Celebrity impersonators are nothing new and with the odd exception, the majority of them fail to measure up to the talent or skill of the person they’re trying to emulate. The same can’t be said of a woman who went by the name of Vickie Jones- a singer who sounded so much like Aretha Franklin that a judge tasked with […]
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Tucked away in the English county of Yorkshire is a small 9 square mile patch of land known colloquially as The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle. As the name suggests, this area is famous for producing nearly all of the rhubarb consumed in Britain and, at one point, produced enough forced rhubarb to satisfy almost the entire world’s demand. Oddly, despite literal […]
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Azzah Syafire asks: Why do some clothes have random gibberish Japanese characters on them? Browse any clothing store and you’ll more than likely find at least one t-shirt covered in characters using the Japanese writing system. And if you can actually read Japanese, you’ve probably noticed that what’s written is often gibberish. Rather interestingly, the reverse is also popular in […]
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DOOM isn’t so much a video game as it is a pop-culture phenomenon, a media touchstone that is consistently ranked as one of the most influential games of all time. A game so popular it spawned a host of copycat releases, kick started the FPS (First person shooter) genre and was at one point in history, installed on more PCs […]
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Kassy17 asks: Why are Nintendo consoles so much much more durable than any other system? Nintendo has a surprisingly long history that extends all the way back to the the late 19th century. Originally named “Nintendo Koppai”, the small business based in Kyoto was started by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing […]
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The 17th century wasn’t exactly the most progressive time in history, as evidenced by the fact people with dwarfism were literally traded about by the upper echelons of society like Pokemon cards. Amongst the pantheon of known “court dwarfs” as they were called, one stood above them all thanks to the frankly astonishing life he led in his rise from […]
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In 2003, the town of Erie, Pennsylvania made national news when an unassuming pizza delivery man walked into a local bank and demanded a quarter of a million dollars from the vault. What happened next would baffle authorities for years and see the crime become one of the most intriguing ever committed in the United States. So what happened? At […]
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Long before they were in the business of making movies themselves, Marvel infamously sold off the film rights to some of their most beloved characters for pennies on the dollar compared to their current worth today. Most pertinent to the topic at hand is their sale of the superhero team that helped Marvel redefine the superhero comic genre- the Fantastic […]
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In the city of Athens, Georgia there exists a rather curious local landmark- a large white oak that is almost universally stated to own itself. Because of this, it is considered one of the more famous trees in the world. So how did this tree come to own itself and the land around it, and does the government agree with […]
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Phillip G. asks: What’s the best way to fire two guns at once? If you’ve ever seen pretty much any action movie involving a badass spy or member of law enforcement, you know a common trope in the industry is to have the protagonist firing away at the bad guys with a gun in both hands. But is this ever […]
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To many people adding one of the principal ingredients in antifreeze to wine sounds almost cartoonishly stupid and evil, which is probably why that exact scenario is the basis for an entire episode of The Simpsons. Nevertheless, for at least 7 years, many major wine makers in Austria decided to add this highly toxic poison to their wines, with a […]
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PandaGuy5 asks: Were people ever really tortured in Iron Maidens? The people of the Middle Ages have a reputation for wanton brutality and, as supposed evidence of this, countless instruments of torture sit in museums around the world, arguably the most famous of which being the Iron Maiden. This hellish contraption supposedly caused unthinkable pain and anguish for those unlucky […]
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Literally Everyone asks: Why are outhouses traditionally depicted with a crescent moon on the door? In all the years we’ve been answering questions from our abnormally attractive readers, one that has popped up in our inbox and in comment threads more times than any other is some form of the question “What’s the deal with crescent moons on outhouse doors?” […]
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On the scenic Thai island of Koh Sumai, tucked away in the Wat Khunaram temple is the mummified body of one of Thailand’s most famous monks- Luang Pho Daeng. Remarkably well preserved, Luang Pho Daeng’s body was put on display sometime in the 1970s and is still there today, virtually unchanged from the day he passed away, with the notable […]
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The Black Samurai, despite sounding like a name that’d be more at home in a movie or a comic book than the real world, is a genuine nickname given to a mysterious man from feudal Japan, otherwise known only as Yasuke. The rank of samurai was, of course, considered one of great prestige and it came with a number of […]
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Godzilla’s roar has long been considered one of cinema’s most iconic and recognisable sounds. Oft-copied or otherwise homaged, the original and rather unique roar terrified audience goers in the 1950s and has been built upon to dramatic effect in the numerous sequels and remakes since. So how did they actually make the original sound and where did the idea for […]
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LegitMarmalade asks: Is it true medieval jesters could insult the King in any way they wanted without risk of getting executed? Although you might assume that being made to wear a stupid costume, be mocked, and act like an idiot for the entertainment of fatuous rulers would be a job nobody would want- like the position of Groom of the […]
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GatGatCat asks: Is cooking grenades and pulling the pins with your teeth something people really do or just something in games? We’ve all seen it- the protagonist of a film whips out a hand grenade, dashingly yanks the pin with his teeth as his hair flows in the wind, counts one-potato, two-potato, three and hucks it at nearby teeming hoards […]
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