useless facts

[Jimbuna]

There’s only one letter that doesn’t appear in any U.S. state name.

Can you guess the answer to this random fun fact? You’ll find a Z (Arizona), a J (New Jersey), and even two X’s (New Mexico and Texas)—but not a single Q.

[Jimbuna]

A cow-bison hybrid is called a beefalo

You can even buy its meat in at least 21 states.

[Jimbuna]

Scotland has 421 words for snow.

[Jimbuna]

Samsung tests phone durability with a butt-shaped robot.

People stash their phones in their back pockets all the time, which is why Samsung created a robot shaped like a butt to “sit” on their phones to make sure they can take the pressure. Believe it or not, the robot even wears jeans.

[Platapus]

The movie "Ilsa, She-wolf of the SS" was filmed on the set of Hogan's Heroes.

[Jimbuna]

The Windy City nickname has nothing to do with Chicago’s weather.

If you live in Chicago, you might already know this random fact, but we’re betting most other people don’t. Chicago’s nickname was coined by 19th-century journalists who were referring to the fact that its residents were “windbags” and “full of hot air.”

[Jimbuna]

Peanuts aren’t technically nuts.

They’re legumes. According to Merriam-Webster, a nut is only a nut if it’s “a hard-shelled dry fruit or seed with a separable rind or shell and interior kernel.” That means walnuts, almonds, cashews, and pistachios aren’t nuts either. They’re seeds.

[Jimbuna]

Armadillo shells are bulletproof.

[Jimbuna]

Firefighters use wetting agents to make water wetter.

The chemicals reduce the surface tension of plain water so it’s easier to spread and better soaks into objects, which is why it’s known as “wet water.”

[Jimbuna]

“Running amok” is a medically recognized mental condition.

Considered a culturally bound syndrome, a person “running amok” in Malaysia starts with a period of brooding and then commits a sudden, frenzied mass attack.

[Ostfriese]

During the early parts of the 20th century fire fighters in Berlin, Germany, were required to have long beards. Before they went into a fire they held their beards into a barrel of water and then put their wet beards in front of their noses and mouths to cool down the hot air and to filter ash particles.

[Jimbuna]

Some octopus species lay 56,000 eggs at a time.

On average, a giant Pacific octopus will lay 56,000 eggs at the end of a pregnancy, over the course of about a month, NPR reports. At first, these new babies float through the surrounding water unattached to one another or their mother. But then the mother gathers each egg—which is about the size of a grain of rice—and weaves them into braids, allowing her to keep an eye on everyone at the same time.

[Platapus]

The ABBA song Super Trouper refers to a type of follow spotlight first made in the late 1970's by the Strong Electric Corporation

[Jimbuna]

Cats have fewer toes on their back paws.

[Jimbuna]

Kleenex tissues were originally intended for gas masks.

[Platapus]

Looking at a map of Colorado, you might think it was a rectangular-shaped state.


In fact, Colorado's shape is a hexahectaenneacontakaiheptagon.


Which as everyone already knows is a shape with 697 sides

[Platapus]

If you want to visit Springfield, Wisconsin, you better verify the address.


There are six towns in Wisconsin named Springfield. More than any other state.

[Jimbuna]

Blue whales eat half a million calories in one mouthful

[Platapus]

2/3rds of Canadians live south of Seattle, WA

[Platapus]

Every state that borders Arkansas can be entered from some point in Arkansas by traveling due South

[Jimbuna]

That tiny pocket in jeans was designed to store pocket watches.

The original jeans had only four pockets: that tiny pocket, plus two more on the front and just one in the back.

[Jimbuna]

Turkeys can blush.

[Jimbuna]

The man with the world’s deepest voice can make sounds humans can’t hear.

[Jimbuna]

The current American flag was designed by a high school student.

[Jimbuna]

Cows don’t have upper front teeth.

[Platapus]

Contrary to what is seen in movies/TV, the Captain of a ship does not have the authority to perform marriages.



The Captain would have to have additional authorities as a GP or religious office in order to perform marriages.

[Jimbuna]

Thanks to 3D printing, NASA can basically email tools to astronauts.

