SOME STRANGE FACTS

* Molecularly speaking, water is actually much drier than sand.


* The term "bank teller" originated in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, when banks began
hiring low-paid workers to "tell" throngs of frantic depositors that their money was gone.


* The brand name "Jelly Belly" was created in 1982 after Nancy Reagan made a much-publicized quip
about her husband's 20-pound weight gain.


* The Internal Revenue Service audits 87 percent of women who claim breast implants as tax
deductions.


* Scandinavian berserkers used to cut out their eyes before battle to spare themselves the sight of the
carnage they invariably wrought.


* Human tonsils can bounce higher than a rubber ball of similar weight and size, but only for the first 30
minutes after they've been removed.


* Comic duo Cheech and Chong were originally known as Spic and Span before changing due to
pressure from Chicano organizations.


* The city of Slaughter, Texas (population: 11,284), has never had a homicide occur within its
boundaries.


* Rubbing Tabasco on one's upper lip before bedtime is an effective temporary cure for sleep apnea.

It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

It's been proven that people can lessen reactions to allergies by laughing.

Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.

Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day.Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

In the middle ages, people would pin the name of their sweetheart to their sleeve on Valentine's Day and
keep it there for a week, hence 'wearing their heart on their sleeve'.

It was during the Victorian era that the formerly nude Cupid was redesigned as wearing a skirt.

The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!!

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

Tomato Ketchup was once used as medicine in the United States. Was sold as "Dr.Miles Compound Extract
of Tomato"

When you blush, the lining of your stomach also turns red

Dating back to the 1600's, thermometers were filled with Brandy instead of mercury

The quartz crystal in your wristwatch vibrates 32,768 times a second

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

Shoe sizes were standardized in Britain in 1885

The average person's eyes will be closed about 30 minutes a day due to blinking.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and 140,000 people die.

There are at least 40 known carcinogens in cigarettes.

The earliest British expeditions tackling Everest wore tweed jackets, woolen underwear, and leather boots.

The amniotic fluid that surrounds a baby in the womb is completely replaced every three hours.

During World War II, twice as many fighter pilots were killed during training than combat

In 1962 an outbreak of contagious laughter in Tanganyika lasted for six months and caused schools to be
closed

A nautical mile measures 6,080 feet while a land or statute mile is 5,280 feet

No one can drown in the Dead Sea. It is 25 percent salt, which makes the water very heavy

Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water

Earth's oceans contain 7 1/2 million tons of gold, dissolved in the water

Children who are breastfed tend to have an I.Q. seven points higher than children who are not.

The bird flu virus could evolve into a form that is easily spread between people, resulting in a highly
contagious and lethal disease.

The Chinese, in olden days, used marijuana only as a remedy for dysentery.

If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on the right side of your mouth. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on the left side of your mouth.

To make half a kilo of honey, bees must collect nectar from over 2 million individual flowers

Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by 'Bayer'.

Communications giant Nokia was founded in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill by Fredrik Idestam.

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

People in nudist colonies play volleyball more than any other sport.

Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952, but he declined.

Astronauts can't belch- there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

Ancient Roman, Chinese and German societies often used urine as mouthwash.

The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. In the Renaissance era, it was fashion to shave them off!

Because of the speed at which Earth moves around the Sun, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more
than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

The night of January 20 is "Saint Agnes's Eve," which is regarded as a time when a young woman dreams
of her future husband.

There are over 25 million bubbles waiting to burst out of each bottle of Champagne

Google is actually the common name for a number with a million zeros

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an
infinite amount of times!

The "heat" of peppers is rated on the Scoville scale

Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years

Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end

If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst
mechanism shuts off.

Each year 2,000,000 smokers either quit smoking or die of tobacco-related diseases.

When it originally appeared in 1886 - Coca Cola was billed as an Esteemed Brain Tonic and Intellectual
Beverage.

Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals

Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.

The song, "Auld Lang Syne" is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in
the world to bring in the new year.

For every real Christmas tree harvested, two to three seedlings are planted in its place.

Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent

Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450�F

The Shell Oil Company originally began as a novelty shop in London that sold seashells

The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of
blood surging through the veins in the ear.

Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean

The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man

Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density

Fish and Chip selling officially remained an offensive trade until 1940 due to the smell it produces

The University of Alaska spans four time zones

The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.

In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.

Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru(See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil),
and Mazaru(Speak no evil).

Warner Comm. paid $28 million for the copyright to the song 'Happy Birthday'

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

A comet's tail always points away from the sun

The "Swine flu" vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent

Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines.

The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors
to reveal their identity.

If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of
the day.

