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A little more wonder
Borderlands strictly relies on fiercely chaotic explosions
Its loot system generates millions of procedurally varied guns, including absurd designs such as a shotgun that fires exploding swords.
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Hessdalen lights appear as floating orbs over a valley
Reports describe glowing spheres drifting over a remote Scandinavian valley, but researchers have not established what powers them.
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Uncharted turned a train into an action scene
The game turns a train ride into a combat set piece: players fight while balancing on fast-moving, crumbling passenger cars.
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Fridge magnets remain the undisputed king of souvenirs
They’re inexpensive, travel well, and can hold up everything from postcards to utility bills on the fridge.
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Why night vision is green
Green phosphor is used because human eyes can distinguish many shades of green, making subtle details easier to see.
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Why a bat bite can go unnoticed
A bat bite may not look like much: tiny, sharp teeth can leave a mark someone barely notices. But the wound’s size does not tell you whether rabies was…
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Bandwagon effect forces you to buy what everyone else has
You can dislike a style until your friends start wearing it. Seeing them adopt it makes the same look feel more appealing, and fitting in can outweigh your…
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Candida auris is an emerging fungal superbug
Candida auris is a drug-resistant yeast that can persist on hospital surfaces. That combination makes it difficult to control: it can remain in the…
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Horizon perfectly demands deeply aggressive robot dismantling
The game’s machines are armored and towering, but players fight them with bows and arrows—a striking mismatch between high-tech enemies and sharpened sticks.
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A kitchen sponge offers bacteria both a home and a food supply
Its pores retain moisture and food residue, while repeated wiping moves material between surfaces. Studies find dense microbial communities in used sponges,…
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Chimneys were built with crooks to block falling debris
The bend was meant to stop debris from dropping straight into the fireplace, but it could trap soot and create a fire hazard.
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Why comic artists used blue pencils
Reprographic cameras couldn't detect non-photo blue, so artists could leave their sketch lines in place without erasing them.
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Extreme jealousy leads to wild cheating accusations
A person consumed by jealousy may treat uncertainty like a detective’s clue: a hidden phone, a quiet mood, a late reply. Once the mind expects cheating,…
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A Hard Rock shirt was a travel post you could wear
A location-specific shirt with the guitar logo became a way to show off where you'd traveled, long before Instagram.
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David Atchison may have been president for one day
Polk’s term ended on Sunday, and Taylor waited until Monday to take the oath, leaving a one-day gap that put Atchison’s name in the presidential succession…
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Digital literature utilizes completely fluid text formatting
E-book text reflows when readers change the font size, shifting words onto new lines and changing the layout from device to device.
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No extradition treaty doesn’t guarantee escape
A country without a formal extradition treaty can still choose to deport someone to their home country, so the absence of a treaty doesn’t guarantee escape.
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When ATMs swallowed your card after wrong PINs
Some early ATMs pulled in a card after too many incorrect PIN attempts instead of ejecting it. That kept someone else from taking another shot at the card,…
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The equals sign replaced a phrase its inventor kept repeating
In 1557, Robert Recorde introduced two parallel lines as shorthand for is equal to. He explained the choice by saying that no two things could be more equal.…
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Why smart suitcases can be a fire risk
Lithium batteries can pose a fire risk in cargo holds, so restrictions on smart bags can leave models with built-in batteries unusable.
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Professional book indexers manually categorize back pages
A professional indexer reads the manuscript and decides which concepts deserve entries, so the alphabetized list reflects human judgment rather than an…
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Breaking glass on purpose is supposed to secure fortune
At gatherings, people shattered glass in the belief that the noise would drive bad luck away and usher in prosperity.
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Half-Life's G-Man still has no backstory
The suited bureaucrat keeps appearing throughout the series, but the games have never explained who he is.
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Audio show cover art must scale to microscopic dimensions
Cover art may appear at postage-stamp size on a phone, where fine details and subtle gradients can disappear. Large, legible elements hold up better.
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