Saturday 24 October 2009

a multitude of strange facts

   1.      Most American car horns honk in the key of F.
   2.      The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
   3.      Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
   4.      Every time you lick a stamp, you consume 1/10 of a calorie.
   5.      The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
   6.      Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realize what is occurring, relax and correct itself.
   7.      Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every 2 weeks otherwise it will digest itself.
   8.      The citrus soda 7-UP was created in 1929; '7' was selected after the original 7-ounce containers and 'UP' for the direction of the bubbles.
   9.      101 Dalmatians, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, and Mulan are the only Disney cartoons where both parents are present and don't die throughout the movie.  .
  10.      A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
  11.      'Stewardesses' is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.
  12.      To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs - it will let you go instantly.
  13.      Reindeer like to eat bananas.
  14.      No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver and purple.
  15.      The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
  16.      Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.
  17.      The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
  18.      The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II Killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
  19.      More people are killed annually by donkeys than airplane crashes.
  20.      A 'jiffy' is a unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
  21.      A whale's penis is called a dork.
  22.      Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west.
  23.      The average person spends 6 months of their life sitting at red lights.
  24.      In 1912 a law passed in Nebraska where drivers in the country at night were required to stop every 150 yards, send up a skyrocket, wait eight minutes for the road to clear before proceeding cautiously, all the while blowing their horn and shooting off flares.
  25.      More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money throughout the world.
  26.      Caesar salad has nothing to do with any of the Caesars. It was first concocted in a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920's.
  27.      One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.
  28.      Crocodiles and alligators are surprisingly fast on land.  Although they are rapid, they are not agile.  So, if being chased by one, run in a zigzag line to lose him or her.
  29.      Seattle’s Fremont Bridge rises up and down more than any drawbridge in the world.
  30.      Right-handed people live, on average; nine years longer than left handed people.
  31.      Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka.
  32.      In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes. 
  33.      A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel.
  34.      A person cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For example, if a strong-tasting substance like salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to taste it. As soon as a drop of saliva is added and the salt is dissolved, however, a definite taste sensation results. This is true for all foods.
  35.      Nearly 80% of all animals on earth have six legs.
  36.      In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other.
  37.      Ninety percent of all species that have become extinct have been birds.
  38.      There is approximately one chicken for every human being in the world.
  39.      Most collect calls are made on father's day.
  40.      The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston, Illinois. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 71/2 miles per hour.
  41.      Each of us generates about 3.5 pounds of rubbish a day, most of it paper.
  42.      Women manage the money and pay the bills in  75% of all Americans households.
  43.      A rainbow can be seen only in the morning or late afternoon. It can occur only when the sun is 40 degrees or less above the horizon.
  44.      It has NEVER rained in Calama, a town in the Atacama Desert of Chile.
  45.      It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World.
  46.      The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
  47.      An eighteenth-century German named Matthew Birchinger, known as "the little man of Nuremberg," played four musical instruments including the bagpipes, was an expert calligrapher, and was the most famous stage magician of his day. He performed tricks with the cup and balls that have never been explained. Yet Birchinger had no hands, legs, or thighs, and was less than 29 inches tall.
  48.      Daylight Saving Time is not observed in most of the state of Arizona and parts of Indiana.
  49.      Ants closely resemble human manners:  When they wake, they stretch & appear to yawn in a human manner before taking up the tasks of the day.
  50.      Bees have 5 eyes. There are 3 small eyes on the top of a bee's head and 2 larger ones in front.
  51.      Count the number of cricket chirps in a 15-second period, add 37 to the total, and your result will be very close to the actual outdoor Fahrenheit temperature.
  52.      One-fourth of the world's population lives on less than $200 a year.  Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year.
  53.      Butterflies taste with their hind feet.
  54.      Only female mosquito’s' bite and most are attracted to the color blue twice as much as to any other color.
  55.      If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
  56.      It is illegal to hunt camels in the state of Arizona.
  57.      In eighteenth-century English gambling dens, there was an employee whose only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police raid.
  58.      There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
  59.      The human tongue tastes bitter things with the taste buds toward the back. Salty and pungent flavors are tasted in the middle of the tongue, sweet flavors at the tip!
  60.      The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum. [link]
  61.      When you sneeze, air and particles travel through the nostrils at speeds over100 mph.  During this time, all bodily functions stop, including your heart, contributing to the impossibility of keeping one's eyes open during a sneeze.
  62.      Annual growth of WWW traffic is 314,000%
  63.      %60 of all people using the Internet, use it for pornography.
  64.      In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats.
  65.      Sex burns 360 calories per hour. [link]
  66.      A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.
  67.      Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it.
  68.      The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.  More than 2 billion pencils are manufactured each year in the United States. If these were laid end to end they would circle the world nine times.
  69.      The pop you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually a bubble of gas burning.
  70.      A literal translation of a standard traffic sign in China: "Give large space to the festive dog that makes sport in the roadway."
  71.      You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.
  72.      Larry Lewis ran the 100-yard dash in 17.8 seconds in 1969, thereby setting a new world's record for runners in the 100-years-or-older class. He was 101.
  73.      In a lifetime the average human produces enough quarts of spit to fill 2 swimming pools.
  74.      It's against the law to doze off under a hair dryer in Florida/against the law to slap an old friend on the back in Georgia/against the law to Play hopscotch on a Sunday in Missouri.
  75.      Barbie's measurements, if she were life-size, would be 39-29-33.
  76.      The human heart creates enough pressure to squirt blood 30ft.
  77.      One third of all cancers are sun related.
