As brilliant as the human brain is, it often holds on to information so random you wonder why your brain stored it in the first place. For instance, did you know that barcode scanners don't actually scan the black lines, they scan the white spaces in between? Did you also know the longest chicken flight ever recorded is 13 seconds? And did you know that there were 48 years between the invention of the can and the can opener?
If you answered "no" to any of these, congratulations! You're in for a treat. From useless facts about quarters to mindblowing statements about whales, these tidbits of information will, if nothing else, leave you armed with plenty of facts to impress your friends with.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 You Were Made for Lovin' Me
"I was made for lovin' you baby; you were made for lovin' me". The number of syllables in this is the same as the number of stairs going from the second floor to the main floor of my condo building. I know this because that song was stuck in my head and I sang it in my head as I walked down the stair to the song's rhythm.
#2 Strong Bones
The femur is the strongest bone in the human body and can support 30 times your body weight.
#3 Good Fact
A whale's fart bubble is large enough to encapsulate a horse.
#4 Kid Jokes
The item number for pumpkins at Costco is 80085. I giggled every Halloween season because new hires wondered how I memorized it since we had just got them in, and now, it's been a whole year since.
They still don't understand how I remember until I tell them the number and the mind of their inner child clicks.
#5 Lone Flag
#6 That's... Long?
The longest chicken flight ever recorded is 13 seconds.
#7 Interesting Words
A capitonym is a word that changes its meaning—and sometimes its pronunciation—when capitalized. For example, polish (to make shine) and Polish (relating to Poland).
Also, a retronym is a word or term that was created retroactively because another word or term was invented. For example, "snail mail" was just "mail" before email. And "acoustic guitars" were just "guitars" before electric guitars.
#8 This Is Gross
Scientists estimate more than a third of all animal species on Earth are parasitic wasps.
#9 That's Impressive
Domestic cats can run 30 miles per hour when sprinting across the house. Impressive.
#10 C to F
-40 Celsius and -40 Farenheit are the same temperature. I see these temperatures daily and no one actually uses Fahrenheit outside of civilian Americans. Every satellite system I've worked on, both foreign and American, all just used Celsius.
I'm sure there may be some field where people need to convert C to F, but I can't think of a single time. Heck, even gamers and computer enthusiasts only use C and just ignore F completely. It's nifty, but in the real world, outside of an exam, no one should need to know this information.
#11 Poor Sheep
Once a sheep lies on its back it is physically unable to get back up.
#12 Who's Using These?
There are more plastic flamingos than real ones.
#13 This Is Concerning
Nigeria loses on average 150 to 200,000 barrels of crude oil every day due to illegal activities and theft.
#14 Harald Bluetooth
Bluetooth is named after the Danish king Harald Bluetooth.
His initials in the old nordic alphabet combined are the Bluetooth symbol. The developers of Bluetooth are (mainly) two Scandinavians who, as children, loved stories about medieval Nordic kings, which inspired the name in the first place. Also (and totally unrelated) the fear of long words is called "hippopotomonstrosisquippedaliophobia".
#15 Way to Keep This Knowledge!
In A Clockwork Orange, Alex’s prison number is 655321. I have no idea why I would even know that or why it would stick with me 20 years after seeing the film.
#16 Puts Life in Perspective
There was more time between when the Stegosaurus lived and when the Tyrannosaurus lived than between the Tyrannosaurus and humans.
#17 Nothing to Do with Pints and Quarts
The phrase "Mind your P's and Q's" originated with printers. Hand-set metal type is reversed (so it prints facing the correct direction), so a lower-case p looks like a q and is very easy to mix up while typesetting (the same is true of lower-case b's and d's).
Contrary to popular opinion the phrase has nothing to do with pints & quarts.
#18 Tie Fighter
The sound of an Imperial Tie Fighter from Star Wars is a mix of a car swerving on wet pavement and an elephant trumpeting.
#19 Mind Blown
Barcode scanners don't actually scan the black lines, they scan the white spaces in between.
#20 Disney Rides for the Win
Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (which is now closed) at California Adventure stands at 183 feet tall and was the tallest building in the city of Anaheim. When it closed down, the attraction was replaced by Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, which uses the same structure and ride system as Disney's Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
#21 Very Interesting
Horses can't throw up due to an acute angle in their stomachs which prevents puke from going back up.
#22 Artistic Bears
#23 Clee-Shay
Cliché is an onomatopoeia (the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named, like cuckoo or sizzle). Instead of using individual letter tiles to dip in ink and press on paper (or whatever), common phrases had their own long plates to save time.