[Jimbuna]

Only a quarter of the Sahara Desert is sandy.

[Platapus]

Antarctica is the worlds largest desert.

[Jimbuna]

Bananas grow upside down.

[Platapus]

The English Horn isn't.


It is neither English nor a horn


Must be a brit thing

[Jimbuna]

There were active volcanoes on the moon when dinosaurs were alive.

Most of the volcanoes probably stopped erupting about a billion years ago, but NASA findings have suggested there might still have been active lava flow 100 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming.

[Jimbuna]

Dogs sniff good smells with their left nostril.

Dogs normally start sniffing with their right nostril, then keep it there if the smell could signal danger, but they’ll shift to the left side for something pleasant, like food or a mating partner.

[Platapus]

In the movie Jurassic Park, the vast majority of dinosaurs depicted did not live in the Jurassic era. They lived in the cretaceous era

[Jimbuna]

Avocados were named after reproductive organs.

You’ll never look at avocados the same way again. Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America used the Nahuatl word āhuacatl to mean both “testicles” and “avocado.” The fruits were originally marketed as “alligator pears” in the United States until the current name stuck.

[Jimbuna]

T. S. Eliot wore green makeup.

No one is sure why the poet dusted his face with green powder, though some guess he was just trying to look more interesting.

[Jimbuna]

The word “fizzle” started as a type of fart.

In the 1400s, it meant to “break wind quietly,” according to the English Oxford Living Dictionaries.

[Jimbuna]

Human noses and ears get bigger as we age.

[Jimbuna]

No number before 1,000 contains the letter A

[Jimbuna]

The # symbol isn’t officially called hashtag or pound.

Its technical name is octothorpe. The “octo” means “eight” and refers to its points, though reports disagree on where “thorpe” came from. Some claim it was named after Olympian Jim Thorpe, while others argue it was just a nonsense suffix.

[Jimbuna]

The French have their own name for a French kiss.

Something extra interesting about this kissing fact? The word hasn’t been around for long. In 2014, galocher—meaning to kiss with tongues—was added to the Petit Robert French dictionary.

[Jimbuna]

You can thank the Greeks for calling Christmas “Xmas”

In Greek, the word for “Christ” starts with the letter Chi, which looks like an X in the Roman alphabet.

[Jimbuna]

Movie trailers originally played after the movie.

They “trailed” the feature film—hence, the name. The first trailer appeared in 1912 and was for a Broadway show, not a movie.

[Ostfriese]

The five rarest letters in German are ß, J, X, Y and Q.

[Jimbuna]

Mercedes invented a car controlled by a joystick.

The joystick in the 1966 Mercedes F200 showcase car controlled speed and direction, replacing both the steering wheel and pedals.

[Ostfriese]

The world's deadliest border in 2024 was the southern border of the European Union, both in absolute numbers and in percentage.

Europe's southern border has been at the top of this statistic for the 10th consecutive year.


Five of the six main migration routes into Europe cross the southern border:
- the Balkan land route (starting in Greece, which is a EU member, through Albania and Serbia into Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia)
- the eastern Mediterranean route (starting in Syria and neighbouring countries, crossing the Mediterranean into Cyprus, from there into Turkey and then on to Greece and Bulgaria)
- the central Mediterranean route (from Tunisia across the Mediterranean to southern Italy and Malta)
- the western Mediterranean route (from Morocco across the Mediterranean/Gibraltar into Spain)
- the Canary Islands route (from Westafrican nations like Morocco, Mauretania, Senegal, The Gambia and others across the Atlantic to the Canary Islands off the Morroccan coast. The Canary Islands are an autonomous region of Spain).


The last one is the deadliest route, more than 20% of the migrants using this route died in 2024 (a bit over 10,000 known dead, with estimates going as high as 35,000 out of about 50,000 registered illegal immigrants).

[Jimbuna]

H&M actually stands for something.

The clothing retail shop was originally called Hennes—Swedish for “hers”—before acquiring the hunting and fishing equipment brand Mauritz Widforss. Eventually, Hennes & Mauritz was shortened to H&M.

[Aktungbby]

The biggest thing in the known universe is Quipu.

