Today I found out what SOS stands for. It is commonly held that “SOS” is an acronym for “Save Our Ship” and thus often written “S.O.S.” In truth, SOS is not an acronym for anything, which is why it is incorrect to put full stops between each letter. So why was SOS chosen to signify a distress signal? The thought […]
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Today I found out why asparagus makes pee smell. The smell comes from the way certain chemical compounds in asparagus break down inside people’s bodies. This is why cooking asparagus in various ways does not result in the same smelly byproduct; the specific digestive enzymes that break down the compounds in the asparagus to produce the smell aren’t present until […]
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Today I found out that the “Pull and Pray” method statistically is just about as effective as condoms for preventing pregnancy. Indeed, according to Dr. John Guillebaud in his book Contraception: Your Questions Answered, some of the lowest birth rates in history pop up around cultures whose primary method of contraception is the pull and pray method. This method, also […]
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Kentucky Fried Chicken is hardly considered a suitable place to get one’s food for a traditional Christmas meal in most parts of the world. There is one exception, though. In Japan, it is a Christmas tradition to order KFC. So how exactly did Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, become synonymous with a bucket of fried chicken […]
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Today I found out why golf balls have dimples. It turns out, somewhat counter intuitively, those dimples significantly decrease the drag on the golf ball as it flies through the air, compared to a smooth ball. Not only that, but they also increases the lift somewhat. These two things combined can make the golf ball go as much as three […]
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Myth: Duck’s quacks and wolf’s howls don’t echo. First, it was commonly held that a duck’s quack didn’t echo. The earliest place I could find where this myth was debunked was by Cecil Adams of the Straight Dope in 1998. In his experiment, he and a few others took a duck to a place where it was easy to produce […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of DumpADay, Jon. Today I found out that it is possible for a person to briefly remain conscious after being beheaded. When I first started to research this topic, I found it hard to believe. However, after sifting through numerous reputable sources saying that the beheaded person […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by frequent TIFO visitor and owner of StevenHumour.com, Steven. Today I found out what the eight juices are in V8 vegetable juice. The included juices in the original V8 100% vegetable juice come from tomatoes, carrots, celery, beets, parsley, lettuce, watercress, and spinach. The dominate juice in this mixture is tomato juice comprising […]
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Today I found out why paper cuts hurt so much. The generally accepted reason paper cuts are so painful primarily lies in the fact that you usually get them on your fingers, particularly your fingertips. Fingertips and hands have significantly more nociceptors (nerve fibers) per square millimeter than most of the rest of your body, such as your legs, arms, […]
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Today I found out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop. Obviously this depends somewhat on a variety of factors such as the size of the person’s tongue; whether they concentrate the licking on just one side; how hard they press with their tongue; amount of saliva; etc. In any event, […]
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Myth: Al Gore said he invented the internet. One of the things Al Gore gets made fun of most often in popular media tends to be the misconception that he at one point supposedly said he invented the internet. Now, all politics aside, whether you hate/mildly dislike/like/love/are indifferent to Al Gore, he doesn’t really deserve to be made fun of […]
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Today I found out what started World War I. The commonly held notion that it was started out of outrage over the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie at the hands of Serbian nationalist secret society known as the “Black Hand” isn’t entirely correct. In fact, the Emperor Franz Josef himself expressed relief over the […]
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Today I found out how an Etch a Sketch works. An Etch a Sketch is a remarkably simple device. The primary components are just a small sheet of glass; a stylus controlled by two knobs; very fine aluminum powder; and tiny plastic beads. The tiny beads are mixed in with the powder to make sure the powder will continue to […]
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Today I found out why some coins in the United States have ridges. Putting ridges on some coins in America got its start back in the 1700’s. At this time, coins were actually made of materials that were worth what the coin was worth. For example, a half dollar silver coin contained fifty cents worth of silver. Likewise, a $10 […]
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Today I found out what causes the Northern and Southern Lights (aurora borealis and aurora australis respectively). Simply put, these lights are caused by very fast moving electrons striking atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere, primarily oxygen and nitrogen atoms which make up most of our atmosphere. When this happens, it can put these atoms in an excited state. During […]
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If you’ve ever wondered why we kiss under the mistletoe and how the plant got that strange name, well, wonder no more. The name for mistletoe derives the fact that mistletoe tends to spring from bird droppings that have fallen on trees, with the seeds having passed through the digestive tract of the birds. Thus, the plant was given the […]
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Today I found out Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created by the department store chain Montgomery Ward as a way to save money on one of their annual Christmas promotions. The year was 1939; Montgomery Ward, at that time, gave away coloring books to try to get more shoppers into their stores during the holiday season. Up to this point, […]
Read moreI have no idea why, but November seemed to be the month of the old articles for some reason. Quite a flip from October where four of the five top articles were no more than about a month and a half old. For November, three of the five were over six months old and only one was under two months […]
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