The 'Cookie Cutter' Approach to Make French Fries

Eric Schlosser's book and then movie, Fast Food Nation, exposed the dark side of the fast-food industry. At one point, Schlosser described a food-production ...

The Jazz Musician Who Had to Improvise with Disabled Hand

Unless you're a true jazz aficionado you've probably never heard of Horace Parlan who made news headlines recently (February 2017) because the ...

The Painful Beauty of Creativity

The musician, poet, songwriter Leonard Cohen used the following image for the creative process of writing (for teachers, artists, preachers, etc.):

[The ...

Nativity Scenes—2016 Versions

Throughout history, the Christmas story has been a popular subject for artists, often with a focus on the most iconic of Bethlehem imagery: the sheep, ...

Why Blockbuster Failed and Netflix Succeeded

At the turn of the century, Blockbuster reigned supreme in the video rental industry. If your family craved a movie night, someone likely had to drive ...

A Laser—the Power of Unified Light

In 1957 a graduate student at Columbia University named Gordon Gould had been working with "pumping" atoms to higher energy states so they would emit ...

Largest Lego Model Took Vision and Teamwork

The newest addition to the grand list of Coolest Things Ever was first unveiled in New York City in 2013: the Lego X-Wing, the largest Lego model ever ...

J.J. Abrams on His Grandfather

In an interview with Esquire magazine, film producer and director J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Lost, Super 8) shared that his biggest influence ...

Building 20 at MIT Brought Together Diverse People

MIT used to have a famous office building simply called Building 20. This structure, located at the intersection of Main and Vassar Streets in East Cambridge, ...

Two Kids Dream of Flight

Any given day, 23,000 scheduled flights take off and land at American airports. At any given time, 5,000 of those airplanes are simultaneously airborne. ...