Useless Facts
Daffy Duck's middle name is "Dumas"
Betty Boop is a red head. She appeared in her only colour cartoon, Cinderella, with red hair
In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backward.)
In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy's last name is Gail. It is shown on the mailbox.
The stop-motion puppet for King Kong was covered with rabbit fur
Red Dawn was the first movie to have a PG13 rating
In E.T: The Extra Terrestrial, there was a matte painting which showed all the fast food restaurant chains in the world along one street, and a drive in movie theater showing Star Wars
In Star Wars the aliens playing in the band are played by members of the ILM creature shop, including Phil Tippett, and the executive producer
"Jaws" is the first movie ever to make over 100 million dollars
In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
In Return of the Jedi there is a tennis shoe hidden among the rebel fleet
There are Star Wars ships hidden in Star Trek: First Contact, Space Balls, and Independence Day among others
In Raiders of the Lost Ark there is a wall carving of R2-D2 and C-3P0 behind the ark
Walt Disney holds the world record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, he has won twenty statuettes, and twelve other plaques and certificates
There is a statuette of R2-D2 attached to the model of the mother-ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and on the Borg ship on Star Trek: The Next Generation
The eye pieces on the Borg in Star Trek: First Contact, flash in Morse code, spelling out the names of several members of the production team
James Bond's car had three different license plates in Goldfinger
Gary Cooper was the first Academy Award winner for best actor to make his acceptance speech on television
101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Hercules and Mulan are the only Disney movies where both parents are present and don't die by the end of the movie
Paul McCartney purchased the rights to the Happy Birthday song we all know, so if you want to use it in a production, you have to pay him royalty fees
Cheech and Chong were awarded the first Bronze Taco, on July 24 1984
Humphery Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca
Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty"
Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Gone With the Wind had the working titles Tote the Weary Load and Ba! Ba! Black Sheep
The Brothers Grimm wrote 211 fairy tales
It used to be illegal to swim by daylight
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy."
William Shakespeare claimed that honorificabilitudinitatibus was the longest word used in any of his plays
The words "Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatossilphioparaomelitoatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolatoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon", "Taumatawhakatangihangihangakoauotamateaturipukakapiikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu" and "Nordösterjökustartilleriflygspaningssimulatoranläggningmaterielunderhållsuppföljningssystemdiskussionsinläggsförberedelsearbeten " are all in the spell checker, but not in any dictionary, yet the words ""Pnemonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" and "Floccipaucinihilipilification" are in the English Dictionary, but not in the spell checker!
The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths."
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
"I" is the most spoken word in the English language
"You" is the second most spoken English word
"O" is considered to be the oldest vowel in the English language
The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.
Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village"
Canada makes up 6.67 percent of the Earth's land area
Alberta is home to Canada's largest Ukrainian Easter egg
The fastest broadcaster in history is Canadian Gerry Wilmont, from Victoria B.C. He was a hockey commentator
A Canadian invented the paint roller
A Canadian was the creator of "Superman"
Canada is home to the International Federation of Bodybuilders
Nova Scotia boasts Sober Island, 30 miles from Wine Harbor
New Brunswick is the lobster capital of the world
15 percent of Americans secretly bite their toenails
Deborah Ann Fountain, the 1981 Miss New York State, was disqualified from the Miss U.S.A pageant for padding her bathing suit
The only two bald Presidents were Martin Van Buren and Dwight D. Eisenhower
In a speech made in 1961, John F. Kennedy was recorded as speaking at 327 words per minute, the fastest in public history
John F. Kennedy could read four newspapers in twenty minutes
David Rice Atchinson was President of the United States for only one day
The full name for Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula
The bikini bathing suit was so named because it was created the same year the atomic bomb was tested on Bikini Isalnd
Benjamin Franklin was considered to be America's first cartoonist, he was also the first to suggest that clocks may be moved forward or backward to extend the daylight hours
South Dakota is the only U.S state which shares no letters with the name of it's capital, Pierre
Maine produces more toothpicks than any other U.S state
The only city whose name can be spelled completely with vowels is Aiea, Hawaii, located approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu
The Florida Citrus Bowl football game was previously named for the tangerine
The full name for Bangkok is Krungthep Mahanakhon Bovorn Ratanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok pop Noparatratchathani Burirom Udomratchanivetmahasathan Avatarnsathit Sakkathattiyavisnukarmprast
You have to pay a tax in Denmark to use the back seat of your car for passengers
Dublin is home to the Fairy Investigation Society
There is a law in France against selling dolls without human faces
The KGB is headquartered at No. 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow
Walloons speak French
The Vatican city registered 0 births in 1983
Spain leads the world in cork production
There are 1,792 steps in the Eiffel Tower
here are 269 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the worlds widest road
There is a city in Norway called "Hell"
The Anglo-Saxons called May Thrimilice because cows at that point could be milked three times a day
The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
In the first century AD, Roman doctors endorsed the brushing of teeth with urine
Ancient Romans ate flamingo tongues and considered them a delicacy
The only animal which was allowed into an ancient Roman temple was a cat
In ancient Egypt, you could be put to death for killing a cat
An Egyptian has to say "I divorce thee" three times to be legally divorced
Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten, was married to Nefertiti, and was king Tutankhamen's father, he also decreed that the sun god Aten was the only god to be worshipped by Egyptians during his reign
Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, she was Greek, not Egyptian
The plant centaury is so named because its medicinal properties were said to have been discovered by Chiron, the mythical centaur doctor and teacher.
