The fur of the vicuna, a small member of the camel family which live in the Andes mountains of Peru, is so fine that each hair is less than two-thousandths of an inch. The animal was considered sacred by the Incas, and only royalty could wear its fleece.

The fortune cookie was invented in 1916 by George Jung, a Los Angeles noodlemaker.

A bronze cat, believed to be 2,300 years old, was one of the most popular sculptures in the Egyptian Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Despite its popularity for nearly 25 years, a few museum officials had reason to doubt the statue's authenticity. After X-raying the 15-inch-high figure and scanning a small portion of it ...Read more

A United Parcel Service delivery person typically makes up to 300 pickups or deliveries a day. That compares to someone doing 600 sets of step aerobics a day.

The only items required to play the game are the rulebooks, a character sheet for each player, and a number of polyhedral dice (a set of standard D&D dice includes: d4, d6, d8, d12, d20, and two d10s for percentile: ones and tens), although there are many optional items which can be used to supplement or enhance the gaming experience, such as ...Read more

City squirrels will eat just about anything, and often, it's the junk food that people offer them that they prefer, like Cracker Jack peanuts. Many naturalists have concluded that a peanut diet is harmful to squirrels: it seems to result in a weakening of eyesight and a thinning of the animal's

Points are awarded for clean, solid blows to the legal area on the front of the opponent's body above the waistline, with hits to the head and torso being especially valuable. The fighter with the most points after the scheduled number of rounds is declared the winner. Victory may also be achieved if the opponent is knocked down and unable to ...Read more

When they're actually plantains. Banana is the common name used for herbaceous plants in the genus Musa, which because of their size and structure, are often mistaken for trees. Bananas are cultivated for their fruit (techincally berries, since the plant is a herb) which bear the same name, and to a lesser extent as ornamental plants. Globally, ...Read more

The famous Rosetta Stone was found in 1799 near the town of Rosetta in north Egypt, on the Nile.

If a red giant star was the size of an ordinary living room, its energy-generating core would be the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Since the Lego Group began manufacturing blocks in 1949, more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes have been produced. This is enough for about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on Earth.

It was said that cowboys made their coffee by putting ground coffee into a clean sock and immerse it in cold water and heated over campfire. When ready, they would pour the coffee into tin cups and drink it.

The Liberty Bell was not made in the United States and it was not rung on the first Fourth of July. It was cast in London in 1752, cracked in 1835, and was not named "Liberty" until the 1830s in memory of slaves seeking their freedom.

One in ten Dalmatians is born deaf, and the breed lacks the ability to process urine completely, so they need a special diet low in flesh protein.

Seedless oranges were not grown in the United States until 1871. The first ones came from Brazil and were planted in California.

Everyone knows about vitamins A, B, C, D, and E. Few are aware that there are also vitamins K, T, H, and U. These vitamins are helpful in proper liver function, treating anemia, and the healing of ulcers.

Sarah Josepha Hale, an American magazine editor, persuaded Abraham Lincoln to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. She is also the author of the popular nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Lincoln issued a 'Thanksgiving Proclamation' on third October 1863 and officially set aside the last Thursday of November as the national day for ...Read more

Mars wanted a candy coating to prevent the chocolate from melting.

That depends on the denomination of the note. A $1 bill lasts 18 months; $5 bill, two years; $10 bill, three years; $20 bill, four years; and $50 and $100 bills, nine years. Bills that get worn out from everyday use are taken out of circulation and replaced.

The burrowing boodie of Australia is the only kangaroo in the world that lives underground.