What can possibly be the use of a list of random facts?
Well, there are probably more ‘facts’ than there are people in the world, so there had better be SOME use.
Random facts are sometimes referred to as ‘useless facts’ but that is an oxymoron. No fact can be useless; it’s just a question of when and how to use it.
For example, some people have made a living out of memorizing facts which they then use in TV quiz programs that have large cash prizes.
Sometimes, knowing something obscure can be used to impress people like colleagues, potential employers, or future parents-in-law.
The problem for our Life Daily team was how to select just 75 from the countless millions that are out there. Whilst it’s true that anyone can browse the internet to find them, that takes up a huge amount of time which most of us simply don’t have.
So, recognizing that you are all busy people, we’ve put together a small selection or random facts that you can browse in a just a few moments, and still find something interesting that you can trot out at the appropriate time.
Our list:
1. A shrimp’s heart is in it’s head.
2. A crocodile can’t stick it’s tongue out.
3. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
4. People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a mili-second.
5. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
6. Rats and horses can’t vomit.
7. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
8. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
9. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
10. Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.
11. The final resting-place for Dr. Eugene Shoemaker – the Moon. Mr. Shoemaker had wanted to be an astronaut but was rejected because of a medical problem. His ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft before it was launched on January 6, 1998. NASA crashed the probe into a crater on the moon in an attempt to learn if there is water on the moon.
12. Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions.
13. A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water. If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you’ll feel thirsty. If it’s reduced by 10%, you’ll die.
14. Outside the USA, Ireland is the largest software producing country in the world.
15. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
16. Hot water is heavier than cold.
17. Only one satellite has been ever been destroyed by a meteor: the European Space Agency’s Olympus in 1993.
18. A ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber. A ball of solid steel will bounce higher than one made entirely of glass.
19. A chip of silicon a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block.
20. Western Electric successfully brought sound to motion pictures and introduced systems of mobile communications which culminated in the cellular telephone.
21. Joseph Niepce developed the world’s first photographic image in 1827. Thomas Edison and W K L Dickson introduced the film camera in 1894. But the first projection of an image on a screen was made by a German priest. In 1646, Athanasius Kircher used a candle or oil lamp to project hand-painted images onto a white screen.
22. Sloths take two weeks to digest their food.
23. Guinea pigs and rabbits can’t sweat.
24. Sharks and rays are the only animals known to man that don’t get cancer. Scientists believe this has something to do with the fact that they don’t have bones, but cartilage.
25. The porpoise is second to man as the most intelligent animal on the planet.
26. The duckbill platypus can store as many as six hundred worms in the pouches of its cheeks.
27. The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years.
28. Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
29. There are more than fifty different kinds of kangaroos.
30. A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink.
31. Money isn’t made out of paper; it’s made out of cotton.
32. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the varieties of pickle the company once had.
33. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks – otherwise it will digest itself.
34. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.
35. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
36. 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
37. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
38. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear any pants.
39. Ketchup was sold in the 1830’s as medicine.
40. Upper and lower case letters are named ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the ‘upper case’ letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, ‘lower case’ letters.
41. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
42. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
43. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
44. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!
45. Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.
46. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples!
47. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
48. Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
49. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a space suit damages them.
50. The word “queue” is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.
51. What is called a “French kiss” in the English speaking world is known as an “English kiss” in France.
52. “Almost” is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
53. “Rhythm” is the longest English word without a vowel.
54. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child.
55. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
56. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
57. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
58. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
59. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle.
60. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a “Friday the 13th.”
61. Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it.
62. Earth is the only planet not named after a god.
63. You’re born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206.
64. Some worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food!
65. Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
66. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.
67. Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not.
68. If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
69. A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
70. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death!
71. The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off.
72. Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
73. Butterflies taste with their feet.
74. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
75. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
So, what do you feel about our selection of random facts? Do you have a favorite from this list or maybe others of your own?
You’re welcome to share your thoughts with our readers by using the comments feed below.
