The legendary Roald Dahl’s book Charlie & Chocolate Factory from 1964 (and its subsequent two film adaptations from 1971 and 2005) told the story of a magical candy factory and its eccentric and mysterious owner Willy Wonka. A chocolate river, gum that is a whole turkey dinner, never-ending gobstoppers, and, of course, the singing and dancing oompa-loompas are just a […]
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This Day In History: February 10, 1840 “I felt so happy when the ring was put on, and by my precious Albert.” – From the diary of Queen Victoria February 10, 1840 dawned cold and rainy in London, but this did not dampen the spirits of the crowds gathering to witness the spectacle of their young Queen’s wedding procession. It […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn about how one of the largest creatures on Earth has a very tiny, doughnut shaped brain with their equally tiny esophagus running right through it, along with a lot of other interesting facts about this amazing animal. In the Bonus section, you’re also going to learn why turkeys (as in the bird) are […]
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Gared O. asks: Who invented the cardboard box? The cardboard box goes largely unappreciated. Yet, it is indispensable to our daily living. It holds all of our knick-knacks and personal mementos when we move or have things shipped. It holds our breakfast cereal. It has been used for countless children’s art projects; fashioned into a robot head or a horse’s […]
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Hollywood often makes up stories about nigh-unkillable, enemy-stomping individuals who laugh in the face of certain death, only to deliver that death to countless bad guys instead. In real life, if you put a single individual up against a large contingent of well armed soldiers, the soldiers tend to effortlessly dispatch said individual, no matter how much courage and determination […]
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This Day In History: February 9, 1964 “Congratulations on your appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show and your visit to America. We hope your engagement will be a successful one and your visit pleasant. Give our best to Mr. Sullivan. Sincerely, Elvis & The Colonel.” – Telegram the Beatles received pre-show The build-up to the Beatles appearance on the Ed […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Bizarre Mating Practices of the Arabian Camel Some people are into feet, others like dressing up in furry costumes, and a rare few will even get scatological (See: Mozart’s Much Less Family Friendly Works). But when it comes to weird […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn where the expression “I, for one, welcome our new X overlords” came from. In the Bonus section, you’re also going to learn why a week is 7 days long. [TRANSCRIPT: Overlords | Week] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going […]
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Juana R. asks: Why do judges wear robes? Is this still a requirement or just a tradition? Most of us in the western world expect judges to wear a robe when they sit behind their bench in a courtroom, and they usually do not disappoint. But we rarely think about how the long, usually black, robe became the standard outfit […]
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Considering how most dogs in the Western world these days are treated as a member of the family, it’s often easy to forget that the vast majority of our furry friends up until very recently were bred for a specific purpose. Perhaps no dog was bred for a more specific purpose than the now extinct, turnspit. The turnspit was so named […]
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This Day In History: February 6, 1928 On February 6, 1928, an attractive young woman arrived in New York on the ocean liner Berengaria. She held a press conference before she disembarked, explaining she had come to the United States to have her jaw reset. She alleged she had been injured by a Bolshevik soldier at Ekaterinburg, Russia, in July […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn the science behind why Mentos and certain beverages, like Diet Coke, react to produce a geyser of bubbles. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes by going here: Daily Knowledge Podcast
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Julie H. asks: Why did lead used to be added to paint? The use of lead in everyday objects dates back to the ancient Romans. They used lead in makeup, as an additive in food and wine, in pewter dinnerware, and many other items, including paint. The inexpensive metal was even used in the pipes that transported water throughout the […]
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While not thought to be directly related to modern Valentine’s Day traditions, the beginnings of celebrating love (of a sort) in February date back to the Romans. The feast of Lupercalia was a pagan fertility and health festival, observed from February 13th through the 15th, that was celebrated at least as far back as 44 BCE (the year Julius Caesar […]
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This Day In History: February 5, 1897 It all began when the gay literary critic Jean Lorrain accused author Marcel Proust (also thought to have been gay) of having a homosexual relationship with the son of one M. Alphonse Daudet, Lucien Daudet (pictured right). Proust demanded satisfaction for the accusation that he had a tryst with Daudet, and challenged Lorrain […]
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In this episode, you’re going to learn why it is that hot dogs traditionally come in packs of 10 and hot dog buns in packs of 8. In the Bonus section, you’re also going to learn why milk is white. [TRANSCRIPT: Hot Dogs | Milk] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also […]
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Older than writing, evidence of the practice of drilling a hole in someone’s head in order to improve their health and well-being has been found from as far back as 6,500 BC. Although most proper physicians today eschew the procedure and write it off as simply a function of superstition, the tradition of trepanning remains alive and well among adherents. […]
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The first Earthlings sent into space were brave, calm under pressure, and heroic. They were also not human and many of them were furry. Yes, before Apollo 13, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Yuri Gagarin, humans sent fruit flies, monkeys, and dogs into space to determine if living beings could survive the trip. These tests helped prove that, given a […]
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