NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Random Facts

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Phobias0 ablutophobia: washing or bathing acarophobia: itching acerophobia: sourness achluophobia: darkness acousticophobia: noise acrophobia: heights aeroacrophobia: open high places aeronausiphobia: vomiting secondary to airsickness aerophobia: drafts, air aeruophobia: flying agliophobia: pain agoraphobia: open spaces agraphobia: sexual abuse agrizoophobia: wild animals agyrophobia: streets or crossing the street aichmophobia: needles or pointed objects ailurophobia: cats albuminurophobia: kidney disease alektorophobia: chickens algophobia: pain alliumphobia: garlic allodoxaphobia: opinions altophobia: heights amathophobia: dust amaxophobia: riding in a car, or vehicles ambulophobia: walking amnesiphobia: amnesia amychophobia: scratches or being scratched anablephobia: looking up ancraophobia: wind androphobia: men anemophobia: air drafts or wind anginophobia: angina, choking or narrowness Anglophobia: England, English culture, etc angrophobia: becoming angry ankylophobia: immobility of a joint anthophobia: flowers anthrophobia: people anthropophobia: people or society antlophobia: floods anuptaphobia: staying single apeirophobia: infinity aphenphosmphobia: being touched apiphobia: bees apotemnophobia: persons with amputations arachibutyrophobia: peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth arachnophobia: spiders arithmophobia: numbers arrhenphobia: men arsonphobia: fire asthenophobia: fainting or weakness astraphobia: thunder and lightning astrophobia: stars and celestial space asymmetriphobia: asymmetrical things ataxiophobia: ataxia (muscular incoordination) ataxophobia: disorder or untidiness atelophobia: imperfection atephobia: ruin or ruins athazagoraphobia: being forgotten or ignored atomosophobia: atomic explosions atychiphobia: failure aulophobia: flutes aurophobia: gold auroraphobia: northern lights autodysomophobia: one that has a vile odor automatonophobia: ventiloquist dummies or wax statues automysophobia: being dirty autophobia: being alone or of oneself aviophobia: flying

B bacillophobia: microbes bacteriophobia: bacteria bactrachophobia: reptiles ballistophobia: missles or bullets barophobia: gravity basophobia: inability to stand bathophobia: depth batonophobia: plants batophobia: heights batrachophobia: amphibians belonephobia: pins and needles bibliophobia: books blennophobia: slime bogyphobia: the bogeyman Bolshephobia: Bolsheviks botanophobia: plants bromidrosiphobia: body smells brontophobia: thunder and lightning bufonophobia: toads C cacophobia: ugliness cainophobia: newness, novelty caligynephobia: beautiful women carcinophobia: cancer cardiophobia: the heart carnophobia: meat catagelophobia: being ridiculed catapedaphobia: jumping from high and low places cathisophobia: sitting catoptrophobia: mirrors cenophobia: new things or ideas ceraunophobia: thunder chaetophobia: hair cheimaphobia or cheimatophobia: cold chemophobia: chemicals cherophobia: gaiety chionophobia: snow chiraptophobia: being touched cholerophobia: anger chorophobia: dancing chrometophobia: money chromophobia: colors chronomentrophobia: clocks chronophobia: time cibophobia: food claustrophobia: enclosed spaces cleisiophobia: being locked in cleptophobia: stealing climacophobia: stairs clinophobia: going to bed clithrophobia: being enclosed cnidophobia: stings coimetrophobia: cemeteries cometophobia: comets contreltophobia: sexual abuse coprastasophobia: constipation coprophobia: feces coulrophobia: clowns cremnophobia: precipices cryophobia: extreme cold, ice or frost crystallophobia: crystals or glass cyberphobia: computers or working on a computer cyclophobia: bicycles cymophobia: waves or wave like motions cynophobia: dogs D decidophobia: making decisions defecaloesiophobia: painful bowel movements deipnophobia: dining dementophobia: insanity demonophobia: demons demophobia: crowds (Agoraphobia) dendrophobia: trees dentophobia: dentists dermatophobia: skin lesions dermatosiophobia: skin disease dextrophobia: objects at the right side of the body diabetophobia: diabetes didaskaleinophobia: going to school dikephobia: justice dinophobia: dizziness diplophobia: double vision dipsophobia: drinking dishabiliophobia: undressing in front of someone domatophobia: houses or being in a house doraphobia: fur or skins of animals dromophobia: crossing streets dutchphobia: the dutch dysmorphophobia: deformity dystychiphobia: accidents

E ecclesiophobia: church eicophobia: home surroundings eisoptrophobia: mirrors or seeing oneself in a mirror electrophobia: electricity eleutherophobia: freedom elurophobia: cats (Ailurophobia) emetophobia: vomiting enetophobia: pins enochlophobia: crowds enosiophobia: committing an unpardonable sin entomophobia: insects eosophobia: dawn or daylight epistaxiophobia: nosebleeds epistemophobia: knowledge equinophobia: horses eremophobia: being oneself ereuthrophobia: blushing ergasiophobia: surgical instruments ergophobia: work erotophobia: sexual love erythrophobia: the color red euphobia: hearing good news eurotophobia: female genitalia F febriphobia: fever felinophobia: cats Francophobia: france, french culture frigophobia: cold G galeophobia: cats gallophobia or galiophobia: fear France, French culture gamophobia: marriage gatophobia: cats geliophobia: laughter geniophobia: chins genophobia: sex genuphobia: knees gephyrophobia: crossing bridges gerascophobia: growing old germanophobia: Germany, German culture gerontophobia: old people or of growing old geumaphobia: taste glossophobia: speaking in public gnosiophobia: knowledge graphophobia: writing gymnophobia: nudity gynophobia: women H hadephobia: hell hagiophobia: saints or holy things hamartophobia: sinning haphephobia: being touched harpaxophobia: being robbed hedonophobia: feeling pleasure heliophobia: the sun hellenologophobia: Greek terms helminthophobia: worms hemophobia: blood herpetophobia: reptiles heterophobia: the opposite sex (sexophobia) hierophobia: priests hippophobia: horses hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: long words hobophobia: bums or beggars hodophobia: road travel homichlophobia: fog homilophobia: sermons hominophobia: men homophobia: homosexuality hoplophobia: firearms hormephobia: shock hydrargyophobia: mercurial medicines hydrophobia: water hydrophobophobia: rabies hyelophobia or hyalophobia: glass hygrophobia: liquids, dampness, or moisture hylephobia: materialism hylophobia: forests hypegiaphobia: responsibility hypnophobia: sleep hypsiphobia: height I iatrophobia: doctors ichthyophobia: fish ideophobia: ideas illyngophobia: veritgo insectophobia: insects iophobia: poison isolophobia: solitude, being alone isopterophobia: termites ithyphallophobia: erection J Japanophobia: Japanese Judeophobia: Jews

K kainolophobia: novelty kakorraphiaphobia: failure katagelophobia: ridicule kathisophobia: sitting down kenophobia: voids keraunophobia: thunder kinetophobia: movement or motion kleptophobia: stealing koinoniphobia: rooms koniophobia: dust (Amathophobia) kopophobia: fatigue kosmikophobia: cosmic phenomenon kymophobia: waves kynophobia: rabies kyphophobia: stooping L lachanophobia: vegetables laliophobia: speaking leprophobia: leprosy leukophobia: the color white levophobia: things to the left side of the body ligyrophobia: loud noises lilapsophobia: tornadoes and hurricanes limnophobia: lakes linonophobia: string liticaphobia: lawsuits lockiophobia: childbirth logizomechanophobia: computers logophobia: words luiphobia: syphillis lutraphobia: otters lygophobia: darkness lyssophobia: rabies or of becoming mad M macrophobia: long waits mageirocophobia: cooking maieusiophobia: childbirth malaxophobia: love play maniaphobia: insanity mastigophobia: punishment mechanophobia: machines megalophobia: large things melanophobia: the color black melissophobia: bees melophobia: fear or hatred of music meningitophobia: brain disease menophobia: menstruation merinthophobia: being bound or tied up metallophobia: metal metathesiophobia: changes meteorophobia: meteors methyphobia: alcohol metrophobia: fear or hatred of poetry microbiophobia: microbes (bacillophobia) microphobia: small things misophobia: being contaminated with dirt of germs mnemophobia: memories molysmophobia: dirt or contamination monopathophobia: definite disease monophobia: solitude or being alone motorphobia: automobiles mottephobia: moths musophobia: mice mycophobia: fear or aversion to mushrooms mycrophobia: small things myctophobia: darkness myrmecophobia: ants mysophobia: germs or contamination or dirt mythophobia: myths or stories or false statements myxophobia: slime (blennophobia) N nebulaphobia: fog (homichlophobia) necrophobia: death nelophobia: glass neopharmaphobia: new drugs neophobia: anything new nephophobia: clouds noctiphobia: the night nomatophobia: names nosemaphobia: illness nosocomephobia: hospitals nosophobia: disease nostophobia: returning home novercaphobia: step-mothers nucleomituphobia: nuclear weapons nudophobia: nudity numerophobia: numbers nyctophobia: the dark or of night O obesophobia: gaining weight ochlophobia: crowds or mobs ochophobia: vehicles octophobia: the figure 8 odontophobia: dental surgery odynophobia: pain oenophobia: wines oikophobia: home surroundings, house olfactophobia: smells ombrophobia: rain ommetaphobia: eyes oneirogmophobia: wet dreams oneirophobia: dreams onomatophobia: hearing a certain word ophidiophobia: snakes ophthalmophobia: being stared at optophobia: opening one's eyes ornithophobia: birds orthophobia: property osmophobia: smells or odours osphresiophobia: smells ostraconophobia: shellfish ouranophobia: heaven P pagophobia: ice or frost panophobia: everything panthophobia: disease pantophobia: fears Papaphobia: the pope papyrophobia: paper paralipophobia: neglecting duty paraphobia: sexual perversion parasitophobia: parasites paraskavedekatriaphobia: Friday the 13th parthenophobia: virgins or young girls parturiphobia: childbirth pathophobia: disease patroiophobia: heredity peccatophobia: sinning (imaginary crime) pediculophobia: lice pediophobia: dolls pedophobia: children peladophobia: bald people pellagrophobia: pellagra peniaphobia: poverty pentheraphobia: mother-in-law phagophobia: swallowing phalacrophobia: becoming bald phallophobia: a penis, esp erect pharmacophobia: taking medicine pharmacophobia: drugs phasmophobia: ghosts phengophobia: daylight or sunshine philemaphobia: kissing philophobia: falling in love philosophobia: philosophy phobophobia: one's own fears phonophobia: noises or voices photoaugliaphobia: glaring lights photophobia: light phronemophobia: thinking phthiriophobia: lice (pediculophobia) phthisiophobia: tuberculosis pinigerophobia: smothering placophobia: tombstones plutophobia: wealth pluviophobia: rain or of being rained on pneumatiphobia: spirits pnigophobia: choking or being smothered pocrescophobia: gaining weight (obesophobia) pogonophobia: beards poinephobia: punishment poliosophobia: contracting poliomyelitis politicophobia: politicians polyphobia: many things ponophobia: overworking or of pain porphyrophobia: the color purple potamophobia: rivers or running water potophobia: alcohol proctophobia: rectum prosophobia: progress psellismophobia: stuttering psychophobia: mind psychrophobia: cold pteromerhanophobia: flying pteronophobia: being tickled by feathers pupaphobia: puppets pyrexiophobia pyrophobia: fire Q R radiophobia: radiation, x-rays ranidaphobia: frogs rhabdophobia: being severely punished or beaten by a rod rhypophobia: defecation rhytiphobia: getting wrinkles rupophobia: dirt Russophobia: Russians S samhainophobia: Halloween sarmassophobia: love play satanophobia: Satan scabiophobia: scabies scelerophibia: bad men, burglars schlionophobia: school sciophobia: shadows scoleciphobia: worms scolionophobia: school scopophobia: being stared at scotomaphobia: blindness in visual field scotophobia: darkness scriptophobia: writing in public selaphobia: light flashes selenophobia: the moon seplophobia: decaying matter sesquipedalophobia: long words sexophobia: the opposite sex siderodromophobia: trains siderophobia: stars sinistrophobia: left-handedness sinophobia: chinese, chinese culture sitophobia: food or eating snakephobia: snakes (ophidiophobia) soceraphobia: parents-in-law social phobia: being evaluated negatively sociophobia: society somniphobia: sleep sophophobia: learning soteriophobia: dependence on others spacephobia: outer space spectrophobia: specters or ghosts spermophobia: germs sphexsophobia: wasps stasibasiphobia: standing or walking staurophobia: crosses or the crucifix stenophobia: narrow things or places stygiophobia: hell suriphobia: mice symbolophobia: symbolism symmetrophobia: symmetry syngenesophobia: relatives syphilophobia: syphilis T tachophobia: speed taeniophobia or teniophobia: tapeworms taphephobia: being buried alive tapinophobia: being contagious taurophobia: bulls technophobia: technology teleophobia: definate plans telephonophobia: telephones telosphobia: being last teratophobia: bearing a deformed child testophobia: taking tests tetanophobia: lockjaw, tetanus teutophobia: German or German things textophobia: certain fabrics thaasophobia: sitting thalassophobia: the ocean thanatophobia: death or dying theatrophobia: theatres theologicophobia: theology theophobia: god(s) or religion thermophobia: heat tocophobia: childbirth tomophobia: surgical operations tonitrophobia: thunder topophobia: performing (stage fright) toxiphobia: poison traumatophobia: injury tremophobia: trembling trichinophobia: trichinosis trichopathophobia: hair triskaidekaphobia: the number 13 tropophobia: moving or making changes trypanophobia: injections tuberculophobia: tuberculosis tyrannophobia: tyrants U uranophobia: heaven urophobia: urine or urinating V vaccinophobia: vaccination venustraphobia: beautiful women verbophobia: words verminophobia: germs vestiphobia: clothing virginitiphobia: rape vitricophobia: step-fathers W Walloonphobia: the Walloons wiccaphobia: witches and witchcraft X xanthophobia: the color yellow xenophobia: strangers xerophobia: dryness xylophobia: forests Y Z zelophobia: jealousy zemmiphobia: the great mole rat zeusophobia: God or gods zoophobia: animals The African bushman lives in a quiet, remote environment and has no measurable hearing loss at age 60.

Teenagers often have episodes of anger and negativity in which they slam doors and scream tirades. According to experts, most puberty-driven "snit fits" last an average of 15 minutes.

The nucleus of Halley's Comet is a peanut-shaped object, weighing about 100,000 million tons, and measuring about 9 miles by 5 miles.

Anybody wonder how Bush has raised more money for election than any person ever? Well, first he gave hundreds of billions of US tax dollars to his cohorts in oil, gas, nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, weapons manufacturing, etc. etc. They, in turn, give a fraction of that money back to fund his election campaign. Pretty smart, huh. Except, the Bush Clan will be remembered in history for bankrupting America, eroding hundreds of years of civil rights, and inflaming hatred around the world. For decades lies will be encovered, spun in the name of economic policy and national security. Research is found to cause cancer in rats! Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms a major prohibitionist group, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) taught as "scientific fact" that the majority of beer drinkers die from dropsie The WCTU suggested that school teachers put half of a calf’s brain in an empty jar into which alcohol should be poured. As the color of the brain turned from pink to gray, pupils were to be warned that a drink of alcohol would do the same to their brains. The president of the WCTU, upon learning that government agents had clubbed a suspected bootlegger then shot down his unarmed wife as she ran to his aid, responded "Well, she was evading the law, wasn't she?" The WCTU is far from dead or inactive; it currently boasts a membership of 25,000 and is very active politically. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. The energy released by a hurricane each day would, if converted to electricity, keep the entire United States supplied with electrical power for up to three years. An adult grizzly bear can decapitate a moose with one swipe of its paw. When it charges it can cover 100 yards in six seconds - faster than a racehorse. Charles I wore two shirts to his execution because it was a cold day and he didn't want to shiver in case it should be mistaken for fear. Virginia Woolf wrote all her books while standing. The first CD released was Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA on June 4 1984. Canada is the only country that has not won a gold medal while hosting the summer Olympic Games. Harry Houdini was only 52 when he died, on Halloween 1926, of a burst appendix. He was notorious for being able to take a punch in the stomach from any man alive. Apparently J. Gordon Whitehead was the first to disprove him. After receiving three punches to the midsection, Houdini hit the floor. He never recovered. Using chemicals to get "high" isn't as new as one may think. Nitrous oxide was discovered in 1800. When inhaled, it was found to give a giddy, intoxicated feeling and to release the emotions. People laughed inanely, so it was called "laughing gas." For a while, parties were organized at which people sat around inhaling its fumes. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid. The longest papal reign was that of Pius IX, from 1846 to 1878. The shortest reign, that of Stephen II in 752, lasted no more than a day. Basketball traces its roots to a game that was played in ancient Central America's Inca cities. The game — throwing a goat's head into a hole in a wall — often went scoreless for days. The winners were granted riches and lives of luxury. The losers were decapitated. No president of the United States thus far was an only child. The magician's words "hocus-pocus" were taken from the name of a mythological sorcerer, Ochus Bochus, who appeared in Norse folktales and legends. The modern game that dates back the furthest is thought is to be bowling, pictures of a similiar version were found carved into the walls of Egyptian pyramids. Leonardo Da Vinci spent 12 years painting the Mona Lisa's lips. The longest name is the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) is Malhershalahashbaz. The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer. The youngest pope was 11 years old. Toilet paper was invented in 1857. In his will, William Shakespeare left his wife his second best bed. Queen Elizabeth 1 had four baths a year whether she needed it or not. King Louis XIV of France only had three in his whole life! Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, had eleven fingers and three nipples. The electric chair was invented by a dentist. Television was switched off for six years during the second World War. In June 1946, it started again with the words, "As I was saying before we were so rudely interrupted...". The apple that fell on Isaac Newton's head didn't fall - it was pushed. The final resting place for Dr. Eugene Shoemaker is the Moon. The famed U.S. Geological Survey astronomer had trained the Apollo mission astronauts about craters, but never made it into space. Dr. Shoemaker had wanted to be an astronaut but was rejected because of a medical problem. His ashes were placed on board the Lunar Prospector spacecraft before it was launched on January 6, 1998. NASA crashed the probe into a crater on the moon on July 31, 1999, in an attempt to learn if there is water on the Moon. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. Mosquitoes are most attracted to the colour blue. An ostrich chick is the size of a rabbit when it hatches. By the time it is a year old, it will stand approximately seven feet tall. There are over 36,000 kinds of spiders in the world. It would take 27,000 average-size spiderwebs to produce a single pound of spider silk. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs have about 10. (over achievers) A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours. Scientists believe that the Arctic ground squirrel is the only mammal that can tolerate the formation of ice crystals in its bloodstream. The squirrel monkey's brain accounts for roughly 5 percent of its body weight - the largest percentage of any other animal. The human brain, by comparison, makes up about 2.3 percent of body weight. The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. Starfish have no brains. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. Polar bear livers contain an extraordinarily high amount of Vitamin A and if eaten could kill you. A flea is capable of jumping 13 inches in a single leap. In human terms, this would be equivalent to a person leaping 700 feet in one bound. Kangaroos are lactose-intolerant. When a snail hatches from an egg, it is a miniature adult, shell and all. The shell grows with the snail, and the snail never leaves the shell. Bees kill more people a year than sharks do. A goldfishes attention span is 3 sec. In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license. While they are still in the womb, some shark fetuses fight with their siblings and may even kill them. Spiders have transparent blood. Panda's poo 48 times a day. The only time a sloth will come down from its tree is to poo. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Ludwig van Beethoven, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein were all left-handed. Shrimp can only swim backwards. Frogs can't swallow with their eyes open. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs but impossible to lead them down. The most venomous creature is the box jellyfish, which lives off the coast of Australia. Its venom can kill an adult human in 45 seconds. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. Worms have 6 hearts. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere, and no one knows why. A shrimp's heart is in their head Baboons in Kenya's Serengeti game reserve are so well looked after that they are suffering from psychological stress, said US scientists. The baboons rarely need to forage for food, and have few predators, leaving them with plenty of time on their hands in which to “worry about issues such as relationships, the group hierarchy and whether other baboons like them.” The blue whale has a tongue that weighs the same as an elephant, a heart the size of a car, and blood vessels so big you could swim up them! On average, people fear spiders more than they do death. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. Mozart wrote the nursery rhyme 'twinkle, twinkle, little star' at the age of five. Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks. The milk of a hippopotamus is bright pink.

You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a poisonous spider. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Two-thirds of the worlds eggplant is grown in New Jersey, USA. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses, no-one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses.

The longest word in the English language according to the Oxford Dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovocanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovocanoconioses, its plural.

Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and Hydroxydesoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.

The longest word that can be spelled by using only the left hand on a standard keyboard is stewardesses. The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.

Disney's Snow White was originally drawn as a Blonde. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. Horses can sleep standing up

A jellyfish is 95% water. Shark's teeth are literally as hard as steel. Squids can commit suicide by eating their own tentacles. The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular. There is a 1 in 685,000 chance that you will accidentally drown in your own bath. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down. Mickey Mouse was banned in Romania in 1935 because it was felt that he was too scary for children.

The only country whose name begins with an A but doesn't end in an A is Afghanastan. Mosquitos have forty-seven teeth. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother, they were both deaf. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. The magic word 'Abracadabra' was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man. The Sanskrit word for war translates as 'wanting more cows' Turkey's often look up at the sky during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown as a result. Benjamin Franklin was the proud owner of the very first bathtub in the colonies. "Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them." - Margaret Mitchell (1900 - 1949)

"Money is good for bribing yourself through the inconveniences of life." - Gottfried Reinhardt.

"The laziest man I ever met put popcorn in his pancakes so they would turn over by themselves." - W.C. Fields "I wanted to do something nice so I bought my mother-in-law a chair. Now they won't let me plug it in." - Henny Youngman "Ballet: Men wearing pants so tight that you can tell what religion they are." - Robin Williams

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way." - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

"It is not true that life is one damn thing after another - it is one damn thing over and over." - Edna St. Vincent Millay

"I wear my wife's eyeglasses because she wants me to see things her way." - Jason Feinburg

"Always be nice to people on your way up. Because you will meet the same people on the way down." - Wilson Mizner, American dramatist

"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives." - Charles Fisher

"Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities." - Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

"Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?" - John Mendoza

"Expecting the world to treat your fairly because you're a good person is like expecting a bull not to attack you because you're a vegetarian." - Dennis Wholey

"Hate is the consequence of fear; we fear something before we hate it; a child who fears noises becomes a man who hates noise." - Cyril Connolly (1903-74)

When the first escalator, or "inclined elevator," was installed in the department store Harrod's in London (near the turn of the century), brandy was served to passengers who felt faint.

Did you know that the average snail moves at a rate of approximately 0.000362005 miles per hour? That sure is slow!

Our galaxy has approximately 250 billion stars – and it is estimated by astronomers that there are 100 billion other galaxies in the universe.

Did you know that the popular American comic strip "Peanuts" is known as "Radishes" in Denmark?

Did you know that Hitler was voted "Time Magazine's" man of the year in 1938. What were they thinking??

From 9,000 pounds of roses, which totals about 55,000 blossoms, two pounds of costly rose essence can be extracted to be used as a component in fragrances.

At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the Earth's atmosphere. Lightning strikes the Earth 100 times every second.

Did you know that the first ballpoint pens sold in 1945 were priced at $12.00 apiece? Back then, $12.00 was worth a heck of a lot more than it is today!

Spinach is native to the area of Iran, but didn't spread to other parts of the world until the beginning of the Christian era.

Rafflesia flowers can measure 3 feet across -- the biggest flowers of any plant. They are also the smelliest flowers, reeking of rotten meat! Ew! This is a trick designed to attract flies for pollination.

1. » There are 119 grooves on the edge of a quarter. 2. » The Honours of Scotland are the Crown, the Sceptre, and the Sword of State. They are emblems of kingly power when Scotland was a separate kingdom 3. » Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969. 4. » In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes. 5. » The Indian epic poem the "Mahabhrata" is eight times longer than "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" combined. 6. » Scarlett O' Hara, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind lead character, was originally given the name Pansy. 7. » In trucking circles, a "bumper sticker" is a tailgater who is following another vehicle too closely. 8. » Set in 175 acres of woodland in Yorkshire Dales, Britain's Lightwater Valley Theme Park has the longest roller coaster in the world, The Ultimate, as affirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records 2000. 9. » There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo. 10. » There are 3 main groups/shapes of pathogenic bacteria: cocci (round), bacilli (rod-shaped), and spirilla (coil-like). again with the randomness Melting ice absorbs almost as much energy in changing to liquid water as is needed to heat the water from freezing to boiling The Mexican fishing spider will attach itself to a small leaf and float across a pond as if on a raft. From this vantage point, it hunts its prey of large tadpoles and small fish. Over the many centuries of living in the Arctic, Eskimos' bodies have adapted to the cold. Eskimos tend to be short and squat, which brings their arms and legs closer to the heart, so there is less danger of freezing. Extra fat around the torso protects their internal organs from the cold. The metabolism of Eskimos is also set a little higher than other people's. As a result, they burn their food faster to stay warm. Their veins and arteries are also arranged to carry more warming blood to their hands. An object weighing 100 pounds on Earth would weigh just 38 pounds on Mars. Here's a list of some of the most popular: Apples Think of five or six names of boys or girls you might marry, As you twist the stem of an apple, recite the names until the stem comes off. You will marry the person whose name you were saying when the stem fell off. An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Baby To predict the sex of a baby: Suspend a wedding band held by a piece of thread over the palm of the pregnant girl. If the ring swings in an oval or circular motion the baby will be a girl. If the ring swings in a straight line the baby will be a boy. Birthday Cake If you blow out all the candles on your birthday cake with the first puff you will get your wish. Cat If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it. Keep cats away from babies because they "suck the breath" of the child. A cat onboard a ship is considered to bring luck. Cemetery You must hold your breath while going past a cemetery or you will breathe in the spirit of someone who has recently died. Clock If a clock which has not been working suddenly chimes, there will be a death in the family. Clover It's good luck to find a four-leaf clover. Clover protects human beings and animals from the spell of magicians and the wiles of fairies, and brings good luck to those who keep it in the house. Corpse If a woman is buried in black, she will return to haunt the family. If a dead person's eyes are left open, he'll find someone to take with him. Mirrors in a house with a corpse should be covered or the person who sees himself will die next. Crack Don't step on a crack on a sidewalk or walkway. Step on a crack break your mother's back. Cricket A cricket in the house brings good luck. Fork To drop a fork means a man is coming to visit. Friday the 13th Paraskevidekatriaphobics - people afflicted with a morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th The sixth day of the week and the number 13 both have foreboding reputations said to date from ancient times. Their inevitable conjunction from one to three times a year denotes more misfortune than some can bear. Folklorists say it's probably the most widespread superstition in America (and no doubt in other parts of the world, as well). Those who know about these things, inform us that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden on a Friday, Noah's flood started on a Friday, and Christ was crucified on a Friday. Christians also noted that twelve witches plus one devil are present at Satanic ceremonies so Friday and 13 make a deadly combination. Hand If the palm of your right hand itches it means you will soon be getting money. If the palm of your left hand itches it means you will soon be paying out money. Horseshoe A horseshoe, hung above the doorway, will bring good luck to a home. In most of Europe protective horseshoes are placed in a downward facing position, but in some parts of Ireland and Britain people believe that the shoes must be turned upward or "the luck will run out." A horseshoe hung in the bedroom will keep nightmares away. Ladder It is bad luck to walk under a ladder. Mirror To break a mirror means 7 years bad luck. It is unlucky to see your face in a mirror by candlelight. A mirror should be covered during a thunderstorm because it attracts lightning. If a mirror in the house falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will die soon. Nose If your nose itches you will soon be kissed by a fool. Photograph If 3 people are photographed together, the one in the middle will die first. Rabbit's Foot A rabbit's foot will bring luck and protect the owner from evil spirits if carried in the pocket. Salt Bad luck will follow the spilling of salt unless a pinch is thrown over the left shoulder into the face of the devil waiting there. Put salt on the doorstep of a new house and no evil can enter. Sneeze Place a hand in front of your mouth when sneezing. Your soul may escape otherwise. The devil can enter your body when you sneeze. Having someone say, "God bless you," drives the devil away. Thirteen If 13 people sit down at a table to eat, one of them will die before the year is over. Umbrella It's bad luck to open an umbrella inside the house, especially if you put it over your head. Wood Knock three times on wood after mentioning good fortune so evil spirits won't ruin it. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes when you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase, "Goodnight, sleep tight." The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. cat's urine glows under a blacklight. In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own pints and quarts and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's." Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. When possums are playing, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously One lady had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer so that even in death he can still "help" in the kitchen. Chewing gum while cutting onions will prevent crying If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. Coke is used by Cops to clean Blood off the Ground! If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 10 percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe leaving her mentally retarded The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. While in some countries the penalty for driving while intoxicated can be death (yes, death), in Uruguay intoxication is a legal excuse for having an accident while driving. "Please believe me officer, I really was drunk." Iraqi terrorist, Khay Rahnajet, didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." uses every letter in the alphabet An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. In Cleveland, Ohio, it's illegal to catch mice without a hunting license. The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1. 52 random facts you really don't need to know...

1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer. 2. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top. 4. 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals. 5. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled. 6. On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily. 7. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog. 8. Most lipstick contains fish scales. 9. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine. 10. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time. 11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood. 12. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. 13. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips. 14. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm. 15. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"! 16. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. 17. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. 18. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. 19. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. 20. The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer. 21. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 22. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot. 23. Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor. 24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 25. "Stewardesses" and reverberated are the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand. 26. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly. 27. A mathematical wonder: 111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 gives the result 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321. 28. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. 29. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. 30. The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp. 31. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. 32. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. 33. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing. 34. "Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in mt". 35. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. 36. In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off". 37. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head. 38. European women didn't wear underwear until the 1900's. 39. We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime. 40. Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines. 41. Coca-Cola can be used as car oil. 42. Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year. 43. Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV. 44. Blue is the favourite colour of 80 percent of Americans. 45. When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka. 46. There are more chickens than people in the world. 47. It's against the law in Iceland to have a dog. 48. The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest. 49. The only word in the English Language with all vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental". 50. There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C. 51. Beethoven poured ice water over his head before he composed. 52. In Pakistan, it's rude to show your feet. Police in Hong Kong stopped a man because he seemed to be 'oddly shaped'. He was found to be wearing 18 bras and 45 pairs of ladies' panties. The world's longest-named lake has 45 letters (Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg). In the U.S. there are 18 doctors called Dr. Doctor, and one called Dr. Surgeon. There is also a dermatologist named Dr. Rash, a psychiatrist called Dr. Couch and an anesthesiologist named Dr. Gass. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. The longest word in the English language is 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis' which describes a lung disease caused by breathing in particles of volcanic matter or a similar fine dust.

"Jack" is the most common name in nursery rhymes. In the English language there are only three words that have a letter that repeats six times. Degenerescence (six e's), Indivisibility (six i's), and nonannouncement (six n's).

The only three words in the English language to have 2 consecutive u's is vacuum, residuum, and continuum.

The word "alphabet" is derived from the first two letters in the Greek alphabet: "alpha" and "beta". The only word in the English language that has 4 sets of double letters in a row is balloonneer.

The longest words that can be typed using only the right hand in proper typing form are lollipop" and "monopoly". Check this out, look at your keyboard, the only ten letter word that you can spell with the top row of letters is "typewriter". Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands when typing. The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley. Pamela Anderson is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversiary of Canada's independence. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin ate roasted turkey from foil packets as their first meal on the moon. Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement." The first American to have indoor plumbing was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1840. There was a person that paid $14,000 for the bra Marilyn Monroe wore in Some Like It Hot.

The house where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence was replaced with a hamburger stand. A golden razor removed from King Tut's Tomb was still sharp enough to be used. Charles Dickens slept facing North. He thought it improved his writing. Calvin Coolidge is the only president born on July 4th, in 1872. In 1841, the 8th 9th and 10th presidents served in office all in one year. They were Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, and John Tyler. Vincent Van Gogh once sliced off his ear and another time swallowed his own paint. David Prouse (the man inside the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars) spoke all of his lines in the first movie. He did not know that his voice was being dubbed over with that of James Earl Jones until he saw the finished movie. Samuel Colt, the famous gun maker, paid the equivalent of $400,000 in today's money for his wife's wedding dress and accessories. Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992.

Mary Todd Lincoln claimed she was haunted during her life, and sewed money into clothes to foil the invisible thieves. The only man to ever be President and Vice-President but never be elected to either was Gerald Ford. George Washington's salary as President was $25,000 a year. On July 4, 1826, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed away. Abraham Lincoln had no middle name. The only two US presidents to receive the Nobel Peace Prize were Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Elvis Presley had a reading chair in his bathroom. M&M's stands for the names of Forrest Mars, Sr., the candymaker and his associate Bruce Murrie. "Dixie" which was a popular song among the Confederates during the Civil War, was written by a Northerner named Dam Emmett. The first person to be born in the U.S. and become president was Martin Van Buren. The only president to hold a Ph.D. was Woodrow Wilson. Julius Caeser's autograph is worth 2 million dollars, but one has not been found yet. George Washington wore a size 13 shoe. The only person who's birthday is a legal holiday all across the U.S. is George Washington. John Wayne had an 18 inch neck. Englands Queen Anne (1665-1714) outlived all 17 of her children.

Smokey The Bear's original name was Hotfoot Teddy. Queen Elizabeth was an 18 year old mechanic in the English military. In 1944, Fidel Castro was voted Cuba's best schoolboy athlete. A lefthanded pitcher, Castro was later given a tryout by the Washington Senators but was turned down by the baseball club The odds of being killed by falling out of bed are one in two million. The smallest unit of time is the yoctosecond. Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball. If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula." Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots. The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella. Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth...and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life". It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees). Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself. The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows." A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. A whale's penis is called a dork. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. Reindeer like to eat bananas. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep. "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing. How many reasons are there for an entertainer to change his or her name? Here's an uncommon one: when your name is that of the father of relativity. Actor and director Albert Brooks started out in life named Albert Einstein. His brother, David Einstein, also changed his name to become a celebrated daredevil — to "Super Dave" Osborne. Because its eyeball is fixed, the whale must move its huge body to shift its line of sight. Can you imagine not being able to look around without turning your whole body? There are no penguins at the North Pole. In fact, there are no penguins anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (outside of zoos). All 17 varieties of the bird are found below the equator, primarily in the Antarctica. Did you know that a Collie dog cannot be trained to seriously attack a human? Police use the breed as messengers and for sentry work. Consider a different breed if you're looking for a serious guard dog! Disney's first cartoon was 'Alice's Wonderland' which was released in 1924. This is not to be confused with the popular 'Alice In Wonderland' which wasn't released until 1951. 'Steamboat Willie' was Disney's first cartoon with sound - released in 1928. Bore-hole seismometry indicates that the land in Oklahoma moves up and down 25 cm throughout the day, corresponding with the tides. Earth tides are generally about one-third the size of ocean tides. Ice cream was invented in China around 2000 B.C. when the Chinese packed a soft milk-and-rice mixture in snow. About 62 A.D., the Roman Emperor Nero sent slaves to the tops of the Apennines Mountains to bring fresh snow down to the royal kitchens, where the snow was then flavored with fruits and honey. The crocodile does not chew its food, but swallows it whole. It carries several pounds of small stones in its stomach to aid in grinding up and digesting its nourishment. Crocodile eggs which are incubated below 85º F (29.5º C) hatch into females, while those incubated above 95º F (35º C) hatch into males. If only it were that easy for humans! Our sniffers work harder than we give them credit for!!! A human can detect one drop of perfume diffused throughout a three-room apartment. Dolphins do not breath automatically, as humans do, and so they do not sleep as humans do. If they become unconscious, they would sink to the bottom of the sea. Without the oxygen they need to take in periodically, they would die. Only three of the first presidents of the United States had middle names. It was rare, in fact, for anyone to be graced with more than one given name until about 1750. The sea cucumber, a purplish-brown creature covered with warts, has a unique defense strategy. When attacked, it throws out sticky threads from its mouth, which entangles its enemy. The sea cucumber can then quickly escape. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald's. Those poor, poor people! Celery has negative calories — it takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. What a great food to eat on a diet! King Charles VIII of France, who ascended to the throne in 1483, was obsessed with the idea of being poisoned. As his phobia grew, the monarch ate so little that he died of malnutrition circa 1498. The bouillon cube was once a common snack food in early America. Beef or veal stock was boiled down until it reached a hard jelly texture. The hard cakes didn't spoil, and trappers and hunters nibbled on them when tramping along on long journeys during the 1700s. EW!!! Jupiter is the largest planet, and it has the shortest day. Although Jupiter has a circumference of 280,000 miles, compared with Earth's 25,000, Jupiter manages to make one turn in 9 hours and 55 minutes. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in U.S. coins without being able to make change for a dollar. A good milking cow will give nearly 6,000 quarts of milk every year. In any given week, an average of 2.3 million Americans are on paid vacation. The South Pole is actually a desert environment, averaging about the same amount of monthly rainfall as the Sahara Desert. The popular beverage 7-Up was originally a version of a "lithiated" patent medicine, containing small amounts of lithium - a chemical 'upper'. An irony here is that it was introduced to the U.S. markets during the 1930s — the height of the Great Depression. Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969!

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!

The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card!

Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other's shoulders!

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second!

A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile!

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!

It is estimated that 4 million "junk" telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States!

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

Almost half the newspapers in the world are published in the United States and Canada! During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants!

In space, astronauts cannot cry properly, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow down their faces!

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter."!

Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum!

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards!

One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approximately one million gallons of fresh water!

Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!

Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow!

Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings!

Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight!

A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there, though!

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court!

It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them!

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E!

Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions!

Actress Debra Winger helped to perform the voice of E.T. in the movie “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)."

If you ever find yourself too close to a scorpion, simply grab a bottle of whiskey. If you place just a small amount of liquor on it, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. An apple, onion, and potato all have the same taste. The differences in flavor are caused by their smell. To prove this — pinch your nose and take a bite from each. They will all taste sweet. Actress Michelle Pfeiffer was the first choice to play Clarice Starling in the movie "Silence of the Lambs." She turned down the role because she found it too scary.

Because metal was scarce; the Oscars given out during World War II were made of plaster.

Director George Lucas had trouble originally getting funding for Star Wars because most studios thought most people wouldn't bother seeing it.

During the making of the the movie "Fight Club," actor Brad Pitt chipped his tooth. However, he did not get his tooth capped until after the movie was done filming as he thought it would look better chipped for his character.

For the 1939 movie "Gone With the Wind" 1,400 actresses were interviewed to play the part of Scarlett O'Hara.

For the movie "Tootsie" actor Dustin Hoffman thought of the title. His mother used to call him that as a child.

