50 Fascinating Social Media Facts & Stats Of 2010
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Read moreMonthly Archives: December 2010
The Effects of Scurvy
Yar me maties, today I found out what be causing scurvy. Like most people, I already knew that scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C and that it was a major problem aboard ships out to sea for a good length of time and is still somewhat of a problem in places where people are malnourished. But I […]
Read moreTop 20 Most Visited Articles in 2010
Today I Found Out was started almost exactly one year ago on January 1st, 2010. This year the site has been viewed by over four million people worldwide with the best month of the year coming this month, in December, receiving over 1.3 million page views from over 800,000 visitors. There are now about 270 articles on Today I Found […]
Read moreTop Five Most Visited Articles in December 2010
Top Five Most Visited Articles in December: 1. How the Gun on the Original Duck Hunt Game Worked [Dec. Visitors: 114,972 | Posted On Dec. 28, 2010] 2. The Tongue Doesn’t Have Zones for Different Tastes [Dec. Visitors: 50,894 | Posted On May 11, 2010] 3. What the Things You See When You Rub Your Eyes Are Called [Dec. Visitors: […]
Read moreWhere the Names of The Simpsons Family Came From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and More Interesting Simpson’s Facts Text Version Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, named many of the characters after his own family such as: Homer (his dad), Margaret (his mom), Maggie and Lisa (his sisters), and Abe (his grandfather). His brother Mark was the inspiration for Bart. He chose to name the character “Bart”, […]
Read moreThe British Equivalent of “That’s What She Said”
“That’s what she said” is thought to have been around since the 1970s with the earliest known documented case of the phrase showing up on Saturday Night Live, spoken by Chevy Chase in a weekend update skit in 1975, which also happened to be the first season of SNL. “That’s what she said” was later hugely popularized thanks to Wayne’s […]
Read moreWhere the “Aurora Borealis” Name Comes From
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and to Learn What Causes the Northern and Southern Lights Text Version In Roman mythology, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn, which is how the first part of the name “aurora borealis” came about. The “borealis” comes from the Greek name for the north wind, Boreas.
Read moreWhere the Word “Algebra” Came From
Today I found out the origins of the word “Algebra”. It all started back around 825 AD when a man named Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, the “father” of Algebra, wrote a book called “Kitab al-jabr wa al-muqabalah”. This roughly translates to “Rules of Reintegration and Reduction”. This work was specifically covering the branch of mathematics we now know […]
Read moreUncle Phil From ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Was Shredder
Today I found out the actor who played Uncle Phil in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was also the voice of Shredder in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon series. *mind blown* Bonus Factoids: Uncle Phil, also occasionally known as James Avery in the real world, was also the voice of James Rhodes in the 1990s Iron Man series. After […]
Read moreThe Brazil Nuts are a Lie
##EMBED## Click Here for Sources and for Interesting Facts About the Radioactive Banana and Brazil Nut Text Version Despite the name, the primary exporter of “Brazil” “nuts” is Bolivia, who account for about 50% of Brazil nuts exported world-wide. They are also not nuts, but rather seeds. So the whole name is a lie.
Read moreHow the Gun on the Original Duck Hunt Game Worked
Today I found out how the gun on the original Duck Hunt game worked. If you’ve ever played Duck Hunt or any of the other NES games that used the NES Zapper gun, you probably at one point or another wondered how the game actually knows where on the TV you are aiming the gun when you pulled the trigger. […]
Read moreWhat the SOS Distress Signal Stands For
Today I found out what SOS stands for. It is commonly held that “SOS” is an acronym for “Save Our Ship” and thus often written “S.O.S.” In truth, SOS is not an acronym for anything, which is why it is incorrect to put full stops between each letter. So why was SOS chosen to signify a distress signal? The thought […]
Read moreJust Desert
##EMBED## Click Here to Learn More about the Word “Desert” Text Version The word ‘desert’, as in “to get what is coming to you”, has been used in English since around the 13th century. This word, however, has fallen out of common usage and now, outside of the idiom “just desert”, is almost never used.
Read more10 Interesting Christmas Facts
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Read moreWiping Methods
##EMBED## Click Here to Learn Why Poop is Brown Text Version In India, rather than use toilet paper, it is typical to simply use your left hand. If you think that is bad, in Ancient Rome, a wet sponge on a stick was used. That sounds all well and fine until you find out that that after being used, the […]
Read moreWhy Asparagus Makes Pee Smell
Today I found out why asparagus makes pee smell. The smell comes from the way certain chemical compounds in asparagus break down inside people’s bodies. This is why cooking asparagus in various ways does not result in the same smelly byproduct; the specific digestive enzymes that break down the compounds in the asparagus to produce the smell aren’t present until […]
Read moreThe “Pull and Pray” Method Works About as Well as a Condom for Preventing Pregnancy
Today I found out that the “Pull and Pray” method statistically is just about as effective as condoms for preventing pregnancy. Indeed, according to Dr. John Guillebaud in his book Contraception: Your Questions Answered, some of the lowest birth rates in history pop up around cultures whose primary method of contraception is the pull and pray method. This method, also […]
Read moreThe Most Expensive Coffee in the World
##EMBED## Click Here To Learn More Interesting Coffee Facts Text Version The most expensive coffee is coffee where the berries go through the digestive tract of the Kopi Luwak (a small cat-sized Indonesian animal). The “beans” are then harvested from the animal’s waste, cleaned, roasted, and sold. This coffee costs $100 to $600 per pound. Just like when you buy […]
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