cliaz Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I give you a bunch of random facts starting with sleep facts: The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses. - It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it. - Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day. - A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year (I have twins!) - One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children. - The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper. - REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep. - Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless. - REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example. - Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film - No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans. - Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep. - Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains. - Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness. - REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term baby. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all. - Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock. - British Ministry of Defense researchers have been able to reset soldiers' body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers' retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo. - Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%. - The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role. - The NRMA estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents. - Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle. - The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up. - Some sleeping tablets, such as barbiturates suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period. - In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving. - Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes. - To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders. - A night on the grog will help you get to sleep but it will be a light slumber and you won't dream much. - After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you've slept enough. - Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours. - Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode. - Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnoea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke. - Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep - Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal - Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men. - Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days. - Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets. - Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years. - As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults. - Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet. - The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents. The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed. Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon. Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions! What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France. "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off! Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath There is a city called Rome on every continent. Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day! Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness. The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, everytime you breathe! The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump! One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet! Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different! The first known transfusion of blood was performed as early as 1667, when Jean-Baptiste, transfused two pints of blood from a sheep to a young man Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails! Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin! The present population of 5 billion plus people of the world is predicted to become 15 billion by 2080. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th." Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it. On average a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute. More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times! The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Earth is the only planet not named after a god. It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA. You're born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206. Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food! Dolphins sleep with one eye open! It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not Slugs have 4 noses. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! The average person laughs 10 times a day! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges. Fingerprints of koala bears are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese". As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts. The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions. Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight. The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes. Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history. Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise. Up to 25% of hospital keyboards carry the MRSA infection. Sex workers (Prostitutes) in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine. As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet. More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors. The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom. Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five liters of cooking oil a year. Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life. For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. (As of 2006) Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children Forty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study. The more panels a football has - and therefore the more seams - the easier it is to control in the air. Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%. The egg came first. Modern teenagers are better behaved than their counterparts of 20 years ago, showing "less problematic behavior" involving sex, drugs and drink. Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based. In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags. The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle. Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk. Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world. The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006. The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta. The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface. A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species. The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer. All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off. Walt Disney was afraid of mice. The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper. The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. Its impossible to smoke oneself to death with Josh Gordon. You won\'t be able to retain enough motor control and consciousness to do so after such a large amount. Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms. The US national anthem actually has three verses, but everyone just knows the first one. During World War II, IBM built the computers the Nazis used to manage their death/concentration camps. The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population. The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ. Just about 3 people are born every second, and about 1.3333 people die every second. The result is about a 2 and 2/3 net increase of people every second. Almost 10 people more live on this Earth now, than before you finished reading this. Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted. The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the people that have died. Ever. The average American consumes 1.2 pounds of spider eggs a year and eat 2.5 pounds of insect parts a year. Men can breastfeed babies There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of. Scientists have determined that fungi are more closely related to human beings and animals than to other plants. In some (maybe all) Asian countries, the family name is written first and the individual name written second Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860 A German World War II submarine was sunk due to malfunction of the toilet. Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States.Long Beach, WA The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter. The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula" 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.This isn't true; Joseph Swan did. The Population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas. Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A. Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e." Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is not considered an insult! Despite the expensive food, tipping is welcome as in any other country. The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds. The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds. Pinocchio was made of pine. Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery. A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states. There was once a town in West Virginia called "6." The parking meter was invented in North Dakota. Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox. Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator. The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll. Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first. There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll. The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it. "Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish. On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles. Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17. 2,500 lefties die each year using products designed for rightists. (figures!) Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day. On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day. Blue and white are the most common school colors. Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year. In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat. A new book is published every 13 minutes in America. America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla. Every year the sun loses 360 million tons. Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe. The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour. The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground. The doorbell was invented in 1831. The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928. Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs. There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown. Napoleon was terrified of cats. The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint. The typical American eats 263 eggs a year. The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935. The oldest known vegetable is the pea. Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes. The avocado has the most calories of any fruit. The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia. France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese. The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback." The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states. George Washington Carver invented peanut butter. Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935. The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey. Russia has the most movie theaters in the world. The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday. The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps. The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902. Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939. Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated. The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used. Toilet paper was invented in 1857. Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States. Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. Kermit the Frog is left-handed. Nondairy creamer is flammable. The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile. If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0. The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen. The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself." Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union. When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio. The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat. The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia. The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h. At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States. The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours. The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse. You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals. Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names. In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung. By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing. The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse. More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%). Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl. A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours. Whales die if their echo system fails. Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually. Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps. It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar. Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night. Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle. In deep space most lubricants will disappear. America once issued a 5-cent bill. The average person can live 11 days without water. In 1221 Genghis Khan killed 1,748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour. There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach. In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000. More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies. It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States. King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats. Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers. Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand. The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956. More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States. The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet. The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres. There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script. During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Coca-Cola was originally green. Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury. The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawai'ian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina). Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spain Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 I now realize why I have never made a milestone post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DMD Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Was this the answer to every Jeopardy since 1970? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonorator Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 i can't wait for your next 6 posts ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savage Beatings Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Was that 9,000 bits of trivia? I lost count. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000. City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong. State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska. Percentage of Africa that is wilderness--28%. Percentage of North America that is wilderness--38%. Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7. 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'd marry the same man: 50%. Cost of raising a medium size dog to the age of 11: $6,400. Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000. Average lifespan of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. The only President to win a Pulitzer Prize: John Kennedy for "Profiles in Courage." The youngest Pope was 11 years old. Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. First novel ever written on a typewriter: "Tom Sawyer." A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. (This was challenged and proved wrong by the TV show "Mythbusters") 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. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades--King David, Clubs--Alexander the Great, Hearts--Charlemagne and Diamonds--Julius Caesar. 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 leg front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all 4 legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th. The last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. The first airline, DELAG, was established on October 16, 1909, to carry passengers between German cities by Zeppelin airships. Up to November 1913, more than 34,000 people had used the service. Titanic was running at 22 knots when she hit the iceberg 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 Francis Scott Key was a young lawyer who wrote the poem, 'The Star Spangled Banner', after being inspired by watching the Americans fight off the British attack of Baltimore during the War of 1812. The poem became the words to the national anthem Because radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second and sound waves saunter at 700 miles per hour, a broadcast voice can be heard sooner 13,000 miles away than it can be heard at the back of the room in which it originated Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there The bagpipe was originally made from the whole skin of a dead sheep Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver in 1836. It has been recommended by dentists that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet (two meters) away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush! In ancient Rome it was considered a sign of leadership to be born with a crooked nose It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process. The first known heart medicine was discovered in an English garden. In 1799, physician John Ferriar noted the effect of dried leaves of the common foxglove plant, digitalis purpurea, on heart action. Still used in heart medications, digitalis slows the pulse and increases the force of heart contractions and the amount of blood pumped per heartbeat. Dry cereal for breakfast was invented by John Henry Kellogg at the turn of the century During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks, one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back Jeremy Bentham, a British philosopher who died in 1832,left his entire estate to the London Hospital provided that his body be allowed to preside over its board meetings. His skeleton was clothed and fitted with a wax mask of his face. It was present at the meeting for 92 years. Diet Coke was only invented in 1982. Methane gas can often be seen bubbling up from the bottom of ponds. It is produced by the decomposition of dead plants and animals in the mud. There are more than 1,700 references to gems and precious stones in the King James translation of the Bible. The E. Coli bacterium propels itself with a 'motor' only one-millionth of an inch in diameter, a thousand times smaller than the tiniest motors built to date by man. The rotation of the bacterial motor comes from a current of protons. The efficiency of the motor approaches 100 per cent. Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry. At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing. Pet superstores now sell about 40 percent of all pet food One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children. In 1933, Mickey Mouse, an animated cartoon character, received 800,000 fan letters. There are only four words in the English language which end in '-dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all. Less than 3% of Nestlé's sales are for chocolate. The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for the traffic light to change It is estimated that at any one time, 0.7% of the world's population are drunk The tip of a 1/3 inch long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death. The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X Nova Scotia is Latin for 'New Scotland.' The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol. It's from England. The collecting of Beer mats is called Tegestology. Even though it is widely attributed to him Shakespeare never actually used the word 'gadzooks'. "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when al original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big John Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Can't sleep correctly. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. The "y" is a vowel here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NSab Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Can't sleep correctly. The "y" is a vowel here. Yep! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 Can't sleep correctly. The "y" is a vowel here. it can go either way. Sometimes Y is what i think they were thinking. I meant to remove that one before posting this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T_bone65 Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 My head hurts real bad now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiefjay Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Great, now the server is going to crash later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 * Lincoln and Kennedy Here's a little part of US history which makes you go h-m-m-m: Have a history teacher explain this if they can? Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960. The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head. Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners. Both successors were named Johnson. Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born! ! in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are composed of fifteen letters. Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Kennedy.' Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln.' Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater. Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. And here's the kicker... A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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