[Jimbuna]

Theodore Roosevelt had a pet hyena.

[Jimbuna]

The CIA headquarters has its own Starbucks, but baristas don’t write names on the cups.

Its receipts say “Store Number 1” instead of “Starbucks,” and its workers need an escort to leave their work posts.

[Platapus]

Giraffes do not have horns. They have Ossicones.

[Jimbuna]

Giraffe tongues can be 20 inches long.

Their dark, bluish-black color is probably to prevent sunburn.

[Jimbuna]

There’s only one U.S. state capital without a McDonald’s.

Montpelier, Vermont.

[Jimbuna]

Europeans were scared of eating tomatoes when they were introduced.

[Platapus]

The international Space Station loses 100 meters of altitude per day.


A few times per year, extra fuel needs to be taken up to allow the thrusters to boost the altitude back.

[Jimbuna]

Humans aren’t the only animals that dream.

Studies have indicated rats dream about getting to food or running through mazes. Most mammals go through REM sleep, the cycle in which dreams occur, so scientists think there’s a good chance they all dream.

[Jimbuna]

The inventor of the microwave appliance received only $2 for his discovery.

[Jimbuna]

Frankenstein’s Creature is a vegetarian.

Both Victor Frankenstein and Creature are fictional characters in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. In the classic novel, Creature says, “My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.”

[Platapus]

Catoptromancy is the interpretation of reflections

[Aktungbby]

/\...like when I get 'twixt two mirrors while shaving...:hmmm: and contemplate which is my 'good' side :yep:and which isn't :nope::yeah:

[Platapus]

/\...like when I get 'twixt two mirrors while shaving...:hmmm: and contemplate which is my 'good' side :yep:and which isn't :nope::yeah:




For you?


Neither is the good side. :O::D

[Aktungbby]

I knew that'd finally get a 'rise' outta ya!:arrgh!::yeah:

[Jimbuna]

Medical errors are a top cause of death.

According to a Johns Hopkins research team, 250,000 deaths in the United States are caused by medical error each year. This makes medical error the third leading cause of death in the country.

[Jimbuna]

Sloths have more neck bones than giraffes.

[Aktungbby]

Catoptromancy is the interpretation of reflectionsFor you?


Neither is the good side. :O::D

I knew that'd finally get a 'rise' outta ya!:arrgh!::yeah: https://www.tiktok.com/@pointingorangutan/video/7474262946353319199:yep:

[Jimbuna]

Bees can fly higher than Mount Everest.

Bees can fly higher than 29,525 feet above sea level, according to National Geographic. That’s higher than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world.

[Platapus]

https://www.tiktok.com/@pointingorangutan/video/7474262946353319199:yep:


They should not have used my image there. They did not give me a chance to even brush my teeth.

[Jimbuna]

Ancient Egyptians used dead mice to ease toothaches.

[Jimbuna]

Paint used to be stored in pig bladders.

[Ostfriese]

In 1950 East Germany had a population of 18.39 million. Despite a fertility rate of >2 until 1970 the population declined to about 17 million. At the time of the reunification it was down to 16.1 million.
Today the eastern region of Germany has only about 13.8 million inhabitants.

Especially young people are leaving the area of the former GDR, and the majority of them are women. In the age group 18-49 some rural regions experience a severe disparity between men and women, with less than 70 women for every 100 men.

[Catfish]

Medical errors are a top cause of death.
According to a Johns Hopkins research team, 250,000 deaths in the United States are caused by medical error each year. [...] .
Hasn't the Johns Hopkins team just been defunded by Musk :D

[Aktungbby]

Ancient Egyptians used dead mice to ease toothaches.:hmmm:...and used their scaly tails to floss with!:Kaleun_Sick:

[Jimbuna]

Hasn't the Johns Hopkins team just been defunded by Musk :D

I've no idea but wouldn't be the least bit surprised if he has :)

[Jimbuna]

Humans have jumped farther than horses in the Olympics.

[Jimbuna]

The Terminator script was sold for $1

[Platapus]

Humans have jumped farther than horses in the Olympics.




Humans have jumped higher than a two story house.


