You can’t spell "correctional facility" without "correct"—and while there’s a lot that’s wrong with the criminal-justice system in this country, we can at least get our terminology right. Exhibit A: jail versus prison. Both are correctional facilities that are used to incarcerate people charged with or convicted of a crime, but the similarities stop there. Let’s get into the differences. A jail is a temporary, short-term detainment center where an individual waits for a trial and read more
You can’t spell "correctional facility" without "correct"—and while there’s a lot that’s wrong with th read more
Remember that whole kingdom/phylum/class/order taxonomy you learned in ninth-grade biology? If you applied that very scientific framework to something like, say, fried potatoes, breakfast potatoes would be a genus, and home friesand hash browns would be the major species. Let's start with hash browns. According to Merriam Webster, hash browns consist of “boiled potatoes that have been diced or shredded, mixed with chopped onions and shortening, and fried usually until they form a brown read more
Remember that whole kingdom/phylum/class/order taxonomy you learned in ninth-grade biology? If you applied tha read more
Chances are, you used some sort of pottery/ceramic product today: the mug you drank your coffee out of, the plate you ate your lunch on, the artisanal, hand-made pot you warmed your artisanal, stone-ground oats in, etc. But do you ever stare at the mountain of dishes in your sink and ask yourself, Gee, would those be classified as pottery or ceramics?No? Well, you’re about to learn the difference anyways. Technically speaking, ceramics are things made from non-metal materials that are perm read more
Chances are, you used some sort of pottery/ceramic product today: the mug you drank your coffee out of, the pl read more
If humans were around 230 million years ago, and they had computers and email addresses and newsletters devoted to random facts delivered to their inboxes each week, they’d be asking this same question—because alligators and crocodiles, part of the Crocodilia order of reptiles, have been around for that long. That means that they’ve been here since before the dinosaurs, before the ice age, and before everything that came after that. And yet: we’re here, in 2018, and we still don’t kno read more
If humans were around 230 million years ago, and they had computers and email addresses and newsletters devote read more
Let me guess—you almost clicked out of this email. I obviously know the difference, you said to yourself. They are literally different types of mushrooms. I am about to rock your world: THEY ARE NOT. THEY ARE LITERALLY THE SAME TYPE OF MUSHROOM. They are all Agaricus bisporus, in fact, just different ages: button mushrooms, which are white, are the toddlers; cremini mushrooms, which are brown, are the teenagers; and portobellos, which are brown and much larger versions of their youn read more
Let me guess—you almost clicked out of this email. I obviously know the difference, you said to yourself. read more
You feel that clean, crisp chill in the air? ‘Tis the season for chunky sweaters, for pumpkin spice lattes, and for shoving your pale, bumpy legs into tight-fitting armor and strutting back into the world with newfound confidence. As a short person with calves too large to fit into normal-width boots, I like to pretend my legs don’t exist, and there’s no better enabler than cold weather. Here are the differences between the various leg-sheaths on the market. Let’s start with pantyhose. read more
You feel that clean, crisp chill in the air? ‘Tis the season for chunky sweaters, for pumpkin spice lattes, read more
It’s 2 p.m., which means it’s almost time to momentarily break free from the desk-chains of capitalism to engage in more capitalism by purchasing an overpriced caffeinated beverage to help you practice capitalism faster. And while you know you want coffee, the question arises: what’s the difference between the coffees you’re drinking? Iced coffee is exactly what it says it is: coffee that’s brewed hot, then served over ice. Sometimes, it’s brewed at double the strength, so that the read more
It’s 2 p.m., which means it’s almost time to momentarily break free from the desk-chains of capitalism to read more
Lessons one learns as an adult: you may have grown up in New England (🙋), attended an Ivy League school (🙋), and even gone through a short-lived adolescent phase in which you regularly wore rugby shirts and cable-knit sweaters (🙋), and you still may not know the different between crew and rowing. This is okay; What’s the Difference is here for you. Rowing, or “sweep rowing,” is a sport in which the participants row across a body of water with one oar per person. When the par read more
It's the tail-end of tomato season, and, like the rest of us, you're looking for ways to help your private chef jazz up the Sunday-evening caprese. My tip: make like Pat Sajak and buy a couple extra vowels, because straciatella and burrata are going light up the appetizer spread. But before you send your butler to the cheese shop, let’s parse the difference between mozzarella and its creamy cousins. Mozzarella is an old friend: a fresh cheese made with cow milk (or, in the case of mozzarella read more
It's the tail-end of tomato season, and, like the rest of us, you're looking for ways to help your private che read more
While commuting to work in a place such as, say, New York City, one might find oneself taking in the landscape’s natural beauty: the scent of hot garbage wafting through the air, the wail of various sirens, the odd substances crusting and pooling on the sidewalk. One might ask oneself, Why didn’t I pursue a career as a ski instructor? Also, is this sidewalk made of cement or concrete? And that’s when a weekly What’s the Difference email, and its focused desire to turn the splitting of ha read more
While commuting to work in a place such as, say, New York City, one might find oneself taking in the landscape read more