  78.      THE MOST UNUSUAL CANNONBALL: On two occasions, Miss 'Rita Thunderbird' remained inside the cannon despite a lot of gunpowder encouragement to do otherwise. She performed in a gold lamé bikini and on one of the two occasions (1977) Miss Thunderbird remained lodged in the cannon, while her bra was shot across the Thames River.
  79.      It has been estimated that humans use only 10% of their brain.
  80.      Valentine Tapley from Pike County, Missouri  grew chin whiskers attaining a length of twelve feet six inches from 1860 until his death 1910, protesting Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency.
  81.      Most Egyptians died by the time they were 30 about 300 years ago,
  82.      For some time Frederic Chopin, the composer and pianist, wore a beard on only one side of his face, explaining: "It does not matter, my audience sees only my right side."
  83.      1 in every 4 Americans has appeared someway or another on television.
  84.      1 in 8 Americans has worked at a McDonalds restaurant.
  85.      70% of all boats sold are used for fishing.
  86.      Studies have shown that children laugh an average of 300 times/day and adults 17 times/day, making the average child more optimistic, curious, and creative than the adult.
  87.      A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
  88.      The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes. [link]
  89.      You were born with 300 bones, but by the time you are an adult you will only have 206.
  90.      If you go blind in one eye you only lose about one fifth of your vision but all your sense of depth.
  91.      Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
  92.      The strongest muscle (Relative to size) in the body is the tongue.
  93.      A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
  94.      American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class. [link]
  95.      Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
  96.      A palindrome is a sentence or group of sentences that reads the same backwards as it does forward: Ex:  'Red rum, sir, is murder.' 'Ma is as selfless as I am.' 'Nurse, I spy gypsies. Run!'  'A man, a plan, a canal - Panama.' 'He lived as a devil, eh?'
  97.      The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's 'Born in the USA'
  98.      In 1986 Congress & President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 99-359, which changed Daylight Saving Time from the last Sunday in April to the first Sunday in April.  It was estimated to save the nation about 300,000 barrels of oil each year by adding most of the month April to D.S.T.
  99.      The thumbnail grows the slowest, the middle nail the fastest, nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
 100.      The Human eyes never grow, but nose and ears never stop growing.
 101.      The 57 on Heinz ketchup bottles represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had. [link]
 102.      Tom Sawyer was the first novel written on a typewriter.
 103.      If Texas were a country, its GNP would be the fifth largest of any country in the world.
 104.      There are 1 million ants for every human in the world.
 105.      Odds of being killed by lightening? 1 in 2million/killed in a car crash? 1 in 5,000/killed by falling out of bed? 1 in 2million/killed in a plane crash? 1 in 25 million.
 106.      Since 1978, 37 people have died by Vending Machine's falling on them.  13 people are killed annually.  All this while trying to shake merchandise out of them. 113 people have been injured.
 107.      Half the foods eaten throughout the world today were developed by farmers in the Andes Mountains (including potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes, squash, all varieties of beans, peanuts, manioc, papayas, strawberries, mulberries and many others).
 108.      The 'Golden Arches' of fast food chain McDonalds is more recognized worldwide than the religious cross of Christianity.
 109.      Former basketball superstar Michael Jordan is the most recognized face in the world, more than the pope himself.
 110.      The average talker sprays about 300 microscopic saliva droplets per minute, about 2.5 droplets per word.
 111.      The Earth experiences 50,000 Earth quakes per year and is hit by Lightning 100 times a second.
 112.      Every year 11,000 Americans injure themselves while trying out bizarre sexual positions.
 113.      If we had the same mortality rate now as in 1900, more than half the people in the world today would not be alive.
 114.      On average, Americans eat 18 acres of pizza everyday.
 115.      Researchers at the Texas Department of Highways in Fort Worth determined the cow population of the U.S. burps some 50 million tons of valuable hydrocarbons into the atmosphere each year.  The accumulated burps of ten average cows could keep a small house adequately heated and its stove operating for a year.
 116.      During a severe windstorm or rainstorm the Empire State Building sways several feet to either side.
 117.      In the last 3,500 years, there have been approximately 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world.
 118.      The Black Death reduced the population of Europe by one third in the period from 1347 to 1351.
 119.      The average person spends about two years on the phone in a lifetime.
 120.      Length of beard an average man would grow if he never shaved 27.5 feet
 121.      Over 60% of all those who marry get divorced.
 122.      400-quarter pounders can be made from 1 cow.
 123.      A full-loaded supertanker traveling at normal speed takes at least 20 minutes to stop.
 124.      Coca-Cola was originally green.
 125.      Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
 126.      Hong Kong holds the most Rolls Royce’s per capita.
 127.      Average number of days a West German goes without washing his underwear: 7
 128.      WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific armed their airplanes while stationed with .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measuring 27 feet before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, he went through "the whole 9 yards", hence the term.
 129.      Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
 130.      Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
 131.      Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
 132.      In the early 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile services (like two-way radios in taxis) but did not re-number the other channel assignments.
 133.      The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
 134.      Firehouses have circular stairways originating from the old 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.
 135.      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.
 136.      111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
 137.      Statues in parks: If the horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
 138.      The expression 'to get fired' comes from long ago Clans that wanted to get rid of unwanted people, so they would burn their houses instead of killing them, creating the term 'Got fired'.
 139.      "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
 140.      Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt.
 141.      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.
 142.      The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.
 143.      The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight in case of war or emergency, they could be used as airstrips.
 144.      The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army. G.P. for 'General Purpose' vehicle.
 145.      The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary, because when it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
 146.      The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
 147.      If you have three quarters, four dimes, and four pennies, you have $1.19, the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar.
 148.      In Aspen Colorado, you can have a maximum income of $104,000 and still receive government subsidized housing.
 149.      Honking of car horns for a couple that just got married is an old superstition to insure great sex.
