Originally published on 3/30/2007 at Pop Quiz, Hotshot!
It’s not any old Web site where you can read about the CIA’s efforts to blow up Russian pipelines, the U.S. government’s efforts to build “flying saucers,” or parasites that turn ants into zombies.
In fact, there’s only one, and it is appropriately called Damn Interesting.
The site, which is cataloged in this PQH! writer’s ”Weird Stuff” Internet bookmarks, began in 2005 and is an effort to “dispense damn interesting facts and ideas, whether they appeared in the past, the present, or the (anticipated) future.”
Since its inception, the site has recorded dozens of “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!” type stories of bizarre history, oddball science, strange afflictions and weird activities without being boring in the process.
It’s this effort that makes damn interesting, well, so damn interesting.
Rather than slog through a medical journal to understand what really happens to a person when they’re exposed to the hard vacuum of outer space, read this article at the site.
Or have you ever heard of the strange case of the Max Headroom Pirate? He actually shanghaied the broadcast signal of Chicago’s television superstation, WGN, so he could complain about their sports anchor. Read about it here.
And once you get through those stories, just wander around the site because there’s lots more to see, all of it just strange enough to be … you got it … damn interesting.
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