In ancient Greece, "idiot" meant private citizen or layman
Vincent Van Goh sold only one painting in his lifetime, Red Vineyard at Arles
Vincent Van Goh committed suicide while painting Wheat Field with Crows
Salvador Dali once arrived at an exhibition with flies glued to his face
Salvador Dali was expelled from art school for refusing to allow professors to critique his work
Michelangelo's sculpture Pieta is the only work of his to bear his signature, it is on Mary's mantle strap
Leonardo da Vinci invented the scissors.
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand while drawing with the other
Leonardo wrote backwards, so that the only way to properly read his writing was to hold it up to a mirror
After studying it for 47 days, the New York Museum of Modern Art discovered that the Matisse painting Le Bateau was hanging upside down
If an equestrian statue has two legs the air, the person on the horses back died in battle, if the horse has only one leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle, if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes
Ionic columns have 23 flutes
Botticelli illustrated Dante's Inferno
most peoples hair stops growing at 3 ft 91 cm
One human hair can support 3kg
Blondes have more hair than dark haired people
The human brain uses the same amount of energy as a 10-watt lightbulb
The human brain is 85% water
Children grow faster in the springtime
People speak at a rate of about 120 words per minute
The average person supposedly falls asleep in seven minutes
the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet can not tan
The resolving power of the human eye is 0.0003 of a radian or an arc of one minute (1/60th of a degree), which corresponds to 100 microns at 10 in. (confused yet?) A micron is a thousandth of a millimeter, hence 100 microns is 0.00397, or less than four thousandths of an inch, the human eye can detect a bright light shining through an aperture of only three or four microns
Your left lung is slightly smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart
Your fingers can detect a vibration with a movement of 0.02 of a micron
The loudest snore ever recorded is 87.5 decibels
The human feet perspire half a pint of fluid a day
One person in two billion will live to be 116 or older
The septum linguae is located on the tongue
Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age
More people are killed annually by donkeys than are killed in airplane crashes
The smelliest animal in the world is the Zorilla, it can discharge a nauseous fluid from it's anal glands which can be smelled over a radius of half a mile
Crickets hear through their knees
A female ferrit is known as a "jill"
Butterflies taste through their feet
The donkey gets its name from "key" meaning color, and "dung"
An Ostrich's eye is larger than it's brain
A cat has 32 muscles in each ear
Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds
It is physically impossible for a pig to look up at the sky
A dragonfly has a life-span of 24 hours
A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds
The average flight speed of a house fly is five miles an hour
Stan, the first Spanish dog ever fitted with contact lenses, was hit by a car the day after he was fitted with them
The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infra-red and ultra-violet light.
There are only three animals with blue tongues, the Black Bear, the Chow Chow dog and the blue-tongued lizard
The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular.
A frog's favorite color is blue
Butterflies can fly at twenty mph
The hummingbird is the only bird which can fly backwards
Hummingbirds have the fastest metabolism of any animal, they require from 6,000 to 12,400 calories per day (depending on the species)
An electric eel will short circuit if put into salt water
A kangaroo can't jump unless it's tail is touching the ground
Camel's milk does not curdle.
