Useless information

I'm not sure that there's any such thing as useless information, because if it's not something you need to know, or even want to know, then it may come in handy for a pub quiz, or perhaps as an opening gambit at a dull party. You just never know. And besides, the more you think about it, the less useless it seems to be (to me, anyway).

For instance, how about this. I learnt (from the radio this morning) that the shearwater can hear fish underwater. Hear fish? Hear fish? It got me thinking (no bad thing at the moment, still in waiting mode and with agent abroad for the next two weeks). I'm not entirely sure what a shearwater is (some kind of bird?), but whatever is is, hearing fish has got to be an accomplishment, and any accomplishment has to be admired.

Here's another. An Italian man was apparently recently shot in the eye, but sneezed the bullet out through his nose. This is a story with a happy ending, so that's not useless, either (although at first glance it may seem to be). And then there are all the ones saying that if you laid all the boy scouts/matchsticks/disgraced politcians or whatever end to end, they would stretch all the way from... etc etc. There are those, too. Not useful at all, since no-one will ever do all that laying, but oddly entertaining.