The fascinating world of Disney's themed trash cans

Disney World's Magic Kingdom includes an underground utilidor

Walt Disney viewed everything happening in his parks as a performance and didn't like it when that performance was disrupted by necessary aspects of the park's maintenance, like trash collection. With Florida's Disney World, the company corrected that problem by building a massive area underneath the park to be used as a "backstage."

Why is there an archaeologist in my trash can?

Archaeologists have always been interested in rubbish—sites such as waste heaps, middens, and latrines can be some of the richest places to learn about the human past. But the type of rubbish we're leaving behind is changing, and much of it now...

Understanding the Disney adult phenomenon

Disney isn’t just for kids, at least according to Disney adults, who dress up as their favorite characters and make pilgrimages to the company’s parks. They’re often considered immature, unrefined, or worse, but the members of this subculture don’t see anything wrong with their passionate devotion to Disney. This article explores the phenomenon through interviews with actual Disney adults, offering a more nuanced take on the reasons behind the much-maligned trend.

Disneyland's drinkers once had their own unofficial mascot

Disney has countless subcultures and unofficial fan clubs, including D3, also known as the Disney Day Drinkers. Founded in 2021, the club began informally meeting near a trashcan, nicknamed Binny, in Disney World’s Epcot park … until it mysteriously disappeared in 2023.

Why some US cities pay thousands of dollars for a single public trash can

The rationale supposes high-end, heavy-duty trash cans reduce litter and maintenance costs, justifying per-unit costs of close to $3,000 in some municipalities. But results are mixed, and some experiments using cheap 55-gallon drums were similarly effective.

Turning trash into music

In a town built on a landfill, a music teacher and young musicians created an orchestra using instruments made entirely from trash. From oil cans to bottle caps, they turned waste into music.

Track where your plastic trash will be in 20 years

This map illustrates the fate of floating plastic 20 years from now. Simply add a location of choice and see the journey unfold.

Malaysia is home to a massive McDonald's museum

Top Fast-Food Toy Collections Museum in the city of Alor Setar houses over 80,000 McDonald's items, including Happy Meal toys, employee uniforms, and ketchup packets.

A photo gallery of underwater shipwrecks

Tobias Friedrich is a German scuba diver specializing in underwater photography. Check out this stunning gallery of shipwrecks as well as other galleries on conservation, sharks, and more.

The artwork at Burning Man is impressive and transient

Huge sculptures, mutant vehicles, concert stages, the Man, and other spectacles created at Burning Man each year are often destroyed by the end of the event. If they aren't burned, they'll often be repurposed or trashed.

Explore a collection of galleries of pollinators found in national parks

Many of the photographs were taken during pollinator inventories in national parks across the US. Although these inventories often focus on bees and butterflies, the collection also features beetles, moths, spiders, and birds that transfer pollen as they move from bloom to bloom.

How a lawn gnome became the hottest item at the Masters

The kitschy piece of memorabilia debuted in 2016 and has since become a highly sought-after collectible for Master attendees. This ESPN deep dive explores how it happened and what makes the strange little item so attractive for golf fans.

The slow disappearance of America's roadside attractions

Roadside attractions, as defined by Jane Stern, are quirky, oddball landmarks. Instead of corporate entertainment, charms like a giant twine ball, a shabby dinosaur sculpture exhibit, or hand-painted oddities beckon travelers off the interstate. These roadside attractions have declined in recent years, but Stern commemorates their value and reflects on the joy of discovering unusual and homemade wonders in this piece.

Some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters were designed by Drew Struzan

The artist is responsible for iconic posters advertising "Indiana Jones," "Hook," "The Goonies," and more. His distinctive style—sometimes painted by hand, sometimes drawn with an airbrush—defined the era of the family-friendly family blockbuster.

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

'Steamboat Willie' was the first film to feature Mickey Mouse

This short film introduced Mickey Mouse, the character who would define the Disney brand, to the world. It might be almost 100 years old, but you'll be surprised at how much humor still holds up.

Fascinating facts about Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí wasn’t just a famous surrealist painter, he was a master of spectacle. Known for leaving restaurant sketches as payment and believing he was his late brother’s reincarnation, Dalí blurred the line between art and persona. He even collaborated with Walt Disney on an experimental short, shelved for decades before its 2003 release.

Biographer Ron Chernow believes Twain's legacy embodies 'the best and worst of our culture'

Twain’s childhood hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, attracts countless tourists seeking Twain-themed reenactors and museums. Ron Chernow, author of a 2025 about the writer, argues that the ongoing interest in Hannibal and in Twain’s writing is because his work and life typify the American experience.

The world’s most beautiful cinemas

Oakland, Madrid, and Mexico City are home to some of the most beautiful movie theaters in the world according to this extensive list. This resource compiles photos and interesting tidbits from 50 stunning cinemas, located in historic buildings and glistening modern structures.

A gallery of New York cats alongside their feline reflections

Comedian Jim Tews began capturing photos of cats from the Big Apple in 2014 as a joke mimicking the highly popular site "Humans of New York," which captured random New Yorkers accompanied by their quotes. The site grew in popularity and Tews...

In 2022, a piece of Challenger was discovered on the ocean floor

While searching for World War II wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a documentary, divers discovered debris on the seafloor that NASA later confirmed to be a piece of Space Shuttle Challenger wreckage. The piece is at least 15-by-15 feet in size and partially buried under sand.

Japan is home to intricately designed region-specific manhole covers

The country's eye-catching sewer covers were a form of brand rehabilitation, intended to change people's perceptions of the sewer. Additionally, they're easy to see at night, making firefighters' nighttime duties a bit easier.

The calendars of the 'Lord of the Rings'

JRR Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" is a seminal work in the history of literature partly due to its creator's obsessive focus on systematic detail—including the calendars used in the world. Take a fantastic dive into the minutiae of Tolkien's creation by learning the different approaches to time organization in the Shire or Rivendell with this dense, comprehensive resource based on Tolkien's appendices.

What classified documents look like

It's hard to get a sense of what these classified documents being discovered at the homes of presidents look like. Here's some images of the ones found at former President Donald Trump's home.

What to see at the Met

With hundreds of thousands of objects on display at any given time, how do you decide what to see at the Met? This video tour from Behind the Masterpiece walks through some of the museum’s most popular and interesting works, like the ancient Temple of Dendur and John Singer Sargent's 'Portrait of Madame X', explaining their cultural context and why they’ve captivated visitors for so many years.

Thingiverse is a massive free library of 3D-printable designs

The site—which was launched in 2008 by 3D-printer manufacturer MakerBot—hosts more than 2 million user-generated design files to build everything from prosthetic hands to replacement dishwasher parts (or the "Golden Snitch" from "Harry Potter). The community behind it rapidly designed and shared files for face shields and ventilator components amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Explore the animals that populate the depths of the ocean, from fish and coral in the first few hundred feet, all the way down to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

One disco producer saw 'Star Wars' four times on its opening weekend and was so inspired that he recorded the album 'Star Wars and Other Intergalactic Funk,' which produced a chart-topping single.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Watch this video that uses Lego bricks to explain how venture capital works.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.