Alexander Verbeek

Bees, Flamingos, Butterflies, and a Warning for Dog Lovers Plus: The gender bias hiding in Stone Age science, Pablo Picasso's secret faith, plant-based diets, and butterfly memories

Bees, Flamingos, Butterflies, and a Warning for Dog Lovers

The sounds that help you fall asleep faster are already free on your phone Plus: why white noise works differently for different people, how to set a sleep timer so sounds stop automatically, and the one setting most people miss

The sounds that help you fall asleep faster are already free on your phone

The dock, the widgets, and the folder trick that changes how you use your phone Plus: the four apps that belong in your dock, how to hide rarely used apps without deleting them, and a widget worth adding to every phone immediately

The dock, the widgets, and the folder trick that changes how you use your phone

A lost Rembrandt, the coral reef that shouldn't exist, and ants from the age of dinosaurs Plus: the EU's circular fashion revolution, Brussels' new museum giant, and Theo Jansen's wind-powered beach animals

A lost Rembrandt, the coral reef that shouldn't exist, and ants from the age of dinosaurs

Trump Started an Illegal War. No Coalition. No Plan. Nobody Asked Europe. From Davos to Brittany, Europe is drawing its own conclusions about what American leadership now means.

Trump Started an Illegal War. No Coalition. No Plan. Nobody Asked Europe.

From Trump's Accountability Gap to a 9,600-Year-Old Tree: Nine Stories That Needed More Room Plus: Van Gogh's yellow obsession, Galileo's planetary protection sacrifice, Oregon's threatened forests, and diplomatic borders in the insect world

From Trump's Accountability Gap to a 9,600-Year-Old Tree: Nine Stories That Needed More Room

Five Diets That Add Up to Three Years to Your Life Plus: Small fruit trees that really produce, singing choirs that beat Parkinson's, fish that work hard to do nothing, and a sea turtle's 1,700-mile homecoming

Five Diets That Add Up to Three Years to Your Life

The contact list on your phone is probably a mess. Here is how to fix it. Plus: how to set up your Favorites so the right people are always one tap away, how to share your own contact details with anyone in seconds, and what to do when someone’s number changes

The contact list on your phone is probably a mess. Here is how to fix it

Today's Ten Good News Stories You Don't Want to Miss Including: A boy saves his family at sea, Mediterranean diet cuts stroke risk by 18 percent, Vienna turns parking lots into parks, and the Moon's ancient mystery is solved

Today's Ten Good News Stories You Don't Want to Miss

Should America Just Move On After Trump? South Africa Shows Why Forgiveness Is Not Enough. Part 3 of After the Fall: Mandela's truth, forgiveness, and the reparations that never came

Should America Just Move On After Trump? South Africa Shows Why Forgiveness Is Not Enough

How to turn any website into a one-tap app on your phone Plus: banking sites, local newspapers, and recipe pages that belong on your home screen, a desktop trick most people don't know, and one quick home screen fix

How to turn any website into a one-tap app on your phone

Ten Science Stories the State of the Union Won't Mention Tonight Plus: Your pet reading your mood, Europe's longevity champions, a moon that may harbor life, and nature's most perfect camouflage

Ten Science Stories the State of the Union Won't Mention Tonight

The Good News You Didn't Know: 115,000 People Left Poverty Every Day for 35 Years Plus: The Nobel laureate who grew up without running water, giant tortoises return to the Galápagos, the Dutch ship beneath New York City, and the whale shark that puts everything in perspective

The Good News You Didn't Know: 115,000 People Left Poverty Every Day for 35 Years

The quick guide to QR codes that unlocks menus, and a surprising QR-scam to avoid Plus: a free tool that creates your own QR codes in seconds, a phishing scam that bypasses most email filters, and a quick fix for when your phone camera won’t focus

The quick guide to QR codes that unlocks menus, and a surprising QR-scam to avoid

