CoolFacts--Miscellaneous
- A Japanese company hired a soothsayer to throw dice to help determine on which floor of the two 11-story World Trade Center they should have their offices on.
- A nihilist believes in nothing.
- A notaphile collects bank notes.
- A Sphygmomanometer measures blood pressure.
- It is estimated that only 5-10% of the worlds information has been digitized.
- Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip.
- Months that begin with Sunday will always have a Friday the 13th.
- More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby.
- Most gemstones contain several elements, except the diamond; its all carbon.
- Nine pennies weigh exactly one ounce.
- One billion seconds is about 37 years.
- One legend claims stealing someone's shadow (by measuring it against a wall and driving a nail through its head) can turn the victim into a vampire.
- One sign of rain that farmers once searched for was for their pigs to pick up sticks and walk around with them in their mouths.
- One year contains 31,557,600 seconds.
- Paranormal experts say people reach the peak of their ability to see ghosts when they're 7 years old.
- Revolvers cannot be silenced because of all the noisy gasses which escape the cylinder gap at the rear of the barrel.
- Scientists in Australia's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a microwave in the building.
- September 16-21 is Farm Animal Awareness Week.
- Strange-but-real organizations that you might want to leave off of your resume: the institute of totally useless skills, the international association of sand castle builders, national society for prevention of cruelty to mushrooms, cookie cutter collectors club international, correspondence of corkscrew addicts.
- Students at U.S. colleges and universities read about 60,000 pages in four years.
- Superstition says that the left side is the wrong side of the bed.
- The 3 largest newspaper circulations are Russian.
- The average web page contains 500 words.
- The calories burned in one hour of running could bring about seven quarts of water to a boil.
- The duration record for a face-slapping contest was set in Kiev, U.S.S.R., in 1931 when a draw was declared between Bezbordny and Goniusch after 30 hours.
- The first letters of the months July through November, in order, spell the name JASON.
- The largest school in the world is a K-12 school in the Phillipines, with an enrollment of 25,000.
- The largest taxi fleet in the world is found in Mexico City. The city boasts a fleet of over 60,000 taxis.
- The launching mechanism of a carrier ship that helps planes take off, could throw a pickup truck over a mile.
- The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called mantles) are radioactive--so much so that they will set off an alarm at a nuclear reactor
- The original IBM punchcard is the same size as a Civil War era dollar bill.
- The save icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutters on backwards.
- The shape of plant collenchyma cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the same -- they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.
- The surface area of an average sized brick is 79cm.
- The Tea Council of the United States has designated June National Ice Tea Month.
- The Tinguian people of Philippines have their own way of kissing. They put their lips close to each other's face and quickly inhale.
- The top three cork-producing countries are Spain, Portugal and Algeria.
- The U.S shreds seven thousand tons of worn-out currency each year.
- The U.S. mint in Denver, Colorado is the only mint that marks its pennies.
- The United States government keeps its supply of silver at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
- The University of Calgary offers a two-day course in igloo building.
- The Victoria Cross is Britain's highest military decoration.
- The world record for rocking non-stop in a rocking chair is 440 hours.
- The world record for time without sleep is 264 hours (11 days) by Randy Gardner in 196.
- The World Trade Center in New York has 43,600 windows.
- The world's first ski chair lift was modeled after a device that loaded bananas onto cargo ships.
- The world's first test-tube twins were born in June 198.
- The world's largest bullfighting ring is in Mexico City.
- The world's largest K-Mart is on the island of Guam.
- There are 1,575 steps from the ground floor to the top of the Empire State Building.
- There are 1,792 steps to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
- There are eight different sizes of champagne bottles and the largest is called a Nebuchadnezzar (after the biblical king who put Daniel's three friends into the oven).
- There is a systematic lull in conversation every 7 minutes.
- There is no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables.
- TYPEWRITER, is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
- When the Hoovers did not want to be overheard by White House guests, they spoke to each other in Chinese.
- Windmills always turn counter-clockwise--except for the windmills in Ireland.
