Inane Fact #35

"Neanderthal" is German for "Neander Valley", a famous archaeological site known for a number of neanderthal fossils.

Inane Fact #32

Primitive pencils were first used by the Ancient Egyptians and the Romans.

Inane Fact #29

The earliest known hippopotamus fossils, which belong to the genus Kenyapotamus, (found in Kenya), date to roughly 16 million years ago.

Inane Fact #22

The ancient Egyptians used honey as an embalming fluid.

Inane Fact #21

The first people to make glass windows were the Romans in Alexandria around 100 AD.

Inane Fact #19

The earliest known seahorse fossils found to date were discovered in Slovenia and are 13,000,000 years old.

Inane Fact #17

Beer was first prepared circa 9,000 BC. It is one of the oldest prepared drinks in the world.

Inane Fact #11

Toilet paper was first invented in China in the sixth century AD.

Inane Fact #8

The Japanese name for Japan, Nihon, is spelled with two kanji characters (Kanji is a one-character writing system derived from Chinese.) meaning "sun" and "source". Since the sun rises in the East, and Japan is East of China, from China is looks as though the sun comes from Japan; thus China gave the name meaning "Land of the Rising Sun" to Japan.

Inane Fact #5

"Oklahoma" means "red people" (literally "people red", if you want to be technical) in the language of the Choctaw, a Native American tribe.