Tag Archives: now you know

What is a Baby Platypus Called?

Answers

Anna asks: What is a baby platypus called? They are called ‘baby platypus’…  Really, that’s it (officially).  A common misconception is that they are also named ‘puggles’, but this isn’t technically correct.  I mean, you can call something anything you want and because so many people think that’s what they are named, they are often called that, but it isn’t […]

Read more

A Group of Rioting French Tailors Once Destroyed the Factory of the Inventor of the Chain Stitch Sewing Machine

In 1830, a French tailor by the name of Barthelemy Thimonnier patented a sewing machine that used the chain stitch; the first such machine to replicate sewing by hand.  By 1841, he had a factory with over 80 machines and a contract with the French army for uniforms.  However, the factory was destroyed by a riotous group of French tailors […]

Read more

If We Could Convert Matter Perfectly to Energy, a Typical Adult Male Would Produce an Explosion 80 Times More Powerful Than the Largest Nuclear Bomb Ever Detonated

Physics Facts

Amazingly, if we were actually able to convert matter perfectly to energy with 1 kg of matter being completely annihilated, the energy produced from just that small amount of matter is about 42.95 mega tons of TNT.  So an adult male weighing in at around 200 pounds has somewhere in the vicinity of 4000 megatons of TNT potential in their […]

Read more

The Gopher Protocol on the Internet was Once More Popular Than the Web… Until the Creators Decided to Charge Licensing Fees

In the early days of the World Wide Web, one of the most popular alternatives to the Web (and indeed more popular for a time), Gopher, looked like it was destined to dominate the Internet.  Then the University of Minnesota announced in 1993 that they would no longer let people use their Gopher server implementation for free.  Instead, licensing fees […]

Read more

The Novel ‘Gadsby’ has 50,110 Words, Yet None of them Contain the Letter “E”

Today I found out Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby is over 50,000 words long, yet doesn’t contain a single letter “e” anywhere other than the cover. Given that ‘e’ is the most commonly used letter in English, you might think this would have been impossible, but Wright stated this wasn’t nearly as limiting as one might think.  For instance, […]

Read more

Sign Languages Do Not Generally Resemble the Spoken Language from the Area They Originated

Myth: sign languages generally resemble the spoken language from the area they originated. In other words, in the majority of cases, the various sign languages used were not developed from spoken languages.  For example, American Sign Language resembles Chinese in form more than it does English in terms of a single gesture often represent a phrase or whole idea, rather […]

Read more

TNT and Dynamite are Not the Same Thing

Myth: TNT and Dynamite are the same thing. In fact, TNT and dynamite are not the same thing at all, contrary to what the Road Runner and Wiley coyote would have you believe. Dynamite doesn’t actually contain TNT, but rather is comprised of an absorbent mixture soaked in nitroglycerin, which is extremely sensitive to shock, unlike TNT; this is then […]

Read more

The Last Period of the “S.O.S” Brand was Not Left Off Due to an Error in the Trademark Submission

Myth: the last period of the “S.O.S” brand was left off due to an error in the trademark submission. In fact, they meant to leave it off because “S.O.S.” could not be trademarked thanks to the SOS distress signal often being written as “S.O.S.”, even though it’s not actually an acronym. By leaving the last period off, it made the […]

Read more

Honey Bees Actually Do Sleep

Myth: Honey Bees Don’t Sleep. Honey Bees do in fact sleep, though there is always significant activity in the hive 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Research done in 1988 shows that, occasionally, Honey Bees will take rest and become relaxed, their body temperature drops, and they become unresponsive. Their sleep is not exactly like human sleep, but […]

Read more
1 2 3 4 5