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Apollo 10's astronauts came home at nearly 25,000 mph
The lunar return built up tremendous speed as Earth's gravity pulled the capsule inward. It reached about 24,791 mph before atmospheric entry slowed it. The…
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Russian cosmists tried to combine Orthodox mysticism with space travel to physically resurrect every dead human
Fedorov argued that science should resurrect everyone who had died and that humanity would need space travel to house them. His 19th-century philosophy joined…
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Tibetan monks supposedly performed tummo meditation to dry freezing wet sheets with pure mystical body heat
Practitioners visualize a flame in the abdomen and are said to generate enough heat to dry sheets soaked in icy water, even in freezing conditions.
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E.T.'s alien face borrowed from very human celebrities
Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway, and poet Carl Sandburg were among the faces associated with Carlo Rambaldi's design. Familiar signs of age and character…
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Airport screeners found a gun stuffed inside a raw chicken
The TSA reported the discovery at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in November 2022. Wrapping a prohibited object in food had not made it…
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The Lion King was almost called King of the Jungle
Disney developed the project under the title King of the Jungle before settling on The Lion King. The final name puts the royal family at the center instead…
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J and Q are absent from today's permanent element symbols
The 118 named elements use symbols drawn from several languages and naming traditions, rather than a complete alphabet. Iron's Fe comes from Latin, for…
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Paul Bettany voiced JARVIS without watching Iron Man
He’d spend about two hours in a recording booth reading techno-babble, then leave without seeing the film. He didn’t learn the movies’ plots until he was cast…
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Why farts can catch fire
Some gut bacteria make methane and hydrogen as they digest food, and those gases can burn. But not every fart contains enough of them to catch fire; many are…
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Excel 97 secretly contained a 3D flight simulator
Opening a specific worksheet, pressing F5, and clicking through hidden controls launched a purple 3D flight simulator with a monolith bearing the developers’…
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Scientists actually tested the snooze button
In a 2023 sleep-lab study of habitual snoozers, thirty minutes of snoozing cost only about six minutes of sleep. Immediately after getting up, participants…
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Canada's polar-bear license plates are shaped like bears
In Canada’s Northwest Territories, the license plate is cut in the silhouette of a polar bear, an emblem of the region. The shape makes the plate…
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Why Alexa is always listening for its wake word
Echo devices analyze audio locally for the wake word; once they detect “Alexa,” they begin recording and send the request to Amazon’s cloud.
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Why UPS drivers avoid left turns
A left turn crosses oncoming traffic, which means waiting for a gap and burning fuel at the curb. UPS route software strings right turns together to keep…
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America owes trillions to itself
Some of the government’s IOUs are held by its own trust funds, including Social Security. The government borrowed that money and still owes it back; the…
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Why Shrek is named after fear
The name comes from the German word “Schreck” and the Yiddish word “shrek,” both meaning “fear” or “terror”—a fitting name for an ogre.
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Anti-litter campaigns made the consumer the final link
Packaging companies helped fund campaigns that emphasized what people did after buying a drink or snack. That framing focused attention on disposal rather…
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Queen Victoria's diaries passed through her daughter's filter
Princess Beatrice produced heavily edited copies of her mother's journals. The surviving record therefore carries two voices in a less obvious sense: the…
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Las Vegas gondoliers had to earn their stripes
The Venetian described a training program that combined swimming and safety tests, boat handling, singing and local knowledge. In its 2015 account, trainees…
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Aztec priests practiced dark magic by staring into polished obsidian mirrors to speak with the smoking mirror god
Aztec priests used polished obsidian mirrors to scry for the future and commune with Tezcatlipoca, whose name means “Smoking Mirror.”
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The Pentagon once proposed a gay bomb
Wright Laboratory requested $7.5 million for a chemical weapon meant to provoke homosexual behavior among enemy troops and undermine morale and discipline.…
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Nuclear submarines deliberately have absolutely no windows to prevent structural collapse under pressure
A submarine’s pressure hull has to withstand enormous water pressure, and a window would create a vulnerable opening in that strong shell. Periscopes and…
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Edison didn’t invent the light bulb alone
By 1879, more than 20 inventors had worked on incandescent bulbs. Edison bought Henry Woodward and Mathew Evans’s patent, then improved the filament so it…
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Many cocoa farmers have never tasted chocolate
West African farmers can grow the cocoa beans that become chocolate and still be unable to afford the finished treat. Poverty wages keep the people growing…
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