Analog Nation

Celebrating a birthday at one’s favorite restaurant is a once-a-year treat, filled with singing, candles, and camaraderie. Yet behind this wholesome veneer lurks an undercurrent of lies — 52.1% of all in-restaurant birthday celebrations are fraudulent. These celebrations, whether acts of mischief or malice, are perpetrated upon the establishment in the hopes of receiving free [...]

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The most human fatalities associated with a single species of waterfowl are the 11,346 attributed to the crested smew. Smews are diminutive cousins of the common duck, usually found in parts of Europe and Asia. Their distinct black and white plumage is easy to spot, making them popular among bird watchers. The crested smew — [...]

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During the 16th century, Europeans were leeched an average of 78.4 times over the course of their lives. Bloodletting was a key component of medicine at that time, as physicians perpetuated the thousand-year belief that modulating a patient’s blood could treat the entire spectrum of human disease. People generally required leeching two or three times [...]

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In all of stamp collecting, the least valuable specimen is a stamp called “Grackle’s Lament,” known colloquially as the three-foot grackle, or simply GL. It is worth $0.00003. And yet it is an uncommonly rare stamp, with only about two dozen believed to be remaining of the original 175.
GL was printed in 1937 as part [...]

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The largest pumpkin ever measured weighed in at 8,467 pounds. It was grown in 2003 by a Lewiston, ME bank manager named Trent McCaffrey. An amateur gardening enthusiast, McCaffrey had no intention of competing in state fairs, let alone producing such a mammoth specimen. In his many interviews, he insisted that he did nothing unusual [...]

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There have been seventeen documented attempts to build a full-scale replica of Angkor Wat entirely out of yarn. If the yarn used in all seventeen attempts were laid end-to-end, it would stretch approximately 17,400 miles, nearly 70% of the Earth’s circumference.
The seventeen attempts have been spearheaded by thirteen separate individuals and organizations, with the Longview [...]

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