You never know when you may need to know something like this. I was in a customer service meeting a few years ago when I used the smiling information above and it struck a small conversation in the group.

In the meeting the speaker was talking about one to one personal contact with customers. He said 'apparently it takes less effort to smile than to frown, I don't know why'. I knew and piped up 'it's because you use less of the muscles in your face to smile'.

This lead to a little friendly banter between myself, the speaker and the rest of the group and a conversation with someone I've never spoken to before. He is now a good work colleague and friend of mine.

This is just one example among many where knowing something that has little use in everyday life has helped start or push along a conversation. It can also make you come across as intelligent and outgoing which will only serve to help you in further conversations with the people around you.

Where do you find this information? Well there are many places to stumble across these little trinkets. TV game shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire and The Weakest Link are good places to find them if you like that sort of thing. If you hear a question that interests you then make a mental note to remember it.

Conversations with anyone you talk to can turn up some interesting little things. Reading, whether it be fictional or factual. If you're reading something that is based on fact you might want to find out more about it. The Internet is a good place for this. It's the best research tool in the world, if you want proof just think where you found this article.

It's all well and good knowing these little trinkets of information but when is a good time to use them? Only when the opportunity presents itself is the answer to this one.

If you just blurt something out in the middle of a conversation like 'you can dilute down diesel fuel in your car with plain vegetable oil which cost about half the price to save you money on your fuel costs', people will just look at you funny however if you're talking about diesel or fuel costs then this a prime time to bring this up.