#DamnInteresting

The Ancient Order of Bali: In the 1970s, the Indonesian island of Bali went through a period of rapid change. Along the stunning beaches on the southern side of the island, tourism boomed.…

From Where the Sun Now Stands: An American Indian man on horseback stood outlined against a steely sky past midday on 05 October 1877. Winter was already settling into the prairies of what would soon become the state of Montana.…

Journey to the Invisible Planet: In the late 17th century, natural philosopher Isaac Newton was deeply uneasy with a new scientific theory that was gaining currency in Europe: universal gravitation.…

Giving the Bird the Bird: We’re not going to post things on Twitter X anymore. The new owner keeps doing awful stuff. If you have enjoyed our mostly-daily curated links via the aforementioned collapsing service, we invite you to bookmark our curated links…

Breaking a Bit: It’s been a busy summer, and the large shortfall in donations last month has been demoralizing, so we’re taking a week off to rest and recuperate.…

A Trail Gone Cold: Iceland is known to the rest of the world as the land of Vikings and volcanos, an island caught between continents at the extremities of the map.…

Much Ado About Adenoids: Edmund Lawall must have felt cursed. He’d brought his family to New York in the late 1800s to carry on his father’s business as a pharmacist, but fate—or perhaps the city itself—seemed determined to drive him back out again.…

Omiword, a Word Game: In certain dialects of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the word for ‘four’ sounds very similar to the word for ‘death’1. Consequently, the number 4 is considered by many people in East Asian nations to be unlucky.…

There Once Was a Man Called Curley: In the village of Bellewstown, about 15 miles north of Dublin, Ireland, they still talk about what Barney Curley did back in 1975. It all happened during a horse race on the Hill of Crockafotha.…

Twenty: In 2005, YouTube, reddit, and Facebook were all still wet and screaming infants. Google, working under the motto “Don’t Be Evil,” had just dethroned Yahoo!…