When you think of World War I, you probably think of the technology that made this war so deadly: tanks, machine guns, gas attacks, and bombs. With so many deadly weapons at their disposal, it seems impossible that soldiers would need the humble horse to fight as well. But over a million horses were used by Great Britain alone during […]
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Cindy asks: This is kind of ewww, but I read that eating your own boogers helps boost your immune system. Is this true? Does physically taking boogers out of your nose, putting them in your mouth and swallowing boost your immune system? The short answer is probably not. You ingest your snot all the time without needing to channel it […]
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This isn’t just a popular metaphor, it’s actually true. One bad apple will absolutely quickly spoil an entire box of apples. The obvious way this can happen is simply if one of the apples is infested with some fungi or critters that reproduce and spread throughout all the apples in a box, ruining them as they go. The less obvious, […]
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For a few bloody weeks in August and September 1874, in an effort to retake control of their communities, white supremacists rampaged across Louisiana. By the time the smoke cleared (and federal troops arrived), at least six white men and many dozens of black freedman had been killed. The Carpetbaggers Following the end of the Civil War, a white man […]
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For eighteen years, Ben Franklin, the great American inventor, diplomat, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was a tenant in a beautiful four story Georgian house at 36 Craven Street in London, mere blocks from the River Thames. As ambassador from the colonies, he entertained, lived, and even allowed other intellectuals of the time to stay at the house […]
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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 new site. If you’ve ever washed away your day with hours in a hot-tub, you might have asked yourself, “Why do my hands look […]
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For reasons that still aren’t well understood, bacteria proliferate in microgravity. Creating a potential recipe for disaster for humans stationed in space for long periods, bacteria’s love of low-g also raises an intriguing question: Why are they so comfortable there? Thriving Several years ago, astronauts began noticing that: Virulent bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella can grow stronger and […]
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Ashley asks: Why do people have grass lawns? They are so expensive and a lot of work, not to mention bad for the environment. Whose brilliant idea was this? Maintaining the perfect lawn takes a lot of work. There’s mowing, fertilizing, aerating, and watering. Having a trimmed green field leading up to your front door is something of a status […]
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Beginning on August 24, 1572 and lasting for nearly two months afterward, tens of thousands of men, women and children were slaughtered across France as part of an ongoing war to decide whose Jesus was right. Religious Wars in France Although simmering for years, all hell broke loose in Europe after Martin Luther nailed a long list of complaints about […]
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This is an excerpt from our new book: The Wise Book of Whys, available in: Print | Kindle | Nook | Audiobook The earliest documented reference to New York being referred to as “The Big Apple” comes from a 1909 book by Edward Martin, called The Wayfarer. In it, he uses the moniker in a metaphorical sense, rather than a […]
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Martin A. asks: Where did the expression “nothing to sneeze at” come from? For that matter, why is sneezing called sneezing? Thanks! As with so many etymologies, it’s difficult to definitively say exactly where the word ‘sneeze’ comes from, but it is generally thought that it started with the Indo-European word ‘penu’ – to breath. Eventually, this evolved into the […]
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Today I found out about H.H. Holmes, one of the United States’ first serial killers. Herman Webster Mudgett was born in 1861 in New Hampshire to a relatively wealthy family. He was reportedly extremely intelligent from a young age, and went on to study medicine at the University of Michigan. But he was also implicated in the death of one […]
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S. Katz asks: Who is Stanley and why is there a cup named after him? Thanks! The oldest championship trophy in professional sports in North America, the Stanley Cup’s rich history is only matched by that of it’s namesake. Lord Stanley of Preston Sir Frederick Arthur Stanley was born into one of England’s richest families in 1841 and could trace […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why Buffalo Wings Are Called That Unsurprisingly, neither the origin of the name nor the food item itself have anything to do with actual buffalo, nor American Bison which many people call buffalo even though they are not. Rather, this tasty item […]
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Today I found out about Pope Pius II, who wrote a popular romance novel called The Tale of Two Lovers. Pope Pius II was born Enea Silvio Piccolomini near Siena, Italy in 1405, one of 18 children. His family was part of the Italian aristocracy, but they had fallen into poverty. Once the future Pope was old enough, he went […]
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Two thousand ago, the Thomas Edison of the ancient world lived in Alexandria, Egypt where he tinkered, built and wrote about some of the most amazing and whimsical machines the pre-industrial world had ever seen. Hero Also called Heron, the Greek engineer and mathematician Hero is believed to have lived in the 1st century and was active in Alexandria between […]
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We owe this unit of engine power measurement to Scottish engineer James Watt. In the early 1780s, after making a vastly superior steam engine to the then classic Newcomen steam engine, Watt was looking for a way to market his invention, advertising the fact that his engine used about 75% less fuel than a similarly powered Newcomen, among many other […]
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You might be surprised to learn that this staple of Major League Baseball games is actually something of a modern practice, first starting as a regular part of the seventh inning stretch with the White Sox in the late 1970s, thanks to Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Carabina, better known as Harry Caray. Before this, the song had occasionally been […]
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