Reindeer milk has three times the protein of cow milk
The dog name "Fido" comes from the Latin meaning "I trust thee"
Starfish have no brains
Porcupines masturbate (I'm not kidding)
It takes 4 hours to hard boil an ostrich egg
The male earwig's rear-end pincers are curved
It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have been only 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world
A jiffy is one-hundred-thousand-billion-billionth of a second
there is 1/10 of a calorie on the back of a stamp
An Olympic gold medal must contain 92.5 percent silver
Sigmund Freud bought his first sample of cocaine for $1.27 a gram
The toilet on the Space shuttle boasts a footrest, handholds, a seat belt and a suction fan
There is an odd number of steps in every staircase in Thailand
There are five holes in a bagpipe bag
The Wright brothers airplane boasted a whopping twelve horsepower engine
Tarzan means "white skin"
There is 1/8 of a tea spoon in a dash
Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise
The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans towards the south
Harvey Kennedy invented the shoelace
Louis the XIV took only three baths in his lifetime
Adolf Hitler parted his hair on the right
Prince Charles collects toilet seats
The yo-yo was originally a weapon in the Philippines
There are only thirteen blimps in the world.
Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States.
The largest existing blimp is the Fuji Film blimp
The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat", which means, "the king is dead".
The only "real" food that U.S. Astronauts are allowed to take into space is pecan nuts.
Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
Anne Boleyn had six fingernails on one hand
There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball
In the 656 BC Olympics, Chionis registered a distance of 23 feet 1 1/2 inches in the long jump
Ghosts tend to deteriorate after about 400 years, the most outstanding exception to the rule being a troop of Roman soldiers marching trough the cellar of the Treasurer's House, York Minster, they are still marching through the cellar after nearly 19 centuries
No piece of paper can be folded more than twenty times
Pope Leo XIII stopped the practice of castration as a means for producing male sopranos
Pope Stephen II reigned for only one day
The only acceptable sexual position in Washington D.C. is the missionary-style position. Any other sexual position is considered illegal.
There are 240 dots on an arcade Pac-Man game
The next year which will read the same way upside down as rightside up is the year 6009, the last was 1961
During the 1700's, doctors often prescribed swinging on a swing to cure ladies of such problems as melancholy and "vapours" or fainting spells.
The Earl of Sandwich created the sandwich in 1762. He was playing non-stop poker. His wife insisted that he must eat. So he told her to put a piece of meat between two pieces of bread, so that he could eat with one hand, and hold his cards with the other.
The term "slapstick" originated in renaissance Italy as Commedia del Arte', and it was the precursor to slapstick - the slapstick was a stick with a loose piece of wood tied to the end that made a loud bang when you whapped an actor without - loads o' laughs. It had a brief resurgence in 17th century France when Moliere rediscovered the medium, and began creating new works in the same genre.
The fortune cookie was first created in 1916 at the George Jung Noodle Factory in Los Angeles
Arnold Shwarzenegger was the tallest Mr. Universe ever
In 1904, the head of the patent office said that the office should be closed down because everything that could possibly be invented had already been invented.
Sheep statistics - Body temperature: 100o F- 103o F, Pulse/heart rate: 70-80 beats per minute. Respiration rate: 12-20 breaths per minute, gestation: 145 days, Weight, adult sheep between 150-200lbs.
A cat is 9% skeleton, for an elephant to be as flexible as a cat, it would have to be nearly 85% skeleton, leaving almost no room for internal organs
The only person, male or female, to win an Oscar for both acting and screenwriting is Emma Thompson
Montreal is the worlds snowiest city
The Bates Hotel from Psycho is actually a ¾ scale miniature, Alfred Hitchcock shot it from low angles to make it look big
The Greek word for butterfly is psyche, which means soul.
In Alaska it is illegal to look at a moose from the window of an airplane or any other flying vehicle.
The worlds longest national road is the Trans-Canada Highway, it runs from St. Johns Newfoundland to Victoria B.C.
Katherine Hepburn and Barbera Streisand are the only two actresses to ever tie for the best actress Oscar
The word "diploma" is Greek for "folded paper"
"Caterpillar" is Roman for "hairy cat"
A large man can prespire 19 litres of water a day
King Tut is the only Egyptian pharaoh to remain buried in his tomb
James Buchanan was the only unmarried President of the United States
Rejkjavik, Iceland is the northernmost national capital in the world
A furlong is an eighth of a mile.
Siberian huskies lack the glands that other dogs have that give bad doggie breath.
The USDA allows a maximum of six maggot eggs or partial carcasses in every can of canned mushrooms.
