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The
Most Interesting and Unusual Facts on the Net
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Underfund and underground are the only two English words which start and finish with "und." Unique animals. Hippopotami cannot swim (ppl have said that a hippo can swim, but i dont think its classified as swimming. I'll check), whales can't swim backwards, tarantulas can't spin webs, crocodiles can't chew and hummingbirds can't walk Unlike most fish, electric eels cannot get enough oxygen from water. Approximately every five minutes, they must surface to breathe, or they will drown. Unlike most fish, they can swim both backwards and forwards. Unprosperousness is the longest word in which every letter occurs at least twice. Until 1896, drivers in Great Britain had to warn of their presence by having a person precede their car on foot, waving a red flag. 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 5 p.m. Until 1967 it wasn't illegal for Olympic athletes to use drugs to enhance their performance during competition. Until the 1870s, baseball was played without the use of gloves. Until the 18th century coffee was almost always boiled. Until the 18th century India produced almost all the world diamonds. Until the late 1800's, people roasted their coffee at home. Popcorn poppers and stove-top frying pans were favored. Until the time of Michelangelo, many sculptors colored their statues, and most from ancient Greece and Rome at one time had been painted or "polychromed." Over the course of years, rain washed the colors off the marble. Until the time of Michelangelo, many sculptors colored their statues. Most of the statues from ancient Greece and Rome at one time had been painted or polychromed. Rain through the ages washed off the paint and the statues were left in their natural marble. Up until the early 20th century, New Jersey and Wisconsin had laws allowing the castration of epileptics. Upper and Lower case letters are so named because when print had to be set by individual letters the upper case letters were stored in a case above the case that held the lower case letters. URanus' axis is at 97 degrees. which means that it orbits on its side. (Most of the planets spin on an axis nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic but Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic.) Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. Uranus was originally called George, in honour of King George III of Britain US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen. US gold coins used to say "In Gold We Trust". US Presidents who died on July 4th: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died in 1826, James Monroe died in 1831. US presidents who have been assassinated: Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881, William H. McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963. US Presidents who never attended college: Grover Cleveland, Abraham Lincoln, Harry S Truman, and George Washington. US Presidents who never had children: George Washington, known as the "Father of the Country," James Madison, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, and Warren Harding. US Presidents who never held any other elective office: U. S. Grant, William H. Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight D. Eisenhower. US Presidents who owned slaves : George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson, and Ulysses S. Grant. US presidents who served an entire term without a vice president: John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur. US presidents who were survived by their fathers: John F. Kennedy and Warren Harding. US Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina set a filibuster record in the U.S. Senate on August 19, 1957. He spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes. 'Vaimonkanto' or 'Wife Carrying' is a sports event. The 'Carry an Old Gel' championship games are held anually in Sonkajarvi, Finland. Van Camp's Pork and Beans were a staple food for Union soldiers in the Civil War. Vanilla is the extract of fermented and dried pods of several species of orchids. Vaseline was created by Robert Chesebrough in 1870. He developed it after visiting Titusville, PA in 1859. While there he noticed that workers were treating cuts and burns with grease that accumulated on drill rods from the oil fields. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It’s just 0.17 square miles. Monaco is the second smallest at 0.7 square miles. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. The whole country is only 108.7 acres, which a population of just 1,000 (approx.). Venus is the only planet in the solar system to spin backwards. Venus rotates so slowly that in a typical day lasts approximately 244 Earth days (5,856 hours). Vermont, admitted as the 14th state in 1791, was the 1st addition to the original 13 colonies.
