Tristan asks: Why are some people right handed and some left handed? Tristan it appears that there is no single mechanism that will definitively determine which hand you will prefer. Technology and further studies will continue to help shed light on the subject. What is known is that it essentially comes down to genes and biological asymmetry in the human […]
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Merry Christmas from everyone here at Today I Found Out! While you’re sipping eggnog and trying your best to continue smiling and nodding while your cousin and cousin-in-law once again tell you how their little Stacey has a photographic memory and already sings and plays the piano as well as Norah Jones, despite being just 4 years old and publicly […]
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Maya asks: Why does Chemotherapy cause hair loss? Maya I love the question. It seems like once or twice a year I’m shaving my head to help raise money for cancer research and at every fundraiser, the question seems to come up- Why does the common treatment for cancer make body hair fall out? The answer is really pretty simple. […]
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On the whole, people don’t generally like to kill one another. Most wars throughout history are often more about the agendas of the state’s leaders than the soldiers on the field actually inherently feeling any real malice towards those they are asked to try to kill or otherwise defeat. Few events in history illustrate this as well as a remarkable […]
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The man was Eric Moussambani Malonga, later nicknamed “Eric the Eel”. Moussambani is from Equatorial Guinea in Africa and only managed to get into the Olympics at all because of a wildcard drawing system put in place by the International Olympic Committee, designed to try to encourage developing countries to participate in various Olympic events. Thanks to this drawing, Equatorial Guinea […]
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In a 2009 MTV poll, Dirty Harry was voted the “Greatest Movie Badass of all-time”… Not exactly an Academy Award, but nonetheless, Clint Eastwood’s maverick police detective “Dirty Harry” Callahan was to become one of the most beloved, immortal (and controversial) movie characters in cinema history. The film about a “bad-guy-killing, rules-breaking vigilante cop” was originally titled “Dead Right”. Released […]
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Frank asks: Does having sex before an athletic event really hurt performance in the event? Good question! There are two schools of thought on this particular issue, but the short answer is that it could psychologically (although no study has definitively proven it), and “no” physically (unless you need a reduction in testosterone to help with excessive anxiety and lack […]
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Today I found out the guy who did the voice for Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger also sang the iconic “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” song in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The man was Thurl Ravenscroft. Ravenscroft originally went unintentionally uncredited in the film. Because of this, a common misconception rose up that it was Boris Karloff, […]
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Jennifer asks: Why do people seem to get more colds in the winter? Well Jennifer, this does seem to be the societal perception, no doubt promoted by every overprotective mom telling their kids to put a coat on when going outside, because they might catch a cold. There are two aspects to this question. The first is temperature. Numerous studies […]
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Carmen asks: What do the numbers in a blood pressure test mean? Also, what types of things do these numbers tell doctors? Well Carmen, blood pressure is really just that- the pressure at which blood moves around the body in your arteries. The easiest and least invasive way to test what that pressure is at any given moment is to […]
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Brenda asks: Did one of the Bond girls really used to be a man? That depends on how you define “man” and “Bond girl”. If you define “man” as a person who was born with a penis and “Bond girl” as any eye candy female that appeared in a Bond movie at any point, then yes- one of the Bond […]
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Today I found out the Christmas song Silver Bells was originally called Tinkle Bells. To make matters slightly more humorous, Silver Bells originally appeared in the The Lemon Drop Kid, a 1951 film starring Bob Hope. Needless to say, these two things would have surely resulted in the song getting a few chuckles, had composer Jay Livingston’s wife, Lynne Gordon, […]
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Despite how it sounds, “Tulipmania” does not refer to just a general love of tulips; it was actually one the world’s first recorded major financial bubbles. Long before the dot com frenzy or the real estate bubbles of recent decades, there was Tulipmania in the Netherlands beginning around 1624 and reaching its peak from 1636 to 1637. While the extent […]
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Rob asks: What is eggnog actually made of? Does it really have raw eggs in it? Traditionally, yes, eggnog included raw eggs. However, some countries today, such as the United States, severely restrict the use of raw egg in products, due to health concerns; thus, most commercial eggnog does not include raw eggs. (The FDA actually limits the egg yolk […]
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This is a guest post by Shoshana Davis Brushing your teeth after every meal, visiting the dentist for cleanings, and having a relatively painless mouth is not just desired but expected in the year 2012. However, that was not always the case. Dentistry has come a long way since its inception and is often overlooked for other scientific advancements. The […]
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“Murderous” Mary was a 5 ton Asian Elephant in the Sparks World Famous Shows Circus. Her downfall began with the hiring of an assistant elephant trainer who had no experience working with elephants and possibly no professional experience even working with animals. This worker was Red Eldridge, who before getting the gig generally was a drifter and most immediately before […]
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It seems only appropriate that the single most controversial quote from the Beatles, by any Beatle, was uttered by John Lennon, the group’s unspoken leader and most colorful member. On March 4, 1966, the following was said by Lennon: Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that. I’m right and I will be proved right. […]
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Brenda Mae Tarpley (a.k.a. Brenda Lee and “Little Miss Dynamite”) was born to an extremely poor family in December of 1944. Things took a turn for the worse when her father, a onetime semi-pro baseball player and carpenter, died in a construction accident in May of 1953 when she was 8 years old. Within two years of this happening, the […]
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