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Useless facts
Bulgaria was the only soccer team in the 1994 World Cup in which all 11 players' last names ended with the letters "OV."
Pakistan and Israel are the only two nations in the world founded on the basis of religion: Pakistan is intended to be a home for Indian Muslims, and Israel a home for the world's Jews.
Of the four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all named after artists and/or sculptors, Donatello does not occur in the same time period as Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael.
In every deck of cards the King of Hearts is sticking his sword through his
head. That's why he's often called the "Suicide King"
In English, "four" is the only digit that has the same number of
letters as its value.
Quebec and Newfoundland are the only two Canadian provinces which do not allow
personalized license plates.
Pluto, the astrological sign for death, was directly above Dallas, Texas when
JFK was born.
In the theme song from "The Flintstones", the line after "Let's ride with the family down the street" is "Through the coutesy of Fred's two feet."
The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.
The cells which make up the antlers of a moose are the fastest growing animal
cells in nature.
Any number, squared, is equal to one more than the numbers one either side of it -- 4x6 is 24, 5x5 is 25.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
The King of Hearts is the only king without a moustache.
"Vang" is the most common surname among the Hmong people of Laos.
A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average.
You can tell a girl crab from a boy crab by their stomachs. A girl has a beehive and a boy has a lighthouse.
The pH of cow's milk is 6.
Mongeese were brought to Hawai'i to kill rats. This plan failed because rats are nocturnal and while the mongoose hunts during the day.
The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.
The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat
the strips of rubber around car windows.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
Australia is the richest source of mineral sands in the world.
The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905.
Mongolia is the largest landlocked country.
A bowling pin need only tilt 7.5 degrees in order to fall down.
142857 is a cyclic number, the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multipled by any number from 1 to 6. 142857 * 2 = 285714 142857 * 3 = 428571 142857 * 4 = 571428 142857 * 5 = 714285 142857 * 6 = 857142
The only four countries that start with the letter "D" are Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica and the Dominican Republic
Olympus Mons on Mars is the largest volcano in our solar system.
All the moons of the Solar System are named after Greek and Roman mythology, except the moons of Uranus, which are named after Shakesperean charcters.
New York City is nicknamed the Big Apple after an early swing dance that originated in a South Carolina club (actually a converted church) called The Big Apple.
A fullgrown bear can run as fast as a horse.
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator."
Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting while he was alive, Red Vineyard
at Arles.
The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently
during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is
blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace
and the red portion is flown in war time.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.
The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces.
The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the
bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.
Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry.
A full moon always rises at sunset.
If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide
poisoning first before you will die of oxygen
deprivation.
Neck ties were first worn in Croatia. That's why they were called cravats (CRO-vats).
Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse Garon, who died at birth, which is why
Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of
his brother.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England--1961
'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.
The longest English word that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter
(allowing multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.'
When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally
without being hurt.
Virgina Woolf wrote all her books standing.
The tango originated as a dance between two men (for partnering practice).
The fur of the polar bear is not white, but clear.
Polar bear skin is actually black.
Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering
their black noses with their paws.
Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek rather than Egyptian.
If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
The only word with all the vowels listed in order is facetiously.
The birth of Jesus Christ is April 6th, not July 6th, which is also the same
day that the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints was founded. It is also speculated that Christ died on April
6th making him exactly 33.
When reflected from bright lights (head lights) deer's eyes are orange, wheras
cats and dogs are green. Rabbits
eyes remain black.
Your body temp is lowest at 4 a.m.
There are only 3000 visible stars in our sky
The sun orbits the center of the galaxy at a rate of 155m/sec but it still
takes 320 million years to make one
complete orbit
When you refrigerate an item, you are not 'making it cold', but you are 'removing
it's heat'.
CDs were orignally set to the odd period of about 72 minutes because that is
the length of Beethoven's Ninth
Symphony.
Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirrior.
Titanic had only three funnels on the original plans. The fourth ('dummy')
one was added later as a decoration,
therefore it could not smoke.
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing
wind in a spacesuit damages
them. [Source: Everything there is to know (by Tim Hunkin)]
O Canada was proclaimed the national anthem on July 1, 1980, a century after
being sung for the first time.
[Source: Infocan]
A key element of the Canadian flag - the stylized maple leaf - was designed
by Mr.ïJacques St. Cyr, while the
proportions of the flag were outlined by Mr. George Bist, a World War II veteran,
and the precise colouration of
the flag defined by Dr. Gunter Wyszechi. The final determination of all aspects
of the new flag was made by a
15-member parliamentary committee, which is officially credited with the design.
[Source: Infocan]
Only 2 more blue moons (the saying "only once in a blue moon" refers
to the occurence of two full moons
during one calender month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are
January 1999 and March 1999.
