Random and Useless Facts.....
 

K Pop stars train in special K Pop schools. Only a tiny handful of pupils ever make it in the industry
Kpop may look shiny and happy, but in reality its a very hard lifestyle. 'Idols', as their known , are picked at a young age and sent to special schools to train in singing, dancing and acting. If you don't work hard enough to meet the right standards, you can be made to leave! Even though thousands of kids go through this system, only a very small number actually make it into the Kpop bands we all know and love. Would you have what it takes?

Salvador Dali had a pet anteater
Salvador Dali was a pretty strange bloke, it's fair to say. A member of the Surrealism art movement, Dali enjoyed shocking and surprising people. His other antics included painting melted clocks, making a lobster telephone and designing the Chupa Chups lolly wrapper!

Birds are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs
Believe it or not, reptiles are not actually the closest living thing we have to dinosaur. In fact, it's another group entirely - birds! Yes, modern birds all evolved from a common ancestor which was also related to dinosaurs! That explains the eggs, the wings and the big scaly feet! Next time you see a bird, study the way it moves - does it remind you of a dinosaur?

'Google' comes from the word 'googol', which is the number 1 followed by one hundred zeros
The term 'googol' was first used in the 1920s, and is a term used in maths. Founded in 1998, the name was chosen because each 0 represents the possibilities of the search results. Good thing they decided on 'Google' and not 'Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooogle'.

The most stolen food in the world is cheese
Who would have thought that cheese would be so popular? More popular than chocolate, chips, or anything fancier like truffles, apparently cheese goes missing from shops at an alarming rate! Apparently cheese is getting more expensive and thieves are looking to cash in on this. We can't say we'd be super keen on buying second hand cheese, but clearly someone is!

The largest known diamond in the world was called 'Star of Africa' or the 'Cullinan Diamond'.
'Was' rather than 'is', because after it was discovered it was then cut into lots of smaller diamonds. To be fair, it would be pretty heavy to carry around on a ring! The diamond was discovered in a mine in 1905 and surprisingly took a few years to sell! Maybe no one had any use for a massive diamond? Eventually, however, it was bought, and several of the smaller diamonds in made are now owned by the queen!

Giraffe's horns are called ossicones
They're not hard and sharp like goat's horns, though. These little horns are made out of cartilage, and both male and female giraffes have them, as well as other similar animals like okapis. As a giraffe grows older, these eventually connect to its skull.

The world’s first animated movie was made in Argentina
In 1917, an animation called El Apóstol – The Apostle in English – was directed by Quirino Cristiani and produced by Federico Valle. The story is about Argentina's president at the time, Hipolito Yrigoyen, who wants to make Buenos Aires a better place and has a dream about visiting Greek gods to seek advice.

Vampire bats drink blood
Vampire bats really live up to their name! They don't drink human blood though - they prefer sheep, cows and other mammals. And they don't drink nearly enough to do the animal any harm. They use their fangs, and make a small hole then lap the blood up as it comes out. Urgh.

Lobsters use their feet to taste food
These crustacean legends have taste buds – which are actually hairs – in their feet. It's only once they tested it they'll decide whether it needs a pinch of salt. Sorry.

Flamingos don't use their knees to bend their leg
When you see these majestic birds bend their legs, they're not actually using their knees. The bendy bit is actually their ankle, while their knee is hidden away. So now you know.

Two flamingos

It would take 19 minutes to fall to the earth's centre!
This is something that scientists have worked out using sums, rather than get a brave person to dig a very deep hole and time them using a stopwatch.

Humans spend ages brushing their teeth
If you brush your teeth for a few minutes after meals, it soon adds up. In fact, the average human will spend around 40 days brushing their teeth during their life.

Brushing teeth

Hippopotamus means 'river horse' in Greek
The word 'hippopotamus means 'river horse' and is often shortened to 'hippo'. Want another hippo fact? OK, then. Even though hippos have numerous collective nouns, 'bloat' is the most common.

There's a name for the phobia of bananas
If you guessed that it's called bananaphobia, then you'd be right. How did you guess? Some people don't like to touch them and the smell is enough to send people out of a room, but this banana drama is an uncommon phobia.

Ice is stronger than a rock
If water falls into a crack in a rock, it will expand as it freezes and could eventually split it! This is called frost wedging. Like an icy wedgie for rocks.

Cumulus clouds are really heavy
We've often gone for a walk on a nice day and paused to appreciate the fluffy clouds, but the truth is, they weigh a lot! Because they're so big and made of water, scientists have calculated that they weigh 1.1 million pounds on average! Do not try to pick these up under any circumstances or you'll hurt your back.

