The world is more interesting than you think.
Unexpected facts, big ideas, and little discoveries. Find something that sparks your curiosity today.
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Why astronauts heading to the ISS learned Russian
The ISS relies on Russian spacecraft and equipment, so astronauts needed Russian to train for missions and communicate with Russian-speaking crewmates. In…
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Printing Wikipedia became a 7,473-volume art project
In 2015, Michael Mandiberg converted the English encyclopedia into thousands of 700-page volumes, producing a selection as physical books. Even the table of…
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A gallon price makes scorpion venom look absurdly valuable
Venom is collected in tiny quantities and sold for specialized research, so multiplying a small-sample price into a whole gallon produces a spectacular…
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Mopeds kept the name after losing the pedals
The word combines motor and pedal: early mopeds were bicycles with an engine to help the rider along. Many vehicles now called mopeds have no pedals at all.…
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The bank that has survived since 1472
Monte dei Paschi di Siena began in 1472 making charitable loans to poor people in Italy. Centuries later, it is still open—but as a commercial bank.
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Why stolen passports are worth thousands
Authentic details and a clean travel history can make a stolen passport valuable to criminal networks. They may alter its photo and use it to evade border…
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Babylonian exorcists made patients eat dog feces to make their bodies far too disgusting for demons to inhabit
Babylonians believed illness came from demons inhabiting the body, so exorcists prescribed dog feces and other filth to make the body too disgusting for…
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You can fly to Rome and walk into another country
Vatican City has no conventional airport, so air travelers generally arrive through Rome before continuing overland. Its border with the city is so compact…
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Bad checkpoints make players rewatch cutscenes after every failure
Poorly placed checkpoints can leave a cutscene just before a tough fight, forcing you to watch it again after each failure. Others are so far apart that one…
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Heavy fabric marks sacred space
The covering marks the space as sacred while giving everyone a uniform silhouette.
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Black-and-white TV viewers reported grayscale dreams
People who grew up with black-and-white television sometimes reported grayscale dreams, while some later described color after color broadcasts became common.…
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A harmless pratfall can turn alarm into laughter
A fall is alarming when it happens to you, but watching one from a safe distance can turn it into a harmless violation of expectations: someone tumbles, then…
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Games use invisible boxes to simplify collision checks
Rather than test a click against every detail of a character’s polygonal model, a game can first check whether it falls inside a simple invisible box. That…
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Film crews sometimes have camera operators walk backward while filming actors
To keep pace with actors walking forward, operators sometimes retreat while filming. An assistant may tug their belt to steer them through tight spaces and…
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A small brush was used to sweep the ground ahead before every careful step
Sweeping the ground before every step turned even a short walk down a hallway into a slow, deliberate process.
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Why the middle train seat gets the worst of everything
The middle seat has no window to claim and no aisle to escape into, while both neighbors get first dibs on the armrests. It’s the seat where you inherit…
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Pilgrims roll sideways around a shrine as an intense act of devotion
Rolling sideways across the ground turns the pilgrimage into a physically demanding act of devotion, rather than an ordinary walk.
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Journey's sand took years of graphics work to look effortless
The developers repeatedly refined and rewrote the desert's rendering during the game's three-year development. Its shifting highlights make a surface of sand…
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The Last of Us found its Clicker voice in a human throat
Performer Misty Lee produced a dolphin-like sound that caught the audio team's attention. They developed it into the Clickers' unsettling calls, with Phil…
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Why train windows become mirrors after dark
After dark, the train cabin is brighter than the world outside. The window reflects the lit interior back at you, while the night beyond offers little light…
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Movie blood is mostly corn syrup
Corn syrup and food coloring give movie blood a thick, bloodlike look, though the mixture can leave the cast sticky.
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Paying massive sums for a secret whispered word
Some spiritual teachers charge large sums to assign each student a personal syllable to chant.
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What your computer is doing when it spools a print job
Spooling means your computer queues the job and converts it into printer-ready data. Because many printers have limited processing power, it may send the page…
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Cynicism may be idealism in armor
The person who says “people are terrible” may be protecting a belief that people should be better. Cynicism turns disappointment into a shield: expect…
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