Page 1 of 1

Interesting Real Facts

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 10:36 am
by angelwing
Interesting Real Facts (Strange but True)

1 Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.
2 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
3 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
4 On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
5 Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.
6 Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.
7 Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.
8 Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
9 There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
10 Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.
11 Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
12 The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!
13 By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.
14 Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
15 Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
16 The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.
17 Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
18 Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.
19 Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.
20 The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.
21 To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.
22 The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
23 The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.
24 The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.
25 Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
26 The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
27 Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".
28 It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
29 In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".
30 A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.
31 We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.
32 Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.
33 Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.
34 Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.
35 Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.
36 When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka.
37 There are more chickens than people in the world.
38 The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.
39 There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.
40 The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.
41 The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each morning.
42 The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.
43 The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.
44 Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
45 The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
46 Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.
47 You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.
48 A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.
49 Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
50 The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
51 When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.
52 Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.
53 A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded
54 "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language
55 Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang Yourself."
56 Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
57 "Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.
58 Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.
59 The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every Letter in the English language.
60 If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction
61 China has more English speakers than the United States.
62 Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
63 Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.
64 An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.
65 Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.
66 Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.
67 According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.
68 The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a New Zealand hill.
69 If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.
70 Scientists in Australia's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.
71 Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.
72 More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.
73 Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.
74 Coca-Cola was originally green.
75 The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
76 The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.
77 There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
78 TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.
79 Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!
80 You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
81 It is impossible to lick your elbow.
82 People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.
83 It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
84 The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
85 If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
86 Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
87 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
88 If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
89 If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.
90 If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
91 Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. - Honey
92 A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
93 A snail can sleep for three years.
94 All polar bears are left handed.
95 American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
96 Butterflies taste with their feet.
97 Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
98 In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
99 On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
100 Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
101 Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
102 The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
103 The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
104 The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
105 Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
106 The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
107 Most lipstick contains fish scales.
108 And finally 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 12:10 pm
by Ptarmigan
Interesting facts. Some I knew already. Here are some more facts.

Garfield and Friends had three title songs, Friends are there, Latin/Caribbean theme, and last one being a rap song, which was used in the last half of season 7 reruns.

Garfield and Friends was last aired on CBS on October 7, 1995.

Korean, Chinese, and Japanese word for ptarmigan literally translate into "thunder bird".

Red grouse of the British Isles is a subspecies of willow ptarmigan.

Dall's Porpoise is known for not sleeping.

Turkey bird is originally from Mexico.

The popular show, South Park is based on Park County, Colorado.

The Simpson's episode, "Kamp Krusty" was originally to be made into a feature lenght movie, but it could be written for a movie. It ended up as an episode.

Bobby Hill's full name is Robert Jeffrey Hill.

The longest earthworm is 22 feet and was found in South Africa.

Fox Owned and Operated TV stations were originally owned by Metromedia. Among them are WNYW, KTTV, WTTG, and KRIV.

Largest known crustacean is the Japanese spider crab, which claws span 13 feet.

Smallest known crustacean is the copepod.

Smallest known crab is the Pea Crab, which measures at 0.25 inches, which are often found in mussels and oysters.

Heaviest known crustacean is the Atlantic Lobster, which weighs in at 42 pounds.

Eyewitness News music theme came from the movie "Cool Hands Luke".

Some locations in Mexico are further north than some parts of America.

If you drive from Reno to Los Angeles, you are going southeast or vice versa northwest.

Minnesota is the northernmost state in the continental USA.

Cape Wrangell in Attu Island, Alaska is the westernmost point in the United States and is west of the Inernational Date Line.

Arlington National Cemetary was seized from Robert E. Lee's estate after the Civil War.

St. Petersburg and London are further north than parts of Alaska.

Vatican is the smallest nation in the world.

French fry is originally from Belgium.

Tex-Mex is a mix of Northern Mexican and Texan cuisine.

WRGB-TV in Albany, New York is the oldest continously operating TV station in America.

Syracuse, New York is the snowiest large city in the world. It receives 116 inches (294 cm) of snow every year.

Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans originally made parts for cargo planes and landing crafts.

The skyline you see in Hong Kong is the city of Victoria.

The first Eyewitness News was on KYW-TV in Philadelphia.

You have a better chance to pick up distant radio and television stations at night because a certain layer in the ionosphere reflects radio waves back to the ground. That layer is dissolved by sunlight in the daytime.

In American call letters for radio and television stations, W goes east of the Mississippi River and K goes west of the Mississippi River. However, there are exceptions because of either they were assigned call letters for ship blocks in 1920 to 1921 and by request from station owners.

Nicotine is considered the most addictive substance.

