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Learn Something Interesting - Education & Personal Development
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Learn Something Interesting: One Person Can Change the World Via the Gift of Charity
It is often said that one person cannot make a difference, but on December 19, 1843, Charles Dickens released A Christmas Carol, with charitable donations skyrocketing seemingly overnight as the book became a best seller and sold out by Christmas Eve of that same year. A Christmas Carol has gone on to become one of…
Learn Something Interesting: The Insect Used to Produce Ink Throughout History
The andricus kollari wasp in particular has played a significant role throughout human history as it is one of the main ingredients of ink. Crushed andricus kollari wasp galls are crushed and mixed with water, then added to crushed iron sulphate and gum Arabic to produce a cost effective and extremely long lasting ink. This…
Learn Something Interesting: How Flames Were Artificially Produced for Opera Productions During the 18th Century
During the 18th century within opera and theater productions, stage doors which would lead a character to Hell achieved simulating the flames of Hell with brandy which would be placed into a container and lit on fire due to the fact that during the period, brandy was the brightest glowing flame available because of it’s…
Learn Something Interesting: The Inability of the U.S. Government to Enforce Safety Regulations for Firearms and the Consequences of This
In the U.S., firearms are one of the few products which are exempt from federal consumer product safety regulations. This exemption derives from the Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 which explicitly prevents the Consumer Product Safety Commission from regulating firearms and ammunition. As a direct result, there remains no federal agency responsible for ensuring…
Learn Something Interesting: Italian Explorer Christopher Columbus Leveraging Astronomy to Manipulate the Indigenous Taíno of Jamaica
During Italian explorer Christopher Columbus' 4th voyage and while still stationed upon the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean, Columbus' crew and flotilla did not have the supplies necessary to travel back to Europe. Columbus appealed to the indigenous Taíno people of the island and requested they share their resources. The Taíno informed Columbus that…
Learn Something Interesting: The Toxicity of Tanneries During the French Revolution
One of the largest contributors to pollution during the French Revolution was the work of tanneries, which converted what is essentially animal skin, into leather goods. First the hide was immersed in an alkaline lime and water solution for up to 3 weeks, then it was brought out and shaved for both the hair on…
Learn Something Interesting: The Advent of the Steam Engine Permanently Changing the World
Scottish mechanical engineer James Watt taught himself engineering and at age 27 he invented the modern steam engine. Watt was inspired by a pot of tea which he observed boiling, as the lid of the kettle would move when excessive heat had built up. Watt realized from this encounter that steam power may have the…
Learn Something Interesting: The Correlation Between Cats and the Bubonic Plague of Europe
During the Middle Ages and up until the Salem Witch Trials, cats were killed alongside their owners who were believed to be practicing the dark arts of magic, sorcery, and witchcraft. Typically cats were burned alive in ceremonial bonfires. Ironically, had this not occurred, the Bubonic Plague probably wouldn’t have been as prolific as it…
Learn Something Interesting: How U.S. Teacher Amos Bronson Alcott Influenced the Educatuonal System of the Modern Day During the 19th Century
Amos Bronson Alcott, a man once described as the most intelligent person of his era, developed the concept of recess for students as well as the concept of raising ones hand in class. Alcott believed in desegregated classes, mixing both Caucasian and African American students during the 19th century. Alcott fulfilled his dream of opening…
Learn Something Interesting: The Largest Mass Extinction of Life Upon Earth
There have been 5 mass extinctions throughout Earth’s tumultuous history. 99.9% of all species which have ever lived on Earth have gone extinct. 252,000,000 (252 million) years ago, Earth suddenly turned toxic to life. Nearly 96% of species worldwide, rapidly became extinct, a period referred to as the "Permian-Triassic Extinction Event", and less often called…
Learn Something Interesting: The Argument Against Private Corporation Umbilical Cord Blood Storage
Canadian Blood and Tissue Bank Insception Life Blood claims that 80 life threatening diseases (e.g. various cancers, metabolic diseases, immune diseases etc.) can be treated with umbilical cord blood, and that these diseases have been treated with success for over 2 decades, with over 45,000 pediatric transfusions worldwide. The majority of these transfusions however were…
Learn Something Interesting: The Center of the World and the Reason It Will Not Exist During the 22nd Century
Kiribati (pronounced “kir-ah-bas”) in the Pacific Ocean is in the center of the world because it is the only country which is in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere as well as the east and the west of the International Date Line; no other country has that designation. Kiribati is located upon the equator, which historically…
Learn Something Interesting: Inventions and Discoveries Developed Simultaneously Throughout History
