11,280

The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000. Which explains why I stink at the game.

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Nubian

11,281

Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. The proper term for upper case letters is "majuscule" and for lower case it's "minuscule".

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Nubian

11,282

The question mark came from a monk habit of writing the Latin word for question, quo, at the end of sentences. Over time, the letters were written vertically to save space and morphed into the ? we write today. Similarly, the exclamation point came from the Latin word "Lo", meaning something important that should be heeded. (Lo and behold...)

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Nubian

11,283

The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.

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Nubian

11,284

If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and look like it is stinging itself to death.

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Nubian

11,285

Most scorpions will glow under black (ultraviolet) light.

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Nubian

11,286

Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

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Nubian

11,287

The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springstein's 'Born in the USA.'

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Nubian

11,288

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original Halloween was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

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Nubian

11,289

The first product Motorola developed was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.

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Nubian

11,290

Roses MAY be red, but violets ARE, indeed, violet.

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Nubian

11,291

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. One should carry a stout pole while travelling in quicksand country...when placed under one's back, it helps one to float out of the quicksand.

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Nubian

11,292

Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with

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Nubian

11,293

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.

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Nubian

11,294

In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than one hundred years before either moon was discovered.

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Nubian