From the movie Monster's Inc., Mike and Sully had three cereals in their apartment. There names were Kreature Krisp, Prickly Puffs, and Dirt Clods, with ingredients such as sweat and tears, bile, and shrimp. Cinderella is known as Rashin Coatie in Scotland, Zezolla in Italy, and Yeh-hsien in China Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. Some of the other names that were thought of for the dwarfs in the Disney movie "Snow White" were Awful, Dirty, Shifty, Hotsy, and Jumpy. The most reproduced image in the world is Mickey Mouse, which can be found on over 7,500 different items. The story of Mulan had been told in China for almost 1,500 years before Disney decided to make it into an animated movie. The Walt Disney character Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. The woman who did the voice of Disney's Snow White was the daughter of Disney's casting director. Until the 1960's men with long hair were not allowed to enter Disneyland Walt Disney had a fear of mice. Walt Disney had originally suggested using the name Mortimer Mouse instead of Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney holds the record for the most Oscar nominations with sixty-four. Atari had to bury millions of unsold "E.T." game cartridges in a New Mexico desert landfill in 1982.

Canadians Scott Abbott and Chris Haney invented Trivial Pursuit. They were planning on playing Scrabble and realized that some of the pieces were missing so they came up with the idea of making their own game; Trivial Pursuit.

In 1902, the game table tennis was brought to the U.S. from Europe by Parker Brothers.

In 1968, Abbie Hoffman palyed with a yo-yo while testifying before a congressional committee. He was found in contempt.

In the game of Monopoly, the most landed on properties are B&O Railroad, Illinois Avenue, and "Go."

Milton Bradley originally wanted to name the game Twister, Pretzel; but he could not since the name was copyrighted Monopoly is the best-selling board game in the world.

Mr. Butts invented the game SCRABBLE. The game was originally called "Criss Cross Words." Namco, who are the manufacturers of Pac Man the video game, has estimated that the original arcade game has been played over 10 billion times by individuals.

Since its introduction in February 1935, more than two hundred million Monopoly board games have been sold worldwide.

The game MONOPOLY has been played by approximately 500 million people in the world, and the game is available in 26 languages.

The game Monopoly was once very popular in Cuba; however, Fidel Castro ordered that all games be destroyed.

The longest Monopoly game ever played was 1,680 hours long, which is seventy straight days.

The name of the character that is behind bars in the Monopoly board game is Jake the Jailbird.

The property values on the Monopoly game board are the same today as they were in 1935.

The record for the longest Monopoly game played in a bathtub is ninety-nine hours. A 13-year-old boy in India produced winged beetles in his urine after hatching the eggs in his body. Airports that are at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.

As an iceberg melts, it makes a fizzing sound because of the compressed air bubbles popping in the ice.

In India, a 9-year-old girl was "married" to a stray dog, which tribal custom requires in order to protect a child whose first tooth appears on the upper gum.

In Japan, by the time man reaches the age of 60, he is commemorated with a special ceremony. This ceremony features the man wearing a red kimono, which denotes that he no longer has the responsibilities of being a mature adult.

In Japan, the number four is considered to be unlucky because the Japanese word for four sounds very similar to the word death.

In November 1999, two women were killed by a lightning bolt. The underwire located in their bras acted as a electrical conductors, and when the lightning bolt hit the bra they left burn marks on their chest. In Russia, when flowers are given for a romantic occasions, flowers are given in odds numbers as even number of flowers is given at funerals only.

In the 17th century, Sawney Beane, his wife, eight sons, six daughters, eighteen grandsons, and fourteen granddaughters, who were all born in incest, were a family of cannibals that lived in caves in Scotland. They murdered hundreds of men, women and children and then ate them. The entire family was executed in Edinburgh without a trial. In the U.S. the most common excuse made to get out of paying a ticket is to say they missed the sign.

On April 4, 1974, John Massis of Belgium pulled two New York Long Island railroad passenger cars totaling 80 tons with a thick rope, with a small bit attached, using only his teeth.

One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approximately one million gallons of fresh water. Over 175 million cubic yards of earth was removed for the creation of the Panama Canal.

Scatologists are experts who study feces. (aka. crap, dung, dookie, dumps, feces, excrement, etc.)

Studies show that divorced women have more trouble starting new relationships than divorced men.

The average day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds. We have a leap year every four years to make up for this shortfall.

The Canadian holiday Boxing Day got its name from the custom of giving. Servants were given boxes which had money hidden inside them from their employers. The servants would have to break the box into pieces to get the money. The Christmas season begins after sunset on December 24th and lasts until January 5th. This is also known as the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The city of Nottingham in England was the first city to have Braille signs (signs for the blind) in its shopping malls for the blind.

The concept of Boxing Day, which is on December 26th, was to give boxes of food and clothing to the poor. It is now viewed in some countries as a time to get merchandise from stores at reduced prices.

The first place to celebrate St.Patrick's Day was is Boston, Massachusetts, USA in 1737.

The first Valentine's Day card was sent from a knight to his wife in 1415. The night was held captive in the Tower of London.

The largest diamond found in the United States was a 40.23 carat white diamond. It was found in 1924 and nicknamed the "Uncle Sam."

The longest engagement lasted 67 years, and the couple ended up marrying when they were 82 years old. The Mexican version of the Tooth Fairy is known as the Tooth Mouse, which takes the tooth and leaves treasures in its place.

The month of December is the most popular month for weddings in the Philippines.

The more a person struggles to get out of quicksand the faster they will sink. Staying still, and being calm will actually make the body float in the quicksand because the body is less dense than the quicksand is.

The most overdue book in the world was borrowed from Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge, England and was returned 288 years later.

The most popular recipients of Valentine's Day cards in order are teachers, children, and mothers.

The reason why bubbles are round is because this is the most efficient shape that the soap film can take. The size of a red blood cell is 708 microns. This is equivalent to one millionth of a meter.

The third biggest party day after New Year's and Super Bowl Sunday is Halloween. The titan arum flower is the largest flower in the world and gives off a horrible odor that smells like rotting flesh when it blooms. The USS Abraham Lincoln has five gymnasiums on the ship and a basketball league with 22 teams. The Victoria Cross is Britain's highest military decoration. The Welwitschia plant can live up to 1,000 years. The world's deepest gold mine is seven kilometers below the surface of the Earth. The world's oldest rose is located Hildeshiem Cathedral in Germany and is thought to be over 1,000 years old. There are five years in a quinquennium. There are over 1,000,000 swimming pools in Florida, eventhough the ocean is no farther than 80 miles away. There is a large brass statue of Winnie-the-Pooh in Lima, Peru. There is a type of coffin made that can be used as a wine rack or picnic table before its final use.

There is an organization called SCROOGE in Charlottesville, Virginia that stands for Society to Curtail Ridiculous, Outrageous, and Ostentatious Gift Exchanges. This was formed to keep gift giving affordable and simple.

There is enough water in American swimming pools to cover the whole city of San Francisco seven feet deep.

There was a 19th century Native American tribal chief who went under the name, "Not Able to Fornicate."

When Easter baskets were first introduced they were made to look like a bird's nest. Pacific Grove, California- It causes a misdemeanor if you kill or threaten a butterfly

Michigan- It is illegal for a woman to cut her hair without her husband's consent.

Ohio- It is illegal to sell beer while wearing a Santa Claus suit, even if you are a dog.

Toronto, Canada- It is illegal to ride a streetcar on Sunday after eating garlic.

Louisana- It is illegal to rob a bank, and then shoot the teller with a water pistol.

Atlanta, Georgia- is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

Idaho- It is forbidden by law for one citizen to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than 50 pounds.

Chicago, Illinois- It is illegal for a woman that weighs 200 pounds to ride horses in shorts.

Provincetown, Massachusetts- it's illegal to sell suntan oil until after noon on Sunday.

San Fransisco- It is illegal to beat a rug in front of you house. Jerusalem- After a man suffered through the tough death of his seventy-year-old mother, he kept her body cold in a refrigerator until science could bring her back to life. "It was hard for me, but it was her wish." claimed the man

Charlottesville, Virginia- Federal Agents searched a man's house because they believed he possessed illegal drugs. They searched everywhere, and were about to assume that he moved, when they heard a noise coming from the fridge. They looked inside and there was the man, calmly drinking a soda.

Sandusky, Ohio- A man was charged with negligent assult after he shot his wife's hat thinking it was a rat. The hat was on his wife's head at the time. The same man had previously shot himself in the foot while trying to shoot a rat.

Kansas- A man was charged with holding up a shoe store. He stole about 70$ in shoes. At his trial the man showed up wearing the boots he stole, with the tags still on. He was found guilty and the shoes were returned to the store.

Tennessee- An inmate escaped from jail and led police on a long chase sometimes reaching 150 mph. When he was caught he stated that he intended to turn himself in all along. He was driving fast because he wanted to get far enough ahead from the police to make it clear he was going to stop.

Bangkok, Thailand- After stealing a woman's purse, a man ran into a building that he thought was a Buddhist Temple. He figured that he couldn't be arrested in there. Unfortunately for him the building was a police station. He was arrested.

Redondo Beach, California- Police noticed a man driving his car, and they assumed he was drunk. Not becasue he was meandering, but because he had the top of a traffic light pole (including the lights) across the hood of his car. When questioned he said, "I thought the lights came with the car."

Woburn, Massachusetts- A baptist church was caught luring children in with pizza, and then baptizing them without parental consent.

Sanger, Texas- Four teenagers were arrested after breaking into a funeral home. They had planned to find embalming fluid, dip their cigarettes in it, and smoke it. Since they could find no fluid, they substituted a finger from the corpse for their cigarettes (and smoked it).

Pikeville, Kentucky- A bank robber was easily caught by surveillance cameras. He thought rubbing citric acid on his face would blur the picture, as you can obviously tell, it didn't work.

Ogden, Utah- A man wearing a clown costume went to a mechanic's trailer. The clown asked for a woman named Kathy. After the mechanic denied knowing a person named Kathy, the clown accused him of having an affair with her, and hit him over the head with a lamp. The clown was never found

Wandsworth, England- Karl Watkin was sentenced to eighteen months in prison after trying to have sex with a sidewalk. Three years later he was sentenced to six years for stimulating sexual intercourse with garbage bags. Later that year he commited suicide in his cell.

Appleton, Wisconsin- Darrell Voeks stole $100,000 worth of pigs to help pay for breast implants for his favorite stripper at a club. He got ten years in prison.

Key West, Florida- One restaurant owner killed another during a argument over how to put silverware into a dishwasher correctly.

Grande Ronde, Oregon- Sixty-seven-year-old Arthur Mooney died of a heart attack in the Spirit Mountain Casino. While his body lay right there on the floor for an hour, the other customers continued to play the slot machines. They pulled his body away the next day.

Scarborough, England- A totaled ford was found at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff in 1996. No sign of the driver was found, just a pile of human feces on the drivers seat.

Stockholm, Sweden- Customs officers noticed a woman that wouldn't stop scratching her chest. They were kind, and didn't mention anything, at first, but she never stopped. They searched her and found 75 live snakes that she was trying to smuggle.

Mount Shasta, California- Joy Glassman was a loving mother. She always wanted her sons to succeed in life. Then she went to far. Her sons grew up to be firemen, and joy intentionally set fires to help their careers. After five fires in one month she was arrested for arson. Palmero, Sicily- Roof jumping rats are common in these parts. But if you plan to travel here soon, bring an umbrella. The rats are getting too fat to jump, and land on the streets below.

Scientists believe that a meat eating plant lives underground with no direct sunlight.

Italy- A dolphin helped a drowning 14-year old boy. The dolphin pushed the boy to the nearest boat and swam away. Now the dolphin is known as Flippo.

Egypt- A man named Bahgat Mostafa Said died in his apartment with no cause. 18 cats (that were not his) came and surrounded his body. A week later, after a bad smell had disturbed neighbors, police investigated the apartment. They found the body and tried to move it, but the cats attacked. It took two hours to remove the cats and move the body.

Norfolk, England- On August 8, 2000 five inches of fish fell from the sky. The fish were indentified as Sprats, and their reason for falling is unknown. A similar event happened in Ethiopia.

Ptarmigans help their chicks go out into the world by teaching them which plants are more nutritious.

Yawns are a way of communication. They don't signal that you are tired, but rather you want to do something different now.

Crows and primates have figured out to use a sharp stick to catch insects in hard-to-reach places.

Baboons and Chimps dig for clean water when the surface water is polluted. Chimps even use sticks for digging tools.

Ravens can learn to open a box to get a treat, and then teach others to do the same.

Cockroaches can find their way in a dark room by dragging one antenna against the wall.

Ants have the characteristic of farming other (larger) bugs. Ex: Grubs. Much like humans and cows.

Giraffe's do not have vocal cords The center of a super massive black hole is the size of a spec of dust. But, that spec of dust weighs 3 million times more than our sun. There is also an expired super nova that weighs one billion pounds per teaspoon.

We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the bottom of then ocean.

Grenoble, France- A man has been eating 2 pounds of metal and glass a day. Some of the things include: A Cassna airplane, a computer, a TV, a bike, and a coffin.

Austrailia- A man was diagnosed with lead poisoning after he ate three feet of electrical cable a day. He said, "It had a sweet and pleasant taste, especially near the center."

The electric chair was invented by a dentist. And the first one was built partly by a prison inmate. He later died in it for murder.

More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world.

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Riddles 1. A man killed his mother, was born before his father, and married his sister. Yet, every one considered him to be normal. Why? Answer A. He killed his mother in the delivery. B. There are two definitions for the word "before". One of them is "earlier in time" and the other is "in front of". In other words "He was born in front of his father". C. He was a priest and he married his sister to another man.

3. There was a plane crash and every single person dies. No one was around for one hundred miles. nobody witnessed it happen. How did the newspapers find out about it the next day? Note: The answer is not "because it didn't arrive at it's destination." Answer Every SINGLE person died. All the couples lived.

4. What happens twice in a week, never in a month, and once in a year? Answer The letter "E".

5. Romeo is dead on the floor next to a pool of water and some broken glass. Juliet is asleep on the couch. The door to the room is locked and there is a window, but it is unbroken. What happened? Answer Romeo is a fish and Juliet is a cat. Juliet knocked down Romeo's fish bowl.

6. What work is it that the faster you work, the longer it is before you're done, and the slower you work, the sooner you're finished? Answer roasting meat on a spit.

7. I'm so fast you can't see me, though everyone sees straight through me, I don't stop until the day you die. What am I? Answer The blink of an eye.

9. In both heaven and in hell there are people sitting around a circular table. They are forced to sit ten feet away and reach the food with long chopsticks. This is extremely difficult, and a catch is rare. Why do the people in heaven live and the people in hell die. Note: It is not "they are both already dead, so it doesn't matter". Answer The people in heaven would share when they got the food. The people in hell would be selfish and keep it to themselves.

10. A boy was at a carnival and went to a booth where a man said to the boy, "If I write your exact weight on this piece of paper then you have to give me $50, but if I cannot, I will pay you $50." The boy looked around and saw no scale so he agrees, thinking no matter what the carny writes he'll just say he weighs more or less. In the end the boy ended up paying the man $50. How did the man win the bet? Answer The man did what he said he would do. He wrote "your exact weight" on the paper.

11. On this planet yesterday is always BEFORE today. In what place does yesterday always FOLLOW today? Answer In a dictionary. Jokes My wife went to a self-help group for compulsive talkers. It's called On & On Anon.

He does not have a beer belly; he has developed a liquid grain-storage facility.

If the black box survives a plane crash, why isn't the whole airplane made out of the stuff?

What is the last thing that goes through a bugs mind as it hits a windshield? His butt. I would like to go to Holland some day. Wooden Shoe?

This duck walks into a drugstore and says, "Gimme some chapstick, and put it on my bill."

There once was a man who entered a pun contest. He wanted to win very badly so he sent in ten different puns. Unfortunatly, no pun in ten did.

Darth Vader: "Hey Luke, I know what you're getting for Christmas." Luke: "How do you know?" Vader: "I felt your presents."

Do you know what you get if you throw a hand grenade into a French Kitchen? Linoleum Blownapart

What nationality are you when you go to the bathroom? First you are Russian. Then European. Finally you're Finnish.

Why do seagulls fly over the sea? Because if they flew over the bay, they'd be bagels.

Wife: Am I more likely to get pregnant if my husband wears boxers rather then briefs? Doctor: Yes, but you'll have an even better chance if he doesn't wear anything at all. The wheels spinning, but the hampster's asleep

He keeps a coathanger in the backseat just in case he locks his keys in the car.

Yo’ Mamma jokes Yo' Mamma is so fat she went on a light diet, as soon as it's light she starts eating.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, when she goes to the restaurant she looks at the menu and says, "Okay..."

Yo' Mamma is so fat you have to take a train and two buses to get to her good side.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, when she was growing up she didn't play with dolls, she played with midgets.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, when she is standing on the corner police drive by and say, "Hey! break it up!"

Yo' Mamma is so ugly, your father takes her to work with him so he doesn't have to kiss her goodbye.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, when she turns around, people throw her a welcome back party.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, when she wears a Malcolm X T-shirt, helicopters try to land on her back.

Yo' Mamma is so stupid, when she heard that 90 percent of all crimes occur at home, she moved.

Yo' Mamma is so poor, when I saw her kickin' a can down the street I asked her what she was doin and she said, "Moving."

Yo' Mamma's underarms are so hairy, she looks like she has someone in a headlock.

Yo' Mamma is so dumb she got thrown out of the M&M factory for throwing away the W's.

Yo' Mamma is so nasty, she joined the Four Horsemen: war, pestilence, death, famine, and Yo' Mamma.

Yo' Mamma is so fat, the sign outside the restaurant said, "Maximum occupancy, 512 or your Yo' Mamma."

Blonde Jokes Why don't blondes eat Jello? They can't figure out how to get two cups of water into those little packages.

What did the blonde say when she found out she was pregnant? "Are you sure it's mine?"

Why do blondes wear their hair up? To catch as much as they can that is over their heads.

What do you do when a blonde throws a hand grenade at you? Pull the pin and throw it back.

How can you tell if a blonde's been using the computer? There's white-out on the screen.

Why should blondes not be given coffee breaks? It takes too long to retrain them.

What do you call it when a blonde dies their hair brunette? Artificial intelligence.

50 Amusing things to do at Wal-Mart 1. Take shopping carts for the purpose of filling them and stranding them at strategic locations.

3. Set all the alarm clocks to go off at ten-minute intervals throughout the day.

5. Contaminate the entire auto department by sampling all the spray air fresheners.

9. When there are people behind you, walk really slowly, especially in thin aisles.

10. Walk up to an employee and tell him in an official tone, "I think we've got a code 3 in housewares," and see what happens.

11. Turn all the radios to polka stations; then turn them off and turn the volume up to full blast.

13. Walk up to complete strangers and say, "Hi. I haven't seen you in so long." etc. See if they play along.

14. While walking through the clothing department, ask yourself loud enough for all to hear, "Who buys this crap anyway?!"

16. Ride a display bicycle through the store; claim you are taking it for a test drive.

17. Follow people through the aisles, staying about 5 feet behind them. Do this until they leave the store.

18. Play soccer with a group of friends, using the entire store as your playing field.

19. As the cashier runs your purchase over the scanner, look mesmerized and say, "Woah, magic!"

20. Take off your shoes and tell them you want to return it and when they say you didn't buy it there say "Hmmmm....I thought the customer was always right!"

22. Set up a tent in the camping department; tell others you will only invite them in if they bring pillows from Bed and Bath.

25. Drape a blanket around your shoulders and run around saying, "I'm Batman. Come Robin, to the Batcave."

29. When someone asks you if you need help, begin to cry and say, "Why won't you people just leave me alone?"

30. When 2 or 3 people are walking ahead of you, run between them yelling "Red Rover."

31. Make up nonsense products and ask employees if there are any in stock. (i.e.: Shnerples)

32. Take up an entire aisle in toys by setting up a full-scale battle with G.I. Joe vs. X-men.

35. While handling guns in the hunting department, suddenly ask the clerk where the anti-depressants are. Act as spastic as possible.

46. When someone steps away from his or her cart to look at something, quickly make off with it without saying a word.

48. When an announcement comes over the loudspeaker, drop to your knees and scream, "No, no, its those voices again."

50. Drag a lounge chair over to the magazines and relax. Go to the food court, buy a drink, and explain that you don't get out much and ask if they can put a little umbrella in it.

My husband and I divorced over religious differences. He thought he was God, and I didn't.

I brake for fairys, elves, gnomes, the toothfairy, the easter bunny, santa and other little creatures that only I can see

If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?

Weird Labels 1. On a blanket from Taiwan - NOT TO BE USED AS PROTECTION FROM A TORNADO.

2. On a helmet mounted mirror used by US cyclists - REMEMBER, OBJECTS IN THE MIRROR ARE ACTUALLY BEHIND YOU.

4. On the bottle-top of a (UK) flavoured milk drink - AFTER OPENING, KEEP UPRIGHT.

6. In a US guide to setting up a new computer - TO AVOID CONDENSATION FORMING, ALLOW THE BOXES TO WARM UP TO ROOM TEMPERATURE BEFORE OPENING. (Sensible, but the instruction was INSIDE the box.)

7. On a Japanese product used to relieve painful hemorrhoids - LIE DOWN ON BED AND INSERT POSCOOL SLOWLY UP TO THE PROJECTED PORTION LIKE A SWORD-GUARD INTO ANAL DUCT. WHILE INSERTING POSCOOL FOR APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES, KEEP QUIET.

9. On a packet of Sunmaid raisins - WHY NOT TRY TOSSING OVER YOUR FAVOURITE BREAKFAST CEREAL?

11. On a bag of Fritos - YOU COULD BE A WINNER! NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. DETAILS INSIDE.

13. On Tesco's Tiramisu dessert (printed on bottom of the box) - DO NOT TURN UPSIDE DOWN.

16. On a string of Chinese-made Christmas lights - FOR INDOOR OR OUTDOOR USE ONLY.

19. On an American Airlines packet of nuts INSTRUCTIONS - OPEN PACKET, EAT NUTS.

20. On a Swedish chainsaw - DO NOT ATTEMPT TO STOP CHAIN WITH YOUR HANDS OR GENITALS.

21. On a child's superman costume - WEARING OF THIS GARMENT DOES NOT ENABLE YOU TO FLY.

25. On Boot's "Children's" cough medicine: DO NOT DRIVE CAR OR OPERATE MACHINERY.

20 Responses for Telemarketers 1. If they want to loan you money, tell them you just filed for bankruptcy and you could sure use some money.

2. If they start out with, "How are you today?" say, "I'm so glad you asked, because no one these days seems to care, and I have all these problems. My arthritis is acting up, my eyelashes are sore, my dog just died . . . "

3. If they say they're John Doe from XYZ Company, ask them to spell their name. Then ask them to spell the company name. Then ask them where it is located, how long it has been in business, how many people work there, how they got into this line of work if they are married, how many kids they have, etc. Continue asking them personal questions or questions about their company for as long as necessary.

4. This works great if you are male. Telemarketer: "Hi, my name is Judy and I'm with XYZ Company. " You: Wait for a second and with a real husky voice ask, "What are you wearing?"

5. Cry out in surprise, "Judy? Is that you? Oh my God! Judy, how have you been?" Hopefully, this will give Judy a few brief moments of terror as she tries to figure out where she could know you from.

6. Say "No" over and over. Be sure to vary the sound of each one, and keep a rhythmic tempo, even as they are trying to speak. Sing in an operatic voice if possible. Or a "Tiny Tim" falsetto. This is most fun if you can do it until they hang up.

7. If MCI calls trying to get you to sign up for the Family and Friends Plan, reply, in as sinister a voice as you can, "I don't have any friends, would you be my friend?"

8. If the company cleans rugs, respond: "Can you get out blood? Can you get out goat blood? How about human blood?"

9. After the Telemarketer gives his or her spiel, ask him or her to marry you. When they get all flustered, tell them that you can't just give your credit card number to a complete stranger.

10. Tell the Telemarketer that you work for the same company, and they can't sell to employees.

11. Answer the phone. As soon as you realize it is a Telemarketer, set the receiver down, scream, "Oh my God!" and then hang up.

12. Tell the Telemarketer you are busy at the moment and ask him/her if he/she will give you his/her home phone number so you can call him/her back. When the Telemarketer explains that telemarketers cannot give out their home numbers say, "I guess you don't want anyone bothering you at home, right?" The Telemarketer will agree and you say, "Me either!" Hang up.

14. Tell them it is dinner time, but ask if they would please hold. Put them on your speaker phone while you continue to eat at your leisure. Smack your food loudly and continue with your dinner conversation.

15. Tell the Telemarketer you are on "home incarceration" and ask if they could bring you some beer.

17. Tell the Telemarketer, "Okay, I'll listen to you. But I should probably tell you, I'm not wearing any clothes."

18. Insist that the caller is really your buddy Leon, playing a joke. "Come on, Leon, cut it out! Seriously, Leon, how's your momma?"

19. Tell them you are hard of hearing and that they need to speak up . . . louder . . . louder . . .

19 Fun Things to do in a Public Bathroom 1. Stick your palm open under the stall wall and ask your neighbor,"May I borrow a highlighter?"

3. Cheer and clap loudly every time somebody breaks the silence with a bodily function noise.

7. Grunt and strain real loud for 30 seconds and then drop a cantaloupe into the toilet bowl from a high place and sigh relaxingly.

10. Fill up a large flask with Mountain Dew. Squirt it erratically under the stall walls of your neighbors while yelling,"Whoa! Easy boy !!"

12. Using a small squeeze tube, spread peanut butter on a wad of toilet paper and drop under the stall wall of your neighbor. Then say, "Whoops, could you kick that back over here, please?"

15. Say, "Damn, I knew that drain hole was a little too small. Now what am I gonna do?"

17. Before you unroll toilet paper, conspicuously lay down your "Cross-Dressers Anonymous" newsletter on the floor visible to the adjacent stall.

18. Lower a small mirror underneath the stall wall and adjust it so you can see your neighbor and say, "Peek-a-boo!"

40 Fun Things to do in an Elevator 1. Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering, 'Shut up, dammit, all of you just shut UP!'

6. Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside ask: 'Got enough air in there?'

8. Stand silent and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.

9. When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.

10. Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a warm handshake and ask them to call you Admiral.

11. On the highest floor, hold the door open and demand that it stay open until you hear the penny you dropped down the shaft go 'plink' at the bottom.

13. Stare, grinning, at another passenger for a while, and then announce: 'I've got new socks on!'

14. When at least 8 people have boarded, moan from the back, 'Oh, not now, damn motion sickness!'

32. Draw a little square on the floor with chalk and announce to the other passengers that this is your 'personal space.'

THAT WAS THE BEST ICE CREAM SODA I EVER TASTED....DYING WORDS OF LOU COSTELLO..MARCH 3, 1959

IF YOU DRINK A GLASS OF JUICE EVERY MORNING FOR 36,500 DAYS YOU'LL LIVE TO BE 100 YEARS OLD All of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.)

In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role.

A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."

In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on watch is 10:10.

Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.

The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"

ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.)

The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India.

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? It's Paul Reiser himself..

The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.

The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz."

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.

Wayne's World was filmed in two weeks. Dinosaurs probably lived to be between 75 to 300 years of age. Scientists figured this out from looking at the structure of their bones. Skunks can shoot their bad-smelling spray only about two yards, but you can smell it up to two and a half miles away. One way to tell the age of a fish is by looking at its scales. They have growth rings just like trees. These are called circuli. Clusters of them are called annuli. Each annuli show one year. The northern fur seal, rather than using a layer of fat to keep it warm, depends on its thick fur with some 300,000 hairs per square inch. Did you know porpoises could surf? They are frequently seen riding the bow wave of a ship. They make no swimming motions and can ride the wake for more than an hour. They can also turn on their side or flip completely around. Surf’s up porpe! Fish swimming at depths of 15,000 feet (almost 3 miles down!) can withstand a pressure of 7,000 pounds per square inch. They are able to live in these crushing depths by pumping gas into their swim bladder. You may have heard someone say, "It’s raining cats and dogs." There have been actual documented cases from all over the world of fish, frogs, dead birds, snakes, snails, beetles, worms and jellyfish raining down from the sky in great numbers, but no reports of showers of cats or dogs. The blue whale, the largest animal to have ever existed, is 96 feet long and weights 125 tons. This is as much as 4 large dinosaurs (Brontosauri), 23 elephants, 230 cows or 1800 men. Some animals produce their own lights, called bioluminescence. The Brazilian railroad worm has a red light on its head and green lights down its side. All it needs to drive on the street is a turn signal. The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon. It can fly at a speed of 168-217 miles per hour. The largest egg laid by a living bird is that of the North African Ostrich. It is 6 to 8 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in diameter. The smallest is that of the hummingbird. It is less than 0.39 inches in diameter. Whether an alligator is a male or female is determined by the temperature of the nest where the egg is hatched – 90 to 93 degrees will make it a male; 82 to 86 degrees will turn it into a female. Animals with some of the longest lives are the Marion’s tortoise (152 years), the fin whale (116 years) and the deep-sea clam (100 years). An electric eel can produce a shock of 600 volts. That’s enough to stun large animals – even knock a horse off its feet. Cows can sleep standing up. Salamanders are known to come out of wood when it was burning inside a fireplace, this is because Salamanders hibernate in wood. Some frogs can pull their eyes into their throat and help push food down! An African adult elephant eats about six hundred pounds of food a day; that’s four percent of the elephant’s body weight! The smallest fish in the world are the pygmy goby and the Luzon goby, from the Philippines, which are only one-half-inch long when they are full grown. The 14-foot-long narwhal is a whale whose tooth can reach up to eight feet long! Chimpanzees use tools more than any other animal except man. Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication. The mandrill baboon has a red nose, blue cheeks, and an orange beard! Hummingbirds flap their wings between 50 and 70 times a second! When an octopus gets angry, it shoots a stream of black "ink". There are about 100 billion birds in the world, and about 6 billion of them make their homes in the United States. The emperor penguin is playful, and often times lies on its chest and side to slide along the ice and snow. The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle, and it can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. The snapping shrimp, only 1 1/2 inches long, makes a noise with its one big claw, which sounds exactly like a firecracker. Starfish can have up to 16 arms! Flying fish actually glide on wind currents above the surface of the water, sometimes up to 20 feet above the surface. Sea snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world. Adult male giraffes bang their long necks together in a form of ritual fighting, during which no harm is done to either giraffe. The stonefish, which lives off the coast of Australia, is the most poisonous fish in the world. The black-necked cobra, which lives mostly in Africa, spits its venom into the eyes of its victim, to cause it blindness. When two lovebirds appear to be kissing, they are actually grooming each other with their bills to keep clean and neat. The honeybee has to travel an average of 43,000 miles to collect enough nectar to make a pound of honey! A bird called the bee eater in areas of Africa thinks that riding around on the backs of other animals is fun! The dipper bird builds nests behind waterfalls for protection. Vultures can soar for hours without one beat of their wings. Sea horses pull themselves around with their chins leading them. Sometimes birds show anger towards humans by taking out its feelings on other birds nearby, because they are too afraid to attack humans. Foxes sometimes nip at the heels of cattle so the stomping of the cattle makes mice and other rodents come out of the ground, for the fox to eat. The guanaco of South America, a cousin of the camel, has pads on its feet to keep its feet from burning on desert sand or freezing in mountain snow. The fiddler crab can grow a new claw when it loses one of its own. Blue jays often forget where they hide winter supplies of food. The largest bird egg ever laid was laid millions of years ago by the Madagascar, or the elephant bird. Scallops swim with jet-propelled speed by clapping its shell open and shut. Some ducks and geese can fly as much as 332 miles a day! The lung fish can live out of water for as long as four years! The Egyptian vulture uses stones to smash ostrich eggs. Birds save energy by flying in a "V" formation. Theodore Roosevelt was the U.S. President with the most pets, including a lion, hyena, wildcat, five bears, and many more! Killer Whales are the only sea animal that outranks the Tiger Shark as top predator of the sea. Salamanders breath through their skin. People used to think the Manatee was a mermaid. Some fish have eyes that are the same size as their stomach! A female seahorse lets her husband store her babies inside his stomach! Out of every 1,000 Mosquitos, one female carries a disease that could be fatal to humans. There are as many hairs per square inch on your body as a chimpanzee.You don't see all of them because most are too fine and light to be noticed. The bee frog of Africa is no bigger than a bee. An okapi's tongue can grow to be 17 inches long. Cows have four-chambered stomachs. Fish have gel-slime on their bodies that protects them from parasites. An owl's eyes are bigger than its brain. The faster kangaroos hop, the less energy they use. The flying fox of Africa has a wingspan of fifty inches! Giraffes have black tongues. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it. Some frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed, and continue living. Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water. A duck's quack has no echo. Cats can make over 100 vocal sounds, while dogs can only make 10. Texas horned toads can shoot blood out of the corners of their eyes. Starfish have eight eyes--one at the end of each leg. Honeybees have hair on their eyes. The only bird that can fly backwards is the Hummingbird. Female lions do 90% of the hunting. Alligators cannot move backwards. A duck has three eyelids. A starfish doesn't have a brain. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. The average housefly lives for one month. There is only one insect that can turn its head -- the praying mantis. The Arctic tern flies an average of 22,000 miles a year! A slug has four noses. A hummingbird weighs less than a penny! Camels have three sets of eyelids. The flying fox is a bat with a wing span over five feet. On ostrich's egg weighs 3 1/2 pounds. A giant squid's eyes are bigger than dinner plates. Some male spiders pluck their cobwebs like a guitar, to attract female spiders. Dogs sweat only through their tongues. A kangaroo can jump 45 feet! A rabbit's teeth never stop growing. A mosquito flaps its wings 500 times a second. You can lead a cow up a stairwell but not down a stairwell. Only male crickets can chirp. Dogs can't see colors. They're color blind. Squirrels can't remember where they hide half of their nuts. The stegosaurus had a brain the size of a walnut! Bats always turn left when they leave their caves. Octopuses have 3 hearts. A giraffe's tongue can measure 21 inches. There are almost 60 million dogs in the United States. Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day! Some wild tigers can eat up to 40 pounds of meat at a time, and not eat again for several days. About 80% of the Earth’s animals are insects! The first animal sent up to outer space was a dog. The blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived (it could reach 100 feet long and weight up to 150 tons!) The chameleon has a tongue that is 1.5 times the length of its body! The smallest frog is less than 3/8 of an inch in length. The smallest cat is the Singapuras and weighs only 4 pounds. The common garden worm has five pairs of hearts. Most hamsters blink one eye at a time. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. Cows have four stomachs. It costs an average of $5,000 to raise a dog to ten years old. Only one mammal can't jump -- the elephant. Dragonflies can fly up to 50 miles per hour. A goldfish can live up to 40 years. A peregrine falcon can reach speeds up to 200 miles per hour. A skunk can spray its stench twelve feet away. The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon. It can fly at a speed of 168-217 miles per hour. Hans Langseth had the longest beard at a record length of 17 1/2 feet long! When he died, his beard was given to the Smithsonian Institute.