Primarily because houses can't jump :D

[Jimbuna]

That one is older than both our ages combined :)

[Platapus]

The Oscar statue award is male


But did you know what the Emmy statue is female?

[Jimbuna]

Pigeon poop is the property of the British Crown.

[Ostfriese]

Rare earth metals aren't exactly rare. The most abundant of them, cerium, is more common in Earth's crust than copper and lead. All of them (with the exception of Promethium, which does not form stable isotopes) are more common than silver, mercury, gold, cadmium and even iodine.


They are, however, not found in high concentrations, and chemically they react very similar to each other, because they mostly differ in the number of electrons in the f-orbital, unlike the main group and transition group elements, which differ in the number of electrons in the s-, p- and d-orbitals (if you only know the simpler Bohr model of the electon shell: s- and p-orbital form the outer shell with the electrons most important for bonding, while the d-orbital is beneath the outer layer and the f-orbital even further beneath).



Extracting rare earth metals requires processing a much higher amount of ore, and separating them from each other requires very complex processes, which is why they are used nowhere near as much. While about 20 million tons of copper and about 5 million tons of lead are produced annually, only about 25,000 tons of cerium are produced.

[Aktungbby]

/\:hmmm:...easily the most Bohring post I've ever read at :subsim: :zzz:

[Ostfriese]

/\:hmmm:...easily the most Bohring post I've ever read at :subsim: :zzz:

Chemistry is never boring, and Niels Bohr doesn‘t agree with you. Neither will Markus if he notices that you are dragging a fellow Dane‘s name into the mud :hmph::haha:

[Jimbuna]

Onions were found in the eyes of an Egyptian mummy.

Pharaoh Ramses IV of ancient Egypt had his eyes replaced with small onions when he was mummified. The rings and layers of onions were worshipped because people thought they represented eternal life. This aligns with the reason for mummification: to allow the pharaoh to live forever.

[Jimbuna]

Abraham Lincoln was a bartender.

[Sean C]

Abraham Lincoln also preferred water over alcohol and would sometimes pretend to drink wine at social gatherings.

[Jimbuna]

Beethoven never knew how to multiply or divide.

The renowned pianist went to a Latin school called Tirocinium, where he was taught some math but never learned multiplication or division—only addition. Once, when he needed to multiply 62 by 50, he wrote 62 down a line 50 times and added it all up.

[Ostfriese]

Beethoven never knew how to multiply or divide.

The renowned pianist went to a Latin school called Tirocinium, where he was taught some math but never learned multiplication or division—only addition. Once, when he needed to multiply 62 by 50, he wrote 62 down a line 50 times and added it all up.
Which actually makes him more proficient in maths than at least three quarters of today's population. :D

[Jimbuna]

Certainly does where the UK is concerned :)

[Platapus]

Beethoven never knew how to multiply or divide.

The renowned pianist went to a Latin school called Tirocinium, where he was taught some math but never learned multiplication or division—only addition. Once, when he needed to multiply 62 by 50, he wrote 62 down a line 50 times and added it all up.


That's the only right way to do math

https://youtu.be/oN2_NarcM8c?t=33

[Jimbuna]

One of the greats :)

[Jimbuna]

Japan released sushi-inspired Kit Kats.

[Jimbuna]

An espresso maker was sent into space in 2015

Coffee lovers will appreciate this interesting space fact: Samantha Cristoforetti was the first astronaut to get a warm and cozy piece of home sent to her while in orbit. The Italian Space Agency worked with Italian coffee manufacturer Lavazza to get the coffee capsules into space.

[Jimbuna]

The word “aquarium” means “watering place for cattle” in Latin.

[Platapus]

The word “aquarium” means “watering place for cattle” in Latin.


Doubtful


Aqua is Latin for water


-Arium is a Latin Suffux used to form nouns denoting a "place where things are kept" referencing the attached noun


Aquarium means a place where water is kept.



Early uses may have been for cattle, but there is nothing in the word aquarium that specifies cattle (Pecus)

[Jimbuna]

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne started Apple Inc. on April Fools’ Day

[Jimbuna]

The inventor of the tricycle personally delivered two to Queen Victoria.

