FLASHCARDS! The Riddle of Love

FLASHCARDS! The Riddle of Love

It’s Flash­cards Fri­days, and today I’m going to talk about some­thing qui­et­ly uni­ver­sal about what humans do when the year begins to slow down. Across cul­tures, across cen­turies, when the days grow short­er and the nights stretch long, peo­ple gath­er. They sit clos­er togeth­er. They talk more. They tell sto­ries. And again and again, they pose ques­tions that do not

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The History of Jigsaw Puzzles

The History of Jigsaw Puzzles

You might not think of jig­saw puz­zles as sci­en­tif­ic objects. They seem sooth­ing, domes­tic, almost med­i­ta­tive. But behind every lit­tle card­board piece is a sur­pris­ing­ly rich sto­ry, one that spans glob­al explo­ration, tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion, Vic­to­ri­an par­lor cul­ture, eco­nom­ic upheaval, wartime mate­r­i­al short­ages, cog­ni­tive sci­ence, and the dig­i­tal age. And it all begins with an Eng­lish car­tog­ra­ph­er who want­ed to teach children

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