Quite Interesting but Utterly Useless

Applo

Beautiful like a Forest Fire
Original poster
DONATING MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. 1-3 posts per week
  2. One post per week
Writing Levels
  1. Intermediate
  2. Adept
  3. Advanced
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
We live in the age of information age. Never before in the history of humanity has so much information been so readily available. In reality, barring a particularly fiendish pub quiz question, most of this information is utterly useless to the majority of people. However that doesn't mean that some of it isn’t quite interesting.

For instance, did you know that if you stood below Big Ben while holding a radio tuned to BBC Radio 4 to your ear, you would hear hear Big Ben being struck on the radio before you can hear it being struck in the clock tower. Not something particularly useful to know, but quite interesting nonetheless.

What useless but interesting factoids do you have floating around in your head?
 
Two thirds of an octopus' neurons are in its arms.

I wish I had at least one more right now, but my brain pulls a blank.
 
Last edited:
  • Love
Reactions: Greenie
A close relative of the shrew, the solenodon is one of few venomous mammals and uses its teeth to inject this venom like a snake.
 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: Greenie and Applo
Cats have an organ called the Jacobson's organ or the vomeronasal organ, which is located on the roof of the mouth. It's pretty much a scent analyser. Cat owners have probably seen their cats with their mouths open weirdly after sniffing something? This is why.
 
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: Dipper and Applo
Here are some celebrities with three nipples: Mark Wahlberg, Tilda Swinton, Lily Allen, Zac Efron, Harry Styles, Carrie Underwood.

Utterly useless? Yes! Quite interesting? Ye-... wait, no.
 
After reading Greenie's cat post, I have an interesting animal fact. You ever seen a horse lift its lip? It's not a smile, it helps them smell.
 
  • Useful
  • Bucket of Rainbows
Reactions: Applo and Greenie
When water evaporates, it draws some heat from the surroundings to reach some other threshold of heat. This is the reason most mammals sweat and pigs roll in mud. Same thing happens when ice melts, which is what is primarily keeping your drink cold, not the heat in the drink directly going to the ice while still ice.

Also plants "sweat" sunblock.
 
Abraham Lincoln is the only US President to have a patent registered to his name.

Kurt Russell broke a real 1870s antique guitar in his performance in The Hateful Eight. He didn't know it wasn't a prop. It in fact belonged to a museum. That museum doesn't borrow out guitars to films anymore.

Most native koalas have STDs.
 
You can sing the lyrics of the Pokemon theme song to the tune of Amazing Grace, since both songs have the same number of syllables in each line. (Go on, try it!)

Platypuses have 10 sex chromosomes. In case you need a refresher from your high school biology class, most humans have only two sex chromosomes (XY for the male sex and XX for females). And this XY-or-XX setup applies to almost all mammals. But not platypuses. Instead, female platypuses have 10 X chromosomes, and males have 5 X's and 5 Y's. Why are they like this? Who even knows. They're platypuses. Everything about them is weird.