Linton Weeks

One reason Internet memes — the quirky photos with societal observations that are passed along like genes or around like germs — work so well, is that they tap into something of the moment, a fleeting notion that captures the here and now.

A visual meme is more like a ...

Ante-millennium America was ho-hum about soccer as a sport, because it is a game with: nonstop motion, international players, loose rules and corruption, low expectations of scoring and an imprecise ending.

Post-millennium America may become fanatical about futbol, because it is a game with: nonstop motion, ...

Glance at the map above, Second Largest Religious Tradition in Each State 2010, and you will see that Buddhism (orange), Judaism (pink) and Islam (blue) are the runner-up religions across the country.

No surprises there. But can you believe that Hindu (dark orange) is the No. 2 tradition in Arizona ...

While tornadoes continue to tear across America's midsection — taking lives and destroying property — we continue to search for explanations of the phenomenon, in hopes of developing better warning systems and protection.

But after decades of research, funded by decamillions of dollars, the fundamentals of wind funnels ...

Actor LeVar Burton told NPR recently that he is on a mission to pour new energy into Reading Rainbow — his long-running, pro-reading TV show for kids. Using Kickstarter money, LeVar hopes to deliver his video field trips — connecting the written word to the real ...

Can you feel it?

Like discrete clouds beginning to gather before a storm.

Not a trend, really. Not yet. But a tendency toward a trend. A trendency.

On the subway, on a crowded street, at a concert: a person here and there — a Great Pre-trender — wears a hand-sanitizer ...

In France, many high-level politicians — such as Prime Ministers Francois Hollande, Jacques Chirac and Valery Giscard d'Estaing — developed their statecraft skills at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration. In England, a passel of prime ministers — including David Cameron, Harold Wilson and Edward Heath — and members of ...

When we posted the first Art in a Jar in April, we learned a couple of lessons: 1) Folks liked the idea. 2) The puzzle was way too easy.

So we try, try again.

The Puzzle

The challenge: Guess the masterpiece — by looking at its pieces — in ...

The Bilderberg annual conference is convening at the end of May in Denmark. Or so it's reported.

For folks who have never heard of Bilderberg, it's an invitation-only confab of high-powered people who jawbone about world issues. Its mission, according to its official website, is at once simple and complex: ...

Fads sweep across America like thunderstorms.

One of the latest — selfies — may already be slackening. Colleges in Florida and Rhode Island banned selfies at graduation. Reports that the White House was discussing the fad brought out the selfie loathing. Even tastemaker Katy Perry has ...

The club sandwich — a mouthwatering mélange of meats, cheeses and salad greens double-stacked among three slices of mayo-slathered bread or toast — is a portable picnic for one. A movable feast.

"I order a club sandwich all the time," the late comedian Mitch Hedberg quipped. "And I'm not even ...

With all the talk in contemporary American politics about game changers ... what about name changers?

Through the years there have been elected officials who were born with different names from the ones that were on the ballots. The politicians changed their names for all kinds of reasons.

Only the Seattle band Tacocat could turn "that time of the month" into a surf party. With its second album, NVM (a nod to Nirvana's Nevermind), the palindromic group combines '90s nostalgia with a high-energy party vibe. With vocals as bright as her hair color, singer Emily Nokes makes menstruation ...

Say what you will about the morality of marijuana, now that 21 U.S. states — and the District of Columbia — have passed some type of pot-friendly legalization, selling weed is big business.

Medicinal and recreational pot sales could bring in ridonculous revenues and taxes. Colorado, for instance, is expecting ...

Considering the month of April alone, the State Department said it was "deeply concerned" about each of these situations: justice in Turkey; peaceful challenges of official Chinese policies; restrictions of freedom in Egypt; a Ugandan raid on a U.S.-funded medical facility; the humanitarian crisis in Burma and certain actions of ...

To a lot of us, music is essential. So are animals. Often the two coincide, as we discovered when we asked people to Tell Us The 6 Songs Of Your Life.

For folks of a certain age, How Much Is That Doggy in the Window? is the first song ...

Just when you think the Ku Klux Klan – with its sordid history of racism and violence – is a thing of the past, it rears its ugly, white-sheet-hooded head.

In the aftermath of the tragic killings at Jewish Community Centers in Kansas City on April 13 – and reports ...

In the past several years, as more and more people are connected through more and more social media, the idea of turning personal grievances into class actions has been popping up, well, more and more.

In Virginia, a group that is against affirmative action in education went fishing ...

What a week it's been for giant pandas. We know because for the past seven days, we have been Google Frecking for pandas.

Google Frecking is an info-gathering game we devised — at the suggestion of our creative editor — for drilling a little deeper into a subject that intrigues ...

The Puzzle

The challenge: Guess the masterpiece — by looking at its pieces — in the jar.

Can you identify a great painting by a random arrangement of details? Can you find the whole not in the sum of the parts, but in some of the parts?

Please post your ...