BBC News | UK | New light on human torch mystery
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BBC News | UK | New light on human torch mystery
“I suggest that the death drive has something to do with it,” the piece reads. “Our aesthetic and behavior are certainly shaped by a sense of doom. There’s a nihilism to the way people dress and party; our heels get higher the closer we inch to death. It’s why people are smoking again, so says the New York Times.”
rayne fisher-quann • The cult of the dissociative pout
In the 1940s, stage performer Mirin Dajo fascinated audiences by standing shirtless and having his assistant take thin fencing swords push them all the way through his chest.
The show was appalling to watch but Dajo never flinched or showed the slightest amount of pain. Curious spectators were invited to watch as close... See more
Time Capsule Talesx.comPaul Pettitt is currently exploring ‘primate thanatology’ – looking for roots and resonance of human behaviour through ethnographic study that embraces other animals’ behaviours. Among chimpanzees, mothers have been seen carrying dead infants around with them; individuals may visit, smell, touch, hit – and sometimes devour – a corpse. There are so
... See moreAlice Roberts • Ancestors
Why so many of us a million years ago purposely knocked out major chunks of our brains with alcohol from time to time remains an interesting mystery. It may be that we were trying to give evolution a shove in the right direction—in the direction of smaller brains.