Muhammad Ali is undeniably one of the finest pugilists to have ever put fist to face. While that is news to approximately no one reading this, a less discussed aspect of Ali’s career is his brief involvement with the world of Mixed Martial Arts- specifically, that time he nearly had his leg kicked off fighting a Japanese pro wrestler in […]
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Free samples are generally considered to be one of the most reliable ways to bolster sales of a product, sometimes to an insane degree if it’s done correctly. You see, free samples don’t just work because they give customers a chance to try something without the barrier of cost stopping them- which is an effective marketing trick in and of […]
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Craig B. asks: What was the largest bet ever made? The history of gambling is littered with examples of people dropping unthinkable amounts of money on things as trivial as the toss of a coin or a single roll of dice. Despite stories of such wanton excess, including many of individuals winning or losing tens of millions of dollars in […]
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The SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, better known to historians as simply the Dirlewanger Brigade, holds the dubious distinction of being amongst the most reviled units of the Nazi war machine. Infamous for its brutality and the open sadism displayed by its commanding officer, a man previously imprisoned for raping a young teen girl, the unit and their actions were so detested that […]
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Katie O/ asks: How much caffeine would someone have to drink to be fatal? There have been numerous deaths attributed to excessive caffeine ingestion. So if you happen to be a person who loves coffee and energy drinks, you might want to know approximately what amount you should avoid drinking on a given day. So how much caffeine would it […]
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The ancient Olympics are littered with spectacular stories of athleticism and peculiar characters, like Melankomas of Caria, an ancient boxer who won several Olympic wreaths by reportedly doing nothing but avoid his opponents punches until they gave up. Perhaps the most bizarre Olympic story of all, however, is that of Arrichion of Phigalia, who once won an Olympic wreath despite […]
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In 1977, one of the most influential women of the 20th century, newspaper columnist Esther Pauline Lederer, better known as “Ann Landers” (and funny enough twin sister of one of the other most influential women of the 20th century, Pauline Esther Phillips, aka “Dear Abby”), wrote a seemingly innocent article in which she cited a preference for hanging her toilet […]
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Mae Scott asks: How did they get the CGI in the original Jurassic Park to look so much better than even some movies today? Regardless of your feelings about the overall quality of the film itself, you have to admit that for a movie released in 1993, Jurassic Park contains some mighty fine lookin’ dinosaurs. In fact, the dinosaurs in […]
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Celebrity impersonators are nothing new and with the odd exception, the majority of them fail to measure up to the talent or skill of the person they’re trying to emulate. The same can’t be said of a woman who went by the name of Vickie Jones- a singer who sounded so much like Aretha Franklin that a judge tasked with […]
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Tucked away in the English county of Yorkshire is a small 9 square mile patch of land known colloquially as The Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle. As the name suggests, this area is famous for producing nearly all of the rhubarb consumed in Britain and, at one point, produced enough forced rhubarb to satisfy almost the entire world’s demand. Oddly, despite literal […]
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Azzah Syafire asks: Why do some clothes have random gibberish Japanese characters on them? Browse any clothing store and you’ll more than likely find at least one t-shirt covered in characters using the Japanese writing system. And if you can actually read Japanese, you’ve probably noticed that what’s written is often gibberish. Rather interestingly, the reverse is also popular in […]
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DOOM isn’t so much a video game as it is a pop-culture phenomenon, a media touchstone that is consistently ranked as one of the most influential games of all time. A game so popular it spawned a host of copycat releases, kick started the FPS (First person shooter) genre and was at one point in history, installed on more PCs […]
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Kassy17 asks: Why are Nintendo consoles so much much more durable than any other system? Nintendo has a surprisingly long history that extends all the way back to the the late 19th century. Originally named “Nintendo Koppai”, the small business based in Kyoto was started by Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced Hanafuda Cards. For those unfamiliar, these are simple playing […]
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There are several different types of blood. Contained within them are different types of cells and countless molecules that give our bodies the needed nutrients to work effectively. The two main types of cells within the blood are red and white blood cells. Red blood cells make up nearly 45% of your blood volume. White blood cells make up less […]
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In this episode of The Brain Food Show, we are looking at the difference between a number of things, kicking it off with the difference between BCE/CE and BC/AD systems of dating and the rather fascinating story of how those systems came to be. We also have a brief message from a sponsor, Skillshare. Help support this show and learn a […]
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If you’re like most people, you probably assume that when you flush your toilet sanitation wizards simply cast the scourgify charm as your expulsions exit the main pipe coming from your house, thereby eliminating it with little effort or expense. While that would be an easy solution, it turns out for primarily historic reasons, a different, much more complicated system, […]
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Joseph Bennett asks What happens to the bodies if a Cryogenic company goes bankrupt? On the whole, even some of the largest and most successfully companies in the world eventually fail, with companies offering their services to make you a popsicle after your body decides to say “screw you in particular” being no exception. So what happens to the approximately […]
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