Tag: 2026
Pi number: the most fascinating number in the universe
Pi number is the most famous number in existence. It is also the strangest, the most obsessed over, and arguably the most important. You probably know it as 3.14. You probably know it has something to do with circles. What you might not know is that Pi turns up where circles are nowhere in sight,…
Are night owls more sadistic? a new study says yes and the reason is fascinating
Are night owls more sadistic? It sounds like the kind of question designed to generate outrage clicks. It is also, as of December 2025, a question with a genuine scientific answer. The answer is yes. Measurably. Across two separate studies, using two different populations and two different methods. People who naturally prefer staying up late…
Does personality predict support for war? a new study has a disturbing answer
Does personality predict support for war? The question sounds abstract until the week it is published, which happened to be the same week missiles hit Tehran and three American soldiers came home in coffins. A study by researchers Alexander Yendell and David Herbert, published in the journal Politics and Governance, surveyed over a thousand people…
Kama is not what you think: desire as a sacred goal
Kama is the most misunderstood word in all of Hindu philosophy. Say it to most people and they think of one thing. The Kama Sutra. Dimly lit book covers. A manual for sexual acrobatics that someone’s aunt had hidden on a shelf. That is not what Kama means. It never was. Kama is the third…
Moral Fatigue: why good people stop caring online
Moral fatigue is not apathy. That distinction matters. The person who has stopped retweeting every crisis, stopped signing every petition, stopped feeling the same spike of outrage at the fifteenth injustice of the week that they felt at the first, is not a bad person who has stopped caring. They are a normal person whose…
Pretend play apes: the study that changed what it means to be human
Pretend play apes. That sentence would have been scientifically controversial five years ago. It is now the conclusion of a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Science in February 2026. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of St Andrews set up a tea party with empty cups, an empty pitcher, and a bonobo…
Meaning of home: when home stops being a place
Meaning of home changes. Nobody warns you when it happens, or that it will happen more than once. The first time it happens quietly. You go back to where you grew up and something is off. The streets are the same. The smell of the kitchen is the same. But you are sitting at a…
Are fireflies disappearing? what the science actually says
Are fireflies disappearing? The short answer is yes, in many places, measurably and quietly, for reasons that have everything to do with how humans have reorganised the night. The longer answer is more interesting than the viral version of this story, which has been circulating in various forms since 2024 and tends to announce that…
Why costa rica has no army and what 77 years without one actually looks like
The question of why Costa Rica has no army is worth asking this week more than most. The world is currently spending $2.4 trillion a year on defence. That is the highest figure ever recorded in human history, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Governments across Europe and Asia are revising their military…
What is Moksha: why liberation is the aim nobody talks about
Moksha is the fourth and final aim of Purushartha, and it is the one modern life has the least language for. Dharma, we understand, at least conceptually. Do the right thing. Live with integrity. Artha we understand extremely well. Earn, build, accumulate. Kama we understand in our bones. Want, pursue, enjoy. But Moksha, the aim…
