Cat gut, used in tennis rackets and strings for musical instruments does not come from cats, but from sheep.
Lightning strikes the Earth 100 times every second, from the 1,800 thunderstorms in progress at any given moment.
The female spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) has a 'penis'.
The period between midnight and dawn is the best time to look for shooting stars. On a normal night you can see between five and ten an hour. In a desert, you can see one every eight minutes.
Penguins are not found in the North Pole
Apparently, I misspelled it...it's "Sinterklaas." Thanks to the unnamed person from Holland who corrected me.
The left testicle usually hangs lower than the right for right-handed men. The opposite is true for lefties.
There are no geeze in the southern hemisphere.
The Iditarod Dogsled Race got its name from Iditarod, a small mining village along the race's route. The race commemorates an emergency operation in 1925 to get medical supplies to Nome, Alaska following a diphtheria epidemic.
In the 17th century, no citizen of Japan was allowed to leave the country on penalty of death.
On average, 150 couples get married in Las Vegas each day.
Tarantulas can go up to 2 years without eating or drinking. Sea turtles can go up to 35 years without eating or drinking.
The only rock that floats in water is pumice.
The largest body of fresh water in the world is Lake Superior.
The Bible has been translated into Klingon.
The Canary Islands were not named for a bird called a canary. They were named after a breed of large dogs. The Latin name was Canariae insulae "Island of Dogs."
Robert William Thomson, a Scottish engineer, invented the first rubber tire in 1845.
Nearly 50% of all bank robberies take place on Friday.
Apple pits contain cyanide.
Dr. Alice Chase, who wrote 'Nutrition for Health', died of malnutrition. (not verified)
The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet high.
During warm weather, hippos secrete a reddish, oily fluid, called pink sweat, which acts as a skin conditioner to keep it moist.
In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
In Lebanon, Virginia it is illegal to kick your wife out of bed.
A panagram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. For example: Pack my red box with five dozen quality jugs.
Mexico once had three presidents in one day.
During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax.
At -40 degrees fahrenheit,a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour breathing.
An adult male ostrich, the world's largest bird, can weigh up to 345 pounds.
The 1st winner of the Academy Award for best picture, and the only silent film to achieve that honor, was the 1927 film, "Wings."
Richard Nixon was the 1st US president to visit China in February, 1972.
The anti-malarial drug quinine is taken from the bark of the Andean cinchona tree.
It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
This one is deep...think about the cultural impact this could have: NO WAR HAS BEEN FOUGHT WHERE BOTH COUNTRIES HAD A McDonalds
Barbies full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts
The Tranquilizer, Valium (sleeping piles) is the most widely used drug on earth.
For every memorial statue with a person on a horse, if the horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died of battle wounds; if all four of the horse's legs are on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
The largest gold nugget ever found weighed 172 lbs., 13 oz.
It is illegal to mistreat rats in Denver.
Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister.
The two presidents who died on the same day: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died July 4, 1826.
Barbara Bush's book about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog" in history.
Nearly 400 cocoa beans are required to make a pound of chocolate liquor, the semi-liquid mass produced by grinding the beans. A non-alcoholic substance, chocolate liquor is the basis of all chocolate and cocoa products.
Monday's Child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child has to work for its living, But a child that's born on the Sabbath Day, Is fair and wise and good and gay.
The Eiffel Tower receives a fresh coat of 300 tons of reddish-green paint every seven years.
The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. (the heart is not a muscle)
The Pacific Ocean holds 46% of the world�s water. The rest is divided up as followed: Atlantic Ocean � 23.9%, Indian Ocean � 20.3%, and the Arctic Ocean � 3.7%.
The melting point of cocoa butter is just below the human body temperature -which is why it literally melts in your mouth.
Several buildings in Manhattan, NY have their own zip code. For example the former World Trade Center has several.
The turbot fish lays approximately 14 million eggs during its lifetime.
Bats are the only mammals that are able to fly.
The world's first chocolate candy was produced in 1828 by Dutch chocolate-maker Conrad J. Van Houten. He pressed the fat from roasted cacao beans to produce cocoa butter, to which he added cocoa powder and sugar.
Michael Jordan has more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
In ancient chinese culture it was common for them to use the lining of a cats stomach as a condom.
There are no public toilets in Peru.
Brain damage occurs at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
The shallowest sea is the sea of Azov.It is 13 meters at its deepest.
