The world is more interesting than you think.
Unexpected facts, big ideas, and little discoveries. Find something that sparks your curiosity today.
A little more wonder
The festival with no fixed date or location
The Wodaabe hold the weeklong Gerewol when rainy-season pastures are green enough, so its timing and location shift. The event combines a male beauty contest…
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How Melbourne trams eat through water pipes
Electric current is meant to return through the tram’s rails, but some leaks into the ground and follows buried metal pipes. That current drives electrolysis,…
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How Greensill's collapse disrupted global supply chains
Greensill made loans against business it expected companies to do later, not just invoices they had already earned. Insurers balked at backing those loans,…
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A trail of dumplings tells Richmond's migration story
The trail reflects decades of Chinese migration, from Hong Kong residents who left ahead of the 1997 handover to later arrivals from mainland China.…
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China keeps pork in reserve like an economic shock absorber
Officials can buy meat for storage when prices are weak and release frozen supplies when prices rise. Holding food back or putting it on sale changes the…
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Hunger is a brain interpretation as well as a stomach signal
Interoception is the process of sensing and interpreting events inside the body. Researchers studying anorexia examine how those signals, emotion, and body…
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Touhou hitboxes are vastly smaller than sprites
In Touhou, the vulnerable hitbox is a tiny point near the character's center, much smaller than her sprite. Players learn bullet patterns and guide that point…
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General Hospital fast set redressing economics
At a pace of 250 episodes a year, crews may transform a set overnight, swapping a hospital bed, wallpaper, and lighting to make the room look like a hotel…
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Vestron Video horror VHS neon typography art
With no online trailers to preview, renters often judged a movie by its VHS cover. Horror designs used blood-red or neon lettering against black to make…
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When falling in love feels like getting the flu
A new crush can bring a racing heart, poor sleep, a lost appetite, and thoughts that keep circling back to one person. Those sensations overlap with the…
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Montreal has a city beneath its streets
RÉSO stretches 32 kilometers, linking places to shop, study, sleep, and catch the metro without going outdoors.
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Federal Reserve bleeds money for the Treasury
Higher rates created an awkward reversal: the Fed was paying banks more interest than its bonds brought in. With operating losses piling up, its regular…
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Why Quebec's Simpsons sounds nothing like Parisian French
The Quebec dub uses Joual, a Montreal working-class dialect, rather than standard international French. Its slang helps preserve the show’s blue-collar humor…
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Cosmic rays reveal when a rock saw daylight
Cosmic rays make beryllium-10 in quartz exposed at Earth’s surface. Once the rock is buried, the ground shields it and largely stops new beryllium-10 from…
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WWE TitanTron entrance video editing tactics
TitanTron edits avoid rapid horizontal pans that can cause screen tearing on arena LED displays. The first five seconds cram in quick cuts of finishing moves…
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Why Minority Report's interface would hurt your arms
The interface required Tom Cruise to hold his arms up for long stretches. That can quickly tire the arms and shoulders, a problem often called “gorilla arm.”
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Tokugawa shoguns taxed peasants by exact rice yield
The shogunate wanted predictable tax revenue, so officials valued each village’s land by its potential rice yield, or kokudaka. Taxes were based on that…
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Dirty gold reached a US refinery through clean-looking paperwork
In its 2018 guilty plea, Elemetal admitted failing to maintain an adequate anti-money-laundering program. Court documents described gold moving through shell…
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Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity keeper
Marvel Studios employs staff to track its sprawling MCU timeline, including how Avengers: Endgame's five-year jump affects later stories.
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Star Realms trade rows suffer market rot
In Star Realms, “market rot” is a trade row clogged with cards neither player wants or can afford. Players may leave cheap cards untouched to keep the market…
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Why Skyrim makes you forget hunger and time
Skyrim keeps handing your attention a next thing to do: follow a trail, fight a dragon, search a cave. When the tasks are absorbing and rewarding, your focus…
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Bong Joon Ho Parasite subtitle rhythm rules
Darcy Paquet adjusted the English subtitles to match the timing of Bong Joon Ho’s comedic editing. He combined lines and cut redundant words so the text…
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Bandersnatch punishes you for choosing the boring path
In Netflix's interactive film “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” refusing to choose or taking the boring route can trigger scenes that mock the viewer and trap the…
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Tropic Thunder's DVD commentary became another role for Downey
Robert Downey Jr. performed portions of the commentary in the voices of his character Kirk Lazarus and Lazarus's own movie role. A bonus track about making…
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