Made by humans on Earth. Since 2003.
A St. Bernard dog

Saint Bernards

Rescuing the rescuers

The monks who bred St. Bernards in the Swiss alps since the 17th century and used them to help rescue travelers have decided their time is better spent on other pursuits, but the dogs are still OK, as are the travelers.
FREE sign on fence

Freecycling

Finding your stuff a new home, painlessly

Your unwanted stuff needs a new owner. Someone else needs your stuff. Freecycling puts those two needs together with the simplest and most useful online service since Craigslist, and keeps landfills clear at the same time.
Plate clouds

Plate Clouds

Alien spacecraft hidden in plain sight?

A relatively rare type of cloud formation may resemble anything from a stack of pancakes to a flying saucer, and mysteriously appears to stay in one place while emanating an eerie glow.
Binaural Beats and Interaural Time Differences

Binaural Beats

The magical music of the brain

When your brain tries to process two tones with slightly different pitches, one delivered to each ear, it creates the sensation of a rhythmic beat. This phenomenon can help put the brain into a relaxed state.
A 16th birthday balloon

Celebrating Our 16th Birthday

No foolin'! Interesting Thing of the Day turns 16 today. Time for a brief look back…and forward.
Human arm tattooed with the word fur

The Skin Project

Short story as body art

Artist Shelley Jackson has created a short story that was published by tattooing one of its words onto each of more than 2,000 volunteers.
Palais Idéal du Facteur Cheval

Palais Idéal

The postman’s palace

For 33 years in the late 1800s and early 1900s, a postman in rural France worked to build an elaborate palace out of stones he collected during his daily rounds.
Detail of an 18th century engraving of Scotswomen waulking (fulling) cloth, and singing.

Mouth Music

Music without instruments

An old style of rhythmic Scottish singing consists largely of nonsense words chosen more for their sound than their meaning, and sometimes sung to sound like particular instruments.
Books by Carlos Castaneda

The Writings of Carlos Castaneda

Sorcery, mythology, or both?

Revered by some as a great spiritual leader and mocked by others as a fraud, Carlos Castaneda made a huge (if dubious) impact on the way people think about sorcery and mysticism.
Single-serving boxes of milk

Milk in a Box

Losing the bottle

It's not just powdered milk that comes in a box. Liquid milk treated with Ultra High Temperature (UHT) pasteurization can stay fresh in your pantry for months. But taste, cost, and buying habits may spoil the deal.