Author Hunter S. Thompson,
who committed suicide recently, wanted to be cremated and his ashes
to be shot out of a cannon on his ranch.
Sports Illustrated magazine allows
subscribers to opt out of receiving the famous swimsuit issue each
year. Fewer than 1% choose this option.
There is a company that will
(for $14,000) take your ashes, compress them into a synthetic diamond
to be set in jewellery for a loved one.
The RIAA sued an 83 year old
woman, even though a copy of her death certificate was sent to the
RIAA a week before it filed the suit.
Two 1903 paintings recently sold
at auction for $590,000 - the paintings were in the famous "Dogs
Playing Poker" series.
Russian scientists have developed
a new drug that prolongs drunkenness and enhances intoxication.
Romanian fire-fighters could
not get their trucks close enough to a burning building, so they
put out the fire by throwing snowballs at it.
A perfect SAT score is 1600 combined.
Bill Gates scored 1590 on his SAT. Paul Allen, Bill's partner in
Microsoft, scored a perfect 1600. Bill Cosby scored less than 500
combined.
Motorists travelling outside
Salem, Oregon saw one of the "litter cleanup" signs crediting
the American Nazi party. Marion County officials had no choice but
to let that group into the adopt-a-road program. The $500 per sign
was picked up by Oregon taxpayers. The Ku Klux Klan is also involved
in the adopt-a-road program in the state of Missouri.
Spam filters that catch the word
"cialis" will not allow many work-related e-mails through
because that word is embedded inside the word "specialist".
McDonald's restaurants will buy
54,000,000 pounds of fresh apples this year. Two years ago, McDonald's
purchased 0 pounds of apples. This is attributed to the shift to
healthier menu options.
Mailmen in Russia now carry revolvers
after a recent decision by the government.
There are over 87,000 Americans
on waiting lists for organ transplants.
American made parts account for
only 1% of the Chrysler Crossfire. 96% of the Ford F-150 Heritage
Truck is American.
A Dutch court ruled that a bank
robber could deduct the 2,000 Euros he paid for his pistol from
the 6,600 Euros he has to return to the bank he robbed.
Only 6% of the autographs in
circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.
The time spent deleting SPAM
costs United States businesses $21.6 billion annually.
60.7 percent of eligible voters
participated in the 2004 presidential election, the highest percentage
in 36 years. However, more than 78 million did not vote. This means
President Bush won re-election by receiving votes from less than
31% of all eligible voters in the United States.
John Quincy Adams, sixth president
of the United States, loved to skinny dip in the Potomac River.
La Paz, Bolivia has an average
annual temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it has
never recorded a zero-degree temperature. Same for Stanley, Falkland
Islands and Punta Arenas, Chile.
41% of Chinese people eat at
least once a week at a fast food restaurant. 35% of Americans do.
A Wisconsin forklift operator
for a Miller beer distributor was fired when a picture was published
in a newspaper showing him drinking a Bud Light.
So many Americans decided not
to get a flu shot in winter 2004/2005 that there is now a surplus
of flu immunizations; if more people don't get flu shots soon, there
will be thousands of doses that will go to waste.
G-rated family films earn far
more money than any other rating. Yet only 3% of Hollywood's output
is G-rated.
Richard Hatch, winner of the
first "Survivor" reality series, has been charged with
tax evasion for failing to report his $1,000,000 prize.
The entire fleet of Unicoi County
Tennessee's salt trucks was rendered out of commission in one accident.
All three trucks were badly damaged when one of them began skidding
down a road, causing a chain reaction accident. Officials blamed
road conditions.
More people study English in
China than speak it in the United States of America (300 million).
Fast food provider Hardee's has
recently introduced the Monster Thickburger. It has 1,420 calories
and 107 grams of fat.
More than 2,500 left-handed people
are killed each year from using products that are made for right-handed
people.
For every person on earth, there
are an estimated 200 million insects.
There are 2,000,000 millionaires
in the United States.
1.5 million Americans are charged
with drunk driving each year.
A Georgia company will mix your
loved one's ashes with cement and drop it into the ocean to form
an artificial reef.
The Washington Times newspaper
is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
The busiest shopping hour of
the holiday season is between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Christmas Eve.
In 2002, women earned 742,000
bachelor's degrees. Men earned only 550,000 during the same year.
The difference is growing so large that many colleges now practice
(quietly) affirmative action for male applicants.
Most of the deck chairs on the
Queen Mary 2 have had to be replaced because overweight Americans
were breaking them.
Actor Bill Murray doesn't have
a publicist or an agent. (...and he is part owner of the St. Paul
Saints!)
The day after President George
W. Bush was re-elected, Canada's main immigration website had 115,000
visitors. Before Bush's re-election, this site averaged about 20,000
visitors each day.
Only 30% of stolen artwork worth
more than $1,000,000 each is recovered.
The typical American child receives
70 new toys a year, most of them during the holiday season.
90% of Canada's 31,000,000 citizens
live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.
