ODDLY ENOUGH

Since 1950, over 230 million "eggs" of Silly Putty have been sold worldwide

Odds that a person in the world will seek emergency medical services due to an accident involving a drinking straw: 1 in 166,600 a year

Over 500 randomly selected Americans participated in a long-term study from 1978 to 2005 in which they were asked at intervals how much prices would go up or down in the next year -- experts who made these predictions primarily relied on rate exchanges, money supply growth, and employment rate statistics while the study participants relied almost exclusively on fluctuations in their grocery costs, particularly in milk and fresh vegetables, and their "gut feelings" -- both the economists and the consumers who participated in the study were able to predict inflation rates within a 1% margin of error

The male Satin Bover Bird, found on the east coast of Australia, builds its nest with twigs and then decorates it with blue and yellow shiny objects in an effort to attract females -- people who live nearby have found missing objects such as car keys, clothes pins, and toys built into the nests

The term "continental breakfast" was coined to differentiate between the fried eggs, bacon and beans served in a traditional English breakfast from the pastries, coffee and juice offered throughout the rest of Europe

In a 2008 survey of American males ages 25-49, married men and men in long-term relationships reported changing their underwear twice as often than the unmarried and single men (in the same survey, nearly 4% of all men claimed to "never wear underwear")

Black pepper is the most popular spice in the world

Hong Kong has the highest number of millionaires per square mile of any city in the world

1 in 4 animals on earth is a beetle

10% of biomass on earth is comprised of ants; another 10% of biomass is comprised of termites -- 95% of all animal species are insects, and most are beetles with over 500,000 different species

53% of students attending four-year colleges in the U.S. will take 6 years to complete their degree program

1 in 10 laptop computers are stolen each year

11 billion elevator trips are made in New York City each year -- the Otis Elevator Company estimates that it transports the equivalent of the world's population every five days

WAYS SOME PEOPLE DIE IN THE UNITED STATES EACH YEAR:
Medical negligence: 120,000
On-the-job accidents, occupational diseases: 68,000
Dangerous or defective products: 28,000
Murder: 24,000

Geographic center of the 48 contiguous states within the continental U.S.: Smith County, Kansas

Most common blood type in the world: O-positive (people with blood type O-negative are considered "universal donors" because their blood can be transfused to all other blood types; people with blood type AB-positive are considered "universal recipients" because they can generally accept a transfusion of any other blood type)

Halitophobia: Intense, irrational fear of bad breath (not one's own, but that of someone else)

90% of bad breath odor comes from bacteria and residue accumulated on the tongue

In 1981, Ian Murphy and three accomplices broke into the AT&T telephone system and changed its internal clocks so that customers would get midnight discount rates for long-distance calls at midday while late-night callers would pay the much higher fees -- Murphy became the first computer "hacker" charged with a crime

CONTINENTS BY SIZE:
Asia (44,579,000 sq. km)
Africa (30,065,000 sq. km)
N. America (24,256,000 sq. km)
S. America (17,819,000 sq. km)
Antarctica (13,209,000 sq. km)
Europe (9,938,000 sq. km)
Australia/Oceania (7,687,000 sq.km)

CONTINENTS BY POPULATION:
Asia - 3,879,000,000
Africa - 877,500,000
Europe - 727,000,000
N. America - 501,500,000
S. America - 379,500,000
Australia/Oceania - 32,000,000
Antarctica - 0

CONTINENTS BY NUMBER OF COUNTRIES:
Africa - 53
Europe - 46
Asia - 44
N. America - 23
Oceania - 14
S. America - 13

Odds that an adult aged 45-64 in the U.S. owns a gun: 1 in 3

In the United States, Google takes 70-75% of the search engine market -- in places such as the U.K., Switzerland, and South America the margin rises to 90%

In 1400, global income rose at a rate of about 0.1% -- in 2000, global income rose by over 5%

Only Grammy Award winner convicted of murder: Jim Gordon, won the Grammy for co-writing the Eric Clapton hit "Layla," convicted in 1983 of killing his mother with a hammer and knife

16th century surgeon Gaspere Tagliacozzi built his aristocratic clients new noses from the skins of their slaves

Studies have demonstrated that adult pigeons have a higher rate of self-recognition (recognizing oneself in a mirror, for example) than 3-year-old humans (other animals that demonstrate high rates of self-recognition are dolphins, elephants, gorillas, and chimpanzees)