{"id":33716,"date":"2014-06-14T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T07:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=33716"},"modified":"2014-06-13T17:03:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-14T00:03:31","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-43","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/weekly-wrap-volume-43\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume #43"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"lock-picks\"<\/a>Hobbs and His Lock Picks: The Great Lock Controversy of 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

In April 1851, Alfred C. Hobbs boarded the steamship Washington bound for Southampton, England. His official duty was to sell the New York City-based company Day and Newell\u2019s newest product \u2013 the parautopic lock \u2013 at a trade show \u2013 London\u2019s Great Exhibition. But Hobbs had something a bit more nefarious up his sleeve, or rather in the small trunk that accompanied him on the ship. In it sat a large assortment of picks, wrenches, rakes, and other slender tools.\u00a0 You see, Hobbs wasn\u2019t just trying to sell his locks. He was trying to prove that his competitors\u2019 locks were, quite simply, not good enough. He had the tools, skills, and charisma to do just that. Alfred Hobbs was about to launch the Great Lock Controversy of 1851. Of all the locks at the Great Exhibition in July of 1851, the \u201cDetector\u201d was thought of as… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"trench-warfare-340x261\"<\/a>Why We Call Someone Who is Insane a \u201cBasket Case\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

At first, \u201cbasket case\u201d didn\u2019t mean someone who was crazy. Instead, it referred to someone who had a physical disability. The phrase has its origins in World War I. Funny enough, one of the earliest known documented instances of the phrase was actually in denial that \u201cbasket cases\u201d actually existed, as found in a bulletin issued in March of 1919 on behalf of the United States Surgeon General: “The Surgeon General of the Army\u2026 denies\u2026that there is any foundation for the stories that have been circulated\u2026of the existence of basket cases in our hospitals.” But just what was the Surgeon General referring to when he said \u201cbasket case\u201d? When… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"toilet-paper2\"<\/a>Why is Toilet Paper Always White?<\/a><\/p>\n

Toilet paper is an odd thing. Despite the fact that we often rub it against one of the most sensitive parts of our bodies on a daily basis, very little thought is ever given to where it came from or how it\u2019s made. (On that note, it might surprise you to learn that toilet paper wasn\u2019t commonly used in the United States until the early 20th century and even later in many countries<\/a>.) In the U.S., coloured toilet paper to match one\u2019s bathroom d\u00e9cor was all the rage in the mid-20th century, with the popularity peaking in the 1970s and then gradually waning until today, when, outside of gag-shops, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find a roll of coloured toilet paper. So why is this the case? There are several reasons, but one of the primary reasons toilet paper is white is the same… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/a>Glowing in the Dark, The \u201cRadium Girls\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

On December 21, 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive element radium (in the form of radium chloride), extracting it from uraninite. They first removed the uranium from the uraninite sample and then found that the remaining matter was still radioactive, so investigated further. Along with the barium in the remaining substance, they also detected spectral lines that were crimson carmine, which no one had yet documented or, apparently, observed. These spectral lines were being given off by radium chloride, which they managed to separate from the barium. Five days later, they presented their findings to the French Academy of Sciences. Five years after that, they won a Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery, making Marie Curie the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She went on to win a second Nobel Prize in 1911; this time in chemistry, with the help of Andr\u00e9-Louis Debierne. The two successfully managed to isolate… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"nuclear-missile-340x225\"<\/a>Vasili Arkhipov: The Man Who Saved the World<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1962, the U.S. and the Soviet Union were on the brink of possible mutual destruction- the world as a whole was facing a possible nuclear winter and all the devastation that would come with it. The Cold War had been escalated to \u201ctepid\u201d and was close to becoming hot with the failure of the Bay of Pigs in 1961 and the ensuing Cuban Missile Crisis. In May 1962, Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev and Cuban President Fidel Castro reached a \u201csecret\u201d agreement that allowed the Soviets to start building missile sites in Cuba, including stocking them with nuclear missiles- 42 of them. It should be noted here that the U.S. at this time had nuclear missiles in Turkey and Italy that could hit Moscow within 16 minutes of being launched.\u00a0 On the flip-side, the Soviets had plenty of nukes pointed at and perfectly capable of destroying the U.S.\u2019 allies throughout Europe.\u00a0 However, the Soviets did not have nearly the capability to destroy targets in the U.S. itself.\u00a0 Certainly they… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/span> Quick Facts, Myth Debunking Edition:<\/strong><\/p>\n