MEDITATE ON IT

The English alphabet, arranged by frequency of use:
E T A I S O N H R D L U C M F W Y P G V B K J Q X Z

Size of Earth if no room existed between atoms: A baseball

1 out of 5 pieces of the world's garbage was generated in the United States

2 in 3 Americans believe in telepathy -- 1 in 6 Canadians do

Number of Americans who believe in the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark as a literal event: 61%

Wealthiest people in the world:
Warren Buffet (USA) $62 billion
Carlos Slim Helu (Mexico) $60 billion
Bill Gates (USA) $58 billion
Lakshmi Mittal (India) $45 billion
Mukesh Ambami (India) $43 billion

Average GDP in 2007: about $10,000 per person

In 2007, a Japanese woman aged 61 gave birth to her own granddaughter after being a surrogate mother to her daughter's baby -- just two years earlier in the United States, a 55 year old woman delivered her daughter's triplets as her surrogate

Keeping mothballs in your toolbox will help prevent rust

Author Kurt Vonnegut opened the first SAAB dealership in the United States

All 182 residents of Whittier, Alaska live in two apartment buildings

Atlanta, Georgia has 32 streets named Peachtree

Albert Einstein never memorized his home telephone number

1 in 20 Icelanders claim to have seen an elf

Americans spend more than $2 billion a year on candles

The average American only knows about 10% of the words in the English language, and uses about 50% of these in their daily vocabulary -- of the words Americans use in their daily speaking, nearly 80% are spoken to themselves (the English language consists of more than 800,000 words)

A dolphin's closest land relative: Horse

During Prohibition in the U.S., half of all federal prison inmates were incarcerated for violating liquor laws

Currently, 54% of persons incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons are being held in violation of drug laws

A 2-hour movie uses 10,800 feet of film

After a 3-week vacation, a person's IQ temporarily drops as much as 20%

Percent of Americans who believe humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs: 50%

According to a 2002 survey, 46% of Americans said their car was the most important thing in their life -- 6% said their children were most important

Every 2 hours, someone somewhere files a lawsuit against Wal-Mart

Ted Turner owns about 2% of New Mexico

The United Nations publishes a report annually called The Human Development Index (HDI) which ranks nations according to their citizens' quality of life rather than strictly by a nation's traditional economic figures. The criteria for ranking includes life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income. According to the 2007 HDI report, the "most livable" countries are: Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, France (the US ranked 12th, a drop from 8th a year before; and the UK ranked 16th, up from 18th in 2006)

1 in 10 Americans over age 18 abstain from sex -- 1 in 20 abstain from t.v. watching

One-eighth of the world's population has touched a Rubik's Cube, making it the most popular puzzle in history (Rubik's Cube has one correct arrangement, and 43 quintrillion wrong ones)

Most common activities for Americans while sitting on the toilet:
1) reading
2) using the phone
3) meditating
4) watching television
5) drinking coffee
6) eating
7) balancing the checkbook

CALL ME CRAZY

Dust from the Sahara Desert has been carried by wind as far as Chicago, Illinois

According to the FBI, 74% of all threats against federal employees are directed at IRS workers

System identified by Albert Einstein as "completely incomprehensible": U.S. tax code

Wal-Mart's annual income is slightly less than that of Russia

An American "billion" is the same as a British "milliard"

More car model names start with the letter "C" than any other letter

Country with the most religious followers in the world: India (Least religious followers: Sweden)

Approximately 1.5% of the human population has red hair, which is hair characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelonin -- this is the rarest hair color in the world

About 4% of all Europeans are red-haired, but by sheer numbers the United States has the highest global population of redheads (about 15 million people) ... by percent, Scotland has the most redheads with 13% of its population, followed by Ireland and Wales with 10% each

Colorado Springs, Colorado has the highest concentration of Evangelical churches in the United States

1/3 of the world's population is under age 15 (current world population: 6.6 billion people)

Each day in the U.S., 1.4 million violent crimes are committed by someone the victim knows

In 1981, Turkish researchers published a study they claimed proved disco music caused male mice to become homosexual

Some female cockroaches mate only once and are pregnant for the rest of their lives

The world's population increases by 237,748 every 24 hours

Before 1920 it was not illegal to send children through the mail

Age of the youngest soldier killed during the American Civil War: 12

Meteorological definition of "drizzle": No more than 14 drops per square foot per second

A 1946 FBI memo denounced the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" as "Communist propaganda"

About 673,693 Americans were born on this day

Most popular birthday worldwide: October 5

Most popular day of birth worldwide: Tuesday

In 1972, American psychologist David Rosenhan published the Rosenhan Experiment, a study analyzing the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. The study arranged for eight participants with no history of mental illness to attempt admission into psychiatric hospitals. The individuals volunteering for the study were a housewife, a graduate student, two physicians, a psychiatrist, two psychologists, and an artist. All were admitted to psychiatric hospitals, each receiving a diagnosis of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, and all were treated with medications. All were discharged between 7 and 52 days. The study concluded that individuals with no presence of mental disorders could not be distinguished from those suffering mental illness.