The Interesting List

I read a lot. This is a collection of things I’ve found interesting that don’t rise to the level of a blog post or other commentary. Whenever I find myself thinking, “Wow, that’s interesting,” I will put it on this list.

Items in this list will usually be longer and non-tech related (I’ll usually comment on or share tech stuff in other places). I’ll try to stay away from current events. This list is not meant to be provocative or current. It’s only meant to be, well, interesting.

Desert Graves
Date
A photo gallery of ad hoc graves found in the American desert.
The Icy Village Where You Must Remove Your Appendix
Date
A settlement in Antarctica is so remote and isolated, that you can’t still have your appendix and live there because the nearest hospital is so hard to get to that a burst appendix will kill you.
We’re Animatin’
Date
A humorous rap video about how a cartoon is animated turns out to be quite informative.
Go Away Green
Date
There is a specific shade of green used in Disney parks to reduce the attention and “notice-ability” of buildings they don’t want to be seen.
What your web browser says about you
Date
Employers who took the effort to find and install an alternative web browser performed better on every metric and stayed in jobs longer.
The deadliest place on earth: Snake Island
Date
Of the coast of Brazil is a small island which has evolved to become the home of one the most venomous snakes in the world. One bite will cause you to “die screaming,” and there are thousands of them on the island, preying on migrating birds.
How Lego builds a new Lego set
Date
A fascinating look into how a new LEGO set is born, and all the challenges that go into engineering and marketing it.
The Cloud Under the Sea
Date
A long explainer and background article about planning and maintaining the maze of undersea data cables that make the Internet possible.
Prisencolinensinainciusol
Date
In 1972, an Italian singer recorded a song which lyrics that were meant to sound like English, but were in fact nonsense. He sought to prove that Italians would love anything that sounded like English.
Why Is It So Hard to Build an Airport?
Date
Noise and space requirements make it very hard to build new airports, but we still manage to increase passenger capacity through bigger planes, faster turnarounds, and better air traffic control.
Why You’ve Never Been In A Plane Crash
Date
Due to a change in investigative policy, it’s become much easier to determine the root cause of air incidents. The key was to not try and blame anyone.
Height and Dating
Date
This news report from 2009 is an experiment that proves short men have significant challenges romantically compared to taller men.
Why Are These Movie Props Oversized?
Date
When movies and TV shows need to do a close-up of some object, they often have the object created or printed at two or three times the size.
The Vault That Holds 5% of the World’s Gold
Date
Gold from a lot of different countries is stored in a vault under New York City. Exchanging funds many countries therefore just involves moving gold from one shelf to another.
The Virus Inside Your TV
Date
A group of artists collaborated with the showrunner of Melrose Place to insert Leftist political art as props in the show.
Daigo Fukuryū Maru
Date
In 1954, a Japanese finishing boat accidentally wandered into an active U.S. nuclear test. One crew member died in the immediate aftermath, and the rest suffered health problems, mostly dying young.
Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function
Date
People aren’t only poor because they make bad decisions. Often, they make bad decisions because they’re poor. Poverty affects a person’s ability to make rational decisions.
Encryption Lava Lamps
Date
A company uses never-ending video of a wall of lava lamps to generate unpredictable encryption keys for their software.
WTF Happened in 1971?
Date
Many charts seem to show that something dramatic happened to the U.S. economy in 1971. No answers are provided.
New York Times Election Day Crossword
Date
On the eve of the 1996 election, the NY Times crossword had a clue based on the future outcome which could solve the puzzle in two completely different ways.
Why did old PCs have key locks?
Date
Early PC computers – before the advent of secure software – often had physical keys to lock the case or the keyboard.
Baseball Rubbing Mud
Date
Before Major League Baseball uses a new ball, it is rubbed down with special mud to make it less slippery. The mud is harvested from one location, by one man.
Windshield Phenomenon
Date
In the last 20 years, there has been a significant decrease of dead bugs on car windshields. This might be a result of a massive decline in the number of insects in the Earth biome.
Hugh Jackman’s Accent Sentence
Date
There is a sentence that uses every phonetic sound which differences between British and American English. Hugh Jackson says it before each take in which he has to play an American.
Oceanic Airlines
Date
A fictional airline has been used in dozens of TV shows and movies, often in situations where something bad happens to one of its planes.
Why Music Festivals Sound Better Than Ever
Date
Twenty years ago, the way the sound systems at outdoor music concepts was completely changed. This changed how the music sounds, but also how the stages were designed.
U-2 spy plane landing at Beale AFB
Date
The U-2 spy plane is so difficult to land that they need fast chase cars to follow it down the runway to tell the pilot how things look. This is a video from one of those cars.
Why NATO’s Biggest Weakness is Scotland
Date
Russia would absolutely love an independent Scotland, because its withdrawal from the NATO has a shockingly large impact on world security and the world’s economy.
