Rachel R. asks: Who invented the computer mouse? Doug Engelbart is widely credited as the inventor of the computer mouse. Of course, as with most inventions, nothing happened in a vacuum and before the device that gave birth to the modern mouse was thought up, there were several exceptionally similar devices around. For the full story of the invention of […]
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During the first five years of Prohibition in New York, there was one name that struck fear in the hearts of every bootlegger- Isadore “Izzy” Einstein. A man who a 1922 edition of The Literary Digest noted was the “master hooch-hound, alongside whom all the rest of the pack are but pups.” This hooch-hound was a Prohibition agent with a […]
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Officially the Apollo 10 mission of 1969 was a dress rehearsal for the more famous Apollo 11- designed to test all of procedures and equipment needed to land on the Moon save for the actual act of the landing itself. (To assure it was just a practice run, they did not put enough fuel in the LM to land and […]
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Born in Sydney Australia in 1905, Henry Robert Pearce, better known as Bobby Pearce, dominated the world of competitive rowing throughout the 1920s and 1930s and was extremely popular with fans of the sport due to a combination of the ease with which he seemed to best opponents and his affable personality. Perhaps the greatest example of both of these […]
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In 1983, Paul Mockapetris proposed a distributed database of internet name and address pairs, now known as the Domain Name System (DNS). This is essentially a distributed “phone book” linking a domain’s name to its address, allowing you to type in something like todayifoundout.com instead of the IP address of the website. The distributed version of this system allowed for […]
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If we learned anything from the excellent Bill and Ted movies, it’s that the word “dude” is a remarkably versatile utterance that can either be used to refer to any male acquaintance or as a general vocalisation of surprise or confusion. Go back a hundred years or so to the 1800s and the word dude could actually roughly be understood […]
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Back in 1968, one of the fathers of modern sociology and National Medal of Science award winner Robert K. Merton explored the phenomenon of what he called the “Matthew Effect” while writing a paper discussing how seniority or perceived prestige seemed to be the deciding factor in who would be given credit for a scientific discovery or breakthrough, regardless of […]
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Gideon S. asks: Why is a final performance called a swansong? When someone performs for the last time, we often refer to it as a “swan song” which seems odd given that swans aren’t particularly known for their stage presence… So where exactly did this phrase come from? This expression is generally thought to have its genesis in the over […]
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On June 3, 1964 Ringo Starr inexplicably collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where it was found he was suffering from severe tonsillitis that required immediate surgery. Unfortunately for the band, Ringo had collapsed literally the day before they were due to embark on their world tour, for which many thousands of tickets had already been sold and a […]
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Like many historical nations, the Ottoman Empire was no stranger to doling out deadly justice to criminals and those the rulers disliked. Unlike most, for several decades, starting sometime in the late 18th century, they did offer some of the condemned a chance to avoid being executed. How? They simply had to beat the palace’ head gardener in what amounted […]
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Andthen2 asks: Has there ever been a real case of someone being pelted with tomatoes during a performance? As we’ve discussed in detail before (see: The Curious Case of the Claque), audiences haven’t always been kind to performers throughout history as evidenced by the fact that there was a thriving industry of people who made a rather lucrative living during […]
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Despite spending the first 30 years of his career almost exclusively a prolific dramatic actor, today Leslie Nielsen is generally remembered as one of the greatest comedic actors of all time for his roles in films like Airplane! and The Naked Gun series. As it turns out, these two factors are more closely linked than you might think and Nielsen’s […]
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Serving with the NYPD between 1923 and 1947, for over two decades John “Johnny” Broderick struck fear into the hearts of New York’s deadliest criminals working as a no-nonsense detective who wasn’t afraid to throw hands and kick bad guys through windows (literally). Over his long and controversial career, Broderick earned over half a dozen medals for valor, a nod […]
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If you take a peek at a list of pilots who were considered flying aces during WW2, you’ll notice that the top of the list is dominated by Luftwaffe pilots, some of whom scored hundreds of aerial victories during the war. While their skill and prowess in the air is undeniable, it’s arguable that the finest display in aerial combat […]
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While Joseph Stalin’s cult of personality, subsequent statues, and certain photos and paintings may have you thinking he was a giant of a man, in truth the former Soviet leader and glorious moustache owner was only around 5 feet 5 inches tall (165 cm), give or take an inch. While this is decidedly below average in many regions of the […]
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Jeremy R. asks: What do the little buttons on Darth Vader’s suit do? It’s said that the best villains are the ones where you know almost nothing about them. However, thanks to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, we know almost everything about Darth Vader, even how he poops, and he’s still consistently voted to be one of the greatest cinema […]
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If you’ve never seen A Knight’s Tale, the cliff notes version of the story is that Heath Ledger’s character, William Thatcher, pretends to be a knight to compete in various jousting competitions across Europe for fame, fortune, and the love of a woman. Since Thatcher is a peasant, in order to be able to compete, he claims to be a […]
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Christmas music, for the most part, tends to be both non-offensive and fairly generic- two things you can’t really say about the song, Killing in the Name by rap metal band, Rage Against the Machine, which somehow managed to become the 2009 UK Christmas #1 thanks to the efforts of a couple who was really annoyed with the coveted spot […]
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