The deadliest disease was the pneumonic form of the Black Death of 1347-1351. It had death rate of 100%. The largest egg laid by a living bird is that of the North African Ostrich. It is 6 to 8 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in diameter. The smallest is that of the hummingbird. It is less than 0.39 inches in diameter. The hottest continent on earth is Africa, where a record high of 136.4 degrees F was once recorded Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth, where a temperature of 126.9 degrees F below zero was once recorded. Chicago is home to three of the five tallest buildings in the world — the Sears Tower, Standard Oil Building, and John Hancock Center. The hottest place on earth is in Dallol, Ethiopia, which is a sizzling 94 degrees in the shade on a typical day! Angel Falls in Venezuela is 20 times taller than Niagara Falls. The blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived (it could reach 100 feet long and weight up to 150 tons!) Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game in 1962, when he played for the Philadelphia Warriors. The longest bout of hiccups lasted 69 years! The longest conga to this date included 119,986 people. The smallest cat is the Singapuras and weighs only 4 pounds. The biggest canyons in the world are under water. Beneath the Bering Sea off Alaska there are seven giant canyons: Bering Canyon, 240 miles long; Navarin Canyon, 60 miles wide; Zhemchung Canyon, 9000 feet deep. In comparison, the Grand Canyon in Arizona is only 10 miles wide, one mile deep and 250 miles long. The Sahara, one of the world’s largest and driest deserts with sand up to thirty feet deep was once a land with flowing rivers, humid swamps and lush fields. Cave painting, 9,000 years old, found in the heart of the Sahara, show men herding cattle and hunting lions and hippos. About 2,000 years ago the cave painters, herders and animals left because the area that was rapidly becoming the desert we know today. Seeds from a wild flower, the Artic Lupine, found in Alaska, have grown in the lab after being frozen in the ground for 10,000 years. The bristle-cone pine, which grows in the deserts of Nevada and California, is the oldest living species in the United States. Some are believed to be 4600 years old and can live to be 5500 years old. Monster waves of over 100 feet tall can suddenly appear at sea when there is no storm to cause them. They are actually accidental meetings of several waves that can combine to form one huge one that can easily sink a freighter. When scientist drilled through the ice of Antarctica’s Lake Vanda, they discovered that the water at the bottom of the lake was an amazingly warm 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice crystals actually heat the water by focusing on the bottom of the lake. The 6,288-foot summit of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington has some of the worst weather in the world. The strongest wind measured was 231 miles per hour. The official low is 47 below zero Fahrenheit, but the cold often combines with the wind to produce wind-chills of 150 degrees below zero. The ground is permanently frozen in a layer from 20 to 100 feet below the surface. Since 1851, over 100 people have died of falls or exposure on the mountain. 8,200 below the surface of the ocean a ridge of volcanoes stretch around the globe. Vents in the ridge spew mineral rich water at temperatures of 700 degrees Fahrenheit or more. In the hot waters, bacteria live feeding on the minerals. Tubeworms grow to six feet long and foot long clams grow 500 times faster than their relatives living near the surface. On February 20, 1943 in a cornfield near the village of Paricutin, Mexico, the ground cracked open and began to spew red-hot rocks. A volcano was born. It grew to 35 feet the first day. By 1952, it had soared to 1,352 feet and had buried two towns. A two-mile thick dome of glacial ice covers most of Greenland. The weight of the ice is so great that if it suddenly melted the bedrock of the island would rise 2500 feet! Iceland is a 39, 000 square mile island that is built of lava from volcanoes. Major eruptions occur every 6 or 7 years. Almost 1/3 of the world’s lava output since 1500 has poured out onto Iceland. There are giant waterfalls under the ocean! The largest is between Greenland and Iceland. This submarine waterfall drops 11,500 feet – three times the height of any land waterfall. The loudest sound in history was recorded in July 1883 when a volcano on the tiny Indian Ocean island of Krakatau erupted. The explosion was heard 3,000 miles away in Madagascar. Ash clouds shot 25 miles into the sky. The eruption also created giant tsunami, sea waves, that reached heights of 175 feet, speeding across the ocean at 400 miles an hour and destroyed over 300 towns. Ball lightning can sometimes float through a glass window without breaking it; other times the glass is smashed to pieces! Have you ever heard the expression, "knock your socks off"? If you are struck by lightning, your socks and shoes may be knocked off. Rapid evaporation and expansion of sweat on your skin blows your clothes off. You may not be hurt if the current does not enter your body. The place with the most number of rainy days per year is Mount Wai‘ale’ale on Kauai, Hawaii – up to 350 days. The longest time that a place remained without rain was Arica, Chile – from October, 1903 to January, 1918 – 14 years! The more salt you put on ice, the more the ice melts. The hottest continent on earth is Africa, where a record high of 136.4 degrees F was once recorded. Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth, where a temperature of 126.9 degrees F below zero was once recorded. It gets as cold as minus 160 degrees F. ten miles above the ground on earth! Raindrops aren’t really shaped like drops; they are perfectly round! Antarctica gets less precipitation than any other continent on earth. The Atacama Desert in Chile is the driest place on earth, where it has an average of three-hundredths of an inch of rain per year. The greatest snowfall recorded in a day was 75.8 inches at Silver Lake, Colorado on April 14-15, 1921. I wonder how long schools were closed? Hold on to your hat! The fastest wind speed ever recorded was 231 miles per hour on Mount Washington, New Hampshire on April 12, 1934. The hottest place on earth is in Dallol, Ethiopia, which is a sizzling 94 degrees in the shade on a typical day! A lightning bolt is 4 times hotter than the sun. Once in England, because of a water spout, it rained frogs! Roy Sullivan, A U.S. park ranger, was struck by lightning seven times during his life and lived to tell about each of those strikes! Lightning strikes 1,000 times per second on the planet earth. Windmills always turn counter-clockwise, unless they're in Ireland. Cows sometimes sit down in a field when they know it’s going to rain. (that way, they are saving a dry spot to sit for themselves). How long can you tread water? The greatest rainfall recorded in a day was 73.62 inches at Reunion in the Indian Ocean on March 15, 1952. One inch of rain is equal to 10 inches of snow. The lonThe Hindus of India once believed that the Earth was a huge bowl (to keep the oceans from falling off) held up by giant elephants standing on long pillars. No one back then ever thought to ask what the pillars were standing on! If someone tells you you smell like flowers, it may not be a compliment if they are refering to the rafflesia flower. This flower smells like rotten meat! It is said that when England is in danger a drum owned by Francis Drake rolls by itself. titled "The Cure for Insomnia." Night butterflies have ears on their wings so they can avoid bats. Monarch caterpillars shed their skin four times before they become a chrysalis, growing over 2700 times their original size. There may be as many as 3,000 different kinds of insects -- more than all the other animal and plant species combined. Of the huge numbers of insects, only a tiny amount, one percent, are harmful to humans. Most insects are harmless or actually beneficial. For example, without bees to pollinate flowers, plants would not have a way of reproducing and we wouldn't have anything to eat! Locusts can eat their own weight in food in a day. A person eats his own body weight in about half a year. The earliest fossil cockroach is about 280 million years old – 80 million years older than the first dinosaurs! The desert locust is the world's most destructive insect. It can eat it's own weight in food every day. Large swarms can gobble up to 20,000 tons of grain and plants in a day. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. The Thanksgiving Feast that the Pilgrims had with the Natives in 1621 lasted three days. It is not a sure thing that turkey was part of the Thanksgiving Feast, but venison was definitely part of the meal. All 13 colonies celebrated Thanksgiving together for the first time in 1777. In 1941, Thanksgiving was declared by Congress to be a legal holiday, held on the fourth Thursday in November. Halloween takes place on October 31st, the day before All Saints Day. It is believed the Druids lit fires on Halloween (just like how we light candles inside pumpkins) to ward off evil spirits. The Romans also celebrated Halloween at their Harvest Festival on November 1st. The tradition of bobbing for apples and lighting candles inside pumpkins came from the Romans. In 1995, 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate were sold for Valentine's Day. The world record for the most people kissed is held by Alfred Wolfram of Minnesota who kissed 11,030 people in 8 hours, at a festival in 1998. Wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of your left hand because people used to believe that the vein in this finger goes directly to your heart. Some people believe that birds choose their mates on the 14th of February each year. Seeing a goldfinch meant you would marry a millionaire. Seeing a sparrow meant you would marry a poor man but you would be very happy. Almost two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by water. If the earth were flat, water would cover everything in a layer two miles deep! During a solar eclipse, the shadows of leaves make the same crescent shape of the eclipsing sun. The image is made by light passing through tiny holes in the leaves. Monks in the 16th century recorded seeing a giant explosion on the side of the Moon. It most likely was a large meteor that slammed into the Moon and left a large crater. It was a good thing the Moon was between us and the meteor Is Pluto the ninth planet or the eighth from the sun? The answer is both. For most of its 248 year orbit around the sun it is the ninth planet. But for 20 years of its long orbit, Pluto is actually closer than Neptune. From 1979 to early 1999, Pluto moved inside the orbit of Neptune and became the eighth planet! See the rings of Saturn while you can. They slowly wobble up and down over the years as Saturn’s poles point away from then towards the sun. The rings disappear when edge on to our line of sight. Currently they are almost at their widest point and can be seen even in binoculars and small telescopes. A star has been found moving closer to the sun. In a million years a star named Gliese 710 will have moved to within 6/10ths of a light year from the sun. This is more than six times closer than today’s nearest star, Alpha Centauri, which is over 4 light years away. Stars viewed through even the largest telescopes look like tiny points of light. But astronomers, using the Hubble Space Telescope to photograph a star called Betelgeuse (pronounced "beetle jooze"), have now been able to see the surface of another star. Betelgeuse is a red, giant star located at the left shoulder of the constellation Orion and is the largest known star in our galaxy. Not all stars are found inside galaxies. Astronomers have found stars moving between the galaxies, which are millions of light years apart. These stars may even have planets, possibly with intelligent life on them. If they do, these beings would see a lonely sky with just one star (its own sun) and a few faint galaxies. Tired of the cold weather? Take a vacation on the hottest planet in the solar system - Venus. At over 800°, it is hotter than Mercury because the clouds and abundant carbon dioxide hold in most of the heat received from the sun. Ever notice on a map how the South American and African coasts, along the Atlantic, fit together like two pieces of a giant puzzle? That is because at one time, millions of years ago, they were one continent. Magma from deep in the Earth broke through thin places between these continents and pushed them apart. They are still slowly moving apart and the Atlantic ocean is growing wider. The lead in pencils, really graphite, is made of the exact same thing as diamonds. Both are pure carbon which just formed under different pressures and temperatures. Intense heat and pressure form the carbon atoms into crystals making diamond, while lesser heat and pressure form the carbon into sheets making graphite. Geologists have discovered there seems to be more water miles deep between the rocks of Earth’s mantle than in all the oceans of the world. The intense pressure of the tons of rocks above keeps the hot water from turning to steam and escaping.

An area of the Sun's surface the size of a postage stamp shines with the power of 1,500,000 candles. No wonder it's so bright and hot! There is, reportedly, no way to tell a moth from a butterfly. Though there are differences of physiology and habit between them, it is almost impossible to isolate a single differentiating characteristic that applies uniformly to both species. So no need to be afraid of moths! Myrtle Beach, South Carolina has the most mini-golf courses per area in the U.S. At last count, there were 47 in a 60 mile radius. I bet I could play them all in one day. Bird droppings are a chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the Western Pacific. Imagine, PAYING for brid-doo! At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life," an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog. No wonder I always found myself barking after that song. In 1984 the state of New York became the last of the United States to put photographs on drivers' licenses. That likely is the last thing New York will ever be behind on. There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants, and there's one pub in Dublin for ever 100 Irishmen. Now, lets combine the cities... :) Comets speed up as they approach the Sun – sometimes reaching speeds of over a million miles per hour. Far away from the Sun, speeds drop, perhaps down to as little as 700 miles per hour. That's one heck of a speeding ticket! The Brodway version of Disney "The Lion King" uses more than 232 puppets, including rod puppets, shadow puppets, and full-sized puppets. There are 25 kinds of animals, insects, birds and fish represented in the show and more than 750 pounds of silicone rubber were used to make molds for the masks in The Lion King. If you haven't seen it, do. The Tarantula nebula is thought to contain a huge star of over 1,000 times the mass of the Sun, ten times more massive than any star in the Milky Way. Can you imagine what that will look like when it implodes! The profile of the average computer virus writer is age 14-24, talented, bright, and driven by a rebellious, adolescent need to call attention to himself. Ever seen the movie "Hackers"? The world's rarest coffee comes from Indonesia. At approximately $300 U.S. dollars per pound, Kopi Luwak is the end product of a cat-like marsupial, called the Paradoxurus, that loves eating coffee berries. The enzymes in the animal's stomach add a unique flavor during the fermentation process. That sounds a little gross, to me! In olden times in America, an outhouse could be built as far as 150 feet away from the house. I hope you can hold it while trying to navigate your way through the trees in the middle of the night! According to scientists, gold exists on Mars, Mercury, and Venus. One day, when mankind reaches there, maybe we'll all be rich. Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, had six fingers on one hand. She wore special gloves all her life to hide her deformity. SOME say that's the sign of a witch! Ludwig Van Beethoven was completely deaf when he composed the Ninth Symphony. He used to jugde the tone of his music by resting his ear on the piano to feel the vibrations. What a talented man. When a snail hatches from an egg, it is a miniature adult, shell and all. The shell grows with the snail, and the snail never leaves the shell. Animals are amazing creatures. The administrative code of New York City still requires that hitching posts be located in front of City Hall. At least you'll know where to park your horse the next time you go there! In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts. In old England, when customers became unruly, the bartender would yell at them to mind their own "pints and quarts" and settle down. From that, we got the abbreviated phrase "mind your P's and Q's.". Though some people think it stands for 'Please' and 'thanKYOU'. Plants in the mint family have been used for centuries by people as anti-spasmodics. Current studies suggest that ingesting peppermint oil (available in capsule form) helps relieve internal gas and bloating. Not to mention it freshens breath! I've found that fresh parsley also works! Talk about OCD! Famous Entrepreneur Cornelius Vanderbilt was an insomniac. He was not able to fall asleep unless each leg of his bed was planted in a dished filled with salt. He felt this kept out the evil spirits. The Mongol conqueror Timur the Lame (1336-1405), played polo with the skulls of those he had killed in battle. Timur left record of his victories by erecting 30-foot-high pyramids made of the severed heads of his victims. And they said Vlad Dracul was the scariest ruler! The Caesar salad is not named after Julius Caesar. It is named for its creator, Caesar Cardini, who first prepared the salad in his Caesar's Palace Restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. Makes me hungry!! During the early 1920s, at the height of the inflation in the German Weimar Republic, one American Dollar was equal to 4 trillion German marks. Today - if the German Mark still existed, a dollar is worth 1.60 Marks On August 18, 1982, the longest baseball game played at Chicago's Wrigley Field went 22 innings before the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Cubs, 2-1. The game had started the previous day and had been postponed after 17 innings because of darkness. I'll bet that was worth the ticket price! *snore* If Earth were the size of a quarter, the sun would be as large as a 9-foot ball and would be located a football field's distance from earth. Cool!!! About 43 million years ago, the Pacific plate took a northwest turn, creating a bend where new upheavals initiated the Hawaiian Ridge. Major islands formed included Kauai, 5.1 million years old, Maui, 1.3 million years old, and Hawaii, a youngster at only 800,000 years old. Sorta makes you wonder how much longer they'll last! In ancient China, the crimes for abduction, armed robbery, treason, and adultery were punished by castration. This time, I'm GLAD times have changed! A cosmic year is the amount of time it takes the sun to revolve around the center of the Milky Way, about 225 million years. I wonder what year it is in Cosmic-land now? When female wasps return to the colony after foraging, they may initiate aggressive encounters with males and stuff them head first into empty nest cells. Cornell University researchers who observed the behavior call it "male-stuffing," and believe it contributes to the colony's fitness by making more food available to larvae. That's funny on so many levels. :) There are about 2,500 different species of horsefly in the world. Thank goodness the summer is over. I think horse-flies are the worst ever common biting summer insect. There are locusts that have an adult life span of only a few weeks or so, after having lived in the ground as grubs for fifteen years. Oh, how I'd love to live the majority of my life as a care-free kid! :) Chocolate was once considered a temptation of the devil. In Central American mountain villages during the 18th century, no one under the age of 60 was permitted to drink it, and churchgoers who defied the rule were threatened with excommunication. Thankfully, times have changed. :)

Dec 23 to Jan 01 - Apple Tree Jan 01 to Jan 11 - Fir Tree Jan 12 to Jan 24 - Elm Tree Jan 25 to Feb 03 - Cypress Tree Feb 04 to Feb 08 - Poplar Tree Feb 09 to Feb 18 - Cedar Tree Feb 19 to Feb 28 - Pine Tree Mar 01 to Mar 10 - Weeping Willow Tree Mar 11 to Mar 20 - Lime Tree Mar 21 (only) -Oak Tree Mar 22 to Mar 31 - Hazelnut Tree Apr 01 to Apr 10 - Rowan Tree Apr 11 to Apr 20 - Maple Tree Apr 21 to Apr 30 - Walnut Tree May 01 to May 14 - Poplar Tree May 15 to May 24 - Chestnut Tree May 25 to Jun 03 - Ash Tree Jun 04 to Jun 13 - Hornbeam Tree Jun 14 to Jun 23 - Fig Tree Jun 24 (only) - Birch Tree Jun 25 to Jul 04 - Apple Tree Jul 05 to Jul 14 - Fir Tree Jul 15 to Jul 25 -Elm Tree Jul 26 to Aug 04 - Cypress Tree Aug 05 to Aug 13 - Poplar Tree Aug 14 to Aug 23 - Cedar Tree Aug 24 to Sep 02 - Pine Tree Sep 03 to Sep 12 - Weeping Willow Tree Sep 13 to Sep 22 - Lime Tree Sep 23 (only) - Olive Tree Sep 24 to Oct 03 - Hazelnut Tree Oct 04 to Oct 13 - Rowan Tree Oct 14 to Oct 23 - Maple Tree Oct 24 to Nov 11 - Walnut Tree Nov 12 to Nov 21 - Chestnut Tree Nov 22 to Dec 01 - Ash Tree Dec 02 to Dec 11 - Hornbeam Tree Dec 12 to Dec 21 - Fig Tree Dec 22 (only) - Beech Tree

YOUR TREE (in alphabetical order) Apple Tree (Love) -- quiet and shy at times, lots of charm, appeal, and attraction, pleasant attitude, flirtatious smile, adventurous, sensitive, loyal in love, wants to love and be loved, faithful and tender partner, very generous, many talents, loves children, needs affectionate partner.

Ash Tree (Ambition) -- extremely attractive, vivacious, impulsive, demanding, does not care for criticism, ambitious, intelligent,talented,likes to play with fate, can be very egotistic, reliable, restless lover, sometimes money rules over the heart, demands attention, needs love and much emotional support.

Beech Tree (Creative) -- has good taste, concerned about its looks, materialistic, good organization of life and career, economical, good leader, takes no unnecessary risks, reasonable, splendid lifetime companion, keen on keeping fit (diets, sports, etc.).

Birch Tree (Inspiration) -- vivacious, attractive, elegant, friendly,unpretentious, modest, does not like anything in excess, abhors the vulgar,loves life in nature and in calm, not very passionate, full of imagination, little ambition, creates a calm and content atmosphere.

Cedar Tree (Confidence) -- of rare strength, knows how to adapt, likes unexpected presents, of good health, not in the least shy, tends to look down on others, self-confident, a great speaker, determined, often impatient, likes to impress others, has many talents, industrious, healthy optimism, waits for the one true love, able to make quick decisions.

Chestnut Tree (Honesty) -- of unusual stature, impressive, well-developed sense of justice, fun to be around, a planner, born diplomat, can be irritated easily, sensitive of others feelings, hard worker, sometimes acts superior, feels not understood at times, fiercely family oriented, very loyal in love, physically fit.

Cypress Tree (Faithfulness) -- strong, muscular, adaptable, takes what life has to give but doesn't necessarily like it, strives to be content, optimistic, wants to be financially independent, wants love and affection, hates loneliness, passionate lover which cannot be satisfied, faithful, quick-tempered at tim es, can be unruly and careless, loves to gain knowledge, needs to be needed.

Elm Tree (Noble-mindedness) -- pleasant shape, tasteful clothes, modest demands, tends not to forgive mistakes, cheerful, likes to lead but not to obey, honest and faithful partner, likes making decisions for others, noble-minded, generous, good sense of humor, practical.

Fig Tree (Sensibility) -- very strong minded, a bit self-willed, honest, loyal, independent, hates contradiction or arguments, hard worker when wants to be, loves life and friends, enjoys children and animals, few sexual relationships, great sense of humor, has artistic talent and great intelligence.

Fir tree (Mysterious) -- extraordinary taste, handles stress well, loves anything beautiful, stubborn, tends to care for those close to them, hard to trust others, yet a social butterfly, likes idleness and laziness after long demanding hours at work, rather modest, talented, unselfish, many friends, very reliable.

Hazelnut Tree (Extraordinary) -- charming, sense of humor, very demanding but can also be very understanding, knows how to make a lasting impression, active fighter for social causes and politics, popular, quite moody, sexually oriented, honest, a perfectionist, has a precise sense of judgment and expects complete fairness.

Hornbeam Tree (Good Taste) -- of cool beauty, cares for its looks and condition, good taste, is not egoistic, makes life as comfortable as possible, leads a reasonable and disciplined life, looks for kindness and acknowledgment in an emotional partner, dreams of unusual lovers, is seldom happy with its feelings, mistrusts most people, is never sure of its decisions, very conscientious.

Lime Tree (Doubt) - intelligent, hard working, accepts what life dishes out, but not before trying to change bad circumstances into good ones, hates fighting and stress, enjoys getaway vacations, may appear tough, but is actually soft and relenting, always willing to make sacrifices for family and friends, has many talents but not always enough time to use them, can become a complainer, great leadership qualities, is jealous at times but extremely loyal.

Maple Tree (Independence of Mind) -- no ordinary person, full of imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self- confident, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, has many complexities, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

Oak Tree (Brave) -- robust nature, courageous, strong, unrelenting, independent, sensible, does not like change, keeps its feet on the ground, person of action.

Olive Tree (Wisdom) -- loves sun, warmth and kind feelings, reasonable, balanced, avoids aggression and violence, tolerant, cheerful, calm, well-developed sense of justice, sensitive, empathetic, free of jealousy, loves to read and the company of sophisticated people.

Pine Tree (Peacemaker) -- loves agreeable company, craves peace and harmony, loves to help others, active imagination, likes to write poetry, not fashion conscious, great compassion, friendly to all, falls strongly in love but will leave if betrayed or lied to, emotionally soft, low self esteem, needs affection and reassurance.

Poplar Tree (Uncertainty) -- looks very decorative, talented, not very self-confident, extremely courageous if necessary, needs goodwill and pleasant surroundings, very choosy, often lonely, great animosity, great artistic nature, good organizer, tends to lean toward philosophy, reliable in any situation, takes partnership seriously.

Rowan Tree (Sensitive) -- full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egotism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both de pendent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate,emotional, good company, forgives.

Walnut Tree (Passion) -- unrelenting, strange and full of contrasts, often egotistic, aggressive, noble, broad horizon, unexpected reactions, spontaneous, unlimited ambition, no flexibility, difficult and uncommon partner, not always liked but often admired, ingenious strategist, very jealous and passionate, no compromise.

Weeping Willow (Melancholy) - likes to be stress free, loves family life, full of hopes and dreams, attractive, very empathetic, loves anything beautiful, musically inclined, loves to travel to exotic places, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with when pressured, sometimes demanding, good intuition, suffers in love until they find that one loyal, steadfast partner; loves to make others laugh.

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891

1. Coca-Cola was once considered anti-Semitic for refusing to do business in Israel.

3. Coke was sold to servicemen during the first and second World war at cost price.

Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and Hydroxydesoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams.

The longest word that can be spelled by using only the left hand on a standard keyboard is stewardesses.

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled with out repeating a letter is 'uncopyrightable'.

The name for OZ in the wizard of oz, was though up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z, hence "OZ".

The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its a wonderful life."

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Every two and a half years , there are two full moons in a month instead of the usual one full moon. The second full moon is called a blue moon.

If you toss a 5 cent piece 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.

Over 98 percent of Japanese are cremated after they die. if a man watches a woman undress in front of a window, he can be arrested as a peeping tom, if a woman watches a man undress in front of a window, she can have him arrested for indecent exposure. where's the fun in that? [That's America - land of the free, home of the no fault law suit.] Vikings used the skulls of their enemies as drinking vessels One acre of hemp will produce as much paper as four acres of trees (and can be replaced next season). A man sued his doctor because his doctor had said that he would already be dead from his cancer. Pound for pound, hamburgers cost more than new cars. The only nation whose name begins with an 'A', but doesn't end in an 'A' is Afghanistan. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. in the Gopalganji region of Bangladesh in 1988, 92 people died after being hit by huge hailstones weighing up to 1kg/2.2 lb hippopotamus can open its jaws in almost a straight line which is 180 degrees.

In nine months, a housefly could lay enough eggs to produce a layer of flies that would cover all of Germany. -a fully grown kangaroo can jump 14 yards Wounds infested with maggots heal quickly and without spread of gangrene or other infection. 1. The King of Hearts is the only playing card with a mustache. 2. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven times! 3. Typewriter is the only word that can be made using only the top row of the keyboard. 4. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word you can be made using only your left hand when typed. 5. A cubic mile of fog is made up of less than a gallon of water. 6. The electric chair was invented by a dentist! 7. The average life span of a major league baseball is 7 pitches! 8. Coconuts kill more people in the world then sharks do. Approximately 150 people are killed each year by coconuts. 9. Most burglaries in the U.S. occur in the winter. 10. 9% Of Americans report being in the presence of a ghost. 11. California has issued 6 drivers licenses to people named Jesus Christ. 12. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana. 13. Blue is the favorite color of 80% of Americans. 14. Money is made of woven linen, not paper. 15. A gun invented in Germany during W.W.II actually could shoot around a corner. 16. Happy Birthday To You is the most often sung song in America. 17. Aladdin's nationality was Chinese. 18. Pinocchio is Italian for pine head. 19. It is bad luck to say Macbeth in a theater. 20. Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.) 21. The youngest Pope was 11 years old. 22. A car is stolen every 30 seconds in the United States. 23. 50% of teenage boys say that they would rather be rich than smart. 24. 25% of U.S. 4th graders are pressured by friends or classmates to use drugs or alcohol. 25. 25% of Americans have Internet access. 26. 22,000 checks will be deducted from the wrong bank accounts in the next hour. 27. 13 people a year are killed by vending machines falling on them. 28. 1 out of 4 Americans does not know what their astrological sign is. 29. Buckingham Palace has over six hundred rooms. 30. The Chinese built a battery that lasted 400 years. 31. It took engineers 22 years to design the zipper. 32. Benjamin Franklin was the inventor of the rocking chair. 33. What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common? All were invented by women. - The average pencil will draw a continuous line for about 35 miles, or 45,000 words. - Bread crumbs were used as erasers until 1770, when the first rubber eraser was made. - Erasers were attached to the ends of pencils for the first time in 1858. - The human body contains enough fat to make seven bars of soap and enough iron to make a single one inch nail. Falcons have been estimated to reach speeds between 100 and 200 mph when swooping on their prey. The sentence, Madam, I'm Adam, is a palindrome.

The chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1933. The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; 7 was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. UP indicated the direction of the bubbles. The color of a chile is no indication of its spiciness, but size usually is - the smaller the pepper, the hotter it is. The dark meat on a roast turkey has more calories than the white meat. The English word soup comes from the Middle Ages word sop, which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The estimated number of M & M's sold each day in the United States is 200,000,000. The fat molecules in goat milk are 5 times smaller than those found in cow milk. The first Lifesaver flavour was peppermint. The first man to distill bourbon whiskey in the United States was a Baptist preacher-in 1789. The first U.S. consumer product sold in the old Soviet Union was Pepsi-Cola. The food of the Greek gods was called Ambrosia. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The heat of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale. The highest lifetime yield of milk for a single cow is 465,224 lbs. The hottest chile in the world is the habanero. The largest apple pie ever baked was 40 x 23 feet. The largest hamburger in the world weighed in at 5,520 pounds. The largest ketchup bottle is a 170 feet (52 m) tall water tower. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma in an emergency. The McDonalds at The Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, is the only one in the world that sells hot dogs. The most popular ice cream flavour is vanilla. The most popular sweet pepper in the United States is the bell pepper. The number 57 on a Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickle the company once had. The only real food U.S. astronauts are allowed in space are pecan nuts. The perfect pickle should have seven warts per square inch. Roots ran 32 issues this year! Looking forward to another great year next year! The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) sued 477 more downloaders on Wednesday, April 28. The largest portion of the targeted downloaders were college students, and the RIAA is praising colleges who are cracking down on file sharers who use college computer networks. (Editor’s Note: Let’s all go to Canada. The Supreme Court there acknowledged last week that file sharing alone does not infringe on copyrights of anyone.) Blender magazine has listed 1985’s “We Built this City” by Starship as the “Worst Song of All Time”. Other songs that hit their Top 50 Worst Songs list were “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” by Toby Keith, (No. 22), “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel (No. 41) and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” by the Beatles (No. 48). The battle for the Ten Commandments monument in front of the courthouse in Alabama that ended with the removal of the monument and former Chief Justice Roy Moore will end up costing Alabama taxpayers $550,000 in attorney’s fees and court costs, according to Alabama state officials. The Sun, a British tabloid, has been banned from all media events at which Prince Harry and Prince William are in attendance, after publishing an unauthorized photo of Prince William and a female friend on a skiing holiday. Clarence House felt that the photo was in breach of press agreements regarding the princes’ privacy, while the Sun backed up their actions, commenting, "One of William's girlfriends could become Queen one day. Her subjects will be entitled to know all about her." A small object on the outer reaches of our solar system has become the largest object discovered circling our sun since Pluto, and may be considered by some to be a tenth planet. It is currently named Sedna, after the Inuit goddess who created sea creatures of the Arctic. Its diameter is just over 1,700 kilometers. (Pluto’s diameter is just under 2,300 kilometers.) Serge Clapa, a pioneer in pagan webcrafting and talented spirit passed away at home in Red Deer on Thursday March 4, 2004. He was 54 years old and will be missed by the pagan community. The much-celebrated “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy brought it’s success full-circle during the Oscars by cleaning house - “Return of the King” netted all 11 awards it was nominated for. This is the first time in history that any fantasy movie has won any Oscars. 56 year old woman in Wichita, Kansas died from a heart attack during a the crucifixion scene in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” The somewhat uncouth stunt by Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake during the Superbowl halftime show is TiVo's most replayed moment of television ever. Despite outraged calls to CBS, TiVo has stated that the the display was the most replayed and paused moment ever recorded in TiVo's history. Stichomancy is one of the oldest forms of divination. The person seeking advice opens to a random page of randomly selected book in a library. The excerpt that catches the querent's eye applies to the situation at hand. Actual answering machine messages recorded and verified by the world-famous International Institute of Answering Machine Answers... • A is for academics, B is for beer. One of those reasons is why we're not here. So leave a message. • Hi! John's answering machine is broken. This is his refrigerator. Please speak very slowly, and I'll stick your message to myself with one of these magnets. The city of Corleone, Sicily, is considering a name change. Local officials want to help separate the city from the Mafia association it has earned through movie portrayals of Don Vito Corleone. One of the name change suggestions was to revert back to Cuor di Leone (Lion Heart), the ancient name of the city. Typing “qwertyuiop” into a Google search bar results in about 21,700 hits. These hits encompass not only sites about typing or writing (qwertyuiop is the top set of letters on a keyboard) but also sites for people who have chosen qwertyuiop as a screen name, chatrooms, and web pages in English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and other languages. Interestingly, qwertyuiop also has 17 Googlisms connected to it. http://www.googlism.com/who_is/q/qwertyuiop/ world’s biggest iceberg was split in two by stress from a storm in Antarctica. The original iceberg was the size of Jamaica and had been grounded off of the Ross Ice Shelf for the last three years. The two halves are still grounded but show a very defined split in radar imagery. The two pieces are slowly edging their way along the Ross Sea. There are 142 denominations listed in Yahoo’s Christianity -> Denominations and Sects category. Three more British stars have been confirmed as added to the Harry Potter cast for the next movie installment Prisoner of Azkaban, set for release in the summer of 2004: Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, David Thewlis as Professor Remus Lupin and Emma Thompson as Professor Sibyll Trelawney. These three will join the now-famous trio of Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley. The planet Jupiter currently has 58 known moons. However, don’t strain yourself trying to find them - most are so small they require powerful telescopes and precise observations to find. The average sky viewer can find the four Galilean moons (named after their discoverer, Galileo Galilei) with a small telescope or good binoculars - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The name "Cedric" was invented by Sir Walter Scott for the book Ivanhoe. It was based on the name "Cerdic", which has an unknown meaning, other than it was the name of the legendary founder of Wessex.

J.K. Rowling popularized this name once again in the last decade with the ill-fated character Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter books. The deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. since 1900 was a hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas in 1900. It was a category 4 hurricane and resulted in over 8,000 deaths. (Some estimates place this number as high as 10,000 to 12,000.) There are 5,280 feet in a mile, 0.621371192 miles in a kilometer, and 12,756 kilometers in the diameter of the Earth. There are 74 species of plant life on Wisconsin’s Endangered Species list. Among these are the Prairie Bush Clover, Fassett’s Locoweed, and the Prairie White-fringed Orchid which are also on the Federal Endangered Species List.

An additional 65 plants are on Wisconsin’s Threatened Species list, including the Dune Thistle, Northern Monkshood, and the Dwarf Lake Iris - all on the Federal Threatened Species List. Aconite is a plant that has been used off and on throughout the centuries for medicinal and magical purposes. However, it is highly toxic and only experts should handle it. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo. Ants have the characteristic of farming other (larger) bugs. Ex: Grubs. Much like humans and cows. Whether an alligator is a male or female is determined by the temperature of the nest where the egg is hatched – 90 to 93 degrees will make it a male; 82 to 86 degrees will turn it into a female. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. Baboons and Chimps dig for clean water when the surface water is polluted. Chimps even use sticks for digging tools. The mandrill baboon has a red nose, blue cheeks, and an orange beard! Baboons in Kenya's Serengeti game reserve are so well looked after that they are suffering from psychological stress, said US scientists. The baboons rarely need to forage for food, and have few predators, leaving them with plenty of time on their hands in which to “worry about issues such as relationships, the group hierarchy and whether other baboons like them.” Bats always leave a cave to the left.

An adult grizzly Bear can decapitate a moose with one swipe of its paw. When it charges it can cover 100 yards in six seconds - faster than a racehorse. The fingerprints of koala Bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. Polar Bear livers contain an extraordinarily high amount of Vitamin A and if eaten could kill you. Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes! Bees kill more people a year than sharks do. The honeybee has to travel an average of 43,000 miles to collect enough nectar to make a pound of honey! Sometimes birds show anger towards humans by taking out its feelings on other birds nearby, because they are too afraid to attack humans. If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow. There are about 100 billion birds in the world, and about 6 billion of them make their homes in the United States. A bird called the bee eater in areas of Africa thinks that riding around on the backs of other animals is fun! The dipper bird builds nests behind waterfalls for protection. The largest bird egg ever laid was laid millions of years ago by the Madagascar, or the elephant bird. When two lovebirds appear to be kissing, they are actually grooming each other with their bills to keep clean and neat. The blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as grapejuice! Blue jays often forget where they hide winter supplies of food. Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow!

Pacific Grove, California- It causes a misdemeanor if you kill or threaten a butterfly The guanaco of South America, a cousin of the camel, has pads on its feet to keep its feet from burning on desert sand or freezing in mountain snow. Arizona- It is illegal to hunt camels.

If a black cat walks towards you, it brings good fortune, but if it walks away, it takes the good luck with it. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. Egypt- A man named Bahgat Mostafa Said died in his apartment with no cause. 18 cats (that were not his) came and surrounded his body. A week later, after a bad smell had disturbed neighbors, police investigated the apartment. They found the body and tried to move it, but the cats attacked. It took two hours to remove the cats and move the body.

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. A cat onboard a ship is considered to bring luck. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs have about 10. (over achievers) You may have heard someone say, "It’s raining cats and dogs." There have been actual documented cases from all over the world of fish, frogs, dead birds, snakes, snails, beetles, worms and jellyfish raining down from the sky in great numbers, but no reports of showers of cats or dogs. Ventura County, California- Cats or dogs can't have sex without a permit. Cats can hear in ultrasound Cat's urine glows under a blacklight. The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head. Hook-tip moth caterpillars defend their territories by drumming out warning. A blind chameleon can still change colors to match its environment. Ptarmigans help their chicks go out into the world by teaching them which plants are more nutritious. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. There are more chickens than people in the world.

Chimps live in groups that each have their own culture. Chimpanzees use tools more than any other animal except man. The black-necked cobra, which lives mostly in Africa, spits its venom into the eyes of its victim, to cause it blindness. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head . . . it dies from starvation. You have enough micro-organisms in your mouth to equal a cockroach. Cockroaches can find their way in a dark room by dragging one antenna against the wall. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A cow produces 200 times more gas than a human (per day). A good milking cow will give nearly 6,000 quarts of milk every year. Cows produce more milk while listening to music. Cows can sleep standing up. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs but impossible to lead them down. The fiddler crab can grow a new claw when it loses one of its own. A cricket in the house brings good luck. Crocodile eggs which are incubated below 85º F (29.5º C) hatch into females, while those incubated above 95º F (35º C) hatch into males. If only it were that easy for humans!

Crows and primates have figured out to use a sharp stick to catch insects in hard-to-reach places.

Deer urine can turn blue when they become dehydrated in the winter. Dinosaurs probably lived to be between 75 to 300 years of age. Scientists figured this out from looking at the structure of their bones. Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion worth of pet food a year!

Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?! Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog. Did you know that a Collie dog cannot be trained to seriously attack a human? Police use the breed as messengers and for sentry work. Consider a different breed if you're looking for a serious guard dog!

Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints! There are over 58 million dogs in the U.S!

Dolphins do not breath automatically, as humans do, and so they do not sleep as humans do. If they become unconscious, they would sink to the bottom of the sea. Without the oxygen they need to take in periodically, they would die. Italy- A dolphin helped a drowning 14-year old boy. The dolphin pushed the boy to the nearest boat and swam away. Now the dolphin is known as Flippo. Dolphins sleep with one eye open! A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't. A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours. Some ducks and geese can fly as much as 332 miles a day! A duck's quack doesn't echo anywhere, and no one knows why. An electric eel can produce a shock of 600 volts. That’s enough to stun large animals – even knock a horse off its feet. An African adult elephant eats about six hundred pounds of food a day; that’s four percent of the elephant’s body weight! Elephants can't jump. Murphy's Oil Soap is the chemical most commonly used to clean elephants. Elephants purr like cats do, as a means of communication. Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephants in the Berlin Zoo. Finches practice songs in their sleep. Fish swimming at depths of 15,000 feet (almost 3 miles down!) can withstand a pressure of 7,000 pounds per square inch. They are able to live in these crushing depths by pumping gas into their swim bladder. Norfolk, England- On August 8, 2000 five inches of fish fell from the sky. The fish were indentified as Sprats, and their reason for falling is unknown. A similar event happened in Ethiopia. Flying fish actually glide on wind currents above the surface of the water, sometimes up to 20 feet above the surface. A gold fish’s attention span is 3 sec. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. The lung fish can live out of water for as long as four years! Most lipstick contains fish scales.

One way to tell the age of a fish is by looking at its scales. They have growth rings just like trees. These are called circuli. Clusters of them are called annuli. Each annuli show one year. Starfish can have up to 16 arms! Starfish have no brains. The starfish is the only animal that can turn its stomach inside out. The stonefish, which lives off the coast of Australia, is the most poisonous fish in the world. The ocean sunfish can lay 5,000,000 eggs at one time.

The smallest fish in the world are the pygmy goby and the Luzon goby, from the Philippines, which are only one-half-inch long when they are full grown. Flamingos can only eat with their heads upside down. There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones!

A flea is capable of jumping 13 inches in a single leap. In human terms, this would be equivalent to a person leaping 700 feet in one bound. After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again! The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. Foxes sometimes nip at the heels of cattle so the stomping of the cattle makes mice and other rodents come out of the ground, for the fox to eat. A group of frogs is called an army. Some frogs can pull their eyes into their throat and help push food down! Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living. The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people! Frogs can't swallow with their eyes open. It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. A group of geese is called a gaggle. Adult male giraffes bang their long necks together in a form of ritual fighting, during which no harm is done to either giraffe. Atlanta, Georgia- is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp. A giraffe can lick its ears with its long tongue. Giraffe's do not have vocal cords Goat's eyes have rectangular pupils The milk of a hippopotamus is bright pink. Dartboards are made out of horsehairs.

Horses can sleep standing up Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms Hummingbirds flap their wings between 50 and 70 times a second! The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

Jellyfish do not have brains. The most venomous creature is the box Jellyfish, which lives off the coast of Australia. Its venom can kill an adult human in 45 seconds. A jellyfish is 95% water Kangaroos are lactose-intolerant. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of larks is called an exaltation The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.

Monkeys fling feces at each other when agitated. The squirrel Monkey's brain accounts for roughly 5 percent of its body weight - the largest percentage of any other animal. The human brain, by comparison, makes up about 2.3 percent of body weight. Alaska- It is illegal to look at a moose from a flying vehicle. Mosquitoes are attratced to people who have just eaten bananas. Mosquitoes are most attracted to the colour blue. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.

The pupil of an octopus' eye is rectangular. A group of officers is called a mess. An ostrich chick is the size of a rabbit when it hatches. By the time it is a year old, it will stand approximately seven feet tall. The largest egg laid by a living bird is that of the North African Ostrich. It is 6 to 8 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in diameter. The smallest is that of the hummingbird. It is less than 0.39 inches in diameter. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. An ostrich does not stick its head in a hole to hide. A group of owls is called a parliament.

Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue! In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.

Panda's poo 48 times a day. The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon. It can fly at a speed of 168-217 miles per hour. The emperor penguin is playful, and often times lies on its chest and side to slide along the ice and snow. Penguins can jump 6 feet high. There are no penguins at the North Pole. In fact, there are no penguins anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (outside of zoos). All 17 varieties of the bird are found below the equator, primarily in the Antarctica. A pig can grow to weigh a ton. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. Did you know porpoises could surf? They are frequently seen riding the bow wave of a ship. They make no swimming motions and can ride the wake for more than an hour. They can also turn on their side or flip completely around. Surf’s up porpe! When possums are playing, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror Primates have learned to make juice from apples. A scared rabbit can jump 15-20 feet in one bound. New York State- It is illegal to shoot a rabbit from a trolley car. Research is found to cause cancer in rats! Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. Palmero, Sicily- Roof jumping rats are common in these parts. But if you plan to travel here soon, bring an umbrella. The rats are getting too fat to jump, and land on the streets below.

