Category: fun facts
fun facts
How funerals keep Africa poor.
How funerals keep Africa poor. “So common is this sentiment that the Akan have a saying: abusua do funu, ‘the family loves the corpse.’” The essay argues that lavish funerals work as a costly signal of loyalty inside intense kinship […]
fun facts
Penguin relationship flowchart.
Penguin relationship flowchart. “The Kyoto Aquarium in Japan keeps a wall-sized flowchart tracking the romantic relationships, breakups, and drama between their penguins.” It has color codes for couples, breakups, and “it’s complicated,” plus notes like one penguin being “basically demonic.” […]
fun facts
Designed for a bad experience.
Designed for a bad experience. “Then I thought, what if objects were actually designed for a bad user experience, instead of a good one?” Greek architect Katerina Kamprani makes deliberately inconvenient everyday objects, and the interview gets at why useless […]
fun facts
Payphone tag.
Payphone tag. “Payphone calls in Australia are now free. No coins, no credit, just pick up and dial.” Someone turned the collection 14,000 free payphones across the country into a real world game of territory control. ~ learn more
fun facts
How to talk to anyone – and why you should.
How to talk to anyone – and why you should. “You don’t always know if it’s OK. Sometimes you have to take the risk and find out.” The Guardian argues we’ve lost the everyday habit of talking to strangers, and […]
fun facts
Interstate 19: America’s only metric highway.
Interstate 19: America’s only metric highway. “There’s not many places in the U.S. where you get a little math problem while you’re driving.” Interstate 19 in Arizona is a 102-kilometer stretch where signs are in meters and kilometers, and locals […]
fun facts
Say now Shibboleth.
Say now Shibboleth. “Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right.” So they killed him. A shibboleth is a word or habit that marks you as an […]
fun facts
A wastewater plant that grows nature.
A wastewater plant that grows nature. “The largest bio-remediation facility in the world” is cleaning Riyadh’s wastewater while building habitat along Wadi Hanifa. Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison visits the site and treats it like a working ecosystem, not just infrastructure. […]