The rectal temperature of the Icelandic codfish is 34 degrees F.
A dog's sense of smell is so powerful that it can actually sniff out potential cancer in a person
When the Ku Klux Klan first started the original idea was for them to wear a white sheep. But a clerical error was made and the supplies department ordered 500 white sheets by mistake.
In Tennesse, it's illegal for a female to drive a motor vehicle, unless there's a man on the hood of the car, with a shot gun which is used to shoot off rounds of ammunition to alert oncoming drivers that there is a women at the wheel.
Anytime you come to a crossroad; you have to shoot your gun, waive a lantern, and blow the horn. It's to warn anyone approaching that you have an automobile so that you don't scare their horse. I guess if you don't have a gun, you shouldn't be driving.
The most misspelled word: Remember. Well, according to my spell check it is. At least, to the best that I can remebre.
Pete Rose wrote a book, "How to play baseball", and stated that Ty Cobb had a lifetime batting average of .367. He said that it would never be repeated, and players would have trouble achieving .300, and will never again get to .333. The next year, Rod Carew retired with a lifetime batting average of .333.
Miss Piggy's measurements are 27-20-32
Starburst candy had to change it's slogan from "The Juice is Loose" to "Turn up the Juice" because of the OJ Simpson fiasco
In 1917, the Montreal Warriors of the National Hockey league had what is probably the worst run of bad luck in the history of hockey. After winning their opening game, they proceeded to lose games 2 thru 6, and then their stadium burned down, ending the team’s existence.
In medeival times, a primitive form of biological warfare was used, called trebuchet. A catapult would fling a dead, rotting animal carcass into enemy territory, spreading disease.
Abraham Lincon signed the legislation to create the Secret Service on April 14, 1865, the same day he was shot
The closest living relative of the t-rex is the chicken
Officials in the Philipines requested a free print of Dirty Harry from Warner Brothers to use as a training film for their police
The phrase "See you next monday" appears in one form or another in every film directed by John Landis
The longest section in the "American Dictionary of Slang" is devoted to vomit.
Every Israeli woman must serve 2 years in th army before attending university
If it were possible to sneeze with your eyes open, they would pop out of their sockets
The RCMP's first tracking dog was named Dale
Jack Simplot has provided potatoes to McDonalds since the chain began. he is now the richest man in Idaho
In 1980, Mr. Scott Fahlman invented the smiley face emoticon :-)
The Sleeping Prophet, Edgar Cayce, claimed that baldness could be cured by washing your hair with three-day-old coffee grinds, followed by a dousing of crude oil.
The Royal Canadian Air Force won the 1948 Olympic Gold medal for hockey
John Molson built Canada's first steamboat in 1809
The Granny Smith apple originated in 1869 when Maria Ann Smith planted seeds rotting in a gin barrel in New Sout Wales
Shakespeare stole the line "Love is blind" from Geoffrey Chaucer
The Jordanian city of Amman was once named Philadelphia
"The Roosevelt Bears" is the only comic strip to ever run in the New York Times
Jaques Edwin Bradenberger invented cellophane in 1908
This is probably outdated but the last time I checked the most stolen car in America was a white four door Honda Accord.
In the original story, Cinderella's slippers were made out of fur, they were changed to glass in the 1600's by a translator not only was the slipper made of fur but the evil stepsisters cut off their toes in order to try and fit their feet into the slipper.
Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word "gadzooks".
Despite what is seen in cheesy 70s monster bug movies insects don't see one image for each facet. It's more like a highly pixelated single image. This helps in detecting motion.
The mathematically calculated speed of gravity has to be at LEAST 10 billion times c. In all of the math formulas for determining gravity not a single one takes c into account.
About 54% of Americans consider themselves fans of Star Trek. Not trekkies, just fans.
The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep.
"Lip-Smacking Good: A San Francisco Chronicle feature alerted readers to the problem of people addicted to lip balm, especially Chapstick Brand. According to one addict who studied the problem, Chapstick ingredients fuse with the skin, requiring constant reuse. Another source cited a better nonaddictive lip balm: a person's own nose oil, which is reported to have been used by watchmakers for years to lubricate tiny gears."
Stewardesses and reverberated are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left hand. The longest word that can be typed using only the right hand is lollipop. Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
Australia has more types of mosquitos than any other country
The underside of a horse's hoof is called a frog. The frog peels off several times a year with new growth
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments
The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards.
