Useless information for your everyday life...

[billysgirl5]

It's just after 4:00 am here (in Louisiana), and I'm still awake.  I'm tired but can't sleep.  Therefore, boredom kicks in.  
Here are some interesting little facts.  

• Orthodox vegans typically spend only coins since U.S. paper currency has animal oils in the ink and a credit card's plastic is manufactured with animal fats.

• Jaleel White, who played Steve Urkel on the hit '90s comedy Family Matters, scored a perfect 1600 on his college SAT.

• The Korean phase for "CD-ROM" literally means "sex place," apparently a mistaken translation from the phonetically-similar "seedy room."

• According to a recent article in Nature that detailed MRI testing while subjects took an intelligence test, the old adage seems correct: people of average intelligence used 10.6 percent of their brains. People with an IQ of 130 or above used 14.2 percent. No testing was done with other groups.

• In 2005, Germans bought more copies of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf than Americans did of Bill Clinton's My Life.
 
• The word "gullible" is the most frequently looked-up word at Dictionary.com . According to the FAQ, the web site owners suspect that it is largely the result of people being duped with the classic "did you know that 'gullible' isn't really a word?" gag.

• Despite having written the screenplay for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Roger Ebert gave the film "two thumbs down" citing, among other reasons, "insipid writing" and "zero-dimensional characters".

• At exactly -40°, the temperature at which the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales are equal, digital thermometers do not work due to a "divide by zero" error.

• It is estimated that James K. Polk was the least fit of all U.S. Presidents, having a BMI (Body Mass Index) of 43.7, which is considered morbidly obese.

• The momentum of the Nile River is so strong that at one point in Sudan, it flows slightly uphill for 1.6 kilometers.

• Grover Cleveland's most common gifts to White House visitors were sets of cufflinks engraved with his portrait.

• The total number of romance novels purchased in America in one year equaled the number of orgasms American women have each day.

• 0.04 percent of magazines are recycled into collages.

• In a sensory survey of household goods, the only smell participants consistently identified with feelings of "happiness" was packing tape.

• The NASA Commission on Xenoanthropology concluded in 1981 that the biggest barrier to contact with another civilization is likely the high rate at which technological cultures destroy themselves.

• The average toilet is flushed 2.56 times every day.

• More traffic fatalities occur in the month of May than any other month.

• For the most part, typing skills are inversely proportional to salary; meaning, the more money someone makes, the worse they are at typing.

• 74 percent of American households have a dictionary.

• On average, a pair of sunglasses lasts for seven months before being lost.
 
• An average of three people take turns performing in a major league baseball team's mascot uniform during a nine-inning game.

• The U.S. government purchases 2.2 billion paperclips every year, 11 percent of the total number of paperclips bought annually in the U.S.

• A tomato variety is the state vegetable of three states and the state fruit of two.

• William Henry Harrison, who died 30 days after being sworn in as president, is the only president to have never missed a day of school.

• Texas is the most popular state to be tattooed on someone, according to the National Association of Tattoo Parlors.
 
• The U.S. government can infer the identity 96.1 percent of its citizens given only a date of birth, a gender, and their current zip code.

• At any given time while in Manhattan, a person is being recorded by an average of 3.41 security cameras.

• The average household contains 280 blank sheets of paper.

• The world's largest library is the private collection of Fidel Castro. It contains 13 percent more volumes than the Library of Congress.

• Six percent of high school homework assignments are handed in late.
 
• Excessive caffeine consumption is the second leading cause of heart disease behind smoking.

• The tortoise loon is the only species of bird that shares all its food communally.

• The number of brands of pipe tobacco outnumber the number of brands of cigarettes three to one.

• People who act as their own attorney are 4 times more likely to be found guilty than people who don't.

• The Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah is home to the largest organ pipes in the world. It's longest pipe is 78 feet long and plays the note E.
 
• Since January 17th, 2004, there have been more emails sent each and every day than there are people on earth.

• The 3:5 rectangle used by almost all the world's flags originates from the flag Alexander the Grea commissioned for his empire. Prior to this, most flags were either square, or very long banners.

• A recent analysis of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations shows that rats are three times as common as mice in popular sayings.

• Fully half of all new computers suffer a hardware failure that requires a critical part to be replaced within their first year.

• 14 percent of corporate press releases contain at least one typo.
 
• The average state legislator lives seven years longer than the average member of Congress.

• The Disney character Bambi was inspired by President Harry S Truman.

• Eight percent of practicing dentists flunked out of medical school.

• Humans perform over 28 million voluntary motions in a lifetime.

• Tony Blair wears a US size 15 shoe, the largest shoe size of any British Prime Minister.
 
• Two in five morning radio shows features a host named "Doctor" or "Doc."

• If present trends continue, by the year 2020, one in 340 people will have appeared in a reality TV show at one point in their life.

