Active Child: Stranger

Following the first single off Active Child’s upcoming album Mercy (due to release 16 June) is “Stranger.” The track is stunning—a haunting, slow-burning landscape that builds with synths, harp flourishes and classic Active Child falsetto (he’s an alum of the Philadelphia Boys Choir) that is disarmingly emotional.

Pratt Institute’s Cat-Loving Chief Engineer

79-year-old Conrad Milster has been keeping Pratt Institute up and running since 1958. As the university’s chief engineer, he’s in charge of maintaining the steam engines that provide heat and hot water to the school. Aside from being a master of his craft, Milster is a proud Brooklynite, cat person and collector of anything old—including VHS tapes, books and outdated mechanical machines. As Milster ponders …

Why Quitting Cigarettes is Easier for Some People

New research from scientific journal Neuropyschopharmacology shows that people who are able to quit smoking will probably have an easier time accomplishing any other task they put their minds to. After studying 85 smokers over a course of four months, researchers concluded that those who successfully quit displayed a better connectivity between the brain’s insula and the and the sensorimotor cortex. With a stronger connection, …