Jump to content
xisto Community
OpaQue

Astonishing Facts Astonishing facts

Recommended Posts

1) If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.
2) If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3) Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4) Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5) The Mercedes-Benz motto is 'Das Beste oder Nichts' meaning 'the best or nothing'.

6) The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7) The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8) The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9) Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

10) The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

11) Dalmatians are born without spots.

12) Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
13) The 'v' in the name of a court case does n
ot stand for 'versus', but for 'and' (in civil proceedings) or 'against' (in criminal proceedings) .

14) Men's shirts have the buttons on the right, but women's shirts have the buttons on the left.

15) The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids.

16) The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it's already been digested by a bee.

17) Roosters cannot crow if they cannot extend their necks.

18) The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

19) Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

20) Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart.

21) The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.

22) When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red.

23) When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red.

24) The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor.

25) The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named Volney.

26) Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.

27) Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flapan, instead of flag of Japan.

28) It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

29) The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples.

30) There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Towerl.

31) The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

32) Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

33) It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

34) The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

35) Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game.

36) The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly from the air.

37) In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it is smiling).

38) Colgate faced big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself."

39) The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot.

40) Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

41) The average person laughs 13 times a day.

42) Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).

43) Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

44) German Shepherds bite humans more than any other breed of dog.

45) Large kangaroos cover more than 30 feet with each jump.

46) Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.

47) The penguin is the only bird that can swim, but not fly. It is also the only bird that can walk upright.

48) If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.

49) The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

50) It requires 30 muscles to raise your eyebrows.

51) In 1562 a man was dug up six hours after his burial, after he had been seen breathing by someone at the funeral - he lived for another 75 years.

52) The human body has fewer muscles in it than a caterpillar. .

53) Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of plaster.

54) At birth, a panda bear is smaller than a mouse.

55) Baby whales grow at a rate of 10 lbs per hour!

56) The average office desk has 400 times more bacteria than a toilet.

57) A metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299792458 of a second.

58) A ball-point pen is also called Biro after its inventor Lazslo Biro, a journalist who noted that new paper ink dried quickly.

59) Place head to toe, all the Barbie and family dolls sold since 1959, when Barbie made her debut, would circle the earth more than 7 times.

60) All polar bears are left-handed. They are also the only mammals with hair on the soles of their feet.

61) New York city, the oldest city in the US, was a Dutch colonial town and was known as New Amsterdam till 1665.

62) Raindrops are not actually teardrops shaped. They are rounded from the top and flat at the bottom. They fall at a speed of 11 kmph.

63) Artifacts found in Kandivali indicate that the 7 islands that constitute Mumbai have been inhabited since the Stone Age.

64) The national bird of New Zealand, the Kiwi, lays only 1 egg per year. Despite this, it has survived extinction.

65) Runrado May Day Stadium in North Korea is the world's largest football stadium and can seat upto 2,05,000 spectators.

66) Chopsticks were developed 5000 years ago in China. Today, 25 million trees are cut to make over 45 billion pairs a year.

67) Mexico city is the highest city in North America and world's largest capital. One-fifth of Mexico's population lives in the city.

68) A hummingbird flaps its wings upto 90 times per second or over 5000 times per minute making a humming like sound, of which it is named after.

69) Tequila is thought to be the first distilled liquor in the Americas. The Aztecs were known to have drank it before Cortez arrived.

70) Paris gets its name from the Parisii, a tribe of Gauls who settled on the Ile de le Cite between 250 and 200 BC.

71) Camels have three eyelids to protect their eyes from severe sand storms in the deserts.

72) The Goliath beetle is the heaviest insect in the world.. It weighs 110 grams, almost the weight of an apple.

73) Greenland has more ice on it than Iceland and ironically, Iceland has more grass and trees than Greenland.

74) Termites build the largest animal homes. Moulds built by the termites can reach upto 39 ft, six times the size of an average adult human.

