Olympians have been bending (and occasionally breaking) the rules in an effort to give themselves an edge over the competition since the games began. Despite this, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) only started testing for performance enhancing substances in 1968, and only seem to have really started taking the issue seriously in the 1990s. As for the 1968 Games, despite that a […]
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For over half a century, Doctor Who has proven itself to be one of the best known, most profitable, and most culturally significant series ever produced. Nevertheless, in the 1960s and 1970s the BBC decided to just up and delete pretty much every episode of the show from its archives. So thorough was this purge that, even today, there are […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader The Godfather is considered one of the best movies ever made—the American Film Institute ranks it #3, after Citizen Kane and Casablanca. The story of how it got made is just as good. BOOKMAKER In 1955 a pulp-fiction writer named Mario Puzo published his first novel, The Dark Arena, about […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. What Does the Dangly Thing in the Back of Your Throat Do Hanging from the back edge of your soft palate, the palatine uvula seems to serve several functions, none of which are particularly necessary for most people, which is why […]
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In the mid-19th century, French scientist Louis Pasteur made a discovery that has reverberated through the ages. Perhaps working at the behest of Emperor Napoleon to figure out why wine and beer sometimes soured during fermentation, he found out that this was due to unwanted microorganisms, or “germs,” converting the alcohol into acetic acid. This produced the sour or vinegary […]
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Here’s a round-up of all the interesting Olympic facts we’ve covered over the years, including eighteen articles and seven Quick Olympics Facts. Why Do Olympians Wear Colored Tape? The colored tape the Olympians and other athletes wear is called “Kinesio® Tex Tape”, which is essentially just an elastic cotton strip with an acrylic, heat activated adhesive. The tape was designed […]
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Terran N. asks: Why do some people have different colored eyes? The Basics of Eye Color Eye color is a function of pigmentation both at the back of the iris (iris pigment epithelium) and in its stroma (the front of the iris), as well as the density of the cells in the stroma. In most cases these factors, and hence […]
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The following is an article from Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader THREE SECONDS TO GOLD! Before 1972 no U.S. men’s basketball team had ever lost in Olympic play. Starting in 1936 (the year basketball became an Olympic sport), U.S. men’s teams won 63 consecutive games—and seven straight gold medals. But just after midnight on September 10, 1972, in Munich, Germany, that […]
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Ryan D. asks: Does the dangly thing in the back of my throat serve any purpose? Hanging from the back edge of your soft palate, the palatine uvula seems to serve several functions, none of which are particularly necessary for most people, which is why it can generally be removed with few, if any, noticeable side effects. In fact, in […]
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The great-grandson of a spiritualist who regularly conducted séances at the family home (where Aykroyd grew up and resides today), Dan Aykroyd cut his teeth on stories and personal experiences of the paranormal. Shortly after Aykroyd was born, according to family lore he was visited by his deceased great-grandparents: My mother speaks about a time when she was nursing me […]
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Anonymous asks: If an Oscar winner loses their Oscar statue, can they get a new one? Made of a pewter-like alloy plated in gold, each Oscar statuette costs only about $400 to manufacture, yet its value, particularly to the person who wins it, is priceless. (It is also literally almost priceless, though not perhaps in the way you think, see: […]
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This is a weekly wrap of our popular Daily Knowledge Newsletter. You can get that newsletter for free here. The Husband and Wife Team That Gave the World the First Car, and the Road Trip That Saved it From Obscurity We may not have flying cars quite yet, but the ground-bound automobile is the world’s second most popular mode of […]
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Jay G. asks: Why do fruits change colour and flavour when they ripen? Fruits and vegetables (see: The Difference Between Fruits and Vegetables) come in a wide array of colors that change throughout their ripening process, with the brightest colors often occurring when the fruit is optimally ripened. But why do fruits change color at all? There are two ways […]
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Jared U. asks: Why isn’t normal body temperature the temperature that humans are most comfortable in? Each summer as temperatures approach 98° Fahrenheit (about 37° Celsius), we hear news stories about people suffering (and sometimes even dying) from overheating. Yet these temperatures are essentially the same as normal body heat. So why isn’t this a comfortable temperature for us? Our […]
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Thousands of years younger than the tales of its fabled cousin, Atlantis, the lost continent of Mu was first proposed in the mid-19th century to explain the phenomenon of similar symbols, architecture and myths found in otherwise disparate, ancient cultures around the world. Unfortunately for adherents to the idea, there is no empirical evidence to support its existence or the […]
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Roman S. asks: How does spitting in swimming goggles keep them from fogging up? The “fog” you may sometimes experience on your glasses or goggles occurs when atmospheric humidity near the lens condenses; this happens due to a relatively significant discrepancy between the temperature of the lens and the surrounding air. As the surface attempts to reach an equilibrium between […]
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History is filled with stories of eccentric people whose lives were littered with astonishing and sometimes improbable stories. Edward Hughes Ball Hughes (that was his real name) was one such individual- a man who spent money so erratically that he came to be known by the rather fitting moniker of Golden Ball Hughes or more simple, The Golden Ball. Born […]
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Mark A. asks: Is it true that the reason sharks don’t eat people is because we taste bad to them? The idea of sharks not liking the taste of humans has been around for at least a half a century, with the first account of this notion (that we could find) appearing in a Sep. 2, 1968 edition of The […]
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