The Most Interesting and Unusual Facts on the Net

C3P0 is the first character to speak in Star Wars.

Cabbage is 91% water.

Caffeine is on the International Olympic Committee list of prohibited substances. Athletes who test positive for more than 12 micrograms of caffeine per milliliter of urine may be banned from the Olympic Games. This level may be reached after drinking about 5 cups of coffee.

Caffeine: there are 100 to 150 milligrams of caffeine in an eight-ounce cup of brewed coffee, 10 milligrams in a six-ounce cup of cocoa, 5 to 10 milligrams in one ounce of bittersweet chocolate, and 5 milligrams in one ounce of milk chocolate.

Calculating DNA length for each person, it would stretch across the diameter of the solar system. 6 000 000 000 000 basepairx 0.6 nm x 1013 cell = 3.6x1016 metres

caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a

California's Frank Epperson invented the Popsicle in 1905 when he was 11-years-old.

Calling for shutgun comes form the Western Days when in the wagon the guy sitting next to the driver held a Shotgun for protection.

Calvin Coolidge, was so famous for saying so little that a White House dinner guest made a bet that she could get him to say more than two words. She told the president of her wager. His reply: "You lose."

Calvin Coolidge's Vice President Charles Dawes earned a Nobel Peace Prize.

Camel milk does not curdle.

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

Campanology is the study of bells.

Canada actually comes from the word 'Kanata', a Huron or Iroquois word for village, and Canada is a 'big village'.

Canada declared national beauty contests canceled as of 1992, claiming they were degrading to women.

Canada declared that all national beauty contests to be cancelled in 1992, claiming they were degrading.

Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."

Canada's national sport is lacrosse not hockey.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Orange County, California. Number one is heart disease.

Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropophagy.

Canola oil is actually rapeseed oil but the name was changed in Canada for marketing reasons.

Capsaicin, which makes hot peppers "hot" to the human mouth, is best neutralized by casein, the main protein found in milk.

Captain Cook lost 41 of his 98 crew to scurvy (a lack of vitamin C) on his first voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. By 1795 the importance of eating citrus was realized, and lemon juice was issued on all British Navy ships.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard's (Star Trek) fish was named Livingston.

Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott."

Captain William Driver, skipper of the brig Charles Doggett, was the first person to call the American flag "Old Glory". He made a ceremony of it in 1824.

Car wash attendants in San Francisco, California may not use old pairs of underware to wash or dry vehicles.

Carbonated soda water was invented in 1767 by Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen.

Cards may not be played in the street with a Native American.

Carnegie Hall in New York City opened in 1891 with Tchaikovsky as guest conductor.

Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike.

Carob trees do not produce fruit until they are seventy years old.

Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's pet name for JFK Jr. was "Mouse."

Carpet slippers were created by thrifty housewives who found other uses for old, worn-out pieces of carpet.

Carrots have zero fat content.

Casanova wore condoms made of linen.

Castor Oil®™ is used as a lubricant in jet planes.

Cat gut, used in tennis rackets and strings for musical instruments does not come from cats, but from sheep.

Cat scratch disease, a benign but sometimes painful disease of short duration, is caused by a bacillus. Despite its name, the disease can be transmitted by many kinds of scratches besides those of cats.

Cat urine glows under a black light.

Cat was the name of Holly Golightly's pet cat in the film Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Catfish from the Nile River swim upside-down.

Catfish have 100,000 taste buds.

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

Catnip can affect lions and tigers as well as house cats. It excites them because it contains a chemical that resembles an excretion of the dominant female's urine.

Cats have 32 muscles in each ear.

Cats average 16 hours of sleep a day, more than any other mammal.

Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.

Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day.

Cats sweat through the pads of their feet (especially when they hear a dog barking) and cannot taste sweet things.

Cat's urine glows under a black-light.

Celery does make you lose calories, it doesn't have a special chemical to do so but it has no calories so the chewing burns the calories burned

Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed and continue living.

