The Totally Awesome Book of Useless Information Read online

The longest recorded flight of a chicken was thirteen seconds.

  The blood of an octopus is pale bluish green.

  Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale.

  Mexico City sinks about ten inches a year.

  An elephant’s trunk can hold four gallons of water.

  The dinosaur Brachiosaurus had a heart the size of a pickup truck.

  Cows pass gas about sixteen times a day.

  A lion’s roar can be heard five miles away.

  Thirty-five million pounds of candy corn is produced each year in America, which is enough to circle the moon nearly twenty-one times.

  Each year the moon’s orbit moves about one and a half inches father away from Earth.

  No two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.

  Wife-carrying is a sport in Finland.

  The common garden worm has five pairs of hearts.

  The longest Oscar awards ceremony was in 2000 and lasted 256 minutes.

  There are more beetles than any other creature in the world.

  The world’s windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica. Winds regularly exceed 150 miles per hour.

  Slugs have twenty-seven thousand teeth.

  The average meteor is no larger than a grain of sand.

  A snail can sleep for three years.

  Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

  The only rock that floats in water is pumice.

  Nose prints are the most reliable way of identifying dogs.

  In the Caribbean, there are oysters that can climb trees.

  Each year the Earth becomes about twelve tons heavier because of meteorites landing.

  A 150-pound adult on Earth would weigh 250 tons on the sun.

  The average human brain is 80 percent water.

  There was once a U.S. state called Franklin, named after Benjamin Franklin. It eventually became part of Tennessee.

  Argentina’s name means “Land of Silver,” but there is actually very little silver there.

  The smallest church in the world is in Kentucky. It can hold three people.

  Ostriches can run faster than horses.

  Some polar bears turn green as a result of algae growing in their fur.

  Dogs may be able to sense earthquakes before they happen.

  The animals most likely to fall from the sky during a rainstorm are fish and frogs. Jellyfish once fell from the sky in England.

  In 1783, a volcanic eruption in Iceland temporarily blocked out the sun over Europe.

  Antarctica is the only continent where pumpkins cannot grow.

  Antarctica has only one ATM.

  Very tall buildings naturally lean toward the sun.

  Plants that are not watered will cry for help; a thirsty plant will make a high-pitched sound that is too high for humans to hear.

  There are more stars than all the grains of sand on Earth.

  It takes twelve people twenty hours to make one Oscar statuette.

  Toto the dog was paid $125 per week while filming The Wizard of Oz.

  Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week.

  Pinocchio was made of pine.

  In the oldest known version of the Cinderella fairy tale, her slippers were made of gold, not glass.

  A woman once received a box in the mail with a human brain in it.

  Reading about yawning makes most people yawn.

  Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.

  The four most dangerous steps in a staircase are the two steps at the top and the two at the bottom.

  Baboons cannot throw overhand.

  Chickens lay more eggs when pop music is played.

  The world’s biggest dog weighed 282 pounds.

  Chocolate was once believed to cure stomachaches.

  The Incas used to wash their children’s hair with urine as a remedy for head lice.

  Birds can’t sweat.

  More toilets flush during halftime of the Super Bowl than at any other time of the year.

  Termites are the largest producers of farts.

  The largest snowflakes that ever fell on Earth were fifteen inches in diameter.

  A thirteen-year-old boy once found a tooth growing out of his left foot.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Noel Botham is chairman and founding member of the Useless Information Society. He and the rest of his team lurk mostly around London. He is the author of The Book of Useless Information, The Ultimate Book of Useless Information, The Best Book of Useless Information Ever, The World’s Greatest Book of Useless Information, and The Amazing Book of Useless Information.

  ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

  Travis Nichols is a writer, illustrator, Texan, and cartoonist living in New York. He is the author and illustrator of The Monster Doodle Book, Matthew Meets the Man, and other books for kids and post-kids. He enjoys meteorites and eating watermelon over the sink. He can be found online at www.ilikeapplejuice.com.