 150.      Dr. Kellogg introduced Kellogg's Corn Flakes in hopes that it would reduce masturbation. [link]
 151.      The sperm of a mouse is actually longer than the sperm of an elephant.
 152.      In medieval France, unfaithful wives were made to chase a chicken through town naked.
 153.      The Black Widow spider eats her mate during or after sex.
 154.      Napoleon's penis was sold to an American Urologist for $40,000. [link]
 155.      Eating the heart of a male Partridge was the cure for impotence in ancient Babylon.
 156.      A bull can inseminate 300 cows from one single ejaculation.
 157.      When a Hawaiian woman wears a flower over her left ear, it means that she is not available.
 158.      The "save" icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
 159.      The only nation whose name begins with an "A", but doesn't end in an "A" is Afghanistan.
 160.      The following sentence: 'A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed.' Contains the nine different pronunciations of "ough" in the English Language.
 161.      The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
 162.      The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. [link]
 163.      The shape of plant collenchyma’s cells and the shape of the bubbles in beer foam are the same - they are orthotetrachidecahedrons.
 164.      Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian coat of arms for that reason.
 165.      Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.
 166.      Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan. [link]
 167.      PEZ candy even comes in a Coffee flavor.
 168.      The first song played on Armed Forces Radio during operation Desert Shield was "Rock the Casba" by the Clash. [link]
 169.      Non-dairy creamer is flammable. [link]
 170.      The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.)
 171.      Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, and Diamonds - Julius Caesar.
 172.      Golf courses cover 4% of North America.
 173.      The average person will accidentally eat just under a pound of insects every year.
 174.      Until 1994, world maps and globes sold in Albania only had Albania on them.
 175.      The value of Pi will be officially "rounded down" to 3.14 from 3.14159265359 on December 31, 1999.
 176.      The Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure visible from space.
 177.      A piece of paper can be folded no more then 9 times.
 178.      The amount of computer Memory required to run WordPerfect for Win95 is 8 times the amount needed aboard the space shuttle.
 179.      The average North American will eat 35,000 cookies during their life span.
 180.      Between 25% and 33% of the population sneeze when exposed to light.
 181.      The most common name in world is Mohammed.
 182.      Mount Olympus Mons on Mars is three times the size of Mount Everest.
 183.      Most toilets flush in E flat.
 184.      2,000 pounds of space dust and other space debris fall on the Earth every day.
 185.      Each month, there is at least one report of UFOs from each province of Canada.
 186.      40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.
 187.      You can be fined up to $1,000 for whistling on Sunday in Salt Lake City, Utah.
 188.      It takes about 142.18 licks to reach the center of a Tootsie pop.
 189.      The serial number of the first MAC ever produced was 2001.
 190.      It is illegal to eat oranges while bathing in California.
 191.      If done perfectly, a rubix cube combination can be solved in 17 turns.
 192.      The average American butt is 14.9 inches long.
 193.      More bullets were fired in 'Starship Troopers' than any other movie ever made.
 194.      60% of electrocutions occur while talking on the telephone during a thunderstorm.
 195.      The name of the girl on the statue of liberty is Mother of Exiles. [link]
 196.      3.6 cans of Spam are consumed each second.
 197.      There's a systematic lull in conversation every 7 minutes.
 198.      The buzz from an electric razor in America plays in the key of B flat; Key of G in England.
 199.      There are 1,575 steps from the ground floor to the top of the Empire State building. [link]
 200.      The world's record for keeping a Lifesaver in the mouth with the hole intact is 7 hrs 10 min.
 201.      There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
 202.      The world record for spitting a watermelon seed is 65 feet 4 inches.
 203.      In the Philippine jungle, the yo-yo was first used as a weapon.
 204.      Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
 205.      Texas is also the only state that is allowed to fly its state flag at the same height as the U.S. flag.
 206.      The three most recognized Western names in China are Jesus Christ, Richard Nixon, & Elvis Presley.
 207.      There is a town in Newfoundland, Canada called Dildo. [link]
 208.      The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.
 209.      All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
 210.      In space, astronauts are unable to cry, because there is no gravity and the tears won't flow.
 211.      Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
 212.      There are more plastic flamingos in the U.S that there are real ones.
 213.      The crack of a whip is actually a tiny sonic boom, since the tip breaks the sound barrier.
 214.      Jupiter is bigger than all the other planets in our solar system combined.
 215.      Hot water is heavier than cold.
 216.      The common idea that only 10% of the brain is used it not true as it is impossible to determine the actual percentage because of the complexity of the brain.
 217.      Lawn darts are illegal in Canada.
 218.      There are more psychoanalysts per capita in Buenos Aires than any other place in the world.
 219.      Between 2 and 3 jockeys are killed each year in horse racing.
 220.      5,840 people with pillow related injuries checked into U.S. emergency rooms in 1992.
 221.      The average woman consumes 6 lbs of lipstick in her lifetime.
 222.      Some individuals express concern sharing their soap, rightly so, considering 75% of all people wash from top to bottom.
 223.      Conception occurs most in the month of December.
 224.      CBS' "60 Minutes" is the only TV show without a theme song/music.
 225.      Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.
 226.     'Obsession' is the most popular boat name.
 227.      On average, Americans' favorite smell is banana.
 228.      If one spells out numbers, they would have to count to One Thousand before coming across the letter "A".
 229.      Honey is the only food which does not spoil.
 230.      3.9% of all women do not wear underwear.
 231.      This common everyday occurrence composed of 59% nitrogen, 21% hydrogen, and 9% dioxide is called a 'fart'.
 232.      "Evaluation and Parameterization of Stability and Safety Performance Characteristics of Two and Three Wheeled Vehicular Toys for Riding." Title of a $230,000 research project proposed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, to study the various ways children fall off bicycles.
 233.      Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
 234.      Meteorologists claim they're right 85% of the time (think about that one!)
 235.      In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.
 236.      Los Angeles' full name 'El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula' is reduced to 3.63% of its size in the abbreviation 'L.A.'.
 237.      If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there's no air pressure.
 238.      The only real person to ever to appear on a pez dispenser was Betsy Ross.
 239.      Mike Nesmith's (the guitarist of The Monkeys) mom invented White Out. [link]
 240.      Only 6 people in the whole world have died from moshing.
 241.      241.     In a test performed by Canadian scientists, using various different styles of music, it was determined that chickens lay the most eggs when pop music was played.
 242.      The storage capacity of human brain exceeds 4 Terabytes.
 243.      In Vermont, the ratio of cows to people is 10:1
 244.      Any free-moving liquid in outer space will form itself into a sphere, because of its surface tension.
