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Consuming excessive amounts of sodium causes your body to retain water and violently spikes blood pressure
Your body seeks perfect balance, so when you eat a massively salty bag of chips, it hoards water to dilute the sodium in your bloodstream. This added fluid…
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Ascetics called Hesychasts turn the Jesus Prayer into an endless loop
By reciting the Jesus Prayer entirely unceasingly, these ascetics attempt to synchronize their inner monologue into a single, permanent track. It is the…
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Ancient Mediterranean cultures invented glass evil eye amulets because they thought blue eyes shot actual lasers
Ah, the terrifying ancient Mediterranean fear of optic radiation. The pervasive myth of the 'evil eye' stemmed from a genuine biological misunderstanding that…
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In astrology, mutual reception lets two planets swap their home bases
Mutual reception allows planets in each other's home bases to swap jobs. It is like two disgruntled employees trading shifts so they can both slack off in a…
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When working nonstop becomes a disorder
Staying at the office until midnight just to reorganize your desktop folders is not dedication, it is a pathology. Ergomania is an obsessive compulsion to…
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Japanese legends say a spider can become a beautiful musician after four centuries
The beautiful musician playing the lute is actually an enormous arachnid looking for dinner. In classical Japanese legend, a spider that survives for four…
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Three-day conventions empty nearby stores of deodorant by Saturday morning
A dense crowd of enthusiastic hobbyists is a severe biological hazard. Over the course of a three-day weekend event, the sheer volume of excited attendees…
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Why antibiotics can't treat a viral sore throat
Popping old antibiotics for the flu is a brilliant way to breed superbugs. Antibiotics only destroy bacteria. Using them against a viral infection is like…
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Bodhidharma supposedly stared at a wall for nine years to reach enlightenment
If you thought staring at your phone was bad, try an empty wall. Bodhidharma supposedly stared at a cave wall for nine years to achieve enlightenment,…
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Why a damaged battery starts to swell
Your sleek rechargeable battery is secretly a volatile chemical balloon waiting to ruin your day. When lithium-ion cells age or get damaged, the liquid…
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Margarine's trans fats were worse than butter
In a spectacular historical blunder, society swapped natural butter for heavily processed margarine. It turned out those synthetic trans fats were…
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Pisces represents two fish tied together with a rope so the gods Aphrodite and Eros would not get lost
Another panic-induced aquatic transformation. To escape that exact same monster that startled Pan, Aphrodite and her son Eros turned into fish. To ensure they…
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Extreme breath-holding can push the brain toward permanent damage from hypoxia
Oxygen is basically a crutch for the uncommitted. Practitioners forcing extreme pulmonary retention often turned entirely purple, pushing their brains to the…
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Cheese dust can permanently stain plastic
Nothing says elite performance like ruining expensive plastic with neon orange grease. The artificial dyes and industrial oils chemically bond with porous…
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Goldbach's conjecture keeps surviving without a proof
Goldbach's conjecture states that any even number greater than two is just two prime numbers added together. It works for every number we have ever simulated,…
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Hermetic texts deliberately hold opposing truths together to challenge logic
If it makes complete logical sense, you are definitely doing it wrong. The texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus are purposefully constructed to hold two…
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An empty bottle can save money at the airport
The ultimate frugal travel trick is just bringing a worthless piece of empty plastic through the checkpoint. Security agents will wave you right through,…
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Motorcycle taxis sometimes carry live goats
If you thought balancing your groceries on a moped was hard, try riding through rough terrain with three live goats strapped to your back seat. These…
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The dentist who helped invent cotton candy
Create the problem, sell the solution. In 1897, dentist William Morrison teamed up with a confectioner to invent a machine that spun pure sugar into…
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Can constant complaining train your brain to think negatively
Being an insufferable cynic actually causes permanent structural damage to your brain architecture. Thanks to neuroplasticity, neurons that fire together…
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Catamarans stay upright with two separated hulls instead of a heavy underwater keel
Why bother dragging a heavy lead keel underwater when you can just make your boat incredibly wide? By utilizing two thin, separated hulls, catamarans achieve…
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When US debt exceeds the country's yearly output
At a certain point, the numbers get so big they stop feeling real. The US national debt has ballooned past $34 trillion, meaning the government owes…
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The spiny mammal with no teeth
Australia's other weird egg-laying mammal is basically a walking cactus that exclusively slurps its meals. Echidnas lack teeth entirely, relying instead on a…
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Why Aztecs offered children's tears to the rain god
Tlaloc, the fearsome rain god, was apparently a huge fan of misery. The Aztecs believed that offering the tears of young children was the only guaranteed way…
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