Certain frogs can reguritate their stomachs, in order to clean them (with their feet)

Chameleons can move their eyes in two different directions at the same time.

Chameleons can reel in food from a distance as far away as more than two and a half times their body lengths.

Chameleons change their color by dispersing the concentration of pigment in their skin. This is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. Color changes are determined by external factors such as light and temperature as well as emotions. They do not change color to match their background.

Charles Darwin thought that the 1,250 first run copies of his book The Origin of Species was too much. It turned out he was wrong as they sold out the first day of publication.

Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts."

Charles Dickens grew up in extreme poverty. At the age of 10, his father was sent to debtor's prison, his mother forced into menial labor, this brothers and sisters worked in factories, and Dickens himself had to tie and label sacks of lamp black. He would later draw on these experiences in his novels.

Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" after Alice Pleasance Liddell. It was to be believed he fell in love with her and asked the parents if he could some day marry her. The parents disconnected their friendship. Alice Liddell has 12 letters, as does the pen name Lewis Carroll. It's a coincidence he uses 2 r's where the 2 d's are, as with the 2 L's. Talk about obsessed!

Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.

Charlie Brown's dad was a barber.

Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.

Cheerios cereal was originally called Cheerioats.

Cheese closes the stomach and should always be served at the end of a meal.

Cheese fondue is said to have originated in the Gourmet Room of the Schweizerhof in Luzern, Switzerland.

Cheese is the oldest of all man-made foods.

Cheese was first made in the Middle East when hunters became herders and realized that milk could solidify (sour milk).

Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away.

Cheetahs were originally called Leopards

Cher's last name was Sarkissian, she changed it because no one could pronounce it and it would not be accepted in show business.

Cher's real name is Cherilyn Sarkasian La Pier.

Chewing gum was created by the Mayans over 300 years ago. They boiled the sap of the sapodilla tree and chewed it.

Chewing gum was patented in 1869 by William Semple.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying

Chicago has hosted the most presidential conventions with 25. Fourteen have been Republican and 11 Democratic.

Chicago's Lincoln Park was created in 1864. The original 120 acre cemetery had most of its graves removed and was expanded to more than 1000 acres for recreational use.

Chicken liver can be used to change A type blood to O type blood

Children grow faster in the springtime.

Children spend more time learning about life through media than any other manner. The average child spends approximately 28 hours a week watching television, which is twice as much time as they spend in school.

China has close to 25% of the world's population.

China has more English speakers than the United States.

China has trained 700,000 ducks and chickens to attack at the sound of a whistle in order to fight a national plague of locusts.

China was the first country to use paper money.

China. which covers an area of 178 acres.

China's Beijing Duck Restaurant can seat 9,000 people at one time.

Chocolate can kill dogs; it directly affects their heart and nervous system.

Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), a natural substance that is reputed to stimulate the same reaction in the body as falling in love.

Chocolate is potentially lethal to a dog coz cocoa beans contain theobromine which can poison the poor bastard

Chocolate kills dogs. Chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

Chocolate manufacturers currently use 40 percent of the world's almonds and 20 percent of the world's peanuts.

Chocolate melts in your mouth because cocoa butter has a melting point of just below 35 degrees C, a little under body temperature.

Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.

Chocolate syrup was used for blood in the famous 45 second shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock's movie, Psycho, which actually took 7 days to shoot.

Chocolate Timeline:1824: John Cadbury, an English Quaker, begins roasting and grinding chocolate beans to sell in his tea and coffee shop. In 1842 Cadbury's Chocolate Company in England creates the first chocolate bar. 1875: A Swiss chocolate maker, Daniel Peter, mixes Henri Nestle's condensed milk with chocolate and the two men found a company to manufacture the first milk chocolate. 1894: Milton Hershey adds a line of chocolate to his caramel manufacturing business. Soon he invents the Hershey Bar by experimenting with milk chocolate. Hershey's Cocoa appears next. 1896: Leonard Hershfield invents the Tootsie Roll, named after his daughter. 1897: Brownies are first mentioned in print, listed for sale in the Sears, Roebuck and Co. catalogue. 1940: The Mars company invents M&M's for soldiers going to World War II.

