Recently Added Cards

[[Hummingbird]]s do not draw nectar through [[capillary action]] — their [[tongue]] is a [[fluid trap]]. The forked tip opens when it touches nectar and snaps shut as the tongue retracts, scooping up liquid in the process. The finding overturned a century-old textbook explanation.

The northern [[blue-tongued skink]]'s [[tongue]] does more than look blue — it strongly reflects [[ultraviolet]] light, with the rear reflecting roughly twice as much as the front. Normally camouflaged, it gapes its mouth at predators to flash the UV-bright rear in a deimatic display.

A [[woodpecker]]'s [[tongue]] is so long it cannot fit in the mouth. It rides on a bone-and-cartilage rig built around the [[hyoid]] bone, looping around the back of the skull up to the forehead or even the nostrils. Up to a third of the bird's length, it also stiffens the skull during each peck.

A [[giraffe]]'s [[tongue]] reaches 45–53 cm with a tip colored deep [[blue]], [[black]], or [[purple]]. The dark hue comes from [[melanin]], and the leading explanation is [[ultraviolet]] protection: giraffes spend 16–20 hours browsing with the tongue out, so its most exposed part needs sunscreen.

The giant [[anteater]]'s [[tongue]] can extend about 60 cm and, unlike that of other [[mammal]]s, attaches directly to the [[sternum]] instead of the throat. It flicks in and out up to 150–160 times per minute, snapping up [[ant]]s and [[termite]]s with backward-pointing papillae and sticky saliva.

The smallest [[chameleon]], Rhampholeon spinosus, fires its [[tongue]] at 264g — 264 times gravity. F-16 pilots feel about 7g; the Space Shuttle reaches roughly 3g. The trick is not muscle but [[elastic energy]] stored in collagen sheaths around the hyoid bone and released like a slingshot.

[[Shark]]s have no real [[tongue]] — just a small slab of cartilage, the basihyal, on the mouth floor. Useless in most species, it is the [[cookiecutter shark]]'s key weapon: the shark latches on, retracts its mobile basihyal to create a vacuum, then twists out a round plug of flesh.

[[Crocodile]]s cannot stick their [[tongue]] out — it is fixed to the mouth floor by a membrane. The anchored tongue acts as part of the gular valve: tongue below, throat fold above, sealing the airway so water cannot enter when the mouth opens underwater.

1950s engineer Jerry Pournelle proposed dropping [[tungsten]] rods from [[satellite]]s. Project [[Thor]] ("Rods from God") drops 6.1 m × 30 cm rods at Mach 10 with ~11.5 tonnes of TNT energy. Not a nuke, so no fallout — and the 1967 [[Outer Space Treaty]]'s ban on "WMDs in orbit" doesn't apply.

The [[USA]] swapped a [[Hellfire missile]]'s warhead for six folding blades — the AGM-114R9X "Ninja Missile." It deploys them just before impact, slicing the target with no blast — just a hole in a roof. In 2022 it killed [[al-Qaeda]]'s [[Ayman al-Zawahiri]] on a [[Kabul]] balcony.

In 2011, [[France]] had to destroy an armored vehicle in a [[Libya]]n city. Their fix: a 300 kg [[concrete]] bomb — a casing of concrete, not explosives. No blast, no shrapnel; the GPS-guided block smashed the vehicle on impact. The [[USA]] had used the trick in Iraqi no-fly zones since the 1990s.

[[Earth]]'s closest [[planet]] on average isn't [[Venus]] but [[Mercury]]. Bigger orbits spend longer on the far side of the [[Sun]], so average distance grows. Mercury's tiny orbit keeps it near every planet. Earth–Mercury averages 1.04 AU, Earth–Venus 1.14 AU. The "Whirly Dirly Corollary."

[[Scotch tape]]'s ripping sound is really tens of thousands of [[sonic boom]]s per second. A 2026 KAUST team filming at 2M fps saw cracks race along the adhesive at 250–600 m/s, past the [[speed of sound]] (342 m/s). Each collapses a vacuum pocket at the edge, booming ~37,000 times/s.

In 2008, UCLA showed in Nature that peeling [[Scotch tape]] in a [[vacuum]] emits nanosecond [[X-ray]] bursts. The tape's adhesive side charges positive, outer side negative — a ~40,000 V gap. Accelerated electrons strike across and emit X-rays. They photographed finger bones with it.

[[USA]] physician Samuel Cartwright announced a fake [[mental illness]] in 1851 supposedly afflicting only Black [[slave]]s: "Drapetomania." Symptom: "the urge to flee the plantation." Cures: [[whipping]] and amputating big toes. The term remained in Stedman's Medical Dictionary until 1914.

