A Nigerian woman was caught entering the UK with 104 kg of snails in her baggage.
Profanity is typically cut from in-flight movies
to make them suitable for general audiences. Fox Searchlight Pictures has
substituted "Ashcroft" for "A**hole" in the movie Sideways
when dubbed for Aerolineas Argentinas flights.
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 jewelry 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 firefighters 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 traveling 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 more healthy 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.
The day after President George W.
Bush was reelected, 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), mold,
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 ringtones.
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".
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.
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.
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 spyware 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.
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.
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.
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 favored 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 enter 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.
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.
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.
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 traveling 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
favorite.
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.
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.
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
"totaled".
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.
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 traveling in a car.
Life Savers got their shape by a malfunctioning machine, which mistakenly
punched a hole in the center 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.
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 are an average of 18,000,000 items for sale at any time on EBay.
On EBay, there are 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 a 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.
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 longtime
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 honor 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 labor.
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 flamingoes 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.
An average of 100 people choke 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.
Toto was paid $125 per week while filming the "Wizard of Oz".
All polar bears are left handed.
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.
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 use 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 contain 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 colors 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.
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.
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.
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 colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet.
Cats can hear ultrasound.
In a recent survey, Americans revealed that banana was their
favorite 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.
Men can read smaller print than
women; women can hear better.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 worlds 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 who can
see the color 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 who
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.
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.
(More if they hang around at CrapCo Corporation Incorporated) |