The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms, which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning, "containing arsenic."
The shape of plant collenchyma cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the same - they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.
The word 'pound' is abbreviated 'lb.' after the constellation 'libra' because it means 'pound' in Latin, and also 'scales'. The abbreviation for the British Pound Sterling comes from the same source: it is an 'L' for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation. Same goes for the Italian lira, which uses the same abbreviation ('lira' coming from 'libra'). So British currency (before it went metric) was always quoted as "pounds/shillings/pence", abbreviated "L/s/d" (libra/solidus/denarius).
Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
An animal epidemic is called an epizootic.
Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants.
The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. {Excellent! Hope that the US Army still has a few in inventory! Why do I have this vision of some poor schmuck soldier getting stuck with 'mule duty'... there they are, out in the desert of Iraq together, both wearing camo and night vision goggles...?? }
Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
All porcupines float in water
Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
The world's largest wine cask is in Heidelberg, Germany.
St. Stephen is the patron saint of bricklayers
The first song played on Armed Forces Radio during operation Desert Shield was "Rock the Casba" by the Clash.
Non-dairy creamer is flammable.
The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanastan.
The names of the three wise monkeys are Mizaru: See no evil, Mikazaru: Hear no evil and Mazaru: Speak no evil.
When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror
In Connorsville, Wisconsin no man shall shoot of a gun while his female partner is having a sexual orgasm.
Medicine Hat (Alberta, Canada) is home to the worlds largest Teepee
During the heat of the space race in the 1960s, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules. After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of about US $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth. The Soviet Union, faced with the same problem, used a pencil
Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors
Another interesting fact is that Coca-Cola used to be colored green (probably from the cocaine leaf)
In Kingsville, Texas, there is a law against two pigs having sex on the city's airport property.
The names of the 50 states used up just about every letter in the alphabet except the letter Q.
Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over-mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since.
What is the difference between a wharf and a pier you ask? A pier runs perpendicular to the shoreline, while a wharf runs parallel to the shoreline
Australia is home to the koala bear, the platypus, and the kangaroo, but not one active volcano or glacier. It is the only continent that lacks either one.
Wild horses in America are not really wild, they are feral. Hernando Cortez first brought the first horses to America in 1518. He brought 17 horses with him. Before Cortez, an ancestor of the horse migrated to the Americas 10,000 years ago, but they died out long before anyone thought about using them as we do the modern horse.
That stuff you find on the keyboard and covering your mouse ball is not called gunk, the technical name is candy.
The length of the finger dictates how fast the fingernail grows. Therefore, the nail on your middle finger grows the fastest, and on average, your toenails grow twice as slow as your finger-nails
There is a town in Newfoundland, Canada called Dildo.
About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
The oldest known goldfish lived to 41 years of age. Its name was Fred.
In 1984, a New Jersey man opened a summer camp for Cabbage Patch dolls.
You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather.
In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary formally married her 50-pound pet rock.
In 1980, the Yellow Pages accidentally listed a Texas funeral home under frozen foods.
In 1977, a 13-year-old boy discovered a tooth growing on his left foot.
In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of toast.
In the early '80s, a toad was discovered that meows instead of croaking.
In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows.
An average person laughs about 15 times a day.
Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.
The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million.
The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.
A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h.
In 1681, the last dodo bird died.
A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee.
The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is
Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.
Howdy Doody had 48 freckles.
In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan.
The most extras ever used in a movie were 300,000, for the film Gandhi in 1981.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
The only person they could find to first model the bikni was a stripper
Women's hearts beat faster than men's.
When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit.
Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.
Bubble gum contains rubber.
You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog.
In high school, Robin Williams was voted "Least Likely to Succeed."
Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.
The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello.
In the kingdom of Bhutan, all citizens officially become a year older on New Year's Day
The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people.
Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head.
In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills.
A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
In Nevada sex without a condom is considered illegal.
Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.
Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific.
There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones.
Most lipstick contains fish scales.
Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.
Mosquitos have teeth.
Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego.
The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food.
Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
Aztec emperor Mont ezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."
Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
Donkey's earwax was once used as birth control
The longest interruption of a tv program in history was when the BBC interrupted a Mickey Mouse cartoon to announce that WWII had started: over 6 years later, the cartoon was resumed, in the exact same spot it had been cut
In French, the title of the movie City Slickers translates to "Life, Love, Cows"
Pharaoh Khufu sent his own daughter into prostitution, charging her customers a block of stone to be used to build a pyramid for her. Her pyramid contains over 20,000 blocks....
