Facts You Probably don’t Need

• Cats have fewer toes on their back paws. They usually have four on each hind foot and five on each front foot.

• A blue whale can consume nearly half a million calories in a single mouthful of krill.

• The tiny pocket on jeans was originally designed to hold pocket watches.

• Cows don’t have upper front teeth. Instead, they have a tough dental pad that helps them grasp grass.

• Only about a quarter of the Sahara Desert is covered in sand dunes. Most of it is rocky plateau or gravel plain.

• Volcanoes were still active on the Moon during the time of the dinosaurs.

• The word “fizzle” originally referred to a quiet breaking of wind before it came to mean something that fails or fades out.

• In the early days of baseball, umpires sometimes sat in rocking chairs behind home plate.

          Facts by Sean McVeigh, factologist.