J.Kaus asks: Why are Grandfather clocks called Grandfather clocks? At first glance, the answer seems obvious. Think about it- when was the last time you saw a grandfather clock in the house of anyone under the age of 70? Grandfather clocks- with their long cases, pendulums, echoing chimes, and Roman numerals- seem to belong to the world of courting parlors, […]
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Today I found out it is possible for your muscles and other connective soft tissues to turn to bone. The condition is known as Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) or “Stone Man Syndrome”. It affects an estimated 1 out of every 2 million people beginning when they are children, and to date there is no cure. The telltale sign of someone […]
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Today I found out the name for the dwarf planet Pluto was suggested by an 11 year old girl. The girl was Venetia Burney of Oxford, England. Venetia’s great uncle, Science Master of Eton Henry Madan, in 1877 suggested the name for the two dwarf moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos (fear/panic and dread/terror). This was referencing the fact that […]
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Today I found out Abraham Lincoln established the Secret Service on the day he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. Unfortunately, even had the organization been instituted earlier, it wouldn’t have helped. The Secret Service in the beginning had no part in protecting the President, but rather were tasked with cutting down on the amazing amount of counterfeit money circulated […]
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I’m going to be running a contest starting right now, which will go to the end of September. I’ve been working on re-vamping my “Daily Knowledge” Today I Found Out email subscription as, frankly, the old subscription system is pretty awful, both from the administrative side and what you guys see when you get the articles in your Inbox. I’m […]
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Today I found out Kurt Russell was a minor league baseball player until an injury ended his career. While the Russell family is mostly known for their acting, “Baseball is really the family business that nobody knows about because our other business was sort of out there in the public and seen by a lot more people,” said Kurt Russell. […]
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Today I found out the man responsible for the modern Frisbee design and the “Father of Disc Golf” was cremated and had his ashes molded into Frisbees to give to friends and family. While man has been throwing Frisbee-like objects around for many thousands of years, the Frisbee itself is something of a modern “invention”. The tale of the Frisbee […]
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Byron asks: Why do women always seem to like to go to the bathroom in groups? Why do women go to the ladies room in groups? You might as well ask “What did John Lennon see in Yoko Ono? If Wile E. Coyote could afford all those Acme gimmicks, why didn’t he just order a pizza or Chinese food instead […]
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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Cooper Tires for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine. Before we get to the “Tire Facts and Safety Tips” Infographic below as you’ll note above, this post is sponsored by Cooper Tire. A couple months ago, I ventured out of doors to the Cooper Tires #RideNDrive event in San […]
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Today I found out the cotton candy making machine was co-invented by a dentist, who later became the President of the Tennessee State Dental Association. Coincidence? While candy floss / cotton candy-like spun-sugar confectioneries have been around since at least the 15th century, if not earlier, it’s only been recently that cotton candy has been something practical to make and […]
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Rinni asks: Why are women sometimes called “sluts”, “dames”, and “broads”? Where did these words come from? Origin of the Word “Slut” “Slut” originally didn’t mean at all what it means today. For instance, in a diary from 1664, Samuel Pepys writes, “Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightily, doing more service than both […]
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Today I found out the United States doesn’t have an official language. President Theodore Roosevelt stated in 1907, “We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.” […]
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Myth: You shouldn’t throw rice at weddings because birds’ stomachs will rupture if they eat it. In fact, birds can eat as much rice as they want (and some do, such as the bobolink, waterfowl, and shorebirds) without any internal problems. This shouldn’t be too surprising given rice is just a seed and birds eat a lot of seeds with […]
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Today I found out a man once tried to raise his son as a native speaker in Klingon. The man in question is computational linguist Dr. d’Armond Speers. Speers is actually not a huge Start Trek fan himself. Indeed, many Klingon language enthusiasts aren’t, contrary to popular perception. They tend to be language lovers fascinated by constructed languages, of which […]
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Today I found out the Stephen King short story Children of the Corn was originally published in Penthouse Magazine. While to date Stephen King has managed to sell about 350 million copies of his novels, he started out with quite humble beginnings as an author. After graduating from the University of Maine with a degree in English in 1970, Stephen […]
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Today I found out many public toilets used to be pay as you use. Or, for those of you like me who’ve been around for more than a few decades, “Today I found out what happened to pay toilets.” Going to the bathroom might be the one and only activity in America that’s cheaper than it used to be. Pay […]
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Danimal27 Asks: Why is Poker called Poker? The card game “Poker” first was called such around the early 19th century. Despite this happening fairly recently, it isn’t directly known how Poker got its name, but there are two leading theories that more or less coalesce into one very probable origin. The first theory is that it came from the name […]
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Byron T. asks: Why do bananas go bad faster in the refrigerator than at room temperature? If by “go bad” you mean that the banana peel gets incredibly grotesque looking, then this is true. However, if you mean that the inside gets all mushy and tastes awful, a-la extreme over ripeness, or the old wives’ tale that bananas in the […]
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