In 1910, President Roosevelt supported a bill that would have released hippopotamuses into Louisiana to eat an invasive plant species and to provide delicious hippo bacon to hungry Americans.
It snowed 8 inches on the eve of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. To clear Pennsylvania…
It snowed 8 inches on the eve of John F. Kennedy’s inauguration. To clear Pennsylvania Avenue, an army of men worked all night, using flame-throwers.
In Russia, some rich people hire “ambulance taxis” to beat…
In Russia, some rich people hire “ambulance taxis” to beat Moscow’s traffic jams.
One reason for a mother’s impulse to kiss her newborn baby: the mother…
One reason for a mother’s impulse to kiss her newborn baby: the mother ingests the bacteria/viruses on baby’s skin, then her immune cells create antibodies that go into her breast milk, thus protecting the baby from imminent infection.
City birds have learned to line their nests with cigarette butts in order…
City birds have learned to line their nests with cigarette butts in order to ward of parasites, as burnt nicotine works as an insecticide to ward off mites, lice and fleas.
On average, every person older than 15 in colonial America drank…
On average, every person older than 15 in colonial America drank the equivalent of 7 shots of alcohol per day.
Roughly 2/3 of the US population lives within 100 miles…
Roughly 2/3 of the US population lives within 100 miles of the border.
The US Government presumes a business to be “socially and economically disadvantaged…
The US Government presumes a business to be “socially and economically disadvantaged” if it’s owner is Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, or a Woman.
Bedlam, Bethlem Royal Hospital, may surely be one of the most famous psychiatric…
Bedlam, Bethlem Royal Hospital, may surely be one of the most famous psychiatric institutions in the world. its been around since 1247 and is infamous as a lunatic asylum. In the 18th century people used to go to Bedlam to stare at the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the “show of Bethlehem” and laugh at their antics, generally of a sexual nature or violent fights. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates. In 1814 alone, there were 96,000 such visits.
Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough…
Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people. First hydrogen has to turn into helium (in a star), then the helium has to turn into even heavier elements (also in a star), then the heavier elements need to turn into a planet (after the star explodes), then that planet has to produce life (through abiogenesis(we’re actually not quite sure how this specifically happened on earth), and then that life has to turn into people (through evolution).