The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia

by Gary Bennett Charlotte Lowe

  On February 15, 2009, Texas news stations were inundated with calls and e-mails from viewers witnessing fireballs falling from the sky. Some speculated that the debris was caused by a collision between two satellites earlier that week, but the FAA would not confirm.

  In Honduras, the Lluvia de Peces (Rain of Fishes) is a modern-day folklore that has been occurring for more than a century. Witnesses state that it begins with a dark cloud in the sky followed by lightning, thunder, strong winds, and heavy rain for 2 to 3 hours. Once the rain has stopped, hundreds of live, fresh-water fish are found on the ground, which are taken home by the community to cook up. It occurs in the Departamento de Yoro, between the months of May and July.

  There are 88 constellations in the sky—most of which can be seen in both the northern and southern hemispheres, depending on the time of year.

  An old Scandinavian name for Northern Lights translated to “herring flash,” since the lights were believed to be reflections of large swarms of herrings onto the sky.

  Sleep

  The record for the longest duration without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The winner reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory, as well as concentration lapses.

  It is possible for people to take catnaps with their eyes open and be entirely unaware of it.

  If you can fall asleep within less than five minutes of lying down, you may be suffering from sleep deprivation. The average adult human being should fall asleep between 10-15 minutes, suggesting that you’re still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not feeling exhausted or sleepy by day.

  The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

  Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams indicating that dreaming is not unlike watching a film.

  Before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, people slept approximately 10 hours a night. Today, Americans sleep about 6.9 hours a night during weeknights and 7.5 hours each night on weekends.

  Narcoleptics can experience sudden “sleep attacks” that can occur at any moment. The disease is believed to affect 293,000 people in the U.S.

  Snakes

  Snakes have no external ears and use their tongue to channel sound waves.

  A snake sleeps with both eyes open.

  The Brazilian two-headed blind snake is not actually two-headed, blind, or even an actual snake. It is a lizard that can move backward and forward at will and is the same diameter throughout so its head and tail look the same, hence the “two-headed” moniker.

  A rattlesnake will die if left in the hot sun for twenty minutes.

  Unlike other snakes, the King Cobras will make a nest for its eggs. The female constructs her nest of dead leaves by scooping them up with her large body.

  Snuff

  Snuff is a powdered, moist form of tobacco sold in tins. Users apply the snuff between the lower lip or cheek and the gum, or sniff it. The use of snuff is called “dipping.”

  Snuff became popular among the English after the looting of a Spanish convoy in Vigo Bay. Among the goods that were taken from the Spanish fleet was a large consignment of snuff, which found its way to London and was brought to ports and coastal towns by discharged sailors who had received it as partial payment of their services and prize money.

  Chew on that…a person who uses 8 to 10 dips or chews a day receives the same amount of nicotine as a heavy smoker who smokes 30 to 40 cigarettes a day.

  From 1702, snuff mills were established in many parts of England, notably in London, Bristol, Sheffield, and Kendal. More than 300 years later, English snuff is still made in Sheffield by Wilson & Co., and in Kendal by Gawith, Hoggarth & Co. and by Samuel Gawith.

  A “snuff bullet” is a snuff container in the shape of a bullet that allows the snuff to be delivered in convenient single shot doses at the turn of a dial. The snuff is then tapped from the bullet and sniffed from the wrist, or the bullet is taken to the nostril and sniffed directly. Snuff Bullets have a little “air hole” in the side that allows for easy sniffing.

  Soap Bubbles

  Bubbles are made up of molecules that attract each other. This pulls the bubble in, and air pressure inside pushes the bubble out.

  Soap bubbles blown into air that is below 5°F (-15°C) will freeze when they touch a surface. The air inside will gradually diffuse out, causing the bubble to crumple under its own weight.

  Bubbles were used as a toy almost 400 years ago. Children blowing bubbles with clay pipes were depicted in 17th century Flemish paintings.

  U.S. National Bubble Week commences on the first week of spring.

  Measuring 156 ft (47.40 m) in length, the world’s largest bubble wall was achieved at the Pacific Science Center Seattle Washington on August 11, 1997.

  Soccer

  The Football Association (FA) was formed in 1862 from the various associations, such as the Sheffield Association or the Nottingham Association, who came together to hold competitions and set out rules for the game. The word “soccer” is an abbreviation of “Association.”

