With the turning of the calendar page from March to April, another All Fools' Day dawns, much to the enjoyment of pranksters and jokers around the world. April 1st is a day that is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends and co-workers, generally with the intent to embarrass the more gullible among us. While the staff here at the PNC Campus all love a good joke, we got into some hot water last year when our prank was taken a little too seriously. To help combat this small and barely noticeable ding to our already ruined reputation, we decided that it was time to take action.

While most other websites and people you know are deviously scheming up ways to trick you and make you look stupid, we've decided to take the high road this year and celebrate "April Truth Day" instead. Rather than plotting about various ways for us to make fun of your stupidity, we're using this opportunity to make you a little bit smarter by presenting some facts and trivia bits that you can use year-round. Sure, Joe in Accounting might have gotten you good when he moved your trash can down the hall but you can show him up by flexing your new found brain power. Also, women over 30 find smart people sexy.

The road to a better you starts now!

Did you know...

At pay-by-weight fruit and salad bars, watermelon is the least economical item for the consumer.

The moniker "mobile home" is derived from an early large manufacturer of travel trailers, Mobile Home Travel Trailers, which was headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. For more than 20 years, the company aggressively tried to legally enforce the "Mobile Home" trademark, but the term was declared part of the public domain in 1968.

Only one in six people who buy reading glasses off the shelf have the correct strength lenses.

Federal Express got its name because it used to be owned by the Federal Government.

In 2008, the number of people who first accessed the internet decreased for the first time ever.

November is the busiest month of the year for American barbers.

Peru is the largest exporter of guinea pigs in the world.

Composing a 10,000 word document on a non-electric typewriter burns 135 more calories than producing that same document on a computer due to the differences in pressure required for each keystroke.

If you put one hand in boiling hot water, and one hand in freezing cold water, neither one will hurt.

There are at least nine locations in the United States that claim to be haunted by the ghost of John Wilkes Booth.

It would take 35,480 gallons of black ink to print off the entire internet.

Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman played each other in chess via mail throughout the Civil War and wagered on the outcome. At the end of the war Sherman owed Grant $502.58 and an acre of land in Missouri.

Turtles move faster backwards than forwards.

The sugars and acids in tomato juice cancel each other out, making it one of the best things to drink if you're intending to lose weight. Orange juice is an even better choice, but the harsher acids can dissolve tooth enamel.

Cuba was, during the time of Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru, was thought to be the size of Africa.

21% of consumer grade rulers are more than three percent longer or shorter than their markings suggest.

Many people know that if you count the rings of a tree trunk you can determine how old the tree was. Most people don't know that this works with every plant, except plants like flowers and bamboo have such small stems that it is impossible to see the rings with the naked eye.

Magnets do not work if standing on or within 50 yards of the south pole. On the north pole, the strength of the magnet is intensified.

The human eye reaches its full size by one year of age.

Thirty-eight percent of Cambodians have never used a fork.

The right side of a ship is to this day called "starboard" because sailors voyaging to the New World knew that, in times of a faulty compass, as long as the North Star was on the right side of the ship they would maintain a Westward course.

If you tilt your head back and pretend to shake salt onto your tongue, you'll actually taste salt.

As of October 1, 2009, the Library of Congress had 5,867 books that started "Once upon a time..."

Q-tip is actually short for "Queen's tip", it was originally invented for Queen Victoria, who was well known to suffer from excess earwax.

Shania Twain is Mark Twain's great-granddaughter.

The human immune system is slow to react, so by the time a person is showing symptoms of being ill, they are no longer contagious.

The US government doesn't regulate the amount of ingredients that can go into beer like Europe does so in case a nuclear war started preservative-filled American beer would last longer and keep up morale for the hard months ahead.

In New York City the cost to move one passenger up or down one floor by elevator is 0.874 cents.

The original breeds of dogs were the Cocker Spaniel, Greyhound, and Pekingese. All other breeds of dogs descended from the selective breeding of the ancestors of these three wild dogs.

Pandas aren't bears.

Only one in every three people are sensitive to heat in the pit of their knee.

The pressure from holding in sneezes damages the capillaries in your nose.

The park benches in Central Park are the most heavily-used benches in the world. The average bench is used by 8.12 people per day with the average person using the bench for 28 minutes.

The Federal Office of Business Activity and Productivity estimates that $502 million dollars are lost each year due to reduced productivity due to April Fool's Day pranks.

And there you have it. 35 tiny bits of knowledge to help you become a better, smarter person. We can only hope that you use your newly-gained power for good, not evil but on the off chance that you do do something bad, take a picture and send it to us. We're kind of curious.

Pollestad.Net: making you more useful to society.