Hallmark Made Two Basically Identical Christmas Movies
Date
The Hallmark Channel filmed a story about two sisters and edited it into two movies. Each one is told from the perspective of a different sister, and they share footage where the sisters interact throughout their respective stories.
The Greatest Shot In Television
Date
In 1978, a BBC science show pulled off a shot for which timing was critical, and for which there would be no second chance.
How G.I. Joe Brainwashed An Entire Generation
Date
A look at how toy companies got around laws limiting child advertising by creating cartoons for toys, so that the toys promoted the cartoons, which in turn promoted the toys, and kids couldn’t really tell the difference.
Did People Used To Look Older?
Date
A wide-ranging look at if people used to look older for their age, and why people tend to look how we think they should, or vice-versa.
The History of the World According to Cats
Date
It’s not quite what the title promises, but this is a quick look at how cats have benefited humans over the years, and how little they differ from the cats of ancient times.
Days Since Incident
Date
This site lists the days since something bad happened, from an earthquake of any kind (zero, because one happens every day) to things like a “Teraton Asteroid Impact” (last happened 35 million years ago), and everything in between (example: someone last lost a nuclear weapon in 1989).
An Alaska town living under one roof
Date
A remote town in Alaska is only accessible via a single tunnel, and the entire population lives, learns, worships, and socializes in a single high-rise apartment building.
The Preparedness Paradox
Date
The act of preparing for or mitigating a disaster or pandemic sometimes reduces the effects to the point where we’re convinced the threat never existed or that we overreacted.
How a Book Is Made
Date
An annotated photo gallery showing the detailed process by which a physical book is produced.
1958 Tybee Island Mid-Air Collision
Date
A damaged plane jettisoned a nuclear bomb off the coast of Georgia in 1958. It has never been found. It has been confirmed to contain enriched uranium, but may or may not be capable of detonating.
Backyard Squirrel Maze
Date
A guy builds an obstacle course for the squirrels in his backyard. In the (very entertaining) process of watching them solve it, he explains some of the physiology of how a squirrel moves.
Me at the Zoo
Date
This is the first video ever posted to YouTube. It’s 18 seconds of one of the founders talking about elephants at the zoo,
Illegal LEGO Techniques
Date
A former LEGO designer explains what an “illegal” building technique is and provides several examples.
Ghosts in the Machine
Date
The psychological operations unit in the US Army produced their own recruiting video which explains what they do in a very unexpected style.
Who made these circles in the Sahara?
Date
A journalist finds some strange circles on Google Maps. He goes down a research rabbit hole which culminates with adventurers driving out into the middle of nowhere, digging up dynamite, and bringing home sardine cans.
Dead Hand
Date
There is a shadowy Soviet system that can automatically launch nuclear missiles if it detects a nuclear explosion on Soviet soil. It is still in operation today.
How English Sounds to Japanese People
Date
Japanese-speakers imitate English-speakers without speaking English, showing how they interpret the inflections, tone, and cadence (and often hand movements) of the Anglo world.
Nacirema
Date
U.S. anthropologists will sometimes refer to “America/American” by another word in order to maintain professional distance and objectivity from it.
Pantone 444 C
Date
A specific shade of greenish-brown has been deemed “the ugliest color in the world,” and is specifically used for cigarette packaging in many countries.
Goiania Accident
Date
In 1987, thieves in Brazil stole a radioactive capsule from an abandoned medical facility. A week later, four people were dead and 250 were contaminated.
Adam Rainer
Date
An Austrian man was a dwarf until the age of 20. Then he started growing to end up almost 8-feet fall.
Why Russia is Building an Arctic Silk Road
Date
Climate change has opened year-round shipping lanes along Russia’s northern coast. This will dramatically affect both Russia’s and the world’s economy and geopolitical balance.
USS Kitty Hawk Headed for Salvage
Date
A photo gallery and description of how the mothballed USS Kitty Hawk gets from Washington state to a salvage yard on the Texas coast.
Heaven’s Gate Website
Date
The website of the Heaven’s Gate cult who committed mass suicide when the Hale-Bopp comet passed by Earth in 1997 is still online and unchanged.
52-Hertz Whale
Date
There is a single whale that emits a call at a different frequency than any other whale. No one has seen it – its lonely call has just been recorded multiple times over the last 40 years.
Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar
Date
In 1913, parents were reunited with their toddler son who had disappeared eight months earlier. However, another woman claimed the child was her son. Almost 100 years later, DNA evidence proved the child was misidentified.
That Job at Harvard? It’s Not Real.
Date
Multiple female Indian journalists were tricked into accepting teaching positions at Harvard which were entirely fake. No one knows who targeted them or why.
How Airlines Quietly Became Banks
Date
Airlines make little money on ticket sales. Most of their profits come from selling miles/points to marketing partners like credit cards, hotels, and car rental agencies.
The Story of Bir Tawil
Date
There is an area of the Sahara desert that no country will claim because it would require affirming a border which would exclude more valuable land. So it belongs to no one.
