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Even a nuclear apocalypse can't stop the taxman
The Internal Revenue Manual sets a deadline of 30 days after a catastrophic nuclear strike to resume tax assessments and collections. The plan puts the tax…
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Roman physicians instructed patients to wear amulets carved with the word abracadabra to magically cure lethal malaria
In the second century, physician Serenus Sammonicus prescribed writing “abracadabra” on parchment in a descending triangle and wearing it around the neck. He…
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When 30 congressmen turned the House floor into a brawl
Rising tensions over slavery turned the House floor into a fight involving more than 30 congressmen. Then a punch knocked off a Mississippi representative’s…
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A Renaissance book helped spread double-entry bookkeeping
In 1494, Luca Pacioli published an influential explanation of the method already used by merchants. Each transaction appears in balancing entries, making the…
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Spain once threw platinum away as worthless silver
The miners couldn’t easily melt platinum: it takes higher temperatures than silver. So Spanish miners treated it as an irritating impurity and threw it away…
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First ever web browser was created by Tim Berners-Lee
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee built a browser called WorldWideWeb to view the Web. He later renamed it Nexus to distinguish the program from the information space.
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Onychomancy predicts your doomed future via fingernails
Onychomancy reads the sun’s reflection in an oiled fingernail; some mystics used it to predict whether someone would die in a plague.
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When two writers dueled over a poem
In the 17th century, Charles-Claude Genest and another French writer argued over a point of syntax in a poem and drew swords. One was badly wounded.
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Old disks helped recover material for Tomb Raider's remaster
Developer Paul Douglas said he spent a long weekend searching floppy and Zip disks after Aspyr contacted him in 2022. He supplied source code and assets he…
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Book of Soyga supposedly kills anyone who reads it
The death curse says deciphering the Book of Soyga brings death within two and a half years, but several scholars have decoded it and survived.
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Gef the talking mongoose was an infamous 1930s poltergeist
A family on the Isle of Man told the press that Gef could sing, complain about food, and throw rocks. They described the mongoose as an extra-dimensional…
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NASCAR began with cars built to outrun police
Southern bootleggers modified cars to carry illegal liquor quickly while looking ordinary enough to avoid attention. Some drivers then brought that mechanical…
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Under Pressure's bassline nearly vanished during a pizza break
Roger Taylor recalled John Deacon coming up with the riff, then forgetting it after the musicians went out for food. Taylor remembered it when they returned.…
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Eucalyptus trees can pull gold into their leaves
Gold in eucalyptus leaves starts underground: roots take up minute particles with water, and traces can move into the branches and leaves. Nobody is…
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A pothole grows when a small crack starts letting water in
Water enters damaged pavement and weakens the material beneath it. Freezing can widen the damage, while passing wheels keep breaking and removing the loosened…
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Green Bank keeps radio noise away from its telescope
In Green Bank, West Virginia, radio astronomy depends on detecting signals far weaker than those from ordinary electronics. Restrictions on transmitters and…
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John Adams made switching from tea to coffee a political choice
In a 1774 letter to Abigail, Adams described being told that tea was no longer patriotic and declared that he would give it up. The drink had become entangled…
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Why some anxious people expect the worst
Anxiety makes the cost of being caught unprepared feel enormous. So the mind rehearses bad outcomes as if imagining them could provide protection. The…
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Ancient Egyptian amulets featured magic pillows for the dead
These tiny headrest amulets were meant to give the deceased a place to rest their head in the afterlife.
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Iceland once counted wealth in dried fish
Its old valuation system linked goods such as dried fish, woolen cloth, and livestock. One unit called a hundred could equal 240 qualifying dried fish or a…
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Tears of joy can make people comfort you instead of celebrating louder
In experiments using photographs and videos, observers responded differently to smiling happiness and crying happiness. Tears prompted more attempts to soothe…
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Hitler, Stalin, Trotsky, and Tito all spent time in Vienna in 1913
They were there for different reasons, before the revolutions and wars that made their names inseparable from 20th-century politics. Sharing a city does not…
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Cloud computing is a deliberately misleading marketing term designed to make consumers envision their digital data floating peacefully in an ethereal sky, when in reality it is…
Cloud computing is a deliberately misleading marketing term designed to make consumers envision their digital data floating peacefully in an ethereal sky,…
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Honey keeps microbes thirsty even inside a sticky liquid.
Honey keeps microbes thirsty even inside a sticky liquid. Its concentrated sugars leave very little water available for microbes to use, and its acidity adds…
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