 245.      The average American looks at eight houses before buying one.
 246.      In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator.
 247.      Koala is Aboriginal for "no drink".
 248.      Shakespeare spelled his OWN name several different ways.
 249.      The first contraceptive was crocodile dung used by the ancient Egyptians.
 250.      A signature is called a John Hancock because he signed the Declaration of Independence. Only 2 people signed the declaration of independence on July 4. The Last person signed 2 years later.
 251.      Arnold Schonberg suffered from triskaidecaphobia, the fear of the number 13.  He died at 13 minutes from midnight on Friday the 13th.
 252.      Mozart wrote the nursery rhyme 'twinkle, twinkle, little star' at the age of 5.
 253.      Weatherman Willard Scott was the first original Ronald McDonald. [link]
 254.      Virginia Woolf wrote all her books standing.
 255.      Einstein couldn't speak fluently until after his ninth birthday. His parents thought he was mentally retarded.
 256.      Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
 257.      Deborah Winger did the voice of E.T.
 258.      Kelsey Grammar sings and plays the piano for the theme song of Fraiser.
 259.      Thomas Edison, acclaimed inventor of the light bulb, was afraid of the dark.
 260.      In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.
 261.      You can sail all the way around the world at latitude 60 degrees south.
 262.      The earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
 263.      Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
 264.      Porcupines can float in water.
 265.      The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
 266.      A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
 267.      The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
 268.      All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20, a national pot-smokers hour.
 269.      "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt."
 270.      Almonds are a member of the peach family.
 271.      Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
 272.      Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
 273.      There are only four words in the English language which end in "dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and  hazardous.
 274.      Tigers not only have striped fur, they have striped skin!
 275.      In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
 276.      On the ground, a group of geese is a gaggle, in the sky it is a skein.
 277.      To Ensure Promptness, one is expected to pay beyond the value of service – hence the later abbreviation: T.I.P.
 278.      When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.
 279.      The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life."
 280.      A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
 281.      A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
 282.      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.
 283.      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 the name "OZ."
 284.      The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
 285.      Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
 286.      John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
 287.      There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
 288.      The scene where Indiana Jones shoots the swordsman in Raider’s of the Lost Ark was Harrison Ford's idea so that he could take a bathroom break.
 289.      A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
 290.      A snail can sleep for three years.
 291.      All polar bears are left-handed.
 292.      China has more English speakers than the United States.
 293.      Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
 294.      February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
 295.      If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
 296.      If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you will have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
 297.      In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
 298.      Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
 299.      The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
 300.      Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
 301.      On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
 302.      One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the 1930s lobbied against hemp farmers they saw it as competition.
 303.      Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.
 304.      Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
 305.      Starfish haven't got brains.
 306.      The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
 307.      The name of all continents in the world end with the same letter that they start with.
 308.      There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
 309.      The longest word comprised of one row on the keyboard is: TYPEWRITER
 310.      You can't kill yourself by holding your breath. 
 311.      The average person spends 12 weeks a year 'looking for things'.
 312.      The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.. 
 313.      The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle. 
 314.      Ingrown toenails are hereditary. 
 315.      "Underground" is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und"
 316.      The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.. 
 317.      The longest place-name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiakitnatahu, a New Zealand hill. 
 318.      An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain. 
 319.      Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.
 320.      Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays. 
 321.      Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. 
 322.      The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint - no two lions have the same pattern of whiskers. 
 323.      Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the book 'The Naked Lunch'. 
 324.      The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
 325.      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. 
 326.      A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. 
 327.      Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball. 
 328.      The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away. 
 329.      The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti. 
 330.      The word "dexter" whose meaning refers to the right hand is typed with only the left hand. 
 331.      To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing to a statement made by swearing on their testicles. 
 332.      Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic." 
 333.      The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian phrase "Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."
 334.      The first episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the highest rated American program in the history of Korean television, a country where "Chachi" translates to "penis". 
 335.      Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated. 
 336.      The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses. 
 337.      Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey. 
 338.      The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
 339.      Giraffes have no vocal cords.
 340.      The pupils of a goat's eyes are square.
 341.      Van Gogh only sold one painting when he was alive.
 342.      A standard slinky measures 87 feet when stretched out.
 343.      The highest per capita Jell-O comsumption in the US is Des Moines.
 344.      If a rooster can't fully extend its neck, it can't crow.
 345.      There were always 56 curls in Shirley Temple's hair.
 346.      The eyes of a donkey are positioned so that it can see all four feet at all times.
 347.      Worcestershire sauce in essentially an Anchovy Ketchup.
 348.      Rhode Island is the only state which the hammer throw is a legal high school sport.
 349.      The average lifespan of an eyelash is five months.
