MELON HEADS

At this very moment, 70% of people driving on U.S. roads are speeding

Best-selling candybar in Russia: Snickers

In 19th-century England, anyone who attempted suicide and failed faced the death penalty

The electric chair was invented by American dentist Dr. Albert Southwick in 1881 -- the first person ever executed in the chair was William Lelmer, who was convicted of murdering his lover Matilda with an ax

1 in 200 people have at least one food allergy -- worldwide, the most common food allergy is cow's milk

The world's average school year is 200 days -- in the U.S., a school year is 180 days, in Sweden it is 170 days, and in Japan it is 243 days

More than 60% of babies born in the U.S. are named after a close relative

75% of mail and 80% of e-mail is written in English

The human brain reaches its maximum weight around age 20 and then slowly loses about 1% of its weight over a lifetime -- the human brain weighs about 3 pounds and is about the size of a cantalope

The average American will eat a half ton of cheese in their lifetime, mostly as pizza toppings

Americans eat 50% of their annual intake of 4.2 billion pizza purchases on Friday and Saturday, and Americans eat, on average, 75 acres of pizza a day

Over the past 150 years, the average height of a person in the industrialized world has increased by4 inches

World's top industry: Tourism (more than 240 million jobs worldwide are related to tourism)

If California were a country, it would be the 5th largest economy in the world (as a country, Los Angeles County alone would be ranked 19th largest economy)

Average age of the Forbes wealthiest 400 individuals: 63

1 out of 4 Americans do not know their astrological sign

By kindergarten, 32% of U.S. children have used the Internet

1 in 400 pairs of fraternal twins have different fathers

Only 36 languages are spoken by 77% of the world's population

Number of bird species in Central Park: 215

The Bible is currently available in 2,233 languages

By age 65, the average American will have watched the equivalent of 9 years of uninterrupted television

In the U.S., there are more televisions than telephones

Life expectancy of an average American at age 40: 77 years -- Life expectancy of an average American at age 65: 83 years

In 1998, Mayor Elcio Berth of Bocaiva De Sol, Brazil spent $35,000 of his municipal budget to give out free Viagra to townsmen in an attempt to boost the dwindling population of 10,000 people -- in a prior attempt to achieve the same goal, he unsuccessfully lobbied for a ban on contraception

Most men have erections every hour to hour and a half during sleep

According to a recent study, accountants have the highest incidence of on-the-job headaches, followed by librarians and bus drivers

Laughing at a joke requires activity in 5 different areas of your brain

Researchers estimate that the average human adult has about 70,000 thoughts per day

About 12% of humans report dreaming exclusively in black and white

The two highest Intelligence Quotients (IQs) ever recorded both belong to women

According to a 2005 survey, Norwegians are the most trusting people in the world with Norwegians reporting they trust others 65% of the time without prior experience with the person

The Swiss rarely miss work -- workers in Switzerland, on average, miss one day of scheduled work per year

The top six reasons Americans cited in a 2006 survey for lateness to work:
1. Traffic
2. Over-sleeping
3. Procrastination
4. Chores
5. Automobile break-down
6. Having sex

After bananas, gorillas in captivity prefer celery

A U.S. government-funded study determined that pigs can become alcoholics

Nanotechnology has produced a guitar no bigger than a blood cell with 6 strings that are each 10 micrometers long, each of which can be strummed to produce a sound inaudible to an unaided human ear

A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground no matter how high the tree grows

Globally, women shoplift more often than men by a ratio of 4:1

45% of American women report experiencing orgasm as a result of intercourse, an increase from 25% who claimed to experience orgasm this way just ten years ago -- remaining nearly constant has been the 80% of women reporting experiencing an orgasm during oral sex and through self-stimulation

In a famous exchange, Lady Astor once said to Winston Churchill: "If you were my husband, I would poison your coffee" to which he replied: "If you were my wife, I would drink it"

Americans are more likely to recycle than to vote

LIVE LONG and PROSPER

Percent of Americans who claim that God has directly spoken to them: 36%

When intoxicated, an ant always falls to its right

1 in 5 Americans believes the sun orbits the earth

The federal prison system is the largest supplier of mental health services in the United States

Thanksgiving Day was made a national holiday in the U.S. through a presidential proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863

Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman took the first acid trip in 1943 when he touched a small amount of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), a chemical he was working with in his research into inducing child birth

Rain contains vitamin B12

Shortest Bible verse: "Jesus wept" (John 11:35)

Bananas contain a chemical that has been proven to elevate people's mood -- this same chemical is a main ingredient in the manufacture of the anti-depressant Prozac

Within 72 hours after death, the enzymes that once digested your dinner begin to break you down into decomposed waste

The higher a person's level of education, the less likely that person is to smoke cigarettes

In both Florida and Arizona, the death rate is nearly the same as the birth rate

More people in New York City commit suicide than are murdered each year

In Kentucky, the crime rate over the past 30 years has increased 3% while the prison population has increased 600% -- last year, Kentucky showed the greatest increase in prison population in the United States with a 12% rise over the previous year

According to a 2006 survey, the three best-known Western names in China: Jesus Christ, Elvis, Richard Nixon

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated

Every 4 seconds somewhere in the world someone opens a can of Spam

Your greatest risk for heart attack: Monday, at home, around dinner time (you have a 40% of dying before getting to the hospital)

Half of all people who are murdered in the U.S. by drowning were intoxicated at the time of their death

U.S. military spending per year per capita: $935 per person

During the 1990s, a new prison opened every 15 days in the United States, most in rural areas

In nearly all animal species, the female outlives the male