So You Think You Know Everything?

Have you gotten this e-mail yet? A friend sent it to me, and being the cynical, untrusting soul that I am, I decided to check it out. Here are my findings. Feel free to send this page to your pals when they send you this e-mail.

Think You Know Everything? Think Again!
No, but that's why God gave us Google. we can look up anything now. Let's check 'em out...

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
Without counting them myself, I can't verify this. But you can count them yourself too, you know.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
FALSE. A cat has 30 muscles in the ear, of which 12 are used for movement.
SOURCE: Clermont County Humane Society

A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
I can't find any authoritative source for this.

A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
FALSE. At the shortest, a dragonfly's life-cycle from egg to death of adult is about 6 months. Some of the larger dragonflies take 6 or 7 years! Most of this time is spent in the larval form, beneath the water surface, catching other invertebrates. The small damselflies live for a couple of weeks as free-flying adults.
SOURCE: British Dragonfly Society

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
FALSE. It's six seconds.
SOURCE: South Bank University, London

A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; a group of geese in the air is a skein.
FALSE. A flock of geese is a gaggle; a flock of any wild fowl is a skein.
SOURCE: Webster's New World Dictionary.

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
NOT QUITE. In computer engineering, a jiffy is the length of one cycle, or tick, of the computer's system clock. In the past, this was often equal to one period of the alternating current powering the computer: 1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, usually 1/50 second elsewhere. More recently the jiffy has become standardized, more or less, as 0.01 second (10 milliseconds). The word jiffy, with its ordinary meaning of an instant or very brief time, appeared in English during the eighteenth century, but its origin is not known.
In chemistry and physics, a jiffy is equal to a "light centimeter," that is, the time required for light to travel a distance of one centimeter. This is a very brief interval indeed, about 33.3564 picoseconds. This definition of the jiffy was proposed by the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis (1875-1946), who was one of the first to apply principles of quantum physics in chemistry.
SOURCE: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
FALSE. Sharks don't blink.
SOURCE: San Diego Natural History Museum

A snail can sleep for three years.
TRUE, but only if deprived of food and water.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
TRUE. It also listed his name as Al Brown.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
FALSE. The Lincoln Memorial was built in 1922 and lists only 48 states, of which only 26 appear on the front of the building, and on the $5 bill.
SOURCE: US Treasury

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20."
FALSE. All the clocks on the wall in the pawn shop are set to 4:20. However, in at least two scenes it is obvious that this is not the case. In the "Bonnie Situation" while Jimmy, Vince and Jules are drinking coffee in the kitchen, the clock clearly reads 8:15. Secondly, when Vince and Jules go to retrieve the briefcase, it is "7:22 in the a.m."
SOURCE: Internet Movie Database

Almonds are a member of the peach family.
TRUE. The Almond belongs to the same group of plants as the rose, plum, cherry and peach, being a member of the tribe Prunae of the natural order Rosaceae.
SOURCE: Botanical.com

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
TRUE.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
FALSE. Utter nonsense, in fact. The smallest premature baby ever to survive had kneecaps at birth.
SOURCE: University of Iowa Health Care

Butterflies taste with their feet.
TRUE.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
Probably. Can't find any reliable authority to say so.

Did you know that crocodiles never outgrow the pool in which they live?
FALSE. Perhaps it originated through unscrupulous dealers looking for ways to convince potential owners to part with their cash, but regardless of its origin it is not true. All crocodilians grow to be very large animals compared to many other reptile species.
SOURCE: Crocodile Specialist Group

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
FALSE. There's also "adreamt" and "undreamt."
SOURCE: Oxford English Dictionary

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
FALSE. Years in which February lacked a full moon are 1809, 1847, 1866, 1885, 1915, 1934, 1961, 1999. There will be no full moon in February of 2018, 2037, 2067, and 2094.
SOURCE: Wolfram Research

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
FALSE. The Speaker is REQUIRED to speak, in order to keep order. He/she is not allowed to make political speeches.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
FALSE.The turkey was domesticated in Mexico around 100 A.D.; the guinea pig circa 900 in Peru; the rabbit around 1500; the fox and mink in the 1800s; the hamster in the 1930s; and the deer, 1970s in New Zealand.
SOURCE: WikiPedia.

