Do the gulags still exist? Technically no, but actually yes. The gulag is not actually a place. We use the expression gulag to refer to a Russian prison, but it is really the name of the government agency that was in charge of the forced labor camps during the Soviet era. The word gulag is […]
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When did people start using soap? In 2800 BC in Babylonia. Archaeologists have found soap-like materials in clay cylinders that have been dated to 2800 BC. The tablets are inscribed with “fats boiled with ashes”. Soap is first mentioned on a Sumerian clay tablet, which has a formula for how to make it. It says
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Where did the Democratic and Republican parties come from? The come from one party called the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Everyone that watches the news knows that America has two political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. They take turns being in charge. The Democratic Party is generally considered to be
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When did people start using nails? Bronze nails were used in Ancient Egypt in about 3,400 BC. Before people had nails, there were different ways of joining wood together. Some of these techniques are still used today. The most basic way of joining wood to wood was with wood glue. Animal glues have been used
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Why do we say eleven and twelve, and first, second and third? Why do we say eleven and twelve? All languages have words for the numbers one to ten. However, a large number of languages then go on to count the numbers after ten by saying number plus ten. So, for example, in Chinese twelve
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When did people start eating chickens? People have eaten chickens for thousands of years, but it only became cheap after World War 2. Chickens were domesticated between 10,000 and 7,000 years ago in southeast Asia. The wild chicken that people domesticated was the Southeast Asian Red Junglefowl. They were probably domesticated because of the eggs
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When did oxygen appear on Earth? Oxygen appeared on Earth between 2.4 and 2.2 billion years ago. The air we breathe is not made up mostly of oxygen. It is 78.084% nitrogen, 20.934% oxygen, 0.934% argon, 0.035% carbon dioxide, and then a lot of other trace elements. Our bodies need the oxygen and the carbon
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Why was the Hoover Dam so difficult to build? Because the river was very strong and the dam was so big, the concrete would take 125 years to set. A new source of irrigation and drinking water was needed by the end of the 19th century as more and more people settled the south west
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What was the last Apollo mission? The last Apollo mission was Apollo 17. The Apollo program stretched from 1967 until 1972. There was supposed to be an Apollo 18, 19, and 20 but they were all cancelled. The booster for Apollo 20 was repurposed to launch Skylab, America’s first space station into orbit. The decision
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Why is Las Vegas in the desert? Because it is a good location for a stop on the new southern Californian railway line. Las Vegas wasn’t the first settlement to spring up in the desert of Utah. The area used to be lush marshland, but that all dried up and formed the Mojave Desert, except
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