Culture & entertainment
Discover facts about culture & entertainment. Small discoveries that change the way you see familiar things.
Culture & entertainment
Myst made a 3D world out of pictures you clicked through
Its locations were rendered in advance and linked together rather than drawn as a fully moving 3D world during play. That let a home computer show rich scenes…
Discover more
End-to-end encryption scrambles messages during transit
Your grocery list is turned into unreadable ciphertext on your device before it travels, making it unreadable to anyone who intercepts it in transit.
Discover more
Jaws became scarier when its mechanical star broke down
The unreliable shark forced Spielberg to suggest its presence with reactions, movement in the water, and other indirect signs. Keeping the creature out of…
Discover more
The tabloid that reported on a fictional half-bat child
The Weekly World News treated the fictional half-bat, half-human child’s adventures as breaking news.
Discover more
On Tarantino's sets, phones go through a checkpoint
Crew members surrender their phones at a checkpoint guarded by someone known as “the checker,” keeping devices away from the set to prevent distractions and…
Discover more
Picture discs embed printed graphics inside clear vinyl
A printed sheet is sandwiched between two thin layers of clear vinyl, leaving the grooves shallower than those on a standard black record. The result is more…
Discover more
STACKY FOR IPHONEA bigger world.
One discovery
at a time.
Keep discovering with Stacky. Interesting facts in an app that is always within reach.
Warhammer miniatures cost more than silver by weight
An average Warhammer army can cost a small fortune, even though its miniatures are tiny plastic figures sold unpainted. The comparison is by weight: the…
Discover more
Country songs statistically mention whiskey the most
In mainstream country lyrics, whiskey appears more often than any other beverage.
Discover more
French horns require placing a hand deep inside the bell
Players use their right hand to cover part of the bell, changing the pitch and softening harsh overtones.
Discover more
Cabaret Voltaire birthed the chaotic Dada movement
Artists opened the Zurich nightclub in 1916 as a reaction to World War I, staging sound poems and performances in geometric costumes to reject conventional…
Discover more
Catan originally included settlers in its official name
The game was originally called “The Settlers of Catan”; its title was later shortened to “Catan.”
Discover more
Why ancient prophecies are written in strange scripts
In fantasy, an unreadable script signals that a text is ancient and ominous—not a mundane record like a tax receipt.
Discover more
Why James Bond was given an accountant’s name
Ian Fleming wanted Bond to have the blandest, most uninteresting name possible, so he borrowed it from the author of a bird-watching manual. The intentionally…
Discover more
Why a random sneeze means disaster in fiction
In the familiar fiction trope, a stray sneeze is the first clue to a contagious, flesh-eating virus that takes over the story’s second act.
Discover moreFleetwood Mac recorded Tusk with a marching band
The title track featured brass from the entire University of Southern California marching band, an unusually expensive studio choice.
Discover more
Thomas the Tank Engine changed moods by changing faces
During the model era, crews used interchangeable molded faces to give the engines different expressions. A smile or alarmed look could be fitted to the same…
Discover more
Castlevania features floating medusa heads of pure evil
The tiny heads weave across the screen in a sine-wave pattern, often appearing just as you jump and sending you plummeting into a pit.
Discover more
A concert's final song can be a race against the venue clock
Noise restrictions and event agreements can impose a firm finishing time, with financial consequences for overrunning. An extended encore therefore has to fit…
Discover more
Why adults are dressing up as Shrek
Nostalgia has become a nightlife phenomenon: hundreds of adults paint themselves green, wear ogre ears, and dance to early-2000s pop hits at packed venues.
Discover more
Continuous news loop fueled by conflict
Demand for continuous coverage during the Gulf War helped drive the 24-hour news cycle.
Discover more
Why the penultimate shot is called the Abby Singer
Production manager Abby Singer was known for repeatedly promising that the current camera setup was the second-to-last. Crews named the penultimate setup…
Discover more
Rap God's famous burst is faster than its already-fast average
Guinness counted 1,560 words across six minutes and four seconds, averaging 4.28 words per second. One fifteen-second section contains 97 words—about 6.46 per…
Discover more
Valorant's long sprays won't follow one memorized path
The horizontal part of a long recoil pattern includes randomness. Pulling down to counter the initial climb therefore doesn't guarantee the later bullets will…
Discover more
Dark Souls requires perfectly timed invincible dodge rolls
A precisely timed dodge roll briefly makes your armored knight invulnerable, letting you tumble through a dragon's attack instead of taking the hit.
Discover more