In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.
On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.
In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are “limbs;” therefore, painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence, the expression, “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”
Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
The “pound” key on your keyboard (#) is called an octotroph.
Table tennis balls have been known to travel off the paddle at speeds up to 160 km/hr.
Pepsi originally contained pepsin, thus the name.
The original story from “Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights” begins, “Aladdin was a little Chinese boy.”
Honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life. What about milk you say? A cow has to eat grass to produce milk and grass is living.
Michael Jordan makes more money from NIKE annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
The volume of the earth’s moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean.
Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties of climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles, except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil.
Ham radio operators got the term “ham” coined from the expression “ham fisted operators,” a term used to describe early radio users who sent Morse code (i.e., pounded their fist).
The house fly hums in the middle octave key of F.
The giant red star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
The longest place name still in use is:
Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteat uripukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua kitanatahu
– a New Zealand hill. (See if your spell check has this word)
Los Angeles’s full name is: “El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de losAngeles de Poriuncula” and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, “LA.”
According to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, it is possible to go slower than light and faster than light, but it is impossible to go the speed of light. Also, there is a particle called tackyon, which is supposed to go faster than light. This means if you fire a tackyon beam, it travels before you fire it.
If you passed gas consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
Elephants are the only animal that cannot jump. (OK, so that would be a good thing…)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
There are more chickens than people in the world.
On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building is an American flag.
All of the clocks in the movie “Pulp Fiction” are stuck on 4:20.
All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
A 2" X 4" is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".
Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV’s or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to “go sip some ale” and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. “You go sip here” and “You go sip there.” The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term “gossip.”
During the chariot scene in “Ben Hur,” a small red car can be seen in the distance.
The name Wendy was made up for the book “Peter Pan.” There was never a recorded Wendy before.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow film down while shooting so you could see his moves. That’s the opposite of the norm.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”
The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room for improvement during Colonial times. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face she was told “mind your own bee’s wax.” Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term “crack a smile.” Also, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt, and therefore, the expression “losing face.”
