The Most Interesting and Unusual Facts on the Net

Pablo Picasso almost died at birth. The midwife present though he was stillborn and left him on the table. His father, a physician, revived Pablo by breathing air into his lungs.

Pablo Picasso has sold more works of art individually costing over one million dollars than any other artist. His 211 is well ahead of the 168 for Pierre Auguste Renoir.

Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years, from 1895 until his death in 1973.

Pac-Man, Namco's 1979 arcade game, was originally called "Puck Man". The name was changed when they realized that vandals could easily scratch out part of the letter "P".

Pakistan was named in 1933 and is derived from the first letters of "Punjab," "Afghan," "Kashmir," "Sind," and "Tan." All of these are districts or states of what is now Pakistan.

Pamela Lee-Anderson was the first to be born in Canada on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence (7/1/1967).

Panama is the only place in the world where someone can see the sun rise on the Pacific Ocean and set on the Atlantic.

Paper bags are outlawed in grocery stores in Afghanistan. They believe paper is sacred.

Paper was invented in the early second century by a Chinese eunuch.

Parker Brothers prints about 50 billion dollars worth of Monopoly money in one year, which is more than the real money printed in a year.

Parker Brothers was founded by George Swinerton Parker, 18, in 1885. The first game produced was 'Banking,' in which the player who amasses the most wealth is the winner.

Parrots, most famous of all talking birds, rarely acquire a vocabulary of more than twenty words, however Tymhoney Greys and African Greys have been know to carry vocabularies in excess of 100 words.

Patagonia at the southern tip of South America is the only populated land area south of 40 degrees South Latitude. By comparison, most of Europe, Asia, and two-thirds of North America are north of 40 degrees North Latitude.

Paul Gauguin's Marquesas Island neighbor, Tioka, bit him on the head after he died. Tioka was following a Marquesan custom of verifying the dead.

Paul Hornung holds the NFL record for the most points in a single season. He scored 176 points in 1960.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles.

Paul Quincy Randolph Shermasn Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorft Sr.

Paul Reiser played the piano in the "Mad about You" theme.

PcGamer readers are all mighty and should be obeyed explicitly, lest they release the wrath of the Coconut Monkey upon the wrong doers.

Peanuts are beans.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Peanuts are one of the main ingredients in dynamite.

Peanuts are salted in the shell by boiling them in a heavily salted solution, then allowing them to dry.

Pearl Jam's first album, 10, was named in tribute of basketball player Mookie Blaylock who's number is 10

Pearls can melt/dissolve in vineger.

Pearls melt in vinegar.

Pears ripen from the inside out, and according to a survey on the lifestyle channel, men prefer hard pears while women prefer soft pears.

Pedals were added to the bicycle in 1839.

Penguins are not found in the North Pole

Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air.

Penguins can leap to heights as high as six feet.

Penguins feathers are covered in fat, which helps keep them warm.

Penicillin was first produced synthetically in a laboratory in 1946.

Pennies are made of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

Penny Marshall was the first woman film director to have a film take in more than $100 million at the box office she accomplished this with the 1988 flick Big.

People do not get sick from cold weather. It is mostly from being indoors more.

People drank gold powder mixed in with water in medieval Europe to relieve pain from sore limbs.

People photocopying their buttocks are the cause of 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide.

People say "bless you" when you sneeze because your heart stops for a millisecond.

People say that cracking your bones will cause arthritis when you get older. Actually all you are doing is popping air pockets, and does not cause arthritis.

People sneeze at about 90 miles per hour.

People will swallow about 8 spiders in their lifetime...mmm....yummy

Per capita, the Irish eat more chocolate than Americans, Swedes, Danes, French, and Italians.

Per-capita, Israel eats the most turkey based products in the world.

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28% Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38%

Perfume contains ethyl alcohol and 25% fragrant oils. Cologne is cheaper to produce and to purchase because the oil content in cologne is only 3%. Cologne was named for the German city in which it was first produced. The original formula combined alcohol, lemon spirits, orange bitters and mint oil.

Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays.

Pet parrots can eat virtually any common "people-food" except for chocolate and avocados. Both of these are highly toxic to the parrot and can be fatal.

Pierce Brosnan's first appearance as James Bond was in 1995 Golden Eye.

Pierre, the capital of South Dakota, is the only state capital name that shares no letters with the name of its state.

Pig vomit is used in perfume and cologne to hold the scent in

Pigeons can be killed by feeding them uncooked rice, either coz their stomach can't handle the carbohydrates or it swells in their throats and chokes them. No head popping.

Pigs cannot sweat because they don't have sweat glands. Instead, they roll around in mud to keep cool.

Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned.

Pine, spruce, or other evergreen wood should never be used in barbecues. These woods, when burning or smoking, can add harmful tar and resins to the food. Only hardwoods should be used for smoking and grilling, such as oak, pecan, hickory, maple, cherry, alder, apple, or mesquite, depending on the type of meat being cooked.

Pineapples are classified as berries.

Pink elephants can be found in some regions of India. Because of the red soil, elephants take on a permanent pink color because the spray dust over their bodies to protect themselves from insects.

Pinocchio is Italian for 'Pine Eye'.

Pitcher Joe Nuxhall of the Cincinnati Reds hurled his first major-league game in 1944. Nuxhall, the youngest pitcher in major league baseball, was only 15 years, 10 months and 11 days old when he pitched that game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Planet Jupiter spins so fast that there are 2 sunrises and 2 sunsets every 24 hours by earth time.

