The Best Interesting Random Facts
Two centuries before Christ’s birth, the Druids celebrated the winter solstice with mistletoe because it enhanced fertility and was a favorite of the gods. The Romans hung it prominently during orgies, which is how it became associated with kissing and also why the church banned it in the fourth century. The name mistletoe is from […]
The rhubarb is a plant that was known to the ancient Greeks, and it was they who named it. The general theory explaining its source is that the plant was native to the regions along the river Volga, then known as the Rha. This, of course, was territory foreign to the Greeks, and was therefore […]
When an Octopus is threatened by a predator it will squirt ink, change skin color as camouflage, and jet away. As good a job as the ink does of hiding something as hard to hide as an octopus, it’s also poisonous to some creatures and stuns others, even when diluted in the vastness of the […]
Blood is a bodily fluid that transports important nutrients and oxygen to the body’s cells, and transports waste products away from those same cells. In vertebrates or mammals, it contains blood cells suspended in a liquid called blood plasma. Plasma contains dissolved proteins, glucose, hormones, carbon dioxide, and blood cells themselves. The most abundant cells […]
Western Union developed the sentence, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” as a test for their telex operators, and it’s thirty-five letters long. However it isn’t the shortest English sentence ever created using all the letters of the alphabet. That honor of shortest English sentence created using all the letters of the […]
In 1972, the Blue Ribbon Shoe Company turned to the art department of nearby Portland State University for a student who could design a distinctive logo. Carolyn Davidson was chosen, and she set about the first real job of her career. Company founder Phil Knight asked for something both functional and stylish. He wanted what […]
Rabies is a virus, and the usual route of transmission to humans is by the bite of an infected animal. Rabid dogs are the main transmitter of the illness in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In the United States, where vaccination of pets has controlled the disease, the infection is uncommon, and when it does […]
The expression “possession is nine-tenths of the law” is from the eighteenth century. The old adage means that in the pursuit of justice possession in a dispute over property outweighs these nine other essential elements of a good court case. A lot of money, a lot of patience, a good cause, a good lawyer, good […]
An amphitheater is an arena surrounded by rows of seats, much like the modern football stadium. Many amphitheaters were built in the Roman Empire. However, none could match the huge Flavian Amphitheater in Rome, which became known as the Colosseum because of its “colossal” size. The largest amphitheater of the ancient world, the Colosseum was […]
In the thirteenth century, the Chinese invented dark glasses to be worn by judges so that none in the courtroom could read their eyes. The narrowly slit Eskimo goggles are prehistoric and are a protection against snow-blindness, not the direct sun. Modern sunglasses were a consequence of twentieth-century flight, designed by the American Army Air […]
Millipedes and earthworms have similar lifestyles. Both burrow in soil, eating dead and decaying vegetation, but they have evolved very different methods for forcing their way through the soil. Worms use the strong muscles in their body walls to build up pressure in the body cavity, and so develop the forces needed to push forward […]
The distance between Cape Dezhnyov, Russia, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, at the narrowest part of the Bering Strait, is 51 miles (82 km). The Bering Strait connects the Bering Sea, which is part of the Pacific Ocean, with the Arctic Ocean, and separates Asia and North America. The Bering Strait is named after […]
Camels are very territorial, and if they feel threatened, they do spit, mostly at each other over food, but sometimes at humans if angry or hurt. Fair warning, if you do get caught in the crossfire, it can be pretty smelly, as camel spit consists of bile from its stomach mixed with saliva. Contrary to […]
Sharks are a fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly efficient streamlined body. The earliest sharks that we know of evolved from more than 420 million years ago, before dinosaurs even existed. Sharks have several sets of replaceable teeth, and popular species such as the Great White Shark are predators at the top […]
Male marsupials do have very strange forked penises. The other strange thing is that their testicles generally lie in front of their penises instead of in back like other mammals. So how do they have sex? Well, it turns out that there’s somebody for everybody, and marsupials are no exception. Female marsupials have two uteri […]
