Some interesting facts...

• As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates. (this doesn't surprise me)
• The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum.
• The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.
• Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight. (My poor children)
• The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes. (Wish I could afford Prada)
• Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.
• As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet. (I think I'm one, hello My name is Mel and I'm a blogaholic)
• Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.
• Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children.
• Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.
• Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based.
• Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.
• The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.
• The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it. (Okay come on! Now you're messing with chocolate!)
• The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population.
• The average American consumes 1.2 pounds of spider eggs a year and eat 2.5 pounds of insect parts a year. (SICK)
• Men can breastfeed babies (DOUBLE SICK)
• There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of. (I think I get pretty close to that when I get a migraine & then the kids scream)
• The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter.
• The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula" (What does that mean? Jerry, Pacer, Brad???)
• Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.
• There was once a town in West Virginia called "6."
• On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.
• 2,500 lefties die each year using products designed for rightists.
• On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day. (That does NOT surprise me)
• The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
• France has the highest per ca pita consumption of cheese.
• Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.
• Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939. (Must have been drunk?)
• If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.
• The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
• At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.
• The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours. (Can you say muscle spasm)
• More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week.
• Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%).
• America once issued a 5-cent bill.
• The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.
• There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.
• During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax.
• The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
• The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina).
• The amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class: $40,000.
• State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska.
• Average number of days a German goes without washing his underwear: 7. (Uggghhhh)
• Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80%.
• Percentage of American women who say they'd marry the same man: 50%.
• Average people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
• The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
• The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are use able as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
• The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.
• Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know your there
• It is possible to drown and not die. Technically the term 'drowning' refers to the process of taking water into the lungs, not to death caused by that process.
• At - 40 degrees Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing. (Perhaps I need to move?)
• Less than one per cent of the 500 Chinese cities have clean air, respiratory disease is China's leading cause of death.
• The number of cars on the planet is increasing three times faster than the population growth
• The X's that people sometimes put at the end of letters or notes to mean a kiss, actually started back in the 1000's when Lords would sign their names at the end of documents to other important people. It was originally a cross that they would kiss after signing to signify that they were faithful to God and their King. Over the years though, it slanted into the X
• The term Cop comes from Constable on Patrol. It's from England.
• Upper and lower case letters are named 'upper' and 'lower', because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the 'upper case' letters were stored in the case on top of the case stored smaller, 'lower case' letters In the 40's