There are more plastic [[Flamingo]]s in the world than real ones. Designed by Don Featherstone in 1957, the iconic pink [[Plastic]] lawn ornament has sold over 20 million copies, while wild [[Flamingo]] populations across all six species total only about 3–4 million [[Bird]]s.

The [[Eiffel Tower]] grows up to 15 cm taller in summer. Its [[Iron]] structure undergoes [[Thermal expansion]] in the heat, gaining 12–15 cm in height. The iron was specifically chosen to expand and contract without cracking, letting the tower "breathe" with the seasons.

[[Pluto]] hasn't completed a full [[Orbit]] around the sun since its 1930 discovery. With an orbital period of about 248 years, it will finish its first lap in 2178. Counting from its 2006 demotion as a [[Solar System]] [[Planet]], it will complete a full orbit in 2254.

[[Shark]]s appeared on Earth before [[Tree]]s. The oldest known shark scale [[Fossil]]s date to about 450 million years ago in the late Ordovician period, while the first trees only appeared around 385 million years ago in the Devonian. Sharks predate trees by roughly 65 million years.

Chemist Fredric Baur, whose [[Invention]] was the iconic [[Pringles]] tube [[Packaging]], asked that his ashes be buried in a Pringles can. When he died in 2008, his family stopped at a drugstore on the way to the funeral to buy an original-flavor can and placed his remains inside.

The word [[Boycott]] traces its [[Etymology]] to Captain Charles Boycott, a land agent in 1880s [[Ireland]]. When he refused to lower rents during a poor harvest, the community shunned him — workers, shopkeepers, even the postman cut him off. The tactic took his name and entered the OED by 1888.

[[Potato]] produces more calories per acre than any other [[Crop]]: about 9.2 million kcal, compared to 7.5 million for [[Corn]], 7.4 million for [[Rice]], and just 3 million for [[Wheat]]. Its short growing season and tolerance for poor soils explain this.

In January 2022, [[porn]] featuring [[Tifa Lockhart]] from [[Final Fantasy VII]] was played during an [[Italy|Italian]] Senate Zoom meeting. A senator had exposed the login credentials on Facebook, allowing an outsider to hijack the session and stream the video for about 30 seconds.

[[Sloth]]s were believed to be the only [[mammal]]s that don't [[fart]]—the theory was that methane from digestion was reabsorbed into the bloodstream and exhaled orally. In 2025, a viral video of a sloth farting in a warm bath debunked this myth for good.

In 1593, a soldier named Gil Pérez allegedly fell asleep on guard duty in [[Manila]], [[Philippines]], and woke up in [[Mexico]] City. Arrested as an intruder, he described the governor's assassination before the news reached Mexico and was freed when confirmed.

The [[Joseon dynasty]] [[Gwanghaegun]] Annals (1609) describe a [[UFO]]-like sighting in Yangyang: a 'round, glowing object' rose from the ground, shining white, blue, and red, then split in two and vanished. The K-drama '[[My Love from the Star]]' was inspired by this record.

Two games that each guarantee a loss can become a winning strategy when played alternately. One game's result influences the other's conditions, allowing you to selectively hit favorable outcomes. This is known as 'Parrondo's [[paradox]].'

In July 1518, a woman in Strasbourg, [[Holy Roman Empire]], began to [[dance]] for no reason. The dancing spread like an [[epidemic]]—by August, about 400 people could not stop. Doctors, unable to determine the cause, could only wait for them to collapse from exhaustion.

Given two [[cube]]s of the same size, you can drill a hole through one and pass the other through it. By drilling parallel to the space diagonal, a cube about 6% larger than the original can pass through. This is known as the 'Rupert property.'

During the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944) in [[World War II]], at least nine [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] botanists starved guarding a [[Seed|seed]] bank of 250,000 [[Food|food]] crop samples. They refused to eat a single one—rice researcher Ivanov died amid thousands of bags of rice.

[[Yi Hwang]] (Toegye), the greatest Confucian scholar of the [[Joseon dynasty]], removed the distinction between legitimate and [[Illegitimate child|illegitimate]] children from his family genealogy, fearing his concubine's son would face discrimination. That distinction has been absent ever since.

[[Yi Hwang]] (Toegye), a great Confucian scholar of the [[Joseon dynasty]], found his white mourning robe patched with [[Red|red]] cloth by his mentally ill wife. He wore it to the funeral anyway, telling mourners: "Red wards off evil spirits—my wife meant well."

