Category Archives: Articles

The Truth About the Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is a large area of ocean between Florida, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. Over the last few centuries, it’s thought that dozens of ships and planes have disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the area, earning it the nickname “The Devil’s Triangle.” People have even gone so far as to speculate that it’s an area of extra-terrestrial activity or […]

Read more

A Brief History of Pepper

The world’s most commonly used spice, Piper nigrum, starts life as berries in a clump on a flowering vine (like grapes). Native to Southern India, today pepper is grown throughout the tropics. Archaeological evidence of people using pepper goes back to at least 2000 BC in India. It is known that pepper was exported, but to what extent remains a […]

Read more

Did Unicorns Ever Exist?

Kara asks: Did unicorns ever exist? On November 30, 2012, the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea’s government “news” agency, reported that scientists had “reconfirmed” the existence and location of the final resting place of the unicorn ridden by King Dongmyeong, the founding father of Goguryeo of an ancient Korean kingdom. The unicorn’s grave was located under a rock near […]

Read more

Weekly Wrap Volume 22

This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. From Dream to 3-D Reality: The Fascinating Origin of Pixar Before a story about toys, before monsters went corporate, before anyone went searching for Nemo, and before twenty seven Academy Awards, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose  clients included the […]

Read more

Why People on Planes and Ships Use the Word “Mayday” When in Extreme Distress

This is an excerpt from our new book: The Wise Book of Whys, available in: Print | Kindle | Nook | Audiobook Today I found out why those aboard planes and ships use the word “Mayday” to indicate they are in extreme distress. In 1923, a senior radio officer, Frederick Stanley Mockford, in Croydon Airport in London, England was asked to […]

Read more

The Most Dangerous Profession: The Human Cannonball

Whenever there is a list released of the world’s most dangerous jobs, tree loggers, steelworkers, electrical power-line installers, and fisherman usually are the professions that populate the list.  But none of those things are nearly as dangerous as being propelled out of a long cylinder tube, flown through the air completely untethered, and attempting to land safely on the ground. […]

Read more

Seagulls Will Not Blow Up if They Eat Alka-Seltzer

Seagulls, or gulls depending on how much you dislike syllables, are considered a pest to many, a minor, avoidable annoyance to many more and the harbingers of death OH GOD LOOK AT THEIR COLD DEAD EYES! to my neighbour who doesn’t get out much.  Over the years, there has been a persistent and rather macabre urban myth circulating that gulls […]

Read more

Why Figure Skaters Don’t Seem Dizzy After Spinning

Justina asks: Why don’t figure skaters get dizzy after they spin? To understand why, it’s important to know why people get dizzy in the first place. Dizziness is controlled by the vestibular system in your upper inner ear. Within the vestibular system, there are three canals that contain fluid called endolymph, as well as sensory nerve cells that look sort […]

Read more

The Modern King Leonidas: Athanasios Diakos

Greece is one of the most historically rich nations, with a culture and civilization that exceeds five thousand years of continuous human activity, producing such notable historical influencers as Alexander the Great, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Homer; it’s no wonder that some other individuals well-known throughout Greece remain unknown to other nations.  One such individual is Athanasios Diakos who is […]

Read more
1 112 113 114 115 116 179