Interesting info

[billysgirl5]

Sorry for spaming your flists today, but I'm really bored.  I've been bouncing around from site to site, and I can across a site that had a ton of interesting little facts.  There are quite a bit...okay, I lie, there are a lot, so I put them behind a cut to spare your flist.  Read or don't read.  

More people are killed by falling coconuts than sky diving accidents.

 

People are 50 times more likely to die in a restaurant bathroom than in an airliner accident.

 

Since 1989, pigeons in Vatican City have outnumbered human residents by 210 to one.

 

Congress has drafted in advanced a dozen laws and three constitutional amendments in preparation for the invention of the first fully conscious artificially created robotic human.

 

Working adults in middle class economic brackets spend more money each week on coffee purchased at outlets such as Starbucks and Tully's than they do on any other food products prepared outside the home.

 

Nationwide an estimated annual savings of 9300 man-hours and $130,000 worth of ink could be gained if dates were written without extraneous 0's (2/27/6, for example, instead of 2/27/06).

 

According to a report published by the Department of Homeland Security, most cases of stolen identities are the result of password guessing.

 

Gravel contains roughly one percent of bone matter by volume.

 

More farmers than police are killed on the job each year.
 

Contrary to popular belief, lightning almost always strikes twice, according to a University of Wisconsin study of more than 50 years of meteorological data.

 

More relationships end in the period from February 1st to February 13th than any other time of the year.

 

The average college student spends as much time using their computers for online conversation, or "chatting," as they do for studying.

 

To prevent "mix ups" in delivery rooms many hospitals now tag newborns with a temporary barcode tattoo.

 

The original Bob Barker was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1974.

 

The amount in taxes paid over a lifetime by the average US citizen is spent by the federal government in about 2.4 seconds.

 

The small Martian moon Phobos has a slowly decaying orbit and is expected to smash into Mars sometime in the early 22nd Century, complicating plans for future colonization.

 

 Since 1997, Brookhaven National Laboratory has been running a high energy particle physics experiment that has a 1 in 5000 chance of creating a small black hole that would consume the lab, Long Island and the Earth in a matter of moments.

 

To win a bet, composer Franz Liszt (1811-1886) died standing upright.

 

Biologically, zebras are black with white stripes, not white with black stripes.
 

If taken in large doses, pure unsweetened chocolate can serve as a mild hallucinogen.

 

More greeting cards are purchased for Valentine's Day than for birthdays, graduations, marriages, Father's Day, and Easter combined.

 

Up until the 12th century, roses were considered bad luck and were often uprooted and buried.

76 percent of relationships that are started on Valentine's Day will end before April.

The term "love sick" is believed to come from anthrogeniosilikoniosis, an infection which is often contracted through rose thorns.

 

Although ramen noodles are of Japanese decent, the Cantonese word "ramen" translates to "poverty". This is purely coincidental, though.

In the United States, the Bible is the most commonly stolen and donated book from book stores.

Only one CD per every 50 burned in a residential household will be absolutely legal in respect to local copyright regulations.

According to a study by AOL, the expression "lol" is used in online chats 41 times per every real-world laugh.

There are 102 different types of bacteria in an average fondue pot.

 

Six percent of an average telephone call is silence.

 

The Moonflower Society, an international group pushing for building a moon colony, has started lobbing the International Olympic Committee to begin plans for the "Moon Olympics."

 

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 12 houses were stolen in 2005.

 

The 2000 Census found that Americans have, on average, 2.3 currently used nicknames, up from 1.9 in the 1990 Census.

 

Two universities in the world offer accredited degrees in sword fighting. One is in the United States, the other is in Spain.

A man in Newark, New Jersey successfully argued against a parking ticket claiming that he believed it was "opposite day."

 

Fruit-flavored snacks and candies outsell fresh fruit eight-to-one.
 

To date only three sitting US Supreme Court justices have been charged with manslaughter.

 

As recently as 1980, a majority of climatologists agreed a new ice-age was "likely" or "very likely" to be imminent.

Until 1948, Texas high school physics textbooks included an insert that asserted "Gravitation is only a scientific theory and cannot be fully proven beyond all doubt." Interestingly, many philosophers of science concur.

 

U.S. per capita eggnog consumption peaked in 1962, at 3.7 gallons per year.
 

The most recent winter solstice marked the beginning of the year 11,417 in the calendar of the Hisatsinom Hopi.

Goods worth 6.3 percent of the US Gross Domestic Product are returned to stores in the week after Christmas.

Molten wax was worshipped in ancient Minoa.

 

Since its premiere in 1972, CBS's television show "The Price Is Right" has given away a combined average of 1.57 automobiles every weekday.

Physicists at the University of Wisconsin estimate that Superman would be 1.09 percent stronger during winter than compared to summer because of Earth's elongated orbit.

Only three condoms per every five manufactured will be used for intercourse.

The city of Bunkie, Louisiana has changed its status from town to city and back again 26 times in the past 89 years. It is projected to be declared a town again in May of 2006.

Flashlights sold in The United States are required to shine within three lumens of their rated brightness.

 

In liquid form, the entire population of the United States could fit into ten major league stadiums, filled to the brim.

 

After the chinchilla, the hamster and the bonobo, humans are the fourth most sexualized mammal.

Over forty-five years of space exploration, no fewer than six dogs, eleven cats, four thousand mice and an aquarium-full of crickets are believed to have been stranded in low Earth orbit.

Far-sighted researchers at the University of Calgary are developing cultivars of dates and avocados especially adapted to the anticipated climate of the year 2040.

