Random Facts

For the next couple posts, I'm just going to post random facts that I found on a website to enlighten everyone. And because I've only posted twice in February, which is unnatural and it scares me. I need to get into the habit of blogging more again (and so do some other people.... I don't care if you have nothing to say, tell us about a book you read or how you had a delectable dinner or SOMETHING) so "I'm breakin' the habit, i'm breakin' the habit tonight". Enjoy!!

Facetious and abstemious are the only words that contain all the vowels in the correct order.

"Adcomsubordcomphibspac" is the longest acronym. It is a Navy term standing for Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command.

"Almost" is the longest commonly used word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

"Flushable" toilets were in use in ancient Rome.

"Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson was the first video to air on MTV by a black artist.

"Canada" is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

"Duff" is the decaying organic matter found on a forest floor.

"Fickleheaded" and "fiddledeedee" are the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet.

"Asthma" and "isthmi" are the only six-letter words that begin and end with a vowel and have no other vowels between.

"Fortnight" is a contraction of "fourteen nights." In the US "two weeks" is more commonly used.

"Forty" is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order. "One" is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.

"Four" is the only number whose number of letters in the name equals the number.

"Hang on Sloopy" is the official rock song of Ohio.

"Happy Birthday" was the first song to be performed in outer space, sung by the Apollo IX astronauts on March 8, 1969.

"Kemo Sabe", meaning an all knowing one, is actually a mispronunciation by Native American of the Spanish phrase, Quien lo Sabe, meaning one who knows."

The lunula is the half-moon shaped pale area at the bottom of finger nails.

"Ma is as selfless as I am" can be read the same way backwards. If you take away all the spaces you can see that all the letters can be spelled out both ways.

"Mad About You" star Paul Reiser plays the piano on the show's theme song.

"One thousand" contains the letter A, but none of the words from one to nine hundred ninety-nine has an A.

"Ough" can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.

"Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.

"Second string," meaning "replacement or backup," comes from the middle ages. An archer always carried a second string in case the one on his bow broke.

"Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when you're talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil."

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand.

"Tautonyms" are scientific names for which the genus and species are the same.

"Taxi" is spelled exactly the same in English, French, German, Swedish, Portuguese, and Dutch.

"Teh" means "cool" in Thai. (Pronounced "tay").

"The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in English.

"THEREIN" is a seven-letter word that contains thirteen words spelled using consecutive letters: the, he, her, er, here, I, there, ere, rein, re, in, therein, and herein.

"Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."

$203,000,000 is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.

1 and 2 are the only numbers where they are values of the numbers of the factors they have.

1 in every 3 people in the country of Israel use a cell phone.

1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire are strung across the Unites States.

1.7 litres of saliva is produced each day. In Discovery Channel, its a quart.

10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

10% of human dry weight comes from bacteria

11% of the world is left-handed.

111, 111, 111 X 111, 111, 111 = 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321

1200 equals 1 pound (72 rupees).

123,000,000 cars are being driven on highways in the United States.

166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the United States.

1959's A Raisin in the Sun was the first play by a black woman to be produced on Broadway.

2 and 5 are the only prime numbers that end in 2 or 5.

203 million dollars is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.

22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour.

23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their buttocks.

25% of a human's bones are in its feet.

259200 people die every day.

27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell."

3% of all mammals are monogamous

315 entries in Webster's 1996 dictionary were misspelled.

4 tablespoons of ketchup has about the same amount of nutrition as a ripe tomato.

40% of all people who come to a party snoop in your medicine cabinet.

40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

43.7% of all statistics are made up right on the spot

48% of astronauts experience motion sickness.

52% of Americans drink coffee.

55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.

56,000,000 people go to Major League baseball games each year

67 million pounds of pesticides and about 3 million tons of fertilizer are used annually on lawns in the US.

80% of animals on earth are insects.

80% of arrested criminals are male.

In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer to whom Mickey played an apprentice was named Yensid, which is Disney spelled backward.

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.

84% of a raw apple is water.

It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

85% of men who die of heart attacks during intercourse, are found to have been cheating on their wives.

85,000,000 tons of paper are used in the United States each year.

28% of Africa is classified as wilderness. In North America, its 38%.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

90% of New York City cab drivers are recently arrived immigrants.

98% of the weight of water is made up from oxygen.

99% of the pumpkins sold in the US end up as jack-o-lanterns.

A "2 by 4" is really 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.

A "Blue Moon" is the second full moon in a calendar month (it is rarely blue).

A "hairbreadth away" is 1/48 of an inch.

A "jiffy" is actually a proper time unit for 1/100th of a second

A "quidnunc" is a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip.

A 1,200-pound horse eats about seven times it's own weight each year.

A 1.5 oz. milk chocolate bar has only 220 calories. A 1.75 oz. serving of potato chips has 230 calories.

A 10-gallon hat actually only holds about 3/4 gallon.

A 14-year old French girl had extraordinary electrical power. With a gentle touch she could knock over heavy pieces of furniture and people in physical contact with her received an electrical shock.

A 17 year old girl from Miami, Florida started to sneeze on 4th January'66 ant continued till 8th June'66.

A 6 pound sea-hare can lay 40,000eggs in a single minute.

A 7-year study, which concluded in the summer of 2000, found that 33 U.S. deaths were caused by rottweilers, pit bulls were responsible for 27 deaths.

A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.

A Baboon called "Jackie" became a private in the South African army in World War I.

A bat is the only mammal that flies.

A bathometer is an instrument for indicating the depth of the sea beneath a moving vessel.

A bean has more DNA per cell than a human cell

A bee could travel 4 million miles (6.5 million km) at 7 mph (11 km/h) on the energy it would obtain from 1 gallon (3.785 liters) of nectar, or it could just sit down on and enjoy that honey properly.

A beaver's teeth never stop growing.

A bibliophile is a collector of rare books. A bibliopole is a seller of rare books.

A bird requires more food in proportion to its size than a baby or a cat.

A Blue Earth, Minnesota, law declares that no child under the age of twelve may talk over the telephone unless monitored by a parent.