XED, the first border radio station, began broadcasting from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, in 1930. For a while, it was owned by Houston theatre owner and philanthropist Will Horwitz.

The U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights is the world’s most translated document.

The number of legal chess positions is 1040, and the number of different possible games is 10120.

As a teenager, Angelina Jolie listened to punk rock but also took ballroom dancing lessons.

On April 8, 1960, Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence founder Frank Drake pointed a radio telescope at Tau Ceti to detect possible alien radio signals. A new SETI technique, looking for short but powerful bursts of light that could be signs of alien lasers, is increasing in popularity.

This article appears in February 19 • 2010.

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