- The longest Oscar acceptance speech ever was made by Greer Garson for 1942's Mrs. Miniver. It took an hour.
- Insects consume 10% of the world's food supply every year.
- China has only about 200 family names.
- The YKK on zippers stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
- The first city in the world to have a population of more than one million was London.
- Fingernails grow four times faster than toenails.
- Elizabeth I of England suffered from "anthophobia," a fear of roses.
- Earth is the only planet not named after a God.
- The term karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese.
- The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
- Six fictional characters have stars on the Walk of Fame: Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker and Snow White.
- When a shrimp is first born, it's male--it gradually evolves into being female as it matures.
- If an octopus is hungry enough, it will eat its own arms.
- The Netherlands used to be known as the United States.
- All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses, some of them just didn't like to be seen wearing them in public.
- Owls are the only birds that can see the color blue.
- King Charles VII, assassinated in 1167, was the first Swedish king with the name of Charles. Charles I, II, III, IV, V, never existed.
- The Chinese ideogram for "trouble" depicts two women living under one roof.
- Car manufacturer Henry Ford was awarded Hitler's Supreme Order of the German Eagle.
- Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
- On average, 13 people a year die from vending machines falling on them.
- The water we drink is three billion years old.
- One out of every three English males between the ages of 17 and 35 was killed in World War I.
- The first person to refer to a coward as a "chicken" was William Shakespeare.
- It takes 21 pounds of milk to make one pound of butter.
- During its lifetime an oyster changes its sex from male to female and back several times.
- When a waitress draws a happy face on a check tips rise 18%. When a waiter does, tips rise 3%.
- Honey is used as the center of some golf balls.
- Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.
- The blueprints for the Eiffel Tower covered more than 14,000 square feet of drafting paper.
- According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. The punishment? The offense was punishable by hanging.
- The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why.
- Acting was once considered to be evil, and the actors in the first English play to be performed in America were arrested.
- A fully loaded supertanker travelling at normal speed takes a least 20 minutes to stop.
- In space, astronauts can't cry because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.
- A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.
- How many cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road? 160.
- 82% of the workers on the Panama Canal suffered from malaria.
- A six-pound sea hare can lay 40,000 eggs in a single minute.
- Some 160,000 people attempt suicide every year in France.
- 27% of U.S. male college students believe life is a meaningless existential hell.
- Ireland is the only place where windmills turn clockwise.
- Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
- Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die.
- Some insects can live up to a year without their heads.
- Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they cant find any food.
- Almost a quarter of the land area of Los Angeles is taken up by automobiles.
- In 1935, Jesse Owens set six track and field world records in less than one hour.
- Leonardo da Vinci spent twelve years painting the Mona Lisa's lips.
- When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
- The average desktop computer contains 5-10 times more computing power than was used to land a man on the moon.
- Most cows give more milk when they listen to music.
- Roses cut in the afternoon last longer than ones cut in the morning.
- The embryos of tiger sharks fight each other while in their mother's womb, the survivor being the baby shark that is born.
- Because it has no backbone, a seventy-pound octopus can squeeze through a hole the size of a silver dollar.
- Beethoven poured ice water over his head when he sat down to create music, believing it stimulated his brain.
- The stick insects of Indonesia are the biggest insects in the world, sometimes reaching a foot in length.
- Men have more blood than women. Men have 1.5 gallons versus .875 gallons for women.
- Mistletoe is a parasite. It wraps itself around certain trees to extract the sap from them. On the other hand, mistletoe, an evergreen, can also help its host by supplying it with chlorophyll in winter when the host plant has lost its leaves.
- The expression "tit for tat" comes from "dit vor dat" which means "this for that" in Dutch.
- Jeanne Pierre Francois Blanchard built the first parachute and tested it using a dog.
- In 1845 Boston had an ordinance banning bathing unless you had a doctor's prescription.
- Lobsters are scared of octopuses. The sight of one makes a lobster freeze.
- The first typewriter was built by William Burt in 1829 and was intended to be used for the blind.
- People who have never been married are seven and a half times more likely than married people to be admitted to a psychiatric facility.
- We tie shoes to the cars of newlyweds because shoes are related to feet, and feet have long been considered phallic symbols. Tying shoes to the car serves the same purpose as throwing rice, it's a wish for the couple's fertility.
- The giant crab of Japan can be as large as 12 feet across.
- A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
- The first place in the western world to give women the right to vote was an island known as Man.
- The word "piano" is really an abbreviation for the word "pianoforte."
- Duffel bags are named after a town of Duffel, Belgium, where they were first made.
- Children grow faster in the springtime.
- One in every four Americans has appeared on television.
- The smallest number spelled with an "a" is one thousand.
- The Amazon river pushes so much water into the Atlantic that, more than 100 miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean and drink it.
- During World War II, U.S. bakers were ordered to stop selling sliced bread for the duration of the war on January 18, 1943. Only whole loaves were made available to the public. It was never explained how this action helped the war effort.
- Dolphins swim in circles while they sleep with the eye on the outside of the circle open to keep watch for predators. After a certain amount of time they reverse and swim in the opposite direction with the opposite eye open.
- A newborn turkey chick has to be taught to eat, or it will starve.
- The moon weighs 81 billion billion tons.
- The bat is the only mammal that can fly.
- The caterpillar has more than 2,000 muscles.
- A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.
- It would take 27,000 spiders, each spinning a single web, to produce a pound of web.
- The average person's total skin covering would weigh about 6 pounds if collected into one mass.
- There is no known way for a submarine to communicate with land via radio when underwater.
Published in Desiboyzmasala
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