Of Musings and Soliloquies

As I was waiting to board the elevator (i.e., going up my brother’s unit), I looked intently at the LCD provided for at the ground floor. A music video is featured and at the bottommost part of the screen, bits of information kept flashing. One read: By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand. Lo and behold, trivia overload! But just as my amazement reached its peak, the elevator already signaled UP and so I had to forego my trivial pursuit. I made a mental note of the web link though and I just thought I’d share my compilation… Maybe it’ll keep you hooked on facts too.

Ever heard of the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”? Given a twist to that, I’d say, a trivia a day keeps Alzheimer’s away. Happy reading!

1. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a 'Friday the 13th'.

2. Wine will spoil if exposed to light; hence tinted bottles.

3. The 'vintage date' on a bottle of wine indicates the year the grapes were picked, not the year of bottling.

4. The venom of a small scorpion is much more toxic than the venom of a large scorpion.

5. In Athens, Greece, a driver's license can be taken away by law if the driver is deemed either unbathed or poorly dressed.

6. Alaska has the highest percentage of people who walk to work.

7. Research indicates that babies who suck on pacifiers are more prone to ear aches.

8. Most alcoholic beverages contain all 13 minerals necessary to sustain human life.

9. In Tibet, it is considered good manners to stick out your tongue at someone.

10. Tipping at a restaurant in Iceland is considered an insult.

11. Worcestershire sauce is basically anchovy ketchup.

12. What do you find when you shave the striped fur off of a tiger? Striped skin.

13. Surgeons who listen to music during operations perform better than those who don't.

14. The average life span of a hermit crab is 75 years!

15. Babies start dreaming even before they're born.

16. Among older men, vanilla is the most erotic smell.

17. In Michigan, a woman isn't allowed to cut her own hair without her husband's permission.

18. Dolphins nap with one eye open.

19. Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

20. Giraffes are unable to cough.

21. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

22. Every day, the average person swallows about a quart of mucous.

23. At age 70, more than 70 percent of men are still potent!

24. People that suffer from gum disease are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart attack.

25. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

26. Malaysians protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer.

27. In ancient China, people committed suicide by eating a pound of salt.

28. Deep breathing gives you health benefits similar to aerobics.

29. Originally, BMW was an airplane engine manufacturer.

30. Walt Disney, the creator of Mickey Mouse, was afraid of mice.

31. It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of The New York Times.

32. You inhale about 700,000 of your own skin flakes each day.

33. According to studies, men change their minds two to three times more often than women.

34. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards.

35. Penguins can convert salt water into fresh water.

36. In the early 1960's, Porsche commercially manufactured farm tractors.

37. The Earth gets heavier each day by tons, as meteoric dust settles on it.

38. Astronauts cannot burp in space.

39. Some breeds of chickens lay colored eggs.

40. No matter how cold it gets, gasoline will not freeze.

41. In Holland, you can be fined for not using a shopping basket at a grocery store.

42. In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog.

43. A baby octopus is about the size of a flea at birth.

44. Wearing yellow makes you look bigger on camera; green, smaller.

45. The biggest cause of matrimonial fighting is money.

46. 'Vodka' is Russian for 'little water'.

47. The word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish and Portuguese.

48. Cats' urine glows under a black light.

49. Leather skin does not have any smell. The leather smell that you sense is actually derived from the materials used in the tanning process.

50. One out of three U.S.women owns a gun!

51. There are more nutrients in the cornflake package itself than there are in the actual cornflakes.

52. The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon.

53. You mostly breathe from only one nostril at a time.

54. People in parts of Western China put salt in their tea instead of sugar.

55. Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.

56. Honey is the only food that will not spoil.

57. One third of the electricity produced on earth is used to power electric light bulbs!

58. Goldfish remember better in cold water than warm water.

59. Flamingos pee on their legs to cool themselves off.

60. Only male fireflies can fly.

61. More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

62. In 1954, Bob Hawke was immortalized by the Guinness Book of Records for chugging 2.5 pints of beer in 12 seconds.

63. The average life span of a peasant during the medieval ages was 25 years.

64. The United Stateshas never lost a war when donkeys were used.

65. Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.

66. Cats make over 100 different vocal sounds; dogs can make about ten.

67. Nylon is made from coal and petroleum.

68. In Nepal, cow dung is used for medicinal purposes.

69. A person swallows approximately 295 times while eating dinner.

70. A hardboiled egg will spin. An uncooked or soft-boiled egg will not.

71. The symbol on the 'pound' key (#) is called an octothorpe.

72. By the age of 60, most people have lost 50% of their taste buds.

73. Marlboro cigarettes sold in New York contain more tar and nicotine than those sold in all other states!

74. Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.

75. Pepsi-Cola was originally called 'Brad's drink'.

76. 99% of people cannot lick their elbow.

