Who could have anticipated the dire consequences of the pharmacist’s experiments? It started so innocently. Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès was participating in a challenge that was sanctioned by none other than Emperor Napoleon III. […]
Governments can be famous for making regulations that put more emphasis on form than substance. No better example can be found than the highly-bureaucratic Vogons in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: […]
The year 1948 was monumental. Harry Truman won an upset victory over Thomas Dewey; Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated; the Marshall Plan was approved; and Alger Hiss was accused of spying for the […]
Government regulations in the food industry generally require truth in advertising about a product’s ingredients. It makes sense that a company should not be able to advertise its product as “100% fresh […]
When you consider that the Constitution of the United States, at 4,400 words and fitting comfortably on 11 pages, gives the instructions needed to govern a nation of over 300 million people, […]
To mail a coconut within the United States, it is not necessary to do anything other than affix an address and correct postage. The US Postal Service views coconuts as self-contained container, […]
Commonplace Fun Facts 