Costco is the largest wine retailer
in the United States. Annual wine sales are about $700 million.
The worst air polluter in the
entire state of Washington is Mount St. Helens.
There are less than 100 surviving
American World War I veterans.
Actor Bruce Willis has filed
a lawsuit against the movie studio that produced his film "Tears
of the Sun", alleging he was struck in the forehead by a fake
bullet. Since 2002 (when the movie was in production), the lawsuit
claims he has endured "extreme mental, physical, and emotional
pain and suffering".
A ten year old mattress weighs
double what it did when it was new, because of the -ahem- debris
which is absorbed through the years. That debris includes dust mites
(their droppings and their decaying bodies), mould, millions of
dead skin cells, dandruff, animal and human hair, secretions, excretions,
lint, pollen, dust, soil, sand and a lot of perspiration, of which
the average person loses a quart per day. Good night!
About 20% of gift card recipients
never redeem the full value of the card.
SUVs, pickup trucks, light trucks
and minivans make up 54% of all vehicles sold in the first nine
months of 2004, up from 52% in 2003.
John Kerry's hometown newspaper,
the Lowell Sun, endorsed George W. Bush for president. Bush's hometown
newspaper, the Lone Star Iconoclast, endorsed John Kerry for president.
Only 939 of the 1,400,000 high
school seniors who took the SAT in 2004 got a perfect score of 1600.
Two of them are twin brothers Dillon and Jesse Smith from Long Island,
NY.
Billboard magazine has recently
launched a top 20 chart of cell phone ring tones.
The US Army is handing out $2,500
to Fallujah residents whose property was destroyed by US planes
and artillery.
George W. Bush, who presents
himself as a man of faith, rarely goes to church. Yet he won nearly
two out of three voters who attend church at least once a week.
In 2015, it is estimated that
half the federal budget will be spent on programs for the elderly.
Dolly Parton is planning on having
breast reduction surgery soon to relieve the pain on her back.
A private elementary school in
Alexandria, Virginia, accidentally served margaritas to its schoolchildren,
thinking it was limeade.
The Chicago Cubs are suing former
Hartford Courant newspaper carrier Mark Guthrie to get back $301,000
in pay that was intended to go to a Cubs pitcher with the same name.
The Tribune Company owns both the Hartford Courant and the Chicago
Cubs.
In February 2004, a Disneyland
employee was killed when he fell from a parade float and was trapped
between two float sections. OSHA termed this a serious workplace
violation, but Disney was fined only $6,300.
Even today, 90% of the continental
United States is still open space or farmland.
The second Saturday in September
is usually a popular time for weddings. Not in 2004, as most couples
did not want their anniversaries on September 11.
Mel Gibson has personally earned
almost $400,000,000 from his movie "The Passion of the Christ".
(Jesus!)
Austin High School in Texas has
removed candy from its vending machines. Now some enterprising students
are earning $200 per week dealing in black market candy.
In 2004, Virgin Atlantic Airlines
introduced a double bed for first class passengers who fly together.
The world's largest book, "Bhutan:
A Visual Odyssey" is in a Chicago public library. The book
measures 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide when open. It weighs 133 pounds.
If the recent U.S. election was
held in Canada, John Kerry would have beaten George Bush in a landslide
- 64% to 19%.
Oprah Winfrey and Elvis Presley
are distant cousins.
55% of Americans claim they would
continue working even if they received a $10,000,000 lottery prize.
The company that manufactures
the greatest number of women's dresses each year is Mattel. Barbie's
got to wear something.
All radios in North Korea have
been rigged so listeners can only receive a North Korean government
station. The United States recently announced plans to smuggle $2,000,000
worth of small radios into the country so North Koreans can get
a taste of (what their government calls) "rotten imperialist
reactionary culture".
La Paz, Bolivia is the world's
most fireproof city. At 12,000 feet about sea level, the amount
of oxygen in the air barely supports a flame.
The estates of 22 dead celebrities
earned over $5 million in 2004. These celebrities include Elvis
Presley, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, J.R.R. Tolkien and John Lennon.
George Washington spent about
7% of his annual salary on liquor.
Each year, more people are killed
by teddy bears than by grizzly bears. (YIKES!!)
If you disassembled the Great
Pyramid of Cheops, you would get enough stones to encircle the earth
with a brick wall twenty inches high.
Nearly one third of New York
City public school teachers send their own children to private schools.
The New York City Police Department
has a $3.3 billion annual budget, larger than all but 19 of the
world's armies.
CBS's fine for Janet Jackson's
"wardrobe malfunction" in the 2004 Super Bowl show was
$550,000. This could be paid with only 7.5 seconds of commercial
time during the same Super Bowl telecast.
In September 2004, a Minnesota
state trooper issued a speeding ticket to a motorcyclist who was
clocked at 205 mph. (I thought he was only doing 140??)
Al Gore's roommate in college
(Harvard, class of 1969) was Tommy Lee Jones.