If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
FALSE. China's current birth rate is 1.8 per couple and dropping. That's below the replacement level. By 2020, 17% of the population will be over 65, up from 6% now. The population of China will begin declining in a few decades.
SOURCES: People's Daily
Abilene Christian university

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
Sounds like a reasonable guess, but I can't find the study that supports it.

In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
Seems that way.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
Why would you want to?
SOURCE: The Straight Dope

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
FALSE. Scissors date back to the Egyptians.
SOURCE: About.com

Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"
FALSE. Contrary to the popular belief that the original name of Los Angeles was El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of the (River) Porciuncula), scholars have determined from official documents of Governor Felipe de Neve, Commandant General de la Croix and Viceroy Bucareli that the settlement was simply named El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles.
SOURCE: Mexican Los Angeles by Antonio Rios Bustamante, Floricanto Press, 1992;
Los Angeles Almanac

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
True.

Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
True. Presbyterian.
SOURCE: MisterRogers

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
FALSE. Using archaic or dialect words, all of these have rhymes.
month: oneth (similar to tenth, hundredth, thousandth, etc.)
orange: sporange (moss spore sac, synonym for sporangium)
silver: chilver (a female lamb, breeding stock; Old English)
purple: curple (buttocks; scottish dialect); hirple (limp; scottish dialect)
SOURCE: Rec-Puzzles

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
FALSE. The two dollar bill (since discontinued) showed the "maple leaf" flag. The flag mistaken for the American flag is on the $5, $10, and $50, and it's actually the "red ensign," Canada's old flag prior to the 1960s. The Red Ensign is predominantly red and consists of a small Union Jack in the upper left hand corner and the Canadian Coat of Arms in the lower right field.
These elements are clearly visible on the note with the aid of a magnifying glass. Horizontal lines were engraved across the face of the Red Ensign to create a sense of motion and to deepen the contrast between the flag's background and the small Union Jack. These lines should not be mistaken for horizontal bands such as appear on the American flag.
The American flag has never been placed on any Canadian banknote.
SOURCE: Bank of Canada

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
FALSE. The newborn eye is remarkably close to its full adult size. At birth the length of the eye is around 17mm, growing to full adult size of 23mm. The power of the cornea is around 50 dioptres at birth, reducing to 43 dioptres as an adult.
SOURCE: Australian College of Behavioural Optometrists

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
SORT OF. Glycerin can be made from peanut oil, among other things. Glycerin is used in the manufacture of nitroglycerin, the primary component of dynamite. Originally, the glycerin was extracted from animal fat, but now peanut oil is used.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye."
True. The original version of this list said it meant "pine head," but somebody has corrected that error.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
So do balloons. When I was a balloon animal twister, I always kept my balloons in the fridge. I have some there now, in fact.

Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump.'
True, sort of. "assassin" dates back to the 13th century, but Shakespeare has the first written use of "assassination" in Macbeth. Likewise, "bump" first appears in print in Romeo & Juliet, though it may have been in common usage before then.
SOURCE: "Coined by Shakespeare: Words and Meanings First Penned by the Bard" by Jeffrey McQuain and Stanley Malless

