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General Facts
General Facts
General Facts
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General Interesting Facts - New amazing facts are routinely added randomly to the list! Know more, then please send to
DBerro@aol.com
The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.
City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.
State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%.
Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7.
Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%.
Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%.
Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400.
Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage."
The youngest Pope was 11 years old.
Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer."
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (This was challenged and proved wrong by the TV show
"Mythbusters")
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.
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the
Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar.
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 leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the
ground, the person died of natural causes.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are
useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin
airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service.
Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg
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
Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by
watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to
the national anthem
Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast
voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated
Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there
The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep
Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836.
It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid
airborne particles resulting from the flush!
In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose
It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs,
not to death caused by that process.
The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of
dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis
slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of b lood pumped per heartbeat.
Dry cereal for breakfast was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the turn of the century
During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic
and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks,
one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back
Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832,left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his
body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It
was present at the meeting for 92 years.
Diet Coke was only invented in 1982.
Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead
plants and animals in the mud.
There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible.
The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller
than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The
efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent.
Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.
At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food
One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.
In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters.
There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and
hazardous
If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count
them all.
Less than 3% of Nestlé's sales are for chocolate.
The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change
More than 2500 left handed people are killed every year from using right handed products
It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk
The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph
Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death.
The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth
The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's
when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that
they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted
into the X
Nova Scotia is Latin for 'New Scotland.'
The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology.
Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word 'gadzooks'.
Only 2 blue moons (the saying 'only once in a blue moon ' refers to the occurrence of two full moons during one
calendar month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are January 1999 and March 1999
"Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed
Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when al original print had to be set in
individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters
In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'
From the book "Polish Your Furniture with Panty Hose" by Joey Green.
Copyright 1995. Reprinted with permission.
For more alternative uses for products, visit www.wackyuses.com
I highly recommend visiting his Joey's site :-)
BOUNCE...the stuff you use in your dryer:
IT............. Repels mosquitoes. Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during
mosquito season.
Eliminates static electricity from your television screen.
Since Bounce is designed to help eliminate static cling, wipe your television screen with a used
sheet of Bounce to keep dust from resettling.
Dissolves soap scum from shower doors. Clean with a used sheet of Bounce.
Freshens the air in your home. Place an individual sheet of Bounce in a drawer or hang one in the
closet.
Prevents thread from tangling. Run a threaded needle through a sheet of Bounce to eliminate the
static cling on the thread before sewing.
Eliminates static cling from pantyhose. Rub a damp, used sheet of Bounce over the hose.
Prevents musty suitcases. Place an individual sheet of Bounce inside empty luggage before storing.
Freshens the air in your car. Place a sheet of Bounce under the front sea
Cleans baked-on food from a cooking pan. Put a sheet in the pan, fill with water, let sit overnight
and sponge clean. The anti-static agents apparently weaken the bond between the food and the pan
while the fabric softening agents soften the baked-on food.
Place a sheet of Bounce at the bottom of the wastebasket. Collects cat hair. Rubbing the area
with a sheet of Bounce will magnetically attract all the loose hairs.
Wipe the blinds with a sheet of Bounce to prevent dust from resettling.
Wipes up sawdust from drilling or sandpapering. A used sheet of Bounce will collect sawdust like a
tack cloth.
Eliminates odors in dirty laundry. Place an individual sheet of Bounce at the bottom of a laundry
bag or hamper
Deodorizes shoes or sneakers. Place a sheet of Bounce in your shoes or sneakers overnight so they'll
smell great in the morning.
COCA COLA
Pour a can of Coca-Cola into the toilet bowl, Let the "real thing"sit for one hour, then flush
clean
The citric acid in Coke removes stains from vitreous china.
To remove rust spots from chrome car bumpers: Rub the bumper with a crumpled-up piece of Reynolds
Wrap aluminum foil dipped in Coca Cola.
To clean corrosion from car battery terminals: Pour a can of Coca-Cola over the terminals to bubble
away the corrosion.
To loosen a rusted bolt: Applying a cloth soaked in Coca-Cola to the rusted bolt for several minutes.
To remove grease from clothes: Empty a can of Coke into a load of greasy clothes, add detergent, and
run through a regular cycle. The Coca-Cola will help loosen grease stains.
It will also clean road haze from your windshield.
World Cup
Brazil last won the world cup in 1994. Before that they won it in 1970. Add 1970 and 1994, it equals 3964.
Germany last won in 1990. Before that they won in 1974. Add 1990 and 1974, it equals 3964.
Argentina last won the world cup in 1986. Before that they won it in 1978. Add 1978 and 1986, it equals 3964.
So going by this logic, The winner of the 2002 world cup is the same as the 3964 - 2002 = 1962 world cup. The 1962 world
cup was won by Brazil. It was really Brazil who won!!!
Here is a list of what I thought very funny. I left it in the form that I received it.
If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of
coffee.(Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that's more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body
to squirt blood 30 feet. (O.M.G.!)
A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Do not try this at home...... maybe at work.)
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. ("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")
A mantis breeder has assured me that you preying mantis can copulate with the male's head still attached, even
several times.
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. For a human, that would be equivalent to jumping the length of a football
field. (30 minutes...lucky pig... can you imagine??)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)
• Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.
• The 'You are here' arrow on a map is called the IDEO locator.
• MTV first aired at 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981. The first video was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' by The Buggles.
• There are more than 1,00 chemicals in a cup of coffee.
• The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth
• At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
• Pearls melt in vinegar.
• A lion's roar can be heard from five miles away.
• Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating.
• There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history.
• Hair and nails do not continue to grow after death. The skin recedes, making it appear to grow.
• Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland.
• Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.
• The cockroach dies from radiation and would not survive a nuclear war.
• In the southern hemisphere, water always swirl anti-clockwise down into a pipe.
• About 8 million blood cells die in the human body every second, and the same number are born each second.
• Eighteen per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions are from cars.
• Every year, the Moon moves a further 3.82cm from the Earth.
• It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.
• 35 meters of hair fiber is produced every day on the average adult scalp.
• Hair is the fastest growing tissue in the body, second only to bone marrow.
• Dolphins don't automatically breath; they have to tell themselves to do it.
•The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol, which is a term used in England.
• Onions get their distinctive smell by soaking up sulfur from the
soil.
• Nobel Prize resulted from a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered as a propagator of
violence-he invented dynamite.
• Whoopi Goldberg was a mortuary cosmetologist and a bricklayer before becoming an actress.
• Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries.
• Charlie Chaplin won third place in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest.
• Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated for some time. Another story states that:
Mickey mouse was not named after Mickey Rooney he was made on a train ride from New York after Walt found out he didn't
actually own Oswald the lucky rabbit. The mouse Walt drew was originally named Mortimor But his wife Lilly didn't like that
name so she suggested Mickey and the name stuck.
• Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he didn't wear pants.
• From 1942 until the end of World War II, Oscars were made out of plaster to conserve metal. After the war, the winners
received "real" replacement statues.
• The only Oscar statuette ever made of wood was presented to Edgar Bergen in 1938 for his "outstanding comic creation,"
his ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy.
• A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet.
• Pamela Lee-Anderson is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's
independence.
• Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other
with the traditional Japanese greeting.