Fast Facts


Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Things you've always never wanted to know

  • Actress Judy Garland was 16 years old when she filmed "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939.

  • To keep bugs out of flour, place a couple of bay leaves in the container.

  • According to professor Walter Connor of the University of Michigan, men are six times more likely than women to be struck by lightning.

  • Americans eat less than one serving of fruit and only one serving of vegetables per day. About 45 percent reported eating no fruit in a day, and one in nine said they didn't eat either fruit or vegetables.

  • Pennsylvania law mandates that all counties provide veterans' graves each year with a flag, most of which are distributed before Memorial Day.

  • Green tea has 50 percent more vitamin C than black tea. In China, where tea originates, black tea (a British-ism) is referred to as red tea.

  • In one year, American hens lay enough eggs to encircle the globe 100 times.

  • A mother giraffe often gives birth while standing, so the newborn's first experience outside the womb is a 6-foot drop.

  • There is about one quarter-pound of salt in every gallon of seawater.

  • The word "gas," coined by the chemist J.B. van Helmont, is taken from the word "chaos," which means "unformed" in Greek.

  • Some Persian rugs may last as long as 500 years before wearing out.

  • Gibbons live in family groups and communicate to others through high-pitched songs that can be heard for several miles. Songs are specific to each family and convey information such as location, temper and social position.

  • Jackrabbits are powerful jumpers. A 20-inch adult can leap 20 feet in a single bound.

  • The state of Texas is the only one in the nation that has been under six flags - the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Lone Star Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America and the U.S.

  • The first video game was "Pong", introduced in 1972 by Noel Bushnell, who then created Atari.

  • Attila the Hun died of a nosebleed on his wedding night in A.D. 453.

  • Without using precision instruments, Eratosthenes measured the radius of Earth in the third century B.C. and came within 1 percent of the value determined by today's technology.