Sharon S asks: Why are beets red? Beets contain a pigment known as betalain, which incidentally is Latin for a certain type of common beet (Beta vulgaris). It was this type of beet that the betalain pigment was first extracted from. (It is contained in many different types of plants) Depending on which type of betalain pigment and the concentration […]
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Today I found out there once was a girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession. What’s even more impressive about that was neither Ruth nor Gehrig managed to even get the bat on the ball when they swung. Ruth swung and missed twice before taking a called third strike. Gehrig swung and missed three times, striking […]
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Today I found out the most recent version of the United States’ flag was designed by a high school student who initially received only a B- for his proposed design. In his own words shortly before he died on Dec 12, 2009, Bob Heft recounted to StoryCorps the tale of his design being chosen among about 1,500 submitted to become […]
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Today I found out where the word “jaywalking” came from. For those not familiar with this term (i.e. many people outside of the United States), jaywalking is when, “A pedestrian… crosses a street without regard to traffic regulations.” (OED) For instance, depending on where one lives, it may be against the law to cross a street where there is a […]
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This Day In History: July 8, 2011 On this day in history, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center to deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station. Atlantis touched down at 5:57 AM EDT on July 21, 2011, closing 30 years and 135 missions performed by the Space Shuttles. Throughout their run, a total […]
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Today I found out many crosswalk signal buttons actually don’t do anything when you press them. They are only there to give you something to press, called “placebo buttons”. In New York City, for instance, an estimated 90% of these pedestrian crossing buttons do nothing. You’ll find the same trend in most major cities, particularly in the United States. The […]
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The melody that would be borrowed for the Star Spangled Banner was extremely popular and well known at the time the future U.S. national anthem was penned. It is known to have been used for at least 84 popular songs in the United States alone, including Adams and Liberty – The Boston Patriotic Song and the subsequent tune Jefferson and […]
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Today I found out how Honey bees keep their hives warm even though they are cold blooded. Up until only a few years ago, it was thought by many scientists that Honey bee hives were kept warm by pupae in the brood and that the bees would often congregate there to warm themselves up from the pupae. Recently, this was […]
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Popcorn saw its biggest surges in popularity during times of duress, particularly during the Great Depression and WWII. The former of which because popcorn was an extremely cheap snack, being one of the few snack items many families could afford. So while many in the snack industry struggled through the Great Depression, the popcorn industry thrived. Popcorn saw another huge […]
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Microwave ovens convert Vitamin B12 to an inactive form unusable by humans. From a practical standpoint, this means typically around 30-40% of the Vitamin B12 in microwaved foods gets converted during the time it spends being heated or re-heated in a microwave oven. On the flip-side, spinach loses about 77% of its Vitamin B9 when cooked in a normal stove, […]
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The Ewoks in Star Wars were named after the Native American tribe Miwok. The Miwok’s lived in the Redwood forest that is the setting for the Endor scenes on Return of the Jedi. It has also been suggested that Princess Leia’s bun hair style was also of Native American origin, based on the Hopi Indian “Squash Blossom” hair style that […]
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Earthworms are hermaphrodites. When two worms mate, both worms produce children. The worms mate by getting in more or less a 69 position and exchanging sperm with one another. Much later, a cocoon is then secreted by the clitellum band, which is visible near the front of the worm. This is roughly ring shaped. As it’s sliding out of the […]
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