David N. asks: What is the first joke ever told? Born from cultures we can only read about and making fun of customs we don’t always understand, many of the world’s oldest jokes, to a modern audience, simply aren’t that funny. That said, humans being humans, with the oldest joke that has survived through today, it would appear little has […]
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Valerie C asks: Can staying awake too long really kill you? Every college student knows the eye-stinging pain of a caffeine-induced all-nighter. It’s been well documented that prolonged sleep deprivation will lead to lower cognitive and motor function, as well as impaired memory; it might even give you the tired-giggles. No one has ever definitively shown why sleep is necessary […]
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Jim L. asks: What sick and twisted person invented Hawaiian pizza? On June 8, 2017, Greek-born, Canadian-bred pizza maker Sam Panopoulos died. His career slinging pies was rather unremarkable save for one notable thing – he was the inventor of the popular, yet infamous pineapple-topped “Hawaiian Pizza,” named as such because of the brand of canned fruit he used. Loved by some […]
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Columbus and the Lunar Eclipse After initially welcoming Christopher Columbus and his crew to Jamaica and supplying them with food and supplies after he became shipwrecked in 1503, the Arawak Indians grew weary of Columbus’ men robbing and cheating them and subsequently halted all trade with their island guests Without a significant source of food or means to leave, Columbus’ […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader A while back we told you the story of the WWII submarine that was lost due to a malfunctioning toilet. It turns out that a similar incident threatened the space shuttle Discovery in 1989… TOP SECRET On November 22, 1989, the space shuttle Discovery blasted off from the launchpad at […]
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Jharel S. asks: Is it true that Kinder Surprise are illegal in America? For the uninitiated, Kinder Eggs are a chocolate treat widely available throughout Europe, Mexico and Canada, with the company that makes them, Ferrero (perhaps better known in the U.S. for being the makers of Nutella), selling a whopping 1.5 billion of the eggs per year. Where they […]
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If you happen to be into cooking or just want to learn to make some amazing tasting (and looking) food in an easy and quick way, one of our former authors and graphics designers, Noreen, just launched a great new channel on YouTube, Picture the Recipe. She also runs an awesome website if you prefer a non-video format. Go check […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader THE SCENE One Saturday in 1974, two young men affiliated with Southern Arizona Grotto, a spelunking, or “caving,” group based in Tuscon, Arizona, were out exploring, looking for new caves near the Whetsone Mountains. Randy Tufts and Gary Tenen traveled about an hour outside of Tucson, where they were roommates […]
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This is a video covering how we come up with ideas, research, and write our articles. The second half of the video, for those interested, is the process for converting the articles to video form.
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It was a weak ground ball to third base that ended over a century’s worth of baseball futility. On November 3, 2016, the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in 108 years. Much like the Red Sox win in 2004 that also put the brakes on a similar streak, it propelled the Cubs into another stratosphere in terms of […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader This submarine may never be as famous as the Titanic, but the uncanny story of how—and why—it sank has earned it a place in Uncle John’s Stall of Fame. GOING TO SEA On April 6, 1945, a German navy submarine named the U-1206 departed from the port city of Kristiansand, […]
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James P. asks: Who invented the slurpee? The Slurpee was invented as a commercial product more or less by accident by a Dairy Queen franchisee Omar Knedlik in Kansas City in the late 1950s. Born in 1915 and having grown up relatively poor, after WWII Knedlik used his pay from his time serving in the war to open a small […]
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Michael W. asks: Why is splitting the tab and paying for yourself called Dutch? The idea of paying for yourself when out with friends being referred to as some expression including the word “Dutch,” seemingly incorrectly is often connected to the fact that for several centuries beginning in the 17th, the word Dutch had a negative connotation in English, variously […]
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George asks: Weird question, but do trees poop? A wise man once said, “Everybody poops.” Well that should probably be changed to everything poops, because all living things excrete waste. This brings us to a brilliant question posed by a reader whose head we’d love to crack open and see what’s going on inside- do trees poop? As it so […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like growing up in Stalin’s shadow or whatever happened to Napoleon’s son, here are their (almost always) tragic stories. RICHARD THE FOURTH? (Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell) Back in the 1640s, jolly old England was caught up in a messy civil war between […]
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Ana D. asks: Do mounted police officers have to clean up their horse’s poop? Mounted police are a common sight in many cities across the world; a reasonable sized draft horse, which is usually what such officers use, produces about 40 pounds (18 kg) of feces per day or about 14,000 pounds (roughly 7,000 kg) per year (not to mention […]
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Simon A. asks: Why do people need to warm up before exercise? Many animals don’t seem to have such an issue, like a cat going from completely still to sprinting after prey. So what exactly is going on internally that makes doing some activity with a warm up first less injury prone than if one just jumps into it? Or […]
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In Judge C. R. Magney State Park in Minnesota, there exists a natural phenomenon along the Brule River known as the Devil’s Kettle- a waterfall that splits in two, with one half falling about 50 feet into the river below and continuing on its merry way towards Lake Superior and the other half falling into a large hole in the […]
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