Bizarre facts - Part 1:
-----------------------
America
-------
There is a law in the USA against sending a building through the post
after a man posted a 40,000 ton brick house across the state of Utah in
1916.
Michael Towne, a restaurant cook in New Hampshire was charged with
assaulting two state troops after he added too much tabasco sauce to
their order of eggs.
More than 10% of the worlds entire production of salt goes to de-ice
American roads.
30 million bats were captured by the US air force in WW2 for the
intention of making a "bat bomb" (A bat with a little bomb attatched).
2 million dollars were spent on development but all the bats destroyed
was an American aircraft hanger and a general's car when some were
accidentally released.
In 1990, people in the USA suffered about 15,000 vacuum cleaner related
accidents..
The most severe prohibition sentence was handed out to Fred Palm,
Lansing, Michigan. He got life imprisonment for being in possesion of a
pint of gin.
Organized crime is estimated to account for 10% of the USA's national
income.
An old English folk song was banned from US TV because it contained the
word "Maidenhead"..
Each year, americans spend more on cat food than baby food.
Animals
-------
An ostrich's brain is smaller than its eye.
Pigs are the only animals apart from humans to get sunstroke.
A hare's eyes are arranged so it can look backwards, unfortunately this
means they dont pay much attention to whats in front so that they often
run into things whilst sprinting from a preditor..
Newborn giraffs fall six feet to the ground, normally without injury.
Scavengers will not eat the corpse of an animal struck by lightning.
A single poison arrow frog contains enough poison to kill 2200 people.
Apes, monkeys, birds, fish and insects all see colour. Elephants, bulls
and all birds of prey cannot.
In 10 years, a tiger shark bites and chews its way through 24,000 teeth.
In captivity, squid often suffer depression and commit suicide by eating
their tenticles..
Limpets change sex in the course of their lives from neuter to male to
female.
Art and Literature
------------------
The cremated remains of DH Lawrence were mixed with concrete and made
into an mantlepiece for his girlfriend..
After the duke of Monmouth was executed in 1685, it was realised that
there were no portraits of him, so his head was sewd back onto his body
and his picture was painted posthumously.
Louisa May Alcott, author of "Little Women", hated children and only
wrote the book because her author asked her to.
French writer Geoges Perel wrote a full length novel "La disparation"
without using the letter E. It was translated into English as "A void",
also without any E's..
Rudyard Kipling insisted on having a swastika printedon his first
editions. In the east it is a mythical symbol far older the Nazis.
The Body
--------
Its possible for most humans to guess someones sex to 95% accuracy just
by smelling their breath..
Pain travels through the body at 350 feet per second.
Humans have about 600 muscles in their bodies, caterpillars have 4000.
About 70% of dust in a typical household is flakes of dead skin. You
lose about 1.5 ounces in bed every night.
Over your life, you body will produce roughly 8,000 gallons of saliva
and 350 miles of hair..
Your chances of living to 116 or over are 1 in two billion. Thank god!
Some brands of toothpaste contain antifreeze..
Most types of lipstick contain fish scales as an ingrediant.
In the 18th century it was fashionable to shave your eyebrows and
replace them with slivers of mouse skin..
Death
-----
A San Fransisco Radio Station publicly offered a case of snapple to the
family of the 1,000th person to kill themselves jumping off Golden Gate
Bridge.
Duelling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered
blood donors.
In london in the year 1700, you could buy an insurance policy to protect
you from going to hell.
American rock musician Terry Kath was killed in 1978 playing Russian
Roulette, his last words were "Dont worry, its not loaded"..
More people died of Spanish Flu in 1919 and 1920 than were killed in the
whole of World War 1 (20 million agaisnt 8.5 million).
The 1st parachute was created by Franz Reichalt and he tested it
personally by jumping off the Eiffel Tower in 1912 boasting "I am
confident of success". It failed..
According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to kill yourself
was a capital offence - you could be hanged for trying..
Tribes in Africa, Australia and South America are known to pay their
respects to the dead by eating them..
Americans under 15 are twice as likely to commit suicide and twelve
times as likely to die by gunfire as anywhere else in the industrial
world.
The crusaders took cauldrons with them in which to boil the flesh off
dead bodies to make it easier to transport the bones home for burial.
Charles De Gualle survived 31 plots against his life during 1944-1966.
One of the earliest day trips arranged by train in 1840 was to Bodmin
Jail to see a public execution..
An old Irish method of making sure butter was rich and creamy was to dip
the hand of a dead man into the churn.
King Kodoko of the Congo hung onto his crown for 3 years after his
death. His body was wheeled around, washed, dressed and fed, in case he
decided not to stay dead..
end
|