Quite Interesting Facts 8

-Rats are smarter than dogs, can go longer without water than a camel, and when left alone (without the company of other rats) for long periods of time, will go insane. When domesticated, they make excellent pets

-A 2000 year old toilet complete with running water, a stone seat, and an armrest was discovered in the tomb of an ancient Chinese king, of the Western Han Dynasty.

-Dr. Seuss pronounced “Seuss” so it rhymed with “rejoice”.

-Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the ancient Bible) did not contain an easy way to say “many things” and used a term which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible — in many places — refers to “40 days,” they meant many days.

-Grover Cleveland was a draft dodger. He hired someone to take his place in the army, for which he was attacked by his political opponent, James G. Blaine. However, as it turned out, Blaine did the same.

-Gerald Ford was once a male model.

-The Royal House of Saud has close to 10,000 princes and princesses

-Socrates left no writings of his own whe he died

-The pound sign (#) is called an octothorpe

-There are 5 varieties of twins, not 2

-Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.

-The last dodo bird died in 1681

-The Collosus of Rhodes, a wonder of the ancient world, was not a statue with its legs straddling the harbor at rhodes. Instead in stood with its legs together on one side of the harbor.

Wrong: Right:

-No witches were ever burnt in the Salem Witchcraft Trials

-Queen Marie Antoinette never said ” Let them eat cake”, she said “Let them eat brioche( a more expensive bread)”

-Chinese Checker is not Chinese. It was created in America to circumvent the patent for a popular boardgame called Halma, invented by a Boston surgeon named George Howard Monks.( MentalFloss)

-President John Quincy Adams kept an alligator in the East Room.

-Picky linguists will tell you that the feminine version of “dude” is “dudine,” not “dudette.”

-Bagpipes weren’t invented in Scotland, but in ancient turkey.

-In 1728, the philosopher Voltaire got rich by outsmarting the lottery. When the French government accidentally created a raffle where the prize money was significantly larger than the cost of all the tickets combined, Voltaire and his friend formed a syndicate, bought all the tickets and won.(Mental Floss)

-Lead guitarist for Queen, Brian May, dropped out of a physics PhD at Imperial College London to follow the path to rock stardom. He finally completed his thesis in 2007.