off-beat

The elephant, located in the Piazza della Minerva in front of the basilica, holds the obelisk on its back.

The Kalevala, a poetic masterpiece of nearly 23,000 lines, first appeared in 1835. Now, nearly 200 years later, those “luckless lands of the North” are an increasingly tense border zone. On one side sits Finland, affluent and famously “happy.” On the other side sits the Republic of Karelia that today is part of the Russian Federation. But on February 28, both will unite in celebration of Kalevala’s anniversary and the cultural-political independence it helped achieve.

Mini-sabbaticals. Adult gap years. Micro-retirement. Extended career breaks go by many names and take many forms. Creating space for a reset, whether mental, physical or spiritual, is the common thread.

The turkey vulture’s keen sense of smell was put to use by oil company engineers in 1930s California. Workers were having trouble with leaks along a 42-mile-long natural gas pipeline but noticed that vultures would often congregate around these leaks. The engineers used this to their advantage, observing the vultures to pinpoint and repair leaks.

As a physical piece of a person that would outlast their human life, a lock of hair symbolised immortal love. Locks of hair were generally gifted by women to men and sometimes at the request of their male suitors. These could be rubbed, stroked, sniffed and gazed upon as the recipient thought about the person who had sent it.

In a study that tracked romantic couples over a year, relationships were about 2.5 times more likely to end during the two weeks surrounding Valentine’s Day than during the fall or spring.

The story of the Green River shows that processes deep within the Earth can have profound impacts for life on the surface.

Female genital mutilation is not tradition; it is violence. Southeast Asia has the tools to act, but action must come with urgency. A coordinated regional strategy, backed by strong legislation, accountability, and support for survivors, will be key to ending FGM/C and protecting future generations.

Claims that de-extinction can reverse extinction are misleading. Genetic engineering can introduce lost traits from an extinct species into a closely related living species and restore lost ecological functions, but it can’t re-create the extinct species. Problems arise when companies present these limits cautiously within the scientific community but make stronger claims in public-facing communication.

Slowly but significantly, the ever-growing population of singles is reshaping the world.

A new story reveals a surprising disconnect: the language used to taste and talk about wine does not travel across cultures as smoothly as the industry assumes. This matters for the wine industry, because wine descriptions directly influence purchasing decisions and overall enjoyment.

Shark teeth are also disposable—they are constantly replaced throughout their lives, like a conveyor belt pushing a new tooth forward roughly every few weeks.