Anatomy of a Tragedy
Date
Chris Duntsch was a very, very bad surgeon. He killed or maimed 90% of his patients, but no one wanted to speak up and embarrass the hospitals where he worked.
Kyle Rittenhouse: Murder or Self-Defense?
Date
A comprehensive legal analysis of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict that digs into what “self defense” means in a fluid, chaotic situation like the Kenosha riots.
The Spine Collector
Date
Someone is using all sorts of email tricks to get early access to novel manuscripts. No one knows who they are or what they want, but everyone in the industry is paranoid.
If The Moon Were Only 1 Pixel
Date
An interactive tool which demonstrates how incredibly vast the solar system is. (Hint: hold down your right arrow key.)
Who Shot Walker Daugherty?
Date
In 2017, two people were shot at a ranch in Texas in an event that was blamed on illegal immigrants. However, an investigation suggests the victims were the only people there.
Breaking Bad Finale Breakdown
Date
Mythbusters proved that the climactic scene in the final episode of “Breaking Bad” could have worked exactly as it was portrayed.
Glenn Burke
Date
The player who was the first openly-gay athlete in the Major Leagues coincidentally also invented the “high five.”
What Is a Summit?
Date
Where the “summit” lies on a tall mountain is a matter of debate. Consequently, many people think they’ve climbed to the top, but haven’t really.
List of stories set in a future now past
Date
A very niche list of science fiction stories that were originally set in “the future,” but that real time has now surpassed, meaning the stories are now set in the past.
World’s Only Moving Mud Puddle
Date
There’s a “wet spot” in the California desert that started slowly moving in 2016, and no one knows why. It’s wiggling under highways, train tracks, and other infrastructure, which causes problems.
How Filmmakers Make Cameras Disappear
Date
The “mirror shot” is when a movie or TV show films directly into a mirror, yet you cannot see the camera. Turns out there are multiple tricks to making this happen.
Null Island
Date
When geographic coordinates are empty – “0,0” or “null” – mapping databases use a fake placename called “Null Island” to represent the thing that is not there.
Battle of Los Angeles
Date
In 1945, there was an hours-long Japanese “attack” on Los Angeles that was very likely the result of wild imaginations and nervous trigger fingers.
Pando Aspen Forest
Date
There is a “forest” of 47,000 “trees” in Utah that is actually one massive tree, connected underground by a single root system. Each individual “tree” is just a connected offshoot of the same, original tree.
How Marvel Actually Makes Movies Years Before Filming
Date
Marvel action movies are “pre-filmed” in a kind of “draft mode,” so that huge chunks of the films exist visually before any shooting starts. Sometimes this happens even before the director is hired or the script is finished.
Les Horribles Cernettes
Date
This is the first image ever posted to the web. It has been at this same web address since 1992. The image depicts a comedy musical group formed at CERN, where the web was invented.
Cherokee Freedmen Controversy
Date
During the 1800s, several Native American tribes held Black slaves. The slaves were freed and allowed to become members of their tribe. A hundred years later, that membership was revoked. The dispute wasn’t settled until 2017.
A Vast Web of Vengeance
Date
A story of the horrifying reputation damage one person can do on the internet, and how hard it can be to stop them, or reverse what’s been done.
Is this plane landing or departing?
Date
A simple picture of Air Force One resulted in a long, forensic discussion about whether the plane was taking off or landing at the time.
The Last of the Iron Lungs
Date
There are still a tiny handful of polio survivors across the USA living significant portions of their lives in iron lungs which are slowly deteriorating.
Polyglot Reporter
Date
A compilation of an Associated Press journalist reporting fluently in six different languages.
Basic English
Date
There is a simplified version of English, consisting of just 850 words. After World War II, it was promoted as a universal language for the entire world.
80% of Americans Live East of This Line
Date
Hardly anyone lives in a big chunk of the United States, and that pattern is true for most countries. Where cities historically started and thrived comes down to geography and water.
Siteswap
Date
There is a standard written notation to describe juggling patterns and techniques, much like written music and written chess moves.
The Code That Controls Your Money
Date
Graying COBOL programmers still get pressed into service to modify programs that might otherwise run for decades without changes. Also, in many cases, the Y2K problem was never fixed, just deferred.
Open Letter to Hobbyists
Date
In 1976, a young Bill Gates wrote a open letter to a computing newsletter imploring people not to make bootleg copies of his software. This letter is the source of much of the antipathy against Gates in the programming community.
How Candies Got Their Names
Date
An infographic showing the background and history behind the names of all the major candy bars and snacks.
Visible Shipwreck Collection
Date
There is a public Google Map on which someone has placed thousands of markers of shipwrecks visible in satellite view.
My Dad, the Pornographer
Date
A son comes to terms with his late father’s secret career as a writer of pulp porn novels. He wrestles with the darkness that grew out it and that which it might have hidden from the world.
