Today I found out how “port” and “starboard” became the commonly used terms for “left” (port) and “right” (starboard) on a ship. We’ve all been there. You step on a ship and everything suddenly becomes nautical, despite the fact that most on the boat probably have to resort to mnemonics to remember which side of the ship is port and […]
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Embed This Infographic [Source: Today I Found Out] For Part 1 of this series go here: 10 Totally Random Interesting Facts
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Ken J. asks: How is the calorie content in food determined? First, let’s make sure everybody here understands what a calorie is. A calorie is just a measurement of energy- the amount of energy needed to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree Celsius at standard atmospheric pressure. This makes sense when talking about calories in food. Food provides energy […]
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Today I found out was started three years ago on January 1, 2010. In that span about 20 million people have visited the site with around 7.2 million of those people visiting at least once in 2012. There are now over 1400 posts between “regular” articles, “This Day In History” posts, Quick Facts, Infographics, and Answers. 2013 should be an […]
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The condition is known as “prosopagnosia” / “facial agnosia”, or in less medical terms: “face blindness”. (“Prosopagnosia” actually literally means: “face ignorance”. “prosopon” = “face”, “agnosia” = “not knowing” or “ignorance”). Once thought to be incredibly rare, with only 100 or so documented cases up until the last decade or so, it’s now thought that around 1 in every 50 […]
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Embed This Infographic [Source: Today I Found Out] For Part 1 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts For Part 2 of this series go here: 10 Bizarre Facts (Part-2)
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Today I found out the Johnny Cash song “A Boy Named Sue” was written by Shel Silverstein. The song was originally inspired by a friend of Silverstein’s, Jean Shepherd (noted writer, actor, radio personality, and humorist, who, among other things, co-wrote and narrated the holiday classic The Christmas Story film, partially based on his childhood). Jean had often been teased […]
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The (Carcharodon) Megalodon is thought to have looked something like a Great White Shark, only a bit more stocky and overall bigger… much bigger, with an average adult Megalodon estimated to have weighed around 70-100 tons (about 30 times that of a Great White Shark which full grown tend to be about 2.5-3 tons). The Megalodon is estimated to have […]
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Merry Christmas from everyone here at Today I Found Out! While you’re sipping eggnog and trying your best to continue smiling and nodding while your cousin and cousin-in-law once again tell you how their little Stacey has a photographic memory and already sings and plays the piano as well as Norah Jones, despite being just 4 years old and publicly […]
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On the whole, people don’t generally like to kill one another. Most wars throughout history are often more about the agendas of the state’s leaders than the soldiers on the field actually inherently feeling any real malice towards those they are asked to try to kill or otherwise defeat. Few events in history illustrate this as well as a remarkable […]
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Embed This Infographic [Source: Today I Found Out] For Part 1 of this series go here: 10 Interesting Christmas Facts You might also like: 12 Fascinating Christmas Traditions from Around the World
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The man was Eric Moussambani Malonga, later nicknamed “Eric the Eel”. Moussambani is from Equatorial Guinea in Africa and only managed to get into the Olympics at all because of a wildcard drawing system put in place by the International Olympic Committee, designed to try to encourage developing countries to participate in various Olympic events. Thanks to this drawing, Equatorial Guinea […]
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Today I found out the guy who did the voice for Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger also sang the iconic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” song in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The man was Thurl Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft originally went unintentionally uncredited in the film. Because of this, a common misconception rose up that it was Boris Karloff, […]
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Carmen asks: What do the numbers in a blood pressure test mean? Also, what types of things do these numbers tell doctors? Well Carmen, blood pressure is really just that- the pressure at which blood moves around the body in your arteries. The easiest and least invasive way to test what that pressure is at any given moment is to […]
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Today I found out the Christmas song Silver Bells was originally called Tinkle Bells. To make matters slightly more humorous, Silver Bells originally appeared in the The Lemon Drop Kid, a 1951 film starring Bob Hope. Needless to say, these two things would have surely resulted in the song getting a few chuckles, had composer Jay Livingston’s wife, Lynne Gordon, […]
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This is a guest post contributed by List25.com 1) Teflon: Roy Plunkett, a chemist who worked for DuPont in the early 20th century, accidentally stumbled across the non-reactive, no stick chemical while experimenting with refrigerants, specifically looking for a non-toxic chemical to use for a refrigerant. After storing tetrafluorethylene (TFE) in gas form in small cylinders and having it frozen, […]
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Milly asks: Where did candy canes originally come from and how did they get associated with Christmas? First, let’s start by dispelling a somewhat popular myth that more or less goes like this: The white base color of the candy cane symbolizes Jesus’ purity; the red stripes symbolize Jesus’ blood when he died on the cross; and the J shape […]
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