The claim that the [[Caesarean section]] is named after [[Julius Caesar]]'s birth is almost certainly false—his mother lived for decades after his birth, and no woman could have survived the procedure with the medicine of that era.

'[[Metaphysics]]' originated in the 1st century BC as a label for works placed after Aristotle's Physics—meaning 'the things after the physics.' Because the [[Greece|Greek]] word 'meta' means both 'after' and 'beyond,' it was reinterpreted as 'the study that transcends nature.'

During the [[Joseon dynasty]], [[Hunter|hunter]]s in [[Hamgyeong]] strapped wooden planks called 'seolma' (雪馬)—an early form of [[Ski|ski]]—to their feet and charged down snowy slopes to spear [[Tiger|tiger]]s. Related artifacts are estimated to be 2,000–3,000 years old.

Nymphs of the [[Planthopper|planthopper]] have actual [[Gear|gear]]-like teeth on their hind legs. When jumping with 400G in 2 milliseconds, the gears synchronize both legs within 30 microseconds. Adults lose the gears—damaged ones can't be replaced—and switch to friction instead.

Julie d'Aubigny (La Maupin), a 17th-century [[France|French]] swordswoman, infiltrated a [[Convent|convent]] as a novice nun to rescue her imprisoned lover. She placed a dead nun's body in her lover's bed, set the room on fire, and escaped—only to be sentenced to death by burning and flee.

Julie d'Aubigny (La Maupin), a 17th-century [[France|French]] swordswoman and [[Opera|opera]] singer, defeated three noblemen in [[Duel|duel]]s at a court ball after kissing a woman. Her father, a fencing instructor at Louis XIV's court, had trained her from childhood to surpass adult men.

In 2009, a veined [[Octopus|octopus]] was observed carrying coconut shells and using them as shelter—the first documented [[Tool|tool]] use by an [[Invertebrate|invertebrate]]. Octopuses can also solve puzzles, open jars, escape aquariums, and learn by watching other octopuses.

An [[Octopus|octopus]] has roughly 500 million neurons, and more than two-thirds of them are distributed across its eight arms rather than its central [[Brain|brain]]. The brain issues high-level commands while each arm independently handles the details—a decentralized nervous system.

The [[Brain|brain]] of a [[Cephalopod|cephalopod]] is shaped like a donut, with the esophagus running straight through the center. Even in a 300 kg colossal [[Squid|squid]], the esophagus is only about 10 mm in diameter—so swallowing too large a piece of food can compress the brain and cause damage.

The convention of expressing [[TV]] and [[monitor]] screen sizes by diagonal length began because early cathode ray tubes were circular. A single diameter sufficed, and even after screens became rectangular, the uniform 4:3 aspect ratio meant diagonal length alone still worked.

[[New Zealand]]'s [[Māori]] did not come from [[Australia]] but descend from people who left [[Taiwan]]. By canoe through the Philippines and Papua, they reached New Zealand around 1200–1300 CE. Before their arrival, the islands had no humans—and no [[mammal]]s at all.

Cheongyang [[chili pepper]]s, seemingly named after Cheongyang County, actually have no connection to it. Developed in 1983 by crossing Thai and Jeju peppers, the variety was named after Cheongsong and Yeongyang counties—taking one character from each name.

The distance between [[Australia]] and [[New Zealand]] exceeds 2,200 km—farther than Seoul to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The sea between the two countries is roughly large enough to fit India entirely.

[[Ulleungdo]] Island's famous [[pumpkin taffy]] was originally 'hubak [[taffy]].' Made from the [[hubak tree]] on the island, the name was mistakenly spread as '[[pumpkin]] taffy' due to similar pronunciation. Ulleungdo seized this and began making actual pumpkin taffy.

During the [[Age of Discovery]], [[pirate]]s likely kept [[parrot]]s on board not as pets but as merchandise. With their vivid colors rare in [[Europe]] and ability to mimic human speech, parrots could be sold for high prices.

[[Pirate]] [[earring]]s were practical, not decorative. Precious metal earrings covered funeral costs upon death and were engraved with home port names to return the body. During [[cannon]] fire, [[wax]] attached to earrings was used as earplugs to protect hearing.

[[Pirate]]s may have worn [[eye patch]]es for more than just injuries. Since they had to fight while quickly moving between the bright deck and the dark below, they may have used eye patches to keep one eye pre-adapted to darkness.

The 'Sleeping Beauty problem' is a famous [[probability]] [[paradox]]. If a coin lands heads, she is woken once; if tails, twice with memory erased. The 'Halfer' camp says heads is 1/2, the 'Thirder' camp says 1/3, and both answers are logically valid.