Photoshop’s Neural Filters
Date
A guy plays with Photoshop’s new AI filters, and – while laughing hysterically – shows that Photoshop can estimate and apply how emotions might appear in a picture.
The Design Flaw That Almost Wiped Out an NYC Skyscraper
Date
In 1978, a young architecture student found a design flaw in a one-year-old NYC skyscraper which meant the building could collapse in a specific wind. Thankfully, the architect who designed the building listened.
How Fake Money Is Made For Movies And TV
Date
Movies will make fake money as props. To work in the world of high-def, sometimes they make it too accurate, and they get in trouble with the Secret Service.
Iran’s $635 Million Epic Mistake
Date
In 1971, Iran threw itself a 2,500th year birthday party in the middle of the desert. It was undoubtedly the most expensive party in history.
Halls Ridge Tower
Date
Footage from a communications tower during a forest fire. You can see how fast it spreads, and at the very end of the video, you can actually see the camera lens and housing melt before the feed cuts out.
The Pretender
Date
A Minnesota grandmother snapped one day, killed her husband, then went on a road trip, and killed again.
7 reasons why shipping container homes are a SCAM
Date
While they’re a very trendy subject, shipping containers actually make terrible construction materials, and using them will probably result in more effort and energy than just building normally.
The Devil Wears Prada: “A Pile of Stuff”
Date
A monologue from “The Devil Wears Prada” where a high-powered fashion critic caustically explains to an intern how the economics and trickle-down trendsetting of the fashion world works.
Cable snaps on USS Eisenhower during landing
Date
A plane attempting to land on an aircraft carrier snaps the arresting cable, thus demonstrating why pilots momentarily go to full power at the instant they catch the cable.
Sturgis Here We Come…
Date
Using anonymized cell phone tower data, watch how software can track all the Sturgis attendees as they move across the country.
The Longest Train Ride in the World
Date
The longest contiguous train ride in the world is from Porto, Portugal to Saigon, Vietnam. Unsurprisingly, it takes a long time, and costs a lot of money.
John P. O’Neill
Date
An FBI agent doggedly pursued Osama Bin Laden for most of the 90s. He retired in August 2001, and took a job as head of security for the World Trade Center. He died two weeks later on 9/11.
The Zero-Armed Bandit
Date
In 1980, an un-defuseable bomb appeared in a Lake Tahoe casino, setting off an elaborate extortion attempt and creating a legend inside the FBI.
Solid Axle vs. Independent Suspension
Date
A GIF that shows the difference in shock absorption between a truck with wheels connected by solid axles, and another with wheels independently suspended.
The One Who Falls
Date
An oddly haunting performance art piece consisting of people acting on a spinning platform, set to Frank Sinatra.
Raw Craft: Arion Press
Date
An episode of a web series that focuses on hand-crafted goods. This one is about a dying breed of bookmaker.
What It Takes To Be A Hand Model
Date
There are some fascinating aspects to being a hand model. One of which is that you pretend to be other people’s hands a lot.
The Final Years of Majuro
Date
A documentary on how climate change is slowly sinking the Marshall Islands and how that population might be reestablished in the American South.
The Great Climate Migration
Date
Ultimately, climate change is a migration problem. Humanity can survive it, but lots of people are going to have to move, and that causes other problems.
The Death of a King
Date
A photographer on a game reserve in South Africa witnesses a lion die of old age.
WWII and the First Ethical Hacker
Date
The first “ethical hacker” might have been a Frenchman who sabotaged the Nazi punch card system for storing data on citizens, thus preventing them from querying for Jews.
Kármán line
Date
There is a specific height at which an aviator is considered an astronaut, at which point different laws apply.
Vanguard 1
Date
A solar-powered satellite has been in orbit since 1958. It is the oldest man-made object in space, and circles the earth every 132 minutes. Its orbit characteristics still constitute valid experimental data.
The Rainbow Passage
Date
There’s a standard body of text which is used by linguists and speech pathologists to assess and compare accents when read out loud.
Visa vs. MasterCard
Date
A history of the credit card industry and the two biggest players, which were both named something else when they started.
How Giant Ships Are Built
Date
A photo gallery of a San Diego shipyard as it builds a pair of massive freighters designed to bring freight to and from Hawaii.
What is Stockholm syndrome?
Date
Not many people know about the 1973 Swedish bank robbery that coined the term used when hostages begin to sympathize and identify with their captors.
Race in America
Date
A 17-minute history of racism in America, from the period immediately following emancipation through today.
The Long Battle Over ‘Gone With the Wind’
Date
Controversy has followed this movie since it was released. Most people were unaware of the problems and are only now understanding how the movie is perceived by the black community.
Country Land Masses
Date
An ordered listing of countries by actual landmass, not simply perceived size, which is affected by mapping distortions.
African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Date
This is an official term for “the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban communities, by most working- and middle-class African Americans.”
Can playing Tetris help prevent PTSD?
Date
Multiple studies have suggested that playing Tetris immediately following a traumatic event visually engages the brain in a way that can lower the future effects of PTSD.
