Explainers

Nine countries hold roughly 12,000 warheads between them. Most of what the public knows comes from a handful of researchers counting carefully from the outside.

The clocks change twice a year in the name of saving energy. The evidence for that is thin, and the debate over ending the switch keeps stalling.

Nobody thinks about the mat under the desk until it cracks. What each material does for your floor, your chair and the landfill.

Measure before you buy online. Two numbers, taken while you sit, tell you which chairs will fit and which will leave you perched or dangling.

Family names, maps, movie credits and the Social Security list. A practical guide to choosing a name you will both still like in ten years.

Since 1972, timekeepers have added 27 extra seconds to keep clocks in step with Earth’s rotation. In 2022 they voted to stop by 2035.

Mesh moved from novelty to office standard in about a decade. What it does well, where foam still wins, and what to check before buying one.

A chair used by three shifts a day takes three times the wear. When a round-the-clock rated chair is worth the money, and what makes it different.

A palapa is not a beach umbrella with ambitions. Where the open-sided palm roof comes from, how it differs from a tiki hut, and what it takes to keep one up.

Before November 18, 1883, every American town set its clocks by the sun. Then the railroads picked four zones, and the country followed.