Victor Hugo's Les Miserables contains one of the longest sentences in the French language 823 words without a period. Victor Mills, an inventor with Proctor & Gamble, invented the disposable diaper in 1961 because he didn't want to deal with his daughter's soiled (crapped) diapers. You know them as Pampers. Vincent van Gogh didn't start to draw until he was 27 years old. Vincent van Gogh is known to have sold only one painting during his lifetime. Virgina Woolf wrote all of her books standing. Virginia law forbids bathtubs in the house; tubs must be kept in the yard. Volkswagen was the first foreign company to open a factory in the United States. The auto plant opened in 1978 in Pennsylvania. Waldo Hanchett invented the modern dentist's chair in 1848. Walt Disney got the idea for Mickey Mouse from watching mice play in a garage, where he was forced to work, because he could not afford to rent an art studio. Walt Disney named Mickey Mouse after Mickey Rooney, whose mother he dated. Walt Disney provided the voice of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie. Walt Disney was afraid of mice. Walt Disney's first cartoon character was called Oswald the Rabbit. Walt Disney's youngest daughter is named Sharon. Walter Huston and his son John become the first father-and-son team to win Oscars as director of and an actor in "Treasure of Sierra Madre" in 1949. Warn your hubby that after lovemaking in Ames, Iowa, he isn't allowed to take more than three gulps of beer while lying in bed with youor holding you in his arms. Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister. Warren G. Harding was the first American President to visit Canada. He stopped in Vancouver, British Columbia while he was on his way to Alaska. Warren G. Harding's middle name is Gamaliel. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt are the four US presidents whose faces are carved on Mt. Rushmore. Water based mammals like dolphins and whales swish their tails up and down. Only fish move them sideways. Watermelon is grown in over 96 countries worldwide. Over 1,200 varieties of watermelon are grown worldwide. There are about 200 varieties of watermelon throughout the US. Watermelon, considered one of America's favorite fruits, is really a vegetable (Citrullus lanatus). Cousin to the cucumber and kin to the gourd, watermelons can range in size from 7 to 100 pounds. Watermelons grown along the Tigris River have been known to reach as much as 275 pounds. We [humans] only use 10% of our brains. We blink eyes 25 times each minute. We blink our eyes once every six second i.e. in the course of a life time we blink about 250 million times. We lose half a litre of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapour we see when we breathe onto glass. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. Wedding cake was originally thrown at the bride and groom, instead of eaten by them. Wesley Snipes has a 5th Degree Black Belt. Wesley Snipes installed public telephones while struggling to become an actor in New York. Wet sand weighs less than dry sand. Whale hunting is strictly prohibitted throughout the entire state of Oklahoma. Whales can never focus both their eyes on the same object at once What does a Dead Leaf, Paper Kite, Blue Striped Crow,Julia and Great Egg Fly have in common? They're all butterflies!Thanx Bijou What we call the sky is merely the limit of our vision into the atmosphere. The sky, like the horizon, is always as far away as one can see. What word can you take the first letter of, put it as the last letter, and make it the past tence of the original word? Answer: Eat (ate) Wheat is the world's most widely cultivated plant; grown on every continent except Antarctica. When a coffee seed is planted, it takes five years to yield consumable fruit. When a female horse and male donkey mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny. When a giraffe is born, it has to fall around six feet to the ground.
When a man was hanged in Mississippi in 1894 the noose came undone and the prisoner fell to the ground. He was set free and and since his innocence was later established he was granted ,$5000. When a person dies, hearing is generally the last sense to go. The first sense lost is usually sight. Then follows taste, smell, and touch. When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. First off would be your sight. When a person is wide awake, alert, and mentally active, he is still only 25% aware of what various parts of his body are doing. (2-1-04) When a queen bee lays the fertilized eggs that will develop into new queens, only one of the newly laid queens actually survives. The first new queen that emerges from her cell destroys all other queens in their cells and, thereafter, reigns alone. When Alexander Graham Bell Was working on the telephone in 1876, he spilled battery acid on his pants and called out to his assistant, "Watson, please come here. I want you." Watson, who was on another floor, heard the call through the instrument he was hooking up, and ran to Bell's room. Bell's words became the first ever successfully communicated using a telephone. When angered, the ears of the tazmanian devil turn pinkish red. When ants find food, they lay down a chemical trail, called a pheromone, so that other ants can find their way from the nest to the food source. When armadillos are pregnant they always have quadruplets of the same sex. When Bob Marley died they found 19 different species of lice in his dreadlocks. When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit. When Catherine de Medici married Henry II of France (1533) she brought forks with her, as well as several master Florentine cooks. Foods never before seen in France were soon being served using utensils instead of fingers or