The Treachurous Train Bridge
Date
Some pictures of an abandoned train car used as an impromptu covered bridge somewhere in Georgia (the caucus, not the state).
The Five Rules of Risk
Date
There are five rules that govern our thinking about the risk of certain situations or activities. They cause us to dramatically over- and under- estimate risk.
Crazy Prediction at a Baseball Game
Date
In 2012, a baseball announcer correctly predicted a player’s first home run, down to the exact ball/strike count, the type of pitch, and where the home run would leave the park.
Too Many Cooks
Date
A bizarre, mind-bending, and occasionally disturbing send-up of the intro from every network TV show of the 80s. Buckle up.
Air Cargo’s Coronavirus Problem
Date
Lots of air cargo is carried in the holds of passenger flights, so it’s a problem when passengers stop flying. Here’s an analysis of how the industry has adapted.
Inspector Gadget for 8 cellos
Date
A cellist plays a single part of the Inspector Gadget theme, records herself, then plays another part against the recording of the first part, until she has all eight parts played by herself.
Mil Mi-26 vs. Bell 206
Date
The size difference demonstrated between a Soviet-era Mil Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter and a more common passenger helicopter.
The Interminable Body Count
Date
It turns out that counting up a death toll for anything is more complicated than you think. Many deaths are very indirect.
French Safe
Date
Video of a safe made several hundred years ago in France with multiple keys and a series of sliding doors which must be opened in a specific order.
Coronavirus Is a Preview of Our Self-Isolating Future
Date
The Coronavirus might be the thing that tips us into a vastly expanded world of remote work, where physical contact is deemed to be largely unnecessary. The long-term effects on society – both good and bad – might be considerable.
Antarctic Snow Cruiser
Date
A vehicle was designed to move scientists around Antarctica in the 1930s. It performed poorly, was abandoned, re-discovered in the 50s, re-abandoned, and might now be floating around the South Pacific, encased in an iceberg.
Why new diseases keep appearing in China
Date
Lots of novel viruses keep coming out of China because of unique factors that cause a wide variety of animal species to come into close physical contact.
Are You an Anti-Influencer?
Date
The success of a product can be weirdly predicted by its affinity to a particular group of people who are drawn to failure. If they like it, it’s probably not going to survive.
EuSpRIG Horror Stories
Date
A list and description of dozens of spreadsheet errors that had significant business impact.
75½ Bedford Street
Date
There is a house in NYC that’s less than nine feet wide. The house has a storied history with several notable occupants.
Heritage Commodification
Date
There is a “tourist gaze,” whereby history and cultural heritage is packaged for what the locals believe tourists want to see, and what tourists believe is “authentic.” Local economies perpetuate this overemphasis and misrepresentation in exchange for tourist dollars.
How to win Monopoly in the shortest possible time
Date
Someone got a theoretical game of Monopoly down to seven rolls of the dice, which they claim can be done in 13 seconds. And it turns out that Monopoly is hated among board game aficionados.
How Many Ferrari F40s Are ‘Abandoned’ In Brunei?
Date
A bizarre recounting of an almost mythical set of Ferrari F40s ordered by the Sultan of Brunei. It’s odd for both how carefully the F40 chassis are tracked, and for the absurd wealth and waste of the royal family.
Becoming a Man
Date
A short memoir of a lesbian who transitioned, and what he learned about manhood in the process from the men in his life. Equal parts inspiring and heart-breaking.
The Bizarre World of Fake Martial Arts
Date
An examination of bizarre psychic martial arts, ending with a discussion of the practicality of MMA versus more traditional martial arts, and the implications on human psychology and national identity.
Headlinese
Date
Newspaper headlines have informal language conventions called “headlinese” that constitute a new and different dialect.
What Happened to the Numbers Stations?
Date
A good explainer of “numbers stations,” which are radio frequencies that broadcast series of numbers on a schedule. It’s assumed they’re communicating to spies in the field, but no one knows for sure.
Pitch Drop Experiment
Date
Some substances move very slowly. Experiments have been going on for almost a century that measure how many years it takes these substances them to form a single drop.
Slidewheel: Crazy ROTATING Water Slide POV
Date
There’s a waterslide in Poland that rotates, so different sections of the slide become “down” at different times. It’s calculated to get you to the end in a full rotation.
Did Twitter Help Stop War With Iran?
Date
A look at how Washington and Moscow have historically communicated and how Twitter might play a role in the future of crisis communication.
When ‘The Exorcist’ Premiered
Date
A news report from the early 70s showing how some audience members were physically traumatized after seeing “The Exorcist” in theaters.
The World’s Most Useful Airport
Date
A full-length documentary about the establishment of an airport and commercial air service on the remote island of St. Helena.
The 10 Least Consequential Athletes of the Decade
Date
Some athletes who accomplished virtually nothing, from a guy who played in the NBA for 3.9 seconds, to an NFL running back who ended his career with minus-eight yards on one carry. (And there’s one surprise pick.)
