The soft mass of the adult brain is motionless. Though it consumes up to 25 percent of the blood's oxygen supply, it does not grow, divide, or contract.

The phrase "To not budge an inch" is from Will Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, "Induction," Scene 1. This phrase was first uttered by the drunken tinker Christopher Sly. Sly's refusal to budge altered what had been a neutral verb up until then to a negation, according to word researcher Michael Macrone. As he points out in his book, Brush Up ...Read more

An eagle can attack, kill, and carry away an animal as large as a young deer. The Harpy eagle of South America feed on monkeys.

In Sweden, when leaving someone's home, wait until you get to the doorway to step outside before putting on your coat. To do so earlier suggests you are eager to leave. When entering or departing a Russian home, it is considered very bad form to shake hands across the threshold.

On the Baja coast, osprey couples return to the same nests year after year. These birds rebuild their old nest, carefully repairing any damage caused by winds, rain, and age. After years of rebuilding, some osprey nests can reach heights of 4 feet.

Supercells are similar to other thunderstorms, except they're bigger, stronger, and meaner. While a strong thunderstorm, associated with a passing cold front, may produce a tornado, supercells can produce several tornadoes. One of the things that separates supercells from the "ordinary" thunderstorms is that violent updrafts and downdrafts ...Read more

The Black Mission fig, the most popular variety of fig growing in desert areas, is so named because of its color and because it was the variety introduced at the California and Southwestern Spanish missions.

The longest muscle in the human body is the sartorius. This narrow muscle of the thigh passes obliquely across the front of the thigh and helps rotate the leg to the position assumed in sitting cross-legged. Its name is a derivation of the adjective "sartorial," a reference to what was the traditional cross-legged position of tailors (or "...Read more

One of the deadliest diseases in the world is Japanese River Fever, with a mortality rate of more than 50 percent. It is found only near rivers in certain areas of Japan, China, Korea, Burma, and India.

Oscar-winning director James Cameron (Titanic) was a risk-taker even when a boy. He organized his playmates in building a functional catapult that threw boulders large enough to make impact craters. He and his buddies also created a miniature diving vessel to send mice to the bottom of the

The totalitarian superstate of Oceania is comprised of four ministries which are housed in huge pyramidal structures, each roughly 300 metres high and visible throughout London, displaying the three slogans of the party on their facades. The Ministry of Peace (Minipax) concerns itself with conducting Oceania's perpetual wars. The Ministry of ...Read more

During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of

In the pilot episode of the American televison show The Partridge Family, the group of musical siblings convinces their mother to help them out by singing with them as they record a pop song in their garage. Through the efforts of the 10-year-old son Danny, they find a manager who helps make the song a Top-40 hit. After some more convincing, Mom...Read more

During his rule, Elagabalus (c. 203 – March 11, 222) showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He was married as many as five times and is reported to have prostituted himself in the imperial palace. Elagabalus replaced Jupiter, head of the Roman pantheon, with a new god, Deus Sol Invictus, and forced leading members...Read more

A bee has five eyes, two large compound eyes on either side of its head, and three ocelli (primitive eyes) on top of its head to detect light intensity.

The Greenwich Observatory is currently located at Cambridge University's Institute of Astronomy in Central England. However, the site of the observatory was originally in Greenwich, and was arbitrarily established in 1884 as longitude 0 degrees. The observatory was moved because London's fog made celestial observations difficult. A plaque in the...Read more

In Pentagon doublespeak, a "combat emplacement evacuator" is a shovel.

Suzie Derkins is the only character in Bill Watterson's comic strip, "Calvin and Hobbes," to have a first and last name. Calvin's parents have no names at all.

In Mexico, Día de la Madre -- Mother's Day -- is celebrated the day before it's observed in the United States. It is a huge gala event, with mariachis starting at noon and family festivities throughout the day.

Each year, more than 300,000 American teenagers become afflicted with some form of venereal disease.