Top 5 Things That Have Recently Blown My Mind

1. In countries as widespread as Brazil, Rwanda, Turkey, and the United States, researchers have found that rises in soap opera viewing are correlated with lower fertility rates, more rights and responsibilities for women and girls, and increased stickiness for messages about public health.

2. A prominent historian in California has gathered compelling evidence that it was the Soviet entry into the Pacific conflict, not the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that forced Japan's surrender and ended WWII. If this is true, it raises provocative questions about the morality of the atomic attacks and the concept of nuclear deterrence, a cornerstone of global military strategy.

3. The United States military owns and operates a secret robot space plane.

4.  The first openly gay presidential candidate from a major political party in American history is running right now. He is a Republican.

5. In 1941, a Japanese pilot who participated in the bombing of Pearl Harbor crashed his damaged plane into a small Hawaiian island. Assistance given to him by three local Japanese immigrants (which included freeing him, arming him, helping him take hostages, and helping him burn down a villager's house) may have influenced the creation of Japanese internment camps in the United States.