Bizarre Bytes: How a turnip became a Halloween pumpkin
Every October, pumpkins suddenly develop personalities. Some grin, some grimace, and others look...
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Category: Bizarre Bytes
The strange history of the umbrella
The umbrella seems simple enough: open it when it rains, close it when the sun comes out and try...
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Bizarre Bytes: The accidental invention of the microwave
One of the most-used appliances in American kitchens owes its existence, at least in part, to a...
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Bizarre Bytes: Why are tennis balls yellow?
Watch a tennis match on television, and that little yellow ball seems like an obvious part of the...
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Bizarre Bytes: Bubble Wrap was almost wallpaper
Imagine walking into a living room in the late 1950s and finding the walls covered in plastic...
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Bizarre Bytes: How a walk with a dog helped invent Velcro
Sometimes an invention begins in a laboratory. Sometimes it begins with picking burrs off a dog....
Read MoreBizarre Bytes: The unusual history of the stop sign
I stopped at a stop sign the other day — nothing unusual about that — but while I waited for another car to clear the intersection, I looked at that familiar red octagon and wondered: Who decided this was what “stop” should look...
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Bizarre Byte: One of America’s most recognizable “Chinese” foods likely has Japanese roots
Crack open a fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese meal, and you might find a prediction of good...
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Bizarre Bytes: The $45 smile that took over the world
It may be one of the simplest designs ever created: a yellow circle, two black eyes and a curved...
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Bizarre Bytes: Why do we wear wedding rings on the fourth finger?
I attended a wedding last weekend and another one this coming weekend, at which I have spent a...
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Bizarre Bytes: The surprisingly odd origin of the TV remote
Before you grab the popcorn, close the curtains and apologize to the dog. Early TV remotes had a...
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Bizarre Bytes: The curious history of the zipper
Imagine getting dressed every morning without a zipper. No quick pull on a jacket. No easy...
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