Toilet paper was first sold in 1857
While humans have always wiped their bums with leaves and moss, the first toilet paper to be sold in shops was thanks to a man in America called Joseph Gayetty. His product was named 'Medicated Paper for the Water-Closet' and charged grateful New Yorkers just 50 cents for a whopping 500 sheets.

A man holding lots of toilet rolls

There's a type of frog who can hold a wee in for months
Next time you're on a long car journey and bursting to go to the toilet, think of the wood frog, who can hold in a wee for 8 months! The amphibian doesn't use the toilet during the winter – part of the urine known as urea is turned into nitrogen which helps it survive while it hibernates.

The Hollywood sign used to say something else
In 1923, this iconic sign originally said Hollywoodland and was used to advertise new housing in the area. The 'land' part of the sign was removed in 1949 after local residents complained that it looked like "an eyesore".

he grizzly bear is the state animal of California...
The early version of this flag was created in the 1800s, but this big beast hasn't been spotted in the state since it was witnessed wandering around Yosemite in 1924.

A bear walking around in a forest

The bowler hat wasn't invented to be fancy
This hat was originally intended to protect people's heads from branches when they rode on horses. It's called a Bowler hat because the prototype was designed by Thomas Bowler in the mid 1800s.

A person dressed in a suit and bowler hat

The giant squid has the biggest eyes of all
Both giant (and colossal) squid have the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom - up to 25cm across, so about the size of a frisbee! The reason they have such big eyes is to help them see in the pitch black of the deep ocean.

A giant squid and a lobster

You tend to breathe out of one nostril at a time
Don't worry, it's part of the nasal cycle. Some scientists say that this is to keep each nostril from drying out and make it easier to detect different smells quicker. Teamwork makes the nose work. Putting your finger up your nose is gross, though.

Michelangelo hated painting the Sistine chapel
While it's regarded as a masterpiece, Michelangelo hated painting the Sistine chapel in Vatican City so much, he wrote a poem about it. In a letter to Giovanni da Pistoia, he moaned: 'My brush, above me all the time, dribbles paint so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!'

The Sistine chapel

Avocados are social media stars
In the summer 2017, over 3 million photos of avocados smashed into a piece of toast were uploaded onto Instagram. Every day.

Avocados on toast

'OMG' was first used in a letter written in 1917
This isn't a new way of texting. This acronym was first used during the First World War by an admiral named John Arbuthnot Fisher. In a letter to Winston Churchill dated 9/9/17, he wrote "I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis – O.M.G. (Oh! My God!) – Shower it on the Admiralty!" Churchill responded with a sarcastic 'LOL'. Maybe. Probably not, actually.

The longest boxing match lasted over 7 hours
In 1893, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke had a boxing match in New Orleans, Louisiana and it felt like it would never end. The bout lasted 110 rounds and took seven hours and 19 minutes – it was declared a draw. What a waste of everyone's time!

A boxer and a cheetah referee in a boxing ring

The Bayeux Tapestry maybe wasn't made in France
The Bayeux Tapestry is a 70-metre long piece which depicts how William the Conqueror's army emerged victorious at the Battle of Hastings. For a long time, it was thought to have been made in Bayeux, Normandy, France where it is currently on display, but historians suggest it could have been stitched in Canterbury.

Battle of Hastings Bayeux tapestry

Pigs have more teeth than humans
Our porky pals have a whopping 44 teeth: incisors, canines, premolars and molars. Their canine teeth are big and pointy and have a powerful bite, like a large dog. Humans have 32 teeth. You win the teeth competition, pigs!

You fart at 7 miles per hour
Some scientists have looked into how fast a fart can leave the human body. And after much research in stinky rooms, they've come to the conclusion that these hydrogen and methane guff-bombs travel at around 7 miles an hour. That means a fart could go from Newcastle to South Shields in 60 minutes, but only as the crow flies and not via the Great North Run route.

eorge Washington didn't have a clue that dinosaurs existed
The first president of the United States didn't know that dinosaurs existed. That's because the first dinosaur fossil was found in 1824, 25 years after he died. We wonder what he'd had made of the Jurassic Park films? Probably would have found them really confusing and very frightening, to be fair. Especially as moving images would have been new to him as well.

George Washington in a park with a dinosaur hiding in the trees

The smell of sick is caused by a certain type of acid
We all know vomit has a particular pongy aroma and that's down to butyric acid. It's also found in parmesan cheese, which might explain why it has a strong, recognisable smell.

A man feeling a bit sick

You fart up to 15 times a day!
Some people only pass wind a few times a day, but some people sound like absolute tractors and fart loads – sometimes over 20 times! It often has to do with your body trying to digest certain types of food or if you've gulped down some air if you were scoffing your meal too quickly. And some of them really stink, so try to leave the room if you're among lots of people. Or you could blame the dog if there is one.

A man smelling a bad fart