The natural smell of leather has a tendency to scare domestic animals. To avoid this, an essential part of the manufacturing process is to stack the animal skins in layers alternating with layers of horse dung, roll them up, and store them in barrels for six months. What we think of as the smell of leather is actually the result of this process.

Italy is the only team in the World Cup that has no left-handed forwards.

The wind-chill temperature in Antarctica can go below Absolute Zero.

Pharmacists have to try out, on themselves, every drug they are allowed to sell.

The wheelbarrow was originally designed as a means of transport of carrying drunken husbands home from the pub.

Sugar cubes and OXO cubes differ only in the colouring dyes applied; all other ingredients and nutritional properties are identical.

It is possible to make a Rubik's cube unsolvable by performing as few as six turns.

The 'frisbee' quality of biscuits is determined by the nature of the top surface. In scientific tests, smooth-topped Rich Tea scored the longest distance, and Lincoln showed the greatest lift, due to the vortices created by the regular pattern of knobbles on the top. Maryland Cookies will not fly.

Sucking tea through Tim-Tams is illegal in three counties in southern Tasmania.