thebrowser.com | Uri Bram

Kevin Kelly | Technium | 2nd March 2025The first animals domesticated by humans weren’t dogs, but ourselves. Humanity selected for rounder faces, wider eyes, and broadly the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood. Human evolution is a story of Survival of the Friendliest. "We self-selected our character, and crafted this being called human. We invented ourselves. I contend this is our greatest invention" (1,500 words)Nomido is the Browser's daily word game.

1 month ago | thebrowser.com | Uri Bram

Ada Palmer | Ex Urbe | 12th February 2025Two Renaissance cardinals claimed rags-to-riches stories, but Franscesco della Rovere was more like "a son of the 1% climbing to join the 0.01%" as Pope Sixtus IV. (One historical tip for identifying hidden nepotism: consider people’s mothers, not just their fathers).

May 10, 2024 | beatlyzer.com | Chandler Brotak |Isabel Arjmand |Uri Bram

By: Chandler Brotak, Isabel Arjmand, and Uri BramNorman Borlaug, nan “father of nan greenish revolution,” transformed agriculture (and won a Nobel Peace Prize) for processing caller wheat varietals that resisted diseases and greatly accrued yields. You mightiness good wonder: if it’s imaginable for wheat, is it imaginable for different crops? Consider nan eggplant: a celebrated purple fruit/vegetable that tin beryllium made into everything from hongshao qiezi to baba ghanoush.

Mar 8, 2024 | atlasobscura.com | Peter Schumer |Sarah Laskow |Eric Grundhauser |Uri Bram

Math is everywhere—in landscapes, in language, in the kitchen, on the calendar. On those calendars, March 14 is the mathiest of dates—Pi Day, in honor of the mathematical constant that begins 3.14. To celebrate this year, we’re bringing you the best of Atlas Obscura’s words about numbers.