In her later years, Florence
Nightingale kept a pet owl in her pocket.
The New York Jets were unable
to find hotel rooms for a game in Indianapolis recently because
they had all been booked up by people attending Gencon, a gaming
convention.
China is the world's largest
market for BMW's top of the line 760Li. This car sells for $200,000
in China - more than almost all people in China make in a lifetime.
A chef's hat is shaped the way
it is for a reason: its shape allows air to circulate around the
scalp, keeping the head cool in a hot kitchen.
Life expectancy for Russian men
has actually gone down over the past 40 years. A Russian male born
today can expect to live an average 58 years.
Each year, sixteen million gallons
of oil run off pavement into streams, rivers and eventually oceans
in the United States. This is more oil than was spilled by the Exxon
Valdez.
An employee of the Alabama Department
of Transportation installed spy ware on his boss's computer and
proved that the boss spent 10% of his time working (20% of time
checking stocks and 70% of the time playing solitaire). The employee
was fired, the boss kept his job.
In 1985, the most popular waist
size for men's pants was 32. In 2003, it's 36. (Lard asses!)
Solid structures (parking lots,
roads, buildings) in the United States cover an area the size of
Ohio.
A Brussels Airlines flight to
Vienna was aborted because the pilot was attacked in the cockpit.
The attacker was a passenger's cat, who got out of its travel bag.
Physicists have already performed
a simple type of teleportation, transferring the quantum characteristics
of one atom onto another atom at a different location.
At General Motors, the cost of
health care for employees now exceeds the cost of steel.
There is a regulation size half-court
where employees can play basketball inside the Matterhorn at Disneyland.
One of pitcher Nolan Ryan's jockstraps
recently sold at auction for $25,000.
Television stations hung banners
at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, including Al-Jazeera,
until it was noticed and taken down.
A woman was chewing what was
left of her chocolate bar when she entered a Metro station in Washington
DC. She was arrested and handcuffed; eating is prohibited in Metro
stations.
The New York City subway system,
in an effort to raise revenue, is considering selling sponsorships
of individual stations to corporations. Riders could soon be getting
off at Nike Grand Central Station or Sony Times Square.
The Nike swoosh was designed
by a Portland State University student, and purchased by Nike for
$35. (They were robbed!)
Gerald Ford once worked as a
cover model for Cosmopolitan magazine.
Gillette spent $1,000,000 to
place razor samples in the welcome bags handed out at the Democratic
National Convention, only to have them confiscated as they were
considered a threat. This caused huge delays at all security checkpoints.
Quebec City, Canada, has about
as much street crime as Disney World.
Jim Carrey voted in 2004 at the
Beverly Hills City Hall. He had an assistant wait in line for him,
however.
As part of a charity event, 500
cats were spayed and neutered in the cafeteria of an elementary
school. School was cancelled for days and $10,000 was spent on cleaning
and sterilizing the room.
The United States has five percent
of the world's population, but twenty-five percent of the world's
prison population.
Seven percent of Americans claim
they never bathe at all. (And they all live in Coon Rapids, MN)
The largest McDonald's is in
Beijing, China - measuring 28,000 square feet. It has twenty nine
cash registers.
A house in Baghdad worth $15,000
before the Iraq war now sells for $120,000 to $150,000.
There are between 5,000 and 7,000
tigers kept as pets in the United States.
The fertility rate in states
that voted for George Bush is 12% higher than states that favoured
John Kerry.
The chicken is one of the few
things that man eats before it's born and after it's dead.
The number of US college students
studying Latin is three times the number studying Arabic.
In 2004, one in six girls in
the United States enters puberty at age 8. A hundred years ago,
only one in a hundred entered puberty that early.
If you hook Jell-O up to an EEG,
it registers movements almost identical to a human adult's brain
waves.
Some dogs can predict when a
child will have an epileptic seizure, and even protect the child
from injury. They're not trained to do this; they simply learn to
respond after observing at least one attack.
32 out of 33 samples of well-known
brands of milk purchased in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California
had trace amounts of perchlorate. Perchlorate is the explosive component
in rocket fuel.
The remains of 125 people will
be launched into space where they will orbit the Earth for centuries.
(Why???)
The leading cause of on-the-job
deaths in workplaces in America is homicide.
So far, Congress has authorized
$152,600,000,000 for the Iraq war. This is enough to build over
17,500 elementary schools. (There goes our President again!)
Americans take an average of
just ten days per year vacation. In France, the law guarantees everyone
five weeks of vacation, and most full-time workers get two full
months vacation.
The IRS admits that one in five
people who call their help line get the wrong answer to their question.
20% of Americans think that the
sun orbits around the Earth.
Van Halen singer David Lee Roth
is training to be an EMT in New York City, and plans to be certified
by November 2004. (Funny how "JUMP" is his hit song.)
The thong accounts for 25% of
the United States women's underwear market.
On average, 40% of all hotel
rooms in the United States remain empty every night.
