The world is more interesting than you think.
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A little more wonder
Batman Begins turns a floppy cape into wings with electricity
The film's fictional memory cloth stiffens when Bruce applies an electrical charge through his glove. That lets the same garment hang behind him while he…
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In Catan, the robber can shut down a sheep pasture
Move the robber onto a pasture, and it can block wool production from that hex, leaving players without that resource to trade.
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Water ripples acting as mystical displays
In hydromancy, practitioners read the ripples after tossing a pebble into water as signs about the future.
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A Pokémon broadcast exposed the danger of rapid flashing images
Hundreds of children were taken to hospitals after a red-and-blue flashing sequence aired in Japan in 1997; some were admitted with seizures. The incident led…
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Gelotology is the scientific field dedicated to laughter
The scientific study of laughter has a name: gelotology. Researchers in the field can ask why a joke gets a laugh, why people laugh together, and how laughter…
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Why passports still use holograms
A hologram changes appearance as you tilt the passport, thanks to microscopic patterns that are difficult to copy with ordinary printing. Border officers get…
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European nobles paid fortunes for bezoars which were literally just crusty goat stomach stones
They were prized as universal antidotes, so royals wore them as jewelry or dropped them into wine; each was an indigestible mass of hair and fiber from a…
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TV sweeps gave networks a reason to save their biggest episodes
U.S. audience measurement traditionally concentrated on periods in February, May, July, and November. Those ratings helped determine local advertising prices,…
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The Walking Dead had a school for zombie walkers
Extras attended a “Zombie School” run by executive producer Greg Nicotero, where they learned to limp, twitch, and stagger so the undead horde moved…
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Guess Who features exactly twenty four distinct characters
Players narrow the roster by judging visible features, such as whether a character wears a hat.
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Video games let you insult kings to their faces
Some games let you insult an absolute monarch to his face without triggering a response from his guards.
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Mudras are highly specific hand gestures
In some spiritual traditions, mudras are believed to direct or seal energy in the body, with specific finger positions carrying symbolic meaning.
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International copyright protected intellectual monopolies
Publishers could reprint foreign books without paying because copyright stopped at national borders. The 1886 Berne Convention required member countries to…
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One marker lets you stand in four U.S. states at once
Visitors pay an entry fee to stand on a brass marker where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet.
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Why movies always seem to have a full moon
A full moon offers bright, dramatic night lighting on screen, so films often show one regardless of the moon’s actual phase.
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Value added tax was invented by an accountant
A French tax official designed a system that taxed the value added at each stage of production instead of waiting for the final sale. The result was a tax…
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Why fake designer clothes may make cheating easier
Putting on a fake designer label can make a person feel less authentic, and that feeling can spill into how they judge their own behavior. In experiments,…
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You can take oversized liquid medicine through airport security
The 3.4-ounce liquid limit has an exception for medically necessary liquids, including larger bottles of medicine. Tell the security officer and present the…
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Willow branches effortlessly yield to outside force
Astrological botany treats willow as yielding rather than resistant, associating its wood with absorbing force instead of deflecting it.
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A risky loan pool can sell a slice rated AAA
Structured debt divides payments and losses into layers. Lower layers take losses first, shielding the senior slice and helping it earn a high rating. The…
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Why raw oysters may still be alive when served
They’re kept alive until they’re shucked, so a freshly served oyster may still be alive.
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Why some keyboards ditch the number pad
Tenkeyless keyboards drop the number pad, saving several inches of desk space and bringing the mouse closer to the center of your body.
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A ship's twenty-thousand-container rating is a unit of capacity
Ever Given belongs to the 20,000-TEU class, with TEU meaning a twenty-foot-equivalent container unit. A forty-foot container counts as two of those units. The…
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Canada kept the name Kraft Dinner—and made it KD
Introduced in Canada and the US in 1937, the boxed meal became a particularly familiar part of Canadian food culture. Canadians kept the Kraft Dinner name…
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