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Ten Random Facts

The U.S. standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.
Statistics

Cockroaches have lived on Earth for 250 million years. Many varieties found today look identical to the fossilized record of their ancestors.
Animals » Insects

Groundhogs are also known as “woodchucks,” “whistle pigs,” and “marmots.”
Animals

Soap was considered a frivolous luxury of the British aristocracy from the early 1700s until 1862, and there was a tax on those who used it in England.
Laws and Customs

The cat was domesticated over 4,000 years ago. Today's house cats are descended from wildcats in Africa and Europe.
Animals

On maps, adjacent countries are usually shown in different colors. What is the smallest number of colors needed for a world map? Four (4).
Words and Numbers

Bette Davis starred in a series of prestigious films that brought her an Best Actress Oscar nomination for five years in a row. She won the statuette for the first," Jezebel" (1938). The other films were "Dark Victory" (1939), "The Letter (1940)," "The Little Foxes" (1941), and "Now, Voyager" (1942).
Entertainment » Movies

The cashew is part of a fruit called a "cashew apple" that grows in tropical regions. After harvesting, the cashew apple keeps for only 24 hours before the soft fruit deteriorates. The cashew apple is not commercially important since it spoils quickly, but local people love the fruit. To harvest the nut, the ripe apple is allowed to fall to the ground where natives easily gather it. The apple and nut are separated.
Food and Drink

In a 1999 Associated Press release, Japan's Buddhist establishment was under attack over the practice of charging bereaved, vulnerable relatives huge fees for afterlife names given to the dead at their funerals. The tradition is centuries-old, and began with names conferred only on Buddhist priests. When temples began granting afterlife names to common people, the names became something akin to a ranking system, reflecting the deceased's noble actions during life. The highest rank, ingo, costs more than $8,300. Of the average $5,300 paid to temples for Tokyo funeral fees, about $3,300 goes for the posthumous name.
Laws and Customs

In the seventeenth century, the French decided that adding frogs and snails to their fine dining menu was a good idea.
Food and Drink

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