When you hear a bullwhip snap,
it's because the tip is travelling faster than the speed of sound.
There is a new television show
on a British cable called "Watching Paint Dry". Viewers
watch in real-time. Gloss, semi-gloss, matte, satin, you name it.
Then viewers vote out their least favourite.
The largest ocean liners pay
a $250,000 toll for each trip through the Panama Canal. The canal
generates fully one-third of Panama's entire economy.
French author Michel Thaler published
a 233 page novel which has no verbs.
The spring thaw finally allows
cemeteries in Alaska to start digging graves for those who died
during the winter. (Dad, what's that guy doing next to our pizza
in the freezer?)
When Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
turn 18 in mid-2004, they will take official control of a company
worth more than the gross national product of Mongolia. Their earnings
in 2003 topped $1 billion.
Orthodox rabbis warned that New
York City drinking water might not be kosher; it contains harmless
micro-organisms that are technically shellfish.
David Bowie thinks he is being
stalked by someone who is dressed like a giant pink rabbit. Bowie
has noticed the fan at several recent concerts, but he became alarmed
when he got on a plane and the bunny was on board.
A party boat filled with 60 men
and women capsized in Texas after all the passengers rushed to one
side as the boat passed a nude beach.
In 1997, a woman in Bradenton,
Florida lost her cat. In 2004, she got a call from the local animal
shelter. The cat turned up wandering the streets in San Francisco,
California. The cat's identity was proven with a microchip that
had been implanted prior to 1997.
Almost 20% of the billions of
dollars American taxpayers are spending to rebuild Iraq are lost
to theft, kickbacks and corruption. (That's OUR America!)
The treasury department has more
than twenty people assigned to catching people who violate the trade
and tourism embargo with Cuba. In contrast, it has only four employees
assigned to track the assets of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.
There are 40,000 New York City
cab drivers, who collectively drive more than a million miles each
day.
An estimated 800,000 senior citizens
voluntarily give up their driving privileges each year. The average
age at which they surrender the wheel is 85.
More than 8,100 US troops are
still listed as missing in action from the Korean War.
3,400,000 Americans are considered
"Extreme Commuters". These people commute over 90 minutes
round trip every day to work.
82% of Americans made a purchase
at Wal-Mart in 2002.
Oslo, Norway is the world's most
expensive city. A gallon on gas costs almost $5, and it costs $1.32
to use the public restrooms.
Villanova University's commencement
speaker this year is the actor who plays Big Bird.
In 1965, auditions were held
for the "Monkees" TV show. Some of the people who responded
(but were not hired) were Stephen Stills, Harry Nilsson, and Paul
Williams.
Kevin Spacey's older brother
is a professional Rod Stewart impersonator.
71% of office workers stopped
on the street for a survey agreed to give up their computer passwords
in exchange for a chocolate bar.
George W. Bush and John Kerry
are 16th cousins, three times removed.
If current trends continue, Medicare
costs will absorb 51% of all income tax revenues by 2042.
The prison system is the largest
supplier of mental health services in America, with 250,000 Americans
with mental illness living there.
Newest trend in the Netherlands:
Tiny jewels implanted directly into the eye.
Researchers have found that doctors
who spend at least three hours a week playing video games make about
37% fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery than surgeons who didn't
play video games.
Before he had his own show, Jerry
Seinfeld appeared on three episodes of the TV show "Benson"
as the governor's speechwriter.
There are 1,008 McDonald's franchises
in France.
Hostess Twinkies were originally
filled with banana filling. The filling was changed during World
War II when the United States experienced a banana shortage.
World War II veterans are now
dying at the rate of about 1,100 each day.
George W. Bush is probably going
to be the eighth president in US history to have completed a term
in office without ever having issued a single veto.
A deployed air bag adds as much
as $2,000 to the cost of repairing a vehicle. That's enough for
insurance companies to often declare the car "totalled".
For the first time in history,
the number of people on the planet aged 60 or over will soon surpass
those under 5.
A British gymnast survived a
fall from a fourth story window because he went into a somersault
and came down on two feet. (Cat-Man the Movie is next, right?)
One out of five people in the
world (1.1 billion people) live on less than $1 per day.
The Swedish pop group ABBA recently
turned down an offer of $2 billion to reunite.
The New Yorker magazine now has
more subscribers in California than New York.
Five years ago, 60% of all retail
purchases were made with cash or check. Now it's 50%. By 2010, 39%
of purchases will be made by cash or check.
35 Billion e-mails are sent each
day throughout the world.
The richest self-made American
under 40 is Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Computers. He is worth
$18 billion.
Legislators in Santa Fe, New
Mexico, are considering a law that would require pets to wear seat
belts when travelling in a car.
Life Savers got their shape by
a malfunctioning machine, which mistakenly punched a hole in the
centre of each candy.
SUV sales are up 18% in the first
quarter of 2004 vs. the same period of 2003, even though gas prices
are skyrocketing. Consumer surveys show that gas prices would have
to hit $3.75 per gallon before there will be any real impact on
SUV sales.