[Platapus]

Pope John Paul II was made an honorary Harlem Globetrotter.

[Jimbuna]

Your brain synapses shrink while you sleep.

[Platapus]

Do you ever want to visit Rome?


There's a city named "Rome" on every continent except Antarctica.

[Jimbuna]

A waffle iron inspired one of the first pairs of Nikes.

[Eisenwurst]

unintentional posting...oooops

[Platapus]

New Jersey is the top producer of the world's eggplants.

[Ostfriese]

In it's 15 years of existence the Weimar Republic had more chancellors (15) than the post-war Federal Republic of Germany had in 76 years (9, Friedrich Merz not inculded).

[Jimbuna]

Boars wash their food.

[Platapus]

It's estimated that Americans eat 50 Billion hamburgers each year.


Since I started my diet, that's probably down to 30 Billion.

[Jimbuna]

Baseball umpires used to sit in rocking chairs.

[Platapus]

The fastest gust of wind ever recorded on Earth was 253 miles per hour.


It won't happen again as I stopped eating at Taco Belll

[Jimbuna]

The first commercial passenger flight lasted only 23 minutes.

[Platapus]

A cat's ear contains 32 muscles.





All the more to ignore you, my dear

[Jimbuna]

The world’s first novel ends mid-sentence.

The Tale of Genji, written by Murasaki Shikibu in the 11th century, is considered the world’s first novel. After reading 54 intricately crafted chapters, the reader is stopped abruptly mid-sentence. One translator believes the work is complete as is, but another says we’re missing a few more pages of the story.

[Platapus]

It probably doesn't make a lot of difference if you are attacked, but


Crocodiles cannot stick out their tongues, but alligators can.



:O:

[Jimbuna]

The French-language Scrabble World Champion doesn’t speak French.

[Platapus]

What has six legs but can't walk?






Dragonflies

[Shearwater]

Technically speaking, there's a Catholic bishop for the moon - it's the bishop of the diocese of Orlando.

[Jimbuna]

A woman called the police when her ice cream didn’t have enough sprinkles.

The West Midlands police in England released a recording of a woman who called 999 (the U.K. version of 911) because there were “bits on one side and none on the other,” she says in the recording. She was even more upset when the ice cream truck man did not want to give her money back.

[Platapus]

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

[Jimbuna]

Uncle Ben’s rice was air-dropped to World War II troops.

[Platapus]

The lifespan of a dragonfly ranges from around a week to eight weeks.

[Platapus]

A banana is considered a berry.

[Shearwater]

As is a cucumber.

[Jimbuna]

The British Empire was the largest empire in world history.

The British Empire was most powerful in the 1920s, when it controlled 23 percent of the world’s population and approximately 13.7 million square miles of territory—or nearly a quarter of the Earth’s land area, according to a report from Statista.

[Shearwater]

Less than 5% of people (including yours truly) experience a cough reflex if something enters their ear canal. It's called Arnold's nerve reflex.

[Platapus]

Do you like Honey?


The combined work of the entire lives of 12 bees accumulates to one single teaspoon of honey.



Don't waste it.

[Jimbuna]

South American river turtles talk in their eggs.

[Platapus]

A lot of oranges are actually green.

[Reece]

Wow, I never knew that!! :o :hmmm:

[Jimbuna]

Penicillin was first called “mold juice”

[Shearwater]

Speaking of penicillin -

the English word 'pencil' is derived from 'small penis' (penicillus, with peni- as the root and -cillus as the diminutive suffix).

[Jimbuna]

The first stroller was engineered to be pulled by a goat (or animal of similar size)

[mapuc]

More land is used for golf courses worldwide than is used for solar and wind energy.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

May 20, 1873, is the “birthday” of blue jeans.

According to the Levi Strauss company, this was the day that Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis, the innovators behind the sturdy blue jeans we all love, got a patent on the process of adding metal rivets to men’s denim work pants.

[Platapus]

A banana is considered a berry.

A lot of oranges are actually green.


Strawberries are not technically considered berries.


What else have we been lied about???????

[Platapus]

More deception!!!


