The Real Lolita

The story of 11-year-old Sally Horner’s abduction changed the course of 20th-century literature. She just never got to tell it herself.

-Hazlitt

The Autumn Equinox Is Here—What You Need to Know

As the midday sun begins to sink lower and nights get noticeably longer, it can only mean the reign of summer is coming to an end for the northern half of the world. The autumn equinox arrives at 10:21 a.m. ET (2:20 p.m. UTC) on September 22, officially marking the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

-National Geographic

The Single Biggest Difference Between Parents and People Who Don’t Have Kids

There is something that went away once I became a mother, and I can’t get it back. I still mourn its loss sometimes, almost always — ironically — when I am alone: I lost time.

I feel this more acutely now that my daughter is nearly 3 — also ironically, as I arguably have more time to myself now than I did when she was 2 months old. I’m in limbo now: I don’t think like a fully independent, self-interested woman, nor do I think like a mother 100 percent of the time. Who am I?

-NY Mag

Rules for Getting Organized & Decluttered

What would it take to get your life decluttered and organized?
That might be a tall order for many of us, but the truth is, we could do it in bursts and spurts, using a handful of easy-to-follow rules.

-zen habits

The Best Ways to Break the Ice and Get to Know Someone

Most first dates are less about trying to make sparks fly and more about getting a feel for who someone is. Whether it’s your first date or you feel stuck in the early phases of a new relationship, here are the best tips and tricks for getting past the small talk so you both can come out of your shell.

-Life Hacker

Sex robots might be better in bed than real humans

We're getting closer to a world full of sex robots. According to certain experts, by the year 2050, sex robot tourism, marriage, and prostitution will be commonplace.

Robotics expert John Snell of Iowa's Kirkwood College suggests that sex robots, which are robots with which one can presumably have intercourse, will be better in the sack than humans. "'Because they would be programmable," Snell explained to Metro UK, "sexbots would meet each individual user's needs."

-SF Gate

L.A. Cops Search for Two in 1969 Unsolved Murder of Reet Jurvetson, Say No Charles Manson Connection

In the fall of 1969, 19-year-old Montreal native Reet Jurvetson flew to L.A. to visit a man named Jean she had met before in a coffee shop in Canada.

"She was enamored," retired LAPD cold case detective Cliff Shepard tells PEOPLE. "She thought he looked like Jim Morrison of the Doors."

The brunette beauty sent her family a postcard.

It read:"Dear Mother and Father, the weather is nice and the people are kind. I have a nice little apartment. I go frequently to the beach. Please write to me, Hugs, Reet"

The postcard was dated October 31. Sixteen days later, Jurvetson's body was found tangled in dense brush off of Los Angeles' scenic Mulholland Drive. She had been stabbed in the neck 150 times in what detectives believe was a "rage" killing. 

-People

Meurtre de Reet Jurvetson: la police recherche deux «personnes d'intérêt»

 
Le corps ensanglanté de la femme de 19 ans a été retrouvé en novembre 1969 par un passant dans des buissons bordant Mulholland Drive. La jeune femme venait à peine de déménager aux États-Unis.

La victime n'avait aucune pièce d'identité. Elle portait un jeans de marque Levis fait à Boston, des bottes italiennes et un manteau de velours côtelé bleu fabriqué à Montréal. À l'époque, la nouvelle du meurtre ne s'est pas rendue jusqu'au Québec. L'affaire a été classée comme non résolue. Pendant ce temps, au Québec, les Jurvetson cherchaient en vain la cadette de la famille.

-La Presse

Doctors Can Now Delete Bad Memories. Would You Do It?

MIT Scientists have identified the part of the brain that’s in charge of bad memories. The scientists also claim they can actually reverse those bad memories. That’s because the area of the brain identified as the controller of bad memories links to the emotions associated with them (1). Imagine the possibility of erasing feelings associated with traumatic or stressful events that can often be life-changing. This is true for those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), especially war veterans. PTSD is a debilitating condition and has the potential to ruin lives.


-Top Secret Writers

Abandoned places: the worlds we've left behind – in pictures

Kieron Connolly’s new book of photographs of more than 100 once-busy and often elegant buildings gives an eerie idea of how the world might look if humankind disappeared. Here are 10 evocative, stylised images of nature reclaiming the manmade world.