A group of ravens is called a murder. Ravens can learn to open a box to get a treat, and then teach others to do the same. Reindeer like to eat bananas. A group of rhinos is called a crash Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day! Salamanders are known to come out of wood when it was burning inside a fireplace; this is because Salamanders hibernate in wood. Scallops swim with jet-propelled speed by clapping its shell open and shut. If you ever find yourself too close to a scorpion, simply grab a bottle of whiskey. If you place just a small amount of liquor on it, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. The sea cucumber, a purplish-brown creature covered with warts, has a unique defense strategy. When attacked, it throws out sticky threads from its mouth, which entangles its enemy. The sea cucumber can then quickly escape. A sea-hare can lay 40,000 eggs in ONE MINUTE. Sea horses pull themselves around with their chins leading them. The northern fur seal, rather than using a layer of fat to keep it warm, depends on its thick fur with some 300,000 hairs per square inch. A weddell seal can hold its breath for 7 hours. While they are still in the womb, some shark fetuses fight with their siblings and may even kill them. Sharks can sense a drop of blood in 25 gallons of water Shark's teeth are literally as hard as steel. A shrimp's heart is in their head The snapping shrimp, only 1 1/2 inches long, makes a noise with its one big claw, which sounds exactly like a firecracker. Shrimp can only swim backwards. Minnesota- It is illegal to mock skunks Skunks can shoot their bad-smelling spray only about two yards, but you can smell it up to two and a half miles away. The only time a sloth will come down from its tree is to poo. Slugs have 4 noses! When a snail hatches from an egg, it is a miniature adult, shell and all. The shell grows with the snail, and the snail never leaves the shell. Did you know that the average snail moves at a rate of approximately 0.000362005 miles per hour? That sure is slow! Sea snakes are the most poisonous snakes in the world. There are over 36,000 kinds of spiders in the world.

Spiders have transparent blood. Spiders eat other spiders. The Mexican fishing Spider will attach itself to a small leaf and float across a pond as if on a raft. From this vantage point, it hunts its prey of large tadpoles and small fish. It would take 27,000 average-size spiderwebs to produce a single pound of spider silk. The giant Squid has the largest eyes in the world. Squids can commit suicide by eating their own tentacles. Scientists believe that the Arctic ground Squirrel is the only mammal that can tolerate the formation of ice crystals in its bloodstream. It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them! In England all Swans and Sturgeons belong to the Queen The world's termites outweigh the world's humans 10 to 1. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. Animals with some of the longest lives are the Marion’s tortoise (152 years), the fin whale (116 years) and the deep-sea clam (100 years). The leatherback is the biggest sea turtle, and it can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Vultures can soar for hours without one beat of their wings. The heart of a blue whale only beats nine times a minute. The blue whale, the largest animal to have ever existed, is 96 feet long and weights 125 tons. This is as much as 4 large dinosaurs (Brontosauri), 23 elephants, 230 cows or 1800 men. The blue Whale has a tongue that weighs the same as an elephant, a heart the size of a car, and blood vessels so big you could swim up them! Because its eyeball is fixed, the whale must move its huge body to shift its line of sight. Can you imagine not being able to look around without turning your whole body? Killer Whales capture fish by slapping them.

A whale's penis is called a dork. A group of whales is called a pod. The 14-foot-long narwhal is a whale whose tooth can reach up to eight feet long! Some animals produce their own lights, called bioluminescence. The Brazilian railroad worm has a red light on its head and green lights down its side. All it needs to drive on the street is a turn signal. Worms have 6 hearts. Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can’t find any food! The owl is the only bird to drop its upper eyelid to wink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids. Think of how strange that would look on a human!

If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom more often. That's a good tip for all you gamblers out there! At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces. Amazing how they grow up to be so huge (but still so cuddly!) The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2-1/2 pounds and cost a mere $150. (1972). Remember when tvs that had remote controls were outrageously expensive? There are four places in the United States with the word "chicken" in their name. Chicken, Alaska; Chicken Bristle, in Illinois and Kentucky; and Chickentown, Pennsylvania. I wonder if Colonel Saunders came from any of those places!? When female wasps return to the colony after foraging, they may initiate aggressive encounters with males and stuff them head first into empty nest cells. Cornell University researchers who observed the behavior call it "male-stuffing," and believe it contributes to the colony's fitness by making more food available to larvae. Sometimes, I really wish I were a female wasp. :-) Gene Simmons, of the shock-rock group Kiss, earned a B.A. in education and speaks four languages. Not surprising that he's a master of 'TONGUES'. Extracted from a flower, echinacea is the most widely used botanical in the creation of herbal medicines in the U.S. Clinical studies have suggested that when it is taken at the onset of a cold, echinacea stimulates the immune system. Time to stock-up with the cold months approaching! History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. Abba Eban (1915 - 2002)

I say that a man must be certain of his morality for the simple reason that he has to suffer for it. G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936)

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught. H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956), 'Prejudices: Fourth Series,' 1924

When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947

Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people. F. M. Hubbard Dirty snow melts faster than clean snow. So let's all spend our weekends outside kicking it around! It won't look as pretty, but at least spring will get here faster! There once were more sea lions on Earth than people. I bet THAT was a long time ago! Beer was not sold in bottles until 1850. Before then, a person went to the local tavern with a bucket or a pot made specially for holding beer, had it filled, and then carried it home. Ah, How I miss the old times. On the planet Jupiter, your weight would be nearly three times greater than it is on Earth. Can you imagine how bits of you would....sag? Ha ha! Before 1850, golf balls were made of leather and were stuffed with feathers. I wonder just how far those puppies would fly! To save money on your food bill, look down. Less costly items are often on bottom shelves, whereas more expensive ones are placed at eye level. Those tricky grocery stores do it to me every time! The Hope diamond was acquired by King Louis XIV in 1668. It was worn 120 years later by Marie Antoinette and it now resides in the Smithsonian Institution. This beautiful natural blue diamond weighs 44.5 carats today. I wonder how much it last sold for! Long before it was used as a "kiss encourager" during the Christmas season, mistletoe had long been considered to have magic powers by Celtic and Teutonic peoples. It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility... Increase fertility, huh? So that's where the tradition came from! A cat's arching back is part of a complex body language system, usually associated with feeling threatened. The arch is able to get so high because the cat's spine contains nearly 60 vertebrae which fit loosely together. Humans have only 34 vertebrae. No wonder they always seem so bendy SPAM is an acronym formed from two words ? spiced ham. Strange, the useless crap I get in my inbox does look, smell OR taste like spiced ham! I think if it did, it would be a little more tolerable! There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year. Fortunately, most of them are so small we can barely feel them! Chocolate contains two types of stimulants: caffeine and the alkaloid theobromine, purine. The early eating bars of chocolate were made of bittersweet chocolate. Milk chocolate was introduced in 1875 when Henry Nestle, a maker of evaporated milk and Daniel Peter, a chocolate maker, got together and invented milk chocolate, which today is preferred by 80% of the world's population. No wonder Nestle's chocolate is so good, they've been doing it the longest! Isaac Newton dropped out of school when he was a teenager, at his mother's request. She hoped he would become a successful farmer. But kids, unless you have an IQ of 180, I wouldn't recommend following in his footsteps! The Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on Earth at 1,315 feet below sea level at its lowest point. I wonder if your ears pop going down as well as up? It was illegal for women to wear buttons in fifteenth-century Florence. And I thought the US had some strange laws today! I wonder why they would have outlawed that? As of 1976, there were 110,200,000 TV sets in America, 372,000,000 radios, and 125,142,000 telephones. That was nearly 30 years ago. I wonder what the figures are at now! Thirty-eight percent of parents say Monday is the most stressful day of their week. Thank goodness it's Tuesday. 6 whole days left until we deal with THAT again! In 435 B.C., the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras suggested that the sun was not just a small glowing circle of light. He maintained that it was a glowing rock a hundred miles across. For that outrageous statement, he was exiled from Athens. Geez, people weren't very BRIGHT back then, were they? Around the 17th Century, The french decided it was a good idea to add frogs and snails to their diets. Interestingly, that's around the same time the mind-altering drug Opium was still legal. ;-) A fetus in the womb can hear. Tests have shown that fetuses respond to various sounds just as vigorously. That might explain my strange fascination and desire to curl up into a ball whenever I hear Supertramp! An American Animal Hospital Association poll showed that 33 percent of dog owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on an answering machine while away. I do that to my cat! Synesthesia is a rare condition in which the senses are combined. Synesthetes see words, taste colors and shapes, and feel flavors. I think I'm tasting this newsletter right now, and it's YUMMY! The venom of the Africanized honey bee is no more toxic than that of the common honey bee's. They just might attack in droves without warning. Doesn't make ME feel any better about them! Camels instinctively know their own endurance and will refuse to move beyond it. If their masters try to drive them farther, they will lie down and refuse to budge. If only my boss would understand this concept! The smallest frog is the Gold frog (Psyllophryne Didactyla) of Brazil. It grows to only 9.8 mm (3/8 inch). In Las Vegas, local 911 operators took two million calls in 1996, about half of which were non-emergencies. One communications supervisor said he had a man call who insisted they help him find his uncle at a hotel. No wonder those operators get paid so highly! Ever wonder how trick-or-treating got started? On the evening before Samhain, people left food on their doorsteps to keep hungry spirits from entering the house. Festivalgoers started dressing in ghost, witch, and goblin costumes so wandering spirits would leave them alone. What are you dressing up as? In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for applesauce, which coincidentally is what his name means in Japanese. I wonder which part of his name means applesauce, Ringo, or Starr? In Britain, the law was changed in 1789 to make the method of execution hanging. Prior to that, burning was the modus operandi. The last female to be executed by burning in England was Christian Bowman. Her crime was making counterfeit coins. Thank goodness we live in the 21st Century! Scientists say that pigs, unlike all other domestic animals, arrive at solutions by thinking them through. Pigs can be — and have been — taught to accomplish almost any feat a dog can master, and usually in a shorter period of time. Think twice the next time you call a man a pig! How much would you pay for a hot dog? Internationally acclaimed Cirque de Soleil reportedly just spent almost $3000 on the last hot dog to be sold at a Montreal Expos game. The Montreal Expo baseball team has since disbanded and will play for Washington next year. The hot dog was preserved then bronzed to ensure it will last without rotting. Since the Lego Group began manufacturing blocks in 1949, more than 189 billion pieces in 2,000 different shapes have been produced. This is enough for about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on Earth. Seems like more than that, doesn't it? What is known as a 'French-Kiss' to most Americans is known as an 'English Kiss' in France. Freedom Fries, anyone? A horseshoe for a full-grown Clydesdale measures more that 22 inches from end to end and weighs about five pounds. It is more than two times as long and four times as heavy as a shoe worn by a riding horse. And I thought their feet were mostly just hair! President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other – simultaneously. Leonardo da Vinci could draw with one hand and write with the other – also simultaneously. Now THAT'S smart!

Palindromes damn mad dumb mud guru rug gods dog nuns debate mama meta beds nun some memos tart rat wondered now liar ail we few sexist eels sleet sixes revel clever sex esteems meet sexes

A cat can run about 20 kilometres per hour (12 miles per hour) when it grows up. This one is going nowhere today - it is too lazy !.

A cheetah can run 76 kilometres per hour (46 miles per hour) - that's really fast! The fastest human beings runs only about 30 kilometres per hour (18 miles per hour). a cheetah does not roar like a lion - it purrs like a cat (meow).

A Zipper joins two pieces of material together.A zipper is used everywhere, on clothing, pencil cases, boots and suitcases, wallets, and a zillion other things. Everyone thinks it was Whitcomb Judson who invented the zipper but it was really Elias Howe. Elias was so busy inventing the sewing machine that he didn't get around to selling his zipper invention which he called a "clothing closure".

(Picture of a grizzly bear) Bears whose brown fur is tipped with lighter-colored hairs are called grizzly bears . The smallest species of bears is called sun or Malayan bears. Male bears are called boars. Bears are native to the continents of North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. Alaskan brown bears, world's largest meat-eating animals that live on land, can weigh as much as 1,700 pounds (771 kilograms)

(frog) The largest frog in the world is called Goliath frog. Frogs start their lives as 'eggs' often laid in or near fresh water. Frogs live on all continents except Antarctica. Frogs belong to a group of animals called amphibians.

No two zebras have stripes that are exactly alike. Zebras enemies include hyenas, wild dogs, and lions. Male zebras are called stallions. Zebras usually travel in herds.

How do reindeers survive in the extreme cold? Most animals don’t eat moss. It’s hard to digest, and it has little nutritional value. But reindeer fill up with lots of moss. Why? The moss contains a special chemical that helps reindeer keep their body fluids warm. When the reindeer make their yearly journey across the icy Arctic region, the chemical keeps them from freezing—much as antifreeze keeps a car from freezing up in winter

-A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body. -A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't. -A rat can last longer without water than a camel can. -About 10% of the world's population is left-handed. -A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites. -A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet -A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second. -A zebra is white with black stripes. - Porpoises and dolphins communicate with each other by squeaking, growling, moaning, and whistling. Porpoises and dolphins are mammals. There are about 40 species or kinds of porpoises and dolphins. Most porpoises and dolphins navigate by using "echolocation". The largest member of the dolphin family is called an orca or killer whale. - The hippopotamus gives birth under water and nurses its young in the river as well, though the young hippos do come up periodically for air. -A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime The world's largest mammal, the blue whale, weighs 50 tons at birth. Fully grown, it weighs as much as 150 tons. The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds. The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny. -- How the wind blows. As the sun warms the earth’s surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cool air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow. - Dolphins sleep with one eye open! --Why do we might feel warmer wearing a dark-colored jacket than a light-colored one? . Dark colors absorb light energy. Light colors and white reflect light energy. When light shines on your dark jacket, the jacket fabric absorbs light energy. The absorbed light energy causes electrons in the atoms of the jacket to vibrate. This activity releases heat energy, which makes the jacket—and you—warmer. That's why we like to wear more dark colors in winter and more light colors in summer. -While sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth. -At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal. --A flute made of bone is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China. - The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour. The breed was known to exist in ancient Egypt 6,000 years ago -- Glue dates back to prehistoric times. Artists once mixed colorings with raw eggs, dried blood, and plant juices to make sticky paints for cave murals. Later, ancient Egyptians and other people learned to make stronger glues by boiling animal bones and hides. Today companies make glues using synthetic substances. -A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light. -A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage. -A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive. -The grizzly bear can run as fast as the average horse!! - The female lion does more than 90% of the hunting while the male simply prefers to rest. !! - A jellyfish is 95 percent water! - At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces. -Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails! -You blink over 10,000,000 times a year! - Of all the words in the English language, the word ' set ' has the most definitions! - The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!- - Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?! - A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! - A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. -A cat's jaws cannot move sideways. -More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. - "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words. - No word in the English language rhymes with "month". - An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. -An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. The average person laughs about 15 times a day. The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime. - All polar bears are left handed. -Ants don't sleep.

The word "racecar", "kayak", and "radar" are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left. "a man a plan a canal panama" spelled backwards is still "a man a plan a canal panama" 1. That citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7 ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles. 2. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. 3. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. 4. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. 5. American car horns beep in the tone of F. 6. No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times. 7. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. 8. 1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on television. 9. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. 10. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. 11. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. 12. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache. 13. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. 14. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class. 15. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. 16. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA." 17. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. 18. The 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had. 19. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 20. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 21. The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer. 22. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. 23. Betsy Ross is the only real person to ever have been the head on a Pez dispenser. 24. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. 25. Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor. 26. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. 27. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. 28. Walt Disney was afraid of mice. 29. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in jelly. 30. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. 31. Pearls melt in vinegar. 32. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. 33. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 34. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 35. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 36. The average life span of a major league baseball: seven pitches. 37. A duck's quack doesn't echo and no one knows why. 38. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 39. Richard Milhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters found in the word "criminal." Honey is used sometimes for antifreeze mixtures and in the center of golf balls. • 40 percent of the almonds in the world are used by manufacturers of chocolate. • A single chocolate chip gives enough energy to a human being to walk 150 feet. • Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second. • Approximately 71% of American chocolate eaters prefer to eat milk chocolate. • Chewing gum has rubber as an ingredient. • Chocolate accounts for less than two percent of the fat in the American diet. • Chocolate was used as medicine during the 18th century. It was believed that chocolate could cure a stomach ache. • Consuming chocolate was once considered a sin during the 16th and 17th century. During that time it was provided in the form of a drink and since drinking wine during lent was a sin, so was drinking chocolate. • Dentyne gum was invented in 1899 by a druggist from New York named Franklin V. Canning. • During the Boer War, Queen Victoria sent her New Year's greeting to the British troops that were in South Africa in 1900 in the form of a specially molded chocolate bar. • During World War II, Kit Kat was unavailable due to milk shortages, so the chocolate bar was made without milk. • Each Jelly Belly jelly belly bean has 4 calories. • Every second there are 418 Kit Kat fingers eaten in the world. • Every year, more than one million miles of Twizzlers licorice is made. • Hershey's has the capacity to wrap up to 1,300 Hershey's Kisses every minute. • Hershey's most popular product is the Reeses Peanut Butter Cup, not the Hershey bar. • In 1657, the first chocolate house was opened in London, England. The cost of chocolate was about 13 shillings per pound and was a drink that only the elite enjoyed. • In 1868, the first box of Valentine's Day chocolates were introduced by Richard Cadbury. • In 1908, the first machine to make lollipops opened for business in New Haven, Connecticut. • In 1923, the chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cup was invented. • In a pack of Skittles candy, there is an equal 20% distribution of each flavour. • In Belgium, 172,000 tons of chocolate are produced in a year. • In Denmark, people eat about 36 pounds of candy a year. The highest consumption of candy of any country. • In one day, the Tootsie Roll Industry makes over 16 million lollipops. • In the early 1900's, a Russian immigrant by the name of Samuel Born invented a lollipop making machine that automatically inserted the sticks into the candy. • In the last two years, more than 33,000 tons of Hershey's Bites chocolates have been purchased by Americans. • In the United States, approximately seven billion pounds of chocolate and candy are manufactured each year. • It takes seven to ten days to make a jelly belly jellybean. • Kit Kat chocolate bar was introduced to the market in 1935. • A person would have to drink more than 12 cups of hot cocoa to equal the amount of caffeine found in one cup of coffee. • Coffee beans were chewed for more than 400 years before the first cup of coffee was brewed. • Coffee has about five times the amount of caffeine as a can of Coke. • Decaffeinated coffee is not 100% caffeine free. When coffee is being decaffeinated, 2% of the caffeine still remains in it. • Over the course of one year, a coffee tree only produces about 1.5 pounds of coffee. • Seniors who drink a cup of coffee before a memory test score higher than those who drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee. • The rarest coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak, which is found in Indonesia. It cost about $300 a pound. • "Pomology" is the science of growing an apple. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • 4% of an apples is made up of minerals and vitamins, and over 80% is made up of water. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • 99% of pumpkins that are sold are sold for decoration. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • 99% of the blueberries that are produced in the United States are produced in the state of Maine. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • A ripe cranberry will bounce. Another name for a cranberry is bounceberry. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • After being picked an orange cannot ripen. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Apple seeds are poisonous as they contain a cyanide compound. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • Apples are part of the rose family (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • At one time, pumpkins were recommended for removing freckles (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • At one time, Pumpkins were recommended for the removal of freckles and curing snake bites • Bananas were discovered by Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. when he conquered India. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Botanically a rhubarb is a vegetable. It was changed to a fruit in 1947 by a U.S. Custom Court. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Brazil is the largest producers of oranges in the world. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Brazil produces the most oranges in the world. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Cataloupes are named after the gardens of Cantaloupe, Italy where some belive this melon was first grown. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Club Direct, a travel insurance company in Britain, provides insurance plans for protection from falling coconuts. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Coconuts kill more people in the world than sharks do. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Colour is not an indicator for the taste or ripeness in cranberries. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • During the era of Louis XIV, women used lemons to redden their lips. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Eating 11 pounds of apples will make you gain one pound of weight. • Eating a banana at night can help in falling asleep. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • Eating eight strawberries will provide you with more Vitamin C than an orange. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Grapes are grown around the world more than any other fruit. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • Half of a cup of figs will give you just as much calcium as half a cup of milk. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • If all the strawberries produced in California annually were put side by side, they would wrap around the Earth fifteen times. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • In 1565 In St. Augustine, Florida the first orange trees were planted. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • In 1990, the largest watermelon ever grown was 262 pounds, by Bill Carson of Tennesse, USA. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • In Belgium, there is a museum just for strawberries. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • In Belgium, there is a museum that is just for strawberries. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • In England during Queen Victoria's time, oranges were given as Christmas presents. • In Ivrea, Italy, thousands of citizens celebrate the beginning of Lent by throwing oranges at one another. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • In the Pacific Islands when people get burns they often use a banana leaf as treatment. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • India is responsible for 65% of the world's mango crop. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • It is common in Israel and Egypt to eat watermelon with feta cheese. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • It is said that grapefruit got its name because it grows like grapes in clusters. One cluster can have up to 25 grapefruits. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Lemon juice can aid in reducing the swelling caused by insect bites. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • Mangos are known throughout the world as the "King of Fruits." (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Mangos are valued for their reputation as an aphrodisiac in countries such as Guatemala and India. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Navel oranges got their name because the bottom of this type of orange resembles a belly button or navel. • On average, a strawberry has 200 seeds on it. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • One grape vine produce can produce about 20 to 30 glasses of wine. (Source: Verified) (Added: Mon May 31 2004) Comment on this fact! • One ton of grapes can produce 720 bottles of wine. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Over 200 varieties of watermelons are grown in the U.S. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Passion fruits have a tranquilizing effect on the body. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Peaches were once known as Persian apples. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Pears were so rare in the 1800's that people were wiling to pay up to $100 to eat one. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Pineapples were first called "anana", which is Caribbean for "excellent fruit." (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Pineapples were first introduced into Europe by Christopher Columbus. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Researches have discovered that eating five or more apples a week is linked to better functioning of the lungs. • Scientists at the Texas A&M University's Institute for Biosciences and Technology are working on ways to grow vaccines inside of bananas. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Smelling bananas can help a person lose weight. (Source: Verified) Read 1 Comments (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • Strawberries are a member of the rose family. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • The banana fruit is a berry and does not grow on a tree but actually grows on the world's largest herb and is a member of the lily family. (Source: Verified) (Added: Thu Oct 31 2002) Comment on this fact! • The banana was officially introduced in 1876 in the U.S. at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. The bananas were wrapped in tinfoil and were sold for 10 cents each. • The blackberry bush is also called the "bramble." • The citric acid found in lemon juice is said to be able to dissolve a pearl. • The coconut is the largest seed in the world. • The long fibres that are found in bananas are excellent in making paper. The long fibres that are found in the banana plant can make the banana fibre paper approximately 3000 times stronger than regular paper. • The name "cranberry" comes from German and Dutch settlers. The berry was intially called "crane berry." The reason it was called this was because when the flowers bloom, the petals of the flowers twist backwards and look very much like the head of a crane. Eventually the name was shortened down to be "cranberry." • The only state to grow pineapples is Hawaii. • The sap of a banana plant leaves serious stains on hands and clothes that is extremely hard to remove. • The water inside of a coconut is identical to human blood plasma. Many lives in third world countries have been saved from coconut water fed through an IV. • The world's most consumed fruit is the mango. • There are more than 50 different types of pumpkins. Some of them have names such as Munchkin, Funny Face, and Spooktacular. • There are no blossoms on the branches of a fig tree, instead it is inside the fruit. • There are over 500 different types of bananas. • There are some bananas that are red instead of yellow. • Watermelon is considered a good gift to give a host in Japan and China. • Back in the 1790's a cookbook had recipes available for ice cream flavors such as parmesan, and ginger ice cream. • Baskin Robbins once made ketchup ice cream. This was the only vegetable flavoured ice cream produced. However, they discontinued it since they thought it would not sell well. • Baskin Robbins plain vanilla ice cream is the number one selling flavour and accounts for a quarter of their sales. • Eighty percent of the Vanilla Beans which are used to make ice cream is grown in Madagascar. • Great Britain has the highest consumption of ice cream than any other European nation. • In 1945, the first "floating ice cream parlor" was built for sailors in the western Pacific. This "floating ice cream parlour" could produce ten gallons of ice cream every seven seconds. In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared the month of July to be "National Ice Cream Month." • In 1988, the largest ice cream sundae in history was made. It was made in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and weighed in at over 24 tons. • In the United States, ice cream is sold the most on a Sunday. • One out of five people that eat ice cream binge on ice cream in the middle of the night. The person is usually between 18 - 24 years old. • The hot fudge sundae was invented at C.C. Brown's Ice Cream Parlour on Hollywood Blvd. • The Ice Cream cone was invented in the summer of 1904 by Charles Menches. It made its debut one year later at the St. Louis World Fair. • The largest ice cream sundae was made with 4,667 gallons of ice cream, was 12 feet high and had 7000 pounds of toppings on it. This was made in Anaheim, California in 1985. • There are some ice creams that are 75% air. Look at the number four on a clock face that uses Roman numerals. If the clock is made correctly then the Roman numeral four is wrong. The standard and correct way to write the Roman numeral four is "IV," but the traditional way to show it on a clock face is "IIII." Legend has it that a clock was made for a British king. When he saw the clock he mis- informedly corrected the clock maker who re-did the clock face to show a "IIII" instead of an "IV" thus not risking offending the king. Other clock makers followed suit so as not to embarrass the king. Now it is the traditional way to make clocks. Every episode of "Seinfeld" contains at least one Superman. Hummingbirds can't walk. June Foray, the voice of Talking Tina from the classic Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll", was also the voice of Rocky the talking squirrel from "Rocky & Bullwinkle". The dunce cap of schoolhouse fame originates from a paper cone that was placed on the heads of accused witches during the Middle Ages. When Joan of Arc was martyred, she was wearing one of them. Despite the hump, a camel's spine is straight. "Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels. There is no mention of Adam and Eve eating an apple in the Bible. The largest eggs in the world are laid by a shark. Jacques Cousteau invented scuba gear while in the French resistance during World War II. More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes. "Halloween" took place in the town of Haddonfield, Illinois but almost all the cars in the film had California license plates. A rat can last longer without water than a camel. There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes. Peanuts are used in the production of dynamite. The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why. Casey Kasem is the voice of Shaggy on "Scooby-Doo." Soda water does not contain soda. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. "Smithee" is a pseudonym that filmmakers use when they don't want their names to appear in the credits. The lifespan of a tastebud is ten days. Bob May played the Robot on "Lost In Space" (1965-68) and Dick Tufeld was the voice. Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper. When opossums are playing opossum, they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror. Liquid paper was invented by Mike Nesmith's (of the Monkees) mother, Bette Nesmith Graham, in 1951. The turkey was wrongly named after what was thought to be it's country of origin. More money is printed daily for the Monopoly game than by the U.S. Treasury. There is a city called Rome on every continent. The screwdriver was invented before the screw. Four people played Darth Vader: David Prowse was his body, James Earl Jones did the voice, Sebastian Shaw was his face and a fourth person did the breathing. Flying from London to New York by Concord, due to the time zones crossed, you can arrive 2 hours before you leave. The names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru: See no evil, Mikazaru: Hear no evil, and Mazaru: Speak no evil. There are no rivers in Saudi Arabia. John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and was found in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was found in a theatre. The spaceship 'Valley Forge' from "Silent Running" (1971) actually got it's name from the location used to film some of its interiors; a decommissioned aircraft carrier named the U.S.S. Valley Forge. Anteaters prefer termites to ants. Nine pennies weigh exactly one ounce. If you pause "Saturday Night Fever" at the "How Deep Is Your Love" rehearsal scene, you will see the camera crew reflected in the dance hall mirror. Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter. It takes 8.5 minutes for light to get from the sun to earth. Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.' Jean-Claude Van Damme was the alien in the original "PREDATOR" in almost all the jumping and climbing scenes. Earth is the only planet not named after a God. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white. Pamela Lee-Anderson is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence. Non-dairy creamer is flammable. Susan Lucci is the daughter of Phyllis Diller. Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating. The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Huptmobile. In the Andes, time is often measured by how long it takes to smoke a cigarette. Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard. Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around. A species of earthworm in Australia grows up to 10 feet in length. Dr. Seuss and Kurt Vonnegut went to college together. They were even in the same fraternity, where Seuss decorated the fraternity house walls with drawings of his characters. Turkey's often look up at the sky during a rainstorm. Unfortunately some have been known to drown as a result. Albert Brooks's real name is Albert Einstein. The bat on the Bacardi symbol is there because the soil where the sugar cane grows is fertile from the excessive guano (bat droppings.) Kathleen Turner was the voice of Jessica Rabbit, and Amy Irving was her singing voice. Catgut comes from sheep not cats. A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away. Talk show host Montel Williams had a nose job. Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead. If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun. If you don't, you can't see it. St. Bernards, famous for their role as alpine rescue dogs, do NOT wear casks of brandy around their necks. Sharon Stone was the first "Star Search" spokes model. It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breath-alyzer to read 0. Clark Gable used to shower more than 4 times a day. There are only three cities that are named exactly after the state they are located in: Maine, ME; New York, NY; and Wyoming, WY. The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes to take off could throw a pickup truck over a mile. Bela Lugosi died during the filming of "PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE". Director Edward D. Wood Jr. used a taller relative who held a cape in front of his face so the audience wouldn't know the difference so he could complete filming. Only female mosquitoes bite. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why. The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times. Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time. There is about 200 times more gold in the world’s oceans, than has been mined in our entire history. By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. The name of the Vulcan's heaven is Sha Ka Ree, this is a play on the name Sean Connery who was considered for the part of Sarek, Spock's father. The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards. Blonde beards grow faster than darker beards. The first time the word "hell" was spoken on TV was in an original "STAR TREK" episode entitled "City on the Edge of Forever". The exact quote was "...let's get the hell out of here...", spoken by William Shatner. From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size. Roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks. If a surgeon in Ancient Egypt lost a patient while performing an operation, his hands were cut off. Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups. All of the officers in the Confederate army were given copies of Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, to carry with them at all times. Robert E. Lee, among others, believed that the book symbolized their cause. Both revolts were defeated. Human hair and fingernails do not continue to grow after death. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. The Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th." Pogonophobia is the fear of beards. Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, remains the only person, to date, to have graduated from the West Point military academy without a single demerit. James Doohan, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand. Oak trees do not have acorns until they are fifty years old or older. In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever. The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years. The first inter-racial kiss on TV was in an original "STAR TREK" episode entitled "Plato's Stepchildren". The kiss was between Nichelle Nichols and William Shatner. No animal, once frozen solid (i.e., water solidifies and turns to ice) survives when thawed, because the ice crystals formed inside cells would break open the cell membranes. However there are certain frogs that can survive the experience of being frozen. These frogs make special proteins, which prevent the formation of ice (or at least keep the crystals from becoming very large), so that they actually never freeze even though their body temperature is below zero Celsius. The water in them remains liquid: a phenomenon known as 'supercooling.' If you disturb one of these frogs (just touching them even), the water in them quickly freezes solid and they die. It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear. It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eyes." Most Americans' car horns beep in the key of F. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to SLOW a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother. They were both deaf. Soweto in South Africa was derived from SOuth WEst TOwnship. The car manufacturer Henry Ford was awarded Hitler's Supreme Order of the German Eagle. The Andy Griffth Show was the first spin-off in TV history. It was spun-off from the Danny Thomas Show. On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan. Walt Disney's autograph bears no resemblance to the famous Disney logo. Other than humans, black lemurs are the only primates that have blue eyes. There were no squirrels on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts until 1989. Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan. While at Havard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam. Barbie's full name is Barbra Millicent Roberts. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds. The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. Residents of the island of Lesbos are Lesbosians, rather than Lesbians. (Of course, lesbians are called lesbians because Sappho was from Lesbos.) The Chinese ideogram for 'trouble' depicts two women living under one roof'. It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down -- hence the statement "to get fired." The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Round-The-Rosies' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The Les Nessman character on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati wore a band-aid in every episode. Either on himself, his glasses, or his clothing. Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere. Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing. Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz. Lizzie Borden was acquitted. Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom." Cat urine glows under a black light. Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan. Mitsubishi built the Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant call Diamond Star. On the new one hundred dollar bill the time on the clock tower of Independence Hall is 4:10. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola. The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the deaths of their cats. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again. The province of Alberta in Canada has been completely free of rats since 1905. Melanie Griffith's mother is actress Tippi Hendren, best known for her lead role in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply ' if you were my wife, I would drink it!' 142857 is a cyclic number, the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multiplied by any number from 1 to 6. 142857 * 2 = 285714 142857 * 3 = 428571 142857 * 4 = 571428 142857 * 5 = 714285 142857 * 6 = 857142 King Kong is the only movie to have its sequel (Son of Kong) released the same year (1933). A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard. There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott." Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants. John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." A dragonfly has a lifespan of twenty-four hours. A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. "Evian" (the bottled water) spelled backwards is "naive." Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box. There are four cars and eleven light posts on the back of a ten-dollar bill. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces. The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. In the film 'Star Trek : First Contact', when Picard shows Lilly she is orbiting Earth, Australia and Papa New Guinea are clearly visible .. but New Zealand is missing. George Washington grew marijuana in his garden. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning before you will die of oxygen deprivation. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Josie in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats." Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on to form that band. He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna amount to nothin'." Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on the radio newscast about the wreck. The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. During the chariot scene in 'Ben Hur' a small red car can be seen in the distance. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been over mixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. Alexander the Great was an epileptic. The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger. When young and impoverished, Pablo Picasso kept warm by burning his own paintings. The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." Elvis had a twin brother named Jesse Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. S.O.S. doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" -- It was chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash. Crickets hear through their knees. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister. A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer. U.S. Interstates which go north-south are numbered sequentially starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even numbers. A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. The phrase ' The 3 R's ' ( standing for 'reading, writing and arithmetic' ) was created by Sir William Curtis, who was illiterate. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first video ever played on MTV. During World War II, W.C. Fields kept US $50,000 in Germany 'in case the little bastard wins'. According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg. To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles. Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle. A whale's penis is called a dork. A barnacle has the largest penis of any other animal in the world in relation to its size. Iguanas, koalas and Komodo dragons all have two penises. Jet lag was once called boat lag, back before jets existed. There are more beetles than any other kind of creature in the world. The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon. Tomb robbers believed that knocking Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off would forestall curses. Mozart was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave. The allele for six fingers and toes is dominant in humans. Polar bear fur is not white, it's clear. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode. Boris Karloff is the narrator of the seasonal television special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. Samuel Clemens's pseudonym "Mark Twain" was the nickname of a riverboat pilot about whom Clemens wrote a needless nasty satirical piece. Apparently, Clemens felt guilty later and adopted the nom de plume as some sort of expiation. The phrase "mark twain" from which the river pilot got his name does not mean two fathoms (twelve feet.) Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young. A rhinoceros' horn is made of compacted hair. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. The "Grinch" singer and voice of Tony the Tiger is a man named Thurl Ravenscroft. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. Revolvers cannot be silenced, due to all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. The slogan on New Hampshire license plates is 'Live Free or Die'. These license plates are manufactured by prisoners in the state prison in Concord. Of the six men who made up the Three Stooges, three of them were real brothers (Moe, Curly and Shemp.) The pet ferret (Mustela putorias furo) was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat. "Hara kiri" is an impolite way of saying the Japanese word "seppuku" which means, literally, "belly splitting." "Race car" is a palindrome. Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. The longest U.S. highway is route 6 starting in Cape Cod, Massachusetts going through 14 states, and ending in Bishop, California. The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is lost. The copy in Washington D.C. is what is referred to as a holograph. That is a term for a handmade copy of a document and is not the same as a laser produced hologram. The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor. "Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention and he would appear. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. Gerald Ford pardoned Robert E. Lee posthumously of all crimes of treason. The band "Duran Duran" got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella." After human death, post-mortem rigidity starts in the head and travels to the feet, and leaves the same way it came -- head to toe. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch (and make it look like it's smiling.) Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth, and whose shame created the statement for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman. The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works. The 'Screwdriver' was invented by oilmen, who used the tool to stir the drink. The term "Mayday" is used for signaling for help. It comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me." The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. Leonardo De Vinci invented the scissors. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers -- they saw it as competition. It is not chemically addictive as is nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine. Pearls melt in vinegar. Ninety eight per cent of the weight of water is made up from oxygen. A fully loaded supertanker traveling at normal speed takes a least twenty minutes to stop. A flush toilet exists that dates back to 2000 BC. No matter its size or thickness, no piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them. Former US President Ulysses S. Grant had the boyhood nickname 'Useless'. Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem. Russians generally answer the phone by saying, 'I'm listening.' Until 1967, LSD was legal in California. In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.' Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music. The NY phone book had 22 Hitlers before WWII. The NY phone book had 0 Hitlers after WWII. There is a town in Texas called 'Ding Dong.' John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. Daniel Boone detested coonskin caps. Men leave their hotel rooms cleaner than women do. While performing her duties as queen, Cleopatra sometimes wore a fake beard. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. If you multiply 526,315,789,473,684,210 with _any_ number you will always find the original number in the result! If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe.

In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

-- Update: "Brandon" writes: THis is NOT true....i Actually work in a Chemist lab and just to test out this theory i had my girl friend with me swabbed her ears tested for bactiria had her listen to headphones for 2 hours swabbed again and there was a 0% increase in Bactirea --

If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?

-- Note from Brian Kai : A duck's "quack" doesn't echo because it's resonant/anti-resonant. It is also only a certain sound that they make that will not echo. The non-echoing sound mentioned is used for inter-species location, while flying or otherwise. It's true that no one knows why they would need this ability but it is thought to be a "fluke" of nature. The study of anti-resonant sound came from the study of mallards. One of the more intriguing aspects of anti-resonance is the possible use in restaurantes and cars. Restaurantes could use anti-resonance in private booths to keep them "private". Cars could use anti-resonance to completely silence the engine. Hope you find this interesting. :) --

-- Note from Catie : An english university has proved that a ducks quack does echo! this was done to persuade applicants that science isnt all that boring. --

-- Note from "Kristin" Me and my 2 sisters can all lick our elbows...though one can lick only one of her elblows. (Pictures Attached to Page) --

23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton.

In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!!

In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.

TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

7. The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

8. "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."

9. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

10. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.

11. The only other word with the same amount of letters is its plural: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosesl.

