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