Is It Really Possible to Learn to Speed Read?
Ninety-five percent of college educated individuals read at a rate between 200-400 words per minute according to extensive research done by University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Dr. Keith Rayner. However, there exists a small, but rather vocal subset of people who insist that they can read several times faster than this using various speed reading…
How P-22 Became Hollywood’s Most Famous Mountain Lion
A mountain lion named P-22 is making headlines today for being discovered inside—and eventually escaping from—a Los Angeles basement. In this excerpt from his new book about the urban wilderness, Tristan Donovan gives us the origin story of P-22. The discovery of P-22, the mountain lion that lives in Griffith Park, was pure fluke. The…
The “Heroic Translators” Who Reinvented Classic Science Fiction In China
When early science fiction novels were first translated into Chinese, the translators took a lot of liberties with the material, reinventing Jules Verne for Chinese readers. Author Ken Liu (The Grace of Kings) explains how this helped inspire him, in turn, to reinvent Chinese traditions for Western fantasy readers. Top image: Le Voyage dans la…
The Plan to Build an Undersea Cable Around the US—and Why We Need It
There’s a new undersea cable in the works, unlike any system that’s been built before. It is almost 10,000 miles long. It winds under the Arctic Ocean, from the United Kingdom, over Canada, and down to Japan, offering the fastest possible route between London and Tokyo. It stops on icy Canadian shores along the way,…