May 2010
“Nintendo” is Japanese for “Leave luck to Heaven”.
There’s no direct translation of the word “Nintendo” into English, but the most popular translation is “Leave luck to Heaven”. Literally “nin” can be translated to “entrusted” and ten-dou means “heaven”.
In what must be one of the first ever mainstream...
The creators of Adidas and Puma were brothers…and Nazis.
Adolf “Adi” Dassler started and Rudolph “Rudi” Dassler started a line of sports shoes in Germany in 1924. They both joined the Nazi Party when Hitler rose to power. Rudi was drafted to fight in WWII and was captured by Allied forces. American soldiers suspected him of being a member of the SS (Hitler’s...
April 2010
As of 4/20/10 Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance was the number one most viewed video on YouTube with 185,247,313 views (as of 4/20/10). It would take 108,554.3615 years to watch it that many times.
Cats have a third eyelid!
Cats, dogs, rabbits, and lots of other animals have a fold of protective tissue lined with a mucous membrane. Humans and other primates don’t have third eyelids, which actually makes them the oddballs in the animal kingdom. Regardless, we still have vistigial leftovers of the third eye lid. If you look in the corner of your eye you can see what’s left of our...
In Singapore, you can’t walk in YOUR OWN HOUSE naked.
Well, you could, but you’d be facing a possible $1,136 fine. If that sounds bad, wait until you see the cost of selling chewing gum. If you’re caught either selling or manufacturing gum in Singapore you’re looking at a fine of $5,600 and one year in jail. It’s also a $284 fine if you use a public toilet and...
According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.
Giraffes can’t yawn.
Pretty much all warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals yawn. Birds, fish, mammals, and of course, people. An average human will yawn 250,000 times in one lifetime, and animals have been photographed yawning all the time. However, neither giraffes nor whales have ever been caught yawning.
OMG Facts Episode 8, with special guest: YouTube celebrity Ray William Johnson! Remember to subscribe to OMG Facts on YouTube for weekly videos.
Grizzly Bears and Polar Bears can mate and make HYBRID BEARS! People are undecided between calling them “pizzlies” and “grolar bears”!
The Niagara Falls freezes. In 1848 it stopped flowing altogether.
In March of 1848, so much ice had flown into the the Niagara Falls that the falls literally stopped moving. As reported in the Buffalo Express: “The Falls of Niagara can be compared to nothing but a mere mill dam this morning. In the memory of the oldest inhabitants, never was there so little water running over...
Approximately 95% of software in China is pirated.
Not only that, but software piracy in China, Russia, and Argentina alone combined for an estimated $1 billion in trade losses back in 1996! (Think of what that number would be now that the software industry is much more profitable and internet speeds and internet piracy has grown.)
According to the Software Publishers Association, at least 5...
Squirrels plant trees. ON ACCIDENT.
Despite the fact that they’ve yet to learn to look both ways before crossing the street, squirrels are actually pretty smart. They have an elaborate system for preserving their food. This includes burying nuts and acorns underground so that they can get to them much later. Sometimes if they don’t get around to eating their buried treasure, the nuts...
The first American President was (technically) a guy named John Hanson.
George Washington was the first President of the United States. However, he was not the first man to hold the title of “President”. John Hanson was the first President of Congress chosen under the Articles of Confederation.
After the colonies achieved independence from Great Britain, but before the passage of...
Lactose tolerance is a mutation. Lactose intolerance is the original form of the gene.
Scientists have looked into the human genome to find the precise genetic mutation that causes lactose tolerance. Lactose tolerance in humans always come from the same genetic mutation, regardless of whether they are of European, Asian, and African descent.
Most people in the world are lactose intolerant....
India has MORE cellphones than TOILETS.
A violin contains 70 DIFFERENT pieces of wood.
Rats can’t throw up, that’s why rat poison works.
Rats don’t really need to throw up anyway. Their digestive systems are powerful enough to process what would normally be dangerous materials, and their heightened senses of smell and taste keep them from consuming anything that they can’t digest.
Vomiting is actually a complex process that rat’s don’t have...
A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside. Also, contrary to popular belief, hippos are ill-tempered and aggressive toward humans.
Hippos have mouths that can open 150 degrees wide to be four feet high, revealing teeth that are 20 inches tall!
Hippos are very aggressive. Male hippos use their big teeth for fighting and when threatened they snort, roar, lunge and...
The longest election in US history lasted over 315 days and was nearly won by TWO votes!
A business jet sold for $4.9 million on eBay, setting the record for the highest price for any item on eBay.
Taurine, an ingredient in Red Bull, originally came from bulls. Hence, “Red BULL”.
Taurine is an ingredient in most energy drinks. Scientists first discovered taurine in ox bile in 1827. The name “taurine” actually references “taurus”, Latin for “bull” or “ox”. Urban legends have suggested that the taurine in Red Bull comes from bull...
For centuries, girls in China had their feet wrapped and bound to be only 3 inches long. Having “bound feet” was a status symbol, and helped women marry into money.
Millions of Chinese women would undergo “foot-binding” so that their feet would look like “three-inch golden lotuses”. This process would normally start at a young age, when girls’ feet were...
In a BANNED racist Buggs Bunny cartoon, Elmer Fudd was replaced by a Jim Crow-style character.
