{"id":37229,"date":"2014-11-22T00:00:44","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=37229"},"modified":"2014-11-21T23:05:34","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T07:05:34","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-65","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/11\/weekly-wrap-volume-65\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 65"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"birds-in-winter\"<\/a>Why Don\u2019t Birds\u2019 Legs Freeze?<\/a><\/p>\n

How a bird reacts to the cold depends on what kind of a bird it is and there are a variety of methods they use to keep their legs warm, from the mundane to the much more fascinating. For starters, many birds will simply pull their legs and feet close to their centre of mass one at a time, keeping them warm with their feathers and body heat and off the cold ground. Likewise, some birds crouch down and cover both feet with their plumage. In particularly cold weather, the bird can also \u201cfluff up\u201d its feathers, trapping air between the feathery layers to keep extra warm from head to toe, so to speak. If there are other birds around, they may also… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"humpty-dumpty-340x225\"<\/a>The Origin of Humpty Dumpty<\/a><\/p>\n

As you seem to have noticed, in the \u201cHumpty Dumpty\u201d nursery rhyme, nowhere does it say that Humpty is an egg, yet he is often presented as such in pictures and stories. The version of the rhyme that most children learn today goes like this: “Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king\u2019s horses and all the king\u2019s men Couldn\u2019t put Humpty together again.” The first known publication of Humpty Dumpty was included in Juvenile Amusements by Samuel Arnold in 1797. In that version, the last lines read… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"japanese-pilot\"<\/a>How Were Kamikaze Pilots Chosen?<\/a><\/p>\n

During WWII, thousands of Japanese pilots made the ultimate sacrifice for their country by becoming, essentially, flying suicide bombers. But what was it that made these men so willing to lay down their lives in such a way? Were they really bright eyed volunteers eager to sacrifice themselves for the greater good, as the war time propaganda stated, or were they forced into it? Also, why exactly did the Japanese military resort to such a tactic in the first place? For starters, the Japanese military brass were desperate.\u00a0 The enemy had them outgunned, out-manned, and possessed certain critical technologies that Japan… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"Bain_1850\"<\/a>The Shockingly Old Origin of the Fax Machine<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, we mostly think of the fax machine as an outdated piece of technology. While there are still some uses for it in an office-setting, technological advances are sending the fax machines to the same pasture as pagers, land-line telephones, and disposable cameras. Even if this is the last we hear of the beeps and bops that echo as an incoming fax is transmitted, the fax machine had a very long life \u2013 an amazing 171 years to be exact. Yes, the fax machine was invented in 1843, before the Model-T was even a dream, before the telephone was invented, and even before the American Civil War broke out. Alexander Bain… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"movie-theater\"<\/a>The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1948, the Supreme Court ended the stranglehold Hollywood studios and distributors had on the U.S. movie market. Declaring the big eight a monopoly and ordering them to divest of their ownership of movie theaters and cease other non-competitive practices, with U.S. v. Paramount Pictures, et al., the Court opened the movie industry to independent producers and theaters, and indelibly changed the way we see films (and the films we see). Prior to the government\u2019s efforts to break their trust, a handful… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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