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King George IV drank wine with breakfast
King George IV was absolutely notorious for his astronomical gluttony. He routinely started his mornings in bed with a hearty meal of pigeon pie, beef, and…
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When TV networks shipped shows by airplane
High-speed transmission used to mean buying a plane ticket. Before reliable satellite uplinks, networks literally recorded the East Coast feed onto massive…
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Psycho Mantis could read your PS1 memory card
Hideo Kojima loves breaking the fourth wall so much he basically shattered it into dust. In Metal Gear Solid, the telepathic boss Psycho Mantis would read the…
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Alchemists classified bodily fluids as philosophical mercury
Turning basic anatomy into a deeply frustrating riddle. Rather than dealing with actual physical substances, spiritual alchemists mapped their highly complex…
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First commercial deodorant officially rolled out in 1888
For almost all of human history, society simply accepted that everybody smelled like old onions and hard labor. It wasn't until 1888 that an unknown inventor…
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Why your commute is unpaid work
Your commute is literally you subsidizing your employer's preferred geographical footprint. The hours spent sitting in gridlock are a significant, completely…
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Feng Shui literally translates simply to wind and water
Often commodified into premium interior design consultations, this practice boils down to a couple of basic elements. The fundamental goal is to align living…
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Why airport baggage belts are tilted
The tilted metal belts are not just for easy grabbing. Plunging a heavily packed fifty pound block of rigid polycarbonate down a steep chute onto flat metal…
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How Hugh Jackman got Wolverine’s veins to stand out
Male body standards in superhero movies are totally normal and not at all a horrific medical hazard. To achieve that vascular, shredded look for his shirtless…
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Selfless service turns ignoring yourself into a holy virtue
Through rigorous 'seva,' practitioners attempt to entirely completely erase their own personal desires by constantly working strictly for the benefit of…
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Weekender bags imply a strictly timed escape
Marketing a piece of luggage specifically for two days of existence is a stroke of genius. The weekender bag is purposely designed to be exactly too big for…
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How submarine tours began
The recreational business of touring the ocean depths started entirely because cheap entrepreneurs realized they could cram paying civilians into cramped,…
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The childhood game that planned your entire future
Nothing screams childhood optimism like actively predicting you will live in a mansion while married to a celebrity. This classic pencil-and-paper delusion…
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Why a church council banned priests from jumping
Gravity was apparently a theological requirement. A stern 9th-century gathering of bishops in Auxerre specifically wrote a decree strictly forbidding holy men…
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Heliocentric astrology puts the sun at the center of the birth chart completely ruining traditional geometric aspects
Just when you comfortably memorized your Earth-centric birth chart, 'Heliocentric Astrology' crashes the party. This highly chaotic, fringe technique…
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The Italian cheese filled with live maggots
Traditional cheesemaking apparently wasn't extreme enough, so they invited flies to lay eggs in it. The resulting larvae digest the fats to make the cheese…
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Astronomers almost named the planet Uranus after King George which would have ruined modern astrology charts
Imagine trying to take your mystical birth chart seriously if it told you your 'George' was in retrograde. William Herschel originally named his newly…
Discover moreNoctis Lucis Caelum translates to light of the night sky
When your parents are literal royalty, they refuse to settle for names like John or Paul. The brooding protagonist of Final Fantasy XV sports a full Latin…
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Why people knock on wood for luck
Because trees were obviously hollowed-out hotels for helpful deities. Anytime you bragged about your good luck, you had to rapidly punch a nearby log to wake…
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How today's wealth gap compares with pre-revolutionary France
Right before the peasant class brought out the guillotines, the resource divide between the aristocracy and the poor was actually less extreme than it is…
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Telemark skiing mandates lunging motions to initiate turns
As if navigating a frozen slope was not strenuous enough, some folks decided to add deep knee bends. Utilizing bindings that leave the heel free, Telemark…
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Tens mostly date tens while fives stick with fives
Despite what romantic comedies violently insist, incredibly beautiful folks very rarely date completely average looking people. We instinctively seek out…
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Magnavox Odyssey battery life was nearly non-existent
Since power adapters were apparently considered an exotic luxury, early adopters had to shove six massive C-batteries into the unit just to make a dot bounce…
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On the Amalfi Coast, stopping for a selfie can cost you
Main character syndrome has become such a massive traffic hazard that local Italian authorities had to literally outlaw pausing for pictures. The winding…
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