75) Aspirin went on sale as the first pharmaceutical drug in 1899. Felix Hoffman, a German chemist invented the drug.

76) The Codex Hammer, Leonardo da Vinci's notebook, was bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for a whopping 30.8 million US Dollars.

77) Mujava Desert in USA, houses 12,000 years old flowering shrubs called Creosote bushes, the oldest living flora on earth.

78) Tsunami travels at around 805 km/hr, slowing as it approaches land. When it strikes, the waves can be as high as 15 mt.

79) Toronto is home to the largest swimming pool in the world. The 2250 sq. ft. pool which can hold 2000 swimmers, opened in 1925.

80) An adult porcupine has approximately 30000 quills on its body, which are replaced every year. All porcupines can float in water.

81) The temperature inside the cylinder of an internal combustion car engine can reach upto 1700 degrees Celsius, which is as hot as molten lava.

82) La Paz, Bolivia is nearly fire-proof with its high altitude; the low oxygen content makes it difficult for a flame to sustain itself.

83) Araucana hens, first breed in Chlie, lay eggs that are blue, green, turquoise and even pink in colour.

84) Disney world in Florida covers 30,500 acres, making it twice the size of the island of Manhattan, New York.

85) The smallest airplane in the world is called Bumble Bee II. It is just 8..7 ft long and weighs 179.6 kg.

86) The Draco Volan lizard is known to escape predators by gliding from tree to tree. This lizard is popularly called the Flying Dragon.

87) Bhutan derives its name from the Indian word Bhotana, meaning the edge of Tibet.

88) The first full-length animated motion picture made in the United States, Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), was produced from more than 400,000 hand-drawn sketches.

89) The mosquito is the hardiest of all insects. It is found in the coldest region of Siberia as well as in equatorial jungles.

90) A fly moves 300 times its body length in a second, three times faster than a jet, which travels only 100 times its body length.

91) Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. They split open and the pulp becomes cottony on the plant.

92) Too much of coffee can be fatal. 10 gm or 100 gm or 100 cups in four hours can kill an average of human beings.

93) Jelly Fish do not belong to the fish family. They are related to the Coral family, with no head, brain, heart, eyes or ears.

94) The Climbing Perch discovered in 1971, is a fish that walks from one body to another in water, surviving for days on land.

95) Ostriches lay the largest bird eggs. An egg can be 7.1 inches long, 5.5 inches wide and weighs approximately 1.2 kg.

96) The Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean is the deepest point in the earth's crust at 36198 ft below sea level.

97) Scuttling Huntress Spiders can move at 56 kmph and are responsible for over 2000000 deaths in Australia in last 10 years.

98) Damascus, in Syria, is the oldest inhabited city in the world. It flourished 2000 years before Rome was founded in 753 BC.

99) Gibson, the world's tallest dog is 977 kg of weight. More than 7 ft tall, he has a shoulder height of 42.6 inches.

100) Seikan Tunnel, the longest underwater tunnel is 51 km long. It links the Hokkaido and Honshu islands of Japan.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Going to have to pull you up on some of those im afraid!!


26) Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros.

True but its spelt "googol" :P

32) Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

False. The skin actually shrinks as it dries out thus giving the illusion of growth as it shrinks away from the nail and hair growth.

48) If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural cause.

In the uk at least this is an urban myth. America and other countries may be different though.


:D QI is an interesting (UK) program... :angel:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow...well it took a long time to go through them all, but those are some interesting facts (some of them I knew already). Good to know not to get near a hippo when it's got red sweat...I have to remember that next time I'm around one (which is a laugh).I thought the muscles in humans vs. caterpillars, the Goliath Beetle, and the killer coffee were interesting.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I liked reading this list. As I read the list, I went to go get some food to put in my mouth to see if I really chew on the right side. At first, I tried picturing myself chewing food but it would not work unless I actually tried it with real food. Also, I just learned that the cracking of the knuckles is the sound of nitrogen bubbles popping a few days ago in Chemistry.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.