Some incredibly interesting facts to get you through the week:
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front
legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one
front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds
received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground,
the person died of natural causes.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange,
silver, and purple.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people
without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the
expression "to get fired."
Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".
There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July
4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on
August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years
later.
"I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the
English language.
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter
pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the
ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly
27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots
fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the
whole 9 yards."
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
The word "samba" means "to rub navels
together."
The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in
Sweden. The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at
5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and
day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have
gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize that
*this* was the day of the changeover.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World
War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with
"rejoice."
In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again,
Sam."
Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear
Watson."
More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air
crashes.
The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an
eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling
matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was
allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke
someone's eye out.
A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes
them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton.
Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from and old
English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with
anything wider than your thumb.
An ostrich's eye is bigger that it's brain.
The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds
DID YOU KNOW...
The soldiers of World War I were the first people to use the
modern flushing toilet. The inventor: Thomas Crapper.
A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites. (Not
bedbugs.)
A sneeze travels at more than 100mph out your nose/mouth.
The plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real live flamingos in the
United States.
Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which
contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E .
Dolphins sleep with one eye open.
Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the
most definitions.
The beetle population outnumbers any other species in the world.
Chances are, there's a beetle only a few feet away from you.
Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a
matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or
neon yellow.
Bananas are actually herbs. Bananas die after fruiting, just like
how all herbs do.
Blue toothbrushes are used by people more than red toothbrushes.
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake
in the mornings.
Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can
help you lose weight.
Soybean products help lower cholesterol levels.
The scent of cinnamon buns sexually arouse men. Pumpkin pie
works, too.
Eating tomatoes reduces risks of getting cancer.
A can of SPAM is opened every 4 seconds.
If you had $1 billion in dollar bills and for every second would
put down one dollar on the table, it would take you approximately
32 years to finish putting down the last dollar bill.
A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the
sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there, though.
When you eat meat and drink milk in the same meal, your body does
not absorb any of the milk's calcium. It is best to have 2 hours
between the milk and meat intake. (Meat from animals, not peanuts
or eggs.)
In the movie, Babe, it took 48 pigs to play as the main
character. (This was because pigs normally grow fast.)
An average mosquito has 47 teeth.
The list of ingredients that make up lipstick include...fish
scales.
Yet another banana fact: You're more likely to be a target for
mosquitoes if you consume bananas.
Ants don't sleep.
If you have hiccups that just won't go away, massage your ear
lobes.
When brushing your teeth, hold your toothbrush like how you would
hold a pen. This makes brushing more thorough and easier on your
gums.
The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons.
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters
on only one row of the keyboard.
If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from
the microorganisms on your body.
There was a prehistoric horse breed (called eohippus) that was
about the size of a housecat.
Flying once around the moon is the equivalent with a round trip
from New York to London. (Earth is about four times the size of
the moon.)
The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200
people.
A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into
a sheet the size of a tennis court.
The largest pumpkin ever recorded weighed 377 lbs., largest
cabbage 114 lbs., and the largest tomato weighed over 4 lbs.
After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it
again. (Now you know what those little dirty spots on the windows
are!)
It takes over twice the amount muscles on your face to frown than
to smile.
The position of a rabbit's eyes allow it to see in front and
behind.
A human being loses an average of 40 to 100 strands of hair a
day.