In 1959, the Soviet space probe "Luna Two" became the first manmade object to reach the moon as it crashed onto the lunar surface.
Louis XVI of France was captured at Varennes in June 1791 while trying to flee his country. He was stopped at an inn when he tried to pay with a coin that carried his likeness.
The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (a variety of the marijuana plant) paper
In "Silence of the Lambs", Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) does not blink in any scene.
There is a flower called the Scarlet Pimpernel that can forecast the weather. If the flower is closed up, rain is coming and if it is opened up, the day will be sunny.It is a.k.a 'the poor man's weatherglass'
There are 2,598,960 five-card hands possible in a 52-card deck of cards.
Your brain will stop growing in size when you are about 15 years old.
Grasshoppers have white blood.
Isaac Newton, Peter Tchaikovsky and Annie Lennox were all born on Christmas.
The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
The famous Revolutionary war general Lafayette had the same first name as his wife Mary.
There is cyanide in apple pits.
Humans shed and re-grow outer skin cells about every 27 days almost 1,000 new skins in a lifetime.
Two U.S. Presidents with the initials "J.M." followed each other as president.
Red is the most commonly colored vehical involved in accidents each year.
Elephants can't jump.
The first anti-lynching law in the United States was passed in Georgia in 1893, but it only made the violation punishable by four years in prison. (11-1-04)
The first coffee drinkers, the Arabs, flavored their coffee with spices during the brewing process.
Coffee is graded according to 3 criteria: Bean quality (Altitude and Species) Quality of preparation Size of bean
The patron saint of dentists is St. Apollonia. She reportedly had her teeth pulled out in 249 AD by an anti-Christian mob.
The size of a newly born kangaroo is 2.5 cms.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison were all 27 years old when they died.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The game of volleyball was invented in 1895 by William G. Morgan.
In seventy-five years the human heart pumps 3,122,000,000 gallons of blood, enough to fill in oil tanker over 46 times!
During World War II, bakers in the United States 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.
French composer Erik Satie holds the record for shortest and longest composition in the world. His piano piece Vexations lasts for just under a minute. However, Satie states in the score that it should be played 840 times in succession a nonstop playing time of 14 hours.
In Chillicothe, Ohio it is illegal to throw rice at weddings.
Turtles have no teeth.
The 1st US Minimum Wage Law was instituted in 1938. The minimum wage was 25 cents per hour.
The most successful X-rated movie of all time is Deep Throat. It cost less than $50,000 to make it and has earned more than $100 million.
The numbers 111 222 333 444 555 666 777 888 999 are all multiples of 37.
One out of every 43 prisoners escapes from jail. 94% are recaptured.
In 1968, "Apollo Seven," the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.
The most searched thing on yahoo.com every year is porn.
Minnesotans are forbade from teasing skunks.
There have been over 600 lawsuits against Alexander Grahm Bell over rights to the patent of the telephone, the most valuable patent in U.S. history.
Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 in the first ever college football game. At the time, a touchdown was worth only two points.
The Charlotte Dundas, a paddle-wheel steamboat, was the world's first steam-powered vessel, not Robert Fulton's Clermont. In 1802, five years before Fulton's famous ship took sail, The Dundas was a steam-powered tugboat in Great Britain.
According to a global survey in 1997 by Durex Condoms Canadians are the world's fourth worst lovers. The worst three slots belong to South Africa, Russia, and Poland.
The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective "sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors (or "sartors") at work.
Warn your hubby that after lovemaking in Ames, Iowa, he isn't allowed to take more than three gulps of beer while lying in bed with youor holding you in his arms.
Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.
In Florida it is illegal to fish while driving across a bridge.
The Kama Sutra was written by Mallanga Vatsyayana, who was rumored to be celibate.
At Arkansas State University two people cannot hold hands while standing in a doorway unless they belong to a union.
The distance between the pitcher's rubber and home plate in baseball is 60 feet, 6 inches.
Rembrandt died broke. A friend had to come up with the $5.20 it cost to bury the great master.
Scandinavia has the world's highest per capita annual coffee consumption, 26.4 pounds. Italy has an annual consumption per capita of only 10 pounds.
There are songs in all of Shakespeare's plays except The Comedy of Errors.
Frederic Remington's sculpture The Bronco Buster has mistake in it: the cowboy is wearing his spurs upside down.
The longest word that can be typed on the top row of letters on a "Qwerty" keyboard is TYPEWRITER.
The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown. Unlike most fish, they can swim both backwards and forwards.
