Photograph by Be Free
Photograph by Be Free
 
WHAT WE FOUND
Children playing unsupervised in a neighbourhood street
Have We Destroyed Childhood?
We blame phones, but the problem might be us. Show a five year old pictures and ask which ones are play, and they’ll pick the ones with no grown up in them. Parents closed the gap between adult life and children’s, until nothing happened without a grown up watching. One psychologist reckons losing that independence was the first step to destroying childhood. The case against us. ›
The X-15 rocket plane in flight above Earth
The Plane That Flew to Space
In 1963, a plane actually flew to space. Not a rocket, a plane. It got up there under a bomber’s wing, and sixty years on nobody has managed it from a runway. Make a plane light enough to fly well and it can’t hold the fuel for orbit. Give it enough fuel and it qualifies more as a rocket. It’s one of aviation’s great unsolved puzzles, and it all started with a boy who nearly died of pneumonia. Makes for a pretty remarkable story. Meet the plane that got there. ›
 
MORE GOOD STUFF
A rustic European loaf of bread on a wooden board
Why Does Bread Taste Better in Europe?
In Iceland, bakers bury the dough in hot black sand and dig it up the next day. The French went the legal route instead, ruling in 1993 that a traditional loaf is flour, water, salt and yeast. Nothing else allowed. What the bakers do differently. ›
The interior of Dante bar in New York set up for a film shoot
What It’s Like When Your Bar Is a Film Set
Ever wondered what a film crew pays to take over a bar for the day? Dante’s three New York bars have all been film sets. The crew rolls in at 5am, doesn’t leave till midnight, and once had a landlord try to shut the whole thing down mid-scene. How it all works. ›
 
TOP SHELF
37 tiny things every gentleman should own. The Dolly Parton mazes popping up everywhere. How the U.S. doomsday plane works. The way you sleep has ties to 80 different diseases. And where to travel in October.
 
ONE TO FOLLOW
Satellite view of Earth from @dailyoverview
@dailyoverview
Interesting account showcasing satellite views of Earth, each one with its own story of what you are seeing.
 
LAST WORD
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
— MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE