In the Republic of Panama Prostitutes can't work on Good Friday or Election Day.

Starch is used as a binder in the production of paper. It is the use of a starch coating that controls ink penetration when printing. Cheaper papers do not use as much starch, and this is why your elbows get black when you are leaning over your morning paper.

Only 47 decimal places of pi would be sufficiently precise to inscribe a circle around the visible universe that doesn't deviate from perfect circularity by more than the distance across a single proton.

1997A.D. does not mean 1997 years after death. In fact, A.D. is an abreviation for anno Domini,which is latin for " in the year of our lord."

James Dillinger once broke out of a federal prison by making a fake gun out of soap. He carved the gun with a plastic spoon he stole from the cafeteria and used shoe polish to paint it black. The guard, thinking that the soap gun was real, gave Dillinger his own gun which he knew was loaded. Dillinger was then escorted by this guard out of the prison.

The Statue of Liberty is actually a statue of two different people. The face was that of Charlotte Bartholdi, the mother of the designer Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The sculptor's girlfriend, Jeanne-Emilie, was the model for the statue's arms and body.

Saudi Arabia has more stretches of desert than any other nation on earth, yet tons of sand from the rivers of Scotland are sent to the arabs every year. The reason? The fine sands from the desert are unsuitable for making concrete and for use in other forms of construction.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

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 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 tectonic destruction (2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided.)

Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.

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".

Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

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.

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.

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.

Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them makes a kissing sound as it drops the kiss o the conveyor belt.

Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.

Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eyes."

The ball on top of a flagpole is called the truck.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

Bank robber John Dillinger played professional baseball.

If your eyes are six feet above the surface of the ocean, the horizon will be about three statute miles away.

Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula."

Cleo and Caesar were the early stage names of Cher and Sonny Bono.

Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubble's Maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

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.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

Marvin Stone of Washington, D.C., patented the drinking straw on January 3, 1888.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

The youngest pope was 11 years old.

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

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.

The first toilet ever seen on television was on "Leave It To Beaver".

Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland!

There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S, than real ones!

Venus is the only planet in the solar system that rotates clockwise.

Fetuses start yawning at about the 11th week after conception.

The average ear grows 0.01 inches in length every year (in other words, if you are 100 years old, the ear would be 1 inch longer).

A human sheds 10 billion skin flakes a day, adding up to about 2 kilograms per year.

Humans are born with 300 bones in their body but many fuse so that adults have 206.

An average woman has 17 square feet of skin. A pregnant woman in the 9th month has 18.5.

The average day is actually 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.06 seconds long.

Almonds are members of the peach family.

The hyoid bone in your throat is the only bone in the body not attached to another bone.

When glass breaks, the cracks develop at 3000 miles per hour.

If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will be heads up more like 4,950 times (because the heads side is heavier).

A butterfly must have a body temperature of greater than 86 degrees F in order to fly.

Hippos drink 250 liters of water in any 24 hour period.

Armidillos have four babies at any time and they are always the same sex.

The largest spider is the Megarachne (in Argentina) and measures 50 cm in diameter.

One tree can filter 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.

Blueberries have more antioxidants than any other fruit.

Alaska has twice as many caribous as people.

Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are 50 years or older.

All penguins live south of the equator (except those in zoos).

A mature oak tree draws about 50 gallons of fluid per day.