You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Lee Stewart]

The people of the Middle Ages prized sesame seeds so highly that they cost more than their weight in gold. They're highly nutritious and tasty but many civilizations thought they also held magical or spiritual properties, bestowing luck and fortune. Now you'll never pick them off your hamburger bun again, right?

[Lee Stewart]

Think the famed Sahara desert is big? At 3.5 million square miles, it's definitely a monster, but it doesn't even compare to the Antarctic Polar Desert. It covers the continent of Antarctica and has a size of about 5.5 million square miles. Surprised? The definition of a desert is simply a place that receives less than ten inches of precipitation per year—it doesn't have to be hot!

[Lee Stewart]

The fastest object ever made by man was a manhole cover

When it comes to sheer speed, race cars, fighter jets, and space rockets have nothing on a round, flat hunk of metal normally found covering a sewer. It wasn't made to be a speedster but when an underground nuclear bomb test launched the four-inch thick steel disk at an estimated 125,000 miles per hour or 5 times the Earth's escape velocity, it became the winner. In contrast, the New Horizons spacecraft maxed out at 36,373 mph.

[Lee Stewart]

Hang around a know-it-all long enough and eventually, you will hear someone corrected when they try to talk about more than one octopus. Many people think the right plural form is 'octopi' but based on the Greek roots, it technically should be 'octopodes.' No one says that, however, so grammarians have settled on 'octopuses' as the correct pluralization of octopus. Yep, it's exactly what you always thought it was! As for 'octopi?' It's not even a word.

[Lee Stewart]

High heels have become such an icon of stereotypical femininity that many women feel an outfit is incomplete without them. But this ultra-girly symbol was first invented for men. Persian men started the high heel trend in the 10th century and the shoes were mostly considered masculine fashion until the 18th century when women claimed them.

[Lee Stewart]

When you think of Saudi Arabia, two of the first images that likely pop into your head are vast deserts of sand and lines of camels. It may sound like a case of selling ice to Eskimos but ever since 2002 the middle eastern country has been importing both sand and camels from Australia as their own supplies have run short. Australia has the largest population of wild camels in the world and its 'garnet sand' is highly prized in manufacturing.

[Lee Stewart]

Six feet is how long the average giraffe's neck is while a human being's neck averages just four inches. Yet both of us have the same number of bones in our necks: Seven.

[Lee Stewart]

If you dread looking at your inbox, you've got a good reason. In 2018, researchers found that spam emails account for 60 to 70 percent of all email traffic and up to half of all indexed data on the Internet.

[Lee Stewart]

The original design of this Parisian landmark used the four large pylons at the base to provide all the structural support. However, the people providing the funding felt that it looked too rickety and worried the public would be too afraid to go in it. So they added the iconic arches around the base but while they look beautiful they are only decorative.

[Lee Stewart]

According to some scientists, it actually rains diamonds on Jupiter. How? The high pressure and heat in the dense atmospheres of planets like Jupiter and Saturn, can squeeze carbon in the clouds, making it rain diamonds.