Amazing Facts
Some biblical scholars believe that Aramaic (the language of the
ancient Bible) did not contain an easy way to say "many things" and used a term
which has come down to us as 40. This means that when the bible - in many
places -- refers to "40 days," they meant many days.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and
purple.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people
without killing them use to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to
get fired."
Only two people signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4th,
John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but
the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later.
The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South
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."
The original story from Tales of 1001 Arabian Nights begins, "Aladdin
was a little Chinese boy."
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
The "y" in signs reading "ye olde..." is properly pronounced with a
"th" sound, not "y." The "th" sound does not exist in Latin, so ancient
Roman occupied (present day) England use the rune "thorn" to represent "th"
sounds. With the advent of the printing press the character from the
Roman alphabet which closest resembled thorn was the lower case "y."
The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.
The little bags of netting for gas lanterns (called "mantles") are
radioactive - so much so that they will set of an alarm at a nuclear
reactor.
Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots and would
save all carrot-chewing dialong until the end of a recording session.
Each unit on the Richter Scale is equivalent to a power factor of
about 32. So a 6 is 32 times more powerful than a 5! Though it goes
to 10, 9 is estimated to be the point of total tetonic destruction
(2 is the smallest that can be felt unaided).
Cinderella's slippers were originally made out of fur. The story was
changed in the 1600s by a translator.
Until 1965, driving was done on the left-hand side on roads in Sweden.
The conversion to right-hand was done on a weekday at 5pm. All traffic
stopped as people switched sides. This time and day were chosen to
prevent accidents where drivers would have gotten up in the morning
and been too sleepy to realize *this* was the day of the changeover.
Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War
II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
Dr. Seuss pronounced "Seuss" such that it rhymed with "rejoice."
Humphrey Bogart never said, "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca;
Sherlock Holmes never said, "Elementary, my dear Watson"; and Captain
Kirk never said, "Beam me up, Scotty," but he did say, "Beam me up,
Mr. Scott."
Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered
blood donors.
More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.
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." At first, Bert was brought to life by Jim Henson and Ernie by
Frank Oz, but they didn't feel the characters were being portrayed
well enough, so they traded.
The flag of the Philippines is the only national flag that is flown
differently during times of peace or war. A portion of the flag is
blue, while the other is red. The blue portion is flown on top in
time of peace and the red portion is flown in war time.
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. Then the frog uses its forearms to dig out all of the
stomach's contents and then swallows the stomach back down again.
Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they
rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military
salute.
The "huddle" in football was formed due a deaf football player who
used sign language to communicate and his team didn't want the
opposition to see the signals he used and in turn huddled around him.
If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon
dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.
Carnivorous animals will not eat another animal that has been struck
by lightning.
The term, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is
from Ancient Rome. The only rule during wrestling matches was, "No
eye gouging." Everything else was allowed, but the only way to be
disqualified was to poke someone's eye out.
Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
Sir Isaac Newton was an ordained priest in the Church of England.
A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed, and continue living.
Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes
them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
Steve Young, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, is the
great-great-grandson of Mormon leader Brigham Young.
Money isn't made out of paper, it's made out of linen.
Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
wans't that interesting? :D :D :D