Shristi U. asks: Why did trains used to have cabooses but now don’t? For well over a century, cabooses, the cute quintessentially red cars at the rear of trains in years past, served an integral function in train operations. Carrying a brakeman and a flagman back when brakes were set by hand, when it was time to slow the train, […]
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This Day In History: July 1, 1961 “I was supposed to be a boy,” she often said. And yes, her birth must have been somewhat of a disappointment to an aristocratic family with two daughters who had suffered the death of baby boy the year before. Unlike her older sisters, her christening was a relatively subdued affair, and she boasted […]
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This is a video from the very talented CGP Grey in which he gives a brief history of the Confederate flag, and discusses the fact that the flag so many people think today was the Confederate flag, technically never really was officially. If you like this video, please subscribe to Grey’s awesome YouTube channel here. You can also join us […]
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K. Crain asks: Why aren’t humans furry like other primates? Although there is no definitive account of why we lost our body hair when every other primate is covered with the stuff, there are a handful of compelling theories that may explain our hairless condition. One early explanation for why we, alone, are the only relatively “naked” apes was the […]
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Ron17 asks: How do they decide who gets to guard the tomb of the unknown soldier? Since 1937, the Tomb of the Unknowns has famously never once been left unattended with there always being at least one guard present to keep vigil. The highly coveted position of Tomb Sentinel is only meted out to truly exceptional soldiers, all of whom must prove […]
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This Day In History: June 30, 1956 “Gone With the Wind” may never have been written if author Margaret Mitchell hadn’t suffered an accident that forced her off her feet. Mitchell suffered a serious ankle injury that led to arthritis, which ended her career as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal – as well as her hectic social life. This […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader If a recipe called for you to blanch some almonds, would you know how to do it? Cookbooks are full of techniques that are a mystery to most of us, even if their names sound familiar. Heat and Serve There are many different ways to cook food, and each method […]
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Lynn asks: Why are some cheeses made in wheels and others are in blocks? Whether a block, a wheel, a cylinder or a pyramid, a cheese’s shape is dictated by concerns with pressure, salt absorption, ripening, economics and/or tradition. Cheeses that are made in wheels, like creamy Brie and Camembert, need equal rates of salt uptake, as well as even […]
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This Day In History: June 29, 1914 Grigori Rasputin was born in Siberia around 1869. He was a healer and prophet to those who swore by his powers, but was known as the “mad monk” by those who believed him to be a con artist. He arrived in St. Petersburg in 1906 and was introduced to the Czar and Czarina, […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Dollars to Doughnuts The word “doughnut” is American in origin and traces its roots to the early 19th century. It is presumed to have been a combination of the words dough and nut. It first appeared in print in Washington Irving’s […]
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In this video, produced by the very talented Brady Haran over at Numberphile which you can subscribe to here, Dr. Sarah Wiseman discusses some interesting things about the different ways our brains read numbers and a case of a French Aphasic man who’d lost some of those abilities with some incredibly fascinating results. If you like this video, please join […]
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Water was in short supply in England during the summer of 1976. Officials understood as early as September 1975 that water levels would be low the next year thanks to 1975 being the fifth driest year of the 20th century in the region. While an average of 278 millimeters, or nearly 11 inches, of rain fell on England between May […]
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Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway on October 6, 1914. His father worked as a brewer while Heyerdahl’s mother held a leadership position at a local museum. Heyerdahl spent his childhood trekking through the forest at the edge of town and then climbing mountains with his pet husky. Despite those adventures, he only learned to swim in his twenties- nearly drowning […]
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This Day In History: June 26, 1945 On June 26, 1945, delegates from 50 nations joined in San Francisco, California to sign the United Nations Charter in the hopes of sparing “succeeding generations from the scourge of war.” The precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations, was conceived under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 “to promote international […]
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In 1936, the crew of the British gunboat HMS Gnat lacked a mascot, and the captain and crew decided to remedy that situation before starting patrols on the Yangtze River. Their sister gunboats, the Bee, Cicada, and Cricket already had mascots of their own. So Lieutenant Commander J. Waldergrave and Chief Petty Officer Charles Jefferey purchased an English Pointer puppy […]
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This Day In History: June 25, 1533 Mary Tudor was considered one of the most attractive princesses in Europe in her time. This, coupled with her high station, made her a very hot commodity on the royal marriage market. Her first fiancé was the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles, nephew of her sister-in-law Catherine of Aragon. That deal fell through […]
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Although crime in England’s capital was on the decline in the mid-19th century, thanks in part to the relatively recent formation of the London Metropolitan Police Force in 1839, fear of crime was a persistent, reoccurring issue thanks to a few instances of robbery and murder, and, of course, the news media. In particular, the so-called “garrotting” cases, where someone strangles someone else, […]
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Ever wonder why if you want to buy a truck in the United States you have drastically fewer selections than many other countries tend to enjoy and why U.S.-made trucks dominate the market in the country, while the same ratios aren’t seen at all in cars? It’s all because of chickens. No, really. Before the twentieth century, chicken wasn’t nearly […]
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