An item in the news is related to something that happened 300 years ago which itself is connected to the reason dogs bark and how ancient pottery may act as recordings. Everything is connected, and each weekday we'll give you four things that may seem unrelated, but have some connection to each othe…
Is Curiosity a political position? Should it be? Maybe.
Why does Washington D.C. look "broken"?
You know what a camel's hump contains, right? RIGHT?
A picture is worth 1,000 words, but which ones?
The Sorcerer's Apprentice has more accuracy in it than you might think.
Take one old swimming pool, add common objects from 1940s, and fill it with an inert gas. Then cover it with a seven foot stone slab, and you’ve created “The Crypt of Civilization."
The Sorcerer's Apprentice has more accuracy in it than you might think.
People read headlines and think they know the story. They often know less than they knew before.
Bottle messages are icons in our culture, and interest in them continues unabated. Here are some facts about messages in bottles that add to the romance.
Captain Cook named it Christmas Island, despite the fact that he actually arrived on Christmas Eve.
Prisoners Cinema plays 24/7. Even if you don't want it to.
I’m holding in my hand a deck of cards, and they’re wonderful.
Fire up a Google for a moment. Type in the words “How do you pronounce…” and then look at the autofill results. If you get the results I did, the first hit will be “gyro.’ Or is that “gyro” or “gyro”? The second hit will be “GIF.” An acronym is a word that’s made out […]
Most history buffs know that Japanese suicide pilots, know as Kamikaze, were devastating to allied vessels. The word “Kamikaze” means “divine wind,” and refers to a series of typhoons that wiped out invading Mongols off the Japanese coast in the 13th century. When the tide turned against the Japanese during World War II, they called […]
Ahh Bermuda, that beautiful Caribbean island filled where natives in grass skirts offer you exotic drinks under palm trees by a waterfall and where planes and ships suddenly disappear in vast numbers! Well, hopefully you picked up on the fact that everything in that sentence is wrong, except for the occasional palm tree. Let’s take […]
Words are powerful, but why do we have some words that are taboo or bad?
I made my wife a cup of coffee this morning, and an image of totem poles came to mind. You’re due an explanation. About ten years ago, James “The Amazing” Randi and I were in the small kitchen at the former James Randi Educational Foundation headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Most mornings, this rooms was […]
There’s a routine that’s been done only once, and it is arguably the greatest magic trick ever performed.
Chicago has a long history of fire. While the Chicago Fire is well known, there were several other fires that made national headlines, and none was deadlier than the Iroquois Theater fire of 1903. And this one changed your life. In an all too familiar story, something the “newest and best” was promoted as being […]
If I say “polka dots” you likely imagine dots of the exact same size evenly spaced on a highly contrasting background. And I’ll bet you’ve never thought of them like that before. But why do we call them that? In medieval times, dots were sometimes considered taboo, or sinister. Remember the black spot of Treasure […]
I’ve made a concerted effort not to bring up political views in anything the College of Curiosity does. Of course, my own political views will seep in from time to time, but my goal in producing this content is not to sway opinions, but to create more questions. Today, I have the same question on […]
Winter is coming. For those that live in the snow belt, it’s time to think about switching over to snow tires or at least check the all-seasons to make sure there’s enough tread there. Most modern tires have tread-wear indicators, but there’s always the tried and true Lincoln test…. stick an upside down US penny […]
We have bluebirds and blue jays. We have blue and hyacinth macaws, and even blue parakeets. Some swallows are blue, and visitors to the Pacific Northwest of the United States can find Steller Jays. And all of these birds have this one thing in common: They’re not blue. And now you’re saying “Of course, they […]
If you are wearing hat, you’re unusual in this day and age. (What does that mean, anyway? Day and age? I’ll have to do that one another time.) Look at a picture of any public gathering before, say, 1955, and you’ll find most men and women wearing hats. Often, the men would be wearing the […]
You can call it a “deuce,” a “Tom,” or even a “whore note,” but chances are you won’t spend one. The $2 bill is an oddity in US currency, despite the fact that it’s legal tender good for all debts public and private. But why won’t we use them? Other countries have a $2 denomination […]
Time for an update. (And another below!) Back in January 2014, the Daily Curio reported on the strange case of Benjaman Kyle, a name chosen by a man with dissociative amnesia. From that article: If you ask him his name, he’ll tell you it’s “Ben.” At least he thinks it is, because he doesn’t really […]
The early 1600s saw the pre-Columbian tribes of what would become the Northeastern United States at the height of their civilization. Dozens if not hundreds of groups, each with their own culture and languages, competed for resources while at the same time maintaining a complex trading network that crossed hundreds of miles. When European fishermen […]
A recent viral video shows a weather man pronouncing the name of an impossibly long Welsh town on a newscast. I will not attempt it. But it calls to mind the “longest place name in the United States,” Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg found in Webster, Massachusetts. The story goes that two tribes (one of them English settlers) […]
Language is a virus, from outer space. ~ William S. Burroughs. I had a friendly argument with a friend today about the term “most unique.” Since the word “unique” means “the only one of its kind,” the term “most unique” doesn’t make sense. There can be no degrees of uniqueness since that state of being […]
A few weeks ago, I was touring Ausable Chasm with my kids. Called the Grand Canyon of the East, which might be just a bit too strong, the chasm is nonetheless impressive with its waterfalls and 500’ cliffs. There is hiking, rafting and rope climbing for the adventurous, and for the nature watcher, there’s a […]
Another live episode, so there’s no transcript. We’ll be back next week with our normal format. Part 2 of our walk on the beach, which concludes with an unexpected encounter. We’ve added some photos so you can see what we is being talked about.