Airport security agents at Logan
Airport in Boston, Massachusetts caught a passenger trying to sneak
a severed seal head onto a plane inside a cooler. The man said he
was a biology professor and had found the dead animal on the beach.
Jimmy Carter once reported a
UFO in Georgia.
There are 150,000,000 cell phones
in use in the United States, more than one per every two human beings
in the country.
A Boeing 767 airliner is made
of 3,100,000 separate parts.
The average child recognizes
over 200 company logos by the time he enters first grade.
Last December, the House of Representatives
earmarked $50,000,000 to create an indoor rain forest in Iowa.
Amusement park attendance goes
up after a fatal accident. It seems many people want to ride upon
the same ride that killed someone. (FREAKS!!)
Jeffrey and Sheryl McGowen in
Houston turned to vitro fertilization. Two eggs were implanted in
Sheryl's womb, and both of them split. Sheryl gave birth to two
sets of identical twins at once.
For every ton of fish that is
caught in all the oceans on our planet, there are three tons of
garbage dumped into the oceans.
June Foray did the voice for
Rocky the Flying Squirrel and the Chatty Cathy dolls.
Japanese and Chinese people die
on the fourth of the month more often than any other dates. The
reason may be that they are "scared to death" by the number
four. The words four and death sound alike in both Chinese and Japanese.
People with initials that spell
out GOD or ACE are likely to live longer than people whose initials
spell out words like APE, PIG, or RAT.
More people in the United States
die during the first week of the month than during the last, an
increase that may be a result of the abuse of substances purchased
with benefit checks that come at the beginning of each month.
In the film Forrest Gump, all
the still photos show Forrest with his eyes closed.
There is an average of 18,000,000
items for sale at any time on EBay.
On eBay, there is an average
of $680 worth of transactions each second.
The New York Times reports that
in February 2004, 62% of all e-mail was spam.
A Massachusetts surgeon left
a patient with an open incision for 35 minutes while he went to
deposit a check.
In 1991, the average bra size
in the United States was 34B. Today it's 36C.
U.K. telecom provider Telewest
Broadband is testing a device that hooks to your PC and wafts a
scent when certain e-mails arrive.
The average North Korean 7-year-old
is almost three inches shorter than the average South Korean 7-year-old.
In 1993, David McLean developed
lung cancer. He died on October 12, 1995. McLean's death made him
the second Marlboro Man to die of lung cancer. Another actor, Wayne
McLaren, died in 1992 at the age of 51 from lung cancer.
There is a bar in London that
sells vaporized vodka, which is inhaled instead of sipped.
According to market research
firm NPD Fashionworld, fifty percent of all lingerie purchases are
returned to the store.
The Eiffel Tower shrinks 6 inches
in winter.
The first FAX machine was patented
in 1843, 33 years before Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the
telephone.
72% of Americans sign their pets'
names on greeting cards they send out.
In an effort to encourage the
use of nuclear energy, the United States lent highly enriched uranium
to countries all over the world between 1950 and 1988. Enough weapons-grade
material to make 1,000 nuclear bombs has still not been returned
by such countries as Pakistan, Iran, Israel and South Africa.
Homing pigeons use roads where
possible to help find their way home. In fact, some pigeons followed
roads so closely that they actually flew around traffic circles
before choosing the exit that led them home.
Every year, 2700 surgical patients
go home from the hospital with metal tools, sponges, and other objects
left inside them. In 2000, 57 people died as a result of these mistakes.
A snowflake can take up to an
hour to fall from the cloud to the surface of the Earth.
Only 5 percent of the ocean floor
has been mapped in as much detail as the surface of Mars.
The only people whose likenesses
adorn Pez dispensers are Betsy Ross and Paul Revere.
We forget 80 percent of what
we learn everyday. (What is this email about??)
Pain is measured in units of
"dols". The instrument used to measure pain is a "dolorimeter".
In a nod to astronauts, Texas
is the only state that permits residents to cast absentee ballots
from space.
Eleven top executives of the
Direct Marketing Association (the telemarketers' group that is trying
to kill the federal "Do Not Call" list) have registered
for the list themselves.
An iceberg the size of Long Island,
New York, has broken off Antarctica and has blocked sea lanes used
by both ships and penguins. :)
In 2003, the Transportation Security
Administration dropped a requirement that air marshals pass a marksmanship
test. Some applicants were even hired after they repeatedly shot
flight attendants in mock hijacking episodes.
As of January 2004, the United
States economy now borrows $1,500,000,000 each day from foreign
investors.
A Costa Rican worker who makes
baseballs earns about $2,750 annually. The average American pro
baseball player earns $2,377,000 per year.
Former keyboard player for Jethro
Tull David Palmer is now a woman named Dee Palmer. He waited until
his wife died before going through with his long-time desire for
a sex change.
