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While Albert Einstein was one of the 20th century’s greatest minds, he may also be the perfect example of the absentminded professor. The legendary physicist once phoned Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study, where he had his office, and actually asked the operator to give…
When legendary actor Laurence Olivier was struck with appendicitis in 1967 before a performance of a Strindberg play, he had no choice: He had to rely on his understudy to take his place. What an understudy Olivier had. Oliver’s replacement was a…
Early Greek history chronicles how Lycurgus founded the first Spartan army by creating a force where no soldier was considered superior to another. He developed mastery through the army’s foundation of endurance, courage and self-control. The Spartans were skilled at the ancient…
Considering he filed a record-setting 1,093 patents in his lifetime, it’s no wonder Thomas Edison is regarded as the embodiment of invention. While undoubtedly a genius, what made him so remarkable was not just what he made but the way he worked – his famous…
When a father couldn’t convince his sons to stop quarreling, he decided to make his point another way. Presenting his sons with a bundle of sticks, he challenged them to break the bundle and not one of them could do it. When the father asked…
Naturalists say that the mother bird uses food to coax her baby from the nest and learn to fly. She stands farther and farther out on a branch with the food even though the baby bird will probably fall. If it doesn’t hurt them, falling eventually teaches them to flap their wings and return to the branch for…
In 2015, the Washington Nationals had arguably one of MLB’s most talented rosters but they struggled to even make the playoffs. At the bottom of the eighth inning, in a tied game against the Philadelphia Phillies, pitcher Jonathan Papelbon expressed frustration with Bryce Harper for…
When people are in danger and need help, three letters are more important than any others: S-O-S. Even though some say that this universal distress signal stands for “save our ship” or “save our souls,” the letters actually don’t mean anything at all. Why, then, did the Morse Code operators choose them? For a simple…
When the Americans took over the construction of the Panama Canal from the French in 1903 (to the tune of $40 million), they made a big mistake: The engineers assumed it was “just a big railroad job.” They didn’t realize digging a canal was so…
At 29,029 feet, Mt. Everest isn’t one of those natural wonders that can be climbed in just a few weeks. Anyone who has ever reached the summit knows it’s a long journey over two solid months. That journey has to be broken up into five…