The Interesting List

Annotated Link: London to Calcutta by Bus

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

For a couple of decades, there was a bus service from London to Calcutta, India. It took almost two months.

Annotated Link: The gentrification font: how a sleek typeface became a neighborhood omen

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

There’s a specific font that has become associated with the early stages of neighborhood re-development.

Annotated Link: When the New Neighbor Arrived, They Were Excited. It Turned Into a Seven-Year Nightmare That Had Liberals Losing Their Minds.

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

A man opened a bookstore in a downtown building and set off a multi-year conflict over a homeless encampment.

Annotated Link: He Wants a New Start. So He Is Taking the Hardest Driving Test in the World.

Thu, 9 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0500

Uber drivers in London are embarking on a multi-year journey to pass the black cabbie test, whcih requires them to memorize most of the street in London.

Annotated Link: The $500 Million Mystery Will, Signed by Ghosts

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 22:02:00 -0500

A random, bizarre will for a half-billion estate was “discovered,” and no matter how ridiculous it seems, the court is forcing lawyers to adjudicate the matter.

Annotated Link: Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound’s Enslaved Workforce

Mon, 2 Feb 2026 05:17:00 -0600

Scam call center operating from East Asia hold victims’ passports and keep them in debt bondage, while presenting themselves – and even internally operating – as legitimate businesses.

Annotated Link: Poison Book Project

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 07:53:00 -0600

For various reasons, older books were created or bound with materials that are poisonous. There is a project to find and catalog them all, and research ways to safely store toxic books

Annotated Link: How to repair the underside of a ship’s hull, still in the river, in -50˚C Yakutsk!

Tue, 6 Jan 2026 15:03:00 -0600

It gets so cold in Siberia, that you can repair a ship’s hull by letting it freeze in a river, then cutting out the ice around it.

Annotated Link: What Every Body Fat % Actually Looks Like (50% to 5%)

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 17:33:00 -0600

A look at actual representatives of body fat percentages about what’s good, reasonable, and safe.

Annotated Link: The Douglas House: Made for the movies

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:14:00 -0500

There’s a house just north of New York City that has become a magnet for film and TV shoots, including almost all pre-recorded videos for Saturday Night Live.

Annotated Link: The Neurodivergent Genius Who Invented Formula 1 For Marbles

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 12:48:00 -0500

A couple of Dutch brothers started filming marble races and now it’s how they make a living.

Annotated Link: The Silicon Valley Surrogacy Nightmare That Turned a Stillbirth into a Legal Hellscape

Tue, 7 Oct 2025 10:11:00 -0500

A baby was stillborn to a surrogate, so the biological mother embarked on a campaign of harassment and accusations.

Annotated Link: The Beer Can

Fri, 3 Oct 2025 09:16:00 -0500

There’s a unique architecture to keeping the South Pole research station running.

Annotated Link: Desert Graves

Mon, 1 Sep 2025 18:42:00 -0500

A photo gallery of ad hoc graves found in the American desert.

Annotated Link: The Icy Village Where You Must Remove Your Appendix

Tue, 1 Jul 2025 09:09:00 -0500

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.

Annotated Link: Connecting every bit of knowledge: The structure of Wikipedia's First Link Network

Sun, 4 May 2025 10:22:00 -0500

A study examined the paths created by consistently following the first link in a Wikipedia article. Ninety-five percent (95%) of them eventually led to the page on Philosophy.

Annotated Link: Epic Conway's Game of Life

Sun, 4 May 2025 10:21:00 -0500

A collection of amazing patterns generated by Conway’s Game of Life.

Annotated Link: Unpacking claims that higher education leads to more liberal political viewpoints

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 14:58:00 -0500

Higher education does lead to more liberal political viewpoints, but the gap isn’t as large as many claim it to be.

Annotated Link: Why Do People Crave Tomato Juice on Airplanes?

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 08:47:00 -0500

Turns out that the environment inside a plane in flight makes us subconsciously crave certain foods and drinks.

Annotated Link: The Path Not Taken: The 50 Most Economically Disastrous College Majors

Mon, 3 Mar 2025 19:31:00 -0600

A look at bad college degrees and an examination of what makes them that way.

Annotated Link: The Unspoken Rules of LEGO Sets

Sat, 1 Mar 2025 21:59:00 -0600

A explainer of how LEGO sets are invented and what rules apply to building them.

Annotated Link: Was Harvey Weinstein thanked more often than God at the Oscars?

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 11:02:00 -0600

Statistics from analyzing the content of 2,000 Oscar acceptance speeches.

Annotated Link: We're Animatin'

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 08:18:00 -0600

A humorous rap video about how a cartoon is animated turns out to be quite informative.

Annotated Link: One Eagles player made NFL history by doing what the Chiefs couldn't: He pulled off a Super Bowl three-peat

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 06:43:00 -0600

An NFL player has three Super Bowl rings in three seasons, despite only playing in three games.

Annotated Link: Go Away Green

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:34:00 -0600

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.

Annotated Link: Breaking the 4th Wall Movie Supercut

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 09:30:00 -0600

A compilation of examples of when movies broke the fourth wall, and spoke to or looked directly at the camera.

Annotated Link: What your web browser says about you

Mon, 6 Jan 2025 17:04:00 -0600

Employers who took the effort to find and install an alternative web browser performed better on every metric and stayed in jobs longer.

Annotated Link: Why aren't we talking about the real reason male college enrollment is dropping?

Mon, 6 Jan 2025 16:41:00 -0600

When women enter a profession or institution in greater numbers, men leave. The latest example is college.

Annotated Link: The Invention that Accidentally Made McMansions

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 08:30:00 -0600

A new way to hammer together roofing trusses completely changed how they were built, and by extension, how homes were designed.

Annotated Link: How Car Chase Scenes Have Evolved Over 100 Years

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 08:29:00 -0600

A discussion about how car chases are staged and filmed.