Travis asks: How did Judge Judy get her gig? Is she actually a real judge and are her rulings actually legally binding? Say what you want about Judge Judy, but the woman is successful and not by mistake. The no-nonsense woman with the signature white doily is indeed a real-life judge and now television icon making boatloads of money. She […]
Read more
Craig asks: Do chicken egg whites really help heal burns? Craig, I’ve actually had a couple of people try and convince me of this in the past. A quick Google search will yield several, not so reputable, websites claiming this is true; but the short answer to your question is, “No. Egg whites do not help with burns, and they […]
Read more
So a new book was just put out for pre-sale by Dan Lewis, the man behind the Webby Award winning Now I Know newsletter and someone who occasionally lets me re-publish some of his awesome articles here on Today I Found Out, such as this one. So I thought I’d recommend it here. Dan is a phenomenal writer and is […]
Read more
Twister has been a sure fire way to break the ice at parties for decades now. Earlier centuries had waltzes and minuets as socially sanctioned ways to get physically closer to the opposite sex. In the 20th century, for a time this popularly switched to the game of Twister; a very different activity, but the same underlying concept. Before we […]
Read more
Myth: Bumblebee’s shouldn’t be able to fly. There’s an oft repeated “fact” that the humble bumblebee defies all known laws of physics every time it flaps its tiny little bee wings and ascends to the sky. Now obviously this is false, since, well, bumblebees fly all the time and if every time a bee took off it was tearing physics […]
Read more
Jesse asks: Why doesn’t wood melt? Jesse, I love this question. It seems like everyone knows things are solid at certain temperatures. If you heat them up, they will become a liquid. Heating it further will turn the substance into a gas. This elementary truism of science is every grade school students’ claim-to-fame at their science fair. At some point, […]
Read more
Kyle asks: What is the record for the most languages spoken by a human? If you speak one language, you’re a normal, functioning human being. If you speak two, you’re bilingual. If you speak three, you’re trilingual- four and you’re quadrilingual. But what about if you speak 10? Or 20? Or 30? Well, then you’re considered a polyglot or a […]
Read more
Ken asks: Why is nicotine so addictive? When someone says a substance is addictive, they can mean two separate things. Physically addictive, more accurately physically dependent, is when your body begins to depend on the presence of a particular substance for its physical well being. It’s begun compensating its normal processes to adjust for the new artificial normal. The sudden […]
Read more
Car accidents are a sad fact of life. Every day thousands lose their lives in collisions, crashes and accidents. Though the car itself is a fairly recent invention, the first recorded accident involving them could have happened almost 300 years ago, depending on what your definition of a car is. Though it looked nothing like the modern cars you see […]
Read more
In warm Pacific waters from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Guayaquil thrives a parasite that has a very twisted relationship with its host. The Tongue-Eating Louse A member of the family Cymothoidae, the tiny Cymothoa exigua, or tongue eating louse, enters its victim through the gills. Once inside, the female latches onto the base of the fish’s […]
Read more
In the midst of the Cold War, forward-thinking military planners realized just how much they had come to rely on international communications. Fearing interference from the Soviet Union, in 1958, the U.S. Air Force commissioned scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory to create a space-based international system for communications by sending up several hundred million needles into […]
Read more
Dale asks: What do tonsils actually do? What most people refer to as “tonsils” are known as Palatine tonsils. These are the two large protruding tissues that reside on the sides of the back of your throat. These are actually part of a grouping of lymphoid tissues (tissue that perform different functions for your immune system) known as Waldeyer’s tonsillar […]
Read more
Today I found out that Samuel Clemens (aka, Mark Twain) used to “collect” girls between the ages of 10-16 years old. On February 12, 1908, Clemens said, “I suppose we are all collectors… As for me, I collect pets: young girls — girls from ten to sixteen years old; girls who are pretty and sweet and naive and innocent — […]
Read more
Today I found out that Duncan Hines was a real person. The name “Duncan Hines” might not ring any bells for you until you walk down the dessert aisle in a supermarket. His name is plastered on countless cake boxes and frosting jars, and it turns out that it isn’t just the brand name of delicious desserts, but also the […]
Read more
Today I found out how the French flag came to be as it is today. As with several other countries, the original flag of France was that of a saint—in this case, the oriflamme, the flag of St. Denis. The original banner had three to five pointed ends, more like our idea of a pennant than a flag, and was […]
Read more
At the dawn of World War II, although biological and chemical weapons had been used previously in warfare, little was known of precisely how they worked on the human body. Curious, certain Japanese researchers in its army unit 731 conducted a series of indescribably cruel experiments testing the limits of the human body when subjected to harsh conditions, poisonous substances […]
Read more
Rhamit asks: Why are there Bibles in hotel rooms? When did this tradition start? “Hotel Bibles” are also called “Gideon Bibles” after Gideon International, a group of male missionaries and Christian businessmen who took it upon themselves to provide this work to hotels across the nation. Here’s how it all started. In 1898, John H. Nicholson stayed at the crowded […]
Read more
Crystal asks: Why is Chicago named that? The first European to set foot in the area we know today as Chicago was Nicholas Perrot, a French trader, in 1671. He was followed a few years later by fellow French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette. The area was largely populated by the native Algonquian people who had long been established […]
Read more