The Japanese adore beef, but cannot get enough because the country is too small for large-scale cattle raising. An exception are the cows of Kobe, who live the good life: they drink beer, are massaged three times a day to keep their meat tender, and are sung to, making them feel serene. Kobe beef is world-famous for its flavor, although chances ...Read more

Onions are usually eaten in such small amounts that they make very little difference nutritionally, but the most nutritious ones are scallions, with four times the vitamin C and 5,000 times the vitamin A as other onions. If you enjoy eating onions by the pound, one pound has about 175 calories.

The first macaroni factory in the United States was established in 1848. It was started by Antoine Zegera in Brooklyn, New York.

A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking.

Tuna swim at a steady rate of 9 miles per hour for an indefinite period of time - and they never stop moving. Estimates indicate that a 15-year-old tuna travels one million miles in its lifetime.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces 38 million notes a day with a face value of approximately $541 million. That doesn't mean there is $541 million more money circulating today than there was yesterday, though, because 95% of the notes printed each year are used to replace notes already

In an effort to solicit cash to pay for a charity Christmas dinner in 1891, a large crabpot was set down on a San Francisco street, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.

Ben Franklin's "single fluid theory" showed that a given body possessing a normal amount of electric fluid was called neutral. During the process of charging, the fluid was transferred from one body to the other; the body with the deficiency being charged minus and the body with the excess charged plus . But no fluid is lost. Ben's "single fluid...Read more

Medical treatment, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was aimed at ridding the sick of "vile humours" by vomiting, purging, and bleeding. The treatment was often the immediate cause of death. Some prescriptions called for "letting" more blood than is now known to exist in the whole

Tyrannosaurus ('tyrant lizard') is the most famous dinosaur genus and a fixture in popular culture. Known colloquially as T. rex, the species Tyrannosaurus rex hails from what is now western North America. Tyrannosaurus was a bipedal carnivore with a massive skull balanced by a long, heavy tail. Although others rivaled or exceeded T. rex in size...Read more

The first crosswords appeared in England during the 19th century. They were of an elementary kind, apparently derived from the word square, a group of words arranged so the letters read alike vertically and horizontally, and printed in children's puzzle books and various periodicals. In the United States, however, the puzzle developed into a ...Read more

During the 1900's, piggeries were developed in small- to medium-sized towns where swine were fed fresh or cooked garbage in order to cut down on waste in landfills. One environmental expert estimated that 75 pigs could consume 1 ton of refuse per day.

Man has tiny bones once meant for a tail and unworkable muscles once meant to move his ears.

A South African bullfrog can grow to be 35 inches (90 cm) in length -- longer than your arm.

According to John Adams, "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival." Adams's prediction was off by two days as Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the Declaration ...Read more

Auto racer Dan Gurney was one of the first U.S. drivers to use rear-engine race cars. He won the Le Mans race (1967), and finished second in the Indianapolis 500 twice (1968 and 1969).

At funerals in ancient China, when the lid of the coffin was closed, mourners took a few steps backward lest their shadows get caught in the box.

There are 640 acres in a square mile.

Barbara Jo Rubin became the first female jockey to win a horse race on February 22, 1969. She rode Cohesian to victory at Charlestown Racetrack in West Virginia.

When the Krampus finds a particularly naughty child, it stuffs the child in its sack and carries the frightened thing away to its lair, presumably to devour for its Christmas dinner.