Each Time Wes Craven Reinvented Horror

More than just a director, Wes Craven—who died on Sunday at the age of 76—reinvented the horror genre each time he embarked upon a new film. Beginning his career with “The Last House on the Left,” Craven discarded any notion of a typical horror film by using ultra-realism and grainy footage to shock viewers and turn stomachs. After Hollywood began replicating his style, Craven pivoted; …

Scientists Find a Double Black Hole

After carefully studying data from the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists are convinced that the closest quasar to Earth (about 600 million light-years away) contains a double black hole at its core. The larger of the pair is roughly 150 million times the size of our sun, while the smaller black hole is four million times larger. Eventually, the two black holes will swirl into each …

How Ballpoint Pens Killed Cursive

While many blame the downfall of handwriting on computers, tablets and smartphones, its decline actually began long ago—after a man named Marcel Bich released the first Bic Crystal ballpoint pen in 1946. Back then, fountain pens were the norm, and their inks were thin and bled at the first sign of applied pressure. But with the new ballpoint pens (and their thicker inks), connecting letters …