“As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” – Mike Godwin Coined in 1990 by author and attorney Mike Godwin, Godwin’s Law was originally, to quote Godwin “a project in memetic engineering”, partially inspired by a 1980s article he read in Whole Earth Review in which they discuss the power of […]
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Marcus J. asks: Why are bowie knives named that? James Bowie is a man today known primarily for two things- his participation in the Battle of the Alamo and a large knife design that bears his name. It’s impossible to separate fact from legend concerning an amazing amount of this American folk hero’s life, owing to Bowie leaving exceptionally little […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Calculus involves the study of limits. By the time they were done arguing about who had invented it, Isaac Newton and G. W. Leibniz had probably both reached their limit as well. Science has seen a number of simultaneous discoveries. Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry independently discovered electromagnetic induction. Charles […]
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It was a wet, cold, wind overcast day on March 4, 1841. This didn’t matter to the thousands that had come out to the nation’s capital to see the president-elect William Henry Harrison be sworn into office as the 9th President of the United States. With people lining the streets all the way to the Capitol, it was described by […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we cover whether you can you really learn to speed read. We share the stories of the Lean Mean Fat Reducing Machine and what this has to do with Hulk Hogan. Next up is J.P. Morgan’s giant, purple nose and the time both Coca Cola and Pepsi made major marketing mistakes to […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Very Real Reindeer and How They Became Associated With Christmas Unlike Santa, elves or even clean coal, reindeer are real. They may not fly, but there’s a good deal of truth around the many myths of Christmas’s favorite animal. Yes, […]
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Nestled safely in the bosom of the Bear Lodge Mountains of Wyoming is a large rock formation known simply as Devils Tower. A popular landmark and the first recognised United States National Monument (declared such by President Theodore Roosevelt on September 24, 1906), the imposing rocky butte was at the forefront of a bizarre media frenzy in 1941 when a […]
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Kyle S. asks: Do people really fish with dynamite like they show in movies? Fishing with dynamite, or blast fishing as it’s more accurately known, despite sounding like something more suited to a Looney Tunes cartoon, is a genuine and well-documented practice that is still commonplace in select areas of the globe today. This is more than a little unfortunate […]
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Unlike Santa, elves or even clean coal, reindeer are real. They may not fly, but there’s a good deal of truth around the many myths of Christmas’s favorite animal. Yes, they do live in extremely cold conditions. Yes, they are known to pull sleds. And, yes, their noses really do turn a shade of red given the right conditions. First […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we look at why vultures don’t get sick when their diet is full of rotten, dead things, that time a flying pig grounded every plane at Heathrow airport, why we say “stat” when we want something done quickly, why three strikes in a row in bowling is called a turkey, what exactly […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader One measure of the desirability of a sports car is whether or not it has teenagers drooling over it before they’re even old enough to drive. Here’s the story of one of the most drool-worthy cars in auto history. (See how long it takes you to guess which car we’re […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. A Cow on a Yacht – The Fascinating Life of Gordon Bennett Jr. As the old adage goes, money doesn’t buy happiness, but it sure takes the sting out of being poor. Gordon Bennett Jr. was a man for whom money […]
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Jason H. asks: Why is it that every single old photo of a boxer shows them posing the same goofy way? If you go and look up a photo of a boxer from the 19th century, it’s almost certain that the individual will be standing like the gentlemen pictured right. While it may look a little silly to modern fans […]
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In 1933 at the height of the Great Depression, a down-on-his luck Charles Darrow invented the still-extremely popular board game Monopoly, making the impoverished man a millionaire seemingly overnight- a personification of the American Dream. Never able to fully explain how he came up with the concept, Darrow once described his invention as “totally unexpected” and a “freak” of nature. […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we look at the origin of the expression “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings”, when people started using rubber ducks at bath time, how deep into the ground you own when you buy land (and what rights you have in the sky above it), how the Pet Rock fad started, […]
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Generally speaking, attorneys, and particularly high-priced litigators, are not known for being “nice” or polite in their interactions with those on the opposite side of the table of their clients. Rather, the stereotype (not without basis) is of a profession filled with aggressive and sometimes even nasty people, who will stop at nothing to see their clients prevail- it’s their […]
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Barbara W. asks: When did commuting a prisoners sentence at the end of a presidents Term of office go into effect, and why do they do it? An armed insurrectionist, teamster with (perhaps) ties to the mafia, socialite turned terrorist, presidential sibling and even a former President of the United States have all received either a presidential pardon or commutation […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Only 58 percent of the soldiers killed in action during the American Civil War were positively identified. Soldiers had a legitimate concern that if they were killed, their families would never know what happened to them—other than that they were missing in action. As a result, soldiers started writing their […]
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