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teodolist stories

True stories, told in a minute by the thing that lived them.

A volcano, a borrowed typewriter, a rubber duck lost at sea. Each one tells its own true story in about a minute, drawn in crayon. Under every video you get the longer story and the sources we checked.

120 stories
0:54 the seed The Arctic vault that saves the world's seeds 0:51 the last payphone The last payphone in New York City 0:46 the grapefruit The oldest human-made object still in orbit 0:52 the stone A pebble's 10,000-year journey from mountain to sea 0:50 the rover Built for 90 days on Mars, it lasted 15 years 0:52 the oldest tree This tree is almost 5,000 years old (and its location is secret) 0:50 the statue The dog who waited 9 years at Shibuya Station 0:49 the bottle The oldest message in a bottle ever found (1886) 0:49 the coral What actually happens when coral turns white 0:47 the snowflake Why every snowflake has six arms 0:51 the monarch A 3,000-mile trip to a place they've never been 0:49 the tape Inside the last video rental store on Earth 0:50 the footprint Why the first footprint on the Moon is still there 0:51 the crane Why people fold 1,000 paper cranes 0:50 the letter Where do letters with no address go? 0:50 the worker bee How bees give directions by dancing 0:49 the turtle How sea turtles find their way home after 25 years 0:51 the first web page The first website ever made is still online 0:53 the comet Mark Twain predicted his own death with a comet 0:48 the lighthouse What happened to the lighthouse keepers? 1:04 the ulekan The volcanic stone behind every great sambal 1:01 the duck How 28,800 lost rubber ducks mapped the ocean (1992) 1:05 the volcano Krakatau 1883: the loudest sound in recorded history 0:58 the bulb The light bulb that has been on since 1901 0:58 the dragon Komodo dragons: the 'dragon' that's really a giant lizard 1:00 the sticky note How a failed glue became the Post-it Note 0:59 the shark The Greenland shark: a 400-year-old vertebrate 1:01 the angklung The angklung: one bamboo instrument, one note 1:03 the banana The $6.2 million banana taped to a wall 0:59 the box Mudik: the cardboard box that goes home for Lebaran 1:03 the flower Rafflesia: the giant flower that smells like rotting meat 0:58 the spring How a falling ship spring became the Slinky 1:01 the signal The Wow! signal: 72 seconds from deep space (1977) 1:08 the tempeh Tempeh: Java's humble fermented superfood 1:04 the pigeon Cher Ami: the pigeon who saved the Lost Battalion (1918) 0:58 the flip-flop The flip-flop that went home with the wrong person 1:00 the tower Why the Leaning Tower of Pisa never fell 0:57 the godwit The baby bird that flew 13,560 km without stopping 1:02 the typewriter The borrowed typewriter that typed Indonesia's independence 1:01 the painting The 1911 theft that made the Mona Lisa world-famous 1:09 the bajaj The orange bajaj: Jakarta's noisiest icon says goodbye 0:59 the water bear The water bear that survived space and crashed on the Moon 1:06 the stone The Rosetta Stone: how one rock taught us to read ancient Egypt 1:07 the stone Borobudur: buried by ash, found in 1814, rebuilt stone by stone 0:52 the button Does the elevator 'close door' button actually work? 1:03 the horn Om telolet om: the bus horn that went viral around the world 0:57 the dung beetle The dung beetle that navigates by the Milky Way 0:59 the tower The Eiffel Tower was meant to be torn down. Radio saved it. 1:00 the letter Kartini: the letters that brought light after darkness 0:59 the starter The sourdough starter that's been alive since 1849 1:04 the zoom The sinetron zoom: Indonesian TV drama's most dramatic move 0:59 the telescope Hubble: the telescope that needed glasses 0:55 the axolotl The axolotl: the salamander that never grows up 1:07 the pinisi The pinisi: Indonesia's wooden ships built without blueprints 0:59 the mould Penicillin: the mouldy dish that changed medicine 0:59 the orange cat Why are most orange cats male? The 'gangster cat' explained 1:08 the stopwatch The first marathon under two hours: Kipchoge in Vienna, 2019 1:10 the emoji The original heart emoji: 144 pixels from Japan, 1999 1:07 the canting The canting: the tiny copper pen behind hand-drawn batik 1:00 the bubble wrap Bubble wrap was invented as wallpaper 1:14 the rendang Why rendang takes hours: the dish that keeps for weeks