 

American bills were originally conceptualized to be light blue; however green bills were adopted instead because they were more cost effective.

A typical disposable razor will travel across 1,456 feet of flesh before being replaced. This translates into roughly 1.7 million shaved hairs.

The right ring finger is the most susceptible finger to paper cuts.

Only one out of every 2,400 traffic violations is noticed by an officer; and only one out of every 200 traffic violations noticed by an officer will be pursued.

Traditionally, belts were a symbol of poverty worn by peasants who could not afford properly fitted pants. They came into general fashion in the early 1890s.

 

The chapter on game in 1950's and 60's editions of the best-selling "Joy of Cooking" included recipes for muskrat, opossum and polecat ("carefully remove scent-glands before dressing").

 

Each year, the Earth's 1.3 million sperm whales eat a mass of squid equivalent in weight to all of humanity — roughly a dozen people a day per whale.

Dixon, South Dakota bills itself as the "Sex-change Capital of the World."

 

The world's largest organism is arguably a termite super-colony, spanning 4300 square miles across southern Kenya.

 

The energy contained in just one tank of gasoline, if applied all at once, is enough to lift a VW Bug into orbit.

 

 The average length of special features on DVDs has increased by thirty-one minutes in the past six years.

Each day, Americans delete more than 1500 terabytes of stored data.

Global activist and U2 lead singer Bono is the fourth most recognized name in the world behind Princess Di, Muhammad Ali and George W. Bush.

Last year (2005), twenty animals were stolen from US zoos: the smallest was a lizard and the largest was a hippo.

 

There are currently 163 petabytes of collective iPod hard drive space available in the world, of which only 53 petabytes are being used.

The average SMS text message is 16 characters long and contains only one correctly spelled word.

In the past second, 49.7 million plastic buttons have been depressed worldwide.

An average game of bar room billiards lasts six minutes.

Yellow sticky notes account for 19 percent of intra-office communication.

 

An estimated ninety-five percent of all fireworks ever made were manufactured in China.

 

Tommy Hilfiger mandates that all pinstripes be no more than 0.8 millimeters in width and spaced no less than 13 millimeters.

Peter Pan was described with a leather breastplate in his first literary appearance.

If dropped from two miles above an asphalt street, a set of car keys would create a hole seven inches deep.

Vermont is home to more cities named after common American names than any other state in the United States.

Hitchhikers on the western coast travel an average of 230 miles every 24 hours, 50 miles more than on the eastern coast.

 

More people each year are killed by hippos than are killed by lions, coatis, tigers, sharks, crocodiles, impalas, leopards and antelopes combined.

Even today, impalement remains a legal method of execution in six countries.

Though hard to imagine by today's standards, Sean Connery's James Bond used a female companion as a shield under hostile fire no fewer than eight times over the course of the six original Bond movies.

Bob Moog, inventor of the synthesizer, was tone deaf.

From ages 14 through 22, Abraham Lincoln owned only two pairs of pants.

By 1982, the combined processing power of all the world's computers exceeded that a human brain.

 

The average office employee spends 15 percent of their time playing solitaire, or other computer desktop games.
 

On average car alarms cause more public disturbances than prevent individual crimes.

 

Legendary singer/songwriter Neil Diamond entered NYU on a fencing scholarship.

Rounding methods generated an estimated $1.3 billion in Wall Street revenues in 2004.

Red outerwear is banned from coastal Antarctic research stations -- it inflames and enrages the penguin population.

Krill is expected to account for 12 percent of the world's protein supply by 2012.

 

Eight percent of Americans feel uncomfortable eating with metal utensils.

Most mental asylums on the Western Hemisphere enforce a strict "no shaving" rule on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

In 1999 a typical family computer would spend 95 percent of its total uptime waiting for input. In 2005 this decreased to 51 percent of time spent waiting for input, while time spent processing spyware and malicious code increased to 43 percent.

 

Dr. Seuss' famous children's book "Green Eggs and Ham" was based off of a personal experience he had with friends at an Ethiopian restaurant in Boston. Seuss had refused to eat the unusual cuisine, despite his friends' insistence that it was good. After a while of refusal his wife convinced him that he was being rude and should at least try the food. After that Seuss declared that Ethiopian food was his very favorite, and frequented the same restaurant regularly until his death.

Internet analysts predict that by 2012 every printed word on the internet will be a hyperlink.

 

Researches have declared January 27 the greatest day in human history. January 27 has had more academic, scientific and humanitarian achievements than any other calendar date.

Children born in Oklahoma are three times as likely to get a financially secure job, and five times as likely to get a four-year college education.
 

Delaware remains the only state in which 12-year olds can legally marry with parental consent.

Shetland ponies were originally bred for the size of their hides.

Single-serving packages of processed food account for 19.4 percent of all household trash.

The number of buttons on an average remote control unit increased from 13.2 in 1987, to 53.6 in 2005.

Only 43 percent of all U.S. adults can correctly distinguish between "one billion" and "one million." 

Camels are born deaf. They do not gain a sense of hearing until they are six months old.

It takes 10,000 calories of energy to produce one bag of M&Ms--nearly double the caloric energy of the candies themselves. 

Tigers only defecate at night. 

There is a three in five chance that over the course of his or her life, a British citizen will contract some form of warts from a public handrail.

Four out of ten municipal bus drivers in Pittsburgh are convicted felons. Of these, two are on parole.

Some of these are really funny.  I might even post some several times a week.  They amuse my simple mind...