On the morning of Friday, October 11, 1957, workers at the nuclear reactor Windscale Pile 1 near Seascale, Cumberland, England, faced a terrible choice: allow a raging fire to burn itself out while it released dangerously high levels of ionizing radiation into the surrounding countryside; or, attempt to extinguish the conflagration with water, an option that could cause a hydrogen […]
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The modern, multi-coloured plastic water guns are a familiar sight, and you probably wouldn’t be surprised to find out they’ve been around for a while. That said, it might surprise you to learn that records show they likely pre-date the American Civil War, at least in some form or another. Back in 1861, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to […]
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The last couple days, you may have noticed our new podcast posts, starting with Episode 1: Columbus and the Round World Episode 2: Growing Up with Caffeine We’ve teamed up with SpokenMatter.com to start producing this “Daily Knowledge” podcast series featuring interesting facts discussed in detail with a new episode every weekday. Give the episodes a listen at the above […]
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Today I found out about the amazing acoustics of the ancient Epidaurus Theatre. Epidaurus, Greece was a small, unassuming city in ancient times, best known for being the supposed birth place of Apollo’s son, Asklepios the healer. As Asklepios’ following grew, so too did the town. Their medical centre became one of the most well-known in the classical world, attracting […]
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Today I found out about the Orangeburg Massacre of 1968. As with many massacres around this turbulent time in history, the Orangeburg Massacre had its beginnings in race relations. In February, 1968, black students at South Carolina State College were prohibited from using the lanes at a nearby bowling alley. There were no other bowling alleys in town and the […]
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As you can probably tell from its name, the Christmas Island red crab is a species of crab native to Christmas Island. Every year, millions of them will leave their forest burrows and swarm across the island to breed, leaving Christmas Island’s residents to deal with the consequences of their homes being overrun by crabs that outnumber the human populace […]
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Henry Gustav Molaison, who came to be known by his initials, H.M., was studied from 1957 until his death in 2008. From an early age, H.M. suffered from severe epilepsy that was blamed on a bicycle accident when he was seven years old. He had seizures for many years that got progressively worse as he aged. The seizures finally got so […]
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Lisa asks: Why are filibuster’s allowed? In its modern incarnation, the filibuster demands no personal and political sacrifice by an idealistic legislator who is willing to stand up for what he believes in (e.g., Mr. Smith Goes to Washington). Requiring neither speech, ideology or commitment, in today’s Senate if fewer than 60 senators are willing to first vote to stop […]
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Everyone has had a moment in their life where they’ve muttered to themselves, “Wow, where did the time go?” It may have been after a wild night of partying, or a great conversation with a friend, or while intensely concentrating on a project. Sometimes hours can feel like minutes, weeks feel like days, years feel like months. Time comes and […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Soviet Superman: Red Son If you’ve ever sat around thinking, “What if Superman was a communist?” (Who hasn’t, right?) Well, wonder no more. The answer was masterfully provided in Superman: Red Son written by famed comic book writer and member of […]
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The first step in the creation of the Beanie Baby began in 1983 when 39 year old former aspiring actor H Ty Warner, who had recently either been fired from or simply chose to leave the Dakin toy company he’d worked for during much of his adult life, opened his own toy company that manufactured small stuffed animals. Modeling the […]
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Becky asks: Why is there a dance called “Sadie Hawkins”? Was this a real person? Sadie Hawkins’ renown, which evolved into an American folk-holiday in some places, doesn’t really originate from a dance, but rather from a race, as we shall soon see. Sadie was the product of the fertile imagination of cartoonist Al Capp. She was a character in […]
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You’ll note in the header bar (TIFO Shop) that we’ve just launched a TodayIFoundOut store. For now, it includes our new book, The Wise Book of Whys, along with some nerdy t-shirts and hoodies. Later, we’ll be adding many other things, particularly focusing on original and entertaining education products, as well as all things nerdy. 🙂 For a limited time, […]
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Imagine you dedicated your adult life to helping those less fortunate than yourself -that you spent your entire adult life trying to make the world a better place, and when you died (after sacrificing your own life for someone else’s) all most people remembered about you was that you once ran really fast… You’d be pretty annoyed right? Well that’s […]
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On March 12, 1928 at approximately 11:57 pm, the St. Francis Dam broke. 12.4 billion gallons of water that was supposed to fill the sinks, bathtubs, and mouths of Los Angeles residents was now surging down the San Francisquito Canyon. At 11:58 pm, the power lines surrounding the dam snapped and powerhouse number two was destroyed, darkening the surrounding towns […]
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Jeremy asks: Why do we drop the ball on New Year’s eve in Times Square? When Adolph Ochs purchased the floundering New York Times in 1896, he made it his mission to make the newspaper the number one paper in all of New York. He started by forming the New York Times Company and made himself the majority owner, ensuring […]
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Preston asks: Why are rabbits paws lucky? Raccoon penis bones. Vulture heads. Lucky pennies. A vast and eclectic array of amulets, talismans, and charms meant to bring good fortune to their owners have been put to use as long as humans have walked the planet. To the ancient Egyptians, images of the scarab beetle helped ward off evil. The Romans […]
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Carmen asks: Does stormy weather really cause people’s joints to ache? You might have heard grandma or grandpa predicting a storm because they “could feel it in their bones” and when a storm hit you probably thought they’d been watching the weather channel. Turns out, their joints *probably* do get a little achy when it’s about to rain. “Weather pain” […]
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