Call it ecodriving, hypermiling or plain old frugality, people today are trying every trick they can think of to wring a few extra miles from a drop of gas. Unfortunately, most fuel-saving tips range from the dubious to the downright dimwitted. Even the ones that work — such as making only right turns — veer into the ridiculous. In this Top 5 list, I’ve separated the classics from the clunkers and saved you the trouble of doing your own Mythbusters episode. Read on to discover….
From antiquity to the present day, everyone from philosophers to scientists to spinners of yarns have claimed that stars can be seen during broad daylight, provided you look at them from the bottoms of mine shafts, tall chimneys, coal pits or cisterns. Folk tales have also described people spotting distant suns in light reflected in dark lake bottoms or deep wells.
Is there any truth to these tales, or are these well-wishers merely moonstruck?
The 1894 kinetoscope of Fred Ott sneezing after inhaling a pinch of snuff, taken by Thomas Edison’s laboratory, was one of the first human acts ever committed to film. If you believe the internet rumors concerning the relationship between sneezing and sex, it might also have been the first movie orgasm.
No wonder nasal snuff was so popular for hundreds of years – and small wonder, too, that Pope Urban VIII threatened to excommunicate Catholics who took snuff in church….
From where you currently stand, the farthest you can travel on Earth is about 7,900 miles (12,700 kilometers) straight down. What’s more, were it not for some pesky geophysical realities such as crushing pressure, scorching heat and differential rotation spoiling your fun, you could get there in less than 45 minutes. All you need is a modest tunnel … right?
What would happen if I drilled a tunnel through the center of the Earth and jumped into it?
Mrs. O’Leary’s cow; David’s sling-stone; the thorn in a lion’s paw.
We relish tales of the mighty being felled by seemingly insignificant objects. But could a penny placed on railroad tracks really derail a train, or is this myth just a load of pig iron?