 350.      A spider has transparent blood.
 351.      Every acre of American crops harvested contains 100 pounds of insects.
 352.      Prince Charles is an avid collecter of toilet seats.
 353.      The most common street name in the U.S. is Second Street.
 354.      Tehran is the most expensive city on earth.
 355.      The sweat drops drawn in cartoon comic strips are called pleuts.
 356.      Babies are most likely to be born on Tuesdays.
 357.      The HyperMart outside of Garland Texas has 58 check-outs.
 358.      The Minneapolis phone book has 21 pages of Andersons.
 359.      In the 1980's American migraines increased by 60%.
 360.      Poland is the "stolen car capital of the world".
 361.      Jefferson invented the dumbwaiter, the monetary system, and the folding attic ladder.
 362.      The S in Harry S. Truman did not stand for anything.
 363.      In Miconesia, coins are 12 feet across.
 364.      A horse can look forward with one eye and back with the other.
 365.      Shakespeare is quoted 33,150 times in the Oxford English dictionary.
 366.      The word Pennsylvania is misspelled on the Liberty Bell.
 367.      NBA superstar Michael Jordan was originally cut from his high school basketball team.
 368.      You spend 7 years of your life in the bathroom.
 369.      A family of 26 could go to the movies in Mexico city for the price of one in Tokyo.
 370.      10,000 Dutch cows pass through the Amsterdam airport each year.
 371.      Approximately every seven minutes of every day, someone in an aerobics class pulls their hamstring.
 372.      Simplistic passwords contribute to over 80% of all computer password break-ins.
 373.      The top 3 health-related searches on the Internet are (in this order): Depression, Allergies, & Cancer.
 374.      Dentists have recommended that a toothbrush be kept at least 6 feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
 375.      Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.
 376.      Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
 377.      Oak trees do not produce acorns until they are fifty years of age or older.
 378.      The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.
 379.      All US Presidents have worn glasses; some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
 380.      Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.
 381.      Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
 382.      The site with the highest number of women visitors between the age of 35 and 44 years old: Alka-Seltzer.com
 383.      The king of hearts is the only king without a mustache.
 384.      Pearls melt in vinegar.
 385.      It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs.
 386.      Thirty-five percent of people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
 387.      The 3 most valuable brand names on earth are Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser (in that order).
 388.      Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands.
 389.      Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a 'Friday the 13th'.
 390.      The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they can be easily confused at a crime scene.
 391.      The mask worn by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white.
 392.      The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games--MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL--are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game.
 393.      Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
 394.      When the French Academy was preparing its first dictionary, it defined "crab" as, "A small red fish, which walks backwards." This definition was sent with a number of others to the naturalist Cuvier for his approval.  The scientist wrote back, "Your definition, gentlemen, would be perfect, only for three exceptions. The crab is not a fish, it is not red and it does not walk backwards."
 395.      Dr. Jack Kevorkian first patient has Alzheimer's disease.
 396.      Fictional/horror writer Stephen King sleeps with a nearby light on to calm his fear of the dark.
 397.      It's possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
 398.      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.
 399.      The very first song played on MTV was 'Video Killed The Radio Star' by the Buggles.
 400.      William Marston engineered one of the earliest forms of the polygraph in the early 1900's. Later he went on to create the comic strip Wonder Woman, a story about a displaced Amazon princess who forces anyone caught in her magic lasso to tell the truth
 401.      Americans travel 1,144,721,000 miles by air every day
 402.      The the U.S. you dial '911'. In Stockholm, Sweden you dial 90000
 403.      38% of American men say they love their cars more than women
 404.      The U.S. military operates 234 golf courses
 405.      100% of lottery winners do gain weight
 406.      Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers were all invented by women
 407.      A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
 408.      A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
 409.      Cats urine glows under a black light.
 410.     In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
 411.      Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Wild Kingdom."
 412.      Pamela Anderson Lee is Canada's Centennial Baby, being the first baby born on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence.
 413.      Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
 414.      When possums are playing 'possum', they are not "playing." They actually pass out from sheer terror.
 415.      Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Paul Reiser himself.
 416.      Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
 417.      Most lipstick contains fish scales!
 418.      Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants!
 419.      There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building!
 420.      Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand!
 421.      The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times!
 422.      The average American/Canadian will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year!
 423.      Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows!
 424.      The state of Florida is bigger than England!
 425.      Dolphins sleep with one eye open!
 426.      In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons!
 427.      Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours!
 428.      Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue!
 429.      Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes!
 430.      A jellyfish is 95 percent water!
 431.      In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals!
 432.      The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs!
 433.      Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States!
 434.      166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the US
 435.      Bats always turn left when exiting a cave
 436.      The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head
 437.      Daffy Duck's middle name is "Dumas"
 438.      In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer's name is "Yensid" (Disney backwards.)
 439.      In The Empire Strikes Back there is a potato hidden in the asteroid field
 440.      Walt Disney holds the world record for the most Academy Awards won by one person, he has won twenty statuettes, and twelve other plaques and certificates
 441.      James Bond's car had three different license plates in Goldfinger
 442.      Canada makes up 6.67 percent of the Earth's land area
 443.      South Dakota is the only U.S state which shares no letters with the name of it's capital
 444.      The KGB is headquartered at No. 2 Felix Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow
 445.      The Vatican city registered 0 births in 1983
 446.      Spain leads the world in cork production
 447.      There are 1,792 steps in the Eiffel Tower
 448.      There are 269 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
 449.    Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand while drawing with the other

