This is something a little different, which I nevertheless thought was an entertaining, and more than a little humorous, story. (Although, to be fair, I have a bit of a twisted sense of humor. ;-)) So I asked if my brother, Jon, wouldn’t mind writing it up and letting me publish it. So here’s a guest post by Jon, the […]
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The name deriving from the Greek “eugenes,” meaning “well-born,” it should be no surprise that “eugenics” seeks to engineer a better human race by purposefully selecting good traits, and eliminating bad ones, as is common when breeding animals. Over the years, eugenics has had a number of proponents, from some of the greatest and most admires thinkers in western civilization […]
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Despite being just 8 weeks old, our new Daily Knowledge Podcast has just passed 500K downloads. These days it’s also pushing over 16K downloads per day and rising every week. Further, it has ranked as high as #13 overall on iTunes among all podcasts. 🙂 If you haven’t given it a listen, check it out here. You can also subscribe […]
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Fourteen cm in height and eight around, the world’s first battery looked more like primitive pre-Columbian art than an amazing piece of ancient technology. Although most experts agree that the device produced electricity, there is little consensus on what that power was intended to do. Discovery Archaeologists searching for “evidence of Biblical tales like the Tree of knowledge and Noah’s […]
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This is a guest post from our friends over at The Medicine Journal– the TodayIFoundOut of medical related sites. Also, don’t forget to check out their awesome videos on YouTube. Ever wonder why certain foods seem to have a weird flavor that hangs around after you swallow them? Aftertaste is generally classified as any taste that remains in your mouth […]
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War is ugly. Especially in contrast to the beauty of centuries-old European art. That was the very the reason that the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program was established in 1943, to protect fine works of art in every form from the horribleness of World War II. The men and women who were part of this program and assigned to […]
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An integral part of the American experience, “As American as Apple Pie” (which in truth is not American), the apple is nevertheless ubiquitous in U.S. culture. We put it in desserts, give it to our favorite teachers, wash our hair with its essence and put it in our lunches. So common, it’s easy to take the simple apple for granted, […]
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It was February 18, 1964. The Beatles had arrived in America just 11 days earlier and had taken the nation by storm. They already had the number one record on the charts and several others quickly catching up. They had appeared on the Ed Sullivan show before 73 million awestruck and curious fans. It was the highest rated television broadcast […]
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Making copies of architectural drawings hasn’t always been the easiest thing in the world to do. For the majority of human history, the most economical solution was simply to have someone make a tracing of the original plans. In the mid-nineteenth century, the process abruptly became much quicker and easier thanks to famed polymath Sir John Herschel. In 1842, Herschel […]
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Skittering along at about an inch off the ground, one of the most vicious predators on the planet is often smaller than its prey, blind as a bat and utterly freaking creepy. Giant Centipede Basics Typically reaching 10 inches in length (although some overachievers grow to a full foot long), Scolopendra gigantea is the largest species of centipede on the […]
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There’s a perception that religion and science go together about as well as mayonnaise and marshmallows. In some instances, this is, perhaps, true. But on a typically warm Southern California January in 1933 at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California (the same place and same time that Jack Parsons of rocket science fame was doing his experiments — […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. Why There Is No E in the A-F Grading Scale Some schools do hand out E letter grades instead of an F, but they are in the minority. A majority of schools in the United States, particularly beyond primary age, give grades […]
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Kipchoge Keino, aka Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino or (thankfully in the interest of avoiding typos) just Kip, is a retired athlete who ran for the country of Kenya. Throughout his career, Kip earned almost a dozen medals, half of which were gold, for being an amazing middle to long distance runner. The story we want to share is the time Kip […]
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Today I found out why Ferris wheels are called that. A necessity at any county fair or festival, Ferris wheels stand out like a beacon on the horizon leading eager fair-goers to crowded rides and overpriced popcorn and funnel cake. But before there were Ferris wheels, there were simply “pleasure wheels.” These wheels weren’t nearly as large as most Ferris […]
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On April 20, 1914, up to two-dozen people were killed in a tent village adjacent to the Ludlow Coal Mine in Ludlow, Colorado. This massacre of striking workers and their families is widely seen as one of the lowest points in labor relations in U.S. history. Southern Colorado Coal Strike From September 1913 to December 1914, the United Mine Workers […]
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In 1861 in southwestern Missouri, near its border with Kansas, the city of Osceola was sacked by rabid anti-slavery jayhawkers (from Kansas). When the looting and burning were over, ten people were dead and the city was ruined. The Jayhawkers Brigadier General James Henry Lane led the 3rd, 4th and 5th Kansas Volunteers- soldiers who were staunchly free soil riding […]
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Pirate radio, kidnapping, battles- the principality of Sealand has seen all of these things and more, despite only being a tiny micronation lying about 7 nautical miles the coast from Suffolk, England. If you haven’t heard of Sealand before, it is the site of one of Britain’s Maunsell Naval Sea Forts that were utilized during WWII. This particular one was originally […]
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For those interested in nerding up your wardrobe, our good friends over at Neatorama are currently running a “Geeky T-Shirt” sale in the ever popular NeatoShop. You can check it out here.
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