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The chemical pectin, found in ripe fruit, causes jam to set when cooling.
When they mate, a yak and a cow produce a dzo.
You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.
Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.
Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren't added to it.
Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."
Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.
Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different!
There is a city called Rome on every continent.
Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.
"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.
Panchang is known word for Almanac.
Dolphins can swim 37 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour).
An ostrich can run 43 miles per hour (70 kilometers per hour).
Octopus have three hearts
Charlie Chaplin won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? They are all invented by women.
Books and reading
Continuing our exploration into the world of books, let us learn about what type of people read what kind of books. Here are some facts from a National Endowment for the Arts study.
* Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure the previous day.
* 65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.
* 30% of 13-year-olds in 2004 said they read for fun "almost everyday," down from 35% in 1984.
* 1993-2003: The number of titles published increased 58% while fiction readers declined 14%
* Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.Books are Valuable
As children we were all advised to read books and enhance our knowledge. Did you know that it is not only the knowledge inside the book that is valuable, sometimes even books are very valuable, consider these instances.
* On July 8, 1998, Christies, London auctioned an original copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the first major work printed in England by William Caxton, in 1477. A private collector paid a record 4,621,500 (9 times the expected price) and bought it.
* A rare first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll raised $1.5m at auction in New York, making this the most valuable children's book ever sold.
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