Random Facts

(A list of random facts, in no particular order; added as discovered, remembered, etc.)

• Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th. 
• Triskadekaphobia means "fear of the number 13."
• The superstitious belief that thirteen is an unlucky number comes from Judas Iscariot's betrayal of Christ at the Last Supper, when the twelve apostles and Jesus were gathered together for the last time.  (However, read the Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld and see what you think then.  13 has always been my lucky number. ^^)
• At latitude 60 degrees south, you can sail clear around the world without touching land.
• The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
• Regarding the Google-Yahoo war:  go to the homepage of each website.  (They're referring to the first thing they get for the suggestions.) I typed "I smell" into both search engines.  Yahoo!'s response?  "I smell trouble."  Google's?  "I smell a giant rat."  People, this war was over before it even started.  Google FTW.
• According to suicide statistics, Monday is the favored day for self-destruction.
• If you are sailing in the Strait of Messina and come across a castle floating in midair, you are seeing an optical illusion called a fata morgana, which only occurs where there are alternating warm and cold layers of air rising from the surface.
• All swans in England are the property of the queen.
• If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19.  You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
• Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name.  The official name, used on all state documents, is "Rhode Island and Providence Plantations."
• It would take roughly eleven Empire State Buildings, stacked one on top of the other (needle included) to measure the Gulf of Mexico at its deepest point.
• The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
• The three best-known Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley.
• Mary Stuart became the Queen of Scotland when she was only six days old.
• Ravens are kept in the Tower of London, and, according to myth, the British throne will fall if they are to fly away.  (Not surprisingly, the British government clips the ravens' wings.)
• The largest number of children born to one woman is recorded at sixty-nine.  From 1725-1765, a Russian peasant woman gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.
• Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint--no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.
• The invention of the traffic light came before the invention of the automobile.
• Cats can hear ultrasound.
• A black hole in the Perseus galaxy cluster, about 250 million light-years away from Earth, emits sound waves with a frequency of about 10 million years, making them the lowest notes in the universe.  The sound, a B-flat fifty-seven octaves lower than middle C, is generally considered to be a cheerful one, although it cannot be heard by the human ear.
• Genetically speaking, zebras are black with white stripes, not the other way around; they have black skin even under the white hair.
• The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.