It was apparently just about four hundred years ago that the bird, native to Africa, that we know today as guinea fowl was imported into England by way of Turkey, even though the bird itself had been known for its delectable qualities for long previously (it had been mentioned by Aristotle and Pliny). Because of […]
Cheetahs are currently on the US Endangered Species Act, and listed as a threatened species. Cheetah cubs have a high mortality rate because of genetic factors and predation by carnivores in such as the lion and hyena. Recent inbreeding of cheetahs that cause birth defects have led a few biologists to believe it is unlikely […]
The Budgerigar or Common Pet Parakeet, is often called a budgie or parakeet. The Budgie is a small parrot and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus. The Budgerigar has been bred extensively with a profusion of color forms resulting. Their real name is budgerigar, or “budgie” for short. Found throughout the drier parts […]
How Fast Can a Housefly Fly and how quickly can a flea flee? So many questions, so little time. When you’re trying to catch a housefly, it seems like they are really fast and agile like a ninja. Seriously though, you could easily outrun a housefly, even when walking. Although its wings can flap 200 […]
The true dolphin is a mammal, any one of about thirty-three species of cetacean mammals in the family Delphinidae, characterized by a pronounced beak-shaped mouth. The dolphin on restaurant menus, Coryphaena hippurus, is a fish with gills, iridescent colors and firm flesh. It is called mahi-mahi in Hawaii and dorado in South America. The dolphin […]
Many cats have a habit of settling or perching in high places such as ledges, and this fondness is based on instinct. In the wild, a higher place may serve as a perfect concealed spot from which to hunt. Domestic cats may pounce on prey from a tree branch, like a leopard does in the […]
Yes, flamingos come in different colors besides pink. Flamingo babies, for example, are born white with gray streaks and take one or two years to develop their pinkish color. And depending on which of the five flamingo species you look at, the color will vary in intensity to the point that some of the lighter […]
There are four variants of Peru’s national coat of arms. They are, the Coat of Arms per se, the National Coat of Arms or National Shield, the Great Seal of the State, and the Naval Coat of Arms. All four versions of Peru’s national coat of arms include the vicuña, because it is the national […]
No one knows for certain where the game of chess was first played. Most likely, the game began in ancient India, where it was called chaturanga. This word refers to the four members of an Indian army: the foot soldier, the elephant, the chariot, and the horse. During the 6th or 7th century, the game […]
Despite what you might have heard, camels don’t really store water in their humps. Instead, the humps are big chunks of fat. Sure, it looks funny, but it’s a system that works. In the desert camels may have to go for days and weeks without food, so the humps act as a storehouse of energy. […]
The banana has been called the most ancient fruit on earth, for it was being enjoyed by man long before recorded history began. The banana probably first grew in Malaysia and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and was spread by natives to China and India at a very early date. Alexander the Great and his soldiers, […]
Traditionally, sailors on a ship considered seeing an albatross to be a sign of good luck. Probably this came from early days of navigation, when sailors mistakenly thought the bird sighting meant that land was near. Little did they know that an albatross can live for years on the sea without setting foot on land. […]
In 1845, some astronomers believed that the only explanation for Mercury’s confusing and erratic orbit of the sun would be the presence of gravitational pull from an unseen nearby planet, which they named “Vulcan.” French mathematician Le Verrier, who came up with the hypothesis to explain Mercury’s orbit, died in 1877, still convinced of having […]
Andalgalornis Steulleti was a species of giant flightless predatory birds, also known as “terror birds”. It lived in Argentina and the South Americas until about 2 million years ago, and was the fiercest bird in the world. Depending on the species, it ranged in height from between three to nine feet tall. Sporting a three-foot-long […]
Back in the late 1500s and early 1600s the young men of England had a game of football that seems to have borne some resemblance to the later game of rugby. The player might either kick the ball or strike it with his arm or hand, though the inflated ball was so large and so […]