Sunday 18 October 2009

rules for beimg a cat

Anyone can be a cat. All you have to do is follow the rules.

Rules For Being A Cat.

1. Anytime you go in or out a door you must pause at the threshold and contemplate whether you deign go through that door. You must do this until a much larger being is ready to give you a boot in the ass. You may then go through the door.

2. Anytime any flat object is laid upon the floor, you must go to the exact center of that object, lie down, and go to sleep.
3. If you see any space anywhere that is just about your size, you must get into it and look around.

4. Kill.

5. Want a good place to be a cat? Try anyplace it would be inconvenient to have a cat.

6. Anything that was OK the last time is not OK anymore. If you wanted to be picked up the last time, you no longer want that. If you liked Swiss cheese the last time, you no longer like it. If you wanted your head scratched the last time, you now regard anyone who wants to scratch your head as a mortal enemy of cats.

7. If two doors lead into the house off a porch and someone opens one of them, you want to go in the other one. You will not enter the first door, but will wait until someone opens the second door. Then you will enter the house.

8. Unless you decide you don’t want to go through that door either.

9. If you do go through that door, see Rule No. 1.

10. Kill.

11. Center of the room? Bad idea. Better stick close to the edges, and pour yourself sideways around the furniture.

12. If you share a house with a larger being who is stronger than you, who provides you with meat and drink and so on, you must disregard that being. You must treat that being with utter indifference.

13. Unless you did that the last time.

14. Kill.

15. Occasionally, you must act as though you are absolutely insane. You must chase shadows, spring upon ghosts, do battle with invisible beings, arch your back and somehow become larger than you are.

16. If anyone sees you doing this, you must stop at once and pretend you were not doing it, and treat the being that saw you with utter contempt.

17. Occasionally, you must disappear for three days to a week, then return home and sleep for 36 hours without moving a muscle except those necessary to breathe. When you get up, you will stretch and then kill something.

18. Want to try something fun? After sitting in one place for several hours and watching an empty room, go someplace else in the room and watch things from there.

19. Kill something and leave the parts you don’t want in the kitchen. Or under the dining room table.

20. Stick one leg out in the air at an impossible angle and lick it for several minutes. When you get tired of licking it, just leave that leg sticking out in the air and stare off into space.

21. Any human caught lying down is your property, to inspect, walk over and jump onto or from as you see fit. The face is a good jumping-off place.

22. Just because you are more handsome, more self-possessed, more relaxed, wiser, and a better athlete than humans does not mean you are superior to them. You are also superior to them for other reasons.

23. You need not obey the law of gravity.

24. If you follow all these rules, you may be a cat.

25. Unless the cats change the rules.



interesting facts

  • All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.
  • If she were life size, Barbie's measurements are: 39-23-33.
  • No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple.
  • "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
  • All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.
  • Almonds are members of the peach family.
  • Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
  • Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
  • There are only four words in the English language which end in"-dous":
    tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
  • The longest place-name still in use is:
    Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu, a New Zealand hill.
  • 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."
  • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
  • An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain.
  • Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
  • In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
  • Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
  • The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
  • The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
  • The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "Its A Wonderful Life"
  • A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
  • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
  • 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.
  • The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.
  • Who's that playing the piano on the "Mad About You" theme? Why it's Paul Reiser himself.
  • The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy moth from 1.8 miles away.
  • 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."
  • The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  • Mr. Rogers is an ordained minister.
  • John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
  • The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
  • There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.
  • "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.


Saturday 17 October 2009

Museum of creation

The Creation Museum is the tiny-brainchild of Ken Ham, grand poobah of AiG. This $27 million mess opened in 2007 outside Petersburg to raucous laughter from actual scientists.

One such is P.Z. Myers, biology professor at the University of Minnesota - Morris and author of the popular science blog Pharyngula. Myers was in Ohio on Aug. 7 for a Secular Student Alliance conference, so he took a side trip to tour Ham’s fortress of denial. Myers invited his readers - including me - and conference attendees to come along, expecting maybe a few dozen. He got more than 300, with most wearing science-themed or skeptical T-shirts for identification.

Ham made himself scarce, pleading a prior out-of-town commitment. But he left a swarm of armed guards, some with dogs. I’ve been to a lot of museums, and though most of them have security, I’ve never seen anything like this. What were they afraid of? Well, before the trip, the museum security manager sent Myers a letter listing all the things they were afraid we’d do, including “overtly homosexual” behavior.

Everyone did manage to refrain from that, but we couldn’t help laughing.

The museum’s first exhibit set the tone: it’s a fake. Billed as the Burning Tree Mastodon, it looms over the lobby. But the fine print reveals that it’s only a cast of the skeleton.

It also places the mastodon - and the ice age in which it lived - not 11,000 years ago, but “a few centuries after the Genesis Flood.”

And when did that supposedly occur? Ham’s museum adheres to the chronology concocted by James Ussher, the Anglican archbishop of Ireland, back in 1650. According to that, the flood occurred around 4,350 years ago, which puts the last ice age maybe 4,000 years back.

At that time, the Egyptians and Sumerians had been keeping written records for nearly 1,000 years. Funny that they don’t mention any such contemporary incidents. Or any of the long-extinct animals that Ham claims were still roaming around at the time.

There are lots of dinosaurs in the museum, some cavorting with an animatronic Adam and Eve, others in faux-skeletal form. It’s amusing to see that even young-Earthers have ceded that field to real scientists, admitting that such animals did, in fact, exist. I’ve heard many declarations that supposed dinosaur bones were only fakes concocted by God to test our faith.

What Ham’s exhibits test, however, is credulity. One early display sets up the museum’s basic premise: that every word of the Bible, especially the Book of Genesis, must be taken as literally true in all respects. No allegory, no caveats, no possibility for scribal error before 1611. In fact, it’s to be taken as ultimately authoritative on all subjects, not just morality.

“I start with the Bible. My colleague does not,” says a pseudo-paleontologist in an introductory video. Right from the start, Ham and company commit what Bertrand Russell called the cardinal sin of philosophy: starting from the desired conclusion, and disregarding anything that might imperil that, rather than reasoning from all available evidence and following where that leads.

Not that the creation museum can be trusted to even state its premises honestly. “Joe the paleontologist” isn’t a paleontologist at all. A display in the gift shop identifies him as Buddy Davis, a “singer-songwriter, adventurer and paleo-artist.” He’s got a CD of inane Ham-worshipping ditties.

