Though many forms of currency are visually conservative—featuring portraits of notable figures and leaders—there is a class of cool cash from around that globe with eye-popping colors and designs. More than just legal tender, some banknotes serve as an artistic merging of technology, color schemes...

Street cooks are magicians: With little more than a cart and a griddle, mortar, or deep-fryer, they conjure up not just a delicious snack or meal but the very essence of a place. Bite into a banh mi—the classic Vietnamese sandwich of grilled pork and pickled vegetables encased in a French baguette—and...

Heavy lift vessels are quite amazing vessels, built to load, carry and discharge large, unusual shaped cargoes (or even smaller vessels) that will simply not fit inside the holds of conventional vessels. Unusual cargoes can include power plants, submarines, desalination units,oil platform, generators...

Right is wrong and left is … right? Seems to be. It’s not exactly a bass-ackward revolution, but left-handers are doing okay for themselves in sports these days. Or are they? The idea struck me last week when I saw highlights of college quarterbacks Josh Heupel and Matt Leinart winning BCS National...

Everyday we chow down on food produced from plants that carry deadly poisons. Most of the time we don’t need to be concerned with this as the mass production of fruit and vegetables ensures that we are usually safe, but from time to time people accidentally kill themselves by unwittingly eating the...

When you belly up to the bar, how well do you know the cocktail you’re ordering? The ingredients of these famous tipples may be familiar to bar patrons the world over, but some of their origins are as debatable as those of the Flaming Moe. Here’s a quick rundown of where some of your favorite drinks...

Once out from the oppressive administration at colleges and universities, those partaking in somewhat organized co-ed sports leagues are forced to come up with their own creative and usually offensive or crude team names. Co-Ed Sports are a past-time for the quarter-lifers and is even called out as #65...

President-elect Barack Obama has been toiling away at filling his Cabinet positions and this week comes word that CNN’s and CBS’ resident white-coat Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been offered the post of Surgeon General. Known by most as the guy who shames you into thinking that your baby is going...

Vegas is America’s Tijuana, but without needing to sit on a toilet for 2 days afterwards. Some of the people you meet in Vegas are so shady it can make you feel like the city had been controlled by a bunch of mobsters. Between your pupils never adjusting to the epileptic flashing lights and the shear...

The 80’s were a decade of decadence, with everything being bigger, crazier, and more over the top. It was the beginning of the age of insanity, and yet somehow, out of the midst of all of the big crazy hair and drug use and Reaganomics, a few gems that could withstand the test of time were born. Even...

Pierre Girard got a gag gift that lives up to its name. It keeps on giving - and it occasionally makes people gag.

1. Disneyland was expected to fail. Opening day was such a disaster that pretty much every press organization that attended the celebration had predicted the park’s failure within one year.

The Ark of the Covenant To the ancient Israelites, the Ark of the Covenant was the most sacred thing on Earth. The central and paramount object of the Hebrew nation, this ornate chest was, according to the Bible, designed by God. Measuring 44 inches long, 26 inches wide, and 26 inches high, the chest...

We all know Luke Skywalker as the main protagonist throughout the original Star Wars movies and onward into the novels of questionable quality. We all grew up wanting to be him—learning to use the Force, blowing up the Death Star, saving the galaxy. But the thing is, despite all his badass moments,...

The recently discovered science of complex systems is about common patterns that span diverse disciplines from physics to biology, from ecology to economics. This recent science of patterns is directly relevant to what we are doing around the Web. In this post we will discuss 5 different books that...

Strange coincidences & Amazing Facts between Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. The names Lincoln and Kennedy...

The Rolling Bridge, located on the Paddington Basin in London, was created by Thomas Heatherwick. It is twelve meters long and opens every Friday at noon. Rather than a conventional opening bridge mechanism, consisting of a single rigid element that lifts to let boats pass, the Rolling Bridge gets out...