Nathan asks: Why does itching a mosquito bite make it itch more? It all comes down to your body’s histamine response to the female mosquito’s saliva. After the mosquito has drunk her fill of your blood, she leaves behind the cocktail that is her saliva. Your body’s response to this foreign substance is to produce a variety of antibodies to […]
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With the recent publishing of the How to Part 2 infographic, in about two years of doing infographics, Today I Found Out, with Noreen from Picture the Recipe designing them, has now produced 50 Infographics covering 519 fascinating facts. To date, the infographics have received 9,957,646 page views combined on this site alone. (They all get pretty well copied and […]
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Today I found out thermostat controls in large buildings, such as many office buildings, don’t usually do anything. These placebo controls for large HVAC systems do nothing but make you think you are adjusting the temperature. In some cases, the system even includes white noise generators to make you think that the temperature controls are working, when in fact the […]
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You should know the difference between “farther” and “further”. Many people use “further” and “farther” interchangeable, but, in fact, they mean slightly different things. “Farther” refers to a physical distance, while “further” refers to a figurative distance. So, when wondering how many more miles or kilometers to a particular destination, you’d say, “How much farther to the gas station?” On […]
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Sharon S asks: Why are beets red? Beets contain a pigment known as betalain, which incidentally is Latin for a certain type of common beet (Beta vulgaris). It was this type of beet that the betalain pigment was first extracted from. (It is contained in many different types of plants) Depending on which type of betalain pigment and the concentration […]
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Note: This is a guest post contributed by List25.com. 15: Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work. 14: 27% of Americans believe man has never walked on the moon. 13: The American flag’s official colors are “Old Glory Red”, “White”, and “Old Glory Blue”. 12: Even though the grizzly bear is California’s official […]
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Today I found out there once was a girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in succession. What’s even more impressive about that was neither Ruth nor Gehrig managed to even get the bat on the ball when they swung. Ruth swung and missed twice before taking a called third strike. Gehrig swung and missed three times, striking […]
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Today I found out the most recent version of the United States’ flag was designed by a high school student who initially received only a B- for his proposed design. In his own words shortly before he died on Dec 12, 2009, Bob Heft recounted to StoryCorps the tale of his design being chosen among about 1,500 submitted to become […]
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Today I found out where the word “jaywalking” came from. For those not familiar with this term (i.e. many people outside of the United States), jaywalking is when, “A pedestrian… crosses a street without regard to traffic regulations.” (OED) For instance, depending on where one lives, it may be against the law to cross a street where there is a […]
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This Day In History: July 8, 2011 On this day in history, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center to deliver equipment and supplies to the International Space Station. Atlantis touched down at 5:57 AM EDT on July 21, 2011, closing 30 years and 135 missions performed by the Space Shuttles. Throughout their run, a total […]
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Today I found out many crosswalk signal buttons actually don’t do anything when you press them. They are only there to give you something to press, called “placebo buttons”. In New York City, for instance, an estimated 90% of these pedestrian crossing buttons do nothing. You’ll find the same trend in most major cities, particularly in the United States. The […]
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Today I found out what causes lactose intolerance. Lactose intolerance is simply the body’s inability to digest lactose. Lactose is a disaccharide, or a molecule made up of two types of sugars, in this case, glucose and galactose. Most people have an enzyme (a protein molecule that breaks down other molecules) lactase in their digestive systems. This enzyme breaks down […]
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Note: This is a guest post contributed by List25.com. People getting only 6 to 7 hours of sleep every night have a longer life expectancy than those who sleep 8 hours. Both whales and dolphins literally fall half asleep. Their brain hemispheres take turns so they can continue surfacing to breathe. The world record for not sleeping was set by […]
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Today I found out crocodiles really do shed tears when they eat. It has been known for centuries that crocodiles weep while eating. One of the earliest references to this comes from the 14th century bestseller The Voyage and Travel of Sir John Madeville, where the author writes In that country and by all Inde be great plenty of cockodrills, […]
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The melody that would be borrowed for the Star Spangled Banner was extremely popular and well known at the time the future U.S. national anthem was penned. It is known to have been used for at least 84 popular songs in the United States alone, including Adams and Liberty – The Boston Patriotic Song and the subsequent tune Jefferson and […]
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