Fast facts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Monday, October 25, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
More than 25 percent of the world's forests are in Siberia.
In poker, a pair of aces and a pair of eights is known as a "dead man's hand." The name originated in 1876, when Wild Bill Hickok was shot by Jack McCall during a card game in a saloon in Deadwood, S.D. As Wild Bill slumped over the table he exposed his hand for all to see - a pair of eights and a pair of aces.
The average brain constitutes 2 percent of a person's total body weight. It uses 25 percent of all oxygen used by the body. The kidneys use 12 percent of the total oxygen used by the body, and the heart uses 7 percent.
R. Buckminster Fuller, the well-known American architect, engineer and designer, is the longest biographical entry in the 1975 edition of Who's Who.
Hair from the tail of a mule ridden by Peter the Hermit, a crusader in the 14th century, were sold at high prices as sacred relics at the time.
More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all wars ever fought by the United States.
The ancient Egyptians bowled in alleys like ours 7,000 years ago.
Most automobile trips in the United States are less than 5 miles in distance.
Most dinosaurs lived to be more than 100 years old.
There are 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building.
When astronauts remain weightless in spaces for prolonged periods, scientists have discovered their bones lose a measurable amount of weight and thickness. This means that weightlessness actually causes humans to shrink.
The monarch butterfly can discern tastes of 12,000 times more subtle than those a human can taste.