The Best Interesting Random Facts
Ones of the most prominent features of the walrus is its long tusks, which are elongated canine teeth. The tusks of a walrus are present in both males and females and can reach a length of over 3 feet and weigh up to 12 pounds. Male walruses have slightly longer and thicker tusks, and use […]
In the 1850s, when Levi Strauss ran out of tent canvas for the pants he was selling to California gold miners, he imported a tough material from Nimes in France called “serge de Nim”. Americanized, “de Nim” became “denim.” The word “jeans” comes from the French phrase “bleu de Gênes”, which literally means “the blue […]
The name of the Turkey came from Europe before America was colonized and was originally applied to the guinea fowl. When European explorers saw an American bird that reminded them of the guinea fowl back home, they called it a turkey as well, and the name stuck. Incidentally, there’s a widespread myth that the country […]
The ostrich is the fastest animal in the world on two legs. The Ostrich, also known by its scientific name “Struthio camelus”, is a large flightless bird native to Africa, and is the only living species in its family. It has a long neck and legs and has the fastest land speed of any bird. […]
Musk has been used in perfumes since ancient times, both for its own smell and as an oily base that, when mixed with more volatile scents, slows their evaporation. It’s quite strange that it has appeared in so many women’s perfumes, since it’s a male sexual scent, but that may just go to show that […]
Although you probably sang the nursery rhyme about London Bridge falling down when you were a child, the actual bridge never quite got that far. The London Bridge going across the Thames River was a stone structure built in the 12th century. At the time, it replaced a wooden one that had been built […]
The Traditional Spanish Folk Song “La Cucaracha”, is literally about a stoner cockroach’s wasted life, death, and funeral, and is beloved equally by children and the sandwich trucks that serve lunch to office workers. Also known as a corrido, it became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution during the 20th century, and is played […]
The bald eagle is not bald, but is so called because it has a head of pure white feathers. Its tail is also white, but the rest of its feathers are dark brown, and the wings may have silver tips. Known as the “king of birds,” the bald eagle looks majestic and proud, and seems […]
The word mushroom is another beautiful example of what will happen to an Englishman’s attempt to pronounce a foreign word. Nothing whatsoever of mush in it, nor of room. It was, in the fifteenth century, a poor English rendition of the Old French moisseron, modern mousseron. Some then spelled it, and probably pronounced it, muscheron, […]
To our best knowledge, we believe the modern and humble blue whale is the biggest animal in the world of all time to have ever lived on earth. The huge blue whale is a marine mammal that is long and slender, and the blue whale’s body can be various shades of bluish grey and lighter […]
“Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto aurous” is a rather highfalutin way of saying “All that glitters is not gold,” but without a dictionary you’d never guess it. “Look it up in the dictionary” is a piece of advice foreign to few ears, but did you realize that until the eighteenth century […]
Putting pennies on dead people’s eyes could have been used by many cultures to keep the eyes of the dead shut until rigor mortis sets in. Some cultures, including the ancient Egyptians and more modern African Americans, have also used coins on the eyes and hands of the deceased to share with relatives in the […]
The Gopher’s name comes from the French word “gauffre”, meaning “honeycomb.” Early French settlers called a number of burrowing animals by that name. Gophers are well built, are relatively large for a rodent, and can grow up to 12 inches in length. It’s not clear why gophers earned the name, but many theories suggest that […]
Goats produce about 2% of the world’s total annual milk supply, and Goat’s milk has higher digestibility than milk from cows, and is nutritious and therapeutic. Goat’s milk also has a different alkalinity, and higher buffering capacity than milk from cows. Some goats are bred specifically for milk, and Goat’s milk is usually processed into […]
No, people didn’t always sleep on what we would call a bed, and many people today still have never slept on a bed! Perhaps half of the world sleep on piles of rugs, or on mats or cushions. The beds used by the ancient Egyptians looked very much like couches, and were used during the […]
