THUMBS UP

Between 1985 and 2005, profits for the world's richest 200 companies rose by nearly 400%

The United States has the highest child poverty rate in the developed world at 37%

In 1986, psychiatrist William Condon of Boston University's Medical School analyzed films of adults chatting and noticed that unconsciously the conversationalists began to coordinate their finger movements, blinks and n0ds -- when pairs of talkers were hooked up to separate electroencephalographs, some of their brain waves began sparking in unison

Artifacts suggest the moon was used to calculate time as far back as 12,000 and possibly even 30,000 BCE

Researchers theorize that most people are right-handed because it is easier for the brain to locate speaking and fine motor skills on one side of the brain

The moose is the world's largest deer

Only U.S. state without a national park site: Delaware

Water is heavier than ice

The first bra was invented in France in 1902

The United States population growth rate is 88.3% (births: 14.18/1,000 population -- deaths: 8.27/1,000 population)

Speed of light: 186,282 miles per second

About 2,000 stars are visible to the unaided human eye

An adult human emits the same heat as a 100-watt light bulb

A study of Google Earth satellite images has revealed that herds of cattle tend to face in the north-south direction of earth's magnetic poles -- red and roe deer also do this (both deer and cattle observed in this study faced a more magnetic north-south direction than the geographic north-south)

World population reached 6 billion humans on July 19, 1999 at about 12:24:02 a.m. GMT, but not everyone agrees -- the United Nations officially celebrated "Day of Six Billion" three months later, on October 12, 1999

Before his death Thomas Jefferson wrote the list of accomplishments he wanted listed on his tombstone -- the list included authoring the Declaration of Independence and founding the University of Virginia but did not mention being President of the United States

The average mother in the U.S. will have 2 children in her lifetime, down from an average of three children to mothers in 1950 and seven children in 1850

In the United States, about 72% of women with children work at least part-time, which is the same rate as women without children (only about 39% of all women were in the workforce in 1979)

Actual text of a help-wanted advertisement for the Pony Express circa 1850:
Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over 18
Must be excellent riders, willing to risk death daily
Orphans preferred
Wages: $25 weekly

A human would die almost immediately if the toxic chemical additives of one cigarette were injected directly into their bloodstream

The human thumb is controlled by 9 individual muscles and all 3 major hand nerves

Carnivorous animals in the wild will not eat another animal that has been killed by a lightning strike

If you were freeze-dried, 10% of your body weight would be from the microorganisms living on your body

Since 1970, humans have created and stored more information than in the previous 5,000 years

When experiencing fear, humans produce more earwax

More than 40,000 varieties of rice are grown worldwide

If the neurons from a single human brain were divided equally among the U.S. population, each American would receive about 366 brain cells

One-quarter of the human population can speak at least some English

Ireland has the highest per capita consumption of cereal in the world