Top Five Most Visited Articles in January: 1.Why Zippers Have YKK on Them [Jan. Visitors: 39,324 | Posted On Jan. 5, 2010] 2. The Woman Jack Nicholson Thought was His Sister was Actually His Mother [Jan. Visitors: 22,544 | Posted On Nov. 29, 2010] 3. Dragonflies can fly up to 60 mph [Jan. Visitors: 19,544 | Posted On Jan. 3, […]
Read more
Myth: The Super Bowl is watched by over a billion people every year. This myth seems to get spread around by the media every year around Super Bowl time, as well as by fans themselves. For this amount of people to watch the Super Bowl, about one out of every seven people on the planet would have to tune in. […]
Read more
Today I found out the rights to the game Tetris were originally owned by the Soviet Union. The game was created by Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov, with the assistance of Dmitry Pavlovsky and Vadim Gerasimov who ported it to an IBM PC, and was released on June 6, 1984. At the time, Pajitnov was working at the Dorodnicyn Computing Center, which […]
Read more
Today I found out that no two people in this world have identical fingerprints, not even identical twins. You would expect identical twins to have the same fingerprints as they are monozygotic, which means that they develop when a single fertilized egg splits in two, leading to two embryos. As they both came from the combination of the same egg […]
Read more
Today I found out how people swallow swords. But, don’t try this at home! If you always considered swallowing swords a gimmick, you may be surprised to find out that is not always the case. Besides the gimmicky acts where special trick swords are used or when performers prepare for the event by swallowing a metal tube, this amazing feat […]
Read more
Myth: Tang was invented for the NASA space program. In fact, Tang was actually invented by chemist and occasional playwright William A. Mitchell in 1957 while he was working for General Foods. General Foods introduced Tang to the public in powder form in 1959, but it wasn’t popular initially. This changed when NASA decided to use it in 1962 during […]
Read more
Myth: Swimming within an hour (sometimes stated 30 minutes) after eating is dangerous and can cause you to cramp up and drown. It is believed by many that you should not swim for at least an hour after eating, as it could be dangerous. This old wives tale has been told to kids around the world and has become more […]
Read more
Today I found out where the tradition of yelling “Geronimo” when jumping out of a plane came from. In the 1940s, the U.S. Army was testing out the feasibility of having platoons of soldiers parachute from air planes. One of the first units to attempt to group jump out of a plane was located in Fort Benning, Georgia. On the […]
Read more
Today I found out why the number four is considered to be unlucky in some East Asian cultures (mainland China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, among others). In the Chinese culture, whether a number is considered auspicious or not typically depends on whether the number’s name sounds similar to other words with positive or negative meanings or connotations. With respect to […]
Read more
Myth: One dog year equals about seven human years. There is a popular belief that dogs age seven years for each calendar year because the lifespan of a dog is about one seventh in duration to a human’s average lifespan. So a two year old dog corresponds to a fourteen year old human teenager in the terms of this aging […]
Read more
Today I found out the difference between an asteroid and a comet. A comet is simply a relatively small astronomical object that has a “tail”, known as a coma, which makes up a temporary atmosphere for the comet. Asteroids, on the other hand, do not exhibit this tail and are classically defined as simply an astronomical object that orbits around […]
Read more
Some users are reporting that a vertical skyscraper ad is occasionally showing up blocking the main content of the articles. I’ve not seen it yet and am obviously on my site all the time, so I’m hoping the problem isn’t affecting most of you. *crosses fingers* I’ve contacted my ad company to get them to remove them, but it takes […]
Read more
Today I found out that a cockroach can live without its head for up to a week. While many have commonly heard cockroaches are the species most likely to survive a nuclear war, which isn’t entirely accurate by the way, and they are well known as being among the most adaptable creatures on the earth, it’s still somewhat of a […]
Read more
Today I found out why you get goose bumps when it’s cold or as result of a strong emotion. It turns out, goose bumps are an involuntary reflex of mammals called piloerection, usually triggered by a hormone released on certain situations that causes their body hair to stand. With time, humans have evolved to have less body hair, so what […]
Read more
Please help me welcome Julia as a regular contributing writer to Today I Found Out. Julia is yet another talented writer from BuzzFactory, along with Noreen who joined Today I Found Out about five months ago and occasionally contributes articles, as well as makes the awesome infographics you’ll find in the Infographic section on Today I Found Out. Julia will […]
Read more
Today I launched a new section on Today I Found Out: Quick Facts This section of the site will be updated several times daily with various interesting quick facts on a variety of different topics. Unlike most short “facts” you’ll find around on the internet, the quick facts you’ll find in this section have all been thoroughly researched to verify […]
Read more
Today I found out why garlic makes your breath smell bad. There are a few things going on to cause this bad smell, but principally the root cause is various sulfuric compounds from the garlic. Initially, most of the bad breath resulting from eating garlic comes directly from the sulfuric compounds introduced into your mouth. Not only that, but garlic […]
Read more
Today I found out why Amish men grow beards but not mustaches. This tradition stems back to the early days of the Amish when wearing elaborate mustaches was common among those in the military. In their early days, the Amish and other Mennonites in Europe were often persecuted by these groups. In addition to that, the Amish, being a pacifist […]
Read more