Chocolate was introduced into the United States in 1765 when cocoa beans were brought from the West Indies to Dorchester, Massachusetts.Cocoa butter is the natural fat of the cocoa bean. It has a delicate chocolate aroma, but is very bitter tasting. It is used to give body, smoothness, and flavor to eating chocolate.

'Chop Suey' translates to something like 'pieces of meat' and was invented by Chinese railroad workers who didn't know how to cook anything except to 'chop stuff up and fry it'

Chopsticks are called "o-hashi" in Japan and "kwai-tse" in China.

Chris Ford of the the Boston Celtics sank the NBA's first three-point shot in 1979.

Christmas became a national holiday in the US in 1890.

Christopher Columbus had blonde hair.

Christopher Columbus was the greatest explorer NEVER to discover America. In fact, he didn't even come close.

Cicadas have their hearing organs in their stomachs, at the base of the abdomen.

Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her.

Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600's by a translator.

Cindy Laupher had dyslexia and failed every subject in school.

Citizens of Monaco are prohibited from gambling in Monte Carlo, but they're exempt from taxation.

Citrus has been added to coffee for several hundred years.

City Ordinance number 352 in Pacific Grove, CA makes it a misdemeanor to kill or threaten a butterfly.

City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong.

Clans many many years ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them, burnt their houses down - hence the expression " to get fired."

Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them, burnt their houses down hence the expression "to get fired."

Cleveland law forbids you to operate a motor vehicle while sitting in another person's lap.

Cleveland spelled backwards is "DNA level C."

Close to two million people who go to hospitals in the United States for one ailment wind up catching another.

Coca-Cola contained Coca (whose active ingredient is cocaine) from 1885 to 1903.

Coca-Cola does not reduce your sperm count

Coca-Cola was originally green

Coca-Cola was so named back in 1885 for its two 'medicinal' ingredients: extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. As for how much cocaine was originally in the formulation, it's hard to know.

Cocaine was sold to cure sore throat, neuralgia, nervousness, headache, colds and sleeplessness in the 1880s.

Cocaine was the first local anesthetic; being used as such from about 1884 onwards.

Cocaine works in a totally different way from narcotics such as morphine or heroin. Heroin works on receptor sites in the brain which are stimulated by the drug to produce pain-relieving and mood-enhancing chemicals. Cocaine on the other hand works by stimulating the central nervous system, and like alcohol, is processed through the liver.

Cockroaches break wind every 15 minutes.

cockroaches can change course as many as 25 times in one second

Cockroaches can live for nine days without their heads, at which point they die of starvation.

Cockroaches can live with no heads, they only die because of starvation.

Coconuts kill about 150 people each year. That's more than sharks.

Coffee as a medicine reached its highest and lowest point in the 1600's in England. Wild medical contraptions to administer a mixture of coffee and an assortment of heated butter, honey, and oil, became treatments for the sick. Soon tea replaced coffee as the national beverage.

Coffee beans are similar to grapes that produce wine in that they are affected by the temperature, soil conditions, altitude, rainfall, drainage and degree of ripeness when picked.

Coffee beans can be mixed into B type blood, changing it into O type blood

Coffee is generally roasted between 400F and 425F. The longer it is roasted, the darker the roast. Roasting time is usually from ten to twenty minutes.

Coffee is graded according to 3 criteria: Bean quality (Altitude and Species) Quality of preparation Size of bean

Coffee is grown commercially in over forty-five countries throughout the world.

Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide with over 400 billion cups consumed each year.

Coffee lends its popularity to the fact that just about all flavors mix well with it.

Coffee Recipe from: 'Kitchen Directory and American Housewife' (1844)

Coffee represents 75% of all the caffeine consumed in the United States.