How One Movie Trilogy Ruined Action Films Forever
Date
An examination of the stylistic action scenes in the Jason Bourne trilogy, and how they changed the action movies that came after them, with particular emphasis on how Paul Greengrass structured his fight scenes and drove down the Average Shot Length.
My Family’s Slave
Date
A man tells the story of a “domestic” who lived with his family for years and raised him and his siblings. Later in his life, he realized his parents were keeping her as a slave.
Heavy Metal Umlaut
Date
A screencast history of the Wikipedia page for the heavy metal umlaut which traces how the page was developed and changed over time.
EPIC 2014
Date
A groundbreaking video from 2004 which describes a fictionalized future on what the media landscape might look like in 2014.
Who pays the lowest taxes in the US?
Date
When you just consider income taxes, wealthy people pay a higher percentage in taxes. But when you consider all the other taxes – payroll, property, and consumption – the curve starts to straighten out.
The Terror Queue
Date
Content moderators at YouTube spend their days looking at the worst of human nature. Not surprisingly, some of them are suffering from PTSD.
The Great Recycling Con
Date
Less than 10% of plastic is actually recycled. We’ve been told otherwise by companies who produce plastic to alleviate our guilt at buying it.
Chaos at the Top of the World
Date
The story behind a viral photo of climbers waiting to summit Everest earlier this year. Multiple people died, and questions are being asked about the future of climbing the mountain.
The Deep Sea
Date
Incredible scrolling visualization of what’s under the ocean. I scrolled for five full minutes to reach the bottom.
The Day That Changed Everything
Date
The story of a heartbreaking loss on the football field, and how it reverberated through two lives over the next three decades.
The Influencer and the Hit Man
Date
When a domain name owner wouldn’t give it up, the thwarted buyer sent a gunman to his house and attempt to force him to transfer the domain at gunpoint.
LE MANS 1955 - Deadly competition
Date
A haunting cartoon short about the crash at Le Mans in 1955 that left at least 80 people dead, and Mercedes’s ensuing decision to withdraw from the race.
The Jungle Prince of Delhi
Date
A family lives in the decaying ruins of a hunting lodge in India, claiming they are royalty, and demanding their land back. How much of the story is true?
The Witnesses
Date
In 2004, the Navy encountered something off the coast of California that it still can’t explain. And there’s video, despite what might be a cover-up.
The Real Fake Cameras of Toy Story 4
Date
Pixar faked camera features in the last Toy Story movie. It created shots using limitations of actual cameras even though it was an animated movies and didn’t use cameras.
5 Banned Elements in Figure Skating
Date
There’s a difference between “show skating” and “figure skating.” What’s legal in the former might not be legal in the latter, and here’s why.
Dropshipping journalism
Date
The description of the sad decline of a once-great news publication is very likely a mirror to the rest of the industry.
Why Are Rich People So Mean?
Date
Numerous studies seem to prove that the wealthier someone is compared to the people around them, the more antisocial behaviors they display.
Beware of Cranks
Date
An entertaining look at the problem of “cranks” in mathematics. These are people who are convinced they’ve solved impossible problems, and refuse to be disabused of that notion.
We Are All Confident Idiots
Date
A primer on the Dunning-Kruger Effect, written by Dunning. It turns out that ignorance often feels like knowledge.
Too Much Dark Money In Almonds
Date
This essay describes the “coordination problem,” where spending money to solve a problem often requires coordination with other people to do the same, or the money is wasted. Conversely, spending money on yourself always leads to a benefit.
Whatever happened to Six Sigma?
Date
The story of a management theory that came and went, then sort of came back. Everything has a hype cycle, and Six Sigma was no exception
Husband stitch
Date
This is a medical procedure which might be an urban legend.
What is internet, anyway?
Date
A 1994 clip from the Today show where the hosts discuss the “@” sign, and try to explain what “internet” is.
What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?
Date
A deeply uncomfortable truth is that many commercial aircraft are poorly maintained and pilots depend so much on automation that they simply don’t know what to do when something unexpected happens.
Berlin Key
Date
A video showing the usage of a “Berlin Key,” which is a key that unlocks a door, then is pushed through, and has to be used to lock the door on the other side before it can be removed. This ensures the door remains locked after someone passes through it.
Studio 54
Date
Wonderful documentary about the history and heyday of Studio 54, a disco in late 70s NYC that took the genre to new heights, before it all came crashing down. Told by Ian Schaeger, one of the two men behind the club.
Crane Building Itself
Date
Ever wonder how those big construction cranes get so tall? They build themselves. The crane itself is used to deliver the segments to make the crane go higher, as shown in this short video.
How we make pencils
Date
An amazing video showing how Faber-Castell makes colored pencils. I literally could not look away.
This Is How Much YouTube Paid Me For My 1,000,000 Viewed Video
Date
A YouTuber explains, in detail, how much YouTube videos make. It’s not just views – the geographic location of the audiences matters, as does how long they watch your video. And then, in the second half of the video, she explains how she tripled her income.