In 1922, a pair of Columbia University sociologists named William Ogburn and Dorothy Thomas published a paper entitled “Are Inventions Inevitable?” which stated that Ogburn and Thomas discovered 148 examples of documented simultaneous invention. This phenomena occurred in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray filed for a patent for the telephone on the…
Learn Something Interesting: The Reason the Coriolis Force Does Not Affect the Way Water Flows Within Drainage
Both clockwise and counterclockwise flowing drains can be found regardless of the hemisphere in which they are observed. The Coriolis force is too weak to affect such small bodies of water, which is why this occurs. The effect is more measurably observed in large bodies of water like the ocean which is where hurricanes and…
Learn Something Interesting: Scientists Who Studied the Sun by Looking Directly at it
Thomas Harriot observed sunspots in 1610 but did not publish his work. In 1612 Harriot recorded that after having viewed the sun, his sight was “dim for an hour”. Oxford University astronomer John Greaves is quoted as stating that after sun observations, he would see afterimages which looked like a flock of crows within his…
Learn Something Interesting: Bakers and Grocers Using Additives to Increase Profit Margins During the Victorian Period
Profit margins were incredibly thin for Victorian bakers so to stretch flour as far as possible, they would add all sorts of additives to adulterate the end product (e.g. clay, plaster of Paris, sawdust, chalk, and alum, the same chemical used to clean swimming pools during the modern day etc.). Alum had both bulking qualities…
Learn Something Interesting: The Industries Disrupted by U.S. Entrepreneur Steve Jobs and U.S. Inventor Thomas Edison
Steve Jobs affected and subsequently disrupted the computer industry, the motion picture industry, the music industry, and the telecommunucations industry, all within a single lifespan. This achievement places Jobs at the status of a world renowned icon, a person like Thomas Edison who affected all of the same industries as well, swapping only the computer…
Learn Something Interesting: The Original Version of the Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty was provided as a gift to the U.S. from the French public to celebrate the U.S. French alliance during the Revolutionary War. This gift however was not originally designed for the U.S., as its sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (pronounced “fred-reek ah-goost bar-told-ee”) had traveled to Egypt to pitch the idea of…
Learn Something Interesting: The Belief of How Insects Spawned Within Europe During the 18th Century
It was primarily believed within Europe during the 18th century that insects were correlated with the devil, as anything not understood or relatively misunderstood during the period was explained as evil or demonic phenomena in nature powered by supernatural forces. Scientific knowledge was limited during the 18th century, therefore superstitious beliefs were commonplace throughout the…
Learn Something Interesting: How Birthdays are Celebrated Within Vietnam and the Tết Nguyên Đán Holiday
In Vietnam, every person celebrates their birthday on the same day of the year, which is Tết Nguyên Đán (pronounced "tet!/tut! hwin dawn" with the exclamation marks denoting that "tết" is a strong sounding term with emphasis), the Vietnamese New Year. Instead of celebrating individual birthdays, the Vietnamese celebrate birthdays simultaneously by collectively adding a…
Learn Something Interesting: How German Composer Johann Sebastian Bach Inserted His Surname into Musical Compositions
Johann Sebastian Bach relished inscribing his surname into his music in all sorts of contexts but this can only be performed in German as in English the letter “H” doesn’t exist within music as it does in German. Bach would insert his name with the notes “B”, “A”, “C”, and “B Natural” which is “H”…
Learn Something Interesting: The Only Olympic Team Which is Not Funded by its Government World Wide
The only Olympic teams which are entirely privately funded (e.g. sponsorships, broadcast rights, donations etc.) are within the U.S., as virtually all Olympic teams internationally utilize a combination of government funding and private funding. This policy includes all U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams, making the U.S. unique upon the world stage of athletics as of…
Learn Something Interesting: The Peculiarity of Isotopes Xenon 129, Xenon 132, and Krypton 80 Upon Mars
Scientific study of Mars has revealed the existence of the isotope xenon 129 present within the almost non-existent Martian atmosphere. This has puzzled scientists as there are a limited number of understood methods to achieve such an outcome. The first method is via cosmic radiation, specifically galactic cosmic rays and/or solar cosmic rays striking elements…
Learn Something Interesting: How Antique Books are Forged and How to Detect Replica Antique Book Forgeries
Modern day forgers are able to replicate rare books printed using a mechanical printing press by using photopolymer plates, a process which involves taking a high resolution photograph of a page which was printed using a printing press and allowing computer software to create a three dimensional printed image of that photograph with depth for…
Learn Something Interesting: The 3 Conditions Required to Diagnose a Patient as Brain Dead
