Fast facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, April 25, 2005

Things you always never wanted to know

  • The Statue of Liberty's tablet is 2 feet thick.

  • There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

  • The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is "Live Free or Die." Prisoners in the state penitentiary in Concord manufacture these license plates.

  • The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients, which floated on the top of the container.

  • There are only 13 blimps in the world. Nine of the 13 blimps are in the United States. The biggest existing blimp is the Fuji Film blimp.

  • The Swiss flag is square.

  • The word "pound" is abbreviated "lb." after the constellation "Libra" because it means "pound" and "scales" in Latin. The abbreviation for the British pound sterling comes from the same source: it is an "L" for Libra/Lb. with a stroke through it to indicate abbreviation.

  • The top layer of a wedding cake, known as the groom's cake, traditionally is a fruitcake. That way it will keep until the first anniversary.

  • The German Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered arm and often hid the fact by posing with his hand resting on a sword or by holding gloves.

  • Cats have more than 100 vocal sounds while dogs only have about 10.

  • Mice, whales, elephants, giraffes and humans all have seven neck vertebrae.

  • The common goldfish is the only animal that can see both infrared and ultraviolet light.

  • When angered, the ears of the Tasmanian devil turn a pinkish red.

  • Cat's urine glows under a black light.

  • If you add up the numbers 1 through 100 consecutively (1+2+3+4+5 ... etc.) the total is 5050.

  • A 12-gauge "rifled slug" does not spin, even though there are grooves on its bearing surface. A slug actually travels like a dart.