Coffee sacks are usually made of hemp and weigh approximately 132 pounds when they are full of green coffee beans. It takes over 600,000 beans to fill a coffee sack.

Coffee trees are evergreen and grow to heights above 15 feet but are normally pruned to around 8 feet in order to facilitate harvesting.

Coffee trees are self-pollinating.

Coffee trees produce highly aromatic, short-lived flowers producing a scent between jasmine and orange. These blossoms produce cranberry-sized coffee cherries. It takes four to five years to yield a commercial harvest.

Coffee was first known in Europe as Arabian Wine.

Coffee, along with beer and peanut butter, is on the national list of the "ten most recognizable odors."

Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil.

Cojo, the 1st gorilla born in captivity, was born at the Columbus Zoo, in Ohio, in 1956 and weighed 3 1/4 pounds.

Cole Porter had nine pounds of fudge shipped to him each month from his hometown.

Colgate claims "Tooth Fairy" as a registered trademark.

Colored diamonds are caused by impurities such as nitrogen (yellow), boron (blue). With red diamonds being due to deformities in the structure of the stone, and green ones being the result of irradiation.

Colour blind people are used to detect camouflaged units in previous war-fare. And some of you thought Jonathan was useless.. :P~

Columbus brought cacao (chocolate) beans back to Spain on his fourth voyage in 1502.

Comedian/actor Billy Crystal portrayed Jodie Dallas, the first openly gay main character on network television on ABC's Soap, which aired from 1977 to 1981.

Commercially flavored coffee beans are flavored after they are roasted and partially cooled to around 100 degrees. Then the flavors applied, when the coffee beans' pores are open and therefore more receptive to flavor absorption.

Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

Compulsive or pathological sexual behavior have a 12-step program available to them through SLAA, the Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous.

Coney Island in New York got its name from rabbits. In early days it was overrun by rabbits, which were often referred to as coneys.

Coral (pro osteon) has molecular architecture and chemistry similar to human bone and so it can be used to replace bone grafts, helping bones heal faster. 150-200 pounds of it can sustain hundreds of graphs

Cornelius van Drebel, a Dutch physician, built and successfully demonstrated the first submarine in 1620. It was a wooden framework covered with greased leather. The propulsion was provided by oars worked from the inside. It was tested in the Thames River in London.

Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400

Cotton candy's original name was "fairy fluff."

Cows and horses sleep standing up.

Cows are incapable of putting their lips together to make sounds like humans, so they are actually saying "OOOOO" instead of "Moo."

Cows are usually found lying down before it starts to rain.

Cows have four stomachs.

Cows release 50 million metric tonnes of methane gas a year.

Cows sweat through their noses.

Cows, like my grannie, do not have upper teeth.

'Crack Cocaine' is still cocaine. It is simply a different chemical process applied to cocaine powder that allows cocaine to be smokeable. This means that the 'high' from Crack Cocaine is much stronger and more immediate (taking about 8 seconds to reach the brain); and also shorter lived then from the powder.

'Crack' is the street name given to cocaine that has been processed from cocaine hydrochloride to a free base for smoking. Rather than requiring the more volatile method of processing cocaine using ether, crack cocaine is processed with ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and water and heated to remove the hydrochloride, thus producing a form of cocaine that can be smoked.

Cranberries are one of just 3 major fruits native to North America. Blueberries and Concord grapes are the other two.

Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.

Crocodiles can snap their jaws in 1/8th of a second and can use over 40 sets of teeth

Crocodiles have brains no larger than a cigar and they cannot stick their tongue out.

Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico are all a part of the Greater Antilles.

Currently the world's tallest building is the Petronas Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Petronas Towers measures 1,483ft.

Cutthroat Island is the biggest movie flop in history, losing an estimated $81 million. It’s almost double the loss of the second-biggest money loser, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen ($48.1 million).

Cyprus has a map on its flag.

 

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