-The Guardian

The first ever copies of the 'world’s most mysterious book' are about to be released

A Spanish publishing house has finally been given permission to make exact copies of the Voynich Manuscript - a 15th century book written in a mysterious coded language that no one has cracked.
For centuries, scientists have been trying to decipher the text. Some of the world’s best cryptographers have dedicated their lives to solving the puzzle - but no one’s even gotten close. Now, with almost 900 copies about to go into circulation, we might finally get some answers.

-Science Alert

Lilith: Ancient Demon, Dark Deity or Sex Goddess?

In some sources she's described as a demon, in others she is an icon who became one of the darkest deities of the pagans. Lilith is one of the oldest known female spirits of the world. Her roots come from the famous Epic of Gilgamesh, but she was also described in the Bible and the Talmud.

-Ancient Origins

20 Impressive Vintage Pictures of Paris Streets under the Rain in the 1930s

These impressive vintage pictures show Paris streets under the rain in the 1930s.

-Vintage Everyday

The Story of Feminist Punk in 33 Songs

From Patti Smith to Bikini Kill, the songs that have crushed stereotypes and steered progress.

-Pitchfork

48 Hours on the Dark Side of Las Vegas

Penthouse orgies fueled by pill-pushing hotel employees. A drug house stocked with sex slaves. Hidden homeless encampments underneath the casinos. A shockingly personal investigation shows the real Sin City is even seedier than you imagined.

-Narratively

The Athletes of the Pit Crew

During the thirty-seventh lap of the Nascar Sprint Cup Series at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, New Hampshire, earlier this year, Jimmie Johnson, driving car No. 48, pulled into the pit lane for a new set of tires and a fresh tank of petrol. The six-man pit crew stood on the concrete ledge that outlined their designated stall. Just before Johnson skidded to a stop, the crew leapt off the wall and rushed to the passenger side. The jackman thrusted the car’s ride side up, while two tire changers zipped the wheel’s lug nuts off with an impact wrench.* Just as the tire changers discarded the old rubber, their corresponding tire carriers shoved the replacement in front of the hub. After another round of screeching—tightening five lugs for each wheel—the team jumped up and moved over to the driver’s side, where it was all repeated: car jacked up, old tires off, new ones on. The fueller hoisted the gas can above his head, funnelling the liquid into the car’s tank. He removed the can from the car, the jackman dropped all four tires back onto the pavement, and Johnson shifted into gear and hit the gas pedal, zooming back onto the track. The entire process took less than twelve seconds.

-The New Yorker

Cruising Low and Slow in New Mexico, Where Cars Are Works of Art

Some car enthusiasts look for speed or power in their ideal rides. But in northern New Mexico, where lowriding thrives, it’s all about height—or the lack thereof. Hispanic Americans have been dropping their cars to mere inches off the ground since at least the mid-20^th century, when lowriding developed as a laid-back alternative to a high-octane hot rod culture largely dominated by whites. Drivers in Los Angeles and El Paso, who weighed their cars down with sandbags, were early innovators. Today, drivers around the world use hydraulic systems to not only drop their vehicles but bounce or “hop” them several feet in the air.

-Slate

Accidental Mysteries And Curious Feet: A Collection of Found Photos

When John Foster, of St. Louis, Missouri, sees a Found Photo (aka vernacular photograph) he wonders about the story behind it. We love his collection, especially the pictures that aren’t right, the ones with missing feet and other body parts that any studio photographer would take pains to include; and accidental additions, like the photographer’s shadow or a bystander’s shoe. We call these photos SHOT, pictures made all the more captivating by their imperfections.

-Flashbak

A 1920s Road Trip through Death Valley

Exactly 90 years ago, a group of young friends took a road trip to Death Valley in 1926. The photo album, with detailed captions, a written record in the form of diary entries, ended up in the California archives for me to find all these years later. The identity of the diarist and the photographer are unknown. But I feel like I know them. We’ve both travelled the same road, passing the same desert landmarks, homesteads and ghost towns nearly a century apart, and I feel like we took this trip together, exploring the alien landscape, documenting as we went. There’s something very comforting and reassuring to me about knowing how similar an experience can be despite the decades between us…

-Messy Nessy Chic

The Lost Girls of Panama: The Full Story

The Daily Beast brings together here all three parts of its investigation into the fate of Kris Kremers, 21, and Lisanne Froon, 22, who went out for a brief hike near a mountain resort in Panama in 2014 and never came back. Were they victims of a tragic accident or a savage crime? Amid what seems conflicting evidence and botched police work, theories have proliferated, some of them even involving the occult. 

-The Dailey Beast