daggers. She is said to have introduced spinach (which "à la Florentine" usually means) as well as aspics, sweetbreads, artichoke hearts, truffles, liver crépinettes, quenelles of poultry, macaroons, ice cream, and zabagliones. When Charles Darwin published his theory on human evolution in The Descent of Man in 1871, not a single fossil that was known to be pre-human had been found to back up his ideas. Although his theory was later proved to be true, it was formulated entirely without physical evidence and based almost completely on speculation. When Christopher Columbus and crew landed in the New World they observed the natives using a nose pipe to smoke a strange new herb. The pipe was called a "tabaka" by the locals, hence our word tobacco. When cows lay down, they get up back feet first...so if you get enough people to sit on their rear end, they won't be able to stand again. Doctors use this when operating and giving shots. When Disneyland opened in 1955, Tomorrowland represented a city from 1986. When gentlemen in medieval Japan wished to seal an agreement, they urinated together, crisscrossing their streams of urine. When George Washington ran for the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1757, he was accused of trying to win votes by plying voters with 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 46 gallons of beer and 34 gallons of wine. When George Washington was elected President, there was a King in France, a Czar in Russia, an Emperor in China, and a Shogun in Japan. Only the office of President remained. When glass breaks, it showers TOWARDS, not away from the force that broke it. To reiterate, I will repeat it again one more time, to recap, TOWARDS the force, not away. When Henry Aaron hit his 715th Home Run, breaking Babe Ruth's record, the pitcher who served it up was Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were both wearing number 44. When honey is swallowed, it enters the blood stream within a period of 20 minutes. When Leonardo Da Vinci was young he drew a picture of a horrible monster and placed near a window in order to surprise his father. Upon seeing the picture his father believed it to be real and set out to protect his family until the boy showed him it was just a picture. Da Vinci's father then enrolled his son in an art class. When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed that his small intestine contained five gold Krugerrands. (not verified) When Mount Vesuvius erupted in in the year 79, over 2,000 citizens of Pompeii ran into their cellars to wait until everything had ended. Excavators found them still there 1,800 years later. When movie directors do not want their names to be seen in the credits, they use the pseudonym "Allen Smithee" instead. It has been used over 50 times, starting with "Death of a Gunfighter" (1969). When opossums are playing 'possum, they are not "playing," They actually pass out from sheer terror. When possums are "playing possum" they're not playing they are actually passed out from sheer terror. When potatoes first appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century, it was thought that they were disgusting, and they were blamed for starting outbreaks of leprosy and syphilis. As late as 1720 in America, eating potatoes was believed to shorten a person's life. When potatoes were brought from South America over to Spain, it took about 200 years before it was recognized as a food. When potatoes were first introduced to Europe, people were skeptical and only ate the leaves, which made them sick. They would then throw away the rest, including the actual spud. When pure gold is beaten with a mallet and made into gold leaf, the average thickness runs between 1/200,000th to 1/250,000th of an inch. When Scott Paper Co. first started manufacturing toilet paper they did not put their name on the product because of embarrassment. When sharks bite down, their eyes automatically close in case their prey starts squirming trying to get free, and thereby cause damage to the shark's eyes in the process. When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food. When someone commits suicide while jumping off a building, so much adrenaline builds up that you have a heart attack and die before hitting the ground. Thus making this way of commiting usicide basically the easiest. When Swiss cheese ferments, a bacterial action generates gas. As the gas is liberated, it bubbles through the cheese leaving holes. Cheese-makers call them "eyes." When the Black Death swept across England one theory was that cats caused the plague. Thousands were slaughtered. Ironically, those that kept their cats were less affected, because they kept their houses clear of the real culprits, rats. When the English colonists sat down for their first Thanksgiving dinner on February 22, 1630, an Indian chief named Quadoquina offered a deerskin bag filled with freshly popped corn. Thus popcorn made its first appearance to non-native North Americans. When the German army invaded France in WWI, they actually followed the schedules of the local trains to invade (it was faster by rail and they wanted to surprise France), checking the timetable and abiding by it. And France, whose army was waiting at the border, sent taxis to pick up and transport the troops to counter the attack! When the income tax first started in 1861, the maximum tax was 3%. When the moon is directly over your head, you weigh slightly less. When the temperature drops, the eyesight reaction time of insects (like the dragonfly and some animals like tortoises) decrease and thats why they can be caught early in the morning or at night by predators like birds whose eyesight reaction times are unaffected by temperature. When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived. When