Early surfboards were astonishingly heavy

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Modern foam is lightweight and weak. The original wave-riders carved their floating transport from massive, solid trees, requiring immense physical strength just to drag the heavy board from the beach to the water.

From the Stacky collection1 min read

Early surfboards were astonishingly heavy — STACKY / Transport

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Transport

Cave paintings show Stone Age swimmers using breaststroke

Pushing water away in a wide circular motion isn't a modern Olympic invention. Prehistoric art clearly illustrates early humans using this exact awkward…

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Transport

The first water skis were bent barrel pieces

Modern composite is a massive upgrade. The very first guy to successfully glide over a lake being pulled by a rope used literal pieces of a wooden barrel he…

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Transport

Why did some of the world's busiest subway systems completely remove all of their trash cans?

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Transport

Dogs once powered butter churns

Before modern appliances, lazy humans outsourced their kitchen labor to the family pet. Small dogs were placed on specialized wooden wheels that connected to…

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Transport

One of the world’s busiest airports was once a swamp: Schiphol in Amsterdam means ‘ship graveyard’ because storms wrecked boats there centuries earlier.

Travelers hurry through bright glass halls at Schiphol without imagining the ghosts beneath their feet. Centuries ago, storms wrecked ships here, filling a…

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Transport

Submarine sandwiches have absolutely nothing to do with naval transportation and only got their name because a grocery store owner in 1927 thought his Italian bread rolls vaguely resembled the shape of a submarine.

Submarine sandwiches have absolutely nothing to do with naval transportation and only got their name because a grocery store owner in 1927 thought his Italian…

Discover more

Early surfboards were astonishingly heavy

A bigger world.One discoveryat a time.

Keep exploring

Cave paintings show Stone Age swimmers using breaststroke

The first water skis were bent barrel pieces

Why did some of the world's busiest subway systems completely remove all of their trash cans?

Dogs once powered butter churns

One of the world’s busiest airports was once a swamp: Schiphol in Amsterdam means ‘ship graveyard’ because storms wrecked boats there centuries earlier.

Submarine sandwiches have absolutely nothing to do with naval transportation and only got their name because a grocery store owner in 1927 thought his Italian bread rolls vaguely resembled the shape of a submarine.

A bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.