"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand; lollipop" with your right.
FALSE. AFTERCATARACTS (plural for a condition that sometimes follows cataract surgery), TESSERADECADES and TETRASTEARATES are the longest words which can be typed using only the fingers of the left hand. The first word appears in a Merriam-Webster medical dictionary; the second is in W2. Other such words (some of which are not in dictionaries) are ABSTRACTERS, ABSTRACTEST, AFTEREFFECT, AFTEREFFECTS, AFTERTASTES, AFTERWARDS, ASSEVERATED, ASSEVERATES, BEGGARWEEDS, CASEBEARERS, CRABGRASSES, DATABASES, DECEREBRATE, DECEREBRATED, DECEREBRATES, DESECRATERS, DESEGREGATE, DESEGREGATED, DESEGREGATES, DEVERTEBRATED, EFFERVESCED, EFFERVESCES, EXTRAVASATES, GAZETTEER, READDRESSED, READDRESSES, REAGGRAVATES, REASSEVERATE, RESEGREGATE, RESEGREGATED, RESEGREGATES, REVEGETATED, REVEGETATES, REVERBERATE, REVERBERATED, REVERBERATES, SASSAFRASES, STAGECRAFTS, STATECRAFTS, STAVESACRES, STEWARDESSES, SWEATERDRESSES, SWEETBREADS, TERRACEWARDS, TRADECRAFTS, VERTEBRATES, WASTEWATERS, WATERCRAFTS, WATERCRESSES.
JOHNNY-JUMP-UP (a fast-growing flower or a brand name for a type of toy) is the longest word found in abridged dictionaries that can be typed using only the fingers of the right hand. Other such words (some of which are not in dictionaries) are HOKYPOKY, HOMONYMY, HOMOPHONY, HOMOPHYLY, HYPOLIMNION, HYPOPHYLL, HYPOPHYLLIUM, HYPOPHYLLUM, HYPOPYON, ILLINIUM, ILLUMINOPOLY, KINNIKINNIK, LOLLIPOP, LUPULINUM, MILLIMHO, MILLIOHM, MIMINYPIMINY, MINIKINLY, MINIMILL, MONOHULL, MONOPHONY, MONOPOLY, NIPPONIUM, NONILLION, PHYLLOPHYLLIN, POLLINIUM, POLONIUM, POLYONOMY, POLYPHONIUM, POLYPHONY, UNHOLILY.
SOURCE: Word Oddities and Trivia

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
FALSE. For normal, well-rested people, the transition period between waking and sleep takes about 15-20 minutes. If you fall asleep in less than 10-minutes - and, especially, in less than five minutes - you are, by definition, sleep deprived.
SOURCE: Dr. David Posen, MD

The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
True, for the standard QWERTY keyboard. The Dvorak keyboard reverses that. The traditional keyboard was designed to keep the keys from jamming by placing the most common two-letter combinations on opposite sides of the keyboard.
SOURCE: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts.
True.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."
FALSE. Sesame Street's Ernie and Bert were not named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver from the 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life". Even though many people believe they were named after these characters, Sesame Street writer Jon Stone has attested that this similarity is purely a coincidence.
Source Muppet Central 

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
FALSE. According to the QE2's Chief Engineer, S.L. Hare, "At the service speed of 28.5 knots, consumption is 380 tons per day: this equates to 50 ft/gall."
SOURCE: Martin's Marine Engineering Page

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
True.

The longest one-syllable word in the English language is screeched.
FALSE. There's also scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, and the plural nouns straights and strengths (all with nine letters). The complete Oxford English Dictionary also indicates the existence of scraughed, scrinched, scritched, scrooched, sprainged, spreathed, throughed, and thrutched. The OED also cites a single instance of the ten-letter word scraunched, from the 1620 English translation of Don Quixote.
SOURCE: Oxford Dictionary

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
True, except he didn't just walk by it, he was working near it.

The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable".
FALSE. There's also Dermatoglyphics.
SOURCE: Oxford Dictionary

The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.
True, but so do many others:
The spy squaw mixed a dozen jugs of black veneer.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
Big inky devils wax quite mirthful on cozy type job.
Jumpy zebra vows to quit thinking coldly of sex.
Quiet gadfly jokes with six vampire cubs in zoo.
SOURCE: Graphic Idea Notebook, Jan V. White, 1980, Watson-Guptill Publications

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
FALSE. The American Falls have frozen over on six occasions since the keeping of records began. Each were attributed to ice jams that have actually curtailed the flow of the American Falls to mere trickles.Unlike the Horseshoe Falls (which has never frozen over), the American Falls are susceptible to freezing because of the small amount of water flow. Normally the American Falls has a peak mean flow of 10,000 cubic feet of water per second. The winter mean water flow is reduced to less than 8,000 cubic feet of water per second. This minimal flow is barely sufficient to cover the rock face of the Falls. During harsh winters, ice frequently built up at eastern end of Goat Island causing an ice dam to reduce the water flow to the northern channel which feeds water to the American Falls. As a result water flow is restricted sufficiently that any remaining waters quickly freeze over.
The installation of the ice boom at the mouth of Lake Erie, the building of the International water control dam (which regulates water flow) and milder winters have all but eliminated the possibility of the American Falls ever completely freezing over in modern times.The American Falls water flow was reduced to such an extent in 1909, 1936, 1938 and 1949 that it froze over.
On February 7th 1936, as a result of an ice jam at the eastern end of Goat Island the American Falls froze completely. The flow started to freeze on January 27th. The American Falls remained frozen for a period of 15 days before the ice dam upriver broke apart and returned the flow of water of the Falls to normal.
SOURCE: Niagara Falls Frequently Asked Questions

The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).
So? They aren't the only ones.

