Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar? No, brown sugar is not healthier than white sugar. In fact, they are both pretty much the same thing. We have become very used to assuming that the brown version of a type of food is healthier than the white version. Brown pasta and brown rice are healthier […]
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Why can’t you open an airplane door mid-flight? You can’t open the door while an airplane is flying because of pressure, the design of the door, and because of safety mechanisms. Large planes, such as the 747, have several doors on each side of their fuselage. Each door appears to be closed with only a
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Why were so many pharaohs buried in the Valley of the Kings? So many pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings because it is fairly well hidden, close to the capital, in a very religious place, and it became the done thing. The Valley of the Kings is very close to the city
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Where do lily-livered, carpetbagger, mad as a hatter, pleased as punch, turncoat, bigwig, rule of thumb, and skeleton in the cupboard come from? All of these expressions have fascinating origin stories. Let’s look at them one by one. Lily-livered is a British phrase that means someone is cowardly. If you are not British, you may
Why can’t we walk in a straight line with our eyes closed? We can’t walk in a straight line with our eyes closed because our brain depends on visual cues, and without an external reference point, small random errors in the body’s sense of “straight ahead” build up over time, and the brain has nothing
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When did cigarettes become mainstream? Cigarettes increased in popularity after their manufacture was automated, but they became mainstream after World War 1. Tobacco wasn’t known in Europe until the Spanish brought it back from South America in the 15th century. Before tobacco arrived, people in Europe had other drugs to smoke, but they were more
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Why did people stop using castles? People stopped using castles because they were hard to defend as warfare changed, feudalism ended, they were expensive, and they were not very comfortable. Castles evolved from forts, which in turn evolved from rough fortifications. In fact, the word castle comes from the Latin word “castrum”, which means “fortified
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What is the bullwhip effect? The bullwhip effect is where a small change in consumer spending can lead to a very large fluctuation down the supply line. It is one of the causes of overproduction and waste. It is called the bullwhip effect because a small flick on the handle of a whip can lead
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Why did Copernicus decide that the sun was at the center of the solar system? Copernicus decided that the sun was at the center of the solar system because it made the most sense when he observed the motion of the other planets. Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Poland in 1473. He was very well
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What is pasteurization? Pasteurization is the process of heating food to reduce harmful microbes and slow spoilage, giving it a longer shelf life. The process is named after Louis Pasteur, although people had been using heat to preserve food and drink long before him. We tend to associate pasteurization with the milk industry, but all
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