3 conditions are necessary for a patient to reach prior to being categorized as brain dead which include being within a persistent comatose state which does not respond to pain stimuli (e.g. nail bed pressure, sternal rub, pressure upon the orbital rim of the face etc.), possessing absent brain stem reflexes (e.g. pupillary light reflex,…
Learn Something Interesting: Analogs of the Christian Bible’s Epic of Noah’s Ark
In London, England in 2014, Dr. Irving Finkel, one of, if not the worlds most foremost authoritive upon cuneiform writing, published a book entitled “The Ark Before Noah” which states that a 3700 year old Sumerian tablet translated by Finkel depicts the Christian biblical story of Noah and the flood which drowned the world. This…
Learn Something Interesting: The Advent of Post It Notes
Post It notes were invented by a chemical engineer whose bookmark fell off his hymn book while singing in church. The inventor, Arthur Fry, created an adhesive which worked like a basketballs skin in that some adhesive touches the object it's stuck to, but not very much so it's continually sticky dependant of how it…
Learn Something Interesting: The Etymology of “ChatGPT” and How Artificial Intelligence Models are Developed
OpenAI’s artificial intelligence “ChatGPT” is named as such because of the acronym “GPT” which stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”. The generative pre-trained transformer provides the characteristics of any large language model like ChatGPT. The term “generative” refers to an artificial intelligences “ability to generate new content which is similar to the data sets it was…
Learn Something Interesting: The Origin of Birthday Cakes, Birthday Candles, and Birthday Wishes
The modern day birthday cake tradition can be traced to Medieval Germany. During the Medieval period, German bakers began creating sweetened bread doughs for birthday celebrations with this specific kind of cake referred to as a “geburtstagstorte”. German cakes became more elaborate over time, introducing ingredients like sugar. The practice of placing candles upon birthday…
Learn Something Interesting: The Causation of the Colors of the Aurora Borealis
The colors of the aurora borealis are layered with violet at the bottom, green in the middle, and red at the top, which signifies the structure of the atmosphere. Just as different chemicals create different colored flames (e.g. propane always producing a blue flame etc.), so too do photons bouncing around in the atmosphere off…
Learn Something Interesting: The Auctioning of Spouses During the 18th Century and 19th Century
Traditionally, if a wife was no longer desired by her husband, he would lead her in her Sunday best, to the towns market square, laiden with a rope halter wrapped around her neck or waste, to be sold to the highest bidder. Women were exhibited the same way livestock are sold during the modern day.…
Learn Something Interesting: The Carrington Event of 1859
On September 1st and September 2nd in 1859 the Carrington Event occurred. English Astronomer Richard Carrington was reviewing an image of the sun when he noticed a bright flash upon the imagery. Carrington did not know what this anomaly was but soon learned first hand as approximately 20 hours later, chaos ensued. 200,000 kilometers of…
Learn Something Interesting: The Carrington Event of 1859
On September 1st and September 2nd in 1859 the Carrington Event occurred. English Astronomer Richard Carrington was reviewing an image of the sun when he noticed a bright flash upon the imagery. Carrington did not know what this anomaly was but soon learned first hand as approximately 20 hours later, chaos ensued. 200,000 kilometers of…
Learn Something Interesting: The Auctioning of Spouses During the 18th Century and 19th Century
Traditionally, if a wife was no longer desired by her husband, he would lead her in her Sunday best, to the towns market square, laiden with a rope halter wrapped around her neck or waste, to be sold to the highest bidder. Women were exhibited the same way livestock are sold during the modern day.…
Learn Something Interesting: The Origin of the Christian Halo
The halo is not a Christian construct as in early depictions, Jesus Christ had a wand to perform miracles. The halo was put forth because as Christian artwork grew in its characters depicted, Christ needed to appear more divine and stand out which is why he was provided a halo. Paegan’s borrowed the halo from…
Learn Something Interesting: The Earliest Discovered Sewing Tools for Surgery and Textiles
The earliest discovered eyed needles designed for surgery are from 30,000 B.C. This specific artifact was discovered within a cave located in Aurignacia, France. Additionally, other ancient needles have been uncovered within the region of Altai Krai, Russia, specialist needles without an eye but with a split head designed to grip the thread. These tools…
Learn Something Interesting: The Dietary Abstentions of Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists
Hindus do not consume beef because the cow is considered sacred within the Hindu religion. Those who are Muslim, do not consume pork because the pig is considered to be impure. Buddhists tend to avoid all variations of meat
Learn Something Interesting: The Etymology of “Curry Powder”
The term “kaṟi”, referred to during the modern day as “curry”, is described within a mid 17th century Portuguese cookbook entitled the “East Indian Cookery Book” which was written by members of the British East India Company who traded with Tamil merchants along the Coromandel Coast of southeast India. Curry powder is referred to as…