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A little more wonder
Trapping evil spirits inside wine cabinets
These supposedly haunted wooden cabinets are sold online to thrill-seekers, sometimes for exorbitant prices. The appeal is their claim to contain an evil…
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Detachable ski lifts slow the chair without slowing the cable
As a chair enters the terminal, its grip releases the fast-moving haul rope and another system carries it slowly through boarding. It then accelerates and…
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Mutable water constitutions require excessive hydration
In this astrological stereotype, people with mutable water constitutions are portrayed as needing constant hydration—and a comically oversized water jug.
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Rigel forces you to teach your hard-earned knowledge
In this interpretation, Rigel is associated with teaching and spreading ideas. That makes the star a fitting symbol for the friend who sends marathon…
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Intellectual work holds far more value than physical labor
A rock hauler gets paid for moving one load; an algorithm writer can be paid for a prediction that helps price many loads. If buyers trust the forecast, the…
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The office simulator where you can smash everything
Set in a future where robots recreate jobs as an amusement park, Job Simulator lets you ignore the assigned tasks and throw a coffee mug at a monitor or smash…
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Biltong is cured utilizing vinegar and air drying
Vinegar and spices season the meat before it's hung to air-dry, giving biltong its thick, savory bite.
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Pretty Woman began with an ending that abandoned its heroine
The earlier script, called 3,000, was far darker than the eventual romantic comedy. Julia Roberts recalled Vivian being thrown out of a car, with money tossed…
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Why saber-toothed cats had to bite carefully
The danger wasn’t simply biting hard; it was letting a struggling animal twist those long, relatively slender teeth sideways. Saber-toothed cats likely used…
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Queen Anne's greenhouse became a royal party room
Anne commissioned Kensington's Orangery to house exotic plants, but the elegant building also hosted her summer entertainments. Architects turned a practical…
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Why astronauts may be grounded from driving after spaceflight
In orbit, the body stops practicing the small balance corrections that keep a driver steady on Earth. After landing, those reflexes need time to recalibrate,…
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Venus dictates your ability to compromise smoothly
In astrology, Venus is associated with diplomacy and compromise. That symbolic link doesn’t mean the planet determines anyone’s ability to yield in an argument.
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Why parents make siblings seem more different than they are
When siblings share a home, parents may emphasize the differences that make each child easier to describe: one is “the artistic one,” another “the practical…
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Subtitles were initially branded as intertitles in cinema
In silent films, dialogue and plot points appeared on separate title cards spliced between scenes, making viewers pause the action to read.
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Prolonged incense exposure causes chronic lung issues
Surveys of older clerics have reported high rates of asthma and contact dermatitis associated with decades of incense exposure in poorly ventilated buildings.
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Iridium forms intensely colorful but useless salts
Iridium compounds can show vivid colors because each absorbs and reflects light differently. Those rainbow-like hues helped inspire the element’s name, linked…
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The saxophone aimed at outdoor orchestras before it became a jazz icon
Adolphe Sax's 1846 patent described a family of instruments intended for an open-air orchestra. Saxophones found a lasting home in military and civilian…
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Christopher Lee met Tolkien before playing Saruman
Lee met Tolkien at an Oxford pub in the 1950s and reread the trilogy every year. When Peter Jackson began casting the films, Lee wanted to be involved because…
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Visionary mystic Emanuel Swedenborg fueled his intense astral travels on a rigid diet of bread and endless milk
He also claimed to converse with angels, demons, and dead kings, and his diet reportedly included heavily sweetened coffee alongside the bread and milk.
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Pythagoras believed odd numbers were inherently masculine and even numbers were feminine
Pythagoreans associated odd numbers with masculinity, strength, and divinity, and even numbers with femininity, weakness, and the earthly.
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A sleep study found a link with changes in brain volume
Researchers followed adults with brain scans and found poorer sleep quality associated with greater loss of volume in some cortical regions. The study…
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The bright yellow rice designed to fight deficiency
Golden rice gets its color from beta-carotene, a pigment the body can turn into vitamin A. The idea is to add a potential source of that vitamin to food—not…
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A badger buried an entire calf carcass by itself
Camera traps in Utah recorded the animal excavating beneath and around a carcass much larger than itself. As the ground disappeared, the calf settled into the…
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Sichuan opera can change a performer's face in a blink
Bian lian is the face-changing technique in which performers replace one vividly colored mask with another during the action. A turn, a fan, or a sweep of…
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