12. The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwe-nuakit natahu, a New Zealand hill.

13. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size,L.A.

16. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.

19. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers.

23. There is a seven-letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the,there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

24. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

28. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

31. 'Stewardesses' is the longest English word that is typed with only the left hand.

33. The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways; the following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

34. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

35. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."

36. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian seal for that reason.

38. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."

39. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas s produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet...

A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.)

The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.

"Scientists have long since proven that goldfish have quite long memories. They are capable of learning to use lever systems to release food into the tank, and remember the exact procedure after not having used it for several days.

This myth is brought about by the belief that goldfish will eat until they die. In actual fact, what kills the goldfish is excess food rotting in the tank / bowl, which releases toxic ammonia." • Dr Pepper is a native Texas, created in Waco, Texas in 1885, and as such is the oldest major soft drink brand in America. • The Dr Pepper tagline "Drink a bite to eat at 10, 2 and 4" resulted from a scientific study by Columbia University in the 1920s, in which researchers documents the average person's blood sugar level was lowest at 10:30 a.m., 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. • 7 UP was called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda when it was introduced in 1929. • In 1992, Hawaiian Punch´s mascot, Punchy, made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency as a third-party candidate. • The 1919 A&W Root Beer stand in Sacramento is thought to be the first "drive-in" restaurant with curbside service. • When mixed with ½ cup of water, ½ a can of 7 UP keeps roses blooming for 7 to 10 days. • In 1983, Diet Squirt became the first soft drink in the United States to be sweetened with NutraSweet. • Canada Dry water was on-board the Gemini 9 space flight. The astronauts used it to mix their dried food. • Royal Crown created the first caffeine-free diet cola and the first diet cherry cola. • Vernors is a blend of ginger, vanilla and natural flavors aged in oak barrels for three years. • Contrary to popular misconception, Dr Pepper never has and never will contain prune juice.

Ostriches are often not taken seriously. They can run faster than horses, and the males can roar like lions. Seals used for their fur get extremely sick when taken aboard ships. Sloths take two weeks to digest their food. Guinea pigs and rabbits can't sweat. The pet food company Ralston Purina recently introduced, from its subsidiary Purina Philippines, power chicken feed designed to help roosters build muscles for cockfighting, which is popular in many areas of the world. According to the Wall Street Journal, the cockfighting market is huge: The Philippines has five million roosters used for exactly that. Sharks and rays are the only animals known to man that don't get cancer. Scientists believe this has something to do with the fact that they don't have bones, but cartilage. The porpoise is second to man as the most intelligent animal on the planet. Young beavers stay with their parents for the first two years of their lives before going out on their own. Skunks can accurately spray their smelly fluid as far as ten feet. Deer can't eat hay. Gopher snakes in Arizona are not poisonous, but when frightened they may hiss and shake their tails like rattlesnakes. On average, dogs have better eyesight than humans, although not as colorful. The duckbill platypus can store as many as six hundred worms in the pouches of its cheeks. The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years. North American oysters do not make pearls of any value. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. Many sharks lay eggs, but hammerheads give birth to live babies that look like very small duplicates of their parents. Young hammerheads are usually born headfirst, with the tip of their hammer-shaped head folded backward to make them more streamlined for birth. Gorillas sleep as much as fourteen hours per day. A biological reserve has been made for golden toads because they are so rare. There are more than fifty different kinds of kangaroos. Jellyfish like salt water. A rainy season often reduces the jellyfish population by putting more fresh water into normally salty waters where they live. The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting. The odds of seeing three albino deer at once are one in seventy-nine billion, yet one man in Boulder Junction, Wisconsin, took a picture of three albino deer in the woods. A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink. Cats often rub up against people and furniture to lay their scent and mark their territory. They do it this way, as opposed to the way dogs do it, because they have scent glands in their faces. Cats sleep up to eighteen hours a day, but never quite as deep as humans. Instead, they fall asleep quickly and wake up intermittently to check to see if their environment is still safe. Catnip, or Nepeta cataria, is an herb with nepetalactone in it. Many think that when cats inhale nepetalactone, it affects hormones that arouse sexual feelings, or at least alter their brain functioning to make them feel "high." Catnip was originally made, using nepetalactone as a natural bug repellant, but roaming cats would rip up the plants before they could be put to their intended task. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans ages the equivalent of five human years for every day they live, so they usually die after about fourteen days. When stressed, though, the worm goes into a comatose state that can last for two or more months. The human equivalent would be to sleep for about two hundred years. You can tell the sex of a horse by its teeth. Most males have 40, females have 36. Tuatara lizards, from New Zealand, have two eyes in the center of their heads and a third one on top of their heads. A British medical journal called The Practitioner has determined that bird watching can be hazardous to one's health. They have officially designated bird watching a hazardous activity, using the example of the death of a bird watcher who became so wrapped up in watching a particular bird that he failed to notice his potentially dangerous surroundings and was eaten by a crocodile. Because porcupines have hollow quills, they are great swimmers. Mediterranean divers, before the Middle Ages, used to gather the golden strands of the pen shell, using them to weave a very fine cloth for the purpose of making womens' gloves. The cloth was so fine, in fact, that a pair of these gloves could be packed into an empty walnut shell, or anything of comparable volume. Snakes who have the genetic mutation of having been born with two heads have a hard time eating, because the two heads generally fight over which gets the food. Baby songbirds seem to learn how to sing from the adult birds of their species, and if they are raised by other species, they don't sing the same as their ancestors. They often make strange warbling noises, but may also learn the songs of other species. In the latter case, they can pass these songs on to their offspring. Giraffes can't cough. Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles. The Japanese quail has many values to the people who live in the areas it habitates. They are used for their song, their eggs, their uses as fighting cocks, for their meat, and are carried around in cold weather in South china to keep one's hands warm. All shrimp are born male, but slowly grow into females as they mature. The stomach acids in a snake's stomach can digest bones and teeth but not fur or hair. The March Hare from Alice In Wonderland portrays the actual antics of real hares during springtime, when they jump around and hit their large hind feet on the ground. Some species of dinosaur were the size of chickens. Birds cannot go into outer space, because they use gravity to assist them in swallowing, so they'd quickly choke and die in a non-gravity environment. The Metro Goldwyn Mayer lion lived in Memphis, Tennessee. Humans have three color receptors in their eyes, while goldfish have four, and mantis shrimp have ten. Studies have shown that pigs are one of the more intelligent animals, surprisingly. They come a close second only to primates. They are so smart, in fact, that they can be trained to do tricks like a dog. Birds do not sleep in their nests, although they may rest in them from time to time. The average giraffe has a blood pressure two or three times that of the average human. Some birds from the rain forests of South America actually breed in Canada in the summer, before returning south for the winter. The giant Pacific octopus can squeeze its entire body through a hole the size of its beak. More types of fish live in one Amazon River tributary than in all the rivers in North America combined. Penguins generally mate once and produce one egg per year. The mako shark and great white shark are two of the few species of shark that are warm blooded. You can house break an armadillo. Cows are the only mammals that pee backwards. Greyhound dogs can see better than any other breed of dog. The opossum is a North American mammal about the size of a cat. It looks much like an over sized rat. In fact, one type of opossum is actually called the rat opossum. What's most interesting about opossums is how it reacts to predators: if it can't escape and hissing and showing its teeth do not scare off the predator, they pretend to die. The thing is, it's not doing this because it wants to; it can't really control it. Its muscles tighten up in fear and it faints. The giant tortoise can live longer in captivity than any other animal. The pekingese is the royal dog of China. Snakes don’t bite in rivers or swamps because they would drown if they did. St. Bernard dogs do not carry kegs of brandy, and never have. Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms per day. Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water. The Kiwi, national bird of New Zealand, can't fly. It lives in a hole in the ground, is almost blind and lays only one egg each year. Despite this, it has survived for more than 10 thousand years. The oyster is usually ambisexual. Through its life it will change from male to female and back again numerous times. In regions of India where the soil is red - elephants take on a permanent pink tinge because they regularly spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves against insects. The most venomous of all snakes, known as the Inland Taipan has enough venom in one bite to kill over 200,000 mice. Finches love thistle seeds. But only goldfinches can eat upside-down. Goldfinch feeders have openings underneath perches so other birds can't elbow their way into that particular chow line. It takes seven years for a lobster to grow 1 pound. A crocodile really does produce tears, but they're not due to sadness. The tears are glandular secretions that work to expel excess salt from the eyes. Hence, "crocodile tears" are false tears. Ergonomic waterbeds are the latest must-have on the bovine circuit. The beds, listing at $175, are said to enhance cattle health by reducing joint damage. A dog's mucus membrane is the size of fifty postage stamps. The longest recorded life span of a camel was 35 years, 5 months. 78% of cats never travel with their owner. To a human, one giant octopus looks virtually the same as any other of the same size and species. This explains why divers claim to have seen the same octopus occupy a den for ten or more years. But an octopus seldom lives longer than four years. September 16-21 is Farm Animal Awareness Week. The world camel population is 19,627,000. Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead. The giant crab of Japan can be as large as 12 feet across. The snapping turtle eats carrion and is used by police to find dead bodies in lakes, ponds and swamps. The Alaskan blackfish is found in Arctic region. When the cold Arctic winter comes, the waters the blackfish calls home freeze. And so does the blackfish! It's not dead, but only in a state of suspended animation. Months later when spring arrives, and ice melts, the blackfish comes back to "life" and goes off swimming on its merry way as if nothing ever happened. Sharks never stop moving, even when they sleep or rest. The woolly mammoth, extinct since the Ice Age, had tusks almost 16 feet high. The king crab walks diagonally. The East Alligator River in Australia's Northern Territory, was misnamed. It contains crocodiles not alligators. The first known contraceptive was crocodile dung, used by Egyptians in 2000 B.C. The kinkajou's tail is twice as long as its body. Every night, it wraps itself up in its tail and uses it as a pillow. The average minimal speed of birds in order to remain aloft in flight is reported to be about 16½ feet per second, or about 11 miles per hour. Young birds such as ducks, geese, and shore birds are born with their eyes open. A few species of monkeys and apes see the full spectrum of color, as well as some birds and possibly fish. Most animals, however, perceive the world in shades of gray, including the bull. A bull who charges a bright red cape is charging because of the movement of the cape, not the color. A large kangaroo would make a great long-distance jumper, covering more than thirty feet with a single jump. In Budapest, they control the pigeon population by mixing birth control chemicals with the birdseed. Lobsters are scared of octopuses. The sight of one makes a lobster freeze. A cat's jaw cannot move sideways. Dogs have about 100 different facial expressions, most of them made with the ears. In 1992 five cows were killed in drive by shootings in Clay County, Missouri. When reflected from bright lights (head lights) deer's eyes are orange, whereas cats and dogs are green. Rabbits eyes remain black. The heaviest dog on record is an Old English Mastiff named Zorba, who weighed 343 pounds and measured 8 feet and 3 in. from nose to tail. In Vermont, the ratio of cows to people is 10:1. In a test performed by Canadian scientists, using various different styles of music, it was determined that chickens lay the most eggs when pop music was played. Koala is Aboriginal for "no drink". The average adult male ostrich, the world's largest living bird, weighs up to 345 pounds. The average elephant produces 50 pounds of dung each day. Relative to their weight and size, birds are stronger than people. Luckily, they don't tend to throw their weight around. The Platypus can eat its weight in worms every day. A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't. If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode. Pigs can become alcoholics. A blue whale's tongue weighs more than an elephant. A top freestyle swimmer achieves a speed of only 4 miles per hour. Fish, in contrast, have been clocked at 68 mph. Did you know that at Disneyland they have hundreds of wild domesticated cats running around the park? They never come out during the day because there's too many people, but the reason they're there is to catch the mice. The world's fastest reptile (measured on land) is the spiny-tailed iguana of Costa Rica. It has been clocked at 21.7 miles per hour. Minnows have teeth in their throat. Rattlesnakes gather in groups to sleep through the winter. Sometimes up to 1,000 of them will coil up together to keep warm. In the air, puffins are powerful flyers, beating their wings 300 to 400 times a minute to achieve speeds up to 40 miles per hour. There are 1,600 known species of starfishes in the world. The Bateleur eagle of Africa hunts over a territory of 250 square miles a day. More than one million stray dogs and over 500,000 stray cats live in the New York City metropolitan area. There are 40,000 muscles and tendons in an elephant's trunk. This makes it very strong and flexible, allowing an elephant to pluck a delicate flower or lift a huge log. The trunk is used for touching, grasping, sucking, spraying, smelling, and striking.

One legend claims stealing someone's shadow (by measuring it against a wall and driving a nail through its head) can turn the victim into a vampire. Avoid people who talk to themselves. According to Ukrainian legend, that could indicate a dual soul and the second one doesn't die! Also watch out for the seventh son of a seventh son, a person born with a red caul (amniotic membrane covering the head), or a child born with teeth. A vampire can result if a cat or dog walks over a fresh grave, a bat flies over the corpse, or the person has died suddenly as a result of suicide or murder. Unfinished business can also cause a body to rise, as can inadequate burial rites, including a grave that is too shallow. Most vampires are described in folklore as flushed and ruddy, with swollen bodies and bloated faces. Often, they can be identified because they're sitting up in the grave. According to folklore, there are a number of ways to protect yourself from vampires, including the ever-popular wearing of garlic or a religious symbol. You can slow a vampire down by giving him something to do, like pick up poppy seeds or unravel a net. (They're quite compulsive.) Cross water and he can't follow. If you can find the body, give it a bottle of whiskey or food so it doesn't have to travel. If that doesn't work, either shoot the corpse (may require a silver bullet) or drive a stake through the heart. And remember, the vampire won't enter your dwelling unless invited. Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads. In Dante's "Inferno" the Ninth Circle of Hell is reserved for those who betray family or country. The denizens of this deepest circle, who are frozen in ice, include Judas (betrayer of Christ) and Cassius and Brutus (betrayers of Julius Caesar). Abe Silverstein, who headed NASA's Space Flight Development Program, proposed the name Apollo for the space exploration programs in the 1960's. He chose that legendary Greek name because the virile Apollo was a god who rode through the skies in a magnificent golden chariot. The precedent of naming manned spacecraft for mythological gods had been set earlier with Project Mercury, also named by Silverstein. Some people consider the $1 bill unlucky because there are so many 13's on it: 13 stars, 13 stripes, 13 steps, 13 arrows and even an olive branch with 13 leaves on it. Of course the $1 bill is unlucky - if it was lucky it would be a $100 bill. The name of the legendary Lady Godiva's horse - Aethenoth An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck. When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway. According to legend, if a hare crosses a person's path as he starts out on a journey, the trip will be unlucky and it's best to return home and start again. If a pregnant woman sees a hare, her child may be born with a hare-lip. If a hare runs down the main street of a town, it foretells a fire. Cornish legend says that girls who die of grief after being rejected by a lover turn into white hares and haunt their former beaus. Ancient Greeks wove marjoram into funeral wreaths and put them on the graves of loved ones. The wreaths served as prayers for the happiness of the deceased in a future life. Breaking of a glass is traditional in some wedding ceremonies. This custom symbolizes different things. To some its the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and for some its the represents the fragility of a relationship. In Greek culture, brides carry a lump of sugar in their wedding glove. It's supposed to bring sweetness to their married life. Placing a wreath on a grave is part of an ancient belief it was necessary to provide comforts for the dead and give them gifts in order for their spirits to not haunt the mourners. The circular arrangement represents a magic circle which is supposed to keep the spirit within its bounds. The Sphinx at Giza in Egypt is 240 feet long and carved out of limestone. Built by Pharaoh Khafre to guard the way to his pyramid, it has a lion's body and the ruler's head. The Vikings believed that the Northern lights which are seen from time to time in the north sky were caused by the flashing armor and spears of Odin's handmaidens as they rode out to collect warriors slain in battle. One gift-giving taboo in China is the giving of straw sandals, which are associated with funerals, and therefore considered bad luck. Crossing one's fingers is a way of secretly making the sign of the Cross. It was started by early Christians to ask for divine assistance without attracting the attention of pagans. One sign of rain that farmers once searched for was for their pigs to pick up sticks and walk around with them in their mouths. During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of onions to the front. Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about a thousand years. On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses. One superstition says that if a girl leaves her house early on Valentine's Day and the first person she meets is a man, then she will be married within three months. Less romantic was the old historical opinion that Valentine's Day is a good day to prepare eels for the purposes of magic. Eating an eel's heart was once believed to enable a person to see into the future. The reason one wears a wedding ring on the third finger is that (tradition says) there is supposed to be a vein which goes directly from that finger to the heart—i.e., the seat of love. Also, not everyone wears that wedding ring on the third finger of the LEFT hand. In some traditions, such as the Jewish one, it is worn on the right hand. Also, I'm given to understand that nuns ("brides of Christ") wear a wedding ring, again on the right hand. To prevent evil spirits from entering the bodies of their male children, parents dressed them in blue. Blue was chosen because it's the color of the sky and was therefore associated with heavenly spirits. Girls weren't dressed in blue, apparently because people didn't think that evil spirits would bother with them. Eventually, however, girls did get their own color: pink. Pink was chosen because of an old English legend which said that girls were born inside of pink roses. The famous Citgo sign near Fenway Park in Boston is maintained not by Citgo, but by Boston's historical society. In the 1700's you could purchase insurance against going to hell, in London England. The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields. Black cats are considered lucky in England. Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting. In medieval times, thunderstorms were believed by some to be the work of demons. So when it stormed, bell ringers would go up into the bell towers to ring the consecrated bells in an effort to stop the storm. This practice didn't always work out well for the bell ringer. No one knows where the expression "to grin like a Cheshire cat" originated, but it wasn't with Carroll. The Cheshire cat is a well-known character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the expression, meaning a sneering smile that shows the gums, existed long before he wrote the book. There is no such breed of cat. Superstition says that the left side is the wrong side of the bed. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love. The ace of spades in a playing card deck symbolizes death. The dove is considered the symbol of peace. Ra was the sun god of ancient Egypt. The mythical figure Father Time carries an hourglass and a scythe. It's a myth that owls don't hunt in the daytime because they can't see in daylight. It's just that rats and mice, the main items on owl menus, are most active after dark. Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip. The mythical Scottish town of Brigadoon appears for one day every 100 years. January is named for the Roman god Janus. Influenza got its name from that fact that people believed the disease was because of the evil "influence" of stars. During the middle ages, it was widely believed that men had one less rib than woman. This is because of the story in the Bible that Eve had been created out of Adam's rib. The seven deadly sins (sins serious enough to kill one's soul) are currently anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, and covetousness. They haven't always been so, however. Originally, there were eight deadly sins (as proposed by Avagrius of Pontus). The eight (in order of increasing severity) were gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, apathy, vainglory, and pride. Gregory the Great later decided that vainglory and pride were too much alike to be counted separately and combined them. He added envy. Later still, the Roman Catholic Church decided sadness wasn't a sin, and added sloth. Somewhere along the way, apathy was dropped as well. Hindu men once believed it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree (his third wife) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again. When christening a ship, instead of using champagne, the Vikings would sacrifice a human being. The Vikings also thought the spirits of the murdered person would guide and guard the craft.

Theaters in Glendale, California can show horror films only on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. You can't plow a cotton field with an elephant in North Carolina. In Lehigh, Nebraska it's against the law to sell donut holes. Under the law of Mississippi, there’s no such thing as a female Peeping Tom. Anti-modem laws restrict Internet access in the country of Burma. Illegal possession of a modem can lead to a prison term. Lawn darts are illegal in Canada. In Idaho a citizen is forbidden by law to give another citizen a box of candy that weighs more than 50 pounds. Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take a bath at least once a year. It is against the law to whale hunt in Oklahoma. (Think about it...) A Venetian law decrees that all gondolas must be painted black. The only exceptions are gondolas belonging to high public officials. In the state of Queensland, Australia, it is still constitutional law that all pubs (hotel/bar) must have a railing outside for patrons to tie up their horse. According to law, no store is allowed to sell a toothbrush on the Sabbath in Providence, Rhode Island. Yet these same stores are allowed to sell toothpaste and mouthwash on Sundays. Before the enactment of the 1978 law that made it mandatory for dog owners in New York City to clean up after their pets, approximately 40 million pounds of dog excrement were deposited on the streets every year. Chewing gum is outlawed in Singapore because it is a means of "tainting an environment free of dirt." The handkerchief had been used by the Romans, who ordinarily wore two handkerchiefs: one on the left wrist and one tucked in at the waist or around the neck. In the fifteenth century, the handkerchief was for a time allowed only to the nobility; special laws were made to enforce this. The classical heritage was rediscovered during the Renaissance. For hundreds of years, the Chinese zealously guarded the secret of sericulture; imperial law decreed death by torture to those who disclosed how to make silk. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. By law, information collected in a U.S. census must remain confidential for 72 years. Candy made from pieces of barrel cactus was outlawed in the U.S. in 1952 to protect the species. A slander case in Thailand was once settled by a witness who said nothing at all. According to the memoirs of Justice Gerald Sparrow, a 20th century British barrister who served as a judge in Bangkok, the case involved two rival Chinese merchants. Pu Lin and Swee Ho. Pu Lin had stated sneeringly at a party that Swee Ho's new wife, Li Bua, was merely a decoration to show how rich her husband was. Swee Ho, he said, could no longer "please the ladies." Swee Ho sued for slander, claiming Li Bua was his wife in every sense - and he won his case, along with substantial damages, without a word of evidence being taken. Swee Ho's lawyer simply put the blushing bride in the witness box. She had decorative, gold-painted fingernails, to be sure, but she was also quite obviously pregnant. In Breton, Alabama, there is a law on the town's books against riding down the street in a motorboat. Connecticut and Rhode Island never ratified the 18th Amendment: Prohibition. A few years back, a Chinese soap hit it big with consumers in Asia. It was claimed in ads that users would lose weight with Seaweed Defat Scented Soap simply by washing with it. The soap was sold in violation to the Japanese Pharmaceutical Affairs Law and was banned. Reportedly, the craze for the soap was so great that Japanese tourists from China and Hong Kong brought back large quantities. The product was also in violation of customs regulations. In June and July 1999 alone, over 10,000 bars were seized. In most American states, a wedding ring is exempt by law from inclusion among the assets in a bankruptcy estate. This means that a wedding ring cannot be seized by creditors, no matter how much the bankrupt person owes. In New York State, it is still illegal to shoot a rabbit from a moving trolley car. Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine are the four states in the U.S. that do not allow billboards. Wetaskiwin, Alberta from 1917: "It's against the law to tie a male horse next to a female horse on Main Street." Women were banned by royal decree from using hotel swimming pools in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, in 1979. In Riverside, California, there is an old law on the city's books which makes it illegal to kiss unless both people wipe their lips with rose water. In Saudi Arabia, a woman reportedly may divorce her husband if he does not keep her supplied with coffee. The Statue of Liberty's index finger is 8 feet long, and it displays a fingernail measuring 13 by 10 inches. Before the Chinese take-over of Tibet in 1952, 25 percent of the males in the country were Buddhist monks. Vintage port takes forty years to reach maturity. There are more people in New York City (7,895,563) than there are in the states of Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Nevada In Britain, the first instance of a demand for film censorship came from an outraged cheese industry in 1898. Charles Urban had released one of his scientific films taken through a microscope which revealed the unappealing bacterial activity in a piece of Stilton. Denver has the nation's largest city park system, with more than 200 parks within city limits and 20,000 acres of parks in the nearby mountains – an area larger than all of Manhattan Island. The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting tops of the biggest mountain range in the world. Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawaii, is the largest mountain on Earth — though partially submerged, it is 4,000 feet taller than Mount Everest The state of Michigan claims more varieties of trees than all of Europe, which are spread over 19 million forested acres — more than half the state. Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, had six fingers on one hand. She wore special gloves all her life to hide her deformity. She also had three breasts. As a result, much of the population thought she was witch. In 1937, the tiny asteroid Hermes passed uncomfortably close to Earth, at a distance of less than twice that of the moon. The G.I. Joe toy line got its name from the 1945 movie The Story of G.I. Joe, which retold the story of war correspondent Ernie Pyle's days on the front lines. It starred Burgess Meredith and Robert Mitchum. Oak trees are struck by lightning more often than any other tree. It has been theorized, this is one reason that the ancient Greeks considered oak trees sacred to Zeus, god of thunder and lightning. The name of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the original draft for the Star Trek TV series was the U.S.S. Yorktowne. Because microwave ovens cook so fast, microbes can survive on the surface of the food. To counteract this problem, cover the cooking dish with another dish of glass or ceramic, not plastic. The steam that accumulates will heat the surface, thus killing any surviving microscopic critters. Developed in Egypt about 5,000 years ago, the greyhound breed was known before the ninth century in England, where it was bred by aristocrats to hunt such small game as hares. Today the dog is widely used in racing.

The first commercial vacuum cleaner was so large it was mounted on a wagon. People threw parties in their homes so guests could watch the new device do its job.

Redwood trees sometimes grow to heights of 350 feet and produce bark that is more than a foot thick. Yet they spring from a seed that is only sixteenth of an inch long. Hair grows slowest at night. It speeds up in the morning, slows in the afternoon, and grows faster again in the evening. Hair grows faster in summer than in winter.

Bill Gates formed a company to sell a computerized traffic counting system to cities, which made $20,000 its first year. Business dropped sharply when customers learned Gates was only 14 years old. Now, the Gates' empire is worth billions!

Enrico Caruso was the first singer to sell a million records, and was also the first opera star to appear in films . According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the best time to spray household insects is 4:00 p.m. Insects are most vulnerable at this time. Spiders never spin webs in structures made of chestnut wood. That is why so many European chateaux were built with chestnut beams ? spider webs on a 50-foot beamed ceiling can be difficult to clean. The Animal Crackers box is designed with a string handle because the animal shaped cookie treats introduced in 1902 as a Christmas novelty were packaged so they could be hung from Christmas trees. Lotteries are not new. The original thirteen colonies of the United States were financed with the help of lottery dollars. Additionally, the U.S. government used lotteries to raise money On a diet? Watch out ? in West Virginia, there are several cities and towns with food-oriented names: Cranberry, Cucumber, Duck, Pie, and Salt Rock. Also found in West Virginia are Slab Fork, Sand Fork, and Baker.

For many years, the globe on the "NBC Nightly News" spun in the wrong direction. On January 2, 1984, NBC finally set the world spinning back in the proper direction The hardiest of all the world's insects is the mosquito. It has been found in the coldest regions of northern Canada and Siberia, and can live quite comfortably at the North Pole. It is equally at home in equatorial jungles. Evil insects! Each square inch of human skin consists of 19 million cells, 60 hairs, 90 oil glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, 625 sweat glands, and 19,000 sensory cells. During the heating months of winter, the relative humidity of the average American home is only 13 percent, nearly twice as dry as the Sahara Desert. Stock up on Chapstick! Helen Keller (1880-1968), blind and deaf from an early age, developed her sense of smell so finely that she could identify friends by their personal odors. An insect exerts so much energy in one hour of flying that it may lose as much as a third of its total body weight. At the height of the teddy bear's huge popularity in the early 1900s, there is record of one Michigan priest who publicly denounced the teddy as an insidious weapon. He claimed that the stuffed toy would lead to the destruction of the instincts of motherhood and eventual racial suicide. Hollywood actress Joan Crawford had her back teeth removed to make her cheekbones more prominent. It's amazing what people will do for their careers! The area of Greater Tokyo — meaning the city proper, its port, Yokohama, and the suburban prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa — contains less than 4 percent of Japan’s land area but fully one-fourth of its 123-plus million people. President George Washington oversaw construction of the White House, but he never lived there. It was the second U.S. president, John Adams, elected in 1796, who first lived in the White House. His term was nearly over by the time he moved in, and only six rooms had been completed The rush of air produced by a cough moves at a speed approaching 600 miles per hour. The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 136 degrees Fahrenheit on September 13, 1992, in Azizia, Libya About 24 newborn opossums can fit in a teaspoon. They are about .07 ounce at birth. Former President Ronald Reagan, when an actor, signed with Warner Brothers in 1937 and appeared in 50 films with that company. His first film with them was King's Row, released in 1941. Peanut oil is used for underwater cooking in submarines. Undersea fleets like it because it does not smoke unless heated above 450 degrees F. One in ten Dalmatians is born deaf, and the breed lacks the ability to process urine completely, so they need a special diet low in flesh protein. The fastest insect on record, that has been reliably measured, is the Australian dragon fly – which has a top speed of around 57 km/h. Contrary to popular myth, the deer botfly CANNOT fly faster than a jet plane. It would be crushed by the pressure. Various U.S. cities are named after other countries. You can visit the U.S. city of Peru in the states of Maine, Nebraska, and New York. The female knot-tying weaverbird will refuse to mate with a male who has built a shoddy nest. If spurned, the male must take the nest apart and completely rebuild it in order to win the affections of the female Surprisingly, electronic or "cyberspace" harassment is not yet a Federal crime, nor is it illegal in most states. That doesn't mean you can do it!!! Birds don't fly by flapping their wings up and down. The motion is more forward and backward, like a figure eight on its side. The most recorded song of all time - with more than 2,000 versions - is 'Yesterday'. Included on the 'Help!' soundtrack, it was number one for four weeks in 1965. The world's rarest gem is Painite. Only three crystals have ever been found. To clean tarnished copper bottoms of pots and pans, spread a little ketchup onto the bottom. Let it sit for about one minute. Wipe it clean and rinse. Risotto is typically served as a first course in Italy. It is said that the little grains tickle the tongue and brings the palate to life. The Amazon river pushes so much water into the Atlantic that, more than a hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean and drink it. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing. The population of the entire world in 5000 B.C., according to the National Population Council, was 5 million. The planet Venus does not tilt as it goes around the Sun, so consequently, it has no seasons. On Mars, however, the seasons are more exaggerated and last much longer than on Earth. Pink elephants? In regions of India where the soil is red, elephants take on a permanent pink tinge because they regularly spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves against insects. The only McDonald?s restaurant in the world built on a horse-racing course is in Hong Kong. The New York stock exchange had its first million-share trading day in 1886. In ancient times, any Japanese who tried to leave his homeland was summarily put to death. In the 1630s, a decree in Japan forbade the building of any large ocean-worthy ships to deter defection. Root Beer was invented in Biloxi, Mississippi, in 1898 by Edward Adolf Barq, Sr. There are over 375 organizations around the world devoted to Sherlock Holmes. The largest group is the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club with over 1,200 members. No one can drown in the Dead Sea. It is 25 percent salt, which makes the water very heavy. Queen Victoria was the last teenager to rule England. In the film industry, a "hot set" is a set that is ready for use and is not to be disturbed. Medical experts are perturbed that TV medical dramas suggest that people who receive CPR usually recover; the truth is, only about 15 percent of victims survive after receiving CPR. In ancient Rome, it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose. Many insects hear with their hair. A number of insects, such as the male mosquito, have thousands of tiny hairs growing along their antennae. Many insects hear with their hair. A number of insects, such as the male mosquito, have thousands of tiny hairs growing along their antennae. Octopi and squid have three hearts. Their main systemic heart pumps blood throughout the circulatory system, and two branchial hearts provide some additional push at each of the paired gills. Medical experts have observed that people who stutter rarely do when they are alone or talking to a pet. There are hefty pricetags on some Internet domain names. The highest-selling domain name to date, business.com, went for $7.5 million in 1999. The buyer was eCompanies. From 1944 to 1947, James Mason was the top box-office draw in Britain. The chicken can travel up to 9 miles per hour. The average porcupine has more than 30,000 quills. Porcupines are excellent swimmers because their quills are hollow and serve as pontoons to keep them afloat. Jupiter is the largest planet, and it has the shortest day. Although Jupiter has a circumference of 280,000 miles, compared with Earth's 25,000, Jupiter manages to make one turn in 9 hours and 55 minutes. And I thought there wasn't enough time in one Earth day! The Caesar salad is not named after Julius Caesar. It is named for its creator, Caesar Cardini, who first prepared the salad in his Caesar's Palace Restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico. More education means longer life. Research shows that college graduates live longer than people who did not complete high school. That's a good reason to stay in school! Certain birds of prey (the African serpent eagle and the American kestrel, for example) have visual acuity 2.4 to 2.6 times greater than humans. They can see a 1 mm long insect from a treetop 18 meters above ground. ESPN, a total sports network, made its debut on cable in 1979. It became the largest and most successful basic cable channel, carried by nearly all cable systems, and now reaches more than 57 million households. See you at the Super Bowl! The person who manipulates the Muppets ? namely Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Animal, and Grover ? is Frank Oz. Oz also provided the voice of Star Wars' Yoda. His real name is Frank Oznowicz. Each year, the average American consumes nearly two 14-ounce bottles of ketchup. Ketchup is found in 97 percent of U.S. households, beating out salt, pepper, and sugar. To qualify as a hurricane, a storm must develop winds in excess of 75 miles per hour. Wind speeds as high as 220 miles per hour have been recorded. A female pharaoh was unknown in Egypt before Hatshepsut, who had herself portrayed in male costume, with a beard and without breasts. The practice of naming hurricanes began early this century when an Australian weather forecaster decided to insult politicians he didn't like by naming devastating tropical storms after them. The world chicken population is more than double the human population, while the world cattle population outnumbers the population of China. The bards of the Irish royal houses composed countless songs which subsequently became part of the repertoire of the medieval troubadours. By these means, Celtic poetry dating back to the 8th century has survived. Millipedes never have a thousand legs. They can have from a few dozen to several hundred, but not a thousand. A few hundred is still a lot. There is only one river in the world that has its source near the equator and from there flows into a temperate zone: the Nile. For some little-understood reason, the flow of most rivers is in the opposite direction. The ice cream cone was introduced in 1904 at the St. Louis World Fair when a waffle vendor rolled waffles into the shape of a cone for an ice cream vendor at an adjoining booth. Amazing how random ideas can make someone millions. One has to eat 11 pounds of potatoes to put on 1 pound of weight ? a potato has no more calories than an apple. It's the carbs that you have to watch out for! A space vehicle must move at a rate of at least 7 miles per second to escape Earth's gravitational pull. This is equivalent to going from New York to Philadelphia in about 20 seconds. Socretes never wrote any of his ideas or findings down on paper. The only knowledge we have of his philosophical theories is by word of mouth passed through generations, and by the writings recorded by his great student - Plato. Drinking alcohol lowers rather than raises the body temperature. There is an illusion of heat because alcohol causes the capillaries to dilate and fill with blood. In very cold weather, drinking alcoholic beverages can lead to frostbite. Be careful this new year's eve! The amethyst, February's designated birthstone, is the symbol of sincerity. This gem was said to be a favorite of both Cleopatra's and St. Valentine's. Hot air can contain more water than cold air. In the tropics, air can hold as much water vapor as the air in a sauna bath. From 1941 until 1950, violet was part of the color mixture for "M&M's"? Plain Chocolate Candies. Violet was replaced by tan. In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt. In 1933 a night's stay in a double room at the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City was $9.00. A single cost $6 and a suite $20.00. Today, a single goes for $499 per night and suites start at $860 plus taxes. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

The name of the horse in the American Christmas song "Jingle Bells" is Bob. Fruits of the rose family--including cherries, apples, plums, almonds, peaches, apricots (remember the cancer-cure scam laetrile? Apricot pits!!), and crabapples--contain in their seeds substances known as cyanogenetic glycosides. When eaten, they release hydrogen *cyanide* gas through an enzymatic reaction. (Note: this is the same gas as the notorious "Zyklon B" used by the Nazis to kill unuspecting newbies to the death camps) Therefore, although they are otherwise extremely healthy and quite tasty, "muncher discretion is advised". So-called "bitter" almonds (much harder to find than the normal variety, fortunately!!) contain the most cyanide-producing glycosides, and 8 to 10 or them can kill a child. Roasting destroys these compounds, without affecting overall mineral content - so if you want to eat a cupful of apple seeds, at least give them a good toasting beforehand!! (Ever seen the Agatha Christie movie "Arsenic and Old Lace"? A couple of nasty elderly ladies poison men by feeding them cyanide-laced almond cookies (the cyanide-releasing compounds in almonds that give them their tasty "zing") - economic motives were involved, i think. (They modified the recipie by adding a half teaspoon of strychnine and "a pinch" of pure cyanide.) Wonder where they got the "arsenic" part from? Anyway, symptoms of cyenide poisoning can include excitement, convulsions, respiratory distress, and spasms and sudden death, which can occur without any of the other symptoms. In case you were wondering, Cyanide itself is a poison that kills by denying blood the ability to carry oxygen and thereby causes its victims to die of asphyxiation. At least within the realm of murder mysteries, cyanide is the darling of poisoners because it acts quickly and irrevocably — once a fatal dose has been ingested, there is no effective antidote, and death takes place within minutes. Unlike arsenic, which is an element not a compund, it is metabolized in the body when engested in sub-lethal amounts, so it cannot be accumulated over time - as some have posited regarding the early demise of Napoleon, whose hair has been found to be particularly arsenic-rich when relatively recently analyzed.)

Winston Churchill, one of England's greatest politicians, hitorians and statesmen, was born in a ladies' room during a dance. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched." No rhyme exists in English for month, purple and of course orange. Dreamt is the only English word to end with the letters mt. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. (just cheking to see if you were still awake!). Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. Although he killed oodles of folks, he was finally sent up the river to take up residence in the slammer because of income tax evasion (apparently he didn't pay much taxes on his less than legitimate business ventures....). The national anthem of Greece reporedly has 158 verses. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. Lightning has long fascinated humans, and in recent years it has been found to be even stranger than previously thought - with the discovery of such exotic beasties as "red sprites" and "blue jets" making the news of late (see article somewhat below) Now, researchers have found that gamma rays bursts ("terrestrial gamma flashes") are also associated with lightning. (Gamma rays are the most energetic form of electromagnetic energy (other forms include microwaves, radio waves and light), and are normally produced by high-energy fusion interractions in stars, and in abundance by supernovae,black holes and such). I n 1994, scientists using the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite discovered gamma ray bursts originating from very low altitudes in the atmosphere - only a few km from the surface. Starting in 2002, scientists from Duke university using the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite -- launched to study x-rays and gamma rays from the sun - started to track down these odd emanations, and in 2004 finally found them to be formed about 1 millisecond (thousanth of a second) *before* the emission of some forms of normal lightning, meaning they aren't caused by the ligtning discharges themselves, but by the forces which immediately preceed, and perhaps trigger them. The exact mechanism of this fascinating process is still unknown. Buckwheat is one of the (in my opinion at least....) most under-rated crops in the world. Although not a grain (they belong to the same family of plants as rhubarb, knotweeds and all those yummy sorrels), their seeds have approximately the same nutritional content to the finest wheat, but with a much stronger, "nutty" flavor. They fix nitrogen from the air (something legumes do as well), which makes them great for planting on fallow land: after the harvest, the plants are ploughed back into the soil as "green manure". Buckwheat honey is one of the greatest natural taste treats around, and when buckwheat is toasted, it becomes the delightful dish called "kasha", which for some reason is not as popular in North America as it is in some parts of Europe where strong natural flavors are appreciated a bit more, by palates a bit less wrecked by sawdust burgers and various versions of the ironically named "Real Thing". There are more bacteria in the average person's mouth than there are people on the planet. (but kissing will only be harmful in a small minority of cases - so don't let this little fact spoil your pursuit of osculatory pleasure....) The most difficlt moutain to climb on the planet is K2, so named because it was the second peak measured for height in the Karakoram Range of northern Kashmir - on the border between Pakistan and China. Only 189 people have "summited" on this second highest of all mountains, and 49 have died in the attempt. Only 5 women have ever conquered K2, starting with Wanda Rutkiewicz in 1986. All 5 are now dead, leading some to speculate there is a "curse" on the mountain for women.....

