Featured Facts

Category Archives: Featured Facts

How One Man’s Attempt to Create the Philosopher’s Stone Out of Human Urine Led to the First Element Discovered Since Ancient Times

May 28, 2014 Matt Blitz

Phosphorus is an essential element for life. Forms of it are found in DNA, RNA, and all living cell membranes. It is the sixth most abundant element in any living organism. Phosphorus can also be highly poisonous and combustible (white phosphorus is used in many destructive weapons, such as napalm). It was also the first element discovered since ancient times. […]

That Time a Commercial Aircraft Ran Out of Fuel Mid-Flight- The Gimli Glider

May 27, 2014 Melissa

On July 23, 1983, in the small town of Gimli, Manitoba, Captain Robert Pearson and Co-Pilot Maurice Quintal expertly glided a 100-ton Boeing 767 carrying 69 people to a safe landing without engines, air brakes or flaps, and minimal control of the aircraft. Bad Math The flight plan for Canada 143 that day began with a short jaunt from Montreal, […]

What Causes the Smell After Rain

May 26, 2014 Karl Smallwood

Joe T. asks: What causes the smell after rain? There are three primary sources of smells that commonly occur after rain. The first, the “clean” smell, in particular after a heavy thunderstorm, is caused by ozone. Ozone (scientifically known as trioxygen due to the fact that it is comprised of three oxygen atoms) is notably pungent and has a very […]

Another 10 Awesome Quick Facts

May 23, 2014 Theodoros II

Image via Everett Collection / Shutterstock.com Image via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com 741: Golden Globe winner Richard Harris, today perhaps best known for his role as Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films before his death preceding the release of The Chamber of Secrets, wasn’t just an extremely accomplished actor, but also a successful musician. He even had a […]

How Dwight D. Eisenhower Playing Semi-Pro Baseball for a Handful of Games Nearly Changed American History

May 22, 2014 Matt Blitz

U.S. Presidents and sports have always been connected. Gerald Ford played football as a University of Michigan undergrad. George H.W. Bush played in the first two College World Series. George W. Bush was part owner of the Texas Rangers’ baseball franchise. Barack Obama frequently plays pickup basketball games with his staff (no doubt all terrified of accidentally hurting the Commander-in-Chief […]

Is it Possible to Target Belly Fat When Losing Weight?

May 21, 2014 TheMedicineJournal.com

This is yet another great article from our friends over at The Medicine Journal– Jessica asks: Is it true there are ways to target losing the fat around your stomach? If so, how? A quick internet search will yield countless claims of ways to remove the unwanted fat from around your mid-section. From over-hyped diet pills promising to reduce levels […]

Mozart’s Much Less Family Friendly Works

May 20, 2014 Terynn Boulton

Warning: By necessity, this one contains profanity and vulgar references. So you may or may not want to read through it first if you normally share these articles with humans of the particularly youthful persuasion. 😉 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is famously known for being a child prodigy and one of the greatest musical composers of all time. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is one […]

When Doctors Literally “Blew Smoke Up Your Arse”

May 19, 2014 Terynn Boulton

When someone is “blowing smoke up your arse” today, it is a figure of speech that means that one person is complimenting another, insincerely most of the time, in order to inflate the ego of the individual being flattered. Back in the late 1700s, however, doctors literally blew smoke up people’s rectums. Believe it or not, it was a general mainstream medical procedure used to, among many […]

Is It True That a T-Rex Couldn’t See You If You Didn’t Move?

May 16, 2014 Matt Blitz

Derek asks: Is it true that a T-Rex couldn’t see you if you didn’t move? If so, how do scientists know this? In the immensely popular movie Jurassic Park, there’s the famous scene where the giant T-Rex is attacking a jeep during a thunder storm. As it attacks, Dr. Alan Grant, a self-respecting paleontologist, yells, “Don’t move! He can’t see […]

Understanding Net Neutrality and Why It is Important

May 15, 2014 Daven Hiskey

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what all the hullabaloo is about with Net Neutrality, this is perhaps one of the best bite-sized videos on understanding why it is so vitally important, one of many great videos from the seemingly perpetual great video making machine known as Vi Hart. You can subscribe to her phenomenal YouTube channel here. For the […]

Dung Beetles Use the Milky Way to Navigate

May 14, 2014 Emily Upton

Dung beetles have long surprised scientists with their remarkable navigation abilities, despite the relatively small sizes of their brains. Scientists have also known that after dung beetles collect the dung, they do a little dance on top of it before moving it in a straight line to their destination. The dancing was once written off as a “happy dance,” but […]

The Sacred Band of Thebes Entirely Made Up of Male Lovers

May 13, 2014 Melissa

In the 4th century B.C., for a period of 50 years a small force of 300 elite Theban soldiers dominated Grecian battlefields. What makes this band of brothers unique in history is that it was comprised entirely of male lovers. The Elephant in the Room – Pederasty in Ancient Greece The classical Greeks tolerated a wide range of sexual appetites. […]

WWII Files: Japan’s Secret Weapon- Exploding Balloons

May 12, 2014 Staci Lehman

WWII saw the development of some zany designs for weapons, such as when the U.S. developed pigeon guided missiles and (literal) bat bombs (the latter of which were a little too effective, accidentally destroying the testing base when they escaped), or when the Soviets trained exploding anti-tank dogs. Not to be left out of the fun, the Japanese developed their own oddball […]

Are You Really Entitled to a Phone Call When Arrested?

May 9, 2014 Karl Smallwood

Chellie asks: Do people really only have the right to one phone call when put in jail in the United States? Being arrested is a terrifying and frightening thing with all the horror stories about police abuses of power and other prisoners being absolutely dead-set on making your life miserable in a variety of horrifying ways… at least that’s what […]

Podcast Episode #114: The Woman Who was the Most Successful Pirate in History

May 8, 2014 Simon Whistler

In this episode, you’re going to learn about a little-known woman who rose from being a prostitute to arguably the most successful pirate in history and who ultimately managed to retire and get off, not only scot-free, but elevated to nobility. [TRANSCRIPT] Don’t miss future episodes of this podcast, subscribe here: iTunes | RSS/XML You can also find more episodes […]

Even More Quick Facts

May 7, 2014 Theodoros II

Image via: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com 711: According to Mike Tyson, his ex-wife Robin Givens was sleeping with Brad Pitt when Tyson and she were still married. Tyson stated in an interview about the specific incident, “I was getting a divorce. I was going to my lawyer’s office to divorce her that day but I wanted to sneak in…This particular […]

The Origin of the Term “Brownie Points”

May 6, 2014 Emily Upton

Andrew M. asks: Why do we say “You just earned some brownie points.” What were brownie points originally for? There are many, many origin theories for this one. One of the most often repeated and widely accepted theories is that “brownie points”—imaginary points earned by someone for doing a good deed, and lost by doing something unfavourable—stem from the Brownies, […]

That Time 26-Year-Old Edgar Allan Poe Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin

May 5, 2014 Melissa

As if his stories weren’t occasionally disturbing enough, it turns out Edgar Allan Poe’s love life was more than a little creepy as well. Creepy Courtship Poe met his bride-to-be, Virginia Clemm, when she was 7 years old, and he was 20, shortly after his mother’s death in 1829. Their parents, his natural father (David Poe) and her mother (Maria […]

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