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The Legendary Chinese Poison Made by Forcing Snakes, Scorpions, and...
In the mid-18th century, accepting the hospitality of women in the southern mountain regions of China presented an unusual risk. People told tales of women who seduced travelers, feeding men meals...
View ArticleWatch This Orange-Mustached LEGO Robot Solve a Rubik's Cube
Solving a Rubik's Cube takes a lot of time, practice, and patience. But this robot, built entirely out of LEGO pieces, can match the colored tiles in two minutes and 37 seconds. This robot actually...
View ArticleAustralian Cow Swims to Freedom, Stays on the Lam for 24 Hours
In what might be the makings of a future Disney film, a cow headed for export in Western Australia staged a daring escape over the weekend, according to the Guardian.The cow was being loaded onto a...
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Iran's Great Wall Is Now Buried and Forgotten
In northwestern Iran, running for almost 200 kilometers from the southeastern shores of the Caspian Sea to the mountains of Bilikuh in the east, lies the remains of the Great Wall of Gorgan—once the...
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The Forgotten Victorian Craze for Collecting Seaweed
Say it's the mid-1800s, and you're on a beach in England. Things look pretty familiar: the wind tugs at parasols, children laugh and chase seagulls, the waves roll in and out. In the distance, though,...
View ArticleWatch What Camp Life is Like for Children Who are Allergic to the Sun
SUNDOWN from Liza Mandelup on Vimeo.Summer camp is a great American tradition. And one completely out of reach for the so-called “children of the night”—the name given to kids who are allergic to the...
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A Visual Tour Through Colombia's Ancient Lost City
In the early 1970s, a group of looters searching for Pre-Columbian artifacts in the jungles of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta stumbled upon a set of worn stone steps leading up a ridge from...
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A Brief History of the Cheese Curl, Junk Food’s Happiest Accident
A version of this post originally appeared on Tedium, a twice-weekly newsletter that hunts for the end of the long tail.They change the color of our skin. They get stuck in our teeth. But for some...
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These Maps Capture the Spirit of Cities By Collaging Their Hidden Details
Every city has its own character and spirit. Among familiar towering skyscrapers and congested streets, there are unique layers folded in the fabric of urban environments. These nuances are what Sohei...
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Why Catholics Built Secret Astronomical Features Into Churches to Help Save...
A disc of light moves across the cathedral floor. The marble in its path lights up, revealing deeply colored swirls, rich with hues of burgundy, plum, caramel, and ochre. It is ancient rock, stained by...
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How to Decode the Hidden Secrets of Havana's Streets
As a visitor to Havana, Cuba, it's easy to feel like you're missing something. Since the revolution in 1959, Cubans have found ways to get what they want, even if buying a house once meant getting a...
View ArticleFound: Two Moose Frozen Together in a Final Battle
In western Alaska, a man from Unalakleet came across these two unfortunate moose frozen into the river. Their antlers are locked together: they were fighting when they died.Perhaps they drowned and...
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Why is Inauguration Day on January 20?
On Friday, January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump will be sworn into office as the President of the United States of America. In an earlier age, we would have been blessed with over an extra month of Obama....
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There's Only One Government Agency With Its Own Special Anthem
Government agencies are not renowned for their soulfulness. Hidden beneath opaque acronyms—DOL, PBGC, OSHRC, FMSHRC—the only hint of color these monolithic administrative bodies tend to display is the...
View ArticleWatch How Globes Were Made in 1955 in This North London Workshop
Creating the world in miniature isn’t easy. The detailed craftsmanship of globe making has been refined over centuries—requiring multiple steps and often multiple artists. In the 1955 video above...
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How Gramophones Helped Fight Crime in 1940s Britain
If you tried to rob a bank in England in the 1940s, your efforts may have been thwarted by a gramophone. Or, more precisely, a gramophone burglar alarm.The possibility of setting off an electric alarm...
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An Alarm Designer on How to Annoy People in the Most Effective Ways
When the cockpit recorder transcript from Air France Flight 447 was leaked to the public in 2011, many startling details emerged. The plane, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009,...
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The Propaganda Kimonos Japan Kept Hidden From Outsiders
When you picture a Japanese kimono, you probably think of something like a haiku in clothing form. Maybe stylized scenes of chrysanthemums, long-tailed birds flying over blossoming cherry trees, or a...
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Striking Photos of Philadelphia’s Abandoned Power Stations
The new book Palazzos of Power: Central Stations of the Philadelphia Electric Company, 1900-1930 explores the history and present state of the vast, imposing power stations built by the Philadelphia...
View ArticleFound: A Canal So Thick With Dead Fish 'You Could've Walked Across It'
One Monday morning, at the Shinnecock Canal, a thin strip of water that separates two Long Island bays, locals found an apocalyptic sight.Hundreds upon hundreds of dead fish were floating on the...
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