90 Fun Facts About Weird

Which animal produces cube-shaped droppings?

The cubes stack without rolling away, which helps mark territory on uneven ground; the physics of how the gut shapes them won an Ig Nobel Prize in 2019.

How many hearts does an octopus have?

One main heart pumps blood round the body and two smaller ones push it through the gills; the main heart actually stops beating while the animal swims.

Which animal is considered biologically immortal because it can revert its cells to a juvenile stage?

It is only about 4.5 mm across; when starved or injured it turns back into a polyp and starts over, though it can still be eaten or fall ill.

In which animal does the female deposit eggs into the male, who then gives birth?

The male carries the developing young in a brood pouch on his front and expels them in contractions that can last hours.

Which of these is a berry in the strict botanical sense?

Botanically a berry develops from a single ovary with seeds inside the flesh, which also makes tomatoes, grapes and cucumbers berries while raspberries and blackberries are aggregate fruits.

Flamingo chicks hatch grey. What turns the adults pink?

Liver enzymes break the pigments in plankton and shrimp down and deposit them in the feathers; zoo birds on the wrong diet fade to white.

Roughly how often does a three-toed sloth climb down to the ground to relieve itself?

It digs a small hole, goes, and covers it up, and the trip to the ground is the most dangerous thing it does all week.

Where are a butterfly's taste receptors?

A female drums a leaf with her feet to taste whether it is the right plant before laying eggs on it.

What shape are a goat's pupils?

The sideways slit gives a grazing animal a wide panoramic view for spotting predators while keeping out glare from the sky above.

What kind of tree is Pando, the single Utah organism with about 47,000 stems sharing one root system?

It covers about 106 acres and is generally held to be the heaviest single living organism on Earth.

How do wood frogs of the far north get through winter?

They can survive being frozen at minus 3 to minus 6 degrees Celsius and simply thaw out and hop away in spring.

Which animal's club-like strike accelerates at around 10,000 g, one of the fastest movements in nature?

The blow is fast enough to boil the water around it and has been known to crack aquarium glass.

On which planet does a single rotation (one day) take longer than a full trip around the Sun (one year)?

It spins backwards too, so the Sun rises in the west; one sidereal day is 243 Earth days against a 224.7-day year.

Which planet is less dense than water and would, given a big enough bathtub, float?

It is about 30% less dense than water despite being 95 times the mass of Earth.

Which body, discovered in 1930, has still not completed a single orbit of the Sun since it was found?

One trip round the Sun takes about 248 years, so its first full orbit since discovery will not finish until 2178.

Sunsets on Mars are mostly what colour?

Fine red dust scatters light the opposite way to Earth's air, so the sky near the setting Sun glows blue while the daytime sky is butterscotch.

A newborn baby has around how many bones, compared with roughly 206 in an adult?

Many of them fuse together as the child grows, which is why the skull and pelvis start out in pieces.

Fingernails grow up to how much faster than toenails?

The nail on the index finger also grows faster than the little finger's; a full fingernail takes three to six months, a toenail up to eighteen.

The right human lung has three lobes. How many does the left have?

The left lung gives up room to the heart, which is why it is the smaller of the two.

The gene 'sonic hedgehog', which helps shape a growing embryo, is named after what?

Its siblings are 'desert hedgehog' and 'Indian hedgehog', named after real hedgehog species; doctors tend to use the abbreviation SHH with patients.

The world's first webcam, set up at Cambridge University in 1991, was pointed at what?

Researchers were tired of walking to an empty pot, so they streamed it to their desks; it went online in 1993 and was switched off in 2001.

The famous 'first actual case of bug being found' in a computer, in 1947, was literally what?

Operators taped it into the Harvard Mark II logbook; the word 'bug' for a fault was already engineering slang, so the note was a joke.

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make what?

Fusajiro Yamauchi's hand-painted flower cards were popular partly because Japan had banned most other forms of gambling in 1882.

