Skeuomorphism involves designing things like digital interfaces that imitate physical elements. A lightbulb that flickers like a candle is one example.
When you wake up, do you like to lounge in bed past the point when it’s time to get up? If so, you are hurkle-durkling, a term first used in 19th-century Scotland.
According to a 1992 Sentencing Project study, the U.S incarceration rate is 10 times higher than in Japan, Sweden, Ireland, or the Netherlands.
In Chinese and Japanese, hummingbird translates as “bee bird.”
Have you ever been selected for jury duty? Sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors at random to get a representative sample. In ancient Athens, they believed sortition was more democratic than holding elections because oligarchs couldn’t buy their way into office.
This article appears in April 11 • 2025.