{"id":41788,"date":"2015-06-27T14:29:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=41788"},"modified":"2015-06-27T14:29:57","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T21:29:57","slug":"weekly-wrap-volume-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2015\/06\/weekly-wrap-volume-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Wrap Volume 87"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here<\/a>.<\/div>\n

\"doughnut\"<\/a>Dollars to Doughnuts<\/a><\/p>\n

The word \u201cdoughnut\u201d is American in origin and traces its roots to the early 19th century. It is presumed to have been a combination of the words dough and nut. It first appeared in print in Washington Irving\u2019s 1809 Knickerbocker\u2019s History of New York “Sometimes the table was graced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of preserved peaches and pears; but it was always sure to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog\u2019s fat, and called doughnuts…” (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"jack-the-signalman4\"<\/a>Working for Figurative Peanuts and Literal Beer, the Fascinating Story of Jack the Signal\u201dman\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

For most people, saying\u00a0 \u201ca monkey could do my job\u201d is a roundabout way of saying that their current position of employment isn\u2019t exactly that mentally taxing. For James Wide though, it was more of a statement of fact because for 9 years in the late 19th century, his job of railroad signalman at Uitenhage station in South Africa was literally done by a chacma baboon called Jack. Jack came to prominence thanks to a tragic event in 1877 when his eventual owner, James Wide, lost both of his legs in a horrific accident. Prior to the accident, Wide had worked for Cape Government Railways as a guard. During his tenure as a railway guard, Wide developed a knack for jumping between and onto moving trains, which… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"chicken-truck\"<\/a>Half a Truck and the Chicken Tax<\/a><\/p>\n

Ever wonder why if you want to buy a truck in the United States you have drastically fewer selections than many other countries tend to enjoy and why U.S.-made trucks dominate the market in the country, while the same ratios aren\u2019t seen at all in cars?\u00a0 It\u2019s all because of chickens. No, really. Before the twentieth century, chicken wasn\u2019t nearly as common of an item on people\u2019s dinner plates as today and was very much a luxury item mostly restricted to the wealthy in Europe. (In fact, chickens were actually originally domesticated for cock-fighting, not food<\/a>.) Improvements in food storage via refrigeration (see: Why Chicken Goes Bad So Quickly<\/a>), refinements in chicken breeding, and the development of the so called \u201cfactory chicken\u201d helped… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"judy-dog\"<\/a>The Dog Who was an Official Prisoner of War<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1936, the crew of the British gunboat HMS Gnat lacked a mascot, and the captain and crew decided to remedy that situation before starting patrols on the Yangtze River. Their sister gunboats, the Bee, Cicada, and Cricket already had mascots of their own. So Lieutenant Commander J. Waldergrave and Chief Petty Officer Charles Jefferey purchased an English Pointer puppy they named Judy from a kennel in Shanghai, China, intending for her to both serve as mascot and as a gundog for hunting when the crew went ashore. The ship\u2019s cook, Jan \u201cTankey\u201d Cooper, was assigned the responsibility of caring for her. Fast-forward to the start of WWII and the HMS Gnat was recalled to port where Judy joined the crew members who transferred to the HMS Grasshopper in June of 1939. Three years later… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\"ThorHeyerdahl-KonTiki\"<\/a>Thor Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki<\/a><\/p>\n

Thor Heyerdahl was born in Larvik, Norway on October 6, 1914. His father worked as a brewer while Heyerdahl\u2019s mother held a leadership position at a local museum. Heyerdahl spent his childhood trekking through the forest at the edge of town and then climbing mountains with his pet husky. Despite those adventures, he only learned to swim in his twenties- nearly drowning twice when he was young led to an understandable fear of water until then. After studying geology and zoology at the University of Oslo, Heyerdahl embarked on a yearlong stay (1937-1938) on an island in the South Pacific called Fatu Hiva. The trip served the dual purpose of giving Heyerdahl the opportunity to study the local flora and fauna while also serving as a honeymoon with his new wife, Liv Coucheron… (more<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This Week’s YouTube Videos:<\/strong><\/p>\n