The town of Chicken, Alaska was originally to be named Ptarmigan, but no one knew how to spell Ptarmigan, so they ended up naming the town Chicken, since ptarmigans look like chickens.

Sally is a variant of Sarah.

Ellen is a variant of Helen.

The "Spruce Goose" is the nickname of Howard Hughes H-4 Hercules and is built out of birch.

Miracle on 34th Street was first released in May of 1947 because more people would see movies in the summer.

Before Jim Davis created Garfield, he did Gnorm Nat.

Jim Davis had the lowest accumulated GPA at Ball State University, besides David Letterman.

US Acres lasted from 1986 to 1989, but in Garfield and Friends, it ran as a cartoon until the last episode aired in December of 1994.

Talk show hosts Maury Povich and Tomy Snyder started as news anchormen.

Moon Bloogood (actress), Liz Cho (anchorwoman), and Hines E. Ward Jr. (football player) are part Korean.

Anthony Quinn (actor), Joanna Kerns (actress), Catherine Bach (actress), and Ted Williams (baseball player) are part Mexican.

Ann Curry (anchorwoman), Jan Jeffcoat (anchorwoman), and Sanoe Lake (actress/model) are part Japanese.

WWL TV and radio in New Orleans is short for World Wide Loyola because it was first owned and started by Loyola University.

WGN TV and radio in Chicago is short for World's Greatest Newspaper because it was first started by Chicago Tribune, whihc is their slogan.

WABC TV and radio in New York started with the call letter WJZ, which is now used in Baltimore.

WKBD-TV in Detroit started as a sports broadcasting network, 14 years before ESPN was started.

The Circle 7 logo you see on TV stations like WABC, KABC, KGO, and WLS was designed by G. Dean Smith in 1962 for ABC owned and operated stations.

The call letter WACO is the only call letter that spells out its home city.

Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco.

Chili is the official state dish of Texas.

Alvin, Texas received 43 inches of rain in 24 hours on July 25-26, 1979 from Tropical Storm Claudette.

No piece of paper can fold more than 7 times.

The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.

The current population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas at a population density equivalent to New York.

2,500 lefties die each year using products designed for rightists.

A public school student spends 2,340 days, 16,380 hours, 982,800 minutes, or 6.41 years of their life in school from K-12.

Joseph Swan, not Thomas Edison, invented the light bulb.

New Orleans is the lowest point east of the Mississippi River. Lowest point is 8 feet below sea level.

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is the lowest major commercial airport in the world.

Bentley Subglacial Trench is the lowest place on land at 8,326 feet below sea level.

Calipatria, California is the lowest town in America at 184 feet below sea level.

Some parts of Atacama Desert in Chile have never seen rain for 400 years.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:21 pm
by Aslkahuna
One error, if you look at the actual International Date Line, you will see that it makes a westward jog so that all of the Aleutians stay on the same side as the rest of AK.

Steve

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 4:34 pm
by Regit
I haven't read all of them yet, but 20, 45 and 49 are not true. :wink:

A lot of them are indeed fascinating.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:41 pm
by kevin
98 In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.<<

A lot of these seem false. The one above is definitely so,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticat ... estication

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:46 pm
by Brent
WOW.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:19 pm
by Regit
kevin wrote:98 In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.<<

A lot of these seem false. The one above is definitely so,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticat ... estication


Well, many times these lists are entirely untrue. This one does have some truths in it, though I see several that are either untrue or unproven.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:28 pm
by Cyclenall
85 If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.


I have a hard time believing this one. I've suppressed a sneeze many times and nothing has ever happened. Can someone confirm this as really true or false? :eek:

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 6:43 pm
by Regit
Cyclenall wrote:
85 If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.


I have a hard time believing this one. I've suppressed a sneeze many times and nothing has ever happened. Can someone confirm this as really true or false? :eek:


I do know that stifling a sneeze causes the air to rush out of your ears, which can lead to ear problems. I've not seen any solid medical evidence that says that you could die.

Though it says "CAN rupture a blood vessel." I'm sure it's possible. But it's also possible that you'll be killed by a huge meteorite in the next five seconds.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 7:42 pm
by DaylilyDawn
I have sneezed before and ruptered capillary veins in my nose so it is indeed possible. And if someone has osteoporisas(spelling is not right) can indeed breaka bone if sneezing. This disease can steal calcium from the bones leaving the bone thin enought to break with the slightest sneeze. My oldest son broke his hip at age 23 due to osteoporisas in his bones from dailysis. All he had been doing to break it was to walk down the street.

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 9:24 pm
by Dee Bee
"23. The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp."

Good to know! (And I even looked it up) :cheesy:

Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 11:06 pm
by NEWeatherguy
The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

---
North America and South America wipe this theory out of there. :)