There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
True, but only if you include exchanging one dollar for another (bill for coin, for example). Otherwise there are 292, not 293.
SOURCE: Ask Dr. Math

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
FALSE. Depending on the manufacturer and design, a golf ball can have from 300 to 500 dimples.
SOURCE: Kidzworld

There are more chickens than people in the world.
True.

There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
True.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
There are more than two. Others include the rare botanical words acheilous, anemious, and caesious, the rare zoological word annelidous, and the chemical term arsenious.
SOURCE: Oxford Dictionary

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs five times: "indivisibility."
There's more than one. Some long words with only one vowel which is allowed to repeat are: TARAMASALATAS, HANDCRAFTSMAN, STRENGTHLESSNESSES, DEFENSELESSNESSES, EFFERVESCENCE, RETELEMETERED, DEGENERESCENCE, BEEKEEPER, INSTINCTIVISTIC, DISINHIBITING, KINNIKINNICKS, PHILISTINISMS, PRIMITIVISTIC, WHIPSTITCHING, MISSISSIPPI, LOXOLOPHODONTS, MONOPHTHONGS, POSTWORKSHOP, and others.
SOURCE: Word Oddities and Trivia

There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
FALSE. This WAS true until 1996, when Betty finally replaced the Flintmobile in the vitamin lineup.
SOURCE: People Daily

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
True.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
FALSE. Worldwide, China is the leading producer and consumer of eggplants. In North America, most commercial production is in Florida, California, New Jersey, and Mexico.
SOURCE: Alabama Cooperative Extension System (Alabama A&M University and Auburn University)

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
FALSE. The following ten-letter words with this feature all appear in W2: PEPPERROOT, PEPPERWORT, PERPETUITY, PEWTERWORT, PIROUETTER, PREREQUIRE, PRETORTURE, PROPRIETOR, REPERTOIRE, REPETITORY, TETTERWORT. These words have also been suggested: PROPRIETORY, PROTEROTYPE, RUPTUREWORT, PITUITOTROPE, UROPYOURETER.
SOURCE: Word Oddities and Trivia

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
FALSE. Although his parents intended that he should be born at their new London house on Charles Street, Winston Churchill was born, on Nov., 30, 1874, in a funny little room downstairs at Blenheim. This was presumably due to the circumstances of his birth, two months premature, as described by his father in a letter reproduced in Randolph S. Churchill's biography, Winston S. Churchill, Youth, 1874-1900:
"She [Jennie] had a fall on Tuesday-walking with the shooters, & a rather imprudent & rough drive in a pony carriage brought on the pains on Saturday night... We tried to stop them, but it was no use. They went on all Sunday. Of course the Oxford physician did not come, We telegraphed for the London man, Dr Hope, but he did not arrive till this morning. The country Dr is however a clever man, & the baby was safely born at 1:30 this morning after about 8 hrs labour."
Another account, her sister's, says that Jennie was dancing gaily at a St. Andrew's ball in the great ballroom and was whisked off suddenly to the nearest room, piled with cloaks and hats of guests, to have Winston prematurely.
Sir Winston Churchill himself did not corroborate either version. When asked about them, he replied: "Although present on that occasion, I have no clear recollection of the events leading up to it."
SOURCE: Winston Churchill

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
FALSE. Blink rates are affected by emotional state, age, eye health and tasks, but the blink rate for men and women is about the same.
SOURCE: Cornell University

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself.
I can't verify the time given here, but the stomach lining is mucus. Also called snot.

... ... ...now you know everything!

Including the fact that 31 of these "facts" are flat-out wrong, another 13 are vague, unverifiable, or partially correct, and only 19 are correct.

And now YOU know everything!