February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food
One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most
of them are children.
In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan
letters.
There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous,
horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second
it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.
Less than 3% of Nestle's sales are for chocolate.
The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the
traffic light to change
More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed
products
It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk
The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275
mph
All consumption of alcohol is strictly regulated here in Norway, and is only
sold through state owned shops called Vinmonopolet. Nevertheless between 25
and 40 % of all alcohol consumed is either smuggled or illegally made at home
One thing that humans do more than anything in their entire life is sleep.
Most Americans sleep more than 6-8 hours a day, which is on average around 24
years of ones life!
A man's beard contains between 7000 and 15,000 hairs.
A beard grows an average of 140mm a year
A hair is 70 per cent easier to cut when soaked in warm water for two minutes
Women's hair is about half the diameter of men's hair
During an average lifetime, a man will spend 3,350 hours removing 8.4 meters
of stubble
4.5 million people have their health 'adverely affected' by air pollutants
each year.
4 million children die each year from inhaling smoke from indoor cooking fires
that burn wood and Dung
4 million people die annually from diarrhoea infections, caused by poor sanitary
conditions
Less than one per cent of the 500 chinese cities have clean air, respiratory
disease is China's leading cause of death.
The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the
population growth
It took 1,175 animators working in Disney studios in Burbank, California, Orlando,
Florida, and Paris, France to complete the animated Tarzan. Because of the time
differences, production was able to occur around the clock for more than three
years.
The most expensive commerical ever made is one of the most famous. The famous
'1984' Apple Macintosh commerical shown introducing Macintosh to the world,
only once, during the 1984 Super Bowl. It was directed by Ridley Scott, and
cost around $600,000 to $1 million to make. The commerical shows hundreds of
people dressed in the same clothing going down dark hallways to a huge telescreen
featuring Big Brother. A women in colored clothing (representing the creativity
in Macintosh), runs down the hallway followed by the Thought Police. She hurls
a sledge hammer at Big Brother and the screen explodes, while the drones look
on with dropped jaws
The following facts are taken from "Strange
But True" at strangefacts.com
Most lipstick contains fish scales!
Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands!
One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen!
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum!
No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half!
A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein!
Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!
There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building!
If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion!
Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive!
A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth!
The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!
Clinophobia is the fear of beds!
A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second!
Porcupines float in water!
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye"!
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter of the alphabet!
The average life span of a major league baseball is 5-7 pitches!
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable"!
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds!
The sloth (a mammal) moves so slowly that green algae can grow undisturbed on it's fur!
Cat's urine glows under a black-light!
The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1!
The electric chair was invented by a dentist!
Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland!
A hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute on average!
Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand!
The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times!
Human teeth are almost as hard as rocks!
A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night!
Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone!
A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside!
A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove!
A hummingbird weighs less than a penny!
Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it's known as Tennessee!
The Earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons!
A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off - it dies from starvation!
Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie!
The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!
One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television!
The average American/Canadian will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year!
It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a certain church in Omaha, Nebraska!
you're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206!
Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete!
7% of Americans don't know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem!
5% of Canadians don't know the first 7 words of the Canadian anthem, but know the first 9 of the American anthem!
Over 10,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows!
The state of Florida is bigger than England!
It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland!
Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day!
Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark!
During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants!
Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cant find any food!
Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old!
In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow!
There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones!
About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30!
More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones!
A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.!
Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe!
In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons!
Slugs have 4 noses!
Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours!
Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!
Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue!
The average American/Canadian drinks about 600 sodas a year!
It was once against the law to slam your car door in a city in Switzerland!
There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses!
Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes!
Eskimo ice cream is neither icy, or creamy!
A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals!
The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs!
A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate!
More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world!
The starfish is one of the only animals who can turn it's stomach inside-out!
The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump!
The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly!
Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States!
One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet!
America once issued a 5-cent bill!
You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in a lifetime! Wow!
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different!
There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and month! Interesting tries from our readers: orange: door hinge, melange (French for mix) purple: hurtle, durple?, turtle month: once, bunth?, hunch
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep him cool! He changed it every 2 innings!
Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung!
A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! Wow!
A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying!
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head!
In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs!
There are over 58 million dogs in the U.S!
Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion worth of pet food a year!
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!
You blink over 10,000,000 times a year!
Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day!
In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word!
Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!
The blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as grapejuice!
The average person laughs 13 times a day!
Dogs can hear sounds that you cant!
Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lighting than women!
It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them!
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E!
Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions!
A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans!
Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States!
The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!
The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used!
There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year!
The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!
Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!
The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!
Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints!
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow!
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings!
Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight!
A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there, though!
The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons!
The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people!
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court!
After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again!
For more useless facts, check out Puzzlegrid
and Useless
Facts Machine
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