The immutable ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, pi, is, and always has been, 3.1415926 . . . ad infinitum. However, in the winter of 1897, the Indiana State legislature nearly changed this mathematical constant with a civil law. The ridiculous story starts with amateur mathematician Edward Goodwin who, in 1894, believed he had finally solved […]
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Sara M asks: Why are Boeing planes so randomly numbered for their names? Although it may seem as if Boeing planes are randomly numbered, there actually is a method to their madness. Founded in July 1916 as the Pacific Aero Products Co, but changing into Boeing Airplane Company in 1917, Boeing was re-tooling and adapting to the end of World […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, remains one of the most infamous events in U.S. history. Yet the spy who played a key role in the sneak attack is a forgotten man, unknown even to many World War II buffs. UNDER COVER On March 27, 1941, […]
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C. Lani asks: What are those little black spots on some kinds of chips? Corn and tortilla chips are speckled with black spots, but what exactly are they? The staple ingredient for both corn and tortilla chips is, of course, corn. An ear of corn is made up of individual rows of kernels, and each kernel is attached to the […]
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A lot of things happened on D-Day- the largest seaborne invasion in history took place; James “Scotty” Doohan from Star Trek fame was shot six times by his fellow countrymen; and Mad Jack Churchill stormed the beach with a sword and a bow. Another unusual thing that occurred was the capture of what initially was assumed to be a Japanese […]
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Elvis Presley was the hottest act in all of show business by the summer of 1956. The 21-year-old singing dynamo had electrified the entire world in his live shows, concerts and television appearances. His records and albums were selling like proverbial hotcakes. But in spite of all his incredible success, Elvis wanted more; he wanted to be a movie star. […]
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Back in 1981, in an effort to raise some quick funds, American Airlines introduced a $250,000 pass (about $641,000 today) that would allow customers to fly on its airlines for free for the rest of their lives. In 1990, they bumped the price to $600,000 (about $1.07 million today), and then in 1993 to $1.01 million (about 1.7 million today). Despite […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader What happens when the fans of a hugely popular novel and every book publisher in the world demand a sequel that the author doesn’t want to write? The author’s family waits 50 years, then hires someone to follow up Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind. NEVER GO HUNGRY AGAIN Gone […]
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This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal. Check out their YouTube channel here! Taking another person’s feces and shoving it up your bum doesn’t seem like a worthwhile medical procedure, but in reality, this form of defecation sharing can save someone’s life. So drink some coffee, eat a bran muffin and read on […]
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In the midst of the Cold War, it can be easy to think the United States and the Soviet Union would be unable to come to an agreement on anything. Yet they, and ten other countries gathered in Washington, D. C. in 1959 to successfully negotiate the Antarctic Treaty, which not only encouraged international cooperation with the goal of scientific […]
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Nazi troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, despite the best efforts of Captain Witold Pilecki and his fellow Polish soldiers. On November 9th of that same year, Witold and Major Wlodarkiewicz founded the Tajna Armia Polska (TAP or Polish Secret Army), an underground organization that eventually became consolidated with other resistance forces into The Home Army. Not long after […]
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Leigh H. asks: Why do we call pennies, nickels, and dimes those names? The Penny Prior to the United States minting their own coins, it relied on foreign currency. However, that all changed with the passing of the Coinage Act of 1792, which provided the framework for regulating money produced in the United States, as well as established the United […]
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Due to the fact that they can’t move and as such can’t sneak up on you, many people never really think of trees as being dangerous. As it turns out though, beyond the occasional tree that kills a person by falling on them, there’s also a tree out there so deadly it has been dubbed “The Suicide Tree”. But as you’ll […]
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Most of us who have been chewing sticks of Spearmint or Juicy Fruit gum over the last several decades probably assume that the manufacture and sale of gum was what Wrigley was always about. After all, the company, which was founded by William Wrigley Jr., is famous for being the leading gum manufacturer globally, with an array of brands like […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The beeeep! beeeep! of someone’s pager going off used to be everywhere… but when was the last time you heard one? Let’s take one last look before they’re gone forever. THE DOCTOR IS OUT In 1924, a New York City businessman named Sherman Amsden started a company called the Doctors’ […]
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Simon asks: Who invented the Konami code? The Konami Code, also known as the Konami Command and sometimes the Contra Command is among the most enduring Easter eggs in video game history. For those of you who aren’t familiar, there are a number of video games released by Konami over the years in which entering up, up, down, down, left, right, […]
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Women’s clothes come in a baffling range of (often inconsistent) sizes which can make finding clothes that fit just right an unreasonably difficult task for many women. To help combat this, the clothing industry has a number of tricks up its immaculately tailored sleeves; in regards to jeans, one of those tricks is Natasha Wagner’s butt. Born in 1981, Natasha Wagner took […]
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Maria D. asks: Why do fluorescent lights buzz? Comprised of a sealed tube coated on the inside with a phosphor powder and filled with (usually) argon and a tiny bit of mercury, the way in which fluorescent bulbs produce light is extremely fascinating. While the underlying physical mechanisms in the fixture and bulb can vary a bit in design, in […]
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