Around the World in a 1928 Graham-Paige

Top speed 40 mph. After driving their way through Africa, the Zapp family has another continent on their to-do list--Europe. "For the last 13 years, Herman and Candelaria Zapp have traversed the coasts of South and North America, Asia, Australia and Africa in their 85-year-old vehicle which has also been their home. Along the way they have covered almost 200,000 miles and visited more than 40 countries. Oh and they've also had four kids--all born in different countries.

In the Middle of Siberia the Train Left Him Behind

True story. You are a Frenchman riding on the Trans-Siberian railway and you find some Russians who befriend you and ply you with drinks. The drunker you get, the more you like these guys. They are great pals. Then your pals tell you that there is no more vodka. At the next whistle stop they push you, thoroughly soused, off the train to buy more. You are dressed in pants and T-shirt and you don't know where you are. You look at the departing train as you shiver. It is thirteen degrees below zero (-25C). Far away, now, speeding down the track, your pals have taken the money from your wallet and flushed the billfold down the toilet. You speak no Russian and are in the middle of nowhere. What are you going to do? More

It's Not A Reality In Russia

"The fundamental premise for most Western reality shows is what people in the industry call ‘aspirational’: someone works hard and is rewarded with a wonderful new life." They have tried reality shows in Russia and things are different.

The Lonely Crowd of The 21st Century

"Americans, plugged in and on the move, are confiding in their pets, their computers, and their spouses. What they need is to rediscover the value of friendship. . . .

. . . today 'friends' are everywhere in our culture—the average Facebook user has 130—and friendship, of a diluted kind, is our most characteristic relationship: voluntary, flexible, a 'lite' alternative to the caloric meshugaas of family life.

But in restricting ourselves to the thin gruel of modern friendships, we miss out on the more nourishing fare that deeper ones have to offer. . . .

Want To Get Rich? Found Your Own Religion

What do these Tinsel-Townees have in common?: Kelly Preston, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Issac Hayes, Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley, Katie Holmes, and Tom Cruise.

Can An Expert Violinist Pick Out A Stradivarius? No

Can You Pick The Strad? In a double-blind test by professional violinists, most couldn't determine by sound alone” which violin was an original Stradivarius and which was a modern instrument.

Bastøy: Prison That Promotes The Responsibility of Freedom

There are two kinds of freedom, each defined by its preposition: freedom to, and freedom from. To implies responsibility (freedom to do); from implies security (freedom from fear or want). This prison emphasizes freedom to. The island of Bastøy in Norway is one of the most liberal prisons in the world. With hardened criminals, there are no walls, no bars on the windows and no regimentation of prisoners' lives. The idea is to teach them how to manage their time themselves.

Randomness or Purpose In The Universe?

"Despite the noisy atheists, two trends in spirituality and science have started to converge. One is the trend to seek God outside the church. This has given rise to a kind of spirituality based on personal experience, with an openness to accept Eastern traditions like meditation and yoga as legitimate ways to expand one's consciousness. . . .

We are conscious beings who live with purpose and meaning. It seems unlikely that these arose form a random, meaningless universe. The final answer to where they came from may shake science to its core. I certainly hope it does." More

What You Eat When You Eat Poultry

"A turkey chick is fighting its way into life, hatching somewhat more slowly from its shell than the others. Its egg, perhaps, was a little too far from the top.

There are 125 others, all hatchlings looking at their new world for the first time. Their nest is a plastic box, 85 by 60 centimeters with narrow slits in the sides -- the legs and beaks of those buried further down stick out.

The chicks are thrown out of the box onto a steel chute, from which they fall onto a conveyor belt . . . .

Does the Universe Care about Us?

Steven Pinker sneered at ‘the shoddy reasoning of a once-great thinker’. The Guardian called it ‘the most despised science book of 2012’. The man was no less than a great modern philosopher and the book expressed his deepest concerns, a counterpoint to the prevailing paradigm of modern science, particularly thinking on evolution.