During Bill Clinton's entire
eight year presidency, he only sent two e-mails. One was to John
Glenn when he was aboard the space shuttle, and the other was a
test of the e-mail system.
The only state with a one syllable
name is Maine.
Albert Einstein never knew how
to drive a car.
The UK's best selling hiking
magazine published faulty coordinates for descending Scotland's
tallest peak (Ben Nevis), and recommended a route that leads climbers
off the edge of a cliff.
The Mars Rover "Spirit"
is powered by six small motors the size of "C" batteries.
It has a top speed of 0.1 mph.
Zeppo Marx (the unfunny one of
the Marx Brothers) had a patent for a wristwatch with a heart monitor.
The entire town of Capena, Italy
(including children as young as 2 years old) lights up cigarettes
each year in honour of St. Anthony's Day. This tradition is centuries
old.
The Amish a diet high in meat,
dairy, refined sugars and calories. Yet obesity is virtually unknown
among them. The difference is since they have no TVs, cars or powered
machines, they spend their time in manual labour.
Microsoft threatened 17 year
old Mike Rowe with a lawsuit after the young man launched a website
named MikeRoweSoft.com.
As of January 1, 2004, the population
of the United States increases by one person every 12 seconds. There
is a birth every eight seconds, an immigrant is added every 25 seconds,
but a death every 13 seconds.
There is a Starbucks in Myungdong,
South Korea that is five stories tall.
Astronauts cannot burp in space.
There is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.
There has been no mail delivery
in Canada on Saturday for the last thirty five years.
The weight of air in a milk glass
is about the same as the weight of an aspirin tablet.
Finland has the greatest number
of islands of any country in the world: 179,584.
The world's smallest winged insect
is the Tanzanian parasitic wasp. It's smaller than the eye of a
housefly.
Two-thirds of the world's eggplant
is grown in New Jersey.
The winter of 1932 was so cold
that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps
is certified kosher.
If you have three quarters, four
dimes and four cents, you have $1.19. But you cannot make exact
change for a dollar.
There are more plastic flamingo’s
in the United States than real ones.
The chance that you will die
on the way to buy your lottery ticket is greater than the chance
of you winning the big prize in most lotteries.
Winston Churchill was born in
a ladies' room during a dance.
Dolly Parton once lost a Dolly
Parton Look-Alike contest. (Figures... she must have worn the wrong
wig.)
An average of 100 people chokes
to death on ball point pens each year.
The National Anthem of Greece
has 158 verses.
Barbie's full name is Barbara
Millicent Roberts.
The liquid inside young coconuts
can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.
The highest point in Pennsylvania
is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
The Bible has been translated
into Klingon. (NNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!)
Toto was paid $125 per week while
filming the "Wizard of Oz".
All polar bears are left handed.
(I didn't know they could write.)
Fidgeting can burn about 350
calories a day.
In the early 1940s, Heinz produced
a version of Alphabetti Spaghetti especially for the German market
that consisted only of little pasta swastikas.
To help reduce budget deficits,
several states have begun reducing the amount of food served to
prison inmates. In Texas, the number of daily calories served to
prisoners was cut by 300, saving the state $6,000,000 per year.
The only member of the band ZZ
Top without a beard has the last name Beard.
Pope John Paul II is the world's
Scrabble champion in the over-70 category.
Montpelier, Vermont is the only
state capitol without a McDonald's.
If the population of China walked
past you in single file, the line would never end because of the
rate of reproduction.
Wearing headphones for an hour
increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.
In 1993, the board of governors
at Carl Karcher Enterprises voted (5 to 2) to fire Carl Karcher.
Carl Karcher is the founder of Carls Jr. restaurants.
The little hole in the sink that
lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called
a "porcelator."
The wingspan of a Boeing 747
jet is longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight.
Ted Turner owns 5% of New Mexico.
Over 8 years, this happened 284
times: "Cosmo" Kramer went through Jerry Seinfeld's apartment
door.
The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth
2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel that it burns.
There are more 100 dollar bills
in Russia currently than there are in the United States.
Maine has no venomous snakes.
It is physically impossible for
pigs to look up into the sky.
65% of Elvis impersonators are
of Asian descent.
More people are killed annually
by donkeys than die in air crashes.
Burt Reynolds was originally
cast to be Han Solo in the first Star Wars film. He dropped out
before filming. (The Force was with us!!)
Pope John Paul II was named an
"Honorary Harlem Globetrotter" in 2000.
Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan
carries the designation M - 1, named so because it was the first
paved road anywhere.
There are only three types of
snakes on the island of Tasmania and all three are deadly poisonous.
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".
If you stretch a standard Slinky
out flat it measures 87 feet long.
The strength of early lasers
was measured in Gillettes, the number of blue razor blades a given
beam could puncture.
The drive-through line on opening
day at the McDonald's restaurant in Kuwait City, Kuwait was at times
seven miles long.
Point Roberts in Washington State
is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada.
