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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Today in History: February 4, 1902 “There were times in an aeroplane when it seemed I had escaped mortality to look down on Earth like a God.” – Charles Lindbergh Charles Augustus Lindbergh, the celebrated aviator who made the first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight, was born on February 4, 1902 in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up on his family’s farm […]
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This is another great video from Hank Green et al. on why you can see your breath when it is sufficiently cold outside. If you like this video, be sure and subscribe to their phenomenal channel, SciShow. If you liked this video, you might also enjoy: How Long You Could Survive in Space Without a Space Suit What Causes the […]
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Matthew B. asks: Is it true that drinking gasoline will make you go blind? Probably not, although anecdotal evidence shows it has a strong correlation with stupidity. What it may do is cause vomiting, vertigo, confusion, drowsiness, breathing difficulties, burning in the esophagus, sore throat, weakness, and diarrhea, even when ingested in small amounts; in larger portions, it can cause […]
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Mark C. asks: What does the letters in the stinky term P.U. stand for? Often used to accuse someone of exceeding his allotted level of funk, P.U. is, surprisingly, not an acronym, but, rather, likely was derived simply from the pronunciation of its parent word. Dating back to the early 17th century, a common exclamation of contempt for a foul […]
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