And when you pressed them down, it made a “clee-shay” sound. Or, in French, “cliché”.
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#24 Frogs are Cool
Frogs can't swallow with their eyes open. They use their eyes to push the food down their throats.
#25 Unnecessary Information, But Impressive
The make and model for the Millennium Falcon in Star Trek is a Corrllian YT-1300 freighter. For Serenity, it's an 03-K63-FF classification Firefly.
Captain Picard's Enterprise is the Enterprise D; galaxy class NCC-1701-D.
#26 Book Reader
In the Rise of the Guardians book series, there are numerous weird little backstories to the characters. Santa is Nicholas St North; he originally was a Russian cossack and became Santa Claus after learning magic from Ombric the wizard.
Toothiana is a Sister of flight; a race of women/birds who lived above the rainforest. The only way to get to their village is by flying elephants. Bunnymund is not actually a bunny; he is the last of the Pooka and is stuck on Earth after Pitch Black attacked his home.
#27 Godzilla Forever
Godzilla holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest continuously running movie franchise ever (and it is still going).
#28 That's Old
#29 Can Anyone Confirm?
The stars on the flag of Brazil represent the exact sky at the date and time of the proclamation of the republic.
Some people say that they represent the states, which is true, but only using the stars from the night sky. Actually, they had to add a state at some point and just used the next most visible star of that night!
#30 That Doesn't Sound Right
#31 That's a Big Tooth
#32 Pheromones
Researchers use the perfume Obsession by Calvin Klein to attract animals, like jaguars, in jungles so they can study them. Also, ostrich farmers have a hard time getting ostriches to mate because the ostriches, both male and female, will usually show more interest in the farmer. Ostriches are reverse furries.
#33 How Did We Survive?
#34 That Makes Sense
Yoda and Miss Piggy were both voiced by the same person.
#35 Quarter Ridges
Ridges on American quarters (which are actually short for "quarter dollar") were originally added so that they were not shaved on the sides of coins to make more coins. The ridges indicated they were not tampered with.
Now, it's just tradition to do so. The nickel is smooth because it's worthless. Life is worthless. What.
#36 I Want to Live Here
There is a place in England called the "Rhubarb Triangle" where rhubarb grows so fast you can hear it.
#37 What? No!
Oranges are considered berries.
#38 Koalas Are Not Smart
Koalas have one of the smallest brain-to-body ratios of any mammal.
Additionally, their brains are smooth. A brain is folded to increase the surface area for neurons. If you present a koala with leaves plucked from a branch, laid on a flat surface, the koala will not recognize it as food. They are too dumb to adapt their feeding behaviour to cope with change.
In a room full of potential food, they can literally starve to death.
One of the likely reasons for their primitive brains is the fact that, in addition to being poisonous, eucalyptus leaves (the only thing they eat) have almost no nutritional value. They can't afford the extra energy to think and they sleep more than 80% of their lives.
When they are awake, all they do is eat. Because eucalyptus leaves hold such little nutritional value, koalas have to ferment the leaves in their guts for days on end.
#39 That's Big
Nebraska University’s football stadium becomes the third-largest city in the state on game day.
#40 What About Winter?
The Mall of America (the fifth largest mall in the United States) doesn't have any heaters.
It stays warm through body heat, large sun windows, and good insulation. This is doubly impressive when you consider it's located in Minnesota.
#41 Mr. Doo
#42 Round Elevators
The first elevator shaft was built before the elevator was invented. The guy knew elevators were going to be on the market soon, so he incorporated a shaft into his new building so that it would be ready.
Unfortunately, the elevator shaft he built was round and the elevator came out rectangular.
#43 Funny and Calm
"Rolig" means Funny in Swedish but "calm" in Norwegian.
#44 Please Make Me a Scarecrow
The philosopher Jeremy Bentham's body was turned into a scarecrow after his death. His bones were cleaned and articulated and then put into a suit stuffed with straw and his head was preserved with wax.
University College London currently maintains his preserved remains. His head has been stolen several times by students as a prank and his body sometimes still attends university meetings where it's listed as "present, but not voting".
The preservation of his body was Bentham's own idea. He didn't go crazy in old age or anything, he just, for reasons that I don't think anyone really understands, really wanted it to happen.
He put it in his will, contracted the doctor for it, and researched methods for it long before he died. He was a cool dude.
#45 Keith Richards is Smart
Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is an avid reader. Contrary to his popular image, he owns one of the world's largest private libraries and often spends days at a time reading when he's not touring.
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