Nokia, later the world's biggest phone maker, was established in 1865 as what?

It spent a century in paper, rubber boots and cables before phones; the company still takes its name from the Nokianvirta river.

Samsung began life in 1938 as a small trading firm dealing in what?

Lee Byung-chul's Samsung Sanghoe in Daegu did not make electronics until 1969.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin's search project was originally called what before it became Google?

The name referred to the way it analysed the web's 'back links'; it ran on Stanford servers from 1996.

Under what name did Jeff Bezos originally found Amazon in 1994?

The name lasted only a matter of months before Bezos renamed the online bookstore after the world's largest river.

What was the first item ever sold on eBay?

It went for $14.83 in 1995; when founder Pierre Omidyar checked, the buyer said he collected broken laser pointers.

Bluetooth wireless technology takes its name from what?

Harald Bluetooth united the Danish tribes, and the engineers wanted a standard that united devices; the logo merges his runic initials.

The shortest war in recorded history, in 1896, was fought between Britain and which state?

It lasted somewhere between 38 and 45 minutes, ending when the sultan's palace was shelled and he fled to the German consulate.

In 1932 the Australian Army took machine guns into the field against which animal, and lost?

The birds split into small fast groups; the commander compared them to tanks and the operation was abandoned amid public ridicule.

In the summer of 1518, a 'dancing plague' saw people dance uncontrollably for weeks in which city?

It began with one woman, Frau Troffea, dancing in the street; the leading explanation is stress-induced mass hysteria.

In January 1919 a wave of what swept through Boston's North End, killing 21 people?

A storage tank holding about 2.3 million US gallons burst and the wave moved at an estimated 35 mph.

Per Suetonius, Caligula planned to give his horse Incitatus which office?

The horse supposedly had a marble stable and an ivory manger; modern historians think the story was a joke at the Senate's expense.

The Cadaver Synod of 897 was a church trial held in Rome. Who or what was in the dock?

Pope Stephen VI had Formosus dug up, dressed in vestments and propped on a throne to answer charges; the body was later thrown in the Tiber.

Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear, was enlisted as a private in which country's army in WWII?

He was drafted so he could board a troopship, carried ammunition crates at Monte Cassino and retired to Edinburgh Zoo.

According to Herodotus, how did an ancient Egyptian family mourn the death of a household cat?

Killing a cat was forbidden, and the cemetery at Bubastis held hundreds of thousands of mummified cats.

Liechtenstein added a crown to its flag in 1937 after finding at the 1936 Olympics it matched which country's?

Both were plain blue-over-red; the crown now marks the difference.

Which US state has the only non-rectangular state flag?

It is a swallowtail burgee; the state even publishes an official 17-step method for folding it.

The unicorn is the heraldic national animal of which country?

It was chosen partly because the unicorn was seen as the natural enemy of the lion, England's symbol; two of them once supported the royal arms.

Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs are illegal to import into which country?

A 1938 law bans sweets with a 'non-nutritive object' inside; Kinder Joy, with the toy in a separate half, was allowed in from 2017.

Fanta was created in 1940 in which country, because a wartime trade embargo cut off Coca-Cola syrup?

Max Keith's team made it from whey and apple pomace; the orange version everyone knows was developed in Italy in 1955.

Guinness World Records began when Sir Hugh Beaver got into an argument about what?

He had missed a shot at a golden plover in 1951 and could not find a book to settle whether it or the red grouse was faster.

In 1952 Mr. Potato Head became the first toy to be what?

The original kit was just plastic face parts; families supplied their own real potato until 1964.

What is Barbie's full name?

Her parents are George and Margaret Roberts of Willows, Wisconsin, according to a 1960s series of novels; Ken is Ken Carson.

Fredric Baur, who designed a famous snack container, had some of his ashes buried in what?

His children honoured the request in 2008 with an Original flavour can; the rest of him went in an urn.

Play-Doh was first sold in the 1930s as what?