The Stand-Ups
Date
An SNL sketch where Jon Lovitz and Tom Hanks imitate Jerry Seinfeld without naming him, which is odd since this was right before Seinfeld launched and he was still a fairly unknown comic with just a couple TV appearances under his belt. Few people watching would have known who he was.
How to lose $1B in 10 seconds
Date
In 1991, the CEO of a British jewelry company made some jokes about the quality of his company’s product and effectively destroyed it and his own personal net worth.
I Miss Microsoft Encarta
Date
Lovely tribute to the first CD-ROM encyclopedia that many of us owned, and the sense of wonder that it brought us. Wikipedia killed it, but Encarta was a refuge for me for many years.
Starbucks, monetary superpower
Date
Starbucks has created a closed economy of gift cards and app purchases that it controls. It essentially has a secondary income stream of loaning money to its own customers as a specialty private bank.
The Endangered Sex Scene
Date
It turns out, sex scenes on film are very complicated things. There is such a thing as an “intimacy choreographer” that’s like a fight choreographer for sex.
Alraigo Incident
Date
In 1983, an inexperienced pilot in British Harrier couldn’t locate the aircraft carrier he was supposed to land on, and had to set down on a Spanish cargo ship before he ran out of fuel.
Screwball
Date
An enormously entertaining documentary about the steroid era in baseball, and the lengths A-Rod went to avoid punishment. It takes the odd step of recreating scenes using child actors, but, amazingly, it works.
This Is the Beginning of the End of the Beef Industry
Date
Interesting statistics and trends on the rise of “alt-beef” and how it might challenge and topple real beef in the years to come. The statistics on how many feed calories, water, and land area it takes to generate beef are eye-opening.
Super Sad True Chef Story
Date
Riveting essay on what it’s like to do the back-breaking labor of a French kitchen, with a larger look at the future of French cooking and the Michelin rating system.
Bill Hader channels Tom Cruise [DeepFake]
Date
Bill Hader tells some hilarious stories about his interactions with Tom Cruise while making “Topic Thunder.” But what’s incredibly eerie is that when he does impressions, the face of his target is deep-faked over his own in such a smooth way that you don’t notice when it starts and ends. The effect...
Dangerous airport Gibraltar British Airways landing
Date
This short video of a landing at Gibraltar International Airport shows the only way a tiny, narrow country can fit an airport runway – by bisecting an active city street, at which cars have to wait for the landing plane to cross (at 0:43 in the video).
Vulcan, West Virginia
Date
A small town in West Virginia was tired of being ignored for funding by their state, so, in the middle of the Cold War, they appealed to the Soviet Union for funding. A representative from the USSR actually visited to vet the request before the state finally relented.
Why the Katy Perry/Flame lawsuit makes no sense
Date
Detailed dissection of the recent court case against Katy Perry, with lots of counter-examples and explanations of why this has broader implications to the world of art, and why the expert witness in the case might have done damage to musicians everywhere.
The NFL’s Logistics Problem
Date
Fascinating look at the logistics of flying NFL teams everywhere, and how this might play out if the league completes a rumored expansion to London.
The Last Czars
Date
A wonderful six-part miniseries that chronicles the rule of Nicolas II, the last Czar of Russia, and the patriarch of the infamous Romanov family that was massacred in 1918. The episodes transition between a compelling, acted story, and historians and scholars who provide context to what is...
Inside a scam call center
Date
A guy comprises the computers (including the webcams) of a scam call center in India. He shows how the scams work (they claim to have accidentally over-refunded people, then ask for money back), and ultimately disrupts the scam, hilariously.
I Used to Be a Human Being
Date
A contemplation about the distraction of modern life. It’s long, but that’s kind of the point
One Night Wonder
Date
Two kids out of college get a musical all the way to Broadway where it flops spectacularly. This is how it happened, and what happens after you flame out.
Building Chernobyl’s MegaTomb
Date
PBS documentary that explores the seven-year construction project to “re-enclose” the destroyed reactor at Chernobyl. The project was incomprehensibly ambitious, and a million things might have gone wrong, but none of them did. At the climax, I almost cheered.
Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, S06E02: Seth Rogen
Date
Notable for a one-minute sequence in the middle where Rogen recollects the moment at an award show event when Hannibal Buress told him that Bill Cosby was a rapist, with Cosby standing just a few feet away. Rogan says that Buress started referring to this in his stand-up routine about a month...
The Decline of NASCAR…What Happened?
Date
A video which tries to figure out why NASCAR isn’t nearly as popular as it once was. Theories range from young people caring less about cars to safety regulations that have made races boring to our general declining attention span.
Meet the 6’8, 400-lb World’s Strongest Man
Date
A short video about the World’s Strongest Man, who happens to be very tall, and this causes challenges in day-to-day life. The clip of him walking through a small commuter plane is absurd.
