Sunday, October 25, 2009

DEATH ON THE JOB

An average American will eat the equivalent of 28 pigs in their lifetime

A pig's orgasm can last as long as 30 minutes

Fewer than 10% of infants are born on their due date - half are born within a week of when a doctor predicted their birth, and 90% of all babies are born within two weeks before or after the projected date

California has more than 1,200 7-Eleven convenience stores, more than any other U.S. state

The ten most dangerous jobs in the U.S., based on likelihood of injury or death: fishers and related fishing workers, loggers, aircraft pilots and flight engineers, structural iron and steel workers, farmers and ranchers, refuse and recyclable materials collectors, roofers, electrical repairers, traveling salespeople and truck drivers, taxi drivers and chauffeurs

Chance of an average worker sustaining a fatal work injury in the United States: 3.6 fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 workers (2008 - most recent data collection)

Half of all married pastors will divorce

An open-mouth kiss lasting one minute burns about 26 calories

One barrel of petroleum holds 42 (U.S.) gallons, or 158.9873 liters

One barrel of petroleum holds 34.9723 Imperial (U.K.) gallons

Half of all people who made a purchase on the Internet in 2008 spent about 5 hours per week online - most were female

George Washington, first President of the United States, chose the location for the White House but remains the only president in U.S. history to have never lived there - the first president to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was John Adams in 1800

7 out of 10 houses in the U.S. are painted white

In the U.S., more than 2 billion pencils are sold each year, most with erasers attached to one end - in the U.K., about the same number of pencils are sold each year but most do not have erasers attached

In 1687, Jean-Baptiste Lully, composer, died of a gangrenous abscess after piercing his foot with a staff while he was vigorously conducting a Te Deum, as it was customary at that time to conduct by banging a staff on the floor - the performance was to celebrate the King's recovery from an illness

The average pencil contains enough graphite to draw a line 35 miles long or to write about 45,000 words

Odds that an American male does not own a pair of bluejeans: 1 in 10

Only 7% of the Earth's land has a temperate climate but nearly half of the world's population, or 3.3 billion people, live in temperate zones

Approximate number of blades of grass in one acre of lawn in the United States: 564,537,600

More than half of the world's supply of pencils comes from China, which produces more than 10 billion pencils a year - enough to circle the earth more than 40 times

7 out of 8 of the U.S. presidents who have died in office- either through illness or assassination- were elected at 20-year intervals (Ronald Reagan was elected 20 years after the last U.S. president who had died in office and, although he was shot during his first term, he survived what some called "The 20-year Curse")

It is illegal to whale hunt in the state of Oklahoma

Men are six times more likely than women to be struck by lightning

Number of miles in a light year: 5,878,499,814,186.5

More than 20 million meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere each day - most are no bigger than a speck of dust

Japan leads the world in the number of vending machines with about one machine for every 23 people, and those machines are stocked with a variety of products including drinks, snacks, cigarettes, bottles of liquor, cans of beer, fried food, underwear, iPods, porn magazines, sexual lubricants, live lobsters, fresh meat, eggs, potted plants, and clothing

On average, 10-15 people contract Bubonic Plague in the United States each year

Odds that a woman in the United States owns a pair of high-heels: 1 in 6

Fastest growing population of Facebook users: Women, over age 55

In the United States, less than 1% of women choose to deliver their babies at home, while more than 30% of Dutch women choose home births

Sunday, October 18, 2009

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)

Monday, October 12, 2009

FIDO GETS IT ALL!

According to a survey of American adults in 2009, 70% of whites stated that blacks in the United States face no inequalities, while 50% of blacks surveyed stated they were discriminated against in the past month

Ratio of cars to children in the United States: 5:2

The U.S. infant mortality rate is the highest among the top 23 wealthiest nations

28% of the 4,192 automobiles manufactured in the United States in 1900 were electric

Guinness Book of World Records record-holder for the most records held or broken: Ashrita Furman with 41 current records and having beaten or set 119 since dropping out of Columbia University in 1975

To convert Fahrenheit to Celsius take the degree temperature in Fahrenheit, subtract 32, multiply the result by 5, and divide this result by 9

In 2007, marine biologists discovered an entire new phylum of animal living on the outside rim of a lobster's mouth

An estimated 1 million dogs in the U.S. have been named sole or primary beneficiary in the owner's will

The word "checkmate" is derived from the Persian phrase "Shah mat" which means "the king is dead"

About 25% of the motor cortex in the human brain (the part of your brain which controls body movement) is devoted entirely to the muscles of the hands

Each suit on a standard deck of playing cards represents the four major pillars of the economy in the Middle Ages:
Hearts = Church/ Spades = Military/ Clubs = Agriculture/ Diamonds = Merchants

In 2007, the U.S. spent more than $50 billion on the incarceration of U.S. citizens -- the rate of incarceration is 1 in 99 people, which is the highest among all nations

Vermont, Michigan, Oregon, and Connecticut spend more on jails and prisons than on higher education, while on average in the U.S. every state spends nearly 7% of it's general fund on incarceration

People over age 100 in the U.S. increased from about 4,000 in 1960 to about 55,000 in 1995 -- by 2005, more than 67,000 Americans were over age 100