The world's only B.A. program in bagpiping is taught at Carnegie Mellon University by James McIntosh
Ancient Romans used condoms made out of sheep intestines
In 1922, Pitcairn Airlines was the first to provide air sickness bags
Dead Egyptian noblewomen were given the special treatment of being allowed a few days to ripen, so that the embalmers wouldn't find her too attractive
The aggregate tension of the 6 strings of a guitar exceeds 200 pounds
A fruitflies gestation period is 48 hours
The distance between Los Angeles and Tokyo is 5451 miles
The average human sheds around 18kg of dead skin in a lifetime
The mass of all the ants on Earth is more than th mass of all the people on Earth
Each eyelash hosts a minimum of three hundred dust mites
On the 25th anneversary of the New York City marathon, the worlds longest urinal (290ft) was installed at the beginning of the race
There is a hotel in Jukkasjaerui, Sweden which is built entirely out of ice, it is built each fall and melts each May
The word "nerd" was first coined by Dr. Seuss in "If I ran the Zoo"
In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" all the classic cartoon characters had to have appeared on screen before 1946 because that is when the movie was set, but the rule was broken for Wile E. Cyote and the Road Runner because they are Robert Zemekis' favorite characters
Char-gogga-gogg-manchaugg-agogg-chabuna-gunga-maugg is the name of a lake in Webster, MA, and it means "You fish on your side, I fish on mine, nobody fishes in the middle"
Besides Star Trek, William Shatner, Leonard Nemoy, James Doohan, and Geoge Takei have all appeared at one time or another on The Twilight Zone
The Aztec played a game using a solid rubber ball shot through a stone ring, the loser was put to death, the winner, on the other hand, got all the spectators clothing.
Every leap year in ancient Scotland, maidens were allowed to ask a man to be her husband, refusal cost him a pound.
According to 1649 Massachusetts law, punishment for children over the age of 16 acting stubborn or rebellious was death.
In ancient Sparta, the penalty for remaining a bachelor was that the unmarried men were not allowed to watch the gymnastics exersizes of the women
In accordance with a US Supreme Court ruling in 1893, the difference between a fruit and a vegetable is as follows: "Any plant or part threof eaten during the main dish is a vegetable. If it is eaten at any other part of the meal, it is a fruit."
In Scotland, the proper way to make a toast is with one foot on the table, the other on a chair
Giraffes only sleep for 5 minutes a day
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.
All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
Almonds are members of the peach family.
Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
There are only four words in the English language which end in"-dous":tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
The bikini was first called the 'atom'
On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away. (pretty good trick)
In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
Outraged Japanese mothers demanded that TV networks adopt technical standards for animated programs after hundreds of children nationwide suffered seizures while watching a top-rated cartoon. More than 700 school-age children were rushed to hospitals after watching bright flashing lights on the popular Pocket Monsters (Pokemon) program December of 97.
In the original 101 Dalmatians movie, Pongo has 72 spots, Perdita has 68 and each of the puppies has 32.
Chimney's used to be cleaned by dropping live chickens down them
Men can read smaller print than women can; women can hear better.
Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treas.
Amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class: $40,000
Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28
Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38
Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80
Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50
Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58
Percentage of women who say they are happier: 85
Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
The average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90
Percentage of mammal species (including humans!!) that are: 3
Chances that a burglary in the US will be solved: 1 in 7
Portion of land in the US owned by the government: 1/3
Only food that does not spoil: honey
Only continent without reptiles or snakes: Antarctica
Only animal besides human that can get sunburn: Pig
Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.
An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.
In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.
Polar bears are left-handed
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
The youngest pope was 11 years old.
Mark Twain didn't graduate from elementary school.
Proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses.
Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
Your nose and ears never stop growing.
Hot water is heavier than cold.
They have square watermelons in Japan...they stack better.
Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.
Heinz Catsup leaving the bottle travels at 25 miles per year.
It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
Men get hiccups more often than women do.
Armadillos can be housebroken.
James Cameron did all of Jack Dawson's drawings in 'Titanic'
Two dogs survived the sinking of Titanic, yes that's right, two DOGS survived. They escaped on early lifeboats carrying so few people that no one objected. Miss Margaret Hays of New York brought her Pomeranian with her in lifeboat No. 7, while Henry Sleeper Harper of the publishing family boarded boat No. 3 with his Pekinese, Sun Yat Sen.