While most folks can identify Everest as the highest place on the earth's surface (see below), and almost every Jeopardy player knows that K2 comes in second at 28250 ft. /8611 m, the semi-mythical "average Joe in the street" would be hard pressed to name Kangchenjunga ( 8586 m 28,208 ft) as #3, and fewer than one in a hundred could name Lohtse I (8516 m /27,923 ft) and Makalu (8470 m /27,824 ft) as 4th and 5th in the race for the Top of the World.

Since it was first climbed in 1953 by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, over 1500 folks from scads of countries have similarly summited the world's highest peak (officially said to be 29,028 feet/8848 meters) and nearly 200 climbers have died on various expititions. In the process they have turned the place into the world's highest dump, leaving an estimated 700 tons of garbage behind them. (Exploration, adventure and tourism can be SO messy at times......)

Smoking is beginning to look even worse than it used to - and that was pretty bad already!!! It not only aids and abets cardio-vascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes, degrades sperm quality, dulls taste buds and stains teeth and fingers, causes cancers, asthma and other nasty respiratory problems, depresses the immune system and adds years and years to one's appearance (read Major Wrinkles here...), but now researchers are finding it doubles the risk of macular degenerative disease, makes it more difficult to concieve by artificial means, and even causes mutations which increase the risk of problems such as asthma in the grandchildren of smoking mothers!! Clearly, this is not an activity that one would voluntarily choose to engage in if one cares at all about about health, appearance, children..... yet for some reason it remains popular. I must admit to being puzzled.

Russia has vast water resources, but even so, it is using them in an extravagant manner. Russians use about 500 liters of water per capita per day - vs a European average of 200 liters - and Germany uses only 120!! An aging, leaking infrastructure and inneficient industrial facilities are largely to blame for Russia's proflicate water usage.

The Neanderthal race, now widely regarded as the distinct species Homo neanderthalis, lived in Europe and Western Asia for about 260,000 years according to most of those who study such matters. They were joined by modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) throughout most of their territory for the last 10 to 15,000 years of this time-span, and died out around 30,000 years ago, as the northern hemisphere's climate was dramatically cooling in the run-up to the most recent glacial period. Theywere long regarded as clumsy and unintelligent, mainly because of their robust frame (they were far stronger than any other humans of their or our age), heavy eyebrows and a mistaken notion that they were of stooped stature (based upon an apparently arthritic skeleton!). Yet, recent research has shown them to be intelligent (brain size for Neanderthals averaged larger than for modern humans), capable of dexterous hand movements, and with an appreciation of music (see the entry below), and possibly even a rudimentary belief in an afterlife, as shown by a Neanderthal grave sites in Gernany and Northern Iraq which feature grave goods such as bison artifacts, and carefully lain flowers atop the remains (as revealed by the patterns of pollen present). Yet, they never progressed past the stage of unsophisticated stone weapons and tools and it would appear that they suffered a competative disadvantage against their human contemporaries. Many theories have been put forward to explain their demise, including an inability to adapt to the cooler temperatures, warfare with humans over dwindling resources, and the recent suggestion that they were done in by an early version of free trade: apparently the humans of this period engaged in extensive and systemmatic trading, and their dwellings showed specialization into separate areas for cooking, sleeping, etc., while corresponding Neanderthal homes were "unorganized" - far less specialized. It would appear that although they may have had the brainpower to progress further than they did in their long history, for some reason(s), they remained stuck in a rut and became extinct as a result!

The world's oldest known musical instrument is a portion of a flute-like bone carving whose 4 holes are generally acknowledged to correspond to a portion of a natural, diatonic scale such as the one we use today. According to archaeologists, it is about 50,000 years old and was found in the famous "Cave Bear" Slovenian cave (as in the novel "Clan of the Cave Bear") which was supposedly inhabited by Neanderthals.

An important part of scientific advances is the ability to measure things (light, sound, length, volume, weight, mass, electrical charge, velocity, angles, chemical concentratons, radiation, electromagnetic frequencies, etc.). A significant advance has been made at Caltech, in the field of measuring mass: a young genius by the name of Michael Roukes has modified the standard method of measuring attogram (10-18 g) masses, which involved using a very small silicon blade vibrating at a frequency of 33 Mherz (33 million vibrations per second) in a magnetic field (the addition of a small weight to the tip of the blade increases its mass , hence decreases its vibrational frequency by a tiny amount), and increased its accuracy by a thousandfold, to the point where individual protein molecules of various kinds, which weigh about a zeptogram (10-21 g). This increase in accuracy by three orders of magnitude was achieved simply by substituting the stiffer compound silicon carbide for the blade, which enables it to be made much smaller and lighter hence vibrating at a faster rate.

With many patented chemical formulations, the primary or "active" ingredient may be fairly benign, but the overall effect of the compound may not be nearly as harmless as advertised. For example, the highly-praised herbicide Roundup is not as "eco-friendly" as Monsanto would like us all to believe (Monsanto produces genetically modified crops which are "Roundup ready" - they are resistant to the herbicide formulation Roundup, which Monsanto has the patent for. The theory is that more of the chemical can be used without harming the plants, hence killing a greater percentage of the weeds in the bio-engineered fields, which can increase yields under some conditions). A recent (April 1, 2005) study by the University of Pittsburg has shown that Roundup is highly leathal to most amphibians (except for spring peepers, for some reason!!), which considering that most of it is washed into wetlands and waterways, means it is significantly damaging natural aquatic systems wherever it is used. To tie this into the initial thread, they found that the culprit is not the active ingredient, glyphosate, but instead the surficant (which goes by the horrorshow moniker of polyethoxylated tallowamine), which enables the glyphosate to penetrate the waxy coating on some plant leaves.

Quite often, a treatement or "cure" for one thing can cause problems somewhere else: "side effects" can be worse than the original condition!! One such example is radiation therapy, which is often a bit of a "shot-gun" approach to killing cancerous cells: radiation is more deadly to cells which are actively dividing, since DNA is more vulnerable to radation (and chemical, hence chemotherapy) damage when it is unravelled and replicating itself. The problem is that healthy tissues that also have a high rate of reproductive or renewal activity, are also killed, damaged or mutated at a higher rate than normal, when exposed to the radiation intended to preferentially kill the targeted cancer cells. This causes things such as hair loss, bone marrow damage - which leads to blood cell deficiencies, general weakening of entire systems in the body, and "secondary" cancer formation as a result of the radiation. A good example of this later effect was discovered in a study at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center (March, 2005). They found that men who had had radiation therapy for prostate cancer, developed rectal cancer at at least twice the normal rate, since cells in the lining of the digestive tract are in a more actively dividing state than that of surrounding tissues, hence more vulnerable to radiation damage.

While nearly everyone in our society has heard of Albert Einstien, not one in a million can name the famous 5 articles he published in 1905, which changed the face of physics and the way we view the universe. For "The Record", they are 1) "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", which introduced the concept of Spacetime, and established that the speed of light was constant, and that time was variable, rather than being absolute as was thought up to that point. These concepts formed the basis of the special theory of relativity (the general theory of relativity, which is more complex, wasn't published until 1916). 2) "Does the Inertia of a BodyDepend on Its Energy Content?" demonstrated that energy and matter are equivalant, and can be transformed into each other according to the most famous physics equation of all time: e = mc2, where e = energy, m = mass, and c is the speed of light. 3) "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light" - this one proved that light (and all other electromagnetic radiation) consists of particles he called photons, and thus laid the foundation for quantum physics. (Light is in fact made of both particles and waves....). It was this paper that won Einstein a Nobel prize in 1921. 4) "On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat" . This paper concerns the semi-random Brownian motion of molecules and other small particles, which he developed equations regarding, and which revolutionized the way we regard fluids and gasses. and 5) "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions", which was Einstein's doctoral thesis (contrary to urban legend, he did well at school, although his unique way of thinking often drove his teachers to distraction....). This pivotal paper conclusively demonstrated the reality of molecules, and showed how to calculate the size of molecules and such physicsy things as Avagadro's number.

The rich continue to get richer..... at least in the USA, where in 1960, the wealthiest 2% of the population had

[circa 2000] Bill Gates, now worth more than $80 billion, has more assets than America's poorest 150 million people. 84 individuals have more combined wealth than China, with its 1.2 billion inhabitants and a GDP of $700 billion. [2005] The world's 200 richest people now have a combined wealth of more than $1.3 trillion, equal to the annual income of the poorest half of the world - three billion people!

The three richest people in the world own assets that exceed the *combined* gross domestic products of the world's poorest 48 countries.

Russia is the only large industrialized country whose population is rapidly shrinking: birth rates are currently about 1.3 per woman, vs the 2.2 necessary to maintain the status quo. Causes include uncertainty regarding the future, socio-economic instability, the tendancy for women to pursue a career before having children, and pervasive health problems due to massive pollution (much of it of a radioactive nature), inadequate nutrition and a decaying health care system: only 10 to 15% of the girls under 18 in the country have "good health".

Despite the much-ballyhooed "easing of tensions" since the cold war ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, over 30,000 nuclear warheads (bombs by any other name...) are still stored in the arsenals of the world's nuclear powers. Russia has over half of these, the US of A (or is that B these days?), a third or more, Israel most likely 2,000+ (estimates range from 100 all the way to 5,000 - depending upon who is doing the math and what their political agenda is....) , the UK, China and France about 500 apiece, India 70+, Pakistan 15 to 20, North Korea a couple, and there may still be a few hiding out in South Africa, which is the only country to have officially destroyed its nukes. Three disturbing developments as of 2005, are a) the possibility of criminals/terrorists aquiring or building an "outlaw bomb", or getting their hands on one of the 100 or so "suitcase nukes" that the Soviet Union lost track of when it fragmented, b) the certainty that the so-called "underground" network of nuclear materials and technology operated by Pakistan, still exists in some form, and c) the fact that both the US and Russia are actively renewing and seeking to "modernize" their nuclear arsenals - develping new kinds of weapons as well as maintaining a hard-line attitude regarding the conditions under which they would feel justified in using them.

In the US of A, they take the dictum "Do the crime, Do the time." seriously!! Of an estimated 10 million people in prisons worldwide (2004), about 2.2 million (93% of them men.....) of them are in USA lock-ups , for an official incarceration rate of about 710 per 100,000. The next highest rates are in Russia (about 600 per 100,000), various post - Soviet coutntries (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakstan, etc.), at 400 to 550, and a smattering of central and south American countries - Bermuda, Belize, Suriname and Dominica (400 to 450), and (surprise...) the U.S. Virgin Islands at 530. China and North Korea probably have higher rates of imprisonment, but accurate information is difficult to come by for these two..... // The average rate of imprisonment for Europe is about 100 per 100,000, with Jolly olde Englande leading the pack at 141, and Iceland taking the hindmost at 37 - which translates to a prison population of around a hundred.

About 25 percent of children aged 4 to 11, have an imaginary companion: an invisible friend or one embodied in a toy or stuffed animal. Although many parents try to discourage this in their children, research is now consistantly showing that children who have had an imaginary friend, often develop language and cognitave skills at a faster pace than children who do not. Part of this beneficial effect is due to the fact that such children must make up BOTH sides of conversations and activities, hence they get more practice, and are actively engaged in mental activity of the kind most likely to lead to greater linguistic, social and mental skills, for a far greater proportion of time than those who interract only with real persons.

Recent research has shown that the contestants who perform later in a constest, are scored higher than those who perform later, and that the one who goes last, often ends up in first place. This is callec the "Serial position effect", and has long been noted in many fields, from sporting competions involving judging, to job interviews.

An effective cure for AIDS may be further away than thought. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have just announced they have discovered a secondary "resevoir" of HIV viruses, in a category of immune system cells called CD4, which often become dormant for long periods of time. Therefore, unless a way can be found to rid the body of this inactive pool of viral particles, people with HIV infections will likely have to remain on anti-viral medication for the rest of their lives. // The HIV virus has proven to be a far more formidable opponant than initially anticipated: 20 years of intensive research by some pretty sharp minds, has failed to produce either a cure or a vaccine. The main reasons for this are because it mutates frequently in order to outsmart the body's immune defences, and because it attacks the immune system from several different angles: it is the archaetypical "super-virus" that gives doctors and scientists nightmares.

Farsi, the dominant language in Iran, has become the 4th most popular for "blogging" on the internet (after English, French and German), with over 100,000 inhabitants in the Blogosphere. This is because of the systemmatic supression of free speech in Iran, where 70% of the population is under 30, and levels of education are higher than anywhere else in the Islamic world. A small cadre of aging clerics hold the reins of power in that country, but they cannot control everything. The internet, and most especially weblogs, has become a popular and effective method for people to express and discuss "forbidden" topics and ideas. (By contrast, even though Iraq is also a highly educated country, there are only abouty 50 known bloggers there!)

Afghanistan is still rather difficult place to live in these days. A just - released (Feb, 2005) study produced the following figures:

That said, there are reasons for hope: 54 percent of children are now enrolled in school, including 4 million high school students - and non-drug related economic growth was 16 percent in 2003 and estimated to remain at 10 percent or more per year for a while. Key to further sucess, however, rests upon improved security, political reform, reduction of poppy production, and "bottom-up" economic development.

The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites. (Now THERE's a creepy thought.....)

Saint Patrick - the patron saint of Ireland - was Scottish. However, the Scots as a people, originated in Ireland, so it all evens out in the end!!

Type two diabetes, an a acquired impairment of the body's ability to produce and/or utilize insulin (which leads to uncontrolled sugar levels in the blood, with often-debilitating health consequences) has been on the rise worldwide in recent decades, due largely to changes in dietary patterns (processed, largely nutrition-free foods such as white sugar, white flour, "Big Macs", French and/or Freedom Fries, carbonated soda-pop with or without caffiene....) and increasing levels of inactivity. Aside from the personal and social effects, the world economy is estimated to lose more than a trillion dollars a year because of decreased work efficiency, lost days due to acute illness and complications due to this condition, and long-term disabilities such as glaucoma and extremely poor circulation. Now, an unlikely form of help for the regulation of blood glucose levels may have been confirmed by recent research (see http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050108/food.asp for some interesting details): vinegar!! It seems that two spoonfuls of vinegar taken before a meal can dramatically reduce the size of the blood sugar "spike" which occurs in the first couple of hours after eating, which can greatly help in the management and even the prevention of type two diabetes. A "spoonful of sugar" may help the medicine go down, but two spoonfuls of vinegar may in fact be medicine all by themselves!!

Not to single out USA schools or their school system (things are as bad or worse in many countries!!) , but i just ran across a few interesting facts about the way 40 million children are taught these days in the richest, most powerful and most influential nation on the planet.

- over twice as much public money is spent upon the preparation for war ("defense"), than for all levels of education combined. - 58 percent of the thirteen-year-olds tested by the National Assessment for Educational Progress (in 2003) think it is against the law to start a third party in the USA.

- [Rant alert..... ] The more i read about the philosophy and principles of Thomas Jefferson, the more i am saddened that he is one of the most ignored (in practice, i.e. )of the "founding fathers" of the USA. (examples: " The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their rightful names."‚ "The moment a person forms a theory [or more properly, starts to believe it to be absolutely true] , his imagination sees, in every object, only the traits that favor that theory.", "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.", "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to ... remain silent.", "Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.", and "Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.".) In the context of education, he advocated a broad, general education centered upon preparing the students for active, responsible citizenship and self-government. This would include such things as critical, independant thinking, a more-than-functional literacy focusd upon comprehension and communication skills, and the ability to formulate independant ideas and solutions to everyday problems on various levels from the personal to the international, and to coherently and effectively communicate these to others. It is my general impression that these lofty yet practical ideals are being lost in an ill-considered drive to "produce a well educated workforce" or some such cant. A young person with a good, solid general education will be well equipped to learn any trade or profession they decide to pursue. He or she will also be well equipped to take an active and responsible part in the functioning of the society they live in - at all levels. If the reader will forgive me for editorializing a bit, i will ask you: are the young people YOU know being taught with goals such as these in mind?

The sage observation that "There's a sucker born every minute." has been proven countless millions of times - especially around election time, it seems... that said, a Special Case of this dictum was demonstrated recently, when a 10 year old grilled cheese sandwich purporting to display an image of the Virgin May, was sold on eBay for $5,100. This same ancient tribute to [YOU decide what word or concept to put here...] was subsequently sold to an on-line casino for $28,000.

When the Italian merchant Giovanni Caboto (aka "John Cabot") came to Newfoundland waters in 1497, he found the waters on the famous Grand Banks so thick with cod that they impeded the progress of his vessel. He reported back to Henry VII of England that there were enough cod to feed his kingdom "until the end of time", and it was estimated that the value of this resource was greater than all the gold and sugar that was extracted and grown in the Caribbean and South America. [NOTE: This rosy picture was recently confirmed when a study of fishing records from New England in the 1850s, indicated a Scotian Shelf stock of 1.3 million tons - over 20 times the meage 50,000 tons estimated today] M. Caboto did not count on the massive habitat destruction caused by the dragger fishery in the 1960s onwards, which was eagerly participated in by dozens of countries, quite heedless of the inevitable consequences of dragging destructive gear weighing up to 10 tons across the ocean bottom. The cod catch off Newfoundland peaked in the late 1980s at nearly 300,000 tons, then promptly crashed. A closure of the entire fishery in 1993 threw 40,000 people out of work and devastated coastal communities, but did little to restore the fortunes of the cod, which may yet be declared "commercially extinct": the stocks have not recovered. Although climate change is suspected of being partially responsible, it cannot be denied that decades of overfishing with thousands of "underwater bulldozers", as some have dubbed the massive fish trawling gear (ok, i just made the term up now - but it fits!!), was doubtless a leading cause of the collapse of one of the most prolific fisheries on the planet.

Modern astronomers don't divide the sky the same way ancient astronomers did. According to modern star maps, the sun cuts through a 13th constellation, Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer, between Nov. 30th and Dec. 17th. Astrologically speaking, if you were born between those dates you're no longer a Sagittarian, you're an Ophiuchi!

The largest marine estuary in the USA - Chesapeke Bay, annually receives 44 million tons (40 million tonnes) of manure from chicken, hog and cow farms within its watershed. According to the most recent estimates it receives 2.5 times the amount of nitrogen, and twice the amount of phosphorous than it can absorb - leading to toxic algal blooms, chronically low oxygen levels due to rotting vegetation, and an overall poor level of health for this important natural system.

The USA Forest Service has built more than 360,000 miles of various kinds of roads in national forests -- or eight (8) times the entire length of the U.S. interstate highway system.

Each sea urchin spine is made of a single crystal of calcium carbonate. They are quickly re-grown after being broken. Sea urchins depend upon their spines for protection as well as locomotion.

At any given time, about one quarter (25%) of the adult population of North America is suffering from back pain. In one quarter of these (over 6% of the population), the pain is chronic (i.e. , long-term) and unceasing.

Researchers at Northwestern University have found that chronic back pain actually shrinks the "thinking" part of the brain - the Grey Matter. They calculated that for every year of constant back pain, about 1.2 cm2 of brain matter is lost - the equivalent of about 15 years of normal aging. It is not known if the loss is reversible when the pain finally goes away.

Researchers at Oxford have developed the world's smallest test tube - teensy tiny carbon nanotubes with an inner diameter of approximately 1.2 nanometres (about a millionth of a mm, or 20 million of them to the inch), and a length of about 2 micrometers. Their volume is two zeptolitres (one zeptolitre is 10-21 litres), and they can accomodate around 2,000 molecules each. It has been found that polymerization reactions take place much differently within this confined space, and chemists expect that they can be used to produce interesting molecular reactions which could lead to new materials. While it is theoretically possible to make even smaller test tubes, these would not be very useful: the smallest practical size for reaction vessals has been reached.

Heart attack is the leading cause of non-infectious death in infants under a year old, in North America.

Recent studies have calculated that about 50% of all food produced in the USA (***and the figures likely hold true for Canada as well***) is wasted, spoiled or discarded. Some is never harvested, due to market fluctuations (food destroyed in the field by pests, storms and other natural processes, was not included), some spoiled during storage at the various stages of its trip to the tummies of consumers, and about 500 lbs (225 kg) of food is thrown away by the average family during the course of a year (about 15% of all food that enters the household - a rate three times larger than during the 1980s.).

In 1999, 31 million Americans lived in households experiencing "food insecurity", which is defined as frequently not being sure of where your next meal is coming from. However, through the vigilant and tireless application of the principles of "Compassionate Conservatism" in their unstinting War on Poverty, the Bush regime had managed to reduce this shocking figure to a mere 35 million by 2004.

Recent studies (mid 2004) indicate that up to 24 billion tonnes of topsoil is lost annually from the world's arable land, due to poor agricultural practices which disturb the soil and expose it to erosion by wind and water far more than it would otherwise have been, in natural ecosystems.

[NOTE: repeat - lifted from its place below: too good not to "refresh" every now and then!!] Like the news of Mark Twain's death, the danger to humans that sharks represent, is ***greatly*** exaggerated. Worldwide, an average of 50 to 70 "unprovoked" shark attacks (If you grab a shark by the tail, as some divers/idiots have actually attempted, no matter what happens afterwards, it is not considered to be "unprovoked".) are reported each year, with a half dozen or so fatalities. By comparison, more people are killed by dogs in just the USA each year, than all the known shark fatalities in the world for the past 100 years. In 2002, the International Shark Attack File investigated 86 interactions between sharks and humans, and found 60 of them to be unprovoked. There were 3 fatalities. Relatively speaking, the most dangerous place was Florida, with 29 attacks, and a total of 47 were reported from the USA in general. On average, only 10% of shark attacks are fatal, and most involve relatively minor injuries. Contrary to popular opinion, sharks almost never eat people - apparently we are not considered very tasty by that category of Big Fish!! When one considers that worldwide, an estimated 2 million people were killed by alcohol in 2002 (but virtually NONE by marjuana.....NOT that i would recommend it to anyone, but one wonders why the far more deadly stuff is legal!!) , an innocent-looking glass of wine or beer should be considered far more dangerous than a 30 tonne great white shark - especially when combined with automobile keys :--).

The dynamics of guerilla warfare can be quite fascinating at times: one one hand you have a very small number of determined fighters, doggedly pursuing a cause they value more than their own lives. They are experts at survival, know their territory inside out, use whatever cover they can, and kill via the precision use of small amounts of ammunition, usually fired from light, easily carried weapons. On the other hand you usually have a far larger invading or occupying force, much more concerned with their own safety, not knowing the terrain at all, and possessing large amounts of heavy weaponry and ammunition. Quite often, the upper hand belongs to the more mobile, well-hidden "resistance fighters", no matter what the odds might be against them. (Small wonder they often become Folk Heroes in societies which value violent resistance as an accepted means to achieving various ends). A case which demonstrates this rather well, has been reported in the early November, 20004 storming of the rebel city of Fallujah, Iraq, where a sniper kept 150 well armed troops at bay for nearly an complete day, despite their use of 500 lb bombs, dozens of artillery shells and shots from tanks, and an unbelievable 30,000 or so bullets fired mostly by machine guns. In the end, he was observed successfully retreating from the scene, riding a bicycle.

In 1990, it was "conventional wisdom" that there were perhaps 5 billion galaxies in the known universe, or about 1 galaxy for each person on our little planet. However, observations by the Hubble space telescope have increased this estimate by a hundred fold, to nearly 500 billion galaxies. The already famous "Ultra Deep Field" photographs take by Hubble in early 2004, have revealed about 10,000 galaxies, some estimated to be nearly as old as the universe itself (the oldest appear to have formed a mere 500 million years after the so-called "Big Bang" - that's 13 billion years ago!!), in an area only 3 square arc seconds in area - about 1/10 of the diameter of the full moon. Since there are 3600 square arc seconds in a square arc minute, and in the full sphere of the sky, some 41,253 "square" degrees, the resulting equation would be: (3600/3) * 41,253 * 10000 galaxies = 495 billion galaxies in the universe. // Now, if we take the average number of stars per galaxy at a conservative 10 billion, that means there are about 5 trillion billion (1021) stars in the universe, although estimates vary all the way to 1024, which would be a mind boggling 150 trillion stars for every person on the earth!! (and some people are concerned that finding life on other planets would somehow do harm to their particular religious beliefs...... i tend to think that it would take a pretty strange God to create zillions and gachillions of stars yet place intelligent life on only one planet in all the universe!!) There more than 1,00 chemicals in a cup of coffee, and 3,000+ chemicals in cigarette smoke.

On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day. (somebody actually counted? Wonder how much taxpayer's money got spent on that particular "scientific study"??)

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee, and 3,000+ chemicals in cigarette smoke.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field photograph is the most comprehensive look at any portion of sky since the beginning of astronomy, as briefly described above. It was achieved over a period of 3 months, during which time a million seconds (about 2 weeks) of observation time were used for this achievement. The light from the faintest of these, around magnitude 30, is so faint that it arrived at the rate of only one photon per minute striking the surface of the Hubble's main mirror, which is 4.5 square meters. By comparison, full sunlight is the equivalent of 10 billion trillion (1022) photons per square meter *per second*!! // For an excellent, high-resolution (for the web, i.e.!) image of the photo, see http://www.markelowitz.com/hudf.htm.

In WWII, the Germans lost an estimated 40 to 50% of their planes to accidents. With the Allies, the figure was perhaps 10% at the most. One wonders how much effect this state of affairs had upon the course of the war in general......

A normal chlorophyll molecule is capable of capturing 5 photons per second to use in converting CO2 (carbon dioxide) and water into sugar.

The last person shot in WWI was a Chinese worker (they were used extensively to dig trenches and such) who was killed for "insubordination" while cleaning up a battle area.

As any dark-skinned person who has ever tried to break into the upper echelons of society in many "Western" countries knows, old stereotypes and myths die hard. An excellent example of this is the wolf: long vilified in legend, popular imagination and even in nursery rhymes, wolves around the world have been shot, trapped, poisoned an otherwise exterminated for thousands of years. Indeed, the crusade against the "evil predator" wolf is very much alive today: in Alaska, wolves are shot from planes, and in Wyoming and other states, dozens of groups are calling for a renewed Open Season upon the few re-introduced wolves who have managed to survive harassment and a REALLY bad name. However, although they do indeed regard domestic animals as food from time to time, their tally when it comes to filling their bellies with animals which humankind has designated for other ends, is extremely limited. In Wyoming, for example, only 15 confirmed wolf kills of sheep occurred in 2003 - only one tenth as many as attributed to eagles, and one third of the number who succumbed to overeating. Recent studies in Europe have also found a similar lack of evidence to justify the persecution of these large, scary-looking animals with the big teeth featured so prominently in the tale of Little Red Ridding Hood. Similarly, large predators in other parts of the world, such as "big cats" in Africa, kill far fewer domestic animals than most people assume they do: they are NOT the enemy...... (Most of the time i agree with Pogo, who famously observed "We have seen the enemy, and he is us.")

"Those that live by the sword, get shot."........ If you keep a gun in your home, you dramatically increase the odds that you will die of a gunshot wound, according to research published in the June issue of the Annals of Emergency Medicine. "Keeping guns at home is dangerous for adults regardless of age, sex, or race," said Douglas J. Wiebe, Ph.D., Instructor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and a fellow at Penn's Firearm Injury Center. Wiebe led the study by the Violence Prevention Research Group at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) before moving to Penn. Wiebe's study found that people with a gun in their home were almost twice as likely to die in a gun-related homicide, and 16 times more likely to use a gun to commit suicide, than people without a gun in their home.

Genetically speaking, man and mouse are nearly identical: the "Wee sleekit, cow'rin', tim'rous beastie" of fields, houses and churches shares 99% of its genes with us. Out of some 30,000 genes, only 300 have been found so far, which are unique to one or the other species. Evolutionary theorists have proposed that we shared a common ancestor - 75 to 125 million years ago, in the early era of the dinosaurs! We even share the gene which produces a tail, although in humans it is usually not "switched on" (although there are notable tales (pun intended..) of cases where this dormant gene has been activated - see http://www.visual-evolution.com/tails.htm for some photos of Humans with Tails.) Not surprisingly, over 90% of diseases which have a genetic component in humans, have also been found in mice, making them even more useful than previously thought, for medical research. Interestingly enough, the mouse genome is about 14% smaller than the 3 billion "base pairs" of the human genome. // Amongst the differences, Mice have many more genes for smell than humans, and they have more genes to produce frequent and large litters.

Each human embryo has a tail about one sixth of its overall length. As the unborn child develops, his or her tail is absorbed into their bodies, except in very rare cases, discussed above.

According to the Academy of General Dentistry in the USA, kissing , long reviled for spreading germs, helps prevent tooth decay. Kissing stimulates the production of saliva, which helps reduce the incidence of cavities. // "Kissing is nature's cleansing process," says Heidi Hausauer, a dentist and spokeswoman for the academy. "Saliva washes out the mouth and helps remove the cavity-causing food particles that accumulate after meals." Also, the minerals in saliva help repair minor cavities before they can develop into major ones. // If you have no one to kiss, try sugar-free gum. It's not quite as fun, but still very effective in encouraging saliva.

The health of amphibians is considered a key gauge for the overall health of natural systems ("ecosystems") because their highly permeable skin makes them more immediately sensitive to environmental changes and pollutants than other creatures. Not surprisingly, a study by 500 of the worlds leading amphibian researchers shows that 1/3 (a third - 33%) of the world's 5,743 known amphibian species are in rapid decline, and in danger of extinction in the next few decades. Overall, only 27% of the species studied (there was insufficient data for an evaluation of 1300 or so species) had stable populations, with a mere 1% boasting increasing numbers. The remaining 72% of amphibian species were either in moderate or severe population decline. This is in comparison to 13% of bird and 23% of mammal species also judged to be endangered, according to similar recent studies. Source: The Global Amphibian Assessment, published online by the journal "Science" : 2nd week Oct., 2004. The following is quoted from a summary of the report presented at http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2004/2004-10-19-10.asp

Aside from this page, which in this case doesn't really count, the word "hardcarp" appears only once on the web, in the immortal line: "Nekem extrem heavy hardcarp special 3,6 balzerem van beee." This is in contrast to the word "the", which is present and accounted for on "about 5,780,000,000 of the web pages which Google currently canoodles the content of. Many other words and phrases also apppear on a One Time Only basis in the 7 billion or so pages lucky enough to get googled - such as "hogy kell leszedni a zignort???": -- while "leszedni" graces over 16,000 pages, "zignort" is only found the one solitary time (and no, i don't know what language that is.....). Other single entry slobdorfs include glebnos, "amateur orgy furnace" (don't ask - i didn't!!), "grunge sculpture" (believe it or not!!) and of course "Snoringly good" (ok, this landed on two pages in the same site - but was just too good to pass up :-+)..

Just as Superman's weakness is kryptonite, the super-strong bicycle lock Kryptonite also has an Achilles" Heel: the humble Bic ballpoint pen! Recently, someone came up with the idea that a ball point pen (the round end) might just fit into the round hole of these expensive yet popular locks (and their many lookalikes, as it turns out!!). Works perfectly (with a bit of modification) - now bike theives will be having a field day until most folks have either replaced or "upgraded" their "unpickable" locks - the odd part of it all is that nobody thought of it years ago...

IBM, the builder of 134 of the world's 500 fastest computers, hopes to build a petaflop machine by 2007: that's a quadrillion (a million billion) operations per second. They are currently working on something called the Blue Gene/L, which is projected to be finished by the end of 2004, and is predicted to be capable of 360 terraflops (360 trillion operations per second). For comparison, the combined computing speed of the world's 500 fastest computers is currently only 283 terraflops.

Neutron stars (the ultra-compact remains of stars about 10 times more massive that of the sun) can spin around up to 600 times per second - a frequency equal to the E above middle C on a piano.

In Atlanta, Georgia, it is illegal to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or street lamp.

The sun's surface has a relatively low temperature - 6000 K. However, the sun's corona - the layer of gas that extends from near the surface to hundreds of thousands of km into space, has a temperature of over 2 million degrees K. While scientists do not know the exact mechanism involved, it is highly likely that the sun's immensely powerful magnetic field is responsible for this unusual state of affairs.

About half of the people who have suffered carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, develop memory impairment and other serious neurological damage in the weeks and months following the poisoning. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have recently found the reason why this occurs: high levels of exposure to CO damage an important protein (called Myelin Basic protein, or "MBP") used to form myelin (the protective sheathing that surrounds neurons and prevents their electric charge from leaking out). Apparently, the body's immune system attacks this altered MBP in order to get rid of it, but when things return to normal, the immune system continues to attack NORMAL MBP, creating an auto-immune reaction that attacks the myelin sheathing of the nervous system. The result is a cluster of symptoms which are similar to Multiple Sclerosis, which is also a condition where the body's nervous system is weakened by an auto immune reaction which attacks the myelin sheaths of neurons.

There are about 3,000 known species of termites in the world, nearly all of whom make a living by digesting cellulose - the main structural ingredient in trees, woody plants, and houses. Queens can live for up to 25 years, and in some species, can lay 2,000 or more eggs per day. They can squeeze through cracks as thin as 1/32 of an inch (less than 1 mm!), and their soldiers are capable of delivering fierce pinches, or in some species, spraying nasty chemicals on colony invaders.

The USA has a bit of a problem with its heavy reliance upon oil for its primary energy source. Its proven reserves are only 20 billion barrels, while its yearly consumption is over 7 billion barrels (85% of which is divided between only 4 states: Texas, Alaska, California and Louisiana (including offshore reserves): you do the math!! Production peaked in 1970, and is not likely to ever increase significantly, because 150 years of oil and gas exploration has left very little land unevaluated for its potential. No matter what some people think or pretend to think in order to scam tens of billions of dollars worth of subsidies from the public purse, it is nearly impossible for the country to drill its way to energy self-sufficiency, even if every last square inch of wilderness is destroyed in the process: baring some incredible technological breakthrough such as commercially viable fusion reactors, only conservation and massive increases in renewable energy sources are capable of solving the "energy crisis" the richest country in the world is staring in the face. Like it or lump it, those are the facts of the matter.

The leading producer of methane worldwide, is either cow or termite flatulence - depending upon who is doing the estimating!!

The first "wonder drug,", acetylsalicylic acid - commonly known as ASA and widely marketed by Bayer Pharmaceuticals as Aspirin - was put together by Dr. Felix Hoffman in 18997. He was investigating the pain killing properties of salicylic acid, which is found naturally in willows and birches and has been used for pain relief in many societies for thousands of years. It is now being used for everything from heart attack prevention (it inhibits platelet aggregation, effectively "thinning" the blood) to the treatment of some cancers, and worldwide annual production is currently over 30,000 tonnes, which is the equivalent of 120 billion 250 mg tablets.

Most heart attacks are quite preventable!! A comprehensive worldwide study (by Canadians!) scheduled to be published in the Sept. 11, 2004 edition of The Lancet, shows that 90% of all heart attack risk can be predicted using just 9 factors. Smoking and an abnormal ratio of blood lipids (Apolipoprotein B/APO lipoprotein A-1) predicted about two thirds of all heart attacks. Lack of exercise, excess abdominal fat, high stress levels, not eating enough fruits and veggies, high blood pressure and diabetes were also major risk factors, while a small amount of alcohol per day provided a little extra protection (minor, however: not worth starting to drink for!!). Since the lipid ratio involved is dependent to a large extent upon the other factors, the study concludes that appropriate life-style modifications can prevent 80% of all heart attacks - thereby preventing over 12 million premature deaths per year. Socio-economic status plays a role in overall stress levels, but to a great extent this can most likely be mitigated by attitudinal adjustment and the afore-mentioned lifestyle changes (which also protect against cancer, stroke, other cardiovascular diseases, etc. - so if you don't smoke, exercise regularly, maintain a slim figure, keep your stress levels down, and eat lots of yummy fruits and vegetables, (as well as drinking very sparingly or not at all and driving, walking and cycling defensively i might add!!) you can expect to live a LOT longer than you might otherwise. (While we're on the topic of living longer, vegetarianism, the stricter the better, has also been shown to DRAMATICALLY reduce the risk of major killers such as cancer - i'll cover that in another article.)

The first few rounds of the modern Olympics games were pretty unsophisticated affairs by any standards: in the 1896 games in Athens, the man who won the 200 m swimming event said that his main opponents hadn't been the other competitors but rather the twelve foot (3.5 meter) waves and "terribly cold water" (the games were held in the first week in April!). Some of the 200 or so athletes representing 14 countries, were tourists who joined in at the last minute..... In the first French version in Paris (1904), the hurdle bars were made of used telephone poles - imagine tripping over one of those beasties!!

In the early history of Olympic hockey, the dominant country was not surprisingly Canada, which won 4 out of the first 5 gold medals. Two victories stand out in particular: 1) In 1924, the Toronto Granites, an Ontario "Senior A" team, racked up 110 goals in only 5 games, and 2) in 1948, the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) team volunteered to defend the country's hockey honor since no other amateur team had come forth. They won the gold, undefeated throughout the tournament. The Swiss referees were so biased that one member of the RCAF team quipped: "We played 8 opponents - the Swiss team and their referees, and STILL won!!".

Astronomy is a science where amateurs can make valid and sometimes excellent contributions. A good example is the recent (August, 2004) discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet by a tiny 100 mm (4 inch) telescope, using the "transit" method - i.e., measuring the the dimming effect that occurs when the planet crosses in front of the star in question. The newfound planet is a Jupiter-sized gas giant orbiting a star located about 500 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Lyra. This world circles its star every 3. 03 days at a distance of only 4 million miles, much closer and faster than the planet Mercury in our solar system. Its surface temperature is estimated to be a scorching 1500 F (830 C) - hot enough to melt aluminium!

In the wonderfully wacky world of deep-sea marine worms, some males truly ARE parasites: in a newly-discovered genus of bone-devouring critter which has no eyes, stomach or mouth and which use bacteria to dissolve the fat in whale bone so it can feed on them with strange root-like "limbs", each mature female found so far, has up to 100 microscopic males living inside their bodies. Like the drones of bees, their only function in life is to provide sperm for the female to use to perpetuate the species with.

