In the early morning of April 15, 1912, 21-year-old Richard “Dick” Norris Williams II was washed off the deck of the doomed RMS Titanic and into the icy water of the North Atlantic. Rescued by a lifeboat, but almost up to his waist in near-frozen water for several hours, Williams suffered such extreme frostbite that medical personnel wanted to immediately […]
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From September of 1941 through May of 1945, Norwegian Resistance pioneer Lauritz Sand was alternately beaten and broken, then treated, then beaten again by Nazi interrogators. And despite enduring four years of the hardest torture they could dole out, all while in his 60s, he steadfastly refused to tell them anything. In response to the horrors of WWI, Norway’s leaders […]
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Not even close to the size of a whale and bearing only a modest similarity to the most familiar kinds of fish, if it weren’t for the fact that the dozen or so species of flabby whalefish are relatively small, the mere thought of such strangely-built, sightless monsters swimming in the depths of the ocean would keep most of us […]
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Fifty white stars on a field of blue (one for each state) and 13 horizontal stripes, alternating red (7) and white (6) for the original 13 colonies, the U.S. flag is a revered symbol by many of the nation. And in recognition of the honored place Old Glory holds, in 1947, Congress passed a series of laws, specifically proscribing how […]
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Providing a unique wrinkle to the phrase, “throw the bums out of office,” twice, first in 1419 and again in 1618, frustrated citizens of Prague (today in the Czech Republic) literally threw their leaders out of the upper story windows of their public buildings. The word for throwing someone or something out of a window, defenestration, is also sometimes used […]
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With rents for even the smallest quarters exceeding the equivalent of $1000 monthly, a relatively large number of working class people in Asia’s largest cities have become, essentially, homeless. Rather than being completely destitute, as many homeless are, a not inconsiderable number of these individuals earn enough to otherwise support themselves outside of being able to afford housing. To solve […]
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Jonathon M. asks: Is it true that the Chinese government owns every panda in the world? Whether in D.C., London, Adelaide or Madrid, nearly all giant pandas in today’s zoos are technically there on a 5 or 10-year loan from China, and at a substantial price. It hasn’t always been this way, though. Beginning in the late 1950s and through […]
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Carey Q. asks: How do they calculate what proof alcohol is and why is it called proof? An early example of beneficial government regulation, to proof alcohol was simply to test and verify that the contents of a barrel of liquid was what it was claimed to be. The process began in England around the 16th century. Its original purpose […]
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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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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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As well-known for leading a flamboyant, playboy lifestyle as being the mastermind responsible for funneling $5 billion dollars (about $12 billion today) to Afghan rebels (when they were on our side) in their fight against the Soviet Union, Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson was a larger than life character who serves as a stark reminder of how different the political landscape […]
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Simon H. asks: What civilization made the rock walls in Rockwall Texas? Manmade or a natural feature, the miles of seemingly neatly stacked, often-buried stone that sometimes reach 40 feet in height and transverse above and below the ground of Rockwall County, Texas are intriguing. Unfortunately for those who love to read up on ancient civilizations, on the whole the […]
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James M. asks: Why does putting a car battery on cement cause it to drain when the casing is made of plastic? Shouldn’t that insulate it? Contrary to very popular belief (even touted by many a mechanic), today’s car batteries with their hard plastic shells will not discharge or otherwise be damaged when placed on a concrete floor. (The other […]
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Travis P. asks: Is it true that Eskimos have dozens of words for snow? It’s impossible to say precisely how many words for snow certain native peoples of the far north have. Why? To begin with, we are talking about a group of related languages, not just one, and even within these languages there are variations from specific region to […]
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Becky G. asks: Why are cowardly people called “yellow bellied”? The color of warning signals, smiley faces, rubber duckies and the Sun (at least from our perspective- in fact the Sun is white if viewed from space), for many of us yellow has a favorable connotation; yet, at various points throughout human history, yellow has decidedly been a symbolism of, […]
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Kevin A. asks: Why are significant days called red letter days? While it’s commonly stated that the practice of marking important dates in red didn’t begin until the Middle Ages, in fact, in ancient Rome red ink was sometimes used on calendars to identify significant dates, as well as occasionally used on important text in documents, with the underlying reason […]
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On the morning of July 7, 1944, Captain Ben L. Salomon of the U.S. Army’s 105th Infantry, commissioned as a dentist, single-handedly held off a fierce attack of an overwhelming force of Japanese soldiers in order to allow sufficient time for approximately 30 of his comrades to safely retreat. After 15 hours of terrible fighting, when relief finally arrived, Salomon […]
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Olivia B. asks: Where did the word dunce come from and who came up with the dunce cap? The word dunce derives from the name of an extremely accomplished religious scholar- John Duns Scotus (1265/66-1308), an influential philosopher and theologian of the High Middle Ages. If you guessed that his ideas and those who touted them were (somewhat unfairly) eventually […]
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