Fascinating Trivia Dolphins sleep with one eye open. The favorite horses of both Alexander the Great (Bucephalos) and Julius Caesar both had atavistic mutations- extra toes. Horses normally have only one toe per foot, but are descended from horses with three or four toes on each limb. The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. Soap Operas are so called because they were originally used to advertise soap powder. In America in the early days of TV, advertisers would write stories around the use of their soap powder. Most people know that the legendary trumpet player Louis Armstrong was nicknamed Satchmo. However, did you know that Satchmo was short for Satchel Mouth? 66% of Japan is covered in forest! It was in 1752 when the modern world changed New Year's Day to January 1st. It had previously been March 25th. Before the Calendar Adjustment Act of 1751, Great Britain and it's U.S. colonies celebrated New Year's Day on March 25th because it is Lady Day and the Feast of Annunciation. For some nations, New Year's has been celebrated on January 1 ever since 1752. The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny. A Tezcucan myth of why the Moon isn't bright as the Sun. The Sun and Moon were originally equally bright. But the gods did not think this was very good, so they decided to stop it at once. One god took a hare and threw it at the face of the moon. The hare struck the moon, and made a dark blotch that dimmed the Moon's brightness forever. Heating oil creates the hottest flame of any home heating fuel. It's 400º hotter than natural gas or propane and makes electric heat and heat pumps shiver in comparison. Because it's so hot, your home heats up faster, needs less fuel, maintains your desired temperature better, and just feels more comfortable. Giant flying foxes that live in Indonesia have wingspans of nearly six feet Medieval Jewish mystics practiced rolling in the snow to purge themselves from evil urges. They were the first snow angels. The tallest mountain in the world from base to summit is located on the island of Hawaii. The dormant volcano Mauna Kea measures over 30,000 feet tall when measured from its ocean base to summit, several hundred feet higher than Mt. Everest in the Himalayas. A whale's penis is called a dork. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. The "L. L." in L. L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. Recreational boaters spent about $17.7 billion on boats, motors, trailers and accessories in 1996. The Church regarded the knight as her defender against evil. The dragon was often seen as the symbol of evil, so many stories of this period told of brave knights doing battle with dragons. In 1938, Chester Carlson invented xerography out of two natural phenomena already known: materials of opposite electrical charges are attracted, and certain materials become better conductors of electricity when exposed to light. By combining these phenomena in a unique way, he was able to create a new process for making cheap, fast, good copies on plain paper. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin," pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom." As a small boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; eventually he was able to add it to "Star Trek" lore. Most people think of the Meridian Line as a solid fixed point. However, in reality it is simply a north/south line which would move whenever the astronomer altered the position of his meridian telescope. The Ordnance Survey used Bradley's Meridian in its charts, although we are more familiar with Airy's line. The image of the knight in shining armor was largely a myth. Many knights in the crusades proved themselves to be greedy and cruel, and the women of the Middle Ages were as tough and capable as any. In the Brazilian jungle, women of the Apinaye tribe bite of portions of their mates eyebrows during intercourse. Pretoria, city in north-eastern South Africa, in Gauteng Province, on the Apies River. Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa and a major commercial, manufacturing, transportation, and cultural centre. Principal products include iron and steel, processed food, ceramics, and chemicals. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. The Eiffel tower grows six inches every year. In the summer the metal expands to make the tower grow but also in the winter the metal contracts to shrink the tower back down. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. Electrical storms will make a person dream more frequently in sleep. Mexican free-tailed bats sometimes fly up to two miles high to feed or to catch tail-winds that carry them over long distances at speeds of more than 60 miles per hour. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister. "Flow Control" is the way your computer and your modem manage the speed of the incoming data. If the data comes into the modem so fast that the computer cannot read it correctly, the computer needs a way to tell the modem to pause, and a way to tell it to resume. Also, if the computer can accept data faster than it is arriving, it needs to tell the modem that it's ok to send faster. This mechanism is flow control. During the Middle Ages, very few people--including the average knight--could read or write. Since the Church played such a large role in medieval life, learning took place in the monasteries, where books were written and the first libraries were kept. Becoming a knight was no easy matter. The process began at an early age, as there were many things to learn--not only about arms and welfare, but about courtesy as well. At age 7, a boy would be sent away to begin his training--to learn the use of arms, to practice wrestling and leaping into the saddle in full armor. By age 14, he became a squire, learning good manners and the meaning of honor. He learned about hunting and taking care of his lord's armor, brushing it and repairing it when necessary. Finally, when the time came for him to be made a knight, the squire would be ceremonially bathed and dressed in white robes, then spend the night in prayer with his sword and armor on the chapel altar. The following morning, he would make an oath in church to devote his life to the service of God and chivalry. Moses Maimonides, 12th century physician to the Egyptian Khalif, prescribed snow as a cure for the hot Cairo summers. The two suspects had been apprehended and now sat in a courtroom at the defendants table. A witness was on the stand being asked questions by the prosecutor. "And ma'am you say you were robbed of your purse on the street?" Yes sir, the witness answered. "And the two men who robbed you, are they here in the courtroom today?" Before the witness could answer both defendants raised their hands. The judge and jury laughed openly. The word calendar comes from Latin and means 'to call out.' Pope Stephen II (March 24, 752) had the shortest reign of any pope, only two days. No, he did not die, he stepped down two days after the cardinals selected him. Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. Of the entire Hebrew scriptures, the Book of Job contains the most references to snow. Hence the expression, "snow Job." . The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland was a symbolic character for the hat makers in towns of the late 1800's. The large felt hats of the day had supports made out of mercury. The mercury caused a organic form of psychosis (brain damage) to develop in the hat makers causing them to be declared crazy. GMT entered British homes by way of the BBC which broadcast the chimes of Big Ben to greet New Year 1924. The "pips" were the brain-child of Frank Dyson, who discussed the idea with Frank Hope-Jones, who favoured a "5 pip" signal. In February 1924, Dyson broadcast to the nation, inaugurating the service. Later he presided over a dinner when Hope-Jones was guest of honour. A guest remembered Hope-Jones' link with time signals and handed him 6 orange pips on a plate. Hope-Jones then made a flamboyant presentation of the 6th pip to Dyson. Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance. In a recent survey of newborn babies, researchers have determined the most popular boys' names. They include Michael, Matthew, Sean, Brendan, and Brian. Interestingly enough, for the third year in a row, the LEAST popular boy's name was "Lumpy". Medieval banquets were spectacular occasions announced with trumpets. The host and chief guests sat at the high table and washed their hands in basins of water scented with rose petals. Lesser guests sat, according to rank, at tables down the hall. The typical termite colony is composed of members showing structural characteristics that scientists use to classify the termites. The four groups of termites, workers, soldiers, immature individuals, and reproductives each have particular roles in the colony. The workers, which are sterile, blind, and wingless, tend the eggs, feed the soldiers and the young, and maintain the nest. Protozoans living in the termites digestive tract convert wood to sugars that the termites can use for nourishment. Without these one celled animals, the termites would starve. Soldiers' sole purpose in life is to defend the colony against intruders. The variety of these defense mechanisms that have been evolved in different species will be discussed later. A young individual will develop into a winged reproductive, soldier, or a worker depending on the current needs of the colony. Reproductives obviously supply the colony with new individuals. Only one pair of active reproductives exists in a colony. The king and queen are usually sealed into a chamber where they are tended by workers. The queen also circulates different chemicals among the workers for stimulating the transformation of immature termites into soldiers, workers, or "secondary" reproductives - members who will develop wings and found new colonies. When a worker feeds the queen, the queen immediately knows if a particular group needs replenishing. For example, if a large number of soldiers were killed while repelling an enemy, the queen intercepts this information from the chemicals transferred from a worker. The queen then circulates a greater amount of "soldier chemical" in the colony by exuding the chemical from its body. Workers tending the queen take the chemical to other members and the young who will eventually develop into soldiers. Although the cast of "The Facts of Life" went from 9 girls down to 4 throughout its seven year run on television, amazingly enough, the net weight of the cast members remained the same. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic, the language of the ancient Bible, did not contain an easy way to say "many things" and used a term which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible -- in many places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days. Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. (An anagram is a word formed by reordering the letters in another word.) Sailors on board a ship, even when out at sea, can feel earthquakes. When Ronald Reagan was President and he got his first hearing aid, the sale of hearing aids went up in the United States by 40%. Frog-eating bats identify edible from poisonous frogs by listening to the mating calls of male frogs. Frogs counter by hiding and using short, difficult to locate calls. 2 out of 5 husbands tell their wife daily that they love them. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named subatomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" Playing cards were issued to British pilots in World War II. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. John Lennon was born to Julia Lennon after 30 hours of labor on October 9, 1940. In the movie "Dances with Wolves", not one animal was injured during its filming, although there was a horse named "Dutch" who came down with a nasty case of the runs. For the courtly knight and his lady, fashion was very important because fine dress was a mark of status. The nobility spent large sums of money on imported cloth, such as silk from Italy and velvet from France. Ordinary people wore simple garments, often made of rough wool, which were designed for useful wear. Babies were wrapped in swaddling bands with the mistaken idea that this would give them straight limbs. The "L. L." in L. L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. The Hawaiian Archipelago consists of over 130 scattered points of land stretching some 1,600 miles in length from the Kure Atoll in the north to the Island of Hawaii in the south. In 1984, when Michael Jackson was on American TV advertising Pepsi, his commercials were included in the TV listings and often attracted a larger audience than the programmes they interrupted The Astronomer Royal was supposed to make his findings known to the scientific community. He was often reluctant to do so and information was sometimes forcibly taken from him. This led to conflicts between such luminaries as Newton & Halley. If someone were to visit all the Smithsonian museums and read all of their plaques for only a second each, that person could not read every piece of information that the Smithsonian holds. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950. The head picture weighs slightly more, so it ends up on the bottom slightly more often. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. A new film producer was having trouble with a visual gag. It was during the days of silent cinema and he wanted to show a man slipping on a banana skin. He asked the advice of Charlie Chaplin. "Do I show the man first and then the banana skin, or the skin first and then the man? Whichever way I do it, it won't be new to the audience because they've seen it all before." before." Chaplin thought about this for a while and then replied, "First, show the skin, then show the man, then show the skin once again. Then show the man stepping over the skin and falling down a manhole!" Women, according to the U.S. National Health Survey team, have more headaches than men. When the divorce rate goes up in the United States, toy makers say the sale of toys also rises. Paul McCartney wrote the song Lovely Rita, Meter Maid for the album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band after getting a parking ticket from a female warden in Abbey Road The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy." Michigan has the most registered boats in the USA - 947,601 - and American Samoa, with 153, has the least. At an international conference in 1884, 25 countries met to fix a standard world meridian. Many countries expressed their opposition to Greenwich Meridian Line becoming the world standard, since a large number of countries had their own lines. Greenwich was finally chosen, mainly because 72% of ships used charts showing the Greenwich Meridian and the American railway system also recognised Greenwich. Algeria, a French dependent, made its point by insisting that GMT be expressed as "Paris Mean Time diminished by 9mins 21secs" which amounts to GMT but avoids use of the word Greenwich. Midwives played a central role in female health and healing during the Middle Ages. Herbs were an important part of their practice. Participating in a rich oral culture, they passed down the secrets of herbal lore from woman to woman over hundreds of years. The cravings of pregnancy were very different for the medieval mother-to-be: unlike the modern yen for pickles and ice cream, she'd seek to have potter's earth or chalk or coals. Yum! Medieval recipe for cure of acne: "the rout of dragons made clean and cut into thin roundels" and steeped for nine days in white wine. In a recent interview with 10 prominent sex therapists, the question was posed, "What is the most important aspect in love making?" One said 'relaxation', Three said 'honesty', and a whopping Six out of Ten said 'staying awake'. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation. Dr. Miles Compound Extract of Tomato, a patent medicine, went on the market in the 1830s - it was ketchup. New York, Marriott Marquis hotel. One potential reveler from upper New York state began trying to make a reservation for New Year's Even 1999 in 1983-- before this luxury hotel was even built. "As a boy, this gentleman spent New Year's in New York," explains Molly Dwortzan, a senior manager at the Marriott Marquis who declined to release the man's name for privacy reasons. Apparently he was so moved by his youthful experience, he decided to spend the last New Year's of the 20th century in the Big Apple. To reward his sincerity, the hotel chain is giving him a complimentary room overlooking Times Square for his entire family on Dec. 31, 1999. Winston Churchill, who claimed that he could remember life inside his mother's womb, was born in the ladies toilet at a society ball. The original nomenclature of mental deficiency should be kept in mind when used in everyday conversation. For instance, an "idiot" is classified as a feeble-minded person who performs at the potential age of 3 years; an "imbecile" displays a mental age of 3 to 7 years; a "moron" has the potential age of between 8 to 12 years; and a "dufus" has no specific limitations in mental capacity but is aware of the subtle themes in "Baywatch". The wettest spot in the world is located on the island of Kauai. Mt. Waialeale consistently records rainfall at the rate of nearly 500 inches per year. Worldwide, bats are the most important natural enemies of night-flying insects. A single little brown bat can catch 600 mosquitoes in just one hour. The average person, some experts estimate, speaks about 31,500 words per day. SHAKESPEARE: Although universally regarded as a genius, William Shakespeare was the son of a globemaker and was given only an average education. Always intensely curious about the world around him, Shakespeare would later rely on scenes remembered from his childhood, common country customs and superstitions, fairs and other popular entertainments as raw material for his plays. Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University. Over 355 bird species live in Alaska. In the Inside Passage and South-central, bald eagles follow the salmon runs. In December, eagles concentrate in Pasagshak and Kodiak. Up to 3,500 bald eagles feed on late runs of salmon in the Chilkat River near Haines. Between May and August, the Nome area hosts a variety of Asian birds, shore birds, and raptors. More than 50% of American bat species are in severe decline or already listed as endangered. Losses are occurring at alarming rates worldwide. George Eastman, inventor of the Kodak camera, hated having his picture taken. Margarine was developed in the 1800s by a Frenchman who was searching for a substitute for butter, which was costly and scarce at the time. First called "oleomargarine," derived from the Greek word margarites (meaning pearl) and the Latin term oleum (meaning oil), "oleomargarine" first came to the U.S. in the late 1800s. Today, the term oleomargarine has been shortened by common usage to "margarine." Between the years of 1988 and 1991, the most commonly stolen car in the United States was the 1986 Chevrolet Camaro. In fact, 1 out of every 5 Camaros built in the year of 1986 ended up being stolen. This is in sharp contrast to the least stolen car of the same period - The Dhaitsu Shanker. Of the 243 Shankers manufactured in that 4 year period, none of them were stolen. Although one was left in front of a K-mart for 5 straight hours with the engine running, and the words "Take me for a free test drive" spray-painted in red on the hood. "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing. The phrase "back to square one" (or "back at square one", which was the original way of saying it) comes from football radio commentaries from the 1930s. There being no picture, these live reports would explain the position of play by dividing the football pitch into numbered grids and "square one" was just in front of the goal ...... so, when a ball went out of play and resulted in a goal kick, the play was "back at square one". In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. Alaska is a land of almost unimaginable scale. Stretching across 586,000 square miles of untamed wilderness, Alaska is one-fifth the size of the contiguous United States. It contains the tallest mountain in North America, Mt. McKinley, which many Alaskans simply call "the mountain." And of course, the Land of the Midnight Sun has longer summer days than any other state. This majestic landscape borders two oceans and three seas, with a 47,300 mile coastline. Alaska boasts over three million lakes, 3,000 rivers, 1,800 islands, and more than 100,000 glaciers. The "Secret Treaty of London" enabled Italy to enter World War I Diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, and is also one of the most valuable natural substances. Diamonds are crystals formed almost entirely of carbon. Because of its hardness, the diamond is the most enduring of all gemstones. They are among the most costly jewels in the world, partly because they are rare, Only four important diamond fields have been found - in Africa, South America, India, and the Soviet Union. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. The can-can was originally performed by French prostitutes. The idea was that they danced with no underwear on, thereby displaying their "wares" for potential customers. Men working on railroad track repair groups are called "gandy dancers." More than 5 million West Africans speaks the language of Twi-Fante. Shakespeare's tombstone in Stratford's Holy Trinity Church bears this inscription, said to have been written by him: Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones. In the U.S. there is, on average, three sex change operations per day. With the help of a 1000 member marching band, the mayor of New York City, Rudolph Guiliani kicked off the 1000 day countdown to the new millennium on Sunday April 6th. Times Square is often called the soul of any New Year's Eve celebration. The release of Star Wars in 1977 was beset by many problems, not the least being lack of enthusiasm by the film's distributors. In fact, so sure were they that the film would not appeal to a mass audience they wanted to split it into 20 minute segements and release it as a kids' Saturday morning serial. The band Duran Duran got its name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella." Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's sends the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: mint Oreo. The most popular name for a boat in 1996 was Serenity. The first Asian American in the U.S. Senate was Hawaii's Hiram Fong. Descended from Chinese immigrants, Fong was elected to the Senate in 1959. Alaska is so big it encompasses dozens of ecosystems. In a place of such enormous variety; don't be surprised to find the unusual - like a desert of sand dunes in Kobuk Valley National Park. The earliest Polynesians crossed over 2,000 miles of open ocean to find Hawaii without the aid of navigational instruments. Relying on keen observations of nature, Polynesian navigators could direct their large double hulled ocean canoes across the Pacific to accurate landfalls. Polynesian voyagers were navigating long distance runs in the Pacific almost 1,000 years before Columbus. The Kentucky Derby Glass made its debut in 1938. First used as a water glass for the track restaurant, the mint julep glass has been a part of the Derby tradition for nearly 60 years. Experienced waitress say that married men tip better than unmarried men. Moose are the most anti-social animal, they do not hang out with other moose. The procreation ritual is simple, the female moose calls out, male moose come running, the female picks, and within a few moments they all go on their way. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. It only takes a male horse 14 seconds to copulate. Maine is the only state that borders only one state. Choroti women, of the same area as the Siriono, are expected to spit in their partners faces during sex. Glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The debate will no doubt continue, but the experts are pointing to Caroline Island in the country of Kiribati where one can see the first light from land (6: 05 GMT+14). If you're out at sea, that's a whole different story. Caroline Island has no real population to speak of. The next closest place with any type of civilization is London, Christmas Island, also in Kiribati (6: 29 GMT+14). The state fruit of New York is the apple.. The apple was adopted as the State fruit in 1976. Apples are sweet and crisp. They come in many varieties, such as Golden Delicious, McIntosh and Winesap. In 1996, over 87 million Americans participated more than once in some type of recreational boating activity (fishing, sailing, motorboating, water skiing, canoeing, etc.). Organizers of Times Square 2000 want to be the crossroads of the world during New Year's Eve 1999. They hope to broadcast images of people and their cultures from each of the world's 24 times zones for 24 hours, culminating with the dropping of the Times Square Ball. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain The last Royal Hawaiian flag to be defended during the U.S. led coup d'etat of 1893 was aboard a Japanese gunboat. The Japanese Imperial Navy gunboat Naniwa refused to strike the Royal Hawaiian flag from it's mast during it's anchorage in Honolulu Harbor . After firmly resisting all threats from the newly installed rebel government, the Naniwa was finally ordered to lower the colors by the Japanese government. The captain of the Naniwa later went on to become the greatest naval commander in the history of Japan. Capt. Heihachiro Togo is credited with destroying the combined Russian Baltic and Pacific fleets in a single battle during the Russo-Japanese War, thus galvanizing Japans status as a world power in the early 20th century. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. Dinah Washington holds the record for the longest gap between charting records in the UK. Her first single, September In The Rain, last appeared in the charts in January 1962. She charted again with Mad About The Boy in April 1992 - an incredible 30 years later! The word gem comes from the Latin gemma meaning bud. The story of the precious stones is much like that of the blooming of flowers. Like tiny buds that burst into beautiful blossoms, dull lumps of mineral matter can be cut and polished into brilliantly flashing or beautifully glowing gems. Rubies are more valuable than sapphires because they are more rare. The best come from Burma. Opals are valued for their color flashes. The finest opals in the world come from Australia. Actress Sissy Spacek got so into the part of Carrie that she slept with fake pig's blood all over her to ensure continuity. Hawaii was originally called the Sandwich isles. The great English navigator Capt. James Cook so named the islands in 1778 in honor of his patron the Earl of Sandwich ( who is also credited with creating the edible type sandwiches). A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. All doors exiting a public building must swing outwards. That way if there is a fire, or something else to cause a stampede, no one will get crushed, by everyone else trying to get out, while they are trying to pull the door open. Tropical rain forests throughout the world are being cut down at the rate of 3000 acres per hour. Germany holds the title for most independent inventors to apply for patents. The average cost of having a recreational boat towed if it breaks down on the water is $263. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. Diamonds have great power to reflect light, bend rays of light, and to break light up into all the colors of the rainbow. But to produce the greatest possible brilliance in a diamond, many tiny sides, or facets, must be exactly the right size and shape and must be placed at exactly the right angle. Most finished diamonds have 58 facets. The cut of the diamond affects its value, because a stone that is not properly proportioned does not have as much brilliance as a stone that is well cut. The cut also refers to the shape. Diamonds are cut into a number of different shapes depending on the nature of the rough stone and the position of the inclusions. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess.A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of cotton. During the California Gold Rush of 1849 miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years it was deemed more feasible to send the shirts to Hawaii for servicing. The words for north, south, east and west are the same in English as in Chinese and Brazil's Tupi Indians. 10 Celebrities Who Have Seen UFOs 1.The Missing Thumb - In July 1991 Robert Lindsey was boating at a reservoir in Green River, Wyoming. A friend's daughter fell into the water and he dived after her. The boat ran over him, cutting off three of his fingers, two of where were found and reattached. Nearly seven months later a fisherman hooked a lake trout that contained a severed thumb. The count coroner was contracted. Said Lindsey, "As soon as I saw it, I was pretty sure it was mine." He added, "I'll probably just put it on a shelf to show people." 2.Reunited - Twenty-one-year-old Tammy Harris had spent nearly a year searching for her biological mother, while Joyce Shultz had spent twenty years trying to find her daughter. The woman lived two blocks from each other and worked together at a convenience store. One day, Shultz overheard Harris talking about her quest, and said she "might know somebody who can help." Harris lent her a baby picture, which Schultz compared with photos of her daughter. After keeping quiet for three days, Shultz confided the truth to the store manager, and mother and daughter were ecstatically reunited. 3.Sailfish vs. Sculpin - On May 23, 1939, the newly built submarine USS Squalus sank off the eastern seaboard. A sister ship, the USS Sculpin, sped to the rescue, and saved more than half of the fifty-six-man crew. The Squalus was salvaged and renamed the Sailfish. In 1943 the Sculpin was sunk by the Japanese who took forty-two crew members prisoner, and placed half of them on board the aircraft carrier Cuyo. As it approached Japan, the Cuyo was torpedoed by the Sailfish and went down with all hands. The crew of the Sailfish rejoiced at their victory - unaware that they had just killed half the survivors of the sub that had come to their rescue four years earlier. 4.Writer's Intuition? - When author Norman Mailer began his novel Barbary Shore, there was no Russian spy in it. Over time, he added such a character in a minor role. As the novel progressed, the spy became the main character. After the book was completed, the immigration service arrested a man living one flight below Mailer. He was Colonel Rudolf Abel, the top Russian spy in the United States. 5.Destined to Dine - As a child in school, French poet Emile Deschamps shared a table with a M. de Fortgibu. The man offered Emile his first taste of a novel dessert, plum pudding, which M. Fortgibu had acquired a taste for in England. Ten years later Deschamps passed a restaurant and saw a plum pudding being prepared inside. He entered and asked for a slice, but the pudding was being saved for someone - who turned out to be M. de Fortgibu. Man years later, at a dinner party where plum pudding was being served, Deschamps, about to have this dessert for the third time, told his amusing story. And lo and behold, Fortgibu arrived at the door! He too had been invited to dinner, to another apartment in the same building, and had lost his way. Said Deschamps, "My hair stood up on my head." 6.Jailed by Jaws - In 1799, an American privateer, the Nancy, sailing in Caribbean waters, was being pursued by a British warship. Before he was captured, the Yankee skipper, Thomas Briggs, managed to throw the ship' American papers overboard and to replace them with forged Dutch papers. He was taken to Jamaica, where he was placed on trial for running a British blockade during wartime. But it appeared he would go free - the court was faced with having to dismiss the case for lack of evidence. During the trial, another British ship, the HMS Ferret, arrived in port and produced the damning papers. The Ferret had captured a large shark off the coast of Haiti which, when opened, revealed the evidence. These documents were used to convict Briggs and his entire crew, and are on display today in the Institute of Jamaica, Kingston. 7.Mystery Twins - On February 20, 1947, two pregnant women were examined by their interns in a hospital in Ogden, Utah. Each doctor thought he heard double heartbeats - an indication of twins - and was surprised when each woman had a single birth, within five minutes of each other. The mothers remained strangers until three years later, when the Hendersons built a home next door to the Ritters. Within a few days, a comedy of errors was occurring - both sets of parents confused little Joyce with her identical three-year-old neighbor, Jean. The girls became friends, and found they like the same foods, the same sports, and the same music. Their voices sound alike, and when there were five, they lost their baby teeth one by one within hours of each other. Their teachers had trouble telling them apart, but, said one, "It doesn't matter. They always get the same marks anyway." 8.A Trio of Tragedies - Abraham Lincoln's eldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, had the singular misfortune to be at the scene of three presidential assassinations. On April 14, 1865, he rushed to Ford's Theater, where his father lay fatally wounded, In 1881 he was a President Garfield's side just seconds after the president was shot. Twenty years later, he was about to join President McKinley at the Pan American Exhibit when he learned that McKinley was the victim of an assassin's bullet. Lincoln might never have witnessed these tragedies if he himself had not been a narrow escape in this youth. While standing on a crowed railroad platform, he tripped and nearly fell onto the tracks. He was pulled to safety in the nick of time by Edwin Booth - brother of John Wilkes Booth. 9.Reunion #2 - In 1975 John Starr left his wife and three-year-old son in Illinois and headed for the East Coast . After seventeen years of drifting using the name John McDaniel, he wandered into the Wayside Cross Rescue Mission in Aurora, Illinois, Meanwhile, his son, John Earl, had grown up and led a life similar to that of his father. Down on his luck, with a wife and child back in Texas, he wound up in the Wayside Cross Rescue Mission. One day, Mr. Starr stepped outside for a smoke and struck up a conversation with John Earl. Soon there were chatting about local acquaintances, and John Earl asked Starr if he know a man named John McDaniel. Starr answered, " I sure do. That's me." To which John Early replied, "I think you're my father." The younger man's first reaction was anger, but over time father and son have begun to mend fences. 23 Prominent People Who Died of AIDS 1.The Only President to Get Stuck in the White House Bathtub - William Howard Taft., U.S. president from 1909 until 1913, weighted more than 300 pounds. Once, after getting stuck in the White House bathtub, he ordered a new one installed, large enough for four men. At a dinner in the Panama Canal Zone engineers built him a dining room chair reinforced with steel. Jokes about Taft's size ere common and he took them with good humor. According to Paul L. Boller, Jr., in Presidential Anecdotes, Taft was swimming off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, when tow neighbors walked by and said, "We'd better wait. The president is using the ocean." 2.The Only President to Weigh Under 100 Pounds - James Madison, the fourth president of the United States (1809-1817), stood five feet four inches and weighed ninety-eight pounds. Had he lived in the twentieth century he probably could not have gotten elected - although the average American male is 5 feet 9 inches tall, the last twenty-two presidential elections have been won by a candidate who was taller than the average. 3.The Only Foot Deodorant Elected to Public Office - In the early 1970s, during an election campaign in Ecuador, a foot deodorant manufacturer used the advertising slogan "Vote for any candidate, but if you want well-being and hygiene, vote for Pulvapies." The day before the election, the manufacturer distributed a leaflet reading "For Mayor: The Honorable Pulvapies." Voters in the coastal village of Picoaza (pop. 4,100), unimpressed with the alternatives, elected Pulvapies by a clear majority. 4.The Only English Monarch Never to Set Foot in England - Berengaria, the daughter of King Sancho VI of Navarre, married King Richard the Lion-Hearted and was crowned queen - in Cyprus - I 1911. She never visited England and spent most of hear eight-year reign in Italy and France. 5.The Only Bone in the Human Body Not Connected to Another - The hyoid is a V-shaped bone located at the base of the tongue between the mandible and the voice box. Its function is to support the tongue and its muscles. 6.The Only 7-Letter Word That Contain All 5 Vowels - The word is sequoia, referring to the giant trees of California. The sequoia is named after the Cherokee Indian scholar who created a written alphabet for the Cherokee language. 7.The Only Baseball Player to Get a Hit for 2 Different Teams in 2 Cities on the Same Day - Joel Youngblood began August 4 1982, as the starting right fielder for the New York Mets in their game against the Chicago, Cubs. He singled in the third inning, but was immediately pulled from the game and told that he had been trade to the Montreal Expos. Youngblood flew to Philadelphia, took a taxi to Veteran's Stadium, put on a Montreal uniform, and entered the game in the sixth inning. In his only at-bat, he singled again. 8.The Only Nonhuman Land Animal that Commonly Mates Face to Face - Two-toed sloths typically mate vertically while hanging by their arms from a tree branch. 9 Actresses Who Won Beauty Contests 1.Entire World Population Except Noah and 7 Relatives (Genesis 6, 7) - Transgression: Violence, corruption and generalized wickedness. Method of execution: Flood. 2.Entire Populations of Sodom and Gomorrah Except Lot, His Wife, and Their 2 Daughters (Genesis 19) - Transgression: Widespread wickedness and lack of respect for the deity. Method of execution: Rain of fire and brimstone. 3.Lot's Wife (Genesis 19) - Transgression: Locked back. Method of execution: Turned into a pillar of salt. 4.ER (Genesis 38) - Transgression: Wickedness. Method of execution: Unknown 5.Onan (Genesis 38) - Transgression: Refused to make love to his brother ER's widow. Method of Execution: Unknown. 6.All the Firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12) - Transgression: Egypt was cruel to the Jews. Method of Execution: Unknown. 7.Pharoah and the Egyptian Army - Transgression: Pursued the Jews. Method of execution: Drowned. 8.Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10) - Transgression: Offered strange fire. Method of Execution: fire. 9.Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their Families (Numbers 16) - Transgression: Rejected authority of Moses and started own congregation. Method of execution: Swallowed by earth. 10.250 Followers of Korah (Numbers 16) - Transgression: Supported Korah. Method of execution: Fire. 11.14,700 Israelites (Numbers 16) - Transgression: Murmured against Moses and his brother Aaron following execution of Korah and his supporters. Method of execution: Plague 12.Unknown Number of Retreating Amorite Soldiers (Joshua 10) - Transgression: Fought the Israelites. Method of execution: Hailstones. 13.Uzzah (2 Samuel 6) - Transgression: Touched the ark of God after oxen shook it while pulling it on a cart. Method of Execution: Unknown. 14.70,000 People (2 Samuel 24) - Transgression: King David ordered a census of the population. Method of Execution: Plague. 15.102 Soldiers of King Ahaziah (2 King 1) - Transgression: Tried to capture Elijah the Tishbite. Method of execution: Fire. 16.Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) - Transgression: Land Fraud.. Method of Execution: Unknown. Madame Tussaud's Most Hated and Feared, Most Heroic, and Most Beautiful 1.Among the Many Dangers of the Material World - A Brink's amored-car guard, Hrand Arakelian, thirty-four, of Santee, California, was crushed to death by $50,000 worth of quarters. Arakelian was guarding a load of twenty-five-pound coin boxes in the back of a truck traveling down the San Diego Freeway on February 3, 1986, when the driver braked suddenly to avoid a car that had swerved in front of him. when he pulled over to check on this partner, he found Arakelian completely covered by boxes of coins. 2.Drowned at a Lifeguards' Party - On August 1, 1985, lifeguards of the New Orleans recreation department threw a party to celebrate their first downing-free season in memory. although four lifeguards were on duty at the party and more than half the 200 party-goers were lifeguards, when the party ended, one of the guests, Jerome Moody, thirty-one, was found dead on the bottom o the recreation department pool. 3.Strangled by a Garden Hose - Thirty-five-year-old Richard Fresquez of Austin, Texas, became drunk on the night of May 7, 1983. He tripped on a garden hose, became tangled in it, and strangled to death while trying to break free. 4.Fatal Cure for Hemorrhoids - Norik Hakpisan, twenty-four-year-old music student of Sloane Terrace, Chelsea, in London, was found dead on October 5, 1982, after being caught in a flash fire while trying to relieve a bad case of hemorrhoids with gasoline, The fumes from an open bottle of petrol had been ignited by a hot plate. Hakpisan's brother, Hiak, said that relieving hemorrhoids with paraffin was an old family remedy, but that Norik had apparently used petrol instead. 5.Killed by a Waterbed - Donald King, twenty-eight, of Stockton, California, was smothered to death by a waterbed mattress on the night of August 20, 1983. King fell asleep next to the bed while waiting for it to fill with water. The mattress overfilled, burst its wood frame, and rolled on top of him. 6.Perfect Re-creation) - On April 27, 1991, Yooket Paen, fifty-seven, of Angthong, Thailand, slipped in some mud, grabbed a live wire, and was electrocuted. Later that day, her fifty-two-year-old sister, Yooket Pan, was showing some neighbors how the accident happened while she slipped, grabbed the same live wire, and was also electrocuted. 7.Killed by Art - In 1991 Bulgarian environmental artist Christo erected 1,760 yellow umbrellas along southern California's Tejon Pass and another 1,340 blue umbrellas I Ilbaraki Prefecture north of Tokyo. Each of the umbrellas weighed 488 pounds. On October 26, Lori Jean Keevil-Mathews, a thirty-three-year-old insurance agent, drove south to Interstate 5 to view the California umbrellas. Shortly after Keevil-Mathews and her husband got out of their car, a huge gust of wind tore one of the umbrellas loose from its steel screw anchors and blew it straight at Keevil-Mathews, crushing her against a boulder. Chriso immediately ordered the dismantling of all the umbrellas in both countries. However, on October 30, another umbrella-related death occurred when fifty-seven-year-old crane operator Wasaaki Nakaruma was electrocuted by a power line in Japan as he prepared to take down one of the umbrellas. 8.Self-Induced Capital Punishment (Leviticus 10) - Michael Anderson Godwin was convicted of murder and sentenced to the electric chair, but in 1983 his sentence was changed to life in prison. On March 5, 1989, Godwin, twenty-eight years old, was trying to fix a pair of earphones connected to the television set in his cell at the Central Correctional Institution in Columbia, south Carolina. While sitting on a steel toilet, he bit into a wire and was electrocuted. 9.The Bowling Ball from Nowhere - Thomas Hart, thirty, and his wife, Linda, were driving home in suburban Detroit I the early morning of December 4, 1982, when out of the darkness a fourteen-pound burgundy bowling ball bounced on the hood of their car, crashed through the windshield, and struck Hart in the head. He was pronounced dead the following day. 10.Among the Many Dangers of the Spiritual World - John Edward Blue, thirty-eight, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, was being baptized in Natick's Lake Cochiuate o August 13, 1984, when he and the minister performing the baptism slipped and fell backward into deep water. The minister survived, but Blue drowned. 11.The Perils of Politics - Nitaro Ito, forty-one, a pancake-shop operator in Higashiosaka City, Japan, concluded that he needed an extra edge in his 1979 campaign for the House of Representatives. He decided to stage an attack ion himself and then draw sympathy by campaigning from a hospital bed. Ito's scheme was to have an employee, Kazuhiko Matsumo, punch him in the face on the night of September 17, after which Ito would stab himself in the leg. After Matsumo had carried out his part of the plan, Ito stabbed his right thigh. Unfortunately, he cut an artery and bled to death before he could reach his home fifty meters away. 12.Killed by a Robot (Joshua 10) - Ford Motor Company's casting plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, employed a one-ton robot to fetch parts from a storage rack. When the robot malfunctioned on January 25, 1979, twenty-five-year-old Robert Williams was asked to climb up on the rack and get the parts. While he was performing the task, the robot suddenly reactivated and hit Williams in the head with its arm. Williams died instantly. four years later a jury ordered Unit Handling Systems, the manufacturer of the robot, to pay Williams's family $10 million. Williams is believed to have been the first person killed by a robot. Top 15 Celebrity Q Scores 1.John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865 - Twelve days after he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, Booth himself was shot to death. His body was transported to Washington D.C., and secretly buried under a flagstone floor in the Washington Arsenal Prison. Two years later it was exhumed and stored I a pine box in a warehouse. In 1869 President Andrew Johnson ordered the box moved to a funeral home, where it was claimed by Booth's brother, the famous actor Edwin Booth. Finally, on June 26, 1869, it was reburied in an unmarked family plot in Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland. 2.Pablo Casals (1876-1973), Spanish cellist - When he left Spain in 1939, as the Fascist dictator Francisco Franco took power, Casals swore he would return only when democracy was restored. He died before that happened and was buried in Memorial Cemetery in Caroline, Puerto Rico. His will contained the request that his body be buried in Spain whenever it would be possible. That time came with the change of government in 1979. Casal's coffin was put on display in Barcelona and then reburied in the church cemetery of Vendrell, the village where he was born and raised. 3.Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977), British actor - Chaplin was buried in the village cemetery of Corsier, Switzerland. On March 1, 1978, Galtcho Ganav of Bulgaria and Roman Wardas of Poland dug up his grave, stole the body, and hid it in a field ten miles away. After the grave robbers were arrested, Chaplin's body was recovered and reburied - this time in a vault surrounded by cement. 4.Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), Spanish explorer - Originally, Columbus was buried in the Franciscan monastery of Valladolid, Spain. A few years later his body was transferred to the Carthusian monastery in Las Cuevas. In 1541 his remains were put on a ship and sent across the ocean to be buried in a cathedral in the Dominican Republic. However, in 1795 Spain ceded the island of Hispaniola to France, so Columbus was moved to Havana, Cuba. Then, in 1898, Spain lost the Spanish-American War and had to give up its West Indian colonies. So Columbus's remains were shipped back across the Atlantic Ocean and once again enshrined, this time in a cathedral in Seville, where they rest today. It is worth noting, however, that 19 1877 a vault in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo was opened and a casket was discovered that many scholars believe to contain the real bones of Columbus. 5.Arthur Conan Doyle (1854 - 1930), British author - The creator of Sherlock Holmes died sitting up in an armchair and was buried in the garden of his estate in Windlesham, Sussex. In 1955 the family sold Windlesham (which was turned into a hotel), and the bodies of Conan Doyle and his wife, Jean, were transported in a laundry van to their new resting place. 6.F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896 - 1940), U.S. author - Fitzgerald had hoped to be buried in his family's plot in the graveyard of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in, Maryland. But when he died he was refused a Catholic burial because, in the words of a Baltimore diocesan aide, he " had not performed his Easter duty and his writings were undesirable.: It was discovered that a single plot remained in the nondenominational Rockville Union Cemetery, and he was tnterred there instead. by 1975 Fitzgerald had regained his lost fame, and the authorities at St. Mary's had a change of heart. On November 7 Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, were reburied in the Catholic cemetery. 7.Frederick II, King of Prussia (1712 1786), German military leader - In his will, Frederick the Great asked to be buried beside his greyhounds on the grounds of the palace of Sans Souci in Potsdam. He got his wish, but it took 205 years and six stops along the way. When he died, his successor, Frederick Williams II, thought it too undignified to bury Frederick with his dogs, so he had the great leader entombed instead with his father, Frederick Wilhelm I (who had once imprisoned Frederick and whom Frederick hated), in the Garrison church of Potsdam. In February 1945, as Allied bombs edged closer to Potsdam, Adolf Hitler had the two bodies moved to the Luftwaffe bunker of Hermann Goring. A few weeks later there were surreptitiously transferred to a salt mine in Thuringia. six weeks after that, American troops found the sarcopagi and seized them. Frederick and his father were buried again, this time at a church in the town of Marburg. In 1952 Prince Louis Ferdinand had his ancestors moved to the crypt at the Hohenzollern castle in Hechingen and was then in Communist East Germany. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Louis Ferdinand saw his chance. On August 7, 1991, with great pomp and ceremony, not to mention antimilitarist protests, Frederick the Great was finally laid to rest alongside his greyhounds and separated at last from his father, who was interred elsewhere on the palace grounds. 8.Joseph Haydn (1732 - 1809), Austrian Composer -Haydn was originally buried in the Hundsthiron Cemetery in Vienna. When his body was exhumed in 1820 for reburial in the Bergkirche on Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy's Eisenstadt estate, it was discovered that two fiends of Haydn's, Carl Rosenbaum and Johann Peter, had bribed the grave digger to let hem steal Haydn' head "to protect it from desecration." Rosenbaum produced a bogus skull, which was buried with Haydn's body. From 1895 to 1954, the real skull was kept in the museum of the Vienna Academy of music, after which it was reunited with Haydn's skeleton and reburied in the Bergkirch. 9.John Paul Jones (1747 - 1792), Scottish-born U.S. naval officer - One of the heroes of the American Revolution, Jones died a lonely death in Paris and was buried in a cemetery for foreign Protestants. In 1899 the U.S. ambassador to France, General Horace Porter, initiated a search for Jones's grave. It was finally located and his body was exhumed in 1905 and carried back to the United States. Because of bureaucratic red tape, it was not until January 26, 1913, that John Paul Jones's body was laid to rest in a tomb on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. 10.Imre Nagy (1896-1958), Hungarian political leader - As Hungary's premier, Nagy led the revolted against Stalin that prompted the Soviet Union to invade Hungary in 1956. Nagy was hanged as a traitor on June 16, 1958. thirty-one years later to the day, Nagy and four aides were exhumed from their unmarked graves and reburied after an emotional memorial services attended by 100,000 people and televised live for nine hours. Also buried was a sixth empty coffin which symbolized the hundreds of other Hungarians who were executed for their part in the 1956 uprising. 11.Zintkala Nuini (Marguerite Colby) (1890-1919), Lakota Indian - When soldiers of the U.S. 7th Cavalry massacred hundred of unarmed Lakota Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota on December 29, 1902, a four-month-old baby girl was found alive, lying underneath the body of her dead mother. She was adopted by Brigadier General Leonard Colby and raised by Colby's suffragette wife, Clara. For a time Marguerite worked in buffalo bill Cody's Wild West Show. She died at the age of twenty-nine and was buried in Hanford, California . French-Canadian author Renee Sanson-Flood traced the story of Marguerite Colby, located her grave, and arranged with leaders of the Lakota community to have her reburied. The Lakota renamed her Zintkala Numi - Lost Bird - and on July 12, 1991, following a symbolic freeing-of-the-spirit ceremony, she was laid to rest near the mass grave at Wounded Knee that included the body of her mother. 12.Eva Peron (1919 - 1952), Argentine First Lady - When she died, the popular second wife of President Juan Peron was embalmed, but not buried. After Peron was overthrown in 1955, Eva's body was kidnapped and smuggled out of the country. She was buried in the Musocco Cemetery in Milan under the name of Maria Maggi to discourage potential grave robbers. In 1971 her body was transferred to Madrid, where Juan Peron was living in exile. Two years later, Peron briefly returned to power. Upon his death, his third wife, Maria Estela, became president. In an attempt to link herself with Eva Peron's popularity, she brought Eva's body back to Argentina on November 17, 1974. Id didn't help. Maria Estela was deposed by a coup in March 1976. In October of that year, Eva was buried in an armored vault in the Recoleta Cemetery of Buenos Aires. 13.Haile Selassie (1892 - 1975), Ethiopian dictator and military leader - Emperor Haile Selassie died mysteriously a year after being overthrown by Mengistu Haile Mariam, who had him buried deep in the ground under a latrine in Mengistu's office at the grand palace. According to Ethiopian state radio, the new dictator "chose this site to see that the body did not rise from the dead." When Mengistu himself was overthrown in May 1991 the new government approved plans to exhume Haile Selassie's body. It took workers three days of digging to reach the body. On July 23, 1992, the one hundredth anniversary of the emperor's birth, he received a formal burial in Trinity Church in the presence of family members and former supporters. 14.James Smithson (1765 - 1829), British founder of the Smithsonian Institution - Smithson died in Italy and was buried in Genoa's English cemetery. By 1900 it became clear that nearby quarrying would require the transfer of all graves to a new location. British authorities, aware of American interest in Smithson, wrote to officials of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., asking if they would like to take charge of his body. In December 1903, a mission headed by the inventor Alexander Graham Bell arrived in Genoa and oversaw the disinterment of Smithson's body and its transfer by ship to the United States. If now rests in a tomb in the institution that bears his name. Bottom 9 Celebrity Q Scores 1.Babe Ruth's Last Home Run - Ruth hit his 714th and last major-league hoe run, a towering out-of-the-park drive off a Pittsburgh Pirates' pitcher Guy Bush, on May 25, 1935. However, eleven years later the owner of the Veracruz Blues of the Mexican League hired the famous slugger for $10,000 to come and bat once in a game against the Mexico City Reds. The pitcher, Ramon Brazanak threw three balls and was removed from the games. A reliever was brought in ad threw his firsts pitch straight down the middle. The fifty-one-year-old Ruth hit it deep into the right-field bleachers, much to the delight of 10,000 Mexican fans. 2.The Last American Killed in the Vietnam War - Kelton Rena Turner, an eighteen-year-old Marine from Los Angeles, was killed in action on May 15, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the Mayaguez incident. His body was never recovered. 3.The Last Victim of Smallpox - On October 26, 1977, Ali Maow Maalin, a hospital cook in Somalia, became the last person to contract smallpox through natural transmission when he chose to tend an infected child. The child died but Maalin survived. In September 1978, Janet Parker, an English medical photographer, was exposed to smallpox as the result of a laboratory accident. She subsequently died. The virologist in charge of the lab felt so guilty that he committed suicide. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Organization declared smallpox eradicated. However, some samples remained in laboratories in Atlanta and Moscow. If scientists go ahead with a plan to destroy the samples, the smallpox virus would become the first life form intentionally eliminated from the earth. 4.The Last Playboy Club in America - The final day of business for the Lansing, Michigan, Playboy Club was July 30, 1988. Four clubs remained in Japan and one in Manila. 5.The Last Crank Phone in the United States - On July 12, 1990, America's last hand-cranked, party-line telephone system was replaced by private-line, touch-tone technology. The system had serviced the eighteen year-round residents of Salmon River Canyon, near North Fork, Idaho. 6.The Last Miss Canada - In 1991 women's groups successfully lobbied to have the Miss Canada contest canceled, claiming that is was degrading to women. The last Miss Canada, Nicole Dunsdon, completed her reign in October 1992. When Leo Tolstoy and his brother were children, they created a club with a peculiar, almost impossible initiation ceremony. In order to become a member, one had to stand in a corner for a half an hour and not think of a white Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west. Mrs. Caroline Squires of Cincinnati filed for a divorce from her husband in 1949 on grounds of desertion. She testified he'd stepped out "for a beer" on the Fourth of July, 1917, and had never come back. The French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," derived its title from the enthusiasm of the men of Marseilles, France, who sang it when they marched into Paris at the outset of the French Revolution. Rouget de l'Isle, its composer, was an artillery officer. According to his account, he fell asleep at a harpsichord and dreamt the words and the music. Upon waking, he remembered the entire piece from his dream and immediately wrote it down. Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale. A law passed in Nebraska in 1912 really set down some hard rules of the road. Drivers in the country at night were required to stop every 150 yards, send up a skyrocket, then wait eight minutes for the road to clear before proceeding cautiously, all the while blowing their horn and shooting off flares. Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places. The formula for cold cream has hardly changed at all in the 1,700 years since it was originally made by the Roman physician Galen. George Lumley, aged 104, married Mary Dunning, aged 10, in Nortallerton, England on August 25, 1783. She was the great-great granddaughter of the woman who'd broken her engagement to Lumley, eighty years before. Caesar salad has nothing to do with any of the Caesars. It was first concocted in a bar in Tiajuana, Mexico, in the 1920's. Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land. Although they are rapid, they are not agile; so if you ever find yourself chased by one, run in a zigzag line. You'll lose him or her every time. After Albert Einstein had been at Princeton for some months, local news hounds discovered that a twelve-year-old girl happened to stop by the Einstein home almost every afternoon. The girl's mother hadn't thought to ask Einstein about the situation until the newspapers reported it, but when she got the opportunity after that she did so. What could her daughter and Einstein have in common that they spent so much time together? Einstein replied simply, "She brings me cookies and I do her arithmetic homework." When the French Academy was preparing its first dictionary, it defined "crab" as, "A small red fish which walks backwards." This definition was sent with a number of others to the naturalist Cuvier for his approval. The scientist wrote back, "Your definition, gentlemen, would be perfect, only for three exceptions. The crab is not a fish, it is not red and it does not walk backwards. "Louis XV of France really was as an unpleasant a fellow as he's been depicted. In 1674, when he was visiting a school at Clermont, he heard from the school's authorities that one of the children, a nine-year-old Irish lad named Francis Seldon, had mad a pun about the king's bald head. Louis was furious. He had a secret warrant drawn up for the child's arrest, and young Seldon was thrown into solitary confinement in the Bastille. His parents, members of one of Europe's richest merchant families, were told simply that the child had disappeared. Days turned to months, months to years, and Louis himself passed away. But Francis spent sixty-none years "in the hole" for making fun of the king's baldness. One of the movie moguls the Marx Brothers had to deal with was Irving Thalberg of MGM. Purposefully or not, Thalberg had the annoying habit of making people wait outside his office for extended periods of time. One time he kept the Marx Brothers longer than they liked. When he finally got around to seeing them, he discovered they were stark naked outside his doorway, roasting potatoes in the lobby's fireplace. It was the last time he kept them waiting. Abraham Lincoln had no love for favor seekers, especially when they took his time away from the duties of the presidency during the Civil War. On one occasion, he gathered together a number of would-be-office holders and told them this story: "There was once a King who wished to go out hunting, so he asked his minister if it was going to rain. The minister assured him that it would not. On the way to the woods, the King passed a farmer who was working the land with his donkey. The farmer warned the King that it would rain soon, but the King just laughed and continued on. A few minutes later it was pouring, and the King and his companions were soaked to their skin. Upon return to the castle, the King dismissed his minister and sent for the farmer. He asked the man how he knew it was going to rain. ""It was not me, your Majesty. It was my donkey. He always droops one ear when it is going to rain." "So the King bought the donkey from the farmer and gave him the position of minister at court. This was where the King made his mistake." "How was that," asked several people in the audience. "Because ever since then," Lincoln continued, "every jackass wants an office. Gentlemen, leave your credentials and when the war is over you'll hear from me." In 1500 B.C. in Egypt a shaved head was considered the ultimate in feminine beauty. Egyptian women removed every hair from their heads with special gold tweezers and polished their scalps to a high sheen with buffing cloths. In ancient China and certain parts of India, mouse meat was considered a great delicacy. In ancient Greece, where the mouse was sacred to Apollo, mice were sometimes devoured by temple priests. In 1400 B.C. it was the fashion among rich Egyptian women to place a large cone of scented grease on top of their heads and keep it there all day. As the day wore on, the grease melted and dripped down over their bodies, covering their skin with an oily, glistening sheen and bathing their clothes in fragrance.In the United States, a pound of potato chips cost two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes. Half the foods eaten throughout the world today were developed by farmers in the Andes Mountains. Potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes, squash, all varieties of beans, peanuts, manioc (manioc?), papayas, strawberries, mulberries and many other foods were first grown in this region.A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can. Blue whales weigh as much as 30 elephants and are as long as 3 Greyhound buses. According to tests made at the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems in Washington, D.C., dogs and cats, like people, are either right-handed or left-handed --- that is, they favor either their right or left paws. A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if a strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods. Try it! In eighteenth-century England, women's wigs were sometimes 4 feet high. These remarkable head-dresses were dusted with flour and decorated with stuffed birds, replicas of gardens, plates of fruit, or even model ships. Sometimes the wigs were so elaborate they were worn continuously for several months. They were matted with lard to keep them from coming apart, which made mice and insects a constant problem. Special pillows had to be constructed to hold these giant creations, and rat-resistant caps made of wire were common. The wig craze died out quite suddenly in 1795, when a hair-powder tax made their upkeep too expensive. In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other. Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision. The Inca Indians of Peru considered bridges to be so sacred that anyone who tampered with one was put to death. Among the most impressive Inca bridges were the chacas, or rope bridges, that spanned great distances over gorges and rivers. They were made of braided grasses woven together into a single cable as thick as a man's body, and they sometimes were 175 feet long. It took as many as a thousand people to build such a bridge, and many of these remarkable structures lasted more than 500 years. According to acupuncturists, there is a point on the head that you can press to control your appetite. It is located in the hollow just in front of the flap of the ear. (Try it!) Tibetans, Mongolians, and people in parts of western China put salt in their tea instead of sugar. In 1976 a Los Angeles secretary named Jannene Swift officially married a 50-pound rock. The ceremony was witnessed by more than 20 people. In the early 19th century the words "trousers" and "pants" were considered obscene in England. Woman referred to trousers as "inexpressibles" or "a pair of dittoes." Later in the century the taboo was carried to such lengths that piano legs were covered up because they reminded people of their human legs. In 1836 Charles Dickens wrote the following lines in Oliver Twist: " ' I tossed off the clothes, got safely in bed, drew on a pair of ________' " " ' Ladies present, Mr. Giles,' murmured the tinker. " ' _________ of shoes, Sir,' said Mr. Giles, laying great emphasis on the word." Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have been birds. There is approximately one chicken for every human being in the world. Sports fans in Brazil sometimes become so excited that it was necessary to build a wide moat around the playing field of Rio's 180,000-seat Maracarña Stadium. The moat keeps the crowd from running onto the field, molesting the players and attacking the referees. According to many language experts, the most difficult kind of phrase to create is a palindrome, a sentence or group of sentences that reads the same backward and forward. A few examples: Red rum, sir, is murder. Ma is as selfless as I am. Nurse, I spy gypsies. Run! A man, a plan, a canal - Panama. He lived as a devil, eh? The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 7½ miles per hour. In the memoirs of Catherine II of Russia, it is recorded that any Russian aristocrat who displeased the queen was forced to squat in the great antechamber of the palace and to remain in that position for several days, mewing like a cat, clucking like a hen, and pecking his food from the floor. The outdoor temperature can be estimated to within several degrees by timing the chirps of a cricket. It is done this way: count the number of chirps in a 15-second period, and add 37 to the total. The result will be very close to the actual Fahrenheit temperature. This formula, however, only works in warm weather. (Try it!) At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere. Lightning strikes the earth 100 times every second. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More than 2 billion pencils are manufactured each year in the United States. If these were laid end to end they would circle the world nine times. The Pekingese dog was considered sacred among Chinese royalty. At the court of Li Hsui, one of the last Manchu queens, all court Pekingese had human wet nurses. Each dog had its own human guard to protect it from other dogs; some even had private palaces, complete with servants. A rainbow can be seen only in the morning or late afternoon. It can occur only when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon. During a severe windstorm or rainstorm the Empire State Building may sway several feet to either side. In Calama, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile, it has never rained. An eighteenth-century German named Matthew Birchinger, known as "the little man of Nuremberg," played four musical instruments including the bagpipes, was an expert calligrapher, and was the most famous stage magician of his day. He performed tricks with the cup and balls that have never been explained. Yet Birchinger had no hands, legs, or thighs, and was less than 29 inches tall! The star Antares is 60,000 times larger than our sun. If our sun were the size of a softball, the star Antares would be as large as a house. In Elizabethan England the spoon was such a novelty, such a prized rarity, that people carried their own folding spoons to banquets. (This was true, however, for only the people who were invited to banquets.) Ants stretch when they wake up. They also appear to yawn in a very human manner before taking up the tasks of the day. Bees have 5 eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front. In Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift described the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, giving their exact size and speeds of rotation. He did this more than 100 years before either moon was discovered. It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World. One-fourth of the world's population lives on less than $200 a year. Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year. In ancient China doctors were paid when their patients were kept well, not when they were sick. Believing that it was the doctor's job to prevent disease, Chinese doctors often paid the patient if the patient lost his health. Further, if a patient died, a special lantern was hung outside the doctor's house. At each death another lantern was added. Too many of these lanterns were certain to ensure a slow trade. Butterflies taste with their hind feet. Only female mosquitoes bite. Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death. Every night, wasps bite into the stem of a plant, lock their mandibles (jaws) into position, stretch out at right angles to the stem, and, with legs dangling, fall asleep. During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax. It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona. In the country of Turkey, in the 16th and 17th centuries, anyone caught drinking coffee was put to death. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. In eighteenth-century English gambling dens, there was an employee whose only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police raid. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven. The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the back. Salty and pungent flavors are tasted in the middle of the tongue, sweet flavors at the tip. (Try it!) A sneeze can travel as fast as 100 miles per hour. It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time. (Try it!) A Virginia law requires all bathtubs to be kept out in the yards, not inside the houses. "Breath," by Samuel Beckett, was first performed in April, 1970. The play lasts thirty seconds, has no actors, and no dialogue. In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats. In the Balanta tribe of Africa, a bride remained married until her wedding gown was worn out. If she wanted a divorce after 2 weeks, all she had to do was rip up her dress. This was the custom until about 20 years ago,anyway. Marie de Medici, a member of that famous Italian family and a 17th-century queen of France, had expensive tastes in clothes. One special dress was outfitted with 39,000 tiny pearls and 3,000 diamonds, and cost the equivalent of twenty million dollars at the time it was made in 1606. She wore it once. The eccentric and paranoid American recluse Langley Collier met his untimely end in 1947. While he was bringing food to his equally odd brother Homer, who lived as a total hermit, Langley tripped on a wire to one of his own booby traps and was crushed beneath a suitcase filled with metal, a sewing machine, three breadboxes, and several bundles of newspapers. Homer starved to death, and their bodies were undiscovered for three weeks. Here is the literal translation of one of the standard traffic signs in China. It reads: "Give large space to the festive dog that makes sport in the roadway." Ralph Graves entered a doughnut shop with a gun and demanded money from the cashier. A customer recognized him, however, when Graves lifted up a corner of his pillowcase mask to find his way out the door. Graves had forgotten to cut eyeholes. A burglar entered the home of Tom Schimmel in Tawas City, Michigan; collected valuables; fixed himself a bowl of cereal; laid down in Schimmel's bed and fell asleep. When Schimmel returned to his house and discovered the crime, he called police. Officers investigated, completed their reports, and departed. When Schimmel noticed the sleeping burglar several hours later, he summoned the police again. They awakened the man and identified him as the thief. In 1968, a convention of beggars in Dacca, India, passed a resolution demanding that "the minimum amount of alms be fixed at 15 paisa (three cents)." The convention also demanded that the interval between when a person hears a knock at his front door and when he offers alms should not exceed 45 seconds. A San Antonio wife, filing for divorce, described her husband as "a bore." "Just what is a bore?" asked the judge. She thought about it, then quoted, "A person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company." The record shows the judge regarded that as sufficient grounds and granted her the divorce. Larry Lewis ran the 100-yard dash in 17.8 seconds in 1969, thereby setting a new world's record for runners in the 100-years-or-older class. He was 101. Yes, it's against the law to: 1. Doze off under a hair dryer in Florida 2. Slap an old friend on the back in Georgia 3. Play hopscotch on a Sunday in Missouri. At age ninety, Peter Mustafic of Botovo, Yugoslavia, suddenly began speaking again after a silence of 40 years. The Yugoslavian news agency quoted him as saying, "I just didn't want to do military service, so I stopped speaking in 1920; then I got used to it." Cows burp a lot, but until recently no one paid much attention. Now researchers at the Texas Department of Highways in Fort Worth are sitting up and taking notice. Each year the cow population of the United States burps some fifty million tons of valuable hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. If they could only be captured and efficiently channeled, say the researchers, the accumulated burps of ten average cows could keep a small house adequately, if indirectly,heated and its stove operating for a year. California woman who was thrown in jail not long ago for disrobing in a grocery store and sitting on some pheasant eggs in an effort to hatch them. Warning: THE PRACTICIONER, a British medical journal, has determined that bird-watching may be hazardous to your health. The magazine, in fact, has officially designated bird-watching a "hazardous hobby," after documenting the death of a weekend bird-watcher who became so immersed in his subject that he grew oblivious to his surroundings and consequently was eaten by a crocodile. The coastal town of Picoaza, Ecuador, was in the midst of avery boring election campaign when a foot deodorant manufacturer came out with the slogan "VOTE FOR ANY CANDIDATE, BUT IF YOU WANT WELL-BEING AND HYGIENE, VOTE FOR PULVAPIES." Then on the eve of the voting, a leaflet reading: "FOR MAYOR: HONORABLE PULVAPIES" was widely distributed. In one of the great embarrassments of democracy, the voters of Picoaza elected the foot powder by a clear majority; Pulvapies also ran well in outlying districts. THE MOST UNUSUAL CANNONBALL On two occasions, Miss 'Rita Thunderbird' remained inside the cannon despite a lot of gunpowder encouragement to do otherwise. She performs in a gold lamébikini and on one of the two occasions (1977) Miss Thunderbird remained lodged in the cannon, while her bra was shot across the River Thames. THE NOISIEST BURGLAR. A burglar in Paris set new standards for the entire criminal world, when, on November 4, 1933, he attempted to rob the home of an antique dealer. At the time he was dressed in a 15th-century suit of armour which dramatically limited his chances both of success and escape. He had not been in the house many minutes before its owner was awakened by the sound of the clanking metal. The owner got up and went out on to the landing where he saw the suit of armour climbing the stairs. He straightaway knocked the burglar off balance, dropped a small sideboard across his breastplate, and went off to call the police. During police questioning a voice inside the armour confessed to being a thief trying to pull off a daring robbery. "I thought I would frighten him," he said. Unfortunately for our man, the pressure of the sideboard had so dented his breastplate that it was impossible to remove the armour for 24 hours, during which period he had to be fed through the visor. During Abraham Lincoln's campaign for the presidency, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat named Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri, swore that he would never shave again if Abe were elected. Tapley kept his word and his chin whiskers went unshorn from November 1860 until he died in 1910, attaining a length of twelve feet six inches. For a while Frederic Chopin, the composer and pianist, wore a beard on only one side of his face. "It does not matter," he explained. "My audience sees only my right side." 1930: Photo flashbulbs replace dangerous flash powder. 1930: "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S. 1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular network newscast. 1930: TVs based on British mechanical system roll off factory line. 1930: Bush's differential analyzer introduces the computer. 1930: AT&T tries the picture telephone. 1931: Commercial teletype service. 1931: Electronic TV broadcasts in Los Angeles and Moscow. 1931: Exposures meters go on sale to photographers. 1931: NBC experimentally doubles transmission to 120-line screen. 1932: Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons. 1932: Kodak introduces 8 mm film for home movies. 1932: The "Times" of London uses its new Times Roman typeface. 1932: Stereophonic sound in a motion picture, "Napoleon." 1932: Zoom lens is invented, but a practical model is 21 years off. 1932: The light meter. 1932: NBC and CBS allow prices to be mentioned in commercials. 1933: Armstrong invents FM, but its real future is 20 years off. 1933: Multiple-flash sports photography. 1933: Singing telegrams. 1933: Phonograph records go stereo. 1934: Drive-in movie theater opens in New Jersey. 1934: Associated Press starts wirephoto service. 1934: In Germany, a mobile television truck roams the streets. 1934: In Scotland, teletypesetting sets type by phone line. 1934: Three-color Technicolor used in live action film. 1934: Communications Act of 1934 creates FCC. 1934: Half of the homes in the U.S. have radios. 1934: Mutual Radio Network begins operations. 1935: German single lens reflex roll film camera synchronized for flash bulbs. 1935: Also in Germany, audio tape recorders go on sale. 1935: IBM's electric typewriter comes off the assembly line. 1935: The Penguin paperback book sells for the price of 10 cigarettes. 1935: All-electronic VHF television comes out of the lab. 1935: Eastman-Kodak develops Kodachrome color film. 1935: Nielsen's Audimeter tracks radio audiences. 1936: Berlin Olympics are televised closed circuit. 1936: Bell Labs invents a voice recognition machine. 1936: Kodachrome film sharpens color photography. 1936: Co-axial cable connects New York to Philadelphia. 1936: Alan Turing's "On Computable Numbers" describes a general purpose computer. 1937: Stibitz of Bell Labs invents the electrical digital calculator. 1937: Pulse Code Modulation points the way to digital transmission. 1937: NBC sends mobile TV truck onto New York streets. 1937: A recording, the Hindenburg crash, is broadcast coast to coast. 1937: Carlson invents the photocopier. 1937: Snow White is the first feature-length cartoon. 1938: Strobe lighting. 1938: Baird demonstrates live TV in color. 1938: Broadcasts can be taped and edited. 1938: Two brothers named Biro invent the ballpoint pen in Argentina. 1938: CBS "World News Roundup" ushers in modern newscasting. 1938: DuMont markets electronic television receiver for the home. 1938: Radio drama, War of the Worlds," causes national panic. 1939: Mechanical scanning system abandoned. 1939: New York World's Fair shows television to public. 1939: Regular TV broadcasts begin. 1939: Air mail service across the Atlantic. 1939: Many firsts: sports coverage, variety show, feature film, etc. What U.S. president was assassinated after only four months in office? James Garfield What was the Allied code name for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II? Cargo What significance does Chester Arthur have in U.S. history? Arthur was the 21st president of the United States From what nation did Angola win its independence in 1975? Portugal Who became president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated? Andrew Johnson To what political party did George Washington belong? Federalist What piece of land did 89 Native Americans occupy in 1969? Alcatraz Island (They declared it to be their property) Who was the first woman in space? Valentina V. Tereshkova (USSR, 1963) What American president once got married at Forest Lawn Cemetery? Ronald Reagan (married Jane Wyman) Who wrote "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to decieve"? Sir Walter Scott (not Shakespeare) Who was known as the man who shot Dillinger? FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Purvis never actually shot at John Dillinger in the famous 1934 shootout, but he did direct the trap that pointed Dillinger out to other agents and police) Who was the first British royal baby in three centuries to be born in Scotland? Princess Margaret (1930) How long did it take America's Pony Express riders to deliver the mail? A little over a week Orders for what two stocks set in motion the great crash of 1929? General Motors and Kennecott Copper (two orders for 20,000 shares each) What was the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Georgia retreat where he died? Warm Springs The oldest known goldfish lived to 41 years of age. Its name was Fred. In Kentucky, 50% of the people who get married for the first time are teenagers. If an orangutan belches at you, watch out. He's warning you to stay out of his territory. Einstein couldn't speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought he might be retarded. In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles. About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it. In 1984, a New Jersey man opened a summer camp for Cabbage Patch dolls. You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather. How can you tell when a gorilla is angry? It sticks its tongue out. In 1976, a Los Angeles secretary formally married her 50-pound pet rock. In 1980, the Yellow Pages accidentally listed a Texas funeral home under frozen foods. 1,200 college students streaked at the same time in Boulder, CO in 1974. In 1977, a 13-year-old boy discovered a tooth growing on his left foot. In 1983, a Japanese artist made a copy of the Mona Lisa completely out of toast. In the early '80s, a toad was discovered that meows instead of croaking. In 1984, a Canadian farmer began renting ad space on his cows. About 96% of all American children can recognize Ronald McDonald. An average person laughs about 15 times a day. Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas. Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air. The most money ever paid for a cow in an auction was $1.3 million. The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night. A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 600 m.p.h. Watch out for flying hockey pucks - they travel at up to 100 mph. America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men. 98% of American drivers think they drive better than anyone else. In 1681, the last dodo bird died. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee. The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants. The average bank teller loses about $250 every year. Howdy Doody had 48 freckles. What color was Christopher Columbus's hair? Blonde. In 1980, there was only one country in the world with no telephones - Bhutan. The most extras ever used in a movie was 300,000, for the film Gandhi in 1981. Every person has a unique tongue print. Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does. Women's hearts beat faster than men's. When Bugs Bunny first appeared in 1935, he was called Happy Rabbit. Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets. Bubble gum contains rubber. You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog. In high school, Robin Williams was voted "Least Likely to Succeed." Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello. Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks. Most American car horns honk in the key of F. The world population of chickens is about equal to the number of people. Every time Beethoven sat down to write music, he poured ice water over his head. In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana. About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money. [The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.] It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas. Some toothpastes contain antifreeze. Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns. Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991. Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific. There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones. [And most of them are in Parma!] Most lipstick contains fish scales. Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992. Mosquitos have teeth. Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray. Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego. The three best-known western names in China: Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, and Elvis Presley. When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food. Most cows give more milk when they listen to music. Captain Kangaroo won five Emmy awards. 27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell." In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die. Aztec emperor Montezuma had a nephew, Cuitlahac, whose name meant "plenty of excrement." Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark. "Kemo Sabe" means "soggy shrub" in Navajo. Sting got his name because of a yellow-and-black striped shirt he wore until it literally fell apart. Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton. The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows. New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate in the world. Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of postage stamps Q and Z are the two letters not on a touch tone phone. In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold. Ralph Kramden made 62 dollars a week. The only way to stop the pain of the sting of the flathead fish is by rubbing the slime of the belly of the same fish that you were stung by on the wound that it inflicted upon you. Elephants are the only animal with four knees. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. The real name of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady is Edith Fore. Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I's mother, had six fingers on one hand. Ancient Romans ate flamingo tounges and considered them a delicacy. Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth. Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement. The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross. Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution. They shortened it to Devo. Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'. Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman, he changed it in honor of Dylan Thomas. Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles. Chris Ford scored the first ever NBA three-point shot. Maine is the only state that borders only one other US State. Of all the East Coast States, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline, about fourteen miles. New Hampshire is also the only State name the has four consecutive consonants in it (in the same word). Ontario is the only Canadian Province that borders the Great Lakes. Alaska has the longest border with Canada of all the fifty states. Montana has the longest border with Canada of the lower forty-eight States. Montana also borders the most Canadian Provinces of all the fifty states. It borders three of them. Arkansas is the only US State that begins with "a" but does not end with "a". All the other States that begin with "a", Arizona, Alabama and Alaska, also end with "a". Only three angels are mentioned by name in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." Wilma Flinestone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. Lenny Kravitz's mother played the part of "Helen" on "The Jeffersons"? The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works. The term "Mayday" used for signaling for help after (SOS), it comes from the French term "M'aidez" which is pronounced "MayDay" and means, "Help Me" Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 did start in a barn belonging to Patrick and Katherine O'Leary. The O'Leary's house was one of the few that survived the fire. The O'Leary's house had to be guarded by soldiers for weeks afterwards, however, because many enraged residents wanted to burn it down. The biggest bell is the "Tsar Kolokol" cast in the Kremlin in 1733. It weighs 216 tons, but alas, is cracked and has never been rung. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. The smallest mountain range in the world is outside of Marysville, California and is named the Sutter Buttes. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. In the upper right-hand corner of a US dollar bill, on Washington's side, there is a tiny spider. The spider is in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield." Many species of bird copulate in the air. In general, a couple will fly to a very high altitude, and then drop. During their descent, the birds mate. Sometimes the couple gets too involved and SPLAT! If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow. There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere, therein, herein. You would have to count to one thousand to use the letter "A" in the English language to spell a whole number. The guards of some of the emperors of Byzantium were Vikings. Canola oil is actually rapeseed oil but the name was changed in Canada for marketing reasons. The only member of the band ZZ Top to not have a beard has the last name Beard. Ants cannot chew their food, they move their jaws sidewards, like a scissor, to extract the juices from the food. The letters H I O X in the latin alphabet is the only ones that look the same if you turn them upside down or see them from behind. When your sink is full, the little hole that lets the water drain, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator". When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott". Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp. The metal part at the end of a pencil is twenty percent sulfur. John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John Larroquette Show" was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Raw cashews are poisonous and must be roasted before they can be eaten (this is probably one reason that you can't buy cashews in the shell) Meursault, the title character in Albert Camus' famous novel The Stranger, had a first name, Patrice, which was mentioned only in Camus' personal journals. Vietnamese currency consists only of paper money; no coins. During his entire life, zBod Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, Red Vineyard at Arles. The floral emblem of Western Australia is Mangles' Kangaroo Paw; the state animal is the numbat; and the state bird is the black swan. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. A pig's penis is shaped like a corkscrew. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Skin is thickest is at the back -- 1/6 of an inch. The most sensitive finger is the forefinger. Alaska is the most northern, western and eastern state; it also has the highest latitude,the most eastern longitude and the most western longitude. Some of Beethoven's symphonies were performed in Kentucky before they were performed in Paris, France. Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was changed in the 1600s by a translator. A large flawless emerald is worth more than a similarly large flawless diamond. The word denim comes from 'de Nimes', or from Nimes, a place in France. Dublin comes from the Irish Dubh Linn which means Blackpool The word brachiate means your elbows (or knees) bend the opposite to the way human's do. Scottish is the language called Gaelic, whereas Irish is actually called Gaeilge. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" A penguin only has sex twice a year. Mr. Spock's (of Star Trek) blood type was T-Negative The Dutch town of Abcoude is the only reasonably sized town/city in the world whose name begins with ABC. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. New Jersey has a spoon museum featuring over 5,400 spoons from every state and almost every country. Eleven square miles of southwest Kentucky (Fulton County) is cut off from the rest of the state by the Mississippi River. If you wish to travel from this cut off section to the rest of the state or vice-versa, you must first cross a bordering state. Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including Canadian and U.S. customs There are 118 ridges on the outside of a dime. The dot above an 'i' is called a tittle. The only city in the United States to celebrate Halloween on the October 30 instead of October 31 is Carson City, Nevada. October 31 is Nevada Day and is celebrated with a large street party. There is actually a word for a 64th note -- a hemidemisemiquaver. Carnegie Mellon University offers bagpiping as a major. The instuctor is James McIntosh, who is a member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and who began bagpiping at age 11. A peanut is not a nut; it is a legume. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. "Evian" spelled backvards is naive. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Maine is the toothpick capital of the world. "Bookkeeper" is the only word in the English language with three consecutive double letters. Paul McCartney's mother was a midwife. Marcel Proust have had a swordfish at home. It was the left shoe that Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost at the stairway, when the prince tried to follow her. The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown in war time. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright. A baby eel is called an elver, a baby oyster is called a spat. Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box. The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head. Welsh mercenary bowmen in the medieval period only wore one shoe at a time. On a trip to the South Sea islands, French painter Paul Gauguin stopped off briefly in Central America, where he worked as a laborer on the Panama Canal. Lake Nicaragua boasts the only fresh-water sharks in the entire world. The gene for the Siamese coloration in animals such as cats, rats or rabbits is heat sensitive. Warmth produces a lighter color than does cold. Putting tape temporarily on Siamese rabbit's ear will make the fur on that ear lighter than on the other one. There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts." The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root. "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed. Brooklyn is the Dutch name for "broken valley" There are four states where the first letter of the capital city is the same letter as the first letter of the state: Dover, Delaware; Honolulu, Hawaii; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. There are four cars and ten lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill. Venetian blinds were invented in Japan. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought at neighbouring Breed's Hill. Former US Senator Barry Goldwater attended the opening night ceremonies and festivities at Bugsy Siegel's famous Las Vegas casino. They left him out of the movie Bugsy. He is pissed. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.) The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company PBX installer. Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate Christmas trees. This was obviously very dangerous. Telephone employees are trained to be safety concious. This installer took the lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on the tree, and hooked them to a battery. What five digit number, when multiplied by the number 4, is the same number with the digits in reverse order? 21978; 21978 x 4 = 87912. A robin's (the bird) egg is blue, but if you put it in vineger for thirty days it turns yellow. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees) The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. There is no such thing as naturally blue food, even blueberries are purple. It was illegal to sell ET dolls in France because there is a law against selling dolls without human faces. In the 1983 film "JAWS 3D" the shark blows up. Some of the shark guts were the stuffed ET dolls being sold at the time. Walt Disney had wooden teeth. The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue. Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off. Spider Monkies like banana daquiries. The coast line around Lake Sakawea in North Dakota is longer than the California coastline along the Pacific Ocean Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House. Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills. Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common. The legbones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk. The U.S. Naval Observatory declares American time. School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be Omaha Orange. The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come out and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India. The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town...not the other way around. The state of Maryland has no natural lakes. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name. The official name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. The chemical formula for Rubidium Bromide is RbBr. It is the only chemical formula known to be a palindrome! St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran a saloon there. The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON. The first letters of the names of the Great Lakes spell HOMES. The numbers '172' can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand. Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer. The U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies. A full moon always rises at sunset. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. The "R" in Dean R. Koontz's name stands for Ray. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation. Moon was Buzz Aldrin's mother's maiden name. (Buzz Aldrin was the second man on the moon in 1969.) The only two Southern state capitals not occuppied by Northern troops during the American Civil War were Austin, Texas and Tallahasse, Florida. Rabbits love licorice. Ogdensburg, New York is the only city in the United States situated on the St. Lawrence River. Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? It's Paul Reiser himself. And Greg Evigan sang the "My Two Dads" theme. Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Fraiser. Alan Thicke, the father in the TV show Growing Pains wrote the theme song for The Facts of Life. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. A Macintosh LC575 has 182 speaker holes. In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first, and only, home run. The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a palindrome. Panama hats come from Ecuador not Panama. Urea is found in humna urine and dalmatian dogs and nowhere else. Human birth control pills work on gorillas. The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King Charles II in the mid-1600's. The Earl was requested to produce a method to protect the King from syphillis.(Charles the II's pleasure-loving nature was notorious.) The result should be obvious. There is no word in the English language that rhymes with orange. Cheryl Ladd (of Charlie's Angels fame) played the voice, both talking and singing, of Joise in the 70s Saturday morning cartoon "Josie and the Pussycats." Lynyrd Skynard was the name of the gym teacher of the boys who went on to form that band. He once told them, "You boys ain't never gonna to nothin'." M & M's were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky. Richard Nixon's favorite drink was a dry martini. The Grateful Dead were once called The Warlocks. The license plate number of the Volkswagon that appeared on the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road album was 281F. Pinocchio was made of pine. An ant lion is neither an ant nor a lion. Jethro Tull is not the name of the rock singer/flautist responsible for such songs as "Aqualung" and "Thick as a Brick." Jethro Tull is the name of the band. The singer is Ian Anderson. The original Jethro Tull was an English horticulturalist who invented the seed drill. Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth. Neck ties were first worn in Croatia. A banana tree is not a tree; it is an herb. Alma mater means bountiful mother. A Holstein's spots are like fingerprints -- no two cows have the same pattern of spots. Glass flutes do not expand with humidity so their owners are spared the nuisance of tuning them. Jersey (in the Channel Islands, UK) was the only place that the Nazi's occupied in Great Britain during World War II. Top English soccer club Liverpool were formed because their local enemies, Everton, couldn't pay the rent for their stadium. Therefore, Liverpool took over at the stadium (Anfield) and became England's top soccer team ever. The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The "Hallelujah Chorus" fits into the Easter portion of Handel's Messiah, not Christmas. Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima. Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth. In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike. Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk. The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. Libya is the only country in the world with a solid, single-colored flag -- it's green. Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. The original fifty cent piece in Australian decimal currency had around $2.00 worth of silver in it before it was replaced with a less expensive twelve sided coin. "Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact. So throw your cat off a building today!" There are eight different sizes of champagne bottle and the largest is called a Nebuchadnezzar (after the Biblical king who put Daniel's three friends into the oven). The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti. The female ferret is referred to as a `jill'. The word rodent comes from the Latin word `rodere' meaning to gnaw. Australian Rules Football was originally designed to give cricketers something to play during the off season. Alexander the Great was an epileptic. Elizabeth Bacon Custer, wife of "The Boy General" is one of the few women buried at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger. "Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.) The only bone not broken so far during any ski accident is one located in the inner ear. The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Blum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." There are ten human body parts that are only three letters long: Eye, Ear, Leg, Arm, Jaw, Gum, Toe, Lip, Hip and Rib. Michigan was the first state to have roadside picnic tables. Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother. Fitchburg, Massachusetts is the second hillest city in the US. During WWII the city of Leningrad underwent a seventeen month German seige. Unable to access the city by roads, the Russians built a railroad across the ice on Lake Lagoda to get food and supplies to the citizens. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. Thomas Edison got patents for a method of making concrete furniture and a cigar which was supposed to burn forever Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight. Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, founder of Blues Inc. They were the first electric white blues band ever seen in England--1961 Elton John's uncle was a professional soccer player. He broke his leg playing for Nottingham Forest in the 1959 English FA Cup Final. The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. Horses cannot vomit. Rabbits cannot vomit. The word "Boondocks" comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word "Bundok," which means mountain. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. The "chapters" of the New Testament were not there originally. When monks in medieval times translated it from the Greek, they numbered the pages in each "book." Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola. Yucatan, as in the peninsula, is from Maya "u" + "u" + "uthaan," meaning "listen to how they speak," what the Maya said when they first heard the Spaniards. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone's eye out. The original plan for Disneyland included a Lilliputland. S.O.S. doesn't stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" -- It was just chosen by an 1908 international conference on Morse Code because the letters S and O were easy to remember and just about anyone could key it and read it, S = dot dot dot, O = dash dash dash.. The word "moose" was originally Algonquin. The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows." The "ZIP" in Zip Code stands for "Zone Improvement Plan." Pocahontas appeared on the back of the $20 bill in 1875. When a female horse and male mule mate, the offspring is called a mule, but when a male horse and female donkey mate, the offspring is called a hinny. The way to get more mules is to mate a male donkey with a female horse. A donkey will sink in quicksand but a mule won't. Crickets hear through their knees. Turnips turn green when sunburnt. Pigs, walruses and light-colored horses can be sunburned. A type of jellyfish found off the coast of England is the longest animal in the world. When Voyager 2 visited Neptune it saw a small irregular white cloud that zips around Neptune every sixteen hours or so now known as "The Scooter". Crows have the largest cerebral hemispheres, relative to body size, of any avian family. Martha's Vineyard once had its own dialect of Sign Language. One deaf person arrived in 1692 and after that there was a relatively large genetically deaf population that had their own particular dialect of sign language. From 1692-1910 nearly all hearing people on the island were bilingual in sign language and English. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister. Hugh "Ward Cleaver" Beaumont was an ordained minister. St. Bernard is the patron saint of skiers. The Old English word for "sneeze" is "fneosan." John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles. Of all U.S. Presidents, none lived to be older than John Adams, who died at the age of 91. The most common first name for a president is James or some variation of it. (In order: James Madison, James Monroe, James Polk, James Buchanan, James Garfield, Jimmy Carter) All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses, some of them just didn't like to be seen with them in public. Andrew Jackson was the only U.S. President to believe that the world is flat. President John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator which he kept in the East Room of the White House. President Taft got stuck in his bath-tub on his Inauguration Day and had to be pried out by his attendants. Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Ms. Lincoln drank the milk. George Washington's false teeth were made of whale bone. Gerald Ford was the only man who held both the Presidency and the Vice- Presidency but who was not elected to either post. John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Millard Fillmore and Chester Arthur did not make Inaugural Addresses. Gerald Ford was once a male model. Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. Harry Truman's middle name was just 'S.' It isn't short for anything. His parents could not decide between two different names beginning with S. James Madison lived at Montpiellier (tall mountain); Thomas Jefferson lived at Monticello (little mountain.) President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other. The Panama Canal was excavated from the coasts inland; the final short segment was cleared by explosives detonated by President Woodrow Wilson, who sent the signal by wire from New York City. George Washington was deathly afraid of being buried alive. After he died, he wanted to be layed out for three days just to make sure he was really dead. According to the ceremonial customs of Orthodox Judaism, it is officially sundown when you cannot tell the difference between a black thread and a red one. A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. In Kenya they don't drive on the right or left side of the street in particular, just on whichever side is smoother. Woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as money. The Utah State Bird is the California Seagull and the Utah State Tree is the Colorado Spruce. Cyano-acrylate glues (Super glues) were invented by accident. The researcher was trying to make optical coating materials, and would test their properties by putting them between two prisms and shining light through them. When he tried the cyano-acrylate, he couldn't get the prisms apart. Most of the little schoolhouses in the U.S. of yesteryear were painted red because red was the least expensive paint color. Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses. Almost half the bones in your body are in your hands and feet. A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down. Dalmatian dogs are born pure white, they don't start getting spots until they are three or four days old. The growth rate of some bamboo plants can reach three feet (91.44 cm) per day. The Los Angeles Rams were the first U.S. football team to introduce emblems on their helmets. South America has three time zones. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head. An elephant can be pregnant for up to two years. The two quickest goals scored in the NHL were three seconds apart. Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living. Dartboards are made out of horsehairs. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. 'Crack' gets it name because it crackles when you smoke it. Heroin is the brand name of morphine once marketed by Bayer. Marijuana is Spanish for 'Mary Jane.' One of the many Tarzans, Karmuela Searlel, was mauled to death on the set by a raging elephant. Slinkys were invented by an airplane mechanic; he was playing with engine parts and realized the possible secondary use of one of the springs. U.S. Interstates which go north-south are numbered sequentially starting from the west with odd numbers, and Interstates which go east-west are numbered sequentially starting from the south with even numbers. Today's cattle are descended from two species: wild aurochs -- fierce and agile herd animals that populated Asia, North Africa and Europe -- and eotragus -- an antelope-like, Asian forest creature. Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University. Professional ballerinas use about twelve pairs of toe shoes per week. The anteater, aardvark, spiny anteater (echidna), and scaly anteater (pangolin) are completely unrelated - in fact, the closest relatives to anteaters are sloths and armadillos, the closest relative to the spiny anteater is the platypus, and the aardvark is in an order all by itself. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. Octopi have gardens. The Beatles song "Martha My Dear" was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog Martha. "Ever think you're hearing something in a song, but they're really singing something else? The word for mis-heard lyrics is 'mondegreen,' and it comes from a folk song in the '50's. The singer was actually singing "They slew the Earl of Morray and laid him on the green," but this came off sounding like 'They slew the Earl of Morray and Lady Mondegreen.'" A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. The youngest letters in the English language are "j," "v" and "w." The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic. Cranberry Jello is only sold in November and December, and is the only jello flavor that comes from real fruit, not artificial flavoring. The oldest exposed surface on earth is New Zealand's south island. John Lennon's assassin was carrying a copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" when he shot the famous Beatle in 1980. Don MacLean's song "American Pie" was written about Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens. All three were on the same plane that crashed. A game of pool is referred to as a "frame." Impotence is legal grounds for divorce in 24 American states. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the ancient Bible) did not contain an easy way to say "many things" and used a term which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible -- in many places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy ) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. The Soviet Sukhoi-34 is the first strike fighter with a toilet in it. They Might Be Giants is the first modern band with an Accordion and a Glockenspiel Napoleon constructed his battle plans in a sandbox. 'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. One of the longest English words that can be typed using the top row of a typewriter (allowing multiple uses of letters) is 'typewriter.' When a giraffe's baby is born it falls from a height of six feet, normally without being hurt. Virgina Woolf wrote all her books standing. The tango originated as a dance between two men (for partnering practice). Leon Trotsky, the seminal Russian Communist, was assassinated in Mexico with an ice-pick. The Bronx, New York got its name from explorer Henry Bronk. The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continually held sports event in the United States (1875); the second oldest is the Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show (1876.) "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the very first video ever played on MTV. The pitches that Babe Ruth hit for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever homerun where thrown by the same man. The native tribe of Tierra del Fuego has a language so guttural it cannot have an alphabet. A family of six died in Oregon during WWII as a result of a Japanese balloon bomb. AM and PM stand for "Ante-Meridian" and "Post-Meridian," respectively, and A.D. actually stands for "Anno Domini" rather than "After Death." The first person to fly across the Atlantic Ocean alone in a hot air balloon was a Stanford alumni. The penguins that inhabit the tip of South America are called jackass penguins. To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles. During conscription for WWII, there were 9 documented cases of men with 3 testicles. Benito Mussolini would ward off the evil eye by touching his testicles. Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle Stalin was only five feet, four inches tall. Stalin's left foot had webbed toes, and his left arm is noticably shorter than his right. Scientists found a whole new phylum of animal on a lobster's lip. (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Kingdom = Animalia, Plantae, etc.) The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. Grover Cleveland's real first name is Stephen, Grover is his middle name. Sergei Bubka holds the world pole vaulting record at 20' 1/4". Every two thousand frowns is worth about one wrinkle. During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs! A whale's penis is called a dork. Some carnivores, rodents, bats and insectivores have a penis bone, called a baculum. Iguanas, koalas and Komodo dragons all have two penises. Opossums have forked penises. Some female hyenas have a pseudo-penis. A winged penis was the city symbol of ancient Pompeii, the town destroyed by Mt.Vesuvius' eruption. How to tell seals and sea lions apart: Sea lions have external ears and testicles. Swahili is a combination of African tribal languages, Arabic and Portuguese and has no written component. If you are from Glasgow, you are a Glaswegian. An enneahedron is solid with nine faces. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos get an average of 18.5 hours of sleep per day and can walk underwater. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. They used to call jet lag boat lag, back when they only had boats. In 1960, Sirimauo Bandranaike of Sri Lanka became the world's first popularly elected female head of state. There are more beetles than any other kind of animal in the world. Velcro was invented by a Swiss guy who was inspired by the way burrs attached to clothing. The hieroglyph for 100,000 is a tadpole. The Phillips-head screwdriver was invented in Oregon. Tomb robbers knocked Egyptian sarcophagi's noses off to trap the spirit inside, thereby avoiding curses. The allele for six fingers and toes in humans is a dominant one. (Watch out Inigo Montoya...) Polar bears' fur is not white, it's clear. Polar bear skin is actually black. Their hair is hollow and acts like fiber optics, directing sunlight to warm their skin. Polar bears camouflage themselves more completely during a hunt by covering their black noses with their paws. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs -- it will let you go instantly. The amount of tropical rainforest cut down each year is an area the size of Tennessee. The face of a penny can hold over thirty drops of water. The longest chapter in the bible is Psalms 119. Medieval knights put sharkskin on their swordhandles to give them a more secure grip; they would dig the sharp scales into their palms. Killer whales kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode. The only planet without a ring is earth. Wayne's World was filmed in two weeks. Cleopatra used pomegranate seeds for lipstick. Cleopatra's last name was Ptolemy, and she was Greek rather than Egyptian. The Red sea was originally the Reed sea. If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode. The raised reflective dots in the middle of highways are called Botts dots. The Amazon rainforest produces half the world's oxygen supply. The concerti on the two Voyager probes' information discs are performed by famed Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. Reindeer like to eat bananas. The Happy Birthday song was originally a Good Morning song written in the late 1800s by two sister kindergarten teachers, Mildred and Patty Hill, for their students. But anyone who uses the Happy Birthday song in a production has to pay Paul McCartney, since he purchased the rights to the song. Chia Pets are only sold in December. Between 1947 and 1959, 42 nuclear devices were detonated in the Marshall Islands. The narrator of the seasonal television special "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is Boris Karloff. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. The physically smallest post office in the United States is in Ochopee, Florida in the heart of the everglades. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" Samuel Clemens's pseudonym "Mark Twain" was the nickname of a riverboat pilot about whom Clemens wrote a needless nasty satirical piece. Apparently, Clemens felt guilt later and adopted the name as a nom de plume as some sort of expiation. The phrase does not mean measuring the depth of the river; it means a specific depth, to wit, two fathoms (twelve feet.) Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen. A rhinoceros's horn is made of hair. Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. That song "Rosanna" from the Eighties was written about Rosanna Arquette, the actress. Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine are brother and sister. Jean Harlow was the first actress to appear on the cover of Life magazine. Sylvia Plath was a famous poet who killed herself at age 31 by sticking her head in an oven -- Sylvia Plath's husband was married three times, and two of the women he married committed suicide. Jesus Christ died at age 33. Starfish have no brains. Shrimps' hearts are in their heads. Glass is actually a liquid and it flows but very slowly. This means that all glass windows will eventually open from the top and that very old windows are fatter at the bottom. (but read this note from ken jennings: All my life I was taught that glass is a "supercooled liquid" and that panes will thicken at the bottom. Then I saw an actual study where the oldest glass in the world showed no measurable flow from gravity. If glass is a supercooled liquid, it's too slow to be a remarkable "strange fact.") Cut off the head of an attacking rattlesnake and it will continue to attack with its headless stump which can apparently see. If you move the stump will follow and will actually attempt to bite. Gently hold a toad flat between the palms of your hands; turn it over on its back and hold it there for a minute. Now slowly remove your upper hand. and the toad will lie still with its feet in the air. Although it is now free to run away from captivity, it is apparently in a state of catatonia induced by captivity. Lay a 2-week chick on her side and then push her head to the ground. while it is thus restrained draw an imaginary line on the ground across its field of vision. now let go. it will remain in that catatonic state transfixed on the imaginary line until moved. Aloe vera is used to treat burns and skin abrasions and also is used to keep skin soft and beautiful. cayenne stimulates the digestive and circulatory system. chamomile can be used as a sedative to combat mild insomnia, indigestion, and flatulence. cranberry may be used to acidify the urine and prevent some types of kidney stones. it also prevents kidney infections by e. coli.; echinacea stimulates the immune system and can be used to fight off colds and sore throats as well as to treat wounds. eucalyptus oil clears sinuses and soothes the mucus membranes; garlic can be used to prevent colds and flus and other infections diseases and to lower cholesterol; gingko dilates blood vessels and increases circulation. it has been used to increase alertness and memory functions. take this before your quiz; ginseng is used in Asia as a tonic and to fight the effects of aging. A tropical fish found off Okinawa normally live in groups of one dominant male and several submissive females. If a larger male comes along, the dominant male changes into a subservient female by restructuring its brain and genitalia. If the bigger male leaves or dies, the once dominant male will change back to a male. The restructuring process takes four days. European fresh water eels found in mountain streams and lakes as high as 10,000 feet above sea level begin and end their lives in the ocean. Here is their incredible story. They begin life in the Sargaso Sea (equatorial Atlantic ocean) where the larvae are carried by the Gulf Stream to Europe. During this journey the larvae grow into little cylindrical fish. Once they get to the mouth of a river they swim upstream relentlessly even wriggling up waterfalls and crawling across meadows until they get to the lakes. Their they live for asexually for 14 to 20 years and then some other hormonal program kicks in. They grow big and fat and their sex organs get large; but instead of mating, they begin another epic journey apparently to return to the Sargaso Sea for mating. But they don't make it back. Down to the last eel, they all die trying and therefore never mate. (the population is replenished by their american cousins who do make it back). These eels are apparently carrying out a life cycle program that must have worked once millions of years ago before the continents drifted apart. Photograph a live sponge and then grind it into a slurry. Press the slurry through a micropore strainer and you will get what appears to be muddy water. All the individual cells of the sponge have been separated from each other. Let it sit for a few days and the sponge will rise like a phoenix from the muddy water. Compare this sponge with your photograph. It's the same sponge. This also works with mouse brains. you can tease apart the individual cells of the brain of a laboratory mouse. if you let this soup stand in a favorable environment the brain will reform and even restructure its synapses. somehow each cell knows how to build the whole. (many thanks to the mouse who donated his brain to John Hopkins University school of medicine. Bats are blind so, to catch moths, they use sonar. They whistle a note above the audible range and listen for the echo. From the patterns in the reflected sound they can recognize and locate a moth. In response moths developed a sort of stealth technology - covering their body and wings with soft, non-reflective material. Bats responded by changing the sound frequency to detect the soft stuff. To counter this advance, moths developed sonar hearing and jamming devices. With these they can pick up the sonar of an approaching bat, identify its location and speed, and take evasive action and generate sound waves that will confuse the bat. (high speed photography show that it takes the moth about 1/10th of a second to do all of that. is there a computer that fast? ). In response bats developed an erratic flight pattern to overwhelm the moth's locator and jamming system. it must work to some degree because bats still catch moths. Raudive tune a radio to a frequency where there is no station. you will get white noise. tape the white noise and play it back. what will you hear? when raudive does that the tape contains hundreds of voices saying clearly discernable things many of which are relevant to raudive's circumstance. this has been checked out in many well designed expreriments. it only works with raudive and not with other people and it works anywhere on the dial as long as the radio produces white noise. raudive is somehow putting those voices on the tape. but how? You can remove the component of the genetic code that is responsible for producing nitric oxide. laboratory mice bred in this way are violent criminals. they rape screaming females and pick fights with normal males often killing their rivals in a gruesome manner. Human females ovulate once a month. the menstrual cycle often makes conception a difficult game of musical chairs. female rabbits do not have a menstrual cycle. they ovulate on demand. if the male is rough with her during sex a follicle in her ovary will rupture and release an egg. Our eyes were designed by our atmosphere. of the spectrum of electromagnetic energy bombarding our atmosphere most are either deflected, reflected, or absorbed. the energy that gets thru to the surface is mostly in the 400 to 700 nanometer range. this frequency range contains more information about our immediate environment and the cosmos than any other. it is no accident that we developed eyes to respond to this specific frequency range. incidentally, what's called 'optical fiber' isn't. optical fiber transmits data in 850, 1300, or 1550 nanometers. these frequencies are below the visible range. you can't see them. Dissolve a tablespoon of joy dish detergent into a cup of water and place this soapy solution into a spray bottle. now spray a fly with it (or any other insect like a mosquito or a yellow jacket). the soapy solution dissolves the oil in the insect's exoskeleton. the skeleton loses its rigidity and collapses. the insect falls to the ground and makes a desperate attempt to breathe. within seconds it dies of asphyxiation. Glass is opaque to flies. corollary: their visible range must be ultra violet or higher. (discovered by jamal in his tireless effort to find the truth about flies.) Place a camera near ted serios and he will place a picture of an object on the film just by thinking about it. for example, if he is thinking about the sears tower you will get a photograph of the sears tower. hundreds of experiments with serios have failed to find an explanation that fits our current version of the universe. jamal's corollary and conjecture: have you seen really great photography? maybe great works of art made with the camera does not consist solely of finding the right subject and getting the light and exposure right. maybe this process is not so mechanical and objective. maybe the photographer plays a subconscious and artistic role in what actually comes out on the film? If there are an infinity of stars out there why is the night sky not wall to wall stars? why is the night not lit up like a christmas tree? nobody knows for sure. it's a paradox. 'they are too far and too dim' is not an answer because the farther out the more stars there ought to be in the same angular displacement. marilyn savant (of 'ask marilyn') thinks that the light from the other stars just hasn't gotten here yet. but read this note from dennis mattison. When Columbus came here he thought it was india. the people he found here are still called indians and the islands in the caribbean are called the west indies. everybody knows that but here is the rest of the story. there is another weird connection between india and the u.s.a. in the late 18th century the british empire had two revolts on its hands; the revolutionary war in america and a war in india. they decided they could not win both wars but had to pick the one they wanted to win and forget the other. they picked india. so in a weird sort of way, india was responsible for the creation of the united states of america. jamal's corollary: the revolutionary army of george washington won a war that the british had decided to lose. (but read chapman's comments. according to chapman, the british did give up on the american front but it was because they were nervous about what the french-spainsh alliance would do to the rest of their empire while they were busy with the american revolt.) What Martin Luther had that huss and wycliffe did not was the printing press. it was easier for luther to attack indulgences because the church was using the printing press to mass produce and mass market these things. and it was easier for luther to get the word out by using the printing press, literally, to leaflet all of europe. (btw, an indulgence is an official certificate of forgiveness issued by the church. for a fee. huss and wycliffe were reformers that predated luther. they failed and became heretics. For centuries after the fall of the roman empire europeans continued to pay taxes to rome. it was in the form of tithes to the vatican. In 1895, the royal society (in england) passed a resolution to the effect that man's knowledge of the universe was complete and that eveything worthwhile had been invented. No more mix together a cup of nettles (u can buy this at your natural good store), half a cup of chopped onions, and three cups of isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) and let this concoction sit for a few days until the alcohol is green. massage a tablespoon of the green liquid into your scalp each day if you are balding. balding will cease. the recession will be over. (jamal's note: not only has my recession stopped but i am actually growing hair right in the middle of my bald spot.) A bunch of barley seeds were randomly assigned to plot A and plot B. two bottles of water were drawn from the same tap each day. bottle A was blessed by a healer and bottle B was not. plot A only received water from bottle A and plot B only received water from bottle B. the plants in plot A all grew faster, got taller, and produced more barley than those in plot B. Plants grow faster and healthier if subjected to a daily dose of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. try it. In many many statistical tests it has been found that we humans prefer one rectangle to all others; that whose sides are in the ratio of 1 to 1.618. why do you suppose? could have implications for marketing majors. hold a metallic and a wooden object both at room temprature. the metallic object will feel colder. condensing steam will feel hotter and burn more severely than water at the same temperature. we cannot sense temperature; only the rate of heat transfer. antelopes and wild boar have horns and tusks that are similar in shape to the dowser's forked twig. both of these species are very successful in finding hidden water sources. if you toss a coin many many times about half of them should come up heads, right? wrong. it depends on who is calling them. some people can MAKE the coin come up heads (or tails) more often than that. this has been checked out with statistics and p-values of less than .0001 have been observed with some people. this also works with dice. if you connect the nerves in your tongue to the part of the brain responsible for hearing and place a drop of vinegar on your tongue, you will hear a loud sound. hallucinogens induce this sort of cross-sensory perception. colors have texture and taste. taste has sound and color. sound has color whose hue and intensity changes with frequency and loudness. some people naturally have cross-sensory abilities. myra allen, a montana artist, paints pictures of what wines taste like. when she looks at these paintings she can 'taste' the wine again. do you realize that all the while that we were building steam engines, cars, buildings, and other large euclidean things, right under our noses nature has been building stuff of incomparable complexity one atom at a time? maybe we can learn to do that too. try to imagine the implications. you can get lenses that invert images so that everything appears upside down. for a while. if you wear these glasses for a couple of days things appear right side up again. if you take the glasses off things appear upside down again for a while. then they right themselves again. ever see the hollow face optical illusion? it looks like a face until you stick your hand into it. then you can see that it is hollow. hollow faces don't exist in your experience so your brain makes the image fit your version of reality. in other words, "we perceive only what we can conceive". kind of makes you wonder what's really out there. put a blind chameleon in a cage. drive it to a place where it has never been and let it out of the cage. it still changes its colors and stripes to form a perfect camouflage with its new surroundings which it has never seen. flies sleep at night. usually on the ceiling. and they sleep so soundly that you can get 'em all with a shop vac. wire a rubber tree plant to a lie detector and burn one of its leaves with a cigarette lighter. you will get an agitated electrical response. next just think about burning another leaf. you will get the same response. what makes this weirder is that plants don't have a nervous system as we know it. give me water within 26 days of freedom, on average, criminals who escape from danish jails return and ask to be let back in. diagnosis according to the santa rosa press democrat dogs can be trained to sniff out cancerous tissue. lab mice were randomly assigned to cages marked 'smart' and 'dumb' and taken to mouse maze researchers. on average the 'smart' cage mice did better. the results were statistically significant even when, unknown to the researchers, the same mice were re-tested with the cage labels secretly switched. build a cardboard pyramid to exact egyptian specifications and place a used razor blade where the crypt would be and it will be sharpened. a dead animal will become mummified. In 1968 a team of scientists from the United States and from Ein Shams University in Cairo began a million-dollar project to X-ray the pyramid of Chephren, successor to Cheops. They hoped to find new vaults hidden in the six million tons of stone by placing detectors in a chamber at its base and measuring the amount of cosmic penetration, the theory being that more rays would come through hollow areas. The recorders ran twenty-four hours a day for more than a year until, in early 1969, the latest, IBM 1130, computer was delivered to the university for analysis of the tapes. Six months later the scientists had to admit defeat: the pyramid made no sense at all. Tapes recorded with the same equipment from the same point on successive days showed totally different cosmic-ray patterns. The leader of the project, Amr Gohed, in an interview aferward said, "This is scientifically impossible. Call it what you will - occultism, the curse of the pharoahs, sorcery, or magic, there is some force the defies the laws of science at work in the pyramid." one finds mention of carbonaceous chondrite meteorites they contain organic matter. It is claimed that roughly 0.1% of all matter that has fallen on our planet from space is organic. here's how you can get them back. the next time you see one on the back of your hand, make a fist and she will become hopelessly stuck in your tightened skin unable to feed or break free. on other parts of the body simply pull the skin tight for the same effect. the sultan of weird on late night talk radio is art bell. ufo, roswell,crop circles, area 51, conspiracy theories, militia groups, prophecies of catastrophic earthquakes, revisionist history, atlantis, time travel, inter dimensional travel, and secret fantastic technologies that the u.s. govt possesses. aliens and immortals call his show. my favorite immortal is gabriela age 100 but looks 22. she is rich and "very attractive". the data transmission rate in our nervous system is relatively slow. there is a noticeable delay between the time something touches your foot and your awareness of it. and the bigger you are the longer it takes. could be why you don't see too many tall jittery folks. in a giraffe it takes 300 milliseconds for a message to get from the foot to the brain. in the same interval a tcp packet can make the round trip from penngrove, california to reading, england and back. falling astronauts in the shuttle appear weightless not because they have escaped earth's gravity (if they had they would not be in orbit) but because they are in free fall into earth's gravitational pull. this is elementary and you probably knew this i but meet a lot of people that think otherwise. mono receivers are able to receive stereo broadcasts even though the complete message is in two different frequencies because broadcasters send the sum and the difference of the two signals. mono receivers are tuned to the sum. stereo receives both frequencies and computes the left and right signals by addition and subtraction. the earth has two motions relative to the sun, it rotates on its axis and it revolves around the sun. but how many times does it rotate during one revolution? if you said 365.25 you are off by one. it has to rotate one more time to undo the rotational effect of the revolution. if it did not rotate at all the sun would rise once a year. relative to the earth, our moon has to rotate once per revolution to keep the same face toward us. btw, why is the land distribution on our planet so lopsidedly northern? it is a matter of historical record that many severed heads in europe have moved their eyes and their lips for half a minute. could they actually see? were they aware of what had happened? can we ever find out? shu di shu di huang huang the chinese herb shu di huang (radix rehmanniae) touted to help your kidneys may actually induce acute renal failure. our breathing action is on automatic control. it is triggered by the co2 level in our blood. yet we are able to seize manual control and hold our breath; or we can breathe on purpose. we can similarly take control of other automatic processes. all we need is feedback. we can raise or lower our pulse, blood pressure, body temperature, and so on if we are given some kind of sensory cue on what's going on. check for yourself the power of feedback. write with your eyes closed. or listen to your favorite song thru your stereo headphones and sing along into a taperecorder. now play it back. the horror. the horror. your hair and nails will continue to grow even after you die. excuse him did jesus christ's physical body ascend to heaven? at what speed? since it is matter and has mass perhaps not faster than the speed of light? then he is no more than 2000 light years away right now. and where is heaven exactly? is it beyond our galaxy? in that case he has yet to reach his destination... excuse me ... excuse me ... in pre-copernican astronomy scientists took data only to refine the aristotelian system. the kind of experiment we design, the data we take, and the way we interpret the data are all pre-determined by our version of reality. we may seem more refined and scientific relative to older realities but relative to our current reality we are in the same mess. for example in all of fisher's crop yield experiments the gardener was not a variable because green thumbs are not part of our reality. mystical shapes if you age burgundy wines in bordeaux bottles or bordeaux wines in burgundy bottles they will not taste the same. barrel aging in any shape other than a barrel-shape produces inferior wine. (btw does anyone really understand wine aging?) freeze live freshwater shrimp or crayfish in a bowl of water. when you thaw them out again weeks later the shrimp will come back to life Fat contains 9 calories per gram while protein and carbohydrates contain only 4. All meat contains cholesterol; vegetable proteins contain no cholesterol Meat contains no dietary fibre. None. Zip. The average man on a meat based diet has a 50% chance of dying from a heart attack; the average vegetarian? 4%. It takes 15 pounds of plant protein to grow one pound of meat To supply the yearly food of one vegetarian requires 1/6 of an acre; to supply the yearly food for a meat eater requires 3 acres. A day's production of food for one meat eater requires 4000 gallons of water; the vegetarian uses only 300 gallons. 10,000 acres of forest is being cut down per DAY to make beef pastures. Soybean products provide a complete protein that contains ALL the amino acids The combination of brown rice and beans also provides a complete protein meal a san francisco baker gets everything he needs to make two loaves of sourdough bread then divides them in half. he makes one loaf in san francisco and the other he makes in los angeles. the two loaves taste different. apparently it's in the rising. the yeast bugs know where they are and they prefer sf. if we evolved from random mutations then where are all the asymmetric varieties? if none then what is the survival value of symmetry? from a a russian soldier fighting in chechnya: "everyone is trading ammunition for bread, pickles, and vodka. one hand grenade is worth a bottle of vodka. tell me, is this normal?" (los angeles times) fires, explosions, and your car engine are strangley similar to our own metabolic process. the source of their energy is an exothermic chemical reaction that combines oxygen with hycrocarbons to produce water, carbon dioxide, and energy. if something goes wrong our metabolism can turn to fire and consume us in what is known as spontaneous human combustion or shc. many cases of shc have been documented and no explanation from mainstream science has been offered. the most well known case is that of dr john bentley who was suddenly reduced to a little pile of ashes. shc normally reduces the victims to about 5% of their weight. larry arnold describes this and other shc cases in his new book 'ablaze'. (btw: could shc be inflicted by one person on another perhaps with some voodoo-like technique? or perhaps even on oneself perhaps in a powerful suicidal moment? if shc is purely biological then where are the animal cases?) another weird thing about shc is that the skull is not normally consumed in the inferno but shrunken proportionately into a miniature head. also, there appears to be a sphere of influence with a diameter of about one meter within which everything is consumed as if by fire and outside of which there is no evidence of fire. body parts of the victim outside this sphere survive intact. according to persinger's tst theory the earth is playing tricks on us. stresses in the earth's crust produce an electromagnetic discharge which causes a luminosity which appears to dim witted peasants as space ships. chris rutkowski of manitoba offers a more scientific explanation of tst. an ovum can be tricked into conception by the mere prick of a pin. the blessed process may also be begun by injecting daddy's dna material directly into the ovum. the quran draws an agricultural analogy to conception. the man produces the seed. the female provides the fertelizer. after you drive to work i ask you to give me a count of the number of red cars you saw on the road. yes, you do know, and under hypnosis you will recall the exact number. the clutter and background noise of life are filtered out of our consciousness but inexplicably stored. words such as test, testament, testimony, and testify have testicle as their root. in roman times apparently they reached under the tunic with a firm grip to discourage lying. subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. one group received a glass of milk before bed and the other group received a cup of coffee. the milk drinkers slept better even though the milk was laced with caffeine. to make a circle of radius r inches with a string you will need 2*pi*r inches of string. to make a circle of radius (r+1) inches you will need 2*pi*(r+1) inches of string. the difference is 2*pi inches or about 6.3 inches of string regardless of r, whether a tennis ball, or the earth, the solar system, or even the galaxy. lobsters are related to spiders and insects. they have a common worm-like ancestor. we can't hear vibrations at 7hz but this infrasound can cause heart palpitation, dizziniess, loss of balance, nausea, depression, fear, and mood changes. the usual source of infrasound in office buildings is the hvac system. if you suspect infrasound touch the wall. if you can feel a vibration you probably have infrasound. our sperm count worldwide is going downhill the most popular family name on earth is chan. you knew that but it's even more popular than you thought. the millions of 'khan's of south asia too are chans. the connection is genghis khan or genghis chan who did not have a low sprem count. does punishment deter crime? at least for some criminals it works in reverse. it is the risk that makes it worth doing. and the bigger the risk the bigger the thrill. an antibiotic-resistant strain of the tubercle bacillus is loose and on the prowl. if the guy in the next seat is coughing up blood get off the train. a virus designed to kill rabbits in ebola fashion is mutating and out of control in australia. we are an organism, i.e., a colony of cells that reproduce and die. but why does the colony die? household dust consists largely of biological debris from our skin and hair and this debris supports a sizeable population of mites know the electrical activity in vial of semen responds to the presence of humans in the same room and goes wild if the donor is near. physics consists of a bunch of internally consistent principles whose relevance to reality is an assumption. some go so far as to call it a farce. and what about nelya mikhailova? she and others like her have been the subject of many carefully designed experiments by physicists. no one doubts that nelya can move objects just by thinking and no one has the faintest idea how she does it. is psychokinesis a glimpse of a different physics? you can make your body do seemingly impossible things if you put your mind to it. in nepal semi naked monks bathe in icy lakes without any apparent discomfort. in india sadhus chant themselves into walking on red hot coals or lying on incredibly sharp thorns. a scientific explanation of fire walking: the feet absorb the heat and cool off the coals. In controlled experiments not only do placebo takers get better but they actually develop the same side effects as the experimental group. Our bodies extend beyond their physical outline. if a stranger stands very close you will feel uncomfortable. he has entered your space. we carry around us a space that is ours. the extent of this space can be measured. violent individuals carry a larger space. and the discomfort they feel is more intense. In the south pacific there is a deep water fish that mates near the surface. to avoid being eaten during mating they send only their genitals to the surface where boy genital meets girl genital and they make baby fish. during the mating season so many of these things come up that the sea turns red. the islanders harvest them in great quantities for a feast. That Jack built the baby decides when to be born. it is also the embryo that builds the womb. it does so by sending out chemical commands to re-structure the surrounding tissue to its specifications. not unlike a parasitic larva. and it can do this elsewhere in the body. of either gender. Burning a woman to death used to be a perfectly rational and socially acceptable thing to do. witch burners thought they were doing the woman a favor and that she was grateful for what they did because the fire freed her from the devil. (btw, pennsylvania was the first colony to legalize witchcraft. in the words of william penn, "if she can ride on a broomstick she has every right to do so.") Was Jesus descended from David or not? Did Jesus carry his own cross or did simon carry it for him? Did Jesus ascend to heaven or stay put in his grave? If he ascended how long was he buried? Did he ascend to heaven one day or one week after the resurrection? did god make the animals first or did he make man first? The bible is full of weird contradictions Miracles did not cease after jesus. the early christians are credited with various supernatural acts and many lived for over two centuries. Ever wonder why we have this insane desire to keep on living and to form sexual reproductive partnerships? if you didn't your characteristics would not survive into succeeding generations. after many generations of such selection we would cultivate a population consisting mostly of the insane. and that is who we are. we are not the most interesting creatures that could be. just the survivors. Between Denmark and Sweden is an island that has been the subject of a territorial dispute between them. each claims that it belongs to the other. on the other side of eurpoe greece and turkey are ready to go to war over a 10-acre pile of uninhabited rocks in the aegean sea. Obscenity consider two scenes in a movie. in one scene a couple is together nude. there is love and passion between them. their genitals are visible as they consummate their love. in another scene they are together fully clothed. there is hatred and anger between them. he draws a knife and attacks her in a gruesome manner. she falls screaming and dies in a pool of blood. in america we would find this movie to be obscene because of the first scene. While Darwin was still figuring it out, a guy named Wallace already had but instead of sending his thesis to the publisher he sent it to darwin. 'origin of species' was not a volcanic work in isolation. darwin simply dotted the eyes and crossed the tees. i admire darwin not for his genius but for his courage. that man is an animal was a heretical idea. still is. A three-year-old boy fell out of a third floor window onto a concrete sidewalk and suffered nothing more than some minor cuts and bruises. (orange county register) Wine has lead. So does milk and lettuce and so on. It got there from the soil. it got to the soil from tetraethyllead we used to put into our gasoline for years and it is trapped in the food chain. lead in soil goes to grass, cow eats grass. we eat burgers, we die, lead back in soil. (btw, children with higher lead levels in their blood are more violent. could lead have something to do with our ability to produce nitric acid?) All fresh water on earth contains tiny wheel-like creatures called rotifera which are bizarre and unearthly. if you take them out of the water they dry up into a speck of dust that can survive indefinitely in any condition including outer space. if the dust lands on fresh water it turns right back into rotifera. (lyall watson) Whether witchcraft, voodoo, chruch, or temple, rituals provide the visual and sensory cues that help us to achieve powerful mental states just like those from your lover allow you to experience a mental state of sexual release. in one such mental state some can cause people to have a choking fit simply by telepathically suggesting suffocation. (milan ryzl) When it is time, mama swallow just abandons the nest. the young eventually fly the coop. another weird thing about swallows. when they sit on a wire all in a line there is exactly six inches between them. The more atoms they smash the more confused they get. and the more confused they get the more $ they need. they had finally figured out that all matter consists of quarks. until they smashed the protons a little harder at fermilab. now they say quarks are made up of something even smaller. go straight to confusion, pass go, collect $200, smash more atoms. (btw: scientific investigation in general has proceeded along these lines and failed in the same manner. the harder we look the more detail we find and there is no convergence in sight.) Pick a playing card and stare at it while the subject guesses. random guesses should generate 1 correct answer out of 52 on average. but many individuals consistently score significantly higher. and their score drops if you don't see the card. when you look at the card, you somehow transmit the information to the subject. what's really weird is that this also works on the telephone even long distance. (b. yakolev) Parenting in the famine of 1877 in china parents sold their daughters for the equivalent of $2 to $6 each. in the famine of 1790 in india parents killed their children and ate them. Old wives' tales have grains of truth. vitamin a is used to manufacture semen as well as retinene, a precursor to the photosensitive substance in our eyes and its deficiency can indeed cause blindness. Comet, a new comet has entered our solar system undetected by billions of dollars of observational equipment on earth and in space that constantly scan the heavens. it was picked up by a a guy with a pair of binoculars. (Yuji Hyakutake) Albert Hoffman, the Sandoz scientist, who discovered LSD, was a very straight laced journeyman chemist in white lab coat. after taking lsd he was moved to write "what we commonly take as 'the' reality is by no means the only reality. there are many realities each as real as the others". Pesky little blackbirds in large numbers can form a giant flying ball in the air and this superorganism harrasses large birds of prey that might otherwise have blackbirds for lunch. (could this be the theoretical basis of the 'efficient market hypothesis'? maybe the stock market is a superorganism. kahneman, tversky, and thaler have argued that individual investors are not rational. but maybe the superorganism is.) In that vestry of spirituality many a husband having collected the dowry sets his wife afire with kerosene When you burn fossil fuels you are returning to the atmosphere the carbon dioxide that was removed from it by photosynthesis. (btw: the co2 content of atmosphere is self regulating to a degree. if it rises there will be more vegetation which will remove co2. if it falls, so will vegetation until a balance is reached. the earth today contains large areas of marginally arid areas where additional vegetation could bloom and absorb co2) As the Japanese invasion force neared the city of hangchow the chinese moved it 500 miles upstream. the whole town. Explosion in 1965 a united nations report predicted that the world's population would rise to 5.7 billion by 1995. it did. Protein molecules produced in parallel evolutionary paths have exactly the same structure although other structures are possible. we are part of a cosmic pattern not random mutations. if we rewound evolution and ran it again we would end up with us. (lyall watson) (btw, this hypothesis could free anthropologists from the 'out of africa' model in describing human origins. the out-of-africa model is favoured by those who believe that once a hominid appears the only way for others to appear is by transfer of genetic material from the predecessor. according to them h. sapiens evolved in africa and then migrated to the other continents. but if lyall is right then homo erectus could have evolved independently in africa and java and homo sapiens could have evolved independtly in europe and africa. the weird and improbable migration stories needed to support out-of-africa are less likely than parallel evolution.) Tennis if the courts too wet to practice your backhand or your spin serve do it in your mind. imagine yourself in a perfect serve motion again and again. your serve will improve as if you had physically practiced. In tennis, and in other sports i imagine, players sometimes find themselves in a mental state called a zone. in this state their play is effortless and perfect. unfortuantely no one knows how to induce this supernatural state of mind at will. Electron discharge photography, also called kirlian photography reveals an extra-body extension of ourselves some call the 'aura'. in kp of those that have recently lost a limb the missing part of the limb appears as a ghostly image. (btw, the light intensity in the kp aura is not uniform but has bright spots and these spots exactly correspond to the chinese acupuncture chart.) A light flashing at the same frequency as your brain rhythm will drive you crazy. in some it can induce an epileptic seizure especially if the flashing light is triggered by the subject's own brain waves. In the days following an earthquake, the incidence of heart attacks rises to several times the normal rate. The brain constantly produces a complex electromagentic rhythm. spectral analysis of this signal shows four main frequencies called alpha, beta, delta, and theta. the relative energy level of these frequencies depends on the state of the individual. delta is prominent in deep sleep, theta is associated with moodiness, alpha with relaxation, and beta with analytical thinking. if you are shown a dynamic image whose shape corresponds to your brain wave pattern you can deliberately change its shape (and your wave pattern). Alice and Britta are identical teenage twins. without any communication between them they bought identical dresses in two different cities in denmark and wore them to their sister's graduation in copenhagen. a year ago they went on separate summer vacations one to spain and the other to slovakia. each returned to denmark with a bottle of rum and wearing a black blouse with white stripes. the blouses were acquired in spain and slovakia. their signatures are identical. they carry only one bank account and one credit card account between them. (hanne birgitte andersen) btw: does anyone have a clue about the physics of twinism? are they really two people? is there necessarily a one-to-one mapping cardinality between bodies and persons? (march 96) this winter, Alice and Britta bought exactly the same boots in different cities on the same day and around the same time. after they got home each called the other to tell her about the new boots. they had never discussed needing new boots or that they would go shopping that day. (btw: when they were born not even their mom could tell them apart so they were labelled 'a' and 'b' and that is how they got their names.) Our sun is a giant fusion reactor that not only radiates energy but sends out a constant stream of sub atomic particles that constitutes the solar atmosphere. we are inside this atmosphere. solar activity is not uniform. there are spots of solar activity called sunspots. the number of active sunspots varies over time in an 11-year rhythm superimposed on longer 45 and 90 year cycles. in addition the sun's magnetic field oscillates with a 22 year cycle. all these activities of the sun causes the aurora borealis and magnetic storms and high noise levels in our electromagnetic equipment. and the sunspot cycles correlate with famine, weather, the thickness of annual rings in trees, the number of icebergs, great vintage years of wine, and human behavior on earth. cyclical human behavior in turn causes cycles of economic boom and bust, war and peace, and expansion and contraction in artistic, literary, and scientific creativity. For the record, the sun has a radius of 7x10^8 meters, its mass is 2x10^30 kg, its density is about 1.4 times that of water, and it consumes 4 million tons of hydrogen per second to produce 4x10^30 megawatts of power. A hydra-like seven-headed monster with horns rose from the sea. one of its heads had been killed with a sword but it healed. it performed scary miracles. it could shoot fire from the sky. another monster, this one goat-like also with horns, came out of the ground and was just as horrible. what they were after was people that would worship them. they would be nice to their devotees and mean to the others. to tell them apart the beast would put its name on the right hand and forehead of the devotees. the beast had a name; and the name could be converted to a number. the number is 666. (this is from revelation chapter 13. even the chapter number is scary. btw, 666 decimal is 1232 octal. in binary it is 1010011010. you can play this by clapping on ones and not clapping on zeroes. you will get a haunting beat not unlike the ancient indian tabla rhythm called jhaptal. the binary complement of the beast's number, 0101100101, is 357 decimal and 545 octal. one of the many bible sites is in louisville.) According to Ray Fowler, alien abductions (close encounters of the fourth kind) are similar to near death experiences and to out of the body experiences. he postulates that they are the same underlying phenonmenon. death is the final abduction. humans are the larval form of the aliens and death is our metamorphosis to butterfly. we are them and they are us. he bases his theory on data obtained from abductees under hypnosis. (btw: sanderson's 1969 book 'uninvited visitors' also describes this larva model.) You know that many animals make seasonal and carnal migrations across thousands of miles to precise locations. there is evidence that they do this with magnetic navigation. these critters are magnetically aware and use geomagnetism to locate precise positions on the globe. Apparently our military is experimenting with some fanciful schemes in its new push into 'non lethal warfare'. the high frequency active auroral research program or haarp will use a 33-acre array of antennas in alaska to shoot a 3.6 megawatt focussed beam of 2.8 to 10 mhz radio waves straight up into our ionosphere. weird military applications of haarp include earth penetrating tomography (to 'x-ray' the earth). the tethered satellite system may be a part of the haarp experiment with the tether as a giant resonating antennal in the sky for extremely low frequency radio waves. There is a strange new virus (here is a mugshot) that is spreading in africa. apparently you get it from eating chimpanzees. blood comes out of your pores and you die a horrible death. the disease is highly contagious. they thought that they had it contained in zaire. but it has broken out anew in gabon (feb96). A giant whirlwind with a bright light came from the north. it held an amber colored object. four humanoids came out of this object. each humanoid had four faces, four wings, two arms and legs, and hooves for feet. their bodies were like light. they could be instantly at any point in space without turning and without any detectable motion. they had something with them that looked like wheels. (ezekiel chapter 1) (btw: these are the good guys and they too have hooves.) You know that placebo can make sick people healthy. it also works the other way around. sickly thoughts can make healthy people sick. for example if children of patients are told that they are at risk of a congenital disease they get sick with it even in cases where the genetic connection is later found to be false. graphic depictions of the symptoms and pathology of illness by advertisers of their remedies may actually be making us sick. flip the channel to stay healthy. Has anyone actually seen a star where a black hole is now? before it collapsed? or is the invisible point mass of fantastic density an artifact we need to force the data to fit our model of the universe? (btw: we once thought that the heavenly bodies were carried across the sky by rotating crystal spheres. you couldn't see the spheres because they were invisible and some planets at times went backwards because they were attached to the crystal sphere with invisible swivel arms. there was no other evidence of the existence of these artifacts other than their usefulness in the crystal sphere theory of the universe.) Do subconsciously we are constantly imitating each other. it's natures algorithm that builds homogenious and cohesive societies and cultures. We are a progressive society. today we expect that tomorrow will be better and it will bring us more technology and more information. yesterday's knowledge is old and stale and the older the staler. but it wasn't always this way. in mediavel europe all knowledge and technology came from the ancients. civilization went backwards. knowledge contracted. scribes scoured ancient texts for knowledge.few could read these texts and fewer could understand them. "everything they knew was old". (james burke) (btw: atlantis theorists hold that civilization is a lot older than we think it is because it is not linear but cyclical and what we think of as history is only the linear portion of this cycle.) Once we could think of anything but could not communicate the thought. then we invented language. now we can only think what language will let us but we can communicate the thought. (we use music and art to overcome this limitation. also there is evidence that we use direct thought transfer with telepathy although these thoughts may or may not be constructed with language. we of course also communicate with scent and body language in ways that are sublime as they are mysterious.) In train wrecks the number of passengers in damaged cars is less than average by so much and so often that it cannot be a chance occurence. somehow we know not to get on them. (work done by william cox and reported by lyall watson) Many boxers cannot recall all the rounds of a bout just completed. many a winning fighter has no memory at all that he fought the round in which he knocked out his opponent. Has this happened to you? you are reading a book but thinking about something else. you read page after page. you did read those pages. all those sentences. but you have no memory of what you read. how is this possible? You know that you have a unique fingerprint. there is no other that is exactly like yours. you also have a unique smell. in scent too, there is only one of you. Some blind people can describe an object by holding their hand above it and without touching it. An ancient map in turkey shows the earth as it would look from space; there is an ancient iron pillar in india that does not rust; there are patterns in the plains of peru that are not discernable except from an aircraft; ancient texts describe chariots with wheels of fire descending from the sky; there are pre-historic paintings of space helmets. (erich von daniken) Laboratory mice are given a choice of path 1 or path 2. in either case the probability that food exists at the end of the path is 50% but once they commit to path 1 they get advance information about the existence of food. path 2 contains no information. all mice eventually choose path 1 although on average their chances of finding food is equal down either path. If you place a very powerful electromagnet over some germinating corn seeds they will sprout with the roots going upward and the leaves digging into the ground. (dave krider) Anthropologists think that our predecessors, homo habilus and erectus, appeared 2.5 million years ago and we, homo sapiens, have been around only a couple of hundred thousand years give or take. but they could be way off. new evidence shows that we co-existed with dinos which disappeared 65 million years ago. we may have been around here for 150 million years and undergone many boom and bust cycles of civilization prior to this one. Fish crawled out of the water, evolved into mammals, and then crawled back into the water. it took land living to develop mammals because land living is harsh. ocean living is too easy to evolve into anything more complex than fish. this is the weird malthusian irony of evolution. if you solve all your problems you reach an evolutionary dead end. Was the Michelson-Morley experiment an independent verification of einstein's special relativity or was special relativity a theory built around the m-m results? einstein claimed he did not know about m-m when he wrote his special relativity paper but there is evidence he did. These are activities of some empirical researchers in science. trimming = modifying the data to create a false sense of precision. cooking = getting rid of data that don't fit the theory to be proven. a famous example is the shift measurements taken during the 1922 eclipse to support einstein's general relativity. There is no ether and therefore no universal frame of reference, say the physicists. any frame of reference is as good as any other. therefore the earth is as good a frame of reference as any. we cannot know or even care whether the planets are going around the sun or if everything is going around the earth. (btw: the still earth model actually has an advantage over other frames of reference. it renders the michelson-morley results consistent with the existence of the ether. another btw: the initial reaction of the church to copernicus, that the moving earth was a mere computational convenience and not reality is consistent with special relativity.) Pictures taken of the martian surface by the viking orbiters in 1976 show ruins of an ancient civilization in a plain called cydonia. these people just vanished or they went underground (literally) or 'we' left mars to colonize earth when it got too cold there. we know they looked like us because part of these ruins is a human face. reagan and gorbachev knew about this and it is this knowledge that brought about the end of the cold war. another secret the govt is keeping from us is that there are glass domes and grecian temples on the moon that were photographed by Apollo 12 and 14 astronauts. he says they is evidence of an ancient civilization. these structures and the ones on mars are somehow related to stonehenge and to 'hyperdimensional physics'.(richard c hoagland) (btw: exercise caution when interpreting richard for his is a commercial enterprise.)