Most plastics are made up of tiny particles (usually 1 to 3 mm) called "nurdles". When plastic degrades, especially on the open ocean, where an astounding volume of plastic has accumulated over the past few decades, these particles are released. Other plastics are also battered by wind, waves and the energy from sunlight, and end up breaking into even smaller microparticles. Plastic pollution, including these small and extremely small pieces of plastic pose an unknown but rapidly increasing threat to many kinds of sea life. On the obvious side, animals from plankton to jellyfish, turtles and seabirds ingest plastic in its various forms, and their digestive tracts are clogged up with the indigestible pieces, which provide absolutely no nutrition. However, an even more dangerous effect of particulate plastic pollution results from their ability to absorb large amounts of toxic substances such as arsenic, DDE (a long-lasting breakdown product of DDT), antibiotics, and things such as estrogen from birth control pills (it passes through the body unchanged, and is causing havoc in many marine and fresh water eco-systems: in even extremely small concentrations, it can cause male sea life to become female, with predictable consequences for reproductive success in affected populations!!) and many other chemicals. When the particles are ingested (i.e., eaten) by sea-life, the toxins are absorbed into their bodies. // Plastic pollution is so far advanced already (scarcely 50 years after they first became commonly used!!), that in some areas of the open ocean, there are 6 times as much plastic as there are plankton, the tiny animals at the bottom of the food web. One would have to be willfully blind to declare, as many industry spokespersons (and their political allies) are straight-facedly doing, that plastic pollution is not a serious and rapidly increasing threat to the health of our planet's world-ocean.

About 75 billion TONNES (about 100 billion tons) of plastic is produced each year. Three percent of it is recycled. The rest eventually ends up as litter and garbage. Since almost all plastics float, and since they last hundreds or even thousands of years, a surprisingly large percentage of those billions of tonnes/tons produced per year eventually find (or will find in the future) their way to the oceans, with a wide range of consequences we are just now beginning to discover. The few discussed above, are just the proverbial "tip of the iceberg". (and you thought jellyfish were icky - ha!!!)

Human females are the only mammal which is a covert ovulator (not even she knows) (i.e., there is no outward signal that an egg has ripened and the female is thus ready to conceive); also, female humans are the only mammal whose mammaries (breasts) enlarge prior to the first pregnancy.

Some good news, for a change!! Many scientists have been prediction the imminent demise of the world's coral reefs, due to their intolerance of rapid global warming. Corals form symbiotic relationships with algae to provide them with nutrients via photosynthesis. Many of these algae become considerably less effective at converting nutrients to more useable forms using the energy provided by sunlight, at temperatures only 1 degree C higher than the temperature they normally live at. This decrease in nutrient-conversion causes the corals to expel them from their colonies - a process called "bleaching", since it turns the colony white. Bleaching can kill a coral colony if it is too prolonged, or repeated too often. However, some strains of the species of algae normally used by corals are far more heat-resistant, exhibiting little or no reduction of photosynthetic efficiency at temperatures that send the normal forms into a tailspin. It now appears that corals can often switch to these more heat-tolerant strains or "clades", in order to avoid the negative effects of long-term higher water temperatures and the resultant loss of their primary food source. Since a very healthy chunk of the biodiversity of the oceans is connected with the high productivity and many kinds of habitats associated with coral reefs, the realization that they are not doomed to disappear in the next 50 years.

The two classic "parasitic" birds - those avian cads which lay their eggs in other species' nests so they don't have to raise the kiddies themselves - are the European cookoo (hence the expression "cuckolded") and the American cowbird. Despite their similar lazy ways, they have very different strategies when it comes to getting the host mother and father to feed them: Cookoos chicks are typically much larger than their prospective nest mates, so when they hatch, they promptly kick their competitors' eggs (they hatch first) out of the nest, leaving the poor adoptive parents to feed a baby who isn't even of their own species! Cowbirds, however, employ a much more subtle strategy: they like to lay their eggs in the nests of species which generally only have two or three chicks, but when their invading young hatch (again first!), they let their "foster-siblings" hatch and live, then they hog the lion's share of the food the hard working parents bring to feed a family of three or four, by opening their much larger and more colorful mouth just as the mommy or daddy is trying to feed the others!! This way, they benefit by getting more food than they would have gotten if they were the only one in the nest. They let the host's kids get enough flies and worms to stay alive, so that they can continue to benefit from the extra work the parents put into trying to feed a larger family.

An estimated 7 million dolphins have been killed by the tuna industry in the Americas, over the past 50 years or so. Despite government attempts to promote and ensure that "dolphin-safe tuna" truly is just that, many thousands of these amazing beings are still trapped in tuna nets and drowned each year. (and i'll refrain from any unnecessary comments regarding the way the current regime (summer, 2004) recently ignored scientific reports including its own, and loosened the regulations, which had to be set back in place by court action....).

The fatigue you feel after prolonged exercise has traditionally been explained as a combination of a build up of lactic acid in the muscles, and plain old-fashioned dehydration. I've never bought into the lactic acid theory, since i've found that a bit of carefully targeted deep tissue massage - which breaks up scar tissues in muscles and connective tissues (tendons, ligaments), thus increasing circulation, decreasing inflammation and diminishing the pull of tightened muscles and tendons on attachment sites - to work wonders in decreasing feelings of fatigue after heavy exertion. Now, another contributing factor towards post exercise fatigue has been identified: a chemical in the brain is built up during exercise: "interleukin- 6", which can be up to 100 times as common in the blood after prolonged physical exertion. Also, injecting interleukin-6 into the bloodstream of athletes, decreases their performance quite a bit!! Scientists theorize that this is one way the mind protects the body from possible damage caused by too intense or too extended physical activity. It also explains why determined people can overcome their exhaustion - breaking through "the wall" which long-distance runners and others tend to hit after a while.

Once again, a recent study has supported the fact that much of most people's attention and worries, and an absurd proportion of public and private resources, are focused upon statistically trivial dangers or relatively (i.e., by comparison to others) small problems - shark attacks, for example (worldwide, Falling coconuts kill a reported 150 people worldwide each year, 15 times the number of fatalities attributable to sharks - typically 10 or less per year, out of some 50 "unprovoked" attacks recorded) or abductions of children by evil "strangers" (about 5,000 per year in the USA, compared to 350,000 kidnappings by "non-custodial family members": i'm not at all saying that "stranger" abduction is not important - i'm just saying that it gets FAR more attention in our society than a similar problem 70 times more likely to occur!). Meanwhile, many truly important, major problems and probabilities are scarcely given a second thought by the "inappropriately concerned majority", and their elected representatives by extension. The study in question reported that an estimated 200,000 hospital patients are killed each year by mistakes made by hospital staff: doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc. About 150 billion dollars was spent by that country last year to fight "terrorism" around the globe, which killed maybe 5,000 people worldwide (vs about 3,000,000 killed by AIDS, for example), and in the neighbourhood of 0 (none, nada, zip) in the USA. Amount spent by the feds there to try and diminish the number , nature and lethality of hospital errors....... well, if you hear of any government programs specifically designed to cut down the number of people dying from these mostly inexcusable and often outright negligent mistakes, let me know. I rest my case - for now anyway!

The old adage that blind people hear better has been proven true by recent research - but there's a catch: it only worlds for people who are blind from birth, or became blind very young in life. In the first few years of life, the brain is far more resilient and adaptable, and can compensate in a hard-wired manner, for damage or loss.

Interest makes a difference! On a 30 year, $100,000 mortgage, for instance, if one were to pay an extra $100 per month above the nominal rate, over $50,000 in interest payments would be saved, and the loan would be paid off 9 years earlier.

There are more than 100 language families in the world today - from Indo-European (English, Bengali, Urdu, German, French, Danish...) to Sino-Tibetian, Dravidian, and the 35 or so language families in the Americas. (California had representatives of about 20 families in pre-Columbian times: FAR greater linguistic diversity than all of Europe!). NOTE: This and the language facts below, are as found on the excellent site: http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html

In 2003, the total number of languages in the world was estimated to be 6,809. // 90% of these languages are spoken by less than 100,000 people. Between 200 and 150 languages are spoken by more than a million people. There are 357 languages which have less than 50 speakers. The Cambap language (Central Cameroon) has 30 speakers; the Leco language (Bolivian Andes) has about 20 speakers. A total of 46 languages have just a single speaker remaining. Over the last 500 years 4.5% of the world's described languages have disappeared completely. In North America, at least 52 languages have become extinct since 1600. In Australia, 31 of their 235 languages have vanished. Even so, some countries and regions are still rich in linguistic diversity. Mexico has 52 languages spoken within its borders. The old USSR (Soviet Union) had 100. Nigeria has over 400. The island of Papua New Guinea has over 700, virtually a different one in each valley. India has over 800 languages in several families (Indo-European, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic).

One of the most mysterious languages in the world is that spoken by the Basque people of northeastern Spain. It is not obviously related to any known language group, and many linguists think it may date all the way back to neolithic Europe: for example, its word for "axe" is closely related to the word for "stone".

Turns out that space is a lot warmer (at least in spots) than most people tend to think: a recent study of an area of space near the galactic core of our Milky Way galaxy using NASA's x-ray telescope (named "Chandra"), has shown the region to be bathed in a "diffuse glow from a 10-million-degree Celsius gas cloud, embedded in a glow of higher-energy X-rays with a spectrum characteristic of 100-million-degree gas". The cooler, 10 million degree gas is produced from known sources (black holes, neutron stars, old supernovas, etc.), but the ten times warmer gas has no known source - suggesting we have a LOT to learn about our own little neigbourhood of the Universe!! (Lest one be concerned about this super-heated gas wafting or jetting into our own interstellar neck of the woods, while hot, this gas is so thin that nobody would notice any difference here on Earth even if it did.)

Although to cite the studies in question is beyond the purvey of this "fun oriented" feature, it is becoming increasingly clear that the natural healing systems of the body are sometimes hindered rather than helped by the myriads of drugs ("pharmaceuticals" in medical jargonese) designed mostly to provide symptomatic relief of whatever ails , hurts or inconveniences us. Some of the most recent additions to the cautionary tales in this regard, are showing that common pain relievers such as ASA, Ibuprofen and more fancy beasties that go under the nom-de-guerre of "COX-2 inhibitors" can often seriously hinder the healing of many kinds of injuries - tendon, ligament, bone.... i've long suspected this (after breaking a collar bone, i was told it would take 6 to 8 weeks to get things back to normal, and was given some Serious Pain Killers. I ignored both the time table and the drugs and was back to my semi-athletic albeit weakling self in 3 weeks), but it is nice to see it supported by actual controlled studies!!

The top search engine these daze (June, 2004) is Google.com. What is not commonly known about its success, is that it is due to a small army of Ph.D. superbrains. The ranks of programmers and marketing wizards that have made Google top dog in the cutthroat search category on the internet include not only a former rocket scientist, but also a former brain surgeon.

The accuracy of scientists' measurements is critical to the reliability and overall usefulness of their observations. Hence, there is a constant drive in science to measure time, distance, velocity, acceleration, diversity, temperature, mass, gravity, wavelenth/frequency, etc. with greater and greater precision. Time is a particularly crucial parameter, so its measurement has been the focus of intense interest and corresponding research. Today's atomic clocks measure time so precisely that it would take over 40 million years before they would be wrong by a single second - that's about one part in 1300 trillion!! (and you thought your old Timex was accurate....)

According to official figures, in the first 8 months of his presidency, George Dubya Bush was on vacation 42% of the time: more than any president in history, in the critical first few months of their administration.

Over 25 distinct methods of altering seashells to make them look better and hence bring higher prices, are known. These include lip alterations ("smoothing", filing..), various kinds of repairs, gluing tips (protoconchs) on, polishing, painting, baking (which changes the color of the pigments), and bleaching to produce artificial "albino" specimens.

"Jiffy" is an interesting word. Here is a comprehensive exploration of the concept as found in The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2003 Denis Howe: n. 1. The duration of one tick of the system clock on your computer . Often one AC (alternating current) cycle time (1/60 second in the U.S. and Canada, 1/50 most other places), but more recently 1/100 sec has become common. "The swapper runs every 6 jiffies" means that the virtual memory management routine is executed once for every 6 ticks of the clock, or about ten times a second. 2. Confusingly, the term is sometimes also used for a 1 millisecond wall time interval. 3. Even more confusingly, physicists semi-jokingly use `jiffy' to mean the time required for light to travel one foot in a vacuum, which turns out to be close to a nanosecond . 4. Indeterminate time from a few nano-seconds to forever. "I'll do it in a jiffy" means certainly not now and possibly never.

There are two major pigments in humans: eumelanin (black) and phaeomelanin (yellow). For that matter, the same two pigments are present in virtually every mammal, from mice to tigers, and can be combined to produce any color from white to red to yellow to brown to black. I'm not sure how baboons get blue muzzles, but I'm hard put to think of any other examples of mammalian coloration outside the red-yellow-black-white spectrum.

The post-WWII policies and actions of Joseph Stalin (or "uncle Joe", as one famous president liked to refer to him) resulted in the death of an estimated 30 million people in the Soviet Union, over an 8 year period to 1953.

This gubblick contains many nonsklarkish English flutzpahs, but the overall pluggandisp can be glorked [sic] from context.

Facts in isolation or improper contexts, are often VERY misleading. For example: Fact: About 1000 Ha of old growth forest is clear-cut on the island of Tasmania per year. What those who think this is unacceptable usually neglect to tell you is that there are almost 1.5 million Ha of old growth forest on this little chunk of Primaeval Paradise, with at least 70% of that total in National parks or other completely protected reserves. (so, it would take 500 years to cut down the 30% not protected!!) Context nearly ALWAYS makes a big difference in how we view or understand almost anything and everything: if the context is omitted, distorted, obscured, substituted, or otherwise bent, folded, spindled or mutilated, any fact, statement or statistic can be made to seem to mean pretty well anything at all!! (This is especially true when applied to sacred texts, politics and economics......)

• A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair. • The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. • A polar bear's skin is black. Its fur is not white, but actually clear. • Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants. • More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes. • Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump." • If you keep a Goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white. • In 1947, Marilyn Monroe was chosen as the first California Artichoke Queen. (lifted from Snow's Silly Facts - a delightfully irreverent compendium of thousands of items ranging from the intensely silly (as in "In 1471, a chicken in Basel, Switzerland, was accused of being 'a devil in disguise' after laying a brightly colored egg. The chicken stood trial, was found guilty and burned at the stake. ") to sad reflections of the society we find ourselves living in today (as in The chances that a drug offense by a black juvenile (i.e., child) (in a country i will decline to name) with no prior jail time will result in imprisonment is 48 times as often as a white child in similar circumstances will be similarly punished (circa mid-1990s)). The thing i most appreciate about this site is that it meticulously references its sources - now that's what i call Quality Journalism!!! • The Wild and sometimes Wacky world of cancer cures has produced many surprises over the years - some not so good, such as laetrile, others quite laudable indeed. In the latter category, it appears that a species of the bacterial genus Clostridium, famous in undergrad microbiology courses for grossing young students out with its incredibly malodorous fragrance, when it manages to invade the human body, can only survive and multiply in cancerous tumors: these are composed of densely-packed cells and have a low enough oxygen concentration for the stinky bacterium to live in - they prefer anoxic environments. Researchers at the University of Nottingham (and i'll refrain from this obvious opportunity for silly jokes here...) have exploited this situation by inserting a gene into the tumor-loving bug that converts a harmless chemical into a poison capable of killing the tumor cells near where the Clostridium organisms live - which will nearly all be cancerous, since they can only survive in the center of tumors!! • There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes. Their scientific name is Lycopersicon lycopersicum, which means "wolf peach." They are cousins of the eggplant, red pepper, ground cherry, potato, and the highly toxic belladonna, also known as the nightshade or solanaccae. • [NOTE: This is most definitely NOT an anti-American sortie, but is instead anti-war in general. I most certainly do not mean to offend anyone!!!] Between 1961 and 1971 herbicide mixtures, nicknamed by the coloured identification band painted on their 208-litre storage barrels, were used to defoliate forests and mangroves, to clear perimeters of military installations and to destroy 'unfriendly' crops as a tactic for decreasing enemy food supplies. The best-known mixture was Agent Orange. About 65% of the herbicides contained 2,4,5-T: (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), which was contaminated with varying levels of dioxins - highly toxic organic compounds of chlorine and benzene which cause a variety of nasty mutations. Over thirty years later, the devastating effects of the gross negligence and lack of foresight represented by this extended period of chemical warfare (and remember Napalm also??) is just being discovered: congenital malformations, spontaneous abortions and numerous other health problems are much more common in areas targeted by these compounds. Interestingly enough, it seems that the amount of Agent Orange used in this military misadventure was under-reported to the tune of between 7 and 9.4 million liters ( see this Nature page for details: i hope they keep it in the public domain for a while!). I could close this entry with exhortations directed towards those that value warfare as a means of achieving political ends, but what would that accomplish? The undeniable fact that war, by its very nature, inevitably produces both tragedy and atrocities (through negligence, poor planning, or deliberately) and encourages others to solve their own problems in similar fashion, does not seem to have diminished its continuing popularity. • The word "weird" is mis-spelled as "wierd" on almost 200,000 publically-available web pages on the Internet. Phonically, it makes more sense to spell it this way, since "i.e." is pronounced as "ee" in Germanic languages, of which English is an example. • If you live in the United States, chances are you can get away with cheating on your taxes much more easily now than at any time since the introduction of income tax during the first world war. Due to systematic and perhaps deliberate underfunding of the IRS, successful prosecutions for tax fraud are less than half of what they were 10 years ago, and total prosecutions are down by about two thirds. There is no indication that people are trying to cheat the government less now than they did a decade ago (for obvious reasons, obtaining accurate stats on this matter is not easy....), so this must mean that it is at least twice as easy now for Americans to fudge the figures on their tax returns with impunity. • Recent research has shown that what is often called "luck" is often the result of psychological attitudes and behavioral tendencies that enhance a person's chances of recognizing, creating, and taking advantage of opportunities for success. For an elaboration on this, see Luck.html, which i have copied from a website, lest it vanish as so many websites have a tendency of doing! • Our society is quite freely "lubricated" by the consumption of the ethanol variety of alcohol - undoubtedly the most frequently deliberately-consumed poison in the world. The hardest-drinking countries in the world today are in Europe (The good folk of Spain, for example, consume about 13 liters (about 4.2 US gallons) of absolute ethanol per capita per year), as well as Thailand, where sales of "sprits" have spiked considerably since 1998 - and the current "champion" drinkers live in the Bahamas, where each adult consumes an average of 15 liters of Joy-Juice per year (a related Weird Fact is that Barbadians, right next door, drink less than half that!!). The all-time record, however, would appear to belong to France - where a whopping 26 liters per capita per annum was guzzled in 1963. In Argentina, the figures hovered around 20 liters from 1963 to 1980, then declined to less than half of that for some reason. By comparison, the USA sloshes back about 10 liters per adult per year (oddly enough, this figure has remained remarkably constant since the early 1970s, after climbing from about 6 liters in 1960.). The very civilized little country of Iceland is the most sober of all "Western" nations, at less than 6 liters. Not surprisingly, the reported alcoholic consumption in Islamic countries is almost zero. • In 1976, the wealthiest 1% of Americans owned about 10% of the nation's wealth. By the year 2000, that figure had increased to 40%. Their increase in goodies is partly due to the numerous tax breaks they somehow seem to luck into - in 2001, they paid about 25% of their income in federal taxes, and 5.3% in total state and local taxes. By comparison, the average taxpayer also pays 25% in federal taxes, but they pay 9.6% in state and local taxes, and those earning less than $15,000 pay an average of 11.4% - almost twice the amount that those earning over $1,000,000.00 per year. Crime may not pay, but it seems being in the "top" tax bracket certainly does..... • The birth of a black hole is caused by the implosion of an aging star at least 10 times the mass of our sun, and occurs when the outward force of its nuclear fires can no longer counter the inward force of gravity: the matter of the star collapses with enough momentum to form a "singularity" - an object of such incredible density that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. This event is called a Supernova. An intense burst of energy across a huge swath of the electromagnetic spectrum is released at the moment of the final "crunch", including an astonishingly intense gamma ray burst that lasts only a minute or two. The light emitted from a strong supernova can be over 10 trillion (1013) times the strength of light coming from our sun, and it can be seen with the naked eye up to a billion light years away or more. • While walking is indeed a wonderful form of exercise, it may not do as much for the heart as some studies have led us to believe. Moderate exercise such as half an hour of brisk walking five times a week is unlikely to prevent an early death from heart disease, researchers said yesterday (14/04/03). Only vigorous exercise such as jogging and hiking [and of course cycling!!] seems to reduce the risk, according to the study in the journal Heart. The 10-year study involved almost 2,000 men in Wales. • Despite laws in most countries that prohibit the giving or selling of alcohol to children, the vast majority of young people have tasted alcohol before they become teenagers (for example, in Great Britain in 1998, 78% of boys and 74% of girls had had their first drink by the age of 12), and by the time they are old enough to legally drink, almost 60% of 18 year olds in most "western" countries are regular or semi-regular drinkers. Very few children completely resist the temptation to at least try a sip under peer pressure, or when left alone at home for too long: in Australia, for example, in 1992 only 5% of 17 year olds reported never having a drink in their lives. In most predominantly non-Muslim countries, about 10% of the general population completely abstains from alcoholic consumption, and of those that do drink, only about 2% ever give it up absolutely. • It is estimated that in Russia, men drink between 3.8 and 4 times the amount of alcohol consumed by women (Treml 1997). A recent study (2001) found that two-thirds of Russian men die drunk, and that more than half of that number die in extreme stage of alcoholic intoxication. • In the USA, blacks make up approximately 13 percent of drug users. However, they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 55 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. To me, this is a VERY wierd set of facts! • A new mother in India is claiming to be the oldest woman to give birth, at the age of 65, beating the current record held by a 63-year-old Italian. The Indian woman, who had not had children before, had a healthy son by Caesarian section after undergoing in-vitro fertilization. Medical experts are to examine the woman to try to prove her age, as like many rural Indians she has no birth certificate but claims she was born in early 1938.

• The wealth of the richest three people on the planet - Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and the shared wealth of the Walton family, whose patriarch founded Walmart - is greater than that of 47 of the world's countries. • The combined wealth of the world's 250 richest people, is greater than the combined wealth of the poorest 1.5 billion citizens. • This may not be a "wierd" or "fun" fact, but smoking causes an estimated 1 in 6 premature deaths in the so-called "First World". In the USA, for example, nearly 500,000 deaths per year are attributable to the deliberate or secondary inhalation of tobacco smoke. I suppose it IS a strange thing, however, that so many people insist upon doing something that not only costs a small fortune these days, but that they also know will probably sooner or later kill them...... • Ireland and Norway will soon become the first countries to ban smoking in all public establishments. Smoking will be banned in all bars, restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs in an effort to protect patrons and employees from the effects of passive smoking. In Norway, the law was approved by parliament on Tuesday (08/04/03), it will only come into force in spring 2004. In Ireland, which is actually the first, the law was passed in 2002 and will come into effect in Jan, 2004.

• It's official: frozen vegetables are often healthier than imported “fresh” vegetables sold in supermarkets out of season, according to a new study. Researchers say some vegetables travel so far to reach our shops they lose many vitamins and minerals en route. Frozen vegetables, on the other hand, are processed within hours of being picked, preserving their nutritional content. The study, by the Austrian Consumers Association, found the vitamin content of certain frozen vegetables was significantly higher than fresh produce and had lower levels of lead, cadmium and pesticides. • The world's longest street is located in Canada. Toronto's Yonge Street runs 1,900 kilometers/1,190 miles from the shores of Lake Ontario past Lake Superior. • On March 26, 1885, George Eastman manufactured the first commercial motion-picture film at his factory in Rochester, New York. • A great website for people who like to read about inventions and inventors, is http://web.mit.edu/invent/i-archive.html - this is an archive of "inventors of the week" that goes back to about 1996. • George Eastman contributed more to photography than any other individual. He invented "dry" film (i.e., one not coated with a semi-liquid emulsion) in 1879, the first commercial film in 1885, and in 1888 marketed the first "Kodak" camera, which came with a 100 exposure roll of film for the price of $25 (a lot of money back then!!). He was also an amazing philanthropist, donating over $100 million to various charities during his lifetime. • Antarctica, the world's fifth largest continent, was not sighted by Europeans until 1820. It is so cold at the south pole that the temperature never rises above -16 C (3 F). • In all of North America (USA and Canada, ie), there are less than 150 "stranger abductions" of children per year, verses many thousands of abductions by parents and other relatives. Guess which one gets the most media attention?? For the sake of lifetime risk (from age 0 to age 16) of about one in fifty thousand, tens of millions of children are encouraged to avoid or even be afraid of almost everybody they don't personally know - even though the latter are FAR more likely to be a danger to them! (not that they should be afraid of **anybody**, mind you: fear is a good motivator, but terribly destructive and corrosive in its side-effects!!). To my mind, this is completely insane. (and yes, this is part commentary, part fact. Our "civilization" is a truly strange place to live in at times....) • Queen Elizabeth (of England, Ireland Scotland and Wales - but not Empress of India) sent her first email in 1976. (How's THAT for a useless bit of trivia???) • The resolving power of best light-based microscopes was until recently about 100 nm (10 millionths of a meter, or 0.4 millionths of an inch) - about the diameter of a normal sized virus. However, researchers at the University of Rochester have pushed that down to a mere 20 nm and hope to use their innovative technique to resolve structures below 10nm - meaning individual protein molecules will be plainly visible, and can be examined while interacting on the surface of a living cell. The details can be found at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-03/uor-tss030303.php. A brief summary:

• In North America, there is a 1 in 3 lifetime probability of being moderately to severely injured by automobiles or other vehicles. There is a 1 in 100 lifetime probability of being killed by a motor vehicle over a lifetime. The best defenses against vehicle injury are seatbelts and good doses of common sense and caution (not to mention plain old paying attention!!). • Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert. • A Google search reveals that nowhere on the more accessible portions of the Worldwide Web are the arcane rituals of the Freemasons published for public consumption, although many fragments of them are presented to provide fuel for various torches and crusades. Their blood-curdling oaths include such gems as having new members promise to be subject to some pretty scary penalties for revealing the details of Masonic lore, such as "to have his left breast ripped open and his heart torn there from to be fed to the devouring birds of the air or ravenous beasts of the field as prey." (Fellow Craft oath), "To have the throat cut and the tongue ripped out by the roots and buried in the sand where the tide ebbs and flows twice in 24 hours" (Entered Apprentice), and even "To have the skull sawn apart and the brains exposed to the scorching rays of the sun" (Knight Templar). (My apologies to any children reading this! These penalties, however, have never been known to be enforced, i should add!!) • The most intense winds our planet knows, belong to tornados. A class 5 tornado packs a wind of over 300 mph (about 500 km/hr). The highest recorded wind speed on Earth was >318 mph in Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999. On that infamous day, at least 57 tornadoes killed 56 people and caused over US$330M worth of damage. • Each hour, enough water flows from the mouth of the Amazon River, to fill Lake Erie - one of the "Great Lakes". • In the "developed" countries of the world, about 28 million pregnancies occur each year. Half (50%) of them are "unplanned", and 36% of them end in abortions. • Worldwide, there are currently about 220 million pregnancies each year. 63% result in live births, 15% or so end in miscarriages or stillbirths, while 22% are aborted deliberately. • This is not a "wierd fact", but may be of interest nevertheless. Not surprisingly, perhaps the best astronomy site on the web belongs to Nasa. My favorite corner of their huge complex is the "Astronomy Picture of the Day" . They have an enormous archives of some of the most fantastic astronomy-related photos and images of all time, going back to June 16, 1995. A GREAT place to spend a bit of time after a busy day - sure beats 99%+ of the TV shows out there in Cableville!! • About140 million babies are born each year to the 1.5 billion women of child-bearing age (15 - 44). • "Minnows" (members of a sub-category of the carp family), are not necessarily small: The Colorado River squawfish (more recently designated a "pike minnow") grows to nearly 2 meters and weighs up to 45kg (100+lbs), and one species of the famous "mahaseer" minnow of India (reputed to be the best fighting fish in the world for fresh water anglers who enjoy a challenge) grows to a reported 9 feet and 100kg - now that's a LOT of minnow!!! If you used anything less than a strong rod, line and person, your minnow would be lost (minnow would be lost......). • Some democracies on the planet operate in a very strange fashion. For example, in the 2000 USA election, George W. Bush received 544,000 votes (give or take a few hundred in Florida.....) less than his chief rival, yet somehow became President nevertheless. Oddly enough, the vast majority of citizens in that country simply accepted the result as "the way things work around here". [No anti-Bush sentiments implied - this is a page for Wierd Facts, and this one certainly qualifies!!] • Freemasonry rituals and values have had an enormous influence upon the institutions of the United States. (NOTE: I don't agree with those that believe in **any** conspiracy involving that institution or its many off-shoots such as the Bavarian Illuminati. That said, the general and specific influence of Freemasonry in many Western societies and governments cannot be denied.) The city of Washington itself, and many of its public-sector buildings contain masonic symbols and embedded masonic themes, and the language of the oaths of most important government offices such as for the Supreme Court and the President, are based upon masonic oaths: anyone who has heard the two of them cannot help notice the many close similarities. Also, a majority of American presidents have been 33rd degree Masons. • An estimated 100,000 km2 (over 36,000 square miles) of old-growth forest are lost each year to legal and illegal logging, slash and burn agriculture, burning for cattle ranches and other industrial farms, land clearing for development, fires that are started accidentally, and other human-related causes. In nature, such "mature" or "climax" ecosystems rarely burn by themselves - they are quite fire-resistant. • The game of yahtzee, where 5 dice are thrown in three rounds to fill 13 different game objectives such as "three of a kind" or "long straight", has 1,279,054,096,320 different possible sequences of play (ie, a trillion and a quarter). So, for all practical purposes, no two yahtzee games are the same. • A third of the world's parrot species are at risk of extinction in the next few decades, because of capture for the pet market. • In the USA, domestic cats kill an estimated 1 billion wild birds each year. • The fastest known tornado was the so-called Tri-State Tornado of March 18, 1925. It cruised along at a recorded 73 mph (117 km/hr). • The thinnest natural thread known is produced by the middle-eastern spider Stegodyphus pacificus, which can spin a strand of silk only 10 nanometers (nm) in diameter- almost 1000 times thinner than a human hair. This spider also has the most silk-spigots on its belly ("cribrarum") - about 40, 000 of them. • In Great Britain, the most dangerous sport is gardening!! One in five of ALL accidents there occurs in the garden, and in 2002, almost 64,000 English citizens required hospital treatment because of gardening mishaps. • Recent innovative studies have shown that intelligence is closely related to the ability to concentrate and to pay attention to the problem at hand, without being distracted. It seems there are "bright spots" or areas of the brain in the areas associated with attention, that intelligent people use more effectively to solve difficult problems. This raises the possibility that we could raise our IQ by learning how to "focus" or pay attention better. • The first message sent in Morse Code on May 24, 1844 was, "What hath God wrought". • The first message sent over Graham Bell's telephone on March 10, 1876 was, "Mr. Watson, come here; I want you." • The first words to a phonograph in 1877, by Thomas Edison were, "Mary had a little lamb." • The first words said from the moon in 1969 were, "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." • Ray Tomlinson, an engineer who was tasked with the job of creating a method of messaging on a single multi-user machine, but later adapted his method (originally called SNDMSG (say it out loud ? “SeNDMeSsaGe”)) and invented email. Interestingly and perhaps ironically enough, he cannot recall exactly when or exactly what he said to himself in the world's first email missive, sometime in the third quarter of 1971. He figures it probably had a content of “QWERTYUIOP”, all in upper case! In doing so, he also invented "shouting" via email, as well as meaningless messages (now known as spam). • People who gesticulate while talking are twice as likely to be understood, psychologists have found. A Manchester University study has found that those who use their hands to explain themselves are far more likely to be remembered than those who do not. The research shows that hand movements can convey solid images, such as the size of an object, and psychological ones, such as the emotional distance between two people.

• The male foreskin, removed during circumcision, is made of a very special kind of skin cell that can divide many more times than normal cells. From one foreskin, enough new skin can be grown to cover 6 American sized football fields. • A new study ( early 2003) has shown that two thirds of Russia's 31 million children under 15 are in poor health, with respiratory illnesses the most common problem, a survey has found. A decline in healthcare services and poor hygiene in schools are believed to be responsible for the rise in the number suffering poor health since the demise of the Soviet Union. (The Independent 11/03/03; p.11) • The over-the-top purple dinosaur Barney has hit a LOT of raw nerves and sore spots over the years. A Google search of the words die and Barney yields 186,000 hits. A search for "die die die" and Barney produces 1, 780 pages either expressing or commenting upon that particular sentiment. "Kill Barney" produces 2,400 hits, while the opposing thought "Don't kill Barney" doesn't get a single Google vote.// An update on this: the census taken above, occured in late 2002. One done today (June 16, 2003, at 0458 bells) turned up a mere 151,000, 1,420, and 1,640 pages. How soon they forget..... on the other hand, a search for the titile of that ever popular movie "Death to Smoochy" (Barney's demon offspring) produces a crop of 32,000 hits. "Don't kill Barney" now turns up one page: this one. • A recent study at Washington State University showed that almost all preschool children diagnosed with clinical depression share one thing in common: a condition called anhedonia - they often cannot derive pleasure from play and other activities which are quite pleasurable for most children. They are also far more likely to use play activities to explore themes related to death or even suicide. They also found that depressed young children were not consistently sad or unable to experience pleasure: they exhibited mood swings from happy to sad to angry to fearful, to a much greater extent than adults with clinical depression. • Sharks have a unique method of sensing temperature changes - something that helps them locate where prey may be most abundant - they have a special gel in their noses, which generates an electrical current when the water temperature changes by as little as 0.1 C! This current stimulates sensitive nerve endings which report the info to their brain! No other animal is known to use this method of temperature sensing. • Believe it or not, Hitler did do something useful every now and then when he wasn't out killing people he didn't like and trying to conquer the world. For example, in 1936, he opened the first factory for the production of the "People's Car," the Volkswagen, in Saxony. • A large crocodile can close its jaws with a force of over 3,000 lbs (1,350kg). However, the muscles used for opening these same fearsome jaws are so weak that they can be held shut by a person of only average strength. So, when wrestling a "croc", the trick is to keep its mouth closed - if it gets it open, you are in BIG trouble......! • Feb. 25, 1938 - Nylon was produced for the first time in Arlington, New Jersey; it was used for toothbrush bristles. Women's underthings were not far behind that! • In 1967, the minimum salary for major league baseball players was $6,000, and the average annual paycheck was a big fat $19,000. By 2002, the minimum yearly payout was $200,000, but without a maximum, things had become a bit silly: the average per annum compensation for playing baseball for "the Majors" was a comfortable $1,895, 630 USD, with several teams such as the Yankees and Minnisota breaking the $3,000,000 mark. First base was the most valued position, with a $5,000,000 average, while the multitudes of relief pitchers had to eke out a living with a meager $1, 220, 412. • One of my favorite passtimes is seeing how many people i can make smile while passing them on the street. In Halifax, this is a fairly productive exercise, but a recent study in the UK indicates that it works FAR better in some places than others. : " Bristol is one of the friendliest places in the UK according to psychology students who have spent an hour smiling at 100 strangers in 14 cities. In that friendly, relaxed city, 70 per cent of the people surveyed returned the students’ smiles, with Glasgow coming in second. However, only 4 per cent of people in Edinburgh displayed a similar willingness to to be cheered up by a stranger with a smile on their face and science in their heart. • One of the main obstacles standing in the way of computer "intelligence" is the number of connections between the active elements in the computing unit (technically called "fanout", but i like to think of it as "connectivity"). For the computing unit called the human brain, each neuron typically has around 10,000 connections with other neurons: it is largely this very high degree of connectivity between the elements of the human "computer" that enables it to outperform any and all the supercomputers on the planet: they have only 10 to 12 connections between transistors - a "fanout" 1000 times smaller than that of our very well designed brains. • 1807 - Aaron Burr became the first vice president of the United States to be arrested; he was charged with treason for planning an expedition to invade Mexico for no valid reason. • Computer "intelligence" has been an elusive target for nearly 50 years now, and will no doubt continue to evade us for a while yet. A combination of clever programming and sheer brute force (the Deep Junior program computer that tied Kasparov recently, for example, crunches over 3,000,000 potential moves per second, vs Kasparov's 2 or 3) can yield impressive results, and so-called "genetic" programs that improve themselves through large numbers of "generations" where each generation comes closer to a solution to a complex problem, can arrive at innovative answers that people might not have found. Nevertheless, computer software progresses at a far slower rate than the dizzying pace of computing speed, and machine sentience, free choice and "intuition" will probably take a lot longer to achieve than most folks thought say, 40 years ago...... • Ever wonder if there is a smallest possible unit of time? Physicists say that there in fact is: it's based upon some pretty tall mathematics which i don't pretend to understand, is called "planck time", and is defined as the time it would take light to cross a distance equal to the Planck length (the smallest possible distance in the Universe, roughly equal to 1.6 x 10-35 m or about a billionth of a billionth of the diameter of an electron). This is about 10-43seconds, and is the smallest unit of time that has any real meaning within the way we understand the universe today (of course this may change tomorrow....).) An interesting offshoot of this theory is that when the Universe was created, it was already 10-43seconds old - anything that happened before that is either irrelevant, or else it simply didn't happen in the first place...... • Several studies within the past decade have found that only 20% of the adult population of First World countries such as the USA and the UK, are "completely healthy", which is defined as having no physical or mental health problem that pose significant limitations on their day-to-day living activities on a frequent basis (so things like a mild allergy that flares up once every now and then wouldn't count - neither would colds or "the flu".). A classic 1995 study in the USA found 19% to be healthy, 19% to be unhealthy in both physical and mental ways, and 62% to have either significant physical or mental health problems. Surprisingly, the only ethnic difference of statistical significance was that "blacks" were more likely to be "resilient" - which they defined as having physical problems without concomitant mental health problems. • The age of the universe has long been the subject of debate. Some people like the figure of 6000 years, but this is not too popular in scientific circles these days. Recent calculations by scientists studying the famous "big bang afterglow" - the background microwave radiation which permeates the universe - have settled on the figure of 13.7 billion years ± 1%, with the first stars forming a mere 200 million years after the initial spark. Check out http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/11feb_map.htm?list155435 for details: with apologies to my creationist friends, it's pretty interesting stuff!! • Recent research has given new meaning to the term "bug breath". Insects get air to their cells via a network of channels called tracheae, which extend throughout their bodies. Until a team of Chicago researchers used high-power x-rays to probe the interior of living beetles, it was thought that air simply diffused in and out of these tubes passively, without any active help from the insect. However, the x-rays revealed minute contractions in the tracheae tubes, which means that insects actually breathe like we do!!! The trachaeal network in effect acts in the same way that our lungs do, actively breathing air in and out. This means that in order to smother a bug, you'd have to cover up all the little holes in their body through which they breathe - covering only their head would have no effect. • Our society in general does not value the elderly as much as most previous cultures - indeed, older people who are limited in their physical or mental abilities are often regarded as a burden, to be cared for using the minimum amount of resources possible. For example, in a sample of British nursing homes it was found that more than 80 per cent of elderly people had been prescribed strong tranquilizers without proper medical justification. The drugs - administered to quieten patients with what staff call “behavioural problems” - were likely to make their dementias worse and risk making them break their hips or other limbs in falls, say doctors from London teaching hospitals who conducted the study. • The seeds of the candlenut (Aleurites molucanna) contain about 50 percent oil and burn like a candle. The ancient Polynesians brought this tree to the Hawaiian Islands where it has become naturalized. The dried nuts were cracked open and the seeds were skewered onto the midrib of a coconut frond (or slender bamboo stem) and set on fire. [Since they contain about 50 percent unsaturated oil, the seeds ignite readily.] The Polynesians used them for candles that burned for about 45 minutes. • Ephedra, often sold as Ma Huang, is a powerful herbal stimulant often sold as a dieting aid, or to provide "more energy". A recent study, based on data from U.S. poison control centers and sales information, shows that products containing ephedra accounted for 64% of all reported adverse effects from herbs even though they represented less than 1% of total herbal product sales. 43 definite side effects and 44 "probable" ones were identified, with the most common of these including vasoconstriction (narrowing of the arteries), increases in blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac contractile force, irregular heart rhythms, as well as the usual adverse effects associated with stimulants, such as disruption of sleep patterns. • Professional footballers are 10 times more likely than average to develop arthritis of the hip,

• Grieving owners who want to bring back their dead pet with cloning will end up with an animal that may not act or even look like the original, according to studies of the first cloned cat. CC (for carbon copy) is just over a year old. Her birth made headlines worldwide when it was announced last February because it was the first time a household pet had been cloned. Now researchers at Texas A&M university have compared CC with her genetic mother, Rainbow, to show that cloning does not mean duplication. While Rainbow is a typical calico with splotches of brown, tan and gold on white, her clone has a striped gray coat over white. While Rainbow is reserved, CC is curious and playful. (The Daily Telegraph 23/01/03; p.3) • The distinctive smell inside a new car, often a source of satisfaction to owners, comes from the same form of pollution that causes “sick building syndrome” a study shows. The smell of a new car could contain up to 35 times the health limit set for volatile organic chemicals in cars in Japan, making its enjoyment akin to glue-sniffing, according to researchers from the Osaka Institute of Public Health in Japan. The chemicals found included ethyl benzene, xylene, formaldehyde and toluene used in paints and adhesives.