Another live episode, so there’s no transcript. We’ll be back next week with our normal format. A walk on the beach is never just sand between your toes on Sanibel. This morning, we encountered some creatures that most people never see in the wild.
This is something new we’re trying: a live Daily Curio. We’re on a sub-tropical island, and you’ll have to listen to hear about where we are, who was here before us, and what’s going on around us. Today, we visited the Bailey Matthews National Shell Museum, the world’s largest shell museum. It holds a number […]
This is something new we’re trying: a live Daily Curio. We’re on a sub-tropical island, and you’ll have to listen to hear about where we are, who was here before us, and what’s going on around us. And if you can’t listen, at least take a look at this short, silent video by Noel […]
I’m in the fortunate position of having people come up to me and say, “Hey, have you ever seen one of these before?” Hmm, usually it’s not as creepy as that sounds. Last week, my good friend Mark Graunke came over and handed me something for the curiosity collection. It’s a very small metal cage, […]
It’s something many of us do. You see a post on Facebook, feel a bit of outrage, and post a snarky comment. I did this a few days ago when I saw a post about a girl sent home from school with a note saying that her Wonder Woman lunchbox was against the schools “anti-violence” […]
I sat down to write about a new marsupial that was found in South America. I wanted to check some facts before I wrote, and I’m glad I did because I was wrong about some basic things. Here are some things I thought I knew… 1) Marsupials come from Australia, except for the Opossum. I […]
On a whim, I drove up to St. Alban’s, Vermont and visited their excellent historical society. I love these small town museums, and their eclectic collections of things that are only connected by proximity. If you’vre read or listened to the Daily Curio, you probably also know that the College of Curiosity has a Mystery […]
After our last episode with ghosts and glass, I got thinking about the nature of glass itself and how interesting it is. But I also came across some “facts” about glass that aren’t actually true. Here are five common facts or myths about glass: 1) You can shatter a glass with your voice. Maybe you […]
It started with a bang! At first, I wasn’t sure what happened. As I was sitting alone and quietly on a couch 17 stories in the air, I couldn’t imagine what glass had broken. I could tell it was tempered glass by the sound. It was dull, and didn’t ring. But the only tempered glass […]
Tumbleweeds have become an icon of film. When one rolls across the screen, the viewer knows that they’re looking at a desolate place where hope is lost and the future is bleak. But it wasn’t until well after the Civil War that Americans even knew what a tumbleweed was. Tumbleweeds are produced by many plants, […]
Travelers from New York and New England have long headed to Maine to escape the summer heat. Maine license plates read “Vacationland” as if that wasn’t made obvious by the line of cars heading north every Friday night. Most of those folks are heading for mountains, pine trees and rocky shores. But one attraction hopes […]
People have known for centuries that watches can do more than tell time without adding special gizmos. For example, you can tell which general direction you’re facing if you point the small hand at the sun, and then look down the line between the the small hand and Noon. That line points to South if […]
As a teenager, there was nothing I loved more than camping. I spent many summers away from home at Boy Scout camps in New Hampshire. Most Boy Scouts go to camp with their troops, so they already know who they’re camping with. For kids who came alone, they were put together in a temporary troop […]
By now, you’ve probably heard of Bluetooth. And you can probably recognize its little symbol on your phone or headset or car or whatever. You may not know about King Harald. King Harald Blâtan was a viking and King of Denmark and Sweden over 1000 years ago. He was truly known as just Harald—Blâtan was […]
About 15 years ago, I had occasion to stay at the famous Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV. This sprawling resort has been a play land for the nation’s wealthy since 1778, and is famous for housing a secret bunker that was intended to be used by Congress in the event of a nuclear […]
While it may sound like part of an old West town where drifters were discouraged from visiting, the term “driftless” actually means an area without glacial debris, or drift. This is the rocks, silt, clay, stones, etc. left behind when the glaciers retreated from North America a bit over 10,000 years ago. Starting nearly 100,000 […]
In 1939, Ernest Vincent Wright finished his difficult novel, “Gadsby.” Not to be confused with “The Great Gatsby,” which was written earlier but didn’t become popular until later, “Gadsby” was a novel about a man who rallies a town’s youth to civic improvement. It sold well and received literary praise, despite the fact that it […]
I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend traveling with my wife, and saw many wondrous things. But now that I’m home, I find my mind wandering to two distinct events. The first occurred in Galena, Illinois a town named for its historic lead mines and the ore found there. Ulysses S. Grant lived here […]
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