Hi, we're here from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Cody Gough.

And I'm Ashley Hamer.

Today you learn about why the US once launched millions of copper needles into space,

and three ways big data can predict what you really like to

watch or listen to. We'll also answer a listener question about why bikes don't

fall down when you ride them. Let's satisfy some curiosity.

Hey remember that time the US launched millions of copper

needles into space? No because I was not alive. Me neither, but it's a thing that

happened and this is not a conspiracy theory.

For a couple months in 1963,

the Earth had something in common with the planet Saturn.

A ring.

No, again, I'm not kidding.

It was all in the name of technology. Here's the story. In the 1950s, people

were able to communicate long distance like never before. You could get a message across the ocean

or to the other side of the continent in a matter of minutes.

But that was thanks to giant undersea cables and over the horizon radio that bounced the signal

off the ionosphere. And during the Cold War, those cables could be

disrupted by enemy agents, and long-distance radio signals could be disrupted by

both terrestrial and solar storms. That's why the US decided to try a new method of long-range

communication, an earth-sized ring of copper to conduct transmissions fast as lightning

...