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
Persona 5 features a soundtrack sung entirely in English
Though the game is set in Tokyo and centers on Japanese high school life, every vocal track is sung in English, giving its soundtrack a striking contrast with…
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Practitioners love storing things in heavy wooden boxes
Esoteric supplies are kept in heavy, carved wooden chests rather than ordinary plastic containers.
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A nursery rhyme acquired a plague story long afterward
The familiar explanation of Ring Around the Rosie connects flowers, sneezing, and falling down with epidemic death. Folklorists trace that interpretation to…
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Pokémon almost had a very different name
Satoshi Tajiri first pitched “Capsule Monsters,” inspired by Japanese gashapon toys, but struggled to trademark the name. The title became “Pocket Monsters,”…
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This Australian highway goes 90 miles without a bend
The Eyre Highway's 90 Mile Straight runs for about 146 kilometers across the Nullarbor region. Drivers get a remarkably long uninterrupted line instead of a…
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What the white crescent on your nail really is
The white lunula is the visible edge of the nail matrix, where new cells are being made. Those cells have not yet formed the translucent, flattened nail that…
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Ceramic chips generate higher frequency acoustics than plastic
Ceramic tokens' denser structure makes them ping when they collide, rather than thud like plastic.
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Jet Set Radio heavily popularized cel-shaded comic styles
Its graffiti-tagging skaters were rendered with bold outlines and flat, cartoon-like colors, helping make cel shading a recognizable video-game look.
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The surprisingly bleak origin of honeymoon
“Honeymoon” was once tied to the notion that newlyweds’ sweetness would last only briefly, like a moon that waxes and then wanes. The name makes the first…
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Why Brad Pitt eats in almost every scene of Ocean's Eleven
Pitt made Rusty’s constant snacking a character choice: a stressed-out heist planner wouldn’t have time for a proper sit-down lunch.
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Helicopters land on hospital roofs using precise angles
A rooftop helipad has obstacles close by, so pilots follow a clear approach path and descend with careful control. The helicopter needs room for its rotors…
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Lemuria represents a mushy fictional lost continent
Believers describe Lemuria as a lost civilization that sank beneath the ocean, populated by highly emotional beings.
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Orthographic rendering mathematically removes perspective
It renders distant and nearby objects at the same scale, so they don't shrink with distance as they do in perspective rendering.
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Viruses may outnumber every grain of beach sand
Imagine counting every grain of beach sand, then discovering the estimated number of viruses on Earth is even larger: about one followed by 31 zeros. Many of…
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Hacker culture has roots in a model railway club
At MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, ingenious tinkering with complex control systems helped cultivate the meaning of a 'hack.' Members carried that…
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Numinous describes an experience both terrifying and holy
Rudolf Otto coined the term for the paradox of feeling drawn toward a divine mystery while also overwhelmed and afraid before it.
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Early plates were squares of wood with a carved depression
Before fine china was widely available, a plate could be a board with a hollow carved into it. The dip kept gruel from running off; tableware was doing the…
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Following the principle of mentalism strictly
Devotees see the universe as fundamentally mental and believe thought can reshape reality.
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Aristocrats once served live animals in pies
Some spectacular banquet dishes used a baked pastry shell to conceal live birds until it was opened. The animals were put into the hollow case rather than…
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A pianist bequeathed his skull for a Shakespeare role
André Tchaikowsky left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company, hoping it could play Yorick in Hamlet. It eventually appeared with David Tennant in 2008.…
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The burger with molten cheese trapped inside
Minneapolis’s Jucy Lucy has cheese sealed inside the patty, where it becomes a pocket of molten cheese that can burn anyone who bites too soon.
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How brain trauma can unlock extraordinary abilities
In rare cases, brain injury is followed by an unexpected talent. One explanation is that damage changes the brain’s usual filters, letting details or patterns…
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Why oil-rich countries can still be poor
Oil wealth can create a prize worth fighting over: control of the revenue. If that money fuels corruption and weakens government, the country can grow slowly…
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How World of Warcraft players reinvented banking
Guilds pooled players' gold in shared banks, then used it to fund raids. The virtual vault had a real job: collect contributions and distribute the money…
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