Richard Feynman, Nobel prize winning physicist and science popularizer par excellence liked practical jokes, but I doubt he would have enjoyed watching people in the buff parade on Chicago鈥檚...
In the film 鈥淪herlock Holmes and the Game of Shadows,鈥� Holmes identifies the poison on a dart that had instantly paralyzed a victim by sniffing it. 鈥淐urare!鈥� he says. Curare is a very real poison...
鈥淭ruth serum鈥� refers to various drugs that have been used in attempts to extract truthful statements from people. Wine was the basic method for extraction during ancient times, however, the first...
In Roman times slaves were used to mine salt. It was not a pleasant chore. But today in the Ukraine some people willingly spend several hours a day in a salt mine. They are not there, though, to...
Woodrow Wilson鈥檚 secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan, was ridiculed in 1913 for serving Welch鈥檚 grape juice instead of wine at a dinner honoring the British ambassador. This proved to be...
Back in the 1930s a flower merchant with a greenhouse full of carnations got worried when the weather forecast called for extremely cold temperatures. So he placed a kerosene burner in the...
At least in a manner of speaking.聽When Hernan Cortez came to America in 1518 he was intrigued by the beautifully coloured Aztec fabrics, particularly the stunning reds.聽He asked the natives about...
Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews, was a big hit for Disney studios in 1964. The film was a musicalized version of the children鈥檚 books about a magical English nanny written between 1934 and...
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