Pistachios, cashews and almonds are closer to fruits than nuts. They are classified as "drupes" which are fruits that are fleshy on the outside and contain a shell covering a seed on the inside.


Trust nothing!

[Jimbuna]

170-year-old bottles of champagne were found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

The bottles of bubbly are believed to have been traveling from Germany to Russia during the 1800s when they sank to the bottom of the sea, according to New Scientist. It turns out that the bottom of the sea, where temperatures are between two and four degrees Celsius, is a great place for wine aging. Wine experts sampled the champagne and described it as “sometimes cheesy” with “animal notes” and elements of “wet hair.”

[Platapus]

Are you a fat head?


Probably


The human brain is about 60 percent fat.

[Jimbuna]

The MGM lion roar is trademarked.

[Platapus]

Women blink almost twice as much as men.



Men hiccup more than women.

[Sean C]

Cheese with animal notes and elements of wet hair is not at all appetizing to me.

[Eichhörnchen]

^ :har:

[Jimbuna]

Neil Armstrong’s hair was sold in 2004 for $3,000

[Jimbuna]

Irish bars used to be closed on Saint Patrick’s Day.

[Platapus]

A standard Slinky contains 67 feet of metal and can be stretched to 15 feet without deforming.

[Jimbuna]

Nikola Tesla hated pearls.

[Platapus]

Can you tell me what the word "set" means?


it might take you a while


The word "set" has the highest number of definitions—430+ according to the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary!

[Ostfriese]

Three out of four EU-citizens aged 25-64 speak one or more foreign languages. For EU-citizens aged 18-24 the rate is even higher at 87.3%.

[Platapus]

One lick of a stamp results in the consumption of one-tenth of a calorie.

[Jimbuna]

Thomas Edison is the reason you love cat videos.

After inventing the kinetograph in 1892, Edison was able to record and watch moving images for the first time. He filmed short clips in his studio, some of which feature famous people like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill. But the real stars of these early videos are the Boxing Cats—adorable cats that he recorded in a boxing ring circa 1894.

[Platapus]

It may not be the oldest profession, but


Humans have been performing dentistry since 7000 B.C., which makes dentistry one of the oldest professions.

[Jimbuna]

Pregnancy tests date back to 1350 B.C

[Platapus]

The first-ever documented feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, was made in Melbourne, Australia, in 1906.

[Jimbuna]

Martin Luther King Jr. got a C in public speaking.

[Platapus]

The shortest commercial flight in the world is in Scotland (between Westray and Papa Westray islands). The journey is 1.7 miles and takes just 90 seconds to complete.


Not only was the flight late, but the airline lost my luggage.

[Jimbuna]

Bees can make coloured honey.

[Platapus]

Cookie Monster's real name is Sid.

[Jimbuna]

Bananas glow blue under black lights

[Jimbuna]

Wimbledon tennis balls are kept at 68 degrees Fahrenheit

[Platapus]

Bees can get intoxicated if they feed on fermented nectar or tree sap.

[Jimbuna]

Adult cats are lactose intolerant.

[Platapus]

Snoop Dogg's real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus Jr.

[Jimbuna]

Albert Einstein’s eyeballs are in New York City.

They were given to Henry Abrams and preserved in a safety deposit box. Abrams was Einstein’s eye doctor. He received the eyeballs from Thomas Harvey, the man who performed the autopsy on Einstein and illegally took the scientist’s brain for himself.

[Platapus]

The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia.

[Jimbuna]

The Pope can’t be an organ donor.

[Platapus]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia


If you have it, you did not like what I just wrote.


It is the fear of long words

[Aktungbby]

Martin Luther King Jr. got a C in public speaking.:hmmm:...but he got an A in dreaming!:yeah::yep:

[Platapus]

Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people's opinions. It's a rare social phobia characterized by an irrational and overwhelming fear of what other people think.


Rare?


That's everyone on the Internets Tubes

[Ostfriese]

When world war II started with the German invasion of Poland only one WWI combatant had paid back its war debt to the US in full: Finland.

[Jimbuna]

A one-armed player scored the winning goal in the first World Cup.

