The Bicycle Problem That Nearly Broke Mathematics

For much of their existence, bicycles have largely remained unchanged. One group of engineers is exploring how it might be possible to build a better bike.

Source: Nature
Published: Jul 20, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,065 words)

Unattributed: A Reading List on Plagiarism

Here are six meaty reads on plagiarism: from deep dives into infamous recent cases to essays that question the very possibility of writing that isn’t, to some extent, an act of unattributed borrowing.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 20, 2016

The Fake Factory That Pumped Out Real Money

One EPA engineer exposed a counterfeit biodiesel company in Texas, providing an interesting green-version of the classic swindle story, and evidence of how rich a field biofraud might be for con-artists.

Published: Jul 13, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,252 words)

When cuteness comes of age

What is “cute”? A writer flies to Japan to find a culture conflicted over cuteness.

Source: Mosaic Science
Published: Jul 19, 2016
Length: 20 minutes (5,153 words)

The Man Who Created Bigfoot

When two Washington State cowboys went to Northern California in 1967 in search of the mythical Bigfoot, they shot some of the most scrutinized film in cryptozoology history, and created their own myth. This is the story of one of the gods in Bigfoot-hunting, “the original seer: the man who witnessed the unthinkable, who lived to tell the tale, and who has been harassed for what he swore was real.”

Source: Outside
Published: Jul 5, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,436 words)

Little Government in the Big Woods

Melissa Gilbert’s lost bid for Congress and the forgotten political history of Little House on the Prairie.

Author: Mary Pilon
Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 19, 2016
Length: 8 minutes (2,061 words)

What it’s like to be black in Naperville, America

Brian Crooks moved to Naperville, Illinois when he was in the 5th grade. His stories of mistreatment and insults, both blatant and unintentional, show the daily, unrelenting racism flung at a person of color in America.

Source: Chicago Tribune
Published: Jul 14, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,032 words)

The Truth About VR and Vomit

“After the high cost of a headset and a rig to support it, the biggest hurdle for a company trying to launch virtual reality into the public consciousness was—and maybe remains—the threat of vomit.”

Source: Kill Screen
Published: Jul 7, 2016
Length: 12 minutes (3,039 words)

Trump’s Ghostwriter Tells All

Tony Schwartz was a New York magazine writer recruited by Donald Trump to ghost write his 1987 bestseller, The Art of the Deal. He now regrets what he created and says Trump is unfit to be president.

Author: Jane Mayer
Source: The New Yorker
Published: Jul 18, 2016
Length: 27 minutes (6,867 words)

A Fish So Coveted People Have Smuggled, Kidnapped, and Killed For It

The Asian arowana or “dragon fish” is protected by the Endangered Species Act and illegal to own in the U.S. But the tropical fish’s status symbol among wealthy buyers has made it the object of a thriving black market.

Source: Scribner
Published: Jul 18, 2016
Length: 17 minutes (4,498 words)