Oliver Hayes 
A Teapot, a Cup, and No Reason to Pour Picture a full teapot on a counter, a cup waiting right beside it, basically begging to be filled. Then someone pushes the cup aside, leans down, and blows into the spout as hard as they can. No funnel, no special equipment, nothing but lungs against porcelain. … Read more
A Page From 2008 That Isn’t I went looking for a single day in Neatorama’s archive: May 9, 2008. The blog built its reputation on exactly this kind of date, calling itself “the neat side of the web” and promising the neatest, weirdest, most wonderful stuff from across the internet, every day. Its 2008 archive … Read more
A Golem That Plays Piano Joe Holliday’s stated goal is “to destroy the universe.” He says it casually, standing beside a sculpture called Basil Bisulfate: a tangle of tree roots, animal bones, gorilla fur, and scavenged electrical parts, wired into what he calls a transdimensional golem that reportedly plays piano. In “The Goat and the … Read more
The Night Alice Cooper Bought a Letter Picture a shock-rock performer famous for guillotines and boa constrictors instead writing a check to save a piece of a Los Angeles landmark. In the late 1970s, that’s exactly what Alice Cooper did. He personally funded the restoration of one letter of the Hollywood Sign, reportedly in memory … Read more
A Switch Too Small to Catch Somewhere behind your eyes, as you read this sentence, a molecule the size of a few atoms stacked together is flipping open, letting a signal pass from one neuron to the next. That flip is part of how a thought takes shape, how a memory gets laid down, how … Read more
A Camera Goes Where No Diver Can In 2015, ocean engineer Brennan Phillips led a National Geographic expedition to Kavachi, an active submarine volcano in the Solomon Islands, roughly 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Vangunu Island. Its summit sits just 65 feet (20 meters) below the surface, while its base runs down to the … Read more
Two Maps, One State Two maps of the United States, both published April 28, 2011, once circulated online. One, “How does your state excel?”, handed out environmental bragging rights state by state. The other, “How does your state not excel?”, listed each state’s environmental weak spot. Alone, neither stands out. Side by side, one state … Read more
The Street Corner That Doesn’t Add Up Picture a corner in Bath, England, on a clear day in August 2008. A street musician has his fiddle tucked under his chin, bow moving fast, and underneath the melody there’s a full, steady guitar part keeping time. You scan for a second musician. There isn’t one. No … Read more
A Walnut Case Full of Protection In October 2008, at the Jimmy Pippen estate sale in the new Natchez Convention Center in Natchez, Mississippi, Stevens Auction Company sold what was billed as a complete, authentic vampire killing kit for $14,850. The case itself was American walnut, carved with a cross on the lid. Inside, according … Read more
The Forest That Remembers Hikers who stray off the trail near Hope, British Columbia, sometimes stumble on something strange: broad, umbrella-sized leaves growing in thick, oddly deliberate patches. Nothing about the layout looks natural. That’s because it isn’t. The spot sits on the former Tashme internment camp, one of several sites where Canada forced more … Read more