"our evolution was just beginning"

The (Real) Story of the White House and the Big Block of Cheese:
"It turns out, however, that the Big Block of Cheese, this most American of American cheeses, is misunderstood—as a piece of history, as a piece of pop culture, as a piece of dairy. Jackson, who one historian notes "didn't think he should be guided by public opinion," offered the cheese to the public not so much in a spirit of open conversation as in one of desperation. Nor was he the first chief executive to receive an enormous cheese as a gesture of the relationship between the president and the people. The Big Block of Cheese was, more than anything else—perhaps just as it is today—a political tool, earnest and cynical in equal measure."

Watch Margot Robbie, John Cho, and More Stars Read Powerful Stories from Refugees:
"Anna Camp, Minnie Driver, Gael Garcia Bernal, and more share the stories of people in refugee camps, for Oxfam’s “I Hear You” campaign."

How Arrival’s Designers Crafted a Mesmerizing Alien Alphabet:
"Arrival is, to be sure, an alien flick. But under that sci-fi veneer is a film about communication, and the effort required to understand someone (or, in this case, something) who looks and speaks differently than you do."

Watch four alien worlds orbit a distant star:
"Star HR 8799 was born about the same time as humanity's ancestors — 60 million years ago, after the dinosaurs went extinct and the age of animals that would lead to our evolution was just beginning here on Earth. It's 129 light years away from us, tucked toward the front legs of the constellation Pegasus. It's so close and so brilliant (five times brighter than our own sun) that on a clear night it can easily be spotted by the naked eye."

You, Too, Will Love Big Brother: A Life Of Reading And Rereading '1984':
"It was a bright hot day in June. Or possibly July. And the clocks almost certainly weren't striking thirteen, because they don't do that in this country."