Food, Dubious Food
Vocal Fries podcast In 2011, an Alabama law firm sued fast food chain Taco Bell for dishonest business practices, claiming Taco Bell's seasoned beef filling couldn't be called beef under USDA standards because they had it tested and it only contained 35% beed. The...
Around the World in 80 Birthdays
If you walk up to a random person on the street and ask their birthday, there’s only a 1:365 chance that they have the same birthday as you, about .27%. If you ask nineteen more random people, your odds improve, but only just. You’re still not up to even a 5% chance....
To Your Health (Spa)
Health and wellness are always a concern, especially lately with news of the novel corona virus coming at us from all sides. There are ways to help your body stay in peak condition. Perk up your colon with a coffee enema, balance your energies into the ideal...
100!
In the first version of Toy Story, Woody wasn't a toy cowboy, he was a ventriloquist dummy. And he was a creepy sadist, at one point pushing Buzz Lightyear out a window. The standard-issue female CPR training dummy, called RessuciAnne, got her face from the death...
Earth’s Unsung-est Heroes: Black Inventors, pt 2
There’s a company out there, you might have seen videos of their products online, that makes furniture that converts from a bed to a desk. Like an old-fashioned Murphy bed, but better, because the items on your desk and shelves can stay where...
Earth’s Unsung-est Heroes: Black Inventors, pt 1
Edison, Franklin, Tesla, DaVinci, Bell, Wright, Marconi, Babbage, Goodyear. These inventors’ names are synonymous with the technologies that have defined their times. They have another thing in common; they’re all white men. But many Black inventors have...
Animal Mother
In the rainforest of South American and the Caribbean, lives a toad, scientific name pipa pipa, that is about the size of your hand. It is shaped a bit like a hand, as well, since it’s so flat, it looks like it’s been run over by a cartoon steam-roller. The broad...
Do Not Adjust Your Set
Deep into the night during an HBO broadcast of The Falcon and the Snowman in April 1986, subscribers were startled to see the start of the action interrupted by a four-and-a-half-minute transmission from a certain “Captain Midnight.” Over a test pattern, a message...
Patent Schmatent
In 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen was conducting experiments with a Crookes tube – basically a glass gas bulb that gives off fluorescent light when a high-voltage current is passed through it. Despite the tube being shielded by heavy black cardboard,...