Although an average goldfish only lives for 20 years, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the oldest goldfish ever recorded lived to be 43 years old.  The goldfish was a male named “Tish” who was won by a 7 year old named Peter Hand at a fanfare in 1956 in  Yorkshire, England.  Tish grew to 11.5cm over the course of his lifetime and his color faded from bright orange to silver as he aged.  Tish passed away inside his bowl in 1999 of natural causes, 2 years after he had surpassed the previous world record holder, Worthing (41) who had held the title since 1980.

Sneezing with your eyes open has long been considered a danger to your eyeballs.  For ages it has been theorized that your eyes will pop out of their sockets if left open during a sneeze.  It’s because of this theory that we can mistakingly assume that our eyes close naturally during a sneezing episode as a bodily safety reaction.  Although our sneezes are released at a blazing 200 mph, our eyes are in no danger of harm during a sneeze.  Our eyes naturally shut themselves during the process of sneezing due to the fact that the nose and eyes are connected by cranial nerves.  Sneezing stimulates these nerves, thus triggering a blinking reaction.

The most common name in the world is مُحَمَّد, which translates from Arabic to “Muhammad” in the United States.  The majority of those named Muhammad are of Islamic descent, where the name gained importance for its religious significance.  Muslims commonly claim this as their name because, according to the Quran, Muhammad was the last prophet and messenger of God.

The official record for most children born to one woman is an astonishing 69!  From 1725 to 1765, the first wife of Feodor Vassilyv (a Russian peasant) endured 27 pregnancies while producing 4 sets of quadruplets, 7 sets of triplets, and 16 pairs of twins.  Of the 69 total babies conceived, 67 of them survived infancy.

We’re all familiar with Barbie, the plastic beauty that most young girls have been modeling themselves after since the toy’s debut by Mattel in 1959.  But, have you ever wondered what Barbie’s measurements would be if she were a life-size human?  Fact is, increase the scale of this 11.5 inch girl’s doll and you’d get some unrealistic results.  According to the Huffington Post, Barbie would be 5’9 tall, weigh in at 110 pounds, and feature a 39″ bust, 18″ waist, and 33″ hips.  Could this be a clue to the origination of some women’s unrealistic expectations of personal image?  You be the judge.

Have you heard the old tale that a goldfish memory span lasts only up to 3 seconds?  The media has tricked us into believing that goldfish are forgetful creatures through such characters as Dory from the popular film, Finding Nemo.  Come to find out, this is completely false.  According to scientists, a goldfish can store memories and recall them for up to 5 months.  This was tested and proven with a series of trials by researchers from the Technical Institute of Technology in Israel.  The fish subjects were taught to respond to certain sounds in captivity, then several months later, still recognized those same sounds (even in the wild)!  So, the next time someone says, “You’ve got the memory of a goldfish,” don’t take it so hard.

Are you curious as to what Bob Dylan’s real name actually is?  Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 as Robert Allen Zimmerman.  After Mr. Zimmerman dropped out of college in 1961, he pursued a career in rock music.  In August of 1962, Zimmerman legally changed his name to the one we know today, Bob Dylan.  Dylan has been known by several other names including: Robert Dylan, Rob Dylan, Robert Milkwood Thomas, Bob Landy, Lucky Wilbury, Sergei Petrov, Tedham Porterhouse, Blind Boy Grunt, Jack Frost, and Elston Gunnn.

Did you know that the voice of ET was 3-time Oscar nominee, Debra Winger?  Winger’s voice was electronically altered and used as the alien in Stephen Spielberg’s 1982 box office hit, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.  The majority of the speech was provided by raspy-voiced Pat Welsh, a chain smoking elderly women from Marin, California.  Spielberg asked Debra Winger, however, to visit the studio and lend her voice to the lovable alien for a few key parts, one of which was the memorable “ET phone home” phrase.

There’s more chickens than humans in the world.  In fact, it’s estimated that there are 45,000 chickens for each individual person on the globe.  That’s a grand total of more than 30,000,000,000,000,000 chickens worldwide.

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them. ~George H. W. Bush