Objects That Matter: Milk
In 2009, researchers found that cows with names produce more milk, confirming the quaint Wisconsin dairy adage, "Speak to a cow as you would to a lady."
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Objects That Matter: Cartocontroversy
Imagine peeling an orange, then trying to lay the peel flat. Map-making is the art of manipulating the orange peel until it yields.
Objects That Matter: The Prison Uniform
Women wore, and sometimes designed, their own clothes in California prisons until the 1990s, when the state began issuing uniforms to its female inmates.
Objects That Matter: Taxidermy
Arsenic was long a preservative in the taxidermic process, despite criticism of the method as unnecessarily dangerous. But at least one contemporary scholar has suggested that metabolized arsenic extended the lives of late 19th-century taxidermists by decades.
Objects That Matter: Bears Ears
No other president in the last 50 years has attempted to shrink the national monuments designated by his predecessors.
Objects That Matter: Biodegradable Bullets
The Pentagon has paid more than $42 billion to clean up contaminated sites—mostly to private contractors—with little evidence of improvements, a ProPublica investigation found.
Objects That Matter: ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Cards
In 1567, wealthy citizens who could afford to purchase tickets for England's first National Lottery were guaranteed indemnity from arrest for crimes (excepting murder, treason, piracy, and other felonies).
Objects That Matter: The Knockoff-Inspired Designer Good
Awareness that a brand is widely counterfeited can make shoppers more willing to pay for the real thing, a 2012 study found.
Objects That Matter: Vinyl
A 2016 survey found that 48 percent of record buyers don't actually play their purchases, suggesting that, for many, vinyl is more aesthetic collectible than functional art.