<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"bono-looks-out-on-the-crowd-as-u2-perform-an-impromptu-concert-from-a-balcony-in-central-dublin-ireland-friday-sept-25-2026-ap-photopeter-morrison\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934052_721_.jpeg\")
\n Bono looks out on the crowd as U2 perform an impromptu concert in Dublin in September. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n
New York Times Magazine journalist David Marchese sat down with Bono and the Edge from U2 the day after their Dublin performances in September to celebrate the band\u2019s 50th anniversary. He wanted to know: what\u2019s the point of U2?<\/p>\n
(The New York Times Magazine<\/a>, approx. 25 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cI think of U2 as wanting to be the best and biggest band in the world. But it probably shouldn\u2019t be the case that the best and biggest rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band in the world is a band that\u2019s been around for 50 years, comprising guys in their 60s.\u201d<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0A 28-year journey home<\/a><\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n UK man\u00a0Karl Bushby has spent the last 28 years walking 36,000 miles across the world, visiting 29 countries and making amazing, and sometimes terrifying, memories.<\/p>\n (The Guardian<\/a>, approx. 20 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cEn route, he broke other records (as part of the first teams to complete the crossing of the Bering Strait, from Alaska to Russia, on foot in modern times, and to swim the Caspian Sea, from Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan). He has also almost died, spent years stuck in Mexico because he lost his sponsor, been convicted of being a spy, been held in custody in Russia and sentenced to deportation, been threatened at gunpoint and faced the prospect of predation by a polar bear. To many he\u2019s a hero. To some, he\u2019s a reckless chancer.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. How does your intuition know something is off?<\/a><\/p>\n Depending on the person, intuition can be wholeheartedly trusted, or dismissed as illogical \u2013 but this essay argues that regardless of how you feel about it, you subconsciously rely on your intuition constantly.<\/p>\n (Aeon<\/a>, approx. 20 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cIntuition saturates our ordinary reasoning. Whenever we see what follows from something, notice that something counts in favour of some action, or recognise something as a possible course of action, we are relying on intuition. These moments rarely announce themselves. They do not arrive with phenomenological fanfare. They are woven into the background of our deliberation, operating quietly whenever we take in a situation and immediately apprehend its normative or conceptual contours.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. How did Houdini die?<\/a> Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n This Halloween will be 100 years since Hungarian-American escape artist Harry Houdini died at the age of 52. His largely accepted cause of death was swelling of the abdomen which may have been linked to appendicitis and recent blows to the stomach \u2013 but some question if there\u2019s more to the story.<\/p>\n (The New York Times<\/a>, approx. 22 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she reviewed Houdini\u2019s city death certificate, she thought it seemed off. Information was scratched out. Names were inaccurate. It was signed by a physician who had not been present when Houdini died.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 5. Why are sheep disappearing?<\/a><\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n The number of sheep, and the amount of sheep products being consumed, are decreasing in the UK. Why?<\/p>\n (BBC<\/a>, approx. 10 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1980 the average UK household purchased 128g of sheep meat (lamb and mutton) per person, per week. In 2024 that same measure was down to 23g per person, per week.\u201d<\/p>\n 6. He was suspected of the yoghurt shop murders for decades<\/a><\/p>\n Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n Texas man Forrest Welborn was suspected of the Austin yoghurt shop murders for 30 years. The killings were solved last year, and Welborn was officially exonerated this year \u2013 but he says he still isn\u2019t free.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Texas Monthly<\/a>, approx. 45 mins reading time)<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been pestering Forrest since 1999, after he and three other young men were arrested for allegedly taking part in one of the most notorious mass murders in Texas history\u2014the 1991 slaughter of four teenage girls at an Austin yoghurt shop. He wouldn\u2019t talk to me then, even once the charges against him were dropped nine months after they were brought. I wasn\u2019t surprised. Forrest\u2019s life was ruined by the accusations. Most people in Austin believed he was guilty. The police harassed him. The public hated him. Men pulled guns on him, and girlfriends dumped him when they found out about his past. He lost his business. He couldn\u2019t find a job. He stopped trusting almost everyone. He became an outcast in his own city. He withdrew. He drank too much. This went on for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2026AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES\u2026 Alamy Stock Photo\n<\/p>\n In this 2025 article from The New Yorker, Irish journalist Fintan O\u2019Toole reviews historian Padraic X Scanlan\u2019s book Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine.<\/p>\n![\"hull-uk-exterior-of-princes-quay-shopping-centre-built-over-princes-dock-kingston-upon-hull-yorkshire-england-uk-gb-europe\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934053_882_.jpeg\")
\n Bushby plans to reach his starting point in Hull on 1 November, 28 years to the day he took off on his journey. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"promotional-photo-c1898-of-magician-escapologist-harry-houdini-1874-1926-restrained-in-chains-and-locked-in-a-cell\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934053_242_.jpeg\")
\n Promotional photo Harry Houdini restrained in chains and locked in a cell. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![\"domestic-sheep-ovis-aries-adult-ewe-farm-animal-in-a-grass-field-in-spring-england-united-kingdom\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934054_490_.jpeg\")
\n Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n![\"jimmy-welborn-left-escorts-his-son-forrest-away-from-the-travis-county-jail-on-friday-dec-10-1999-in-austin-texas-forrest-23-one-of-four-suspects-in-the-1991-austin-yogurt-shop-killings-was\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934054_876_.jpeg\")
\n Forrest Welborn (right) was 23 when he was arrested for the murders in 1999. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n
\n7. What made the famine so deadly<\/a><\/p>\n![\"the-irish-famine-aka-the-great-famine-the-great-hunger-the-famine-and-the-irish-potato-famine-1845-to-1852-scene-at-the-gate-of-a-workhouse-from-cassells-illustrated-history-of-england\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792934055_899_.jpeg\")
\n Scene at the gate of a workhouse. Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n