The "rusticles" on the model of the sunken Titanic were Cheeto's and bran flakes painted with rust coloured primer
Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg
Jack Dawson said that he learned some of his sense of seamanshiip near his home near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, on Lake Wissota. Trouble is, Lake Wissota was not even there until 1917, five years after the Titanic hit bottom. The discrepancy was noticed in the Wisconsin state papers
The rear smokestack of Titanic was false in reality, but in the movie there are atleast 2 shots that i saw that had smoke coming from all four stacks. Tsk-tsk. Silly mistakes to make don't you think? (ok, that's not really a useless fact, but... well.... I think I'm addicted to that movie and boat now! *g*)
There is a Tupperware party somewhere in the world every 2 seconds
Australia is the only place in the world with 25 types of fleas
Halifax was home to Canada's first post office in 1755
svangerskabsforebyggendemiddel is a contraseptive in Denmark
The feet contain 1/4 of all bones in the human body
The tulip originated in central Asia
1913 Indianapolis 500 winner Jules Goux drank 6 bottles of chamagne during pitstops
July is the only month of the year that Greenland's temperature averages above freezing
The United States consumes more pepper per capita than any other nation
It is rummored that the Germans challenged the Allies to a soccer match during a cease-fire in WW2 and they played for 2 hours. I don't know who won
There are three tails on the hat of the Grand High Exhalted Mystic Ruler of the Raccoons
card cheats could be executed in 18th century England for forging the ace of spades
In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania it is illegal to have sex with a truck driver inside a tollbooth.
Hang on Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P
The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
No NFL team that plays its home games in a domed stadium has ever won a Superbowl.
The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It to Beaver".
The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license.
It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun.
The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1.
Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars.
The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
The Bible has been translated into Klingon
Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match
Five Jell-O flavors that flopped: celery, coffee, cola, apple, and chocolate.
According to one study, 24% of lawns have some sort of lawn ornament in their yard.
Internationally, Baywatch is the most popular TV show in history.
A man with the same name as the character portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio...one JACK DAWSON...is buried in a marked grave in Halifax, Nova Scotia along with 150 other victims of the sinking.... His gravestone reads "J. Dawson" and is quickly becoming a shrine to local young women....
The tallest girraffe ever recorded is 19 feet, 3 inches.
Plastic vomit and wind-up chattering teeth were both invented in Chicago
A tornado once plucked all the feathers off a chicken and the chicken lived
Roughly 400 people are struck by lightning every year in the U.S, about 200 live.
tectonic plates move at about the same speed that your fingernails grow
it has been estimated that all the gold ever mined would form a block only 60 feet cubed
In the early days of sailing, a ship would never set sail on a Friday; it was believed to be bad luck.
In the 13-1400's before a ship set sail on it's maiden voyage, it was considered good luck to 'bloody the keel' by crushing slaves under the keel as it was set into the water for the first time. They would keep a few slaves onboard so that they could be sacraficed incase a storm arose while they were at sea.
In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.
A law in Oblong, Illinois makes it a crime to make love while fishing or hunting on your wedding day.
In Ames Iowa a husband may not take more than three gulps of beer while lying in bed with his wife.
A law in Alexandria, Minnesota makes it illegal for a husband to make love to his wife if his breath smells like garlic, onions, or sardines.
A Helena, Montana law states that a woman cannot dance on a saloon table unless her clothing weights more than three pounds, two ounces.
Hotel owners in Hastings, Nebraska are required by law to provide a clean, white cotton nightshirt to each guest. According to the law, no couple may have sex unless they are wearing the nightshirts.
Any couple making out inside a vehicle, and accidentally sounding the horn during their lustful act, may be taken to jail according to a Liberty Corner, New Jersey law.
In medieval times, it was believed that if a woman were to enter a wine cellar, all the wine would go bad
The first cat show was held in 1871 in Engalnd
cats can not be artificially inceminated
The largest recorded tumor weighed in at 303 pounds (!!!!)
