Author: Gary Arndt

In the year 2000, people in Japan were polled and asked what the greatest Japanese creation of the 20th century was. They didn’t pick the walkman, digital cameras, or the compact disc. Nor did they pick any even any cultural achievements like the works of Akira Kurosawa, anime, or Pokemon. What they selected as the greatest Japanese accomplishment of the 20th century was…….instant noodles. Learn more about the simplest, cheapest food in the world

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In the 1950s and 1960s, the United States detonated nuclear bombs on land, on the water, underground, underwater, and in the atmosphere. The only thing that they hadn’t nuked was space itself. So, in 1962 they did just that. Learn more about Starfish Prime and the time that the United States detonated a nuclear weapon in space, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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When the Austro-Hungarian Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated it set off a chain reaction resulting in the First World War. That chain reaction, however, was fully anticipated and one of the belligerent countries, Germany, had a plan in their back pocket ready to go. It was a highly detailed plan, nine years in the marking, which was designed to give them a swift victory. Learn more about the Schlieffen Plan, and why it didn’t work, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Divided between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian West Bank lies the lowest point on the surface of the Earth: The Dead Sea. Not only is it the lowest point on Earth, but the sea is one of the saltiest bodies of water on the planet. But how did this place come to exist, and is it true that it will completely disappear at some point? Learn more about the Dead Sea and how it came to be, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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For several hundred years, the British navy was the most powerful in the world. One of the things which the British navy ran on was rum. Every sailor on a British ship for hundreds of years was given a daily ration of rum. However, on one dark day, the tradition of the daily rum allotment came to an end. Learn more about Black Tot Day and why it saddened a generation of British sailors, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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If you’ve ever seen a sculpture or an ancient coin of a Roman Emperor, you probably have noticed that they were wearing a wreath on their head. That wreath, however, doesn’t mean what you probably think it means. It actually had a specific meaning which predated the imperial age, and the reason why emperors wore it all has to do with a single person. Learn more about the Civic Crown, also known as the Corona Civica, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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Fritz Haber is unquestionably one of the greatest chemists in history. He was a Nobel prize winner and his inventions have touched billions of lives. However, Haber is a two-sided coin. He has touched the lives of millions for the better, and he also touched the lives of millions for the worse. Learn more about Fritz Haber, perhaps the best and worst chemist in history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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In the 1970s NASA embarked on a mission it had never attempted before. Due to a fortunate alignment of planets, they were going to attempt to send robotic probes on a flyby mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, before being sent to deep space, out of the solar system. Some of the mission planners figured if they were going to send a probe all that way, maybe they might as well add something extra to the payload.

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One of the most ubiquitous forms of payment today is credit cards. The odds are good that you have one, and most probably have one on your person right now. But how did it develop that you could pay for something by just giving someone a piece of plastic? How exactly does this system work and how do credit card companies make money? Learn more about credit cards, where they came from and how they work, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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There are tens of millions of stories to come out of World War II. Many of them are tales of horrible human cruelty. However, there is one particular story that is as horrific as any other, yet it doesn’t involve human barbarity, it involves nature. It was so horrific that it has been the subject of books and movies, and was the inspiration for the film Jaws. Learn more about the USS Indianapolis and the terrifying fate of its sailors, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

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