Héctor Castro, who accidentally cut off his right forearm while using an electric saw as a teenager, played on the Uruguay soccer team during the first-ever World Cup in 1930. In the last game between Uruguay and Argentina, Castro scored the winning goal in the last minute of the game. The final score was 4–2, making Uruguay the first country to win the World Cup title.

[Platapus]

Looking for a long book to read?


A book called "A La Recherche du Temps Perdu" by Marcel Proust contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters, making it the longest book in the world. The title translates to "Remembrance of Things Past."

[Jimbuna]

The world’s oldest toy is a stick.

[Platapus]

Google Images was created after Jennifer Lopez wore *that* infamous dress at the 2000 Grammys. So many people were searching for her outfit, the search engine added an image function.

[Jimbuna]

You’re taller in the morning than at night.

[Platapus]

The Easter Island heads have bodies. In the 2010s, archaeologists found that two of the Pacific Island figures actually had torsos that measured as high as 33 feet.

[Platapus]

M&Ms are named after the businessmen who created them. But what do the Ms stand for? Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie.

[Jimbuna]

The Caesar Salad was invented in Mexico

[Platapus]

The last letter added to the English alphabet was 'J'. The letter dates back to 1524, and before that the letter 'i' was used for both the 'i' and 'j' sounds.

[Catfish]

Looking for a long book to read?

A book called "A La Recherche du Temps Perdu" by Marcel Proust contains an estimated 9,609,000 characters, making it the longest book in the world. The title translates to "Remembrance of Things Past."
I bought it and was almost through, but I realize it grows more pages every day :hmmm:

[Platapus]

There is actually a word for someone giving an opinion about something they know nothing about. An 'ultracrepidarian' is someone who voices thoughts beyond their expertise.


aka every person on the Internets Tubes these days

[Platapus]

Interested in a longer stroll?


The world's longest walking distance is 14,000 miles. You can walk from Magadan in Russia to Cape Town in South Africa. It requires no flying or sailing—just bridges and open roads.

[Aktungbby]

/\ :hmmm:...actually, the world's longest walking distance is approximately 24,000+- miles...if yer Jesus Krist & don't mind damp sandals!:O::arrgh!::yeah::smug:

[Jimbuna]

The oldest goldfish lived to be 43 years old.

[Jimbuna]

Andrew Johnson was buried with his head on the Constitution.

[Platapus]

All the clocks in Pulp Fiction are set to 4:20.

[Jimbuna]

It rains red in some parts of the world.

Red rain, also known as blood rain, occurs when high concentrations of colored dust or particles carried from deserts mix with rain, altering its hue.

[Aktungbby]

Andrew Johnson was buried with his head on the Constitution....he also wanted "no better winding-sheet than the American flag", and was wrapped in one in his casket.:Kaleun_Salute:

[Jimbuna]

There’s an orchestra made up entirely of typewriters.

Since 2004, the Boston Typewriter Orchestra has been playing concerts, making and performing music by only using vintage typewriters.

[Platapus]

How about an udderly useless fact



Harry Styles has four nipples. He has a common condition called polythelia.

[Jimbuna]

The Beatles officially broke up at Disney World

[Ostfriese]

Of the 18 teams that currently play in the German Bundesliga nine have never been German champions.

The team with the longest draught is Holstein Kiel - their most recent (and only) German championship came in 1912. Before being promoted to the Bundesliga in 2024 Holstein Kiel hadn't played a first tier game for 63 years. As it's very likely they'll be relegated to the tier 2 "2. Bundesliga" at the end of the season one can only hope that it won't take another 63 years until they play their next tier 1 game.

[Jimbuna]

A New York City restaurant sells a $2,700 pizza.

Industry Kitchen, a restaurant located at New York City’s South Street Seaport, holds the Guinness World Record for offering the world’s most expensive pizza. The pizza, which you have to order two days in advance, is topped with 24 karat gold leaves, Stilton blue cheese, Hudson Valley foie gras, Platinum Osetra caviar, French Périgord truffle and Almas caviar, which is optional for an extra $700.

