Useless Facts Archives

You can sleep better for knowing the following information

• 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.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.
• All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5.00 bill
• Almonds are members of the peach family.
• Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
• Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
• In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
• A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

You may not sleep for knowing the following information

• 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 renumber the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
• 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."
• Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
• The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means, "the king is dead".
• Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
• Camel's milk does not curdle.
• 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.
• Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
• All porcupines float in water.
• Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
• Did you know that there are coffee flavored PEZ?
• Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."
• Cat's urine glows under a blacklight.
• If you bring a raccoon's head to the Henniker, New Hampshire town hall, you are entitled to receive $.10 from the town.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• 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 that still exists whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
• Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.
• When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
• The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. (Marvin comments: But you'd think that all the lightweights and airheads that "study" there would balance that out.)
• The weight of paper produced in support of GPS implementation into NASA's Space Shuttle program will exceed the weight of the moon.

Facts you've never heard of.

• A day without orange juice is like a day without vodka
• "Vegetarian" - Indian word for "lousy hunter"
• A husband is a lover who pushed his luck too far
• A job is nice but it interferes with my life
• A lesbian is just another woman trying to do a man's job
• Alzheimer's - You get to hide your own Easter eggs
• An intelligent dyslexic is smucking fart
• An orgasm is a gland finale
• Anything good in life is illegal, immoral or long distance
• Arachnohomophobia: Fear of gay spiders
• Atheists have no one to talk to during sex
• Avoid mailmen, they're carriers
• Back the Metric System every inch of the way!
• Beautiful girls don't bother me, dammit!
• Been to Sodom, did the angels, got the button
• Between two evils, pick the one you can't spell
• Bigamy: One wife too many. Monogamy: Same thing.
• Brains are more useful if no one knows you have them
• Don't be so open-minded your brains fall out.
• Note the editor: I hit my boyfriend for sending me this one.

Facts in general (with the stupid comments deleted after them)

• The oldest known goldfish lived to 41 years of age. Its name was Fred.
• There is a town in Newfoundland, Canada called Dildo.
• In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers.
• Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during WWI.
• If an orangutan belches at you, watch out. He's warning you to stay out of his territory.
• Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded.
• In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.
• About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
• 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.
• How can you tell when a gorilla is angry?... It sticks its tongue out.
• 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.
• 1,200 college students streaked at the same time in Boulder, CO in 1974.
• 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.
• About 96% of all American children can recognize Ronald McDonald.
• 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.
• The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500s.
• The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C.
• Watch out for flying hockey pucks - they travel at up to 100 mph.
• America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men.
• 98% of American drivers think they drive better than anyone else.
• When he's feeling amorous, the male sea otter grabs the female's nose with his teeth.
• 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.
• What color was Christopher Columbus's hair?... Blonde.
• In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan.
• The most extras ever used in a movie was 300,000, for the film Gandhi in 1981.
• Every person has a unique tongue print.
• Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does.
• 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 Jell-o.
• The sex organ on a male spider is located at the end of one of its legs.
• Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks.
• Chicken soup was considered an aphrodisiac in the Middle Ages.
• Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
• 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.
• About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money.
• It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas.
• Someone paid $14,000 for the bra Marilyn Monroe wore in 'Some Like It Hot'.
• Some toothpastes contain antifreeze.
• Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
• Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991.
• 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.
• Mosquitoes have teeth.
• Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.
• 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.
• Captain Kangaroo won five Emmy awards.
• In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
• Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."
• Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark.
• "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo.

Yet even more Useless Facts

• 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 once!
• 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 hummingbird weighs less than a penny!
• Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it is known as Tennessee!
• The Earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons!
• Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie!
• The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!
• 1 in every 4 americans has appeared on television!
• The average American 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 1000 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!
• 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 can't find any food!
• The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old!
• In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow!
• About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30!
• More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones!
• Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, everytime you breathe!
• In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons!
• 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 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 hair on their eyes!
• 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!