If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state
or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including both Canadian
and U.S. customs.
The Pentagon in Washington, D.
C. has five sides, five stories, and five acres in the middle.
Sylvia Miles had the shortest
performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy."
Her entire role lasted only six minutes.
There is an ATM at McMurdo Station
in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Newborn babies are given to the
wrong mother in the hospital 12 times a day worldwide.
The Starbucks at the highest
elevation is on Main Street in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Each year, over 1,000,000 people
fail to itemize out the mortgage interest deduction on their income
taxes. Last year, this amounted to $473,000,000 in taxes.
In 1998, more fast-food employees
were murdered on the job than police officers.
The lead singer of The Knack,
famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense
attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger.
Two very popular and common objects
have the same function, but one has thousands of moving parts, while
the other has absolutely no moving parts - an hourglass and a sundial.
One out of three employees who
received a promotion uses a coffee mug with the company logo on
it.
If you know a millionaire who
happens to be married, what is the most likely profession of his
wife? She's probably a teacher.
An ostrich's eye is bigger than
its brain.
The two-foot long bird called
a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber
around car windows.
1 pound of lemons contains more
sugar than 1 pound of strawberries.
160 cars can drive side by side
on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road.
The "you are here"
arrow on maps is called an ideo locator.
60% of all US potato products
originate in Idaho.
61,000 people are airborne over
the US at any given time.
A flamingo can eat only when
its head is upside down.
Mark Twain was born on a day
in 1835 when Halley's Comet came into view. When he died in 1910,
Halley's Comet was in view again.
A blind chameleon still changes
colours to match his environment.
The Weddell seal can travel underwater
for seven miles without surfacing for air.
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.
The longest words in the English
language with only one syllable are the nine-letter "screeched"
and "strengths".
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine
eye".
All of the clocks in the movie
"Pulp Fiction" read 4:20.
A female ferret will die if it
goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
A baby is born without kneecaps.
They appear between age 2 and 6.
Women blink nearly twice as much
as men.
Al Capone's business card said
he was a used furniture dealer.
A snail can have about 25,000
teeth. (Just imagine all the floss...)
A snail can also sleep for three
years.
A starfish can turn its stomach
inside out.
A strand from the web of a golden
spider is as strong as a steel wire of the same size.
A toothpick is the object most
often choked on by Americans.
About a third of all Americans
flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
According to Genesis 1:20-22
the chicken came before the egg. (Now we know!)
Soldiers from every country salute
with their right hand.
The microwave oven was invented
by mistake when an engineer testing a magnetron tube noticed that
the radiation from it melted the chocolate bar he had in his pocket.
Moisture, not air, causes super
glue to dry.
Only 14% of Americans say they've
skinny dipped with the opposite sex.
What separates "60 Minutes"
on CBS from every other TV show? No theme song or music.
Half of all Americans live within
50 miles of their birthplace.
Most boat owners name their boats.
The most popular boat name requested is Obsession.
100% of all lottery winners gain
weight. (But, I haven't won anything yet!!)
An average American will spend
an average of 6 months during his lifetime waiting at red lights.
The five Olympic rings are always
red, black, blue, green and yellow because at least one of those
colours appears on the flag of every nation on the planet.
Cats can hear ultrasound. (And
we don't have them as Doctors because, why?)
In a recent survey, Americans
revealed that banana was their favourite smell.
In all three Godfather films,
when you see oranges, there is a death (or a very close call) coming
up soon.
The arteries and veins surrounding
the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like
a stick person with a large head.
Brushing your teeth regularly
has been shown to prevent heart disease.
If you were to spell out numbers,
you would you have to go until 1,000 until you would find the letter
"A".
23% of employees say they have
had sex in the office.
Bullet proof vests, fire escapes,
windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.
Married men change their underwear
twice as often as single men.
A kiss stimulates 29 muscles
and chemicals causing relaxation. Women seem to like it light and
frequent, men like it more strenuous.
There are more collect calls
on Father's Day than any other day of the year.
Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny)
was allergic to carrots.
40% of all people who come to
a party in your home snoop in your medicine cabinet.
3.9% of all women surveyed say
they never wear underwear.
Superman is featured on every
episode of "Seinfeld", either by name or pictures on Jerry's
refrigerator.
85% of the guys who cheat on
their wives die while having sex. (Now I know why I'm not married!)
Men can read smaller print than
women; women can hear better. (WHAT????)
Every day more money is printed
for Monopoly than for the US Treasury.
American Airlines saved $40,000
in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class.
Percentage of Africa that is
wilderness: 28
Percentage of North America that
is wilderness: 38
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 would marry the same man: 50
Percentage of men who say they
are happier after their divorce or separation: 58
Percentage of women who say they
are happier: 85
Average life span of a major
league baseball: 7 pitches
Percentage of bird species that
are monogamous: 90
Percentage of mammal species
that are monogamous: 3
Chances that a burglary in the
US will be solved: 1 in 7
Portion of land in the US owned
by the government: 1/3
Only bird that can fly backwards:
Hummingbird
Only continent without reptiles
or snakes: Antarctica
An eagle can kill a young deer
and fly away with it.
