Curiosity Aroused

How did Marilyn Monroe Meet JFK? The two met at a dinner party in New York City in 1962. From there, they began a brief affair that ended abruptly when JFK had to return to Washington, D.C. for work. Marilyn Monroe thought that JFK was going to leave his wife for her, but she was sadly mistaken. JFK never left his wife, in fact, the two remained married until his assassination in 1963.

Marilyn Monroe in 1962 Marilyn Monroe’s Measurements Controversy There has been a lot of controversy about Marilyn Monroe’s size and measurements. No one really knows the true origin of the myths surrounding Marilyn Monroe’s size. In Hollywood, new rumors and drama sparks up every single day. Marilyn is no exception to this. Even today, if you ask someone what they think Marilyn Monroe’s measurements were back when she was a model and actress, they will probably speculate or tell you she was a size 12-16.

Prison slavery. Yeah, it's a thing. Meaning it's one of the ways the U.S. government monetizes the inmates in its custody. At the local, state and federal levels, prisoners quietly serve as the government's own in-house workforce, helping reduce overhead and cut costs across the public sector. Prisoners are also the fodder of institutional labor trafficking, with correctional authorities routinely farming out inmate labor to the private sector. This labor has even come to play a role in the global economy.

What’s the deal with spicy food? How is it hot — and yet also not? And how does it make masochists of so many otherwise non-masochistic people? Spicy food brings an intimate pain that, for some, just hurts so good. The pain of spiciness, a.k.a. piquance, comes from the effects of a little molecule called capsaicin (pronounced “CAP-suh-sin”), found in chili peppers of the genus Capsicum. Capsaicin also explains why spicy foods make you poop, why spicy food is good for you (sometimes), and why spicy food is bad for you (othertimes).

Dreams…what are they good for? Our dreams can be a gateway to adventure, wisdom, clarity, the sacred, our inner genius. They can lead us past our fears, to our desires, into fantasy worlds and back out again on a path strewn with the self-organizing debris of the imagination. Dreams clearly rock. But is dreaming a lost art? Some say humanity has finally put its naive faith in the truths and meaningfulness of dreams aside for a more straightlaced, science-based worldview.

OMG 5G Internet is coming and it promises to fulfill all our communication dreams with truly seamless connectivity and practically unlimited data. 5G’s going to make Big Data into Fast Data and Ubiquitous Data, connecting and automating everything. Soon the very idea of an Internet-free space will seem hopelessly antiquated, and tolerance for slow video buffering will drop to historic lows. The way marketers talk about the much-anticipated “5G,” or Fifth Generation, of mobile wireless technologies (scheduled for mass rollouts by 2020), you could be forgiven for thinking there are no drawbacks at all associated with unprecedented data density.

At the beginning of 2017, the website 24/7 Wall St. released a list of the dozen most hated corporations in America. Now, this is a field where the competition is incredibly heated. There are so many good candidates, it’s hard to narrow it down to the most deserving winners of all. But a gamely effort was made and thoughtful selections were produced based on the evaluations of consumers, employees, and experts.

Did you know that certain kinds of charcoal can be used as a soil amendment to revitalize exhausted and polluted land? And that doing so on a global scale could seriously jumpstart efforts to claw back the atmospheric greenhouse gases that are driving global warming? And that one of the neat side effects would be massive increases in the otherwise dismal nutritional quality of the food we all consume? Heterotrophs of Earth, prepare to reduce your intake of multivitamins and dietary supplements.

There’s no question cannabis can ease the pain and suffering of cancer patients, especially those undergoing a punishing regime of chemo and/or radiation. Even the medical establishment admits as much. But the Internet is bubbling over with testimonials that take the claim much further: Not only is the green goddess Mary Jane a powerful medicine in her own right, but there may be no better treatment for the world’s most effective killer.

Colorful charity donation bins – you might’ve seen them pop up overnight on a block near you. They are unattended, Redbox-sized depositories placed in parking lots, by fill stations, outside strip malls. You can drive up in your car and load your second-hand clothes and shoes into a large steel drawer on the front of the bin. Presumably, someone will pick the stuff up later. Painted bright green, yellow, blue, or red, the donation boxes are printed with information about the numerous causes and projects your donation will supposedly benefit.