Obscure Facts
In 2008, a man in Ohio was arrested for having sex with a picnic table.
You are more likely to be struck by lightning than win the powerball jackpot. The odds for a lightning strike are 576,000 to 1 and winning the powerball jackpot are 140,000,000 to 1.
The IRS processes more than 2 billion pieces of paper each year.
When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour.
The best time for a person to buy shoes is in the afternoon. This is because the foot tends to swell a bit around this time.
In an average hour, there are over 61,000 Americans airborne over the United States.
The coldest recorded temperature was -128.6 degrees in Antarctica.
The average toothbrush contains 2500 bristles organized into tufts.
The ozone layer smells faintly of geraniums.
The three most common fears are: snakes (#1), heights (#2) and flying (#3).
Poll results: Nachos is the food most craved by mothers-to-be.
More than 10 people a year are killed by a vending machine.
The oil used by jewelers to lubricate clocks and watches costs about $3,000 a gallon.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
More than 10% of the world’s salt is used to de-ice American roads.
The ashes of a cremated person average about 9 pounds.
Blondes have more hair.
It is not possible to tickle yourself.
Each year, more than 50,000 people are injured by jewelry in the U.S.
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. This is not based on genetics, but is largely due to the fact that a majority of the machines and tools we use on a daily basis are designed for those who are right handed, making it somewhat dangerous for lefties to use and resulting in thousands of accidents and deaths each year.
The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream.
Women blink twice as many times as men do.
Toothpaste is made out of chalk or baking soda. It acts as an abrasive that aids in removing dental plaque and food from the teeth.
In a year, the average person walks four miles to make his or her bed.
It cannot snow below -40 degrees because it is too cold.
46% of American adults can't read well enough to understand the label on their prescription medicine.
In a lifetime, the average driver will honk 15,250 times.
The largest snowman ever built was 113 feet high.
The world's most expensive diamond sold for 16.5 million dollars. It weighs a 100 carats and was purchased by Sheikh Ahmed Fitaihi of Saudi Arabia, who obtained it for his chain of jewelry shops.
The most snowfall in one day in the US was over 5 feet in Georgetown Colorado.
At the 2002 USA Memory Championship, Scott Hagwood correctly matched 97 of 99 faces and names after spending 15 minutes studying the pairs.
Another word for sneezing is "sternutation."
The largest diamond ever found was 3,106 carats.
Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears.
A Singapore singing group by the name of "The Oriental Singers'' sang non-stop for 74 hours and five minutes.
A squash ball moving at 150 kilometers per hour has the same impact of a .22 bullet.
A violin actually contains 70 separate pieces of wood.
Every day, over five billion gallons of water are flushed down toilets in the United States.
Enough paper is recycled in the USA every day, that a 15 mile long train of boxcars could be filled up with paper.
Leather skin does not have any smell. The leather smell that you sense is actually derived from the materials used in the tanning process.
The largest ketchup bottle is a 170 foot (52 m) tall water tower.
There are six million parts in the Boeing
Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, once pinned an opponent using only a single finger.
Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" is the most expensive painting sold at an auction. It was purchased for $85.2 million dollars.
10% of all the photographs in the world
were taken in the last 12 months.
The average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime.
The amount of aluminum that americans throw out in three months is enough to rebuild all american commercial planes.
The University of Plymouth was the first university to offer a degree in surfing.
More than 50% of Americans fall asleep on their sides.
A one kilogram packet of sugar will have about 5 million grains of sugar.
Bill bowerman, founder of the shoe company nike, got his first shoe idea after staring at a waffle iron. This gave him the idea of using squared spikes to make the shoes lighter.
Honolulu, Hawaii boasts the only royal palace in the United States of America.
By law, information collected in a U.S. census must remain confidential for seventy-two years.
Daytime dramas are called soap operas because they were originally used to advertise soap powder. In America in the early days of TV, advertisers would write stories around the use of their soap powder.
The range of a medieval long-bow is 220 yards.
The Flintstones cartoon was the first thirty-minute cartoon to be aired during prime time.
There are over 430 ski resorts in the United States
In 1989, twenty-three people were hired in Jacksonville Florida just to flush toilets so the pipes would not freeze.
In 1998, a law passed in the U.S. state of Virginia allows drivers to keep their road kill, as long as they report it within 12 hours.
The active ingredient in catnip is called nepetalactone.
More than 50% of NASA employees are dyslexic,
hired for their superior problem-solving and spatial-awareness skills.
Right-handed people, tend to chew food on their right side, while left-handed people tend to chew on their left side.
It takes about 570 gallons of paint to cover the outside of the current U.S. President's home, the White House.
Botox temporarily paralyzes muscles by interfering with acetylcholine, which transmits nerve signals to muscles.
The upper canine teeth are sometimes called the "eye teeth" from the false belief of ancient physician/anatomist Galen who thought that a nerve in these teeth came from a nerve that also supplied the eye.
The ancient Roman goddess of wisdom and war is named Minerva supposedly was born when she leaped from Jupiter's brain, completely grown and dressed in armor.
"Rabies" comes from the Latin word "rabere," meaning "to rave" as well as a Sanskrit word for doing violence.
Humans can feel a dot that is only 0.006 mm high and 0.04 mm across when it is moved across a fingertip. A standard Braille dot is 167 times higher.
A "Mickey Finn" is a drink made with alcohol and chloral hydrate. This drink was developed in the 1870s by a group of tavern owners to make customers unconscious. Customers were robbed after they became unconscious.
Rubbing baby teeth with the brain of a rabbit is an old folk remedy to prevent tooth decay.
If people sleep 8 hours each day, they sleep the equivalent of 122 days per year.
Many years ago, a fish was caught that was 33 inches long and seemed to be heavier than it should. When they cut the fish, fishermen found a full of bottle of ale inside it.
Drunken behavior and violent crimes involving adolescent drinking cost the US $53 billion per year, including $19 million from traffic accidents.
At least 56,000 motor vehicle accidents each year in the US are attributed to sleepiness behind the wheel.
Forty years ago, 42% of adults in the US smoked. Today, approximately 23% do. Surveys report that 70% of smokers want to quit.
Hockey pucks were originally made from frozen cow dung.
Central air conditioners use 98% more energy than ceiling fans.
The word "brain" appears 66 times in the plays of William Shakespeare.
The famous French writer/philosopher Voltaire (born 1694, died 1778) is said to have consumed 50 cups of coffee a day or approximately 3,750 mg of caffeine a day.
The word "alcohol" comes from the Arabic "al" and "kohl." Kohl is a powder that was used to paint eyebrows.
In north america there are approximately 618 roller coasters.
The first book ever printed in Oxford had a misprint on the first page, they got the date wrong.