In Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated. Despite two official investigations concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the President, doubts linger. This is due in no small part to the fact that neither Oswald, nor the official account, has ever been put on trial. Without the […]
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Today in History: November 22, 1718 Edward “Blackbeard” Teach was a notorious pirate of English birth who began his illustrious career around 1713. He became a crew member on a Caribbean sloop under the command of a pirate named Benjamin Hornigold. In 1717, Hornigold was offered general amnesty by Queen Anne and ended his days as a pirate. Teach, who […]
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Today I found out that Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, spent most of his life in France and barely spoke English. Richard was born on Sept. 8, 1157 to Henry II and his formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine in Oxford, England. He was the third son of the royal couple, and therefore not expected to inherit the […]
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Today I found out that parrots name their chicks. Scientists have known for a while that, in addition to saying things like “Polly want a cracker” (see Bonus Facts below) to entertain humans, parrots appear to vocalize their own names. What was a mystery until a few years ago was if those names were innate, meaning the chicks teach other […]
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Today in History: November 21, 1980 Millions of faithful Dallas viewers had been waiting since the last episode of the previous season on March 21st to find out who had shot J.R. Ewing, the character everyone loved to hate. On this day in 1980, the truth was revealed. The season finale when J.R was shot is still one of the […]
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Today I found out about Ranavalona I, the Mad Queen of Madagascar. Ranavalona I started out in life as a girl named Ramavo. Born in 1788 in Madagascar, she had humble origins as a commoner’s daughter. When her father learned of a plot to murder the future king, Andrianampoinimerina, he told his master and the plot was foiled. As thanks […]
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Susan K. asks: Why do nuclear bombs make mushroom clouds? This phenomenon all comes down to a little something called the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, and by extension, convection. I’ll begin with the somewhat longer, but less geeky explanation before descending once again into extreme nerdery. It all starts with an explosion that creates a Pyrocumulus Cloud. This ball of burning hot […]
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Today in History: November 20, 1947 England had its first post-World War II Royal celebration when Princess Elizabeth, daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, married her second cousin once removed, Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London on this day in 1947. Winston Churchill described the Royal Wedding as “a splash of color on the […]
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Today I found out about the fascinating tale of Belle Gunness, “The Lady Bluebeard,” who is thought to have murdered her husbands, her children, and a couple dozen more people during her lifetime. You probably remember Bluebeard, the title character in the French folk tale by Charles Perrault, which you might have stumbled across in a fairy tale book or […]
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Myth: The Candirú fish can swim up your urine stream if you pee into the Amazon. If you’ve never heard of the Candirú, also known as the pencil fish, the toothpick fish, the vampire fish and the fish that SWIMS INTO YOUR PEE HOLE, Google any of those names above (yes, even that last one, but maybe not at work). […]
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Today in History: November 19, 1965 Today is a very special day for those of us who like our first meal of the day to offer us the convenience of eating with one hand while the other is frantically writing a term paper that was assigned a month ago – the birthday of the Kellogg’s Pop-Tart! The evolution of the […]
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Among those who use recreational drugs, Bill Murray is something of an icon, having played several pot-smoking characters over the years, including the cannabis-loving sea captain Steve Zissou from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and noted drug user Hunter S. Thompson in Where the Buffalo Roam. So, was Bill Murray actually arrested for transporting Mary Jane, or was this story just […]
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It is a sad truth that Native Americans suffer from alcoholism at rates far higher than those of other ethnic groups. While many causes likely contribute to this problem, some of those most commonly espoused, including lack of prior exposure to alcohol and genetic predisposition, are oft-repeated misconceptions. In fact, well before Europeans began to colonize the Americas, Native Americans […]
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Today in History: November 18, 1978 On this day history, 1978, over 900 Americans died in a South American cult commune on the order of Reverend Jim Jones. Many of his followers willingly drank a poisoned concoction that led to their deaths, others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The children of the cult were the first to die; […]
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In this video from our YouTube channel (click here to subscribe), we take a look at the real reason the day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday.” And if you’ve heard it’s because that’s when retailers finally make a profit for the year (moving out of the red, and into the black)… well, you might want to give this video […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Tang was Not Invented for the Space Program In fact, Tang was actually invented by chemist and occasional playwright William A. Mitchell in 1957 while he was working for General Foods. General Foods introduced Tang to the public in powder form in […]
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Immense, stretching up to nearly 70 feet long and weighing over 50 tons, the sperm whale is the seventh largest animal, and the largest with teeth, in the world. Prized for centuries because of its oil and the almost supernatural ambergris it creates, the sperm whale today remains vulnerable. And although we have hunted and studied this leviathan for well […]
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Myth: Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic Oath. A binding agreement, as much a social contract as Social Security or Medicare, the traditional Hippocratic Oath holds those who swear to it to a strict code of professional and personal conduct. Contrary to popular belief, though, most doctors never take this oath, and, actually, most of us are probably glad they […]
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