  In 1314, King Edward II of England disliked soccer so much that he issued a proclamation and anyone playing it would be imprisoned.

  Soccer’s world governing body, the Federation of International Football Associations, has more members than the United Nations.

  Since 1952, Hungary has won the most gold medals in Olympics soccer.

  Brazilian soccer player Pelé (Edson Arantes do Nascimento) was the first commercial superstar of soccer and retired as the only player with over 1,000 goals in the sport.

  Socks

  The average foot has 250,000 sweat glands, and the average pair of feet releases approximately a half a pint of perspiration each day.

  Roman comic actors used to wear a type of shoe known as soccus in Latin.

  40% of the world’s socks are made in China.

  Boys at a Birmingham school in England set a world record for the longest wash line. The line was 1.5 km (nearly a mile!) long and sported 28,400 odd socks. They had assembled 24,500 pegs for their attempt which was aimed to raise money for the schools’ charities.

  During times of wartime shortage, some women would draw a black line up the back of their bare legs to render the seam effect of a stocking.

  “Sock Hop” was an American term coined in the 50s following the popularity of rock and roll and is associated with informal dances at high schools, typically held at gyms or cafeterias. To avoid damage to the floors, the school directors required kids to remove their shoes before dancing on the floors.

  Soy

  During the Chou Dynasty (1134-246 BC), the soybean was deemed one of the five sacred grains, along with barley, wheat, millet, and rice.

  More people have soy sauce in their kitchen pantries than tea, coffee, milk, or salsa.

  The Internet Journal of Toxicology reported that a Chinese company Hongshuai Soy Sauce marketed their product as “using the latest bioengineering technology.” With the prices lower than its competitors’ soy sauce, it soon became popular until it was discovered that the company did not use amino acids derived from wheat and soy. The amino acids were derived from human hair swept off barbershop floors.

  In 2009, customs officers seized 250 tins of counterfeit soy sauce valued at more than $60,000 from four wholesalers. Five people—four men and one woman—were arrested. Though no harmful substances were found in the fake soy, the culprits could be subject to a maximum penalty of $500,000 and five years in jail.

  Like other crops such as corn, cotton, and canola, most soybeans in production are genetically modified to improve growing characteristics and yield.

  SPAM®

  SPAM® was invented in the late Depression and became a godsend during wartime.

  Margaret Thatcher once reported that SPAM® was a “wartime delicacy.�
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  SPAM® has 174 calories per serving; 137 of those are calories from fat.

  In Korea, SPAM® is made available in nine-can gift boxes. The brand is so popular there that it has spawned imitations including Lo-Spam, Dak, Plumrose, and Tulip, to ensure that no one need go without.

  Hawaiians eat an average of four cans of SPAM® per person per year, more than in any other place on Earth.

  Speech

  The Karaya Indians of East Brazil are said to speak through their nostrils instead of their lips.

  Men of the Mazateco tribe of Mexico carry out a conversation through the act of whistling, known as the Mazateco whistle speech. Whistle speech can also be found in the occasional European community such as parts of the Canary Islands where on the island of La Gomera, residents communicate by using a language of whistles that can take over five years to learn.

  The Zulus of South Africa speak a language that includes fifteen different clicking sounds as consonants.

  A human being requires about 100 muscles of the chest, neck, jaw, tongue and lips to produce one phrase.

  The average English conversation operates at about 150 words per minute.

  Spice

  The average American consumes about 4500mg of salt per day, which is equivalent to about 2 teaspoons. The body only requires about 200mg.

  The Cinnamon Bird is a legendary Arabian bird that used cinnamon to build its nests. Herodotus wrote that these birds flew to a foreign land to gather the cinnamon and brought it back with them to Arabia. The Arabians, in turn, got the cinnamon by tempting the birds with large chunks of raw meat. When the birds brought the meat back to their nests, the weight caused the nests to fall and be collected by the people.

  In traditional herb gardens, rosemary was commonly associated with lavender, both of which belong to the mint family.

  The term mustard comes from the Latin words mustum ardens, which translates to “burning wine.” It refers to the taste created by the heat of the crushed mustard seeds mixed with the juice of unfermented wine grapes.

  To prolong basil storage, freeze chopped basil and olive oil in plastic ice cubes or very small freezer containers. Use them as needed.

