Carmen asks: Was Beethoven really deaf when he wrote all his music? If there is one Ludvig van Beethoven fact everyone knows it’s that he was deaf. But just saying “he was deaf” leaves a lot of pertinent questions unanswered, such as how deaf was he? How did he communicate with people? Of course, the biggest question is how did he […]
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It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that the oldest district of Athens, Plaka, might be one of the most unique, beautiful and historic neighborhoods on earth. Also known as the “Neighborhood of the Gods,” Plaka lies right under the cradle of Western civilization, the Acropolis. Plaka is filled with many archaeological monuments and sites spanning millennia. It’s […]
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Karla asks: Why does aspirin prevent heart attacks? The wonder drug once gleaned from the bark of a willow tree is today used to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. But not everyone benefits from daily aspirin therapy. What is Aspirin? As early as Hippocrates (400 BC), people were harvesting willow to treat pain. Today, aspirin is: “Acetyl salicylic acid […]
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Overshadowed by the coverage of the Kent State Massacre that occurred not two weeks prior, when two people were killed and 11 injured while protesting at Jackson State College in the spring of 1970, the nation barely noticed – and today few remember. The Protest About 4,300 black (and only five white) students were enrolled at the historically black college […]
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Masa C asks: Why do fingernails on a chalkboard make us cringe? Listen to this. Irritated? Angry? Just glad it’s over? Here’s why. Your Ear After examining the results of a 2011 study, researchers have theorized that the human ear is specifically built so that: Sounds in [a certain] range are amplified due to the anatomy of the ear canal; […]
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Andrew M. asks: Why do we say “You just earned some brownie points.” What were brownie points originally for? There are many, many origin theories for this one. One of the most often repeated and widely accepted theories is that “brownie points”—imaginary points earned by someone for doing a good deed, and lost by doing something unfavourable—stem from the Brownies, […]
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their site. Have you ever seen the toenails of your grandfather and thought he might be a troll? Those yellow, misshapen and brittle nails tend […]
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An idiom that is often used when something is new and fantastic is that, “It’s the best thing since sliced bread!” But how did this saying come to be? And what makes sliced bread so darn great? Our story begins about thirty thousand years ago, takes us through the town of Chillicothe, Missouri, and, then, to a futuristic ‘wonder’ful bread […]
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As if his stories weren’t occasionally disturbing enough, it turns out Edgar Allan Poe’s love life was more than a little creepy as well. Creepy Courtship Poe met his bride-to-be, Virginia Clemm, when she was 7 years old, and he was 20, shortly after his mother’s death in 1829. Their parents, his natural father (David Poe) and her mother (Maria […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Eleven Thousand Year Old Contagious Cancer Still Multiplying Today Eleven thousand years ago, one saucy canine got busy and, as can happen with unprotected sex, gave its partner a venereal disease, although uniquely, this VD was cancerous. Over the course of […]
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Damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) was a punishment reserved for certain people the Romans decided to dishonour for one reason or another. Rather impressively, it involved trying to get rid of all records that the person ever existed. Understandably, historians aren’t aware of any people to whom this dishonor was successfully applied, since if they did, it wouldn’t have been […]
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Stefan asks: What was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a Doctor of? On June 5, 1955, Martin Luther King, Jr. was awarded a Doctorate of Philosophy in Systematic Theology from Boston University. From that date until his death on April 4, 1968, the Reverend Doctor used the knowledge gained in his studies to help realize the dream that all people […]
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Today I found out the origin of the phrase “mind your own beeswax.” “Mind your own beeswax” and “it’s none of your beeswax” are common phrases you might hear being shouted by six-year-olds on the school playground. For the uninitiated, they basically mean “mind your own business” or “it’s none of your business,” but some people think it’s more complicated […]
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Craig asks: What is non-dairy creamer made from? Yucky stuff. But you have alternatives…. The chemicals, oils, sugars and milk products (yes, milk, in a “non dairy” product) vary depending on your brand. Carrageenan: Extracted from the red seaweed more commonly known as Irish moss (Chondrus crispus), carrageenan is used as a thickening agent and emulsifier to make foods creamier. […]
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Terryn asks: Who invented the elevator? The history of the elevator, if you define it as a platform that can move people and objects up and down, is actually a rather long one. Rudimentary elevators are known to have been in use in ancient Rome as far back as 336 B.C., with the first reference of one built by the […]
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The lasting images of what most of us perceive to be the “medieval times” includes heroic knights, stampeding horses, court jesters, giant turkey legs, ruling kings, and pure maidens wearing chastity belts. But the fact is that, besides the more obvious of those that aren’t accurate, most scholars believe that the chastity belt didn’t actually exist during medieval times, but […]
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Bill D. asks: Who is the “Murphy” who made Murphy’s Law? For those not familiar, Murphy’s Law states: “Anything that can go wrong will.” Early Origins Pessimists have existed long before the Murphy whose name today graces this fundamental law. One of the earliest instances of this “law” being stated explicitly happened in 1877 where Alfred Holt is believed to […]
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Ranjiith asks: Why do we say something is as dead as a doornail? In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens wrote about the questionable phrase, “dead as a doornail,” saying: Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might […]
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