Note: This is a guest article contributed by a paramedic and fire fighter, Scott. Today I found out how the heart works. I know what you’re thinking; I hope by the end of this article I can find out if it really is true that I can MacGyver an electrical cord together and shock my heart into restarting should it […]
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Myth: The Who song with “teenage wasteland” in the chorus is named “Teenage Wasteland” The song “Baba O’Riley”, written by Pete Townshend and performed by The Who, is often incorrectly called “Teenage Wasteland”. The actual name of “Baba O’Riley” was chosen in tribute to famed spiritual leader, Meher Baba, and musician Terry Riley, who provided the philosophical and musical influences […]
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Note: This is a guest article contributed by a frequent TIFO visitor and owner of DumpADay.com, Jon. If you’re interested in contributing to TIFO click here to read our article submission guidelines. Today I found out that a female ferret (A.K.A. Jill) will die if she doesn’t mate. It’s one thing to say, I swear I am going to die […]
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Myth: Daddy Long Legs are the most poisonous spider in the world. Daddy Long Legs are not the most poisonous spider as you’ll often hear people say. We’ll just ignore the fact that there’s a big difference between “poisonous” and “venomous”, which makes the previous sentence even more ridiculous and assume people mean “venomous” when they make that statement. We’ll […]
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Today I found out the color of the background preceding movie trailers actually means something. These colors show up as the background for movie rating cards. The rating for the film itself shows up in text, but the rating for the preview shows up not only in text, but is also indicated by the background color of the rating card […]
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Today I found out why a hamburger is called hamburger. In the early 18th century some Germans noticed during their travels to Asia, that the locals would stuff their beef between their saddles while they would ride, to help soften it for later consumption. The Germans loved the idea of soft seasoned meat, and so they brought the idea back […]
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Today I found out how the word “spam” came to mean “junk message” or “junk mail”. While some have suggested that this was because SPAM (as in the Hormel meat product) is sometimes satirized as “fake meat”, thus spam messages are “fake messages”, this potential origin, while plausible enough on the surface, turns out to be not correct at all. […]
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Today I found out the origin of superstitions surrounding black cats including why a black cat crossing your path is considered bad luck. Black Cats weren’t always the butt of superstitions, feared, or even considered bad luck. In fact, in early Egyptian times, dating back as far as 3000 BC, cats (including black ones) were the rock stars of the […]
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Today I Found Out the “Hip Hip” in “Hip Hip, Hooray” was once anti-Semitic. This phrase is thought to have its origins in the middle-age Latin battle-cry “Hieroslyma est perdita’, which means “Jerusalem is fallen” or “Jerusalem is lost”. This was later shortened by Germanic tribes fighting Jews to “Hep Hep Hu-raj”, meaning loosely “Jerusalem is fallen and we are […]
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Today I found out what the things you see when you close your eyes and rub them hard are called, namely “phosphenes”. A phosphene is characterized by perceiving some form of light when there is little or no light actually entering the eye, making it an entopic phenomenon (meaning the source of the phenomenon is within the eye itself). Phosphenes […]
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Daniel G asks: Why is a baker’s dozen 13 and not 12? There are three main theories for why a baker’s dozen is 13 instead of 12, but most think it has its origins in the fact that many societies throughout history have had extremely strict laws concerning baker’s wares, due to the fact that it is fairly easy for bakers to […]
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Myth: George Washington had wooden teeth. George Washington never had wooden teeth. Washington lost most of his teeth at a relatively young age and opted for dentures made by Dr. John Greenwood (maybe where the “wooden” teeth came from: “Greenwood teeth?”) In any event, they were carved from ivory and also contained quite a bit of gold and some lead. […]
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Today I found out how ‘Earth’ came to be called so. Firstly, it’s important to understand that nearly every language has its own name for the planet. It’s called ‘terra’ in Portuguese, ‘dünya’ in Turkish and ‘aarde’ in Dutch, just to name a few with their own etymology. However, the common thread in all languages is that they were all […]
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Please help me welcome Noreen as a regular contributing writer to Today I Found Out. Noreen is a talented writer from BuzzFactory. Her previous work includes copywriting and blogging for a number of varying sites from travel, fashion, shopping, lifestyle, and more. As before, I’ll be continuing to write articles nearly every weekday for Today I Found Out and TIFO’s companion […]
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Myth: Diamonds are formed from coal. According to evolutionists and geologists, diamonds were formed about 1–3 billion years ago, that’s way earlier than any known record of even the Earth’s first land plants let alone coal. Coal, known as a fossil fuel is formed from the dead remains of vegetation like trees, ferns and other plants and life. The formation […]
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Today I found out the guy who invented one of the first artificial hearts was also the voice of Gargamel on the Smurfs; Mr. Owl on the Tootsie Pop commercials; Winnie the Pooh; and Tigger too. The man was Paul Winchell, who is perhaps best remembered for hosting the Winchell-Mahoney Time children’s show in the 1960s with his ventriloquist dummies […]
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Myth: De-oxygenated blood turns blue. The common misconception that blood that lacks oxygen turns blue probably comes from the fact that veins appear blue and blood in the veins is typically heading back to the lungs, hence depleted of oxygen. It is also possibly from the fact that when people are suffocating or the like, their lips and complexion seem […]
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Myth: Caesar Salad was named after the Roman Emperor title. Caesar Cardini was an Italian born chef who immigrated to the United States after World War I. Despite having a home in San Diego, the Cardini family operated a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico, primarily because of prohibition. Many Americans would go to Tijuana to drink, so business for restaurants at […]
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