Twenty Five Facts Which Amaze

[Dhondy]

Here are some I found. Can you expand this thread? 1. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. 2. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. 3. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing. 4. The term "devil's advocate" comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should be sainted, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view. 5. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag. 6. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple. 7. Almonds are a member of the peach family. 8. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance. 9. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched." 10. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses. 11. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner. 12. In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. That's where the phrase, "goodnight, sleep tight" came from. 13. The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." 14. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. 15. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. 16. It was the accepted practice in Babylon, 4,000 years ago, that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer, and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the "honey month" or what we know today as the "honeymoon." 17. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. 18. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. 19. The term "the whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." 20. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb. 21. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. 22. Los Angeles's full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula"- and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: "L.A." 23. The dial tone of a normal telephone is in the key of "F". 24. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. 25. "Feedback" is the smallest word in the English language to contain the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F.

[Dhondy]

Re: Twenty Five Facts Which Amaze Here are ten more. 26. The only nations whose names begin with an "A", but don't end in an "A" are Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. 27. The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate. 28. In Britain?s House of Commons, the government and opposition sides of the House are separated by two red lines. The distance between the lines is two swords? lengths, a reminder of just how seriously the Brits used to take their politics... 29. The shortest verse in the Bible is "Jesus wept." (John 11:35) 30. Most people know that the offspring of a male donkey (a jack) and a mare produces a mule. However the offspring of a stallion and a jennet (female donkey) is called a henny. 31. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum. 32. Rain contains vitamin B12. (http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v219/n5154/abs/219617a0.html) 33. Panama, because of a bend in the isthmus, is the only place in the world where one can see the sun rise on the Pacific Ocean and set on the Atlantic Ocean. And in Costa Rica you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from the top of Iraz?, a volcano. 34. 'Stewardesses' and 'reverberated' are the two longest words (12 letters each) that can be typed using only the left hand. And the right hand - 'lollipop' - a mere eight letters. And using both hands exactly alternately - 'skepticisms.' 35. A person standing under an oak tree is 16 more times liable to be hit by lightning than if he had taken refuge beneath a beech tree. The oak tree has vertical roots which provide a more direct route to ground water.

[Cricketics]

Re: Twenty Five Facts Which Amaze here are few of Indianz Q. Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard (hp) ? A. Rajiv Gupta Q. Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today\'s computers run on it)? A. Vinod Dahm Q. Who is the third richest man on the world? A. According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Azim Premji, who is the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6 th position now. Q. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world\'s No.1 web based email program)? A. Sabeer Bhatia Q. Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)? A. Arun Netravalli Q. Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems? A. Sanjay Tejwrika Q. Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart? A. Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar. Q. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than the whites and the natives. There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET, 38% of doctors in USA are Indians. 12% scientists in USA are Indians. 36% of NASA scientists are Indians. 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians. 28% of IBM employees are Indians. 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians. 13% of XEROX employees are! Indians.