Planet Venus is the only planet to spin counter-clockwise.

Plant life could not exist without lightning. Nitrogen, an essential food for plants, comprises 80% of the atmosphere, but in a form that is insoluble and unusable. It's the intense heat of lightning that forces the nitrogen to combine with oxygen in the air, forming nitrogen oxides that are soluble in water and fall to the earth in rain as dilute nitric acid. This reacts with minerals in the ground to become the nitrates on which the plants depend.

Plants that need to attract moths for pollination are generally white or pale yellow, to be better seen when the light is dim. Plants that depend on butterflies, such as the poppy or the hibiscus, have more colorful flowers.

Playboy debuted the triple-page centerfold in the March 1956 issue. Marian Stafford took the honors.

Playing cards in India are round.

Playing cards were issued to British pilots in World War II. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map fpr escape.

Pluto has the longest year, lasting 247 years and 256 days in Earth time (90,472 days including 61 leap years).

Poland's Stella Walsh (Stanislawa Walasiewicz)-won the women's 100-meter race at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman to break the 12-second barrier. When she was killed in 1980 as an innocent victim in a robbery attempt, an autopsy declared her to be a male.

Polar bears are left handed.

Polar bears are the only mammal with hair on the soles of its feet.

polar bears do not have white fur, it is actually clear and hollow. the skin underneath this fur is actually black

Polaris is the closest visible star to true north and is thus referred to as the North Star. By sometime around the year 2100, the wobble of the Earth's axis will slowly begin pointing the North Pole away from Polaris. By the year 14,000 A.D., the new North Star will be Vega.

Police dogs were first used in 1816 in Scotland.

Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets.

poop is a verb

Poor whites in Florida and Georgia are called "crackers." They got the name from their principal staple food, cracked corn. Another theory states that the name comes from the days when they would drive cattle southward using the "crack" of their bullwhips to keep the animals in line and moving.

Pope Adrian VI choked to death after a fly got stuck in his throat as he was taking a drink from a fountain

Pope John XXIII served as a sergeant in the Italian army during World War I.

Pope Leo VII (936-9) died of a heart attack during sex, Pope John VII (955-64) and John XIII (965-72) were bludgeoned to death by the husband of the woman he was with at the time, and Pope Paul II (1467-71) allegedly died while being sodomized by a page boy.

Porcupines float in water.

Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork.

POSSLQ in a census form means "Person of opposite sex sharing living Quarters"

Potato chips are American's favorite snack food. They are devoured at a rate of 1.2 billion pounds a year.

Potato chips were invented in Saratoga Springs in 1853 by chef George Crum. They were a mocking response to a patron who complained that his French fries were too thick.

Pound cake is so named not just because of the pound of butter, but more precisely because each of the four main ingredients (flour, butter, sugar and eggs) are weighed out as a pound.

Prague consumes 3 times more beer than all the soft drinks combined

Prairie dogs are not dogs. A prairie dog is a kind of rodent.

Precipitation causes K2 to be taller than Mount Everest for several weeks out of each year.

Pregnancy in humans lasts on average about 270 days (from conception to birth).

Pregnant female polar bears will not eat for several months while resting in her den under the snow. Thanx Tony W.

President Eisenhower also banished squirrels from the grounds because they were ruining the green.

President George Washington created the Order of the Purple Heart in 1782. It's a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers.

President Lincoln proclaimed the first national Thanksgiving Day in 1863.

Preys like buffalos react poorly to slow movements. That's why crocs can swim slowly over to them without them scuttering off.

Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane in case there is a crash.

Prior to 1907, when the United States started mass production of asphalt from crude oil, the roads were paved from asphalt bought from Trinidad, which had a pitch lake that was the world’s first large commercial source of natural asphalt.

Probably the best known multiple meaning is the hebrew word "SHALOM" which means, alternately, "hello", "good-bye", and "peace"

Proctor & Gamble originally manufactured candles before moving on to soap.

Producer Paul Maslansky was on the set of The Right Stuff when a bus from the local police academy rolled up. After a bunch of freaks walked off, a sergeant explained that the mayor had forced the department to loosen its acceptance standards. Not too long afterwards, Police Academy hit the theaters.

Professor Moriarity was Sherlock Holmes' archenemy.

Prostitution is legal in Canada, however running a brothel is not.

Prussic acid, in a crystalline powder called Zyklon B, was used to kill in Germany's gas chambers. The gas would paralyze the victim's lungs, causing them to suffocate.

Public telephones in Israel are no longer operated by tokens as they were in the past. They are now operated by magnetic cards known in Hebrew as a telecart (tel-eh-cart). These plastic cards, the same size and shape as a credit card, are available at post offices, some hotel reception desks, street kiosks and dispensing machines.

Pure electricity, when photographed, shows up as a brightly glowing liquid droplet flowing inside a tiny crystal.

Put fish skin or isinglass size of a nine-pence in pot when put on to boil or else the white and shell of half an egg to a couple of quarts of coffee."

Putty is a cement compound of fine powdered chalk or oxide of lead mixed with linseed oil.

Q is the only letter that does not appear in the names of any state of the Unites States.

Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her doctor supply her with marijuana.

Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America.

Quito in Ecuador, South America, is said to have the most pleasant climate in the world. It is called the 'Land of Eternal Spring.' The temperature rarely drops below 46 degrees Fahrenheit during the night, or exceed 72 degrees Fahrenheit during the day.

 

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