検索キーワード： 著者 "Dan Lewis" すべてのカテゴリー

The goal was simple: listen to music – specifically, Western rock 'n' roll. The problem: Those striving to reach that goal weren't in the United States or anywhere else where rock was popular – they were in the Soviet Union, and it was the 1950s.

ATMs – short for automated teller machines – have become a ubiquitous feature in the lives of most people in developed nations.

Meet the Beverly Hills Caviar Automated Boutique: a super fancy mall vending machine that sells caviar, escargot and truffles. Explore the fishy facts on this episode of Now I Know. In the market for a high-end, expensive meal? Here are two rules of thumb: One, don’t even bother looking at vending machines. A Snickers bar or bag of Pirate’s Booty may seem like a grand idea, but – even with the 20 ounce drink of your choosing – it isn’t going to make for a good date night experience. And two, don’t go to the mall.

Penicillin was discovered by a scientist named Alexander Fleming in September 1928. Two years later, it was used for the first time to cure an infection – on November 25, 1930, British Doctor Cecil George Paine used penicillin to help an infant suffering from neonatal conjunctivitis.

In April 1939, DuPont Chemical introduced nylon stockings to the world at the World's Fair in New York City.

George Miller Beard was born in 1839. He attended Yale University, graduating in 1862, and in 1866 he earned a medical degree at the school now affiliated with Columbia University.

Checks are, basically, IOUs. The person writing the check promises to pay the check's recipient at some point in the very near future. The check writer isn't even part of the transaction at that point – the writer's bank is instructed, literally, to "pay" the amount specified "to the order of" the person to whom the check is made out. The bank plays a critical role in the transaction beyond the delivery of cash, too – it helps ensure that the check writer is good for the debt now owed.

That's a quote from a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority train rider named Alicia Porter from December 2013. As she and many others told the Atlanta Constitution-Journal, it was best to avoid the Atlanta subway's elevators unless one wanted to take a large whiff of – and this is gross – someone else's urine.

If you're a homeowner, having a river or pond run through your property can be pretty cool – it can turn a rather nondescript piece of land into something more interesting and, with proper upkeep and safety, something more fun. Of course, that's only true if the body of water was something you expected to be there. If, one day, you woke up to find your typically dry backyard more akin to a bayou – well, that's a problem.

Taste test: Does a $17 burger always taste better than a $4 one? Find out on this episode of Now I Know. A hamburger that costs $17 probably tastes good. No, it has to – who would pay $17 for a burger and fries that didn’t? No one – at least not twice. That makes sense: in order to stay in business with an expensive menu, whatever you’re selling better make for a good dining experience. But at some point, our palates can’t really discern between foods.

Learn about New York City's decades-long pinball ban – and resulting black market – on this episode of Now I Know. Fiorello LaGuardia was elected mayor of New York City in 1933, and, on January 1st of the following year, took office. One of his first acts as mayor was to crack down on mafia activity, especially mob-owned slot machines, seeing them as a direct line into the coffers of organized crime.

Winnie the Pooh is a fictional cartoon bear, created by writer A.A. Milne in 1924. He likes honey, his red T-shirt and his friends (Piglet, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Roo and – on most days – Tigger).

Pineapples are indigenous to South America and were domesticated and spread throughout the tropical areas of the Americas well before Europeans landed in the New World.

Van Morrison is a legend of the music world. He has won six Grammys to date, has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and gets a fraction of a cent whenever you stream 'Brown Eyed Girl' on Spotify (when it plays in your head, however, that one's free).

Proof that nothing is free (there's usually a catch): Learn about the Alabama sting operation disguised as a football ticket giveaway, on this episode of Now I Know. In the state of Alabama, one of the year’s more important events – the Iron Bowl, a college football game pitting in-state rivals Auburn University and the University of Alabama against each other – is traditionally held the day after Thanksgiving.

The Persian Gulf Pro League is the highest level of Iranian soccer. The Iran Pro League, or IPL, as it is often called, dates back to 1970, but has been around since 2001 in its current form. The sixteen teams in the IPL play 30 games over the course of a season; each team plays a home game and an away game against the other fifteen squads. Teams earn 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie, and the team with the most points at the end of the season is the league champion.

Here's a simple experiment you can try at home – and, probably will in the near future, whether you'd like to or not. Call a customer support hotline, try to talk to a real human and, well, you don't have to do much else. In many cases, you'll be put on hold, and you'll get to experience hold music. It's almost a given that this will happen, as hold music has become a very common feature of such phone systems. But it has a very uncommon history.

History, it's said, is written by the winners – they're the ones who are still around to do the research, write the magazine articles, author the books and curate the encyclopedias.

How does one keep a billion-dollar airport from cracking? Learn about San Francisco's groundbreaking solution to the seismic problem on this episode of Now I Know. The San Francisco Bay area is home to an extraordinary number of earthquakes. According to Earthquake Track, for a one-year period ending on March 24, 2016, the San Francisco Bay area experienced more than 650 earthquakes of magnitude 1.5 or greater – more than a dozen earthquakes a week.

The French Alpine town of Albertville sits in the southeast of the country, near the border of Italy, and is home to only about 10,000 people. Like most French communities, the people of Albertville rely on cheese. But unlike most other French areas, cheese is more than just a snack or part of a meal for the residents of Albertville. It, quite literally, powers part of the area.