The White Ghetto
Date
A 2013 story about poverty in Appalachia. The author is a conservative, but he concedes that there are no easy solutions to what happens in the back woods. Hauntingly well-written.
The Alfonso Cuaron One-Shot Sequence
Date
Neat examination of one director’s obsession with the long take – those unbroken camera shots that go on for minutes at a time. I do, however, take exception at the condemnation of the long take that opens Spectre. I thought that was brilliant.
The Fall Of Mic Was A Warning
Date
A dissection of the demise of Mic that probably mirrors every digital media outlet in the world (hence the title). Well-written and consequently depressing.
Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World
Date
A wonderful documentary explaining the business of contemporary art, and the intersection of artists, dealers, collectors, auction houses, and art fairs. It’s a deeply odd mix of emotion, ego, and big business.
What Happened to Jonathan Taylor Thomas?
Date
A teen heartthrob disappears from the limelight and everyone assumes the worst. This story is a little boring by comparison, but that’s what makes it fascinating. JTT just…grew up.
Why It’s Almost Impossible to Hit a 160 MPH Tennis Serve
Date
The titular question doesn’t get answered, but this is an interesting breakdown of a tennis serve. The record serve is 163mph, and there’s a seven-footer on the tour who can serve downhill in a straight line and still get the ball over the net.
You Can’t Quit Cold Turkey
Date
The story of how compulsive eating and the resulting obesity haunted former NFL quarterback Jared Lorenzen. (Five years after this article was written, Lorenzen died of obesity-related complications after shedding 100 pounds from his peak of 500.)
The Worst Patients in the World
Date
The biggest problem with the American health care system might be, well, Americans. We are terrible at safeguarding our own health and terrible at interacting with health care providers.
“I’m not ready to give it up”
Date
Freddy Adu became a professional soccer player at 14 and was supposed to be the next Pele. It did not work out that way. At 30 years old, he ponders what to do next.
Why Birkin Bags Are So Expensive
Date
Birkin bags sell for figures on the low end, up to $500,000 on the top end. Why this is so is a perfect example of exclusivity and branding.
We Must Prepare for the Next Pandemic
Date
The internet will actually make the next pandemic worse because of the propensity for fake news and misinformation that comes at the intersection of world politics and health.
The Audacity of Hope Solo
Date
A profile of arguably the greatest women’s soccer player in history, and by far the most controversial.
Henri’s Boogie
Date
A boogie woogie pianist sits down at a public piano in a train station and performs. The dexterity and complexity of this style of music is amazing. (I’ve never understood the muted response of the crowd in this video. I would be going nuts…)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Date
An amazing performance of a classic George Harrison song on ukulele. The finger speed at the climax has to be seen to be believed.
How to Be Great? Just Be Good, Repeatably
Date
This doesn’t break any new ground, but I like the central point: the road to success is fairly boring. You just need to get a little bit better at regular intervals, and keep doing this for a long time.
The Curse of the Ship of Gold
Date
One of my favorite books is “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea” which is the story of the USS Central America and its treasure, recovered by a genius named Tommy Thompson. Sadly, the years since the recovery have not been kind to Thompson, and this is the rest of the story.
Too Many People Want to Travel
Date
Over-tourism is a new word to describe throngs of people clogging destination sites around the world. The larger trend at work is that more people are economically able to travel, especially the Chinese, which is a significant part of the world population.
Brexit: The Uncivil War
Date
Fascinating TV movie about the Brexit campaign from the perspective of those who wanted to leave. Emphasizes the usages of data, and the deep divisions in British society that the campaign exploited.
The APA Meeting: A Photo-Essay
Date
The annual American Psychiatric Association conference is an orgy of the absurd and a symbol of everything wrong with American medicine.
11 foot 8 Bridge
Date
There’s a low bridge in North Carolina so famous for catching tall trucks that someone has installed a camera and recorded 145 crashes since 2008.
Death of the Calorie
Date
The stated calories for a given food are a very crude measure because the actual calories our bodies absorb and use from that food are different for everyone, and can be dramatically affected by how the food is prepared, stored, and combined.
Why Doctors Hate Their Computers
Date
This starts as a blistering indictment of Epic, the medical records system, but morphs into a larger discussion of how doctors relate to technology and whether it makes things better or worse.
Creating a Decision Journal
Date
An idea to log all your decisions in a journal, along with all the factors that led to them, in order to avoid Hindsight Bias.
Dark Matter Developers: The Unseen 99%
Date
For every developer doing amazing, cutting-edge things and writing about it on the web, there are 99 that just get work done every day using boring technology that still works just fine.
Introducing Adobe Acrobat 1.0
Date
A promotional video for the first version of Adobe Acrobat in 1993. It details the work processes of a fictional office that will seem familiar to a lot of who were working in the 90s.
Going Critical
Date
An incredible interactive feature article about diffusion among networks, such as illnesses or innovations. It has some wonderful JavaScript visualizations.