Humans actually have better vision than cats, except in dim light. But we digress. Domestic cats have rather poor color vision and can only see two colors: blue and green, and are less able to distinguish between red and green, although they can do so in some conditions. Animals and humans have rods and cones […]
The White Rhinoceros, also known as the Square-lipped rhinoceros, is one of the five species of rhinoceros that still exist and is one of the few megafaunal species left on earth. Found on the African continent, it is the most social of all rhino species, and has a wide mouth that is used for grazing. […]
“I believe,” wrote Alexander Graham Bell in 1878, “that in the future wires will unite the head offices of the Telephone Company in different cities, and a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place. I am aware that such ideas may appear to […]
The caterpillars of the silkworm moth are the remarkable creatures responsible for making the threads from which man manufactures shiny, beautiful silk cloth. Today, almost all silk is cultivated on silk farms in Japan, China, and other countries of the Far East, where mulberry trees grow, since it is the leaves of this tree which […]
Chameleons are lizards known for their ability to change colors. But contrary to popular belief, the chameleon does not change its color to match its background. It changes as a result of its mood, the temperature, or light conditions. Most chameleons have brown or green as their main color, but they can turn to an […]
This is a gullibility test. The Bathtub was introduced in England in 1828. The first tub in America was used by a Cincinnati resident named Thompson in 1842. After an argument among medical authorities concerning the benefits and hazards of bathing, the Bathtub was banned in Boston in 1845. Six years later, the first Bathtub […]
Seals have shorter, fatter flippers and no visible ear flaps, and are often smaller than their cousin the sea lion. Sea lions and fur seals belong to the Otariidae family in the Pinnipeds group of animals. They have a semi-aquatic lifestyle, feeding and migrating in the water but breeding and hanging out on land or […]
The word throne is simply a euphemism for toilet, and we have plenty of them for subjects that are considered unmentionable. There are many more names for the toilet, such as: hopper, Johnny, janey, loo, potty, or privy. This particular euphemism, throne, is said to have come from none other than King Louis XIV, who […]
Thousands of years ago, vast empires rose and fell in Egypt, Greece, Italy, the Middle East, northern Africa, China, and India. Bold explorers from these civilizations, such as Pytheas and Hanno, ventured into unknown lands and seas. Most of them searched for new trade routes or places to settle. Today, scholars have limited knowledge of […]
Are you an ailurophile or an ailurophobe? In plain English: Do you love or hate our feline fellow mammals? Either way, you’re in large company. Ever since the domestication of the feline, the cat has been variously regarded as a representation of the gods or an embodiment of the devil. Even today, there seems to […]
All kangaroos and marsupials have pouches for their babies, but not all pouches are equal. Marsupials give birth at a very early stage of development and use their pouch or marsupium to help protect their offspring. For a marsupial like the kangaroo, which spends most of its time standing upright on two legs, the marsupium […]
To the owner of an Automobile 70 years ago, air conditioning, power steering and a stereo would probably seem fit only for the most expensive of limousines. Today, we’re apt to find them in many ordinary family cars. If we insist on comfort as much as speed and reliability in the automobiles we drive, it’s […]
The orange stuff on Cheetos is a combination of various dyes and seasonings, and it’s the only part of Cheetos that has any cheese whatsoever in it. Like similar products, the main part of these “cheese” coated chip products is not cheese but a cornmeal concoction. The cornmeal, with whey and oil added, is mixed […]
The electric eel is the only species of its kind that can generate powerful electric shocks for self-defense and hunting prey. Electric eels live in the fresh waters of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers in South America, and is not an eel but a knifefish, despite its name. An electric eel can produce about 500 […]
It would have been our guess that the term “hot dog” for the popular American comestible came into circulation, along with the item itself, during the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. But the New York Herald Tribune, in an editorial, “The Hot-Dog Mystery,” June 2, 1931, was not able to carry the date […]