Useless Facts?

A new addition, this will really get you thinking. You'll be the envy of all your friends!

• The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles.
• Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
• Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
• The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
• American car horns beep in the tone of F.
• No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times.
• Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes.
• 1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
• You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.
• Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
• The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
• A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
• The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA."
• Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
• The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
• Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
• The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.
• Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
• Betsy Ross is the only real person to ever have been the head on a Pez dispenser.
• Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
• All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
• Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
• Debra Winger was the voice of E.T.
• Pearls melt in vinegar.
• It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
• Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
• The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
• It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs.
• Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
• Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
• The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," uses every letter in the alphabet. (Developed by Western Union to Test telex/two communications)
• Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
• A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts - Charlemagne; and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down-hence the expression "to get fired."
• Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
• The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
• The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games(MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-star Game.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
• If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.
• Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating
• Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard
• The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.
• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
• The man, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand.
• The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
• All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.
• The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was a spin-off of the Danny Thomas Show.
• Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils.
• Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo.
• Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that may have blue eyes.
• The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.
• The two longest one-syllable words in the English language are "screeched" and "strengths."
• Great Britain was the first county to issue postage stamps. Hence, the postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin. However, every stamp carries a relief image or a silhouette of the monarch's head instead.
• Images for picture stamps in the United States are commissioned by the United States Postal Service Department of Philatelic Fulfillment. Britain.
• Artist Constantino Brumidi fell from the done of the U.S. Capitol while painting a mural around the rim. He died four months later.
• Elephants and camels both have four knees.
• The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
• The real name of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady is Edith Fore.
• Ancient Romans ate flamingo tounges and considered them a delicacy.
• Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth. Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement. The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
• Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album.
• Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left- handed Beatles.
• Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot. Maine is the only state that borders only one other US State.
• Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline, about fourteen miles. New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive consonants in it (in the same word).
• Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes.
• Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states. Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight States. Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty states. It borders three of them.
• Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with "a". All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with "a".
• Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer.
• Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice."
• Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.
• Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons."
• A Macintosh LC575 has 182 speaker holes.
• In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run.
• The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a palindrome.
• Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama.
• Urea is found in humna urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else.
• Human birth control pills work on gorillas.
• Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Joise in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats."
• The abbreviation for pound, "lb.," comes from the astrological sign Libra, meaning balance, and symbolized by scales.
• Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games.
• There were no squirrels on Nantucket until 1989.
• Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.
• Will Clark of the Texas Rangers is a direct descendant of William Clark of Lewis and Clark.
• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
• When ocean tides are at their highest, they are called "spring tides." When they are at their lowest, they are call "neep tides."
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• The last NASCAR driver to serve jail time for running moonshine was Buddy Arrington.
• Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000.
• The difference between male and female blue crabs is the design located on their apron (belly.) The male blue crab has the Washington Monument while the female apron is shaped like the U.S. Capitol.
• It takes a lobster approxiamately seven years to grow to be one pound.
• The ridges on the sides of coins are called reeding.
• The lot numbers for the cyanide-tainted Tylenol capsules scare back in 1982 were MC2880 and 1910MD.
• Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds.
• The Roman emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.
• At latitude 60 degrees south you can sail all the way around the world.
• A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes.
• The hyoid bone, in your throat, is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone.
• Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and man all have seven neck vertebra.
• Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays. Very small clouds that look like they have been broken off of bigger clouds are called scuds.
• On a dewy morning, if you look at your shadow in the grass, the dew drops shine light back to your eye creating a halo called a heilgenschein (German for halo.)
• The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."
• Giraffes have no vocal cords.
• The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container.
• Joe DiMaggio had more home runs than strikeouts during his career.
• All porcupines float in water.
• Hang On Sloopy is the official rock song of Ohio.
• A-1 Steak Sauce contains both orange peel and raisins.
• Many northern parishes (counties) of Louisiana did not agree with the Confederate movement. To show their disapproval, they changed their names. That's why there is a Union Parish, Jefferson Parish, etc.
• The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
• The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' symbolizes 'two women living under one roof'.
• German has a wood for the peace offerings brought to your mate when you've committed some conceived slight. This is "drachenfutter" or dragon's food.
• In Chinese, the words for crisis and opportunity are the same.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month or orange.
• Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
• The poisonous copperhead smells like fresh cut cucumbers.
• In Disney's "Fantasia", the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)
• The smallest mushroom's name is "Hop-low."