In the Caribbean there are oysters
that can climb trees. (Hey, why is that coconut smiling at us?)
February 1865 was the only month
in recorded history that didn't have a full moon.
Intelligent people have more
zinc and copper in their hair.
The world's youngest parents
were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
When George Lucas was mixing
the American Graffiti soundtrack, he numbered the reels of film
starting with an R and numbered the dialog starting with a D. Sound
designer Walter Murch asked George for Reel 2, Dialog 2 by saying
"R2D2". George liked the way that sounded so much he integrated
that into another project he was working on. (Star Wars - duh!)
The youngest pope was 11 years
old.
Mark Twain didn't graduate from
elementary school.
Proportional to their weight,
men are stronger than horses.
Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first
Thanksgiving dinner.
Your nose and ears never stop
growing.
Hot water is heavier than cold.
They have square watermelons
in Japan...they stack better.
Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola
per capita than any other nation.
Heinz Catsup leaving the bottle
travels at 25 miles per year.
It is possible to lead a cow
upstairs but not downstairs.
Men get hiccups more often than
women.
Armadillos can be housebroken.
(Cute, I want one!)
Human teeth are almost as hard
as rocks.
The first Fords had engines made
by Dodge.
A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet
long in just one night.
Peanuts are one of the ingredients
in dynamite.
Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows
made of stone.
A hippo can open its mouth wide
enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside.
A quarter has 119 grooves on
its edge; a dime has one less groove.
A hummingbird weighs less than
a penny.
Until 1796, there was a state
in the United States called Franklin. Today it is known as Tennessee.
The flashing warning light on
the cylindrical Capitol Records tower spells out HOLLYWOOD in Morse
code.
Every time you lick a stamp,
you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
The average person has over 1,460
dreams a year.
One in every 4 Americans has
appeared on television.
The average American will eat
about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year.
You're born with 300 bones, but
when you get to be an adult, you only have 206.
Human thigh bones are stronger
than concrete.
Over 1000 birds a year die from
smashing into windows.
The State of Florida is bigger
than England.
Ants stretch when they wake up
in the morning. (...and comb their hair, and brush their teeth...)
It's against the law to have
a pet dog in Iceland.
Your heart beats over 100,000
times a day.
Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor,
was afraid of the dark.
During your lifetime, you'll
eat about 60,000 pounds of food. That's the weight of about 6 elephants.
Some ribbon worms will eat themselves
if they can't find any food.
Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
The world’s oldest piece
of chewing gum is 9000 years old.
In space, astronauts cannot cry,
because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.
About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians
died by the time they were 30.
More people use blue toothbrushes
than red ones.
A sneeze travels out your mouth
at over 100 m.p.h.
Your ribs move about 5 million
times a year, every time you breathe.
In the White House, there are
13,092 knives, forks and spoons.
Slugs have 4 noses.
Recycling one glass jar saves
enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours.
Lightning strikes about 6,000
times per minute on this planet.
Owls are the only birds that
can see the colour blue.
The average American drinks about
600 sodas a year.
It's against the law to slam
your car door in Switzerland.
There wasn't a single pony in
the Pony Express, just horses.
Honeybees have hair on their
eyes.
A jellyfish is 95 percent water.
In Bangladesh, kids as young
as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals.
A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware
out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
The elephant is the only mammal
that can't jump.
The penguin is the only bird
that can swim, but not fly.
The most common name in the world
is Mohammed.
Q is the only letter in the alphabet
that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.
One quarter of the bones in your
body are in your feet.
America once issued a 5-cent
bill.
You'll eat about 35,000 cookies
in your lifetime.
Like fingerprints, everyone's
tongue print is different.
Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf
under is cap to keep him cool. He changed it every 2 innings.
Fortune cookies were actually
invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.
A man named Charles Osborne had
the hiccups for 69 years.
A giraffe can clean its ears
with its 21-inch tongue.
Chewing gum while peeling onions
will keep you from crying. (REALLY NOW?)
The pitches that Babe Ruth hit
for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever
homerun where thrown by the same man.
Bats always turn left when exiting
a cave.
The praying mantis is the only
insect that can turn its head.
In Tokyo, they sell toupees for
dogs.
There are over 52.6 million dogs
in the U.S.
Dogs and cats consume almost
$7 billion worth of pet food a year.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times
faster than toenails.
Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms
every day.
The Pentagon has twice as many
restrooms as necessary. When it was built, segregation was still
in place in Virginia, so separate restrooms for blacks and whites
were required by law.
In England, in the 1880's, "Pants"
was considered a dirty word.
Most dust particles in your house
are made from dead skin.
In 2003, there were 86 days of
below-freezing weather in Hell, Michigan.
The average person laughs 15
times a day. (That's not funny :P) |