Until the late 1800's, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stove-top frying pans were favored.
Over 5 million people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade. Most of those are involved with the cultivation and harvesting of more than 3 billion coffee plants.
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow film down so you could see his moves.
Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's oldest son) was in Washington DC during his father's assassination as well as during President Garfield's assassination, and he was in Buffalo NY when President McKinley was assassinated.
Tessenjutsu is a deadly martial art in Japan that is based solely on the use of a fan.
The Navy SEALs were formed in 1962.
Peanuts are salted in the shell by boiling them in a heavily salted solution, then allowing them to dry.
The New York Yankees have won the most champoinships (26 times) in their respected sport (MLB, NBA, NHL, NFL) for any professional sports team.
Lloyd's of London began as Edward Lloyd's coffeehouse.
According to the Kinsey Institute, the biggest erect penis on record measures 13 inches. The smallest tops off at 1 3/4 inches.
A snail can have about 25,000 teeth.
American and Russian space flights have always included chocolate.
The Ouija board got its name from the combination of the French and German words for "yes" oui and ja.
Daniel Boone hated coonskin caps.
According to legend, when Burmese women are making beer, they need to avoid having sex or the beer will be bitter.
Muhammad is the most common first name in the world.
Guinness Stout served in England is brewed in Ireland, and Guinness Stout served in Ireland is brewed in England.
In the entire state of Maryland, it is illegal to give or recieve oral sex.
Gerald Ford, George Bush, Tommy Lasorda, Ted Koppel, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bill Clinton are all left handed.
In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey.
Olympic badminton rules say that the bird has to have exactly fourteen feathers.
The two most popular sports in the world are Association Football (soccer) and Table Tennis (ping-pong) respectively. I guess people love their balls, regardless of size. Hehe!
David Wolf was the first person to cast an absentee ballot from space. In November 1997, he cast a vote via e-mail for the mayor of Houston while onboard the space station Mir.
The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy."
In Memphis, Tennessee it is illegal for a woman to drive by herself. A man must walk or run in front of the vehicle, waving a red flag to warn approaching pedestrians and motorists.
The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
The 1st US federal penitentiary building was completed at Leavenworth, Kansas in 1906.
A cucumber is 96% water.
Studies show that, for some unknown reason, the higher the level of education, the more men tend to have wet dreams.
About 20% of bird species have become extinct in the past 200 years, almost all of them because of human activity.
After they are roasted, and when the coffee beans begin to cool, they release about 700 chemical substances that make up the vaporizing aromas.
For the 66% of American's who admit to reading in the bathroom, the preferred reading material is "Reader's Digest."
For five years, Webster's dictionary contained a definition of the word dord, a word that has never actually existed.
It is illegal to accept a gratuity or tip in Iowa.
Did you know that in Tibet there is actually a practice called 'polyandry' where many men, usually brothers, marry a single woman? This takes place so that only one set of children will inherit the land.
This is what the red, white, and blue on the US flag represent: The Continental Congress left no record to show why it chose the colors. However, in 1782, the Congress of the Confederation chose these same colors for the Great Seal of the United States and listed their meaning as follows: white to mean purity and innocence, red for valor and hardiness, and blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice. According to legend, George Washington interpreted the elements of the flag this way: the stars were taken from the sky, the red from the British colors, and the white stripes signified the secession from the home country. However, there is no official designation or meaning for the colors of the flag.
The letter J does not appear ANYWHERE in the periodic table of elements.
A word or sentence that is the same front and back (racecar, kayak) is called a "palindrome".
Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed.
The earth's rotation is slowing down at a rate of one second per century. The gravity from the sun and moon are creating tidal friction on the earth that are acting as brakes on planet's spin.
Worn or outdated US Flags are destroyed, preferably by burning.
Strict Puritan laws had their origins from practical reasons. Smoking was banned farmers would raise badly needed food crops instead of tobacco. Cooking was banned on Sundays to prevent house fires during the long hours the family was at church. Young men were banned from hunting to prevent weapons from falling into Indian hands.
The world's largest art gallery is the Winter Palace and the Hermitage in Leningrad. Visitors walk fifteen miles to visit each of the 322 galleries, which house nearly 3 million works of art and archaeological remains.
In the Holocaust between 5.1 and 6 million of Europe's 10 million Jews were killed. An additional 6 million 'unwanted' people were also executed, including more than half of Poland's educated populace.