On April 4, 1968, Jane Elliot, a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa, turned on her television set to learn more about Martin Luther King’s assassination and was appalled at what she heard from a white reporter. With microphone pointed toward a black leader, the white reporter asked, “When our leader (John F. Kennedy) was killed several years ago, his […]
Read more
Today I found out why root beer is called that when it doesn’t contain any alcohol. This popular soft drink pairs well with vanilla ice cream, resulting in root beer floats that are common sights at kids’ birthday parties in North America. The common version that we know today isn’t an alcoholic beverage, but a sweet soda that can be […]
Read more
Kathy asks: Why do people think Area 51 contains alien bodies? Area 51 is now so ingrained into popular culture that it’s virtually synonymous with Aliens; it’s impossible to mention one without the other somehow creeping into the conversation, but why are the two so intrinsically linked? Why do we automatically picture little green men any time someone so much […]
Read more
With the 2013 All Star game just around the corner, we thought it might be a good time to read-up on the history of today’s National League team names and a few interesting facts about each franchise. (for the American League team names, click here) NL East Atlanta Braves (54-41) 2013 All-Stars: Craig Kimbrel (RHP), Freddie Freeman (1B) Origins: Founded […]
Read more
Two of the only days in the year where no major professional sport is played in the United States (MLB/NBA/NFL/NHL/MLS) are occurring now: the day before and the day after the MLB All-Star Game. So since you’ll have nothing else to do to get your sports fix, why not learn a little bit about where your favorite team got its […]
Read more
When asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up,” most children reply with the standard, “firefighter, police officer, teacher”. Some go less traditional with “circus performer, singer or professional athlete”. I have yet to hear a child answer with “professional farter”; yet believe it or not, this is actually the way a select few in the world […]
Read more
Lee Swanson asks: How does the human body create electricity? Fantastic question Lee. The shortest and most simple answer is- chemical reactions between different atoms and molecules within the body. If all that seems a bit vague, let me give you the long answer that inherently needs to get a bit “sciency”. O’ how I love long sciency answers, much […]
Read more
On a relatively mild January day in 1919, Boston was the setting for one of the more bizarre disasters to ever happen on American soil. The incident was also the impetus behind the longest court battle in the city’s history. 21 people lost their lives that day, while another 150 were seriously injured. The price tag to address the damage […]
Read more
Today I found out it’s only been very recently that people in the U.S. started using toilet paper. Despite toilet paper having been around since at least the 6th century AD (initially in China), it wouldn’t be until the late 19th century when toilet paper would be first introduced in America and England and it wasn’t until the 1900s, around […]
Read more
“As American as apple pie” is a common phrase used to describe things that are undeniably American, like Uncle Sam, McDonald’s, and fireworks and barbecues for the 4th of July. But as popular as the tasty dessert might be in the land of the free, it isn’t actually American. First of all, apples themselves aren’t American. When colonists arrived in […]
Read more
Ryan asks: What is a Ponzi scheme and why do we call it that? With our short memories, many of us have forgotten that long before Bernie Madoff defrauded his clients and lost $65 billion, another swindler, Charles Ponzi, ran a similar scam in 1920, bilking thousands of people out of millions of dollars by making them an offer that […]
Read more
Today I found out about the largely forgotten colorful benevolent dictator of the United States and protector of Mexico, Emperor Norton I. His Imperial Majesty Joshua Abraham Norton I was born between 1811 and 1818 in England. Records of his birth date vary considerably, but it’s likely that the latter date is the correct one. His family immigrated to South […]
Read more
Mark asks: When did people first start cutting the foreskins off penises? Having served variously as a mark of virility, servility and gentility, circumcision has throughout the centuries worn many symbolic hats. While anthropologists disagree as to the definitive origins of circumcision, the earliest hard evidence comes from the first ancient Egyptian mummies of considerable vintage, around 2300 BC. That […]
Read more
What was supposed to be just another day on the job for 25-year-old Phineas Gage turned out to be anything but, with events transpiring to make him a legend – in neurology anyway. On that fateful day, Phineas Gage suffered a traumatic brain injury when a very large iron rod went through his head. Despite this, he survived and became one of […]
Read more
Ally asks: Is cellulite different from regular fat? In a sense, yes, but your question is a tad like comparing orange juice to the texture of an orange peel. While cellulite, also known as gynoid lipodystrophy, is often thought of as fat, that isn’t quite accurate. Fat is just a component of what causes cellulite, so perhaps more aptly cellulite […]
Read more
Dan Lewis runs the wildly popular daily newsletter Now I Know (“Learn Something New Every Day, By Email”). To subscribe to his daily email, click here.. For a few centuries ending in the late 1800s, stocks were common in town centers in the United States and Europe. The device, used as a way to humiliate those who violated cultural norms […]
Read more
Today I found out about Silbo Gomero, the whistling language. In Spanish, “Silbo Gomero” means “Gomeran whistling.” It is a language “spoken” on La Gomera in the Canary Islands (which incidentally may have been named after dogs, and certainly wasn’t named after birds) and is made up entirely of whistling sounds. The language was used by the Guanches—the aboriginal people […]
Read more
Guest post by Gary Cieradkowski. Read more of his awesome articles at The Infinite Baseball Card Set. One of the many things I love about baseball is how many people that you know of, for an entirely different reason, happen to also have been ball players. President George Bush played in the first two College World Series’ and kept a […]
Read more