(btw2: here is a copy of richard's picture of the moon.) In 1989, the russian phobos craft arrived in martian orbit and took pictures and made measurements and then mysteriously died. orthodox russian priests were invited to the phobos control center to see pictures of mars and discuss creation. (richard c hoagland) Richard has invented a new physics which he says is derived from maxwell's equations. he calls it 'hyperdimensional physics'. maxwell was the guy that said that electricity and magnetism are two manifestations of the same underlying phenomenon. if you move a wire across a magnet you will get electricity in the wire. if you move a wire carrying an electric current you will get a magnetic field. the hoagland extension is that if a wire and a magnet are both moving in a gravitational field you will get a current without relative motion between the wire and magnet. Is it possible that no one really understands the theory of relativity? even einstein was not sure. for example is relativity an ether theory or a no-ether theory? einstien waffled on this. in the end he wrote "i consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based on field concepts; in which case nothing remains of relativity and gravitation and nothing remains of modern physics". If scotsmen could clone would they clone sheep? they can and they have. we can now mass produce identical genetically engineered farm animals. it is the dawning of a new age. (btw suppose they made a clone of you. would it be you? would you then watch yourself grow up all over again?)(btw2: here's how to do it. 1. take the yet unspecialized cells from a 9-day old embryo and grow them in a petri dish. 2. from an unfertelized ovum remove the genetic material. 3. fuse ovum and embryo cell together with an electric current. 4. place the 'fertelized' ovum in a surrogate mother. Imagine this. utah and texas have seceeded from the union and california, devastated by 9.0 earthquakes, has physically receeded from the continent. all over the world volcanoes belch clouds of dust and sulfurous gases. there are giant storms everywhere with winds up to 250 miles per hour. this is our future as seen by gordon michael scallion. he says he is an 'intuitive'. he has visions. and lately his visions have been of 'earth changes' of holocaust proportions. Chinese herbal medicine (chm) normally prescribed for skin ailments is thought to cause liver damage. analysis did not reveal any known toxins. it did reveal 40 different plant species, animal parts, fungus, and inorganic material. the common herbal ingredients in all skin ailment preparations are dictamnus dasycarpus, paeonia sp, and rehmannia glutinosa (st thomas hospital, london, uk) (btw: other oriental herbs also known to cause liver damage are kinshigan (ikeda et al) and sho-saiko-to (kubo et al)). On 9/23/1880, a farmer named david lang vainshed into thin air in front of several witnesses in gallatin, tn, and was never heard from again. in 'stranger than science' frank edwards supplies a large list of documented but unexplained weirdness Robert Monroe of the monroe institute of virginia often finds himself outside of his physical body. in that state robert can see his own physical body in a motionless sleep state. he is also able to travel instantly to any point in space or time but is invisible to others except as a wisp of grey smoke. he says he can teach anyone to do it using a training system consisting of numerous focus levels. a necessary first step is focus 10, a state where the body is asleep and the mind is awake and alert. this state can be induced with a sound harmonic that results when you play a 100 hz tone in one ear and a 104 hz tone in the other ear. with training and practice one can reach focus 23, the state in which the out-of-body-experience (obe) can occur. (btw: how much of our technological progress do you suppose consists of clever solutions to imagined problems?)(btw2: there are at least two web docs that describe obe techniques: one of them is referred to by its author as the visualization method and the other is allegedly a summary of the monreo technique.) A quaint notion in physics is that of sir isaac newton contemplating a falling apple to come up with the theory of gravity. in fact he stole the idea from his buddy robert hooke. hooke analyzed kepler's 'equal area in equal time' hypothesis of orbital paths and realized that a force of attraction between the bodies that is inversely proportional to distance could be used to cartesianly produce kepler's orbits. he explained this to newton in a letter. Old Marco probably only made it as far as constantinople, then (1271 ad) the western frontier of kublai khan's great empire. there he came upon arab writings about the great kingdom. marco's stories are strangley similar to these accounts. it turns out old kublai kept a guest book and marco is not on it. (frances wood) Weird mental tennis tricks that actually work. (i) before each point visualize how the point will be played out. (ii) also before each point imagine what the score will be after the next point. say this score to yourself. (iii) during shot preparation visualize (without looking) where your shot will land. (iv) after a good serve or stroke do a pantomime imitation of yourself. The sexuality of these lizards goes like this. there are three kinds of males. in descending order of aggressiveness and ascending order of intelligence they are orange males, blue males, and yellow males. oranges keep large harems. blues keep small harems. and yellows impersonate females to sneak into the harems for a quickie. the dumb oranges fall for this trick but the blues don't. so the population cycle goes like this. oranges predominate and have most of the females. yellows impregnate the orange harems. orange population declines and blues predominate and build harems that are protected from yellows. oranges muscle in and take over females from blues. orange predominates. and so on.(curt lively, indiana university, bloomington Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) turns a cow's brain to sponge. the cow becomes disoriented, foams at the mouth, and dies within days. it is feared that the virus has jumped species and has developed a taste for human brains. the disease is currently contained in the british isles. If you bring laboratory mice out of the lab into an unfamiliar surrounding some of them will scurry around to investigate. others will freeze and 'defecate copiously'. it's genetic. three segments of the dna are responsible. (jonathan flint, john radcliffe hospital, oxford Much of the outer solar system is not empty but smoky. in some parts of its journey galileo encountered 20,000 smoke particles per day. the smoke might be from volcanic eruptions in jupiter's moons but we aren't really sure. (eberhard grun, max planck institute of physics Life is an open thermodynamic system. it works by constant communication of materials and information with other living things. every critter is part of an intricate web and this web is a self-maintaining system that is inseparable from cosmic forces and rhythms. (lyall watson in supernature). And more wierdness: A farmer named david lang vainshed into thin air in front of several witnesses in gallatin, tn, and was never heard from again ships and armies that vanished without leaving a trace never to be found again: the steamboat 'iron mountain' leaving the harbor at vicksburg, va, june 1872; the danish training ship 'kobenhaven' leaving the harbor at montevideo; an army of 4000 men marching into the foothills of the pyrenees during the spanish war of succession; 650 french troops marching in open country 15 miles from saigon in 1858; 2988 chinese soldiers outside nanking in 1947 A dead humanoid creature with gills and limbs washed ashore in canvey island in 11/1930 all 30 inhabitants of an eskimo village outside of churchill, canada disappeared without a trace. the village was left intact complete with dogs, food, guns, and even a needlework project in progress. A rock broke open in a mine to reveal a cavity full of worms. the worms came to life. scientists were asked to examine the worms. they said it was not possible according to their science and therefore the miners must have been mistaken (btw: scientists had also dismissed meteorites found by peasants. it was only after the peasants took charge of things following the french revolution that serious meteor research was undertaken) Two boys were lost in the woods for ten days. their bodies were found when jacob dibert saw them in a recurring dream. in 1833 a boy named adrian christian had a recurring dream that as captain of a ship he rescued his brother from another ship that was sinking. the dream came true in 1880. exactly as advertised. assyriologist dr herman hilprecht deciphered the inscriptions on two small ancient agate fragments in a dream the volacnic eruption in java in august of 1883 is the most violent geological event in recorded history. the island of krakatoa disintegrated, the temperature of the ocean around java rose to over 140 degf, and huge tidal waves lashed out as far away as california. the boston globe scooped the story. the 'story' turned out to be notes on a dream seen by reporter byron somes. in october 1872 a semi literate printer named tom james went into a trance and wrote furiously. he said he was taking dictation from the dead author charles dickens and soon published the missing concluding episode of 'the mystrey of edwin drood'. (btw: edwards' description of the dictation exactly matches the muslim description of god's dictation to mohamed. mohamed as you may know was illiterate.) Without a trace over the bermuda triangle: the star tiger british airliner on 1/29/1948, the ariel british airliner on 1/17/1949, five tbm avenger bombers of the us navy on 12/5/1945, a martin flying boat that went to look for the avengers. in 15th century britain a peasant named robert nixon correctly predicted that richard and henry would do battle, that henry would win, and that he himself would be taken to henry's castle where he would die of starvation. Mary Reeser was consumed by spontaneous human combustion mysterious moments of total darkness at midday that were not an eclipse of the sun: 8/19/1763 london england; 4/26/1884 preston england; 3/19/1886 oshkosh, wisconsin; 4/2/1889 aitkin, minnesota; 12/2/1904 memphis, tennessee; Much of the usa saw a blue sun in the 19th century financial advice from voices inside his head made arthur stilwell of indiana a billionaire. port arthur, tx and stilwell, ok are named after him. the voices correctly predicted: he would meet and marry a girl named genevieve woods in 4 years; that his railroad venture would be profitable; that port arthur, tx and not galveston should be the terminus of his railroad; world war 1; the defeat of germany in ww1; the fall of the czar of russia; and the restoration of palestine to judaism The derivation of the word trivia comes from the Latin "tri-" + "via", which means three streets. This is because in ancient times, at an intersection of three streeets in Rome (or some other Italian place), they would have a type of kiosk where ancillary information was listed. You might be interested in it, you might not, hence they were bits of "trivia." The reason Washington's army starved at Valley Forge is that Pennsylvania farmers preferred to sell food to the British for ready cash. In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt. The Hundred Year War actually lasted 116 years (1337 to 1453). Sharks apparently are the only animals that never get sick. As far as is known, they are immune to every known disease including cancer. Researchers are trying to determine what gives sharks their fabulous immunity. A completely blind chameleon will still take on the colors of its enviornment. One 75-watt bulb will give more light than three 25-watt bulbs. In 1800 only fifty cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000. Grapefruit is not related in any way to grapes but got its name because it grows in bunches like grapes. Corned beef has nothing to do with corn. The word "corned" was an old word meaning "seasoned." Thomas Edison, though still in possession of his sight, found Braille preferable to visual reading. About 24% of the total ground area of Los Angles is said to be committed to automobiles. A contrivance as simple as the envelope did not come about until 1839. Until then, people usually folded their letters both ways, sealed them with wax, and wrote the address on back. Tired of pounding the pavement looking for a job, Humphry O'Sullivan sat down one day and invented the rubber heel. Abraham Lincoln received U.S. patent number 6,469 for "Buoying Vessels over Shoals," a device that would raise ships so they could pass over bars or through shallow water. A working model was never built. A quarter of the horses in the U.S. died of a vast virus epidemic in 1872. American life and industry were crippled literally because of the diminished horsepower. A distiller named E.C. Booz bottled whiskey in log-cabin-shaped containers in the mid 1800s and it is from his name we get the word "booze." Air-conditioning was invented in the early 1900s not to cool homes or offices, but to control humidity in a printing plant so paper wouldn't expand or contract. Air conditioning didn't come to homes until after World War II. There's no mention in the Constitution of a "two-party system" or political parties at all, for that matter. Our founding fathers considered them sinister. It was assumed that representatives would rally around particular causes then back to a neutral position until the next issue came along. In September 1796 in his last "Farewell Address," George Washington warned against political parties and "passionate attachments" to foreign nations. He was ignored on both counts. Honey is used as a center for golf balls and in antifreeze mixtures. The rare metal gallium melts at 86 degrees F. It is safe to touch; if you hold a piece in your hand and wait, it will melt. Fourty-six U.S. federal agencies have officers with the authority to carry firearms and arrest people. Everybody knows that February is the shortest month, but what's the longest? The answer is October, which is 31 days long plus the hour we gain when daylight savings time ends. The greatest soldier of ancient times, Alexander (356-323 B.C.) was tutored by the greatest thinker, Aristotle. The first automobile to cross the U.S. took fifty-two days in 1903, to go from San Francisco to New York. Ironically, one of the Confederacy's rallying sings in the U.S. Civil War, "Dixie," was written by a Northerner, Dan Emmett, of Ohio. The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If no other pigeon is available, her own reflection in a mirror will suffice. In New York State it is illegal to shoot a rabbit from a moving trolly car. The Washington Monument sinks 6 inches each year. The Greek national anthem has 158 verses. It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona. The Baby Ruth candy bar is not named after the Sultan of Swat but is named for the first girl ever born in the White House, Ruth Cleveland, daughter of President Grover Cleveland. In 1929, the U.S.S.R. decreed a week of five days. In 1932, the U.S.S.R. decreed a week of six days. By 1940, the seven-day week had been restored. In China, if you say "coca-cola" it means "bite the wax tadpole." Not a single bank existed anywhere in the thirteen colonies before the American Revolution. Anyone needing money had to borrow from an individual. Americans spend more time at shopping malls than anywhere outside of their homes and jobs. Shopping malls account for about half of all retail business. On July 4, 1776, George III wrote in his diary, "Nothing of importance happened today." He had no way of knowing what had occured that day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Egyptions trained baboons to wait tables. You can make ice faster with warm water. Warm water freezes faster if it is cooled rapidly from a relatively warm temperature than if if it is cooled at the same rate from a lower terperature. The story of the little Dutch boy who placed his finger in a dike to save a town from flood is an American invention. It was never heard of in Holland before the twentieth century. For several decades the well-known Belgian mystery writer George Simenon wrote, on average, one novel every eleven days. Besides the more than 230 novels he penned under his own name, Simenon wrote 300 other books under a pseudonym. An ordinary TNT bomb involves atomic reaction, and could be called an atomic bomb. What we call an A-bomb involves nuclear reactions and should be called a nuclear bomb. Man's three-pound brain is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter known in the universe. Everybody knows that February is the shortest month, but what's the longest? The answer is October, which is 31 days long plus the hour we gain when daylight savings time ends. During WWI, parrots were kept on the Eiffel Tower. Their acute hearing would warn of approaching aircraft long before the planes were heard or seen by human spotters. Pope John XXIII served as a sergeant in the Italian army during World War I. The first automobile to cross the U.S. took fifty-two days in 1903, to go from San Francisco to New York. The phrase "what a guy" is a cry of derision in Great Britain and a cry of admiration in the U.S. A couple of royal banquets cost Queen Isabella as much as it cost to sponsor Columbus's first expeditation to the New World. There was rioting in England when the Gregorian calander was adopted and September 3, 1752, became, just like that, September 14. Many people insisted they had been deprived of eleven days. A hard-boiled egg will spin. An uncooked or soft-boiled egg will not. The albatross drinks sea water. It has a special desalinixation apparatus that strains out and excretes all excess salt. An ear of corn never has an odd number of corn rows. Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue twice as much as any other color. Eels have two hearts. President Gerald Ford was once a model. There were two cars in the state of Kansas in 1914. They were in an accident. Hank Aaron was the second Brave to hit a 714th home run. Babe Ruth played the last year of his career for the Boston Braves. While he was badly out of shape and only lasted until early June, he hit his final three home runs in one game and retired a week later. Fungi is neither a plant or animal. From 1890 to 1900, twenty tons of ivory were shipped every year from Siberia to London. All of this ivory was taken from the remains of wooly mammoths, which have been extinct since the Ice Age. No one went hungry or unclothed under the benevolent dictatorship of the Inca empire. From all levels of government, federal, state, and local, Americans get 150,000 new laws and 2 million new regulations every year. In 1880, there were approximately 2 billion passenger pigeons in the United States. By 1914, the species was extinct. President Ulysses S. Grant's wife was cross-eyed and wanted to correct the problem. Grant refused to let her have the operation because he liked her that way. Vincent Van Gogh is known to have sold only one painting. Max Schling, New York florist, ran an advertisement in The New York Times entirely in shorthand. A lot of businessmen cut it out and, out of curiosity, asked their secretaries to translate it. The ad asked secretaries to think of Schling when the boss wanted flowers for his wife. The original Bill of Rights proposed by Congress as an addition to the U.S. Constitution contained twelve, not ten, amendments. The two that failed to be ratified by the states were an amendment to set the size of the House of Representatives and one that would have prevented congressmen and senators From raising their own salaries. Track star Jesse Owens beat a race horce over a 100-yard course in 1936. Sharks can be dangerous even before they are born. One scientist, Stewart Springer, was bitten by a sand tiger shark embryo while he was examining its pregnant mother. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic that, more than a hundred miles at sea, off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean and drink it. Some dinosaurs were as small as hens. Julius Caesar was compelled by increasing traffic congestion to ban all wheeled vehicles in Rome during the hours of daylight. Coal dust sprayed by aircraft over Russian fields absorbs the early spring sunshine. The resulting warmth melts the snow a little sooner. It is believed that 90 percent of all scientists who have ever lived are alive now, and that more scientific papers have been published in the years since 1950 as were published in all the centuries before 1950. Although freedom of the press is guarenteed by the Constitution, the Lincoln administration not only censored the news but closed down publication of the New York News for anti-administration editorials, in 1861 and again in 1863, for alledged spy activity. When the New York World satarized Lincoln in 1863, the paper was shut down and its editors arrested on Lincoln's personal order. From the 1850s to the 1880s, the most common reason for death among cowboys in the American West was being dragged by a horse while caught in the stirrups. 7000 million fog-dropplets are required to make one tablespoon of water. A mosquito has 47 teeth. Helped by her attourney brother Edward, Audrey Meadows was the only cast member of the "Honeymooners" who negotiated a contract that would pay residuals if the shows were rebroadcast. It made her a fortune. Alferd Packer ate five prospectors whom he was guiding over a high Colorado plateau in 1874. The Judge who sentenced Packer to hang indignantly pointed out that "There was only six Democrats in all of Hinsdale County and you ate five of them." The Pilgrims did not build log cabins, nor did they wear black hats with a conical crown and a hatband with a silver buckle. Milton Reynolds marketed the first ball-point pen in the U.S. in 1945. They sold great but were junk. Air bubbles blocked the dye, ball bearings malfunctioned and the dye even fermented, causing the pens to explode. And to the horror of bankers and attourneys, that dye tended to disappear when exposed to light. The Reynolds was called the only pen that would produce eight carbons and no original. February 29th, is Superman's Birthday. In his early days, Picasso kept warm by burning some of his drawings. Decreeing that the masses (peasents execepted) must be beardless was one way that Peter the Great sought to westernize Russia in 1698. Fashion had already banished the beard from the rest of Europe. Some Russians chose to flee the country rather than shave. Peter imposed a stiff tax on beards; the men too poor to pay reluctantly shaved off their beards. We hear a lot this time of year about the wind-chill factor. This serious-sounding number is actually a rather dubious one. In the early 1900s a scientist went to Antarctica and placed plastic containers of water out in various weather and wind conditioned, and measured how long it took them to freeze. He put together a chart based on this and that is how they get the wind-chill factor readings that local weather people try to impress us with. Scientists say that when the wind-chill gets below -25 degrees f. will freeze exposed skin and cause frostbite. Otherwise it is a pretty useless figure. The daughters of a mother who is colorblind and a father who has normal vision will have normal vision. The sons will be colorblind, however. There are songs in all of Shakespeare's plays except "The Comedy of Errors" A tambourine-like instrument used in minstrel shows was made from the jawbone of a horse or ass -- from which the instrument gets its name, "bones." When the bone was thuroughly dried, the teeth were so loose they rattled and produced a sound as loud as a castanet. Every minstrel troupe had a "Mr. Bones." The fear that he might conceal a joke in it was one reason that Benjamin Franklin was not entrusted by his peers with the assignment of writing the Declaration of Independence. Everyone in the Middle Ages believed -- as Aristotle had -- that the heart was the seat of intelligence. The top part of a key is a bow. The hole in the pencil sharpener where the pencil is placed is the chuck. The disconnect button on a phone is the plunger. The prong of a fork is called a tang, and the spiral-shaped part of the corkscrew is the worm. Because air is denser in cold weather, a wind of the same speed exerts 25 percent more force during the winter than it does during the summer. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew marijuana on their plantations. Of all fifty states, the most crowded is New Jersey, which has the most people per square mile. The first U.S. coin to bear the words "United States of America," was a penny piece made in 1727. It was also inscribed with the plain-spoken motto: "Mind Your Own Business." Despite being only five stories high, the Pentagon is one of the biggest office buildings in the world. It has more floor space than the Empire State Building which is 102 stories. The Pentagon has over 3 million square feet of office space and can house about 30,000 employees. This was made possible by the unusual design of five rings on each of its five sides. W.L. Makenzie King, who was Canada's Prime Minister 3 times, was a fervent believer in the supernatural. In 1930 his fortune-teller predicted that if King called an ellection that year he would emerge from it stronger than ever. King lost the election, but the fortune teller turned out to be right. By losing the election, King avoided being blamed for the Depression of the early 1930s. In 1935 he led his party back to power and held it for another 13 years. On October 7, Chicago was hit by the latest and biggest of several fires of an unusually dry summer and fall. Before the blaze was extinguished, fifteen hours later, twenty acres were destroyed and damage was estimated at million dollars. It was the worst fire in Chicago's history. That record held up for less than a day. The next evening a fresh load of hay caught on fire in the O'Leary barn. The wind quickly spread the flames, and the fire department, weary from the previous night's marathon effort, were slow to respond. By the time the whole department could be mobilized, the blaze was out of control. The gassworks exploded a couple of hours later, and then at 7 AM hydrants ran dry when the city waterworks caught fire. From then on, all anybody could do is pray for rain. It arrived late in the evening of the ninth, and around three the next morning the fire at last went out. The fire destroyed nearly 17,500 buildings in an area about 2,500 acres, leaving 90,000 people homeless and about 300 dead. Damage was estimated at perhaps $200 million. However, the Chicago fire was the second-biggest of October 8, 1871. On that same evening, at almost the same hour as the O'Leary's barn went up, a forest fire of unimaginable intensity erupted near the lumber-milling town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, about 220 miles to the north. Flamed by the same wind that had spread the Chicago blaze, it flowed through the treetops so fast that it was useless to try to fight it or even run away. In ten minutes, half of Peshtigo and its residents were incinerated. Some saved themselves by jumping into the Peshtigo River. Those who were overtaken by the flames were quickly reduced to heaps of ashes. Although the damage was estimated at only 5 million dollars, the death toll was much higher -- around 1,200 to 1,500 and 2,000 square miles (or 1.3 million acres) were devastated. The story of the Chicago fire lives on because it is inspiring. The entire modern City of Chicago stands as a monument to its great conflagration. The Peshtigo fire, by contrast, is simply horrifying. A modest plaque marks the grave of hundreds of unidentified victims. Horatio Alger, the man whose name symbolized success, had many personal problems and died broke. His stories of poor boys who became rich inspired people to a better life -- but Alger himself did not profit by it. Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years, from 1895 until his death in 1973. He made more than 13,000 paintings over the years and over 100,000 prints, engravings and designs. He also did over 300 sculptures and ceramics. Picasso used his mother's maiden name. His father's last name was Ruiz. Alfred Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for directing. Napoleon favored mathematicians and physical scientists, but excluded humanists from his circle, believing them to be troublemakers. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The night sky appears full of stars, but actually only about 3,000 stars are visible to the naked eye. Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. Ballroom dancing is a major at Brigham Young University. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin was a little Chinese boy." The most common name in the world is Mohammed. Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fish was named Livingston. The 'y' in signs reading "ye olde.." is properly pronounced with a 'th' sound, not 'y'. The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient Roman occupied (present day) England used the rune "thorn" to represent "th" sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y". The international telphone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called 'mantles') are radioactive--so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear reactor. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tetonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.) 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. 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 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize *this* was the day of the changeover. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again, Sam." Sherlock Holmes never said "Elementary, my dear Watson." Captain Kirk never said "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up, Mr. Scott". Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown differently during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in time of peace and the red portion is flown in war time. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike. The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified is to poke someone's eye out. Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister. Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England. A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. Certain frogs can be frozen solid then thawed, and continue living. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young. Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen. Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Ever wondered where the phrase "two bits" came from? Some of the coins used in the American colonies before the Revolutionary War were Spanish dollars, which could be cut into pieces, or bits. Since two pieces equaled one-fourth of a dollar, the expression "two bits" came into being as a name for 25 cents. Small flat icebergs have been fitted with sails and piloted more than 2,400 miles from the Antartic to Valparaiso, Chile, and to Cakkaiub, Peru. The lightest President of the United States was John Madison who was 5' 4" and weighed under 100 pounds. The tallest was Lincoln at 6' 4". The heaviest was Howard Taft who, at times, weighed over 300 pounds. During the Second World War the American automobile industry produced a grand total of 139 cars. Instead, that huge industrial capacity had been transformed into the "arsenal of democracy," turning out, in breathtaking volumes, the materiel that allowed the Allies to win the war. The Ford Motor Company alone had more military production than the entire Italian economy in the war years. Although people in the majority of countries of the world drive on the right side of roads, there are some fifty nations in which people drive on the left. These include England and many of the former English colonies such as Australia and New Zealand -- but not the U.S. or Canada. There are several non-English countries where people also drive on the left including Japan and Finland. Mae West did not utter her infamous line "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" until her last film, "Sextette." It had been floating around for years and has always been attributed to her, but it's exact origins are unknown. The line doesn't appear in any of her films, plays or other writings. In Turkey the color of mourning is violet. In most Moslem countries and in China it is white. The U.S. constitution stipulates that, to be eligible for the Presidency, a candidate must be a natural-born citizen, must have lived in the United States for a minimum of 14 years and must be at least 35 years old. There are no other legal qualifications or restrictions for the post, so there is nothing in the law to prevent a lunatic, a bankrupt or a convicted criminal from becoming President. The college degree is called a "Bachelor's" degree after the original meaning of bachelor which was a young apprentice. Since the Bachelor's is the first degree issued, coming before a Master's or Doctor's degree, that first degree became known as a Bachelor's degree. In the early days of silent films, there was blatant thievery. Unscrupulous film companies would steal the film print, reshoot a scene or two, and release it as a new production. The combat this, the Biograph company put the company's trademark initials AB somewhere in every scene -- on a door, a wall, or window. Fake Christmas trees have outsold real ones every year since 1991. President James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other -- simultaneously! The traditional symbol of the pawnbroker -- three golden balls -- is thought to be derived from the coat of the arms of the Medici family, who ruled the Italian city of Florence between the 15th and 16th centuries. The symbol was spread by the Lombards -- Italian bankers, goldsmiths and moneylenders who set up businesses in medieval London. The coastline of Alaska is longer than the entire coastline of the lower-forty-eight states of the United States. "Eat like a bird?" Many birds eat twice their weight a day. People who work at night tend to weigh more than people who don't. Because their work was so physically demanding, slave sugar-cane cutters were the South's most costly field hands. At one point, their price became so high on the New Orleans slave market that the Louisiana planter tried to hire Irish and German immigrants instead. This plan backfired when the hired workers went on strike for double pay right in the middle of the sugar harvest. The familiar piece of wood known as a "two-by-four" is not two inches by four inches. Its actual size is one and one half by three and one half. The reason it's smaller than two-by-four is a long standing custom to measure wood before it's seasoned and planed. A pig is a hog -- hog is a generic name for all swine -- but a hog is not a pig. In the terminology of hog raising, a pig is a baby hog less than ten weeks old. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. Had it not been for Thomas Edison, people today would probably be answering the telephone by saying "Ahoy" instead of "Hello." The telephone's inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, thought "Ahoy" was the correct way to answer the phone. Edison invented the word "Hello" in the 1870s while doing research on clarity of sounds. When the first telephone exchanges opened around the country, Edison campaigned for using "Hello" -- and a new word, and custom, were born. The Italian poet Dante was inspired to write two of his finest works -- "The Divine Comedy" and "The New Life" -- by a fair haired, blue-eyed maiden whom he never spoke to and whom he saw only twice. The woman, whom he called simply Beatrice, was Beatrice Portinori, who died in 1290 at the age of 24. Dante saw her first at her parents' home in Florence in 1274, when he was only nine and she was eight. He spotted her again nine years later in a street, and after her death wrote "The New Life" in which he describes his ideal love. The most familiar quotation from "The Divine Comedy" is 'Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.' But it is inaccurate. The correct version is 'Abandon all hope, you who enter.' Radon is a colorless, odorless, inert gas and is heavier than lead. It has an atomic weight of 222 and lead has a weight of 207. Though legends and fears concerning bats are many, they may also be the single best controller of the insect kingdom. Bats may eat as many as 600 mosquito-size insects in an hour. An average size bat colony may eat a million insects in one evening. Director John Ford and Fox Film Corp. must have had quite an eye for talent when they cast two young actors to appear in their first feature-film, "Up The River," in 1930. The actors were Spencer Tracy and Humphrey Bogart. It was the only film they were in together throughout their long careers. There is no single cat called a panther. The name is commonly applied to the leopard, but is also used to refer to the puma and the jaguar. A black panther is really a black leopard. In 1975 twice as much Monopoly money was printed in the United States as real money. And in most years the Monopoly output, on face value, comfortably beats the U.S. Treasury. The commercial success of the board game is unrivaled, with nearly 100 million sets sold in its first 50 years. A man in jail received almost a million votes for president in the 1920 election. Eugene Debs, who ran on a third-party Socialist ticket was in the Atlanta Penitentiary, serving a ten-year sentence for violating the Espionage Act. He had been convicted for opposition to the U.S. entry in World War I. Debs spent the entire campaign in prison. Warren Harding won the election, commuted his sentence a year later, but Debs never regained his citizenship. A baseball is no longer a "horsehide" nor a football a "pigskin." Both are now made from cow leather. In November 1960 an American rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, went off course and crashed in Cuba, killing a cow. The Cuban government gave the cow an official funeral as the victim of 'imperialist aggression.' Although Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman were sensational together in "Casablanca," they never made another film together during the rest of their careers. "Tug of War" was an Olympic event between 1900 and 1920. The Egyptians were crippling their own economy when they buried quantities of gold and silver with their dead leaders for, presumably, use in the afterlife. (Paper money did not exist.) Grave robbers, whatever their motives, served to keep the wheels of Egyptian society turning by restoring the gold and silver to circulation. Up to the age of six or seven months a child can breathe and swallow at the same time. An adult cannot do this. (Try it.) The word "democracy" appears nowhere in the U.S. Constitution. It doesn't appear anywhere in the Declaration of Independence either. And speaking of the Declaration of Independence, the word "independence" was left out of the title. The full title on the top of the original copy reads: "In Congress, July 4, 1776, A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled." King Alfonso of Spain, who reigned from 1886 to 1931, was so tone-deaf that he had in his employ the Anthem Man. This man's sole duty was to tell the king to stand up whenever the Spanish national anthem was playing, because the monarch couldn't recognize it. A rainbow can occur only when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon. Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air. When spelled phonetically, Esso means stalled car in Japan. Tigers have round pupils and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans. No one knows exactly why tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes. In 1949, forecasting the relentless march of science, Popular Mechanics said "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." If the Loch Ness monster exists at all, he (or she) could only be about as big as a sixth grader. A new study shows that there is only enough fish in the loch to feed a 31 kg (about 67 lb) creature. The scientists used sonar to estimate the number of fish in the lake and came up with an annual food supply of 93 kg. Since a cold blooded animal like Nessie would need to eat about three times its body weight each year, it could only weigh about 31 kg. Taking a weighted average of final sales and intermediate activity, manufacturing comes to 31 percent of total economic activity. There are more than 1,000 chemicals in a cup of coffee. Of these, only 26 have been tested, and half caused cancer in rats. Orville Wright was involved in the first aircraft accident. His passenger, a frenchman, was killed. Orville was injured. Your ears and nose continue to grow throughout your entire life. The fastest typist can type at 211 words per minute. Born on November 3, 1718, British politician, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, is credited with naming the "sandwich." He developed a habit of eating beef between slices of toast so he could continue to play cards uninterrupted. Fresca, the soft drink, had problems when it was sold in Mexico. Fresca is slang for lesbian. The 1995 Guiness Book of World Records lists the largest baked pizza on record was 37.4 meters in diameter (12,159 sq.ft.), in Norwood, South Africa December 8th 1990. Another notable pizza by size was a 10,000 sq.ft. pizza cooked by Lorenzo Amato, owner of Cafe di Lorenzo in Tallahassee Florida in 1991. The average iceberg weighs 20,000,000 tons. TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard. In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water. The list of ingredients that make up lipstick include...fish scales. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno mag. When brushing your teeth, hold your toothbrush like how you would hold a pen. This makes brushing more thorough and easier on your gums. When you eat meat and drink milk in the same meal, your body does not absorb any of the milk's calcium. It is best to have 2 hours between the milk and meat intake. (Meat from animals, not peanuts or eggs.) In Germany, Sunbeam's Mist-Stick curling iron was translated into manure wand. The longest sperm ever recorded is 10,000-times longer than a human spermatozoon and belongs to the fruitfly Drosophila bifurca. The typical Drosophila bifurca male sperm is approximately 60 millimeters long, 20 times the length of the fly itself. In Brazil, Pinto, the same name as the Ford car, is a slang term meaning a small male appendage. When Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John brand into French-speaking Canada, it was translated into Gros Jos, slang for a woman with big breasts. Blue toothbrushes are used by people more than red toothbrushes. The average human produces 25,000 quarts of spit in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools. Rising sea levels caused by global warming could lead to major flooding in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other Chinese coastal cities by the year 2050. This could render 76 million people homeless. Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings. Dutch engineers have developed a computerized machine that allows a cow to milk itself. Each cow in the herd has a computer chip in its collar. If the computer senses that the cow has not been milked in a given period of time, the milk-laden animal is allowed to enter the stall. The robot sensors locate the teats, apply the vacuum devices, and the cow is milked. The machine costs a mere $250,000 and is said to boost milk production by 15%. Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight. A can of SPAM is opened every 4 seconds. An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato." Advertisers need take care ---- the "thumbs up" sign, signifying everything is ok. and used in many ads in the United States, has an offensive meaning in many eastern European countries. Why Do Cats Eyes Glow In The Dark? They possess an image-intensifying device at the rear of their eyes. This is a light-reflecting layer called the "tapetum lucidum" (bright carpet), which acts like a mirror behind the retina, reflecting light back to the retinal cells. With this, the cat can utilize all of the light that enters its eyes. We absorb far less of the light that enters our eyes. Because of this difference cats can make out objects and movements in the semidarkness that would be quite invisible to us. Cats cannot see in complete darkness but they can navigate by sound, smell, and the sensitivity of their whiskers. A sneeze zooms out of your mouth at over 100 m.p.h. Every person has a unique tongue print. Over US $1,000,000,000,000 worth of Foreign Exchange transactions are traded daily in the three major markets: Tokyo, London and New York (a figure which is larger than the GDP of most countries). A skunk will not bite and throw its scent at the same time. The woolly mammoth, extinct since the Ice Age, had tusks almost 16 feet long. The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover until after thousands of signs had been printed that the phrase means "bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax" depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, "ko-kou-ko-le," which can be loosely translated as "happiness in the mouth." The richest man in the United Kingdom is Paul Raymond who among other things, owns nightclubs and publishes sex magazines. On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses. The Twelve Days of Christmas represent the length of time that the three wise men from the East took to reach the manger of Jesus Christ after his birth. Their arrival on the twelfth day was celebrated in the form of the Feast of Epiphany in medieval France, and later in other countries. The 20,000 year-old expanse of Antarctic ice known as the Larsen Ice Shelf has developed a crack 65 km long. This, combined with the separation of a large iceberg with a surface area of around 2,900 km and a thickness of 200 meters (now making its way north), will require the drafting of new maps of Antarctica. Both changes have been attributed to global warming. Africanized honeybees are no more venomous than their northern cousins, they are just meaner and more likely to swarm. Two deaths have been attributed to the 'killer bees" since their arrival in the U.S. in 1990. In contrast, more than 60 people die each year as a result of the stings of ordinary honeybees. 27% of U.S. male college students believe life is "a meaningless existential hell." If you're going to eat fast food, the odds are 2 out of 5 you will buy it at McDonald's. The odds are 1 out of 5 you will choose Burger King, and 1 out of 10 for Hardee's and for Wendy's. According to a market research survey done some time ago, 68% of consumers receiving junk mail actually open the envelopes. Head injuries occur about every 15 seconds in the United States. If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the microorganisms on your body. There was a prehistoric horse breed (called eohippus) that was about the size of a housecat. Ants do not sleep. A bowl of Wheaties contains twice as much sodium as a bowl of potato chips Flying once around the moon is the equivalent with a round trip from New York to London. (Earth is about four times the size of the moon.) Approximate population of Madison is 196,530. 25% of Madison's population is elderly. The mozzarella originally used in Italy for pizza, was made from the milk of the water buffalo. According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day. (Wow!) The Foreign Exchange market never closes - it simply follows the sun from Tokyo to London to New York, and back to Tokyo again. Pizza is the number 2 entree in foodservice, outpacing the growth rate of all other food items. It represents more than 10% of all food sales and is expected to exceed the hamburger 1996. Kenyan musicians are sometimes forced to play gigs while locked inside metal cages! Why? Nairobi nightclub musicians often don't have enough money to buy their instruments - the equipment is instead provided by clubowners. Some owners literally imprison the musicians on stage to make sure they don't steal or damage the equipment. (From Malm, Krister and Wallis, Roger: Big Sounds from Small Peoples, Constable, London, 1984.) When rural Pakistani folksinger Zarsanga sings in public, fans routinely mark the choruses of her most popular Peshto-language songs with mass shotgun-firing. (From Sweeney, Phillip: The Virgin Directory of World Music, Henry Holt, 1991.) French Polynesia consists of five major island groups ... The Australs, The Gambiers, The Marquesas, The Tuamotus, and The Society Islands. In all, there are 130 islands in French Polynesia. The largest island in the Societies, Tahiti, is the most well known among all the islands. In Texas, it's illegal to put graffiti on someone else's cow. According to Texas law, in some places, running a bakery is considered to be an agricultural business. Texas law forbids carrying around a fence cutter or a pair of pliers that could cut fence. More popcorn is sold in Dallas than anywhere in the U.S. Texas is also the only state that still owns public lands. It allows public education in Texas to be so cheap. (For comparision, take a look at the tuition at other state schools.) The "Texas Burger" contains lettuce, tomato, onion, and mayonaise. The state song is "Texas our Texas." Many of the animals native to Texas have gone extinct. The total value of Texas wildlife is $94,000,000. There are more than 3,700 rivers and streams in Texas. The Texas state dish? Chili! There are actually (to date) five Texas state flowers. There was a debate over which species of Blue Bonnet would be the state flower. All were chosen. Texas has had some infamous bad guys: Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, among them. Texas was once a country. The average smell weighs 760 nanograms report Japanese researchers. The researchers weighed odors by dissolving them in fat and using an ultra-sensitive quartz crystal microbalance. SOURCE: "Bizarre Moments in Science" by Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki One-third of black men in the US between 20 and 29 years old were in prison, on parole or on probation. The number increased from one-fourth five years ago. - The Key , April 1996 One-sixth of all Americans, an estimated 43 million people, move each year. (U.S. Census Bureau) The Czech communist government at its doctrinaire peak was so zealous in its censorship that it once censured bubblegum singer Karel Gott for using this lyric: "I may as well flip a coin when I ask if you're sincere when you say you love me." Why? Because they said it was an insult to the value of the Czech currency! (From Ramet, editor: Rocking the State, Westview Press.) Tornadoes are more likely to occur on May 16 than any other day of the year, sometime after 1: 00 pm, according to a review of 304 twisters that occurred in the US between 1950 and 1991. The average American moves 12 times in a lifetime. (U.S. Census Bureau) Honey does not spoil. Canadian and Japanese mathematicians have calculated the value of pi to a new world record of almost 4,294,967,286 decimal places. At 4,294,967,286 decimal places, a print-out of the number, expressed at six digits per centimeter, would stretch more than 7,000 kilometers. The calculation was completed on a HITAC S-3900/480 vector supercomputer and took 56 hours. The color combination with the strongest impact on people is - yellow (?) - Well, so say sources. Dairy products make up 29% of all food consumed in the United States. Don't be surprised if your students show increasing signs of aprosexia. At this time of year it is probably normal. The term refers to an impaired ability to concentrate. The earth experiences 50,000 earthquakes each year. The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people. Flamingos are not naturally pink - no matter what the guy sitting next to you at the bar says. American families drink approximately 110 million gallons of water daily, most of which comes from the household tap. Some contaminants include cryptosporidium, a water-borne pathogen, and radon, which is a naturally occurring radioactive gas found mostly in wells. (May 7 marks the start of National Drinking Water Week). Questions? Call the U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791. Ben Franklin founded a library in Philadelphia. He founded a hospital. He started a fire department. He opened a college. He was the first mailman in Philadelphia. He had nine brothers and sisters. He didn't like math. He invented bifocal glasses. In 1719, Eilean Donan Castle held 343 barrels of gunpowder which the British "accidentally" set off, destroying a large part of the castle. However, it was later rebuilt. The Hundred Years War lasted for 116 years. A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court. After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again. Stopping the presses is not all that uncommon. Major typos are the number one reason for stopping the presses. The last time the presses were stopped for a late breaking story was when President Kennedy was shot. In Michigan, USA, a man legally owns his wife's hair. (Huh? No way!) The USA bought Alaska from Russia for 2 cents an acre. In Tennessee, USA, a man must walk in front of any car driven by a woman, while waving a red flag as a warning. The is a 1/4 pound of salt inevery gallon of seawater. Roast turkey did not appear consistently on royal Christmas Day menus until 1851 when it replaced roast swan. The medieval dish of Boar's head remained popular with Royals for much longer Every year, the Queen delivers her Christmas message in a short speech, traditionally televised at 3.00pm on Christmas Day. The idea for a royal Christmas radio broadcast was that of John Reith, the General Manager of the British Broadcasting Company (later the British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1923. But it wasn't until 25th December, 1932, at Sandringham that King George V gave his first Christmas speech to his subjects around the world. The speech was first televised in 1957, and today the Queen's message is broadcast alternately by the BBC and ITV. It is heard by her subjects in Britain and her remaining Empire . Spiral staircases in medieval castles are running clockwise. This is because all knights used to be right-handed. When the intruding army would climb the stairs they would not be able to use their right hand which was holding the sword because of the difficulties in climbing the stairs. Left-handed knights would have had no troubles except left-handed people could never become knights because it was assumed that they were descendants of the devil. Christmas Lights - long before the first Christmas, it was customary in northern Europe to light a candle at the winter solstice in celebration of the rebirth of light. Homage was paid to the sun god, Mithras, and the sun was encouraged to reappear in the new year. The Christian Church adopted the custom and, throughout the Middle Ages, a large candle was lit at Christmas time. The light from the candle symbolised the Star of Bethlehem and, as Christ was the 'Light of the World', the candle flame represented his influence. This single candle was replaced by several over time - as many as four hundred on an 18th-century German fir tree - and for health and safety reasons they were replaced by electric replicas in 1882. Christmas lights in Regent Street, London, are traditionally switched on in mid-November each year by a celebrity. In a century's time Islam had converted one-third of the world. In ancient Egyptian Priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. When the new favorite dance of Parisian High Culture, the polka, was introduced in the US in 1844, it gave rise to numerous jokes about US Presidential candidate J.K. Polk. And polka soon became so big in Britain that a pudding was named after it. (From the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, volume 15, Macmillan 1980. On the cartoon show 'The Jetsons,' Jane is 33 years old and her daughter Judy is 15. In Mel Brooks' 'Silent Movie,' mime Marcel Marceau is the only person who has a speaking role. Only humans and horses have hymens. If all the ozone in the atmosphere were compressed to a pressure corresponding to that at the earth's surface, the layer would be only 3 mm thick. The human genome can be contained in the equivalent of a 750 megabyte hard drive. The human genome contains 3 billion base pairs. Each base pair contains 2 binary 'bits' of information. Finally there are eight 'bits' in a byte, thus six billion bits of information in the genome. Working people are 25% more likely to suffer back injuries on Monday than any other day. Similarly, the risk of having a heart attack is 33% greater on Monday than other days. ) Tasmania, Austrailia has the cleanest air in the inhabited world. The finest, most expensive wool in the world is grown in Tasmania. Over two thirds of the state is set aside as national or state parks. Tasmania has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Tasmania exports 60% of its produce. The most advanced, large catamarans in the world are manufactured in Tasmania. Two thirds of Australia's canned vegetables are produced in Tasmania. Over a quarter of the world's abalone comes from Tasmania. The English word "soup" comes from the Middle Ages word "sop," which means a slice of bread over which roast drippings were poured. The first archaeological evidence of soup being consumed dates back to 6000 B.C., with the main ingredient being Hippopotamus bones! Top Ten Soup Towns (ranked by consumption rate) 1) Spokane, WA 2) Salt Lake City, UT 3) Grand Rapids, MI 4) Green Bay, WI 5) Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN 6) Seattle/Tacoma, WA 7) Des Moines, IA 8) Albany, NY 9) Buffalo/Rochester, NY 10) Knoxville, TN St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man who ran a saloon there. "Speak of the Devil" is short for "Speak of the Devil and he shall come". It was believed that if you spoke about the Devil it would attract his attention. That's why when you're talking about someone and they show up people say "Speak of the Devil." The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. In classical Vietnamese music-theatre (Tuong), there is a 100-act play ("Von Buu Trinh Tuong") in which all of the characters are personified medications! The stronger the medication, the stronger the character, and vice-versa. Another fun fact about Tuong: At performances, a drum was placed in front of the stage, which audience members played in order to criticize the performers. The number of beats played and the pitch of the drumbeats indicated whether the audience felt the play was good or bad, or if perhaps they wished to discuss the performance with the manager. One beat on the drum, for instance, told the performers to wind up whatever they were singing and get on to the next part! (From Pham Duy, Musics of Vietnam, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1975.) Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. The red giant star Betelgeuse has a diameter larger than that of the Earth's orbit around the sun. Sixties Czech rock band the Primitives was known for its in-concert audience participation "celebrations" of the four elements. Especially attention-getting was their celebration of water, known as fishfest, in which they hurled buckets of water into the audience and then threw live fish over them (From Rocking the State.) The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. The letter "I" is used exactly one-hundred and nine times in Act IV of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The real name of the "I've fallen and I can't get up" lady is Edith Fore. All the dirt from the foundation to build the World Trade Center in New York City was dumped into the Hudson River to form the community now known as Battery City Park. An atmospheric oxygen content approaching 35% some 290 million years ago may have been responsible for the evolution of extraordinary creatures, such as a dragonfly as large as a pigeon. A subsequent drop in oxygen content to 15% some 40 million years later may also account for the disappearance of such giants. Present day air is 21% oxygen. SOURCE: NATURE Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I's mother, had six fingers on one hand. There are 18 doctors in the US called Dr. Doctor, and one called Dr. Surgeon. There is also a dermatologist named Dr. Rash, a psychiatrist called Dr. Couch and an anesthesiologist named Dr. Gass. While it not their preferred recreation activity, sheep can swim when confronted with flooding or other water emergencies. There swimming style can best be described as a dog-paddle. If we had the same mortality rate now as in 1900, more than half the people in the world today would not be alive. In 1990, a 64-year old Hartsville, Tennessee, woman entered a hospital for surgery for what doctors diagnosed as a tumor on her buttocks. What surgeons found, however, was a four-inch pork chop bone, which they removed. They estimated that it had been inplace for five to ten years. The woman could not remember sitting on it, or eating it, for that matter. The Book of Lists (D.Wallechinsky & A. Wallace, 1993) One of the most studied antioxidants in vegetables and fruits thought to protect against cancer is beta-carotene, concentrated in deep green, yellow and orange vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, and spinach. Fruits high in beta-carotene include apricots and cantaloupes. In test tube studies at Harvard University in Massachusetts, beta-carotene had a direct toxic effect on cells taken from malignant tumors. It also shows that beta-carotene can change in the body to retinoic acid, a substance used in clinical trials to treat certain cancers. Here are some of the foods that contain cancer fighting chemicals. There are almost 800 different brands of bottled water for sale in the United States. The solid central core of the earth seems to rotate at a slightly different rate than the rest of the earth. Seven thousand people die from food poisoning every year in the U.S., and another seven million get ill from eating contaminated food. Eggs, unwashed produce and rotten meat are the main culprits. One third of all cancers are sun-related. Polls show that 75% of American adults do not know that antibiotics kill bacteria but not viruses. Ancient Romans ate flamingo tounges and considered them a delicacy. ENIAC, the first electronic computer, appeared 50 years ago. The original ENIAC was about 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons, had 17,000 tubes.By comparison, a desktop computer today can store a million times more information than an ENIAC, and 50,000 times faster. Can't you just picture this conversation taking place back in 1946: "Hey honey, I'm gonna run to the store, do you need anything?" "Yes, Ozzie, I made a list, it's on the ENIAC." "I wish you wouldn't do that Harriet! Now I have to go all the way out to the computer building in the back yard, just to get your grocery list." "Sorry Ozzie, but I was out there dusting, and I remembered a few things we needed, I didn't have a pencil, so I just entered it into the computer." Mumbling and grumbling, Ozzie goes out to the computer building. He returns ten minutes later, obviously upset. "Harriet, I can't get at the grocery list!" "Why's that Ozzie?" Harriet asks. "Cause it's busy calculating ballistic trajectories, that's why!" "Well, don't blame me Ozzie! I'm not the one who bought a computer incapable of multi-tasking." says Harriet. "They haven't invented multi-tasking yet," screams Ozzie. "Well, that's not my fault now, is it?" answers Harriet. Yeast is a single-cell plant. A living organism. Over 160 species of yeast exist. The strain used for baking breads, which enables them to rise, is the same yeast used by breweries to make beer. Before the existence of the packets and bottles of yeast that we can buy today, bakers use to obtain their yeast from the local brewery. I suggest that you buy your yeast in the small jars as it is more economical this way. You are also able to get a more exact measure, rather than worrying about any yeast that may have stuck to the sides of one of those little packets. A Turtles shell is nothing more than its ribs and spine fused together over many years of evolution. Bob Dylan's real name is Robert Zimmerman, he changed it in honor of Dylan Thomas. Andy Warhol created the Rolling Stone's emblem depicting the big tongue. It first appeared on the cover of the 'Sticky Fingers' album. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were the two left-handed Beatles. Over the last three decades, civic participation in America has decreased. Two-thirds of all eligible voters under the age of 25 did not vote in the last election. The world's fastest ship weighs 112 tons and travels at 102 mph. Driving 55 m.p.h. instead of 65 m.p.h. increases your cars mileage by about 15%. Airbags explode at 200 m.p.h. The first car accident occurred in 1896. May 9th, 1995, is the 35th anniversary of the original FDA approval for the oral contraceptive popularly known as 'the pill'. Used by nearly 10 million American women under age 45, the pill is the most popular method of reversible contraception in the U.S. Since 1960 it has become clear that the pill also has many non-contraceptive benefits including: prevention of benign breast diseases; prevention of some ovarian and endometrial cancers; increased bone mineral density. School busses in the United States are Chrome Yellow and used to be Omaha Orange. Under a two mile thick layer of ice at the south pole is an unfrozen lake the size of lake Ontario. The Beatles song "Dear Prudence" was written about Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, when she wouldn't come ou and play with Mia and the Beatles at a religious retreat in India. The tailless dinner jacket was invented in Tuxedo Park, New York. Thus it is called the "tuxedo dinner jacket" and is named after the town...not the other way around. The average person flexes the joints in their fingers 24 million times during a lifetime. Each person inhales about seven quarts of air every minute. A cargo of flatulent pigs caused an international passenger jet en route to South Africa to make an emergency landing in London. The prize porkers generated so much heat from their natural gases that they caused a fire alarm to go off in the cockpit. On average, we breathe between 12 and 18 times a minute. Women's hearts generally beat faster than mens. How many evolutionists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None. Given enough time and random chance events, the lightbulb will screw itself in! There was actually a typewriter created that would type in Chinese. Because of the sheer number of characters, a typist typing at 10-15 words per minute would be considered incredibly speedy. The state of Maryland has no natural lakes. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. In the United States in 1995, KFC sold 11 pieces of chicken for every man, woman and child in the country. Laid head to claw, KFC chickens consumed worldwide would stretch some 275,094 miles. They would circle the Earth at the equator 11 times or stretch from the Earth approximately 50,094 miles past the moon. No other animal gives us more by-products than the hog. These by-products include pig suede, buttons, glass, paint brushes, crayons, chalk, and insulation to name a few. The world's number one producer and consumer of fresh pork is China. Hogs were first introduced to North America in 1539 when the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto brought them to the mainland. The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms. Kidney stones come in virtually any color; most are yellow to brown. Louis Napoleon, nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, lost the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 due wholly or in part from impaired kidney function resulting from kidney stone formation. Most kidney stones are formed and excreted singly. The practice of calling cowards "lily-livered" has an interesting origin. During the middle ages, it was believed that everything was made of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. It was also believed that in humans, the Four Contraries: hot, cold, dry, and moist, would combine to form the Four Humors: cholor, blood, melancholy, and phlegm. If someone had demonstrated that they were cowardly, they would be thought of as not having any cholor, or yellow bile, the humor thougt to control courage. Since at the time people thought an absence of cholor in the liver would leave it white, the color of the lily, cowards would be called lily-livered. The Mint, dedicated to domestic and foreign circulation coins, was inaugurated in Winnipeg on April 30, 1976. There were 107 RCMP dog teams across Canada in 1995. An individual dog can search a car in approximately three minutes and can work up to four hours with rest intervals. Firefighters take 3 to 8 minutes to respond to a call, depending on location, giving an average response time of 5.8 minutes. There are 22 nuclear reactors in Canada called CANDU reactors, they supply 65% of the electricity for Ontario and 16% in total for Canada. Napoleon Bonaparte was afraid of cats. It would take 7 billion particles of fog to fill a teaspoon. Every photograph of an American atomic bomb detonation was taken by Harold Edgerton. The topknot that quails have is called a hmuh. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth ... and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint -- no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. There is a type of parrot in New Zealand that likes to eat the rubber strips that line car windows. New Zealand is also the only country that contains every type of climate in the world. Cockroaches' favorite food is the glue on envelopes and on the back of postage stamps Q and Z are the two letters not on a touch tone phone. In 1969, the last Corvair was painted gold. Way back in 1709 AD, this guy named Bart from Florence, Italy thought, "Man, these harpsichords sound tinny and nasty! And on top of that, you can't control the loudness of each note! Hmm, if only I could change the string-plucking mechanism to something more desirable, the worries of thousands of musicians and composers everywhere would be alleviated." And so good old Bartolommeo Christofori created an instrument that makes sounds by striking strings with felt-covered wooden hammers. This allowed the player to control the loudness of each note, so Bart called his invention a gravicembalo col piano e forte, literally meaning a harpsichord with loud and soft. Eventually this was shortened to piano. Hollowed out lemon halves were used as a primitave diaphragm in the Middle Ages. The capitol of Honduras is Tegucigalpa. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Alexander the Great is the only argument people ever need to make in support of gays in the military. Lemons contain more sugar than strawberries do. The jugular vein is an artery, not a vein. David Prowse, was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie. In Baltimore, USA, it is illegalto wash or scrub a sink, regardless of how dirty it is. Have you ever wondered what causes those freaky red eyes in your family's photographs? The light from the flash of the camera penetrates the eyeball, bounces off of the retina (the inside back of the eyeball) and is reflected out the front of the eye. Because the retina has a large grouping of arteries, the light reflected back is red. Flush toilets date back to 2000 B.C. The first traffic light was installed in England in 1868 in front of the Houses of Parliment. There are approximately 450 million chickens in the United States. The average man sweats 2 1/2 quarts every day. Every day in the United States, people steal $20,000 from coin-operated machines. Americans spend $300 million on clothes every day! Toilet Paper dates all the way back to 1857. The first stall in a public bathroom is least often occupied and is the cleanest. The largest object ever found in the Los Angeles sewer system was a motorcycle. Every 24 hours a leaking water faucet with an opening the size of a pin will waste 170 gallons. The phrase "rule of thumb" is taken from an old English law stating that a husband could not beat his wife with anything thicker than his thumb. The flatulation from domesticated cows produce about 30% of the methane on this planet. Before it blew up in 1986, the space shuttle Challenger was hit by a flake of paint, measuring 0.2 millimeters, which damaged a window during one of its missions. (the dangers of lead paint) Your brain weighs around 3 pounds. All but ten ounces is water. Every year, Americans dispose of 1.6 billion pens, 2 billion razors and blades, 18 billion diapers and 30 billion steel and tin cans. They are all sitting in landfills somewhere. Ogdensburg, New York is the only city in the United States situated on the St. Lawrence River. Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling. 14th Century Crusaders defending the city of Caffa in Crimea were horrified when the Tartars began catapulting the dead bodies of plague victims over the city walls. The Tartars themselves died of plague, after which the Crusaders returned to Italy, bringing plague with them. Within two decades the bubonic plague had wiped out 25% of the population of Europe from Yugoslavia to Greenland. Four-fifths of the population of Marseilles died in this way. The Earl of Condom was a knighted personal physician to England's King Charles II in the mid-1600's. The Earl was requested to produce a method to protect the King from syphillis.(Charles the II's pleasure-loving nature was notorious.) The result should be obvious. Moisture, not air, causes superglue to dry. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Sarsaparilla is the root that flavors root beer. The U.S. Mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies. Many Japanese golfers carry "hole-in-one" insurance, because it is traditional in Japan to share one's good luck by sending gifts to all your friends when you get an "ace." The price for what the Japanese term an "albatross" can often reach $10,000. Gold, in its pure form, never tarnishes, dulls or decomposes. This is why the early Egyptians used it so much in their culture (the wealthy ruling pharaohs, not the peons, grunts & slaves). Gold represented stability and the eternal. Do you think snowflakes appear out of thin air? They don't. They need something to form around. At the center of every snowflake is a single piece of dust. If you gave each human on earth an equal portion of dry land, (including the uninhabitable areas) everyone would get roughly 100 sq.ft. The birth control method of "infanticide" is still practiced in many third world nations. Infanticide is the killing of newborn humans. Another recent study shows that computer users blink an average of 7 times per minute. The average persons blinks 22 times per minute. By 1995 8 million U.S. households had computers with CD-ROM drives, a 1600% increase over 1990. Caviar (sturgeon roe) was a common food in California during the gold rush days, until overharvesting led to the decline of sturgeon and its eventual protection. Until recently, most of the world's caviar has come from areas bordering the Caspian Sea. However, these countries are now cutting exports by 80% because of short supplies. To complete the circle, California fish farmers have now developed a way to farm sturgeon and are preparing to ship their first harvest. FM Stereo has been around since 1961. Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired." Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village". 15% of American males are colour blind. 130 million cups of coffee are consumed every day in the United States alone! The average U.S. high school graduate has a vocabulary of about 60,000 words. Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit which included a large beaked head piece. The beak of the head piece, which made them look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims. The average person makes about 1,140 telephone calls each year. On any given day, Americans spend over $33 million buying lottery tickets. Kitsap County, Washington, was originally called Slaughter County, and the first hotel there was called the Slaughter House. Seattle, Washington, like Rome, was built on seven hills. Dinosaur droppings are called coprolites, and are actually fairly common. Annual growth of WWW traffic is 341,000%. Computer Crime adds up to more than 10 billion dollars per year. This year, engineers at The University of Pennsylvania created ENIAC on a chip. The chip was the size of a fingernail and could perform the same tasks as the 30 ton ENIAC could 50 years ago. Experts at Intel say that microprocessor speed will double every 18 months for at least 10 years. Radiation from radio transmitting towers sometimes causes people to here the broadcast in their plumbing & toaster. The straw was probably invented by Egyptian brewers to taste in-process beer without removing the fermenting ingredients which floated on the top of the container. The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites. Mustard gas was invented in the McKinley Building on the American University campus. Additionally, preliminary work on the Manhattan Project was done in that building. The government used the McKinley Building because of its unusual archticture. If there would be any type of large explosion inside the building, the building would implode onto itself, containing any lethal gas or nuclear material. The building now houses the Physics Department. The earth weighs 13,176,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds (13 septillion, 176 sextillion pounds.) The earth's revolution time increases .0001 seconds annually. If the water in the world's reservoirs were allowed passage to the oceans, global sea level would rise 1 1/5 inches. Because the Antarctic icecap is up to 15,700 feet thick, the continent has the highest average elevation. Only 2 more blue moons (the saying "only once in a blue moon" refers to the occurence of two full moons during one calender month) are to occur between now and 2001. Those times are January 1999 and March 1999. The odds against a person being struck by a celestial stone, a meteorite, are ten trillion to one. The density of the universe is 1 atom per 10 cubic yards. Driving at 75 miles per hour, it would take 258 days to drive around one of Saturn's rings. If there was an ocean big enough to hold Saturn, it would float. Skin temperature does not go much above 95F even on the hottest days. 314 Americans had buttock lift surgery in 1994. New Mothers can produce 1 gallon of breast milk per day. Hitler and Napolean both had only one testical. Sex burns 360 calories per hour. Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. The Professor's real name was Roy Hinkley, Mary Ann's last name was Summers and Mrs. Howell's maiden name was Wentworth. The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope. The average human will walk the distance of 160 billion millimeters in his or her lifetime. We always come across the term 'hard' or 'soft' water. However, many people may be aware of it, but not many people know what exactly it is. Also, both types of water have many disadvantages. Hard water becomes 'hard' because of the presence of carbonates, sulfates, chlorides of calcium, magnesium, and iron. These chemical items are what causes water to be hard. Though with the presence of these chemical nuisance, hard water is not harmful to human health. Water is also considered hard if its calcium level is above 250ppm. (ppm means parts per million). Its alkalinity must also be over 150 ppm in order to be considered hard. pH levels are usually relatively stable in hard water, but we can actually use acidic chlorine to achieve a normal pH balance in water. However, hard water ions could also form an insoluable compound. Soft water, on the other hand, is considered soft if its calcium carbonate level is under 50ppm. The alkalinity level should also be under 30ppm. Most soft water has an unstable pH value and alkaline chlorine could help to balance its pH value. The most significant difference between soft and hard water can be found in cleaning and bathing. Soft water is usually widely used in Asian countries, for example, Malaysia. Hard water is used in other countries, especially in England and the U.S.A. To most of us, we may find that hard water would cause us to loose hair. Besides, it will also wash off the 'hair conditioner' that we use, although we apply a large amount during shower. When we use soft water, it does not make our hair drop but will also leave our hair soft after using hair conditioners. Hard water would also leave a lot of side effects on our washing processes. It fades our colored clothings, yellowing the whites and could shorten the fabric's lifespan. However, it is also true that the hotter the water, the cleaner the laundry and this is especially true in hard water. A study from Purdue University found that fabrics tend to become washed out more often, about 15 percent faster in hard water than in soft water. The study also states that hard water has a bad effect on color and white fabrics. Washing materials used with hard water was also believed to clog pipes and cause excessive wear on moving parts. The best way to aviod fabric worn out is to use soft water. Hard water can cause us a lot of problems, so it is always wise to stick to using soft water. The last Coast Guard radio navigation station still using Morse code transmitted its last message on March 31, 1995 from Chesapeake, Virginia. Morse first demonstrated his telegraph to Congress in 1844, sending the famous message from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Md., "What hath God wrought?" Morse's sequence of dots and dashes resembles the modern digital code which forms the basis of modern computer programs. Air pollution may contribute to two percent of all deaths in the US, some 50,000 cases per year. A nine-year study of US cities showed a strong correlation between death rates and periods of significant pollution. SOURCE: Study by Dr. George Thurston, NYU Medical School, presented at the 1995 conference of the American Thoracic Society and American Lung Association. Czar Paul 1 banished soldiers to Siberia for marching out of step. Shock treatment for epilepsy was once administered by electric catfish! Michael Tolotos, who died at the age of 80, never saw a woman. Hairstylist Anthony Silvestri cuts hair while underwater. Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote. Catherine de Medici was the first woman in Europe to use tobacco. She took it in a mixture of snuff. Orthorhombic perskovite is the predominant mineral found in Earth's lower mantle and the most abundant mineral on Earth. The A & P was the first chain-store business to be established. It began in 1842. Charles Dickens earned no more for his twenty novels than he did from his lectures. About one-third of American adults are at least 20 percent above their recommended weight. One third of 95 developing countries have a waiting period of six years or more for a telephone connection, compared with less than a month in developed nations. The male scorpion fly gets other males to bring him food by imitating a female fly. The average talker sprays about 300 microscopic saliva droplets per minute, about 2.5 droplets per word. Scientists first began to study the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere about 100 years ago. The ozone spectrophotometer that first alerted scientists to the ozone hole over Antarctica in the early 1980's has changed very little since its invention by Gordon Dobson in 1927. County sheriff's deputies in Cumberland County, North Carolina have been instructed to conduct house-to-house searches for unvaccinated pets in the midst of the worst rabies epidemic in the past 40 years. SOURCE: Wireservices Although a good portion of their forebrains are dedicated to the sense of smell, sharks are not the "swimming noses" they were once believed to be. Rather, their brains are involved with all six of their senses- vision, hearing, lateral line and touch sense, smell, taste and electroreception. The state legislature of Mississippi has at last voted to ratify the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The state is the last of the 36 states in the union in 1865 to ratify the amendment abolishing slavery. More than 35,000 leeches were sold for medical purposes in the US last years at a cost of $6.00 for each leech. Over the last 30 years, the availability of freshwater in Africa has halved. This can be attributed to a combination of climate change and poor resource management Chimpanzees used in AIDS vaccine studies get a pension of more than $100,000 to pay for their care and containment for the duration of their natural lives. While it is possible to infect chimpanzees with HIV, they do not appear to get AIDS. Although banned in the developed world for more than 20 years, DDT is still widely used in the developing world, primarily for control of malaria. For example, Mexico and Brazil each used nearly 1,000 tons of DDT in 1992. The chemical has a half-life of more than 100 years and can be found in the tissues of almost all humans. Some plants polenate others by making themselves look like insects, thus attracting mating insects to polenate other flowers. The first telephone book ever issued contained only fifty names. It was published in New Haven, Connecticut, by the New Haven District Telephone Company in February, 1878. To strengthen a Damascus sword, the blade was plunged into a slave. WWI flying ace Jean Navarre attacked a zeppelin armed with only a kitchen knife! The town of Tidikelt in the Sahara Desert once went ten years without a rainfall. It snows more in the Grand Canyon than it does in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello. Even if you cut off a cockroach's head, it can live for several weeks. In 75% of American households, women manage the money and pay the bills. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana. About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money. [The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.] It's against the law to catch fish with your bare hands in Kansas. Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice." Some toothpastes contain antifreeze. Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns. Millie the White House dog earned more than 4 times as much as Pres. Bush in 1991. Bird droppings are the chief export of Nauru, an island nation in the western Pacific. In 1989 the russian phobos craft arrived in martian orbit and took pictures and made measurements and then mysteriously died. orthodox russian priests were invited to the phobos control center to see pictures of mars and discuss creation. Most lipstick contains fish scales. Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992. Mosquitos have teeth. 