without a fridge 1:00 the octopus Inky the octopus: the great escape down a drainpipe to the sea 0:59 the statue Why the Statue of Liberty is green (and why she was almost painted) 1:03 the lake Lake Toba: the calm lake left by a supervolcano 74,000 years ago 1:04 the snooze button Why is the snooze button 9 minutes? The 1956 gear story 0:57 the violin The violin that first played Indonesia's anthem in 1928 1:00 the bobsled The real story of Jamaica's 1988 Olympic bobsled team 0:58 the crow Crows never forget a face: the caveman mask experiment 0:51 the whistle Priiit! The whistle of Indonesia's street parking attendants 1:06 the box The steel box that changed the world: the first container ship (1956) 0:57 the cracker Why Indonesians race to eat crackers every 17 August 0:56 the mantis shrimp The mantis shrimp: a punch like a bullet and eyes with 12 colour receptors 1:06 the flyer From 12 seconds at Kitty Hawk to Mars: the Wright Flyer's journey 1:04 the orangutan The Tapanuli orangutan: the rarest great ape on Earth 1:03 the burr How a burr stuck to a dog became Velcro 1:02 the envelope The Lebaran money envelope and the famous 'Mama keeps it safe' 1:00 the soldier The Terracotta Army: 8,000 clay soldiers found by farmers digging a well 1:05 the sloth Why sloths risk their lives once a week to go to the bathroom 1:06 the puppet Petruk: the wayang clown who tells kings the truth 1:06 the duct tape How duct tape helped bring Apollo 13 home 1:08 the runway The day Bali's airport goes completely silent (Nyepi) 0:59 the sock Where do lost socks actually go? 1:01 the hummingbird The coin-sized bird that crosses the Gulf of Mexico nonstop 1:03 the mouse-deer Si Kancil and the crocodiles, in the trickster's own words 1:00 the cube The Rubik's Cube took its own inventor a month to solve 1:02 the bowl Ting-ting-ting: the sound of the bakso cart 1:01 the black box Why a plane's 'black box' is actually orange 1:06 the bonsai The 400-year-old bonsai that survived Hiroshima 1:05 the shuttlecock The shuttlecock from Indonesia's first Olympic gold (Barcelona 1992) 1:03 the mechanism The Antikythera mechanism: a 2,000-year-old computer from a shipwreck 1:01 the pole Panjat pinang: why nobody climbs the greased pole alone 1:01 the cockroach Why cockroaches are so hard to get rid of 0:50 the tea bowl Kintsugi: the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with gold 1:09 the glass Why the jamu seller serves the bitter one first 1:00 the paperclip How one red paperclip was traded up to a house 0:56 the noodles Instant noodles at the end of the month: a love story 1:02 the candy bar How a melted chocolate bar led to the microwave oven 1:08 the parrot Alex the parrot: the bird who said 'I love you' 1:04 the whale shark The gentle giants of Cenderawasih Bay, Papua 1:05 the crossbar The Fosbury Flop: the backwards jump that changed the high jump forever (1968) 1:09 the giant Ondel-ondel: Jakarta's giant puppets, from warding off bad luck to busking for coins 1:01 the floppy disk The floppy disk: why the 'save' icon is a thing most kids have never seen 0:55 the forest Pando: the forest that is actually one tree 1:02 the rhino The Javan rhino: about 50 left, all in one forest 0:59 the football The Christmas Truce of 1914: when enemies stopped to play 1:06 the helmet The helmet: an Indonesian ride-hailing driver, the rain, and one special day 0:57 the jellyfish The 'immortal' jellyfish that turns back into a baby 1:00 the modem The dial-up modem: why the internet used to scream 0:57 the water drop Subak: Bali's thousand-year-old system for sharing water fairly 1:05 the seed Methuselah: the 2,000-year-old seed that brought back an extinct tree 1:03 the tent The blue wedding tent that closes the whole street (Indonesia) 1:02 the ant Leafcutter ants: farmers for 66 million years 1:00 the whale The 52-hertz whale: the loneliest voice in the ocean 1:02 the candy The candy you get instead of change (and why it's technically illegal) 0:58 the pet Tamagotchi: the digital pet that got banned from schools 1:09 the line The Wallace Line: the invisible border between Bali and Lombok 0:56 the pencil The pencil: no lead inside, a very long line, and a lot of mistakes 1:06 the helicopter Ingenuity: the Mars helicopter built for 5 flights that flew 72 1:02 the oak The Tree That Owns Itself (and its son) 0:59 the word Why we say 'hello' on the phone (and not 'ahoy')