Karl Marx's favorite colour was red
John F. Kennedy competed in the backstroke when he attended Harvard
Black and white commercials are 3 times less effective than colour ones
41% of balding men wear hats
The most popular car colour in the U.S. is red
The fine for impersonating a doctor is $5,500
European carousels turn in a clockwise direction; American carousels turn counter-clockwise
"Coca-Cola" was originally translated into Chinese as "Bite the Wax Tadpole"
Pepsi's ad slogan, "Pepsi Comes Alive" was originally translated into Chinese as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave"
There are 119,592 frames of film in Antz
If Antz were to be rendered on one processor, it would have taken 54 years, 222 days, 15 minutes and 36 seconds
The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental."
Oliver Cromwell was hanged and decapitated two years after he had died.
The first fossilized specimen of Austalopithecus afarenisis was named Lucy after the palentologists' favorite song, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, by the Beatles.
Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time
Spencer Eldon was the name of the naked baby on the cover of Nirvana's album Nevermind
Dracula is the most filmed story of all time, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is second and Oliver Twist is third.
Avocado is derived from the Spanish word ‘aguacate’, which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle.
Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy
Deborah Winger did the voice of E.T
Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5. Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tectonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.)
Cats in Halifax, Nova Scotia have a very high probability of having six toes.
The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal, right next to your temple, is called a tragus
1 in 8 people have been employed by McDonalds
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months, and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee
On average people fear spiders more than they do death
You can't kill yourself by holding your breath
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
In ancient Egypt, Priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
then there's Miracle Mike, the headless chicken of Fruita Colarado, who strutted around for 18 months without his head!
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
Did you know that you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?
The strongest muscle in the body is the TONGUE
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds, that makes the catfish rank #1 for animals having the most taste buds.
Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes
The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated
Elephants are the only animals that can't jump
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
you can get a cow drunk by feeding it apples
Roger Moore used to be an animator! Also Beverly D'Angelo used to paint backgrounds for Hanna-Barbera. Tim Matheson was the voice for the original Jonny Quest! Also I've heard that one of the Go-Gos former band group member ( the drummer) works for Disney. original drummer Steve ( Boom-Boom) DePace from the punk band "Flipper" is currently working as an assistant director at Warner Bros. animation.
The first recording ever of Jon Bon Jovi was on Christmas in the Stars (Star Wars Christmas album from 1980)
here's an amusing tidbit, Ewan McGregor's (Obi Wan in the new Star Wars movies) uncle Denis Lawson played Wedge Anitillies in the original Star Wars!
snails have their teeth on their tongue...(fact courtesy of Jennifer Quinn)
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses ;-)
There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
Almonds are members of the peach family.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon."
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's."
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle," is the phrase inspired by this practice.
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes...when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "good night, sleep tight" came from.
Only 2 words in the English language contain all the vowels abstemious and facetious (fact courtesy Grace Escobar)
the smallest fish in the world is the Pandaka pygmea found in the Phillipines(fact courtesy Grace Escobar)
the trunk of an elephant could hold 6 quarts of water(fact courtesy Grace Escobar)
Felicity, California is the official Center of the World.
swastika was used by American Indians, Hindus, Buddhists, Vikings, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Mayans, Aztecs, Persians, Christians, and neolithic tribes. There are even Jewish swastikas found in ancient synagogues side-by-side with the star of David! (fact found on an article about the Man Woman, a man living in Alberta Canada, he is on a spiritual journey of sorts to get rid of the bad rap the swastica has earned, you can read the article here)
The swastika was associated with the hammer of Thor which returned to him like a boomerang, the footprints of Buddha, the emblem of Shiva, Apollo, Jupiter, and even Jesus Christ! The swastika was the first Christian symbol and is found in the catacombs in Rome. Hindus and Buddhists to this day still revere the swastika as their sacred sign. Jains make the sign of the swastika similar to the Christian sign of the cross. In the early part of the twentieth century Rudyard Kipling used the swastika as his coat-of-arms, Coca Cola made a swastika-shaped lucky watch fob, American pilots used it on their planes when they fought for the French in World War One, it was the symbol for the Ladies Home Journal sponsored Girls' Club and the Boy Scouts. A town in Ontario was named Swastika in 1911 because of a lucky gold strike. (this fact came from the same article as the preceeding fact, you can read it here (note, because I KNOW people will complain: I am not a racist or Nazi, this fact is entirely true, the Swastika is a religious symbol used my many cultures around the world, and was considered a sign of good luck until Hitler used it as a symbol of hatred in WWII)
One year at the Heinz catsup factory, they had to raise the protein level on the back of the label because the tomatoes they used had worms.
posted by Cowpat_Hat at 9:30 AM
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