“If you build it, they will come,” says the common expression. That’s simply not true. Creating a popular tourist attraction is shockingly difficult. Build it in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or do your math poorly, and all you’ll ever have is a giant money sink and a lot of people making fun …
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How do you think children are different from 50 years ago? Things are always changing and these are some from the last handful of decades. The first years of life are more important than previously understood. Researchers now know that early childhood experiences strongly influence brain development, learning abilities, emotional regulation, and future health. The …
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Do you know about these crazy killers and why they said they killed? For attention or just to know how it felt, it doesn’t get much crazier than that. “I wanted to know what it felt like.” One of the most disturbing motives ever described is simple curiosity. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered 14-year-old …
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Remember Spaceballs? If that’s too old for you, it’s a 1987 sci-fi parody by Mel Brooks, featuring an evil spacefaring race called the Spaceballs. I’m bringing the movie up because it turns out that space balls are real. But they’re not as comically heinous as in the film. Recently, beachgoers discovered strange metallic spheres on …
Did you read 10 True Stories That Sound Completely Made Up: Part One? Because this is part two. The Man Who Invented an Entire Country In the early 1820s, Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor claimed to be the ruler of a prosperous Central American nation called Poyais. He published detailed books describing fertile farmland, modern cities, …
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The British monarchy gets a lot of attention worldwide, for varying reasons. Some people enjoy the drama and gossip, while others are drawn to the centuries of pomp and tradition. Some of those ceremonies, however, are decidedly odd or just straight-up outlandish. But that’s what you get when you carry some traditions over hundreds of …
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Do you think you know all about these true stories? Do you know about Project Acoustic Kitty? The Man Who Survived Two Atomic Bombs – Tsutomu Yamaguchi Tsutomu Yamaguchi was a 29-year-old engineer working for Mitsubishi when he traveled to Hiroshima on a business trip in August 1945. On the morning of August 6, he …
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With all the trust placed on them and the resources they have access to, bankers are often in a great position to embezzle money. There are many stories out there of bankers using ingenious methods to make off with thousands, if not millions, of dollars. This is not one of those cases. A South Korean …
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Games have rules for a reason. They’re there to ensure fair play and that everyone starts on the same line, allowing skill and ability to determine the final result. If you go through the rulebook of virtually any sport or game, though, you’ll soon enough start running into really bizarre rulings. Sometimes, something so rare …
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A celebrity has returned to Tasmania on his annual tour. This famous personality, however, is not a rock star, sportsperson, or politician. Instead, he’s Neal the Elephant Seal. For the last few years, Neal has crawled out of the ocean in southern Tasmania. He sticks around for a couple of weeks to shed his old …
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