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
Dream walking allows intruders into your subconscious
The idea that a highly skilled individual can just wander into your private sleep theater uninvited is frankly a massive privacy violation. Having an…
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Volleyball was almost called Mintonette
William G. Morgan invented the sport in 1895 as a gentler alternative to basketball, naming it Mintonette. Fortunately, someone pointed out that this sounded…
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The railway that drops down a 52-degree cliff
The Katoomba Scenic Railway is the steepest passenger railway in the world, dropping at an absurd 52-degree angle. It essentially turns a simple sightseeing…
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Armchair travel was for the broke in the 1800s
Long before you could watch high-definition walking tours on YouTube, Victorians who lacked the funds to board a ship simply stayed home and read heavily…
Discover moreIron Man was created to make readers root for a weapons tycoon
Because what the anti-war youth of the 1960s really needed was a billionaire weapons manufacturer to idolize. Stan Lee deliberately created Tony Stark as a…
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I Spy began as a Victorian parlor game
The desperate game you play when the radio dies was originally a sophisticated Victorian parlor activity. Adults in the 19th century would sit around a…
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Massive Brazilian dam fully shifted a massive river
To construct the Itaipu Dam, engineers literally had to change the course of the seventh-largest river globally. They carved an entirely new channel through…
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Why pinochle decks start at nine
A standard pinochle deck cuts out everything below a nine, doubling up on all the high cards instead. It is perfect for players who want the thrill of holding…
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Why maps are called atlases
Calling a book of maps an 'atlas' has nothing to do with the maps themselves. In 1595, a famous cartographer simply slapped an illustration of the mythical…
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Kafka wanted his unpublished writing destroyed
The patron saint of existential dread couldn't even manage his own legacy. On his deathbed, Kafka instructed his close friend Max Brod to destroy all his…
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Stevia leaves require heavy processing for bitterness
Natural sweeteners are rarely actually natural by the end. Raw stevia leaves are incredibly bitter and taste intensely of licorice. To get that white powder…
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Ectoplasm manifests as a deeply uncomfortable ghost goo
Spectral visitors love to leave behind a physical souvenir in the form of glowing, viscous slime. This gross manifestation supposedly allows disembodied…
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Disembodied voices whisper directly into your left ear
Nothing clears a room faster than hearing your own name spoken aloud by absolutely nobody. These spectral auditory glitches usually happen when you are…
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Flat Stanley began with a fear of being crushed
The beloved paper cutout you mailed across the globe in elementary school has incredibly dark origins. The creator wrote the original book after his son…
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Hacky Sack is actually called footbag
You might think you are just kicking a woven bag of dirt with your friends, but you are actually using a strictly protected corporate brand name owned by a…
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The sport where swimming strokes are banned
Competitors don flippers and snorkels to furiously paddle through a freezing, muddy trench cut into a Welsh peat bog. Traditional swimming strokes are…
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Royal litters featured entirely enclosed beds
Why sit up while traveling when you can lazily lie down behind heavy silk curtains? Monarches would simply take a nap on a suspended mattress while a team of…
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Putrajaya's roundabout is 3.5 kilometers around
The city of Putrajaya features a roundabout so ridiculously massive that navigating it feels like going on a brief road trip. If you miss your exit, you are…
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A typo gave Coraline its name
Sometimes the creepiest ideas come from bad keyboard skills. Neil Gaiman was trying to type the name 'Caroline' but slipped up and typed 'Coraline' instead.…
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National Geographic's first issue had no photos
The magazine famous for its stunning, award-winning photography literally started as a wall of dense text. When the National Geographic Society published its…
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How monks crossed rivers on a single log
Why construct an entire raft when you possess unbelievable core strength? By standing fully upright on a solitary piece of floating grass and paddling with a…
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How uterine fibroids can grow to enormous sizes
For reasons completely unknown to modern science, uterine muscle cells sometimes aggressively multiply into incredibly dense, totally rubbery masses. These…
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Why crooked picture frames bother you so much
We are inherently biased toward things that mirror each other perfectly. Evolutionary instincts tell us that symmetry equals health and safety. This is why…
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When giant tortoises became very slow mounts
Nothing screams efficiency quite like saddling up a reptile that will outlive your grandchildren. Eccentric Victorians and famous naturalists occasionally…
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