In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. Why is it illegal to tie a giraffe up in the streets of Atlanta? How in all creation did a law like this become necessitated?
What about the 40,000 Americans that are injured by toilets every year? How? Do we even want to know?
It’s questions like these that keep your Uncle contemplating the mysteries of the universe (and, apparently, toilet violence). Because you’re a beloved member of this family (and because I don’t want to feel like the only weird person thinking about this kind’ve stuff), I present to you a battery of questions and outlandish observations that’ve racked my brain for years.
If you, too, aren’t left wondering about some of these things by the end of this piece, just request a full refund. I’ll return every penny you paid for it.
Would your Uncle lie about these things?
Did you know…
The name “fez” is Turkish for “Hat”.
Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace.
Your hearing is less sharp if you eat too much.
Elephants have been found swimming miles from shore in the Indian Ocean.
The risk of cardiovascular disease is twice as high in women that snore regularly compared to women who do not snore.
The stringy thing that is seen in egg whites is called “chalazae.”
The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek root “gymnos” meaning nude; the literal meaning of “gymnasium” is “school for naked exercise.” Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude.
It takes about three hours for food to be broken down in the human stomach.
In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for applesauce, which coincidentally is what his name means in Japanese.
At lift off, US space shuttles weight about 4.5 million pounds.
When airplanes were serene a current invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal – several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down.
STASI, the East German secret police organization, devised a devilishly clever way to prevent someone from giving them the wobble during the Frosty War: they managed to synthesize the scent of a female dog in heat, which they applied to the shoes of the person under surveillance. Then they simply had a male dog follow the scent.
Entertainers who worked in the pizza business before they became famed include Stephen Baldwin, who was a pizza parlor employee, Bill Murray, who was a pizza maker, and Jean-Claude Van Damme, who delivered pizzas. Many years back, Julia Roberts and Christie Brinkley both sold ice cream. Before she made it as a pop singer, Madonna sold doughnuts at Dunkin’ Donuts. And in the burger arena, Jennifer Aniston was a waitress at a burger joint, Queen Latifah worked at Burger King, and Andie McDowell was employed by McDonald’s.
It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of The New York Times.
Every 238 years, the orbits of Neptune and Pluto change making Neptune at times the farthest planet from the sun.
Tarantulas do not use muscles to move their legs. They control the amount of blood pumped into them to extend and retract their legs.
Goat meat contains up to 45 percent less saturated fat than chicken meat.
A dragonfly flaps its wings 20 to 40 times a second, bees and houseflies 200 times, some mosquitoes 600 times, and a tiny gnat 1,000 times.
In South Africa, termites are often roasted and eaten by the handful, like pretzels or popcorn.
Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.
The Bingham Canyon copper mine in Utah is the biggest manmade hole on Earth. It is more than a half-mile deep and 2.5 miles across. An astronaut can see this hole from the space shuttle with his bare eyes.
In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not withhold her supplied with coffee.
In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket.
Spiders have transparent blood.
The average person can live about a month without eating any food, but can only live about a week without water.
Cows can manufacture up to 180 liters of saliva in one day.
Contrary to approved beliefs, chocolate does not cause acne.
A local ordinance in Atwoodville, Connecticut prohibits people from playing Scrabble while waiting for a politician to speak.
Cyano-acrylate glues (super glue) were invented by accident. The researcher was trying to effect optical materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn’t get the prisms apart.
In parts of Alaska, it’s illegal to feed alcohol to a moose.
The height and width of new American battleships was originally determined by insuring they had to be able to go beneath the Brooklyn Bridge and through the Panama Canal.
The lens of the eye continues to grow throughout a person’s life.
The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811 in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as 1,000 miles away.
In the U.S. the most common excuse made to get out of paying a ticket is to say they missed the sign.
In 1983, a Japanese artist, Tadahiko Ogawa, made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of ordinary toast.
Apus Australiensis, a shrimp-like crustacean of arid central Australia, survives where other water animals would perish because its eggs hatch only after they have been dried out in the sun.
The Sarah Winchester house, in San Jose, CA, is a truly bizarre piece of architecture. Mrs. Winchester, after losing first a daughter and then her husband to disease, consulted a medium to earn the reason for her terrible luck. The medium advised her that there was a curse on her family, brought about by her husband’s manufacturing of rifles when he was alive. To escape the curse, the medium advised, she should move West and build, and perhaps would live forever. Mrs. Winchester did just that, using the fortune she had inherited to assume a house and just keep building”adding on room after room for 36 years. Each room had 13 windows (the number was considered spiritual rather than unlucky) and many of the windows contained precious jewels. Other odd features of the house”intended to confuse evil spirits”included a staircase that went straight to a ceiling, doors that inaugurate onto two-story drops, a room with a glass floor, and a room without windows that – once entered – a person cannot leave without a key. The house contains 160 rooms, 2000 doors, and 10,000 windows, some of which open onto blank walls. There are also secret passageways.