  In ancient times, corpses were sprinkled with parsley to help remove the stench. In current times, parsley can be used to freshen breath.

  Stamps

  The country of Bhutan issued a group of postage stamps in 1973 that were actually phonograph records. These stamps had native folk songs recorded on one side that could be played on a record player.

  Around 1883, the U.S. witnessed early forms of product placement in the form of a stamp. Advertising for various products was printed on the back of three-cent stamps.

  During the Apollo 11 moon flight in 1969, the astronauts had a die of a postage stamp, which they pulled an impression of when they touched down on the moon. Once the die was returned to earth, it was used to produce the 10-cent airmail stamp issued in September of 1969. Truly a stamp that was out of this world.

  As the first country to issue stamps, Britain is the only country to have stamps without its name printed on it.

  The most popular U.S. postage stamp sold over 120 million copies. It was a 1993 stamp of rock singer Elvis Presley.

  “Black on Magenta,” the 1856 1 cent British Guiana stamp, is the most rare and expensive stamp in the world. It is valued at $3 million today, but it hasn’t been sold since 1980 when it went for $1 million.

  Star Wars

  Harrison Ford was fitting a door for Francis Ford Coppola when a studio exec asked him to take a break to read some lines with actresses who were testing the film. The force was with him to land the role of Han Solo.

  Sir Alec Guinness, who played Ben “Obi-Wan” Kenobi in the film, made a fortune. He had negotiated a deal for 2% of the box office revenue.

  George Lucas had planned to have the film score sound like the classical music in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey before Steven Spielberg introduced him to composer John Williams.

  When writing the script, George Lucas briefly considered making the characters of Luke Skywalker and his aunt and uncle dwarves.

  George Lucas’s friend Francis Ford Coppola was the inspiration for the character of Han Solo.

  In Italy, Darth Vader was known as “Dart Fener,” because the word “Vader” sounds too close to the Italian word for the toilet bowl.

  George Lucas once said that the Millenium Falcon’s shape was modeled after a hamburger.

  Star-Spangled Banner

  “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. He set the words to a popular British drinking song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.”

  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson stated that the “Banner” should be played by the military and naval services.

  On March 3, 1931, the “Banner” was officially announced as the national anthem by an act of Congress.

  The song’s first performance at a sporting event was at the 1918 World Series.

  Jimi Hendrix’s solo guitar performance of the song at the 1969 Woodstock Festival was one of the most controversial renditions. He played the anthem with a number of distorted regressions using mimicking planes, bombs, and screams in reference to the Vietnam War. Guitar World magazine voted it as 52nd on the list of the 100 greatest guitar solos of all time.

  Statue of Liberty

  The face on the Statue of Liberty measures more than 8 ft tall.

  Heavy metal…the statue has seven rays on her crown, one for each of the seven continents, and with each measuring up to 9 ft in length and weighing as much as 150 lbs.

  The tablet held in her left hand is inscribed with the date America declared her independence: JULY IV MDCCLXXVI or July 4, 1776.

  The statue, designed by Frenchman Auguste Bartholdi, was assembled twice. After designing smaller scale working models, the designer and his crew constructed the full-size statue in Paris. Once fully built, the statue was disassembled, packed up, and sent across the Atlantic for re-assembly.

  Copper develops its blue-green patina as a result of exposure to air and to reduce further oxidation. Studies have revealed that only the top 5% of the statue’s skin has oxidized in the first 100 years.

  Sting

  The nickname “Sting” was coined for artist Gordon Sumner because he used to don a black and yellow striped sweater while performing.

  The rock-reggae smash-hit “Roxanne,” catapulted to the top of the charts after it was banned from the BBC.

  In March 1980, the Police embarked on their first world tour and were one of the first global rock bands to tour Bombay, India and Egypt.

  As of 2003, Sting was still reeling in an average of $2000 per day in royalties for the over 20-year-old song “Every Breath You Take.”

  Dennis Wilson, former Beach Boys drummer, stated that “Every Breath You Take” was his favorite song of all time and had it played at his funeral in 1983.

  Sugar

  The name originates from the Sanskrit word for Sharkara, which means “material in a granule form.”

  Until the late 18th century, sugar was considered a luxury item that European nobility used to confirm their rank and social power. It was known as “White Gold.”