The word meme, coined in 1976 by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, goes way beyond social-media pixels. Meme captures the concept of “cultural transmission” of ideas in general, where customs and ideas spread from brain to brain. Which means memes have been around longer than Success Kid or Kermit sipping tea. Wildfire ideas have been around as long as humans have—in fact, discovering fire is …
Phrases with convincing fakes . . . we bet you've said some of these—we have too!
Inept was up 186% in searches this week . . . and this time it’s about somebody else’s dysfunctional government and leadership team. The Times helped us explain this one: “Malcolm Turnbull, the prime minister, and his deputy, Barnaby Joyce, traded extraordinary public barbs yesterday over an adulterous affair that has gripped the nation and fractured the government. Mr Turnbull said his deputy had ‘appalled everyone’ …
There are different types of travelers, and we’ve created some names for a few of them. Whether you’re a minimalist, budgeter, collector, storyteller, or germophobe, traveling is your game, right? But, which type of traveler are you? Think you know—well, take our personality test just to be sure . . . . Don’t forget to share your results (so your friends and family will know …
These phrases became especially popular by artists & cool cats in the '70s.
WARNING: Your brain is about to experience conflict and interference, while executing a suspiciously mundane task. Do not scoff. Different-colored words will slow down your mental processing, and there’s almost nothing you can do about it—except read the rest of this article to learn more. You are at the mercy of . . . the Stroop effect! Get ready: The following is a group of words, written …
Most people know a handful of official languages in countries around the world—French in France, Italian in Italy, Russian in Russia, Spanish in Spain. But, those are really easy, and with 195 countries and 7,000 different languages, the handful you think you know is really only a teeny-tiny sampling! So, try your hand at guessing the official languages of these 20 countries. Some of them …
Mendacity Mendacity was our top trending word the week of Feb. 9–13, 2018, peaking at an 845% increase in searches. So, what’s mendacity? Lying, untruthfulness, falsehoods—all mendacity. Here’s why it’s newsworthy this week: Trump has some mendacity, for sure. Even his lawyers know it, which is why they are advising him not to meet with Mueller re: the Russia investigation, because lying to the FBI, even if …
