People & Society

George Foreman has earned substantially more from the George Foreman Grill than he ever did from his boxing career. At the peak of sales he earned $4.5 million a month in payouts. In 1999, he was paid $138 million for the full rights to use his name. January 30, 2021

Swearing emerges by age two and becomes adult-like by ages 11 or 12. By the time children enter school, they have a working vocabulary of 30-40 offensive words. January 29, 2021

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in the southerns states, then returned again and again to rescue 70 more enslaved people. Then later, after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed, she helped guide fugitives farther north into Canada. During the American Civil War she helped the Union Army. January 26, 2021

When France increased the price of cigarettes by 66% over an eight-year period, the smoking rate among French executives and professionals declined. However, the smoking rate among manual laborers remained about the same and among the unemployed, it increased. January 25, 2021

What is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination? January 22, 2021

People who quit smoking before the age of 40 may live as long as people who never smoked at all. Researchers found a smoker loses roughly 10 years of life to the habit but regained most of that time if they quit before 40. The benefit is increased the sooner before 40 you quit. January 21, 2021

The Exorcism of Emily Rose was based on real life events. Anneliese Michel suffered from Epileptic Psychosis as well as other mental disorders. She went through 67 exorcisms within a year and died of malnutrition. Her parents and priest were charged with negligent homicide. January 17, 2021

Molière's legendary death: collapsing on stage while performing in the last play he had written, insisting on completing his performance, collapsing again, died hours afterwards. January 15, 2021

Studies done by online stockbrokers where they analyse the results achieved by their clients found that the ones that did the best were those that had died (and the category that did second best had forgotten their log in details). January 11, 2021

30 years ago you had 15-17 minutes to escape a house fire. Nowadays you only have 3-5 minutes (due to more plastics & petroleum-based products in the house as well as more open floor plans, bigger rooms, & higher ceilings). January 8, 2021

In Iceland people light candles for the huldufólk, hidden elves, during New Year's Eve to help the huldufólk find a new home for the year. December 31, 2020

Honeybee venom rapidly kills aggressive breast cancer cells and when the venom's main component is combined with existing chemotherapy drugs, it is extremely efficient at reducing tumour growth in mice December 28, 2020

Scientists developed an experimental "universal treatment" for allergies. While still being tested, it works by wrapping allergens in a nanoparticle which sneaks it past the immune system. This helps the body understand it to be harmless. They so far successfully cured mice with egg allergies. December 27, 2020

Meet Jólabókaflóðið, an Icelandic tradition of giving books at Christmas. Books are so popular as gifts that, per capita, they read the most books on Earth and publishing occurs just months before Christmas. Many celebrate Christmas by lying in bed eating chocolates and reading one of their books! December 25, 2020

90% of all scientists who have ever lived are alive today. December 20, 2020

One nuclear fuel pellet, roughly the size of a pencil eraser, provides as much energy as one ton of coal or nearly 150 gallons of oil. December 13, 2020

Tesla requires buyers to purchase cars online to circumvent state laws that require car sales to be done through franchise dealerships. "Tesla Stores" exist only to educate potential customers and to deliver vehicles purchased online. December 12, 2020

Edgar Allen Poe died mysteriously after having been missing for six days. Though still alive when he was finally found, he was wearing someone else's cheap clothes and not coherent enough to tell where he'd been. He had disappeared en route to his own wedding. December 10, 2020

In 2018, A hacker broke into people's routers (100,000 of them) and patched their vulnerabilities up so that they couldn't be abused by other hackers. December 9, 2020

Audio experts could not tell the difference between $100 Monster speaker cables and cables made from soldering together old coat hangers December 7, 2020