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At one time, Venus
de Milo had arms.
At sea level there
are 2,000 pounds of air pressure on each square foot of your body area.
At the age of 26,
Michelangelo began sculpting his monumental statue of David. He finished
it seventeen months later, in January, 1504.
At the beginning
of the year 2001 all Canadian cigarette packaging will depict graphic
images of rotting teeth and deteriorating organs.
At the distance
at which our sun is located from the center of the Milky Way galaxy,
Earth and the rest of our solar system are moving at a speed of about
170 miles per second around the center.
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.
At the end of WWII
the Germans had more planes than the start of the war.
At the height of
its power (400 BC) the Greek city of Sparta had 500,000 slaves and only
25,000 citizens.
At the time of the
U.S. Revolutionary War, Philadelphia was the second largest English-speaking
city in the world, surpassed only by London.
At Will's first
competition he competes with the sword, and after his first victory
Jeff gives a little speech which recieves no response until one of Will's
friends cheers. this was a mistake none of the extras spoke english
and so missed their cue to start cheering, and needed a reminder from
one of the lead actors. This scene was going to be shot but the director
decided this was better than what they had planned.
Attila the Hun (invader
of Europe; 406-453), Felix Faure (French President; 1841-1899), and
Pope Leo VIII (d 963-965) all died while having sex.
Audrey Hepburns
real name was Edda van Heemstra Hepburn-Ruston.
August 9, 1173 marked
the first day of construction on the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was completed
sometime in 1370 after two building stoppages. In 1178, when the tower
was three stories tall, construction was halted for unknown reasons.
It wasn't until 1272 that construction resumed, and that lasted until
1278 (the tower was seven stories at that point). In 1360, construction
of the belfry that would eventually hold seven bells began.
Aunt Jemima pancake
flour, invented in 1889, was the first ready-mix food to be sold commercially.
Australia has no
native monkeys. (in the wild)
Australia is a major
exporter of camels
Australia is the
only country that is also a continent.
Australian termites
have been known to build mounds twenty feet high and at least 100 feet
wide.
Australians consume
60% more coffee than tea, a sixfold increase since 1940.
Australia's box
jellyfish has toxins more potent than the venom in cobras, and is one
of the most dangerous jellyfish in the world
Average calories
burned daily by the sled dogs running in Alaska's annual Iditarod race:
10,000.
Average length of
a coat hanger when straightened: 44 inches.
Average number of
eggs laid by the female American Oyster per year: 500 million. Usually
only one oyster out of the bunch reaches maturity.
Average number of
hummingbirds required to create the weight of 1 ounce: 18.
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Average number
of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000. |
Average number of
squirts from a cow's udder needed to yield a gallon of milk : 345.
Avocados have the
highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.
Aztec emperor Montezuma
drank 50 golden goblets of hot chocolate every day. It was thick, dyed
red and flavored with chili peppers.
Aztec emperor Montezuma
had nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement."
Aztecs believed
that the sun died every night and needed human blood to give it strength
to rise the next day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to appease
their sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Most of the victims were prisoners taken
in wars, which were sometimes started solely to round up sacrificial
victims.
Babe Ruth hit his
first major-league home run on May 6, 1915. He was playing for the Boston
Red Sox at the time. 'The Sultan of Swat' went on to smash 714 round-trippers
before he retired, as a New York Yankee, in 1935.
Babe Ruth kept a
lettuce leaf under his hat to keep cool during a game.
Babe Ruth was able
to throw two baseballs in such a way that the balls remained parallel
to each other all the way from his hand to the catcher's glove. Ruth
was famous for this stunt and would demonstrate it on request.
Babe Ruth wore a
cabbage leaf under his hat while playng baseball, and he used to change
it every two innings.
Babies are born
with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our bodies.
Babies are born
without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6
years of age.
Babies crawl an
average of 200m a day
Babies' eyes do
not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks
old.
Baby elephants can
drink over 80 litres of milk a day. (Do you drink milk?)
Baby robins eat
14 feet of earthworms every day.
Back in 1924, a
monkey was convicted in South Bend of the crime of smoking a cigarette
and sentenced to pay a 25 dollar fine and the trial costs.
Back in the mid
to late 80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered 100% compatible
unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
Badgers and coyotes
hunt ground squirrels together. The badger tracks the squirrel and digs
into its tunnels, and the coyote catches it when it tries to escape.
Bald men have the
same amount of hair on their heads as other men.
Ballistics is the
science that deals with the motion of projectiles.
Ballroom dancing
is a major at Brigham Young University.
Balneology is the
science of swimming pools. Balneologists study problems of heating,
cleaning, maintenance, and construction.
Bamboo can grow
up to 36 inches in a day. Click here
Banana oil never
saw a banana; it's made from petroleum.
Banana plants are
the largest plants on earth without a woody stem. They are actually
giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.