The place devotes a huge amount of its 70,000 square feet to justifying a literal worldwide flood, and to explaining away the extensive geologic evidence of a 4.6-billion-year-old Earth. Most of those problems are just ignored, but the exhibits make ludicrous attempts at a few. Rivers slowly eroded canyons? Nope. Volcanoes can move rock, too. In short, they can’t tell the difference between the effects of water and explosions. So if your house ever catches on fire, don’t ask a young-Earth creationist to put it out.

Problems with a worldwide flood are similarly glossed over. The Bible says Noah had to take seven each (or maybe 14) of all birds and ritually “clean” animals, and two (or four) of all others. Noah’s instructions leave out plants, which can’t survive months underwater; fish, which can’t survive mixing salt and fresh; and probably bugs, which drown just as easily as humans. But that still leaves at least 60,000 species on his hands.

According to AiG’s calculations, the ark was 510 feet long, 51 feet high and 85 feet wide. The museum narrative says they were on there for a year. Incredibly, Ham even admits “dinosaurs and other animals that are now extinct” to the ark. He thinks some dinosaurs survived to spark medieval legends of dragons.

So how’d they fit? They didn’t all have to. The big Ham says Noah only took a few.

But they evolved.

Yes, that’s right. To squeeze in all those critters, the Creation Museum accepts the reality of evolution. It just refuses to call it that.

Instead, Hammy engages in elaborate semantic gymnastics, saying that Noah took “kinds” of animals that later morphed into today’s species, but refusing to define how a “kind” differs from a regular ol’ ancestral species. Young-Earthers reluctantly acknowledge that creatures change through “microevolution,” but they denounce “macroevolution” as impossible.

That, of course, is a false distinction. Microevolution is macroevolution, over an extremely long period of time. Instead of very gradual divergence over millions of years, the Hamseum presses great changes into an absurdly short period, then denies that any serious change took place.

It’s very funny to consider the family trees Ham’s acolytes construct to explain the profusion of modern animals - and people - from just a few prototypes 4,350 years ago. All the illustrations show the greatest growth at the bottom, so it’s curious that the Bible - and the other extensive written records from 4,000 years ago - fail to mention the necessary centuries-long orgy.

Maybe it’s because so many of those couplings turned out badly. Consider Lucy, the famous 3.2 million-year-old Australopithecus Afarensis skeleton. Turns out she was really Noah’s granddaughter, according to the Creation Museum. Perhaps Noah forbore to mention his midget, deformed, tiny-brained granddaughter, but Ham happily claims her as a near relation.

And speaking of relatives, the most disturbing part of the museum is Ham’s willingness to endorse incest.

He tackles the old stumper, “Where did Cain get his wife?” Locked into their narrow narrative, Ham and company don’t flinch before the conclusion: Cain married his sister, one of Eve’s later children. And God was just fine with that.

We can’t do that anymore, Ham says, because sinning “corrupts” the genome to cause birth defects. I have heard this bizarre argument before - always unsupported by any evidence - that naughty thoughts cause genetic mutations. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

Ultimately, Ham is arguing that there’s nothing inherently wrong with diddling your sister, if you can just avoid birth defects. Think about that for a while, then tell me again that literal creationists are champions of morality.

Yet morality is what it’s all about. Exhibit after exhibit makes explicit the real concern: that not accepting every bit of Genesis as literally true causes the breakdown of all moral standards.

“Scripture abandoned in the culture leads to relative morality, hopelessness and meaninglessness,” one sign says. What’s that got to do with cosmology, geology or biology?

Nothing. And that’s my point: what’s really worshipped at the “Creation Museum” is fear.

Ham insists that his carnival attraction is about real science, not religion, but he can’t keep his message straight. Using your brain causes genocide, slavery and anti-Semitism, the museum proclaims. Of course, no reasoning or evidence backs up those assertions. Nor will you catch Ham admitting that his version of Christianity has been used to justify exactly those things, by reference to massacring the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15:2-3, the cursing of Noah’s son Ham (not, unfortunately, Ken) in Genesis 9:20-27, and the supposed Jewish acceptance of eternal guilt in Matthew 27:25.

Far from saving Christianity, Ken Ham and his minions are damaging it by making it look ridiculous. They’re devaluing the Bible by trying to make it something it’s not.

Science describes the physical world around us and how it works. The Bible talks about morality, about why, not how. But it’s no more a biology book than it is a car repair manual; and proclaiming that Leviticus is the perfect guide to changing oil filters should only provoke laughter.

Not everyone will laugh, of course. Those who fear motorized vehicles, have never seen a car, or have never learned anything about mechanics, might consider Levitical filtering plausible. And those people are Ham’s victims. That’s all his “museum” does: it preys on the anti-science, the young and uninformed. They all deserve better.

LINKS

Make happy

HOW TO MAKE A WOMAN HAPPY

It's not difficult to make a woman happy.

A man only needs to be:

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:
45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:
51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:
54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes


HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Show up naked
2. Bring food



Thursday 15 October 2009

Time Travel Cheat Sheet



A Mans Rules

We always hear " the Rules "
From the female side.  

Now here are the rules from the male side.    

These are our rules!
Please note... these are all numbered "1 "
ON PURPOSE!  


1.   Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat.
You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down.
You don't hear us complaining
about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports It's like the full moon
or the changing of the tides.
Let it be.

1.  Crying is blackmail.

1.. Ask for what you want.
Let us be clear on this one:
Subtle hints do not work!
Strong hints do not work!
Obvious hints do not work!
Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable
 answers to almost every question..

1. Come to us with a problem only if
you want help solving it.
That's what we do.
Sympathy is what
your girlfriends are for..


1. Anything we said 6 months ago
 is inadmissible in an argument.
In fact, all comments become
Null and void after 7 Days.

