What We Learned This Week
Welcome to "What We Learned This Week," a regular feature where we share all the most interesting nuggets of information we picked up in the past week.
Herring communicate by shooting a burst of bubbles out of their anus.
In 1973, a geography professor proposed redrawing U.S. state borders and decreasing the number of states in the pursuit of political equality. While the effort obviously failed, the map itself is still fascinating. Plus, Florida no longer exists, so that's nice.
North Korea Doesn't Have A Sense Of Humor
North Korea has threatened "merciless" retaliation against the United States if a new James Franco and Seth Rogen movie about a harebrained scheme to assassinate Kim Jong-un is released. We get it. We really don't want to see another James Franco movie either.
This Chart Tells You If You're Underpaid
Ever looked around and wondered if the people around you are making more money for doing the same work? This chart won't necessarily answer your question, but it will give you a better idea of what people in your industry are making.
How Bing Became The Search Engine For Porn
Finding free porn on the Internet is about as difficult as finding weed at a Phish concert, but just in case you were having trouble, there is one search engine that is much better at it than the others.
Borders are meant to physically divide us from the rest of humanity. They encourage us to put our own selfish needs and wants over the planetary good. But a new data set aims to break them down and encourage more globally civilized behavior by ranking nations based on how much they do for others globally. Hint: Libya is not a winner.
How To Remove An Owl From Your House With A Swiffer
"Don't give me that look. Please don't give me that look."
How A Single Photograph Thwarted One Of The Most Heinous Cheats In Soccer History
This story has everything: unruly fans, a flare gun, a razor blade hidden in a goalie glove and international ramifications.
How Much House You Can Buy, In 385 U.S. Cities
The easiest way to compare the affordability of housing markets is to just look at the prices in each city. But it's more accurate to look at housing prices when compared to the income generated in each of those cities. The better the ratio, the more affordable housing actually is.
The Scientific Way To Cure A Hangover
Curing your hangover isn't exactly the highest research priority in science. Cancer still exists, you know? But science isn't completely ignoring the global pandemic of hangovers either, since they can tell us a lot about the operation of our brains and guts. Sadly, the research is in the early stages and the best recommendation boils down to "eat a bunch of greasy food and curl up in a ball."
Why Everyone Looks Hotter In Sunglasses
You may have heard an old cooking expression that goes something like "an ounce of sauce covers a multitude of sins." The same can be said for sunglasses. They're the ounce of sauce that covers the sinful asymmetry of your face.
Volkswagen Once Tried To Kill A Journalist Over This Car
It's a game almost as old as the car itself. An automaker tries to disguise a new model out in the real world for testing and auto journalists try to spot the new model and take photographs of it. Most of the time, it's a peaceful game. But one time, Volkswagen took it too far.
You should already know the answer to this question.
How To Write 225 Words Per Minute With A Pen
If you're an exceptionally gifted Internet Person, you may be able to type about 100 words per minute. But even you can be beaten by a 19th century innovation. Gregg Shorthand is a way of encoding and decoding language at an incredible rate. This is what they should teach kids instead of cursive in elementary school.
40 People Slap Each Other In The Face
In the spirit of the video of strangers kissing for the first time, a filmmaker got 40 of his acquaintances together and had them to slap each other in the face.