Assorted Facts 22
The rare Chilean hummingbird has been known to suck blood from animals like a giant mosquito.
The noun "sled" originates from the name of a 18th-century mountaineer from Finland, Schletz Linden, whose body was used by his climbing partner to slide down a mountain during a winter storm after he froze to death.
Molecularly speaking, water is actually much drier than sand.
The first case of the common cold was diagnosed in 1611 in Stratford, England. The patient? John Common, who coincidentally gave his cold to William Shakespeare who said the new malady exacerbated his lovesickness, thereby inspiring several of his most fondly remembered sonnets.
When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.
It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.
If an average human scrotum were stretched until all its wrinkles were smoothed out, it could hold a basketball.
For over a decade, the number of drive-by shootings has been directly proportional to increased gas prices.
The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.
When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.
Contrary to popular belief, the white is not the healthiest part of an egg. It's actually the shell.
Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.
The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.
The largest home in the United States, North Carolina's Biltmore House, was originally intended to be the official residence of a new monarchy to be established when the South rose again.
The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.
A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.
The sound made when a duck passes gas is the precise acoustic opposite of its quack; if it does both simultaneously, there's no audible sound.
In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.
Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.
Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.
Women who use chewing tobacco are three times LESS likely to accidentally swallow it while they are pregnant.
Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.
Anthropologists have discovered a tribe of South American monkeys with a rudimentary system of government analogous to our own three-branch form of government.
Because of their unusual shape, Hershey's Kisses contain more calories per ounce than the same amount of chocolate in other forms.
Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.
Ancient Egyptians used molted cobra skins as condoms.
Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.
The four different people who, at various times, tried - and failed - to become the Guinness Book of World Records' "Human Milkshake Volcano" by drinking five gallons of milk and then riding the Six Flags Screaming' Eagle roller coaster all shared the same birthday: September 18, 1970.
The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.
Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels.
Shortly before his execution, Timothy McVeigh constructed a scale model of the Lincoln Memorial with soda crackers.
If the current trend continues, by the year 2215 midgets will outnumber "normal-sized" people.
Moths are unable to fly during an earthquake.
Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.
During his famous "Blue Period," Pablo Picasso invented the substance that eventually became known as Play-Doh.
Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.
An 18th-century law still on the books in Vermont makes it illegal for a woman to lick a stamp in a public place.
The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.
If you fill a standard 750ml wine bottle with live hornets, their angry buzzing will resonate at precisely the right frequency to shatter the glass.
Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.
The term "bank teller" originated in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, when banks began hiring low-paid workers to "tell" throngs of frantic depositors that their money was gone.
The African black rhinoceros excretes its own weight in dung every 48 hours.
Anyone convicted of animal cruelty in Sedalia, Missouri, is sentenced to a month's confinement in the county animal shelter.
No NCAA basketball team from a school located in its state's capital has ever won the national championship.
The Mongolian pony is the only animal other than an elephant capable of fending off an attack by a healthy adult tiger.
Scandinavian berserkers used to cut out their eyes before battle to spare themselves the sight of the carnage they invariably wrought.
Every common food product, with the exception of fish and veal, contains some traces of peanut enzymes.
The rhesus monkey is the only animal that can be taught to hum a tune.
You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.
Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.
To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.
On occasions when the sun is shining brightly on falling snowflakes, they contain enough ionic charge to stun insects. Observation of this phenomenon inspired the invention of the bug zapper.
Human tonsils can bounce higher than a rubber ball of similar weight and size, but only for the first 30 minutes after they've been removed.
In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.
Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.
With the exception of a small 200-square-mile section of Antarctica, every single square kilometer of dry land on the planet has been walked on by at least one human being.
Tap dancers frequently forget to breathe normally during difficult routines, resulting in an average of 200 tap dancing-related tragedies per year.
A team of University of Virginia researchers released a study promoting the practice of picking one's nose, claiming that the health benefits of keeping nasal passages free from infectious blockages far outweigh the negative social connotations.
The increased electricity used by modern appliance parts is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.
Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.