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
Hepburn’s 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.
|
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.
|
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). It’s 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.
|
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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