i send out a weekly newsletter for my job and include a fun fact every week. i've been in charge of this for almost two years and haven't repeated a fun fact, which is getting increasingly more difficult to do. i'll update this list every week (unless it's a lame fact) and put the new fun fact at the top :)

here is a list of some fun facts:

- rodents make up about 40% of all mammal species

- minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time

- 99.9% of all calico and tortoiseshell cats are females

- the sky is technically violet, not blue

- windsor castle is the largest & oldest occupied castle in the world

- shopping carts were invented in 1937

- reading reduces stress levels by 68%

- trees communicate through an underground fungi network

- this year, the monarch butterfly population increased by 64%

- the first toy advertised on tv was mr. potato head

- william shakespeare probably died on his birthday

- the movie titanic cost more to make than the actual ship

- dolphins sleep with half their brain at a time

- astronauts experience less acute olfactory senses in space

- there are ice volcanoes (cryovolcanoes)

- the moon appears different in the northern and southern hemispheres

- you can't pour water off the hoover dam

- the longest continuous painting in the world is 35,597 feet

- february is the only month that can pass without a full moon

- modern olympic gold medals are made mostly from silver, not gold

- the largest gold nugget ever unearthed weighed 241 pounds

- venus is the hottest planet in the solar system

- the louvre is the most visited museum annually

- gingerbread houses were inspired by hansel and gretel

- squirrels plant two billion trees each year

- 4x more people speak english as a second language than a native one

- 1 in 3 people have astigmatism to some degree

- turnips were originally used for jack-o’-lanterns, not pumpkins

- a fully charged battery weighs more than an uncharged one

- all planets in our solar system could fit between the earth & moon

- dolphins shed their skin every 2 to 3 hours

- people believed the moon caused madness, hence the term 'lunatic'

- mantis shrimp can detect ten times more color than humans

- sapphires and rubies are the same mineral

- the magnetic north and south poles will eventually swap places

- 90% of the global population lives in the northern hemisphere

- sunsets on mars are blue

- the smell of fresh cut grass is a defense mechanism

- earth is the only planet that isn’t named after a roman god

- tomatoes and potatoes can be grown on the same plant

- rabbit tails are lowkey long, the average length is 2 inches

- pinball was initially used as a form of gambling

- corn cobs (almost) always have an even number of rows

- octopuses, and all other cephalopods, are colorblind

- all pandas are owned by china and leased to zoos

- giraffes are the only animals born with their horns

- antidote plants often grown near poisonous ones

- there is an apartment at the top of the eiffel tower

- rats laugh when they're happy/playful, we just can't hear it

- the color orange was named after the fruit

- a jiffy is an actual unit of measurement

- tulips continue to grow after being cut

- lobsters can be bright blue

- the oldest found message in a bottle was from 1886

- brown glass blocks uv light

- ecuador is the world’s largest producer and exporter of roses

- the global diamond reserve is estimated to be 1.4 billion carats

- the first flower grown in space was a zinnia

- snowflakes always have six sides

- aomori city, japan receives 312 inches of snow annually on average

- wild turkeys sleep in trees

- squirrels' brains get 15% larger in autumn to remember nuts

- halloween has a full moon every 19 years

- the highest-grossing horror movie worldwide is it

- the fastest a pumpkin has been carved is 9.4 seconds

- there are over 7,500 apple varieties

- the heaviest pumpkin recorded weighed 2,749 pounds

- ancient sailors believed cats were good luck

- peppercorns are dried berries

- a day on venus is longer than a year on venus

- cows have accents

- the average speed of a sneeze 30-35 mph

- honey never expires

- smallpox is the only human disease that has been eradicated

- peanut butter can be turned into a diamond

- cats have more bones than humans do

- caffeine makes sweet things taste less sweet