Random Thoughts: Random Stats

1. The US interstate highway system requires that one mile in every five be straight. These straight sections function as airstrips in times of war and other emergencies.

2. The Boston University Bridge is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

3. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs have only about ten.

4. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

5. In every episode of Seinfeld, there is a superman somewhere.

6. February 1965 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

7. The cruise liner, Queen Elisabeth II, moves only six inches for every gallon of diesel fuel that it burns.

8. Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book published in every major Dewey Decimal category.

9. Columbia University is the second largest land owner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

10. Cat urine glows under a black light.

11. Back in the mid-80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered 100% compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.

12. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

13. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

14. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child is 2-6 years of age.

15. Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.

16. If you have three quarters, four dimes and four pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.

17. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

18. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually that all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

19. No NFL team which plays its home games in a dome has ever won a Superbowl.

20. The first toilet ever seen on TV was on "Leave it to Beaver".

21. In the Great Fire of London in 1666, half of the city was burned down but only 6 people were injured.

22. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 30s lobbied against hemp farmers - they saw them as competitors.

23. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 years old.

24. The name Wendy was made up for the book -"Peter Pan".

25. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".

26. It was discovered on a space mission that a frog can throw up. The frog throws up its stomach first, so the stomach is dangling out of its mouth. The frog then uses its forearms to dig out all of the stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.

27. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

28. Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar, in "Midnight Cowboy". Her entire role lasted only 6 minutes.

29. Charles Lindburgh took only four sandwiches with him on his famous transatlantic flight.

30. Goethe couldn't stand the sound of barking dogs and could only write if he had an apple rotting in the drawer of his desk.

31. Stewardesses is the longest word that is formally typed with only the left hand.

32. Armadillos have four babies at a time and they are always the same sex.

33. To escape the jaws of a crocodile, push your thumbs into its eyes - it will release you instantly.

34. If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will come up heads approximately 4950 times because the heads picture weighs more than the tails side, so it ends up on the bottom more often.

35. Hydroxydeoxycorticosterones is the longest anagram in the English language.

36. Los Angeles' full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Pornciuncula.

37. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

38. Al Capone's business card said he was a furniture dealer.

39. The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds.

40. Wilma Flintstone's maiden name was Wilma Slaghoopal, and Betty Rubbles' maiden name was Betty Jean Mcbricker.

41. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.

42. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

43. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great Pharoh Ramses II, who fathered over 160 children.

44. If NASA sent birds into space, they would soon die because birds need gravity to swallow.

45. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.

46. The computer term "byte" is a contraction of "by eight".

47. The average ear of corn has eight hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows.

48. The famous split-fingered Vulcan salute is actually intended to represent the first letter ("shin", pronounced "sheen") of the word "shalom". As a boy, Leonard Nimoy observed his rabbi using it in a benediction and never forgot it; he was eventually able to add it to Star Trek lore.

49. The idea that "the Boogey Man will get you" comes from the Boogey people, who still inhabit an area of Indonesia. These people still act as pirates today, and attack passing ships.

50. Underground is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und"