What is your favourite piece of trivia?

[beale]

I'm collecting them..

[che630]

Word origins are always good. The origin of the word trivia is on this site somewhere, but my favourite is the origin of the word sabotage. Before sholaces there were two basic types of shoes, clogs, and those ones with the buckles which are sabots. When someone invented shoelaces sales of sabots went downhill rapidly In protest the sabot makers made sure the people making sholaces didn't have an easy time and would do anything to ruin the production line. Hence sabotage.

[Doolallygirl]

If the population of China walked in front of you single file the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. Disneyland is bigger than the five smallest countries in the world. A cat has 32 muscles in its ear. A hippo turns red when it gets angry. A pig can't look at the sky (up). The human head stays "alive" for ten seconds when separated from the body. Babies don't have knees, they grow from the ages of 2 - 6 years. Typewriter is the longest word in the English language written just from the top line of a keyboard/typewriter. Lollipop is the longest word typed with just the right hand. Charlie Chaplins body was held to ransom. Is this the type of stuff you were looking for?

[beale]

Yep, that's the stuff. Keep them coming everyone. This is GOLD.

[andy hughes]

Bats turn left when they fly out of their caves to hunt. they all do it, no-one knows why. Cats purr - no-one knows how they make this noise.

[bernardo]

There are 8000 species of millipede, but only 2 of them are carnivorous.

[SKCOLL]

When Steve McQueen strung a line across a road, causing the soldier to crash and stole the motorbike - he was stealing from himself as he played the part of that soldier and actually did the stunt!

[SKCOLL]

Forgot to say IN THE GREAT ESCAPE!!!!

[lauren1984]

The queen owns all the swans in England. The law still states it is illegal to play marbles on a Sunday.

[che630]

Postage stamps are legal tender and can be used to pay for anything. Also it is an act of treason to destroy anything bearing the Monarch's image.

[che630]

The country Brazil is named after the nut, and not vice versa.

[che630]

Glass is tecnically a liquid and can flow.

[che630]

Without being 'melted'.

[bernardo]

Doolallygirl - how do you know that one about the decapitated head?

[TRINITY]

ICELAND Consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation J The only letter in the alphabet that does not appear on the Periodic Table. KING COBRA The only snake that builds a nest for its eggs LEBANON The only country in the Middle East that does not have a desert. PAPER CLIP Patented by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler in 1899. Because Norway had no patent law at the time, he had to travel to Germany where he received his patent in 1900. His U.S. Patent was granted in 1901. A 22.5 foot model of one was erected in Oslo. The diameter of the wire in a standard paper clip is 1 millimeter - or about 0.04 inch. SQUID Japan's favorite pizza topping VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR The first video ever played on MTV.

[Phantaxus]

Buck Billed Platypus - the only poisonous mammal Nice post beale this one will run and run

[sddsddean]

The world constipation record is 102 days(you should have seen the 103rd).
An elephant is the only animal with 4 knees.
There are more atoms in a teaspoon of water, than teaspoons of water in the Atlantic Ocean.
The longest word with no vowels is RHYTHMS.
The largest hanger in the world is the Goodyear airship hanger at Akron, Ohio. It is so big that clouds have been known to form in the roofspace and it rains indoors!
Gustave Eiffel used to have dinner every night in the restaurant on the Eiffel tower... because it was the only place in Paris you couldn't see the bloody thing!! He also built the Statue of Liberty.

[Wraith]

A ducks quack doesn't echo and noboby knows why.

[lookslikemik]

Strengths is the longest one-syllabled word in English.

[IndieSinger]

Wraith - unfortunately that's a myth, so not a factual piece of trivia.

[IndieSinger]

Facetious contains all five vowels in the correct order (and is the shortest word to do so). Subcontinental contains them all in reverse order.