ODDLY SPECIFIC
Fun Facts, A to Z.
I collect facts that make me stop and say, “Wait. Really?” Search for a subject or follow the alphabet wherever it takes you.
50 entries
A
Fun Fact
A Baby’s First Laugh
The Navajo have a tradition of celebrating a baby’s first laugh. After three months babies are closely watched for their first real giggle. The person who elicits the…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
A Candle’s Flame
The human eye is so sensitive that if the earth were flat and it was a dark night, a candle’s flame could be seen from 30 miles away.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
A Cosmic Scale Hidden in a Single Inhale
With every inhale, you are stepping into something far more expansive than it appears. The human nose can distinguish at least one trillion different scents, a number so…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Abraham Lincoln Is In The Wrestling Hall Of Fame
Abraham Lincoln Is In The Wrestling Hall Of Fame
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Alphabet Owned in One Leap
The sentence “A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” flexes hard on the entire English alphabet. It uses every single letter in one cheeky leap.
View Fact →B
Fun Fact
Back When Tigers Smoked
In Korea, fairy tales begin with ‘Back when tigers smoked’ instead of “Once upon a time’.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Blue Whale Heartbeat
You can hear a blue whale’s heartbeat from more than two miles away.
View Fact →C
Fun Fact
Candle at 30 Miles, Still Can’t Find The Ketchup
Human eyes are ridiculously sophisticated. Given perfect darkness and ideal conditions, they could detect a candle flame from nearly 30 miles away. Meanwhile, I can’t…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Cantaloupe Is A Natural Anxiety Reliever
Cantaloupe is a natural anxiety reliever. It’s high in potassium which helps normalize your heartbeat and stimulate the body to take in more oxygen.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Corn Sweat
Corn plants release water into the air in a process called “corn sweat” which can raise humidity levels by up to 10%. One Acre of corn can release 3,000-4,000 gallons of…
View Fact →
F
Fun Fact
Flyting
Think rap battles were a modern invention? Think again! Medieval poets were dropping fire bars centuries ago, though they called it ‘flyting’ – a verbal showdown where…
View Fact →I
Fun Fact
In The Limelight
Before electricity, theaters would use heated calcium oxide (commonly known as quicklime), to illuminate their stages. This is where the phrase “in the limelight” comes…
View Fact →L
Fun Fact
Lemons As Antidotes
In ancient Rome, lemons were used as an antidote to all poisons.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Leo Loved Animals
Leonardo da Vinci loved animals. He would often buy animals in cages just so he could set them free.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Less Gravity In Canada
Large parts of Canada have less gravity than the rest of the earth. This phenomenon was discovered in the 1960’s.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Living Bridges
There is a tribe in India that has passed down for generations the art of manipulating tree roots to create a system of living bridges.
View Fact →M
Fun Fact
Mary Anning
‘She sells seashells by the seashore’ is about a real person. Mary Anning was an 1800s English woman from a poor family who dug up fossils on the beach and sold them to…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Methuselah Tree
The world’s oldest living tree is a Bristlecone Pine named Methuselah. It’s located in California and is an estimated 4,852 years old.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Mickey and Minnie Mouse Got Married
The voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse got married in real life.
View Fact →
N
Fun Fact
Never Stop Growing
Your nose and ears never stop growing. Your soul should never stop either.
View Fact →O
Fun Fact
74% Of The Richest People
74% of the richest people on earth were high school and college dropouts.
View Fact →P
Fun Fact
People Don’t Sneeze In Their Sleep
People don’t sneeze in their sleep due to their brain shutting down the reflex.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Perfume Pulse Points
The reason perfume is applied to necks and wrists, with behind the knees being the most ideal location, is because these are pulse points that warm the perfume and…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Pill Bugs Are Actually Crustaceans
Pill bugs are actually crustaceans, not insects. They’re more like tiny, land-dwelling shrimp than other bugs. Pretty cool, huh?
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Poisonous vs. Venomous
If you bite it and you die, it’s “poisonous”. If it bites you and you die, it’s “venomous”.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Popcorn Was A Breakfast Cereal
In the 1800s, popcorn wasn’t just for movies; it was a breakfast cereal, enjoyed with milk and sugar.
View Fact →S
Fun Fact
Salt Was Worth Its Weight In Gold
During Roman times, salt was worth its weight in gold and often used as currency. Soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, hence the word “salary”.
View Fact →
T
Fun Fact
The Albatross
The Albatross is a large bird that can go years without landing. They don’t touch the ground for the first six years of life but soar continuously over the ocean.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The Canary Islands: Furry, Not Feathered
The Canary Islands sound like they should be named after those cheerful little yellow songbirds, right? Sweet, delicate, maybe perched on a windowsill somewhere in the…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The Deepest Hole
Russia tried to dig a hole through the Earth’s crust in the 1970’s. They reached 40,318 feet deep before they stopped. It is still the deepest hole humans have ever dug.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The First Computer Program
The first computer program was written in 1842…by a woman. Ada Lovelace, nicknamed “The Enchantress of Numbers” was also the daughter of the famous poet, Lord Byron.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The Strongest Material Known To Man
Graphene is the strongest material known to man. It’s 200 times stronger than steel. It would take an elephant to break a sheet as thin as a piece of paper.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The Universe Picked One Speed and Stuck With It
Earth’s crust and your fingernails are in a dead heat, both clocking a whopping three centimeters a year. The planet is out here performing synchronized swimming drama…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
The World’s Longest Road
The world’s longest road to walk is from Cape Town, South Africa to Magadan, Russia. It’s 22,387 km/13911 mi long. Along the way, you pass thru 17 countries, 6 time…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
They Think We’re Cute
An elephant’s brain reacts the same way that a human’s brain reacts to puppies. They think we’re cute!
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Tiny Life, Massive Buzz
In under forty days, a bee darts through a thousand flowers, spinning barely a teaspoon of liquid gold. To us, it’s just a sweet swipe on toast. To her? It’s the buzzing…
View Fact →
Fun Fact
TV And Sliced Bread
The television was invented only two years after the invention of sliced bread.
View Fact →W
Fun Fact
1,700 Words
William Shakespeare is credited with the invention or introduction of over 1,700 words that are still used in English today.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Water: The World’s Most Persuasive Molecule
Its bent little V shape gives it a tiny positive side and a tiny negative side, so it can grab onto other molecules from both directions. Drop salt into water, and the…
View Fact →
Y
Fun Fact
Yakhchāl
As early as 400 BCE, Persians engineered ancient refrigerators called Yakhchāl. They enjoyed ice in the heat of the desert.
View Fact →
Fun Fact
Your Brain’s Got a Need for Speed And a License to Chill
Your brain has cheetah-speed signals blasting through at 268 mph. The slower ones crawl in at 2 mph, like a tortoise taking the scenic route and still expecting a medal.…
View Fact →Z
Fun Fact
Zheng Yi Sao
The most successful pirate was a woman named Zheng Yi Sao. Her fleet was composed of 400 junks and between 40,000 to 60,000 pirates in 1805.
View Fact →