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
London had a subway while the US Civil War was still raging
Historical timelines are deeply weird when you overlap them. In 1863, while the United States was busy tearing itself apart with muskets and cannons at the…
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Twilight was rejected by fourteen publishers
Fourteen different industry professionals looked at a manuscript about sparkling, emotionally manipulative vampires playing baseball and correctly identified…
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The first hybrid car was built in 1899
If you thought the Toyota Prius was a bold modern innovation, you are about a century late to the party. Long before he was building absurdly fast luxury…
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Every Google search leaves a carbon footprint
Next time you frantically Google if a hotdog is a sandwich at 2 AM, remember that you are tangibly contributing to global warming. Because Google's server…
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Canada sold every ounce of its official gold
While other global superpowers are hoarding shiny metal in underground vaults like paranoid dragons, Canada just sold it all off and decided to blindly trust…
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World of Warcraft turned logging off into a reward
If you want to force a hardcore addict to stop playing, just trick their brain into thinking taking a break is an optimal power move. In the beta of World of…
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The mail-carrying submarines of wartime France
During the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Paris was completely surrounded and cut off by enemy forces. Desperate to keep communication lines open, the French…
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The desert no country wants to claim
In a world where nations constantly go to war over microscopic borders, this 800-square-mile sandbox is the ultimate reject. Claiming it would legally ruin…
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Australia sells vacations despite its deadly wildlife
Come for the Opera House, stay because you were paralyzed by an Inland Taipan. It takes a special kind of marketing genius to convince millions of people to…
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Why the Grand Canyon's age is still debated
You'd think staring at a gigantic hole in the ground for a century would yield some concrete answers, but scientists are famously stubborn. The 'old canyon'…
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Cut Alaska in half and both pieces beat Texas
Texans absolutely love to brag about how massive their state is, but Alaska is quietly sitting up north dwarfing them by a comical margin. It is so…
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Why ancient Greeks ate cabbage after drinking
Ancient Greeks completely convinced themselves that staring at or vigorously eating raw cabbage was a flawless cure for a brutal hangover. They literally…
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Most online arguments never get past the headline
The comment section is a battlefield of the fiercely uninformed. Data shows that a staggering majority of users who share and aggressively argue over digital…
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GLaDOS is voiced by an opera singer
Ellen McLain, the voice behind the passive-aggressive, murderous AI, is an opera singer. That's why the robotic singing at the end of the credits is so…
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Mario’s voice actor also plays a Skyrim dragon
Imagine realizing the same vocal cords that shout joyful Italian stereotypes are also responsible for the deep, booming philosophical musings of Paarthurnax.…
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String interpolation inserts variables directly into sentences without concatenation
Instead of politely adding text strings together, interpolation rips a hole in a sentence and surgically implants a variable inside it. It allows developers…
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Pinterest is organized daydreaming
Millions of people use aesthetic digital boards to plan elaborate weddings they aren't having and design houses they don't own. Platforms like Pinterest…
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Death Stranding turns bodily fluids into weapons
When fighting invisible tar ghosts, the hero relies entirely on his own bodily fluids. His sweat, blood, and excrement are weaponized into usable grenades.…
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Giant sloths dug cave systems beneath South America
Modern sloths are practically catatonic moss-covered speed bumps, but their ancestors were absolute terraforming nightmares. Extinct ground sloths the size of…
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The princess of Hyrule may share a voice with villains
The elegant, gentle princess of Hyrule is often voiced by actresses who spend their weekends screaming about blood and destruction in mature dubs. It really…
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Elephant ancestors evolved bizarre elongated snouts before developing useful trunks
Before elephants figured out how to develop their incredibly useful, flexible trunks, their ancestors had to go through a deeply embarrassing transitional…
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Why fit people may perceive hikes as shorter
Hitting the gym literally physically alters your overall perception of the landscape. A grueling five-mile hike literally looks exactly like a remarkably…
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Walking completely on hands was a historical challenge
Because human legs are apparently boring, some 19th-century showmen decided to cross enormous distances entirely inverted. Walking on your hands flips your…
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Why hotel staff are called bellhops
In an era before intercoms and digital apps, human beings had to be summoned via obnoxious brass instruments. The term originated in the early 1900s because…
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