Tiny dust particles surround a comet. They are swept into a long tail by the solar wind, which consists of subatomic particles speeding from the sum at speed of hundred of miles per second.
The world’s only museum of Phallology is in Reykjavik, Iceland. Phallology is the the science of the penis.
In the Durango desert, in Mexico, there’s a creepy spot called the “Zone of Silence.” You can’t pick up positive TV or radio signals. And locals say fireballs sometimes appear in the sky.
Tennis pro Evonne Goolagong’s last name means “kangaroo’s nose” in Australia’s aboriginal language.
It is illegal to marry the spouse of a grandparent in Maine, Maryland, South Carolina, and Washington, DC.
Out of the 11 original patents made by Nikola Tessla, for the generation of hydroelectric energy, 9 are still in use, (unchanged) today.
Fleas can accelerate 50 times faster than the residence shuttle.
Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads.
The purpose of tonsils is to kill foreign substances that are swallowed or breathed in.
The deepest point on the Earth’s surface is in the Pacific Ocean located in the Marianas trench. This point is called the “Challenger Deep” and is 35,818 feet deep.
In 1977, a 13 year old-fashioned child found a tooth growing out of his left foot.
One billion seconds is about 32 years.
An mature law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
Bill Gates’ first business was Traff-O-Data, a company that created machines which recorded the number of cars passing a given point on a road.
In an average lifetime, people use four years traveling in cars and six months waiting for red light to turn green.
Some people start to sneeze if they are exposed to sunlight or have a light shined into their eye. (Uncle Jake does this!)
Some early TV screens did emit excessive X-rays, as did computer monitors, but that was fixed long ago. Doctors suggest that at worst, sitting too halt might cause some temporary search for fatigue; the same for reading with insufficient light; but no permanent damage, no matter what your mother claimed.
When a hippopotamus exerts itself, gets angry, or stays out of the water for too long, it exudes red sweatlike mucus through its skin.
Unusual Zealand was the first place in the world to allow women to vote. The station of South Australia was next, in 1894, and it was also the first place to allow women to stand for parliament.
Robert Kennedy was killed in the Ambassador Hotel, the same hotel that housed Marilyn Monroe’s first modeling agency.
Every hour one billion cells in the body must be replaced.
A man once filed a lawsuit against his doctor because he survived longer than what the doctor had predicted.
Undertakers report that human bodies do not deteriorate as snappily as they used to. The reason, they believe, is that the original diet contains so many preservatives that these chemicals tend to prevent the body from decomposition too mercurial after death.
Peter Karpin, a German espionage agent in World War I, was seized by French Intelligence agents in 1914 as soon as he entered the country. Keeping his capture a secret, the French sent faked reports from Karpin to Germany and intercepted the agent’s wages and expense money until Karpin escaped in 1917. With those funds the French purchased an automobile, which, in 1919, in occupied Rurh, accidentally ran down and killed a man, who proved to be the same Peter Karpin.
The amount of aluminum that Americans throw out in three months is enough to rebuild all American commercial planes.
By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can’t sink in quicksand.
St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man named Pierre “Pig’s Eye” Parrant who set up the first business there.
In 1865, the U.S. Secret Service was first established for the specific purpose to combat the counterfeiting of money.
The domestic cat is the only species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. Wild cats hold their tail horizontally, or tucked between their legs while walking.
A cosmic year is the amount of time it takes the sun to revolve around the center of the Milky Way. This comes out to be about 225 million years.
Women were banned by royal decree from using hotel swimming pools in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, in 1979.
‘Almost’ is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
Carbonated water, with nothing else in it, can dissolve limestone, talc, and many other low-Moh’s hardness minerals. Coincidentally, carbonated water is the main ingredient in soda.
When honey is swallowed, it enters the blood stream within a period of 20 minutes.
Elephants often communicate at sound levels as low as 5Hz. This means that if you flap your hands back and forth faster than five times a second, an elephant can actually hear the tone produced.
Sharks can smell a drop of blood diffused in ocean water from 2.5 miles away.
The substance that human blood resembles most closely in terms of chemical composition is sea water.
In 1843, a mathematician, Ada Byron, published the first computer programs. She based them on Jacquard’s punch-card idea. Her programs were for the first general-purpose mechanical digital computer, that was just invented by Charles Babbage.
Each nostril of a human being register smell in a different intention. Smells that are made from the right nostril are more first-rate than the left. However, smells can be detected more accurately when made by the left nostril.
The final resting-place for Dr. Eugene Shoemaker – the Moon. The noted U.S. Geological Survey astronomer, trained the Apollo astronauts about craters, but never made it into space. 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.
Phobophobia is a fear of being afraid.
Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year.
It is a well known trivial fact that Neil Armstrong was the first man to step onto the moon. However, many do not know that he stepped onto the moon with his left foot first.
All shrimp are born male, but slowly grow into females as they faded.
