When actress Michelle Pfeiffer was just starting out in Hollywood, long before her hit movies Batman Returns and Hairspray hit theatres, she admits to being roped into the cult of “breatharianism.” Breatharians believe that humans can survive without food or water—they get all the nutrients they need from air and sunlight. Obviously as even plants can’t survive with only air […]
Read more
Today in History: November 7, 1916 A full four years before the United States Constitution granted women the right to vote, Jeannette Rankin was elected to a seat in Congress in 1916, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to hold such an office. Even though women had yet to achieve suffrage across the nation, there was no legislation forbidding […]
Read more
With the possible exception of boozy, reckless ingénues, there is no animal more bent on its own ruin than the giant panda. With its low population (only 1600 remain in the wild and 300 in captivity) and self-destructive lifestyle, giant pandas are in danger of extinction. Luckily, scientists and conservationists are hard at work unlocking the secrets of panda behavior […]
Read more
Today I found out why your palms get sweaty when you’re nervous. Ever been on the edge of a cliff or looking out the window at the top of a skyscraper and your hands start to sweat? Or maybe it’s when you’re about to speak in front of an audience? The individual who introduced you might shake your hand and […]
Read more
Today in History: November 6, 1860 The election of Abraham Lincoln to the United States presidency is the spark that ignited the Civil War in April of 1861. Lincoln was the first Republican to become President, a feat made even more impressive considering the party had only been in existence for a decade. He was the first President to be […]
Read more
Gracen asks: Do moths really eat clothes? The common “clothes moth”, “clothing moth” or to give its street name, Tineola bisselliella, doesn’t actually eat clothes. In fact, clothing moths don’t even possess the ability to eat- they don’t have a mouth. Once they become a moth, rather than waste their time eating, they simply mate, the female lays her eggs, […]
Read more
Just over a century ago in the Mediterranean Sea in between Greece’s Peloponnese and the Isle of Crete, a sponge diver came across an amazing discovery: an ancient shipwreck from classical times, filled with pottery, jewels, wine and so many marble and bronze statutes that, upon surfacing, he “gabbled that he had found a heap of dead, naked women“. The […]
Read more
Today in History: November 5, 1605 On this day in history, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators planned to blow up Parliament during the State Opening on November 5, 1605 when King James I was present. As a Catholic, he and his co-conspirators meant to do this in protest for how badly Catholics were treated in England at the time. […]
Read more
Ken Laha asks: How long would someone’s heart have to be stopped before you’d stop trying to revive them? The question of how long someone’s heart would have to be stopped for before you can safely say that regardless of what you do, you’re not going to be able to revive them is a very tricky question. It’s not as […]
Read more
This is a guest post from our friends over at List25.com For more great videos from List25, subscribe to their extremely popular YouTube channel here.
Read more
Today I found out the origin of the word “abracadabra.” These days you might hear this word before some stage magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat, but hundreds of years ago people actually believed that “abracadabra” was a magical spell. The exact origin of the word is up for debate, but perhaps one of the oldest records we […]
Read more
Today in History: November 4, 1922 British archaeologist Howard Carter, running out of both time and money for his excavation project, finally unearthed a step leading to King Tutankhamen’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings on November 4, 1922. He quickly ordered the stairs to be cleared of any sand and debris, and by noon the next day a […]
Read more
This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Origin of the Legend of Zelda The Legend of Zelda is aptly named, as the series has truly become a legend within the gaming industry. Every new generation of gamers have been given the opportunity to fall in love with it […]
Read more
From King Arthur’s Avalon to Plato’s Atlantis, Jonathan Swift’s Laputa to Pi’s carnivorous Eden, people have long dreamed of magical islands where the miraculous happens and the lost find sanctuary. The Celts of Ireland were no different, and in their tradition, the mythical island was known as Hy-Brasil. The Myth of Brasil Also called O’Breasail, Hi-Brasil, O’Brazil, Hy Breasail, Hy […]
Read more
Today I found out that James Barry, the first British surgeon to perform a C-section in which both the mother and baby survived, was born a woman. It is believed that “James Barry” started out in life as Margaret Ann Bulkley. She was born around 1789 in Ireland. Not much is known about her childhood, except that when it came […]
Read more
Today in History: November 1, 1512 On All Saint’s Day, November 1st, Pope Julius celebrated Mass in the Sistine Chapel for the first time in four years. Those in attendance were dumbfounded by the magnificent frescoes telling nine stories from the book of Genesis. The most memorable of these is a painting called “The Creation of Adam,” where God and […]
Read more
In 2010, architect and PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art in London, Julijonas Urbonas, from Lithuania, decided to attempt to design a method of euthanizing people that they might even enjoy. His solution- the Euthanasia Coaster, which he designed and built at a precise 1:500 scale. It’s a roller coaster that could seat up to 24 passengers and […]
Read more
Today I found out that the Colosseum in Rome wasn’t finished until 80 AD; before that, Romans used the Circus Maximus for games. The Colosseum is one of the most iconic landmarks in Rome and incredibly popular with tourists. Movies would have you think that chariot races, gladiator shows, and battle simulations always took place there, but that isn’t true. […]
Read more