Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Theme parks make upper floors look smaller
Designers use forced perspective, making bricks and windows on upper floors smaller so the buildings appear taller than they are.
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An ebook license can wear out without the file wearing out
In 2011, HarperCollins introduced a 26-loan limit for certain library ebook licenses. After that, the library needed another license to keep lending the…
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Why one missing comic shipment could ruin a shop
For decades, local shops relied on a single, inflexible distributor, so one missing box could leave an entire region without its weekly comics.
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An unsold paperback can be returned without its pages
For eligible mass-market books, a retailer sends back the stripped cover as proof for a credit, while the remaining book is destroyed. Shipping a thin cover…
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Why your phone downloads audio at midnight
Phones may sync RSS audio feeds while plugged in, often overnight, so downloads can appear around midnight even when nobody is listening.
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Comic-book capitals make crowded speech easier to arrange
Uppercase letters give hand-lettered dialogue a more consistent height, without lowercase descenders hanging below the line. That helps a letterer fit words…
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Hollowed out books act as functional covert storage spaces
A hollowed-out book can conceal valuables, emergency cash, or other small items while blending into a bookshelf.
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How thriller writers get criminal details right
Writers may consult former criminals and forensic experts, then cross-check the details so fictional crimes don't hinge on obvious mistakes.
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Why old books smell like something is rotting
As lignin and cellulose in paper break down, they release volatile compounds that give old books their distinctive vanilla-like smell.
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The system feeding podcasts is basically a text file
An RSS feed is a text document containing links to podcast episodes; podcast apps read it to find new audio.
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International standard book numbers track geographic origin
ISBNs include group and publisher identifiers, which can point to a language or country area and the publisher—not just identify the title.
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Your digital library book can vanish mid-chapter
When the two-week loan expires, digital rights management can lock the file on your device—even if you’re only three pages from the end.
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Spoken word audio transcripts rely on heavily flawed robots
Automatic transcripts can mangle technical terms and regional accents, turning spoken conversations into gibberish and making them harder to search accurately.
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Why romance heroes lose their heads on covers
Author Jennifer Sucevic says she favored torso-only images when models' faces did not match her characters. Leaving the face out lets readers supply the hero…
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Sequential art utilizes shape language to indicate acoustics
Jagged speech balloons suggest shouting, while cloud-shaped bubbles signal thoughts, letting illustrators convey sound and inner speech without audio.
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The Kindle's code name came from a sci-fi novel
Amazon developed its reader under the name Fiona, a character in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. In that novel, an interactive book transforms a child's…
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The killer clue hiding in boring descriptions
A mystery’s crucial clue can be tucked into a seemingly mundane description of weather, furniture, or a landscape—exactly the kind of passage readers may skim.
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Prolific romance authors publish under multiple fake names
Some prolific romance writers use pen names because publishing too many titles under one name in a month can hurt their visibility in digital storefront…
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Why fashion magazines smell when you peel the page
The fragrance is sealed inside tiny bubbles that break when you peel back the page, releasing the scent.
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Digital comic platforms artificially pan across static panels
Guided-view features zoom and pan across static artwork, making a two-page spread easier to follow on a phone and giving it a cinematic sense of motion.
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Why some novels leave out quotation marks
Without quotation marks, readers have to infer where dialogue begins and who is speaking, which can make a conversation harder to follow.
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Why romance novels get their titles tested
Independent authors test different titles on digital platforms to see which ones prompt the most impulse purchases.
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Why comic book staples have exact positions
Publishers position the staples carefully because even a slight misalignment can make a comic book warp over time.
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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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