the Titanic sunk there was 7,500 lbs. of ham on it When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the third largest city in the state. When the X-ray was discovered, a law in New Jersey was written forbidding the use of "X-ray opera glasses." When Thomas Edison died in 1941; Henry Ford captured his last dying breath in a bottle. When you flush a toilet, an invisible cloud of water [full of germs] shoots six feet in the air. When you give someone roses, the color can have a meaning. The meaning of rose colors: Red = Love and respect, Deep pink = Gratitude, appreciation, Light pink = Admiration, sympathy White = Reverence, humility, Yellow = Joy, gladness,Orange = Enthusiasm, desire, Red & yellow blend = Gaiety, joviality,Pale blended tones = Sociability, friendship When you put a seashell to your ear, the sound you hear is not the waves, but actually the echo of the blood pulsing in your own ear. When you see a sign "City of Timbukto 40 miles" it means actually it is 40 miles to the city hall of that city sign. When you sneeze, all your bodily functions stop, even your heart. Whenever people accidentally trip over themselves whilst walking, they automatically go into 'survival mode' and try to pretend like they meant it (eg. they start into a jog). How hilarious is it watching someone do that?! While fighting with the French underground during World War II, Jacques-Yves Cousteau invented the aqualung, the self-contained device that supplies air under pressure for underwater divers. While many treaties have been signed at or near Paris, France (including many after WWI and WWII), nine are actually known as the "Treaty of Paris": Seven Years' War (1763), American Revolutionary War (1783), French-Swede War (1810), France vs Sixth Coalition (1814), Battle of Waterloo (1815), Crimean War (1856), Spanish-American War (1898), union of Bessarabia and Romania (1920), establishment of European Coal and Steel Community (1951). While sailing along the Caribbean coast of South America in 1499, the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojedo saw Indian houses built on stilts over the water. The area reminded him of Venice, and he named it Little Venice, which in Spanish is Venezuela. While seeking a name and package design for the world's first self-rising pancake mix, creator Chris L. Rutt saw a vaudeville team known as Baker and Farrell whose act included Baker singing the catchy song "Aunt Jemima" dressed as a Southern mammy. Inspired by the wholesome name and image, Rutt appropriated them both to market his new pancake mix. While sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth. While the US government's supply of gold is kept at Fort Knox, its supply of silver is kept at the Military Academy at West Point, NY. Whiskey was first brewed in the United States in 1640. It was made from a mixture of corn and rye. Whitcomb L. Judson, the inventor of the zipper, originally intended his invention to save people the trouble of buttoning and unbuttoning their shoes every day. He named it the "Clasp locker and unlocker for shoes." White out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees). Whoever submitted the erroneous Spanish info should be pelted with soggy tacos and refried beans. HOMBRE is "man," HOMBRO is "shoulder," and HOMBURG is a kind of hat just as it is in English. Whole wheat bread has more iron, vitamins and dietary fiber than white bread. Why? It is a felony for a wife to open a husband's mail. Widow is the only female form in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding male term (widower). Wild Bill Hickok was killed playing poker, holding two pairs aces and eights, which has become known as 'Dead Man's Hand.' William Fox, the founder of 20th Century Fox, was bankrupt a few years after selling his studio, and served a prison sentence in Pennsylvania for bribing a judge. William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) was the first US president to die in office. At 32 days, he also had the shortest term in office. William Howard Taft had a bathtub that could hold four people installed in the white because he couldn't fit into the present one. William Howard Taft was the first President to own a car. William Penn purchased a pound of coffee in New York in 1683 for $4.68. William Shakespeare used a vocabulary of 29,066 different words. By way of comparison, the average person uses about 8,000 different words. William Shatner is credited for being the first person on TV to say "hell" as well as to have the first inter-racial kiss (with Nichelle Nichols), both in episodes of Star Trek. William Taft is only man to become President and then chief justice. Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever since the Greeks discovered its therapeutic power nearly 2,500 years ago. Windmills always turn counter-clockwise except in one country. Wine grapes, oranges, figs and olives were first planted in North America by Father Junipero Sera in 1769. Wine is kept in tinted bottles because it will spoil if it's exposed to light. Wine will spoil if exposed to light, hence tinted bottles. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance. Witchcraft was first legalized in the colony of Pennsylvania. With a 3 by 5 card you can make a paper ring that can go around 3 adults With the exception of Antarctica, all continents are wider in the north than in the south. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Women say that the part of a man's body that they admire the most is his buttocks. Women shoplift more often than men; the statistics are 4 to 1. Women wear engagement and wedding rings on the third finger of the left hand because an ancient belief held that a delicate nerve runs directly from that finger to the heart.