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. While it is true spinach contains plenty of iron, it also contains plenty of oxalic acid which binds to the iron, making less than five percent of it available to your body. Nonetheless, spinach remains a great source of beta carotene. In train wrecks the number of passengers in damaged cars is less than average by so much and so often that it cannot be a chance occurence. somehow we know not to get on them. (work done by william cox and reported by lyall watson) There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. ABBA got their name by taking the first letter from each of their first names (Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, Anni-frid.) Charles de Gaulle's final words were, "It hurts." The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root. "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where it was first developed. Michigan was the first state to have roadside picnic tables. Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis' middle name was spelled Aron; in honor of his brother. 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 5pm. All traffic stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning and been too sleepy to realize that *this* was the day of the changeover. Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow. Ancient maps of the south pole show land features now covered with ice and only recently mapped by modern seismic cartography. Varicella has been known as chicken pox since the 18th century. One theory holds that it was so named because of the mildness of the disease compared with other poxes. Another hypotheses is that it was so called because the lesions resembled chick-peas. The Centers for Disease Control sends investigators to more than 100 outbreak locations throughout the world each year. Once the largest port of the world, the city of Antwerp has always been of very high importance for any army operating in Northwest Europe, if supplied overseas, and for any continental army preparing an invasion of Britain. In WWII it was hit by more V-1s than London (2448 against 2419), a large number of V-2s and even approx. 200 'Rheinbote' missiles. The soldiers of World War I were the first people to use the modern flushing toilet. The inventor: Thomas Crapper. A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites. (Not bedbugs.) Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E . The great revelation about Einstein's special theory of relativity WAS NOT that everything is relative. Everyone in science new that. The interesting new awareness that Einstein gave the world was that NOT EVERYTHING is relative. Specifically the speed of light is absolute; i.e. the same for all observers no matter how they are moving when they perform the measurement. Titanium is the most corrosion resistant material suitable for boat building. It is stronger than steel and weighs only half as much. Friday is often known as POETS day. What does POETS stand for? PUSH OFF EARLY TOMORROW'S SATURDAY At 1.99, who has the lowest career ERA for the Red Sox? JOE WOOD Who coined the phrase Future Shock ? ALVIN TOFFLER Who was the last person executed in Britain for witchcraft? JENNY HORN: BURNED ALIVE AT DORNOCH SCOTLAND IN 1722 To which series of books do On a pale Horse and For Love of Evil belong? INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY BY PIERS ANTHONY From which film did the 1963 Oscar winning song come? PAPA'S DELICATE CONDITION (CALL ME IRRESPONSIBLE) What was the only British hit for the American Band Ohio Players ? WHO'D SHE COO IN 1976 Which former Hill Street Blues regular was credited as a Director on one of the early episodes of Murder One ? CHARLES HAID (RENKO) WHO DIRECTED EPISODE 1 In the Gulf War what were MREs? MEALS READY TO EAT (AMERICAN COMBAT RATIONS) What do the following have in common: Mike Tyson, Kelsey Grammer, Billie Holliday and Mae West? THEY HAVE ALL SPENT TIME IN JAIL What was the name of the Man who broke the Bank at Monte Carlo ? JOSEPH HOBSON JAGGER WHO WON 2 MILLION FRANCS IN 8 DAYS IN 1886 In ice hockey, what is the minimum period that a player can spend in the sin-bin? THERE IS NO MINIMUM PERIOD AS THE PENALTY WILL END WHEN THE OPPONENTS SCORE. THE MINMUM PERIOD FOR WHICH A PLAYER CAN BE SENT IS 2 MINUTES What type of fish was caught for the first time on 22nd November 1938? A COELACANTH How many countries share a border with China? 16 (INCLUDING HONG KONG AND MACAO) When does the Union Flag become the Union Jack? WHEN IT IS FLOWN ON A SHIP Name the play: A man, living with his second wife is confronted by the ghost of his first who has been raised by the medium Madame Arcati? BLITHE SPIRIT BY NOEL COWARD Who made the first parachute jump? SEBASTAIN LENORMAND IN 1783 In his will, what did William Shakespeare leave to Anne Hathaway? HIS SECOND BEST BED Who was the first Pope to abdicate? CELESTINE V What sentence was passed on Admiral Doenitz at the Nuremberg War Trials? 10 YEARS IN PRISON What is Fox Mulder's apartment number? 42 In Harold Gray's comic strip "Little Orphan Annie," what was Annie's surname at birth? She was adopted by the Milos, and her birth name was "Bottle." "Is the earth round?" no "What is the most addictive commonly available drug?" nicotine "What is the product of Hegel's Thesis and Antithesis?" synthesis "In what year was the Beatles' "Abbey Road" released?" 1969 "Where would are you to be at the lowest spot in the lower 48 and look at the highest?" death valley "Who was the wizard in Shakespeare's The Tempest?" prospero "What is the drinking age in France?" 18 "WHO WAS ABE LINCOLN'S FIRST VICE PRESIDENT?" hannibal hamlin "What actress starred in the movie fire started and was an actress in the movie E.T.?" drew barrymore "Who directed the film "Groundhog Day"?" harold ramis "Who immortalized his name through MAKE.MONEY.FAST?" dave rhodes "What 1970's-to-present musical group shares its name with a river in Hell?" styx "A new movie version of Shakespeare's Othello has just been released. Who plays Othello ?" lawrence fishburn "The Commonwealth of Australia has how many States?" six "Who said "A little learning is a dangerous thing"?" alexander pope "What is Bayleys Irish Cream colored with?" caramel "What is the maximum -BAUD- rate that top-of-the-line, analog modems can operate at?" 2400 "Who is the current Prime Minister of Australia?" paul keating "What has four legs in the morning, two legs during the day, and three legs at night, according to Emo?" donkey "How many piano sonatas did Beethoven write?" 32 "What is the fourth ingredient in A1 steak sauce?" raisins "Who was the first astronaut to play golf on the moon?" alan b. shepherd jr. "What city has Azteca Stadium as it's main sports venue" mexico city "Who wrote Mannifeste Cannibale Dada in 1920?" francis picabia "In CASABLANCA WHEN RICK WAS CAUGHT WITH THE SMOKING GUN, WHO DID THE POLICE ORDER ARESTED?" the usual suspects "Who first developed the PICK operating system in 1965?" richard pick "What first baseman played in 2130 consecutive games?" lou gehrig "What disease was once known as the "White Plague"?" tuberculosis "What was Eleanor Roosevelt's maiden name?" roosevelt "Xiphius gladii (Greek "sword", Latin "swords") is the scientific name for what lifeform?" broadbill swordfish "Who was the first person to INTRODUCE Elvis on prime time national television?" charles laughton "What Velvet Underground song contains the line "...it's my wife, it's my life"?" heroin "The USS Liberty was deliberately sunk by what country?" israel "What was the date that JFK was assassinated?" november 22, 1963 "What is the name of the Silver Age Green Lantern?" alan scott "What's the second most popular Irish bitter?" murphys "What is the mass of the Sun in grams (use e and 3 digits, as in 1.00e3 for 1000, to express the answer)?" 1.99e33 "What are the real reasons that make soap bubbles pops (hint: answer in "xxxx and dxxxxxx")?" heat and dryness "What was Hall & Oates first #1 hit (Billboard charts)?" rich girl "Who are the two coaches who have won a national championship and an nfl championship?" jimmy johnson and barry switzer "What is the only state that does not have its legal system based on English Common Law?" louisiana "Where would you be if you were in Puchentong airport?" phnom penh, cambodia "What team won the last ABA title?" new york nets "Who said, "The fucking you get isn't worth the fucking you get"?" dorothy parker "What is the city that is famous for running with the bulls (hint: in the book the Sun also Rises) (city name only)?" pamplona "What American author recently (1992) argued that History is over - that capitalism and liberalism have won (surname only)?" fukuyama "In the book and film 2001, what does TMA stand for?" tycho magnetic anomaly "How many years was Calvin and Hobbes a syndicated cartoon?" 10 "The home-videos named after this man captured the JFK assassination (first and last name)?" abraham zapruder "What NASA probe circled the moon and visited the asteroid Gaspra before being "lost and gone forever"?" clementine "What is the name for the ducks which live close to sea water?" eider ducks "What was the name of the group formed by Ginger Grecht, Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton?" blind faith "What are otter droppings called?" spraints "What is the process by which icebergs break off from glaciers called?" calving "Name the Univ. of Oklahoma Hiesman trophy winners?" billy vessels, steve owens, and billy simms "Who is the last basketball player to lead the NCAA in scoring and rebounding?" kurt thomas "Everyone knows that Nolan Ryan holds the Major League record for most strikeouts, but who is second(first and last names)?" steve carlton "In the TV show X-Files, what is agent Fox Mulder's middle name?" william "Who was Chuck Yeager's assistant on his first Mach 1 X-1 flight?" jack ridley "How many NCAA men's basketball championships has the University of Kentucky won?" 5 "Where is Kloster beer brewed (country name only)?" thailand "What Canadian company manufactured the monorail trains at Disney World as well as the rail cars for the English Channel tunnel (hint they also manufacture Lear Jet aircraft)?" bombardier "On which interstate highway (just give the number) can you pass through four states in 60 miles?" 81 "How do you get down off an elephant?" you don't, you get down off a goose "On what island was WWII journalist Ernie Pyle killed?" ieshima "What was the name of the first U.S. space vehicle to land (crash) on the moon (name only)?" ranger "What was the name of "Our Miss Brooks'" landlady's cat?" minerva "From what Austrian folk dance is the waltz thought to have evolved from (1 word)?" landler "Who was the last man to walk on the moon?" eugene cernan "Goddard ("Father of Rockets") to the Americans as to ? to the Germans (Last name only)?" von braun "Ok. You've read "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. What does J.R.R. stand for?" john ronald reuel "What college did Larry Bird originally attend?" indiana university "Who wrote the Monkee hit "Daydream Believer" and the UB40 hit "Red, Red Wine"?" neil diamond "What city is U.S. Boy Scout Troop 13 based in (city only)?" st joseph "Lorraine Gary appeared in this movie and two of its sequels?" jaws "Who is Declan Patrick McManus?" elvis costello "What is a group of Ravens called?" unkindness "What is Smokey the Bear's zip code?" 20252 "What company grossed the second largest sum of money world-wide (3 words)?" shell royal dutch "During the early part of the War of 1812 who was the commander of the Canadian forces (3 words)?" sir isaac brock "What fine, old hotel in Tonapah NV was once a house of ill-repute?" mizpah hotel "Unlike a Zebra or Leopard, this animal comes in BOTH spotted and striped varieties?" skunk "What weapon slew the adult dragon in the movie "Dragonslayer"?" exploding wizard "In what novel does Parlaban, a bi-sexual monk, disrupt a college campus in pursuit of a newly surfaced Rabelais manuscript that ends when he murders his lover and commits suicide in an attempt to make the book he's writing more likely to be published?" rebel angels "Who is known as 'The Father of Frozen Foods'?" clarence birdseye "What play has had the longest run on Broadway?" chorus line "What book repeatedly asks the rhetorical question "Who is John Galt?"?" atlas shrugged "Who played the title role in the film "The Flim Flam Man"?" george c scott "Le Chahut is by which of the Master Painters?" seurat "What major league baseball team traditionally plays in the season's first game?" cincinnati reds "Who led the first successful ascent of Pikes Peak?" stephen long "Where would you be if you were in Santa Cruz airport (no punctuation requried)?" bombay india "In the film "The Wizard of Oz", what actor was first considered for the role of the tin man, but turned out to be allergic to the silver makeup?" buddy ebsen "Who said "When dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases"?" robert anton wilson "Who played the Wizard in the "Wizard Of Oz"?" frank morgan "What is the professional name of Herbert Khaury?" tiny tim "Who played Mary Campbell in the 1979-1981 hit T.V. show "Soap"?" cathryn damon "Who was the french female sculptor who inspired many of Rodin's works?" camille claudel "What was the name of the Hispanic hired hand on "The Real McCoys"?" pepino "We all know the Battle of New Orleans was fought after the war ended. (You knew that didn't you?) Which infamous pirate fought for the Americans in that Battle?" jean lafitte "What author, while high on peyote, accidentally shot his wife in the head (and killed her) during a game of William Tell (that his wife had suggested)?" william burroughs "Who was the composer of The Star Spangled Banner?" john stafford smith "Who is the last player to win the triple crown in baseball?" carl yastrzemski "Albert De Salvo murdered 13 women between 1962 and 1964. What was he better known as?" the boston strangler "What was the home town of Colonel Potter on MASH?" hannibal mo "The pigeon hawk is also known by which fictional character's name?" merlin "Which city is known for its 'Toy Train'?" darjeeling "What was the name of the bar in The Dukes of Hazzard (use no punctuation)?" boars nest "In the "Star Trek: TNG" episode entitled "Silicon Avatar", by what designation is the Avatar better known?" crystalline entity "Who was "Lassie", (the transvestite collie) trained by?" rudd weatherwax "What was the name of Paul McCartney's first solo album?" mccartney "What was the 1835-1837 dispute between the state of Ohio and the territory of Michigan called?" toledo war "Whose picture is on the $5,000 U.S. Savings bond?" paul revere "Who was the author of "The Hobbit"?" jrr tolkien "What was Cooter's last name on "The Dukes of Hazard"?" davenport "Edith Pargeter (aka Ellis Peters) died Oct. 14, 1995 (may she rest in peace). Where was her home?" shropshire england "In "The Jungle Book", what type of animal was Rikki-Tikki-Tavi?" mongoose "What is the highest number any member of the Dream Team will wear during the Olympics?" 15 "What is the largest city in Siberia?" novosibirsk "Unimaginative scientists in the Northern Hemisphere have claimed manatees and seals sparked legends of mermaids. Which Australian animal is thought to have contributed to the legends?" dugong "Who is the only player to have been in every National League Championship Series in the 1990's?" rafael belliard "What was the most profitable bank in the United States in 1995?" fifth third bancorp "You're in Detroit, Michigan, USA. If you travel due south, what foreign country will you hit first?" canada "What fictional character did Kurt Vonnegut model after himself?" kilgore trout "Who was the creator of the famous dada 'sculpture', 'the bicycle wheel'?" marcel duchamp "What city was until 1945 sometimes called "Florence-on-Elbe"?" dresden "Who was the Finch's maid in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird"?" calpurnia "The song "Stairway to Heaven" went to #9 on the Billboard chart in September of 1960. Who took it there?" neil sedaka "Which king instigated the murder of Thomas a Becket?" henry ii "In "Slaughterhouse-Five", to what planet does Vonnegut's hero travel?" tralfamadore "Name the essential oil that starts with pepper." peppermint oil "In what year did the Europeans first reach the Oklahoma region?" 1541 "What theme did the car in "Dukes of Hazzard" play when it jumped over something?" "dixie" "Who was Luke Skywalker's father?" anakin skywalker "What are the names of the two critics on "The Muppets"?" statler and waldorf "How many Oscars has composer John Williams won?" five "What year did "The Little Shop of Horrors" first come out?" 1960 "Name the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore film in which Raquel Welch was typecast (brilliantly) as "Lust"." bedazzled "What did Alfred Hitchcock use to simulate blood going down the drain in the famous shower scene in "Psycho"?" chocolate syrup "Which painter originated the poster, as we know it today?" henri de toulouse-lautrec "What was Maria Isabella Caesares's occupation?" a school teacher "What was Pink Floyds only single?" oranges and lemons "Where on urth is Bliss?" south-central idaho us "Who played Auntie Em in the wizard of oz?" clara blandick "Who is the author of the book "Dragon Song"?" anne mccaffery "Florida is believed to be named by a Spanish explorer after which flower?" pascua "What They Might Be Giants song is about a nightlight?" birdhouse in your soul "What is the electrician's name in the new movie "Down Periscope"?" nitro "What is the state beverage of North Carolina?" milk "In the Jetsons, what did Astro's original owners name him?" tralfaz "What did Rolf Ryham invent?" rolf maneuver "Who was the 5th governor of Colorado?" alva adams "Who was the first woman (at least, in Europe) to dress in all white on her wedding?" mary stuart "Which Czechoslovakian region was annexed by the Soviet Union in the 1940's and is now part of the Ukraine?" ruthenia "What is the capital of Macao (or Macau if you're Portuguese)?" macao "Pittsburgh Steelers 1, Cleveland Browns none......What?" logos "Who was the third man?" orson wells "In 1900, Norwegian Johan Vaaler patented a common item most of us have used. What was it that was so great that a 22.5 foot model of one was erected in Oslo?" paper clip "What city is the home of Coors?" boulder colorado "The 1956 Olympics were held in which city?" melbourne "In which film did oscar-winner Richard Dreyfuss make his acting debut?" the graduate "We all know Al Pacino played Serpico in the movie (good cop, bad system)...who played Serpico in the sort-lived TV series?" david birney "Who was the father of monetarism ?" milton friedman "What looks like a skunk.. smells like a skunk.. and plays dead like an opossum?" zorilla "In what movie did Kathy Bates play in as a "murderer"?" misery "What are the end points of the Trans-Siberian Railroad?" moscow and vladivostok "Ronald Reagan was once an actor and then became a president. Who made his name as a world-class pianist and then became a prime minister of his native country (Answer format: firstname lastname country)?" ignace paderewski poland "This composer's daughter Cosima married Richard Wagner (2 words)." franz liszt "What split-personality patient of the 50's was so famous a book and a movie were made about her?" eve "Who's the protagonist in Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'?" raskolnikov "What was Genghis Khan's original name?" temujin "What is Sting's real name?" gordon matthew sumner "What is the name of the particle that holds quarks together?" gluon "Who wrote the science fiction series about the Chtorr?" david gerrold "What is the final move in the Immortal Game of Chess (format a1a2)?" d6e7 "She is the famous wife of Dr. Jarvik, artificial heart inventor (3 wds)." marilyn vos savant "Who's the CEO of Death Row Records?" suge knight "In the anime movie Ninja Scroll (or "Wind Ninja Chronicles") what is the main character's name?" jubei "The prime example of this art are the Chrysler Building and the interior of the Radio City Music Hall in New York City (2 words)." art deco "Who wrote the Faded Sun series?" cj cherryh "Who was nero wolfe's sidekick?" archie goodwin "What games were held by ancient Greeks every four years in honor of Apollo?" pythian games "According to the legend, who was the leader of the Nibelungs?" alberich "Who wrote 'A Trouble of Fools'?" linda barnes "Alphabetically first and last of the newly-formed states of the former Soviet Union." armenia and uzbekistan "James Gordon Bennett, founder of this newspaper sent Stanley to look for Livingston." new york herald "Who was the first female member of the U.S. cabinet?" frances perkins "Count Leo Tolstoy's famous novel is always titled "War and Peace" in English what is completely wrong because all(?) translators do not know Old Russian orthography. What the correct translation would be?" war and world "What is the "other word" in the title "Ohio State University"?" "the" "What fortress, built by Herod the Great, on the western edge of the Dead Sea is known as the site of the Jews "last stand"?" masada "What type of well is it if the water rises under pressure?" artesian "The most famous of the orchestral solos for this instrument are found in The Pines of Rome, The New World Symphony, and The William Tell Overture. Name it." english horn "Who is the etymology of the word 'Zardoz'?" the wizard of oz "Richard Burton's translation of"Alladin" finds our hero in what land, outside the Middle East?" china "What U.S. State borders on the most other states?" missouri "What company made Jesse Owens' shoes for the Berlin Olympics?" adidas "I went out this morning and bought some salix discolor. What did I buy?" pussy willow "Who painted Adoration of the Magi. The one in Uffizi not the one in Catalonia." gentile da fabriano "Who developed in 1867 the basic rules of modern boxing?" marquess of queensbury "Which opera is based on the assassination of King Gustaf III of Sweden?" un ballo in maschera "On July 1, 1950, a speech known as "A Declaration of Conscience" was delivered by Senator Margaret Chase Smith making her the first elected public official to speak out against this." mccarthyism "On the old TV series "The Danny Thomas Show" who was the actor that married Danny's daughter, Terry?" pat harrington "What movie? "At least it's a dry heat."" aliens "Who is the only current House member to have served when Republicans last had majority ?" sidney yates "What do you call an ornamental metal holder used to hold coffe cups?" zarf "A part of what fruit did an ancient Persian crown imitate?" pomegranate "What branch of chemistry deals with fermentation as applied in wine making, brewing etc.?" zymurgy "This 17th/18th century man's wig was also called a periwig." peruke "What famous actor turned down the role of Rhett Butler in "Gone With the Wind", saying he was glad Clark Gable would be falling on his face, not him?" gary cooper "Which Charlie Chaplin movie contains perhaps the greatest final scene in motion picture history?" city lights "At the end of each "Watch Mr. Wizard" show, we learned that "Mr. Wizard is"...who?" don herbert "What company produces Tunnels & Trolls?" flying buffalo "You find Hell's Gates in Idaho, British Columbia, Africa, and even New Zealand. What Caribbean Island has both an Upper Hell's Gate and a Lower Hell's Gate?" saba "What TV movie was Steven Spielburg's directorial debut?" duel "Who was the winner of the 1995 Murphy Cup?" san jose rhinos "What is the main ingredient in ratatouille?" eggplant "OK computer buffs...how is the acronym COBOL derived?" common business oriented language "Who said, "A government big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away."?" barry goldwater "This justification of colonialism is a title poem (1899) by a Nobel Laureate. Name the poem (4 words) and the author (2 words)." the white mans burden rudyard kipling "Steve Martin is Sgt. Bilko...Phil Silvers was Sgt. Bilko on TV's The Phil Silvers Show...but what was the original name of the TV series?" youll never get rich "This man is considered the "Father of the American Cavalry"?" casimir pulaski "Name the two architects who built the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and were then blinded by Ivan the Terrible." barma and postnik "What American captain of industry gifted libraries to towns around the U.S.?" andrew carnegie "What American foreign policy, announced on 12 March 1947, pledged American support for any country resisting Communist subjugation (two words)?" truman doctrine "What was the federation of France, West Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, and Luxembourg in 1952 for the purpose of pooling coal and steel resources called?" schuman plan "Who created Dagney Taggert and for whom did Dagney work?" ayn rand taggert transcontinental "What flower, according to a Greek legend, bears the letters AI AI, a Greek cry of sorrow?" hyacinth "The Iconoscope was the invention that made the "boob tube" possible...who was responsible?" vladimir zworykin "When does Kellogg's Raisin Bran's Free Toy Trucks offer expire, assuming supplies don't get exhausted (mmddyy)?" 043097 "The four foreigners who are honorary citizens of the US are Winston Churchill, Marquis de Lafayette and these two of Swedish and Polish nationalities." raoul wallenberg and tadeusz kosciusko "Who said "Communism is the opiate of the intellectuals."?" clare booth luce "What is the geometrically insoluble problem of constructing a square equal in area to a given circle called?" quadrature of the circle "Before hacking for the Sunshine Cab Co., Judd Hirsch spent a season as a big-city detective in L.A. The series name was the character's surname...what?" delvecchio "He founded the first aerodynamics laboratory in 1912." gustave eiffel "Name the monarch who holds the record of the longest reign in the world's history." ramses ii "Name the author (just surname) and his 1971 historical novel (4 words) about the Rosenbergs (Julius and Ethel) and their children." doctorow the book of daniel "In Greek myth, which deity was sometimes considered the offspring of Penelope after she coupled with all of her suitors?" pan "The brief period immediately preceeding World War I is fondly remembered as this in England (3 words) and this in France (3 words)." the edwardian age and la belle epoque "This famous Roman consul is believed to be an inventor of pizza (full name please)." lucius lucinius lucullus "What movie did Paul Newman win his first oscar for?" the color of money "Paul Newman has starred in three movies bearing one-word titles beginning with H...name them (alphabetical order)." harper hombre hud "Baltimore has one of the world's largest....?" natural harbors "How many calories are there in a one serving container of Yoplait Light Yogurt Boston Cream Pie flavor?" 90 "Which Persian Dynasty dynasty ruled from 1500 to 1736?" safavid "Sticking with the famous Roman Consul...his name is associated with a menu item other than the pizza alluded to in a previous question. What is that item?" lucullus salad "It is the only country in Africa with Spanish as an official language." equatorial guinea "To whom was William Makepeace Thackery married?" isabella shawe "These two entertainers where awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for nonmilitary work.." bob hope and george cohan "How did Travis come by the Busted Flush?" he won the boat in a poker game "Behind Rob's office desk on "The Dick Van Dyke Show" is a framed piece of sheet music...name the song." the dairymaids "This word originated from the Oriental game GO, a warning like CHECK in chess. It is now known, world wide, by game lovers everywhere...what is the word?" atari "Other than vegetable oil, Fritos King Size Corn Chips have only two ingredients. What are they?" corn and salt "What compound, a toxic pollutant by industrial standards, is naturally so abundant in air in an Amazonian rainforest that you may burn your lungs in some places?" formic acid "To conquer this country, the Russian Emperor Paul I sent a big Cossack army under Gen. Matvey Platov, but they never actually came there because they had no maps. What's this country?" india "What is Joe Louis last name?" barrows "What film had a scene where Tommy Lee Jones was dressed in drag?" jfk "He was the last prisoner in the Tower of London." rudolf hess "Who was the first African to come to America? What year? format 3 words plus date giving us a grand total of 4 words." pedro alonzo nino 1492 "What academy award nominated actor and director appeared without credit in the film "Swing Kids"?" kenneth branagh "Do you suppose it would help if we begged people to check the spelling of their answers?" on "In 1915, a baby girl was born in Philadelphia. She was named Eleanora Fagan. Who did she grow up to be?" billie holiday "This movie is based on a small chapter of Richard Goodwin's book "Remembering America: A Voice from the Sixties"." quiz show "Who is the all time NFL leader in fumbles per season?" dan pastorini "What was Val Kilmer's first movie?" top secret "Paul Newman played a no-account private released from the brig and promoted to general in this 1968 wartime caper movie." the secret war of harry frigg "In what year was the first slinky sold?" 1945 "Who wrote the Father Brown mysteries? Full name." gilbert keith chesterton "Who was the last head of the KGB when it was disbanded after the failed coup in 1991?" vladimir kryuchkov "What famous American actor was Queen Elizabeth II's eight cousin?" humphrey bogart "Who is the current Detroit Tigers baseball sportscaster?" ernie harwell "What is the largest possible value of 4*sin 3x?" 4 "This graphic designer started working with woodcuts, then progressed to lithography?" mc escher "Where are Altoids made?" great britain "This is the largest office building in the entire world." the pentagon "What is the highest point in the West Indies? What country?" pico duarte dominican republic "Who was Tommy Lee Jones roommate at Harvard?" al gore "In what movie did Hayley Mills portray a young girl on a old fishing boat?" the truth about spring "What famed composer died in 1937?" george gershwin "This was the very first state university in the United States?" chapel hill "What are snowballs to hot rodders?" whitewalls "What were the names of the two Imperial Yachts of the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II?" polar star standart "How many states have only one representative in the House of Representatives?" 7 "What does the "S" in Harry S. Truman stand for?" nothing "What is the tallest breed of dog?" great dane "This man, along with his brother Romulus, founded the city of Rome?" remus "This area of the pelvis is a way of determining the sex of the skeleton?" pubis "How many feature length cartoon films has Disney made?" 34 "If a person's bone resorption spaces are wide, he more than likely died of this?" abuse of alcohol "Omar Khayyam was a mathematician, astronomer and a great poet...what does his name mean?" omar the tentmaker "For the sake of speed, radiotelegraphists sometimes transmit letters instead of numbers. What letters are used to substitute 0, 1, 2, 8 and 9, respectively?" t a u d n "Name the famous millionaire that went down with the Titanic?" astor "Who hit the first home run in the Astrodome?" mickey mantle "These three good friends, who were also famous poets, all died within the years 1820-1825, just their last names will do?" keats byron shelley "Who is the only person that has been inducted into both the rock 'n' roll and country music hall of fames?" johnny cash "Who directed "Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas"?" henry selick "In the San Francisco Giants 1996 Home Opener, three men named 'Willie' participated in the first pitch ceremony. What were the last names of each of these men?" mays mccovey brown "Against this team did Willie Mays make his famous catch against?" cleveland indians "This man raised the funds for and personally supervised the laying of the first telegraph cable under the Atlantic Ocean *FULL NAME PLEASE?" cyrus west field "This is the term coined by Milton as a capital for hell or a polite substitute for hell." pandemonium "What man founded the Saturday Review?" henry canby "What famous American poet wrote the poem "To a Young Wretch"?" robert frost "The square root of 48?" 692 "On Friday, January 20, CBS premiered a celebrity quiz show with a famous television host. The next week, the host spent the full half hour apologizing for the show, which never re-appeared. Name that host?!?" jackie gleason "This man was the only person to be on the gold medal winning U.S. Volleyball team in both 1984 and 1988?" karch kiraly "Who was the first American to win the Nobel in Literature?" sinclair lewis "What was the name of the shuttle that made the first shuttle flight back in 1981?" columbia "How many of the james bond movies did sean connery do?" 7 "The year that Ohio University began classes?" 1804 "What instrument did Pee Wee Russell play?" clarinet "They are originally made from the Russian guns captured in the Crimean War." victoria cross medals "This is the only dog that cannot bark, but it gives a yodelling sound." basenji "What is the Roman name for the Greek goddess Persephone?" proserpine "Everybody knows that Joe DiMaggio holds the major league record for longest hitting strea at 56 games, but who holds the collegiate record?" robin ventura "Who was the host of the quiz show Knockout?" arte johnson "Merv Griffin hosted a quiz show called Play Your Hunch. Who was the sponsor?" sealtest dairy "HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL read the card of a man, a knight without armor in a savage land...where would you wire Paladin?" san francisco "Person who journeyed to California in 1849." james marshall "What would fall faster a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?" they will fall at the same time "Once upon a time there was a great movie studio known as RKO...what did RKO stand for?" radio keith orpheum "He is the most famous victim in the IRA's 10-year guerilla operation to drive Britain out of Northern Ireland." earl mountbatten "What country was Mel Gibson born in?" usa "A dog, a beaver, a bear, an eagle... Next?" tiger "Who owns the Red Lobster Inns?" general mills "Every day most of us consume some trimethylxanthine. This compound is better known as..." caffeine "It has four strings, 32 frets and has Chinese origins. It is?" pipa "Whose name did Immanuel Kant repeat many times to fall asleep quickly?" cicero "The British suffered severe losses during what famous action during the Battle of Balaklava?" charge of the light brigade "Who was baseball's first million dollar a year player?" nolan ryan "This is the private residence of the English monarch in Scotland." balmoral castle "The English lyrical poet Robert Herrick is best known for this line." gather ye rosebuds while ye may "How long is "Alice's Restaurant" by Arlo Guthrie (min: sec)?" 18: 30 "If the speed of wind is 39 to 46 mph, how is it called in the Beaufort scale?" fresh gale "Who was the philosopher and medium who advised Nicholas and Alexandra, last czarist rulers of Russia?" rasputin "What Scottish relic was placed under the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey by Edward I?" stone of scone "This is the world record in the 100m dash?" 980 "What city boasts the largest wooden ski jump in the world (city + state)?" iron mountain michigan "In the old Grape Ape cartoon, what was the name of Grape Ape's dog frind?" beagley "Although Lucille Ball was her real name, Lucy used another while working as a hat model. What was it?" diane belmont "In photography, this is a measure of the relative aperture of a lens set to take correct account of the lens transmittance." t number "This Russian duo was given the title of the best Holmes/Watson pair in the world cinema." vasily livanov and vladimir solomin "In the old cartoon Grape Ape, what was the name of Grape Ape's dog friend?" beagley "In 1978, David Letterman appeared in the short-lived sketch comedy show of what famous funny lady?" mary tyler moore "What 20th century artist's primary form of expression was the mobile?" alexander calder "When he died, Romans renamed September after him, but soon turned back to September. Who is he?" tiberius "What was Norm Peterson's bar tab after 11 seasons at cheers?" $64215 "Lou Gehrig played 2130 games in a row. Who replaced him at 1st base?" babe dalhgren "To describe a trend, this word was adopted by Theodore Roosevelt from "Pilgrim's Progres which portrayed a man sweeping up filth around him while remaining unaware of the celestial glory above his head." muckraker "The hero of many cliffhangers wore a rocket pack, a controller belt, and a helmet." commando cody "What famous 60s singer is the father of the female lead in the film "Say Anything"?" donovan "At what college did the core members of the Talking Heads attend and meet?" rhode island school of design "Who was the lead singer of the Sex Pistols?" johnny rotten "Who was Karl Marx's co-author and co-founder of socialist thought?" frederick engels "The following have one TV show in common: Pamela Rodgers, Barbara Sharma, Patty Deutsch and Mitzi McCall...what is the show?" laugh-in "This famous British public executioner died in 1686." jack ketch "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon was an early syndicated TV show...the sarg had a horse and his name was and a lead sled dog whose name was ?" rex yukon king "Who was called Bluff King Hal?" henry viii "What was Jean Val Gean's prison number (Les Miserables)(numeric form)?" 24601 "Supply the two missing first names...Terry,John,Michael,Terry, and ." eric graham "Where is Kenyon College (Town, State)?" gambier ohio "Sesame Street characters Bert & Ernie are named for characters from what classic film?" its a wonderful life "What was our only bachelor president--for his whole term, not just part?" james buchanan "Who is the inventor of television?" philo t farnsworth "What is Friday April 26th this year?" arbor day "What famous performer just left Death Row Records?" dr dre "What did Arthur Godfrey fire from his TV show in October of 1953?" julius larosa "Who are two actors that have played District Attorney Harvey Dent?" billy dee williams and tommy lee jones "These false siblings first recorded as The Paramours in 1962." the righteous brothers "Which county were the All-Ireland Hurling Champions in 1968?" wexford "In what city and country was Giorgio Armani born in?" piacenza italy "Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley were among the literati that met at this New York hotel in the 20s and 30s." the algonquin "Who is keroppi's girlfriend?" keroleen "Which 20th C. artist won a coloring contest at an early age?" grant woods "This 1911 invention was first produced in the Cadillac." electric self starter "What well-known '60s and '70s rocker was one of John Lennon's favorite drinking buddies during the period of his estrangement from Yoko Ono?" harry nilsson "In addition to David Letterman, another very famous performer appeared on the same show with the very famous lady inquired of in another recent question...who was the other performer?" michael keaton "What were the four movies that Kevin Spacey appeared in, in 1995 (alphabetical order)?" outbreak seven swimming with sharks the usual suspects "What was the name of Caligula's horse, who was named a Roman tribune ?" incitatus "Who could always be found with Lippy the Lion?" hardy har har "Who had the highest PBA average for 1979?" mark roth "He coined the phrase "nattering nabobs of negativism"." william safire "Who photographed the last portrait of John Lennon, nude on a bed with a fully-dressed Yoko?" annie leibovitz "Exactly how long did Calvin Coolidges term last in seconds (numerical form)?" 176083200 "The Pens and the Caps just played the third longest game in NHL history. What two teams played the longest and in what year?" detroit red wings montreal maroons 1936 "Which piano sonata did Beethoven name as a kind of joke?" hammerklavier "What is the name of the Tractate in the Babylonian Talmud that deal with divorce?" gittin "Which Jackie Chan film has Jackie playing a character of the same name, though spelled "Yackie Chan" in the credits?" snake fist fighter "CBS tried to compete with "The Today Show" back in the mid 1950s with something called "The Morning Show". Who were the threee hosts?" walter cronkite jack paar will rogers jr "By what name do we better know the fictional character John Reid?" the lone ranger "Before he became the king of flakes, Will Keith Kellogg started his business career in his father's factory, which manufactured...?" brooms "Seems that everybody here knows everything about baseball... What team won six straight championships of the Russian High Baseball League in 1990-1995?" moscow red devils "What famous 20th century author has a butterfly (which he discovered and described in a 1941 scientific paper) named after him and on display at the American Museum of Natural History?" vladimir nabokov "In 1919 at the age of 29, this person retired from the stage, owing to a nervous breakdown which was diagnosed as schizophrenia." vaslav nijinsky "What Canadian Prime Minister had the shortest term in office?" joe clark "What was the title of the first Genesis album?" from genesis to revelation "What was the proffesseurs robots name in the cartoon felix the cat?" master cylinder "What corp. has the largest fleet of trucks in the world?" coca cola "Its nickname is "where America's day begin"." guam "Which two movies do Earl and Murdock watch in A Family Thing?" rocky iii and red dawn "Who describes the brain as an apparatus with which we think we think?" ambrose bierce "In the best selling fantasy series "Xanth" by Piers Anthony, what is the name of the magician with the talent of transformation?" trent "My name was Larushka Skikne, but what am I better known as?" laurence harvey "According to The Beatles, what do you do "When you find yourself in the thick of it"?" help yourself to a bit of what is all around you "It is believed that an eagle flying overhead dropped a tortoise on his skull and killed him." aeschylus "Before becoming the rock superstar we all know and love, Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees had the lead in this television show." circus boy "Who narrated Mel Brooks' "History of the World - Part I"?" orson welles "What is the largest casino in the U.S. and what is the name of the Native American tribe which runs it?" foxwoods pequot "Who are the two artists of Silver Surfer referred to by Denzel Washington in the submarine movie, "Crimson Tide"?" kirby and moebius "Who originally played Danny Thomas' wife on Make Room For Daddy?" jean hagan "This tree, a curiosity in areas of warm climate like Florida, is so extraordinarily shaped that an Arabian legend has it that "the devil plucked up the tree, thrust its branches into the earth, and left its roots in the air"." baobab "Who is the original author of the Strategic Conquest game?" peter merrill "What was the name of the sixties sitcom in which two astronauts go back in time and meet cave couple Shad and Gronk?" its about time "In what US city is the Trivia Hall of Fame?" lincoln ne "Aside from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, who are the musicians who played on Deja Vu(Full names...alphabetically by last names)?" jerry garcia greg reeves john sebastian dallas taylor "It's the furry, tasseled purse carried on a Scotsman's Belt. Name it." sporran "How many shots were fired by Lucas McCain in the opening of "The Rifleman"?" eleven "What Nigerian writer was executed last year by the Nigerian government despite the protests of Amnesty International?" ken saro-wiwa "Who are the two mice that want to rule the world?" pinky and the brain "What 1985 movie opens with shots of clocks reading six minutes to eight (4 words) ?" back to the future "This fictional character was teased by his playmates for being different, and he grew up ashamed of his feelings and his human ancestry. Name also his father and mother." mr spock sarek amanda "What was the name of the cat owned by the Brady Bunch Girls?" fluffy "It is known as "Insurance City"." hartford connecticut "In what made-for-tv movie did the protagonists made use of the experimental finding that a black child given a choice between a black doll and a white doll chose the white doll? Name also the lead actor and the true-to-life role portrayed." separate but equal sidney poitier thurgood marshall "Tago-Sato-Kosaka, Bennett, ? , West and what is the common bond?" kohoutek comets "Who is Space Ghost's band leader on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast?" zorak "Whose first solo album, released in 1971, was entitled "If I Could Only Remember My Name"?" david crosby "Who discovered Wild Man Fischer?" frank zappa "What is it, according to the writer, "that knits the ravelled sleeve of care"?" sleep "By what name do we better know Richard Wayne Penniman?" little richard "Identify the 1992 movie in which one of the cast got into JEOPARDY and got a category of "Foods That Begin with the Letter Q" and the 1993 movie in w/c the lead star knew the answers to an actual JEOPARDY show." white men cant jump groundhog day "In Star Wars, who was Princess Leah's adopted father?" bail organa "Taiwan's Original Name was?" formosa "She held the title of "Miss Army Recruiting" of 1965." jane fonda "In "The Beatles" cartoon series, who did the voices for the "Fab Four"?" george harrison john lennon paul mccartney ringo starr "Name the musical group in which Neil Young and Rick James played together?" the mynah birds "Which movie (featured on MST3K) contained the line, "Today is dedicated to Uranus"?" hercules and the captive women "When the Ricardos and Mertzes were taking "I Love Lucy" to Hollywood they decided to drive...Fred bought the first car,an ancient but the others were less than pleased and Ricky replaced it with a 19 what?" cadillac 55 pontiac "Who are the three people who have played The Riddler?" john astin frank gorshin jim carrey "What movie won Best Picture at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival?" pulp fiction "Who supplied the whipcrack in "Minimum Wage" by They Might Be Giants?" roger moutenot "Who is Nancy Drew's housekeeper?" hannah gruen "How many states are there in Mexico?" 31 "Who won and lost the heavyweight boxing crown during 1990?" james douglas "What Academy Awards did Star Wars win in 1977 (a total of 6 awards, not including Special Achievement)?" best art direction best costume design best film editing bes "If you caught a quahog at the seashore, what kind of animal would you have?" clam "Who was the composer of "The Firebird"?" igor stravinsky "In what Christopher Pike book is a girl pushed off a balcony?" remember me "What was the name of the town in which Muriel grew up in, in the Australian film 'Muriel's Wedding'?" porpoise spit "In "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," who was kidnapped?" snowflake dan marino "In the movie A Clockwork Orange, what is the futuristic language spoken by the main character?" nadsat "What is the name of the machine used to scrape and recondition an ice rink?" zamboni machine "How many tricks must you take to score a Grand Slam in Bridge? numerical form i. e. 1 or two whatever?" 13 "What is often hailed as "The worst film ever made"?" plan 9 from outer space "What was "Weird Al" Yankovic's first parody?" my bologna "This 17th century artist did a series of allegorical paintings of Queen Marie de Medici?" peter rubens "What Canadian Prime Minister used to talk to his dead dog?" william lyon mackenzie king "Name the two people who acted as the Tate's Butler on "Soap". First name Benson, then name Saunders." robert guillaume roscoe lee brown "Who wrote the music and lyrics to the Rocky Horror Picture Show?" richard obrien "What are the 2 official languages of Lesotho?" english and sotho "William Windom starred in a sitcom loosely based on the works of James Thurber...name the show." my world and welcome to it "By what name might we better know Paul Hewson?" bono "Who is Lisa Simpson's favorite Jazz musician?" bleeding gums murphy "What's the name of the educational institution set up by Socrates?" the academy "In the movie, Pulp Fiction, what brand of cigarettes does Bruce Willis smoke?" red apples "What was the name of the group that started out as a trio, became a quartet, and eventually turned into 10cc?" hotlegs "Hollywood hunk plays reform prison warden who is not afraid to dig up some skeletons in the southern penal system (FILM/LEAD FIRSTNAME/LASTNAME)." brubaker robert redford "What was the first synthetic plastic?" celluloid "What husband and wife were both nominated for Academy Awards in 1953?" ava gardner frank sinatra "Who was Harold T. Stone's favorite singer?" mel torme "What is Betty's last name in The Archies? Reggie's? Answer in order." cooper mantle "Who played Murray Slaughter's daughter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show?" helen hunt "In Star Wars, what is the emperor's last name?" palpatine "On Tommy Boy where did Tommy take his supposted brother to have fun?" cow pastor "Who was the architect responsible for the Roman Catholic Chapel at West Point?" christopher grant lafarge "Who is the jazz violinist that played with Django Reinhardt?" stephane grappelli "What was Alanis Morissette's hit song that began mentioning the lottery?" ironic "What is Mr. Fantastic's real name?" reed richards "Speaking of Canadian Prime Ministers--which one was an Olympic Hockey player?" lester bowles pearson "What is the only produced screenplay by Harlan Ellison?" the oscar "Who is credited with these famous last words: "Either this wallpaper goes or I do"?" oscar wilde "Which saints voices did Joan of Arc claim to hear?" st catherine st margaret st michael "What was Roy Orbison's first recording for Sun Records?" ooby dooby "What was album of the year in 1965? Who wrote it?" september of my years frank sinatra "Who was Gerald Ford's running mate in 1976?" bob dole "Contrary to Mark's opinion, what is actually the worst film ever made, an all-midget western musical?" the terror of tiny town "According to the tv commercial how many pepsi points do you need for a Harrier? numeric form?" 700000000 "Carrie Fisher has worked on two screenplays. One was based on a novel she wrote, the other she was uncredited with. Name them." postcards from the edge sister act "George Washington's successful 1776 attack on Trenton boosted morale because its target was what?" hessian mercenaries "What was the last line of the last episode of MASH?" good-bye margaret "4 animal secretions are used as fixatives for perfume--from a beaver, a cat, a deer, a sperm whale. What are they?" castor civit musk ambergris "He wrote the theme song to Absolutely Fabulous." bob dylan "Who are the two people who played the voice of Copper in The Fox and the Hound?" corey feldman kurt russell "This film from Australia in the early 80s was set largely in the Sydny Opera House. What film?" one night stand "One hit wonders (Billboard) from Bilbao, Spain, this group had a tune called Touch the Wind in English...name the song (2 words) and the group (you figger it out)." eres tu mocedades "What is the name of the muppet band in "The Muppet Movie"?" electric mayhem "Who provided the voice of Hong Kong Phooey in the cartoon "Hong Kong Phooey"?" scatman crothers "Who played Alice on "The Brady Bunch" (TV)?" ann b davis "Who was the most famous Confederate General in thr Civil War?" robert e lee "Who was the Indian Princess' name on Howdy Doody?" princess summer-fall-winter-spring "Whose first album was called "Freak Out"?" frank zappa & the mothers "Who wrote the book, "Flowers in the Attic" ?" vc andrews "He invented the swivel chair." thomas jefferson "Who was the very first person to play Batman?" lewis wilson "The plant sometimes called "Mother-in-law's tongue" is more commonly called..." snake plant "What was the first movie to sweep the Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director) and what year?" it happened one night 1934 "In what year was the United States Merchant Marine Academy founded?" 1943 "Fifty years ago this year, the first CARE package arrived in Europe...what does the acronym CARE stand for?" cooperative for american remittances to europe "What famous wrestler joined the forces of G.I. Joe?" sgt slaughter "Who is the only actress to receive an Emmy, an Oscar, a Tony, and a Grammy?" rita moreno "During their heyday "The Beach Boys" released one single under Brian Wilson's name rather than as the group...what was it ? was it?" caroline no "What are the two official game shows of the 1996 Summer Olympics?" jeopardy and wheel of fortune "What was the first film directed by Gus Van Sant Jr.?" mala noche "According to "The Princess Bride," where is the origin of Iocane Powder?" australia "What WAS THE 1st N.F.L.TEAM THAT THE DALLAS COWBOYS DID NOT "lose"to?" new york giants "What state capital's name derives from that of a river in Afganistan?" indianapolis "According to Mattel, her manufacturer, Barbie's last name is?" roberts "What famous author was the production accountant for "Return of the Jedi"?" margaret mitchell "What poisonous snake lives on Okinawa?" habu "In which place did Sinbad the Sailor encounter a legendary giant bird?" island of the roc "What female Pope allegedly died in childbirth?" joan "In what year was the first honorary degree granted by Harvard University and to whom was it given to?" 1753 ben franklin "A comedy album won the grammy for 1960. Name it and the performer." button down mind bob newhart "What are the names of the original five Power Rangers (Red, Blue, Black, Pink, Yellow)?" jason billy zack kimberly trini "What color is Yak's Milk?" pink "In "The Lathe of Heaven" (by Ursula LeGuin), who was the man who claimed his dreams changed reality?" george orr "What was the first year Don Jollio appeared in Walt Disney comics?" 1934 "What was the first film George Lucas directed?" thx-1138 "In the Muppets, what kind of creature is Gonzo?" weirdo "If a cat is coloured in this way, we call it Siamese. How do we call a rabbit coloured in the same way?" himalayan "From what is the potent stimulant and poison strychnine derived from?" seeds of a tree "What is the dry weight of a photon torpedo in kilograms..(star trek)?" 2475 "Who is the "worlds largest recycler of aluminum cans"?" anheuser busch "Who is the author of The Cyberiad?" stanislaw lem "What was Tom Hanks first movie and in what year?" he knows youre alone 1980 "What year did the first captive breeding of the Noble Macaw occur?" 1949 "Who manufactured the Air Force plane, F-105 Thunderchief?" republic aviation "Who was the 1st U.S. president to hold a doctorate?" woodrow wilson "Who was the best supporting actress oscar for 1948 and in what film?" claire trevor key largo "In what year were M&M's introduced?" 1941 "Who founded the United Negro College Fund?" frederick douglass "In the drink Yoo Hoo, it has an ingredient called "carrageenan gum". What is this ingredient derived from?" seaweed "In 1530, Girolamo Fracastoro wrote a poem titled "*** sive Morbus Gallicus". What is the missed first word, which is also the name of the hero?" syphilidis "Designers of what perfume received an Ig Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1995?" dna "Those training for this sport are traditionally bricklayers during their apprenticeship?" bullfighting "In the Star Wars trilogy, who captured Han Solo and delivered him to Jabba the Hutt and who portrayed this character?" boba fett jeremy bulloch "What is currently the longest running prime-time sitcom (it just finished its tenth season)?" married with children "Who invented vaseline?" robert chesebrough "Superman and Magnum, P.I. both got their starts in "the soaps". What two soap operas started the TV careers of Christopher Reeve and Tom Sellick?" love of life the young and the restless "Caryn Johnson is better known as who?" whoopi goldberg "What kind of chess features Grasshoppers, Nightriders, Wazirs and Balloons?" fairy chess "OK, spelling fans...here is a little exercise...name the town in Pennsylvania where Phil the groundhog lives." punxsutawney "The literary work told thru Quentin Compson's conversations with his roommate is?" absalom absalom "From where do we get the cancer drug taxol?" pacific yew "Norbert Viener said that this man should be a saint patron of cybernetics. Name him." gottfried wilhelm von leibniz "What do Russian cosmonauts use to prevent gum bleeding during long space flights?" cognac "Where is the home of the world's largest trivia contest? Hint: It's a three day radio broadcast." stevens point wisconsin "In Empire Strikes Back, what planet is the rebel base on, and what is the creature that the rebels ride during patrols?" hoth tauntaun "Who are the three actresses who played Catwoman during the 1960's tv series and movie?" eartha kitt lee meriwether julie newmar "Most of us are familiar with the architect I.M. Pei(the Louvre Pyramid among others)...what do the I and M stand for?" ieoh ming "In Empire Strike's Back, what was the name of Boba Fett's ship?" slave i "Who holds the patent on the air brake?" granville t woods "Who led the Berlin airlift 1948-49?" lucius d clay "What literary character was the victim of intense jealousy over his good looks?" billy budd "A top of what mountain is the most distant point from the center of Earth?" chimborazo "During the War of 1812, he and his Shawnee tribe fought with the British against the United States?" tecumseh "What famous scientist, when visiting USA, said that American labs are so clean that if he worked in one he'd never get his Nobel Prize?" alexander fleming "In 1913 the chess champion Jose Raoul Capablanca obtained a post in the Cuban Foreign Office with the title of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary General from the Government of Cuba to the... To where?" world at large "In legal documents, what does "SS" stand for?" scilicet "Who was the last Grand Duke of Moscow?" michel ney "Which Belgian singer of the early 80s was dropped by his record label after his first album, because he wanted to actually sing on the next album?" plastic bertrand "What animal, other than humans, can contract leprosy?" armadillo "Who was the first king of Belgium?" leopold the 1st "In the Mystery Science Theater: 3000 television show, what are the four robots' names?" cambot crow gypsy tom servo "Guernica, the subject of Picasso's painting, was a sacred city to these people?" basques "In the movie series "Star Wars", what 3 people contributed to the character of Darth Vader? (alphabetical by last name)." james earl jones david prowse sebastian shaw "According to Alfred William Lawson, the negative forces in our brains that the menorgs have to fight against are called this." disorgs "Ricky Nelson, son of Ozzie and Harriet, had a middle name that was the maiden name of his mother...what was it?" hilliard "Who was known as The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (he did it in 1891)?" charles de ville wells "A flute breaks down into three parts...what are they?" body footjoint headjoint "What small Swedish town gave names to four chemical elements?" ytterby "In "The Empire Strikes Back", there was a machine known as the AT-AT. What does AT-AT stand for?" all terrain attack transport "Which discovery made it possible to accurately calculate the Earth's age?" radioactivity "Being a Mrs Grundy means you are prudish, or disapprove of people generally...name the work (3 words) and the author (the other 2 words)." speed the plow thomas morton "For what musical group (in which his father performed) was the artist formerly known as Prince named?" prince roger trio "OK, Russell, maybe this will engage your air brake...name the American who invented the automatic interlock coupler used to connect railway cars." eli hamilton janney "How many times in a day do the minute and hour hands form right angles?" 44 "Name the Center who played for USF and the Boston Celtics?" bill russel "What four letters (unpunctuated in this answer) stood for The Senate and People of Rome?" s p q r "What are the three species of fish making together more than 50% of the world's catch (in alphabetical order)?" cod herring tuna "Who was Gen. Pattons famous relative of WWII, full name ?" lewis burwell puller "Babe Ruth broke whose record by hitting 60 home runs?" his own "The gait of an animal was studied closely to create the walk of the AT-AT. What animal?" elephant "He made his fortune smelting metallic ores in New Mexico and Colorado?" meyer guggenheim "Which part of the body does not grow as the body grows?" the eyes "Who starred as the villan in Bram Stoker's Dracula?" gary oldman "In Star Trek, the original series who was the guest star in 'City on the Edge of Forever'?" joan collins "Under the Communist rule, USSR was sometimes referred as this country "with ballistic missiles"." upper volta "At what army outpost was Crazy Horse killed?" fort robinson "What was the name of the tall droid bounty hunter in The Empire Strikes Back?" ig-88 "On what television show was the title character named John Beresford Tipton?" the millionaire "Paleontologically speaking, what ephoch, beginning about 2.5 million years ago, are we currently in?" pleistocene "According to the Beatles...What was Sir Walter Raleigh?" he was such a stupid get "How many U.S. Presidents have died in office?" 8 "How many U.S. Presidents were never "elected" as President by the electoral college?" 5 "In the late 60s, after Andy Griffith left his show, CBS managed to keep the show alive with a new name (2 words), and a new star (also 2 words)." mayberry rfd ken berry "What was the National Men's Champion archer in 1984?" darrell pace "How much in Hong King dollars does it cost to buy a Big Apple Burger with Cheddar and Bacon including service charge at The Big Apple in Hong Kong?" 10780 "How many ships named "Enterprise" were made for Star Trek?" 5 "What is the name of Marvin the Martian's dog?" commander k-9 "Based on computer analysis, the space most often landed on in the game Monopoly is what?" illinois avenue "Jimmy Cagney played George M. Cohan on film, who played "George M!" on stage?" joel grey "Who shared iocane powder with Cary Elwes and dinner with Andre Gregory?" wallace shawn "The tales of P.L. Travers were the basis for this 1964 screen musical?" mary poppins "Who was the diameter of the Death Star in STAR WARS(in km)?" 1200 km "Who wrote the short story "Bobok" ?" fyodor dostoyevsky "He was born and raised in Zanzibar (now Tanzania), his name was Farookh Bulsara, but you know him better as...?" freddy mercury "Each of this eight elements contributes more than 1% in the Earth crust mass. In your answer, indicate just symbols, alphabetically." al ca fe k mg na o si "What was the first land-grant university established in the U.S?" university of georgia "What is the trophy given to the player with the lowest stroke average on the PGA Tour named for?" harry vardon "In 'Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock', who played the captain of the merchantship destroyed by Captain Kruge?" paul sorensen "In Empire Strikes Back, what is the name of Darth Vader's star destroyer?" executer "P.G. Wodehouse is a beloved author...what does P.G. stand for?" pelham grenville "It means "the duck" in French: ?" le canard "Who was the bestselling hardcover fiction book in 1990? By whom?" oh the places youll go dr suess "What very important female government official was married to the founder of Fortune Magazine?" claire boothe luce "This product's technology played an important role in the invention of computers?" jacquard loom "What was the name of the first captain of Star Trek that Gene Roddenberry thought up?" robert april "Who was the first African American to play in the NHL? name? team? year?" willie oree boston bruins 1958 "Hans Castorp is the hero of what novel? By whom?" the magic mountain thomas mann "Actor Albert Brooks given name at birth was...?" albert einstein "OK...you want Trek stuff...you got Trek stuff...what is the overload blast radius, in metres, of a type II hand phaser (numeric form)?" 135 "100 years ago, who was the most popular writer?" richard harding davis "What is the cuter name for the first Australopithecus Afarensis found?" lucy "What are laminak? They all have the same name. What is it?" basque fairies guillen "Who is the only baseball player ever to win rookie of the year AND MVP in the same season?" fred lynn "What company recently purchased SHL (System House Limited)?" mci "Who's the actual Prime Minister of Canada?" jean chretien "What three actresses originally played the Bradley sisters on Petticoat Junction?" linda kaye henning jeannine riley pat woodell "This young woman, disguised as a man and using the name Robert Shurtleff, fought with the Fourth Massaschusetts Regiment through three years of the American Revolution. Who was she?" deborah sampson "How many port-a-jons will be in use in atlanta during the olympics?" 1800 "How many years long was the military service under the Genghis Khan code of laws?" 56 "Is Canadian Thanks Giving before or after American Thanks Giving?" before "In the play "JULIUS CAESAR" what is Brutus's wife's name, and what is one thing she does to herself?" portia she stabs herself in the thigh "Who was the first sitting senator to be elected President of the United States?" warren harding "Who is the Frugal Gourmet (2 words)?" jeff smith "What actor plays Mr. Bean?" rowan atkinson "Who played Luke on The Real McCoys?" richard crenna "What are the names of the four members of Queen?" freddy mercury brian may roger taylor john deacon "What is the name of the book from which Kyle and Judi copy questions and answers word for word?" so you think youre good at trivia "He is the only bodybuilder to earn a perfect score in the Mr. Universe competition." mike mentzer "I'll take a risk and ask about car plates... What's the most famous car plate from Pisa, Italy?" pi 314159 "What prolific-scoring small forward in the NBA was known as the "silent assasin"?" alex english "What was the real last name of Rasputin?" novykh "What is the astronotus ocellatus more commonly known as?" oscar "Okay, here's something not in the 24th century: On what date did Samuel de Champlain begin a journey up the Ottawa River?" june 4 1613 "Where was Marat when Charlotte Corday stabbed him?" in his bath "In Star Wars, what is the planet's name that princess Leia gives Vader for the rebel base, and what is the name of the planet they actually destroy?" dantooine alderan "In what year did the Era of Democracy begin?" 1776 "Who was in charge of the Rebel forces,in space, at The Battle of Endor in RETURN OF THE JEDI?" admiral ackbar "What drink is named for the spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera?" sherry "Who was Aldrich Ames better known as?" russian spy "Okay Jeep, try and find this one in that book...What number is divisible by any number from two to nine, and will always have one number left for a remainder?" 2521 "One equals W on a U?" wheel on a unicycle "As of June 6, 1996 how many books in the Library of Congress have trivia in the title?" 331 "Tom's mother had 3 children, 2 of which were named Penny and Nickel. What is the name of the third child?" tom "In Empire Strike's back, what are the creatures chewing on the Milenneum Falcon's power lines?" mynocks "What is the name of the enzyme that catalyzes the reaction from ATP to cAMP?" adenylate cyclase "Who is the author of the Shannara series of books?" terry brooks "In the years of the Cold War, Soviet secret agents in their reports nicknamed Washington and London after these two historical cities." carthage and sodom "In the movie JFK, Kevin Bacon's character Willie O'Keefe is a composite character drawn from what four real life people?" raymond broshears david logan william morris perry russo "Who provides the voice for The Tick?" townsend coleman "In 1960 every man, woman, and child paid an average of $629 in federal, state, and local taxes...what was the average in 1990?" 7592 "What was Ben Hur's 1st name?" judah "What were the only two states lost by Franklin D.Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election?" maine and vermont "In Pulp Fiction, what drinks did Vince and Mia order at the restaurant?" vanilla coke five dollar shake "What author founded the Creacionismo movement in Spanish-American literature?" vicente huidobro "What is Canada's national sport?" lacrosse "What is the main ingredient in the Indian dish called Saag?" spinach "Who are the only three women to appear on U.S. currency?" susan b anthony pocahontas martha washington "If 1=Wheel on Unicycle, then what does 8=P of S in the E L?" parts of speech in english language "William Shakespeare wrote of this European perennial that it "riseth best when trodden most upon." What is it?" camomile "Another Marvin the Martian question. In what cartoon did Marvin make his debut and in what year?" haredevil hare 1948 "Who was the Triple Crown winner in 1941 and who was the jockey?" whirlaway eddie arcaro "Divine or spiritual food is called?" manna "How do we better recognize William Stanley Porter?" o henry "Who is Efram Zimbalist Jr.'s mother?" alma gluck "What percent of the earth's land area is contained in antarctica.?" 10 "Here's one for the Tolkien fans, what was Bilbo Baggins mothers name?" belladonna took "In 1992 the bones of a 1st Century man that may have been the remains of the high priest who handed Jesus over to the Romans were discovered in a ancient burial cave in Jerusalem...What was the name of the priest...?" caiaphas "What's Sean Connery's real name?" thomas conner "Malcolm X's real name is...?" malcolm little "What is John Kennedy O'Toole famous for?" a confederacy of dunces "What state is known as the Land of Opportunity?" arkansas "What is the color for each of the 5 levels of Bloomingdale credit cards?" blue yellow red silver gold "Who is Beetle Bailey's sister (first name)?" lois "Name the Calgary Flame player named for a current Senior PGA Tour player and name that player as well." zarley zalapski kermit zarley "To what social fraternity did the founder of Pabst (blue ribbon) belong?" chi psi "Who was Jim Nantz' roommate in college?" fred couples "Who wrote The Harp Weaver and Other poems?" edna st vincent millay "Who are the only two people to act in every movie that Quentin Tarantino has directed?" tim roth quentin tarantino "What was the cost of the hula hoops during the 1958 craze(numeric form,with decimel)?" 195 "What company did the special effects for the movie Virtuosity?" l2 communications "According to the 1994 World Alamanac, how many US cities or towns have apostrophes in their name (not including NY, NC and ND)?" 9 "What is purportedly the longest lived animal (152 years!)?" marions tortoise "According to the June 13, 1992 New York Times, the average cost of owning a dog per year is (without dollar sign)...?" 1170 "Can you decipher this famous saying...A mass of concentrated earthly material perennially rotating on on its axis will not accumulate an accretion of bryophytic vegetation...?" a rolling stone gathers no moss "How about this one as well, can you decipher it...Everything that coruscates with effulgence is not ipso facto aurous...?" all that glitters is not gold "According to Hal Foster's "Small-Scale Success Story," the average size of a Japanese home is this, or less than one half the size of an American home...(in square feet)?" 650 "Bob Gibson's 3,000th strikeout came at the expense of this batter...some years later, that same batter was the 3,000th strikeout victim of Nolan Ryan as well...name the player?" cesar geronimo "What percentage of American land is owned by the government?" 32 "Who wrote the libretto for the opera Martha by Von Flotlow?" friedrich wilhelm riese "What do you get when chlorine tablets are mixed with brake fluid?" explosion "What is the largest known plant without a woody stem or trunk?" banana plant "According to the Wall Street Journal (June 2, 1993), the average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18-in 1992 dollars-was what...(not including college)?" 128670 "ER is the second show who had win 8 Emmy Awards for his first season. What's the first?" hill street blues "Of all the towns and cities in the United States, this city boasts of being the only one with an apostrophe in its name...?" couer d alene "So you had a biochemistry question and some of you got the answer; I recommend everybody to check what it was. Now the reciprocal question: what enzyme catalyzes the conversion of cAMP plus pyrophosphate to ATP?" adenylate cyclase "What college's football stadium is named The Rubber Bowl?" akron university "How many holes are there in a "Chinese Checkers" board?" 120 "What was the name of the bounty hunter that Leia posed as in Return of the Jedi?" boussh "Suppose a Roman family have five sons. The first four are Marcus, Julius, Romulus and Lucius. What's the name of the fifth son?" quintus "How much is 2x2, according to Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder?" four and carthage must be destroyed "This person starred with Dan Quayle, Jack Palance and Alex Trebeck in commercials for what product? Name? Product?" elijah wood "In what year was Elizabeth Borton de Trevino born, and where?" 1904 bakersfield california "Tiger Woods is best known for what sport (one word)?" golf "How many Emmy Awards did the show M*A*S*H win in it's 11 years?" 14 "The average porcupine has this many quills, according to David Costello's "The World of the Porcupine"?" 30000 "How many pounds of potatoes does Lays use per day?" 902000 "What is the capital of kentucky ?" frankfort "The names of The Jerky Boys are...?" johnny b and kamal "On what date was Marilyn Monroe invited to sign her name at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?" june 26 1953 "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" egg "If a cat is coloured in this way, we call it Siamese. How do we call a rabbit coloured in the same way?" himalayan "What year did the first captive breeding of the Noble Macaw occur?" 1949 "What was the first film George Lucas directed?" thx-1138 "Who is the "worlds largest recycler of aluminum cans"?" anheuser busch "What color is Yak's Milk?" pink "Who manufactured the Air Force plane, F-105 Thunderchief?" republic aviation "In the Muppets, what kind of creature is Gonzo?" weirdo "Milk is a great drink, but not everybody can drink it. It's the same with marriage. Marriage is a great institution. I have tried it, but I cannot handle it." So said this twice married R&B star who acknowledges nine children by seven different women. Name this 64-year-old Georgian, born with the last name Robinson, who's told marriage to hit the road, Jack. A: Ray CHARLES His most recent work involved 60 rock climbers, 60 tons of polypropylene fabric, 15 km of blue rope, and the Reichstag in Berlin. Other works of this artist include "Surrounded Islands," the encircling of 11 Florida islands; "Valley Curtain," a 110 km nylon curtain strung across a Colorado valley; the wrapping of the Australian coastline near Sydney; the 1985 "Wrapped Pont Neuf" in Paris, and "Umbrellas". Name this Bulgarian-born practitioner of what he calls "public art." A: CHRISTO Javacheff A type of language spoken by 15 million people worldwide, it occurs when a pidgin language displaces the local language and develops linguistic complexity, but before the language from which the pidgin is derived completely takes over. Examples include Sranantongo in Suriname, Krio in Sierra Leone, Tok Pisin in Papua New Guinea, Gullah in the U.S., and the Haitian variety of French that shares its name with the linguistic term. Identify this language type, also the name of a mixed-race French- speaking group in Louisiana. A: CREOLE Patrick Bateman is a handsome Harvard grad who works at Pierce and Pierce on Wall Street. At 26 years old he is living his own American dream. Patrick is the title character of what misogynistic novel by Bret Easton Ellis? A: AMERICAN PSYCHO Prior to last year's Republican takeover, Edward Kennedy was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resoures, and this Senator was still burning because the lack of a doctorate raised faculty objections to an appointment as Chancellor of a University. Name the new Chair of that Committee, the daughter of a failed presidential candidate. A: Nancy Landon KASSEBAUM Its construction is modelled after a pattern revealed in the myth of creation. Usually it is fashioned from willow saplings, bound with thongs and covered with blankets or skins. Heated stones are placed in the center and a religious leader pours water over them. Name this type of building and you have also named the Native American purification ceremony that takes place inside it. A: SWEAT LODGE It's not the Oort Cloud, but it is a region of comets on the edge of the solar system, extending at least 50 astronomical units beyond the orbit of Neptune. The source of comets with orbital periods under 20 years, its existence was theorized 40 years ago by the German whose name it bears. Name this belt recently discovered by the Hubble telescope. A: KUIPER Belt (I've also seen it spelled "Kuipper;" with one "p," it would rhyme with "sniper.") He joined the New York Giants of the NFL in 1927 and was voted the NFL's greatest tackle for the league's first 50 years. In 1936, he was elevated from the triple A International League to the American League. Name this man, the only person in both the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame. A: Robert Cal HUBBARD Chu Yuan-Chang was born in 1328 in Anhwei province. After joining a monastery, he led insurgent forces between 1356 and 1364 that gained control of the region north of the Yangtze. In 1364 he was proclaimed Prince of Wu and by 1368 had driven out the Mongols. Chu established what dynasty, with its capital at Nanking, which he ruled as Emperor Hung Wu? A: MING Molly Bolt is a dirt poor Southern girl who lost her virginity to her girlfriend in the sixth grade, mesmerized the head cheerleader of Fort Lauderdale High, and went to New York to become the greatest film maker that ever lived. Molly is the heroine of what novel by Rita Mae Brown? A: RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE Its eight provinces function like separate countries these days; Kivu maintains close ties to Rwanda and Burundi, while Shaba is in the economic orbit of South Africa. Equateur is the home of its leader, but that didn't save the province from the Ebola virus. Identify this enormous African country whose dictator is Mobutu Sese Seko. A: ZAIRE For hundreds of years, the Chinese have been making herbal medicine from this plant to treat alcohol abuse in humans. Now, Western scientists have extracted two compounds from the plant that reduce alcohol consumption in lab animals by fifty percent. Name this plant that seems to be spreading everywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line. A: KUDZU This diplomat and scholar won 2 Pulitzer Prizes, one in 1957 for Russia Leaves the War and the other in 1968 for Memoirs (1925-1950) . Name this father of containment, who sent a "long telegram" from Moscow in Febuary 1946. A: George F. KENNAN In a short Ridley Scott production shown on TV only once, a young woman bearing a sledgehammer, chased by police, races through a world of dull mindless drones. Her goal is a room in which these drones worship a movie screen, on which a "big-brother" type spouts totalitarian gibberish in the background with DOS-like commands scrolling up the screen in the foreground. Only footsteps ahead of the police, she lets the sledgehammer fly into the screen, shattering it and completing a metaphor for a revolutionary new computer. Name this computer, whose debut was this TV commercial during the 1984 Super Bowl. A: Apple MACINTOSH Subtitled "The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin," this novella is a satiric success story written in mock Horatio Alger style. FAQTP, give the title of this Nathanael West work. A: A COOL MILLION The protagonist of the only book of the Old Testament that does not mention God, her name in Hebrew is the namesake of a Jewish women's organization. The Jewish wife of King Ahasuerus of Persia, she foiled a plot to exterminate the Jews by the King's counselor Haman. Name this Biblical heroine whose feats are celebrated in the holiday of Purim. A: ESTHER (accept HADASSAH) Brought up to treasure education by his Ukrainian immigrant father, he majored in philosophy at the University of Ottawa. He got his lucky break fostered by Alan Thicke, when he became host of the game show "Wizard of Odds," for which Thicke was a writer. The host of the 1995 National Geography Bee, he will be forever linked with a quiz show so popular that he portrayed himself on "Cheers". The answer is the successor to Art Fleming. A: Who is Alex TREBEK? Unlike the other antioxidants, such as Vitamins C and E, it's not living up to its reputation; recent studies seem to show that while carrots and broccoli do lower the risk of cancer, this substance is not the reason. It's still good for your eyes, however. Identify this substance that the human body converts into a nontoxic form of Vitamin A. A: BETA CAROTENE After working on Gunnar Myrdal's study of race in America, he became the first black professor at the City College of New York. His books include Dark Ghetto and King, Malcolm, Baldwin , but his most influential work was the 1950 paper The Effect of Prejudice and Discrimination on Personality Development , which was cited as a basis for Brown v. Board of Education . Name this psychologist famous for his experiment involving dolls of different races. A: Dr. Kenneth B. CLARK This very breakable sauce is made in a bowl placed over the opening of a pan of boiling water. It consists primarily of egg yolks and clarified butter. What is this sauce used in the making off Eggs Benedict? A: HOLLANDAISE Their divisions called themselves the People of the Flint, People of the Stone, People of the Mountain, People at the Landing, and Great Hill People. In this matrilineal society, the women stood behind the men who they selected to speak in council and impeached those they disagreed with, itself a concept unheard of in Europe. Identify this Native American nation which provided the model for the American federal system in its constitution established by Hiawatha. A: League of the IROQUOIS In order to win the 1995 National Geography Bee, you had to know that this country's national languages are Pushtu and Dari. Dry, mountainous, landlocked and strategically located, this country of 17 million was known as Bactria in ancient times and Khorasan in the Middle Ages before its modern boundaries were established as a buffer between the British and Russian empires. Identify this chaotic Muslim country with the Hindu Kush mountains on its Eastern border. A: AFGHANISTAN "East River from the Shelton," "Radiator Building-Night," "City Night," "The Shanty," "Lake George Window," "The Grey Hills," "Summer Days," "From the Faraway Nearby," and "Cow's Skull--Red White and Blue." These are the titles of paintings by what Wisconsin born artist? A: Georgia O'KEEFFE He began his career in orgainized baseball at the age of 15 while serving in the U.S. Army in the Philippines. After his discharge in 1915, he signed with the Indianapolis ABC's. Only Josh Gibson challenges his reputation as a slugger and only Cool Papa Bell is mentioned with him as the best centerfielders of the Negro leagues. Who is this Hall of Famer who played with at least a dozen teams during his 35 year career? A: Oscar McKinley CHARLESTON At age 18, he was sentenced from one year to life for stealing $70.00 from a gas station. He spent the next eleven years in prison, eight and a half of them in solitary confinement. In 1971, at age 28, he was charged with the murder of a guard at Soledad Prison. Name this eloquent Black revolutionary, an associate of Angela Davis, shot and killed by guards at San Quentin two days before his murder trial. A: George L. JACKSON A controversy is surrounding the upcoming United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, because the concurrent conference of women's non-governmental organizations, or NGO's, is being held one difficult hour by car from the main conference in another city. Apparently the purpose is to maintain the appearance of order, since participants in the NGO conference often show up at the main conference to stage protests. Name the evidently nervous country hosting the Fourth World Conference on Women. A: People's Republic of CHINA Before his death this year, he was one of the most admired of American poets, known for elegance, moral sensibility and the ability to transform moments of autobiography into deeply meaningful poetry. He once described his writing as "chronicles of love and loss". Name this son of a famous stockbroker, Connecticut's first poet laureate. A: James MERRILL This work is in 3 parts, 1944, 1945 and 1946-1947, and contains 153 short sections, each with its own title. Some of these titles include, "For Marcel Proust," "Tough Baby," "Dwarf Fruit," "Johnny-Head-in-the-Air," and "By This Does German Song Abide." The work is dedicated to Max Horkeimer, with whom the author wrote Dialectic of Enlightenment . Name this Theodore Adorno work. A: MINIMA MORALIA One of the more interesting terms in the Jargon File on the Internet is the acronym GNU [Gah-NOO, *not* "noo"], an effort of the Free Software Foundation to provide quality free software. This acronym stands for "GNU's Not Unix," making it a self-referential definition. Give the related mathematical term which means defining an object, such as a sequence, function or set, in terms of itself. A: RECURSION (accept RECURSIVE something or RECURRENCE RELATION) An example of RECURSION is the Fibonacci [fih-boh-NAH-chee] sequence of integers starting with 1 and 1. For four straight years, from 1978 to 1981, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress was awarded to a performer with the initials M.S. Identify these actresses who won for roles in California Suite ; Kramer vs. Kramer ; Melvin & Howard ; and Reds , respectively. A: MAGGIE SMITH, Meryl STREEP, Mary STEENBURGEN, Maureen STAPLETON How much do you know about your neighbor to the north? Well, you probably know that the three largest cities in Canada are Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, but do you know what comes next? Name the next five most populous Canadian cities. A: OTTAWA-Hull, WINNIPEG, EDMONTON, CALGARY, QUEBEC Identify the Supreme Court Justice from opinions that he wrote: Flood v. Kuhn , affirming that major league baseball is exempt from antitrust laws. Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority , holding that the Tenth Amendment does not prevent the federal government from regulating the wages and hours of state government employees. Roe v. Wade , legalizing abortion. A: Harry BLACKMUN Insect life cycles generally fall into one of two patterns. In some species, such as dragonflies, the young form more or less resembles an adult insect, except for lacking wings. What is this form called? A: NYMPH In species such as beetles and moths, the immature grub or caterpillar looks very different than the adult and goes through three life stages. Most College Bowlers have heard of the larva and the pupa, what is the technical name for the adult form of these insects? A: IMAGO Identify these folksingers of the 1960s. Originally a stand-up comedian, he was recruited by a record producer to form a trio with established singers named Travers and Yarrow. A: Noel Paul STOOKEY or PAUL of PETER, PAUL AND MARY A Cree Indian adopted by a white family, her songwriting credits include "Universal Soldier," "Cod'ine," and "Now That the Buffalo's Gone." She joined the cast of Sesame Street in the 1970s and came out of retirement in 1992 with the album Coincidence and Likely Stories . A: Buffy SAINTE-MARIE Probably the most overtly political singer in the folk movement, his songs included "I Ain't Marching Anymore," "Draft Dodger Rag" and "There But for Fortune." He committed suicide in 1976. A: Phil OCHS What actor who witnessed a lynching as a child in Nebraska went on to star in the anti-lynching film "The Oxbow Incident"? A: HENRY FONDA What investigator published, in 1929, a ten-year study on lynching entitled Rope and Faggot: A Biography of Judge Lynch ? A: Walter WHITE James Weldon Johnson, secretary of the NAACP, succeeded in 1921 in getting a Missouri Representative to introduce a bill to punish the crime of lynching. The bill passed the House but fell to filibuster in the Senate. What Missourian introduced the bill? A: L.C. DYER Coached by Scotty Bowman and Al Arbour, these two teams won every Stanley Cup Final between 1976 and 1983. Name these two NHL teams that each won the Cup 4 years in a row. A: MONTREAL or CANADIENS, New York ISLANDERS Rhea may be the most famous mother in Greek mythology, but Nyx, the personification of Night, had her share of illustrious children as well. Identify these children of Night. Two important but under-mythologized gods, these brothers personified Death and Sleep. A: THANATOS and HYPNOS Also associated with sleep, these three sisters, daughters of Atlas in some accounts, guarded Hera's garden at the edge of the world. A: The HESPERIDES Another trio of sisters, they appeared to be of different ages and were called the Moirai in Greek. A: The FATES (accept Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos) An important goddess to the Romans, who sacrificed to her before leaving for war, she personified just retribution. A: NEMESIS Given the author and a brief description of a book taken from a recent New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers list, give the title. Dr. Seuss; The problems of finding your way through life, in verse and pictures. A: OH, THE PLACES YOU'LL GO! William J. Bennett; Moral stories adapted from the Greeks, the Bible, folklore, and elsewhere. A: The BOOK OF VIRTUES Jim Carroll; The coming of age of a poet and rock performer in New York in the 1960's. A: The BASKETBALL DIARIES Name the island nation from its position relative to its neighbors. West of Mauritius and Reunion, southwest of the Seychelles, east of the Comoros and Mozambique. A: MADAGASCAR South of Guadeloupe, north of Martinique. A: DOMINICA Southwest of Nauru, west of Tuvalu, northwest of Fiji, north of Vanuatu, northeast of Australia, east and southeast of Papua New Guinea. A: SOLOMON Islands Volcanic peaks form in three major ways: From relatively quiet eruptions of fluid magma, which form a gentle slope; from explosive eruptions of viscous magma with high gas content, resulting in a number of small but steep cinder cones; and a cycle of both kinds of eruption, resulting in very tall and steep-sided peaks. Give the names for these 3 major types of volcanoes. A: SHIELD; PYROCLASTIC cones; COMPOSITE or STRATOVOLCANOES Given the name or names for a month used by Algonquin tribes, give our name for the associated month. Full Sturgeon Moon A: AUGUST Full Flower Moon A: MAY Full Buck Moon or Full Thunder Moon A: JULY Full Snow Moon or Full Hunger Moon A: FEBRUARY The summer Olympics includes men's and women's gymnastics, but vault and floor exercise are the only categories, other than team and all-around, common to both sexes. Name the four Olympic gymnastics competitions for men only: A: HORIZONTAL BAR, PARALLEL BARS, POMMEL HORSE, RINGS Name the two events for women only. A: Balance BEAM, UNEVEN BARS An intrinsically worthless or almost worthless commodity that serves the functions of money. A: FIAT MONEY A method of determining what, how and for whom goods and services are produced, based on the authority of a ruler or ruling body. A: COMMAND MECHANISM The acronym for the State Committee for Economic Planning in the USSR that drew up the five-year plans. A: GOSPLAN A curve that shows the different combinations of labor and capital required to produce a fixed quanity of output. A: ISOQUANT A situation in which real GNP stops growing or declines and inflation accelarates. A: STAGFLATION A company buys back its own stock from a suitor for more than the going market price to avoid a hostile takeover. A: GREENMAIL Provisions executives' contracts guaranteeing substantial severance benefits if they lose their position in a corporate takeover. A: GOLDEN PARACHUTE When Johnny Carson was late night talk show host, guests coveted an invitation to "sit on the couch" and talk with Johnny in addition to performing their act. Who was the first female comic ever invited by Carson to sit on Carson's couch during her first visit to the popular TV show? Ellen Degeneres The popular singing group "The Beach Boys" were not always known by this name. What was the original name of "The Beach Boys"? Carl and the Passions (Our answer came from the resource - People's Magazine Entertainment 1996. Several of our visitors sent notes about other resources which reference "The Pendletones" as their early name. This is said to be a name created after the popular plaid shirts worn by West Coast Surfers. Some other visitors say there are resources indicating their early name was "The Surfers", having been named after their first single "Surfin".) What is the headgear of the guards at Buckingham Palace, made from? Bearskin What 2 one name states that share their names with another state? Virginia (in West Virginia) and Kansas (in Arkansas) What was the origination of the expression "fitting like a T"? The expression "fitting like a T" references something being constructed so well it might have been constructed using an engineers T-square. When something goes wrong, a popular expression often heard is "there'll be the devil to pay". The devil in this expression is not Satan, and "to pay" has nothing to do with the usual definition of the term. What is the origination/meaning of the term "there'll be the devil to pay"? The "devil" is a seam on a wooden ship that is usually below the water line and hard to reach. "To pay" means to caulk the seam with a water resistant preparation like hot pitch. In order to get to the seam, a ship often had to be careened on a shallow bottom. When the tide went out, the work could be done, but it had to be done quickly before the tide came back in. If the ship were made ready, but the crew had not prepared the hot pitch, then they "had the devil to pay and no hot pitch". The expression has survived into modern day when something goes wrong. What city in America was the first telephone directory introduced to in 1878? New Haven, CT America's oldest sporting contest event, begun in 1821 in Virginia. What was the sport? Jousting, a contest with mounted jousters using lances to pick steel rings off crossbars was first held at Mount Solon in Virginia in 1821. What is the only food required by law to be served every day in one of America's restaurant? Yankee bean soup On a sultry summer day in 1904, Speaker of the House, Joseph G. Cannon showed up at the House of Representatives restaurant in Washington D.C. ready for Yankee Bean Soup. The restaurant had decided it was too hot that day to prepare the soup. "Thunderation!" he bellowed. "I had my mouth set for bean soup. From now on, hot or cold, rain, snow, or shine, I want it on the menu everyday!" A federal mandate was passed and Yankee Bean Soup has been served every day in the House of Representative restaurant ever since. What popular brand named of sugar coated breakfast cereal contained so much iron when introduced it could be picked up with a magnet? Almost all breakfast cereals have some iron in them, some more than others, When Kellogg Co's "Frosted Rice cereal" was introduced in 1977 the cereal contained so much iron that consumers could pick the cereal up with a magnet. Evenly distributing the product's sugar coating was the cause. Most of the iron was concentrated in the sugar coating. The problem was resolved when Kellogg reduced the iron content from 25% of the FDA recommended allowance to 10%. In a "Wall Street Journal" story, Kellogg promised the new, improved -- and demagnetized -- version could not be lifted with magnets"unless they were very, very strong". What actor won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, but only appeared in the movie for 8 minutes? Anthony Quinn. (source LA Times ) Saffron is a spice with a long history used to flavor luscious Mediterranean foods. It also flavors recipes such as risotto, paella, bouillabaisse, as well as some cakes and breads. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. What is the major factor making saffron so expensive? Saffron is the stigmas of autumn crocuses. (These are NOT the kind of crocus flowers that pop up in gardens each spring.) Each of the crocus plants that product saffron threads produce only 3 stigmas per plant. The stigmas must be harvested by hand. It takes more than a quarter million stigmas to produce one pound of saffron. As a movie end and film credits roll to the movie screen, unusual job titles roll into view: "Best Boy", "Gaffer", and "Grips". Depending on the film there may be a job title referenced as "Foley Artist" -- what is a "Foley Artist"? "Foley" is the process by which sound effects are recorded and added to a film's soundtrack. The individual who creates and adds sound is called the "Foley Artist". A good "Foley Artist" can be quite creative. For example, an old sock filled with sand and beaten against a wooden log might become, on soundtrack, the heavy blows of a fistfight. U.S. Currency Designs Which portraits appear on U.S. currency? $1......George Washington $5......Abraham Lincoln $10....Alexander Hamilton $20....Andrew Jackson $50....Ulysses S. Grant $100..Benjamin Franklin The following bills are still in circulation, but are no longer in print: $500.........William McKinley $1,000......Grover Cleveland $5,000.......James Madison $10,000.....Salmon P. Chase $100,000...Woodrow Wilson Timeline of Communication History 3500 -- 59 B.C. 3500: In Sumer, pictographs of accounts written on clay tablets. 2600: Scribes employed in Egypt. 2400: In India, engraved seals identify the writer. 2200: Date of oldest existing document written on papyrus. 1500: Phoenician alphabet. 1400: Oldest record of writing in China, on bones. 1270: Syrian scholar compiles an encyclopedia. 900: China has an organized postal service for government use. 775: Greeks develop a phonetic alphabet, written from left to right. 530: In Greece, a library. 500: Greek telegraph: trumpets, drums, shouting, beacon fires, smoke signals, mirrors. 500: Persia has a form of pony express. 500: Chinese scholars write on bamboo with reeds dipped in pigment. 400: Chinese write on silk as well as wood, bamboo. 200: Books written on parchment and vellum. 200: Tipao gazettes are circulated to Chinese officials. 59: Julius Caesar orders postings of Acta Diurna. 100 A.D. -- Present 100: Roman couriers carry government mail across the empire. 105: T'sai Lun invents paper. 175: Chinese classics are carved in stone which will later be used for rubbings. 180: In China, an elementary zoetrope. 250: Paper use spreads to central Asia. 350: In Egypt, parchment book of Psalms bound in wood covers. 450: Ink on seals is stamped on paper in China. This is true printing. 600: Books printed in China. 700: Sizing agents are used to improve paper quality. 751: Paper manufactured outside of China, in Samarkand by Chinese captured in war. 765: Picture books printed in Japan. 868: The Diamond Sutra, a block-printed book in China. 875: Amazed travelers to China see toilet paper. 950: Paper use spreads west to Spain. 950: Folded books appear in China in place of rolls. 950: Bored women in a Chinese harem invent playing cards. 1000: Mayas in Yucatan, Mexico, make writing paper from tree bark. 1035: Japanese use waste paper to make new paper. 1049: Pi Sheng fabricates movable type, using clay. 1116: Chinese sew pages to make stitched books. 1140: In Egypt, cloth is stripped from mummies to make paper. 1147: Crusader taken prisoner returns with papermaking art, according to a legend. 1200: European monasteries communicate by letter system. 1200: University of Paris starts messenger service. 1241: In Korea, metal type. 1282: In Italy, watermarks are added to paper. 1298: Marco Polo describes use of paper money in China. 1300: Wooden type found in central Asia. 1305: Taxis family begins private postal service in Europe. 1309: Paper is used in England. 1392: Koreans have a type foundry to produce bronze characters. 1423: Europeans begin Chinese method of block printing. 1450: A few newsletters begin circulating in Europe. 1451: Johnannes Gutenberg uses a press to print an old German poem. 1452: Metal plates are used in printing. 1453: Gutenberg prints the 42-line Bible. 1464: King of France establishes postal system. 1490: Printing of books on paper becomes more common in Europe. 1495: A paper mill is established in England. 1500: Arithmetic + and - symbols are used in Europe. 1500: By now approximately 35,000 books have been printed, some 10 million copies. 1520: Spectacles balance on the noses of Europe's educated. 1533: A postmaster in England. 1545: Garamond designs his typeface. 1550: Wallpaper brought to Europe from China by traders. 1560: In Italy, the portable camera obscura allows precise tracing of an image. 1560: Legalized, regulated private postal systems grow in Europe. 1565: The pencil. 1609: First regularly published newspaper appears in Germany. 1627: France introduces registered mail. 1631: A French newspaper carries classified ads. 1639: In Boston, someone is appointed to deal with foreign mail. 1639: First printing press in the American colonies. 1640: Kirchner, a German Jesuit, builds a magic lantern. 1650: Leipzig has a daily newspaper. 1653: Parisians can put their postage-paid letters in mail boxes. 1659: Londoners get the penny post. 1661: Postal service within the colony of Virginia. 1673: Mail is delivered on a route between New York and Boston. 1689: Newspapers are printed, at first as unfolded "broadsides." 1696: By now England has 100 paper mills. 1698: Public library opens in Charleston, S.C. 1704: A newspaper in Boston prints advertising. 1710: German engraver Le Blon develops three-color printing. 1714: Henry Mill receives patent in England for a typewriter. 1719: Reaumur proposes using wood to make paper. 1725: Scottish printer develops stereotyping system. 1727: Schulze begins science of photochemistry. 1732: In Philadelphia, Ben Franklin starts a circulating library. 1755: Regular mail ship runs between England and the colonies. 1770: The eraser. 1774: Swedish chemist invents a future paper whitener. 1775: Continental Congress authorizes Post Office; Ben Franklin first Postmaster General. 1780: Steel pen points begin to replace quill feathers. 1784: French book is made without rags, from vegetation. 1785: Stagecoaches carry the mail between towns in U.S. 1790: In England the hydraulic press is invented. 1792: Mechanical semaphore signaler built in France. 1792: In Britain, postal money orders. 1792: Postal Act gives mail regularity throughout U.S. 1794: First letter carriers appear on American city streets. 1794: Panorama, forerunner of movie theaters, opens. 1794: Signaling system connects Paris and Lille. 1798: Senefelder in Germany invents lithography. 1799: Robert in France invents a paper-making machine. 1800: Paper can be made from vegetable fibers instead of rags. 1800: Letter takes 20 days to reach Savannah from Portland, Maine. 1801: Semaphore system built along the coast of France. 1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents a loom using punch cards. 1803: Fourdrinier continuous web paper-making machine. 1804: In Germany, lithography is invented. 1806: Carbon paper. 1807: Camera lucida improves image tracing. 1808: Turri of Italy builds a typewriter for a blind contessa. 1810: An electro-chemical telegraph is constructed in Germany. 1810: Postal services consolidated under uniform private contracts. 1813: Congress authorizes steam boats to carry mail. 1814: In England, a steam-powered rotary press prints The Times. 1815: 3,000 post offices in U.S. 1816: Newspapers carried for less than 2 cents postage. 1818: Stamped letter paper is sold in Sardinia. 1818: In Sweden, Berzelius isolates selenium; its electric conductivity reacts to light. 1819: Napier builds a rotary printing press. 1820: Arithmometer, forerunner of the calculator. 1821: In England, Wheatstone reproduces sound. 1823: Babbage builds a section of a calculating machine. 1823: In England, Ronalds builds a telegraph in his garden; no one is interested. 1825: Persistence of vision shown with Thaumatrope. 1827: Niépce makes a true photograph. 1827: In London, Wheatstone constructs a microphone. 1829: Daguerre joins Niépce to pursue photographic inventions. 1829: Burt gets the first U.S. patent for a typewriter. 1830: Calendered paper is produced in England. 1832: Phenakistoscope in Belgium and Stroboscope in Austria point to motion pictures. 1833: A penny buys a New York newspaper, opening a mass market. 1833: In Germany, a telegraph running nearly two miles. 1834: Babbage conceives the analytical engine, forerunner of the computer. 1835: Bennett publishes the first of his penny press editions. 1836: Rowland Hill starts to reform British postal system. 1837: Wheatstone and Cooke patent an electric telegraph in England. 1837: Morse exhibits an electric telegraph in the U.S. 1837: Pitman publishes a book on shorthand in England. 1837: Daguerre cuts photo exposure time to 20 minutes. 1838: In England, Wheatstone's Stereoscope shows pictures in 3-D. 1838: Morse exhibits an electric telegraph in the U.S. 1838: Daguerre-Niépce method begins photography craze. 1839: Fox Talbot in England produces photographs. 1839: Herschel invents hypo fixative. 1839: In Russia, Jacobi invents electrotyping, the duplicating of printing plates. 1839: Electricity runs a printing press. 1839: Fox Talbot in England prints photographs from negatives. 1840: In Britain, first postage stamps are sold. 1841: Petzval of Austria builds an f/3.6 lens. 1841: The advertising agency is born. 1841: The first type-composing machine goes into use in London. 1842: Illustrated London News appears. 1842: Another use for paper: the Christmas card. 1843: In the U.S., the photographic enlarger. 1843: Ada, Lady Lovelace publishes her Notes explaining a computer. 1844: Morse's telegraph connects Washington and Baltimore. 1845: Postal reform bill lowers rates and regulates domestic and international service. 1845: English Channel cable. 1845: The typewriter ribbon. 1846: In Germany, Zeiss begins manufacturing lenses. 1846: Double cylinder rotary press produces 8,000 sheets an hour. 1847: A Philadelphia newspaper rolls off a rotary printing press. 1847: First use of telegraph as business tool. 1847: In England, Bakewell constructs a "copying telegraph." 1848: Forerunner of the Associated Press is founded in New York. 1849: The photographic slide. 1850: The paper bag arrives. 1851: In the U.S., paper is made from wood fiber. 1851: The Erie railroad depends on the telegraph. 1851: Cable is laid across the English Channel. 1851: Archer invents wet-plate photography process. 1851: In England, Talbot takes a flash photograph at 1/100,000 second exposure. 1851: Newspaper postage cut in half; free distribution within county. 1852: Postage stamps are widely used. 1853: Envelopes made by paper folding machine. 1854: Telegraph used in Crimean War. 1854: Wood pulp is added by paper makers. 1854: Bourseul in France builds an experimental telephone. 1854: Carte-de-visite process simplifies photography. 1854: Curved stereotype plate obviates column rules; wide ads soon. 1855: Printing telegraph invented in the U.S. 1855: Prepayment of letters made compulsory. 1855: Registered letters enter service. 1856: Poitevan starts photolithography. 1856: Blotting paper replaces sand boxes. 1856: Machine folds newspapers, paper for books. 1857: A machine to set type is demonstrated. 1857: In France, Scott's phonautograph is a forerunner of Edison's phonograph. 1858: Mail boxes appear on American streets. 1858: First effort at transatlantic telegraph service fails. 1858: Eraser is fitted to the end of a pencil. 1858: An aerial photograph is taken. 1859: Camera gets a wide-angled lens. 1860: In U.S., Sholes builds a functional typewriter. 1860: Pony Express carries mail between St. Joseph, Mo. and Sacramento. 1861: Telegraph brings Pony Express to an abrupt end. 1861: First chemical means to color photography. 1861: Oliver Wendell Holmes invents stereoscope. 1862: In Italy, Caselli sends a drawing over a wire. 1862: in U.S., paper money. 1863: Large U.S. cities get free home delivery of mail. 1863: First international postal conference held in Paris. 1864: Workers in "railway post office" sort mail on trains. 1864: Postal money orders sold in U.S; $1.3 million in 6 months. 1864: The railroad train hooks on a mail car. 1864: In Virginia, wireless electromagnetic waves are transmitted 14 miles. 1865: Atlantic cable ties Europe and U.S. for instant communication. 1866: Western Union dominates U.S. wires. 1867: In U.S., Sholes builds a functional typewriter. 1868: Writing machine is called a "Type-Writer"; so is the typist. 1869: Carbon paper is invented. 1869: Color photography, using the subtractive method. 1869: From Austria, postcards. 1870: Stock ticker comes to Wall Street. 1871: Halftone process allows newspaper printing of pictures. 1872: Simultaneous transmission from both ends of a telegraph wire. 1872: Wood pulp will be the source of paper, thanks to Swedish sulfite process. 1873: U.S. postcard debuts; costs one penny. 1873: Illustrated daily newspaper appears in New York. 1873: Maxwell publishes theory of radio waves. 1873: First color photographs. 1873: Remington starts manufacturing Sholes' typewriters. 1873: Typewriters get the QWERTY pseudo-scientific keyboard. 1873: Lord Kelvin calculates the tides with a machine. 1873: In Ireland, May uses selenium to send a signal through the Atlantic cable. 1874: Universal Postal Union formed. 1875: Edison invents the mimeograph. 1875: In the U.S., Carey designs a selenium mosaic to transmit a picture. 1876: Bell invents the telephone. 1877: In France, Charles Cros invents the phonograph. 1877: In America, Edison also invents the phonograph. 1878: Muybridge photographs a horse in motion. 1878: Cathode ray tube is invented by Crookes, English chemist. 1878: The dynamic microphone is invented in the U.S. and Germany. 1878: Telephone directories are issued. 1878: Full page newspaper ads. 1878: In France, praxinoscope, an optical toy, a step toward movies. 1878: Hughes invents the microphone. 1878: Dry-plate photography. 1879: Benday process aids newspaper production of maps, drawings. 1880: First photos in newspapers, using halftones. 1880: Edison invents the electric light. 1880: France's Leblanc theorizes transmitting a picture in segments. 1880: First parcel post. 1880: Business offices begin to look modern. 1882: In England, the first Wirephotos. 1883: Edison stumbles onto "Edison effect"; basis of broadcast tubes. 1884: In Germany, Nipkow scanning disc, early version of television. 1884: People can now make long distance phone calls. 1884: Electric tabulator is introduced. 1884: Waterman's fountain pen blots out earlier versions. 1885: Dictating machines are bought for offices. 1885: Eastman makes coated photo printing paper. 1885: U.S. Post Office offers special delivery. 1885: Trains are delivering newspapers daily. 1886: Graphophone's wax cylinder and sapphire stylus improve sound. 1886: Mergenthaler constructs a linotype machine for setting type. 1887: Celluloid film; it will replace glass plate photography. 1887: Montgomery Ward mails out a 540-page catalog. 1887: Berliner gets music from a flat disc stamped out by machine. 1887: Comptometer multi-function adding machine is manufactured. 1888: "Kodak" box camera makes picture taking simple. 1888: Heinrich Hertz proves the existence of radio waves. 1888: The coin-operated public telephone. 1888: Edison's phonograph is manufactured for sale to the public. 1889: Herman Hollerith counts the population with punch cards. 1889: Strowger, Kansas City undertaker, invents automatic telephone exchange. 1890: A.B. Dick markets the mimeograph. 1890: Typewriters are in common use in offices. 1890: In England, Friese-Greene builds the kinematograph camera and projector. 1890: In France, Branly's coherer conducts radio waves. 1891: Large press prints and folds 90,000 4-page papers an hour. 1891: Telephoto lens is attached to the camera. 1891: Edison's assistant, Dickson, builds the Kinetograph motion picture camera. 1892: Edison and Dickson invent the peep-show Kinetoscope. 1892: 4-color rotary press. 1892: Portable typewriters. 1892: Automatic telephone switchboard comes into service. 1893: Dickson builds a motion picture studio in New Jersey. 1893: Addressograph joins the office machinery. 1894: Marconi invents wireless telegraphy. 1894: Box making machines give impetus to packaging industry. 1894: Berliner's flat phonograph disc competes with the cylinder. 1895: France's Lumiere brothers build a portable movie camera. 1895: Paris audience sees movies projected. 1895: In England, Friese-Greene invents phototypesetting. 1895: Dial telephones go into Milwaukee's city hall. 1896: Underwood model permits typists to see what they are typing. 1896: The monotype sets type by machine in single characters. 1896: Electric power is used to run a paper mill. 1896: In Britain, the motion picture projector is manufactured. 1896: X-ray photography. 1896: Rural free delivery (RFD) inaugurated. 1897: In England, postmen deliver mail to every home. 1897: In Germany, Braun improves Crookes' tube with fluorescence. 1897: General Electric creates a publicity department. 1898: Photographs taken by artificial light. 1898: New York State passes a law against misleading advertising. 1899: The loudspeaker. 1899: Sound is recorded magnetically by Poulsen of Denmark. 1899: American Marconi Company incorporated; forerunner of RCA. 1900: Kodak Brownie makes photography cheaper and simpler. 1900: Pupin's loading coil reduces telephone voice distortion. 1901: Sale of phonograph disc made of hard resinous shellac. 1901: First electric typewriter, the Blickensderfer. 1901: Marconi sends a radio signal across the Atlantic. 1902: Germany's Zeiss invents the four-element Tessar camera lens. 1902: Etched zinc engravings start to replace hand-cut wood blocks. 1902: U.S. Navy installs radio telephones aboard ships. 1902: Photoelectric scanning can send and receive a picture. 1902: Trans-Pacific telephone cable connects Canada and Australia. 1903: Technical improvements in radio, telegraph, phonograph, movies and printing. 1903: London Daily Mirror illustrates only with photographs. 1904: A telephone answering machine is invented. 1904: Fleming invents the diode to improve radio communication. 1904: Offset lithography becomes a commercial reality. 1904: A photograph is transmitted by wire in Germany. 1904: Hine photographs America's underclass. 1904: The Great Train Robbery creates demand for fiction movies. 1904: The comic book. 1904: The double-sided phonograph disc. 1905: In Pittsburgh the first nickelodeon opens. 1905: Photography, printing, and post combine in the year's craze, picture postcards. 1905: In France, Pathe colors black and white films by machine. 1905: In New Zealand, the postage meter is introduced. 1905: The Yellow Pages. 1905: The juke box; 24 choices. 1906: In Britain, new process colors books cheaply. 1906: A program of voice and music is broadcast in the U.S. 1906: Lee de Forest invents the three-element vacuum tube. 1906: Dunwoody and Pickard build a crystal-and-cat's-whisker radio. 1906: An animated cartoon film is produced. 1906: Fessenden plays violin for startled ship wireless operators. 1906: An experimental sound-on-film motion picture. 1906: Strowger invents automatic dial telephone switching. 1907: Bell and Howell develop a film projection system. 1907: Lumiere brothers invent still color photography process. 1907: DeForest begins regular radio music broadcasts. 1907: In Russia, Rosing develops theory of television. 1908: In U.S., Smith introduces true color motion pictures. 1909: Radio distress signal saves 1,700 lives after ships collide. 1909: First broadcast talk; the subject: women's suffrage. 1910: Sweden's Elkstrom invents "flying spot" camera light beam. 1911: Efforts are made to bring sound to motion pictures. 1911: Rotogravure aids magazine production of photos. 1911: "Postal savings system" inaugurated. 1912: U.S. passes law to control radio stations. 1912: Motorized movie cameras replace hand cranks. 1912: Feedback and heterodyne systems usher in modern radio. 1912: First mail carried by airplane. 1913: The portable phonograph is manufactured. 1913: Type composing machines roll out of the factory. 1914: A better triode vacuum tube improves radio reception. 1914: Radio message is sent to an airplane. 1914: In Germany, the 35mm still camera, a Leica. 1914: In the U.S., Goddard begins rocket experiments. 1914: First transcontinental telephone call. 1915: Wireless radio service connects U.S. and Japan. 1915: Radio-telephone carries speech across the Atlantic. 1915: Birth of a Nation sets new movie standards. 1915: The electric loudspeaker. 1916: David Sarnoff envisions radio as "a household utility." 1916: Cameras get optical rangefinders. 1916: Radios get tuners. 1917: Photocomposition begins. 1917: Frank Conrad builds a radio station, later KDKA. 1917: Condenser microphone aids broadcasting, recording. 1918: First regular airmail service: Washington, D.C. to New York. 1919: People can now dial telephone numbers themselves. 1919: Shortwave radio is invented. 1919: Flip-flop circuit invented; will help computers to count. 1920: The first broadcasting stations are opened. 1920: First cross-country airmail flight in the U.S. 1920: Sound recording is done electrically. 1920: Post Office accepts the postage meter. 1920: KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcasts first scheduled programs. 1921: Quartz crystals keep radio signals from wandering. 1921: The word "robot" enters the language. 1921: Western Union begins wirephoto service. 1922: A commercial is broadcast, $100 for ten minutes. 1922: Technicolor introduces two-color process for movies. 1922: Germany's UFA produces a film with an optical sound track. 1922: First 3-D movie, requires spectacles with one red and one green lens. 1922: Singers desert phonograph horn mouths for acoustic studios. 1922: Nanook of the North, the first documentary. 1923: Zworykin's electronic iconoscope camera tube and kinescope display tube. 1923: People on one ship can talk to people on another. 1923: Ribbon microphone becomes the studio standard. 1923: A picture, broken into dots, is sent by wire. 1923: 16 mm nonflammable film makes its debut. 1923: Kodak introduces home movie equipment. 1923: Neon advertising signs. 1924: Low tech achievement: notebooks get spiral bindings. 1924: The Eveready Hour is the first sponsored radio program. 1924: At KDKA, Conrad sets up a short-wave radio transmitter. 1924: Daily coast-to-coast air mail service. 1924: Pictures are transmitted over telephone lines. 1924: Two and a half million radio sets in the U.S. 1925: The Leica 35 mm camera sets a new standard. 1925: Commercial picture facsimile radio service across the U.S. 1925: All-electric phonograph is built. 1925: A moving image, the blades of a model windmill, is telecast. 1925: From France, a wide-screen film. 1926: Commercial picture facsimile radio service across the Atlantic. 1926: Baird demonstrates an electro-mechanical TV system. 1926: Some radios get automatic volume control, a mixed blessing. 1926: The Book-of-the-Month Club. 1926: In U.S., first 16mm movie is shot. 1926: Goddard launches liquid-fuel rocket. 1926: Permanent radio network, NBC, is formed. 1926: Bell Telephone Labs transmit film by television. 1927: NBC begins two radio networks; CBS formed. 1927: Farnsworth assembles a complete electronic TV system. 1927: Jolson's "The Jazz Singer" is the first popular "talkie." 1927: Movietone offers newsreels in sound. 1927: U.S. Radio Act declares public ownership of the airwaves. 1927: Technicolor. 1927: Negative feedback makes hi-fi possible. 1928: Baird demonstrates color TV on electro-mechanical system. 1928: The teletype machine makes its debut. 1928: Television sets are put in three homes, programming begins. 1928: Baird invents a video disc to record television. 1928: In an experiment, television crosses the Atlantic. 1928: In Schenectady, N.Y., the first scheduled television broadcasts. 1928: Steamboat Willie introduces Mickey Mouse. 1928: A motion picture is shown in color. 1928: Times Square gets moving headlines in electric lights. 1928: IBM adopts the 80-column punched card. 1929: Experiments begin on electronic color television. 1929: Telegraph ticker sends 500 characters per minute. 1929: Ship passengers can phone relatives ashore. 1929: Brokers watch stock prices on an automated electric board. 1929: Something else new: the car radio. 1929: In Germany, magnetic sound recording on plastic tape. 1929: Television studio is built in London. 1929: Air mail flown from Miami to South America. 1929: Bell Lab transmits stills in color by mechanical scanning. 1929: Zworykin demonstrates cathode-ray tube "kinescope" receiver, 60 scan lines. 1930: Photo flashbulbs replace dangerous flash powder. 1930: "Golden Age" of radio begins in U.S. 1930: Lowell Thomas begins first regular network newscast. 1930: TVs based on British mechanical system roll off factory line. 1930: Bush's differential analyzer introduces the computer. 1930: AT&T tries the picture telephone. 1931: Commercial teletype service. 1931: Electronic TV broadcasts in Los Angeles and Moscow. 1931: Exposures meters go on sale to photographers. 1931: NBC experimentally doubles transmission to 120-line screen. 1932: Disney adopts a three-color Technicolor process for cartoons. 1932: Kodak introduces 8 mm film for home movies. 1932: The "Times" of London uses its new Times Roman typeface. 1932: Stereophonic sound in a motion picture, "Napoleon." 1932: Zoom lens is invented, but a practical model is 21 years off. 1932: The light meter. 1932: NBC and CBS allow prices to be mentioned in commercials. 1933: Armstrong invents FM, but its real future is 20 years off. 1933: Multiple-flash sports photography. 1933: Singing telegrams. 1933: Phonograph records go stereo. 1934: Drive-in movie theater opens in New Jersey. 1934: Associated Press starts wirephoto service. 1934: In Germany, a mobile television truck roams the streets. 1934: In Scotland, teletypesetting sets type by phone line. 1934: Three-color Technicolor used in live action film. 1934: Communications Act of 1934 creates FCC. 1934: Half of the homes in the U.S. have radios. 1934: Mutual Radio Network begins operations. 1935: German single lens reflex roll film camera synchronized for flash bulbs. 1935: Also in Germany, audio tape recorders go on sale. 1935: IBM's electric typewriter comes off the assembly line. 1935: The Penguin paperback book sells for the price of 10 cigarettes. 1935: All-electronic VHF television comes out of the lab. 1935: Eastman-Kodak develops Kodachrome color film. 1935: Nielsen's Audimeter tracks radio audiences. 1936: Berlin Olympics are televised closed circuit. 1936: Bell Labs invents a voice recognition machine. 1936: Kodachrome film sharpens color photography. 1936: Co-axial cable connects New York to Philadelphia. 1936: Alan Turing's "On Computable Numbers" describes a general purpose computer. 1937: Stibitz of Bell Labs invents the electrical digital calculator. 1937: Pulse Code Modulation points the way to digital transmission. 1937: NBC sends mobile TV truck onto New York streets. 1937: A recording, the Hindenburg crash, is broadcast coast to coast. 1937: Carlson invents the photocopier. 1937: Snow White is the first feature-length cartoon. 1938: Strobe lighting. 1938: Baird demonstrates live TV in color. 1938: Broadcasts can be taped and edited. 1938: Two brothers named Biro invent the ballpoint pen in Argentina. 1938: CBS "World News Roundup" ushers in modern newscasting. 1938: DuMont markets electronic television receiver for the home. 1938: Radio drama, War of the Worlds," causes national panic. 1939: Mechanical scanning system abandoned. 1939: New York World's Fair shows television to public. 1939: Regular TV broadcasts begin. 1939: Air mail service across the Atlantic. 1939: Many firsts: sports coverage, variety show, feature film, etc. 1940: Fantasia introduces stereo sound to American public. 1941: Stereo is installed in a Moscow movie theater. 1941: FCC sets U.S. TV standards. 1941: CBS and NBC start commercial transmission; WW II intervenes. 1941: Goldmark at CBS experiments with electronic color TV. 1941: Microwave transmission. 1941: Zuse's Z3 is the first computer controlled by software. 1942: Atanasoff, Berry build the first electronic digital computer. 1942: Kodacolor process produces the color print. 1943: Repeaters on phone lines quiet long distance call noise. 1944: Harvard's Mark I, first digital computer, put in service. 1944: IBM offers a typewriter with proportional spacing. 1944: NBC presents first U.S. network newscast, a curiosity. 1945: Clarke envisions geo-synchronous communication satellites. 1945: It is estimated that 14,000 products are made from paper. 1946: Jukeboxes go into mass production. 1946: Pennsylvania's ENIAC heralds the modern electronic computer. 1946: Automobile radio telephones connect to telephone network. 1946: French engineers build a phototypesetting machine. 1947: Hungarian engineer in England invents holography. 1947: The transistor is invented, will replace vacuum tubes. 1947: The zoom lens covers baseball's world series for TV. 1947: Holography invented. 1948: The LP record arrives on a viny disk. 1948: Shannon and Weaver of Bell Labs propound information theory. 1948: Land's Polaroid camera prints pictures in a minute. 1948: Hollywood switches to nonflammable film. 1948: Public clamor for television begins; FCC freezes new licenses. 1948: Airplane re-broadcasts TV signal across nine states. 1949: Network TV in U.S. 1949: RCA offers the 45 rpm record. 1949: Community Antenna Television, forerunner to cable. 1949: Whirlwind at MIT is the first real time computer. 1949: Magnetic core computer memory is invented. 1950: Regular color television transmission. 1950: Vidicon camera tube improves television picture. 1950: Changeable typewriter typefaces in use. 1950: A.C. Nielsen's Audimeters track viewer watching. 1951: One and a half million TV sets in U.S., a tenfold jump in one year. 1951: Cinerama will briefly dazzle with a wide, curved screen and three projectors. 1951: Computers are sold commercially. 1951: Still camera get built-in flash units. 1951: Coaxial cable reaches coast to coast. 1952: 3-D movies offer thrills to the audience. 1952: Bing Crosby's company tests video recording. 1952: Wide-screen Cinerama appears; other systems soon follow. 1952: Sony offers a miniature transistor radio. 1952: EDVAC takes computer technology a giant leap forward. 1952: Univac projects the winner of the presidential election on CBS. 1952: Telephone area codes. 1952: Zenith proposes pay-TV system using punched cards. 1952: Sony offers a miniature transistor radio. 1953: NTSC color standard adopted. 1953: CATV system uses microwave to bring in distant signals. 1954: U.S.S.R. launches Sputnik. 1954: Radio sets in the world now outnumber newspapers printed daily. 1954: Regular color TV broadcasts begin. 1954: Sporting events are broadcast live in color. 1954: Radio sets in the world now outnumber daily newspapers. 1954: Transistor radios are sold. 1955: Tests begin to communicate via fiber optics. 1955: Music is recorded on tape in stereo. 1956: Ampex builds a practical videotape recorder. 1956: Bell tests the picture phone. 1956: First transatlantic telephone calls by cable. 1957: Soviet Union's Sputnik sends signals from space. 1957: FORTRAN becomes the first high-level language. 1957: A surgical operation is televised. 1957: First book to be entirely phototypeset is offset printed. 1958: Videotape delivers color. 1958: Stereo recording is introduced. 1958: Data moves over regular phone circuits. 1958: Broadcast bounced off rocket, pre-satellite communication. 1958: The laser. 1958: Cable carries FM radio stations. 1959: Local announcements, weather data and local ads go on cable. 1959: The microchip is invented. 1959: Xerox manufactures a plain paper copier. 1959: Bell Labs experiments with artificial intelligence. 1959: French SECAM and German PAL systems introduced. 1960: Echo I, a U.S. balloon in orbit, reflects radio signals to Earth. 1960: In Rhode Island, an electronic, automated post office. 1960: A movie gets Smell-O-Vision, but the public just sniffs. 1960: Zenith tests subscription TV; unsuccessful. 1961: Boxing match test shows potential of pay-TV. 1961: FCC approves FM stereo broadcasting; spurs FM development. 1961: Bell Labs tests communication by light waves. 1961: IBM introduces the "golf ball" typewriter. 1961: Letraset makes headlines simple. 1961: The time-sharing computer is developed. 1962: Cable companies import distant signals. 1962: FCC requires UHF tuners on tv sets. 1962: The minicomputer arrives. 1962: Comsat created to launch, operate global system. 1962: Telstar satellite transmits an image across the Atlantic. 1963: From Holland comes the audio cassette. 1963: Zip codes. 1963: CBS and NBC TV newscasts expand to 30 minutes in color. 1963: PDP-8 becomes the first popular minicomputer. 1963: Polaroid camera instant photography adds color. 1963: Communications satellite is placed in geo-synchronous orbit. 1963: TV news "comes of age" in reporting JFK assassination. 1964: Olympic Games in Tokyo telecast live globally by satellite. 1964: Touch Tone telephones and Picturephone service. 1964: From Japan, the videotape recorder for home use. 1964: Russian scientists bounce a signal off Jupiter. 1964: Intelsat, international satellite organization, is formed. 1965: Electronic phone exchange gives customers extra services. 1965: Satellites begin domestic TV distribution in Soviet Union. 1965: Computer time-sharing becomes popular. 1965: Color news film. 1965: Communications satellite Early Bird (Intelsat I) orbits above the Atlantic. 1965: Kodak offers Super 8 film for home movies. 1965: Cartridge audio tapes go on sale for a few years. 1965: Most broadcasts are in color. 1965: FCC rules bring structure to cable television. 1965: Solid-state equipment spreads through the cable industry. 1966: Linotron can produce 1,000 characters per second. 1966: Fiber optic cable multiplies communication channels. 1966: Xerox sells the Telecopier, a fax machine. 1967: Dolby eliminates audio hiss. 1967: Computers get the light pen. 1967: Pre-recorded movies on videotape sold for home TV sets. 1967: Cordless telephones get some calls. 1967: Approx. 200 million telephones in the world, half in U.S. 1968: FCC approves non-Bell equipment attached to phone system. 1968: Intelsat completes global communications satellite loop. 1968: Approx. 200 million TV sets in the world, 78 million in U.S. 1968: The RAM microchip reaches the market. 1969: Astronauts send live photographs from the moon. 1969: Sony's U-Matic puts videotape on a cassette. 1970: Postal Reform Bill makes U.S. Postal Service a government corporation. 1970: In Germany, a videodisc is demonstrated. 1970: U.S. Post Office and Western Union offer Mailgrams. 1970: The computer floppy disc is an instant success. 1971: Intel builds the microprocessor, "a computer on a chip." 1971: Wang 1200 is the first word processor. 1972: HBO starts pay-TV service for cable. 1972: Sony introduces 3/4 inch "U-Matic" cassette VCR. 1972: New FCC rules lead to community access channels. 1972: Polaroid camera can focus by itself. 1972: Digital television comes out of the lab. 1972: The BBC offers "Ceefax," two-way cable information system. 1972: "Open Skies": any U.S. firm can have communication satellites. 1972: Landsat I, "eye-in-the-sky" satellite, is launched. 1972: Sony's Port-a-Pak, a portable video recorder. 1972: "Pong" starts the video game craze. 1973: The microcomputer is born in France. 1973: IBM's Selectric typewriter is now "self-correcting." 1974: In England, the BBC transmits Teletext data to TV sets. 1974: Electronic News Gathering, or ENG. 1974: "Teacher-in-the-Sky" satellite begins educational mission. 1975: The microcomputer, in kit form, reaches the U.S. home market. 1975: Sony's Betamax and JVC's VHS battle for public acceptance. 1975: "Thrilla' from Manila"; substantial original cable programming. 1976: Apple I. 1976: Ted Turner delivers programming nationwide by satellite. 1976: Still cameras are controlled by microprocessors. 1976: British TV networks begin first teletext system. 1977: Columbus, Ohio, residents try 2-way cable experiment, QUBE. 1978: From Konica, the point-and-shoot camera. 1978: PBS goes to satellite for delivery, abandoning telephone lines. 1978: Electronic typewriters go on sale. 1979: Speech recognition machine has a vocabulary of 1,000 words. 1979: Videotext provides data by television on command. 1979: From Holland comes the digital videodisc read by laser. 1979: In Japan, first cellular phone network. 1979: Computerized laser printing is a boon to Chinese printers. 1980: Sony Walkman tape player starts a fad. 1980: In France, a holographic film shows a gull flying. 1980: Phototypesetting can be done by laser. 1980: Intelsat V relays 12,000 phone calls, 2 color TV channels. 1980: Public international electronic fax service, Intelpost, begins. 1980: Atlanta gets first fiber optics system. 1980: CNN 24-hour news channel. 1980: Addressable converters pinpoint individual homes. 1981: 450,000 transistors fit on a silicon chip 1/4-inch square. 1981: Hologram technology improves, now in video games. 1981: The IBM PC. 1981: The laptop computer is introduced. 1981: The first mouse pointing device. 1982: From Japan, a camera with electronic picture storage, no film. 1982: USA Today type set in regional plants by satellite command. 1982: Kodak camera uses film on a disc cassette. 1983: Cellular phone network starts in U.S. 1983: Lasers and plastics improve newspaper production. 1983: Computer chip holds 288,000 bits of memory. 1983: Time names the computer as "Man of the Year." 1983: ZIP + 4, expanded 9-digit ZIP code is introduced. 1983: AT&T forced to break up; 7 Baby Bells are born. 1983: American videotext service starts; fails in three years. 1984: Trucks used for SNG transmission. 1984: Experimental machine can translate Japanese into English. 1984: Portable compact disc player arrives. 1984: National Geographic puts a hologram on its cover. 1984: A television set can be worn on the wrist. 1984: Japanese introduce high quality facsmile. 1984: Camera and tape deck combine in the camcorder. 1984: Apple Macintosh, IBM PC AT. 1984: The 32-bit microprocessor. 1984: The one megabyte memory chip. 1984: Conus relays news feeds for stations on Ku-Band satellites. 1985: Digital image processing for editing stills bit by bit. 1985: CD-ROM can put 270,000 papers of text on a CD record. 1985: Cellular telephones go into cars. 1985: Synthetic text-to-speech computer pronounces 20,000 words. 1985: Picture, broken into dots, can be transmitted and recreated. 1985: U.S. TV networks begin satellite distribution to affiliates. 1985: At Expo, a Sony TV screen measures 40x25 meters. 1985: Sony builds a radio the size of a credit card. 1985: In Japan, 3-D television; no spectacles needed. 1985: Pay-per-view channels open for business. 1986: HBO scrambles its signals. 1986: Cable shopping networks. 1987: Half of all U.S. homes with TV are on cable. 1987: Government deregulates cable industry. 1988: Government brochure mailed to 107 million addresses. 1989: Tiananmen Square demonstrates power of media to inform the world. 1989: Pacific Link fiber optic cable opens, can carry 40,000 phone calls. 1990: Flyaway SNG aids foreign reportage. 1990: IBM sells Selectric, a sign of the typewriter's passing. 1990: Most 2-inch videotape machines are also gone. 1990: Videodisc returns in a new laser form. 1991: Beauty and the Beast, a cartoon, Oscar nominee as best picture. 1991: CNN dominates news coverage worldwide during Gulf War. 1991: Live TV news switching between world capitals during Gulf War looks simple. 1991: Denver viewers can order movies at home from list of more than 1,000 titles. 1991: Moviegoers astonished by computer morphing in Terminator 2. 1991: Baby Bells get government permission to offer information services. 1991: Collapse of Soviet anti-Gorbachev plot aided by global system called the Internet. 1991: More than 4 billion cassette tape rentals in U.S. alone. 1991: 3 out of 4 U.S. homes own VCRs; fastest selling domestic appliance in history. 1992: Cable TV revenues reach $22 billion. 1992: At least 50 U.S. cities have competing cable services. 1992: After President Bush speaks, 25 million viewers try to phone in their opinions. 1993: Dinosaurs roam the earth in Jurassic Park. 1993: Unfounded rumors fly that cellphones cause brain cancer. 1993: Demand begins for "V-chip" to block out violent television programs. 1993: 1 in 3 Americans does some work at home instead of driving to work. 1994: After 25 years, U.S. government privatizes Internet management. 1994: Rolling Stones concert goes to 200 workstations worldwide on Internet "MBone." 1994: To reduce Western influence, a dozen nations ban or restrict satellite dishes. 1994: Prodigy bulletin board fields 12,000 messages in one after after L.A. quake. 1995: CD-ROM disk can carry a full-length feature film. 1995: Sony demonstrates flat TV set. 1995: DBS feeds are offered nationwide. 1995: Denmark announces plan to put much of the nation on-line within 5 years. 1995: Major U.S. dailies create national on-line newspaper network. 1995: Lamar Alexander chooses the Internet to announce presidential candidacy. Timeline of Technology Type, movable 1447, Gutenberg, German Jigsaw puzzle 1760 Spilsbury English Gas lighting 1792 Murdoch Scottish Electric battery 1800 Volta Italian Kaleidoscope 1817 Brewster Scottish Magnet, electro 1828 Henry American Braille printing 1829 Braille French Calculating machine 1833 Babbage English Photography 1835 Daguerre French Motor, DC 1837 Davenport American Telegraph, magnetic 1837 Morse American Jeans 1847 Strauss German Pin, safety 1849 Hunt American Turbine, gas 1849 Bourdin French Potato chips 1853 Crum American Spectroscope 1859 Kirchoff, Bunsen German Storage battery, rechargeable 1859 Plante French Telegraph, quadruplex 1864 Edison American Typewriter 1867 Sholes, Soule, Glidden American Stock ticker 1870 Edison American Telephone 1876 Bell American Microphone 1877 Berliner American Phonograph 1877 Edison American Cathode ray tube 1878 Crookes English Cash register 1879 Ritty American Lamp, incandescent 1879 Edison American Pen, fountain 1884 Walterman American Photo film, transparent 1884 Eastman, Goodwin American Adding machine 1885 Burroughs American Record, disc 1887 Bell, Tainter American Telegraph, railroad 1887 Woods American Camera, Kodak 1888 Eastman, Walker American Pen, ballpoint 1888 Loud American Kinetoscope 1889 Edison American Zipper 1891 Judson American Addressograph 1892 Rotheim Norwegian Photo, color 1892 Ives American Photo film, celluloid 1893 Reichenbach American Movie machine 1894 Jenkins American Photoelectric cell 1895 Elster German Radio signals 1895 Marconi Italian Tape recorder, magnetic 1899 Poulsen Danish Hearing aid, battery powered 1902 Hutchison American Radio, magnetic detector 1902 Marconi Italian Radio tubediode 1905 Fleming English Radio amplifier 1906 De Forest American Radio tube triode 1906 De Forest American Lamp, neon 1909 Claude French Plastic (Bakelite) 1909 Baekeland American Radio receiver, cascade tuning 1913 Alexanderson American Radio receiver, heterodyne 1913 Fessenden American Radio tube oscillator 1915 De Forest American Radio crystal oscillator 1918 Nicolson American Television, iconoscope 1923 Zworykin American Loudspeaker, dynamic 1924 Rice, Kellogg American Movie, talking 1927 Warner Bros. American Television, electronic 1927 Farnsworth American Computer, automatic sequence 1944 Aiken et al American Record, long playing 1947 Goldmark American Transistor 1947 Shockley, Brattain American Camera, Polaroid Land 1948 Land American Velcro fastener 1948 de Mestral Swiss Movie, panoramic 1952 Waller American Laser 1960 Maiman American Videotape recorder 1960 Ginsberg, Anderson American Videodisc 1978 MCA Disco Vision American CD ROM Drives 1987 IBM American CD 1988 Sony Japanese Wall Street Firsts First organized: May 17, 1792 -- Twenty-four stock brokers signed an agreement to trade with one another beneath a Buttonwood Tree outside 68 Wall Street. First constitution: March 8, 1817 -- A constitution with rules for the conduct of business was adopted. The organization was named the New York Stock & Exchange Board. The name was shortened to New York Stock Exchange in 1863. First incorporated: February 18, 1971 as the New York Stock Exchange, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation. First NYSE members: The 24 brokers who signed the "Buttonwood Agreement" on May 17, 1792. Leonard Bleecker Hugh Smith Armstrong & Barnewall Samuel March Bernard Hart Alexander Zuntz Andrew D. Barclay Sutton & Hardy Benjamin Seixas John Henry John A. Hardenbrook Samuel Beebe Benjamin Winthrop John Ferrers Ephraim Hart Isaac M. Gomez Gulian McEvers Augustine H. Lawrence G. N. Bleecker John Bush Peter Anspach Charles McEvers, Jr. David Reedy Robinson & Hartshorne Most senior member: David Granger - elected February 4, 1926 Member with longest service: Leonard White (member 1889 - 1959) - 69 years, 10 months. First black member: Joseph L. Searles III - elected February 12, 1970 First woman member: Muriel Siebert - elected December 28, 1967 First woman member who regularly worked on the trading floor: Alice Jarcho - elected Oct. 14, 1976, began working on the trading floor on October 28, 1976 Highest price paid for a membership: $1,250,000 - in March 8, 1996 Lowest price paid for a membership: $4,000 - in 1876 and 1878 First member firm to incorporate: Woodcock, Hess & Co., Inc. - 1953 First member firm to "go public" (i.e., sell its shares on the public market): Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette - April 9, 1970 First publicly-traded firm to be admitted as a member firm: Institutional Equity Corporation - January 15, 1971 First member firm to be listed on NYSE: Merrill Lynch - July 27, 1971 First black-owned member firm: Daniels & Bell Inc. - 1971 First listed company: Bank of New York - first corporate stock traded under Buttonwood tree, 1792 Longest-listed company: Con Edison - listed in 1824 as the New York Gas Light Company Oldest listed company: Dexter Corporation - founded 1767; listed 1968 Share volume - first day over: 1 million 1886 5 million 1928 20 million 1968 50 million 1978 100 million 1982 200 million 1984 600 million 1995 Highest volume day: December 15, 1995 - 652,828,674 shares Lowest volume day: March 16, 1830 - 31 shares Dow Jones Industrial Average - record high: 5,642.42 - March 5, 1996 Dow Jones Industrial Average - record low: 28.48 - August 8, 1896 Dow Jones Industrial Average milestones - first close over: 100 - January 12, 1906 (100.25) 500 - March 12, 1956 (500.24) 1,000 - November 14, 1972 (1,003.16) 1,500 - December 11, 1985 (1,511.70) 2,000 - January 8, 1987 (2,002.25) 2,500 - July 17, 1987 (2,510.04) 3,000 - April 17, 1991 (3,004.46) 3,500 - May 19, 1993 (3,500.03) 4,000 - February 23, 1995 (4,003.33) 4,100 - March 24, 1995 (4,138.67) 4,200 - April 4, 1995 (4,201.61) 4,300 - April 24, 1995 (4,303.98) 4,400 - May 10, 1995 (4,404.62) 4,500 - June 16, 1995 (4,510.79) 5,000 - November 21, 1995 (5,023.55) 5,500 - February 8, 1995 (5,539.45) First ticker, 1867 First telephones, 1878 First electro-mechanical annunciator board, 1881 First electric lights, 1883 First pneumatic tubes, 1903 Separate bond ticker system, 1919 Quotation bureau established, 1928 First automated quotation service, 1953 First optical card readers, 1962 First radio pagers, 1966 Electronic ticker display boards, 1966 Designated Order Turnaround (DOT) System, 1976 Intermarket Trading System (ITS), 1978 Facilities Ugrade Program, 1979-80 Electronic Display Book, 1983 SuperDot 250, 1984 Integrated Technology Network, 1994-1996 First home: A rented room at 40 Wall Street in 1817. First building: A 5-story building opened in 1865 at 10 Broad Street, on portion of the NYSE's current site. It was enlarged and remodeled during the 1870s and 1880s and was finally demolished in 1901 to make way for the current building. Present buildings: 18 Broad Street opened in 1903. It is an imposing 8-story, neo-classical building designed by George B. Post. The trading floor featured 16 trading posts, 500 telephones, annunciator boards, a gilded ceiling and huge window walls. 11 Wall Street opened in 1922. Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston. A new trading room was called the Garage because it was added on to the original trading floor. The building has 23 stories of additional office space. 20 Broad Street opened in 1956. A third trading room, the Blue Room, opened in 1969. The Expanded Blue Room opened in 1988. NYSE Chronology 1653 12-foot-high wood stockade is erected across lower Manhattan from river to river to protect Dutch settlers from attacks by the British and Indians. 1685 Surveyors lay out Wall Street along the line of the stockade. 1790 The federal government refinances all federal and state Revolutionary War debt, issuing $80 million in bonds. These become the first major issue of publicly traded securities, marking the birth of the U.S. investment markets. 1792 Twenty-four prominent brokers and merchants gather on Wall Street to sign the "Buttonwood Agreement," agreeing to trade securities on a common commission basis. The New York Stock Exchange traces its beginnings to this historic pact. 1817 The New York brokers establish a formal organization, the New York Stock & Exchange Board (NYS&EB), and rent rooms at 40 Wall Street. 1819 The NYS&EB moves to Washington Hall at Broadway and Reade Street, on the outskirts of town, to escape a yellow fever epidemic. 1825 The opening of the Erie Canal makes New York City the seaboard gateway for the Great Lakes region. New York State bonds, issued to finance the canal, are traded actively on the Exchange. 1827 The NYS&EB moves to the newly completed Merchants' Exchange building at Wall and Hanover Streets. 1830 The first railroad stock, Mohawk & Hudson, is traded on the NYS&EB. Railroad securities will come to dominate trading for the remainder of the century. 1835 Average daily volume on the NYS&EB reaches 8,500 shares, a 50-fold increase in just seven years. The Great Fire destroys over 700 buildings in lower Manhattan, including the Merchants' Exchange. The NYS&EB moves to temporary headquarters for one year and then rents facilities at 43 Wall Street. 1842 The second Merchants' Exchange opens at 55 Wall Street. The NYS&EB rents a large hall on the second floor for $1,500 annually. 1844 The telegraph is invented, broadening market participation by facilitating communication with brokers and investors outside New York City. 1853 The NYS&EB strengthens its listing standards, requiring companies to provide complete statements of shares outstanding and capital resources. 1856 The NYS&EB moves to larger quarters at Lord's Court, 25 William Street. 1857 Collapse of the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company precipitates the Panic of 1857. 1861 At the outbreak of the Civil War, the NYS&EB suspends trading in securities of seceding states. 1863 The New York Stock & Exchange Board changes its name to the New York Stock Exchange. 1865 The Exchange closes for more than a week following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. 1865 The Exchange moves into its first permanent home, at 10-12 Broad Street, just south of Wall Street. This move, together with subsequent purchases of adjacent land, establishes Wall and Broad as the center of securities trading in America. 1866 The first trans-Atlantic cable is completed, providing instantaneous communication between London and New York. 1867 The first practical stock ticker is invented by Edward A. Calahan. 1868 Membership in the NYSE becomes a "property right," enabling members to sell their seats. 1869 To eliminate "watered" stock (shares issued by a company's officer without authorization), the Exchange requires that all shares of listed companies be registered at a bank or other appropriate agency. Only Erie Railroad refuses to comply. Its shares are delisted from trading for several months until it acquiesces. The NYSE merges with the Open Board of Stock Brokers and the Government Bond Department, making the NYSE the undisputed leader among U.S. securities exchanges. 1871 In a major advance to foster more liquid markets, the Exchange adopts a system of continuous trading to replace calls of stocks at set times. As part of the new system, brokers dealing in a particular stock remain at one location on the trading floor, giving rise to the specialist. 1873 Jay Cooke & Company, a prestigious Philadelphia banking firm, fails on September 19 due to overspeculation in railroad stocks. The NYSE closes for ten days as a severe financial panic grips the nation. 1878 The first telephone is installed on the NYSE floor, just two years after Alexander Graham Bell conducts successful tests in Boston. 1879 The Exchange purchases adjacent property and begins to renovate and expand its building, selling 40 new memberships to finance the project. 1881 The first annunciator board is installed for paging members. 1886 The Exchange experiences its first million-share day on December 15. 1892 The New York Stock Exchange Clearing House is organized to centralize and expedite the transfer of securities from broker to broker. 1895 The Exchange recommends that all listed companies send their shareholders annual reports with an income statement and balance sheet. 1898-99 As trading volume soars, the NYSE acquires land immediately to the north and south of its building, thereby assembling an expanded site on which to erect a large new structure. 1901 The NYSE completes plans to tear down its existing structure and erect a large new building on the site. U.S. Steel is launched as the first American corporation capitalized at more than $1 billion. On April 30, the Exchange moves to temporary quarters at the Produce Exchange on Beaver Street, the same day trading volume reaches 3 million shares for the first time. In a spectacular contest between the interests of E.H. Harriman and those of James Hill and J.P. Morgan, Sr., for control of Northern Pacific Railroad, the two competing groups bid the price from $96 per share in late April to $1,000 on May 9. A truce is ultimately negotiated allowing the two groups to control the road jointly and permitting short sellers of Northern Pacific to cover their positions at $150 a share. Annual turnover of shares on the NYSE reaches an all-time high of 319%. 1903 On April 22, the NYSE moves into its new quarters at 18 Broad Street. The new trading floor, still in use today, is 60% larger than the previous floor. 1906 The Dow Jones Industrial Average tops 100 for the first time. 1907 Rumors of financial problems at Knickerbocker Trust, a leading New York bank, trigger a run on banks throughout the city. Thus begins the panic of 1907, regarded as America's most severe financial crisis to date. The panic is stemmed almost single-handedly by J.P. Morgan, Sr., who orchestrates a massive operation to infuse cash into the banks and shore up the stock market. 1913 The Federal Reserve System is established to control credit and bring greater stability to the nation's banking structure. 1914 As armed conflict engulfs Europe, securities exchanges around the world suspend operations to arrest plunging prices. Left as "the only market in which a world panic could vent itself," the NYSE closes its doors on July 31. It does not fully reopen for 4 1/2 months, the longest shutdown in Exchange history. 1914-18 World War I is a turning point. America emerges from the war as a creditor rather than a debtor nation, and Wall Street assumes supplants London as the world investment capital. Over the next decade, more than 1,700 foreign issues will be offered publicly in the United States. 1917-19 More than half the adult population participates in Liberty Loan Drives and learns the rudiments of investing. 1920 The Stock Clearing Corporation is established by the Exchange to develop a centralized system for delivering and clearing securities among members, banks and trust companies. 1922 The Exchange expands by completing a 23-story office tower with additional trading space. 1923 An historic bull market gets underway in the fall. Stock prices will surge ahead, virtually without letup, for the next six years. 1926 The Exchange tightens its listing rules to encourage companies to give equal voting rights to shareholders. 1928 An expanded trading room is opened to handle increased bond volume. 1929 To meet volume growth, the Exchange adds 275 memberships, builds large new trading posts and establishes a central quote system that provides instantaneous bid-ask prices by phone. On September 3, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its 1929 peak of 381.17. Stock prices fall sharply on October 24, "Black Thursday," with record volume of nearly 13 million shares. Five days later, the market "crashes" on volume of over 16 million shares -- a volume level not to be surpassed for 39 years. In popular imagery, the "crash" has come to mark the beginning of the Great Depression. 1930 The 500-character per minute "black box" ticker, nearly twice as fast as previous tickers, is introduced. The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 34% over the course of the year as prices continue their tumble. 1932 The Dow finally reaches bottom in July, down 89% from its 1929 peak. 1933 Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States, promising a "New Deal." The Securities Act of 1933 mandates registering new issues and establishes federal disclosure requirements. 1934 The Securities Exchange Act of 1934 establishes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 1938 Former NYSE president Richard Whitney pleads guilty to embezzlement. 1938 The Exchange implements sweeping organization changes, acting on recommendations of its Conway Committee. William McChesney Martin, Jr., becomes the first full-time salaried president of the Exchange. 1939 The NYSE opens its trading floor gallery to the public. 1941 Continuing the reorganization begun in 1938, the NYSE constitution is revised to centralize administrative authority in the office of the president and his staff. The NYSE delists securities of enemy countries following America's entry into the war. 1942 A membership sells for $17,000, the lowest price in the twentieth century. 1943 Women work on the Stock Exchange trading floor for the first time, ending the men only tradition. 1945 Victorious American troops are welcomed home with ticker tape parades. 1948 Floor employees and support personnel go on strike. The work stoppage lasts one month, but the market remains open. 1949 The longest bull market on record begins. Stock prices will rise, without significant interruption, for the next eight years. 1952 The NYSE, in its first shareowner census, finds that 6,490,000 Americans own common stocks. Saturday trading is eliminated. Trading hours are set at 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. 1953 Volume of 900,000 shares on October 10 marks the last daily volume under 1 million shares. The NYSE permits member firms to incorporate, improving their access to permanent capital. Woodcock, Hess & Co. becomes the first member corporation. The Monthly Investment Plan (MIP) is introduced, enabling investors to purchase stock through regular monthly payments. 1954 The NYSE launches the "Own Your Share of American Business" education and marketing program, aimed at expanding public participation in the stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surpasses its 1929 peak for the first time. 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower suffers a heart attack on September 24, creating a large wave of selling at the NYSE. Both the president and the market recover quickly. The Exchange and its specialists receive high marks for maintaining an orderly market during the crisis. 1961 The Exchange announces plans to build a new headquarters in lower Manhattan. This proposal is cancelled a few years later. Average daily volume on the NYSE exceeds 4 million shares, nearly triple the level immediately following the war. 1963 The assassination of President Kennedy on November 22 forces an emergency early closing of the Exchange to avoid panic selling. 1964 The black box ticker is replaced by the "900" ticker with nearly twice the speed. 1967 Muriel Siebert becomes the first woman member of the Exchange. 1968 As trading volume surges, member firms struggle to process transactions on time. Member firm back offices work around the clock to keep up. The "paperwork crisis" continues for months, spurring increased automation. The Central Certificate Service (CCS) is established to transfer securities electronically, eliminating theneed for physical handling for settlement purposes. CCS is later succeeded by Depository Trust Company. 1968-70 Over a period of two years, about 100 member firms go out of business due to the "paperwork crisis" and a rapidly changing market environment. The Exchange and its members provide over $100 million in financial assistance to customers of firms in liquidation, much of it through the Special Trust Fund created by the Exchange. 1969 The NYSE opens a third trading area, the Blue Room, to meet the demands of increased volume. 1970 Congress creates the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, to protect customers of brokerage firms that fail. Joseph L. Searles III becomes the first black member of the Exchange. Public ownership of member firms is approved. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette is the first to sell shares to the public. One year later, Merrill Lynch is the first to be listed on the NYSE. 1971 The NYSE is incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation. 1972 In an important organizational change to strengthen the role of the public, investors and listed companies in NYSE governance, the 33-member Board of Governors is replaced by a 21-member Board of Directors with 10 public members. Concurrently, James J. Needham becomes the first full-time salaried chairman of the Exchange. 1975 "Mayday:" The Securities and Exchange Commission bans fixed minimum commission rates, a cornerstone of the U.S. securities markets and all other organized exchanges throughout the world. The fully consolidated tape is introduced, reporting trades in NYSE-listed stocks from all markets. 1976 The fully automated Designated Order Turnaround (DOT) system is introduced to electronically route smaller orders. Bruno Des Forges becomes the first non-US member of the Exchange. 1978 The Intermarket Trading System (ITS) is inaugurated, signaling the continued rapid implementation of technology on Wall Street. ITS provides an electronic link between the NYSE and competing exchanges, enabling brokers to access all markets nationwide to find the best purchase or sale price for a security. 1979 The Exchange begins a major upgrading and modernization of its trading floor to increase the use of technology. Expanding into futures trading, the NYSE forms the New York Futures Exchange. 1982 Trading in NYSE Composite Index Futures is initiated on an NYSE subsidiary, the New York Futures Exchange (NYFE). The NYSE registers its first 100 million share day. 1983 Trading in options on NYSE Composite Index Futures is begun on the NYFE. Later in the year, trading is inaugurated in options on the NYSE Composite Index. 1984 The NYSE experiences its first 200 million share day. The Exchange launches SuperDot 250, an electronic order-routing system that links member firms to specialists' posts on the trading floor. Today, more than 98% of the orders through SuperDot are executed and reported back to the originating firm within 28 seconds. 1987 The price of an NYSE seat reaches an all-time high of $1,150,000. On October 19, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experiences its largest one-day drop in history, 508 points. Volume surges to an unprecedented 604 million shares. The next day, volume reaches 608 million shares. 1988 The Individual Investor Express Delivery Service, giving individual investors' market orders priority over all other orders, is inaugurated by the Exchange. The SEC approves a series of actions by the NYSE and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to coordinate procedures between the equities and futures markets, including coordinated circuit breakers to control extreme price movements and the sharing of market surveillance data. The NYSE opens a London office to assist European companies in gaining access to U.S. capital markets and listing on the Exchange. 1990 Through the NYSE's initiative and industrywide cooperation, the process by which trades are compared for accuracy is trimmed from three days to one, reducing uncertainty and costs for the brokerage community. More than 51 million Americans now own stocks, according to the latest NYSE census. 70% of responding shareowners hold NYSE-listed stocks in their portfolios. An industrywide test demonstrates the ability to handle volume in excess of 800 million shares a day. As a major step in meeting investor concerns about market volatility, the NYSE adopts new rules requiring that index arbitrage orders -- which comprise about half of program trading volume -- be executed in a stabilizing manner on any day the Dow Jones Industrial Average moves up or down by 50 points or more. Bond volume on NYSE reaches a new high of $10.9 billion par value. 1991 The Dow Jones Industrial Average exceeds 3,000 for the first time. The Exchange begins two crossing (trading) sessions after the 4 p.m. market close, beginning a process that may lead eventually to 24-hour trading. The NYSE experiences a record year of new listings, with 162 companies representing 4 billion shares worth $87.4 billion, joining the Exchange. 1992 On May 17, the NYSE, one of the world's most vital and enduring financial institutions celebrates its 2ooth anniversary. 1993 Daimler-Benz becomes the NYSE's first German-listed company. The NYSE completes the sale of its New York Futures Exchange subsidiary to the New York Cotton Exchange. 1994 Richard A. Grasso is named to succeed William H. Donaldson as chairman and chief executive officer in 1995. He is the first to rise to that position through the ranks of the professional staff. The SEC approves a uniform shareholder voting rights policy adopted by the NYSE, the American Stock Exchange and the National Associations of Securities Dealers. The number of non-U.S. listed companies grows to a record 204. The total number of listed companies also reaches a record high of 2,570. 1995 Average daily volume surpasses 346 million shares. A total of more than 154 billion shares valued at more than $6 trillion are listed on the NYSE. Q: How many letters are there in the Hawaiian alphabet? A: 12 letters Q: What was the very first video played on MTV? A: Video Killed the Radio Star - The Buggles Q: What climate, out of all the climates in the world, is missing in New Zealand? A: Coral Reef Q: What are the Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes made from? A: Plastic When looking at a map of the distribution of telephone area codes for North America, it appears that they are randomly distributed. I am doubtful that this is the case, however. Does anyone know how the area codes were/are chosen? Originally, back in the middle 1950's when direct dialing of long distance calls first became possible, the idea was to assign area codes with the 'shortest' dialing time required to the larger cities. Touch tone dialing was very rare. Most dialed calls were with 'rotary' dials. Area codes like 212, 213, 312 and 313 took very little time to dial (while waiting for the dial to return to normal) as opposed, for example, to 809, 908, 709, etc ... So the 'quickest to dial' area codes were assigned to the places which would probably receive the most direct dialed calls, i.e. New York City got 212, Chicago got 312, Los Angeles got 213, etc ... Washington, DC got 202, which is a little longer to dial than 212, but much shorter than others. In order of size and estimated amount of telephone traffic, the numbers got larger: San Francisco got 415, which is sort of in the middle, and Miami got 305, etc. At the other end of the spectrum came places like Hawaii (it only got statehood as of 1959) with 808, Puerto Rico with 809, Newfoundland with 709, etc. The original (and still in use until about 1993) plan is that area codes have a certain construction to the numbers: The first digit will be 2 through 9. The second digit will always be 0 or 1. The third digit will be 1 through 9. Three digit numbers with two zeros will be special codes, ie. 700, 800 or 900. Three digit numbers with two ones are for special local codes, i.e. 411 for local directory assistance, 611 for repairs, etc. Three digit codes ending in '10', i.e. 410, 510, 610, 710, 810, 910 were 'area codes' for the AT&T (and later on Western Union) TWX network. This rule has been mostly abolished, however 610 is still Canadian TWX, and 910 is still used by Western Union TWX. Gradually the '10' codes are being converted to regular area codes. We are running out of possible combinations of numbers using the above rules, and it is estimated that beginning in 1993-94, area codes will begin looking like regular telephone prefix codes, with numbers other than 0 or 1 as the second digit. I hope this gives you a basic idea. There were other rules at one time such as not having an area code with zero in the second digit in the same state as a code with one in the second digit, etc .. but after the initial assignment of numbers back almost forty years ago, some of those rules were dropped when it became apparent they were not flexible enough. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator -- Patrick Townson patrick@chinet.chi.il.us / ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu / US Mail: 60690-1570 FIDO: 115/743 / AT&T Mail: 529-6378 (!ptownson) / MCI Mail: 222-4956 Name ten body parts that are spelled with three letters. No slang words. arm, ear, eye, gum, hip, jaw, leg, lip, rib, toe Not strictly body parts or slang: ass, box, bud, bum, fat, fin, gam, gut, lap, lid, mug, ora, orb, ova, paw, pin, pit, pup, pus, tit, wax, yap With two letters: os Name some amazing coincidences. The answer to the question, "Who wrote the Bible," is, of course, Shakespeare. The King James Version was published in 1611. Shakespeare was 46 years old then (he turned 47 later in the year). Look up Psalm 46. Count 46 words from the beginning of the Psalm. You will find the word "Shake." Count 46 words from the end of the Psalm. You will find the word "Spear." An obvious coded message. QED. How many inches in the pole-to-pole diameter of the Earth? The answer is almost exactly 500,000,000 inches. Proof that the inch was defined by spacemen. The speed of light is within 0.1% of 300,000,000 meters/second. The meter and second were defined with respect to the size and rotation rate of the Earth. Proof that the Earth was built by spacemen. How many words do the Eskimo have for snow? Couple of weeks ago, someone named D.K. Holm in the Boston Phoenix came up with the list, drawn from the Inupiat Eskimo Dictionary by Webster and Zibell, and from Thibert's English-Eskimo Eskimo-English Dictionary. The words may remind you of generated passwords. Eskimo English Eskimo English ---------------------------------+---------------------------- apun snow | pukak sugar snow apingaut first snowfall | pokaktok salt-like snow aput spread-out snow | miulik sleet kanik frost | massak snow mixed with water kanigruak frost on a | auksalak melting snow living surface | aniuk snow for melting ayak snow on clothes | into water kannik snowflake | akillukkak soft snow nutagak powder snow | milik very soft snow aniu packed snow | mitailak soft snow covering an aniuvak snowbank | opening in an ice floe natigvik snowdrift | sillik hard, crusty snow kimaugruk snowdrift that | kiksrukak glazed snow in a thaw blocks something | mauya snow that can be perksertok drifting snow | broken through akelrorak newly drifting snow | katiksunik light snow mavsa snowdrift overhead | katiksugnik light snow deep enough and about to fall | for walking kaiyuglak rippled surface | apuuak snow patch of snow | sisuuk avalanche =*= What is the pattern to this list: Boston, MA New York, NY Philadelphia, PA Cleveland, OH Richmond, VA Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL St. Louis, MO Minneapolis, MN Kansas City, MO Dallas, TX San Francisco, CA Each of the cities is a location for a Federal Reserve. The cities are listed in alphabetical order based on the letter that represents each city on a dollar bill. What are some self-referential jokes? Q: What is alive, green, lives all over the world, and has seventeen legs? A: Grass. I lied about the legs. The two rules for success are: 1. Never tell them everything you know. There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who cannot. Q: Why did Douglas Hofstadter cross the road? A: To make this riddle possible. Song from the Sheri Lewis Lambchop hour: This is the song that doesn't end Yes it goes on and on my friend Some people starting singing it not knowing what it was Now they'll continue singing it forever just because (repeat) How long is the answer to this question? Ten letters. (There are endless variations on this theme) When asked to name a color, many people answer "red." What are some other examples of this phenomenon? What's 3 + 7? What's 4 + 6? What's 8 + 2? Name a vegetable. Carrot. Pick a number from 1 to 10. Multiply by 9. Subtract 5. Sum the digits, repeat this step until you have a one digit number. For whatever number you have pick that letter of the alphabet. Think of a country that begins with that letter. Now think of an animal that begins with the second letter of the country. Think of a color usually associated with the animal. So are you a grey elephant from Denmark? In the United States, the first. . . . . RADIO BROADCAST DEMONSTRATION was made by Nathan B. Stubblefield in 1892. He was the first person to transmit the voice by air without the aid of wires. He gave a public exhibition of his invention on January 1, 1902, and on May 30, 1902, in Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, Pa., his voice was heard a mile away from the transmitter. He obtained patent number 887,357, on May 12, 1908, but because of his idiosyncrasies he did not permit knowledge of his invention to be spread abroad. Inability to obtain a fabulous sum for his invention, as well as fear of imparting his secret before the patent was granted, deprived him of the fame which by right of priority should have been his. RADIO PROGRAM BROADCAST was sent by Professor Reginald Aubrey Fessenden on December 24, 1906, from Brant Rock, Mass. The general call "CQ" was heard, followed by a song, the reading of verse, a violin solo, a speech, and an invitation to report on the kind of reception. A 40 h.p. steam engine driving a 35-kilowatt 125-cycle alternator, with rotary spark at a frequency of 250 per second, was used. The antenna consisted of a single straight tube, 36 inches outside diameter, 429 feet high, in 8-foot sections bolted together. (Gleason Leonard Archer, History of Radio to 1926.) SINGER TO BROADCAST was Eugenia H. Farrar, whose voice was broadcast by Lee De Forest December 16, 1907, from Brooklyn Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N. Y., on the occasion of the departure of Admiral Robley Dunglison Evans ("Fighting Bob Evans") on a cruise with the fleet. RADIO LICENSE issued in the United States was granted George Hill Lewis of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1911. EXPERIMENTAL RADIO LICENSE issued by the Department of Commerce following the International Radio Convention and Radio Act of 1912 (37 stat. l. 302), August 13, 1912, was serial number 1, granted St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pa. (3XJ, 2 kilowatts). COMMERCIAL RADIO STATION was 8MK licensed August 20, 1920, now WWJ, Detroit, Mich., which instituted daily service on August 20, 1920, with a program "Tonight's Dinner." Local election returns were broadcast August 31, 1920. KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa., offered a semi-weekly broadcast from November 2, 1920, to December 1, 1920. KDKA was licensed October 27, 1920. ELECTION RETURNS BROADCAST took place on August 31, 1920, when WWJ of Detroit, Mich., broadcast the results of congressional and county primaries. On November 2, 1920, Leo H. Rosenberg of KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pa., broadcast the results of the Harding-Cox presidential election. (An experimental station, the De Forest Radio Laboratory, in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, New York City, broadcast bulletins from the New York American on the results of the Wilson-Hughes election for approximately six hours beginning after dark on November 7, 1916. The broadcasters signed off about 11 p.m., with the announcement that Hughes had been elected.) NEWSPAPER TO OPERATE A RADIO STATION was the News, of Detroit, Mich., which operated station WWJ, Detroit (as 8MK), began operating on August 20, 1920. NEWS PROGRAM was broadcast August 31, 1920, by Station 8MK, owned by the Detroit, Mich., News. The call letters were changed later to WWJ. The station had begun operating on August 20, 1920. RADIO STATION LICENSED was KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa., licensed October 27, 1920. At that time broadcasting was not recognized as such. When broadcasting stations received licenses, WBZ, of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., Springfield, Mass., a 1500-watt station operating on 360 meters, was awarded license No. 224 on September 15, 1921, by the Bureau of Navigation, Department of Commerce. MUNICIPAL RADIO STATION was WRR, Dallas, Tex. (50 watts), established in 1920 to broadcast fire alarms. So that owners of radio receivers could check to determine whether they were tuned to the station, phonograph records were played. In 1925 the station began selling time to sponsors. COLLEGE RADIO STATION was WRUC, Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., which went on the air October 14, 1920. It instituted a series of weekly programs on October 15, 1920, consisting of vocal and instrumental phonograph records. The programs were broadcast from 8 p.m. to 8: 30 p.m. with a three-minute interval. They were initially heard within a 50-mile radius; this increased under favorable weather conditions. A 5 50-watt U-2 transmitter was used. Frederick L. Ganter was President of the Radio Club of Union College; Wendell W. Key, the chief engineer, and Francis J. Candle, the chief operator. The station was owned by the trustees of the college. EDUCATIONAL RADIO STATION LICENSED was WOI, Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, which received the call letters 9Y1 (375 meters frequency, using 100 watts) on November 21, 1921. On April 28, 1922, the station was granted a license to broadcast on 360 meters (834 kc.) using 1000 watts. PRIZE FIGHT BROADCAST was the Jack Dempsey-Billy Miske fight in Benton Harbor, Mich., broadcast September 6, 1920, by WWJ, Detroit, Mich. Miske was knocked out in the third round of the scheduled ten-round fight. PRIZE FIGHT BROADCAST FROM THE RINGSIDE was presented December 22, 1920, from Madison Square Garden, New York City. Joe Lynch of New York City defended his bantamweight title against Peter Herman of New Orleans in a 15-round fight. FOOTBALL GAME (COLLEGIATE) BROADCAST was presented November 25, 1920, by WTAW of College Station, Tex. The game was played on Thanksgiving Day between Texas University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas at College Station. At that time the station was operating under an experimental license and had the call letters 5XB. A spark transmitter was used and the transmission was in code. This was the first play-by-play broadcast of a football game. RELIGIOUS SERVICE BROADCAST was made January 2, 1921, when the Calvary Episcopal Church at Pittsburgh, Pa., broadcast its services through KDKA. The preacher was the Rev. Edwin Jan Van Etten. BASEBALL GAME BROADCAST WITH A PLAY-BY-PLAY DESCRIPTION was aired August 5, 1921, by KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa., the field being connected by wire to the broadcasting station. The National League Pittsburgh Corsairs defeated Philadelphia, 8-5, at Pittsburgh, for their third straight victory. ADVERTISING OR COMMERCIAL RADIO BROADCAST was sponsored by the Queensboro Realty Corporation, Jackson Heights, New York City, on August 28, 1922, over station WEAF, the experimental station of the American Telephone & Telegraph Co., New York City. The commercial rate was $100 for 10 minutes. H. M. Blackwell spoke for 10 minutes about Hawthorne Court, a dwelling in Jackson Heights. NETWORK SPONSORED BROADCAST was "The Eveready Hour," broadcast February 12, 1924, from station WEAF, New York City, to WCAP, Washington, D. C., WJAR, Providence, R. I., under the sponsorship of the National Carbon Company. NEWS PROGRAM (DAILY) was broadcast September 1, 1922, by WBAY, American Telegraph & Telephone Co., New York City, between 4: 30 p.m. and 5: 30 p.m. It was known as "The Radio Digest," and was edited by George F. Thompson. Questions and answers concerning radio were also broadcast. CHAIN BROADCAST was accomplished October 7, 1922, when WJZ and WGY transmitted a World Series game from the field. Ordinary telegraph lines from Newark, N. J., and Schenectady, N. Y., were connected with the Polo Grounds, New York City, where a single microphone connected to these lines completed the requirements. It was not possible to transmit highest and lowest frequencies. Graham McNamee was the announcer. On January 4, 1923, WEAF of New York City and WNAC of Boston, Mass., had repeater points, and amplifiers were provided for faithful reproduction and transmission of both music and speech. ELECTION CAMPAIGN USING RADIO was undertaken by Senator Harry Stewart New, Republican, of Indiana, who waged an unsuccessful campaign for reelection in 1922. He used radio the last five days of the campaign, from October 27 to November 2, 1922, and hired several halls in which loud speakers were placed. He was defeated November 7, 1922, by Samuel Moffett Ralston, the Democratic candidate. PRESIDENT TO BROADCAST BY RADIO was Warren Gamaliel Harding, 29th president (1921-1923). The speech at the dedication of the Francis Scott Key Memorial, at Ft. McHenry, Baltimore, Md., on June 14, 1922, was broadcast by WEAR (now WFBR), Baltimore, Md. His voice was carried over telephone lines to the studio and broadcast from there. His World Court speech on June 21, 1923, at St. Louis, Mo., was transmitted over KSD, St. Louis, and WEAF, New York City. On November 5, 1921, a message from President Harding had been broadcast from Washington, D. C., to 28 countries. It was sent in code over the 25,000-volt RCA station at Rocky Point (near Port Jefferson), L. I., N. Y. PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE TO BE BROADCAST was heard on December 6, 1923, when President Calvin Coolidge delivered his message to a joint session of Congress held in the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C., was broadcast by KSD, St. Louis, Mo.; WCAP, Washington, D. C.; WDAF, Kansas City, Mo.; WEAF, New York City; WFAA, Dallas, Tex.; and WJAR, Providence, R. I. His voice was received over telephone wires. On March 4, 1925, he broadcast his inaugural address. PRESIDENT TO BROADCAST FROM THE WHITE HOUSE was Calvin Coolidge, whose address on George Washington's Birthday, transmitted from his study in the White House, Washington, D. C., on February 22, 1924, was heard on 42 stations from coast to coast. RADIO STATION OPERATING A 50-KILOWATT TRANSMITTER was 2XAG, Schenectady, N. Y., using the 379.5 meter wave band, the same length as WGY, Schenectady, N. Y. The station was tested July 25, 1925, and placed in operation July 29, 1925. RADIO STATION OPERATING A 100-KILOWATT TRANSMITTER was 2XAG, Schenectady, N. Y., which was granted a 30-day permit to operate between the hours of 1 and 2 a.m. It went on the air August 4, 1927. Harry Hadenwater was in charge of broadcasting. RADIO STATION WITH 500,000-WATT POWER was KDKA, Pittsburgh, Pa. Authorized to use call letters W8XAR from June 12, 1936, to May 1, 1938, to test high-power equipment (50 kw to 500 kw), from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. on an experimental basis. INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING LICENSE issued by the Federal Communications Commission was granted October 15, 1927, to the Experimenter Publishing Co., New York City. The frequency was 9,700 kilocycles and the power 500 watts. The station was taken over in 1929 and subsequently moved to Boston, Mass., where it was operated as W1XAL by the World Wide Broadcasting Corporation. TELEVISION LICENSE was issued February 25, 1928, by the Federal Radio Commission to the (Charles Francis) Jenkins Laboratories for the operation of a television broadcast station at 1519 Connecticut Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. using the call letters W3XK. In 1929 the station was authorized to move its transmitter to a location between Silver Spring and Wheaton Md. The station ceased to operate on October 31, 19xx. FREQUENCY MODULATION (FM) CONSTRUCTION PERMIT was granted August 18, 1937, to W1XOJ, the Yankee Network, Inc., Paxton, Mass. It went on the air with scheduled programs in May 1939 and subsequently operated with the highest output power (50 kilowatts) granted previous to World War II. Call letters wee changed to W43B, and later to WGTR. The programs were fed from the studios in Boston, Mass., by FM circuit. MUNICIPAL SCHOOL-OWNED ULTRA-HIGH-FREQUENCY RADIO STATION to receive a license from the Federal Communications Commission was station WBOE, Cleveland, Ohio, granted license No. 1 November 21, 1938, to operate (500 watts, 41,500 kilocycles). Regular classroom lessons and music were broadcast Monday through Friday from 8: 30 a.m. to 4: 30 p.m. The station became an FM station in February 1941. FREQUENCY MODULATION TRANSMITTER TO RECEIVE A COMMERCIAL LICENSE was W47NV, Nashville, Tenn., which operated on a frequency of 44,700 kilocycles with a power of 20,000 watts, licensed to cover a 16,000-square-mile radius. It began operations March 1, 1941, with full commercial status and presented the commercial of Standard Candy Company, Nashville, Tenn. FACSIMILE BROADCAST IN ULTRA-HIGH FREQUENCIES was made December 19, 1933, by station W9XAF, Milwaukee, Wis., on frequencies of 42,000-56,000 kilocycles and 60,000-86,000 kilocycles. RADIO FACSIMILE BROADCASTING ON THE REGULAR BROADCAST BAND was instituted February 4, 1938, by WHO (Central Broadcasting Co.), Des Moines, Iowa. The facsimile was on 1,000 kilocycles from 12: 00 midnight to 12: 36 a.m. RADIO ADVERTISING CONTRACT FOR FREQUENCY MODULATION BROADCASTS was signed December 8, 1940, by the Longines Watch Company and provided for the broadcasting of Longines time signals by W2XOR, New York, for 26 weeks beginning January 1, 1941. On April 1, 1941, the experimental license was replaced with commercial license W71NY, and the station was operating from 8: 30 a.m. until 11: 30 p.m. on a frequency of 47,100 kilocycles. COMMERCIAL TELEVISION LICENSES were granted to 10 stations, May 2, 1941, by the Federal Communications Commission, operations to begin on July 1, 1941. The first license, No. 1, was issued to W2XBS, NBC, which telecast from the Empire State Building using Channel 1. Four sponsors used the services: Lever Brothers., for Spry; Proctor and Gamble, for Ivory Soap; the Sun Oil Company; and the Bulova Watch Company. CONSTRUCTION PERMIT for a commercial television station was granted June 17, 1941, to WNBT of the National Broadcasting Company, New York City, to operate on 50,000-56,000 kilocycles. A license to cover this construction permit was also granted June 17, 1941, effective July 1, 1941. ALL-NEWS RADIO STATION was WINS, New York City, which broadcast news around-the-clock on April 19, 1965, on 1010 AM. Previously, it had broadcast rock 'n' roll. According to National Geographic, scientists have settled the old dispute over which came first -- the chicken or the egg. They say that reptiles were laying eggs thousands of years before chickens appeared, and the first chicken came from an egg laid by a bird that was not quite a chicken. That seems to answer the question. The egg came first. Coca-Cola contains neither coca nor cola. Pepsi originally contained pepsin, therefore the name. An enneahedron is solid with nine faces. Sunbeams that shine down through the clouds are called crespucular rays. In Evanston, Il. a man was pulled over and the cops found 13 grams of crack between his cheeks. That is the most crack ever held in a person's mouth before. Stewardesses is the longest word that can be typed using only the left hand. 0.3% of all road accidents in Canada involve a moose. The one-hundred eleventh element is known as "unnilenilenium" Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes to 10, 9 is estimated to be the pointof total tetonic destruction. 2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided. In the movie Cujo they had to use 5 St. Bernards, plus a head, and a man in a body suit. They had to use around nine '58 Plymouth Furys for Christine. Only one survived the whole movie. The book Dennis pulls out in the library in Christine is the book Christine by Stephen King. In order for the St. Bernards to claw at the car and jump on it in Cujo, they took the dog's favorite toys and put them in speical places. The dogs tried to get them by clawing at the car. Jack Nicholsen had to excercise for the scence in which he chops open the door in The Shining. Drew Barrymore was in two Stephen King films: Firestarter and Cat's Eyes. During the filming of Jurassic Park, Michael Crithon and Steven Spielburg were constantly reminded that the Velociraptor was not as tall as it was in the movie. The common Velociraptor was 4 feet tall. But during the fiming palentologists found a "raptor" dinosaur in Utah. It was the size of the Velociraptors in the movie, so Speilburg and Critchon got off. They named the dinosaur Utahraptor. The longest word in the English language that has only one vowel is "strengths" (nine letters). What number when multiplied by 4 is the same number but with the digits in reverse order? A. 21978 Through a system of canals, the inland city of Moscow is a port for five seas: the White, the Baltic, the Azov, the Black, and the Caspian. A companion tomb was originally to have been built facing the Taj Mahal. The companion would have been identical to the Taj Mahal in every way but its black colour. If electrodes are inserted at opposite ends of a pickle, and electricity is passed through, the pickle will glow. Mozart's real name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart . Another recent study shows that computer users blink an average of 7 times per minute. The average persons blinks 22 times per minute. It has been proven that when a salesperson wears a tie, there is a great statistical difference between making a sale and not making a sale. If you stretch your veins out in one line, they go 96000 kilometres. In Turkey the color of mourning is violet. In most Moslem countries and in China it is white. In 1897 the federal government of the U.S. recalled $26 million dollars worth of one hundred-dollar bills when a counterfeit bill appeared that was so accurate it almost couldn't be distinguished from the real thing. This was the only time in history that fake money was so well desgined that legitimate currency had to be withdrawn. Catherine the Great, one of Russia's most famous rulers wasn't Russian. She was German, and her real name was Sophia, not Catherine. A full moon always rises at sunset. The strawberry is technically not a fruit at all. In botanical terms, fruits are seed-bearing structures which grow from a flower's ovaries, and a strawberry is merely the swollen base of the strawberry flower. The plant's true fruits are the small, hard, nut-like pips embedded on the outside of the flesh. The seeds are contained in the pips. Although there is some evidence that wild strawberries were eaten in prehistoric times, it was not until the 19th century that the popular fruit became widely available. Although the Pony Express was one of the most famous stories of American History, it lasted only nineteen months, from April 1860 to October 1861. It was a complete financial failure. The biggest Pyramid in the world is not in Egypt. It's actually about sixty miles southeast of Mexico City, Mexico. It covers more than forty acres and the largest Egyptian Pyramid, The Great Pyramid at Giza, covers about 13 acres. The world`s first test-tube twins were born in June 1981. The YKK on the zipper of your Levis stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the worlds largest zipper manufacturer. Jessie, an Indian elephant, died in Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia, in 1939 at the age of 77. An average human scalp has 100,000 hairs. There are 45 miles of nerves in the skin of a human being. The horn of the rhinoceros is not bone, it is hair. Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones every year since 1991. In 1963, two years into his Presedency, John F. Kennedy`s popularity in the USA was rated in a Gallup Poll at 76 per cent. A few months later, he was assassinated. Eagles can live in captivity for up to 46 years. Forty-five different kinds of antelope can be found in Africa. In a year, a person`s heart beats 40,000,000 times. Centipedes have between 28 and 354 legs. A person uses more household energy shaving with a hand razor at a sink (because of the water power, the water pump and so on) than he would by using an electric razor. In some volcanic areas such as Iceland, the temperature rises beneath the surface of the earth as high as 680 degrees F (360 degrees C) that engineers can tap the geothermal energy by piping hot water from underground to warm nearby homes, offices and factories. An outdoor swimming pool in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik is heated so effectively by this method that it remains open and in use all year round. Disney`s Donald Duck was originally called Donald Drake. Most people blink about 25 times a minute. A single sheeps fleece might well contain as many as 26 million fibres. We usually think of Montreal, Canada as a cold weather city, and Paris, France as a much warmer city than Montreal, but the fact is that Montreal is south of Paris. King George I of England could not speak English. He was born and raised in Germany and never learned to speak English even though he was King from 1714 to 1727. He left the running of the country to his ministers thereby creating the first government cabinet. Although people in the majority of countries of the world drive on the right side of roads, there are some fifty nations in which people drive on the left. These include England and many of the former English colonies such as Australia and New Zealand -- but not the U.S. or Canada. There are several non-English countries where people also drive on the left including Japan. Napoleon, the famous French general, was not born in France. He was born on the Meditteranean island of Corsica of Italian parents. There are about 5,000 different languages spoken on Earth. The Inca tribe in Peru created the decimal system hundreds of years before it was introduced in Europe. Ancient Egyptian religion divided the human body into 36 parts and each part came under the protection of a god or goddess. The first U.S. coin to bear the words "United States of America," was a penny piece made in 1727. It was also inscribed with the plain-spoken motto: "Mind Your Own Business." 97% of all paper money in the US contains traces of cocaine. Among the first known "dentists" of the world were the Etruscans. In 700 BC they carved false teeth from the teeth of various mammals and produced partial bridgework good enough to eat with. Enough exciting pieces of evidence exist to show that map making actually began in the Stone Age. Cleopatra was more noted for her cunning than her looks, which were plain at best. Legend has it that she actually arranged for herself to meet Julius Caesar by being rolled up inside an oriental rug that she had presented to him as a gift. Before 1941 fingerprints were not accepted as evidence in court. Up to that time it was not an established fact that no two fingerprints are alike. Today, the only time in which fingerprints will not be allowed as evidence is if the defense can prove that there are in fact two identical sets of fingerprints. 2201 Fascinating Facts The Pacific Ocean fills nearly a complete hemisphere of the Earth's surface. Caligula, the demented Roman Emperor from A.D. 37-41, appointed his favorite horse as consul and co-regent of Rome. During the time that the atomic bomb was being hatched by the United States at Alamogordo, New Mexico, applicants for routine jobs like janitor were disqualified if they could read. Illiteracy; in other words, was a job requirement. The reason: The authorities didn't want their trash or other papers read. In 1875 the Director of the United States Patent Office sent in his resignation, and advised the administration that his department be eliminated, because he was convinced there was nothing left to invent. The first contact lens was actually conceived by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 15th century. In Venice in the 16th and 17th centuries prostitutes believed that the higher the heel on their shoe the more men would pay for their services. Consequently a law was passed banning the wearing of high heels because they began to trip in the dark and fall into the canals and die. In ancient Egypt women had more legal rights than those in some countries today. Even when a couple divorced it was understood that the woman was entitled to up to one-half of the estate. When the Mayflower, which took the pilgrims to America, had eventually outlived her usefulness she was dismantled and then reconstructed as a barn. The closest relative to the manatee is the elephant, scientists think the elephant crawled back into the sea to become a manatee. A personal "first aid kit" was found in King Tut's tomb, which included a finger sling and bandages. Ophthalmic surgery was one of the most advanced areas of medicine in the ancient world. Detailed descriptions of delicate cataract surgery with sophisticated needle syringes is contained in the medical writings of Celsus (A.D. 14-37) The bark of the redwood tree is fireproof. Fires in redwood forests take place inside the trees. If Benjamin Franklin had had his way, the Eagle would not be the symbol of the United States. In 1789 he proposed that it be replaced by the turkey. The Great Pyramid at Giza in Egypt, constructed around 2500 B.C., was the tallest building in the world until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889. Egyptian medical writings contain prescriptions for female contraceptives made from crocodile dung. I guess you could see how this worked! Between A.D. 1400 and 1520 the Inca emperors of South America built more than 15,000 miles of roads from sea level to high into the Andes Mountains. A bowl of Wheaties contains twice as much sodium as a bowl of potato chips. The first odometer? Writing in the 1st century B.C., the Roman architect Vitruvius introduced the "hodometer" as a device which enables...a carriage on the road...to know how many miles of a journey it accomplished'. Though he recorded detailed designs and descriptions of his invention it was impractical and never built. Centuries later, even Leonardo Da Vinci attempted to reconstruct this device from these plans without success. One of the preposterous cures for the Black Plague in the 14th century was to place a pig next to the dying person. Three of the first five U.S. Presidents all died on July 4th. They were John Adams, the second President; Thomas Jefferson, the third President, who died the same day as Adams; and James Monroe, the fifth President, who died five years later in 1831. The famous battle of Bunker Hill in the American Revlutionary War was not fought on Bunker Hill but actually on nearby Breed's Hill instead. The world's worst earthquake occured in 1556 in China killing approximately 830,000 people. In the 3rd to 2nd century B.C, Eratosthenes measured the radius of the earth without the use of precision instruments and came within one-percent of the actual value determined by today's space craft technology. Aramadillo babies are identical quads. (clones that is) The hardest word for any lexicographer to define briefly is the Fuegian word "mamihlapinatapai". It means "looking at each other hoping that either will offer to do something which both parties desire but are unwilling to do." Ancestors of both common short-haired and long-haired domestic cats were not indigenous to the United States and were imported from foreign countries, so I proably have royal bloodlines. The average house cat weighs in at 11 pounds. Tylenol and chocolate are both poisionous to cats. The ancestor of all domestic cats is the African Wild Cat which still exists today. In ancient Egypt, killing a cat was a crime punishable by death. In ancient Egypt, mummies were made of cats, and embalmed mice were placed with them in their tombs. In one ancient city, over 300,000 cat mummies were found. In the Middle Ages, during the Festival of Saint John, cats were burned alive in town squares. The first cat show was in 1871 at the Crystal Palace in London. Today there are about 100 distinct breeds of the domestic cat. Genetic mutation created the domestic cat which is tame from birth. Like birds, cats have a homing ability that uses its biological clock, the angle of the sun, and the Earth's magnetic field. A cat taken far from its home can return to it. But if a cat's owners move far from its home, the cat can't find them. Hunting is not instinctive for cats. Kittens born to non-hunting mothers may never learn to hunt. Cats bury their feces to cover their trails from predators. Mother cats teach their kittens to use the litter box. Among other tasks, cats can be taught to use a toilet, come, sit, beg, eat with their paws, heel, jump through a hoop, play a piano, play dead, roll over, open a door, hide food in boxes, shake, and fetch. Cats sleep 16 to 18 hours per day. When cats are asleep, they are still alert to incoming stimuli. If you poke the tail of a sleeping cat, it will respond accordingly. In Great Britain, black cats are thought to bring good luck. Besides smelling with their nose, cats can smell with an additional organ called the Jacobson's organ, located in the upper surface of the mouth. Cats can't taste sweets. The chlorine in fresh tap water irritates sensitive parts of the cat's nose. Let tap water sit for 24 hours before giving it to a cat. The average cat food meal is the equivalent to about five mice. The catgut formerly used as strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments does not come from cats. Catgut actually comes from sheep, hogs, and horses. A large majority of white cats with blue eyes are deaf. White cats with only one blue eye are deaf only in the ear closest to the blue eye. White cats with orange eyes do not have this disability. Neutering a cat extends its life span by two or three years. Pregnant women are advised not to come in contact with cat feces, because it can contain an organism which can affect the unborn child and even cause miscarriage. Ten human years translate to about 60 cat years. A one year old cat is similar in age to an 18 year old human. The real name of "the" Bill Gates is William Henry Gates III. Nowadays he is known as Bill Gates (III). By converting the letters of his current name to the ASCII-values and adding his (III), you get the following: B 66 I 73 L 76 L 76 G 71 A 65 T 84 E 69 S 83 I 1 I 1 I 1 -------------- = 666 Consider the following: M S - D O S 6 . 3 1 77+83+45+68+79+83+32+54+46+50+49 = 666 W I N D O W S 9 5 87+73+78+68+79+87+83+57+53+1 = 666 The cave of Lascaux, painted 17,000 years ago, was discovered by Marcel David, 17 years old. The Flood started on the 17th. Noah's Ark landed on the Mount Ararat (alt. 17,000 feet) on the 17th. The Bible contains 17 (minus 1) references to the number 17. The 17th book is the shortest. Someone has spent 17 years looking for the exact middle point of the Bible. It's the psalm 117 which is the shortest. The longest one is the psalm 119 (divisible by 17). The mummy of King Tutankhamen was wrapped in 17 sheets. The Parthenon is 17 columns long. The Chinese had a bureaucratic constitution with 17 articles. The Alhambra, a beautiful Moorish palace which inspired Escher, is composed of 17 kinds of mosaics (in fact, all of the possible ones). Henry VIII's first wife had 17 children who died before their first birthday. Shakespeare wrote 17 plays in the 17th century. Hamlet reigned for 17 years. His 17th play (Much ado about nothing) is the only one with a number in its title. Beethoven wrote 17 string quartets. The first of Haendel's Water Music took place on July 17, 1717 (the yellow pigs day!). Domenico Zipoli sailed for South-America in 1717 and landed in July 1717. Gossec wrote a symphony in 17 parts. Fermat had been working as an agent for 17 years. Then he became a councillor at the Parliament of Toulouse, where he had been working for 17 years. There is a famous passage in Plato's Theaetetus in which it is stated that Theodorus (Plato's teacher) proved the irrationality of sqrt(3), sqrt(5), ... `taking all the separate cases up to the root of 17 square feet, at which point, for some reason, he stopped'. Marconi used of 17 Tesla's patents (cf ST-Magazine 75, p 54). On the Atari ST, just after the computer is switched on, 17 files at the maximum can be simultaneously displayed in the desk windows, in text display. Try to catch a cockroach and it seems very elusive. They are among the fastest runners,reaching 30 cm per second, but this is only 1.88 KIT /h. But, they lack endurance. The centipede("thousand legger") can move at 50 centimeters a second, 24 miles per hour. A German cockroach can survive a month or more without food, but less than two weeks without water. A tiny biting midge, or "no-seeum," Forcipomyia, beats its hairy wings 62,760 times a minute. When provoked, a bombardier beetle swivels the tip of its abdomen and shoots a jet of boiling chemicals at its attacker. The chemicals are produced in a "reaction chamber" with an explosion you can hear. The spray of foul-smelling, burning vapor is a result of rapid firing. It shoots out at 500-1,000 pulses per second at a temperature of 100°C. The stings of ants, bees and wasps are modified (egg laying tools), used to inject poison in defense or to paralyze prey. More than 50 different chemicals have been identified from various species. Some cause itching, pain, swelling and redness; others destroy cells and spread poison. Honey bees cannot pull their barbed stingers from human skins, and will eventually tear themselves away leaving their stingers behind, dying soon afterwards. Never squash a yellowjacket wasp near the nest. A dying yellowjacket releases an alarm pheromone that alerts its comrades. In less than 15 seconds, yellowjackets within a 15-foot radius will rally to the victim's aid. Butterfly wings are covered with tiny over-lapping scales. The beautiful, iridescent colors are the result from the way some scales reflect light, and depend on structure, not pigment. The largest known butterfly is Queen Alexandra's Birdwing from New Guinea which has a wingspan of approximately 11 inches; the smallest butterfly, the Dwarf Blue from Africa has a wingspan of only one-half inch. Most Monarch butterflies spend the winter in Mexico. Only one roost is known, and more than 14 million Monarchs cluster on branches and trunks of an area that only measures 140 yards wide. Incidentally, the two-way flight averages 2,500 rniles. Under optimum conditions, one female cockroach can produce two million offspring in one year. Average breeding session produces 35,0000 offspring. Each day some forty-five thousand thunderstorms occur worldwide, resulting in as many as one hundred lightning strikes every second. Lightning strikes the earth somewhere more than seventeen million times every day, or about two hundred times every second. A bolt of lightning travels at speeds of up to one hundred million feet per second, or seventy-two million miles per hour. A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface. R Brown, Chicago The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels. Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. You use an average of 43 muscles for a frown. You use an average of 17 muscles for a smile. Every two thousand frowns creates one wrinkle. The average human blinks his eyes 6,205,000 times each year. The average human produces a quart of saliva a day or 10,000 gallons in a lifetime. The average human's heart will beat 3000 million times in their lifetime. The average human will pump 48 million gallons of blood in their lifetime. You burn 26 calories in a one minute kiss. The average human body contains enough: Sulphur to kill all fleas on an average dog, Carbon to make 900 pencils, Potassium to fire a toy cannon, Fat to make 7 bars of soap, Phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads, and Water to fill a ten gallon tank. A person weighs less at high tide. This sentence ends with a period. It is impossible to keep ones eyes open when ones sneezes. Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries. Colgate translates into the command "go hang yourself." "Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive double letters. Detroit, Michigan is the world's largest border city. The shock waves from earthquakes travel faster in a north-south direction through the Earth's inner core than they do east-west. The effect is called anisotropy. In order to build up an immunity to bad humors generally, some Europeans during the Black Death spent an hour a day sniffing in a latrine. Kitchen dishcloths and sponges, notorious for harboring bacteria which can cause foodborne illnesses, can be sanitized by using a household microwave oven. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of California-Davis eliminated E coli 0157: H7 and Staphylococcus and other bacteria by exposing cotton dishcloths and cellulose sponges to microwaves for one minute at the highest setting. Downtown Oshawa, Ont. is built upon quicksand. Special support posts were placed under buildings when constructed because there is no solid bedrock. The largest US state, east of the Mississippi River is Georgia. The U.S. city with the highest rate of lightning strikes per capita is Clearwater, Florida. There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada. In cooking, six drops make a dash. Yak's milk is pink. The blood depicted in the shower scene of the movie "psycho" (you know, that alfred hitchcock flick--) was really chocolate syrup. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. Emus cannot walk backwards. The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of the thirteen blimps are in the United States. John Wilkes Booth's original plan was to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and probably was going to hold him for ransom. Lincoln once had a dream right before the fall of Richmond that he would die. He dreamt that he was in the White House, he heard crying and when he found the room it was coming from he asked who had died. The man said the President. He looked in the coffin and saw his own face. A week later Lincoln died. Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 on Good Friday and in 1995 Good Friday was also on April 14. When Booth shot Lincoln, some people thought it was part of the play. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe all died on July 4th. Jefferson and Adams died at practically the same minute of the same day. The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on October 15, 1794. There is absolutely no documented proof that Betsy Ross designed the American Flag. Atila the Hun was a dwarf. Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory the Tours, Charles 3 of Naples, and the Pasha Hussain were all less than 3.5 feet tall. President Grover Cleveland was a draft dodger. He hired someone to enter the service in his place, for which he was ridiculed by his political opponent, James G. Blaine. It was soon discovered, however, that Blaine had done the same thing himself. President John Tyler had fifteen children. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe all died on July 4th. Jefferson and Adams died at practically the same minute of the same day. The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on October 15, 1794. There is absolutely no documented proof that Betsy Ross designed the American Flag. George Washington was not the first president of the United States. The first president was John Hanson, Maryland's representative at the Continental Congress. On November 5,1781, Hanson was elected by the Constitutional Congress to the office of "President of the United States in Congress Assembled." He served for one year. George Washington left no direct descendants. Though his wife Martha had four children by a previous marriage, Washington never sired a child to continue his line. James Buchanan was the only United States president never to marry. During his term in office, his niece Harriet Lane played the role of First Lady. President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested during his term of office. He was convicted of exceeding the Washington speed limit on his horse and was fined $20. President Franklin Pierce was Arrested while in office for running over an old woman with his horse, but the case was dropped for insufficient evidence in 1853. Andrew Jackson was the first President to be the object of an assassination attempt. Jackson had attended a funeral, and a man named Richard Lawrence came up to him and fired a pistol at point-blank range. The pistol misfired, and before anyone could react, Lawrence pulled another pistol and it too misfired! Instead of running or taking cover, President Jackson preceded to beat the man over the head with his cane. The odds were astronomical that two pistols would misfire. David Prowse was the guy in the Darth Vader suit in Star Wars. He spoke all of Vader's lines, and didn't know that he was going to be dubbed over by James Earl Jones until he saw the screening of the movie. Camel's milk does not curdle. "Mr. Mojo Risin" is an anagram for Jim Morrison. The word "modem" is a contraction of the words "modulate, demodulate." (MOdulateDEModulate) Many hamsters only blink one eye at a time. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. Since 1896, the beginning of the modern Olympics, only Greece and Australia have participated in every Games. February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon. It takes a lobster approximately seven years to grow to be one pound. Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds. No word in the English language rhymes with month. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States. Roger Ebert is the only film critic to have ever won the Pulitzer prize. Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. The first Ford cars had Dodge engines. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors. It takes about a half a gallon of water to cook macaroni, and about a gallon to clean the pot. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously. It's also a potent hallucigen. If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. Lincoln Logs were invented by Frank Lloyd Wright's son. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan." The word accordion comes from the German word "akkord," which means "agreement, harmony." "A pound of termites has more nutrients than a pound of beef or pork," says Frank French of Georgia Southern University. He teaches his students that there are more food sources around them than they think. Students are urged to create new recipes using foods such as wild plants, but more points are given if the students use bugs. The catch: students have to eat their creations as part of their assignment. French doesn't shirk his responsibilities: he eats them too. He notes that roast crickets, for instance, "taste like a fat-laden hors d'oeuvre." However, "the legs aren't very palatable, and the heads are quite objectionable." (AP) ...Mostly, the students learn that the "mystery meat" in the cafeteria may not be so bad after all. It is illegal to have sex in the nude in your back yard or front yard for that matter. However, it is legal if you're wearing a pair of socks or any other piece of clothing. Wayne's World was filmed in two weeks. Ratio of number of breast enhancements each year in Los Angeles compared with number performed in the Eastern U.S.: 4 to 1. Ratio of faces lifts each in L.A. to number in New York: 2 to 1. The first submarine to sink a ship in combat was the Hunley in 1862. It sailed for the Confederate States of America (the south in the Civil War) and was made from an old steam engine boiler. It sank one of the ships blockading Charleston, SC harbor. Incidently, the Hunley *also* sank and is currently being raised by a historical group with the help of the U.S. Navy. The central phenomenon which enables *all* vacuum tubes (or valves to the British) to work is the "boiling" off of electrons from the cathode when the cathode is heated to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. This phenomenon was discovered and pattened by Thomas Edison, and he named it the Edison effect. (The picture tube in your computer monitor uses the Edison effect to operate.) The state flower of Texas is the Bluebonnet. The state tree of Texas is the pecan. The laws about carrying wirecutters in your back pocket and shooting buffalo from a moving train have been repealed (I think...check it out.) In Malaysia, where barn owls were introduced to control plagues of rats, each barn owl family killed about 1,300 rats a year! Tom Cruise's name was Thomas Mapother, before he changed it The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga-horonukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill. Every year has at least one Friday the 13th The Romans took the Greek Perzoma, the first constructed underwear, and the Etruscan succinta, a belt, and created the bikini for athletic use. In a lifetime we replace our skin approximately 1000 times. Ironically, for their first year (1979) nuclear polka band Brave Combo didn't have an accordionist. Then, in 1980 because of Joe King Carrasco and Joe Nick Patoski, the band got a gig in New York. Three weeks before they were to play there, keyboard player Carl Finch decided to trade in his Fender Rhodes for a beginner's accordion. As Finch puts it, just the sight of the accordion was enough to win over the crowd and national press. Since then, Finch says that watching the transformation of peoples' attitidues toward accordions has been one of his most rewarding experiences; the band has even seen accordion ensembles in Japan. He also says that one of his favorite aspects about the instrument is that it's so physical and responsive to a player's emotions. Finch, who led the accordion parade scene in David Byrne's movie "True Stories," adds that Byrne is a charter member of the Dallas chapter of the Texas Accordionists Association. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. The volume of the Earth's moon is the same as the volume of the Pacific Ocean. Spam was invented in 1937. Penguins are found in the Antarctic, not Arctic. CD-ROMs have a maximum capacity of 650Mb, but it's safer to just put 600Mb on them. RAM - Random Access Memory Researchers at the University of Oklahoma have started a study of the way tornados carry debris away from the ground. Historical reports show that pap er can be carried more than 200 miles before settling back to earth. But records of such events are sparse, and those they have found "you have to take with a grain of salt," one researcher said. So why bother? They want to create a model "that would be of use to forecasters if a tornado were to hit a hazardous waste site," she said. They have compiled a number of interesting reports so far. A cow was thrown 10 miles in 1878, a pillow went 20 miles in 1913, a jar of pickles travelled 18 miles in 1917, and, in one 1953 storm, trousers went 30 miles and a wedding gown a full 50 miles. (AP) ...Yes, but they had a head start since they were thrown, not just carried off. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. The Saginaw River in Michigan is the shortest river in the world. Most published species of dinosaurs have been published within the last 20 years. In 1822, Mary Ann Mantell of Sussex, England became the first person in history to discover a dinosaur fossil while correctly identifying it as something that was a part of a large reptile; earlier discoveries were identified as giant men, dragons, and other such large, dead things. However, her husband, Dr. Gideon Mantell, took credit for the discovery and identified the teeth that she found as part of an Iguanodon. Later, he wrongfully identified a body part as a horn, which turned out to be part of the creature's thumb. One of the lenses at the University of Texas' McDonald Observatory has a nick in it because a worker there got mad at something and shot at it. In France there's a place called Y. In Japan there's a place called O. Four fire ant species are found in Texas, three of which are native to the state. The tropical Solenopsis geminata Fabricus and southern Solenopsis xyloni McCook are the most common. Side oats grama is the official state grass of Texas. According to the ancient Chinese, swinging your arms cures headache pain. The human aura cannot be photographed through polyester. The worlds largest crossword-puzzel contained 82951 cells The phone number for the White house is 202-456-1414 Normally there are born 94 females to 100 males. But among quadruplets there are 156 females for evrey 100 males. Guam has seven public elementary schools. Length of beard an average man would grow if he never shaved: 27.5 feet. Amount of time an average man spends shaving: 3350 hours. Number of whiskers on the face of the average man: 30,000. Number of inches whiskers grown per year 5.5. Clouds fly higher during the day than the night. 7'1" Basketball star WiltChamberlain's parents were 5'8". The average person looks at 8 houses before actually buying one. The A & P was the first chain-store business to be established. It began in 1842. A Canadian marine biologist claims to have cultured the world's biggest abalone pearl. Measuring 27 millimetres (just over one inch) across its base, the pearl is approximately five millimetres bigger than its next-largest known counterpart which was cultured in Japan. The Grand Canyon was not seen by a white man until after the Civil War. It was first entered on May 29,1869, by the geologist John Wesley Powell. Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote. Border collies are the most intelligentbreed of dog. The average child will eat 15 pounds of cereal in a year. The average college student produces 640 pounds of solid waste each year, including 500 disposable cups and 320 pounds of paper. There were 5,345 landfills in the U.S. and its terrorities in 1992. A total of 67% of waste was landfilled in 1992, compared to 81% in 1980 and 62% in 1960. More than 15 million tons of waste destined for landfills had to cross a state line to get there. This may change dramatically depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court resolves its upcoming flow control cases. At least 27 states currently have flow control laws. At the current pace, we'll be generating 222 million tons of waste by the year 2000. Currently about 130 million tons of MSW ends up in landfills each year (NSWMA). In a recent survey of World Wastes subscribers, of those owning landfills, 53% expect their site to remain open 10+ years; 12% said 5 to 9 years; 7% reported 3 to 4 years and a whopping 26% said less than 3 years. Subtitle D regulations will provide minimum standards for the nation's public and private landfills. It involves the use of composite liners and having an elaborate monitoring system. The costs of the regs. will result in a regionalized approach for volume-based business and a dramatic decrease of publicly owned facilities. Also specifies that landfill obtain an amount sufficient to close and cap the site and perform care and maintenance for 30 years after closure. The equivalent of ten city blocks of rainforest is destroyed every minute, that's an area the size of Pennsylvania lost every year. 7% of the earth's dry land surface is rainforest, home to more than 50% of the world's plants and animals. A bulldozer must remove 60 rainforest trees to reach one mahogany tree. There are 100 different species of large trees in a single acre of rainforest. "The Chief" in BC,Canada is the worlds second largest rock. The National Cancer Research Institute found that women who eat meat on a daily basis are almost 4 times more likely to get breast cancer than those women who eat little or no meat. Oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface - 360 million square km The average depth of the ocean is 4 km The area of the Pacific Ocean exceeds that of all the land The world's oceans contain 328 million cubic miles of sea water The deepest spot in the ocean is in the Mariana Trench at 11.7 km There may be as many as 6 million diatoms, tiny floating plants in a cubic foot of sea water 86% of fish landings in 1989 were marine 15 of the world's 17 largest fisheries are overfished or in trouble Less than 30% of the coral reefs in Japan, Philippines and Costa Rica are in good or excellent condition People who regularly start each day eating a bowl of cold breakfast cereal tend to consume more fiber and calcium -- but less fat -- than people who breakfast on other foods. An African elephant possesses such "manual" dexterity in his/her trunk tip that he/she can actually turn the pages of a book with it. Elephants are particularly fond of beer and other forms of alcohol; they are known to seek out fermenting durian fruits in S.E. Asia. In parts of the world such as India where elephants are regularly paraded, well-intentioned (and usually foreign) Onlookers will occasionally offer a quart or two of hard liquor to an elephant. Often, the drunken elephant will "run amok" and end up getting shot in order to protect the crowd. The snow goose completes its 3,000 mile return to its Arctic home at an altitude of 3,000 feet and an average speed of 50 miles per hour. It achieves this task on a diet of grass, bulbs, berries and slugs. The risk for developing malignant melanoma has increased 1,800% in the US since 1930. The cancer now claims a life every hour. The ongoing Australian campaign to eliminate its non-native rabbit population by spreading a bunny-killing virus may be working too well. The public is now being warned to be on the alert for hungry eagles attacking motorists on some highways. Bubonic plague killed millions of people throughout Europe in the Dark Ages. In 1996, five cases of plague were reported in the U.S. Percentage of high school seniors with an A average who smoke cigarettes daily: 7. Percentage of seniors with a D average who smoke daily: 46. Researchers have found the fossilized remains of what may be the first vertebrate to fly. Born 250 million years ago, Coelurosauravus jaekeli, was a one-foot long lizard with strange detached rod-like bones in wing area. "X" goes first in Tic-Tac-Toe Jeff Norton's the only Edmonton Oiler who doesn't wear socks under his skates. Ants are social insects and live in colonies which may have as many as 500,000 individuals. Tiny ants can lift objects that weigh more than they do. Ants also have remarkably strong jaws and can give a painful nip. When some species bite, they are able to squirt formic acid from the end of their abdomen into the wound -- making it doubly painful. 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. Worker ants may live seven years and the queen may live as long as 15 years. Traditionally, a jury's decision must be unanimous, although it is legal for a state to allow a majority vote in designated cases. When a jury's member can't agree, it is called a hung jury. When jurors notify a judge that they are deadlocked, the judge usually ends the trial. A new trial is held later with new jurors. The Constitution requires 12 members for juries in Federal courts. While 12 is the traditional number of jurors, some state courts occasionally have fewer than 12 persons on a jury. North Carolina's Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet, is the tallest mountain in the East. When first measured in 1835, it was the highest point in what was then the United States. The nation's highest peak now is Alaska's Mount McKinley, which stands 20,320 feet. An estimated 25 million Americans travel in the nation's 9 million RVs. Over half of likely RV buyers are age 30 to 49. Athletic shoe industry leader Nike spent an estimated $120 million on advertising in 1994. Number two Reebok spent $70 million. The world's largest single mineral hot spring is located in Wyoming's Hot Springs State Park. Millions of gallons of water containing at least 27 different minerals flow through the spring every 24 hours, always at a constant temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. 70% of all boats sold are used in fishing. A body of water was the favorite destination of those responding to last year's Recreation Roundtable survey. An ocean, lake, reservoir or river was the choice for about 40% of the respondents. Fiberglass proved the most popular hull material in a majority of states, with 5.5 million fiberglass boats registered overall. Metal boats came second with 4 million registrations. Wooden boats numbered 279,530. Inflatable craft registrations numbered 65,807. 62,955 commercial passengers went whitewater rafting in Maine in 1994, a 4.3% increase over the previous year. Americans are accorded about 130 leisure days per year. In comparison, first-century Romans had only 66 free days per year, while three centuries later their imperial descendants enjoyed 175.Englishmen of the early 16th century had over 200 days off, but the Khmer Rouge allowed Cambodians fewer than 40 work-free days per year in the 1970s. The Finlandia Vodka Clean Water Challenge is the world's longest endurance kayak race and the biggest purse in paddlesports. The race, which kicks off in Chicago on July 11 and finishes in New York City on August 10, will cover approximately 800 miles of waterways. The total purse is $75,000. A few Wright flyers were equipped with radiotelegraphs. This early avionics system required a radio operator to ride along just to operate the radio. Many of today's small planes are better equipped electronically than the airliners of the 1950s. A typical four place aircraft can be equipped with satellite navigation, dual 760 channel communication radios, an electronic moving map system, weather radar, an autopilot, and more. The Boeing 777 relies completely on its avionics systems. The triple- redundant flight control system is completely "fly-by-wire." In other words, this airliner has no control cables or hydraulics attached between the control surfaces and the control wheel; when the pilot moves the control wheel, a computer comunicates with another and moves the control surface. All of the avionics systems aboard this aircraft use built in test equipment (BITE) that automatically troubleshoots faults. Mrs. Karen Creamo was the original creator of mayonnaise. On Monday, 16 May 1927, Mrs. C. was trying to create a special treat for her family. She decided to create a sauce to put on the roast beef that she was roasting in the oven, and her creation, mayonnaise, has become loved by millions. Mayonnaise is being studied as a substitute for silicon in breast implants. A typical WWW user has a college education and income in the $50-80K/year range. Turtles possess the ability to absorb oxygen directly from the water in which they swim (kind of like fish). Turtles have special sacs (or bursae) located in the cloaca, a pouch near the tail which contains the rectal and urogenital openings. These bursae are covered with thousands of tiny, fingerlike projections called villi, each filled with tiny blood vessels which absorb oxygen. By drawing water into and out of the cloaca, the turtle can absorb more than enough oxygen to survive. This is how most turtles breathe underwater. Natureboy The ball of food that your tounge creates during chewing is called a "bolus" The Panama Canal actully runs North/South. Packard Bell's Tech Support number is 1-800-733-4411 The free "Hair Club for Men" Video is actully 11: 22 min. long. Number of human beings who could be fed by the grain and soybeans eaten by U.S. livestock: 1,300,000,000 Number of people who will starve to death this year: 20,000,000 A mere ounce of dioxin could kill 10 million people Less than 1 out of every quarter million slaughtered animals is tested for toxic chemical residues. Ice Cream was invented in China in about 200 B.C., when a soft, milk & rice mixture was further solidified by packing it in snow. Roman emperors are alleged to have sent slaves to mountain tops to bring back fresh snow which was then flavored and served as part of their famous food orgies. The first hand-crank ice cream freezer was invented in 1846 by Nancy Johnson. In 1851, Jacob Fussell, a milk dealer in Baltimore, converted his milk plant into the first ice cream plant in the United States. In 1921, the comissioner of Ellis Island made the decision to treat all incoming immigrants to a taste of something truly American, by serving them ice cream as part of their first meal. In 1943, Brigham's ice cream parlours offered three flavors of ice cream--vanilla, chocolate, and coffee--and sold hot fudge sundaes for 20-cents, or 25-cents with nuts. On August 7, 1977, Dennett D'Angelo set a world record for eating 3 pounds, 6 ounces of ice cream in 90 seconds. In 1994, Brigham's used 1,400,000 pounds of sugar to make its delicious ice cream and frozen yogurt products. New Englanders enjoy a hearty 39 pints of ice cream annually, or about 14 pints more per year than the average American. The average medium size piano has about 230 strings . The total string tension in a concert grand is close to Thirty Tons. There are over 10 MILLION pianos in American homes, businesses, and institutions. The first practical piano with an escapement mechanism for the hammers and capable of being played softly and loudly was built in 1726 by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731). During the past 100 years there have been approximately 5000 Brands of pianos placed on the market. Most are still on display in homes or elsewhere. Pianos are made of thousands of pieces of wood glued together to form various parts of the playing mechanism as well as the cabinet. Felt, buckskin, paper, steel, iron, copper, and other materials are also used. Yamaha, established in 1887 was the first piano manufacturer in Japan. Independent studies show that children who learn piano tend to do better in school. This is attributed to the discipline, eye-hand coordination, social skills building, learning a new language (music) and the pleasure derived from making your own music Buckingham palace has over 600 rooms Some birds use stars to orientate themselves during migration. In the Renaissance, two armies clashed in The Battle of Grandson. The victors completely killed the opposing army, but woke the next morning freezing cold. They pulled the clothes from the dead army and tried to put them on over their own. The clothes didn't fit, so they had to slash the garments to get them on. When they marched back to their hometown, the new kick-butt look became slashed clothing. The rumba originated in Cuba Norman Stingley invented the Super Ball Miss Scarlet is the only female single character in CLUE . In the 1960s, animal behavior researchers studied the effects of various substances on spiders. When spiders were fed flies that had been injected with caffeine, they spun very "nervous" webs. When spiders ate flies injected with LSD, they spun webs with wild, abstract patterns. Spiders that were given sedatives fell asleep before completing their webs. Mary Shelly wrote "Frankenstein" at age 19. Vampire bats have fewer teeth than any other bat because they do not have to chew their food. Along with flying, vampire bats can run, jump, and hop with great speed, using their chest muscles to fling themselves skyward. Vampire bats in the same colony support their roostmates by regurgitating blood to bats that are unable to find food. Vampire bats don't suck blood. They make a small incision and lap up the blood of their hosts. One human hair can support 3kg. If one would claim that the shade of the stop light had changed from red to green due to the Doppler effect, he/she would have been going fast enough to earn a $140 million fine. Every year, spain produces enough olives to feed every man, woman, and child 70. A 2x4 is 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". If Texas were a country its GNP would be the fifth largest of any country on earth. If all the roads in Texas were strung end to end, it would go a long way partner. Texas has the second largest outcroping of granite in the world and... it's pink granite .. called enchanged rock (largest is stone mountain Georga (not pink)). Male bees will try to attract sex partners with orchid fragrance. The word "trivia" comes from the Latin "trivium" which is the place where three roads meet, a public square. People would gather and talk about all sorts of matters, most of which were trivial. Burglars in Larch Barrens, Md., tried to cut through a safe using a Lazer Tag gun. More people eat their macaroni and cheese with a fork than with any other utensil. An average of 13 boxes of jello are purchased every second in the united states. The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator." A little known fact about Roman architecture is that they were one of the first civilizations to use cement. The Roman's actually discovered cement by accident. A volcano (I believe it was Mount Vesuvius) dumped the raw materials together in one place and provided enough heat to form raw cement. The Roman's were able to mine cement from the area and use it in their buildings. Many of the ancient buildings in the area are made of cement or concrete (cement mixed with sand and gravel) covered with a layer of marble. When Einstein died he gave his brain to scientists, and they are still picking at it today to surch for signs of a genius. In Toy Story, the carpet designs in Sid's hallway is the same at the carpet designs in The Shining. There was this boy named David who had lived his entire life in a sterile enviroment. He suffered from the rare disease severe combined immune deficiency, his body was unable to fight off the most common germs. He had to live in a clear plastic bubble that is germ free, and he had never been sick, except for his deisese. It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world. The hotel that Lloyd and Harry go to in Dumb and Dumber is the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley Hotel is Stephen King's inspiration for The Shining, and was the place were they fimed The Shining TV mini-series. AM and PM stand for "Ante-Meridian" and "Post-Meridian," respectively, and A.D. actually stands for "Anno Domini" rather than "After Death." When they filmed The Shining the TV mini-series, the little boy who played Danny had to stay in room 217. His mom didn't want him to, for it might have scared the boy. So they taped another number on the door. Leif Erikson was the first European to set foot on North America in the year 1000. Not Columbus. In the Canadian Rockies there are 69 naturally occurring species of mammals. It is very common to see elk, deer, bighorn sheep, coyote and black bear throughout Jasper park. Weightlifting first appeared on the original Olympic program in Athens in 1896. It reappeared in 1904, and has been on the program permanently since 1920. Ties in weightlifting are awarded to the lifter with the lighter bodyweight. If the lifters' bodyweights are exactly the same, the tie is awarded to the lifter who lifted first. In 1916 Mount Edith Cavell was named to honor the heroic British nurse executed during World War 1 for assisting prisoners of war to escape German-occupied Belgium. Essay in French means 'to try, attempt'. Mexico once had three presidents in one day. Blonds have more hair than dark-haired people. Six ounces of orange juice contains the minimum daily requirement for Vitamin C. Orange juice helps the body absorb iron more easily when consumed with a meal. A single bushel of corn can produce: 32 pounds of cornstarch or 33 pounds of corn sweetener or 2.5 gallons of ethanol PLUS 1.6 pounds of corn oil 11.4 pounds of 21% protein gluten feed 3 pounds of 60% gluten meal One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of soda. Did you know that during 1994-95, the drugs used to treat hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the elderly (65 years and over) cost an average of $200 per person? That's more than a 500 per cent increase over 1985-86, when the cost was only $36.56 per person. The largest indoor stage ever built was for Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame World Premiere at the Superdome; 1/3 ACRE, 123 feet by 123 feet. Jasper National Park protects over 10,800 square kilometres of the Rocky Mountain ecosystem which includes a diversity of wildlife, plants, rivers, lakes, glaciers, and magnificent mountains. Parks Canada A shark can grow a new set of teeth in a week. Animators drew nearly 6.5 MILLION black spots for the film "101 Dalmations". The toes of mummies are wrapped individually. After Charles II's Restoration in 1660, the first May Day was celebrated with a 134-foot cedar Maypole erected on The Strand in London. jaydub, Durham, NC The average lifespan of a major league baseball is 7 pitches. The first Ferris Wheel stood 264 feet high, had 36 pendulum cars which carried 60 passengers each (total of 2,160 riders), weighted 1,200 tons and was powered by two 1,000 horsepower engines. The Ferris wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, and was opened to the public on June 21st, 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition. Ferris contracted the construction of the Ferris wheel to a dozen steel companies, since it was so large that no single steel company could produce it. It was produced for a cost of $350,000 (in 1893). The Ferris wheel was so popular that it's cost was recovered within a few weeks, at the exposition. Palisades Amusement Park Historical Society The Australian $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes are made out of plastic. Cleavage is actually a term for how a crystal breaks in specific ways more easily than others depending on its natural shape. A diamond is very hard but if you hit it just right it will cleave very easily. In ancient Greece, "idiot" meant a private citizen or layman. The yo-yo was originally a weapon in the Philippines. The palms of your hands and the soles of your feet cannot tan. Tycho Brahe wore an artificial nose made of gold and silver. Louis XIV took only 3 baths in his lifetime. (?!!?) The Wright brothers' first flight was shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator. 277 medical institutions in the United States operate an organ transplant program. Children spend more time learning about life through media than in 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. American Medical Association Polls show further that three-quarters of the public finds television entertainment too violent. When asked to select measures which would reduce violent crime "a lot," Americans chose restrictions on television violence more often than gun control. American Medical Association Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the smaller, 'lower case' letters. Volleyball is the most popular sport played in American nudist camps. Montgomery was the birthplace of the Civil War as well as the modern Civil Rights Movement. Montgomery is the birthplace of music great Nat King Cole, pop singers Clarence Carter and Toni Tenille, Metropolitan Opera singer Nell Rankin, and blues legend Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton. The Oklahoma bombing suspect obtained a copy of the "Turner Diaries," a book which advocates the violent overthrow of government, off the Internet. The famous physicist and inventor, Tesla, rumourdly developed a ray gun. The pole was later purchased by Sir Isaac Newton, who used it in the support of his telescope. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." The thumb-nail grows the slowest; the middle finger-nail grows the fastest. Seoul, the South Korean capital, just means "the capital" in the Korean language. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age. Einstein discovered the reason for meandering in rivers and streams No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. Scorpions can withstand 200 times more nuclear radiation than humans. There are four cars and eleven lightposts on the back of a ten-dollar bill. The most collect calls are made on Father's Day. Rhode Island is the smallest state with the longest name. The official name, used on all state documents, is Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Children grow faster in the springtime. The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickle the company once had. A peanut is neither a pea nor a nut. The average garden variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head. If you lock you knees while standing long enough, you will pass-out. Montana has a bear: person ratio of 4: 1, dear: person ratio 9: 1 yet no posted speed limit. The youngest letters in the English language are "j," "v" and "w." The celebration of Maryland Day began in Maryland's schools in 1903. That year, teachers from around the State agreed that a special day needed to be set aside for school programs that would help students appreciate the State and its history. They chose March 25 as the day to call Maryland Day. It was on that day in 1634 that Maryland's first colonists left their ships, the Ark and the Dove, and came ashore to five thanks for a safe passage across the Atlantic Ocean. Played throughout the world today, the sport of lacrosse is derived from a Haudenosaunee game of great antiquity called, in Oneida, Ga-lahs. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. 61,000 people are airborne over the US any given hour. The Benwood on French Reef in the Florida Keys is known as one of the most dived shipwrecks in the world. It's a 340-foot-long metal freighter in 30 to 45 feet of water. You'll see schools of sergeant majors and other colorful fish among the patches of coral in the area. Brain damage occurs at an internal temperature of 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Due to precipitaion, for a few weeks, K2 is taller than Mt. Everest. The middle finger, as opposed to other fingers, is given because in midevil times, the middle finger, a useful finger, was cut off as a form of punishment. So, it is shown as in 'Hey, I still have my middle finger!" Sweden has the least number of murders annually. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time. Roses may be red, but violets are, indeed, violet. The smoke detector was invented in 1969. The number of inmates in state and federal prisons has increased more than five-fold from less than 200,000 in 1970 to 1,053,000 by 1994. An additional 490,000 are held in local jails. The Lindeman Center Illinois Avenue, GO, B&O Railroad, Free Parking and Tennessee Avenue are the five aquares in Monopoly on which you're most likely to land. In fiscal year 1995, state and federal governments planned $5.1 billion in new prison construction, at an average cost of $58,000 for a medium security cell. The Lindeman Center The radioactive substance, Americanium - 241 is used in many smoke detectors. On dry, windy days, pollen can travel up to 500 miles. Although tornadoes occur throughout the world, including India and Bangladesh, they are most intense and devastating in the United States. Tornadoes can strike at any time of day, but they are much more frequent in the afternoon and evening, after the heat of the day has produced the hot air that is a requirement of a tornadic thunderstorm. Lawsuits filed by California inmates cost the taxpayers more than $25 million in 1994. 4,363 prisoner lawsuits were filed in 1994. That compares to 1,719 in 1984. 53,312 immate lawsuits were filed nationwide in 1994. California staff attorneys are being paid $98 per hour to defend the state against the prisoner claims. The elephant snout, an African fish, communicates with other fish by emitting an electrical signal -- sort of a fish's version of Morse Code On average, the United States experiences 100,000 thunderstorms each year, causing about 1,000 tornadoes. The National Weather Service says an average of 42 people are killed by tornadoes annually. Go get a buck (you know, a one dollar bill)...Now, look on the back. That pyramid you see on the back of the buck is actually the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States (the well-known eagle on the front). The pyramid represents strength and permanence and has been left unfinished to signify the future growth of the country, and its pursuit of perfection. (The original designers were an optimistic bunch.) Look closely and you'll see 1776 printed along the bottom in Roman numerals. The eye surrounded by the sunburst represents the Deity. The Latin translates to "He has favored our undertakings" and "A new order of the ages." Killer whales have such a good sense of touch that if you dropped a pill into a bucket and feed it to the orca it would eat the fish and spit out the pill. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs. Tom Sawyer was the first novel written on a typewriter. St. Petersburg, FL had 427 consecutive days of sunshine The parachute was invented by Leonardo da Vinci in 1515. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. Elizabeth I of England suffered from anthophobia, a fear of roses. New Jersey was once called Albania. Beethoven dipped his head in cold water before he composed. Killer whales have such a good sense of touch that if you dropped a pill into a bucket and feed it to the orca it would eat the fish and spit out the pill. One of Frank Gilbreth's first "motion studies" concerned the age-old craft of bricklaying. Bricklayers stooped over to pick up every brick and then stooped again to get mortar. Mr. Gilbreth designed and patented special scaffolding to reduce the bending and reaching, increasing output over 100%. At the time, unfortunately, unions resisted his improvements, and most workers persisted in using the old, fatiguing methods. The US Standard railroad gauge (distance between rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches Ever wonder where the term "Work Smarter...Not Harder" originated? Allan F. Mogensen, the creator of Work Simplification, coined the phrase in the 1930s. The 1990s equivalent term is probably "Business Process Reengineering." Octopi have gardens. The phrase: "the whole nine yards" does not, in fact, stem from football. Nine square yards is the amount of material needed to make a fine suit. There are 296 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. A kangaroo can't jump unless its tail is touching the ground. If Barbie were lifesize, her measurements would be: 39-23-33. Handel's Messiah was written in 3 weeks. A fifteen letter word with no letters repeated is "uncopyrightable". Alaska is one fifth of the size of the contiguous United States, and borders two oceans and three seas. Tornadoes travel along the ground at between 0 and 60 mph. A fierce gust of wind blew 45-year-old Vittorio Luise's car into a river near Naples, Italy, in 1983. He managed to break a window, climb out and swim to shore -- where a tree blew over and killed him. Ron Peeples Hay fever is the sixth most prevalent chronic condition in the United States. To store beets, remove the greens and leave about one inch of stem attached (to prevent loss of color and nutrients when cooked). Store in plastic bag and refrigerate up to three weeks. The cooked leafy greens provide vitamin A and potassium, and are low in calories. Every Swiss citizen is required by law to have a bomb shelter or access to a bomb shelter. The mother of Monkees' Mike Nesmith invented White Out (Wite Out.) Craven Walker invented the lava lamp, and its contents are colored wax and water. Lightning is five times hotter than the Sun. Ever wonder why typewriter or computer keyboards are arranged in the so-called "QWERTY" pattern? It was because, in the early days of mechanical typewriters, proficient typists could type so fast that the keys frequently jammed against each other. In an effort to space often-used keys apart to prevent jamming, the familiar but illogical QWERTY pattern was developed. Dolphins don't automatically breath, they have to tell themselves to. Pigs killed off the dodo bird China is the most preferred tourist destination for Macau travellers. Asia Travel Market "PAPYRUS" was favored by the ancient Egyptians as a surface for drawing and painting. The pulp of papyrus, a seed, was widely used until the source was almost exhausted. If you say "laugh it off" you are quoting shakespeare. Before 1859, baseball umpires were seated in padded chairs behind home plate. Rennin, the enzyme obtained from the fourth stomach of a cow and used chiefly in the manufacture of cheese, is capable of coagulating more than 25,000 times its weight of fresh milk. On January 13, 1981, a young girl in Great Britain began sneezing and continued to sneeze for 977 consecutive days. She sneezed an estimated one million times in the first 365 days alone. In February in Madison, Wis., during a routine search of Leonard Hodge, 22, who had been arrested for failure to carry a driver's license, police found cocaine in his underwear. According to a police spokesman, Hodge attempted to exculpate himself by saying the undershorts he was wearing were not his. (Wisconsin State Journal, 2-3-96) IThe term "hay fever" originated in England, where some people suffered allergic symptoms during hay-pitching time. When the symptoms became severe, workers often felt feverish. The longest recorded chicken flight was by a headless Chicken. There is a butterfly in africe with enough poison in it's body to kill six cats An old law in Bellingham,Wash., made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing. The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set in a lunar rover. The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. So if there was a bathtub large enough to hold it (which would be pretty weird to begin with), Saturn would float. It's said that the height of a wave is half of the winds speed in MPH In October, a Redondo Beach, Calif., police officer arrested a driver after a short chase and charged him with drunk driving. Officer Joseph Fonteno's suspicions were aroused when he saw the white Mazda MX-7 rolling down Pacific Coast Highway with half of a traffic-light pole, including the lights, lying across its hood. The driver had hit the pole on a median strip and simply kept driving. According to Fonteno, when the driver was asked about the pole, he said, "It came with the car when I bought it." (Torrance Daily Breeze, 10-24-95) Americans spend an estimated $500 million each year on allergy treatments. In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. They failed. 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world's widest road. There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower. All 17 children of Queen Anne died before she did. The 'spot' on 7UP comes from its inventor who had a red eye. he was albino. Groundhog's day comes from a German legend but the animal was a porcupine. The Chinese built a battery that has lasted 400 years. Chang is the most common last name. A jumbo uses 4,000 gallons of fuel to take off. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' Tomatoes and cucumbers are fruits. There is a place in Norway called "Hell". Montpelier, Vermont, is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald's. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers --they saw it as competition. The IRS would need at least 15 3/4 miles of shelves to store the tax forms they receive each year. There are as many as 78 scenes in a single X-Files episode. A downburst is a downward blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, since the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground. It's not lofted into the air and transported downwind. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class. Diphenhydramine, one of the original antihistamines, is used as a sleeping capsule. The average person spends about two years on the phone in a lifetime. Some insects can live up to a year without their heads. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen. The Red Sea is not Red. Like all bodies of water it appears blue. Its original name is the "Reed Sea" (Yam Suf, in Hebrew). Its modern name is the result of a 17th century typographical error by an English printer. In typesetting a new English translation of a Latin version of the Bible, an "e" was dropped, rendering "Red" in place of "Reed." However, the mountains of Edom to the East turn so red towards sunset, that the mistaken name is ironically appropriate. Rabbits can suffer from heat stroke. There are more donut shops per capita in Canada than in any other country. Under the "Not too good for kids" category...If you live in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and you are under 12 years old, you can not chat on the phone unless a parent is present in the room! If you live in Michigan, did you know it's illegal to place a skunk inside your bosses desk? Some strawberries, called everbearing, produce berries throughout the summer and fall. The strawberry plant has seeds on the outside skin rather than having an outer skin around the seed, as most berries do. They do not however, normally reproduce by seeds. When the fruit is developing, the plant sends out slender growths called runners. These look like strings. They grow on the ground and send out roots in the soil. The roots produce new plants which grow and bear fruit. Sometimes these plants are taken from the soil and replanted to start a new plantation of strawberry plants. The strawberry, as we know it, was originally grown in northern Europe, but species are also found in Russia, Chile, and the United States. The first American species of strawberries was cultivated about 1835. The first American species of strawberries was cultivated about 1835. President John Quincy Adams owned a pet alligator which he kept in the East Room of the White House. President John F. Kennedy could read 4 newspapers in 20 minutes. George Washington carried a portable sundial. All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses, some of them just didn't like to be seen with them in public. Before winning the election in 1860, Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections for various offices. Taft's special "fat man" bathtub was big enough for four average-sized men. Washington's second inaugural address was 133 words long. David Rice Atchinson was President of the United States for exactly one day. President Andrew Jackson spent most of his adult life with a bullet no more than two inches away from his heart as a result of a duel he fought before becoming President. Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Ms. Lincoln drank the milk. Ulysses S. Grant smoked 20 cigars a day. Taft was the last President with facial hair. Jimmy Carter is a speed reader (2000 wpm). Bill Clinton is the first left-handed American president to serve two terms. President Garfield could simultaneously write in Latin with one hand and in Greek with the other. "John has a long moustache" was the coded-signal used by the French Resistance in WWII to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. According to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson loved the soda Fresca so much he had a fountain installed in the Oval Office that dispensed the beverage, which the president could operate by pushing a button on his desk chair. Fresca is a grapefruit- flavored soda sold on the East Coast. Gerald Ford was once a male model. The Tower of Independence clock on the back of a U.S. $100 dollar bill shows the time as 4: 10. Most burglaries happen above the first but below the seventh floor's in hotel. (Due to the fact that most fire hoses can't go above the sixth) X-Files episodes are shot in 12-14 hour days, 10 months a year. Indonesia is an Islamic country where 87% of the religious is Muslim. 6% is Protestant, 3% Roman Catholic, 2% Hindu, 1% Buddhist and 1% has a different religion. The official language is Bahassa Indonesia (a modified form of of Malay). At school all students learn English and on the street a lot of people speak a little bit English. Still some people (mostly older people) speak Dutch. Further there are a lot of local languages. From the total population 82% can read and write. The Volkswagen was originally called the "Strength-Through-Joy-Wagon." In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket. Nude models at two of scotlands art colleges have gone on stikre a time or two in recent years demanding more pay and that the min. studio temp. be 70 degrees F. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used. Much of the food the U.S. shipped to troops in WW I spoiled and went bad, except for the food sent from Oklahoma City, OK. The food shipped from this location had the initials, 'OK' stamped on the crates. Therefore, everyone knew that the food from Oklahoma was, 'OK'. This is why we say, 'OK'. Armadillos can be house broken. The U.S. Naval Observatory declares American time. Everyday, more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. Treasury. Bob Dole is 10 years older than the Empire State Building. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag. The door to the cave in which a bear hibernates is always on the north slope. Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles's Compound Extract of Tomato. The Chinese lettered goldfish is covered with Chinese characters, achieved through thousands of years of crossbreeding. When glass breaks, the cracks move at speeds of up to 3,000 miles per hour. There are 78 synonyms for the adjective red listed in Roget's Thesaurus including: rubicond, erubescent, rufescent, ferruginous, cramoisy and vermeil. They say a picture is worth a thousand words! The Art Paper, The Daler-Rowney Newspaper for Artists, Autumn 1994. The kerosene fungus can live in jet fuel tanks. If there is a minute amount of water in the tank, the fungus can use the fuel as food. Fingernails have a life span of three to six months. That's how long it takes them to grow from base to tip, progressing at the pace of 1.5 inches a year -- or 0.000000047 inches a second. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die. Between the time of death and the onset of rigor mortis in a human body, the contraction of the muscles can cause the body to turn over on its side. The surface area of the lungs in an adult human is 90 square yards. By comparison, the surface area of the skin is only about one square yard. What the hot dog is to America, fish and chips are to England and gyros to Greece, the felafel is to Israel. A traditional felafel sandwich consists of 6 ground, deep-fried chick pea balls stuffed into a pita (pocket bread), along with a portion of traditional Israeli salad (finely cut up tomatoes and cucumbers) and tehina (sesame) sauce. Men are 1.6 times more likely to undergo by-pass surgery than women. Source: ICES Working Paper #5 Public telephones in Israel are no longer operated by tokens as they were in the past. They are now operated by a magnetic card known in Hebrew as a telecart (tel-eh-cart). These plastic cards, the same size and shape as a credit card, are available at post offices, some hotel receptions desks, street kiosks, and dispensing machines. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000. Every 24 hours a leaking water faucet with an opening the size of a pin will waste 170 gallons. Just twenty seconds' worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon. Mailing an entire building has been illegal in the U.S. since 1916 when a man mailed a 40,000-ton brick house across Utah to avoid high freight rates. A cubic mile of ordinary fog contains less than a gallon of water. Americans use over 16,000 tons of aspirin a year. Lightning strikes the earth somewhere more than seventeenmillion times every day, or about two hundred times every second Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin. The Chinese lettered goldfish is covered with Chinese characters, achieved through thousands of years of crossbreeding Original 'Indian Yellow' was obtained at Monghyr, a town in Benghal, from the urine of cows which had been fed on mango leaves. It was found in the bazaars of Panjab in the form of large balls, having an offensive urinous odor. True Indian yellow has been absent from the market for some time; its production is said to have been prohibited in 1908. Present day Indian yellow colors are made of synthetic pigments, alternatives that are less fugitive and less offensive to the nose! Source: The Art Paper, Daler-Rowney Newspaper for Artists, Spring 1994. In Greene, New York, you cannot walk backwards and eat peanuts on the sidewalks during a concert. In Hartford, Connecticut, you may not, under any circumstances, cross the street walking on your hands! A typical double-bed mattress contains as many as two million house dust mites (Demodex folliculorom) A 10-gallon hat barely holds 6 pints. It costs $6,400 to raise a medium-size dog to age eleven. Hallmark makes cards for 105 different relationships. A creep is a metallurgical term for when something that is normally very strong bends because of gravity. This happens to many metals at high temperatures, where they won't melt but they will "creep". Necking is a metallurgical term for when a metal part starts to break. For Example a metal cylinder will begin to decrease its diameter or "neck" shortly before it breaks. Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. president to have been born in a hospital The amount of gold dissolved in the oceans is nearly ten million tons, which is about 180 times the total amount of gold dug in mines in the entire history of humanity Ketchup was once used as a medicine in the United States. In the 1830s it was sold as Dr. Miles's Compound Extract of Tomato. In the 19th century, the British Navy attempted to dispel the superstition that Friday is an unlucky day to embark on a ship. The keel of a new ship was laid on a Friday, she was named H.M.S. Friday, commanded by a Captain Friday, and finally went to sea on a Friday. Neither the ship nor her crew were ever heard of again. If space debris already circling the globe continues to increase at its current rate, the chance that a space shuttle will collid with debris will increase to 1-in-10 flights by the year 2000 Don't know why, but people living in mountain states eat 30% more cookies than other people. Something like 300 people report to emergency rooms across the country every day due to roller blading accidents. One in five of the world's 2.5 million medical doctors are Russian. "Naked" means to be unprotected. "Nude" means unclothed. It seems longer to be sure, but a common housefly only lives for two weeks. They also prefer to breed in the center of a room. The average life span of an umbrella is 1 1/2 years. Tiger cubs are born blind and weigh only about 2 to 3 pounds (1 kg), depending on the subspecies. They live on milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking them to kills to feed. Tigers have fully developed canines by 16 months of age, but they do not begin making their own kills until about 18 months of age. The Tiger Information Center Dairy products make up 29% of all food consumed in the United States. A U.S. House subcommittee determined that the chances your doctor is a phony are 1 in 50. The onion is actually a lily. (!?) Cats have over 100 vocal sounds, whereas, dogs only have about 10. People speak at a rate of about 120 wpm. Issac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every Dewey-Decimal category. You can sail all the way around the world at 60 degrees South latitude. Every day in the United States, people steal $20,000 from coin-operated machines. Americans spend $300 million on clothes every day! Ever been laying in bed, almost asleep and your leg jerks ? It's a conditiion called "hypnagogic myoclonus". Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her doctor supply her with marijuana. Roses cut in the afternoon last longer than ones cut in the morning. America's first nudist organization was founded in 1929, by 3 men. When he's feeling amorous, the male sea otter grabs the female's nose with his teeth. In 1681, the last dodo bird died. You can only smell one twentieth as well as a dog. Deodorant does help the situation some. The tango originated as a dance between two men for partnering practice. An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 sent the Mississippi River backwards. When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food. Most cows give more milk when they listen to music. Pound for pound, wood is stronger than steel. Most gemstones contain several elements. The exception? The diamond. It's all carbon. A silicon chip a quarter-inch square has the capacity of the original 1949 ENIAC computer, which occupied a city block. If the population of the Earth continued to increase at its present rate indefinitely, by 3530 A.D. the total mass of human flesh and blood would equal the mass of the Earth. By 6826 A.D. it would equal the mass of the known universe. The average bank teller loses about $250 every year. By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. The Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first paper money in the colonies which would later form the United States in 1690. To support the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress chartered the Bank of North America in Philadelphia as the nation's first "real" bank in 1781. On the brink of bankruptcy and pressed to finance the Civil War, Congress authorized the United States Treasury to issue paper money for the first time in the form of non-interest bearing Treasury Notes call Demand Notes in 1861. One of the many Tarzans, Karmuela Searlel, was mauled to death on the set by a raging elephant. In 1990, a security thread and microprinting were introduced in $50 and $100 notes to deter counterfeiting by technologically advanced copiers and printers. Notes currently produced are the $1 note, 45% of production time; the $5 and $10 notes, 12% each; $20 note, 26%; $50 note, 2%; and $100 note, 3%. There are two distinct parts to Newfoundland and Labrador. The island of Newfoundland, located at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, is about half way between the centre of North America and Western Europe. Its location has always been key to its history. The Vikings landed here 1,000 years ago and established the first European settlement in the New World. During the past two centuries the island has been the landing site of the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable, the jump-off for the first non-stop air crossing of that great ocean and the spot where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic wireless message. The names of communities and geographical features attest to Newfoundlanders' sense of humour. You'll laugh all the way from Bumble Bee Bight to Ha Ha Bay to Chase Me Further Pond. At Heart's Content you'll find just that, plus the cable station from where telegraph messages traversed the first Trans-Atlantic cable. A group of crows is called a murder. It is illegal to swim in central park. There were 240 pedestrian fatalities in New York City in 1994. A noisy restaurant is 100,000 times as loud as a watch ticking. Rock Concert 1,000,000,000 times as loud. Loud headphones 10,000,000,000. Shotgun blast 1,000,000,000,000. The underwater mating song of the toadfish is so loud that sometimes it can be heard by humans on the shore. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History houses the world's largest shell collection, some 15 million specimens. A smaller museum in Sanibel, Florida owns a mere 2 million shells and claims to be the worlds only museum devoted solely to mollusks. The abbreviation for 1 pound, lb., comes from the astrological sign Libra, meaning balance. There are thirteen blimps in the world. The average surface temperature of the earth climbed to a record high in 1995, 58.7 F. Moreover, the years 1991 through 1995 were warmer than any similar five-year period, including the two half-decades of the 1980s, the warmest decade yet recorded. The Chinese government is funding a scientific expedition to search for human-like ape-men reported to live in remote mountain areas of central China. The massive search will begin April 22 in Shennongjia Valley in central Hubei province. If you took a standard slinky and stretched it out it would measure 87 feet. Most American's car horns beep in the key of F. Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618) was among the first Westerners to become addicted to tobacco. He was so fond of the evil weed that he refused to stop smoking even while being executed. His pipe was reportedly found clenched between his teeth even after his head was removed from his body by the ax. The capital of N.Carolina, the leading tobacco producer in the U.S., bears his name. There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. 1/100 of a second is called a "jiffy". The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was issued on October 15, 1794. There is absolutely no documented proof that Betsy Ross designed the American Flag. Atila the Hun was a dwarf. Pepin the Short, Aesop, Gregory the Tours, Charles 3 of Naples, and the Pasha Hussain were all less than 3.5 feet tall. Horses cannot vomit. Rabbits cannot vomit. Counterfeiters pay attention... A quarter has 119 groove around the edge of it & a dime has 118. Every year, a ton of cement is poured for every person on earth. Australian scientists have identified some species of baby spiders that bite off the limbs of their mothers and slowly dine on them over a period of weeks. The researchers hypothesize the maternal sacrifice keeps the young from eating one another. The names of all the continents end with the letter they start with. In mid 1992 the world contained 1.833 billion Christians. Ratio of the world's Christian population to nonreligious people is 2: 1. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A." Sarin, the nerve gas believed to have been used in the recent Tokyo subway attack, can be made by anyone with an undergraduate degree in chemistry using easily obtainable chemicals and a formula readily available on the Internet. The agent, a type of organophosphate pesticide, causes paralysis by interfering with the breakdown of acetylcholine at nerve junctions. Between 1989 and 1994 natural disasters cost Californians $32 billion dollars. On that same day, 99 American families fall below the poverty line. Somewhere near 33 new consumer products are introduced every day. 13 of them are toys. Almost 18 million pounds of medical trash is generated each day in the U.S. Each of us generates about 3.5 pounds of trash each day. Most of our personal trash consists of paper products. Someone constructs 12 new golf holes every day. That condensed water vapor in the sky left behind by a high-flying jet is a contrail. The odds of being in a plane crash are about 700,000 to 1. 135 million cars travel the nation's streets, roads, and interstates each day. 35 MPH is the average speed most cars travel on interstate highways during peak morning and afternoon rush. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. Walt Disney had wooden teeth. The hundred billionth crayon made by Crayola was Perriwinkle Blue. Montana mountain goats will butt heads so hard their hooves fall off. Lightning strikes the United States 20-30 million times every year. Carolus Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish botanist and pioneering taxonomist, in his " Systema Naturae", published in 1775, classified the orangutan as belonging to the genus homo. However, he had never seen a specimen of the ape. Nor had he seen any of another species which he included in the same genus, the mysterious cat-tailed people " Homo caudatus" which, according to a contemporary account, once consumed the entire crew of a ship--captain and all. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. The Australian emu holds the land speed record for birds at 31 mph. Jetskis produce more pollution per year than barges, tugboats, and cruise ships combined. Lightning, with a temperature hotter than the sun's surface, only forms in clouds with large quantities of ice. Electric charge is generated during the melting and freezing process. A bolt of lightning travels at speeds of up to one hundred million feet per second, or seventy-two million miles per hour. How's this for a long book title? After becoming the first European to cross North America by land north of Mexico, Sir Alexander MacKenzie chronicled his journey in this book: "Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Lawrence through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans." Mosquitoes are the common vector for malaria, encephalitis, yellow fever and dengue fever. Mosquitoes live mostly on nectar and rotting plant material. The female bites humans and many other animals including frogs and snakes to provide additional nutrition for her eggs. During freezing conditions spraying fruit can help protect itself from freezing. The heat given off by the heating process protects the fruit. The ice then forms a barrier of protection from the outside air. Lost time in traffic could cost American businesses up to 100 billion dollars per year. The typical American family has 2-3 cars that each log in 15,000 miles per annum. The very first ice cream cone appeared in St. Louis at the 1904 World's Fair. Knitted socks discovered in Ancient Egyptian tombs have been dated back as far as the 3rd century A.D. 9% of Americans report having been in the prescence of a ghost. The world's largest four-faced clock sits atop the Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Almonds are members of the peach family. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. There are 2,598,960 five-card hands possible in a 52-card deck of cards. There are 1,929,770,126,028,800 different color combinations possible on a Rubik's Cube. Americans spend 1.5 billion dollars every year on toothpaste. Crest is the best-selling brand. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. The golf ball market is worth $602 million. 4/10 adults have guns in their homes The Earth's magnetic field is not permanent. It reverses polarity every few hundred thousand years. 14% of the gross national product goes into health care. The typical American makes 2.2 pilgrimages to the supermarket every week. 31% of us arrive at our grocery store with a list, but it dosen't matter since 2/3 of our purchases are unplanned. If you measure the height of the shelves you will find that the best products are between 51 & 53 inches off the ground. The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him. When we examine the shelves we stand about 4 feet away. Something like 75 acres of pizza are consumed in the United States every day! Two million Americans go to the doctor with heartburn every day. Ever been laying in bed, almost asleep and your leg jerks ? It's a conditiion called "hypnagogic myoclonus". Queen Victoria eased the discomfort of her menstrual cramps by having her doctor supply her with marijuana. In 1994, 73,866 million eggs were produced in the U.S. proving once again the U.S. has the best darn chickens in the world. The world's largest collection of preserved human brains is maintained in a WW II era bomb shelter beneath the Runwell Psychiatric Hospital in Essex, England. 8,000 brains collected over the past 40 years are available for researchers to study. The collection has already provided valuable information on boxing-associated brain damage, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. The typical person spends 35-40 minutes in the grocery store. Every minute thereafter you will spend about $2 per minute. Research has shown that decreasing the background music from 108 beats/minute to 60/minute slows your cart down and you will buy up to 38% more. Not all of West Virginia voted to go with the North. When the State of West Virginia was formed from Virginia in 1863 the three western counties in Virginia voted to go with West Virginia, but West Virginia didn't take them because they were poor. Instead they took three counties that voted to stay with Virginia, because they were richer and they had the B&O railroad. Those counties since split and are 5 Jefferson, Hampshire, Berkley, In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles. About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it. You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day that in any other weather. An average person laughs about 15 times a day. Abnormally high concentrations of carbon dioxide in the vicinity of Mammoth Mountain, a volcano in eastern California have led the US Forest Service to close down a nearby campsite amid reports of near-asphyxiation among campers and forest rangers. Today, there is no summit activity at the volcano, but enough carbon dioxide is seeping out on the flanks to kill large patches of trees The fastest tectonic movement on Earth, 24 cm per year, is at the Tonga microplate near Samoa. It takes 43 of your muscles to form a frown, but only 17 to make a smile. Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas. The condom - made originally of linen - was invented in the early 1500s. Olympus Mons, a volcano found on Mars, is the largest volcano found in the galaxy. It is 370 miles across and rises up 15 miles. Volcanoes on Lo, a moon of Jupiter, produce a poisonous gas called sulphur, instead of lava. One fifth of Earth's flowing lava occurs in Iceland. About 40 percent of Iceland's energy is geothermal. Iceland also has a geothermic phenomena called a geyser. The only other geysers in the world are found at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Rotorua, New Zealand. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn't give her coffee. Preliminary figures indicate that nearly 13,000 people from 41 states developed Lyme disease in 1994. Early treatment with common antibiotics will effectively resolve most cases of the tick-borne infection, but people who do not seek immediate treatment risk developing arthritis and mental disorders. Tamoxifen is the most commonly prescrived antiestrogenic drug used in hormone therapy to treat breast cancer. In many cases the presence or absence of estrogen and progesterone can alter the growth rate of breast cancers. In these cases the cancer is said to be hormone-dependent. This means there is a receptor in the cell (proteins called estrogen receptors) that lets the estrogen molecule enter the cancer cell and promote growth. When estrogen comes in contact with the cells carrying these estrogen receptors, the estrogen binds with the receptors in a way that induces growth of these cancer cells. Tamoxifen can work to block the estrogen receptors that stimulate cancer cell growth. George Washington was not the first president of the United States. The first president was John Hanson, Maryland's representative at the Continental Congress. On November 5,1781, Hanson was elected by the Constitutional Congress to the office of "President of the United States in Congress Assembled." He served for one year. Put simply, a carbonated beverage is a drink with carbon dioxide in it. Carbonated beverages are prepared by adding a flavor concentrate (syrup) and sugar to water, which is then mixed and carbonated under pressure with CO2 gas. They have been made by this general procedure for the past 100 years (Mitchell, 1995). On average, every twelve ounce glass of soda contains from two to four grams of CO2, and every year, the average American consumes forty-seven gallons of soda (Martin, 1992). The Neanderthal's brain was bigger than yours is. In 1865 opium was grown in the state of Virginia and a product was distilled from it that yielded 4 percent morphine. In 1867 it was grown in Tennessee: six years later it was cultivated in Kentucky. During these years opium, marijuana and cocaine could be purchased legally over the counter from any druggist. More than 200 biotech products have now reached the advanced stages of clinical trials. This includes 52 anti-cancer drugs and 36 infection-fighting compounds Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants. In the developing world, fertility rates vary in inverse proportion with literacy rates. For example, Afghanistan, with a female literacy rate of only eight percent has a fertility rate of 6.9 per 1,000 population. Thailand, in contrast, has a literacy rate of 88% and a fertility rate of 2.6/1,000. The most common name in the world is Mohammed. The word "samba" means "to rub navels together." The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be disqualified was to poke someone's eye out. Over 30 million people in the US "suffer" from Diastima. Diastima is having a gap between your front teeth. You spend approximately one seventh of your life on Mondays. The ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact. In 1976 Sarah Caldwell became the first woman to conduct the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike. Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk. Your right lung takes in more air than your left one does. The home team must provide the referee with 24 footballs for each National Football League game. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat. Women's hearts beat faster than men's. Pollsters say that 40% of dog and cat owners carry pictures of the pets in their wallets. Summer heat getting you down? Perhaps you could book a room at "The Ice Hotel" in Jukkasjarvi in Swedish Lapland. The hotel, a large igloo, includes a restaurant, cinema and wedding chapel. Only two U.S. states have experienced volcanic eruptions: Hawaii and Washington. Jet engine uses a special kerosene for its fuel. The combination of kerosene and gasoline is called JP4. Tracing the chemical formula for this fuel is hard as it is a very complex mixture of many liquids. Most of jet internal combustion engines nowadays use highly refined kerosene. The process in combustion usually reduces jet fuels to water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and small fractions of carbon particles, un-reacted bits of the original hydrocarbons, and nitrous oxides. The high concentration vapor released by jet engines is very dangerous as it is an explosive substance. Kerosene has different property than gasoline (which is being used in automobiles) that it has a higher boiling point of 200 - 300 Celsius and it contains hydrocarbons of 12 - 16 carbon atoms. The biggest volcano on Earth is Mauna Loa, located in Hawaii. In the 1930s airplanes dropped bombs to try to stop or reroute the Hawaiian lava flows. In 1980, more than 6 million trees were uprooted or flattened by the blast of Mount St. Helens in Washington. The ash from Mount St. Helens spread 930 miles to the east. Park rangers in northeast Tasmania have reported spotting a rare Tasmanian tiger, which had been thought to be extinct. Also called the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), or the marsupial wolf, the animal is about a meter long, has black stripes and an unusual backwards facing pouch. Once the top of food chain throughout Australia, the thylacine was hunted to extinction in mainland Australia because of its liking for sheep. Bubble gum contains rubber. You can only smell 1/20th as well as a dog. Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star. Bamboo (the tallest grass in the world) can grow up to 90 cm in a day. The lightest calf ever born weighed in a t 14 pounds, 5 ounces. The newly remade "Star Wars" movie contains only four and a half minutes of new footage. There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones. The clippings from one acre of grass can produce 235 pounds of nitrogen, 77 pounds of phosphorus and 210 pounds of potassium in a single season. Most lipstick contains fish scales. Lee Harvey Oswald's cadaver tag sold at an auction for $6,600 in 1992. Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) was the first bacillus ever seen and identified under the microscope. The discovery by Robert Koch in 1876 led Louis Pasteur to developed an attenuated anthrax vaccine, the first such vaccine. This in turn led him to develop the rabies vaccine. Anthrax is a highly infectious animal disease which can be transmitted to humans on contact. During a 24-hour period, the average human will breathe 23,040 times; exercise 7 million brain cells; and speak 4,800 words. The typical human body gives off the amount of heat equivalent to a a 100-watt lightbulb. Bone is stronger, inch for inch, than the steel in skyscrapers. The Human brain has a capacity of 1 trillion bits or about 116.4153 gigabytes. (although recent research goes against this, estimating a value along the lines of 200 megabytes) Adults have about 18 square feet of skin. It weighs 6 pounds. When breathing one inhales 1 pint of air. Risk of having a heart attack is 50% higher on Mondays. The Piraroa Indians of Venezuela roast tarantulas over an open fire and eat them. They taste like nuts. The Vampire Bat has chemicals in its saliva to prevent the victim's blood from clotting for 2-3 minutes. The Vampire Bat can live up to 9 years feeding on the blood of domestic animals, particulary cows, pigs, and horses. They have been known to bite humans. In one year a colony of 100 vampire bats consumes the equivalent of the blood in 25 cows. Given the chance, gray squirrels will eat bird eggs & chicks. A sparrow has more bones in its neck than a giraffe. Cochroaches favorite foods are the glue on the back of stamps & envelopes. Dragonflies have a life span of 24 hours. More than three billion pounds of toxic chemicals were released into the environment in the U.S in 1992 (the last year for which complete records are available). Another four billion pounds of toxics were placed in offsite disposal sites. The longest living insect in the world also makes Ramses II look like a novice (Ramses II fathered more than 160 children)! The queen termite can live up to 50 years and have 30,000 children every day and 500,000,000 children in its life. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. April is Earthquake Preparedness month. For a little added incentive, consider this- The most powerful earthquake to strike the United States occurred in 1811 in New Madrid, Missouri. The quake shook more than one million square miles, and was felt as far as 1,000 miles away. Kurdish villages in northern Iraq are currently being overwhelmed by an invasion of thousands of poisonous snakes including rattlesnakes and yellow vipers. The snakes moved into buildings destroyed by Saddam Hussein's troops and proliferated following an unusually mild winter. Mosquitoes have teeth. We are in the middle of an ice age. Ice ages include both cold and warm periods; at the moment we are experiencing a relatively warm span of time known as an "interglacial period." Geologists believe that the warmest part of this period occurred from 1890 through 1945 and that since 1945 things have slowly begun freezing up again. So much for the greenhouse effect. Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray. Visitors to Columbia should be careful what they drink, warn authorities. Criminals have taken to slipping 'burundanga' into the cocktails of unsuspecting businessmen. Burundanga is obtained from a local plant of the nightshade family called borracherra. When refined it yields scopolamine. The victim loses consciousness and has no recollection of what has transpired...and in the meantime is relieved of various valuables. Shamrocks, worn on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, tend to wilt by the end of the day. A team of scientists at University College of Dublin have developed a new method of growing shamrocks in a polymer gel solution that produces wilt-free plants. However, they note, the seeds were imported from New Zealand. Why are those gossip-hunting spies called eavesdroppers? It is because in Middle English, the water that falls from the eaves of a house was called eavesdrop, and eavesdropper was first used to describe someone who would stand close to a house in order to hear what was going on inside. Less than 7% of the population donates blood The words "assassination"and "bump" were invented by Shakespeare. Something like 4% of what you spend on any given product goes to pay for the packaging. The United States has 5% of the world's popluation, yet consumes 25% of it's energy supply. Six percent of all American men are killed by either their wife or girlfriend - or wife who caught them with their girlfriend. Human blood travels 60,000 miles per day on its journey through the arteries, arterioles and capillaries and back through the venules and veins. From the Middle Ages up until the end of the 19th century, barbers performed a number of medical duties including bloodletting, wound treatment, dentistry, minor operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originates in the Middle Ages, when it was a staff the patient would grip while the barber bled the patient. Approximately 1 out of 25 people suffers from asthma. Only one in 10,000 loggerhead turtle eggs successfully progress from hatchling to adult. Hazards on the beach include crabs, raccoons, seagulls and humans. Once they get into the water the hatchlings must survive a host of sharks and fish. The Roman emperor Commodos collected all the dwarfs, cripples, and freaks he could find in the city of Rome and had them brought to the Colosseum, where they were ordered to fight each other to the death with meat cleavers. It seems that cows are grazing animals. They pretty much like to graze on grass. Grass is found on the ground in the cows' pastures. Other things are also found on the ground in the cows' pastures; things like nuts, bolts, nails and bits of barbed wire. These things, unlike grass, do not sit well in a cows digestive system. Some cows have even died (Oh NO!) from eating these metal things and then trying to pass them through their digestive system. So...for years now, the farmers have been feeding new born cows (calves, I think they're called) magnets. These magnets stay in the cows' stomachs their whole life. Now the cows don't have to pass the metal things through their digestive systems. The cow magnets hold onto the metal. Nobel laureate physicist P.A.M. Dirac was married to the sister of Nobel Laureate physicist Eugene Wigner. A water-balloon filled with one cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 lbs. The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver". High-wire acts have been enjoyed since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Antique medals have been excavated from Greek islands depicting men ascending inclined cords and walking across ropes stretched between cliffs. The Greeks called these high-wire performers neurobates or oribates. In the Roman city of Herculaneum there is a fresco representing an aerialist high on a rope, dancing and playing a flute. Sometimes Roman tightrope walkers stretched cables between the tops of two neighboring hills and performed comic dances and pantomimes while crossing. Betsy Ross was born with a fully formed set of teeth. Betsy Ross's other contribution to the American Revolution, beside sewing the first American flag, was running a munitions factory in her basement. The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross. Devo's original name was going to be De-evolution. They shortened it to Devo. The word electricity derives from the Greek word 'elektron' meaning amber. The Greeks noted that rubbing amber produced a static charge. Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'. Hypnotism is banned by public schools in San Diego. Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald. In Vermont, USA, it is illegal for women to wear false teeth without the written permission of their husbands. Pigs can become alcoholics. Elephants are the only animal that can't jump. There are 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. An estimated 80% of animals on Earth have six legs, i.e., are insects. The more than 10 quintillion bugs fall into some 800,000 species. Humans are the only animals thatcry tears. Abraham Lincoln's son's lifewas once saved by John Wilkes Booth's brother. In LA, USA, a man may legally beat his wife with a leather strap, as long as it is less than 2 inches wide. The last Coast Guard radio navigation station still using Morse code transmitted its last message on March 31, 1995 from Chesapeake, Virginia. Morse first demonstrated his telegraph to Congress in 1884, sending the famous message from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Md., "What hath God wrought?" Morse's sequence of dots and dashes resembles the modern digital code which forms the basis of modern computer programs. The "caduceus" the classical medical symbol of two serpents wrapped around a staff - comes from an ancient Greek legend in which snakes revealed the practice of medicine to human beings. The phrase, if yelled out in a crowded shopping mall that will attract the most people is: "I DROPPED MY DIAMONDS!" Second hand tobacco smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death, after active tobacco smoking and alcohol use. Environmental tobacco smoke, as it is also called, contributes to more than 50,000 deaths per year in the U.S. alone. SOURCE: UCSF study, JAMA 4/5/95, v.273, n.13. Natural gas, which is the major constituent, is a clean fuel. For the same energy, it produces 40% or more and less carbon dioxide when it burns. It is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect than coal and 25% less than oil. Moreover, natural gas contains almost no sulfur. Unlike coal and oil, it produces little sulfur oxide when it burns, the main contributor to acid rain. Also, there are no combustion residues, such as dust and ash, and no radioactive waste to dispose of. Natural gas is immediate and local compared to oil and nuclear energy. A new man-made fountain opposite the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is now the world's highest geyser, at 600 feet. The geyser's is powered by three 800 hp pumps and discharges water at up to 200 feet per second. The geyser will keep 1,100 gallons of water, weighing 9,200 pounds, in the air when in operation. The 1983 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia was heard in Australia 2,400 miles way. Pieces of pumice from this eruption were found on beaches in Madagascar 4,200 miles away. Ash rose 50 miles into the atmosphere. Tsunamis, or giant waves, were created as the volcano collapsed on itself. Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of "Happy Meals". The dolphins that live in theAmazon River are pink. Vanilla is used to make chocolate. The average adult has 10-12 pints of blood in his body In 1994, total pizza sales in the United States exceeded $20 billion The only father & son to be in the White House were John Adams and John Quincy Adams. In 2000 BC, Egyptians used crocodiledung as a contraceptive. Dr. Seuss coined the word "nerd"in his book If I Ran the Zoo. The condom is named after Dr.Charles Condom. 1/3 of Taiwanese funeral processions includes a stripper. Marie Curie (1867-1934) will become the first woman to rest in the Pantheon, the French national mausoleum reserved for that countries heroes. This honor joins the list of many other firsts associated with Curie. In 1903 she became the first woman to receive the Nobel prize (for physics). In 1911 she became the first person to win a second Nobel prize ( for chemistry). Today's average household in the USA contains more computer power than existed in the world before 1965. The average desktop computer contains 5-10 times more computing power than was used to land a man on the moon. George Washingtons false teeth were made of whale bone. His inauguration speech was 183 words long and took 90 seconds to read. The most playing cards ever held fanned in one hand, so that each card could be read, was 310 cards. The number of dolphins killed in the fishing nets of commercial tuna boats declined from 133,174 in 1986 to 4,080 in 1994. This signficant improvement stills falls short of current U.S. laws. According to Douglas Adams, a Salween is the faint taste of dishwashing liquid in a cup of fresh tea. How many people on this planet share your birthday?... about 10 million. In 1993, 800,000 iguanas were imported into the U.S for use as pets, an increase from 28,000 in 1986. If two flies were left to reproduce without predators or other limitations for one year, the resulting mass of flies would be the size of the Earth! Back in medieval times, no one trusted each other. Everyone was a potential enemy. When two people approached they would stick out their hands to each other to show the stranger they were not carrying a weapon. Both strangers were put at ease knowing that they were not about to be killed. This action of outstretched hands grew and evolved to the modern gesture we know as the handshake. Coca-Cola was originally green. The word "decimate" originated because of a disciplinary method used by the Romans. If an army performed poorly during battle, every tenth soldier would be killed. (From the Latin "decimare", derived from "decimus", or tenth.) The Ulysses Solar Mission revealed that matter flows outward from the South Pole of the Sun at a rate of one million tons per second. Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions. Chinese scientists have identified an unusual "ozone valley'' over the western Tibet-Qinghai plateau with alarmingly low levels of atmospheric ozone, more than ten percent less than in other areas in the same latitude. Chinese and US researchers are evaluating the potential causes of the hole (probably pollution) and potential health problems, including skin cancer. When DDT was first introduced during WW II, new recruits were given DDT-impregnated uniforms and entire city populations (e.g. Naples) were 'dusted' with the chemical. Bills are only printed in seven demoninations now. Think you can name who appears on each of them? Well, in case you don't have any of the new (or old) $100 dollar bills stashed in your piggy bank, here are the answers... $1 - George Washington $2 - Thomas Jefferson $5 - Abraham Lincoln $10 - Alexander Hamilton $20 - Andrew Jackson $50 - Ulysses S. Grant $100 - Benjamin Franklin Q: In Exodus, the first 4 commandments teach what? What do the last 6 teach? A: Love God; Love others Q: How many people were aboard Noah's Ark during the flood? A: 8 (Noah, his wife, their 3 sons & their wives) Q: The phrase, "Be of good cheer" appears how many times in the New Testament? A: 7 times Q: Fill in the blanks with the same word: Be not _____ of evil, but _____ evil with good. (Romans 12: 21) A: overcome Q: In what chapter in Matthew are the following verses: 28: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. 30: For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. A: Matthew 11 Q: ad nauseam (Latin) A: to a sickening degree Q: bona fide (French) A: genuine Q: retro is Latin for ____. A: backward Q: thermo is Greek for _____. A: heat Q: What is the Spanish word for "when"? A: cuando Q: Natives of New Zealand are called __________. A: Maoris Q: Name the country that has 60,000 lakes and over 30,000 islands. A: Finland Q: What are the 4 languages spoken in Switzerland? A: French, German, Italian, and Romansch Q: Pikes Peak can be found in the state of _____. A: Colorado Q: What is the capital of North Dakota? A: Bismarck (39th State admitted) Q: How did World War 1 General Galliani move his troops for the Battle of the Marne in 1914? A: In taxi cabs Q: The Berlin Wall was erected in _____ and dismantled in _____. A: 1961; 1989 Q: What city was created for the purpose of making an atomic bomb? What was the name of the project? A: Los Alamos, New Mexico; The Manhattan Project Q: From 1933 to 1938, what rodent was banned from Germany by Hitler, from the Soviet Union by Stalin, and from Italy by Mussolini? A: Mickey Mouse Q: Peace talks during the Vietnam War were delayed for weeks because of what insignificant matter? A: The shape of the bargaining table Q: In Ian Fleming's James Bond series, what does the 00 in 007 stand for? A: The license to kill Q: Name the 7 actors that have played James Bond in movies. A: Sean Connery, George Lazenby, David Niven, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan. Q: In what Bond movie did Bond fly a small jet through a hanger? A: "Octopussy" Q: What is the name of the actor who plays "Q" in the Bond films? A: Desmond Llewelyn Q: What actor plays agent 006 in "Goldeneye"? A: Sean Bean (also stars as the terrorist Alex Trevelyan who wants revenge on Harrison Ford in "Patriot Games") Q: What is the origin of the term "sideburns"? A: General Burnside (of Civil War fame) began the style of wearing beard-like sideburns. Q: Most people suffer from ergophobia sometime in their life. What is it? A: Fear of or aversion to work Q: What word uses each of the five vowels, plus y, in order? A: Facetiously Q: Someone who suffers from nacrcolepsy _____ _____ at all hours of the day. A: falls asleep Q: Define probity A: integrity; honesty Q: What are the last names of the 2 feuding families in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet"? A: Montague and Capulet Q: This former dentist wrote 54 western romances. A: Zane Gray Q: Name the literary character who was secretly the Godfather A: Don Vito Corleone Q: What famous literary spy prefers his vodka martinis "shaken, not stirred"? A: James Bond Q: What literary work begins with, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."? A: "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball. If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. Hydroxydesoxycorticosterone and hydroxydeoxycorticosterones are the largest anagrams. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula." Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots The band Duran Duran got their name from an astronaut in the 1968 Jane Fonda movie "Barbarella. Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono. Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. The company providing the liability insurance for the Republican National Convention in San Diego is the same firm that insured the maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer. Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth...and whose shame created the expression for ignominy, "His name is Mudd." The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children. If NASA sent birds into space they would soon die, they need gravity to swallow. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life" It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up it's stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of it's mouth. Then the frog uses it's forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. White Out was invented by the mother of Mike Nesmith (Formerly of the Monkees) Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes. Charles Lindbergh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name that was only used once, on the never-aired pilot show. His first name was Willy. The skipper's real name on Gilligan's Island is Jonas Grumby. It was mentioned once in the first episode on their radio's newscast about the wreck. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape. The "L.L." in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. Ivory bar soap floating was a mistake. They had been overmixing the soap formula causing excess air bubbles that made it float. Customers wrote and told how much they loved that it floated, and it has floated ever since. Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself. The saying "it's so cold out there it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey" came from when they had old cannons like ones used in the Civil War. The cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid formation, called a brass monkey. When it got extremely cold outside they would crack and break off... Thus the saying. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself. The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows." A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background -- when they say "walla-walla" it looks like they are actually talking. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don't die throughout the movie. 'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. The Baby Ruth candy bar was actually named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth. A whale's penis is called a dork. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always all the same sex. Armadillos are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs -- it will let you go instantly. Reindeer like to eat bananas. A group of unicorns is called a blessing. Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink." A group of frogs is called an army. A group of rhinos is called a crash. A group of kangaroos is called a mob. A group of whales is called a pod. A group of geese is called a gaggle. A group of ravens is called a murder. A group of officers is called a mess. A group of larks is called an exaltation. A group of owls is called a parliament. Physicist Murray Gell-Mann named the sub-atomic particles known as quarks for a random line in James Joyce, "Three quarks for Muster Mark!" Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie. The phrase "sleep tight" derives from the fact that early mattresses were filled with straw and held up with rope stretched across the bedframe. A tight sleep was a comfortable sleep. "Three dog night" (attributed to Australian Aborigines) came about because on especially cold nights these nomadic people needed three dogs (dingos, actually) to keep from freezing. Question for September 1 Lavina Staller Who was the first woman in the world to complete a triple axel jump in the 1989 World Figure Skating Championships? 1) Midori Ito 2) Surya Bonaly 3) Tonya Harding 4) Nancy Kerrigan Correct Answer:1 Explanation: In 1989 Midori Ito became the first woman to successfully Land a Triple axel jump in competition The jump consists of 3 and 1/2 revolutions in the air. It is considered the most difficult jump. Question for September 2 carl snyder If you needed the services of banalana, you would go to: 1) a bar 2) a grocery store 3) a mystic 4) Syberia 5) nowhere Correct Answer:1 Explanation: a banalana is a female bartender. (Irish) Question for September 3 Craig Fox How many pairs of chromosomes are there in the normal human karyotype? *Hint* To prepare a karyotype you will need a good pair of scissors. 1) one 2) over one billion! 3) twenty three 4) none chromosomes dont really exist 5) ninety two Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Humans normally have 46 chromosomes, but on a karyotype they are laid out as 23 PAIRS of chromosomes. This is why the hint has the word pair in it. I suppose that it could be argued that a karyotype actually has 46 pairs since the chromosomes are in metaphase, but it really doesnt show this. Question for September 4 Matt Andersen - Matt Andersen Bob walks into a post office. He sees a wanted poster. A man comes up to him and says "Do you know that man?" Bob says "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son. Who is the wanted man? 1) Bob's son. 2) Bob's father. 3) Bob's uncle. Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Bob said "Brothers and sisters I have none, but that man's father is my father's son." Bob is his father's son, so he is the father of the wanted guy. Question for September 5 Scott McLoud Who was the only former union president to become U.S. President? 1) Ronald Reagan 2) John F. Kennedy 3) Harry Truman 4) Theodore Roosevelt Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Reagan was the head of the Screen Actor's Guild in the 1950's Question for September 6 Roy Padmore What was the first soccer team to win the European cup for Britain ? 1) Rangers 2) Liverpool 3) Manchester Utd 4) Leeds 5) Celtic Correct Answer:5 Explanation: Manchester Utd was the first English team but the honour of first British team went to Celic from Glasgow, Scotland Question for September 7 Rich Oliver Without looking at a map: If you flew directly south from Miami, which country in South America would you first cross? 1) Colombia 2) Peru 3) Ecuador 4) None - Antarctica would be first 5) Panama Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Panama is in Central America; none of the other countries would ever be crossed. Question for September 8 Stephanie Hoban What is the geographical center of Boston, MA? 1) Roxbury 2) Dorchester 3) West Roxbury 4) South Boston 5) North End Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Roxbury is the geographical center of Boston, because it is. Question for September 9 Robert W. Foedisch What was the name of Robert E. Lee's horse ? What was the name of Alexander the great's horse ? 1) Traveller 2) Beucephalus Correct Answer:1 Question for September 10 Talmadge Henderson What musical key do most American car horns beep in? 1) C 2) F 3) B 4) G 5) A Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Most American car horns beep in the musical note "F". Question for September 11 Cheryl Battisti What ER star also starred in "A Few Good Men"? 1) Anthony Edwards 2) Noah Wylie 3) Eriq LaSalle 4) George Clooney 5) Abraham Benrubi Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Noticed this on the previews of A Few Good Men when it came on network tv. Question for September 12 Erin McMullen According to Deep Thought, the second-greatest computer known to man, what is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? 1) 42 2) God 3) A new hard drive 4) Pigs-in-blankets 5) Hitchhiking Correct Answer:1 Explanation: In Douglas Adams' novel "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy," a giant supercomputer was built to determine the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. It was only when the answer was found to be 42 that the people discovered they didn't know what the question was. Question for September 13 Jack Gladden What happened on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 1752? 1) George Washington was born. 2) The Battle of Hastings. 3) The French and Indian War ended. 4) Benjamin Franklin flew a kite in a thunderstorm. 5) Nothing. Correct Answer:5 Explanation: In September 1752 Great Britain and the Colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, losing 11 days in the process. Monday was Sept. 1, Tuesday was Sept. 2, but Wednesday, by decree, became Sept. 14. There was no Sept. 13, 1752. Question for September 14 John Hienz The lenght of the north boundry of the contiguous u.s.-the u.s.- canadian border, excluding Alaska is how many miles long ? 1) 3185 miles 2) 3987 miles 3) 4135 miles 4) 5038 miles 5) 5428 miles Correct Answer:2 Explanation: According to the U.S. geological survey. dept. of the interior the lenght is 3987 miles. Question for September 15 RAY HIBBS YOU ARE A SCIENTIST. YOUR STUDIES SHOW THAT BACTERIA DIVIDES EVERY 20 MINUTES. BUT HERE IS THE PROBLEM:YOU HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW MANY BACTERIA WOULD BE PRODUCED IN 10 HOURS, IF YOU START OUT WITH ONLY ONE BACTERIA. DO YOU THINK YOU CAN HANDLE THE MISSION? 1) 1073741824 2) 60023 3) 87654389 4) 964936975659 5) 23456 Correct Answer:1 Explanation: THE EXPLANATION IS 2 TO THE 30 POWER Question for September 16 Covenant What song holds the record for the longest time on the Billboard Hot 100 list? 1) Hey Jude 2) Thriller 3) Bad 4) Tainted Love 5) Stay the Night Correct Answer:4 Explanation: "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell stayed on the charts for more than 70 weeks, originally hitting 98, up to the top 20, dropping back to the 90's then another jump into the top 20. Question for September 17 David Purcell Suppose you have a rope snugly tied around the earth. For argument's sake, the rope is exactly 40,074 km long. If you wanted to raise the rope so that it is exactly 5 meters above the surface of the earth at all points, approximately how much more rope do you need? 1) 31 meters 2) 78 meters 3) 4 km 4) 129 km 5) 2,347 km Correct Answer:1 Explanation: The circumference of a circle is pi (3.1416) times the diameter. Since you are adding 10 meters to the diameter, the correct answer is approximately 31 meters. Question for September 18 Kim Murrell Which one of Saturn's moons has an atmosphere? 1) Dione 2) Titan 3) Mimas 4) Hyperion 5) Enceladus Correct Answer:2 Explanation: An atmosphere has been observed and photographed on Titan. It is also has oceans of liquid ethane and methane and rainfalls of organic compounds. All this might suggest life, but for the intense cold. Who knows? Question for September 19 Bryan Merrick How many times have the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl? 1) 1 2) 2 3) 3 4) 4 5) 5 Correct Answer:2 Explanation: The Packers won the first two Super Bowls. Vince Lombardi led the team to defeat Kansas City in in the first and the Raiders in the second. Go Pack!!! Question for September 20 In the movie "Braveheart" who was the English King they called "Longshanks"? 1) Richard the Lion Hearted 2) Edward I 3) Edward the Confessor 4) Richard III Correct Answer:2 Question for September 21 keith jackson What should you know when someone parks their car side-ways? 1) they probably couldn't find an angled parking space 2) they have lots of groceries in the trunk to bring up-stairs 3) they are from Wyoming 4) they're the kind of person who believes in making out once 5) they're driving under the influence Correct Answer:4 Explanation: "Little Red Corvette" Lyrics........i guess i shoulda known by the way you parked your car side-ways that it wouldn't last, you see you're THE KIND OF PERSON WHO BELIEVES IN MAKING OUT ONCE....love 'em and leave 'em fast. Question for September 22 What was the shape of the parachute that Leonardo DaVinci invented? 1) A pyramid 2) A rectangle 3) Umbrella-like 4) Kind of like a small rodent 5) The same shape of today's parachutes Correct Answer:1 Explanation: One of my friends told me. Question for September 23 l. cummings What does "Boca Raton" (a city in Florida) mean in English? 1) Boat's Reef 2) Rat's Mouth 3) Rattan Book 4) City By The Bay Correct Answer:2 Explanation: the city was named because of its shape, which was the shape of a rats mouth when open--boca -meaning mouth and raton meaning rat. Question for September 24 T.P. Harner "Richard Bachman" is the alias for which famous writer? 1) Patricia Cornwell 2) Dean Koontz 3) Tom Clancy 4) Stephen King 5) Danielle Steele Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Stephen King has written 5 books under the alias Richard Bachman: Rage, The Long WAlk, Roadwork, The Running Man, and Thinner. Question for September 25 walle In what year did Roger Maris hit 61 homeruns? 1) 1959 2) 1961 3) 1963 4) 1964 5) 1966 Correct Answer:2 Question for September 26 eduardo rodriguez gil traditionally, what things are serve along with tequila in mexico? 1) coca cola and chips 2) salt and lime 3) anything 4) hot sauce and burritos 5) girls!!! Correct Answer:2 Explanation: no explanation! it´s tradition. well sometimes the girls come along too. so, come to mexico!!! Question for September 27 Tressa LaFayette In feet, how tall is the Space Needle in Seattle, WA? 1) 545 2) 605 3) 930 4) 1250 5) 1500 Correct Answer:2 Explanation: The Space Needle in Seattle, WA is 605 feet tall. Question for September 28 Kelvin Young What is the name of the day that the Allies won in Japan? 1) V-J Day 2) V-E Day 3) D-Day Correct Answer:1 Explanation: V-J Day stands for Victory in Japan. Question for September 29 Christopher J Ingram Niel Armstrong stated that a single word was lost in transmission during his famous statement, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind". What was the lost word? 1) my 2) and 3) woman 4) a 5) this Correct Answer:4 Explanation: The famous quote was actually spoken, "One small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind." Question for September 30 Gretchen M. Miller What did Janice have written on the Candy Hearts in TOW the Candy Hearts on Friends? 1) I LUV U 2) CHAN AND JAN FOREVER 3) MY LITTLE SNOOKUMS 4) *$&% YOU 5) OH...MY...GOD. Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Check out Dan's Shrine to Friends, Script Library, TOW The Candy Hearts. You keep looking, and you'll find it! Question for October 1 todd gunn What does B.B. stand for in B.B. King? 1) Blues Boy 2) Bad Boy 3) Billy Boy 4) Big Belly 5) Nothing - It's just initials Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Since B.B. King is famous for the blues, isn't it only right that B.B. stand for Blues Boy? Question for October 2 sherry perez Which of your neurons are always being regenerated? 1) Those on your toes. 2) Those in your nose. 3) Those under your eyelids. 4) Those in your ear. Correct Answer:2 Explanation: In vertebrates, only the nasal lining continually produces new neurons. Question for October 3 Randy Dinh A man comes and goes to and from work every day. Every day he takes the elevator down and stairs up. He lives on the top of the building he lives on. Why does he do this regularly? ~ 1) He just likes to 2) He's too short 3) He need's the exercise 4) When he comes home, it's too crowded 5) His docter told him to do so Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Since he's too short he can only touch the bottom buttons of the elevator, and he lives on the top of the building. So he takes the elevator down and stairs up. Question for October 4 Andy Wysocki What does the word 'Truculent' mean? And no looking it up first! 1) Tasty; flavorful 2) One to whom another's property is entrusted 3) Simmering 4) Faithful; Loyle 5) Fierce; cruel Correct Answer:5 Explanation: truculent (truk'yoo lent) Adj. 1)fierce; cruel 2) Harsh, scathing 3) ready to fight - truc'u-lence, truc'u-len-cy n. - truc'u-lent-ly adj Question for October 5 "H.u.g.o." What is Saturn made of? 1) Solid Granite 2) Oblate Spheroid 3) Irregular Xarton 4) Graphitical Vertanenin Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Saturn is in the the shape of a spher but not completely round,there for,Saturn is oblate spheroid. Question for October 6 Shawna Bradley A scientific reseach team find a man and a woman frozen in ice. They don't have belly buttons. Who are they? 1) Prehistoric people 2) Mr. and Mrs. Claus 3) Two aliens. 4) Adam and Eve 5) Fakes Correct Answer:4 Explanation: They were made, not born from a mother, so they had no umbilical cord to attach them to a mother, and therefore they have no bellybutton. Question for October 7 BRUCE KAFIL The cells of the mononuclear phagocyte system originate from the: 1) spleen 2) liver 3) lymph node 4) bone marrow 5) thymus Correct Answer:4 Explanation: There is evidence that most, if not all, macrophages originate from a commited bone marrow stem cell, which diffrentiates into a monoblast and then a promonocyte, which in turn matures into a monocyte in the circulating perhipal blood. When called upon, the circulating monocyte can enter into an organ or tissue bed as a tissue macrophage (previously called a histiocyte). Examples of tissue macrophages are Kupper cells (liver), alveolar macrophages (lung), osteoclasts (bone), Langerhans cells (skin), microglial cells (central nervous system), and possibly the dendritic immunocytes of the dermis, spleen, and lymph nodes. The entire system, including the peripheral blood monocytes, contitutes the mononuclear phagocyte system. Question for October 8 Sandra Gill What is an aglet? 1) The hard tip of a shoelace 2) A young Texas Tech fan 3) A short-form deposition 4) A knee-high stocking Correct Answer:1 Question for October 9 ryan miller Who was the last 30 game winner in Major League Baseball? 1) Denny McLain of the Tigers 2) Bob Gibson of the Cardinals 3) Dizzy Dean of the Cardinals 4) Sandy Kofax of the Dodgers 5) Don Larsen of the Yankees Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968. Dizzy Dean was the pitcher before him to win 30 games in 1934 when he was on the Cardinals. Question for October 10 Christie ¡¡¿¿In the Sweet Valley series, what is the name of the twins mother??!! 1) Elizabeth 2) Lila 3) Amy 4) Alice 5) Jessica Correct Answer:4 Explanation: In all of the books, Twins, Kids, High, ext.... usally have her name in it. Alice. She is the mother of Elizabeth & Jessica, so that eliminates 1 and 5. Amy and Lila are both friends in the books, so that eliminates 2 and 3, so that leaves 4. ¡¡¡Although, the easiest way is to read the book!!! Question for October 11 Carey-Ann Goakes On April 9, 1483, King Edward IV of England died. His older son and heir - Edward, Prince of Wales - was only 12 years old. The boy King and his 9 year old brother were installed in the royal apartments of The Tower of London. It was supposed that the 2 boys were murdered. BY WHAT MEANS ? 1) They were poisened 2) They were suffocated 3) They were starved to death 4) They died of illness Correct Answer:2 Explanation: On Sunday 22 June 1483 that was to have been his coronation day, Edward V was barred from succession. A Cambridge doctor of theology named Ralph Shaa preached a sermon outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London that challenged the legality of the succession. Dr Shaa claimed that Edward IV was already legally betrothed at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, that the union with her was thus invalid under current law, and that their children - including the boy king - were illegitimate. After a brief show of reluctance, the duke of Gloucester accepted the crown on June 26 and was proclaimed Richard III. Through July the uncrowned Edward V and his brother were occasionally seen at play in the tower yards. The two boys were then taken into the innermost rooms, seen more and more rarely behind barred windows, "until at length they ceased to appear altogether." By the fall of 1483 it was widely rumored that the two princes had been murdered in the Tower. In a battle between Richard III and Henry Tudor Richard III was killed, and the crown placed on the head on Henry VII. As Richard III had been plagued by rumors that he had murdered the princes, now Henry VII was tormented by stories that they were still alive and potential rivals to the throne. Eventually he succeeded in establishing the story that, by order of Richard, the boys had been suffocated under feather mattresses and buried under stones at the foot of a staircase in the Tower In 1674, some 200 years after the supposed murders, a wooden box containing the skeletons of the 2 children was found during construction work at the Tower. Question for October 12 Elizabeth c. Who is Nancy Drew's housekeeper? 1) Gertrude 2) Amy 3) Bess 4) Hannah 5) George Correct Answer:4 Explanation: It's in her books. Question for October 13 Brian What is a harvestman? 1) farmer 2) araneida 3) insect 4) phalangida 5) a new search engine Correct Answer:4 Explanation: The harvestman or daddy longlegs belongs to the order phalangida. It shares the classification arachnida with scorpions and spiders. The harvestman is not an insect. Question for October 14 Fred Collins Who is the only American President to hold a US patent 1) Bill Clinton 2) Richard Nixon 3) Gerald Ford 4) Abraham Lincoln 5) George Washington Correct Answer:4 Explanation: In 1849, Abraham Lincoln was issued a patent for a system of buoying vessels over shoals. Question for October 15 Scott McLoud How many U.S. Presidents used their middle name instead of their first name? 1) 1 2) 2 3) 3 4) 4 5) 5 Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Ulysses Simpson Grant was born Hiram Ulysses. (changed at West Point due to mistake) Grover Cleveland dropped his given name of Stephen. (Going as Grover is less dorky than Stephen Cleveland) Woodrow Wilson was born Thomas Woodrow. Lastly, his full name was John Calvin Coolidge. (had he used it, he would have been John C. Coolidge Jr.) Question for October 16 andrea & alicia what's the percentage of people who are allergic to cats but own one anyway? 1) 33% 2) 57% 3) 81% 4) 4% 5) 8% Correct Answer:1 Explanation: 33% of people allergic to cats own one anyway. Question for October 17 John Rivers Which one of the following Revoluntionary War battles was won by the colonists? 1) Valley Forge 2) Brandywine 3) Long Island 4) Saratoga 5) Bunker Hill Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Benedict Arnold, before he turned traitor, was a hero in the victory at Saratoga. There was no battle fought at Valley Forge. The others were all loses. Question for October 18 Caroline Bouffard What is the title of the song that Celine Dion sang to the pope Jean-Paul II when he comes visit the Canada in 1984? 1) Pour la Paix 2) Vivre et laisser vivre 3) The color of my love 4) Une colombe 5) Unisson Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Colombe: in english, this word means colombus, this white bird who is the symbol of peace. Question for October 19 Jack Ballurio Should these three words; hell, of, and day, be replaced with a single word; helluva? 1) Yes, and place it in the dictionary. 2) No, keep it complicated. 3) No, it's difficult to pronounce helluva. 4) It's already a word. 5) Yes, and it should have a plural. Correct Answer:1 Explanation: This word should be adopted for introduction in the dictionary and used in conjunction with the word 'mess'. Question for October 20 Angi Kridler Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? 1) Joan Jett 2) Cloris Leachman 3) Valerie Harper 4) Mary Tyler Moore 5) Ed Asner Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Well it's you girl and you should know it ... Remember Mary's theme song? Question for October 21 Michael Merline If you went on a camping trip in the woods of Maine, what would you rather come back as? 1) A person with a speech impediment. 2) A person that had facial scars from a bear in the woods. Correct Answer:1 Explanation: Since so many people are visual, a speech impediment could be easily overcome instead of knowing that people are making judgements about your looks. Question for October 22 Victoria Strong Which famous French philosopher presented the concept, "I think, therefore I am."? 1) Jean Jacques Rousseau 2) Blaise Pascal 3) Rene Descartes 4) Pierre Abelard 5) Friedrich Nietzsche Correct Answer:3 Explanation: It was his attempt to prove through deductive reasoning the existance of the world and of God. Question for October 23 Marc Kritzer Have you ever seen half a hole? 1) Yes, and I have heard one hand clapping. 2) Yes, but I am not sure how big it is. 3) No, because it is not real. 4) Never have. Not in this lifetime. 5) I am not really sure. Correct Answer:3 Explanation: It is impossible to have only "half" of a hole. The hole only takes on new dimentions. If you answer #1 then you are a zen type person! Question for October 24 Lezi In the show Friends on NBC,in what episode did Ross and Rachel kiss for the first time? 1) The One With the Prom Video 2) The One Where Ross and Rachel..You Know 3) The One Where Ross Finds Out 4) The One With the List 5) The One Where Rachel Finds Out Correct Answer:3 Explanation: The One Where Ross Finds Out is where they kissed for the first time. Remeber?They were at Central Perk and Ross got mad at Rachel for telling him about her feelings and messing up with his relationship with Julie? We all thought the show would end with Rachel in tears,but no... Question for October 25 Perish What microfarid capacitor would you need to create a 6db per octave crossover that would filter out the frequencies below 4500HZ with a nominal impedance load of 4 ohms 1) 6.8mf 2) 128ohms 3) 8.846mf 4) 72HZ 5) None of the above. Correct Answer:3 Explanation: The formula for deciding upon the correct microfarid crossover used in an audio application for a 6db per octave crossover is as follows: 1/6.28*f*z where f is the desired crossover frequency and z is the nominal impedance load. Question for October 26 derek crawford - dcrawor&mustang.UWO.ca derek crawford What kind of car was stolen most in North America in 1995? 1) Mazda 626 2) Corvette 3) Honda Accord 4) Ford Probe 5) Mercedes Benz 450sl Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Honda Accords were stolen more frequently due to availability and high resale value. Question for October 27 melissa brown What TV character directed, in real life, The Cutting Edge? 1) Hutch-John Fitzsimmons 2) Willis-George Carrey 3) Julia-FArrah Fawcett 4) Starsky-Paul Michael Glaser 5) J.J.-Albert Finney Correct Answer:4 Explanation: I love the show, actor and the movie! Question for October 28 Wendy Siemens In Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, what animals were considered outcasts? 1) cobras 2) wolves 3) humans 4) monkeys 5) tigers Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Advice from Baloo to Mowgli: "...the Monkey Folk, who live in the trees. They have no law. They are outcasts." Question for October 29 Bob the thunder chicken - N/A Bob the thunder chicken What are the two legal things that can be thrown out of a car window? 1) Human Hair, and U.S. currency. 2) Live animals, and U.S. currency. 3) Live poultry feathers, and clear liquid. 4) U.S. currency, and clear liquid. 5) Humans, and live animals. Correct Answer:3 Explanation: The only things that may be thrown out of a car window without the driver getting a ticket, are Live poultry feathers, and any clear liquids. Question for October 30 Just some weird cartoon freak... In the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon... What are Boris and Natasha's LAST names ???? (Respectively) 1) Romanovsky & Phillips 2) Badinov & Nogoodnik 3) Black & White 4) Nijinski & Makarova 5) They had no last names... Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Boris 'BAD'inov (I suppose the opposite of Alexander 'GOOD'inov, And Natasha No-Good-Nik (Ask your Grandma). I have no source to claim... You'll just have to take my word. Question for October 31 Tom Younger How many words for snow do the Inuit have in their language? 1) 13 2) 52 3) 2 4) 1200 5) 112 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Only 2, one for snow on the ground and one for falling snow. Question for November 1 Glen Munday What word in the Oxford English Dictionary has the most meanings? 1) take 2) go 3) run 4) set 5) turn Correct Answer:4 Explanation: The word Set has 464 different meanings. Then Run at 396. Question for November 2 Alan Novakowski Where was the Titanic built? 1) Glasgow 2) Hamburg 3) Oslo 4) New York 5) Belfast Correct Answer:5 Explanation: The Irish are always optimists! Question for November 3 Janel Schroeder Which of the following towns is NOT a suburb of Minneapolis or Saint Paul, MN? 1) Golden Valley 2) Falcon Heights 3) Mounds View 4) Trout Run 5) Lake Elmo Correct Answer:4 Explanation: There's no Trout Run in MN, but I think there's one in PA. Question for November 4 Todd Doersom How many people in the United States died from smoking marijuana in 1995? 1) 353 2) 5,792 3) 7,829 4) 28,473 5) None Correct Answer:5 Explanation: No one has been clinically diagnosed as dying from marijuana use alone. Question for November 5 Alethea Maikoski The Knights of Ni are the keepers of what three sacred words? 1) Larry, Moe, & Curly! 2) It, Shrubbery, & OOOH! 3) We have found a witch, may we burn her? 4) Ni, Peng, & Neeeeeeeeewom! 5) Sven, the Majestik Moose, & Ralph the Wonder-Llama! Correct Answer:4 Explanation: If you REALLY have to ask, then your quest is to seek the Holy Grail. Question for November 6 Willis Swicord What is the largest ethnolinguistic group in Switzerland? 1) German 2) French 3) Italian 4) Romansh 5) Other Correct Answer:1 Explanation: 64% of the poulation of Switzerland speak German. Question for November 7 Vic and Lucy Falls What is the name of the boat belonging to Les Claypool, the bassist and vocalist of the band Primus? 1) Chaney 2) Skunky Fleet 3) El Bastardo 4) Moonlight 5) The Big Brown Beaver Correct Answer:3 Explanation: His boat is called 'El Bastardo' which is Spanish for 'The Bastard'. Question for November 8 Hillary Morrell What is the most posinos snake? 1) King Cobra 2) Water Moccican 3) Garder 4) Rattle Snake 5) Coral Snake Correct Answer:2 Question for November 9 Allison Gibson Who plays Macguyver in the Show Macguyver? 1) John Michaeal Montgomery 2) Tim Allen 3) Richard Dean Anderson 4) Dick Norris 5) Brian T. Kenison Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Richard Dean Anderson Question for November 10 internetbabs Medically, what does "Q.O.D." stand for? 1) quotes of doctors 2) every odd day 3) every other day 4) quantity of disease 5) quality of delivery Correct Answer:3 Explanation: every other day is prescription and treatment terminology. the "q" is a Latin derivative. Question for November 11 John Seaton Who has the highest known I.Q. ??? 1) Judy Landers (actress) 2) Gordon Shumway (insurance salesman) 3) Mike Ruth (postal worker) 4) Marilyn vos Savant (newspaper columnist) 5) Martin Gardner (nuclear physicist) Correct Answer:4 Explanation: According to the "Guinness Book of World Records", Marilyn vos Savant has the worlds highest I.Q. Question for November 12 Allison Buck Why is Hamburg called hamburg if it doesn't have any Ham in it? 1) Because it was invented in Hamburg, Germany 2) Because that's the last name of the man that invented it 3) Becuase it originally had Hamburg in it 4) Becasue beef used to be called ham 5) Because in Burma, ham means beef Correct Answer:2 Explanation: The man that invented Hamburg was Mr.Hamburg, so they figured Hamburger was an appropriate name Question for November 13 Tony Le Complete the following: "When we're tangled up in meeting other people / Is it me you're introducing / Or is it ____________?" (from "Savage/Love" by Sam Shepard) 1) Sean Connery 2) Warren Beatty 3) Paul Newman 4) Robert Goulet 5) John Wayne Correct Answer:2 Explanation: From "Savage/Love", Copyright (c) 1981 Sam Shepard. (It's quoted in one of my Web pages, but will be taken off on November 13 so nobody can sneak a peek. :) Question for November 14 Patricia Hodge In the novel "Gone With the Wind" (not the movie), what is Ashley Hamilton's FIRST name? 1) Leslie 2) George 3) Thaddeus 4) John Correct Answer:2 Explanation: In the novel, he is referred to as "George Ashley Hamilton". Question for November 15 Steven PerkinsPh Of these cities, which of them is the furthest west? 1) Los Angeles, CA 2) Reno, NV 3) San Diego, CA 4) Phoenix, AZ Correct Answer:2 Explanation: Looking at a US map, you will see that the lower portion of California sweeps under Nevada, thus placing both Los Angeles and San Diego futher east than Reno. Question for November 16 Which state's name originally started with an "O"? 1) Arkansas 2) Florida 3) Iowa 4) Rhode Island 5) Wisconsin Correct Answer:5 Explanation: Congress named Ouisconsin after the French spelling of the Chippewa word "Meskousing", which means "Gathering of the waters". In 1845 the legislature voted to change the spelling of the name to Wisconsin. Ref http://www.wistravel.com/ and http://www.indians.org/welker/states.htm Question for November 17 emphasis too clan Roy Hinckley was the real name of which TV character? 1) Spiderman 2) The Professor from Giligan's Island 3) The 6 Million Dollar Man 4) Skippy from Family Ties 5) Boner from Growing Pains Correct Answer:2 Explanation: The Professor's character name (not the actor's name) was Roy Hinckley Question for November 18 David Tongay What is "Barbie"'s full name? 1) Barbara Anne Fillmore 2) Barbara Jane Stapleton 3) Barbara Ashley Hampton 4) Barbara Millicent Parker 5) Barbara Jaqueline Kennedy Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Mattel's doll icon for the ages, "Barbie", carried this lofty moniker. Question for November 19 Mark Coughlin What group was Phil Collins a member of BEFORE he joined Genesis in 1971? 1) Moby Grape 2) Brand X 3) Flaming Youth 4) Mike & The Mechanics 5) Atomic Rooster Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Phil worked with Brand X ALONGSIDE his involvement with Genesis (for those of you who chose Answer #2) Question for November 20 Doug Dobbe What is the least number of coins you would need to be able to make change for any amount less than one dollar? 1) 8 2) 9 3) 10 4) 11 5) 12 Correct Answer:2 Explanation: 1-50 cent piece, 1 quarter, one dime, 2 nickels & 4 pennies. ** OR ** 1-50 cent piece, 1 quarter, 2 dimes, 1 nickel & 4 pennies. Question for November 21 Flood What is the true, full name of the Marquis de Sade? 1) Francois Maurice de Sade 2) Donation-Alphonse-Francois de Sade 3) Le Chavalier de Mirvel 4) Comte de Sade d'Eyguieres Correct Answer:2 Explanation: The others are all characters from Sade's plays and short stories. Sade was a French nobleman. Question for November 22 Robert Samels According to Douglas Adams (the famous writer of the Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy), what is the meaning of life? 1) to wear digital watches 2) 42 3) cheese (any kind, except Fnord.) 4) to achieve perfect happiness (nirvana) 5) towels Correct Answer:2 Explanation: In the book 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' by Adams, the largest and fastest computer in the world is asked to solve the answer to the meaning of life. It replies that the answer is 42. The Earth was then created to solve the problem of what the question is. (Suggestions include "What's 6 times 7" and "How many roads must a man walk down") P.S. Read the book, it's good! Question for November 23 Ronald Lassiter What hour are most unsold clocks set at in honor of or with respect to whom or what? 1) 1:00 in honor of the first shot fired in the revolutionary war. 2) 8:00 in honor of the time President Lincoln was assassinated. 3) 3:00 in honor of the approximate death of Jesus Christ. 4) 12:00 in with respect to 12 noon or 12 midnight. Correct Answer:3 Question for November 24 In what year was the Marathon first run the standard distance that is now used? 1) 490 B.C. 2) 1896 3) 1908 4) 1936 5) 1940 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: For several Olympics they didn't try to standardize the distance. For some reason they eventually chose the 1908 distance. There was no Olympics in 1940. The Marathon is based upon a legendary run in 490 B.C. Question for November 25 Jake Christofferson What is an ocarina? 1) A simple wind instrument 2) A Mexican dish served with salsa 3) A sword made in Argentina 4) A monkey found in Africa 5) A special friend Correct Answer:1 Explanation: An ocarina is wind instrument with eight holes to cover to produce different sounds. Question for November 26 Lohman Hafenrichter Conserning the guage of a shotgun, what do the numbers refer to? 1) Diameter or chamber in Inches 2) Diameter of chamber in millimeters 3) Diameter of hole in target 4) Number of lead balls the size of the chamber needed to equal a pound 5) Number of guesses required to identify the victim Correct Answer:4 Explanation: The Lead must be pure lead, not an alloy, Thus a ten guage would require 10 pure lead balls the size of the chamber to equal a pound. Ref, The gospel according Federal cartridge company. printed Jan 1994. Question for November 27 Marci Abels Which of the following musicals was not scored by Andrew Lloyd Weber? 1) Jesus Christ Superstar 2) Phantom of the Opera 3) Miss Saigon 4) Music Man 5) Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Weber did all the rest. And so many other really great ones too! Question for November 28 Anna Nykvist How shall the name `Throatwobbler Mangrove´ be pronounced correctly? 1) ...Tim 2) Luxury Yach-t 3) Throatwobbler Mangrove 4) Jethro Q. Walrustitty 5) Graham Chapman Correct Answer:2 Explanation: It´s MONTY PYTHON, you cheeesy lot of electric donkey-bottom biters!(But if you answered it correctly, I think you´re a pretty terriffic guy/girl!) Question for November 29 phil stark is it possible to have a triangle with three 90 degree angles? 1) no 2) yes Correct Answer:2 Explanation: In non-Euclidean Geometry (like 3-D space) there are triangles with three 90 degree angles. Question for November 30 Phil Stark What is 2 2*2 ? 1) 4 2) 8 3) 6 4) 16 5) 12 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Order of operations in math says that you always do multiplication before addition so it is really 2*2 2. Questions & Answers for the month of: December QOD for : December 1 Picture this. There is one duck in front of two ducks, one duck in back of two ducks and one duck in the middle of two ducks. How many ducks are there? 1.3 2.6 3.9 4.12 5.I don't care Correct Answer:3 Explanation: The ducks are all in one row with one in front, one in back and one in the middle making three ducks. QOD for : December 2 When the simpsons first came to be a half hourshow, one character was originaly black (now the character is white)Who is it? 1.Bleeding Gums Murphy 2.Sideshow Bob 3.Waylan Smithers 4.The Bee on the Spanish Channel Correct Answer:Waylan Smithers Explanation: In the first couple of episodes, Smithers is a black man, but for some reason.... he was changed. QOD for : December 3 How long is Three Mile Island (near Harrisburg, PA -- site of the TMI nuclear power plant and worst U.S. nuclear accident)? 1.2 miles 2.2.5 miles 3.3 miles 4.3.1 miles 5.3.5 miles Correct Answer:2.5 miles Explanation: Three Mile Island is so named because is it three miles from Middletown, PA. It is two and one-half miles in length. QOD for : December 4 What play was Lincoln attending on that fateful night at Ford's Theatre? 1.Our American Cousin 2.A Midsummer Night's Dream 3.An American in Paris 4.Hamlet 5.The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Correct Answer:Our American Cousin Explanation: It was a light comedy intended to put Mister Lincoln in a carefree mood during the aftermath of the Civil War. QOD for : December 5 What top soccer team will the midfielder Jesper Blomqvist join tomorrow (961206)? 1.Newcastle 2.Juventus 3.IFK Göteborg 4.Porto 5.Milan Correct Answer:Milan Explanation: He leaves IFK Göteborg for Milan. QOD for : December 6 What language is most commonly used in the world today? 1.English 2.Russian 3.Chinese 4.Japanese 5.Spanish Correct Answer:Chinese Explanation: China has the world's largest population, so of course their language would be the one most commonly in use! QOD for : December 7 What is the only active United States Navy ship with "water-cooled" hand rails? 1.USS JOHN C. STENNIS 2.USS ARIZONA Correct Answer:USS ARIZONA Explanation: The USS Arizona, still on the active service roles, has water cooled hand rails by virtue of it position underwater. QOD for : December 8 In the humorous "Nudge Nudge" sketch, written and performed by the Monty Python players, one of the lines is taken from a famous play. What play is it? 1.The Crucible 2.King Lear 3.All in the Timing 4.A Man for All Seasons 5.Hamlet Correct Answer:A Man for All Seasons Explanation: In "Nudge Nudge," Michael Palin's obnoxious character says (for no apparent reason), "A nod's as good as a wink to a blind man" - a quote from Robert Bolt's classic play. QOD for : December 9 Who defeated James G. Blaine in the Presidential election of 1885? 1.Chester Arthur 2.James Garfield 3.Benjamin Harrison 4.Grover Cleveland 5.Theodore Roosevelt Correct Answer:Grover Cleveland Explanation: Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, also won support from reform Republicans. James Blaine's campaign was riddled with corruption and scandal, including illicit affairs and illegitimate children. Grover Cleveland was the first bachelor to be elected President, and was the first to be married in, and have a child in the White House. He was also the first President to serve two non-consecutive terms. QOD for : December 10 How many fingers does Mr. Potato have on his hands? 1.10 2.6 3.8 4.4 5.12 Correct Answer:8 Explanation: Even though Mr. Potato to all of us is the kinda toy we all want to be (interchangeable parts) he in fact only has 4 fingers on each hand. After all he's a potato with two eyes. QOD for : December 11 Name one of the original games played in the Olympics today that was played when the Olympics first originated. 1.Gymnastics 2.Discus Throwing 3.Pole Vaulting 4.Soccer 5.Long Jump Correct Answer:Discus Throwing Explanation: The Olympic games first originated in Rome. Some of the games played back then were discus throwing, chariot races, pentatholon, bullfighting, etc. QOD for : December 11 Name one of the original games played in the Olympics today that was played when the Olympics first originated. 1.Gymnastics 2.Discus Throwing 3.Pole Vaulting 4.Soccer 5.Long Jump Correct Answer:Discus Throwing Explanation: The Olympic games first originated in Rome. Some of the games played back then were discus throwing, chariot races, pentatholon, bullfighting, etc. QOD for : December 12 In what year did Klee paint the "Paysage englouti"? 1.1825 2.1754 3.1994 4.1756 5.1918 Correct Answer:1918 Explanation: Klee painted this canvass work in the year of 1918 just weeks before his wife died. QOD for : December 13 Which NFL team wn SuperBowl II ? 1.Oakland Raiders 2.Dallas Cowboys 3.Kansas City Chiefs 4.Green Bay packers 5.Miami Dolphins Correct Answer:Green Bay packers Explanation: The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II by defeating the Oakland Raiders 33-14 QOD for : December 14 What was President Cleveland's first name? 1.Stephen 2.Chester 3.Benjamin 4.Grover 5.Jonathan Correct Answer:Stephen Explanation: President Cleveland went by his middle name, Grover, but his first name was Stephen. QOD for : December 15 A hobo can make a whole cigar by putting together the butts of five cigars. If the hobo has found twenty-five cigar butts, how many cigars can he make? 1.Four 2.Five 3.Six 4.Seven 5.None. He shouldn't be smoking anyway. Correct Answer:Six Explanation: By assembling the first twenty-five butts, the hobo can put together five cigars. After smoking these cigars there are five butts left over and the hobo can use these to make a sixth cigar. QOD for : December 16 Who was the Confederate officer in charge of the left flank at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) ? 1.Col James Longstreet 2.Col Nathan Evans 3.Col Thomas J. Jackson 4.Col Fitzhugh Lee 5.Maj Pierre Beauregard Correct Answer:Col Nathan Evans Explanation: QOD for : December 17 Which computer game can be used with a joystick? 