• The ordinary matter of our everyday world is overwhelmingly comprised of empty space - It is composed of molecules, with plenty of space around each of these. These are bonded together by electromagnetic forces, which makes matter appear solid. The molecules are in turn made of atoms, with lots of empty space around each atom in each molecule. Finally, atoms themselves consist of an extremely tiny core or "nucleus" that contains 99.99% of their mass but only a tiny fraction of their volume, with a cloud of tiny electrons spinning around each nucleus at a great distance from it. The nucleus takes up so little of the space in an atom that if it it was the size of an orange, the nearest electron in your average atom would be a pinprick 10km (6 miles) away!! Thus, when matter is completely collapsed into almost 100% nuclear matter, as in a neutron star, it weighs over 100 million tonnes per cubic centimeter (the size of a child's marble). • The lure of getting "something for nothing" (or almost nothing) is ancient: lotteries were used in the entertainments of the Roman emperors and later of the feudal princes of Europe. The first state lottery is believed to have been held in 1520 in France, where lotteries became an important source of royal revenue. Private lotteries also flourished in France until 1776, when all were suppressed or merged into the royal lottery. In Italy lotteries became popular after 1530, when the city of Florence held one offering money prizes. The lottery was introduced in England in 1569 under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I. In the American colonies lotteries were authorized by the colonial legislatures to raise funds for such public purposes as the paving of streets, the construction of wharves, and the erection of churches. Lotteries to finance buildings for Yale and Harvard colleges were held in 1750 and 1772, respectively. In 1777, the Continental Congress attempted to raise funds by lottery for the revolutionary army. • Penguins often build nests out of many small stones. The current record is held by a gentoo penguin whose Antarctic nest was constructed from over 1700 little rocks! • Smallpox, until its eradication from the general population of the world in the 1970s, was probably the most deadly disease our species has ever faced. An estimated 500 million people were killed by smallpox in the 20th Century. • A recent study found out that the scent of hot pumpkin pie was the #1 stimulator of blood flow to the penis in American men, followed by cinnamon buns fresh out of the oven with vanilla coming in a close third. For women the effect of scent was less pronounced, but pickles combined with licorice seemed to do the trick for some - even when they weren't "with child"!! • Men are most physically attracted to women who have a waist diameter that is 70% of their hip size - the classical "hour glass" figure. A study showed that women with waist to hip ratios of between 0.68 and 0.72 were twice as likely to become pregnant, all other factors considered, than those very much outside that range. Women prefer men who have a waist about 90% that of their hips, but as with scent, this is not as pronounced a tendency as with men. It seems women consider a much broader number of factors when choosing a potential mate, so any particular factor carries correspondingly less weight. • The herpes virus, which causes cold sores and other nasty but generally nuisance-like manifestations, is present in some form in almost 85% of the world's population. It "hibernates" in nerve cells, making it impossible to get rid of using any method found so far, and is activated primarily during times of stress. • Newton thought that the speed of gravity is instantaneous - that it took no time at all to propagate. Einstein, however, assumed that gravity traveled at the speed of light, and built this into his equations, which have been the bedrock of modern physics since the early 1900s. In December, Einstein was proven right once again: Ed Fomalont of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Sergei Kopeikin of the University of Missouri in Columbia used an "occultation" (an event where one heavenly body moves in front of another, hence hiding it ("occult" means something hidden)) of a distant quasar by Jupiter, and a pile of very fancy mathematics, to indirectly clock the speed of gravity at 0.95 ± 0.25 light speed. So, if the sun were to disappear suddenly, the earth would remain in its orbit for about 8 minutes, then it would take off into space in a straight line, third star on the left and don't stop until morning! • Many satellites designed to explore the solar system and beyond, are proving their mettle by lasting far longer than anyone expected they would. The Galileo space probe, sent off in 1989 to explore the hostile environs of the Jupiter, is an excellent example. It has just completed its final mission, passing very close to our solar system's largest planet and collecting data on its inner part of the intense electromagnetic radiation belt and the so-called "gossamer" ring which extends from the outer atmosphere to the small moon Amalthea (which acts as a "ring shepherd"). Although the recording unit was damaged by the strong radiation and it shut down in the last portion of the fly-by, scientists have managed to re-activate it (Dec. 2002) and are in the process of downloading the recorded information a few minutes' worth at at time. It has lasted 5 years longer, and has withstood 4 times as much radiation than originally designed to endure, and is due to deliberately crash into the gas giant in Sept. 2003 in one final experiment, in order to prevent possible contamination of the moon Io, whose frozen ocean is thought by some to possibly contain primitive life. • The most expensive stamp in the world is the Sweden 1855 Three Skilling Yellow. It is a unique color error of Sweden's first stamp, orange yellow rather than the normal blue-green color of that issue. While a regular Sweden #1 catalogs $7,250, the Three Skilling Yellow sold last year at auction for $2.27 million! With that, it stole the title of the world's most expensive stamp from the Mauritius Penny Magenta, also a unique stamp. The Penny Magenta last sold in 1980 for the "measly" price of $935,000, to John E. duPont, heir to the duPont chemical fortune. DuPont was recently convicted of third-degree murder, with the jury deciding that he was mentally ill, so it's hard to tell what will happen to the Penny Magenta now... • Cobras do not "dance" to the music of snake charmers - instead, they follow the head of the man with the strange instrument. Snake charmers are able to pat their deadly charges on the head with impunity, since cobras are incapable of moving their neck muscles to bite something over their heads. • One third of German children are on some sort of medication and 20% have major medical problems such as diabetes or chronic asthma. • An international organization (whose name i forget!!) that tracks reported internet "hacking" incidents (where websites or computers have been broken into by someone at a distant location), collected records on over 83 million hostile internet attacks in 2001 - war on the web!!! • Henry VIII was a major collector of buttons. A rival king's envy over his ostentatious display of buttons at a particular meeting, is said to have been a factor in his starting a war!! • Stamp collecting is a VERY popular hobby, and a lucrative one for the producers: many countries issue scores or even hundreds of colorful stamps per year in order to tempt collectors and earn hard currency. The tiny South American country of Guyana may hold the record for this: they issued 497 new stamps in 1995 - 4% of the nearly 13,000 stamp issues for that year! • Polyurethane foam is said not to burn by foam salesmen, and it is true that it doesn't catch fire easily. But it is also true that once it does ignite, it explodes like gasoline and releases poisonous cyanide gas. It was definitely NOT one of the 20th century's better innovations... • The coldest temperature ever recorded on earth was at Vostok Station at the south pole. It was -91 C (131 below 0 F). This is cold enough to shatter some forms of steel!! • The world's warmest temperature was recorded as 136 F (57.8 C) at El Azizia, Libya, on 13 Sep 1922. Death Valley (at the famous Greenland Ranch) is close behind, at 134 F (56.7 C), recorded on 10 Jul 1913. For the sake of comparison, bath water is considered VERY hot at 120 F, and scalding water is only 46 C (125 F). • Most bacteria and viruses do not kill their hosts outright, and those that do usually take a while to do it, giving themselves time to reproduce. Anthrax, however, takes a different approach: it kills quickly via a complex, multi-pronged attack: Upon entering the body, anthrax bacteria releases large quantities of three toxins: one, oddly enough called Protective Antigen, attaches to a protein on cell walls called the Anthrax Toxin Receptor. It forms a "door" for the other two poisons to enter the cell, and then combines with the other two proteins to finish the job of killing the host. One of the toxins - Edema Factor, causes cells to lose much of their water, which goes into the fluid between cells and causes swelling. This is particularly damaging in the lungs, where the swelling blocks off the airways and, in combination with fluid that leaks into the lungs themselves, cuts off the air supply. Lethal Factor, the other toxin, first cuts up a protein that helps cells communicate with each other, thus isolating them - which causes them to shut down their reproductive activities and become inactive. Lethal Factor (ie, when combined with Protective Antigen - alone, it is harmless) also causes the massive release of another protein which causes inflammation and the destruction of immune system cells called macrophages, rapidly causing shock and death. After the host dies, the Anthrax bacteria quickly go on a reproducing spree, essentially using the dead body as a "factory" to produce billions of extremely long-lived spores which can lie dormant in soil for hundreds of years until they are blown into the lungs of an unsuspecting mammal in the company of dust, and the cycle repeats. Don't have nightmares over this, however: although widespread in nature (especially around farms), anthrax seldom becomes concentrated enough to cause lethal infections, and scientists are very close to developing an antidote to it which would severely limit its threat as a terrorist weapon. • There are over 400 million ways to lace a shoe which has only 7 pairs of eyelets. A team of mathematicians at the University of Melboune in Australia has just perfected a computer program that calculates what the strongest ways of lacing up shoes with any number of eyelet pairs. Turns out the most popular few are also the best, strength-wise!! • The most successful ice hockey player of all time has to be Canada's Wayne Gretzky, who has held at least a piece of 81 NHL records, including the most points scored in one season (215 in 1983/84 - 255 including playoffs!), most 100 point seasons (15 out of 20 he played), most total points (2857 in regular season play, 3239 including playoffs), most goals (1016 - regular and playoffs (Gordie Howe ("Mr. Hockey") is second at 869 NHL goals)), most goals in a season (92, in 1981/82)...... However, the most impressive of his records is the 1963 assists in regular season play, which by comparison, is 900 more than second place Gordie Howe, at 1049. His 163 assists in the 1985/86 season also raised more than a few eyebrows. It was said that at any given time he knew almost exactly where all the his team mates were on the ice, so he could pass to them without a second thought. To top it all off, he quit while he was still one of the best players in Major-League hockey, while he still had his body intact - instead of cracked up in important places such as the lower back, which tends to suffer from the constant toll of jolts received in the extremely physical game favored by fans of the game these days. He made a LOT of loot from endorsements, and invested much of it well. These days, he owns an NHL team, coaches the Canadian Olympic team, and is known as an all-round nice guy and role model - now that's what i call a well rounded athlete!!! • The 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery that helped kick the civil rights movement into high gear, was not quite as simple a matter as it is popularly portrayed. It had been planned since the year before, as a one-day affair - a city-wide protest but only a brief, dramatic one. The organizers, who included Martin Luther King, were waiting for the "right" person to be arrested for not giving up their seat to a white man. The first candidate was 15 year old Claudette Colvin, who was reluctantly disqualified when it was discovered she was pregnant! When Rosa Parks, a college graduate working as a seamstress because she could not find employment in her chosen field, came along, she was deemed to be perfect - no skeletons in her closet or blotches on her record, and quite symbolic of the black struggle at the time. The boycott began on Dec. 1, 1955, and by the time the dust settled, the buses of Montgomery were fully de-segregated by decree of the Supreme Court. It ended on Dec. 26 1956 - and the light at the end of the long dark tunnel of legal racism in the USA shone considerably brighter. For some further fascinating details, see http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/civilrights-55-65/montbus.html . • The world's fastest land non-flying animal, the cheetah, has an aerodynamically-tipped tail that helps it turn quickly while engaged in high-speed dinner-chases. • Venus is perhaps the strangest planet in our solar system. It has been called earth's "sister planet" because of its similar size and gravity, but is VERY different: It has an atmosphere 90 times as dense as earth's, composed mostly of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, and virtually no water. At the height of about 60 km (35 miles), winds of over 400 km/hr (250 mph!) race around the planet, and this "super-rotation" is postulated to have slowed Venus' rotation to its present snail's pace - it rotates in a counter-clockwise direction, once every 150 earth days. Although estimated at over 4 billion years in age, the entire surface of Venus appears to be less than 500 million years old, indicating an extensive period of (?? - SOMETHING interesting!!) around that time. • Hell's inspiration? The surface temperature of Venus is a scorching 800° C (450 F): zinc would be molten there!! It is thought that this is the result of either a "runaway", or a "wet" greenhouse effect (link) caused by the high proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: CO2 absorbs much of the heat radiated by a planet's surface, and re-radiates it back into the atmosphere, heating up the joint. This same "greenhouse effect" is believed by a majority of scientists to be responsible for the rapid rise in temperature on our own planet, in the past 150 years. • The continent of Africa has become "disconnected" from the global economy in recent decades, due to a combination of war, civil unrest, lingering racism, rampant "first world" protectionism, widespread drought, unstable political situations, and AIDS. Its total exports are now only about 50% that of the tiny country of Belgium. • Fungi (which includes mushrooms, slime and all other molds, lichens and a host of other odd stuff) are an entire kingdom of life - parallel with plants and animals. About 72,000 species of fungi have been described so far, but this is estimated to be only five percent (5%) of the total, since they are very poorly known. • For all Wayne Gretzky's much fame and prowess (he truly earned the appellation "The Great One"), he pales a bit by comparison to Frank McGee's regular season and Stanley Cup Playoff records, which took place pre-NHL, so don't make most of the record books: The record for most goal scoring in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is still held by Mr. McGee. He scored 63 goals in 22 games in the 1902-1906 Stanley Cup Playoffs. In the regular 1905 season, McGee scored 71 goals in 23 games. On Jan. 16, 1905, McGee scored 14 goals in a Stanley Cup game, as Ottawa trounced Dawson City 23-2. That is still a Stanley Cup record. In that game, McGee scored eight consecutive goals in eight minutes and 20 seconds. Three of these came in a span of 90 seconds and the fourth came 50 seconds later. • Lichens are a fascinating symbiotic (ie, mutually beneficial) relationship between fungi and algae. The algae use their photosynthetic abilities to generate food from sunlight, air and the nutrients that the fungi gather, while the fungi hold fast to the substrate (which varies from rocks to earth to tree bark) and provide structure to the combination-organism. • The lichen known as "Rock Tripe" (Umbilicaria mammulata) has been used by explorers and natives in tight spots, to sustain life for up to 6 months. It produces nasty stomach cramps and other unpleasant effects, but it can keep you alive for a long time: it gets the job done!! • Lightning travels at over 90,000 miles (145,000 km) per second - half the speed of light! What we see as a single flash of lightning is in fact several bolts that travel up and down along the same path in rapid succession. The first strike (usually an upward one, interestingly enough!) is much weaker than the first return bolt in the opposite direction. • Mushrooms can provide a LOT of great eating: truffles, chitake, morels and other delectable morsels are a gourmet's "raison d'être". That said, many fungi are deadly poisonous, and if one is not REALLY careful, can turn into one's Last Supper!! It is well and truly said that "There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.". • The Amanita mushrooms are the deadliest on the planet. They include the infamous Death Angel, Destroying Angel, and Death Cap (A. phalloides: the world's #1 killer mushroom), which are found widely in Europe and North America. The protein responsible for most of the deaths associated with these sneaky killers does not cause symptoms right away: 6-24 hours after ingestion there may be an early feeling of unease, followed by violent cramps and diarrhea. On the third day, there is a remission of symptoms, but it is false. On the 4th to 5th day the enzymes increase and liver and kidneys are severely affected. Death often follows if a liver transplant or other heroic measures are not performed. • Air pollution is estimated to be a "major contributing factor" in nearly 140,000 premature deaths per year in North America. Terrorism, by contrast, has killed about 5,000 people in North America since, say, 1900. Guess which causes the most concern and paranoia? (ok, i admit this is not a "fact", but a social commentary - our society is heavily influenced by two ugly forces which actually belong to the same coin: greed and fear. The odd thing about the fear side of the social equation is that people do not usually fear things that happen every day, all the time - automobile accidents, parental abductions, child and spousal abuse, drug overdoses, iatrogentic (ie, "medical system"-associated) errors, deaths from air and other pollution, etc. What they fear most is the unexpected - airplanes crashing into buildings, gunmen in dark alleys, stranger abductions, anthrax in the mail..... vast amounts of worry, energy, attention, paranoia and taxpayer dollars are spent trying to prevent a few unexpected events, while by contrast the vast majority of the negative forces in our world are simple accepted as "the usual" - the normal, un-newsworthy background to our lives. So, we get TRULY wierd facts such as governments ready, willing, able and eager to spend $100 billion dollars (and kill up to half a million people in the process) to prevent a so-called "rogue state" from lobbing an atom bomb they probably don't even possess at the world's only superpower, while a fund of less than a billion dollars set up to combat AIDS, the most deadly (numerically) disease our species currently faces, may run out of money in two years due to lack of interest by the same states that routinely spend a thousand times that much each year on ways of killing people (virtually always under the guise of "self defense"......).) • The largest "rammed earth" (earth rammed down firmly, between two harder surfaces - in this case stone) structure on earth is the Great Wall of China. Interestingly enough, the second largest is an office building in Australia. • Ever wonder what the real difference between light meat (breasts) and dark meat (legs) on a chicken is?? I finally found out the other day: the breasts are the muscles used to operate the bird's wings. A chicken uses its wings only in short, quick bursts, to get away from foxes and people seeking dinner. So, they are mostly "fast twitch" muscles which contain little fat, and hence are drier and lighter in color. The leg muscles are used all day long for walking, so they are mostly "slow twitch" muscle fiber, which needs more fat to use as fuel for sustained locomotion - so these muscles have more fat and are darker in color. • The active ingredients in the hallucinogenic Fly Agaric mushroom (see below for details) are relatively rapidly removed from the body by the kidneys. They retain their "magical" properties, and if one drinks the urine of someone having a trip on this potentially-deadly-but-still-popular warty red-capped critter, one will soon join them in never-never land! The effect can be passed along to as many as 5 consecutive people "downstream" (pun intended!). • Ducks have no white meat - only dark (see above item for details). This is because they use their wings for flying long distances, and their legs for swimming. So, they have a lot of slow-twich muscle fibers in their breast muscles, which makes them dark. Of course they also must have their fair share of "fast" fibers since they are quite capable of high-speed escapes when the situation calls for immediate action! • Io, Jupiter's 2nd largest is the most volcanically active heavenly body in the solar system. Tidal stresses from the huge gravitational force of Jupiter heat up its interior and the result is gigantic eruptions that shoot magma up to 5 km high, and cover thousands of square km. Recently, the intrepid satellite Galileo photographed and sent back data from Io, capturing a gigantic eruption in progress. • About 20 billion "used" diapers are buried in U.S. landfills every year, representing about 7 billion pounds (3.175 billion kg) of garbage. They take around 500 years to decompose. To my mind, this is a recipe for "deep doo-doo"! • Malaria kills about a million people each year, mostly children under 5, whose immune systems are not developed enough to deal with the parasite. It would cost about $2 billion US dollars per year to control malaria and eliminate at least half of these deaths. However, this level of worldwide commitment to preventing half a million deaths per year, is not likely to be achieved any time soon, largely for political reasons and for the simple fact that most of the deaths occur in the poorest countries, who cannot pay for medicines to tackle the problem - it wouldn't pay drug companies or first-world governments to develop them. • The Antarctic ice sheet contains 71% of the world's fresh water. Greenland has another 6% frozen up, while all the other ice fields and glaciers in the world combined hold about 2% of the fresh water supply for the earth. • Only about 1% of a man's sperm are actually viable (ie, able to penetrate an egg and produce a baby). The purpose of the other 99% is unknown - some say the unequal ratio is the result of inefficient mass-production of millions of sperm at a time, while others speculate that they are meant to compete with other guys' swimmers, which is a sad commentary on how promiscuous "unenlightened" human nature is! • Squirrel mothers don't need eyes in the back of their head to see what their little darlings are up to: their eyes are positioned so they can see behind them if they suspect mischief! • Some reptiles (such as the common gekko) have eyes that operate independently of each other, so the animal can see in two different directions at the same time. • Unexploded bombs, mines and other deadly leftovers from WWI and WWII still litter Europe and northern Africa. As an example, the still lethal residue (especially mines) from one battle - el Alamein in Egypt (1942) , has killed or seriously injured an estimated 7 to 10 thousand people in the past 20 years alone (to 2001). Mines are especially hazardous, since they are deliberately hidden in such a way as to make traveling through a given area as dangerous as possible. At least 50 million live land mines in 60 countries, pose a hazard to the general populace. They kill or maim about 20,000 people per year - far more than the total from say, terrorists, yet receive surprisingly little in the way of funding. • Red and gray squirrels can jump about 20 feet - not bad considering their size! Their hind legs are double jointed, which helps them scamper up and down tree trunks more easily. Their back feet have 5 toes and their front feet, 4 digits. They can survive falls of up to 100 feet. • The Gulf War of 1990 was one of the strangest wars in history. A few months before the bombing started, experts were predicting it would take 6 months and 20,000 to 50,000 USA casualties to shove Saddam and the boys out of Kuwait. When the depleted (yet still radioactive) uranium actually started to fly (about 290 tons of the deadly stuff was left behind!!), 100,000+ Iraqi soldiers, and 147 "Allied" military personnel died in battle (vs 148 who died in non-battle accidents), in addition to 25,000+ civilians. More tons of bombs were dropped than by all sides during WW II, and the direct cost was estimated at around 65 billion dollars - two thirds of a billion dollars an hour for 100 hours. However, it was not until AFTER the war that the true costs began to show up: about 100,000 Allied troops have come down with a debilitating mix of symptoms collectively dubbed "Gulf War Syndrome", and ~10,000 have died from it. It's existence is officially denied by most governments involved, but it is suspected to be the result of a) exposure to chemical warfare agents accidentally released, b) the aformentiontioned Depleted Uranium (inhaled in the form of extremely fine dust particles directly into the lungs), and c) other factors such as an untested cocktail of vaccines given to Allied troops. On the Iraqi side, strict, punitive embargoes and sanctions have been implicated in a number of deaths (largely children, women and unhealthy or weakened civilians) estimated variously at between 200,000 and 800,000, and UN studies are implicating that nasty "depleted" uranium in many cancers and congenital malformations probably due to genetic damage. A footnote to this carnage is the fact that a majority of the "Allied" countries' citizens still consider the war to have been justified and the right thing to have perpetuated. • Hibernating arctic squirrels are the only mammal that can survive body temperatures below freezing (many fish and amphibians such as frogs can, but of the mammal clan, only the squirrels can be frozen and live!) • Soma anyone? The Fly Agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, is totally fascinating in several senses: it is a "wart-covered" forest dweller that can be found all over the planet, and contains two powerful hallucinogens: ibotenic acid and muscimol. This item comes under the heading "don't try this at home", i must stress - nasty stuff including death can occur if one eats these beasties the wrong way!! A. muscaria has been used in many cultures for religious reasons (like many hallucinogens, people use it to "communicate with the gods") or just for the powerful buzz it produces. The ancient Vikings often consumed them prior to battle, to help them get their minds into the fearless "berzerker" state, where they killed raped and pillaged without qualm or conscience. For some good links, see: http://leda.lycaeum.org/Taxonomy/Amanita_muscaria.47.shtml • Out-of-body experiences can be induced by stimulating a part of the brain called the right angular gyrus, Swiss researchers have discovered. They think a dysfunction in this region could account for the experience of leaving and floating above the body reported by some surgical and psychiatric patients. The right angular gyrus is close to areas involved in vision, hearing, balance and touch. It is thought that it could be responsible for integrating sensory information about the body, and that a failure to perform this task correctly could account for out of body experiences (OBEs). The angular gyrus is particularly susceptible to a drop in blood pressure, as happens during anesthesia. "It is in a frontier region between two vascular systems. If you have problems with arterial pressure this area is less nourished. Maybe that 'tickles' it - and that could be the underlying mechanism for OBEs", opines Margitta Seeck of Geneva University Hospital, who was a principle in the research. (summer 2002) • Amorphophallus titanium, the "Titan arum", a native of Indonesia, is often called a corpse plant because of its incredibly malodorous blossom, which can be up to 3m (10') high, and over a meter in circumference. The stench, created by a sulfurous compound that the plant heats up to enhance its power, attracts flies and gnats which pollinate the plant. This remarkable process takes up so much energy that blossoms are spaced about 10 years apart!! • "Iatrogenic", deaths are caused by accidents, errors and sometimes carelessness in the health-care system we rely upon to protect and save us from illness. They number an estimated 750,000 per year in North America - the region of the world that spends the most (by far!!!) on health care per capita, of any part of the world. This is not to say that the system is not working well, but it IS an interesting fact.... • The Crab Nebula, an enigmatic solar remnant of a huge supernova recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054, has been shown via a combination of photos from Hubble space telescope and the Chandra X-ray observatory, to be emitting huge jets of matter and antimatter from the neutron star at its center. The forces involved are so intense that the plasma in these 5 light year-long jets is traveling at half the speed of light! (that's 150,000 km or 93,000 miles per second). (see http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/19sep_crabmovie.htm?list155435 for details and some GREAT links to astronomy pages!!) • The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1 on Charles Messier's famous list of interesting objects in the sky that were not stars, planets or comets. It has expanded to over 10 light years across since its supernova beginning in 1054, and is still growing by about 1000 km (600 miles) per second. • The difference between the Chimpanzee genome and that of humans has recently been shown to be three times as large as previously thought - they only possess about 95% of our genetic makeup! (Sept. 2002) • The lead concentration in chocolate produced in parts of the world where leaded gasoline is still used (such as several African countries which produce much of the world's cocoa), is several times higher than in countries where unleaded is the preferred petrol. Although it would take a LOT of chocolate to produce lead poisoning, it is theoretically possible. • Two thirds of patients undergoing major heart operations suffer some form of mental impairment afterwards, such as a reduced ability to perform mental arithmetic or remember phone numbers. In half of these patients the problems are permanent. Most researchers think that minute fat droplets (from tissues damaged during surgery) lodging in the blood vessels of the brain are responsible. It is thought these block the supply of oxygen to tiny clusters of nerve cells at the ends of capillaries. • In ancient Sparta, the only way women could get their names on a tombstone was to die in childbirth. • Silver linings are everywhere! For example: Once stripped of its lethal genes the HIV virus could be used to deliver new treatments to places that other drugs could never reach such as tissues of the brain, spinal cord, liver and skeletal and heart muscle. Experts from the University of Cambridge recently found that the HIV virus is “completely unique” in the way in which it can “insert genes into cells that are not dividing”. The method of delivering genes into body tissues could potentially be used in genetic therapy for diseases including haemophilia, heart disease and cystic fibrosis. • Excess computer use, like any other excess, can be quite dangerous. A recent (Aug., 2002) study in Great Britain showed that over a third (36%) of children there aged 11 to 14, had "serious, ongoing back pains", mainly due to sitting in front of computers for long periods of time, with poor posture. They also found a high incidence of repetitive movement injuries, especially in the children's wrists and elbows. • A shark held with no male partner at Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium for the past six years has produced three babies in what zoo officials are calling "virgin births." (Aug., 2002). The trio of one-parent children are doing well, with no signs of Messiah complexes showing up so far. • The average automobile in North America produces about 5 tonnes of pollution per year. • The environmental conference in South Africa in Aug/Sept. 2002, released about 200,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, much of it related to transportation. • "Crazy Glue" (Cyanoacrulate) is one of an increasing number of strong, versatile glues that are revolutionizing many fields such as construction, surgery and dentistry. It was originally designed for plastic surgery (remember "bonds skin instantly"??), where it replaces sutures, thus reducing scaring to a minimum. Since then it has become a cultural phenomenon and a parental nightmare!! • In 1999 in Boston Mass., there was so much publicity surrounding the blossoming of a specimen of Titan Arum - Amorphophallus titanium - (often called the corpse plant because of the overpowering stench the 3m (10 foot) high flower emits), that the lineup to experience it was at one point over 2 miles (3.2km) long!! • On average, we each have about 1500 dreams per year. The only ones we remember are the ones interrupted by awakening and then reviewed before they vanish: since dreams do not form long-term memories (to our knowledge, ie.), any dream not re-processed by the conscious mind is gone forever!! • A Malaysian tribe called the Senoi centers much of its culture around dreams. At an early age, Senoi parents question their children closely about their dreams. • When you KNOW you are dreaming while you are actually in a dream state, this is called Lucid Dreaming. For a good review of the various methods used to achieve this interesting condition, see Lucid.html - a page i pirated and modified from a commercial website whose owners will probably not mind too much! (besides, these pages have a nasty habit of disappearing from the web......) A full seven percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes to the production of Guinness beer. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head. Dartboards are made out of horsehairs. Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox. The only planet without a ring is earth. It is said that when England is in danger a drum owned by Francis Drake rolls by itself. The Hindus of India once believed that the Earth was a huge bowl (to keep the oceans from falling off) held up by giant elephants standing on long pillars. No one back then ever thought to ask what the pillars were standing on! THE PARACHUTE WAS INVENTED BY DI VINCI IN 1515

THAT WAS THE BEST ICE CREAM SODA I EVER TASTED....DYING WORDS OF LOU COSTELLO..MARCH 3, 1959

EULE GIBBONS DIED OF NATURAL CAUSES Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows." Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing.

Strange but true facts about the Earth In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.

A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.

Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park, USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.

Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.

Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.

In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.

The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah'. It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.

The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.

The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.

Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.

Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.

The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.

There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.

The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.

Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane. Strange but True - People The world's largest palace has 1788 rooms. It was built for the Sultan of Brunei.

The world's largest recorded gathering of people was at a Hindu religious festival in India in 1989. It was attended by about 15 million people.

Abraham Lincoln went to school for less than a year. He taught himself to read and write.

The longest recorded swim was 2938 km down the Mississippi River in 1930. The swimmer spend 742 hours in the water.

Humans are no match for some animals. The rhinoceros beetle can carry 850 times its own weight on its back. The Emperor moth can detect smells 11 km away. The cheetah can run at 70 km/h. The Polyphemus moth eats 86,000 its own birth weight in 48 hours. The cries of South American howler monkeys can be heard 16 km away.

The longest jail sentence passed was in the United States - 10,000 years for a triple murder.

Levi Strauss made the first pair of blue jeans in 1850. They were intended as work trousers for American miners looking for gold.

In Ancient Rome only important people wore purple clothes. This is because the purple dye came from a particular kind of shellfish and was very expensive. -The first Halloween card was created in the 1920s. -166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the U.S. -There are, on average, 259 raisins in a box of Raisin Bran and 388 in a box of Premium Raisin Bran. -There is no ice covering Iceland. -The swastika was origionaly a symbol of peace and honor and is still used by Buddhists today. -Bart Simpson's voice on the Simpsons is actually done by a woman, Nancy Cartwright. -In 1797 James Hetherington inventented the top hat and wore it in public. He was arrested for disturbing the peace. . -There about 171 billion U.S. pennies in circulation. -Marriage makes a woman more likely to become depressed and a man less likely. -IBM holds the most U.S. patients. -Thomas Henry Huxley invented the word agnostic in 1869 because he was tired of being called an athiest. -John Wayne had the most leading roles in Hollywood with 141. -The largest snowflakes were 15 inches in diameter and 8 inches thick. -The word hitchhike was coined in 1926. -The first e-mail was sent over the internet in 1972. -Sunsets can be green in Antarctica. -The two most dangerous jobs in the U.S. are commercial fishing and logging. -Virus means poison in Latin. -Playing cards are round in India. -The Statue of Liberty is patented. -The most mentioned woman in the bible is Sarah at 56 times. -The Mayan Empire lasted six times as long as the Roman Empire. -Jerry Maguire was the highest grossing sports movie in history. -At least 8,000 human made objects are orbiting the Earth. -127 people ran the first New York City Marathon in 1970, 32,000 ran in 1998. -The Cincinnati Redstockings was the first baseball team to pay its players. -Rowing is the oldest American college sport still in existence. -The most expensive movie poster in history was the poster from 1932's The Mummy which auctioned for $453,000 in 1977. -The Tour de France bicycle race is 2,300 miles long. -When badminton was invented in India, it was known as poona. -Shakespeare's Hamlet has been adopted into film 49 times, Romeo and Juliet has been adopted into film 27 times. -The referee tossed a jump ball after every basket in basketball until 1937. -Mugging someone on the subay in Britain can get you life in prison. -An Italian deck of cards has no queens. -The common name for the animal anobium pertinax is Bookworm. -There are 1000 different chemicals in a cup of coffee. -Aztecs offered Tamales to the gods.... as well as humans. -A redwood's roots are only about 5 or 6 feet deep and spread out over about an acre. -Henry VIII was the eight English king to be called Henry and the first to be called "Your Majesty." -20,900 gallons of water flow from the Amazon river into the sea each minute. -The U.S. treasury mints about 37 million pennies a day. -Sound travels a mile in five seconds in the air and a mile in one second under water. -Every thousand years spring gets two thirds of a day shorter. -Angel Falls in Venezuela is 15 times higher than Niagra Falls. -Horse jockeys are the only U.S. athelets leagally allowed to bet on themselves. -The first baseball player to be named rookie of the year was Jackie Robinson in 1947. -If you get the recomended 8 hours of sleep each night you will sleep over 2,900 hours each year. -London police photographed the eyes of Jack the Ripper's victims because they thought his image might be recorded in them. -The 1909 Lincoln penny was the first U.S. coin to have a president on it. -Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. -The combined population of North American colonies in 1610 was 350. -When you use the breaks on your car, they generate enought heat to warm your house. -In 1952 Einstein called income taxes the "most difficult thing to understand." -Mickey Mantle is credited with the longest home run ever, 643 feet. -The face value of a Titanic boarding pass auctioned in 1999 was $8, it sold for $100,000. -Iron Age magazine once called Theodore Roosevelt a "drunk," he sued them and won 6 cents. -None of the passengers on the Mayflower had middle names. -The largest cast ever assembled for a film scene was 300,000 for the funeral scene in Gandhi. -The battle of Waterloo was fought in Pancenoit, 4 miles away. -Bagpipes were invented in Iran and brought to Scotland by the Romans. -The cost of mailing a letter by the pony express was $5 for half an ounce. -By the time he died in 1910, the king of Siam had fathered 370 children. -There are more than 1,000 people named Jim Smith in the Society of Jim Smiths. -Every lake in Ohio is manmade. -Poison Oak and Poison Ivy are members of the cashew family. -The fine for leaving a public toilet unflushed in Singapore is $150. -Murders have claimed more American lives during the 20th century than wars have. -September 20th is "Love your teeth day" in China. -The ice cream cone was originally a way to hold flowers, not ice cream. -In ancient times, Iron cost more than gold. -Leather has enough nutritional value to sustain life for a short time. -1 in every 4 Americans has appeared on T.V. -More money is spent on gardening than any other hobby. -If you lined up all the slinkys ever made in a row they could wrap around the Earth 126 times. -In medievil Japan, dentists extracted teeth with their hands. -Technically speaking, a female "dude" is known as a "dudine." -Belgains have tried to deliver mail using cats. It didn't work. -In ancient Egypt, pillows were made of stone. -In the middle ages chicken soup was considered an aphrodisiac. -Ancient Rome had a rent-a-chariot business. -In snow skiing, most men fall on their faces while most women fall on their behinds. -Ropesville, Lariat, and Loop are all towns in Texas. -The average cat has 24 whiskers. -Fort Worth Texas was never a fort. -There are more telephones than people in Washington D.C. -The Oval Office is only 22 feet long. -When astronomer Tycho Brahe lost the tip of his nose in a duel he replaced it with a gold one. -The fish reel was invented around 300 A.D. -Grocery shoppers spend an average of 8 minutes waiting in line at the supermarket. -The average cost of a movie ticket in 1940 was 24 cents. -If you are standing on a mountain top and the conditions are just right you can see a lit match from 50 miles away. -There are 68,000 miles of phone line in the Pentagon. -When the golf ball was introduced in 1848, it was called a "gutta-percha." -The average car in Japan is driven 4,400 miles per year, in the U.S. its 9,500 miles per year. -The gnomon is the thing that casts the shadow on a sundial. -The oldest person to ever be issued a driver's license in the U.S. was 109. -The Statue of Liberty's fingernails weigh about 100 pounds apiece. -A rouleau is another name of coins wrapped in a roll of paper. -A single pair of Elvis' underpants has an estimated value of $1,300. -In the 13th century, Europeans baptized children with beer. -The typewriter was invented before the fountain pen. -Before Prohibition, the most common form of drinking beer at home was drinking it out of a bucket filled at a local pub or brewery. -The U.S. has never lost a war in which mules were used. -Louis XIV owned 413 beds. -If you were to count off 1 billion seconds it would take you 31.7 years. -The Pentagon spent $50 million on Viagra for American troops and retirees in 1999. -Each year, Americans use enough foam peanuts to fill ten 85-story buildings. -The parents of the groom pay for the weddings in Thailand. -A