Does Drinking Alcohol Really Keep You Warm When It's Cold Out?
Alcohol is a vasodilator. When you have a drink, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warm.
Alcohol is a vasodilator. When you have a drink, the volume of blood brought to the skin’s surface increases, making you feel warm.
The smoke alarms in my apartment building are both ridiculously sensitive and ridiculously loud. They regularly go off even when there’s no smoke, and I often have to scramble up on top of a chair to reset them because a pot of boiling water is producing
First off, popcorn isn’t just any old corn. It’s a cultivated strain of flint corn known as zea mays everta. Its kernel is also a whole grain—it consists of the bran (the hull or outer covering), the germ (the “embryo” that germinates into a plant), and t
Fictional characters, and even real-life folks, often talk about animals and people—particularly snarling dogs and knife-wielding lunatics—being able to “smell fear” on people. No one ever seems to be able to describe just what fear smells like, though.
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
Whether you’re buying them for your kids or yourself, you’ve surely noticed that Barbie dolls, action figures, and other toys often come packed in their own tiny Fort Knoxes, with layers upon layers of plastic, twist ties and tape all housed in an unbreak
Tis the season to be getting the cold and flu. But is it possible for the bacteria and viruses that infect us so easily to get sick themselves?In 1917, a microbiologist working at the Pasteur Institute in Paris discovered what he described as an invisible
It all goes back to Loki.
Yes. And our pets sometimes need transfusions, too, so it’s always handy to know what type of blood Spot or Fluffy has (if he or she has had any blood work done, the vet will have this
Whether you end a letter or e-mail with it—or you recognize it from the end of each Gossip Girl episode—“Xoxo” is commonly known to refer to the phrase “Kisses and hugs.” But how did these two inconspicuous letters come to represent that well-known
For everyone who’s ever been unhappy with the way they look in a picture or on video, there’s almost always someone there to try and comfort them by pointing out that the camera “adds ten pounds” to its subjects.Sometimes this just excuses actual flabbine
Poinsettias are as indispensable to Christmas as evergreen trees and mistletoe. Every year, they come out of the greenhouses and off the store shelves into our homes, and every year, some well-meaning but factually-challenged aunt or family friend warns u
That depends on how you define a “car.” In 1869, Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in a steam-powered automobile built by her cousins.
The slate board is used to make syncing audio and film easier, but here are more facts to know about it.
Buckingham Palace has confirmed what the British tabloids have suspected for a while: The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting. Unfortunately, Kate has also been admitted to the hospital due to hyperemesis gravidarum, or acute morning sickness—so severe that
“What exactly is a pigeonhole anyway?" semi-creepy fast food mascot Jack in the Box wondered on Twitter last month. "Last I checked pigeons live in parks.” Reader @amyh914 put up the bat signal and called us into
For a long time, scientists thought that pruning of the skin after spending time in the water was simply a matter of fingers being a little spongey. The outermost layer (the stratum corneum) of the outermost layer (the epidermis) of our skin is mostly mad
In my house, we really like Mexican food. And Thai food. Oh, and Chinese food. We like all food, I guess, but that’s sort of beside the point.
Daven Hiskey runs the wildly popular interesting fact website Today I Found Out. To subscribe to his “Daily Knowledge” newsletter, click
After the tri-state area was devastated by Hurricane Sandy, food, gas, and power were in high demand but short supply. In those situations, people get desperate, and they sometimes become violent, throwing not just common courtesy, but also any sense of w
In large swaths of the U.S. this time of year, it seems you can’t get more than a few feet without tripping over a Canada Goose; they come down here from the Great White North for the winter months (or, in some places, hang out year-round). When they’re n
Back when I was a kid, life was pretty simple. Saturday morning cartoons were awesome, Ecto Cooler was abundant and the Soviet Union collapsed before they could drop any nukes on us. I couldn’t watch the news, or even my cartoons, though, without being re