This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Can Sharks Really Grow an Unlimited Number of Teeth While sharks aren’t exactly the ruthless predators most Hollywood features make them out to be (see: Do Sharks Really Not Like How Humans Taste?), they do possess a number of frighteningly efficient […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we look at the inventions of everyday items, where Area 51 and ambulances got there names, the story behind Lincoln’s beard and finally why there are Bibles in hotel rooms. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for many more videos like this. The Rubber Band: Holding It Together Since 1820 […]
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Neal H. asks: Why do we put hydrogen peroxide on our cuts? As a child, did you ever skin your knee and fear telling your parents, afraid of your mom breaking out the brown bottle of pain containing hydrogen peroxide to “help heal” your wound? Given the agony it caused, you might have wondered whether the fizzing liquid was actually […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader We hope you get a rise out of this story—it cost us a lot of dough to put it together, but it was the yeast we could do! RISE AND SHINE Did you eat a sandwich today? Did you have an English muffin this morning or a slice of pizza […]
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Ryan G. asks: Is it true that if a shark loses a tooth it just grows a new one? Is there a limit to how often a shark can do this? While sharks aren’t exactly the ruthless predators most Hollywood features make them out to be (see: Do Sharks Really Not Like How Humans Taste?), they do possess a number […]
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For major league pitchers, getting a grip on a baseball can get a bit muddy. That’s because, at least for now (this may well be changing in the next few years), every single baseball used in a major league game is coated with a little bit of actual mud, known as Lena Blackburne Original Baseball Rubbing Mud, which comes from a […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we look at the origins of Jell-O and the potato chip, how Judge Judy got her job, and much more . Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for many more videos like this. The Jiggly Origins of Jell-O Why Don’t Hot Dogs and Hot Dog Buns Come in Packs of […]
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Other than the fact that he killed at least 24 people, drained them of blood, pickled them in alcohol-filled metal drums and was never caught, there isn’t a lot to say about Bela Kiss- the Vampire of Cinkota… Kiss’ story begins in the town of Cinkota, Hungary (at the time about 7 miles or 11 kilometers outside of Budapest) in […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The business side of music can be a world of cutthroat legal practices and endless litigation. Here’s the story of one of the biggest music legal battles of all time. SOLO FLIGHT In 1969 George Harrison was on a break from the Beatles and was doing some concerts in Copenhagen, […]
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With the possible exception of the mysterious, enigmatic figure known only as Bob Ross (see: The Surprisingly Mysterious Life of Famed Artist Bob Ross), Pablo Picasso is perhaps the most well-known artist from modern times. (Although, I think most are probably unaware that his actual name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano […]
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The British Special Air Service, better known simply as the SAS has one of the toughest and most unforgiving selection processes of any military unit on Earth. With a washout rate of around 95%, depending on which source you consult, there are only a handful of individuals who can claim to have completed this fiendishly difficult course, and only one […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader Behold the odd tale of horror writer Howard Phillips Lovecraft, whose ghastly creations have terrorized readers for a century—and are now popping up in Facebook feeds. Who was he? Read on…if you dare. IT’S A FAD! Nearly 80 years after his death, H. P. Lovecraft is considered one of the […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The United States v. Paramount and How Movie Theater Concessions Got So Expensive In 1948, the Supreme Court ended the stranglehold Hollywood studios and distributors had on the U.S. movie market. Declaring the big eight a monopoly and ordering them to […]
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Shih C. asks: Why are McGuffin’s in films called that? In the last scene of the 1941 film classic, The Maltese Falcon, Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart) hands over a murderer (played by Mary Astor) and a black falcon statuette to authorities. When asked what the statuette was exactly, Spade looks off in the distance and rather unsatisfactorily explains, […]
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Jerrod A. asks: How do trees pump water from their roots all the way to their tops and tips of their branches? Trees need water throughout their bodies, from the depths of the roots to the tips of their leaves, sometimes tens of meters above the ground. So how do they manage to get the water up there? To begin […]
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In this week’s “best of” our YouTube channel, we look at why various English speaking countries pronounce the letter Z differently, the Fish that communicate using farts, who the woman was in the famous Great Depression photograph plus much more. Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for many more videos like this. Why Do Some English Speaking Countries […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader When PBS executives started planning a new science show in the early 1970s, people in the TV business were baffled. A show about…science? Were they crazy? Audiences wanted Happy Days and M*A*S*H*, not educational shows! Luckily for us, they were wrong. IN THE BEGINNING… In 1971 an American television producer […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. A Real Life Ghost Story Are you scared of the dark? Do you sleep with the light on? Do you hear noises in other parts of the house when you know you’re alone? You’re about to read a ghostly tale with […]
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