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A car's crumple zone is designed to lose the fight.
A car's crumple zone is designed to lose the fight. The outer structure folds in a controlled way, using energy and extending the time over which the vehicle…
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Bots outnumbered human visits in Imperva's 2024 traffic analysis.
Bots outnumbered human visits in Imperva's 2024 traffic analysis. Its 2025 report attributed 51 percent of measured web traffic to automated activity,…
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Nick Offerman's genuinely impressive real-life woodworking skills were written directly into the character of Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation because the writers realized it…
Nick Offerman's genuinely impressive real-life woodworking skills were written directly into the character of Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation because the…
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Your biggest butt muscle works harder when you run.
Your biggest butt muscle works harder when you run. The gluteus maximus helps control the forward pitch of your trunk during running. A study comparing…
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A tourist itinerary in North Korea comes with government minders.
A tourist itinerary in North Korea comes with government minders. Foreign visitors travel under tight supervision, with restrictions on photography, movement,…
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A paint fleck forced NASA to replace a shuttle window.
A paint fleck forced NASA to replace a shuttle window. During STS-7 in 1983, a particle about 0.2 millimeters across struck a window and left damage beyond…
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Severe cold can change the odds of surviving a stopped heart.
Severe cold can change the odds of surviving a stopped heart. Hypothermia lowers the body's oxygen demand, which can allow neurological recovery after…
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A spinning wheel can turn a spacecraft without firing a rocket.
A spinning wheel can turn a spacecraft without firing a rocket. Reaction wheels spin inside satellites. Speed one up and the spacecraft turns the other way,…
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Vampire bats can keep a hungry neighbor alive by sharing blood.
Vampire bats can keep a hungry neighbor alive by sharing blood. A successful forager can regurgitate part of a meal for another bat. In a study following…
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The ticket seller can also be tied to the tour and venue.
The ticket seller can also be tied to the tour and venue. Live Nation combines concert promotion and venue operations with Ticketmaster's ticketing business.…
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A landlord can be small nationally and huge in your neighborhood.
A landlord can be small nationally and huge in your neighborhood. Institutional investors own a minority of U.S. single-family rentals overall, but their…
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A tax return can ask you to repeat information the government received.
A tax return can ask you to repeat information the government received. Employers and financial institutions report many payments to the IRS, yet taxpayers…
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Your credit-card issuer can earn money even when you pay no interest.
Your credit-card issuer can earn money even when you pay no interest. Paying the statement balance in full can avoid purchase interest, but card transactions…
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Avatar's aliens got a language people could actually learn.
Avatar's aliens got a language people could actually learn. Linguist Paul Frommer created Na'vi for James Cameron's film, giving it consistent sounds and…
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The Terminator began with a fever dream about an unstoppable skeleton.
The Terminator began with a fever dream about an unstoppable skeleton. James Cameron recalled being ill in Rome in 1981 when he dreamed of a metallic figure…
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Ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein have broken traditional retail economics by adding up to ten thousand new items to their website every single day, leveraging real-time data…
Ultra-fast fashion brands like Shein have broken traditional retail economics by adding up to ten thousand new items to their website every single day,…
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Engineers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center actually invented the graphical user interface, featuring windows, icons, and a mouse, way back in the 1970s.
Engineers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center actually invented the graphical user interface, featuring windows, icons, and a mouse, way back in the 1970s.…
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A liquid can look brittle while taking years to form a drop.
A liquid can look brittle while taking years to form a drop. The University of Queensland's pitch experiment began in 1927 to show that a material hard enough…
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Ransomware attacks have become so lucrative and formalized that many cybercriminal organizations now operate with traditional corporate structures, including human resources…
Ransomware attacks have become so lucrative and formalized that many cybercriminal organizations now operate with traditional corporate structures, including…
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A chronicler gave Basil II a terrifying victory story.
A chronicler gave Basil II a terrifying victory story. John Skylitzes described the Byzantine emperor having thousands of Bulgarian prisoners blinded after…
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A buyout can leave the company paying for its own purchase.
A buyout can leave the company paying for its own purchase. In a leveraged buyout, borrowing helps finance the acquisition, and the acquired business can end…
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Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician born in 1815, is widely recognized as the world's first computer programmer because she wrote an algorithm for Charles Babbage's…
Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician born in 1815, is widely recognized as the world's first computer programmer because she wrote an algorithm for Charles…
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A spy made twenty-seven imaginary agents useful to the Allies.
A spy made twenty-seven imaginary agents useful to the Allies. Juan Pujol, codenamed GARBO, built a fictional intelligence network that German handlers…
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Shin-kicking has rules about how to kick a shin.
Shin-kicking has rules about how to kick a shin. At England's Cotswold Olimpick Games, opponents grip each other's upper clothing and try to knock each other…
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