The Thing That Is Missing Is Ink
Open a photocopier and there is no liquid anywhere. No reservoir, no cartridge of fluid, no nib, no pad, no ribbon. The consumable…
It is loudest before it boils, and the switch never measures the water. Here are fifteen.
1. The Element Heats the Water, Not the Kettle
In an electric kettle the…
It is the only organ that grows back, and most people cannot name what it does. Here are seventeen.
1. It Grows Back, Which Nothing Else Does
Remove a substantial…
The Name Has Been Misleading People for Two Centuries
Almost everybody believes a lightning rod attracts lightning. It is an easy belief to hold, because the thing is pointed, it…
The Bars Are Not the Code
The intuitive reading of a barcode is that each bar is a symbol, like a letter, and the sequence of bars spells out the…
Almost Everybody Has the Explanation Wrong
The standard account, repeated more or less universally, is that lying on an arm cuts off the blood supply, the limb is starved of…