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Fast & Furious sometimes filmed stunts before writing the story
Who needs a coherent narrative when you have nitrous oxide and the concept of 'family'? Because the release dates for these blockbuster behemoths are locked…
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When workers were paid in vodka
When your country's fiscal policy heavily relies on getting the workforce absolutely hammered just to cope with reality. During the devastating economic…
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Bats remain the singular mammalian species on this planet capable of achieving sustained powered flight
Flying squirrels are lying frauds who just fall with style in meat-suits, leaving bats as the only true aerial mammals. Unlike gliders, bats evolved highly…
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Google was born from a misspelling
The most influential tech company in the universe was born from a typo. The founders wanted to name it 'Googol'—a one followed by a hundred zeros—to represent…
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The studio wanted the John Wick puppy to live
In a shocking display of completely misunderstanding the assignment, the studio financiers fought tooth and nail to save the beagle. They argued that killing…
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Why Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey to the eagle
If one of America's most famous founding fathers had his way, the national symbol of freedom would literally be the ugliest bird at the petting zoo. In a 1784…
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Why we crave news that tells us we're right
We are all just junkies endlessly chasing the high of being told we are right. Confirmation bias ensures that we actively seek out and instantly believe…
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How Plato may have built an ancient alarm clock
Turns out, waking up against your will is a cross-cultural, millennia-spanning trauma. The philosopher Plato supposedly had a massive water clock (clepsydra)…
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Bananas contain potassium-40, making them legitimately radioactive enough to trigger false alarms at nuclear checkpoints if you pack enough of them, though you would need to eat…
Bananas contain potassium-40, making them legitimately radioactive enough to trigger false alarms at nuclear checkpoints if you pack enough of them, though…
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Major commercial airlines routinely make more operating profit from selling frequent flyer miles to massive credit card companies than they do from actually flying passengers around the globe.
Major commercial airlines routinely make more operating profit from selling frequent flyer miles to massive credit card companies than they do from actually…
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Incompetent people consistently overestimate their own skills, a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Incompetent people consistently overestimate their own skills, a cognitive bias known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. While you spend hours doubting every life…
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Napoleon Bonaparte organized a massive rabbit hunt in 1807 to celebrate his signing of the Treaties of Tilsit, expecting a relaxing day of shooting defenseless woodland creatures.
Napoleon Bonaparte organized a massive rabbit hunt in 1807 to celebrate his signing of the Treaties of Tilsit, expecting a relaxing day of shooting…
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Venus flytraps essentially have a rudimentary ability to count, requiring exactly two touches on their sensory hairs within twenty seconds to snap shut, which prevents the plant…
Venus flytraps essentially have a rudimentary ability to count, requiring exactly two touches on their sensory hairs within twenty seconds to snap shut, which…
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Human feet contain approximately 250,000 individual sweat glands and can produce up to half a pint of perspiration in a single day, serving as a localized cooling system that was…
Human feet contain approximately 250,000 individual sweat glands and can produce up to half a pint of perspiration in a single day, serving as a localized…
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New car smell is actually a toxic cocktail of volatile organic compounds off-gassing from the freshly manufactured adhesives, plastics, and vinyls used in the interior of the vehicle.
New car smell is actually a toxic cocktail of volatile organic compounds off-gassing from the freshly manufactured adhesives, plastics, and vinyls used in the…
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Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries participated in the most famous secret religious rites of ancient Greece by drinking a barley beverage called kykeon that was likely contaminated with psychoactive ergot.
Initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries participated in the most famous secret religious rites of ancient Greece by drinking a barley beverage called kykeon…
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Steven Spielberg only invented the modern blockbuster suspense thriller because the mechanical shark he built for Jaws kept sinking to the bottom of the ocean; the prop,…
Steven Spielberg only invented the modern blockbuster suspense thriller because the mechanical shark he built for Jaws kept sinking to the bottom of the…
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Gandhi's infamous obsession with nuclear weapons in the original Civilization game was caused by an integer underflow glitch.
Gandhi's infamous obsession with nuclear weapons in the original Civilization game was caused by an integer underflow glitch. His aggression rating was set to…
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Minecraft creator Markus Persson accidentally created the iconic Creeper while trying to code a completely normal pig.
Minecraft creator Markus Persson accidentally created the iconic Creeper while trying to code a completely normal pig. He mixed up the height and length…
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London Underground platforms are infested with a unique species of mosquito that specifically evolved to survive in the dark, subterranean tunnels and feed off the blood of miserable commuters.
London Underground platforms are infested with a unique species of mosquito that specifically evolved to survive in the dark, subterranean tunnels and feed…
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Unused gift cards generate billions of dollars in pure unearned profit for major retail corporations every single year because consumers simply forget to spend them.
Unused gift cards generate billions of dollars in pure unearned profit for major retail corporations every single year because consumers simply forget to…
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Somalia operated without a functioning central bank or formal monetary policy for over two decades, leading ordinary citizens to use high-quality counterfeit shillings as their actual everyday standard currency.
Somalia operated without a functioning central bank or formal monetary policy for over two decades, leading ordinary citizens to use high-quality counterfeit…
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George Lucas completely outsmarted Fox executives in the nineteen-seventies by accepting a lower salary for directing Star Wars in exchange for keeping the merchandising rights,…
George Lucas completely outsmarted Fox executives in the nineteen-seventies by accepting a lower salary for directing Star Wars in exchange for keeping the…
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Grace Hopper and her team at Harvard University recorded the very first actual computer bug in 1947 when a literal moth flew into the relays of the Mark II computer and caused a massive hardware failure.
Grace Hopper and her team at Harvard University recorded the very first actual computer bug in 1947 when a literal moth flew into the relays of the Mark II…
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