What random facts do you know?

[LordPembroke]

What random/useless facts have you picked up over the years? (ig this is also a good thread to broaden your trivia knowledge )

Here's mine:

• 'George Orwell' was Eric Blair's pen name (not his actual name)
• Technically, the British flag is only called the Union Jack when mounted on a ship at sea; otherwise, it's officially known as the Union Flag
• Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers are fruits (NO, THEY ARE NOT VEGETABLES!!!!!)
• The origin story for Americano coffee is supposedly that it was created by U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe during WW2, looking for a way to make coffee they were accustomed to back home
• The state of Virginia is named after Queen Elizabeth I (the 'Virgin Queen')
• Bananas are classed as berries, but strawberries aren't
• In 1967, Australian prime minister Harold Holt disappeared whilst swimming in the sea, and was never found
• Napoleon wasn't actually short; he was average height for the time period
• We still don't know the origin of the Wow! signal (aliens??? )
• Some scientists believe that jellyfish might be aliens, since they're so unlike any other living creature on Earth

 

[DinosaurDumpster]

Toilets in Australia swirl the other way (i'm pretty sure)
China has its own Minecraft version

that's all I have

 

[Corrie]

Peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes.
They also grow underground which is funny considering shows like Spongebob say that there's a peanut plant. It blew my mind when I found out lol.

 

[rianne]

A coconut is a fruit, as well as a drupe.

 

[Stella-Io]

Goats have great balance

Cats with white fur and blue eyes have a greater chance of being deaf. Despite this very well known fact in the cat breeding community, there is an entire breed that has these standards (Turkish Angora I think. Pretty cats, but sad that they have such a high chance of being deaf )

Black animals have a much lessened chance of being adopted at shelters

Dolphins sleep with one half of their brain awake and the other half asleep

Hummingbirds can fly backwards

There is a breed of dog (Australian Shepard I think) were having heterochromania is very common. They have one very pale blue eye and usually a brown eye.

Shar-peis were bred for fighting originally. The skin folds are to protect their inner organs if they get bit. The attacker would bite folds of skin instead of gettin into the guts.

There's no such thing as a black tabby, unless it is a mix breed. Tabbies don't have black coats.

Clinical strength dandruff shampoo is pretty good at getting off ink stains on the skin (from my experience lol)

Idk why I know so many animal related facts

 

[LadyDestani]

Wombat poop is shaped like a cube.

Sloths grow algae on their backs. They also only come down from the trees to go to the bathroom about once a week.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

The blobfish actually looks like a normal fish - the ones that look blobby and ugly were pulled up so fast that they basically turned inside out due to not being able to adjust to the change in pressure quickly enough.

 

[Stnh]

It's illegal to have a fish in your jacket in england

 

[Neb]

I have so many. Here’s just a few.

Red-green and blue-yellow are two colors that the human eye can’t process correctly. Instead we see them as brown.

Concussions via fallen coconuts result in more fatalities annually than shark attacks.

Crater Lake in Oregon is the deepest lake in North America.

The average dog mouth has less bacteria than a human mouth.

 

[neoratz]

just learned this today, the other week i got really into "when i'm booin" from the backyardigans (my friend was going through a backyardigans album cuz one of the songs went viral) and apparently it's a parody of when you're smiling

when i'm booin

when you're smiling

 

[_Donut_]

Close to its premiere, Toy Story 2 was almost completely erased after an employee entered a faulty command into the computer.
Another employee who was working from home due to pregnancy leave ended up having a save file with her and saved the movie.