Archive for July, 2010

There’s a part in the movie Big Fish where the protagonist, Edward Bloom, loses his shoes to a girl named Jenny Hill. Jenny doesn’t want Edward to leave the subtly mythical town of Spectre and indoctrinates him as per the town custom: tying the laces of one’s pair of shoes and throwing them over a telephone wire, to dangle out of reach. The logic, ethereal as it is, goes that without one’s shoes, one can no longer travel and might as well settle down.

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Another week has flown by here at HowStuffWorks, which means there are two new Stuff Mom Never Told You podcasts that you can check out. First up this week, we discussed the Chinese practice of foot-binding. It was very interesting to learn about the women who bound their feet in secret after the Chinese government banned the practice in 1912. The women would undo the bandages during the day, when they might be seen by inspectors, only to re-bind them at night.

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Good day, SYSK Army. Have you ever heard the term “hotter than Georgia asphalt?” Well it’s a saying for a good reason. I’m melting as we speak and I’m no where near asphalt.

This week on the Stuff You Should Know podcast program, Joshers and I talked about taste and saunas.

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There’s a whole lot of drama in Spain right now surrounding the country’s fiesta nacional, otherwise known as bullfighting. Some want to ban it, others want to preserve it as part of the country’s cultural heritage. No matter which camp you fall into, you’re bound to find some cause for fascination Aranjuez’s Plaza de Toros, a small, centuries-old bullring about a 40-minute train ride south of Madrid.

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In this documentary you go on board a modern aircraft carrier to see how many of its different systems work. In part 1…

Something like 10 years ago, HowStuffWorks wrote its first iteration of the article How WIMAX works. It spells out the promise of WiMAX this way…

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This week there has been much wringing-of-hands because the bond market in the United States came to a halt. This article from the Washington Post states the problem succinctly…

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When (dental) metal in your mouth comes in contact with aluminum foil, your teeth get a painful shock from the electricity produced. Marshall Brain explains how the voltaic effect plays out in your mouth in this episode.

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Every year, the Scottish village of Braemar hosts one of the most famous Highland gatherings in the world. Take in the sights, sounds (and Scots) of the Braemar Gathering, from kilts and queens to caber tossing, in this episode.

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Nowadays zippers are everywhere — they’re faster than buttons, convenient and reliable. But where did they come from? Tune in and learn more about Whitcomb Judson’s stuff of genius in this episode.

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