It was made to lift coal soot off walls; when homes switched to gas heating the company rebranded it as a modelling clay for schools.

What were the inventors of Bubble Wrap trying to make in 1957?

Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes sealed two shower curtains together; the wall covering flopped but IBM used it to ship computers.

The name 'Frisbee' was borrowed from what?

Yale students had been tossing empty tins from the Frisbie Pie Company of Connecticut; Wham-O adopted the name for its Pluto Platter in 1957.

Naval engineer Richard James got the idea for the Slinky when he saw a spring do what?

He was developing springs to steady instruments on ships; the toy was first demonstrated on a ramp at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia in November 1945.

What gave Swiss engineer George de Mestral the idea for Velcro in 1941?

Under a microscope the burrs were covered in tiny hooks that caught on loops of fur and fabric.

The first chainsaw, a flexible chain saw devised by two Scottish doctors in the 1780s, was for what?

It was drawn in a midwifery textbook for symphysiotomy, widening the pelvis; the timber version did not arrive until the 20th century.

Sir William Cubitt introduced the treadmill to England in 1818 for what purpose?

Convicts climbed the endless stair for hours a day, and the same wheels were also used to grind grain and pump water.

High heels started out as footwear for whom?

A raised heel locks a rider's foot in the stirrup; the style spread to European men's fashion and only later to women.

The croissant is a French icon, but it descends from the kipferl, a crescent pastry from which country?

French bakers swapped the kipferl's brioche dough for laminated yeast dough in the early 20th century, creating the flaky version we know.

Hawaiian pizza was invented in 1962 in which country?

Greek-born Sam Panopoulos put tinned pineapple on a pizza at his restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, and named it after the brand on the tin.

Fortune cookies most likely originated with which group?

A near-identical cracker was made in Kyoto in the 19th century; the cookie is almost unknown in China.

The machine that spins cotton candy was co-invented in 1897 by a man of which profession?

William Morrison and confectioner John C. Wharton sold 68,000 boxes of 'fairy floss' at the 1904 World's Fair; a second dentist patented a rival machine in 1921.

Where does a cashew nut grow?

The kidney-shaped shell dangles from the bottom of a swollen stalk that looks like a small pepper; the shell's oil is a skin irritant, which is why cashews are never sold in it.

Botanically, peanuts are not nuts at all. What are they?

They are in the pea family and ripen underground, which is why Linnaeus named the species hypogaea, 'under the earth'.

Before Dutch growers developed the orange carrot, what colour were most carrots in the 10th century?

Purple, white and yellow types still exist as heirloom varieties; the orange one owes its colour to beta-carotene.

What does white chocolate lack that dark and milk chocolate contain?

It is cocoa butter, sugar and milk, which is why regulators in some places initially objected to calling it chocolate at all.

When it launched in 1886, Coca-Cola contained an estimated nine milligrams per glass of what?

The 'coca' in the name is the coca leaf; fresh leaves were removed from the formula in 1903.

Which of these foods, when properly stored, does not spoil?

Its high sugar and acidity stop microbes growing; the oldest known remains, found in Georgia, are 4,700 to 5,500 years old.

The marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards dates from which Olympics, run from a royal castle to the royal box?

The IAAF adopted exactly that 1908 London distance, 42.195 km, as the world standard in 1921.

Tug of war was an official Olympic sport from 1900 until which Games?

It has not been on the programme since, though the sport still holds its own world championships.

Between 1912 and 1948 the Olympic Games awarded medals in which of these?

The 'Pentathlon of the Muses' also covered architecture, literature and music; the works had to be inspired by sport.

During Apollo 14 in 1971, Alan Shepard hit two of what across the Moon's surface?

He smuggled a six-iron head up and fitted it to a sample-scoop handle; in one-sixth gravity his second shot went about 40 yards.

Which future president built a local reputation by beating the leader of the 'Clary's Grove boys' at wrestling?

