Fastfacts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, January 21, 2004

Things you always never wanted to know

  • Atlantic salmon are able to leap 15 feet high.

  • Minnows have teeth in their throat.

  • A marine catfish can taste with any part of its body, and the female marine catfish hatches her eggs in her mouth.

  • In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

  • Nero did not fiddle while Rome burned. The fiddle had not been invented. Nor was Nero there ÷ he was at his villa in Antium, Italy, 50 miles away.

  • In 1221, Genghis Khan killed 1,748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour.

  • Some methods for combating the plague in 14th century Europe included bathing in goat urine, placing dried toads over plague boils, and applying the entrails of a newborn puppy to the forehead.

  • Hot water freezes quicker than cold water.

  • In 1998, the United States spent $30 billion on correctional services and $24 billion on social welfare.

  • New Zealand is home to four million people and 70 million sheep.

  • Not all of your taste buds are on your tongue. About 10% are found on the palate and inside the cheeks.

  • Legend has it that the mummy of Cleopatra was accidentally left in a Paris museum when the treasures looted by Napoleon were returned. In the 1940s, workmen found a mummy case and emptied its contents into the sewers. The case was later identified as that of Cleopatra.