Useless Facts

A number of years ago, my buddy Robert made me aware of one of the biggest collections of useless (but interesting) facts on the planet. Deb & Jen's Land O' Useless Facts still exists today (www.uselessfacts.info), and it's amazing similar to its 1990's look-and-feel.

No fancy menus, flash animation or the like. In fact, according to the site it has not been updated since 2002. No matter. The facts are still as useless today as they've ever been. Here are a few samplings:

• It takes a week to make a jelly bean.
  
  
• The Gateway Arch looks taller than it is wider, but it is exactly 630 feet by 630 feet.
  
  
• Harvard uses "Yale" brand locks on their buildings. Yale uses "Best" brand.
  
  
• A "jiffy" is a unit of time: 3.3357 times 10 raised to the -11 (3.3357x10^-11) seconds. So named for the length of time it takes light to travel a cm in a vacuum.
  
  
• The original Guinness Brewery in Dublin, Ireland has a six thousand year lease.
  
  
• In English, "four" is the only digit that has the same number of letters as its value.

Of course, I could go on but you get the point. If you are left wanting more, visit their site. Be prepared to spend some time there.

And check out the links at the bottom of the main page. But only if you really have too much time on your hands!