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London's Real Estate is So Nuts that Businesses are Opening in Public Toilets
The bar Ladies & Gents, housed in a former public toilet in Kentish Town, London. (Photo: Ewan Munro/CC BY-SA 2.0)William Borrell walked by the same abandoned public toilet at a junction in the...
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How a Black Man From Missouri Passed as an Indian Pop Star
Korla Pandit sitting at an organ. (Photo: Collection of John Turner)This article originally appeared on What It Means to Be American.Turning on the TV in Los Angeles in 1949, you might have come...
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A Young Couple's Illicit Photo Shoot Inside a Historic Indian Palace
An allowed image of Mysore Palace. (Photo: Ramesh NG/CC BY-SA 2.0)India’s Mysore Palace is a wonder to behold, not only from the outside, but on the inside as well, although you are not allowed to take...
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It Was A Record Year For Québécois Maple Syrup Production
Quebec produced enough syrup this spring to fill approximately 287 million 6-ounce bottles. (Photo: Ano Lobb/CC BY 2.0)Pancake-lovers, tuck in your napkins: the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup...
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The Irrepressible Palm Tree Tourists Who Travel the World to See Fronds
Palms in Argentina. (Photo: Public Domain)Grant Stephenson can rattle off facts about palm trees in the way others chatter about baseball: Did you know palm trees have the largest seed of any plant?...
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In the 16th Century, the Best Office Decor was a Tiny Rotting Corpse
A 16th-century memento mori attributed to Hans Leinberger. (Photo: The Walters Art Museum/Creative Commons)There are many additions you can make to your office desk in order to remind yourself to stay...
View ArticleSomeone Violently Stole This Solid Gold, Diamond-Encrusted Maltese Eagle
A solid gold sculpture known as the Maltese Eagle was stolen from its owner during a viole… https://t.co/CjDbmswU1Qpic.twitter.com/eCO2rjNyAS— TorontoStar (@TorontoStar) May 31, 2016Around 10 p.m. on...
View ArticleWatch a Hypnotizing Machine Sort River Rocks by Age
The Jller is a work of art parading as a scientist. The machine's purpose is to sort through pebbles collected from its namesake river, the Iller, a German tributary of the Danube. It automatically...
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When American Feminists Were Pilloried for Daring to Wear Bloomers
An engraving of four women wearing different types of bloomers, c. 1850. (Photo: Kean Collection/Getty Images) In the summer of 1851, a pair of pants made headlines across America. The “bloomer...
View ArticleThe Extra-Wide, Pink Parking Spots for Women in China
Sexist, maybe? Extra wide, pink parking spots for women in China https://t.co/Q0wJIEIjqZpic.twitter.com/Ttpw8hGa3u— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 30, 2016At a highway service area in the sprawling...
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How the Family Who Got Rich with Hot Pockets Is Giving Away Their Fortune
A BBQ chicken Hot Pocket. (Photo: Lenin and McCarthy/CC BY-SA 3.0)A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail. Laugh all you...
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The Lost Secret Sign Language of Sawmill Workers
A sawmill in the 1970s. (Photo: Tomas Sennett/NARA 545925)When the linguists Martin Meissner and Stuart Philpott first started visiting sawmills in British Columbia in the 1970s, they thought they’d...
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In The Mood For Drama? Go To An Urban Tree Hearing
A tree on trial in Somerville, Massachusetts. (Photo: Atlas Obscura)Sometime last month, the street trees of Somerville, Massachusetts were overtaken by a strange crop. Seemingly overnight, vertical...
View ArticleHorse Skull Stolen From The World's Smallest Desert
Missing: Horse skull from Yukon's Carcross desert https://t.co/0NmazpstMf— CBC North (@CBCNorth) May 30, 2016While it’s not quite an Indiana Jones level heist, according to CBC News, someone has stolen...
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Found: The Oldest Handwritten Document Ever Discovered in England
A writing tablet found in the mud. (Photo: MOLA)Romans were businesspeople, and when they founded London in the 40s—in the first half of the first century A.D.—they were busy trading, lending, and...
View ArticleVeterinarians Remove Goldfish-Sized Tumor From Goldfish
For a while, Nemo had a pretty difficult life for a British goldfish. A tumor sticking out of the side of his neck grew and grew until it was nearly as big as him. As you can imagine, that's the kind...
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Why Do Pirates Wear Earrings?
Can that earring pay for his funeral? (Photo: David Goehring/CC BY 2.0)Avast! Can any one of you scurvy dogs tell me if this earring matches this bandana? While pirates have a reputation for crime and...
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Check Out This Terrifying and Bleeding New Tomato
(Photo: J.T. Cantley)The spiky fruit you see above is a newly discovered tomato, but not just any tomato. This one bleeds. Christened Solanum ossicruentum (the latter word is a portmanteau of the Latin...
View ArticleWatch a Smoke Tornado Swirl in a Soap Bubble
Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore...we're inside a giant bubble.The tornado that swept Dorothy away from her bucolic home might be large and destructive, but when it comes to coolness,...
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What's Going On with the Way Canadians Say ‘About'?
The classic purveyors of Canadian accents in the U.S.—from sketch comedy troupe SCTV. (Photo: YouTube)Considering the geographical, cultural, and economic closeness of our two countries, it’s almost...
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