Today I found out thermostat controls in large buildings, such as many office buildings, don’t usually do anything. These placebo controls for large HVAC systems do nothing but make you think you are adjusting the temperature. In some cases, the system even includes white noise generators to make you think that the temperature controls are working, when in fact the […]
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Today I found out many crosswalk signal buttons actually don’t do anything when you press them. They are only there to give you something to press, called “placebo buttons”. In New York City, for instance, an estimated 90% of these pedestrian crossing buttons do nothing. You’ll find the same trend in most major cities, particularly in the United States. The […]
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Today I found out there once was a baseball player traded for baseball bats. “Bat Man”, as he was nicknamed after the trade, was actually named John C. Odom. His life ended tragically just six months after the momentous trade. After being signed by the San Francisco Giants in 2003 out of Tallahassee Community College, Odom was assigned to play […]
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Today I found out Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby is over 50,000 words long, yet doesn’t contain a single letter “e” anywhere other than the cover. Given that ‘e’ is the most commonly used letter in English, you might think this would have been impossible, but Wright stated this wasn’t nearly as limiting as one might think. For instance, […]
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Today I found out that in High School, Major League Baseball star pitcher Justin Verlander traded a small percentage of his eventual $3.12 million signing bonus for a 50 cent chocolate milk. This happened while the future MLB superstar was in the 10th grade at Goochland High School in Virginia. Short 50 cents needed for a chocolate milk that day, […]
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Today I found out most streets in Japan don’t have names. In Japan, they use a very different addressing system than is used in most Western countries. Rather than streets having names (the space in between blocks), they give blocks numbers and leave the space in between the blocks, streets, nameless. (There are some exceptions to this where certain streets […]
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Today I found out that the inventor of the Pringles can was buried in one (part of him, anyway). Upon his death in 2008, just 20 days shy of his 90th birthday, the inventor of the Pringles can, Fredric J. Baur, was cremated. In keeping with his wishes, his family placed some of his ashes in a Pringles can (not all […]
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Today I found out that it currently costs more than double what pennies and nickels are worth to produce them. In 2006, the U.S. Mint sent a letter to Congress informing them that for the first time in history, it cost more to produce a penny and nickel than the coins themselves were worth. Including materials, machinery, labor, shipping, and […]
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Today I found out how baseball groundskeepers achieve checkerboard patterns in the ballpark grass. Most of us have had the opportunity to stand in awe as our eyes perceive the beauty of a perfectly mowed grass in a baseball stadium. Stripes, checkerboard style, or even artistic expressions add flair to a baseball field. But how exactly do they get these […]
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Today I found out why anvils are shaped the way they are and why blacksmith/farriers/etc. sometimes tap the anvil after a few strikes on the object they’re working on. Anvil shape has evolved greatly since the earliest anvil-like objects. These primitive objects used for anvils were typically made of stone, often just a slab of rock. The first metal anvils […]
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Today I found out the origin of the sport basketball. Surprisingly, unlike most sports whose origins are somewhat obscure, often being the combination of other sports and developed gradually through time, basketball has a very precise and fully known origin (the inventor himself wrote an account of it, published after his death; see the “Sources and Further Reading” below). Even […]
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Today I found out marshmallows were once made from the sap of marshmallow plants. Whether they are a hot chocolate topping treat, in the form of a sugar-coated critter, or roasting over a campfire, marshmallows are a favorite treat for many people. Marshmallows date back to as early as 2000 BC and were considered a delicacy deemed worthy only for […]
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Today I found out Clifford the Big Red Dog was originally going to be named “Tiny”. Most of us know the story of Clifford the Big Red Dog: being born the runt of a litter of puppies; no one expected him to grow very big, but when Emily Elizabeth chose him as her friend, she gave so much love to […]
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Today I found out who has had the largest human body parts. (the G rated version) Have you ever been walking down the road and you see the human Dumbo, mixed with a Pinocchio, and wondered who might have the biggest nose/hair/ears/hands/etc.? Well wonder no more! The tallest living person is Sultan Kosen from Ankara, Turkey. Born in December of […]
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Today I found out the “57” in “57 Varieties of Heinz” has no real meaning; it’s just a lucky number. By 1892, H.J. Heinz Company had grown from a small company selling horseradish in clear glass jars, to having over 60 products. Despite having more than 57 products, at the behest of the founder of H.J. Heinz Company, the business […]
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Today I found out the difference between Cement and Concrete. In general terms, the word cement refers to any kind of binder that tightly holds other materials together. Concrete, on the other hand, is a mixture of materials like sand, gravel, and small rocks combined with any type of cement and water. The concoction is then allowed to dry and […]
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Today I found out fortune cookies were invented in Japan, not China or America. The commonly held notion that they were invented in China typically comes from the fact that they are primarily served in Americanized Chinese restaurants. However, you will not find fortune cookies in actual Chinese restaurants, nor will you find historical records of a similar food item […]
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In 1972, a 29 year old Nolan Bushnell and a 35 year old Ted Dabney were fresh off a sort of successful failure in an arcade game known as Computer Space, which was more or less just a very blatant rip-off of a previous game Bushnell had come across called Spacewar! The pair had gotten a company called Nutting Associates […]
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