The world is more interesting than you think.
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A little more wonder
Expatriates are literally outside the fatherland
An expatriate lives outside their home country, whether temporarily or indefinitely. The word's Latin parts mean “out of” and “homeland,” so they describe…
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Moving walkway floor pallets feature interlocking grooves
Each pallet’s grooves line up with teeth at the walkway’s ends, so the floor slips past the landing plate without a snag-sized opening. It’s a zipper for your…
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Why skunks stomp before spraying
A skunk stomps to warn a nearby threat, not to power up its spray. If the warning fails, it can release a sulfur-rich blast—but its supply is limited, and…
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Lunar nodes are imaginary intersecting lines that astrologers claim will definitively dictate your past life karma
In astrology, the South Node is linked to familiar habits from a past life, while the North Node points toward what you're supposed to pursue in this one—less…
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Why you think advertising works on everyone but you
You may picture advertising working by making someone buy a product they never wanted. Its quieter influence is often changing what comes to mind first or…
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Physical biorhythm cycles span 23 whole days
The theory says you're more energetic on the upswing of the 23-day physical cycle and sluggish on the downswing, giving everyday highs and lows a numerical…
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Economic blunders are usually stupidity instead of malice
When a company collapses, a clumsy decision may explain more than a secret scheme. Hanlon’s razor gives that suspicion a name: don’t assume malice when…
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Twelfth house ruler in first makes you a ghost
In astrology, this placement is said to make a person seem mysterious to strangers while drawing their sense of identity toward private, subconscious concerns.
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Amazon's first profitable year still left a very thin margin
In 2003, Amazon reported its first full-year net profit: about $35 million on $5.3 billion in sales. A huge flow of purchases didn't automatically become a…
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Orbital space launches require astronomical funding
A rocket has to burn huge amounts of chemical propellant just to escape Earth’s gravity. That makes every kilogram of cargo sent to orbit expensive.
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BioShock was almost about rescuing people from a cult
The original pitch drew on 1970s cult deprogramming, but developers thought arguing with brainwashed followers wouldn’t make exciting gameplay. They replaced…
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Blood plasma makes up more than half of human blood and is completely pale yellow
Plasma is the liquid that carries nutrients, hormones, and waste through your body. It also transports proteins that help clot blood and fight infection. Its…
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The simple line that stops ships from overloading
A painted Plimsoll line marks how deep a ship may sit in the water when loaded. If cargo pushes the line below the surface, the hull has too little…
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Splatoon competitive matches heavily prioritize floor paint
Because the match is decided by how much ground each team covers in its ink, players may ignore opponents to spray unclaimed patches of floor.
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Why Enya invented a language for her songs
Enya’s lyricist created Loxian, a fictional language with its own syntax, for her songs. Its unfamiliar words gave her lyrics a sound English couldn’t provide.
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Why a container ship can take miles to stop
A loaded ship has so much momentum that even reversing its engines may not stop it quickly: at 24 knots, it can take more than a dozen miles and up to half an…
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Yahtzee boxes include a chance category as a final fallback
It lets you score the sum of any dice, salvaging a turn when you miss the combinations you wanted.
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Zimbabwe put 100 trillion dollars on a single banknote
The enormous denomination belonged to its hyperinflation era, when adding zeros could not restore purchasing power. In the 2015 demonetization process, the…
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Why everything tends toward disorder
A tidy room is only one way to think about disorder. Entropy tracks how many arrangements energy and matter can take, and there are usually far more ways for…
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A Sartre exhibition poster lost the philosopher's cigarette
A 2005 French exhibition used a photograph in which the cigarette had disappeared, provoking debate about altering historical images. The change was tiny, but…
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Twelfth house placements represent hidden enemies and the psychological garbage you refuse to deal with
Ancient astrologers called it the “House of Bad Spirit” and linked it to prisons, asylums, and isolation; modern astrologers often recast it as a realm of…
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GoldenEye once used handshakes to reload weapons
While testing the game's mechanics, Rare made a handshake temporarily reload Bond's weapon: walking up to a Russian guard refilled his ammunition. The team…
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Wahlberg and DiCaprio had to earn each other's respect
Wahlberg recalled that neither wanted the other for The Basketball Diaries before they worked together. He later described learning to respect DiCaprio…
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A bird's building material can sit on a predator's nose
Researchers reported crocodilians floating with sticks on their snouts, including alligators observed during birds' nest-building season. They interpreted the…
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