Bananas are actually
herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, like all herbs do.
Bananas are America's
#1 fruit.
Bananas are one
of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. If left on the plant,
the fruit splits open and the pulp has a "cottony" texture
and flavor. Even in tropical growing areas, bananas for domestic consumption
are cut green and stored in moist shady places to ripen slowly.
Bananas are perennial
crops that are grown and harvested year-round. The banana plant does
not grow from a seed but rather from a rhizome or bulb. Each fleshy
bulb will sprout new shoots year after year.
Bananas were officially
introduced to the American public at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial
Exhibition. Each banana was wrapped in foil and sold for 10 cents. Before
that time, bananas came to America on the decks of sailing ships as
sailors took a few stems home after traveling in the Caribbean.
Banging your head
against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
Barbara Bush's book
about her English Springer Spaniel, Millie's book, was on the bestseller
list for 29 weeks. Millie was the most popular "First Dog"
in history.
Barbers are forbidden
by law from shaving a man's chest in Omaha, Nebraska.
Barbers at one time
combined shaving and haircutting with bloodletting and pulling teeth.
The white stripes on a field of red that spiral down a barber pole represent
the bandages used in the bloodletting.
Barbies full name
is Barbara Millicent Roberts
Barbie's measurements
if she were life size: 39-23-33.
Bart Simpson's voice
on the Simpsons is actually done by a woman, Nancy Cartwright.
Baseball is the
only sport that looks backwards in a mirror.
Baseball rules were
codified in 1846 by Alexander Cartwright of the Knickerbocker Baseball
Club.
Baseball's home
plate is 17 inches wide.
Baseball's National
League was born in 1876. Eight competing baseball teams met in New York
City's Grand Central Hotel. The first president of the new league was
Morgan Gardner Bulkeley, who later became a US Senator. The eight original
cities with teams were: Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia,
St. Louis, Louisville and Hartford. Two of the original teams are now
in the American League (Boston and New York) while Louisville and Hartford
are now minor-league baseball towns.
Based on a US Justice
Department study conducted between 1992 and 1996, workplace violence
troubles 1.7 million Americans a year. Number of workers attacked or
threatened per thousand: Police officers: 306, Private security guards:
218, Taxi drivers: 184, Prison guards: 117, Bartenders: 91, Mental health
professionals: 80, Gas station attendants: 79.
Basketball was invented
in 1891 by James Naismith. He set out to invent a game to occupy students
between the football and baseball seasons.
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Bats
always turn left when exiting a cave.
Bats are the only mammals that are able to fly. |
Bayer was advertising
cough medicine containing heroin in 1898.
Beards are the fastest
growing hairs on the human body. If the average man never trimmed his
beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his lifetime.
Beaver teeth are
so sharp that Native Americans once used them as knife blades.
Beavers can hold
their breath for 45 minutes.
Because metal was
scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
Because of Davy
Jones's popularity as a member of The Monkees, another young singer
in London, also named David Jones, was forced to change his name to
David Bowie.
Because of the speed
at which the sun moves, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last
more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.
Because of TV censorship,
actress Mariette Hartley was not allowed to show her belly button on
Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK [episode #78 "All Our Yesterdays"
in 1969] but later Roddenberry got even when he gave Hartley "two"
belly buttons in the sci-fi movie Genesis II (1973).
Beer has a bitter
taste and slightly pungent aroma because of lupulin, a substance found
in hops.
Bees and dogs can
smell fear
Bees can see ultraviolet
light.
Bees have five eyes.
Bees kill more people
a year than sharks do.
Bees visit over
2,000 flowers and fly over 55,000 miles to produce just 1 lb. of honey.
Beethoven dipped
his head in cold water before he composed.
Beethoven used to
pour cold water over his head to stimulate his brain before sitting
down to compose.
Beethoven who was
a coffee lover, was so particular about his coffee that he always counted
60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.
Beetles taste like
apples, wasps like pine nuts, and white worms like fried pork rinds.
Before 1850, golf
balls were made of leather and were stuffed with feathers.
Before 1859, baseball
umpires were seated in padded chairs behind home plate.
Before 1917, goalies
(in hockey) were not allowed to fall to the ice to make saves or else
they were penalized.
Before Columbus,
Europe had never tasted cord, potatoes, tomatoes, red peppers, sweet
potatoes, tapioca, chocolate, pumpkins, squash, coconuts, pineapples,
strawberries, and much more. Why? All these food items are native to
America.
Before jets, jet
lag was called boat lag.
Before roasting,
some green coffee beans are stored for years, and experts believe that
certain beans improve with age, when stored properly.
Before the 984 foot
high Eiffel Tower was built in 1889, the Washington Monument in Washington,
D.C. was the tallest building in the world at 555 feet.
Before the first
French cafe in the late 1700's, coffee was sold by street vendors in
Europe, in the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the forerunners of the sidewalk
espresso carts of today.
