Assorted Facts 11
A bucket filled with earth would weigh about 5 time more than the same bucket filled with the substance of the sun. However, the force of gravity is so much greater on the sun that the man weighing 150 pounds on our planet would weigh 2 tons on the sun.
A car traveling at a constant speed of 60 miles per hour would take over 48 million years to reach the nearest star (other than our sun), Proxima Centauri. This is about 685,000 average human lifetimes.
Crossing one's fingers is a way of secretly making the sign of the Cross. It was started by early Christians to ask for divine assistance without attracting the attention of pagans.
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.
During the Civil War, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant believed that onions would prevent dysentery and other physical ailments. He reportedly sent the following message via wire to the War Department: "I will not move my army without onions." Within a day, the U.S. government sent three trainloads of onions to the front.
Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about a thousand years.
On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.
One superstition says that if a girl leaves her house early on Valentine's Day and the first person she meets is a man, then she will be married within three months.
Less romantic was the old historical opinion that Valentine's Day is a good day to prepare eels for the purposes of magic. Eating an eel's heart was once believed to enable a person to see into the future.
The reason one wears a wedding ring on the third finger is that (tradition says) there is supposed to be a vein which goes directly from that finger to the heart-i.e., the seat of love. Also, not everyone wears that wedding ring on the third finger of the LEFT hand. In some traditions, such as the Jewish one, it is worn on the right hand. Also, I'm given to understand that nuns ("brides of Christ") wear a wedding ring, again on the right hand.
To prevent evil spirits from entering the bodies of their male children, parents dressed them in blue. Blue was chosen because it's the color of the sky and was therefore associated with heavenly spirits.Girls weren't dressed in blue, apparently because people didn't think that evil spirits would bother with them. Eventually, however, girls did get their own color: pink. Pink was chosen because of an old English legend which said that girls were born inside of pink roses.
The famous Citgo sign near Fenway Park in Boston is maintained not by Citgo, but by Boston's historical society.
In the 1700's you could purchase insurance against going to hell, in London England.
The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields.
Black cats are considered lucky in England.
Long ago, the people of Nicaragua believed that if they threw beautiful young women into a volcano it would stop erupting.
In medieval times, thunderstorms were believed by some to be the work of demons. So when it stormed, bell ringers would go up into the bell towers to ring the consecrated bells in an effort to stop the storm. This practice didn't always work out well for the bell ringer.
No one knows where the expression "to grin like a Cheshire cat" originated, but it wasn't with Carroll. The Cheshire cat is a well-known character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but the expression, meaning a sneering smile that shows the gums, existed long before he wrote the book. There is no such breed of cat.
Superstition says that the left side is the wrong side of the bed.
Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love.
The ace of spades in a playing card deck symbolizes death.
The dove is considered the symbol of peace.
Ra was the sun god of ancient Egypt.
The mythical figure Father Time carries an hourglass and a scythe.
It's a myth that owls don't hunt in the daytime because they can't see in daylight. It's just that rats and mice, the main items on owl menus, are most active after dark.
Many sailors believe a cat on board a ship means a lucky trip.
The mythical Scottish town of Brigadoon appears for one day every 100 years.
During the middle ages, it was widely believed that men had one less rib than woman. This is because of the story in the Bible that Eve had been created out of Adam's rib.
The seven deadly sins (sins serious enough to kill one's soul) are currently anger, envy, pride, sloth, lust, gluttony, and covetousness. They haven't always been so, however. Originally, there were eight deadly sins (as proposed by Avagrius of Pontus). The eight (in order of increasing severity) were gluttony, lust, avarice, sadness, anger, apathy, vainglory, and pride. Gregory the Great later decided that vainglory and pride were too much alike to be counted separately and combined them. He added envy. Later still, the Roman Catholic Church decided sadness wasn't a sin, and added sloth. Somewhere along the way, apathy was dropped as well.
Hindu men once believed it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marrying a tree first. The tree (his third wife) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.
The Vikings also thought the spirits of the murdered person would guide and guard the craft.
Those wonderful instructions on the sides of packets, tins and just about anything else you ever buy. And we've all seen them, the ones that make you wonder whether some people really are that stupid.
Well here are a few prime examples of the Label Copy-writer's art.
The label on the chain-saw warning that: You should not try to stop the blade with your hand.
The label from the company manufacturing wing mirrors for cars and bikes warning; Remember, objects seen in the mirror are behind you.
The label on the camera stating; To take photographs this camera must have a film in it.
The labelling on Sainsbury's Peanuts stating; Contains nuts
And on the subject of nuts, the instructions on the packet of Peanuts provided by an airline which states; Instructions.Open Packet. Eat Contents.
The cigarette lighter label which warned; Do not light the flame near the face.
The Marks and Spencer Bread and Butter pudding whose label states the clasically obvious: Take care - Product will be hot after heating
Rowenta, manufacturers of electric irons felt the need to instruct users that; Do not iron clothes whilst on the body.
Nytol, the herbal sleeping mixture whose label proclaims; Warning may cause drowsiness.
The American manufactured insect spray whose proud boast 'Kills all Insects' and was then labelled; Warning - this spray is harmful to bees
Jellyfish have been on Earth for over 650 million years, before sharks and dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs lived on Earth for around 165 million years before they became extinct.
Most dinosaurs lived to be more than a hundred years old.
The first dinosaur, the Staurikosaurus appeared around 225 or 230 million years ago.
Archaeopteryx was a small creature with feathers that could fly and shows that birds are descended from dinosaurs.
Some dinosaurs had tails up to 45 feet long.
The smallest dinosaur is the Compsognathus and it was about the size of a basketball.
The largest dinosaur was the Brachiosaurus.
There were about 400 - 500 different kinds of dinosaurs in existence.
Time and erosion have erased 99 percent of all dinosaur footprints.
Warthogs are the only pigs able to live in areas without water for several months of the year
The scientific names of warthogs are Phacochoerus aethiopicus and Phacochoerus africanus.
Warthogs avoid fights by running away or dodging into a burrow.
Lions and leopards are warthog's most likely predators
Warthogs live about 15 years
The Warthog's Swahili name is Ngiri
Male warthogs normally live by themselves, only joining the groups to mate
Warthogs are found in moist and arid savannas.
Warthogs avoid rainforest, deserts and high mountains.
Warthogs live in family groups of a female and her young.
Dolphins can swim and sleep at the same time. For 8 hours, the entire brain is awake. The left side then sleeps for 8 hours. When it wakes up, the right side sleeps for 8 hours.
Dolphins are capable of imitation and memorization.