{"id":34043,"date":"2014-06-28T12:59:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T19:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=34043"},"modified":"2014-06-28T12:59:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-28T19:59:27","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/06\/weekly-wrap-volume-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume #45"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"heater-bees-340x238\"<\/a>How Honey Bees Keep Their Hives Warm Given That They are Cold Blooded<\/a><\/p>\n

Up until only a few years ago, it was thought by many scientists that Honey bee hives were kept warm by pupae in the brood and that the bees would often congregate there to warm themselves up from the pupae.\u00a0 Recently, this was found not to be the case when a new Honey bee job was discovered, that of \u201cheater bees.\u201d\u00a0 Bees of almost all ages can perform this function by either vibrating their abdomens or they can also decouple their wings from their muscles, allowing them to vigorously use these muscles without actually moving their wings.\u00a0 This can heat their bodies up to about 111\u00b0 Fahrenheit (44\u00b0 C), which is about 16\u00b0 F (9\u00b0 C) hotter than their normal body temperature. Another new discovery that went with this was why queen bees leave… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"gold-dollar-sign-e1276067651993\"<\/a>Where the Dollar Sign Comes From<\/a><\/p>\n

his symbol first showed up in the 1770s, appearing in documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans.\u00a0 However, it wasn\u2019t until the very early 1800s that it became popularized, around the same time as the first official U.S. dollars were being minted.\u00a0 Previous to this, the symbol had already been in use as an abbreviation for names of Spanish currency, namely as an abbreviation for the Spanish peso \u201cp\u201d.So how do you get from a \u201cp\u201d to the dollar sign, \u201c$\u201d?\u00a0 When writing financial documents referring to pesos, it was common to abbreviate the peso, for instance, \u201c1 peso\u201d to \u201c1 p\u201d.\u00a0 However, when pluralized, as in \u201c1000 pesos\u201d, it becomes… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"kissing-kids\"<\/a>Why Do We Kiss?<\/a><\/p>\n

Making Out. Snogging. Canoodling. Kissing. An activity that is teetering on the edge of gross when viewed objectively, but one that most everyone enjoys in practice. But why do we kiss? What compels us to attach our lips to the lips of another human being? Or push the envelope even further and do the microbial tongue tango?Kissing has been a noteworthy activity throughout history. The earliest literate culture, the Sumer, described both standard and tongue kissing in their poetry. The couple thousand years old Indian Kama Sutra, the ancient guide to getting-it-on, devotes an entire chapter exclusively to various modes of creative lip-locking. Herodotus mentioned kissing among the Persians, who greeted those of equal status with a non-romantic kiss on the mouth, but those of lower rank with a… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"fivebunch1\"<\/a>Carrots Used to Be Purple Before the 17th Century<\/a><\/p>\n

The modern day orange carrot wasn\u2019t cultivated until Dutch growers in the late 16th century took mutant strains of the purple carrot and gradually developed them into the sweet, plump, orange variety we have today.\u00a0 Before this, pretty much all carrots were purple with mutated versions occasionally popping up including yellow and white carrots.\u00a0 These were rarely cultivated and lacked the purple pigment anthocyanin. It is thought that the modern day orange carrot was developed by crossing the mutated yellow and white rooted carrots as well as varieties of wild carrots, which are quite distinct from cultivated… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"button-up-shirt\"<\/a>Why Do Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Clothes Have the Buttons on the Opposite Sides?<\/a><\/p>\n

As with so many things in history, we can\u2019t know with 100% accuracy why men\u2019s and women\u2019s clothes button up the opposite way. (Even something relatively recent like who invented Buffalo Wings<\/a> is up for debate despite being invented only about a half century ago.) But there are several theories floating around on the button front, one of which is particularly plausible.The most widely touted theory by far is that the practise of reversing buttons on men\u2019s and women\u2019s clothing stems back to the time of elaborate dress of gentlemen and ladies when upper-class women, particularly during the\u00a0Victorian era, wore so many layers that it was necessary for them to be dressed by a servant or maid. As such, it became customary to make clothes for women that were slightly easier for other people<\/em> to button up, specifically… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bonus<\/span><\/span> Quick Facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n