CLOWNING AROUND

Number of Bibles sold worldwide each minute: 50

Percent of the human population that is left-handed: 14% (up from 11% a century ago)

Percent of world population under age 25: 50%

Day of the week most babies are born in the U.S.: Tuesday

The United States has a larger military budget than the next 12 nations combined

Country with the most movie theaters: Russia

Country with the most movie-goers: Lebanon

Day of the week when you are most likely to be involved in a fatal car crash: Saturday

Most common speed limit on U.S. roads: 25 miles per hour

Average amount a bank teller in the U.S. loses each year in transaction mistakes: $250

Around the world, the number of checks that will be deducted from or posted to the wrong bank account in the next hour: 22,000

Number one cause of daytime fatigue: Lack of water

Number of Americans who claim Irish ancestry: 34.5 million (9 times the population of Ireland)

1 in 50 residents of New York City is all or part Irish

Number of astronomers in the U.S.: 3,500

Number of astrologers in the U.S.: 15,000

Percent of Americans who have spent a night in jail: 13%

Chance of a white Christmas in New York: 25%

Number of different familial relationships for which Hallmark makes a card: 105

Percent of Americans who have visited Disneyland or Disney World: 70%

Icelanders consume more Coca-Cola per capita than any other country

$203 million is spent on barbed wire in the U.S. each year

About 3 million American women have at least one tattoo

On average, a business document is photocopied 19 times

The Governor of Arkansas is paid the lowest salary of any U.S. governor

John F. Kennedy was the first U.S. president born in the 20th century

The inventor of the Thigh Master was once a Buddhist monk

Most people who read the word YAWNING will yawn

Oak trees are struck by lightning more than any other tree

Satellite monitoring has demonstrated that the U.S. has the most violent weather of all nations in the world -- the U.S. averages 10,000 violent storms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and 5 hurricanes each year

There are more bacteria in your mouth than people in the world

People with blue eyes are better able to see in the dark

Last two European countries to grant women the right to vote: Sweden-1971, and Leichtenstein-1984

Since 1976 in the U.S., more than 100 pizza box patents have been issued to inventors

Since 1950, world population has doubled

The dial tone on a standard land-based telephone is emitted in the key of F

HIGHEST LIFE EXPECTANCY RATES:
Andorra -- 83.5
Japan -- 82
San Marino, Singapore -- 81.8
Sweden, Austria, Switzerland -- 80.6
France -- 80.5
Iceland -- 80.4
Canada -- 80.3

No prime number greater than 5 ends in 5

NEWS FEED:
In October in Seminole, Florida, near Tampa, two men, ages 36 and 52, sitting on a porch, drew the attention of two passersby, who made derisive comments and eventually beat up the porch-sitters, who were in costumes as beer bottles for the upcoming Halloween holiday

Sixty-two percent of the 12 million people of Mumbai, India, live in slums, but the city is also home to Mukesh Ambani's 27-story private residence (37,000 square feet, 600 employees serving a family of five), reported to cost about $1billion. According to an October New York Times dispatch, there are "terraces upon terraces," "four-story hanging gardens," "airborne swimming pools," and a room where "artificial weather" can be created. Ambani and his brother inherited their father's textile-exporting juggernaut but notoriously spend much of their time in intra-family feuding. A local domestic worker told the Times (after noting that both she and Ambani are "human being[s]") that she has difficulty understanding why the Ambanis have so much while she struggles on the equivalent of $90 a month 

Safari World, the well-known and controversial zoo on the outskirts of Bangkok, has previously stupefied the world by training orangutans to play basketball, ride motorbikes, and kickbox (while outfitted in martial-arts trunks). In a photo essay in November, London's Daily Mail showcased the park's most recent success--training elephants to tightrope-walk (where they prance on a reinforced cable for 15 meters and then, displaying astonishing balance, turn around on the wire)

In the United States, more than 4,450 activities are federal crimes, and 300,000 federal regulations carry potential criminal penalties, according to an October feature by McClatchy Newspapers, and to illustrate its point that Congress has gone overboard in creating "crimes," McClatchy pointed to a Miami, Fla., seafood importer. Abner Schoenwetter, 64, just finished a six-year stretch in prison for the crime of contracting to purchase lobster tails from a Honduran seller who federal authorities learned was violating lobster-harvest regulations

Performers in New York's traveling Bindlestiff Family Cirkus protested in October against political campaign language referring to Washington, D.C., as a "circus. Said Kinko the Clown, "Before you call anyone in Washington a clown, consider how hard a clown works"

"Tiririca" ("Grumpy"), a professional clown, was elected by resounding vote to the Brazilian Congress from Sao Paulo in October under the slogan "It Can't Get Any Worse"

In June, Britain's traveling John Lawson's Circus announced a series of counseling sessions for people who avoid circuses for fear of clowns. "Coulrophobia" is reportedly Britain's third-leading phobia, after spiders and needles