Sometimes the strangest bits of trivia have absolutely no use at all. That is, except maybe to win a pub quiz or make your friends wonder how you know this stuff. Here are some useless facts that you won’t be able to stop telling people, as they’re just so weirdly delightful. Know any other pointless facts?
Kirby Was Named After Nintendo’s Lawyer, John Kirby
Nintendo’s little pink puffball, Kirby, is named after a lawyer from the 1980s. Attorney John Kirby helped Nintendo win a lawsuit against Universal Studios over their famous video game character, Donkey Kong. As a thank-you, they gave him a sailboat. They also turned his surname into the cutest video game character ever, and it spawned a ton of video games in this franchise.
The First Webcam Watched a Coffee Pot At Cambridge
Weirdly enough, the very first webcam wasn’t used for security or weather. It was for something much more mundane, which was to check if a coffee pot was empty. Yes, really. In 1991, Cambridge University scientists hooked up a camera so they wouldn’t waste a trip to the break room, and they could see when the pot was done boiling. Eventually, they put it online for the world to see. This became the world’s very first webcam, as dull as it sounds.
A Chessboard Contains 204 Total Squares of All Sizes
Most people think that a chessboard only has 64 squares, but that’s technically wrong. Once you count all the 1×1 squares, then the 2×2, 3×3, and so on, you’ll end up with a much larger number. There are 204 squares in total. This means that every rook and pawn is standing on bigger numbers than you might think.
New Zealand’s Hill With a Very Long Māori Name
There’s a hill in New Zealand whose full Māori name is 85 letters long. It’s Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu. But locals just call it Taumata for obvious reasons. Why the long name? Well, in Māori, the name tells a story about a guy playing his flute, which makes it seem much more interesting. However, it’s not any easier to write on a postcard.
Charles Osborne Hiccupped For Sixty-Eight Years
Charles Osborne started hiccupping in 1922 and didn’t stop until 1990, meaning that he suffered from a full 68 years of hiccups. He hiccupped tens of millions of times. It all began after a fall when he was weighing a hog, and while many doctors tried, they could never cure him. He still managed to live a full life and get married twice. He also raised eight kids, so it can’t have been all that bad.
Tardigrades Survived Open Space
Tardigrades are those small water bears that you might’ve seen in pictures before. They’ve interested many people and, in 2007, they interested the European Space Agency, too. So much so that they decided to see how tardigrades would handle the vacuum of space. It turns out that they were fine, even after being blasted with radiation and floating around with no air. These creatures later woke up like nothing happened. That’s kinda impressive.
Lake Hillier in Australia Stays Pink All Year
Lake Hillier in Western Australia is bubblegum-pink, but not seasonally and not at sunset. It’s always this shade. The color comes from microscopic life that loves salty water and produces pink pigments all year long. Even if you scoop some of the water into a bottle, it’ll stay pink, thanks to these microorganisms. But even though it looks like cotton candy, it definitely doesn’t taste like it, so don’t try it.
International Klein Blue Was a Trademarked Paint Process
French artist Yves Klein wanted the deepest, most electric blue imaginable, so he worked with a paint supplier to achieve this. The supplier worked with Klein to create a special formula, and he trademarked the process in 1960. Unsurprisingly, he named it after himself, calling it International Klein Blue. He then covered canvases and sculptures with this color, showing just how committed he was.
The “Highest Court in the Land” is a Basketball Court
The U.S. Supreme Court building has a basketball court sitting right above the actual courtroom. Because of its position, people nicknamed it “the Highest Court in the Land,” and it’s only for employees and clerks who work in the Supreme Court. There’s also a sign that says no dunking. It turns out that even lawmakers need some time off.
A Martian Day (Sol) Lasts 24:39:35
A “day” on Mars is called a sol, and it’s slightly longer than a day on Earth. Here, a day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds, which we round up to 24 hours, but on Mars, it’s 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds long. That means your schedule would be slightly off if you lived on Mars. NASA rovers keep time in sols, so their “days” slowly drift out of sync with ours here on Earth.
A U.S. City is Named Truth or Consequences
It sounds fake, but there’s a place in New Mexico called Truth or Consequences. The town changed its name in 1950 from Hot Springs to Truth or Consequences after a radio game show promised to broadcast from any town willing to do it. The name has stuck since then. Locals sometimes call it T-or-C for short.
Blue Replaced Tan M&M’s in 1995 After a Vote
In 1995, the M&M Company held a public vote to choose a new color to replace the tan M&M. Blue won. As such, the tan one was kicked out after being around for decades. The change came following the red M&M’s brief removal in the 1970s during a color-scare. Most people don’t even realize that the blue M&M is one of the newer flavors.
Bananas Are Technically Berries
In the botanical world, bananas are actually berries. The rules for a “true berry” come from plant biology instead of labels at the grocery store, and bananas tick all the boxes for a berry. After all, they grow from a single flower with one ovary. Their seeds are also inside, instead of outside, of their flesh. Ironically, strawberries don’t make the cut.
A 1904 Olympic Marathon Had Runners Drinking Brandy
The 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis was a complete mess, but not for the reasons you might expect. Yes, the temperatures were high, and yes, the roads were dusty. But the organizers didn’t seem to care too much about water stations, which meant that some runners were given brandy mid-race. Other runners ate some questionable apples. As for the winner? They crossed the line after drinking a mix of egg whites and strychnine. Yuck.
Wombat Droppings Are Cube-Shaped
Wombats are some of the strangest animals around, and that’s mostly because of their poop. It’s cube-shaped. Their digestive system compresses waste in a way that shapes it into neat, blocky edges, which keeps the droppings from rolling away. This is useful for wombats because they use their poop to mark territory. Scientists have studied the process in detail. After all, it’s pretty weird.
There’s a Town in Norway That Bans Dying
In Longyearbyen, Norway, there’s a rule against dying within town limits, although it’s not because they want people to live forever or anything. The issue is that the permafrost is so solid in Longyearbyen that buried bodies never properly decompose. Some graves from more than a century ago still hold remains that are almost perfectly preserved. As such, anyone who’s seriously ill is usually flown to the mainland so they can be buried somewhere else.
The Eiffel Tower Grows Taller in Summer
Anyone who wants to visit the Eiffel Tower may want to go in the summer months, as it’s slightly taller then. The heat causes the metal to expand, and at its peak, the tower can be about six inches higher than usual. Of course, you’re not going to notice the difference. But this change happens so often every year that engineers have to factor it into maintenance work.
There’s a Country With No Official Capital
Nauru is one of the few countries that’s never officially named a capital city. For reference, a country’s capital city is the city where the country’s government primarily works. In Nauru, the government buildings are in Yaren, so it works like a capital city, but it’s never been declared the official choice. That makes sense since the entire island is only about eight square miles. A “capital” is more of a formality there.
23 American Laws That Sound Fake But Are Actually Real
Some started as legitimate safety regulations, others as snippy politics or century-old morality panics. But they’re very real, and in some cases, still enforced. So, if you’re planning a cross-country road trip, maybe check this list first… just in case you’re unknowingly a criminal.
23 American Laws That Sound Fake But Are Actually Real
17 Things That Used to Be Common—but Are Now Controversial
Some of these used to be completely ordinary. That is, until rules or cultural movements completely changed things. Here are 17 things that used to be common but are now controversial. Which of these do you think is the most divisive?
17 Things That Used to Be Common—but Are Now Controversial