[Platapus]

Queen Elizabeth II had a stand-in to make sure the sun wouldn't get in her eyes. Ella Slack was a similar height to the late Queen, so she would rehearse big events beforehand to make sure everything would be comfortable for the monarch. However, she wasn't allowed to sit on the throne, so she had to squat above it.

[Platapus]

The blob of toothpaste on a toothbrush has a name. It's called a "nurdle"

[Jimbuna]

A bear became a corporal in World War II

During World War II, members of the Polish Army’s 22nd Artillery Supply adopted a bear cub named Wojtek. The soldiers looked out for him and even gave him the rank of a private. In 1944, Wojtek returned the favor, helping to move ammunition during the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy. For Wojtek’s service and bravery, he was promoted to the rank of corporal.

[Jimbuna]

There’s an underwater post office in the South Pacific.

Situated off the coast of Hideaway Island Resort and Marine Sanctuary is the Vanuatu Post, the world’s only under-the-sea post office. Vacationers who want to send a waterproof postcard home can snorkel or scuba dive 10 feet below the ocean’s surface. A special flag is raised above the water to indicate when postal workers are in the water.

[Platapus]

Vietnam is the world's second biggest coffee producer. Brazil creates the most, with Colombia coming in third.

[Sean C]

Some slide rules have a minute of arc gauge mark on the sine scale. It's usually situated adjacent to another fixed scale (e.g. the c scale) and indicates the number of arc minutes in 1 radian (ca. 3440') on the secondary scale.

[Jimbuna]

Babies have more bones than adults.

Babies are born with about 300 bones, though eventually, these bones will fuse together to form the 206 bones an adult has.

[Platapus]

You share your birthday with around 19 million people.


Yep, not feeling so special now, are you?

[Platapus]

The continent of Africa is in all four hemispheres.

[Jimbuna]

Honey never expires.

As long as honey is sealed and stored properly, it can last an eternity.

[Platapus]

Do you like getting holidays off from work?


Then consider moving to Nepal


Nepal has the most public holidays. The nation has 39 each year.

[Jimbuna]

Women in Allied countries wore red lipstick because Hitler hated it.

[Platapus]

In order for a spirit to be classed as tequila, it needs to be made from the blue agave plant. In fact, it's made from the center of the agave plant, which is called the piña.

[Jimbuna]

An author predicted the sinking of the Titanic 14 years earlier.

[Platapus]

What movie had the first use of computer animation?


Hitchcock's Vertigo.


He used a WWII AAA targeting computer

[Ostfriese]

An author predicted the sinking of the Titanic 14 years earlier.


Morgan Robertson, "Futility, or: The Wreck of the Titan", 1898. Originally the title was just "Futility"; the rest of the title was added after the sinking of the Titanic.

It's a novel, not a prediction, even though there are some striking similarities :) Half of the story is a love story between two survivors.

[Jimbuna]

First-time tourists to Paris can be so disappointed, they get sick.

Get a load of this strange, odd fact: When visiting Paris for the first time fails to live up to someone’s high expectations, it can bring on something called the Paris Syndrome. A real psychological condition, Paris Syndrome can cause symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, increased heart rate, and dizziness. Interestingly enough, it appears to affect Japanese tourists in greater numbers.

[Platapus]

The Caesar salad was named after Caesar.


Caesar Cardini, actually. The salad was invented in July 1924 by Caesar Cardini, an Italian chef who owned a restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico.

[Jimbuna]

Pilots and co-pilots consume different in-flight meals.

One fact that can allow you peace of mind during air travel: The Captain and the First Officer of most airlines eat different food to avoid an unfortunate situation of both getting food poisoning while flying.

[Platapus]

Kowabunga


The largest wave ever recorded was in Lituya Bay in Alaska. It reached 1,720 feet in 1958, and was triggered by a massive landslide.

[Jimbuna]

Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn.

The mythical animal has been a celebrated symbol for centuries, appearing on the Scottish royal coat of arms in the 12th century and on gold coins in the 1600s. According to The Scotsman, one theory on why the Scottish chose the unicorn is that it’s long been regarded as the natural enemy of the lion, which was England’s symbol. Scots value their national animal so much that they designate every April 9th as National Unicorn Day!