Tooth enamel is the hardest substance manufactured by the human body
Despite its popularity as a seasoning, basil has a controversial history. Basil was a sacred plant in ancient Hindu religion, and it was handled warily by European herbalists of the Middle Ages, who feared it as a scorpion breeder
The term "rhinestone," from the French caillou du Rhin, came to be because the colorless, hard-glass artificial gems were originally made at Strasbourg (on the Rhine)
A queen bee may lay as many as 3,000 eggs in a single day - Below is a video of a Honeybee Queen laying her eggs:
Pharaoh ants are a serious nuisance pest in hospitals, rest homes, apartments, hotels, grocery stores, and other buildings. They feed on a wide variety of foods including soft drinks, greases, jellies, honey, shortening, peanut butter, fruit juices, baked goods, dead insects, and even shoe polish. Also, pharaoh ants gnaw holes in silk, rayon, and rubber goods. In hospitals, these foraging ants have been found in surgical wounds, I.V. solutions, sealed packs of sterile dressing, water in flower displays, and water pitchers. Pharoah ants mechanically transmit diseases and contaminate sterile materials
Beets reminded early cooks of a bleeding animal when they cut them open, so they started calling them "beets." This was derived from the French word bête, meaning "beast"
It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the "New World"
Mormon leader Brigham Young had 57 children with 16 of his 27 wives
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| A picture of just the daughters of Brigham Young |
There are over 375 organizations around the world devoted to the fictional Sherlock Holmes. The largest group is the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club with over 1,200 members
Disney World in Orlando, Florida covers 30,500 acres (46 square miles), making it twice the size of the island of Manhattan
A "claque" is a group of people hired to applaud an act or performer
The easiest sound for the human ear to hear, and those which carry best when pronounced, are, in order, "ah," "aw," "eh," and "oo"
A recent U.S. study purports that there are fewer births 9 months after a heat wave. The study found that an increase of 12 degrees Celsius (approximately 21.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer temperatures reduces births the following spring by up to 6 percent. Researchers at Kinsey Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University concluded that high temperatures could reduce people's sense of well-being, which could result in a reduction in sexual interest. Another study found lower sperm counts and higher rates of miscarriage during hot weather
According to a pet owner survey, 79% of Americans give their dogs holiday and/or birthday presents
Children born in the month of May are on the average 200 grams heavier at birth than children born in any other month
The are more different kinds of insects on existence today than the total of all kinds of other animals put together
Green tea has 50% more vitamin C than black tea
Sharks and rays are the only animals known to not succumb to cancer. Scientists believe this is related to the fact that they have no bone — only cartilage
It may take longer than two days for a chick to break out of its shell
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| A black-backed gull chick looks on as a sibling pecks at freedom |
Nyctitropism is the tendency of the leaves or petals of certain plants to assume a different position at night
Type O is the most common blood type in the world. Type AB is the rarest. There is also a subtype called A-H, but to date, only three people in the world are known to have it
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In March, Dennis Mulholland, 67, of Paisley, Scotland, encountered a three-foot-long California king snake hiding in the bowl after escaping from elsewhere in the building. In December a woman in Edmond, Oklahoma had a similar experience with a squirrel, which, hypothesized police, might have crawled through a sewer drain
Recent inventories made by police of suspects' vaginas included LSD in aluminum foil and marijuana in two sandwich bags (woman in Englewood, Florida, January); pills (woman in Manatee County, Florida, February); heroin (woman in Scranton, Pennsylvania, March); a fraudulent driver's license and credit card
(woman in Lee County, Florida., May); and pills and a knife (woman in Fort Myers, Florida., May). Rectal safe-keeping included a man with a baggie of marijuana (Louisville, Kentucky, March); a man with a marijuana pipe (Port St. Lucie, Florida, May), and a man with 30 items inside a condom (Sarasota, Florida, February), including a syringe, lip balm, six matches, a cigarette, 17 pills, and a CVS receipt and coupon
Christopher Bjerkness, 33, was arrested in May in Duluth, Minnesota and charged with burglary after being discovered mid-day in the physical-therapy room at the Chester Creek Academy. The room contained inflatable exercise balls that appeared to be undisturbed, but Bjerkness has been arrested at least twice before, in 2005 and 2009, because of his self-described compulsion to slash inflatable balls
David Truscott, 41, was convicted in Britain's Truro Crown Court in February of violating a restraining order to keep away from the Woodbury House Farm in Redruth, Cornwall, after being caught there two times previously wallowing in the farm's manure pit while masturbating. Said the prosecutor, "This is the only place [Truscott] seeks to gratify himself in this particular manner"