Before the merger
with MGM in 1981, eight of the top ten movies released by United Artists
were James Bond films.
Belgium is the only
country that has never imposed censorship for adult films.
Believe that Buddha,
Moses, Jesus, Muhammad... are all prophets from God? Have you heard
of the baha'i faith?
Ben Franklin invented
crop insurance.
Benjamin Franklin
was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.
Besides the genitals
and the breasts, the inner nose is the only other body part that routinely
swells during intercourse.
Betsy Ross is the
only real person to ever have been the head on a Pez dispenser.
Betsy Ross was born
with a fully formed set of teeth.
Bette Midler, Barry
Manilow and many other famous vocalists got their start in a New York
City club called The Continental Baths.
Between 1931 and
1969 Walt Disney collected thirty-five Oscars.
Between 1937 and
1945 Heinz produced a version of Alphabetti Spaghetti especially for
the German market that consisted solely of little pasta swastikas.
Between 1940 and
1987, a total of 94 patents had been taken out on shaving mugs.
Between 1991 and
1996, India produced the most movies per year on average. The 851 movies
per year beat the yearly average of the United States (569) by 282 for
the same time frame.
Between April 1st
and September 30th it is legal to capture and castrate any horse or
donkey that you find roaming around your property.
Bibliomancy is the
practice by some people of opening the Bible at random and being guided
for the day by whatever verse they see first.
Bilbo Baggins was
born on September 22 1290.
Bill Clinton is
the only President ever to be elected twice without ever receiving 50%
of the popular vote. He had 43 percent in 1992 and 49 percent in 1996.
Bill Gates began
his business career at the age of 14 by forming a company called Traf-O-Data
with some friends of his.
Bill Gates once
was an employee for Apple. He worked with Jobs and Wasniak (sp?) to
develop the OS for the first Apple computers. Later, he left Apple and
began his own little company, known as Micro-Soft. It later became known
as Microsoft... the reigning king of the software industry as we all
know it.
Bird droppings are
the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific.
Bird eggs come in
a wide variety of sizes. The largest egg from a living bird belongs
to the ostrich. It is more than 2,000 times larger than the smallest
bird egg, which is produced by the hummingbird. Ostrich eggs are about
7.1 inches long, 5.5 inches wide and typically weigh 2.7 pounds. Hummingbird
eggs are half an inch long, a third of an inch wide and weigh half a
gram, or less than a fifth of an ounce.
Birds are largely
unaffected by spicy things, like chilies, as they not sensitive to capsaicin,
the hot stuff in chilies.
Bittersweet chocolate
is what is usually called for in baking. It contains more chocolate
liquor (at least 35%) and less sugar than sweet chocolate. Semisweet
chocolate contains 15% 35% chocolate liquor.
Black lemurs are
the only primates that can have blue eyes.
Blaise Pascal's
father was a French tax collector who had trouble keeping track of his
collections. So in 1642, young Pascal designed and built a mechanical
adding machine to help. It was the first mechanical calculator in history.
Blondes have more
hair than dark haired people do.
Blood sucking hookworms
inhabit 700 million people worldwide.
Blue and fin whales
can create the loudest sound by animals ever recorded; sounds that have
more energy than jet plane noise.
Blueberry Jelly
Belies were created especially for Ronald Regan.
Bob Dylan's real
name is Robert Zimmerman, he changed it in honor of Dylan Thomas.
Bob Weir of the
Grateful Dead learned to play slide guitar on stage much to the chagrin
of Jerry Garcia.
Bock's Car was the
name of the B-29 Bomber that dropped the Atom Bomb on Nagasaki.
Boil in tin pot
twenty to twenty-five minutes. If boiled longer it will not taste fresh
and lively.
Boiled grape juice
was the fluid used as a lubricant for the first contact lenses. Eugene
Flick, who invented contact lenses in 1887, chose boiled grape juice
over sugar water to lubricate the thick glass lenses that covered the
entire eye.
Books on religion
outnumbered works of fiction by a 2 to 1 margin in 1870 England. Sixteen
years later, novels surpassed religious works.
Born on November
2, 1718, British politician, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich,
is credited with naming the 'sandwich.' He developed a habit of eating
beef between slice of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted.
Both George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson grew cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.
Both Hitler and
Napoleon were missing one testicle.
Bourbon whiskey
gets its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky, where local distillers
developed the drink around 1800.
Bowlers are allowed
to have a maximum of five finger grip holes on a regulation bowling
ball.
Boy George used
to go out with his drummer.
Bozeman, Montana,
has a law that bans all sexual activity between members of the opposite
sex in the front yard of a home after sundownif they're nude. (Apparently,
if you wear socks, you're safe from the law!)
Brabara Cartland
is the world's top-selling author with over 500 million copies sold.