1. If something we said can be
interpreted two ways and one
of t he ways makes you sad
 or angry, we meant the   other one

1. You can either ask us to do something
Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both. If you already know
 best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, Please say whatever you
have to say during commercials..

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and
neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings.
Peach, for example, is a fruit, not A color. Pumpkin is also a fruit.
We have  no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched.
We do that..

1.. If we ask what is wrong
and you say "nothing,"
We will act like nothing's wrong.
We know you are lying,
but it is just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don't
 want an answer to, Expect an
answer you don't want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere,
absolutely anything you wear is fine...
 Really .

1. Don't ask us what we're thinking
 about unless you are prepared
 to discuss such topics as
Sports or Sex. (not necessarily
in that order)

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape.  Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this.
Yes, I know, I have to sleep
 on the couch tonight;


But did you know men really
don't mind that?????
It's like camping.......


Top 50 Oxymorons


50. Act naturally

49. Found missing

48. Resident alien

47. Advanced BASIC

46. Genuine imitation

45. Airline Food

44. Good grief

43. Same difference

42. Almost exactly

41. Government organization

40. Sanitary landfill

39. Alone together

38. Legally drunk

37. Silent scream

36. British fashion

35. Living dead

34. Small crowd

33. Business ethics

32. Soft rock

31. Butt Head

30. Military Intelligence

29. Software documentation

28. New York culture

27. New classic

26. Sweet sorrow

25. Childproof

24. "Now, then ..."

23. Synthetic natural gas

22. Christian Scientists

21. Passive aggression

20. Taped live

19. Clearly misunderstood

18. Peace force

17. Extinct Life

16. Temporary tax increase

15. Computer jock

14. Plastic glasses

13. Terribly pleased

12. Computer security

11. Political science

10. Tight slacks

9. Definite maybe

8. Pretty ugly

7. Twelve-ounce pound cake

6. Diet ice cream

5. Rap music

4. Working vacation

3. Exact estimate

2. Religious tolerance

1. Microsoft Works


Proverbs


1. A day without sunshine is like night.

2. On the other hand, you have different fingers.

3. 42.7 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.

4. 99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

5. Remember, half the people you know are below average.

6. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

7. Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.

8. The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap.

9. Support bacteria. They're the only culture most people have.

10. A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.

11. Change is inevitable, except from vending machines.

12. If you think nobody cares, try missing a couple of payments.

13. How many of you believe in psycho-kinesis? Raise my hand.

14. OK, so what's the speed of dark?

15. When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

16. Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

17. How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges?

18. Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

19. What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

20. Why do psychics have to ask you your name?

21. Inside every older person is a younger person wondering, "What the heck happened?"

22. Just remember -- if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.

23. Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

24. Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.


Sunday 11 October 2009

English is stupid

There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England,
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing?
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why hasn't the preacher praught?

If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite at a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down,
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all.)

That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible,
But when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.



more strange pictures



Sunday 4 October 2009

WTF !!!!



Lego Stephen Hawking



20 things you didn't know about time

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Time

The beginning, the end, and the funny habits of our favorite ticking force.

[via discovery]

1 “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so,” joked Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Scientists aren’t laughing, though. Some speculative new physics theories suggest that time emerges from a more fundamental—and timeless—reality.

2 Try explaining that when you get to work late. The average U.S. city commuter loses 38 hours a year to traffic delays.

3 Wonder why you have to set your clock ahead in March? Daylight Saving Time began as a joke by Benjamin Franklin, who proposed waking people earlier on bright summer mornings so they might work more during the day and thus save candles. It was introduced in the U.K. in 1917 and then spread.

4
Green days. The Department of Energy estimates that electricity demand drops by 0.5 percent during Daylight Saving Time, saving the equivalent of nearly 3 million barrels of oil.

5 By observing how quickly bank tellers made change, pedestrians walked, and postal clerks spoke, psychologists determined that the three fastest-paced U.S. cities are Boston, Buffalo, and New York.

6 The three slowest? Shreveport, Sacramento, and L.A.

7 One second used to be defined as 1/86,400 the length of a day. However, Earth’s rotation isn’t perfectly reliable. Tidal friction from the sun and moon slows our planet and increases the length of a day by 3 milli­seconds per century.

8 This means that in the time of the dinosaurs, the day was just 23 hours long.

9 Weather also changes the day. During El Niño events, strong winds can slow Earth’s rotation by a fraction of a milli­second every 24 hours.

10 Modern technology can do better. In 1972 a network of atomic clocks in more than 50 countries was made the final authority on time, so accurate that it takes 31.7 million years to lose about one second.

11 To keep this time in sync with Earth’s slowing rotation, a “leap second” must be added every few years, most recently this past New Year’s Eve.

12 The world’s most accurate clock, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Colorado, measures vibrations of a single atom of mercury. In a billion years it will not lose one second.

13 Until the 1800s, every village lived in its own little time zone, with clocks synchronized to the local solar noon.

14 This caused havoc with the advent of trains and timetables. For a while watches were made that could tell both local time and “railway time.”

15 On November 18, 1883, American railway companies forced the national adoption of standardized time zones.

16 Thinking about how railway time required clocks in different places to be synchronized may have inspired Einstein to develop his theory of relativity, which unifies space and time.

17 Einstein showed that gravity makes time run more slowly. Thus airplane passengers, flying where Earth’s pull is weaker, age a few extra nano­seconds each flight.

18 According to quantum theory, the shortest moment of time that can exist is known as Planck time, or 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 second.

19 Time has not been around forever. Most scientists believe it was created along with the rest of the universe in the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago.

20 There may be an end of time. Three Spanish scientists posit that the observed acceleration of the expanding cosmos is an illusion caused by the slowing of time. According to their math, time may eventually stop, at which point everything will come to a standstill.