• Through measurements of brainwaves, scientists have determined that cats think about sex twice as much as humans.

• Marilyn Monroe was colorblind.

• Right-handed people wear out their left shoe before their right shoe.
 
• The average cold last four days.

• Amongst people who have had at least one puff of a cigarette, lung cancer will kill one in eight.

• Consulting fees account for 21 percent of the money spent by all the world's corporations.

• The last sip of a 22 fluid ounce beverage is approximately 13 percent backwash.

• The average phone will be used to place 8,300 calls before it is replaced.
 
• The average buddy list has 24 people on it.

• Data sent for the World Wide Web accounts for only three percent of traffic sent over the Internet.

• Three out of four people lie to their dentist about how often they floss.

• 87 percent of the food products purchased in the world, by dollars spent, have at least one added artificial flavor.

• The average Canadian watches more television than the average American.
 
• Monkeys excrete half as often as humans.

• The intense light from an image of two colliding stars briefly knocked out the Hubble Space Telescope in 2002.

• Obituary writers are most likely to die of pneumonia.

• Mirriam-Webster employes over fifty lawyers who deal with lawsuits demanding changes to dictionary entries.

• When he was 13, Theodore Roosevelt consumed a live fish on a dare.
 
• There is a 19 percent chance that someone will speak to a person with the same first name as them in a 24 hour time period.

• The average GPA of graduating college seniors has risen 18 percent in the last 15 years.

• At the height of their popularity, one in three people wearing a "LiveStrong" bracelet did not know what the cause supported.

• The average household has $41.22 in change.

• Albert Einstein was briefly enrolled in art school, until financial troubles forced him to drop out and take his now-famous job at the Bern patent office.
 
• Video games are set to overtake television as the top form of entertainment, measured by total hours spent, in 2007.

• Commercially produced software averages one bug for every 25 lines of code, and one bug serious enough to potentially cause data loss for every 1000 lines of code.

• Despite the diamond industry's guidelines, the average engagement ring costs less than one month's salary.

• Alaska could be split into four states that would be the top five largest states in the US.

• Esperanto is the 43 most commonly spoken language in the United States.
 
• William Howard Taft was an accomplished accordion player and would often entertain visitors to the White House.

• Automobiles account for 35 percent of the world's metal use.

• The U.S. Postal System conducted a study that found it could save $18.6 million every year if the standard paper size was reduced by one inch in each dimension.

• More people are burned by toaster ovens than by regular ovens.

• Larry King helped pay for college by working as a birthday party clown.
 
• There are currently 1.14 working phone U.S. numbers assigned for every citizen of the U.S.

• The South East Asian island of Muwiana is the only known civilization to have domesticated fish.

• McIlhenny Tobasco sauce is the oldest condiment in America still being produced with the original recipe.

• One in 264 parents say they love their pets more than their children.

• Cold medicines account for half of the total sales of over the counter drugs.
 
• There are more blank CD-R disks sold world wide than cassette tapes with recorded content.

• The average student uses 23 note cards over the course of a year.

• The amount of text sent over the AOL Instant Messenger network in a given day is twice the amount of text sent through the United Postal Service in that same period.

• May is lightning strike awareness month.

• 82 percent of people recently surveyed said they would go back into a burning building to save their pet.
 
• Per person Japanese run twice as many searches on Google than Americans.

• 79 percent of the world's pencils have graphite of number two weight.

• The average U.S. presidential press conference is recorded by 38 cameras.

• The average person says "um" or "uh" once for every eight other words they speak.

• A standard bank check typically takes nine business days to fully clear.
 
• AOL blocks 9.2 million pieces of spam every day.

• Based on that spam, AOL reports that 33 percent of the blocked spam emails advertise male enhancement products.

• Worldwide, 1.43 showers are taken every day for every 10 people.

• Over the filibuster's 200 year history, all 18 attempts to reform its application have been filibustered.

• According to the Las Vegas Board of Tourism, 4,300 new decks of cards are used every day in the city's casinos.
 
• The city of Portland, Maine requires restaurants to have a liquor license to serve "Arnold Palmers," a drink made from iced tea and lemonade.

• A cat's purr is typically between 25-28 Hertz.

• According the American Marketing Council, Santa Claus brought $6.4 billion dollars worth of presents this year.

• May is national Toaster Oven Safety Awareness month.

• Coffee made from previously frozen coffee beans has 15 percent less caffeine than coffee made from freshly roasted beans.
 
• 16 US tax filers listed their occupation as "Professional Scrabble Player" in 2004.

• One in three newborn ducklings will be eaten by a larger animal in their first three weeks of life.

• Gary Larson has produced over three dozen personalized Far Side cartoons for funerals.

• The average television is only watched 65 percent of the time it is on.

• Crime rates are three times higher on cloudy nights than on clear nights.
 
