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[Apr. 11th, 2009|12:50 am] |
Fifty Amazing-but-True Facts! ;))
- The Mongolian pony is the only animal other than an elephant capable of fending off an attack by a healthy adult tiger.
- Because of their unusual shape, Hershey's Kisses contain more calories per ounce than the same amount of chocolate in other forms.
- The French language has seventeen different words for "surrender."
- The average person can fit exactly one half of their pinky finger in one of their nostrils. However, if an attempt is made to put a pinky finger in EACH nostril, only one quarter of each will fit.
- Showing off at a party one evening, Chopin played the entire "Minute Waltz" in under 10 seconds.
- If the air in your car's tires is not completely replaced every two years, it can turn to liquid and cause severe damage.
- If you tar and feather a 2x4 and place it in your yard, it will ward off bats.
- The largest home in the United States, North Carolina's Biltmore House, was originally intended to be the official residence of a new monarchy to be established when the South rose again.
- The Toltec calendar was based on a 360-day year, with each day being about 24 hours and 20 minutes long.
- The universal size of the credit card is based entirely on the size of the 1960s US Communist Party membership card. Credit cards were designed so that they wouldn't cause the Communist Party card to stand out.
- Nobody born in Kentucky has ever been elected to Congress.
- In an effort to improve the nutritional value of its "Shamrock shakes," McDonald's colors them with broccoli extract.
- Winston Churchill was born with a third nipple, which he removed himself with nail-clippers at the age of 14.
- Only a single dissenting vote prevented the death penalty in Texas from being carried out by immersing the convicted person in a nest of fire ants.
- If you place a fresh Viagra tablet in a houseplant's soil every six months, the plant will not wilt.
- The ancient Arabic word "jorgbushii" translates roughly to "evil one who comes disguised in peace to drink Earth's black blood."
- In Finland, "Sintter Klaas" brings bad children a small bag of old toenail clippings.
- The practice of putting a letter "e" in front of words to mean "web-based" (e.g., eBusiness, eLearning, etc.) was patented by Microsoft in 1992. They are waiting until their anti-trust trial has been officially completed to begin enforcing it.
- The noun "sled" originates from the name of a 18th-century mountaineer from Finland, Schletz Linden, whose body was used by his climbing partner to slide down a mountain during a winter storm after he froze to death.
- If a cricket were the size of Mount Rushmore, it could jump to the moon.
- The increase in the amount of metals mined and brought to the surface of the earth in order to manufacture SUVs has caused higher tides in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Children conceived on airplanes never suffer from motion sickness.
- The life span of dogs allowed to dine in cat litter boxes is on average 18 percent longer than that of dogs restricted to commercial diets.
- Charles Darwin once attempted to breed flying monkeys by crossing chimpanzees with vultures.
- The steady, rhythmic sound produced by dripping water increases the capacity for sleeping males to experience lucid sexual dreams.
- Blue water in a toilet bowl causes males to urinate 7 percent more.
- Women who use chewing tobacco are three times LESS likely to accidentally swallow it while they are pregnant.
- The melody of the classic hymn "Amazing Grace" originated from a 12th-century pagan song celebrating masturbation.
- The Federal Department of Online Commerce has been compiling a list of US-based e-mail addresses. Once 100 million addresses have been collected, the list will be sold to online marketers as part of President Bush's plan to reduce the deficit.
- A 9-volt battery contains roughly the same amount of kinetic energy as a bowl of Lucky Charms.
- The Yanomami tribesmen of the Amazon basin can track game birds by the slight difference in warmth their shadows create on the forest floor as they fly by, for up to an hour after the birds have departed.
- Contrary to the popular saying, 99 percent of the time you lead a horse to water, it'll drink on its own.
- The first Ford Excursion was actually designed and built in 1951. It was never marketed because the then-current braking technology required a drum 3 feet wide on each wheel.
- Rapid deforestation has decreased the friction of the surface of the Earth, causing it to spin infinitesimally faster and thereby cool the air, combating global warming.
- The flush toilet was invented in Flushing, NY.
- The inner core of most standard golf balls is made of nougat, which helps the balls remain aloft longer.
- On occasions when the sun is shining brightly on falling snowflakes, they contain enough ionic charge to stun insects. Observation of this phenomenon inspired the invention of the bug zapper.
- Over the last two decades, more Americans died of heart attacks while watching horror movies in movie theaters than died while sky-diving.
- A common misconception is that the term "salsa dancing" derives from the food condiment called salsa. Actually, the dance was invented in the 1930s by a dance teacher named Frankie Salsa.
- Every common food product, with the exception of fish and veal, contains some traces of peanut enzymes.
- The number of words in the Bible divided by the number of verses equals exactly 666.
- An 18th-century law still on the books in Vermont makes it illegal for a woman to lick a stamp in a public place.
- Anthropologists have discovered a tribe of South American monkeys with a rudimentary system of government analogous to our own three-branch form of government.
- Constipation kills nearly twice as many people as diarrhea, mainly because the former mostly afflicts the old and weak while the latter mostly affects young, strong children.
- It is physically impossible to urinate and give blood at the same time.
- If you fill a standard 750ml wine bottle with live hornets, their angry buzzing will resonate at precisely the right frequency to shatter the glass.
- During his famous "Blue Period," Pablo Picasso invented the substance that eventually became known as Play-Doh.
- Every year in the fall, Niagara Falls is shut down for maintenance for 24 hours. The flow is diverted using a massive series of pipes and spigots built for this purpose in 1837.
- The rare Chilean hummingbird has been known to suck blood from animals like a giant mosquito.
- Tap dancers frequently forget to breathe normally during difficult routines, resulting in an average of 200 tap dancing-related tragedies per year.
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