The Politics Behind Presidential Candidates Eating Pizza With a Fork
Kasich hints he may have ate pizza with a fork in NY for attention: https://t.co/Bw691ISiaApic.twitter.com/XzApwALON6— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 15, 2016Ahead of Tuesday's presidential...
View ArticleA 2,000-Year History of Alarm Clocks
A vintage alarm clock. (Photo: Public Domain)Yi Xing was a bit of an overachiever. A mathematician, engineer, Buddhist monk and astronomer, Xing was asked to improve calendars in China. He took it one...
View ArticleFound: A 1902 Motorcycle That May Be the First to Make It Across the U.S.
The 1902 California motorbike that may be Wyman's. (Image: George A. Wyman Memorial Project)In 1903, George Wyman rode a 1902 California motorcycle all the way from San Francisco to New York and became...
View ArticleFor Sale: A Massively Anti-Semitic Letter Sent By William Howard Taft
Taft's official White House portrait. (Photo: Anders Zorn/Public Domain)“Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in free America.” - William Howard Taft, 1920A noble...
View ArticleMissouri's Great Escaped Snake Scare of 1953
A police office holding one of the cobras caught in Springfield, Missouri, in 1953. (Photo: Courtesy History Museum on the Square)In 1953, Springfield, Missouri, was a city of about 65,000 people and...
View ArticleFor Hours, A Glitch in Britain Sent Everyone's Outgoing Emails To Some Guy
This is not Steve Webb. (Photo: Gale Sherry/Public Domain)This Tuesday afternoon in Britain, millions of internet users emailed dinner plans, business deals, and/or life-changing secrets to their...
View ArticleThe Rise of Pirate Libraries
Only a tiny fraction of the world's knowledge. (Photo: David Iliff/CC-BY-SA-3.0)All around the world, shadow libraries keep growing, filled with banned materials. But no actual papers trade hands:...
View ArticleWatch a Japanese Man Play 'Amazing Grace' on a Cabbage
You're probably heard "Amazing Grace" a bunch of times. But have you heard it played on a cabbage, by an endlessly cheery Japanese man, to the accompaniment of a synth backing track?Junji Koyama makes...
View ArticleThis is the Oldest Message in a Bottle Ever Found
#GuinnessWorldRecords confirms discovery of world's oldest message in a bottle https://t.co/UN7xAYthUOpic.twitter.com/hFV6MywoGl— dna (@dna) April 21, 2016Over 108 years ago, George P. Bidder III cast...
View ArticleSusan B. Anthony's Grave Covered in 'I Voted' Stickers After Primary
Susan B. Anthony gravesite, Rochester NY, photographed yesterday. (Photo credit: Greta Paige-Mann.) pic.twitter.com/X6GmmOactM— KStreetHipster (@KStreetHipster) April 20, 2016This Tuesday,...
View ArticleWhy 19th-Century Naturalists Didn't Believe in the Platypus
George Shaw's depiction of a duck-billed platypus from 1809. (Photo: New York Public Library)In his laboratory study in 1799, biologist George Shaw stared down at his new specimen in disbelief. The...
View ArticleHow Prince Took Over Minnesota
Prince performing in 1982. (Photo: Yves Lorson/CC BY 2.0)Today the world mourns a musical genius.Prince was a beloved singularity, whose career stretched across nearly four decades, with tours spanning...
View ArticleThe DEA's Training Manuals Reveal a Hazy Stance on Marijuana
(Photo: Brett Levin/CC BY-SA 2.0)A version of this story originally appeared on Muckrock.com.Last week, MuckRock reviewed the Drug Enforcement Administration's training documents on techniques to...
View ArticleThe Ornate Charm of American Currency from the 1700s
A $55 note from 1779. (Photo: Beyond My Ken/CC BY-SA 3.0)With Harriet Tubman coming to the American $20 bill, and other changes being made to the look of money in the United States, the design of...
View ArticleGloriously Melodramatic Portraits of 19th-Century Shakespearean Actors
From left, E.H. Sothern as Macbeth, Lillie Langtry as Lady Macbeth, and Kyrle Bellew as Hamlet. (Photos, L-R: Folger Shakespeare Library/ CC BY-SA 4.0; Library of Congress/LC-USZ62-54508; New York...
View ArticleYou're Missing Shakespeare's Best, Most Sophisticated Boner Jokes
An early 19th-century depiction of Queen Elizabeth I at the Globe, watching The Merry Wives of Windsor. (Photo: Folger Shakespeare Library/CC BY-SA 4.0)It’s no secret to anyone who’s taken freshman...
View ArticleFound: A Giant Coral Reef at the Mouth of the Amazon River
The mouth of the Amazon River. (Photo: NASA/Public domain)In their most iconic form, coral reefs are found in crystal-clear tropical waters, not the muddy mouth of a river. In fact, Patricia Yager, a...
View ArticleWhy is Shakespeare Still So Popular? For the Same Reason Tolstoy Hated Him
Richard Burton as Henry V. (Photo: Maurice Ambler/Getty Images)Among the First Folios and rare quartos and historic theatre costumes at the British Library’s recently opened exhibition, Shakespeare in...
View ArticleWorkplace Safety Videos Got Pretty Horrific in the '80s
Workplace safety in the '80s was no joke—in fact, it was more like a horror movie. At least that's how the above video makes it seem. The short film was made to show factory workers that unsafe working...
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