Category Archives: Articles

Why Bathing Was Uncommon in Medieval Europe

Mark R. asks: Why didn’t people in the middle ages ever bathe? To begin with, it is something of a common misconception to say people never bathed in the Middle Ages (or centuries around it). In fact, in some regions, bathing regularly (in some form or other) wasn’t really all that different than today. And even in regions where it […]

Read more

How Decaffeinated Coffee Is Made

Today I found how caffeine is removed from coffee to produce the decaffeinated version of the world’s most popular drink. There are several different methods used that can make coffee relatively decaffeinated. The drawback (or advantage, depending on your preference) of all of these methods is that they generally make the coffee flavor milder due to caffeine being one of […]

Read more

The Guy Who Did the Voice for Optimus Prime Also Did the Voice for Eeyore and Was the First Person to Voice Nintendo’s Mario

Today I found out the guy who did the voice for Optimus Prime also did the voice for Eeyore, in the Winnie-the-Pooh series, and was the first person to voice Nintendo’s Mario character. The man is Canadian voice actor Peter Cullen.  Cullen not only did the voice of Optimus Prime in the original Transformers series, but he also did the […]

Read more

An Encyclopedia Finished in 1408 That Contained Nearly One Million Pages

Yongle Encyclopedia

Today I found out about an encyclopedia finished in 1408 that contained nearly one million pages.  This particular encyclopedia was called the “永樂大典”, which translates to “The Great Canon of the Yongle Era”; today it’s  just called, in English, the “Yongle Encyclopedia”.  This encyclopedia was originally commissioned by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty in China.  It was not only […]

Read more
1 160 161 162 163 164 179