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Some trivial stuff, interesting nevertheless. (This page is still under construction.)
- A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.
- An albatross can sleep while it flies. It apparently dozes while cruising at 25 mph.
- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
- The bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers.
- It takes 17 muscles to smile - 43 to frown.
- A cough releases an explosive charge of air that moves at speeds up to 60 mph.
- The shortest war on record, between Britain and Zanzibar in 1896, lasted just 38 minutes.
- Mexico City is the oldest capital city in the Americas.
- The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
- Bats are the only mammals that can fly.
- The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
- Camel's milk does not curdle.
- The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
- The slanted line (/) that divides dates, fractions, choices, etc. is called a virgule.
- The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
- Hummingbirds are the only birds able to fly backwards.
- A group of owls is called a parliament.
- A group of frogs is called an army.
- A group of kangaroos is called a mob.
- A group of ravens is called a murder.
- A group of officers is called a mess.
- Shrimps' hearts are in their heads.
- Univerity of Oxford is the oldest university in the English speaking world.
- According to the Guiness Book of Records, 'floccinaucinihilipilification' is the longest real English word.
- The Humuhumunukunukuapua'a, or reef triggerfish, is Hawaii's unofficial state fish.
- Libya is the only country with a single-coloured (green) flag with no writing or decoration on it.
- The postage stamps of Britain are the only stamps in the world not to bear the name of the country of origin.
- Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors and the parachute.
- The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
- The airport in La Paz, Bolivia is the world's highest airport.
- Nauru is the only country in the world with no official capital.
- Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek rather than Egyptian.
- A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair.
- 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.
- Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries.
- The word 'bookkeeper' is the only word in the English language with three, back-to-back double letter combinations.
- The dinosaur Stegosaurus grew to 9m in length but had a walnut-sized brain.
- Kolkata (Calcutta) in India is called the City of Palaces because of the abundance of European-style buildings.
- The Coconut Crab is the worlds largest arthropod, known for its ability to crack coconuts withs its strong pincers.
- The hippopotamus is considered to be the most dangerous animal in Africa, causing more deaths than lions, crocodiles and wild buffalos.
- The highest railway line in the world is in China. This Qinghai-Tibet railway line has its highest point 5,072m above sea level.
- Vatican city is the smallest country in the world.
- The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over 1.5 million people.
- The Finnish word SAIPPUAKIVIKAUPPIAS - a soapstone seller - is the longest known palindrome in any language.
- There are only two sequences of four consecutive letters that can be found in the English language: "rstu" and "mnop." Examples of each are understudy and gymnophobia.
- One thousand is the first number which contains the letter 'A'.
- A googol is a 1 followed by 100 zeros.
- Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
- Typerwriter is the longest word that can be made using only one row of the keyboard .
- The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list.
- Scientifically, tomato is a fruit.
- Athens is the oldest capital in Europe.
- Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
- A zebra is white with black stripes.
- Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions.
- In the Gregorian calendar, a year divisible by 4 is a leap year - except years divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400. So, 2000 is a leap year while 1900 and 2100 are not leap years.
- A kangaroo can't jump unless its tail is touching the ground.
- The pupil in a goat's eye is rectangular in shape.
- The longest word which can be spelled without repeating a letter is 'uncopyrightable'.
- Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
- The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
- Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox, Unix is a registered trademark of AT&T.
- The first words that Thomas A. Edison spoke into the phonograph were, "Mary had a little lamb."
- Spiders have transparent blood.
- An ant can lift 50 times its own weight.
- A bunch of bananas is called a hand while the individual bananas are called fingers.
- 'Dracula' is the most filmed story of all time.
- There are 48 teaspoons in a cup: three teaspoons make a tablespoon, with 16 tablespoons to a cup.
- A fresh egg will sink in water, but a stale one won't.
- The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
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