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In 1950, Wilbert Smith, an electrical engineer with the Canadian Department of Transport, began work on a study called Project Magnet. His research examined the potential for the earth’s magnetic fields to be used for vehicle propulsion. On the surface,…
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In 1954, American writer Darrell Huff penned How to Lie with Statistics—a seminal 20th century book, still in print today, which argues that statistical data is largely a game of swindles and cheats used to misrepresent reality. Those sympathetic to…
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With the Internet and social media offering everyone an instant voice and platform, it sometimes feels as if we’ve all become standard bearers of a cause, or a medley of them. The determination to air our viewpoints everyday, even…
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While on a hunting expedition in the Balkans in 1859, British explorer Samuel Baker made a stop — along with his travel companion, a maharaja from India — at a slave market town in what is now Bulgaria. Baker was…
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Tahir Shah’s Timbuctoo has arrived with eerie, serendipitous, timing. In the months leading up to its publication, a coup d’etat and ensuing power vacuum in the West African nation of Mali has resulted in extremists taking over the country’s north…
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