Women who respond to sex surveys in magazines have had five times as many lovers as non-respondents. Women's hearts beat faster than men's. Wonder Woman was the world's first comic book superheroine. She was introduced in All Star Comics in December 1941 and created by psychologist William Moulton Marston. Woodbury Soap was the first product to use a picture of a nude woman in its advertisements. In 1936, a photo by Edward Steichen showed a rear full-length view of a woman sunbathing. Work on St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, began in 1506. Construction took over a century, reaching completion in 1612. Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years. Worldwide, the most common environmental allergy is dust. Worn or outdated US Flags are destroyed, preferably by burning. Would you believe that pigs are smarter than dogs? On the human intelligence scale, pigs are third removed from humans, while dogs are 13th removed, and only primates and dolphines are smarter than pigs. They are quick one time learners, and some learn by watching others. (I dont know how much of this is true, coming from a site called Pig's Peace Sanctuary Wrigley's gum was the first product to have a bar code on the packaging. Wrigley's promoted their new spearmint-flavored chewing gum in 1915 by mailing 4 sample sticks to each of the 1.5 million names listed in US telephone books. Writing in ancient Greece "hadnospacebetweenthewords." Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote. X-ray technology has shown there are 3 different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one. Xylophones(Greek xylon,"wood"; phone,"sound") were actually developed in South East Asia in the 14th centuary Yellowstone is the world's 1st national park. It was dedicated in 1872. You are born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult you only have 206. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider. You blink about 25,000 times a day. You breath 13 pints of air per minute. You burn more calories sleeping than watching television. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV. You can lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs. You can not kill yourself by holding your breath. You can now buy a coffin which can be used as a wine rack, table, and / or bookcase before you are buried in it. You can only smell /20th as well as a dog. You can only tell the gender of a Macaw through an operation. They lack exterior genetials. You can see how hydrated you are by checking the color of your urine. If it's a dark yellow to yellowish-green, you are under-hydrated. If it's light yellow to clear, you're very well hydrated. You can see stars from the bottom of a well even in day light. You can sometimes tell the hobbies and race of a person by their skeleton. You can tell how a rabbit is feeling (emotion-wise) through the position of its ears. If the ears are standing tall, pointing forward, the rabbit is happy and curious. If the ears are laid completely flat on its back and are pointing backwards, the rabbit is more than likely pissed off or frightened. If one ear is halfway up and somewhat cocked towards you, and the other one is standing compeltely up, but facing away from you, then the rabbit is confused, and curious as to what the heck you're doing. You can tell the sex of a turtle by the sound it makes, A male grunts, A female hisses. You can test for a two way mirror by putting your fingernail on the surface, if there's space between the tip and the image, then its a normal mirror, if not, its two way. You can usually tell how good the picture of a TV will be by how black the screen is when the TV is off. The blacker, the better. You can walk from Boston to New York City in fewer than a million steps. You cannot sneeze with your eyes open. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. You can't sneeze on the streets of Asheville, North Carolina. You could walk from New York to Boston in less than one million steps. You forget 80% of what you learn each day. You have enough red blood cells in your body to circle (the veins) the planet 2.5 times. You may legally participate in a duel in Paraguay if both participants are registered blood doners. You may not sell your oragns in Indiana to cover travel expenses. You need 120 drops of water to fill a teaspoon. You need approximately 2,000 berries to make one pound of coffee. You share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.
You sit on the biggest muscle in your body, the gluteus maximus a.k.a the butt. Each of the two cheeky muscles tips the scales at about two pounds (not including the overlying fat layer). The tiniest muscle, the stapedius of the middle ear, is just one-fifth of an inch long. You speak about 4,800 words per day. You will have to walk 80 kilometers for your legs to equal the amount of exercise your eyes get daily. You would need to travel at 6.95 miles per second to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. This is equivalent to traveling from New York to Philadelphia in about twenty seconds. Your body releases growth hormones when you sleep. Your brain will stop growing in size when you are about 15 years old. Your fingernails can turn yellow from wearing nail polish and from the sun. Your fingernails grow up to 7 times faster than your toenails. Your head can be shaved against your will for violating their islamic code. Your nose smells best when you are about 10 years old. Your nostrils take turns inhaling. Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does. Your skin weighs about 3.2kg Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn't digest itself. You're born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206. (apparently they fuse together such as the parietal, occipital of the skull) thanx Christie You're more likely to be a target for mosquitoes if you consume bananas. You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather. Zebras are members of the Equus genus. Zebras are not black with white stripes, but are actually white with black stripes, coz if any of you animal lovers happen to stare at it's butt, you'll notice that the black stripes end there. Zero point energy is a source of energy which is released when atoms stop moving, at -273 Celcius. Zipporah was the wife of Moses.
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