77. 97% of all paper money in the US contains traces of cocaine.

78. An elephant's tooth can weigh as much as 12 pounds.

79. The bark of an older redwood tree is fireproof.

80. Moscow weathermen can be fined for inaccurate weather forecasting.

81. It is possible to go blind from smoking too heavily.

82. A blue whale's aorta (the main blood vessel) is large enough for a human to crawl through.

83. Strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges.

84. Eskimos do not have a common written language.

85. Karate actually originated in India, but was developed further in China.

86. Oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller, was the world's first billionaire.

87. The average home creates more pollution than does the average car.

88. Paper money is not made from wood pulp but from cotton. This means that it will not disintegrate as fast if it is put in the laundry.

89. Nearly 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrests happen at home.

90. Louisiana is the only state that grows in land area every year (Due to alluvial deposits from the Mississippi River).

91. In West Virginia, if you run over an animal, you can legally take it home and cook it for dinner!

92. Hong Kong has more Rolls Royce per person than anywhere else in the world.

93. A chance of a woman having twins is increased after the age of 35. About 1 in 27 women will give birth to twins after this age. After 50 the chances of having twins is 1 in 9.

94. Cashew nut shells contain oil that is extremely irritating to human skin.

95. In San Salvador, drunk drivers can be punished by death before a firing squad.

96. In some parts of England, rum is used to wash a baby's head for good luck.

97. A frog can't empty its stomach by vomitting. To empty its stomach contents, a 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.

98. Acorns were used as a coffee substitute during the American Civil War.

99. The most popular sport as a topic for a film is boxing.

100. Dirty snow melts faster than clean.

101. In France, it is legal to marry a dead person!

102. The streets of Victor, Colorado, once a gold rush town, are paved with low-grade gold.

103. A chicken will lay bigger and stronger eggs if you change the lighting in such a way as to make them think a day is 28 hours long!

104. The Muppet Show was banned from Saudi Arabian TV because one if its stars was a pig.

105. Bluebirds cannot see the color blue.

106. A 100-pound person on Earth would weigh 38 pounds on Mars.

107. All clams start out as males; some decide to become females at some point in their lives.

108. Frogs sometimes eat enough fireflies that they themselves glow.

109. Sheep outnumber humans in New Zealand: 15 to 1.

110. With two forks and a charge, a pickle will emit light.

111. In Pakistan, goats are often sacrificed to improve the performance of the stock market.

112. A baboon called Jackie became a private in the South African army in World War I.

113. Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were both epileptic.

114. Pancakes are commonly served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in Australia.

115. People with blue eyes are better able to see in the dark.

116. Americans are responsible for generating roughly 20% percent of the garbage in the world.

117. Nicole Kidman has a morbid fear of butterflies.

118. Unlike dogs, pigs, and some other mammals, humans cannot taste water. They taste only the chemicals and impurities in the water.

119. The lifespan of the common goldfish is over 20 years!

120. Apple seeds are poisonous!

121. If you cut off a snail's eye, it will grow a new one.

122. Coffee beans aren't beans - they're fruit pits.

123. In Colombia, one can be fined up to $90,000 for gossiping!

124. A car operates at maximum economy, gas-wise, at speeds between 25 and 35 miles per hour.

125. Leonardo da Vinci was dyslexic, and he often wrote backwards.

126. Senegalese women spend an average of 17.5 hours a week just collecting water.

127. It's illegal to own a red car in Shanghai, China.

128. Snails breathe through their feet.

129. Originally, Nintendo was a playing card manufacturer.

130. Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate every second.

131. Despite the hump, a camel's spine is straight.

132. 45.2% of people pee in the shower.

133. Even a small amount of alcohol placed on a scorpion will make it go crazy and sting itself to death.

134. 53% of women will not leave the house without makeup on.

135. The earth is .02 degrees hotter during a full moon.

136. A rat can fall from a five story building without injury.

137. Cats cannot taste sweet things.

138. Your hair grows faster in the morning than at any other time of day.

139. By recycling just one glass bottle, the amount of energy that is being saved is enough to light a 100 watt bulb for four hours.

140. It snowed in the Sahara desert on February 18, 1979.

141. Jean -Claude Van Damme learned to speak English by watching the cartoon 'The Flintstones.'

142. 25% of your bones are located in your feet.

143. Henry Ford produced the model T only in black because the black paint available at the time was the fastest to dry.

144. Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish; it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.

145. Approximately 70 percent of the earth is covered by water. Only 1 percent of this water is drinkable.

146. Most cell phone antennas have no purpose other than to make people believe that flipping up a 2 inch antenna just gave them better reception. They are not connected to any circuitry.

