Uncle John’s Impossible Questions & Astounding Answers Read Free

his fortune selling cheap toys to impressionable kids (like Uncle John) in the back of comic books. Most popular in the 1960s and ’70s, and still sold today, Amazing Sea-Monkeys are actually brine shrimp. But X-Ray Specs really do let you see through bones and clothes! Actually, they don’t—they simply diffract light, causing the viewer to see a sort of aura around the object. Von Braunhut’s toys were junk, but his marketing skills were priceless. “So eager to please, they can even be trained!” he boasted on the Amazing Sea-Monkeys box.
    For years, a rumor circulated that von Braunhut was a white supremacist. Turns out, it’s true: He sent a portion of his profits to the Aryan Nations organization, and was often quoted as saying, “Hitler wasn’t a bad guy. He just received bad press.”
     
Check Marks the Spot
    Graphic designer Carolyn Davidson’s second-most famous design is for the wallpaper in a Yakima, Washington, motel. What’s her most famous design?

     
Check Marks the Spot
    The Nike Swoosh. In 1971 the young design student was doodling in her accounting class at Oregon’s Portland State University. Impressed by her drawing skills, Davidson’s professor asked her if she could put together a few ideas for a symbol to be printed on his new line of running shoes.
    That professor was Phil Knight. Seven years earlier, he and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman had started an athletic shoe distribution company called Blue Ribbon Sports. Now they wanted to create a new kind of running shoe that could compete with the German brands adidas and Puma.
    Davidson came up with a few ideas for the symbol. Knight wasn’t that impressed with any of them, but he chose one that resembled a curvy check mark. “I don’t love it,” Knight said, “but it will grow on me.” (He was right.) How much did Davidson charge him for the design? $35. Knight soon renamed the company after Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, who sat by Zeus’s side as he presided over the Olympics. Within a few years, Nike was among the premiere athletic shoe companies in the world, and the Swoosh has since become one of the most recognizable symbols.
    In 1983 Knight gave Davidson a thank-you gift: 500 shares of Nike stock worth more than $1 million. At last report, she still hasn’t cashed them in, but is retired and happily volunteering her time at the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, Oregon. “I have a blessed life,” she said. “And there’s so much hurt in the world, I just thought I should give back.”

BUSY BODIES
    Do you have any idea how many things are happening inside you right now—churning, pumping, flowing, absorbing? It’s amazing…and at the same time, it’s kind of gross. Here are some questions about what makes us tick .
Just Like Tiny Drunkards
    Why do toddlers wobble?

Some Nerve
    What’s the largest unprotected nerve in your body?

     
Just Like Tiny Drunkards
    You’d wobble too if your head were roughly a quarter the weight of the rest of your body. By the time you’re fully grown, your head will weigh only about one-eighth as much as the rest of your body, and therefore be a lot easier to hold up…unless you happen to have an abnormally large head, like Uncle John, who still sometimes wobbles when he walks.
Some Nerve
    The ulnar nerve is the medical term for the funny bone, which is neither bone nor funny, although you may find it “humerus” to see your friend writhe in agony after a bump to the elbow.
    Why is it so agonizing? It’s a case of poor placement. The ulnar is one of the three main nerves that run from the collarbone to the hand. This particular nerve provides sensation in the pinky and the adjacent half of the ring finger. It also happens to be unprotected, meaning that there’s very little bone or muscle tissue to shield it from trauma. Result: It takes only a slight tap in just the right spot near the elbow to send your entire arm into a tingling frenzy. Interestingly, the temporary