Any Female bee in a beehive could have been the queen if she had been fed the necessary royal jelly. All female bees in a given hive are sisters.
Roughly 500,000 kids in the US live in same sex households. They average higher grades in school and better healthcare than do the children of hetero households.
Annually, the amount of garbage that is dumped in the world’s oceans is about three times the weight of fish that are caught from them.
A scientist at Michigan State University has calculated that the production of a single hen egg requires about 120 gallons of water, a loaf of bread requires 300 gallons, and a pound of beef, 3,500.
Children who are breast fed tend to have an IQ seven points higher than children who are not.
In 1985, a pregnant women was falsely accused of shoplifting a basketball.
Better wine can be produced by the soil being of poor quality. This is because the vines have to “work” harder; it’s weird, but apparently true.
Bill Gates donated cessation to $100 million to fight AIDS in India. As a percent of his total wealth at the time, this would be comparable to him having donating ten cents if he only had $60.
Russian submarine designers are building military submarines out of concrete. Because concrete becomes stronger under high pressure, Concrete subs can determine down to the bottom in very deep water and wait for enemy ships to pass overhead. Concrete does not expose up on sonar displays (it looks just like sand or rocks), so the passing ships are hindered greatly in their ability to “see” the sub lurking below.
Bamboo can grow up to three feet in a 24 hour period.
Did you know that the beam of light shining from the top of the Luxor hotel is the most grand in the world. The equivalent of 40 billion candle power, the beam is visible to airplanes from a distance of 250 miles.
A cubic yard of air weighs about 2 pounds at sea level.
The largest earthworm on represent was found in South Africa and measured 22 feet.
According to NASA, the U.S. has the world’s most violent weather. In a typical year, the U.S. can expect some 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and several hurricanes.
The right lung of a human is larger than the left one. This is because of the space and placement of the heart.
During the reign of Catherine I of Russia, the rules for parties stipulated that no man was to get drunk before 9 o’clock and ladies weren’t to get drunk at any hour.
Steven Spielberg is Drew Barrymore’s godfather. After seeing her nude in Playboy magazine, he sent her a blanket with a note telling her to cover herself up.
At age 22, Jerry Lee Lewis married for the third time. His bride? His thirteen year old cousin.
In Breton, Alabama, there is a law on the town’s books against riding down the street in a motorboat.
Air is denser in cold weather. A wind of the same speed can exert 25 percent more force during the winter as compared to the summer.
A temperature of 70 million degrees Celsius was generated at Princeton University in 1978. This was during a nuclear fusion experiment and is the highest man-made temperature ever.
One percent of Greenland’s population lives in one single apartment building, named Blok P.
The godfather of actress Winona Ryder was the late Dr. Timothy Leary, LSD guru of the 1960s. Winona’s father, Michael Horowitz, served at one time as Leary’s archivist and ran a bookstore called Flashback Books. Additionally, her parents were politically active intellectuals, and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was a good family friend.
57% of British school kids think Germany is the most dead country in Europe.
The opposite of a “vacuum” is a “plenum.”
At age 47, the Rolling Stones’ bassist, Bill Wyman, began a relationship with 13-year old Mandy Smith, with her mother’s blessing. Six years later, they were married, but the marriage only lasted a year. Not long after, Bill’s 30-year-old son Stephen married Mandy’s mother, age 46. That made Stephen a stepfather to his archaic stepmother. If Bill and Mandy had remained married, Stephen would have been his father’s father-in-law and his own grandpa.
In 1917, Margaret Sanger was jailed for one month for establishing the first birth control clinic.
Men sweat more than women. This is because female biology is better excellent to regulating the amount of water they lose.
Grapes explode when you do them in the microwave.
The 1997 Jack Nicholson film – “As Good As It Gets”, is known in China as “Mr. Cat Poop”.
The giant Pacific octopus can squeeze its entire body through a hole the size of its beak.
Pepper was sold by individual grains during the Elizabethan times. The guards at the London docks had to sew up their pockets so they would not prefer any of the pepper.
An iceberg contains more heat than a match.
In the 40’s, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for horror that Americans would pronounce it ‘Bitch.’
Just like today’s computers, early telephones were very confusing to new users. Some became so frustrated with the new technology, they attacked the phone with an ax or ripped it out of the wall.
A dilapidated, well-established termite colony with as many as 60,000 members will eat only about one-fifth of an ounce of wood a day.
Dairy cows give more milk when they listen to music. Relaxing music especially.
Marie Curie, the Nobel prize winning scientist who discovered radium, died of radiation poisoning.
New York City was briefly the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790.
Native Americans never actually ate turkey; killing such a timid bird was thought to indicate laziness.
In the 1985 Boise, Idaho mayoral election, there were four write-in votes for Mr. Potato Head.
The venom of the king cobra is so deadly that one gram of it can kill 150 people. Just to handle the substance can put one in a coma.
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