147. The average office worker spends 50 minutes a day looking for lost files and other items.

148. An apple, potato, and onion all taste the same if you eat them with your nose plugged.

149. Coca-Cola was the first soft drink to be consumed in outer space.

150. Spinach consumption in the U.S. rose 33% after the Popeye comic strip became a hit in 1931.

151. Mark Twain didn't even make it through elementary school.

152. The fingerprints of koala bears are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.

153. Spotted skunks do handstands before they spray.

154. Avocados are poisonous to birds.

155. In ancient Japan, public contests were held to see who could fart the loudest and longest!

156. Dating back to the 1600's, thermometers were filled with brandy instead of mercury.

157. You can start a fire with ice.

158. Because metal was scarce; the Oscars given out during World War II were made of plaster.

159. The heart of an astronaut actually gets smaller when in outer space.

160. Bamboo plants can grow up to 36 inches in a day.

161. Oak trees can live 200 or more years.

162. The sting from a killer bee contains less venom than the sting from a regular bee!

163. Jackie Kennedy Onassis was secretly a chain smoker.

164. 55.2% of us will let someone else come in the bathroom while they're using the toilet.

165. A peanut is not a nut. It is a legume.

166. A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

167. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

168. When gentlemen in medieval Japan wished to seal an agreement, they urinated together, crisscrossing their streams of urine.

169. In 1897, Bayer, who is the maker of Aspirin, marketed the drug heroin.

170. A one ounce milk chocolate bar has 6 mg of caffeine.

171. The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.

172. Frogs cannot swallow without blinking.

173. All the swans in England are property of the Queen.

174. The best diamonds are colored blue-white.

175. The most collect calls are made on Father's Day.

176. Energy is being wasted if a toaster is left plugged in after use.

177. The leading cause of poisoning for children under the age of six in the home is liquid dish soap.

178. Black Whales are born white.

179. Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

180. The Blue Whale's tongue weighs more than an adult elephant!

181. China has more English speakers than the United States.

182. The first TV commercial showed a Bulova watch ticking onscreen for exactly 60 seconds.

183. Aluminum used to be more valuable than gold!

184. Slugs have 4 noses.

185. Turkeys can reproduce without having sex.

186. The average human body contains enough iron to make a small nail.

187. Medical research has found substances in mistletoe that can slow down tumor growth.

188. It takes about a week to make a jelly bean.

189. Elvis Presley got a 'C' in his eighth grade music class.

190. Infants spend more time dreaming than adults do.

191. There are more female than male millionaires in the United States.

192. In what country will you find the most universities? India.

193. Unless you have a doctor's note, it’s illegal to buy ice cream after 6 p.m. in Newark, New Jersey.

194. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

195. Linen is actually stronger when wet.

196. In ten minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined!

197. The tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body.

198. Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem.

199. Crocodiles swallow stones to help them dive deeper.

200. At birth, a panda bear is smaller than a mouse.

201. Contrary to popular belief, there are almost no Buddhists in India, nor have there been for about a thousand years.

202. A woman's sense of smell is most sensitive during ovulation.

203. One punishment for an adulterous wife in medieval France was to make her chase a chicken through town naked.

204. A marine catfish can taste with any part of its body.

205. You're subject to fines and/or imprisonment for making ugly faces at dogs in Oklahoma.

206. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs.

207. Smokers eat more sugar than non-smokers do.

208. 40% of all indigestion remedies sold in the world are bought by Americans.

209. In Americain 1977, the punishment for smuggling marijiuana was 15 years less than the punishment for smuggling coffee!

210. President George W. Bush was once a cheerleader!

211. Identical twins do not have identical fingerprints.

212. The mother of the boy Michael Jackson is accused of abusing is named 'Janet Jackson'.

213. Frozen lobsters can come back to life when thawed!

214. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch procejt at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosnt mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe!

215. If China imported just 10% of its rice needs- the price on the world market would increase by 80%.

216. The lens of the eye continues to grow throughout a person's life.

217. Kite flying is a professional sport in Thailand.

218. Muhammad is the most common name in the world.

219. The first condoms were made of linen.

220. The warmest temperature ever recorded on Antarctica was 3 degrees F.

221. Anteaters prefer termites to ants.

222. If you’re over 100 years old, there’s an 80% chance you’re a woman.

223. More than 25% of the world's forests are in Siberia.

224. In just about every species of mammal, the female lives longer than the male.

225. Women end up digesting most of the lipstick they apply.

226. It is illegal for tourists to enter Mexico with more than 2 CDs.

Source: www.hookedonfacts.com

Of Musings and Soliloquies

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Guni-Guni sa Takipsilim

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Palette-Hope Analogy

Monday, October 6, 2008

I Dreamt of Seven Haikus

Monday, September 15, 2008

Things To Do/Experience During My Earthly Existence

Thursday, September 4, 2008

My Trivial Pursuit

Friday, July 29, 2005

Divinity of a Dream

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