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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Jessica asks: Are people who are allergic to house cats allergic to tigers and other large cats? One of its most common behaviors greatly contributes to the domestic cat’s propensity to stimulate an allergic response in some humans – its grooming. When the cat licks itself, it stimulates both its salivary glands as well as sebaceous glands in its skin, […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Only 15 paintings by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci are known to exist. But what if there were more…and what if Leonardo’s greatest work—one that’s been presumed destroyed since 1563—was safely hidden, just waiting to be discovered? THE BIG PICTURE In 1503 the Republic of Florence (now part […]
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In the late 1960s, NASA’s Apollo missions were in full swing, with both Apollos 8 and 10 having successfully launched, orbited the Moon and returned with their astronauts safely to the Earth. By the summer of 1969, the space program was ready to try something new – land a craft with men on the Moon, and then re-launch and bring […]
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Mekala asks: What is amniotic fluid actually made of? Is it just water and stuff the baby poops and pees or is it like saliva? Just wondering. Thanks! Essential for the development of a healthy baby, amniotic fluid is a complex liquid that nourishes, facilitates growth, cushions and protects the growing fetus. Amniotic fluid begins to form almost as soon […]
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In the latter half of the 19th century, more than six million small windmills had been installed in the United States, primarily for the purpose of pumping water for both personal and farming use. In addition, larger windmills were also a common sight in rural America, as these were used to provide water for steam-powered trains where sufficient surface water […]
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Tarin K. asks: What is the single worst crime you could commit, as in, what singular crime would net you the longest prison sentence? With the long-running debate over mandatory minimum sentences over the past couple of decades, it’s easy to forget that judges and juries often have a great deal of discretion when it comes to imposing criminal sentences […]
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Gary asks: Who invented the common shopping cart that seems to be the exact same design in most stores you go to? With the emergence of the automobile, home refrigeration, and the supermarket in the early 20th century, retailers soon realized they had a problem – people now were willing to purchase large quantities of food at once, but had […]
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The Beatles hit the big-time and became national stars in Britain in early 1963. They toured the country, playing countless gigs in theaters, music halls, and clubs. Their records and albums, each one seemingly better than the last, soon perpetually reached the #1 spot in their respective sales charts. They appeared on every possible contemporary television show. The next logical […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader George and Martha Washington owned hundreds of slaves over the course of their lives. The names of many are known, but most of the details of their lives have been lost to history. Here’s the story of one woman who hasn’t been forgotten. BORN INTO SLAVERY In the early 1770s […]
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From Boston’s earliest days, Christmas was not celebrated. Holiday goodies like pudding and mince pies were banned- December 25th was a mandatory work day, and town criers walked through the streets reminding the populace: “No Christmas! No Christmas! No Christmas!” In fact, in 1620, the Puritans spent their first Christmas in the New World building their first structures. The next […]
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On Monday, December 14, 1903, the Wright brothers took the Wright Flyer out in their first attempt to fly it. The plane “flew” only for a few seconds, stalling when Wilbur pulled up too sharply as soon as the plane was in the air. Three days later, after repairing the damage done to the craft, Orville took his turn at […]
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In the Swedish town of Gävle, about 100 miles north of Stockholm, residents have been erecting a giant straw goat in the town center since 1966. The Gävle Goat, also known as the Yule Goat and the Gävlebocken, may be a massive Christmas decoration, but there is never any guarantee that it will still be standing for the holiday. That […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader To date, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has fulfilled the wishes of more than 250,000 kids with life-threatening illnesses. Here’s the story of the wish that started it all. DIAGNOSIS In 1977 an Illinois woman named Linda Greicius made a trip to Phoenix, Arizona, to spend time with her mother, who had […]
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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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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Throughout most of history, if you lost a limb, the replacement of choice was a wooden peg (which only looked cool if you were a pirate). But that all changed after a young soldier lost a leg in the Civil War and refused to take his injury lying down. WALKING […]
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Characterized by a remarkable return of mental faculties and sometimes physical skills to terminal patients who were thought to have lost such abilities, Terminal Lucidity, while extraordinary, is also a very real and extremely mind boggling phenomenon that has largely been ignored by modern scientists, despite references to it going all the way back to Hippocrates. A relatively recent term, […]
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