I learned this today. The Stetson hat was designed by John B. Stetson in 1865. We have an image of cowboys wearing Stetson hats, but they didn’t really start wearing them until the later part of the 19th century. Cowboys have existed in America for several hundred years and the tradition itself came from Spain. […]
#180 Where did the Stetson hat come from? Read More »
I learned this today. There is a carefully choreographed sequence of steps that enable us to vomit. Vomiting is a form of protection. It is the body’s way of getting rid of threats or things it feels might be dangerous. This could be a poison, it could be a chemical, it could be a virus
#179 How do we vomit? Read More »
I learned this today. Depending on who you ask and what fossils you look at and what you define as “human”, there have been between eight and twenty-one different species of human on this planet. All but one of them are now extinct. If you are like me, you probably think of ancient homo sapiens
#178 How many species of human have there been? Read More »
I learned this today. The Hindenburg airship probably caught fire because of a static electric charge that ignited the highly flammable hydrogen it was filled with. The Hindenburg was actually called LZ 129 and was one of two giant airships in the Hindenburg class. Its sister ship was called the Graf Zeppelin. They were 245m
#177 What happened to the Hindenburg? Read More »
I learned this today. Rasputin managed to gain so much influence over the tsar of Russia because he appeared able to cure the tsar’s son of his hemophilia. Rasputin was a peasant who managed to rise to become one of the most powerful people in Russia before and during World War 1. In the end
#176 How did Rasputin gain so much influence over Tsar Nicholas II of Russia? Read More »
I learned this today. Technically the first parachute jump was in 852. A man called Armen Firman, in Spain, jumped off a tower using a cloak as a parachute. Apparently, it did slow him down enough to avoid death and serious injury. Having a parachute seems obvious, but I am thinking from a world where
#175 When was the parachute invented? Read More »
I learned this today. New Delhi became the capital of India in 1911 because the previous capital Kolkata had become too politically unstable, and it was too far from the center of India to be an effective capital. India has an extremely long history and people first lived there 55,000 years ago. Over the millennia,
#174 How did New Delhi become the capital of India? Read More »
I learned this today. Nobody knows why gravity exists. They can explain what happens, but not really why. Gravity can be observed, but not completely explained. Gravity is the force whereby objects with mass are attracted to each other. This force is related to the mass of the objects and the distance between them. The
#173 Why does gravity exist? Read More »
I learned this today. Concrete goes hard because the filler (usually something like gravel) is glued together by the binder (usually cement) through the process of hydration. Concrete is probably the most common building material in the world. Without it, our cities would not look anything like they do. Concrete has been with us for
#172 Why does concrete go hard? Read More »
I learned this today. Octopuses have blue blood because they have adapted to live in cold, deep water. Octopuses live in every ocean on Earth, and they live in a range of different conditions. A lot of them live at great depths and this is the main reason why they have evolved to have blue
#171 Why do octopuses have blue blood? Read More »