When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight

Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and... the crossroads

In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed

Strawberries are the only fruits whose seeds grow on the outside

Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams

It cost the soft drink industry $100 million a year for thefts committed involving vending machines

The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year

The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust

Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters

Men's shirts have the buttons on the right, but women's shirts have the buttons on the left

Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy

Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could
be sufficient to knock the bridge down

The painting that won second place in a competition held by the US National Academy of Design was
hanging upside down when it was judged

Everything weighs one percent less at the equator

For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off

The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements

Snake venom is ninety percent protein

Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature

Pizza Hut is the world's largest pizza restaurant serving close to 1.7 million pizzas a day

Beer foam will go down by licking your finger then sticking it in the beer

Those stars and colors you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes

A full-moon is nine times brighter than a half-moon

If all of the blood vessels in your body were placed end to end, they would stretch 12,000 miles

If you were to roll a lung from a human body and out flat it would be the size of a tennis court

Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints

Two-thirds of the people in the world have not made a phone call

Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the
system and be excreted

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his
pocket

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts 3 naked men with their hands on each others shoulders

Earth is traveling through space at 660,000 miles per hour

In 1643, the British Parliament officially abolished the celebration of Christmas

Santa's Reindeers are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen

In 1875 the director of the US patent office resigned. He said that there was nothing left to invent

The Channel between England and France grows about 300 millimeters each year

The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle

Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name

On average, a person has two million sweat glands

Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

The attachment of the human skin to muscles is what causes dimples

97% of the earth's water is undrinkable

The Earth gets heavier each day by tons, as meteoric dust settles on it

All babies are color blind when they are born

Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old

14 million people were killed in World War I, 20 million died in flu epidemic in the years that followed

There are more than 40,000 characters in the Chinese script

Vision requires more brain power than the other four senses

On average, men are 40% muscle and 15% fat; women are 23% muscle and 25% fat

There are no public toilets in Peru

Urine and tears have the same basic ingredients

The reason honey is so easy to digest is that it's already been digested by a bee.

Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die.

Historically, a blue ribbon has been awarded for first prize

The motto of M-G-M movie studios is Art for Art's Sake

The lion that roars in the MGM logo is named "Volney"

It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it

The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

The Mercedes-Benz motto is 'Das Beste oder Nichts' meaning 'the best or nothing'.

The color blue has a calming effect. It causes the brain to release calming hormones.

There are more Rolls Royce cars in Hong Kong than anywhere else in the world

X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one

The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

It takes only about 8 minutes for the Space Shuttle to accelerate to a speed of more than 27,359 km/hour

Hydroponics is the technique by which plants are grown in water without soil

Time magazine named the computer its "Man of the Year" in 1982

Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from producing tears

Your left lung is smaller in size than your right lung, it is like that in order to make room for your heart.

Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time

Male human brains are about 10 percent heavier than female brains

Before 1800 there were no separately designed shoes for right and left feet

The glossy look to lipstick comes from fish scales, which are iridescent

To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe

Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures

The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'

Your body weight is lower at 9 A.M. than at any other time of the day

The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night

40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals

Without any greenhouse effect, Earth would be cold and lifeless with an average temp of 0.4�F

The primary purpose of growing rice in flooded paddies is to drown the weeds surrounding the young
seedlings. Rice can, in fact, be grown in drained areas

Not a single new livestock animal has been domesticated in the last 4,000 years

Bone China is so called because powdered animal bone is mixed with the clay to give it translucency and
whiteness

The original reason for tablecloths was as a towel to wipe one's fingers and hands on after eating

Mount Everest moves approximately 2.4 inches (10 cm) in a Northeasterly direction every year

Mickey Mouse has four fingers on each hand

The bark of a redwood tree is fireproof. Fires that occur in a redwood forest take place inside the trees

The storage capacity of human brain exceeds four Terra bytes

There are an average of 178 sesame seeds on a McDonald's Big Mac bun

Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west

In 2001, the five most valuable brand names in order were Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, and Nokia

After the "Popeye" comic strip started in 1931, spinach consumption went up by 33 percent in the US

A rainbow can only occur when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon

At 40� Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing

Most gemstones contain several elements. Except the diamond it's all carbon

Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal

It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout
the civilized world

Feb 1865 and Feb 1999 are the only months in recorded history not to have a full moon

The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; "7" was selected because the original containers were 7
ounces. "UP" indicated the direction of the bubbles

The "crack" from a whip is actually the tip of the whip traveling faster than the speed of sound, emitting a
small sonic boom

If the information contained in the DNA could be written down, it would fill a 1000 volume encyclopedia

It would take 13 years and eight months to stay one night in every room at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las
Vegas

Brain damage occurs at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit

The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting

If you gave each human on earth an equal portion of dry land, (including the uninhabitable areas) everyone
would get roughly 100sqft

Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon

There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee

Pearls melt in vinegar

There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history

Human hair and finger nails continue to grow after death

Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland

Eighteen per cent of all global carbon dioxide emissions are from cars

Onions get their distinctive smell by soaking up sulfur from the soil

Mango is the number one selling fruit in the World. India is the biggest producer of mangoes in the World

The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea in the eye. It takes in oxygen directly
from the air

No nation has ever won the Miss Universe, Miss World, and Miss International Pageant in the same year?

About 85% of the plant life on earth is in the oceans

In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the
brand of the watch and make it look like it's smiling

If a person counted at the rate of 100 numbers a minute and kept counting for 8 hrs a day, 5 days a
week, it would take a little over 4 weeks to count to one million and just over 80 years to reach a billion
An average person perspires a gut-wrenching 278 gallons of sweat each year

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made out of wood

A banana is about 75% water. They grow on a rhizome, not a tree. You are more likely to be a target for
mosquitoes if you consume bananas.