Brain damage occurs
at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit.
Brazil accounts
for almost 1/3 of the world's coffee production, producing over 3-1/3
billion pounds of coffee each year.
Brazil got its name
from the nut, not the other way round.
Brazil is the fifth
largest country in the world (behind Russia, Canada, China and the United
States). Its only 300,000 square miles smaller than the United
States. Australia, India, Argentina, Kazakhstan and the Sudan round
out the Top 10.
Brazil is the location
of the worlds widest road. 160 cars can drive side by side.
Brazil is the only
country to have played in every World Cup soccer tournament.
Brigham Young invented
the department store. Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI
as it's known to those in Utah) is still in operation in Salt Lake City.
Britain's first
escalator was installed in Harrods in 1878.
Britain's present
royal family was originally named Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The name was
changed in 1917, during WW1 because of German connotations. The name
Windsor was suggested by one of the staff. At the same time the Battenberg
family name of the cousins to the Windsors was changed into Mountbatten.
Broccoli and cauliflower
are the only vegetables that are flowers.
Brown eggs come
from hens with red feathers and red ear lobes; white eggs come from
hens with white feathers and white ear lobes.
Bruce Lee was so
fast that they actually had to slow film down so you could see his moves.
Bruce Lee was the
Hong Kong 'cha cha' dance champion in 1958 He was also an American born
in San Francisco and had a German grandfather.
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Bubble
gum contains rubber. |
Buckingham Palace
has 602 rooms.
Bullet proof vests,
fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented
by women.
Bullfrog Dietrich
of the Chicago White Sox was the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter
while wearing eyeglasses. He did it in 1937.
Bulls are colorblind,
it is the motion of the cape which angers them.
Bulls are not attracted
to the color red
Bulls don't really
get angry when they see the color red, it's really movement that makes
them charge.
Bumping foreheads
with a hands shake is the traditional greeting in Tibet.
Bunny rabbits poop
almost every time they hop around in a newly-explored area.
Butterflies cannot
fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
Butterflies taste
with their feet.
BVD stands for the
organizers of the company: Bradley, Voorhies, and Day.
By 1850, the manual
coffee grinder found its way to most upper middle class kitchens of
the U.S.
By age sixty, most
people have lost half of their taste buds.
By feeding hens
certain dyes they can be made to lay eggs with varicolored yolks.
By raising your
legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
By the time a child
finishes elementary school she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and
100,000 acts of violence on television.
By the time you
turn 70, your heart will have beat some two-and-a-half billion times
(figuring on an average of 70 beats per minute.)
C3P0 is the first
character to speak in Star Wars.
Caffeine is on the
International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes
who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter
of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached
after drinking about 5 cups of coffee.
Caffeine: there
are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed
coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams
in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce
of milk chocolate.
Calculating DNA
length for each person, it would stretch across the diameter of the
solar system. 6 000 000 000 000 basepairx 0.6 nm x 1013 cell = 3.6x1016
metres
caliber machine
gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the
fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a
California's Frank
Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11-years-old.
Calling for shutgun
comes form the Western Days when in the wagon the guy sitting next to
the driver held a Shotgun for protection.
Calvin Coolidge,
was so famous for saying so little that a White House dinner guest made
a bet that she could get him to say more than two words. She told the
president of her wager. His reply: "You lose."
Calvin Coolidge's
Vice President Charles Dawes earned a Nobel Peace Prize.
Camel milk does
not curdle.
Camels have three
eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.
Campanology is the
study of bells.
Canada actually
comes from the word 'Kanata', a Huron or Iroquois word for village,
and Canada is a 'big village'.
Canada declared
national beauty contests canceled as of 1992, claiming they were degrading
to women.
Canada declared
that all national beauty contests to be cancelled in 1992, claiming
they were degrading.
Canada is an Indian
word meaning "Big Village."
Canada's national
sport is lacrosse not hockey.
Cancer is the second
leading cause of death in Orange County, California. Number one is heart
disease.
Cannibalism, eating
human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.
Canola oil is actually
rapeseed oil but the name was changed in Canada for marketing reasons.
Capsaicin, which
makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized
by casein, the main protein found in milk.
Captain Cook lost
41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage
to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795 the importance of eating citrus
was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships.
Captain Jean-Luc
Picard's (Star Trek) fish was named Livingston.
Captain Kirk never
said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up,
Mr. Scott."
Captain William
Driver, skipper of the brig Charles Doggett, was the first person to
call the American flag "Old Glory". He made a ceremony of
it in 1824.
Car wash attendants
in San Francisco, California may not use old pairs of underware to wash
or dry vehicles.
Carbonated soda
water was invented in 1767 by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen.
Cards may not be
played in the street with a Native American.
Carnegie Hall in
New York City opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.
Carnivorous animals
will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.
Carob trees do not
produce fruit until they are seventy years old.
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