Despite being on hard times, one of the US most decorated war veterans repeatedly turned down offers to appear in Alcohol and Tobacco commercials because he knew it would be a bad role model for young people. The soldier, Audie Murphy, had earned every single US Army Award for combat in WWII.
Leonard Nimoy fought to get pay equity for Nichelle…
Leonard Nimoy fought to get pay equity for Nichelle Nichols on Star Trek in the 1960s.
Károly Takács, a right handed Hungarian shooter, severely injured his right…
Károly Takács, a right handed Hungarian shooter, severely injured his right (shooting) hand in a grenade explosion. He retrained himself with his left hand and went on to win 2 Olympic Golds 10 years later.
Some aboriginal languages have no words for left/right. As a result, instead…
Some aboriginal languages have no words for left/right. As a result, instead of ordering a sequence of images showing someone getting older from left to right, like English speakers would, they order them from east to west, regardless of what way they are facing themselves.
Number 4 is considered an unlucky number in Chinese because…
Number 4 is considered an unlucky number in China because it is nearly homophonous to the word “death” (pinyin sǐ). In a study of five years’ worth of real estate sales in the greater Vancouver area, researchers found that houses in Chinese neighborhoods with an address containing a 4 sold for an average of $8,000 less than their luckier counterparts.
Most cave paintings were probably made by women. How do we know this…
Most cave paintings were probably made by women. How do we know this? Well, on average, female hands have a ring finger that is shorter than the index finger (whereas in men, it’s the other way around), and this difference is believed to have been more pronounced among ancient people. Applying this rule to the hand prints left on cave paintings, scientists have come to the conclusion that nearly three-quarters of them were made by females.
Early telephones had no ringers and no hang-up hooks. Callers would get the attention…
Early telephones had no ringers and no hang-up hooks. Callers would get the attention of those they were calling by yelling loudly (often, “ahoy!”) into the receiver until someone on the other end noticed.
There is a condition in which you think you hear a loud bang as you fall…
There is a condition in which you think you hear a loud bang as you fall asleep when none exists. More unsettling is the name: Exploding Head Syndrome.
A cave in France has the footprints of an 8- to 10-year-old boy left in the…
A cave in France has the footprints of an 8- to 10-year-old boy left in the mud 26,000 years ago alongside the paw prints of either a wolf or a large dog, the oldest evidence of human/canine relationships ever found.
Laura Dekker circumnavigated the world single-handedly…
Laura Dekker circumnavigated the world single-handedly… when she was 14 years old.