Assorted Facts 23
These facts were submitted by Jon Berkley from the USA. Thanks Jon, perhaps you could write back with your source of these facts, some seems too strange to be true... no offence intended of course.
The Yanomami tribesmen of the Amazon basin can track game birds by the slight difference in warmth their shadows create on the forest floor as they fly by, for up to an hour after the birds have departed.
A futuristic automobile designed by Ford for the movie Blade Runner was produced and sold in limited quantities as the "Ford Harrison."
A Native American tribe in South Dakota collects bottle caps left by campers, using them as currency. Several banks in the area now recognize the caps as legal tender.
Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.
Strains of bacteria similar to E. coli have been found in spent printer cartridges - but only in the cyan ones. Scientists have no explanation.
If the air in your car's tires is not completely replaced every two years, it can turn to liquid and cause severe damage.
You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.
The steady, rhythmic sound produced by dripping water increases the capacity for sleeping males to experience lucid sexual dreams.
Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.
Children conceived on airplanes never suffer from motion sickness.
Archimedes' screw was the basis for Max Factor's invention of the twisting lipstick holder.
Fewer divorces occur in families in which the children wake their parents before 6 a.m. on Saturdays.
An early draft of the Declaration of Independence included a line by Benjamin Franklin inviting King George to "kisse our collective arse."
The Internal Revenue Service audits 87 percent of women who claim breast implants as tax deductions.
The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.
A comprehensive multi-year study using pattern-recognition software determined that Millard Fillmore is the most common identifiable U.S. president seen in cloud formations.
The "nine lives" attributed to cats is probably due to their having nine primary whiskers.
Because printed materials are being replaced by CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet, libraries that previously sank into their foundations under the weight of their books are now in danger of collapsing in extremely high winds.
The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.
The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.
Legislation passed during WWI making it illegal to say "gesundheit" to a sneezer was never repealed.
The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.
When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.
King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.
It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.
Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.
Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.
In WWII the US military planned to airdrop over France propaganda in the form of Playboy magazine, with coded messages hidden in the models' turn-ons and turn-offs. The plan was scrapped because of a staple shortage due to rationing of metal.
The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver.
Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms.
A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.
The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.
When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.
You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.
Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.
In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.
The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.
Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today.
Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.
The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.
Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only during summer months.
Napoleon's favorite type of wood was knotty chestnut.
If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.
Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.
Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.
At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.
In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.
Seven out of every ten hockey-playing Canadians will lose a tooth during a game. For Canadians who don't play hockey, that figure drops to five out of ten.
Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.
Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.
Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.
Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.
Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and # when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.
Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.
Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.
You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.
The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.
The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.
The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.
Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.
If you put a bee in a film canister for two hours, it will go blind and leave behind its weight in honey.
In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.
Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.
A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.
The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.
Centuries ago, purchasing real estate often required having one or more limbs amputated in order to prevent the purchaser from running away to avoid repayment of the loan. Hence an expensive purchase was said to cost "an arm and a leg."
Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.
The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.
The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry.
To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.