Giraffe has the exact amount of vertebrae as almost all other animals, basically like humans and mice, nice and round number of seven.

Pinball was illegal for over 30 years in America and even had its own crime boss, who specialized in the illegal pinball machine industry.

An Italian banker, Gilberto Baschiera, is considered a modern-day Robin Hood. Over the course of 7 years, he secretly diverted 1 million euros to poorer clients from the wealthy ones so they could qualify for loans. He made no profit and avoided jail in 2018 due to a plea bargain.

Acacia trees in Africa communicate with each other. They emit gasses to alert other trees to produce the toxin tannin, which protects them from hungry animals.

fun fact: i found this website of fun facts

https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/fun-facts

but unfortunately it means i can't quote any of there here, as they would not be original

Trench coats were made for war.

They were designed around 1913 by Burberry for use in the military. Shoulder flap to reduce recoil felt, threads were coated in sheep fat instead of the whole jacket being soaked and had belts and D-rings for grenades, maps and tools. These were exclusively available to officers, and the German soldiers noticed and targeted them immediately. So many officers were killed that clerks and other working class men were promoted to officer ranks, and the first thing they bought was a trench coat. Those that survived were demoted after their service, but kept their trench coats as a trophy.

This isn't a fact so much as it is something I just realized. The lyrics to "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind are freaking filthy. Like, really perverted stuff. I may be permanently scarred for life. I think I will go listen to it again.

The penis of a tapir has an umbrella tip to prevent water seeping in and semen leaking out when they mate underwater. Incidentally, it is quite common for a tapir to step on its own erection and bruise it so badly they don't recognise it as a penis anymore, so they start to eat it.

Water is neither wet nor dry, as it applies the nature of wetness to others. It's like good financing: it isn't rich per se, but it can make people rich. Well.. richer than before, anyways.

A group of flamingos is called a flamboyance.

That sounds like something someone made up as a joke, but it's a real collective noun. What's even better is that flamingos earn the name: they're naturally grey when they hatch and only turn pink after eating foods rich in pigments called carotenoids, such as algae and tiny crustaceans.

If a flamingo's diet changes, its pink color can actually fade over time.

So a flamboyance of flamingos is essentially a gathering of birds that paint themselves pink with their food—a fact that's somehow both scientifically accurate and wonderfully ridiculous.

Human's ability smell petrichor (smell of wet earth from rain) is greater than a shark's ability to smell blood in water.

It takes about 14 months for your brain, to fix itself after doing cocaine.

Earth is 4.54 billion years old. Using radiometric dating, scientists have discovered that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old (give or take 50 million years). This makes our planet half the age of the Milky Way Galaxy (11-13 billion years old) and around a third of the age of the Universe (10-15 billion years old). 

and the wasps' nest by my balconey door is much younger than that, and hopefully will not last longer than this morning