The Five Sandwich Families And Other Facts

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.​

The American Sandwich Can Be Divided Into Five Families

For most of my life, sandwiches fell within one of two types: "Regular Sandwiches," which I made at home, and "Fancy Sandwiches" which other people made for me. According to the New York Times, I was wrong. There are five main types of sandwich here in the States,¹ and they're all dictated by the type of bread used: hard roll sandwiches, soft bun sandwiches, hero sandwiches, sliced bread sandwiches and every other sandwich which doesn't fit into those other four categories. Now that that's settled, do you offer someone "a sandwich," or "some sandwich?"

DVDs Are Responsible For 'Game Of Thrones' Leaks

This past Sunday, most people watching the Game of Thrones premiere from a legally grey area just happened to use someone's HBO Now login. Still, as it is wont to do, the Internet swelled with illegal copies of the show's first four episodes. But how? Some clever sleuthing from Ars Technica solves the mystery; all the rips are set at a resolution of 720×392, leaving one possible source: DVD screeners. So, while the Internet might be the biggest facilitator of piracy, physical media is the source.

The Design Of The Aluminum Can Is Unassumingly Brilliant

To some, cans are cheap and inferior compared to bottles. But upon further examination, they are carefully calculated vessels that maximize durability and storability with a minimal amount of aluminum. In this video, Bill Hammack, an engineering professor at the University of Illinois, explains the complex design and manufacturing process of the aluminum beverage can.

Insanity Is Contagious

At a base level, our body is a series of chemical reactions. Sometimes, foreign entities make it inside and throw those reactions off, causing us discomfort, a runny nose, or leave us praying to the porcelain gods for an evening. A new field of study, known as pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders, hopes to link some physical illnesses to mental ones — where one child's strep throat is another's OCD. To put another way, the body's urge to defend itself from invaders could be messing with the populace inside: the brain.²

Senator Chuck Grassley's Twitter Account Is A Reflection Of His Lassiez-Faire Politics

Spend enough time on Twitter, and you're bound to see someone retweeting a near-incomprehensible string of words and punctuation from Senator Chuck Grassley. As the blue check asserts, it really is him. Surely aides and advisors have probably approached the Republican Senator from Iowa about his 140-character missives³ but he is steadfast in his brand of off-brand tweets. And, in the grand scheme of things, it makes sense. It's just Twitter, after all.

A Scythe Slices Through Grass Faster Than A Weed Whacker

While John Henry will forever live on in American folk history as a reminder that humanity cannot defeat the cold efficiency of machines, over in England muscled, shirtless, scythe-wielding men continue to absolutely destroy commercial-grade weed whackers in grass-cutting competitions.⁴ One could assume this is because a scythe, erm, scythes the grass while a weed whacker, erm, whacks.

Correction: An earlier version of this post erroneously cited Paul Bunyan as a cautionary folk tale regarding man's ability to overcome machines. That folk figure is John Henry. We regret the error and the writer has been sent into the woods to chop down trees until he no longer confuses the two.