In the U.S., 57% of women who die after age 15 are widows, while only 18% of men who die over age 15 are widowed

A Swedish company, Promessa, will freeze-dry your dead body in liquid nitrogen, pulverize it with high-frequency vibrations, and place the resulting powder in a cornstarch coffin that will allow for your entire remains and the materials you were buried in to fully decompose in 6-12 months

Traditional burials in just the U.S. deposit 827,000 gallons of embalming fluid- formaldehyde, methanol, and ethanol- into the soil each year (which ends up in ground water supplies) -- Traditional cremations pump dioxins, hydrochloric acid, sulfur dioxide, and carbon dioxide into the air

Time shown on all clocks in the film "Pulp Fiction": 4:20

Number of hours the average American sleeps each year: 2,000

Number of hours doctors recommend a human sleep each year: about 3,000

Number of different animals depicted in cookie form in a standard box of Animal Crackers: 18

Number of rodent hairs and insect fragments allowed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration per 100 grams of peanut butter: 30 insect fragments, 2 rodent hairs

Number of Americans surveyed that stated they read in the bathroom: 66%

82% of Americans made a purchase at a Wal-Mart last year

The music for the U.S. national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," comes from a British drinking song

On average, the Pentagon uses 666 rolls of toilet paper per day

In 1990, two California school districts banned the book "Little Red Riding Hood" because a picture inside the book showed a bottle of wine in the basket carried by the title character as she is making her way to her grandmother's house

Each year, Americans spend $30 billion on beer, eat more chicken than any other people in the world, consume about 20 billion hot dogs, and spend more money on gambling than on movies, recorded music, theme parks and spectator sports combined

On average, 125 Americans die each year due to allergic reactions to food

1 out of 10 Americans will be hospitalized this year for at least one day

85% of life on Earth is plankton, 75% of all animals are insects, and 10% of the Earth's biomass is comprised of ants

Country with the highest population of Internet users who read blogs: Canada

Monday, October 5, 2009

BUG OFF!

U.S. national debt has continued to increase an average of $3.79 Billion per day from September 2008 to September 2009 -- given the estimated population of the United States as 305, 005, 151, the share of the debt for every child, woman, and man in the U.S. is approximately $38, 378

On any given day, about 25 unidentified bodies are in the Los Angeles Coroner's Office

Up to 15,000 dust mites can live in 1 gram of dust

American Roy Sullivan held the world record for the most lightning strikes survived by a human after his 8th hit -- he later committed suicide

Americans consume about 22 pounds of tomatoes each year per person, mostly in the forms of ketchup and sauces

Most popular pizza topping in Japan: Squid

Most popular pizza topping in the U.S.: Pepperoni

Only U.S. state to never have an earthquake: North Dakota

It takes 12 honeybees to produce 1 tablespoon of honey

60% of all apples eaten in the United States were grown in Washington State

On January 11, 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying of uncontrolled diabetes, was given the first human experimental dose of Insulin

When falling, a male skier tends to fall forward while a female skier tends to fall backward

In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10

In 1988, a study found that self-deception was healthy for most people who tend to view themselves in unrealistically positive terms, believing they have more control over their environment than they actually do and holding views about their future that are more positive than the available evidence can justify

Scientists discover about 10,000 species of insect each year

Out of 20,000 species of bees, only four make honey -- honey is the only food that does not spoil

Number of U.S. federal agencies with officers granted the authority to carry firearms: 46

During the Gallic Wars, Julius Cesear ordered the thumbs of captured warriors amputated so that when they were returned to their country they would not be able to use a bow and arrow -- the "thumbs up" gesture is believed to be derived from this period when soldiers would gesture with their thumbs as a sign that they had not been captured and were ready to fight

In general, human males can read smaller print, while females can hear better

It takes 18 minutes to cool hot chocolate into a Hershey's Kiss

Each day, about 40 million Americans eat peanut butter

The New York State Board of Education banned the whipping of children in its schools on March 4, 1908

The main reason ranchers and cowboys carried pistols in the American west was to avoid being dragged to death by their horse

Burial wreaths became popular in the United States in the 17th century -- it was believed they would encircle the spirit of the deceased, thereby preventing them from haunting anyone

On January 15, 1919, a two-million gallon tank of molasses exploded, flooding the streets of Boston and crushing 10 buildings

In the United States, color preference for automobiles varies but the most popular colors are white for trucks, black for luxury cars, and silver for others

According to the World Health Organization, the number of people worldwide currently experiencing "financial catastrophe" due to the cost of their health care: more than 150 million (about 47 million Americans have no health care coverage)

The Human Development Index (HDI), published annually by the United Nations, 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 access, and adjusted real income

HDI's Most Livable Countries (2007, most recent report): Iceland, Norway, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands, France (U.S. - 12th, U.K. - 18th)

HDI's Least Livable Countries (2007, most recent report): Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissan, Niger, Mali, Mozambique, Chad, Ethiopia, Burmundi, Zambia

61% of all humans live in Asia with the vast majority of the remainder residing in the Americas (14%), Africa (14%) and Europe (11%)

Bic estimates that since 1950 it has sold 50 disposable ink pens every second every day -- in September 2005, the company announced the sale of its billionth pen

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