For the most part, dreams remain a mystery. While science understands many of the mechanisms behind sleep, we have no definitive reason why we have dreams.

Fortunately, it is very well known how important it is for our bodies to be replenished by an ample amount of sleep. And we don’t need science to tell us what happens when we are deprived of a good night’s sleep.

The dream state

About 90 minutes after we fall asleep, we enter the rapid eye movement (REM) phase of sleep. It is in this state that we have the most vivid dreams. …

South America’s ancient history is not only rich and full of culture, but it is also quite entertaining. For those of us who love history, you will not be disappointed by what this continent has to offer.

The best news is that the story isn’t over yet. More and more facts about South America remain to be discovered.

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of its history is that so much of it has gone unnoticed. The history of other parts of the world has become common knowledge, but the same cannot be said of South American history. …

We never really think about the harsh realities of space — frankly, because most of us have no clue what’s it like. Thus, it’s hard to relate to that environment.

However, outer space is a dangerous place for human beings and biological life on our planet.

Think of the Earth and its atmosphere as a submarine with a strong hull that resides in thousands of fathoms of seawater. With the pressure from the ocean’s weight continually trying to penetrate the submarine’s walls, sea creatures of every type are also lurking about.

The Earth’s atmosphere represents the walls of the submarine…

Observing technology today is like watching a movie — maybe it’s more like watching several movies at once as the plot keeps changing.

Several tech pundits are now claiming that Moore’s Law is slowing down¹, but the same cannot be said for many of the components that fueled the tech growth it describes.

One such entity that spawned a decade or so is artificial intelligence, more affectionately known as ‘AI.’ Nowadays, it seems a new summary of what AI has recently accomplished could be written every other month or so.

Five Amazing AI Creations

Humans are just now hitting their stride regarding the endless…

If you haven’t noticed how the foundations of America have been gradually crumbling away over the last few decades, then you’re not paying attention. Then again, seeing this trend and having the willingness to acknowledge it are two different issues — and frankly, that’s a big part of the problem.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Read your history, and you’ll see it’s quite common for the elites of a doomed society to stick their heads firmly in the sand — right before the fall. There’s no reason at all for them to recognize problems, much less take action. …

Not everyone has heard of a Pyrrhic victory, but it’s uttered occasionally in everyday conversation. It was initially coined to describe a victory that was so costly that it was almost a defeat.

An army winning a Pyrrhic victory has been deemed as the official victors, but the tolls they suffered, along with the future cost of those tolls, negates the feeling of achievement. We might be more familiar with the term, ‘hollow victory.’

Pyrrhic victories of today

For an illustration of this, let’s consider a soccer match between teams Y and Z. If team Y beats team Z, but their best player has…

Many of our world’s major cities have become common in our vocabulary. Yet, some of them have been around for thousands of years.

From how we view them today, could we even imagine what they must have been like during ancient times?

Let us examine each of these five cities and see what clues their beginnings might provide:

London

It is quite impressive what we humans have accomplished in our history.

We have the ability to construct bodily organs, kill germs with antibiotics, and even walk on the moon. And experts claim our innovation will grow exponentially in the coming decades.

Yet 1.3 billion people, roughly 22% of the world’s entire population, live in multidimensional poverty¹. This includes families who have incomes above the poverty line, but they still lack necessities like clean water, electricity, or clean toilets.

Also, during the 20th century, when human knowledge reached new highs, we witnessed a sickening number of world genocides². And if…