Archives: Useless Facts

Which country won the first soccer World Cup in 1930?

The Hippopotamus name means “river horse” and in Chinese that is literally what the animal is called ( 河馬 ).  The name is derived from the Latin  hippos ‘horse’ and potamos ‘river.’   Don’t try to ride this horse, however, because hippos kill approximately 500 people each year throughout Africa, probably twice as deadly as a lion, but almost certainly the world’s deadliest mammal (except, of course, for human beings).

What animal’s name means “river horse”?

Hint: It’s NOT the animal in the picture above.

The shilling is a former English and British coin, nominally valued at one-twentieth of a pound sterling, or 12 pence and had also been a unit of money in Australia, Austria, Ireland and New Zealand. These days, it is only in use in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.

The shilling is also still used in Somaliland, an autonomous region in northern Somalia, which broke away and declared independence from Somalia in 1991.  Officially the Republic of Somaliland, it is considered internationally to be part of Somalia on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden. Although no foreign power recognizes their sovereignty, it is self-governing, has an independent government, democratic elections and a distinct history.

Can you name the countries that still have the shilling as currency?

 

The hottest planet in our Solar System is Venus, with a surface temperature of 465 C°. Venus actually spins in the opposite direction from most planets and its thick atmosphere traps heat just like a greenhouse , making it the hottest planet in our solar system, even though Mercury is closer to the Sun.

Which planet in our Solar System do you believe is the hottest?

“Henry’s pockets” is the common reference to the folds of skin that are part of a cat’s ears. Scientifically, they are cutaneous marginal pouches!   But cats aren’t the only species that have these pouches – weasels and bats and some dog breeds. It isn’t clear what function the perform, but some believe it helps these animals hear high-pitched sounds. Scientifically, a “Henry” is a standard electrical unit of inductive resistance.

Although the origin of the “Henry” reference isn’t clear, nor is any connection with electrical resistance, some speculate the pockets were named in honor of Joseph Henry, the American scientist who built one of the first electromagnetic motors and served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian.

What are the folds of skin on a cat’s ears called?

The speed of a computer mouse. As everyone knows, Mickey was a cartoon mouse. But so is that device that is often used with a computer!

A “mickey” is the speed at which a computer mouse moves on a computer display and is used by computer scientists and programmers.

The speed is usually measured in mickeys-per-second. In case anyone is wondering,  1 mickey (the smallest measurable computer mouse’s movement) is equal to 1/200th of an inch (a little over 0.1 millimeter).