• Between being slaughtered and being served the beef used in McDonald's hamburgers typically passes through nine different facilities over the course of 26 days.

• 24 hours of sleep depravation is an acceptable legal defense in 31 American states.

• Worldwide, a total of 250 million gallons of rain falls every day.

• On any given day, there is a 94 percent chance that you will walk past someone with the same birthday as you.

• The human body sheds 2.5 pounds of dead skin every year.
 
• James Earl Jones recorded all of Darth Vader's vocal parts for the original Star Wars movie in one day.

• Digital photography has led to a 56 percent decline in the dollars spent on film processing.

• To meet demand, McDonald uses 1.5 chickens for every person on earth every year.

• Most 12 step programs are successful only 10.6 percent of the time.

• In their lifetime, the average person will commit five crimes punishable by jail time.
 
• On average, a gym member who signs a 12 month contract will visit their gym eight times.

• 73 percent of undergraduate college students think they will be a millionaire before the age of 40.

• When asked to name a fairy tale, three out of four people will name Cinderella.

• Tunisia has 27 official state holidays, more than any other country in the world.

• The average shortest path from one blog to another is 12 links.
 
• This year (2005), April Fool's day pranks caused $43 million worth of damage.

• If all the roads in America were to be divvied among its citizens, each would receive 248 feet of road.

• Numerous studies have shown that motivational posters have a negative impact on morale.

• One in five people carries with them a key for which they have forgotten the use.

• Eleven percent of the Internet domain names purchased this year will not be used.
 
• The Japanese own fewer t-shirts, per capita, than the citizens of any other developed nation.

• William Landthrop, an eccentric billionaire, left $45 million of his estate to the next child to be named an undisclosed name. His will stipulates that when a child is given this name, they will receive the money in a trust fund, which is theirs to spend at the age of 18.

• By decreasing the manufacturing cost of an average product selling in all of its stores by one cent, retail giant Wal-Mart could save $220,000 annually.

• 18 percent of lefties say their biggest nuisance is using right handed scissors.

• The Association of American Vacuum Manufactures estimates that four out of five vacuum cleaner bags are currently full.
 
• Now cinnamon flavored, Big Red gum was originally cherry flavored.

• The United States is the only country in the world where watching television consumes more time than employment.

• Every century since AD 1100, the number of declared wars between two sovereign powers has decreased, but the number of people killed in such wars has increased.

• Seven U.S. cities have laws on the books prohibiting unaccompanied women from being in a public place after 9 p.m.

• The cranberry is the only non-poisonous member of the genus Vaccinium.
 
• Despite high-profile cases, the odds of an average file sharer being sued for copyright infringement are 1 in 2.6 million.

• More apple pies are baked in the U.S. than all other types of pie combined.

• Personnel costs account for 81 percent of Starbuck's expenses.

• Until the late 18th century, it was considered rude to wear a scarf in public.

• In a recent interview, Pope Benedict XVI said that his favorite food is pepperoni pizza, but admits that he doesn't like to eat the crusts.
 
• The average public library has 750,000 books.

• For a short period of time, Kraft Foods offered turkey flavored Jello brand gelatin.

• The U.S. spends 14 times as much on caring for pets as Ethiopia spends on food.

• Albert Norich, born in 1932, had 11 nipples, more than any other person on record.

• More canadians can correctly identify Steve Urkel than can correctly identify their prime minister.
 
• 28 percent of the value of gift cards and gift certificates is never redeemed.

• Aviator Amelia Earhart always wore a locket with a picture of her two cats, Bones and Rusty.

• There are 36 towns in America named Springfield.

• If all the world's oceans were divided amongst all the people on the planet, each person would get five cubic miles of water.

• The first commercial Christmas card was sold in 1792.
 
• The federal government estimates that one in 12 Americans over the age of 21 has never paid taxes.

• 79 percent of drugs approved by the FDA list "nausea" as a potential side effect.

• The average household uses a toaster every 3.3 days.

• Benjamin Franklin once wrote an essay pushing for the addition of umlauts (ü) to the English language.

• The world's largest wooden ship is 220 meters long.
 
• 26 percent of people in the world wake up before 8 a.m. in their local time zone.

• The average printer ink cartridge costs $1.50 to produce.

• According to the best selling guide, "The Gentle Man's Handbooke" published in 1743, a proper man should never be seen in public without a ruffled shirt.

• More barbecues take place on Memorial Day than any other day of the year.

• Two thirds of the book titles published are printed in a run of less than 5,000 copies.
 
• The average college dorm room has 3.9 posters.

• Between when it is written and when it goes to press, an article appearing in the New York Times will be read by at least 21 different people.

• Every year $12.5 billion worth of checks are not cashed.

• Mountain goats can hum.

• 82 percent of American believe that their horoscope is either "mostly correct" or "always correct."