He was a tall, famously strong young man in New Salem, Illinois; the gang became his supporters afterwards.

An Olympic 'gold' medal is mostly made of which metal?

The rules require at least 92.5% silver plated with just 6 grams of gold; solid gold medals were last handed out in 1912.

Bir Tawil, a patch of desert claimed by no country at all, lies between which two nations?

Each side's preferred border gives it to the other, because claiming it would mean giving up the far more valuable Hala'ib Triangle.

At Point Nemo, the spot in the Pacific farthest from any land, the nearest humans are often aboard what?

Old spacecraft are deliberately brought down nearby, and the International Space Station itself is due to be crashed there in 2031.

Big Diomede (Russia) and Little Diomede (US), under 4 km apart, differ by how many hours in winter?

The International Date Line runs between them, so they are nicknamed Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island.

Which state is at once the northernmost, westernmost and, by longitude, the easternmost in the US?

The Aleutian Islands stretch across the 180th meridian into the Eastern Hemisphere.

The point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's centre is the summit of which mountain?

Earth bulges at the equator, so the Ecuadorian volcano beats Everest by about 2 km even though it is 2,500 m lower above sea level.

Which country's national anthem, dating to at least 1572, is the oldest still in use?

The Wilhelmus was written during the Dutch Revolt and is first recorded being sung by a soldier at the siege of Haarlem in 1573.

On a hot day the top of the Eiffel Tower can lean away from the Sun by up to roughly how much?

The iron on the sunny side expands more than the shaded side, so the tower bends very slightly and grows a few centimetres taller.

An 85-letter hill name, the longest place name in any English-speaking country, is found where?

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu is a hill in Hawke's Bay; locals just say Taumata.

The 'Wilhelm scream' stock sound effect is named after a character in a 1953 Western who is hit by what?

The scream itself was recorded for Distant Drums in 1951 and has since turned up in Star Wars, Indiana Jones and hundreds of other films.

Psycho (1960) worried censors by showing what, almost unseen in American cinema then?

The shot of torn-up paper failing to flush was needed as a plot clue; the shower scene, oddly, gave the censors less trouble.

In 2015 a US federal judge invalidated a publisher's long-standing copyright on which song?

Warner/Chappell had been collecting licensing fees for decades and agreed to repay $14 million.

Per a 2006 BusinessWeek article, which firm is the world's number-one tyre manufacturer by units made?

Its factory turns out about 306 million tiny rubber tyres a year, more than any car-tyre maker.

'Dord', defined as 'density' in Webster's 1934 dictionary, was really what?

A slip reading 'D or d' (abbreviations for density) was misread as one word; it stayed in the dictionary for five years.

What is the dot over a lowercase i or j called?

The phrase 'to a T' may come from 'to a tittle', meaning to the smallest detail.

For centuries European apothecaries sold 'mummia', a pricey cure-all made from what?

When Egypt banned exports in the 16th century, some dealers embalmed fresh corpses to keep up supply.

In 1986, a Cleveland charity set a world record by releasing roughly how many balloons at once?

The balloons drifted back over the city and Lake Erie, snarled traffic and an airport, and led to lawsuits and a net loss.

Which scientist dropped white paper into the Thames in 1855 to test how filthy the river was?

Three years later the 'Great Stink' finally pushed authorities to accept Joseph Bazalgette's sewer plan, which still serves London.

Where did advertising executive Gary Dahl get the idea for the 1975 Pet Rock?

The rocks came in boxes with air holes and straw bedding; the fad lasted about six months after an August 1975 trade-show debut.

How many of the 159 pupils at a Kashasha girls' school were hit by the 1962 Tanganyika laughter epidemic?

It began with three girls on January 30, 1962; symptoms lasted from a few hours to 16 days, while the teachers were unaffected.

About how many tree seeds did Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa carry around the Moon in 1971?

The 'Moon trees' came from five species: loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood and Douglas fir; Artemis I revived the idea in 2022.