Thomas Edison’s Talking Dolls Sound Like They’re Possessed By Satan

Thomas Edison's Talking Dolls Sound Like They're Possessed By Satan

Thomas Edison is remembered for his contributions to many great innovations, including the phonograph, the light bulb, and the movie camera. But few people today remember one of his most spectacular failures: a talking doll that was the must-have Christmas toy in 1890. There was just one little problem with the dolls. They sounded like they were possessed by demons.

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This Week in Time Capsules: How Do You Put a Website in a Capsule?

This Week in Time Capsules: How Do You Put a Website in a Capsule?

This week we have a brand new time capsule in the U.K. with the Star Wars movies, a 1960 capsule in Michigan that was thought to be lost for good, and a town in Oregon that included a website print-out in their latest low-tech time travel box.

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These Walking UFOs Were Going to Be Post-Apocalyptic Pedicabs

These Walking UFOs Were Going to Be Post-Apocalyptic Pedicabs

What happened in the 1960s when Jetsonian dreams met Duck and Cover fears? You got 1962’s "Walking Machine."

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This Automated Drive-In Market Was Pretty Retro, Even For 1956

This Automated Drive-In Market Was Pretty Retro, Even For 1956

This fully automated drive-in food market held the promise of a leisurely, push-button future. But even people of the 1950s probably recognized it as a sleek re-imagining of a surprisingly retro idea.

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Happy Birthday (and RIP) to Disney World’s Best Ride Ever

Happy Birthday (and RIP) to Disney World's Best Ride Ever

On October 1, 1983 the greatest ride to ever appear at Walt Disney World opened to the public. They called it Horizons.

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8 Gadgets That Were Going to Make It Easy to Find Good Help These Days

8 Gadgets That Were Going to Make It Easy to Find Good Help These Days

At the turn of the 20th century, middle and upper-middle class technologists were obsessed with the "servant problem," which you might know better as the old adage: It’s so hard to find good help these days. These were the technological leaps that would to make unreliable human assistants as obsolete as broken butter churns.

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Would You Eat Chop Suey From White Castle?

Would You Eat Chop Suey From White Castle?

Times were tough for American businesses during World War II. Rationing by the U.S. government made conducting business a lot harder, but Americans largely understood that it was a necessary sacrifice if they hoped to win the war. But with tight restrictions on certain foods, restaurants like White Castle had to get creative when designing their menu.

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That Time Mickey Mouse and Goofy Shilled for Exxon at Disney World

That Time Mickey Mouse and Goofy Shilled for Exxon at Disney World

Back in 1985, Mickey Mouse and his old pal Goofy taught kids visiting Disney’s EPCOT Center about the future of energy in America—with a little help from the good folks at Exxon.

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Reagan-Era Futurists Thought Iran Would Get Nukes by 2020

Reagan-Era Futurists Thought Iran Would Get Nukes by 2020

Will Iran obtain a nuclear weapon? That’s the hot-button question for the U.S. government as the United Nations General Assembly meets in New York this week. No one knows for sure, (except maybe Space Cat). But if you asked American futurists of the early 1980s, they’d probably tell you that it’s bound to happen by the year 2020.

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The Plan to Defrost Walt Disney and Save Capitalism With Sea Cities

The Plan to Defrost Walt Disney and Save Capitalism With Sea Cities

Remember that time back in the 1990s when Walt Disney was awakened from his cryogenic sleep, started building artificial islands off the coast of Massachusetts, and then privatized the U.S. military to protect his new capitalist paradise from an evil, one-world government?

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