Gold salts are sometimes injected into the muscles to relieve arthritis.

A dripping hot water faucet wastes an average of 40 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. This is the equivalent of running a color television 8 hours a day for about 31 days.

The phrase "guinea pig" originated when a tax was imposed on powder for Whigs in England to help pay for the war with Napoleon. The list of those who had paid the guinea (one pound, one shilling) was posted on their parish church door. As they were the wealthy of the day, they became known as the

A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.

Cashew nuts are expensive, and never have shells because the shell and skin of the cashew nut contains extremely caustic oil that can painfully blister the skin. This dangerous oil must be completely removed before the nut can be touched or eaten.

On August 12, 1895, Minnie Dean became the first woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Her crime was "baby farming." She would adopt unwanted babies for a certain fee and then dispose of them, a "service" she began in 1889. The police caught on to Minnie after six years and found her to be most certainly guilty when they dug up three bodies of ...Read more

Comedian Bill Cosby became the spokesperson for Jell-O pudding in 1974. His upbeat, childlike personality worked well with on-screen youngsters, and he later began the "Kids Love Pudding" TV campaign. As of 2000, Cosby was still going strong in his Jell-O brand TV commercials and print ads.

When Elizabeth I of Russia died in 1762, 15,000 dresses were found in her closets. She used to change what she was wearing two and even three times an evening.

Cats are the only domestic animals that walk directly on their claws, not on their paws. This method of walking is called "digitigrade". When cats scratch furniture, it isn't an act of malice. They are actually tearing off the ragged edges of the sheaths of their talons to expose the new sharp

While the term gargoyle is most often applied to medieval work, buildings have always required a means of throwing the water off roofs, at least when not conveyed in gutters. In Egypt gargoyles ejected the water used in the washing of the sacred vessels. In Greek temples, the water from roofs passed through the mouths of lions. At Pompeii many ...Read more

King Charles VIII of France, who ascended to the throne in 1483, was obsessed with the idea of being poisoned. As his phobia grew, the monarch ate so little that he died of malnutrition circa 1498.

Badminton was once known as battledore and shuttlecock. The game as we know it today took its name from Badminton House in Gloucestershire, England - home of the Duke of Beaufort.

A highly coveted necktie is the Battle of Britain tie, which was designed by and is still sold at Gieves and Hawkes. Only British airmen who fought in the battle are entitled to wear this dark blue tie, which bears the rose of England and a tiny outline of the British Isles woven on it in gold. The company will only sell one after receiving ...Read more

American Margot Fraser "discovered" Birkenstock sandals while on a holiday in Germany in 1966. She gained relief from a foot condition, and founded a trading company called Birkenstock Footprint Sandals, Inc. in Novato, California, based on her enthusiasm for the sandals. Renamed Birkenstock Distribution USA, Inc. in 2005, it remains the ...Read more

The playing field at the new Arizona Bank One Ballpark (BOB) is the only field in Major League Baseball that faces directly north, unlike other fields, where the third-base line points north. The grass on the playing field is De Anza zoysia, a hybrid specially formulated for hot, desert climates. It tolerates low-light conditions well — an ...Read more

Pink elephants? In regions of India where the soil is red, elephants take on a permanent pink tinge because they regularly spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves against insects. The parades are optional.

The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C. London, England reached the mark in 1810 and New York City, USA made it in 1875. Today, there are over 300 cities in the world that boast a population in excess of 1 million.

Besides exchanging gifts they eat turkey on Christmas Day, and in some places there are even community Christmas trees. They decorate their houses with evergreens and mistletoe, and in some homes Christmas carols are sung gaily.

In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a 50-pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than twenty people.

1918, Walt Disney was 16 -- too young for the military. When he heard that the Red Cross Ambulance Corps would accept 17-year-olds, he lied about his age, joined, and began training. He almost missed his chance when he came down with influenza in an epidemic that killed about 20 million people worldwide. The war ended. But the Ambulance Corps ...Read more