1.Pac-Man 2.Dig-Dug 3.Pole Position 4.Galaxian Correct Answer:Pole Position Explanation: Pole Position Is a race car game. QOD for : December 18 A light-year is a measure of what? 1.Velocity 2.Distance 3.Time 4.Mass 5.Energy2 Correct Answer:Distance Explanation: A light-year is how FAR light travels in a year. This is about 5.5 trillion miles. QOD for : December 19 What is the only word in the english language that ends in the letters mt. 1.promt 2.trumt 3.dreamt 4.contemt Correct Answer:dreamt Explanation: Dreamt is the only correct answer. QOD for : December 20 The kids wanted to visit grandma & grandpa, so we piled in the '62 Rambler and headed out. Due to weather and traffic, we averaged exactly 30 M.P.H. for half the distance and exactly 60 M.P.H. for the other half. What was our overall average speed? 1.35 M.P.H. 2.40 M.P.H. 3.45 M.P.H. 4.50 M.P.H. 5.55 M.P.H. Correct Answer:40 M.P.H. Explanation: Actual distance driven doesn't really matter. Example: For a 120 mile trip, the first 60 miles at 30 M.P.H. takes 2 hours. The next 60 miles at 60 M.P.H. takes 1 hour. Overall, the 120 mile trip takes 3 hours, or 40 M.P.H. average. QOD for : December 21 On December 21st, 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded on a 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 on the plane and 11 on the ground. What airline was the airplane from? 1.TWA 2.Pan-Am 3.Delta 4.ScotAir 5.Qantas Correct Answer:Pan-Am Explanation: The answer is Pan-am. (Thanks to the Information Please Almanac.) QOD for : December 22 Star Trek: The Next Generation production crew was about to omit one important set. At the last minute, though, they made it. What set was it ? 1.The Bridge 2.Conference lounge 3.Transporter room 4.Engineering 5.Sickbay Correct Answer:Engineering Explanation: They didn't think they would use it too much in the new series, but they wrote a scene for it in the pilot episode QOD for : December 23 who was Gilda Radner(Saturday Night Live)married to before Gene Wilder? 1.Paul Schaefer/band-David Letterman 2.G.E.Smith/band-Saturday Night Live 3.Simon LeBon/band-Duran Duran 4.Winton Marsalis/band-Jay Leno 5.Keith Richards/band-Rolling Stones Correct Answer:G.E.Smith/band-Saturday Night Live Explanation: QOD for : December 24 How many joules per second will be absorbed tonight by Santa's lead pair of reindeer, assuming that total payload equals 353,000 tons and average speed equals 650 miles per second? 1.17 2.14,300,000,000,000,000,000 3.121,000,000,000,000 4.37,000,000,000,000,000,000 5.4 Correct Answer:14,300,000,000,000,000,000 Explanation: Basic physics, you fools!!! QOD for : December 25 Who was the first woman in space? 1.Kathy Rigby 2.Valantina Tereshkova 3.Sally Ride 4.Madona Correct Answer:Valantina Tereshkova Explanation: Although Sally Ride was the first American in space, Valentina Tereshkova (of a lesser known Russian mission) was the FIRST WOMAN IN SPACE-infact, she was among the first ten or so people in space. QOD for : December 26 The Olympic sport of rowing has another name, what is it? 1.None, this is a trick question 2.Saltate 3.Crew 4.Trull 5.Ilk Correct Answer:Crew Explanation: Rowing is called crew because it started back in the Roman times in those big boats and the bunch of men that rowed the boat were called a Latin word meaning crew QOD for : December 27 The sound a cat makes to communicate to his or her favorite human is called: 1.crooning 2.purring 3.meowing 4.cooing 5.shirring Correct Answer:cooing Explanation: Cooing refers to the "talking" sound a cat makes when spoken to by their favorite person. QOD for : December 28 With which part of his body, after loosing it at war, mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was buried next to in 1838? 1.an arm 2.right ear 3.his head 4.left ear 5.a leg Correct Answer:a leg Explanation: The excentric General Santa, hero of the El Alamo and the Tampico's battle was buried in 1838 next to the leg that has loosen while fighting against the frenchs at Veracruz. QOD for : December 29 Who created the steel pan(a musical instrument)? 1.David Rudder 2.Abraham Lincoln 3.Barry White 4.Winston "Spree" Simon 5.None of the above Correct Answer:Winston "Spree" Simon Explanation: He accidentally created this instrument out of a metal drum QOD for : December 30 You've paid your money and are now sitting in the bleachers of Social Security Stadium in Mexico City, watching this year's Mexican World Series of baseball. You buy a hot dog from a passing vendor. Approximately what is the ratio of the cost of your hot dog to the cost of your bleacher seat? 1.0.01 2.0.25 3.1 4.8 5.Infinity Correct Answer:8 Explanation: According to the August 15, 1996 issue of the Los Angeles Times, the hot dog costs US$1.10, but the bleacher seat went for US$0.14. Therefore the correct answer is 8. I don't blame you for guessing though. Questions & Answers for the month of: January QOD for : January 1 What percent of the world's diamonds are produced in Africa 1.90% 2.83% 3.95% 4.75% 5.30% Correct Answer:83% Explanation: Africa produces 83% of the world's diamond Source ABEKA publishers "Old World History and Geography pg 243 Year 1993 QOD for : January 2 Tim DeLaughter is the lead singer from which rock group? 1.Tim and the Machines 2.Green Day 3.Tripping Daisy 4.Tubular Bells Correct Answer:Tripping Daisy Explanation: The band Tripping Daisy was formed in 1991 by Dallas native Tim DeLaughter.Their first album put out is entitled I Am an Elastic Firecracker with Island Records. QOD for : January 3 What was the tittle of the Baywatch with all of the Gilligan's Island People. 1.The Gilligan's 2.The Castways 3.Ginger the Beloved 4.Gilligan!! In trouble!! 5.Shipwrecked Correct Answer:Shipwrecked Explanation: QOD for : January 4 What is the nickname that BA BAracus's mother gave him on the A-Team? 1.Bad Boy 2.Scooter 3.Peaches 4.Spunky 5.Dickey Correct Answer:Scooter Explanation: When the team had to help out BA's mother, she invited them to dinner and spilled the beans about his nickname. (He used to ride his scooter around the house all the time, so she called him "Scooter". QOD for : January 5 What does the "D" in D-Day stand for? 1.Death 2.Dooms 3.Destruction 4.nothing Correct Answer:nothing Explanation: The "D" in D-Day stands for nothing;it is simply a code name for the day of the attack. It is the same as H-Hour and M-Minute. QOD for : January 6 Where in the world was the coldest temperature ever recorded? 1.Northice, Greenland 2.Ust Scugor, Russia 3.Oymyakon, Siberia 4.Wainwright, Alaska, U.S.A. 5.Vostok, Antarctica Correct Answer:Vostok, Antarctica Explanation: On July 21, 1983, the temperature dipped to a bone-chilling -129 degrees in Vostok, Antarctica QOD for : January 7 Which was the most expensive soccer transfer in the world before Allan Shearer signed for Newcastle United? 1.Diego Maradona to Barcelona F.C (spain) 2.Gianluka Lentini to A.C Milan (italy) 3.Jurgen Klinsman to Totenam Hotspurs F.C (england) 4.Ronaldo to Barcelona F.C (spain) 5.Daniele Fonceka to Napoli F.C Correct Answer:Gianluka Lentini to A.C Milan (italy) Explanation: It was Gianlukas Lentini and it was up to £12.8 million. But he was very unlucky because the same year he had a nasty car accident, having as a result him not to able to play football for the next year and a half. QOD for : January 8 How old do you think the earth is? 1.thousands of years 2.millions of years 3.billions of years 4.trillions of years 5.quintrillions of years Correct Answer:billions of years Explanation: Geologic evidence has proven that the earth is about 6 billion years old. QOD for : January 9 What is hydrostatic equilibrium? 1.The little doohickey in your car's engine that just won't stop making that rattling noise 2.The balance between the gasses pushing out in a star and gravity pushing in 3.Well, seeing as "hydro" means water, and "equilibrium" is a balance of, it is the balance between how much water you have to put on your hair to get it to look normal, and the amount of static in it 4.A polite way of saying "fart" 5.The equivilant to Einstiens theory of relativity in a zero gravity condition Correct Answer:The balance between the gasses pushing out in a star and gravity pushing in Explanation: Hydrostatic Equilibrium is really just a fancy term for the balance of gravity and other stellar forces. This balance, this equilibrium, keeps the star together. It is the perfect balance of the gasses pushing outward from a star's core, and the force of gracvity pushing in. Without it, the universe would just be filled with a whole bunch of black holes, because gravity would force the star to collapse, thus ending the star's life and possibly creating a black hole. This equilibrium will always come into play during a star's life, it's only a matter of time before the nuclear fuel supply burning in the star is exhausted--hence alowing gravity to smush the star--or so you would think. The energy created by this collapse fuels the star, so it expands into a red or blue giant. At this stage, the star is very close to death, because pretty soon, that fuel will run out, and gravity will attempt to smush the star. The energy created by this blast fuels yet another expantion, 'cept this just results in a really big BOOM. A supernova. All that uis left is stellar dust and a black hole. And there you have it. A complete explanation of hydrostatic equilibrium. Not bad for a four-teen year old, eh? ;) QOD for : January 10 Who is the #1 Very Skateboarder in the World right now? 1.Tony Hawk 2.Danny Way 3.Tas Pappas 4.Andy Mcdonald Correct Answer:Tony Hawk Explanation: Tony Hawk at age 27 is ranked #1 on the world over everyone. QOD for : January 11 At approximately what age can a human parent expect its healthy full-term infant child to begin sleeping for 12 hours a night? 1.3 months 2.6 months 3.9 months 4.12 months 5.Never, if you're one of those parents who responds to every little noise! Correct Answer:6 months Explanation: Unless you're lucky (baby sleeps that long earlier than 6 months), or a fussy parent who responds to every little noise even when the baby is content, most healthy full-term babies will be content for 12 hours at the age of 6 months. hours. QOD for : January 12 Who is the only member/player on the Women's Professional Billiards Association under 21 years of age, she's 15. 1.Aileen Pippin 2.Jessica Johnson 3.Carrie Eldridge 4.Tiffany Nelson 5.Jordan Cyr Correct Answer:Tiffany Nelson Explanation: Tiffany has been a member of the W. P. B. A. for approximately 2-3 years. There is no other player under the age of 21. QOD for : January 13 When Mickey mouse was created by Walt Disney, his orignal name was not Mickey. What was it? 1.Mike the Mouse 2.Matthew Mouse 3.Mortimer Mouse 4.Cheesey the Mouse 5.Herbert the Rat Correct Answer:Mortimer Mouse Explanation: Mickey Mouse was origanally called "Mortimer Mouse" and was so named by Walt Disney himslef, who also lent his voice to Mickey Mouse in the early years. After the death of Walt Disney, a cartoon featured a visit from his cousin, known as Mortimer Mouse. This was a salute to the late Mr. Disney. QOD for : January 14 What is the largest unit of the National Park System, and where is it located? 1.Yellowstone NP, Wyoming 2.Denali NP, Alaska 3.Wrangell-St. Elias NP, Alaska 4.Death Valley NP, California 5.Bob Dole Historic Landmark, Egypt Correct Answer:Wrangell-St. Elias NP, Alaska Explanation: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, at 13.2 million acres, is the largest park in the US QOD for : January 15 What was the last name of Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch"? 1.Reed 2.Franklin 3.Sanford 4.Lewis 5.Kornblum Correct Answer:Franklin Explanation: In the episode where Sam is building on to his shop and Oliver and Bobby think he is a spy, they show his last name on an envelope containing architectural plans that Mike Brady drew up for him. QOD for : January 16 In the Book of Esther, over how many countries did King Ahasuerus rule? 1.127 2.253 3.897 4.21 5.None. There was no King Ahasuerus. Correct Answer:127 Explanation: In the first verse of the first chapter: "It came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus, he being the Ahasuerus who was king from India to Ethiopia, over seven and twenty and one hundred nations." QOD for : January 17 On a corn on the cob are the rows of corn an even or an uneven number? 1.even 2.uneven Correct Answer:even Explanation: rows of corn are even QOD for : January 18 What is the real name of famous short story writer O'Henry? 1.Robert Jacob Mallory 2.Samuel Langhorn Clemens 3.William Sydney Porter 4.Elizabeth Barett Browning Correct Answer:William Sydney Porter Explanation: QOD for : January 19 Which of the following forms of milk is the lightest? 1.Skim Milk 2.2% Lowfat Milk 3.Whole Milk 4.Half and Half 5.Cream Correct Answer:Cream Explanation: Cream has a higher fat content than any of the other forms of milk listed. Fat contains oxygen. The higher the fat content, the higher the oxygen content. The higher the oxygen content, the lighter the milk. By the way, the milks are listed in order from the heaviest (Skim Milk)to the lightest. QOD for : January 20 What was the very first credit card that made its debut in the United States in 1958? 1.Mastercard 2.Diners Club 3.Visa 4.American Express Correct Answer:Diners Club Explanation: QOD for : January 21 Enough questions about "Good" movies--which actor from E.R. starred in "Return of the Killer Tomatoes?" 1.Noah Wylie 2.Adam Benrubi 3.George Clooney 4.Anthony Edwards Correct Answer:George Clooney Explanation: He just *was* one of the major "stars" of that movie. I guess it was early, and he just wanted work. QOD for : January 22 Who was the first to circle the world alive? 1.Magellan 2.Columbus 3.Cortes 4.Polo 5.None of the Above Correct Answer:None of the Above Explanation: Magellan is often credited with this honor, but he died in a knife fight before his ship finished it's journey. His crew was the first, unfourtanly I don't think anyone knows the names of the members of the crew. QOD for : January 23 WHO WAS THE GOD OF DEATH ACCORDING TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY? 1.ZEUS 2.POSEIDON 3.HERMES 4.HADES 5.APOLLON Correct Answer:HADES Explanation: THE GOD OF DEATH WAS HADES. POSEIDON WAS THE GOD OF THE SEAS. HERMES WAS THE GOD COMMERCE. APOLLON-GOD OF MUSIC AND BEAUTY QOD for : January 24 Which TV show made history when it became the single broadcast in the history of television to draw the most viewers? 1.The Royal Wedding (Prince Charles & Lady Di) 2.O.J. Simpson verdict 3.The moon landing 4.Final episode of M*A*S*H 5.E.R.'s pilot episode Correct Answer:Final episode of M*A*S*H Explanation: QOD for : January 25 What is the capital of Burkina Faso? 1.Niamey 2.Yemeta 3.Ouagadougou 4.Dioulasso 5.Cairo Correct Answer:Ouagadougou Explanation: I don't know QUITE how to pronounce that, but it is the capital city. QOD for : January 26 Which one of the following animals is in the MUSTELIDAE family? 1.turtle 2.weasel 3.porpise 4.dingo 5.none of the above Correct Answer:weasel Explanation: I own 6 ferrets. I know all about the MUSTELIDAE family. QOD for : January 27 There is a hill that's sides are each 1 mile. A train goes up the hill doing a steady 30 m.p.h. the whole distance. How fast must the train go on the trip down the other side of the hill to average 60 m.p.h for the entire trip over the hill? 1.90 m.p.h. 2.100 m.p.h. 3.120 m.p.h. 4.mach 1 5.none of the above Correct Answer:none of the above Explanation: To average 60 m.p.h. ( 1 mile per minute ) over 2 miles requires 2 minutes. 1 mile at 30 m.p.h. ( 0.5 mile per minute ) requires 2 minutes. Since all of the available time is used up on the first mile, the train cannot achieve a 60 m.p.h. average at any speed. QOD for : January 28 What was the first music video ever played on MTV? 1."Everybody Wants to Rule the World" 2."Video Killed the Radio Star" 3."Like A Virgin" 4."Cruel Summer" 5."1999" Correct Answer:"Video Killed the Radio Star" Explanation: "Video Killed the Radio Star" was the first video to be played on MTV. QOD for : January 29 WHAT IS THE MEANING FOR THE WORD BUBUKLE? 1.A SHORT PRAYER. 2.A BOTTLE STOPPER. 3.THINGS LINKED TOGETHER. 4.A SMALL RED PIMPLE. 5.A YOUNG MALE SEAL. Correct Answer:A SMALL RED PIMPLE. Explanation: BECAUSE THATS THE MEANING OF THE WORD. QOD for : January 30 THE SIEGE AT THE ALAMO TOOK PLACE IN WHAT YEAR? 1.1830 2.1840 3.1836 4.1843 5.1890 Correct Answer:1836 Explanation: THIS IS WHERE DAVY CROCKETT AND JIM BOWIE DIED FIGHTING THE MEXICANS FOR TEXAS'S FREEDOM. QOD for : January 31 Which ancient Egyptian God was the God of Death and Embalming? 1.Who Cares? 2.Taweret 3.Anubis 4.Hathor Correct Answer:Anubis Explanation: Anubis is the god of death and Embalming, and was thought to protect the mummys and burial grounds of ancient eygptians Questions & Answers for the month of: February QOD for : February 1 What was the name of the first operational rocket plane that Germany used as a fighter plane near the end of World War II? 1.Fokker D VII 2.Dornier Do X 3.Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet 4.Morane-Saulnier M S. 760 Correct Answer:Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet Explanation: QOD for : February 2 Which of the Gospels is the only one which contains the story of the prodigal son? 1.Gospel of Mark 2.Gospel of Luke 3.Gospel of Matthew 4.Gospel of John Correct Answer:Gospel of Luke Explanation: Apparently, whoever wrote the Gospel of Luke took their stories about Jesus from a source the other gospel authors didn't have. QOD for : February 3 How many U.S. states' capitols start with the same letter as the state? 1.None 2.1 3.2 4.3 5.4 Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Honolulu, Indianapolis, Dover and Oklahoma City QOD for : February 4 What is a myth about tequilla? 1.It helps put you to sleep 2.It makes you hungry 3.All Spanish people drink it 4.It eases pain during childbirth 5.It's an aphrodisiac Correct Answer:It's an aphrodisiac Explanation: It is a typical myth in Spain that tequilla is an aphrodisiac, when actually it's not. QOD for : February 5 What was the name of the theme song of "Leave it to Beaver" 1.Baby Elephant Walk 2.Leave it to Beaver Theme Song 3.The Original Florida Gators Fight Song 4.Theodore's Theme 5.March of the Teddy Bears Correct Answer:March of the Teddy Bears Explanation: QOD for : February 6 How many people live in Canada 1.20 million 2.23 million 3.26 million 4.27 million 5.30 million Correct Answer:30 million Explanation: as of sept 30 there is 30 million people residing in canada, In 1976 there was only 18 million QOD for : February 7 How many matches did Paolo Maldini play in Milan in the 1993-4 season. 1.23 2.30 3.32 4.12 5.1 Correct Answer:30 Explanation: He played 30 matches and scored 1 goal when AC Milan won the Italian Serie A championship QOD for : February 8 Who wrote the James Bond theme song? 1.Marvin Hamlisch 2.the Pink Panther theme guy - Henry Mancini 3.Scott Joplin 4.Monty Norman 5.James Bond himself Correct Answer:Monty Norman Explanation: There is no explanation - it's just a fact. Oh, and for all you James Bond lovers, Sean Connery is the best Bond. QOD for : February 9 Leigh Nichols was a psuedonym used by what now famous author? 1.Stephen King 2.Patricia Cornwell 3.Dean Koontz 4.Mary Higgins Clark 5.James Patterson Correct Answer:Dean Koontz Explanation: I read Leigh Nichols books while I was in high school and now Mr. Koontz is publishing them again under his real name. Found out when I read The Eyes of Midnight for the second time. QOD for : February 10 "It had fangs, it did!!" From what movie is this a quote and to what did it refer?? 1.Attack of the Killer Tomatoes -- the lead tomato 2.The Princess Bride -- the princess 3.Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail -- the killer rabbit 4.The Rocky Horror Picture Show -- Rocky Horror Correct Answer:Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail -- the killer rabbit Explanation: Watch the movie, see the blood, listen closely!! QOD for : February 11 The_______went up the clock. What does the blank stand for? 1.rat 2.shoe 3.can 4.mouse 5.person Correct Answer:mouse Explanation: Well if you know the song hickory dickory dock then you know the answer. QOD for : February 12 According to the original T.V. series. In Batman, how far is it from Gotham to the Batcave? 1.20 miles 2.12 miles 3.14 miles 4.17 miles 5.8 miles Correct Answer:14 miles Explanation: Gotham is 14 miles from the batcave. In certain episodes the Batmobile passes a road sign indicating the distance to the fictional metropolis. QOD for : February 13 Which quarterback holds the record for touchdown passes in a season? 1.Joe Montana 2.Phil Simms 3.Dan Marino 4.Terry Bradshaw 5.Bob Griese Correct Answer:Dan Marino Explanation: Dan Marino had 48 touchdowns in 1988 while no other Quarterback has ever had over 45. QOD for : February 14 What was Samantha's (from Bewitched) cousins name? 1.Tabatha 2.Endora 3.Clara 4.Glaydis 5.Sarina Correct Answer:Sarina Explanation: Sarina was her brunet cousin. Tabatha was Sam & Darrins daughter. Endora was Sam's medelsome mother. Clara was Sam's aunt, who could never remember anything correctly & Glaydis Kravitz was their super nosey neighbor. QOD for : February 15 On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during its launch. Which of the following people WAS NOT among those who died in the explosion? 1.Gregory Jarvis 2.Edward White 3.Francis Scobee 4.Ellison Onizuka 5.Ronald McNair Correct Answer:Edward White Explanation: The answer is 2. Along with Virgil Grissom & Roger Chaffee, Edward White died when a fire swept through the Command Module of Apollo 1 on 1/27/67. Gregory Jarvis, Francis Scobee, Ellison Onizuka, Ronald McNair, Michael Smith, Judith Resnik, and Christa McAuliffe all died in the Challenger explosion on 1/28/67. Both tragedies almost occured on the same day. Eerie, eh? (In memory of both space shuttle tragedies) QOD for : February 16 What is the deadliest snake in the world. 1.rattlesnake 2.king cobra 3.tiger snake 4.taipan 5.death adder Correct Answer:taipan Explanation: Taipan gives a large amount of venom, and is native to Australia and New Guinea. If you get bitten by a taipan, there is almost a 100% chance you will die, unless anti-venom is injected promptly into your body. QOD for : February 17 Forward I'm heavy, backwards I'm not. What am I? 1.Barbell 2.Ounce 3.Ton 4.Water 5.Sand Correct Answer:Ton Explanation: When you spell the word ton forward it spells ton which is heavy. If you spell it backwards it spells the word not! Forward I'm heavy backward I'm NOT! QOD for : February 18 How do you get to Sesame Street??? 1.Go down that big slide 2.Ask Big Bird 3.Ask the operator on the phone 4.Follow the yellow brick road 5.It is fictional, you cant get there Correct Answer:It is fictional, you cant get there Explanation: It isn't a real place and at the end of the song it only says, "Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street"!! QOD for : February 19 Who invented the wheel? 1.cavemen 2.Sumerians 3.Babylonians 4.Ascerians 5.Egyptians Correct Answer:Sumerians Explanation: Thank you for coming, and please visit the site. QOD for : February 20 The expression (3)/(2 3i) is equivalent to: 1.(-6 9i)/(13) 2.(6-9i)/(13) 3.42 4.None of the above Correct Answer:(6-9i)/(13) Explanation: ( 3 / ( 2 3 i ) ) * ( ( 2 - 3 i ) / ( 2 - 3 i ) ) = ( ( 6 - 9 i ) / ( 4 6i - 6i - 9 i^2 ) ) = ( ( 6 - 9 i ) / ( 4 - 9 i^2 ) ) = ( (6 - 9i) / ( 4 9 ) ) = ( ( 6-9i)/(13)) INFO: i^2 = -1. QOD for : February 21 What is the capital city of peru? 1.Caracas 2.Santa Cruz 3.Buenos Aires 4.Chile 5.Lima Correct Answer:Lima Explanation: QOD for : February 22 What is the gypsy's name in Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame? 1.Genie 2.Ezzy 3.Esmerelda 4.Queenie 5.Jennifer Correct Answer:Esmerelda Explanation: Esmerelds, played by Demi Moore, is the correct answer QOD for : February 23 What percentage of Irish barley goes to the production of Guiness Beer? 1.4% 2.5% 3.6% 4.7% 5.8% Correct Answer:7% Explanation: A full percentage of Irish Barley goes to the production of Guiness Beer QOD for : February 24 Which number is the closest to the number of full, 360-degree rotations the Earth makes in one full revolution around the sun? 1.1 2.364.25 3.365 4.365.25 5.366.25 Correct Answer:366.25 Explanation: A full, 360-degree rotation of the Earth is also known as a sidereal day. This is slightly less than a solar day, since the Earth must rotate a bit more to present the same face to the sun to account for its progress along its orbit. Since a solar day is approx. 1.00274 sidereal days, and there are approx. 365.25 solar days in a full revolution around the sun, 365.25 x 1.00274 = 366.25. Trick Question? Nah! QOD for : February 25 Who were the first animal(s) on space and what were their name(s)? 1.Cats: Socks & Scruffy 2.Dog: Laika 3.Fish: Pluto 4.Monkeys: Bill & Bob 5.Hamsters: Spicky & Micky Correct Answer:Dog: Laika Explanation: Look up the Encyclopedia. QOD for : February 26 What is a hemidemisemiquaver? 1.A geographical term. 2.A mathematical equation. 3.A sixty-fourth note. 4.A small earthquake. Correct Answer:A sixty-fourth note. Explanation: A hemidemisemiquaver is a musical note. QOD for : February 27 It was one of the first hatchbacks, had a five speed gearbox, advanced hydro-pneumatic suspension and was the last car designed by Mini designer Alec Issigonis. What was it? 1.Citroen GS 2.Austin Allegro 3.Renault 16 4.Austin Maxi 5.Austin Metro Correct Answer:Austin Maxi Explanation: It was the Maxi. The Citroen GS was styled for Austin for the Maxi, but BLMC sold the design to Citroen. The Allegro was a development of an earlier Issigonis design, the 1100, the Renault 16 was the first hatchback of all, and the Metro was a hatchback development of the Mini. QOD for : February 28 At whom did Peeping Tom peep? 1.Queen Elizabeth I 2.Lady Godiva 3.The Emporer (from the Emperor's New Clothes) 4.Medusa Correct Answer:Lady Godiva Explanation: Lady Godiva rode through the street, naked, on horseback to protest the taxes her husband (the king?) placed on his subjects. They all turned their backs to show respect for her, however, a little boy named Tom was peeping to see her. Questions & Answers for the month of: March QOD for : March 1 What is the name of the "Top Secret" Military Installation in Nevada? 1.Groom Lake Air Force Base 2.The No Fly Zone 3.No Man's Land 4.Area 51 5.Zone 17 Correct Answer:Area 51 Explanation: The name of the base Is Area 51 QOD for : March 2 Three men go to a motel and split the cost of the room for $30 evenly. After they've gone to their room the clerk realizes he overcharged $5 and gives it to the bellboy to take up to them. The bellboy decides to keep $2 and give them each $1. So they each paid $9 x 3 - $27 bellboy's $2 tip = $29, where's the extra $1? 1.Bellboy kept the extra $1 2.Clerk kept the extra $1 3.There is no extra $1 Correct Answer:There is no extra $1 Explanation: 3 x 9 = $27 total cost $25 room $2 tip = $27 total cost QOD for : March 3 Which of the following is NOT a caste in the Hindu tradition? 1.Sudra 2.Vamana 3.Brahman 4.Ksatriya 5.Vaishya Correct Answer:Vamana Explanation: Vamana is one of the incarnations of Vishnu( a Hindu god), not a caste. QOD for : March 4 What is the historical significance of this date? 1.It marks the death of five ex-presidents. 2.The War of 1812 started on this day. 3.It is the day on which the Treaty of Ghent was signed. 4.The day used to be Inauguration Day. 5.It's my birthday! Correct Answer:The day used to be Inauguration Day. Explanation: It was not until this century that January 20th marked the date of presidential inaugurations. QOD for : March 5 If you've EVER complained on the QOD user list about the QOD being STUPID.....Well this one's for YOU!!!!! Of the bondable materials listed on the back label of Elmer's Glue-All, which is listed in BOLD print? 1.paper 2.cloth 3.wood 4.polystyrene foam 5.pottery Correct Answer:polystyrene foam Explanation: EMLER'S GLUE-ALL America's Favorite Glue to bond paper, cloth, wood, polystyrene foam, pottery and most other porous and semi-porous materials. Dries clear, dries fast. Non-toxic. QOD for : March 6 What was the name of Piglet's grandfather? 1.Alan Alexander 2.Trespassers William 3.E. H. Shepard 4.Billy Moon 5.Sanders Correct Answer:Trespassers William Explanation: "The Piglet lived in a very grand house in the middle of a beech-tree, and the beech-tree was in the middle of the forest, and the Piglet lived in the middle of the house. Next to his house was a piece of broken board which had: "TRESPASSERS W" on it. When Christopher Robin asked the Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name, and had been in the family for a long time. Christopher Robin said you couldn't be called Trespassers W, and Piglet said yes, you could, because his grandfather was, and it was short for Trespassers Will, which was short of Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one -- Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers." A. A. Milne "In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle" Winnie The Pooh QOD for : March 7 On what floor of the apartment do Jerry and Kramer live on? 1.first 2.second 3.third 4.fourth 5.fifth Correct Answer:fifth Explanation: Kramer lives in 5A and Jerry lives in 5B. QOD for : March 8 On "ER". Doug Ross' (George Clooney) father reappeared after how many years? 1.15 2.22 3.31 4.5 5.20 Correct Answer:22 Explanation: Remember the episode when Doug wins the award for saving the boy in the drainage ditch? Doug's father calls, and Doug later tells Mark thet "I haven't heard that voice in...22 years." QOD for : March 9 This is a Trick Question. Most of the people asked over years have gotten this Wrong! During which time of the year do the days get longer? 1.Summer 2.Winter Correct Answer:Winter Explanation: The first day of Summer is the longest day of the year, therefore from the first day of summer on, the days are *getting* shorter even though they may *be* longer. In contrast the first day of Winter is the shortest day of the year, therefore, from the first day of Winter on, the days are *getting* longer. Amazingly, to me anyway, the vast majority of the people asked this question get it wrong. The only people who seem to get it right are nit picking nerds, like myself, who listen to *exactly* what you are saying rather than using verbal short hand to convey generalized concepts designed to reinforce the feeling among the conversations participants that they are part of the socially acceptable who already know all that needs to be known. "Like-ya-know". Nerds talk to exchange accurate information so they pay attention to what's being said. Sorry if getting this question right puts you in with those on the social outs. QOD for : March 10 In medical terminology, what does QOD mean? 1.Question On Diagnosis 2.Quiet On Delivery 3.Every Order Denied 4.Every Other Day 5.Quit Oral Drugs Correct Answer:Every Other Day Explanation: Q from the Latin quaque, meaning 'every' and D from the Latin die, meaning 'day' QOD for : March 11 What movie did Harrison Ford star in 1980? 1.The Mosquito Coast 2.Bladerunner 3.Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 4.The Empire Strikes Back 5.Patriot Games Correct Answer:The Empire Strikes Back Explanation: Harrison Ford played HAN SOLO in the Empire Strikes Back in the year of 1980. QOD for : March 12 why is "throw up" called vomit? 1.name of a small rodent animal that smells like throw up 2.greek for throw up 3.latin for throw up 4.german for throw up 5.norwegian for throw up Correct Answer:greek for throw up Explanation: the greek word for throw up is vomittio which directly translated means "from the stomach" QOD for : March 13 A Vulcan has green blood because it is due to its high __________ content. 1.carbon dioxide 2.copper 3.plasma 4.iron 5.logic Correct Answer:copper Explanation: It is the iron content in human blood that gives it its red color. oxidized iron-- or rust-- is red. When Copper oxidezes or "rusts" it turns green. QOD for : March 14 What is Intarsia? 1.An old fashioned form of head dress. 2.A ritualistic dance of some tribes in Australia. 3.A style of hierglyphics. 4.A decorative form of woodwork. 5.A race of people/aliens seen on Star Trek Voyager. Correct Answer:A decorative form of woodwork. Explanation: Intarsia is a rare form of decorative and pictorial woodwork inlay of the Italian Renaissance. It usually involves a mosaic of wood pieces, and ivory, metal, etc. It gives a two dimensional surface a three dimensional look. QOD for : March 15 What was the name of the volcanoe that destroyed the ancient city of Pompeii on 24th August, 79 AD? 1.Mount Saint Helens 2.Mount Olympus 3.Mount Ararat 4.Mount El'brus 5.Mount Vesuvius Correct Answer:Mount Vesuvius Explanation: Mount Vesuvius erupted on the 24th of August 79AD, poisoning and covering thousands of people who lived in Pompeii, a then thriving Roman city. QOD for : March 16 How many freckles did Howdy Doodie have? 1.50 2.23 3.36 4.48 Correct Answer:48 Explanation: There was one freckle for each state that was in the Union at that time. This was before Hawaii and Alaska were admitted into the United States. QOD for : March 17 Which of the three would see most clearly in total darkness? 1.A leapord 2.A bat 3.An owl 4.None of the above Correct Answer:None of the above Explanation: In "total" darkness it's impossible to see anything. QOD for : March 18 One of Lyndin B. Johnson's favorite places to conduct business as The President of the United States was: 1.The White House Rose Garden 2.His den. Which contained his collection of antique firearms. 3.The Oval Office. 4.The toilet. Correct Answer:The toilet. Explanation: Yes it's true. Lyndon Johnson often called staff meetings while sitting on the throne. How appropriate. Johnson believed that this was very humbling to his underlings and would often conduct business while taking a dump. It is also rumored that he often grunted and sweated profusely while discussing the business of our country. QOD for : March 19 What is the name of the main character in Leon Uris's _Battle Cry_? 1.Abdul Kadar 2.David Johnson 3.Tits Ann Ass 4.Kirby Williams 5.Danny Forester Correct Answer:Danny Forester Explanation: QOD for : March 20 Who are the current holders of the italian cup? 1.inter 2.FIORENTINA 3.JUVENTUS 4.SAMPDORIA 5.BOLOGNA Correct Answer:FIORENTINA Explanation: NO EXPLANATION QOD for : March 21 What is the blue moon that is refered to in the expression, "only on a blue moon"? 1.A type of cheese 2.Strange colouring introduced by smog in the atmosphere 3.When a month has two full moon's in it 4.Inacurate translation of an ancient Greek astrological term 5.Nickname for an intricate and difficult card trick Correct Answer:When a month has two full moon's in it Explanation: It is possilbe to have a full moon on the first and last days of the longer months of the year. The second full moon that occurs is called a blue moon. It doesn't happen very often, hence the rare inference in the expression "only on a blue moon". QOD for : March 22 In which century was Santa Claus first made popular? 1.16th Century 2.17th Century 3.18th Century 4.19th Century Correct Answer:19th Century Explanation: Saint Nicholas was patron saint of sailors and children of Greece, Italy and Russia amongst others. The English in New York adopted him from the Dutch calling him Santa Claus. QOD for : March 23 Who discovered radioactivity? 1.Albert Einstein 2.Marie Curie 3.Ernest Rutherford 4.Henri Becquerel 5.Enrico Fermi Correct Answer:Henri Becquerel Explanation: Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896 while examining minerals such as uranium. QOD for : March 24 Everyone knows that in the famous chase scene in the movie Bullitt (1968), Steve McQueen drove a Ford Mustang. But what was the other car involved in the chase? 1.Chevrolet Camaro 2.Dodge Charger 3.Mercury Cougar 4.Pontiac Firebird 5.Plymouth Roadrunner Correct Answer:Dodge Charger Explanation: The Charger (which lost three hubcaps during the sequence but still had three left, watch for it) was driven by Paul George with John Aprea riding shotgun (literally!) (Well, OK, so it was really a couple of stunt drivers, wotthehell.) Steve McQueen would have been 67 today. QOD for : March 25 Was Ducky Medwick really that ducky? 1.No, he didn't have even one webbed toe or sound like Rose Perot 2.Yea, you betcha. 3.Yes, Ducky was short for his real given name, Duckworth 4.Yes. He was also the cat's pajamas and alrightorooony. 5.Yes. whenever he batted he'd always hit at least one fowl ball. Correct Answer:No, he didn't have even one webbed toe or sound like Rose Perot Explanation: You could look it up--C Stengel. QOD for : March 26 What is the best figures of Anil Kumble (the cricketer from India) in an One Day International ? 1.3 for 10 2.5 to 37 3.6 for 12 4.7 for 10 5.None of the above Correct Answer:6 for 12 Explanation: What is there to explain ? This figures changed the whole course of the match and Indians were victorious. QOD for : March 27 IN WHAT STATE OF AUSTRALIA IS CAIRNS SITUATED IN 1.TASMANIA 2.WESTERN AUSTRALIA 3.PAUPAU NEW GUINEA 4.QUEENSLAND 5.NEW YORK Correct Answer:QUEENSLAND Explanation: BECAUSE IT JUST IS. LOOK IN AN ATLAS IF YOU DONT BELIEVE ME. QOD for : March 28 When viewing the closest star to Earth, how far back in time are you seeing? 1.25 years 2.186 thousand years 3.11.8 days 4.8.2 minutes 5.None of the above, it's "instant" Correct Answer:8.2 minutes Explanation: Our own Sun is the closest star to Earth. Light, traveling at 186,ooo miles per second, takes just a little over eight seconds to travel the 93 million miles Earth. Thus, we always see the Sun as it was about eight seconds ago. QOD for : March 29 Which of the following is offered as a major at Brigham Young University? 1.Cossack Underwater Basket Weaving 2.History of Early Mormon Cabinet Making 3.Primate Science 4.Bicycle Maintenance 5.Ballroom Dancing Correct Answer:Ballroom Dancing Explanation: There is no such subject as Cossack Underwater Basket Weaving. Mormons value their history, but not enough to study Cabinet Making. Primate science is a vital part of the science of Taxonomy, but not a major. Bicycle Maintenance is a useful thing to know, but is not to be studied at a major college, so Ballroom Dancing is the clear choice QOD for : March 30 Who is the current vice president of the United States of America 1.Newt Gingrich 2.Al Gore 3.Ross Perot 4.Allen Greenspam 5.Jack Kemp Correct Answer:Al Gore Explanation: QOD for : March 31 In which of the following professions is one inch not exactly equal to 25.4 mm? 1.Fisherman 2.Plumber 3.Dressmaker 4.Surveyor 5.Carpenter Correct Answer:Surveyor Explanation: While each answer has possibilities, the only correct answer is 4)Surveyor. Because of the vast amounts of land already surveyed using the original value of 25.40005 mm per inch, Congress retained that value as a Surveyor's Inch when the rest of the English speaking world compromised on 25.4 mm per inch in 1959. speaking countries in 1959. Questions & Answers for the month of: April QOD for : April 1 In the movie The Sound of Music, what is Captain Von Trapp's first name? 1.Henrich 2.Raul 3.George 4.Max 5.Freidrich Correct Answer:George Explanation: It is mentioned only once in the entire movie by the baronness. t QOD for : April 2 What is light made of? 1.Particles 2.Waves 3.Photons 4.Gas 5.A divine force Correct Answer:Photons Explanation: Light has the properties of waves and photons. But has no mass, therefore, it can not be considered a particle. As a particle gets closer and closer to the speed of light, its mass starts to increase exponentially, until (theoretically), its mass would be infinite at the speed of light, therefore, light, (to travel at the speed of light) must have no mass. Because it has no mass, light can not be a particle. QOD for : April 3 A 1 cubic metre block of gold is placed in a tank of water with the top opening 3m x 1m, and it's 5m deep. The tank is filled with 9 cubic metres of water, filling to a depth of 3m high. Water pressure is 30 kPa on the bottom surface of the tank, hence 10kPa for every cubic metre of water above it. What is the water pressure on the very top edge of the gold block when it touches down on the bottom of the tank? 1.20 kPa 2.23 1/3 kPa 3.30 kPa 4.No Pressure 5.None of the above Correct Answer:23 1/3 kPa Explanation: When the block touches down, the tank consists of 10 cubic metres of materials. This evens out to 3 1/3 of material in depth. The block stays whole, so that's 3 1/3 minus the block (1m) making all the water above it 2 1/3 cubic metres, and that's 2 1/3 kPa! QOD for : April 4 Existentialist author Albert Camus wrote the following novel: 1.The Trial 2.Nausea 3.Speak, Memory 4.The Plague 5.Cat and Mouse Correct Answer:The Plague Explanation: Albert Camus wrote THE PLAGUE in 1947. QOD for : April 5 On the original STAR TREK series only one episode took place entirely on a planet with no interior scenes aboard the Enterprise. Which episode was it? 1.Bread and Circuses 2.A Private Little War 3.All Our Yesterdays 4.The Gamesters of Triskellion 5.I, Mudd Correct Answer:All Our Yesterdays Explanation: ALL OUR YESTERDAYS begins with Kirk/Spock/McCoy beaming into the library and ends with them preparing to beam back- not one scene takes place aboard the ENTERPRISE. QOD for : April 6 How man ships were in Columbus' SECOND voyage to America? 1.Nine 2.Three 3.Six 4.Seventeen 5.Twelve Correct Answer:Seventeen Explanation: QOD for : April 7 What is the purpose of flame cells in a Platyhelminthe? 1.to continue growth of primary layer of skin 2.help the organism stay warm 3.to dispose of liquid wastes 4.help catch prey Correct Answer:to dispose of liquid wastes Explanation: Platyhelminthes, also known as flatworms, use flame cells as a major part of their excretory system to help them dispose of liquid waste. QOD for : April 8 What causes weather patterns in the southern hemisphere to rotate in the opposite direction from those in the northern hemisphere? 1.Cyclogenisis 2.Hydrologic cycle 3.Orographic lifting 4.Coriolis effect 5.Katabatic winds Correct Answer:Coriolis effect Explanation: This effect is created by the rotation of the earth, causing weather systems to rotate clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere.This effect is also responsible for the prevailing westerly winds we experience in North America. QOD for : April 9 When does the 21st century start? 1.2000 2.1999 3.2001 4.2002 5.August of 2000 Correct Answer:2001 Explanation: The beginning of time started in the year 1, not in the year 0, so the new century must start in 2001, not 2000. QOD for : April 10 In 1600s Venice, one could notify the Council of Three of a suspected traitor by putting an explanatory note in the mouth of a statue of what animal? 1.lion 2.bear 3.tiger 4.eagle 5.gargoyle Correct Answer:lion Explanation: The lion symbolized the regal nature of the Council and emphasized their power. QOD for : April 11 Who was the first to say: "Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you, or a zealous asking what you can do for your country"? 1.Marten Luther King Jr. 2.John F. Kennedy 3.Franklin D. Roosevelt 4.Gibran Kahlil Gibran 5.Plato Correct Answer:Gibran Kahlil Gibran Explanation: Over 50 years ago, and in an article entitled "The New Frontier", this statement appeared in Kahlil Gibran's article, he wrote that article and addressed it to his people in Lebanon. The author of "The Prophet" has many memorable sayings and quotes. For more informationabout the subject and for the full article where the statement appears, visit my web page. QOD for : April 12 What percentage of the US population lives within 50 miles of the coast? 1.Less than 20% 2.35% 3.45% 4.55% 5.80% Correct Answer:80% Explanation: According to Britanica 80% of the Population in the United States lives within 50 miles of the coast. QOD for : April 13 What is the only manmade structure big enough to be visible from space by astronauts? 1.The Pyramids 2.The Great Wall of China 3.The Hoover Dam 4.The Pentagon 5.Sears Tower Correct Answer:The Great Wall of China Explanation: QOD for : April 14 What movie had gangster John Dillenger been watching at Chicago's Biograph Theater before being gunned down by FBI agents in 1934? 1.The Thin Man 2.Manhattan Melodrama 3.The Gay Divorcee 4.The Man Who Knew Too Much 5.It Happened One Night Correct Answer:Manhattan Melodrama Explanation: QOD for : April 15 In what year did the first Rose Bowl take place? 1.1910 2.1936 3.1942 4.1902 5.1951 Correct Answer:1902 Explanation: The First Rose Bowl was in 1902. QOD for : April 16 Who is the main character in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice? 1.Fitzwilliam Darcy 2.Mr. Gardin 3.Elizabeth Bennet 4.Colonel Wickham 5.Georgiana Darcy Correct Answer:Elizabeth Bennet Explanation: QOD for : April 17 Who was the youngest Beatle? 1.Paul McCartney 2.Ringo Starr 3.George Harisson 4.John Lennon Correct Answer:George Harisson Explanation: A lot of people seem to belive that Ringo is the youngest, when he is the Oldest. You see, he was the last one to join the group. QOD for : April 18 Where did The Beatles perform their last concert? 1.Liverpool 2.NewYork City. 3.Vancouver 4.San Francisco 5.None of the above. Correct Answer:San Francisco Explanation: They played their last concert in San Francisco on August 29th, 1966 QOD for : April 19 Which of the following states is a member of the United Nations? 1.Tonga 2.Yunanistan 3.Palau 4.Switzerland 5.Aruba Correct Answer:Palau Explanation: Yunanistan is fictitious, Aruba is a Dutch dependency, and Switzerland and Tonga have never decided to join the UN, although they do participate in some divisions of the UN. QOD for : April 20 How many citizens of the U.S. are killed by fire-arms each year? 1.1,000 2.20,000 3.40,000 4.60,000 5.80,000 Correct Answer:40,000 Explanation: Statistics found in Oct. issue of Seventeen magazine. QOD for : April 21 Which Basketball player is the only one to have scored over 50 points in a game in atleast 10 games? 1.Micheal Jordan 2.Wilt Chamberlain 3.Larry Bird 4.Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 5.Larry King Correct Answer:Wilt Chamberlain Explanation: Wilt Chamberlain accomplished it numerous times, also achieving, as the only person in basketball history, to score 100 points in a single game! QOD for : April 22 Who's picture is on a twenty dollar bill? 1.washington 2.jackson 3.lincoln 4.jefferson 5.none of the above Correct Answer:jackson Explanation: Andrew Jackson is on the twenty dollar bill QOD for : April 23 Today's My birthday! A famous person was also born on this date way back in 1564. What's more, they died on this same date in 1616. Who are they? 1.Johann Gutenburg 2.Ferdinand Magellan 3.Queen Elizabeth I 4.William Shakespeare 5.Pocahontas Correct Answer:William Shakespeare Explanation: Shakespeare was born, and died on April 23rd. Isn't that strange/wacky/cool? QOD for : April 24 Which school is not a member of the Pacific Ten Conference (PAC-10 for short) 1.Washington State University 2.University of Arizona 3.San Diego State University 4.Oregon State University 5.Stanford Correct Answer:San Diego State University Explanation: Stanford, OSU, & WSU are original members of the PAC-8. Arizona and Arizona St were added in 1978 to make it the PAC-10. San Diego St. does not meet the conference's tough academic standards. QOD for : April 25 What country was South Africa's apartheid model based on? 1.Germany 2.Canada 3.U.S.A 4.England Correct Answer:Canada Explanation: The South African Apartheid model was a result of a study of south African delegate to observe how Canada dealt with the first nations people. QOD for : April 26 What is the least populous state east of the Mississippi River, with fewer than 600,000 residents? 1.Alaska 2.Vermont 3.Rhode Island 4.California 5.Florida Correct Answer:Vermont Explanation: Alaska and California are west of the Mississipi. Rhode Island and Florida have way to many residents to qualify as the correct answer. Therefore, Vermont must be the correct answer. QOD for : April 27 Who was the winning driver in the 1995 Nascar point standings in the WinstonCup Division? 1.Dale Jarrett 2.Ted Musgrave 3.Ernie Irvan 4.Jeff Gordon 5.Dale Earnhardt Correct Answer:Jeff Gordon Explanation: The 2nd youngest driver to win the WinstonCup, Jeff Gordon, finished just 34 points ahead of 1994 defending champ, Dale Earnhardt! QOD for : April 28 In Star Trek how many Enterprises have there been? 1.5 2.7 3.3 4.4 5.2 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: There have been two sets of crews for the three ships QOD for : April 29 What is a griot? 1.a tool used in cutting gems 2.a person who studies a family's history 3.the sharp pick like part of a mountain climbers shoe 4.a combination of oats and grits 5.a tool used to lace up shoes in the olden days Correct Answer:a person who studies a family's history Explanation: Alex Haley used a griot to help him trace his family's roots. QOD for : April 30 Which one of these moderately active types of exercise burns the most calories per hour (for a person who weighs approximately 150 pounds)? 1.swimming (@ 1/4 mph) 2.calisthenics 3.walking (@ 3 1/2 mph) 4.badminton 5.bicycling (@ 5 1/2 mph) Correct Answer:badminton Explanation: According to the New York Public Library Desk Reference, an hour of badminton expends 350 calories for a person weighing 150 lbs. An hour of swimming @ 1/4 mph, calisthenics, or walking @ 3 1/2 mph, burns 300 calories per hour. An hour of bicycling (@ 5 1/2 mph) burns 210 calories. Questions & Answers for the month of: May QOD for : May 1 Who was Lando Calrissian's co-pilot on board the Millenium Falcon in Return of the Jedi? 1.Kadaan 2.Bojun Fador 3.Nien Nunb 4.Figrin D'an 5.Fugo Correct Answer:Nien Nunb Explanation: Nien Nunb was that weird looking guy with the big jowls and the lucid mouse-eyes. He is a rebel pilot from the planet Sullust. QOD for : May 2 On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first to walk on the moon. Who was the second man on the moon? 1.Michael Collins 2.Pete Conrad 3.Buzz Aldrin 4.Jim Lovell 5.Alan Shepherd Correct Answer:Buzz Aldrin Explanation: Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin was the second man on the moon, the other crewman was Mike Collins, who remained in the command module that orbited the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. QOD for : May 3 In The Trumpet of the Swans,how is Charlie mintly challenged? 1.Blind 2.Deaf 3.Cripple Correct Answer:Deaf Explanation: In the book it says Charlie was sick for 2 years,then says he couldn't speak or hear. QOD for : May 4 What causes the thumping sound when a helocoptor flies through the air? 1.The force of the wind being pushed to the ground to create lift for the aircraft. 2.The tail-rotor blades of the helicoptor cutting through the wind coming from the main rotor blades. 3.The main-rotor blade tips breaking the speed of sound. 4.The torque of the main-rotor head turning against the torque of the tail-rotor. 5.The wind breaking over the non-aerodynamic shape of the helicoptor as it cut through the air during flight. Correct Answer:The main-rotor blade tips breaking the speed of sound. Explanation: As the main-rotor head turns, the blades stretch out away from the main rotor-head. While the blades are stretching, the blade tips fall slightly behind the leading edge of the blade. When the blade tip catches up to the leading edge of the blade, it does so in a whip-like effect, which breaks the speed of sound. QOD for : May 5 What day of the month was it when President George Washington was born? You can check the calendar. 1.the 17th 2.the 12th 3.the 13th 4.the 22nd 5.the 31st Correct Answer:the 13th Explanation: George Washington was born before England switched to the Gregorian calendar. There was a nine day shift as a result. QOD for : May 6 What are the names of the bad mushroom guys in the video games starring Mario? 1.Lakitus 2.Goombas 3.Gophers 4.Blockheads 5.Chompers Correct Answer:Goombas Explanation: QOD for : May 7 What's the exhaust valve clearance on a 3.9 litre Cummins diesel engine? 1.0.032 of an inch. 2.0.390 mm 3.0.302 mm 4.0.020 of an inch. 5.0.820 of an inch. Correct Answer:0.020 of an inch. Explanation: QOD for : May 8 Which members of the Beatles were involved with the recording of the song 'The Ballad of John and Yoko'? 1.John and Paul 2.John, Paul, & Ringo 3.All of them 4.John & George 5.John, George, & Ringo Correct Answer:John and Paul Explanation: John and Paul put down all the tracks to this song in the studio one day, with Paul on drums, bass, and vocals. John provided the rest of the tracks. Although this was near the end of their relationship as band members, and their differences were misrepresented and exxagerated by the media (imagine that), they still enjoyed writing and recording songs together. They were partners, after all! QOD for : May 9 Who is the most decorated gymnast? 1.Dominque Dawes 2.Shannon Miller 3.Amy Chow 4.Dominque Mocheonu 5.Amanda Borden Correct Answer:Shannon Miller Explanation: She won the most medals in the Olympics. She also won the most medals in her gymnastics career. QOD for : May 10 What is an anglophile? 1.an avid fisherman 2.a member of the Anglican Church 3.one who traces his ancestry to Anglo-Saxons 4.one who admires England and English things 5.one who walks or runs at an angle Correct Answer:one who admires England and English things Explanation: an anglophile admires or favors anything English QOD for : May 11 What year was the T.V. invented? 1.1939 2.1906 3.1929 4.1914 5.1930 Correct Answer:1929 Explanation: You cannot explain it. QOD for : May 12 There is a full-size statue in Princeton Cemetary of a local burgher with his back defiantly turned to the Princeton University campus -- supposedly because they turned him down when he offered them lots of money if they would rename the college after him. Miffed, he used his wealth to found another institution. Was it: 1.Johns Hopkins 2.Kenyon 3.Tulane 4.Bates 5.Emory Correct Answer:Tulane Explanation: Joseph Tulane was the sore loser. QOD for : May 13 What basketball player was drafted #4 in the 1984 draft? 1.Micheal Jordan 2.Sam Perkins 3.Hakeem Olajuwon 4.John Stockton 5.Sam Bowie Correct Answer:Sam Perkins Explanation: He was drafted #4,Olajuwon was drafted #1,Jordan was drafted #3,Stockton was #16,and Bowie was #2 QOD for : May 14 Who has won "The Most Popular Driver" award the most times in NASCAR history? 1.Rusty Wallace 2.Terry Labonte 3.Dale Earnhardt 4.Bill Elliott 5.Richard Petty Correct Answer:Bill Elliott Explanation: Bill has won the coveted award 11 of the last 13 years. QOD for : May 15 What is the name of the magazine of the Syd Barrett Appreciation Society ? 1.The Wall 2.Freak Out 3.Terrapin 4.Pink Floyd 5.Spontaneous Underground Correct Answer:Terrapin Explanation: Terrapin is correct any Pink Floyd fan could tell you about it! QOD for : May 16 How many different species of the oak genus are there? 1.376 species 2.450 species 3.1,000 species 4.132 species 5.893 species Correct Answer:450 species Explanation: There are about 100 different species of the oak genus found in the United States and in Canada. The other 350 species are found in Mexico. QOD for : May 17 Thirty birds sit on the upper branch of a tree. A so-called "sportsman" fires three volleys of buckshot at the birds, killing half of one-third of their number. Can you quickly answer how many birds remain? 1.six 2.none 3.five 4.four 5.three Correct Answer:none Explanation: None. not even one bird would say after the first shot. QOD for : May 18 5 foot 10 inch Rhode Island State basketball plaer who threw a two-handed shot that traveled an estimated 65 feet into the basket in the opening game of the National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 14, 1946. 1.Alfred Chenhalls 2.Ernie Calverley 3.Bergen Evans 4.Jim Gentile 5.John Luckless Correct Answer:Ernie Calverley Explanation: It was a desperation throw with only 2 seconds left to play. The point tied the game with Bowling Green, which won 82-79 in OT. QOD for : May 19 What is the average distance a normal, heathy slug can travel in one day? 1.25 feet 2.50 feet 3.50 yards 4.100 yards 5.1 mile Correct Answer:50 yards Explanation: Slugs are not very fast animals. I really don't want to know how someone came up with the answer to this question. QOD for : May 20 HOW MANY HEARTS DOES AN EARTH WORM HAVE? 1.1 2.5 3.10 4.15 5.20 Correct Answer:10 Explanation: EARTH WORMS HAVE 5 PAIRS OF HEARTS EQUALING 10 HEARTS ALL TOGETHER. CUT ONE OPEN AND SEE FOR YOURSELF. QOD for : May 21 When Mike was first going out with Milly he carved their initials inside a heart on a tree trunk 3 feet from the ground. When Mike and Milly were married exactly a year later the tree had grown 8 inches. During the following years it doubled it's growth rate annually. How high was the heart on Mike and Milly's tenth wedding anniversary? 1.5 feet 2.10 and 1/2 feet 3.3 feet 4.7 feet 5.4 feet Correct Answer:3 feet Explanation: The heart was still only 3 feet from the ground. A tree grows from the top not the base. QOD for : May 22 How many eyelids does a cat have? 1.3 2.2 3.4 4.1 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: generally called "haw" it is a protective eyelid which covers the cat's eye making it looked cross-eyed when it's normal seeing conditions are temporary impaired. QOD for : May 23 There are only four questions of value in life: What is sacred? What is the spirit made of? What is worth living for? What is woth dying for? The answer to each is the same... 1.Life 2.Soul 3.Love 4.Happiness Correct Answer:Love Explanation: If you begin to think about all those questions, you will find that only love is the answer, that´s what all those things is worth living and dying for. QOD for : May 24 On the original Muppet Show, what was the name of the man living in Fozzie Bear's finger? 1.Lou Reed 2.Bob 3.Mr. Bimble 4.Fozzie Bear the second 5.Harold Correct Answer:Mr. Bimble Explanation: Fozzie Bear claimed there was a man (that is, voice) living in his finger named Mr. Bimble. This drove Kermit insane whenever Fozzie brought up the subject. QOD for : May 25 Andy Griffith & Don Knotts played opposite each other for five years on The Andy Griffith Show, but what was the only movie in which they appeared together? 1.Kelly's Heroes 2.The Girl In The Empty Grave 3.The Incredible Mr. Limpet 4.No Time For Sergeants 5.Matlock Correct Answer:No Time For Sergeants Explanation: Neither Griffith nor Knotts played In Kelly's Heroes, Griffith played in #2, but without Knotts, and Knotts did the same thing in #3, but without Griffith, and Matlock is not even a movie, rather a TV series, so #4 is the obvious choice, a 1958 release in which Griffith plays a Georgia rube that gets drafted into the army, and Knotts plays a high-strung corporal. QOD for : May 26 Where did the last Confederate combat unit surrender at the end of the War Between the States ? 1.Richmond,Virginia 2.Liverpool, England 3.Washington D.C. 4.Melbourne Australia 5.Fort Huachuca, New Mexico Correct Answer:Liverpool, England Explanation: The last unit to surrender was the cruiser "Shenandoah". She had been raiding a whaling fleet in the Bering Sea when the war ended and her crew was afraid of being hanged as pirates QOD for : May 27 What is the name of the sorcerer in the blue gown in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on the Disney film "Fantasia?" (He was the guy who saved Mickey from the water throwing brooms.) 1.Yensid 2.The Sorcerer 3.The Great and Almighty Knower Of All Magic 4.Iniduoh 5.Yekcim Correct Answer:Yensid Explanation: The writers of Fantasia named him this because it is Disney spelt backwards!!;-) QOD for : May 28 Which Looney Tunes Caracter, Has A Dog Called K9 ¿ 1.Bug's Bunny 2.Elmo J. Fudd 3.Marvin The Martian 4.Taz Devil 5.Daffy Duck Correct Answer:Marvin The Martian Explanation: I love Marvin The Martian, and Looney Tunes gave him a dog called K9, got it ¿ QOD for : May 29 How many upper teeth does an elk have? 1.10 2.2 3.12 4.6 Correct Answer:2 Explanation: An elk only has two upper teeth, it uses its lower teeth to graze. QOD for : May 30 Who was the voice of the dragon in the movie Dragonheart???? 1.George Clooney 2.Ed O'neil 3.Sean Connery 4.Paul Newman 5.Sam Elliot Correct Answer:Sean Connery Explanation: my mom saw the movie because she loves Sean Connery. QOD for : May 31 Who was the first documented person to propose a heliocentric model of the solar system? 1.Galileo 2.Copernicus 3.Aristarchus 4.Plato 5.Da Vinci Correct Answer:Aristarchus Explanation: Aristarchus of Samos was a mathematician and astronomer who lived between about 310 and 230 BC. His heliocentric theory of the solar system was not accepted. Much of his work is lost, except for bits harshly criticised by Archimedes; this work was used by Copernicus in the 1500's in preparation of his own work. References: "The Story of Mathematics" (author forgotten, sorry). Also http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aristarchus.html Questions & Answers for the month of: June QOD for : June 1 How long did it take to build the Confederation bridge between prince edward island and new brunswick? 1.1year 2.2.5years 3.2years 4.1.5years 5.3years Correct Answer:2.5years Explanation: The Confederation bridge first named the fixed link was started in may 95. QOD for : June 2 In 1966, The Beatles won a Grammy for what song? 1.Yesterday 2.I Want to Hold Your Hand 3.Help! 4.Michelle 5.A Hard Day's Night Correct Answer:Michelle Explanation: QOD for : June 3 Venus, the second planet in our solar system, has a mean distance from the Sun of...? 1.27 million miles 2.67 million miles 3.97 million miles 4.127 million miles 5.7 million miles Correct Answer:67 million miles Explanation: Venus has a mean distance from the sun of 67 million miles. QOD for : June 4 What movie marked the big screen debut of actor River Phooenix? 1.The Mosquito Coast 2.Stand By Me 3.Explorers 4.My Own Private Idaho 5.Little Nikita Correct Answer:Explorers Explanation: The movie "Explorers" marked the first major film appearance for both River Phoenix and Ethen Hawke. QOD for : June 5 WHAT WAS THE SHOW THAT GAVE MATHEW PERRY (CHANDLER) OF FRIENDS HIS BIG BREAK AS AN ACTOR? 1.CHEERS 2.WEBSTER 3.GENERAL HOSPITAL 4.FRIENDS 5.SECOND CHANCE Correct Answer:SECOND CHANCE Explanation: I REMEMBER WATCHING THIS SHOW BACK IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL BUT NO ONE ELSE SEEMS TO REMEMBER IT SO LETS SEE IF ANYONE OUT THERE IN CYBERSPACE CAN FIGURE IT OUT QOD for : June 6 What is the prime water temperature for catching Largemouth Bass? 1.24 degrees F. 2.47degrees F. 3.67degrees F. 4.78 degrees F. 5.84 degrees F. Correct Answer:67degrees F. Explanation: It's a fact! What more do you want? QOD for : June 7 IN "TOP GUN" WHAT IS GOOSE'S REAL NAME? 1.RANDY MARTIN 2.NICK BRADSHAW 3.THOMAS KAZANSKI 4.RICHARD HANSEN 5.YOU CAN NOT FIND HIS NAME IN THE MOVIE Correct Answer:NICK BRADSHAW Explanation: IN THE SCENE WHERE "MAVRICK" IS GATHERING "GOOSES" PERSONAL EFFECTS HE PICKS UP HIS DOG TAGS AND THERE IS A NAME TAG THAT GIVES HIS REAL NAME. QOD for : June 8 What makes thunder? 1.Hot and cold air hit each other. 2.Two clouds meet. 3.In the atmosphere, hot air hits a cloud. Correct Answer:Hot and cold air hit each other. Explanation: When hot and cold air meet it makes a loud noise called thunder. QOD for : June 9 If QOD means "Question of the Day," then what does QED mean, especially in mathematics? 1.Quato et admonsium, or "I don't know." 2.Quod erat demonstratum, or "What was to be demonstrated." 3.Queratum etu intuite, or "It's intuitively obvious." Correct Answer:Quod erat demonstratum, or "What was to be demonstrated." Explanation: In mathematical calculations performed on paper, sometimes all of the written mental gyrations can make the final answer almost impossible to find.. Therefore, it is a good idea that the final answer be identified with a "QED," so that it can be found more easily. After all, the final answer is "What was to be demonstrated." This makes whoever is looking for the result a much less frustrated person. QOD for : June 10 The brightest star in the nighttime sky is 1.Sun 2.Polaris, the North Star 3.Sirius, the Dog Star 4.Venus 5.Moon Correct Answer:Sirius, the Dog Star Explanation: Sun-brightest star; Polaris-49th brightest, famous because it does not move; Sirius, the Dog Star (Canis Major) is the brightest star of the night; Venus is the brightest planet in the sky, but it is not a star; Moon is the brightest nonstellar object of the night sky, but like Venus, it reflects light from the sun. QOD for : June 11 Abamectrin is the active ingredient in a popular roach bait used frequently to control all types of cockroaches. What was this active ingredient originally used for, and still is? 1.popular drain cleaner 2.shoe polish ingredient 3.popular fuel additive 4.heartworm medication 5.beer additive Correct Answer:heartworm medication Explanation: Abamectrin is a soilborn fungus originally used as a heartworm treatment for dogs. It is now found to work remarkably well as a roach bait. It has superior palatability and is photostable. The nursery industry also uses this ingredient for leafminers. QOD for : June 12 On Lois and Clark, the new adventures of Superman, what is Clark's real name? 1.Jonathan Caldera 2.Clark Kent 3.Dean Cain 4.James Wilson 5.Aaron Jones Correct Answer:Dean Cain Explanation: QOD for : June 13 How many states does germany have? 1.7 2.16 3.0 4.13 5.5 Correct Answer:16 Explanation: Germany had 11 states until 1989 but then the FRG annected the GDR; so the number of states increased to 16. QOD for : June 14 In the movie "Michael", what is the name of the tabaloid paper? 1.The Daily Sun 2.The Golden Globe 3.Real LIfe 4.The Daily Mirror 5.U.S.A. Inside Correct Answer:The Daily Mirror Explanation: The office where the reporters work, has copies of all their issues of their magazine,The Daily Mirror, on the wall. QOD for : June 15 The original Star Trek lasted how many seasons? 1.five 2.eleven 3.seven 4.three 5.nine Correct Answer:three Explanation: While it lives forever in syndication, the series was cut by NBC after three seasons. QOD for : June 16 From the hit animated series The Tick in which episode does Tick face the Terror and invent his blood-curdling battle cry of flatware? 1.Tick vs The Idea Men 2.Tick loves Santa 3.Tick vs The Mole Men 4.Tick vs Arthur's Bank account 5.Tick vs Chairface Chipndale Correct Answer:Tick vs Arthur's Bank account Explanation: QOD for : June 17 If Ingibjorg Jonsdottir marries Bjorn Hallsson, what will her married name be? 1.Ingibjorg Jonsdottir-Hallsson 2.Ingibjorg Hallsson 3.Ingibjorg Jonsdottir 4.Ingibjorg Bjornseiginkona 5.Ingibjorg Hallsson-Jonsdottir Correct Answer:Ingibjorg Jonsdottir Explanation: These are Icelandic names, and in Iceland, married women retain their maiden names. QOD for : June 18 If I were in Antarctica, what sickness would I be most likely not to get? 1.a cold 2.a sore throat 3.frost bite Correct Answer:a cold Explanation: It's so cold in Antarctica that it freezes away your germs so you can never catch a cold. QOD for : June 19 What percentage of America's electricity is generated from coal? 1.20 percent 2.40 percent 3.60 percent 4.80 percent Correct Answer:60 percent Explanation: The United States has coal reserves to sustain 250 years of electricity generation at its present rate--about 60 percent. QOD for : June 20 Which wood species are a popular item used for whiskey barrels? 1.red oak (Quercus rubra) 2.white oak (Quercus alba) 3.river birch (Betula nigra) 4.swamp cottonwood (Populus heterophylla) 5.Red maple (Acer rubrum) Correct Answer:white oak (Quercus alba) Explanation: White oak has something called tyloses inside it pits and pores. Pits are lateral openings between cells that allows for moisture movement between cells and thus throughout the tree. Tyloses is a type of cell that blocks out the pits and pores and thus limits moisture movement! QOD for : June 21 If Peter Piper picked a pack of pickeled peppers, how many peppers did Peter Piper pick? 1.As many as he wanted to 2.none of them 3.all of them 4.some of them 5.3.1415926535 Correct Answer:none of them Explanation: You can not pick pickeled peppers. Then have to be pick first BEFORE they are pickeled. QOD for : June 22 Who of the following is a Baroque composer? 1.Haydn 2.Mozart 3.C. P. E. Bach 4.Handel 5.Beethoven Correct Answer:Handel Explanation: Handel was a Baroque composer. The rest were composers during the Classical period. QOD for : June 23 What was Isaac Newton's dog's name? 1.Apple 2.Diamond 3.Coal 4.Tiger 5.Hypertext Correct Answer:Diamond Explanation: that's what he named him. if you need further explanation then you probably guessed #5. QOD for : June 24 which of the following is NOT a real dinasaur name? 1.Tyrannosauros 2.Megasaurus 3.giganotosaurus 4.supersaurus 5.ultrasaurus Correct Answer:Megasaurus Explanation: the giganotosauros is thought to have been even bigger than T-rex. QOD for : June 25 What explorer was called "The father of France?" 1.Christophor Columbus 2.John Cabot 3.Samuel de Champlain 4.Marco Polo 5.James Cook Correct Answer:Samuel de Champlain Explanation: QOD for : June 26 Why did the first aviator to successfully use a parachute to jump from a plane have to do so? 1.He was shot down over France 2.Because the wings fell off the plane 3.Her plane was a seaplane and the seas were too rough to land 4.There were no seats left in the smoking section and he really had to light up 5.His wife pushed him out (and then followed him down) Correct Answer:Because the wings fell off the plane Explanation: The first successful use of a free-fall parachute during an in-flight emergency took place over Dayton, Ohio on October 20, 1922. Lt. Harold R. Harris, Chief of the Flying Section at McCook Field, was testing experimental balanced-type ailerons on a Loening PW-2A while engaging in mock aerial combat with Lt. Muir Fairchild who was flying a Thomas-Morse MB-3. While pulling his Loening into a right turn, Harris noted the control stick suddenly began to oscillate violently from side-to-side, following which the wings were, in his own words, "torn apart." The Loening went into a dive and at 2,500 feet, with certain death the only alternative, Harris bailed out, hoping to save his life by a method not yet proved. However, he neither lost consciousness nor his ability to reason during his free-fall as some had predicted would happen to a flyer after parachuting from a stricken plane. When Harris pulled the ripcord at 500 feet, the parachute opened immediately and he landed in a "back yard." The Loening crashed a block away and was completely destroyed. -- from the Wight Patterson Air Force Base Museum web site QOD for : June 27 Where is "Nowhere"? 1.There is no such place. 2.Tombuktu 3.The North Pole (Magnetic North) 4.Norway 5.The point in the Atlantic Ocean where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator off the Bight of Africa. Correct Answer:The point in the Atlantic Ocean where the Prime Meridian crosses the Equator off the Bight of Africa. Explanation: This is the point that is 0 degrees North, East, West, and South. Naval ships have a super-special ceremony when they cross these two important lines simultaneously. QOD for : June 28 Where does the term "freeze the balls of a brass monkey" come from. 1.old metal worker term 2.eskimo welcoming saying 3.early type of australian thermometer 4.canadian bush pilot term about engine controls 5.british navy historical term Correct Answer:british navy historical term Explanation: brass monkey: small tree shaped casting that cannon balls were stored on the deck of british war ships to stop them rolling around.brass shrinks faster than iron in cold weather and the cannon balls would fall off. QOD for : June 29 What Was Redd Foxx"s Real Name? 1.Fred Fox 2.Bubba Bexley 3.Whitman Mayo 4.Woodrow Anderson 5.Fred G. Sanford. Correct Answer:Fred G. Sanford. Explanation: HIS true Given Name. QOD for : June 30 What was the name of Pugsley's sister? 1.Darlene 2.Marsha 3.Blossom 4.Wednesday 5.Lisa Correct Answer:Wednesday Explanation: Pugsley and Wednesday were the children of Gomez and Morticia Addams, on the 1960's Sitcom, "THE ADDAMS FAMILY" Questions & Answers for the month of: July QOD for : July 1 How old is Canada today? 1.110 Years 2.115 Years 3.120 Years 4.125 Years 5.130 Years Correct Answer:130 Years Explanation: 1867 Birth of a nation. QOD for : July 2 Upon what popular T.V. show soundtrack does Elvis Costello contribute????? 1.Party of Five 2.The X-Files 3.E.R. 4.Beverly Hills, 90210 5.Melrose Place Correct Answer:The X-Files Explanation: The X-Files is my favourite show and Elvis Costello is my favourite musician. QOD for : July 3 What is the capital of Brazil? 1.Rio de Janeiro 2.Salvador 3.Sao Paulo 4.Brasilia 5.Pele Correct Answer:Brasilia Explanation: In 1960 Brazilian federal government moved from Rio de Janeiro to Brasília. Before Rio, the capital of Brazil was Salvador. QOD for : July 4 Where did Janet Leigh hide the money she had stolen from her employer in "Psycho" 1.in the dresser 2.in the night stand 3.in the newspaper 4.in her suitcase 5.in the cabinet under the sink Correct Answer:in the newspaper Explanation: She walked all around the room before deciding to hide it wrapped up in the newspaper. She left it on the night stand. QOD for : July 5 How many official languages does Switzerland have? 1.1 2.4 3.2 4.3 5.22 Correct Answer:4 Explanation: Government documents are printed in German, French, Italian, and Romatsch (sp?) . I guess you could be picky and say it was Swiss-German, etc. QOD for : July 6 who was jeff's best friend on the original lassie show? 1.sammy 2.porky 3.billy 4.skipper Correct Answer:porky Explanation: they lived in a rural area and were neighbors. QOD for : July 7 Who wrote the landmark novel "The Invisible Man" in 1952? 1.Stephen King 2.Ralph Ellison 3.Langston Huges 4.Earl Stanley Gardner 5.Truman Capote Correct Answer:Ralph Ellison Explanation: None. It is fact. QOD for : July 8 How many managers have the Dodgers had since they moved from Brooklyn to L.A.? 1.3 2.2 3.1 4.4 5.5 Correct Answer:3 Explanation: Wlater Alston was the first, moving with the team from N.Y. to L.A.; Tommy Lasorda the second; and now Bill Russell. QOD for : July 9 What actor or actress had the most guest appearences on the weekly show "The Love Boat" 1.Florence Henderson 2.Charo 3.Bob Newhart 4.Lenard Nimoy Correct Answer:Charo Explanation: Gavin McCloud was on the radio this morning (1/30/97) and he told this little fact when he was interviewed. Florence Henderson came in second. QOD for : July 10 Who came up with the name for the group Led Zeppelin? 1.Keith Moon 2.Jimi Hendrix 3.Pete Townshend 4.Jimmy Page 5.Robert Plant Correct Answer:Keith Moon Explanation: Keith Moon , being the drummer for the Who was a good frieng of Jimmy Page and told him"You'll go down like a Lead Zeppilen," referring to the success of his newly formed band QOD for : July 11 Where was chess invented? 1.Japan 2.Egypt 3.India 4.China 5.Turkey Correct Answer:India Explanation: Chess was invented in India and was later brought to Europe where it was refined and became popular. QOD for : July 12 What is Whoopi Goldberg's real first name? 1.Whoopi 2.Linda 3.Latoshia 4.Karen 5.Adetokunboh Correct Answer:Karen Explanation: no explanation necessary QOD for : July 13 A group of whales is called a pod, A group of lions is called a pride, but what do you call a group of ravens? 1.a flock 2.a murder 3.a gaggle 4.a school 5.a bunch Correct Answer:a murder Explanation: found the answer to this in a book, Ripley's Believe it or Not...thought you may like the q QOD for : July 14 What country are the Maoris native to? 1.Borneo 2.New Guinea 3.Guam 4.Mauritania 5.New Zealand Correct Answer:New Zealand Explanation: The Maoris, closely related to the Aborigines of Australia are the native people of New Zealand. QOD for : July 15 In the novel and story, "The Three Musketeers" which took place during the reign of Louis XIII, what was the name of the religious advisor to the King ? 1.Friar Lawrence 2.Rasputin 3.Brother John 4.Cardinal Richelieu 5.Father Spillane Correct Answer:Cardinal Richelieu Explanation: Cardinal Richelieu: an evil Cardinal who plotted the demise of the King in order for him to take over France QOD for : July 16 If Rodolfo in Pucinni's La Boheme were to marry his love in the opera, the priest would ask "Do you Rudolfo take this woman ________ to be your wife?". Fill in the blank: 1.Lucia 2.Mimi 3.Musetta Correct Answer:Lucia Explanation: Mimi, introducing herself in act 1 in "Mi chiamano Mimi" sings "I'm always called Mimi, but my real name is Lucia". The wedding official would, of course, use her proper name. QOD for : July 17 What nation loaned the Confederacy $15 million during the Civil War? 1.Mexico 2.Morocco 3.France 4.England 5.Germany Correct Answer:France Explanation: France loaned the Confederacy $15 million during the Civil War, probably to strengthen the Confedereacy thus weakening the Union which in turn would be advantageous for the Napoleon led French government due to the fact that the Union despite the generous loan to the Confederacy from France, the Union was still most likely to win due to the fact that they were united and able to actually do something that would ahve lasting effects. Sorry abbout the punctuation, or lack there of. QOD for : July 18 In Cheech and Chong's movie "Up in Smoke" what was Chong's real name? A)Man B)Alex C)John D)Anthony E)Eddie 1.A)Man 2.B)Alex 3.C)John 4.D)Anthony 5.E)Eddie Correct Answer:D)Anthony Explanation: Usually people think the answer is Man because that is what it says in the the credits, but in the very beginning of the movie Chong is fighting with his father and if you listen carefully to the father he calls Chong, Anthony. This is the only time he is called that, for the rest of the movie everybody calls him Man. QOD for : July 19 How old is the oldest "LIVING" tree? 1.980 years old 2.1250 years old 3.2600 years old 4.4700 years old 5.5000 years old Correct Answer:4700 years old Explanation: According to Guiness World Records of 1993, a Bristlecone pine tree located in the White Mtns at an elevation of 10,000 ft. is 4700 years old. It also has spawned upto 48 other pine trees in the immediate area. QOD for : July 20 Who invented the flush toilet? 1.Amos Koehler 2.Andrew Potti 3.Ben Franklin 4.Sir Thomas Crapper Correct Answer:Sir Thomas Crapper Explanation: He did QOD for : July 21 While it is commonly taught that the treaty that ended the Civil War was signed in the Appomatox, Virginia Courthouse, this is not quite the truth. The actual house is about 50 yards away. What was the name of the family that lived in this house before the signing took place? 1.McClean 2.Lee 3.Allen 4.Wright Correct Answer:McClean Explanation: The McClean family lived near Bull Run at the start of the Civil War. After having their house ransacked by Union and Confederate soldiers during both Bull Run battles, they moved to Appomatox in hopes of getting away from the war. Unfortunately fate didn't exactly smile on them when the two armies met again in Appomatox. Their house was raided again, and they abandoned it, where it was later occupied by U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee for the signing of the treaty. QOD for : July 22 When was the first seismograph (tool for measuring earthquakes)invented? 1.1964 A.D. 2.1863 A.D. 3.150 A.D. 4.1911 A.D. 5.1624 A.D. Correct Answer:150 A.D. Explanation: This was a very simple invention created a long time ago. The first was made in China and had Dragon heads with balls inside their mouths and frogs with open mouthes that would be on a surface attached to a pot which the Dragons head were on. It would work by the pot being placed on the ground before an earthquake. The balls would fall out of only the mouths that were at the violent part of the earthquake. The balls would fall into the Frog's mouth and the people would take the pot afterwords and could tell where the earthquake was more violent! QOD for : July 23 Before Maurice White formed the very popular R&B group; Earth, Wind, & Fire..he was a drummer for another very popular trio. What was the name of the trio which carried it's leader's and founders name. 1.The Red Holt Trio 2.The Dave Brubeck Trio 3.The Oscar Peterson Trio 4.The Ramsey Lewis Trio 5.The Dizzy Gilespie Trio Correct Answer:The Ramsey Lewis Trio Explanation: Before becoming a leader and founder in his own right, Maurice had to "pay his dues" by drumming for Ramsey Lewis. QOD for : July 24 Which of the fifty states' state flower is the "Sego Lily"? 1.Nevada 2.Utah 3.Alaska 4.Delaware 5.Wyoming Correct Answer:Utah Explanation: Nevada's state flower is the "Sage Brush" Alaska's is "Forget me Not" Delaware's is the "Peach Blossom" and Wyoming's is the "Indian Paintbrush" QOD for : July 25 What was the SKIPPER'S "CHARACTER" name on Gilligan's Island?? 1.A) Horace Kelly 2.D) Jonas Grumby 3.B) Aberaham Jackson 4.C) Skipper 5.E) Nathan Hale Correct Answer:D) Jonas Grumby Explanation: There was one episode of Gilligan's Island when the 5 crew members were huddled around the radio when the announcer and listed first and last (CHARACTER) names of the 5 crew members. Can you name them all? I can!!! E) Nathan Hale QOD for : July 26 Who said, "Much suspected of me, nothing proved can be?" 1.Bill Clinton 2.Mary Queen of Scots 3.O.J. Simpson 4.Queen Elizabeth I 5.Julius Caesar Correct Answer:Queen Elizabeth I Explanation: As the story goes, when she was just a princess, Elizabeth was held under house arrest by her sister Queen Mary (Bloody Mary)for suspicion of treason. Elizabeth took a diamond and wrote the phrase on a windowpane. QOD for : July 27 Which New England state has a desert? 1.Vermont 2.Massachysetts 3.Connetticutt 4.Rhode Island 5.Maine Correct Answer:Maine Explanation: Freeport, Maine has a desert. It is a geological phenomenon.It started as a farm and one day sand started to appear. The farm has been completely taken over by the sands. Maine QOD for : July 28 what is the middle name of the Lucille Ball character "Lucy Ricardo"? 1.Venetia 2.Esmeralda 3.Morgan 4.Candace 5.Josephine Correct Answer:Esmeralda Explanation: Esmeralda is the middle name of the character "Lucy Ricardo" played by Lucille Ball. QOD for : July 29 On what day did the Space Age begin? 1.October 4, 1957 2.April 12, 1961 3.May 5, 1956 4.December 21, 1968 5.July 20, 1969 Correct Answer:October 4, 1957 Explanation: On this day, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth. QOD for : July 30 A monkey swings 3 1/2 miles every day for a week. Also duri- ng that week a whale swims 5 miles a day for six days. The next week the monkey is tired and only swings 1 mile every day for five days. The whale rested on Sunday and is feeling great so swims 8 1/2 miles every day for seven days. Add the sum of the miles they swam and divide by three. Then add three and times by two. What is the answer? 1.119 2.566 3.83.46 4.66 5.65.5 Correct Answer:65.5 Explanation: If you just do all the math 65.5 should be what you get. QOD for : July 31 A man named Fred was standing at a corner and he asked a man how do I get to Blank Street The man said "Take a left on the next street and a right on the street to the right and over the crescent and you will be on Blank Street." the man said that if his directions were wrong then he would give Fred a dollar given that if the instructions were right Fred would give him a dollar. The man jotted down the instructions and followed them carefully. In about half an hour he was surprised to see the same man that had given him the instructions standing on the corner. Fred said "why did you give me the wrong directions?" The man said he didn't and very soon walked off with his dollar??? Why ??? 1.He was standing a half a block away from Blank Street. 2.He was standing on Blank Street. 3.He was standing on the crescent. 4.The man was running ahead of him to get his dollar even though it was the wrong street. 5.He saw the man's twin and he pretended to play along with the joke. Correct Answer:He was standing on Blank Street. Explanation: The man needed a dollar so in order to earn a dollar he sent Fred a stranger to look for Blank Street when he was already on it. Questions & Answers for the month of: August QOD for : August 1 What hit T.V. series featured the first televised interacial kiss? 1.Happy Days 2.Good Times 3.Martin 4.Star Trek 5.Friends Correct Answer:Star Trek Explanation: Lt. Ahora and Captain James T. Kirk (of the original Star Trek) shared the first televised interacial kiss on a T.V. series. QOD for : August 2 What are the three types of single-celled algea? 1.ectublius mormancus, exmalibanus ractarius, and iotyus toioctor 2.red, green, and brown 3.one eyed, two eyed, and three eyed 4.deformed, unformed, and reformed 5.there are NO single-celled algea Correct Answer:red, green, and brown Explanation: You may have been fooled by this one and picked number one. But single-celled algea is classified by its color, not by a latin name. QOD for : August 3 Who was the first governer of California? 1.Milton S. Latham 2.Peter H. Burnett 3.James N. Gillett 4.Henry H. Haight 5.Ramualdo Pacheco Correct Answer:Peter H. Burnett Explanation: This question is self-explanotory! QOD for : August 4 What is the approximate diameter of an adult Blue Whales' oesophagus (Throat)? 1.6 inches 2.1 foot 3.3 inches 4.3 feet 5.6 feet Correct Answer:3 inches Explanation: Blue Whales feed on krill, a small shrimp, so they don't have to cater for anything larger than the occasional herring. QOD for : August 5 As a young man, (17-20), Attila the Hun lived among, and was educated by which of the following cultures? 1.Greece 2.Rome 3.Gaul 4.Mongolia 5.Mesopotamia Correct Answer:Rome Explanation: In an effort to ease growing conflicts with the barbaric hun clans of central Europe and Asia, Rome would accept leaders/rulers of these areas to come to Rome and be educated, spoiled, and otherwise inundated with Roman culture. Attilla spent several years in Roman Society. There he learned their military strategy and tactics, political and social structure. It was after his return to the Huns where Attilla used what he had learned to conquer Rome. QOD for : August 6 A famous bestselling book in the 1970's; "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Offered a philosophical argument against the teachings/writings of which ancient philosopher? 1.Socrates 2.Plato 3.Archimedes 4.Aristotle 5.Phaedrus Correct Answer:Aristotle Explanation: The Aristotlean school of philosophy supports the philosophical ideology that all things are of form and function. "Zen & MM" supported a Sophist concept that basically supported that all things do not have form and functio, especially yje concept of value. QOD for : August 7 What was the name of Pinnochios pet goldfish? 1.Cleo 2.Clara 3.Cathy 4.Carrie 5.Connie Correct Answer:Cleo Explanation: Cleo was the name of Pinnochios pet goldfish