The two hemispheres of a dolphin's brain work independently. For 8 hours, the entire brain is awake. The left side then sleeps for 8 hours. When it wakes up, the right side sleeps for 8 hours. Thus, the dolphin gets 8 hours of sleep without ever having to stop physically.

The father of the pink flamingo (the plastic lawn ornament) was Don Featherstone of Massachusetts. Featherstone graduated from art school and went to work as a designer for Union Products, a Leominster, Massachusetts company that manufactured flat plastic lawn ornaments. He designed the pink flamingo in 1957 as a follow-up project to his plastic...Read more

During Australia’s gold rush in 1850, only a few miners ever became rich. Instead, merchants and shopkeepers were the ones who really got rich.

For many years, the globe on the "NBC Nightly News" spun in the wrong direction. On January 2, 1984, NBC finally set the world spinning back in the proper direction.

A famous stallion will, on retirement, command an impressive stud fee for servicing approved mares. Specialist stud-farms house one or more stallions, each of which is allowed to service about 40 mares per season.

In an effort to sell more licensed apparel, minor-league baseball teams were changing their names so often that the sport's governing body now limits franchises to team name changes every three years.

The Louisville Slugger logo doesn't always appear just on baseball bats. One of the more recent adaptations of the familiar oval was on the first cruise missile fired in the Persian Gulf war. The missile was painted by sailors on the U.S.S. Louisville nuclear attack submarine which fired the opening shot of the conflict. Each of the sailors on ...Read more

Primitive blue-green algae grow in hot springs near Yellowstone's steaming geysers, defying scientific expectations by enduring and thriving in water temperatures as high as 160 degrees F.

An acute overdose of caffeine, usually in excess of 250 milligrams (more than 2-3 cups of brewed coffee), can result in a state of central nervous system overstimulation called caffeine intoxication. Symptoms may include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, ...Read more

The Medal of Honor is the only service decoration that is singled out in federal law to protect it from being imitated or privately sold. All Medals of Honor are issued in the original only, by the Department of Defense, to a recipient. Misuse of the medal, including unauthorized manufacture or wear, is punishable by fine and imprisonment ...Read more

The mule possesses the sobriety, patience, endurance and sure-footedness of the ass, and the vigour, strength and courage of the horse. Operators of working animals generally find mules preferable to horses: mules show less impatience under the pressure of heavy weights, while their skin, harder and less sensitive than that of horses, renders ...Read more

The chameleon, a small lizard generally measuring 6 or 7 inches, has a tongue several inches longer than its body. With a thrust of this remarkable appendage, it can catch insects some 10 inches away.

The Mormon leader Brigham Young had 27 wives.

Originally a palace, the Louvre was made into a museum after the French Revolution.

A healthy man who is good physical shape has about 12 to 15 percent body fat. A woman in good shape has between 15 to 18 percent. The models used in most of the advertising for abdominal machines, on the other hand, have less than 10 percent body fat.

Joshua Pusey of Pennsylvania received a patent for his book matches in 1892.

Montgomery Ward was the first to advertise "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" in 1874 – two years after Aaron Montgomery Ward launched his first mail-order catalog.

One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of soda. A single bushel of corn can produce: 32 pounds of cornstarch, 1.6 pounds of corn oil, 11.4 pounds of 21% protein gluten feed or 3 pounds of 60% gluten meal.

Termite queens are fertilized regularly by the same mate for life, unlike bee and ant queens, whose male partners die after the first and only mating.

Tuna swim at a steady rate of 9 miles per hour for an indefinite period of time - and they never stop moving. Estimates indicate that a 15-year-old tuna travels one million miles in its lifetime.