Maj's blog: "just random things"

THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU DIDN'T KNOW Did you know... It is impossible to lick your elbow. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out. A shrimp's heart is in its head. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call. Horses can't vomit. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times. -- Update: "Brandon" writes: THis is NOT true....i Actually work in a Chemist lab and just to test out this theory i had my girl friend with me swabbed her ears tested for bactiria had her listen to headphones for 2 hours swabbed again and there was a 0% increase in Bactirea -- If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles? In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. -- Note from Brian Kai : A duck's "quack" doesn't echo because it's resonant/anti-resonant. It is also only a certain sound that they make that will not echo. The non-echoing sound mentioned is used for inter-species location, while flying or otherwise. It's true that no one knows why they would need this ability but it is thought to be a "fluke" of nature. The study of anti-resonant sound came from the study of mallards. One of the more intriguing aspects of anti-resonance is the possible use in restaurantes and cars. Restaurantes could use anti-resonance in private booths to keep them "private". Cars could use anti-resonance to completely silence the engine. Hope you find this interesting. :) -- -- Note from Catie : An english university has proved that a ducks quack does echo! this was done to persuade applicants that science isnt all that boring. -- -- Note from "Kristin" Me and my 2 sisters can all lick our elbows...though one can lick only one of her elblows. (Pictures Attached to Page) -- 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts. Most lipstick contains fish scales. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different. Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow. ------ And You Thought YOU Knew EVERYTHING. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times. --- Note from a visitor --- today i folded a normal notebook piece of paper in half 8 times! and im mexikan and that comes to show that we are not stupid and that i can prove stuff when i disagree! --------------------------- please post this in the facts thing Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache. A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating 1 olive from each salad served in first-class. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined. Marilyn Monroe had six toes. -- Note: norah" says: great site,i just wanted to write in and let you know Marilyn Monroe did NOT have six toes. this rumor is totally false,it started due to lighting and camera angles in a particular photo. Ms. Monroe had 10 toes perfectly intact. thanks! (o= -- All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public. Walt Disney was afraid of mice. Pearls melt in vinegar. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." The second was William Jefferson Clinton. Turtles can breathe through their butts. Butterflies taste with their feet. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all of the world's nuclear weapons combined. On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year. On average people fear spiders more than death. Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. It's physically impossible for you to lick your elbow. The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. -- "Lauren" says: http://www.indiana.edu/~libweb/campus/libsink.html it confirms the fact that the indiana university library is NOT sinking...i go to IU and i know for a fact this is a myth. -- A snail can sleep for three years. No word in the English language rhymes with "MONTH." Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. SCARY!!! The electric chair was invented by a dentist. All polar bears are left handed. In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. "Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall. Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day. ----------------------- 1. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched." 2. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt" --- Note From: "mia harms" "unkempt" is one, pre-empt" (verb form) is another --- 3. Almonds are members of the peach family. 4. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe. 5. The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. 6. Ingrown toenails are hereditary. 7. The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language. 8. "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und." Update from Keith : - UNDERFUND also begins and ends in UND. 9. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. 10. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. 11. The only other word with the same amount of letters is its plural: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosesl. 12. The longest place-name still in use is Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwe-nuakit natahu, a New Zealand hill. 13. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reinade los Angeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size,L.A. 14. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 15. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur. 16. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery. 17. Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays. (so did Shakespeare, added by Chaise) 18. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. 19. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. 21. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. 23. There is a seven-letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the,there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein. 24. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors. 26. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. *comment below* 27. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. 28. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. 30. The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti 31. 'Stewardesses' is the longest English word that is typed with only the left hand. 33. The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways; the following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed." 34. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. 35. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic." 36. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian seal for that reason. 37. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten. 38. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead." 39. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. ----- If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. (Hardly seems worth it.) If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas s produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb. (Now that's more like it!) The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet... (O.M.G.!) A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes. (In my next life, I want to be a pig.) A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.) (I'm still not over the pig.) Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour. (Do not try this at home........ maybe at work.) The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off. ("Honey, I'm home. What the......?!") The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field. (30 minutes... lucky pig... can you imagine??) The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds. (What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?) Some lions mate over 50 times a day. (I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity) Butterflies taste with their feet. (Something I always wanted to know.) The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue. (Hmmmmmm........) Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people. (If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?) Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump. (OK, so that would be a good thing....) A cat's urine glows under a black light. (I wonder who was paid to figure that out?) An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. (I know some people like that.) Starfish have no brains. (I know some people like that too.) Polar bears are left-handed. (If they switch, they'll live a lot longer...) Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure. (What about that pig??) --- Comment by Dave : Bonobo chimpanzees are also known to have sex for pleasure. Humans and Bonobos are, however, the only two species of primates (out of 180 ) that have sex facing each other. It's noteworthy that we also share over 98% of our genes with Bonobos. --- ------------------------- *comments* Daniel Writes: "Scientists have long since proven that goldfish have quite long memories. They are capable of learning to use lever systems to release food into the tank, and remember the exact procedure after not having used it for several days. This myth is brought about by the belief that goldfish will eat until they die. In actual fact, what kills the goldfish is excess food rotting in the tank / bowl, which releases toxic ammonia." ----------------------------------------------------------------- MORE ----------------------------------------------------------------- That... The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for Blood plasma. No piece of paper can be folded in half more than seven (7) times. Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television. Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty (50) years of age or older. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum. The King of Hearts is the only king WITHOUT A MOUSTACHE American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one (1) olive from each salad served in first-class. Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise. (Since Venus is normally associated with women, what does this tell you!) Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning. Most dust particles in your house are made from DEAD SKIN! The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer. So did the first "Marlboro Man." Walt Disney was afraid OF MICE! PEARLS MELT IN VINEGAR! The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. It is possible to lead a cow upstairs... but, not downstairs. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least six (6) feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush. And the best for last..... Turtles can breathe through their butts.