Today I found out they named Parkinson’s disease after a man who was involved in an assassination attempt on King George III. Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder characterized by tremors or shaking, with this particular symptom of the progressive disease resulting from dopamine generating cell death in a part of the substantia nigra region of the brain . The […]
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Witty, prickly, bitter and brilliant, for 50 odd years, author and newspaperman Ambrose Bierce eloquently chronicled the latter half of the 19th, and first few years of the 20th, centuries. From moving descriptions of Civil War events, to scathing rebukes of the worst of the Gilded Age, all interspersed with tales of the supernatural, Bierce’s unique voice has left us […]
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Amanda asks: What is gluten and why is it bad for you? These days, just casually strolling down a grocery aisle, one can find a multitude of gluten-free products. From gluten-free whole grain bread to gluten-free beer to gluten-free Betty Crocker chocolate brownie mix, the market for food items without gluten has exploded over the past decade. But is gluten […]
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Our resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all sorts of interesting facts about all things medical related. Below is a sample article from their new site. Most of us have probably laughed at someone on television getting shocked by a stun gun. They tense up and fall to […]
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Rouise asks: Why do we cross our fingers for luck and when we’re lying? It’s odd that the same gesture is used for both. Turns out, people have been crossing their fingers for luck for centuries. The exact origins of this practice aren’t definitively known, but historians have a couple theories as to how the modern practice came about, though […]
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Today I found out about the year’s “free wages” that led to Harper Lee writing To Kill a Mockingbird. The book, which was Lee’s first and only published novel until recently, was heralded as an “instant classic” when it was published in 1960, and it is a staple in high school classrooms today. But it might not exist at all […]
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Despite the awesomeness that is the 300 film (and the sequel)- the epic battles, the amazing directing, the incredible cinematography by Zack Snyder, and all the impressive special effects- our mission in this site is very specific, and thus, this article focuses on the historical inaccuracies of this movie. Identifying some of these historical inaccuracies, starting from Sparta’s then-political system, […]
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Originally, of course, nobody knew what caused the various forms of tuberculosis, and they certainly didn’t understand it was caused by what would eventually be called tubercle bacillus (usually the offending microbes are specifically Mycobacterium tuberculosis). The word “tuberculosis” was coined by Johann Lukas Schönle in 1839, from the Latin “tuberculum,” meaning “small, swelling bump or pimple.” However, it wouldn’t […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why Three Strikes in a Row in Bowling is Called a “Turkey” This is thought to have its origins in bowling tournament prizes. Late eighteenth and early nineteenth century prizes given out during these tournaments were often food items, such as a […]
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How fast you’re going while out floating on the big blue can be notoriously tricky to judge if you’re just eyeballing it. One method used to get around this issue was introduced in the sixteenth century using a “chip log” or “log-line.” In a nutshell, this method used a plank of wood (usually wedge shaped and weighted on one end […]
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Today I found out that Frank Sinatra was originally offered the main role in the movie that would become Die Hard. This 1940s singer might not be the man who comes to mind when you think about the action-packed Die Hard movies. At the start of his movie-making career, Sinatra was cast mostly in singing roles, though he did manage […]
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As with many etymologies, the exact root of this word is difficult to say with one hundred percent certainty. However, the leading theory is extremely plausible and backed up by a fair bit of documented evidence. Specifically, it is thought that a dollar is called a “buck” thanks to deer. One of the earliest references of this was in 1748, […]
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On August 14, 1922, a collection of baseball stars gathered at Fenway Park in Boston. An exhibition all-star game had been set-up to honor and raise money for the family of Tommy “Little Mac” McCarthy- Boston Red Sox great in the 1880s and 1890s. The game featured the Boston Red Sox, World Series champs only three seasons ago, versus a […]
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Today I found out about the meaning of the word “gesundheit” and other sneeze etiquette around the world. You are probably accustomed to hearing or saying “bless you” after someone sneezes. It’s simple sneeze etiquette, at least in English speaking countries. In Germany, it’s polite to say “gesundheit” after someone sneezes, which more or less means “health.” More specifically, it’s […]
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Jeremy R. asks: Why do they bother sterilizing the needles when executing people? Besides the fact that manufacturers sterilize the needles (so no real extra effort is needed), other sterilization procedures are also used in these executions for good reason. You see, a stay of execution may happen at the last minute. If this happens, but then the condemned later […]
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Michael asks: What’s a tarnation? Like in the expression, “What in tarnation!” We have the word “tarnation” thanks to societal taboos against saying certain words- instead substituting in other words that often mean the exact same thing, but for some reason we find it acceptable to say the one rather than the other… Humans… 
In this case, the pertinent […]
You may think the reason toothpaste makes things like orange juice taste so awful is simply due to the common mint flavor of toothpaste clashing with other flavors, but this isn’t actually what’s going on here. The real culprit is thought to be two compounds almost universally added to toothpastes -sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium lauryl ether sulfate, which are […]
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In the east end of Glasgow during the 1980s there were epic conflicts between warring ice cream truck operators over turf that came to be known as the Glasgow Ice Cream Wars. These conflicts resulted in regular occurrences of violence and intimidation, usually on a daily basis. This culminated in the deaths of six people from the family of one […]
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