OMG Facts *official tumblr*: Archive

Have you ever wondered why piggy back rides are called piggy back rides?

Early forms of the phrase “piggyback” date back to the 16th century with “pick pack,” “pick back” and “pick-a-pack,” which make no reference to pigs at all!

“Pick” back then used to mean the same as “pitch” does now: to throw or place (e.g. “pitch a tent”). “Pack” was probably a reference to something being carried so “pick pack” or “pick-a-pack” meant to place something. The alternative, “back”, implies that…

Jun 18, 20103 notes

A 12-year-old’s science project showed that Fast food ice was dirtier than toilet water

12-year-old Jasmine Roberts found tested the water from the ice machines at 5 fast food restaurants in South Florida and compared them to the water in the toilets in those same restaurants. 70% of the time, the ice water was dirtier than the toilet water. Some of the ice water even tested positive for E. coli bacteria.

How is that possible? Toilet water comes from sanitized city water. The ice,…

Jun 18, 201041 notes

The Pinta Island tortoise is the rarest animal in the world. There is ONLY ONE LEFT on Earth. His name is “Lonesome George”.

Lonesome George is the last member of the Pinta Island subspecies of Galapagos tortoises. He was discovered in 1972, and brought to the Charles Darwin research station on the island of Santa Cruz. He is roughly 90 to 100 years old.

Currently, researchers are trying to get George to mate. They haven’t found a female Pinta Island tortoise (if you found one,…

Jun 18, 201013 notes

The USA bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre.

Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to purchase Alaska from Russia for only $7.2 million in 1867. At the time, critics referred to this as “Seward’s folly”, “Seward’s Icebox” and “[President] Andrew Johnson’s polar bear garden”.

With approximately 365 million acres, that amounts to less than 2 cents per acre. Still, critics thought Seward was crazy, and the deal only passed the Senate by one vote. Of course, we later…

Jun 17, 201014 notes

The Letter ‘R’ is on the left side of the keyboard, and ‘L’ is on the right side.

Jun 17, 201079 notes

The annoying horn that plays during FIFA World Cup Matches is called a “vuvuzela”.

The exact origins of the vuvuzela are disputed, but they have been seen in South African football matches since at least the 1990s. It’s become part of the South African football experience. The instrument is supposed to resemble the sound of an elephant, but thousands of them in a stadium make a sound reminiscent of a swarm of bees.

The origin of the name itself, “vuvuzela”, is also uncertain. It might…

Jun 16, 201036 notes

If Facebook were a country, it would be the THIRD LARGEST country in the world, BIGGER than the U.S. and Indonesia.

In 2009, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook had 200 million users, which (if Facebook was a country) would make it the fifth largest in the world.

That was back then. Now, Facebook’s statistics page claims that there are more than 400 million active users (twice as many as last year!). This means that there are more Facebook users than people living…

Jun 16, 201074 notes

“Eleven plus Two” and “Twelve plus One” both equal 13 and both have 13 letters.

Jun 15, 201045 notes

The full name for Los Angeles is El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula

The name comes from a Spanish expedition in California back in 1769. An expedition led by Gaspar de Portola arrived at what is now the city of Los Angeles, which back then was fertile ground by a river. They decided that this would be a good place for a settlement.

One of the members of the expedition, Father Juan Crespi, named the river El Rio de Nuestra Señora la Reyna de Los…

Jun 15, 201041 notes

Texas is the only state that allows residents to vote FROM SPACE.

Thanks to a 1997 Texas law, astronauts are allowed to vote while in space. An electronic ballot gets sent from the Galveston County Clerk’s office to the Johnson Space Center. Mission control then transmits the electronic ballot through a satellite to the International Space Station. The astronauts then vote electronically and the ballot gets sent back to the Clerk’s office to be counted with everyone else. And you…

Jun 15, 201034 notes

There’s a man who is ‘allergic’ to Wi-Fi.

When he’s around a wi-fi signal, it makes him feel “dizzy, sick and confused.” It’s a condition called “Electromagnetic Sensitivity”. With the increase in the availability of public wi-fi, this guy has had to drastically go out of his way to avoid the signals. “I feel like an exile on my own planet. It’s almost impossible to find somewhere without wi-fi nowadays.”.

The picture is from a list of hilarious wi-fi names on linkognito.com….

Jun 15, 201099 notes

Europe is the only continent without the letter “A” in its name.

Jun 15, 201033 notes

An Indonesian toddler by the name of Ardi Rizal smokes 40 cigarettes in a day.

Ardi Rizal had his first cigarette when he was 18 months old. Now, if his parents don’t give him a cigarette, he throws a tantrum. The video below was removed from Youtube because people were outraged to see a kid so young smoking.

25 per cent of Indonesian children have tried cigarettes. 3.2 percent of them are habitual smokers.

Smoking Baby Hooked on Cigarettes - Watch more Funny…

Jun 15, 201037 notes

There are no search results for + or - in Google.

There’s a reason for this. These symbols don’t work as search terms because they can actually be used to modify your searches. If you put a + before a search term, you are making sure all of your search results have that word. If you put a - before a search term you make sure that results with that word will not appear.

Also, both the +, -, and = signs are used when you use google to solve math problems. Google can serve as a…

Jun 15, 201041 notes

When a puppy is born, it is blind and toothless.

They also can’t go to the bathroom by themselves either. They need their moms to massage them with their tongues to get them to do their business.
(source)

Jun 14, 201050 notes

The Angler Fish in the movie “Finding Nemo” is, in fact, a female. The females are the ones with the huge teeth and the light in front of their faces. The males are small and spend their lives attached to the females.

The deep-sea anglerfish lives at depths of up to 3,300 feet underwater. At these depths there isn’t any light. The female anglerfish has a long rod that dangles in front of her face. It serves as a fishing pole, with a light-up lure in the front that attracts prey.

When…

Jun 14, 201029 notes

“Silent” and “listen” are spelled with the same letters.

Jun 13, 2010152 notes

September is the only month with the same number of letters (9) as its place in the year (9th month).

Jun 13, 201063 notes

A Japanese soldier refused to surrender to U.S. forces after WWII. Instead, he hid in Guam for 27 years.

Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese sergeant in World War II, returned to Japan in 1972, 27 years after World War II ended. Two American hunters discovered Yokoi in the jungle in Guam. They turned him over to the police, and he was sent back home. He had been hiding in the jungle rather than surrender to U.S. forces at the end of the war.

Yoichi was living in a cave, eating fish and rats,…

Jun 13, 201036 notes

“W” is the only letter in the English alphabet that is more than one syllable.

Doesn’t “elemeno” have four syllables?

Jun 13, 201057 notes

OMG Facts official tumblr

June 2010