More on Gaudí's Cathedral, a River on Fire, and the Brain Game That Cuts Dementia Risk Plus: the horse walked away and another optical illusion, history of the heart symbol, memories of children playing on Tyneside pavements in the 1960s

More on Gaudí's Cathedral, a River on Fire, and the Brain Game That Cuts Dementia Risk

The River That Came Back to Life Weekend blog: no politics, just travel, photography, nature, and culture

The River That Came Back to Life

#Oslo #travel

Why Your Brain Makes Forbidden Laughter Impossible to Stop Plus: Why dementia prevention may be simpler than anyone thought, a primate research debate, the space mirror plan astronomers hate, and Barcelona's 144-year dream realized

Why Your Brain Makes Forbidden Laughter Impossible to Stop

What your notes app can do that you've probably never tried Plus: a security update iPhone users should install this week, Google's improved search inside Keep, a beautiful writing app for iPhone and Mac, an app that transcribes voice to text on the spot

What your notes app can do that you've probably never tried

Four Heart-Healthy Foods You Can Check Against Your Own Eating Habits Today Plus: My grandfather's history lessons come alive with a Hannibal discovery, the cooperative birds that save family over self, and Yosemite's natural phenomenon John Muir never saw

Four Heart-Healthy Foods You Can Check Against Your Own Eating Habits Today

How Argentina Proved a Democracy Can Try Its Own Dictators Part two of the "After the Fall" series on justice after authoritarianism

How Argentina Proved a Democracy Can Try Its Own Dictators

Hi Mary, is the full trail open again after the recent flooding?

The five-second email check that stops phishing attempts Plus: What happens if you click a phishing link, what to do if you entered your password on a fake site, and the three things to check before clicking any email link

The five-second email check that stops phishing attempts

Listening to Birdsong for Six Minutes Cuts Anxiety by 25 Percent Plus: an Italian painter who fixes vandalism at night, what centenarians eat, Pythagoras explained visually, and sleep banking cuts performance lapses in half.

Listening to Birdsong for Six Minutes Cuts Anxiety by 25 Percent

What Your Dog's Nose Tells Its Brain When It Sniffs Your Shoes Plus: Ireland pays artists to create, Earth's core hides 45 oceans, interval walking beats 10,000 steps, , and termites choose diplomacy

What Your Dog's Nose Tells Its Brain When It Sniffs Your Shoes

Protect your security by controlling app permissions Plus: Protecting your contacts' privacy, photo library access explained, what camera and microphone access really means, and changing permissions after you've already said yes

Protect your security by controlling app permissions

Your Questions Answered: Cat Games on iPad, Sacred Numbers, Figure Skating, and Édith Piaf Plus: The pine tree growth continued, the mystery of the Cerne giant deepens, and Screen Skills questions answered

Your Questions Answered: Cat Games on iPad, Sacred Numbers, Figure Skating, and Édith Piaf

Painting with Light in Zierikzee: An Evening at the Sea Light Festival Most weeks, I write about politics and history for The Planet—usually on Thursdays.

Painting with Light in Zierikzee: An Evening at the Sea Light Festival

Valentine's Day Through the Eyes of a Dutchman Who Never Celebrated It Plus: a Parisian museum for the Romantic movement, penguin felt hearts in San Francisco, Snowball Earth's climate cycles, and a kingfisher that puts camera stabilizers to shame

Valentine's Day Through the Eyes of a Dutchman Who Never Celebrated It

What Those Little Phone Icons Reveal About Your Privacy Plus: How to spot apps tracking your location, what the key symbol means for security, and decoding signal strength indicators

What Those Little Phone Icons Reveal About Your Privacy

Is your dog left-handed? What their paw preference reveals about their emotions Plus: Captain Cook's secret Māori plant records, a river that caught fire now full of fish, the Parthenon as you have never seen it, and pi contains your credit card number

Is your dog left-handed? What their paw preference reveals about their emotions.