{"id":35481,"date":"2014-09-06T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-06T07:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=35481"},"modified":"2014-09-05T14:29:28","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T21:29:28","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-54","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/weekly-wrap-volume-54\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 54"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"Lucas\"<\/a>The Indestructible Jacklyn H. Lucas<\/a><\/p>\n

Would you fall on a grenade to save your friends? How about two grenades? Jack H. Lucas did and became the youngest man to be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor, the United States\u2019 highest combat award. Born Jacklyn Harrell Lucas in Plymouth, NC on February 14, 1928, Jacklyn was a natural athlete who quickly rose to captain of the football team at his high school, the Edwards Military Institute. By the age of 14, Jack looked much older. Relatively tall for his age (5\u2032 8\u2033) and brawny at 180 pounds, Jack had no trouble convincing the Marine Corps recruiters… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"opium\"<\/a>The Invention of Morphine<\/a><\/p>\n

Derived from opium but far more reliable and powerful, the invention of morphine changed pharmacology and pain relief.
\nA (Very) Short History of Opium:\u00a0 Derived from the seedpods of the poppy, Papaver somniferum (opium) has been used since early civilizations first cultivated it from a wild strain, Papaver setigerum. A 6,000 year old Sumerian tablet speaks of it, and the famous drug even made an appearance in the Greek classic, The Odyssey, where it was used to ease the symptoms of depression. Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all enjoyed the plant, to the point where pharaohs had it placed in their tombs. By the 700s AD… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"michael-jackson-340x511\"<\/a>Why Michael Jackson\u2019s Skin Turned White as He Got Older<\/a><\/p>\n

Many scandals marred Michael Jackson\u2019s personal life, overshadowing his otherwise remarkable musical career. One such scandal was the obvious change in his appearance, especially his skin color, which started from the mid-eighties to slowly but surely turn from dark to white. By the mid-nineties when Jackson released his album History<\/em> (1995), it was more than obvious even to his most dedicated fans that the man of Thriller<\/em> (1982) looked nothing like the man who had recently married Elvis Presley\u2019s daughter, Lisa Marie. By this time, Michael Jackson was milky white; a skin-color transition that started almost a decade earlier was more or less complete. So… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"dry-cleaning\"<\/a>How Dry Cleaning Works and Who Invented It<\/a><\/p>\n

What happens to clothes after being dropped off at the dry cleaners is a mystery to most. We know that our clothes come back a whole lot cleaner than when we dropped them off, but how? And who first got the bright idea to clean clothing without water? The earliest records of professional dry cleaning go all the way back to the Ancient Romans.\u00a0 For instance, dry cleaning shops were discovered in the ruins of Pompeii, a Roman city buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. Those cleaners, known as fullers, used a type of clay known as fuller\u2019s earth along with lye and ammonia (derived from urine) in order to remove stains such as dirt and sweat from clothing. That process proved pretty effective for any fabric too delicate for normal washing or… (more<\/a>)
\n\"runny-nose1-e1294836732192\"<\/a>Why Your Nose Gets Runny When It is Cold<\/a><\/p>\n

On an average day, a typical person\u2019s nose will produce about one quart of mucus\/fluid (just under one liter).\u00a0 Most all of this snot generally gets passed back into your throat and swallowed, often without you even really being too conscious of it.\u00a0 When you\u2019re breathing cold air though, the rate of mucus production goes up significantly, causing some of that snot to come out the front of your nose, rather than back in your throat. What\u2019s going on here is the blood supply to your nose actually increases as a response to the cold air, via tiny blood vessels in your nose dilating to increase the blood flow. \u00a0 This helps keep your nose… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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