A lion’s roar can be heard from five miles away.
The Boston University Bridge is the only spot in America where a boat can sail
under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
Rats will eat almost anything, including the dead of their species, or even their own kids!
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air. How? Watch the video.
The Earth is approximately 6,000,000,000,000 ,000,000,000,000 kg or about 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
Mary Stuart became Queen of Scotland when she was only SIX DAYS OLD. Her father had no male heirs and he died six days after she was born.
A goldfish named Tish lived to be 43 years old, making it the OLDEST GOLDFISH EVER.
Cats that fall from higher than 7 stories get fewer injuries than those that fall from lower levels.
A formal study on the effects of falling from building on cats has never been done (could you imagine scientists chucking cats off of a building, in the name of science?) However, a report in the Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association assembled data about cats that have seen vets in...
OUR SUN WILL NEVER EXPLODE. It is far too small to generate enough energy to become a supernova (an exploded star.)
Did you know that “ough” can be pronounced TEN DIFFERENT WAYS?
There’s “cough” (which rhymes with “off”), “enough” (which rhymes with “stuff”), “dough” (which rhymes with “no”), “through” (which rhymes with “do”), “thought” (which sounds like “awe”),...
“The Sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” has the Guiness World Record for toughest tongue twister.
Here’s some more tongue-twisters (careful, these are tough): “Can you can a canned can into an uncanned can like a canner can can a canned can into an uncanned can?”
“The seething sea ceaseth and thus the seething sea sufficeth us.”
...
“Checkmate” in chess is actually “Shah Mat,” Persian for “the king is defeated” or the “king is helpless”.
Chess is a REALLY OLD GAME. The earliest evidence of chess dates back to the year 600 AD in Persia. “Shah” is the title of the royal Persian monarch, so naturally the King in chess was called the Shah. To win chess, you have to...
If you walk and talk with someone, eventually you will synchronize your steps with each other.
Interpersonal synchronization of stepping happens when people walk side-by-side. Little is known about this, but it has practical uses in therapy. In 2009, this phenomenon was the subject of a study to help impaired people in rehabilitation. Subjects were paired together to walk on treadmills...
If it’s not from Champagne, France, you can’t call your drink “champagne”. It’s against international law.
Champagne is produced exclusively in the Champagne region of France. The French are really picky about their wine and their champagne, so much so that they made it illegal in 1891 for any vineyard not in Champagne to make a drink called “champagne”....
Albert Einstein left his first wife for his COUSIN.
The moon is moving an inch away from Earth EVERY YEAR. Some day, we won’t have solar eclipses anymore.
Who’s to blame? The ocean. The Earth and the moon constantly interact through gravitational forces. This push-and-pull through space creates tidal forces on Earth, which, in turn, pulls back on the moon, making bulges on the moon’s surface.
The result: Tidal forces are...
The human brain is 78% WATER. The rest is lipids, protein, carbs, and salt.
By feeding hens certain dyes, their egg yolk color changes. Green eggs and ham, anyone?
The color of a chicken egg’s yolk is dependent on the diet of the hen that lays the egg. Certain kinds of corn can make the yolk look more orange or yellow, and peppers can make the yolk look red. In the US, people expect their egg yolks to be white, but in parts of Europe, people expect the yolks to...
Humans don’t just shrink with age. They shrink EVERY DAY.
Humans shrink and regain height daily, sometimes as much as 3/4 of an inch in one day. When we move throughout the day, the fluid disks in in our spinal column compress and we shrink. When we rest at night our backbones reabsorb the fluid and our height comes back.
As our bodies degenerate over time, our ability to grow back our...
Afraid of sharks? Orcas aren’t.. They eat them for breakfast.
There have been multiple sightings of Orcas (aka “Killer Whales”) preying on sharks, even the infamous Great White Shark. This was the subject of an episode of National Geographic’s “Nature Untamed” series entitled “The Whale that Ate Jaws”. You can also see videos of killer whales...
India has more honor roll students than America HAS students.
You can use peanuts to make dynamite!
George Washington Carver, the scientist and inventor dubbed “The black Leonardo da Vinci” by Time Magazine, spent his life researching alternative uses for peanuts. Among his hundreds of discoveries, he used peanuts to create paints, tuberculosis medicine, and nitroglycerin, the active ingredient in dynamite.
Dynamite is a popular explosive,...
Never miss a high-five again! Look at the other person’s elbow first.
Jellyfish evaporate in the sun. They’re 98% water.
There’s alcohol IN SPACE!
In 2006, astronomers discovered a cloud of alcohol in part of the Milky Way where stars are forming from gas and dust. The good news: the alcohol cloud is 463 billion kilometers (about 288 miles) across. The bad news: the cloud is made of methyl alcohol, the undrinkable cousin of ethyl alcohol (drinking alcohol).
This discovery challenges the old conventional...
In 1979, a woman jumped off the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, and LIVED.
29-year-old Elvita Adams jumped off of the observation tower on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. As luck would have it, a 30 mph gust of wind blew her straight back up and she landed on a ledge on the 85th floor. She suffered only a fractured hip, and a security guard promptly brought her back inside...
Breathing the air in Mumbai, India for just ONE DAY, is equivalent to smoking 2.5 packs of cigarettes.
