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ALMANAC 1992 by Jeff Napier and ANOTHER COMPANY copyright (c) 1991, 1992 MISCELLANEOUS _____________________________________________________________ Do you live near a crematorium? You might want to move. A very tiny amount of mercury vapor in the air in your neighborhood can cause permanent damage to your nervous system. As it turns out, when you burn (dead) people, the nearly inert mercury mixed into the fillings in their teeth vaporizes into deadly vapor. One scientist in England figured that a busy crematorium can put as much as 24 pounds of mercury into the air every year. _____________________________________________________________ According to some scientists in England, 70% of the dust in your house is discarded skin cells. _____________________________________________________________ Some countries have passed laws that restrict the popping of champagne corks. The wine bottles sold in those countries must have tethers that keep the cork from flying across the room. In the United States, there are several law suits every year initiated by people injured by champagne corks. _____________________________________________________________ The fine machine lubricating oil for which the sperm whales were hunted was mostly in their heads - up to 500 gallons of it in one whale. Until modern chemical technology, nothing lubricated as well as whale oil. Now there is an even more valuable stuff that forms in their intestines. This foul-smelling grayish-black stuff is used by the perfume industry, not for its smell, but because it has been found to cause other smells to last longer. _____________________________________________________________ The worlds largest flower is also one of the worst smelling flowers. Rafflesia arnoldii is often over 3 feet wide and its petals are almost an inch thick. You wouldn't want it in your garden, however, because it smells like a rotting animal, in an attempt to attract flies to pollinate it. _____________________________________________________________ Francis White is a belly dancer who performs in San Francisco. She weighs 340 pounds. _____________________________________________________________ If you dig a deep enough hole in your back yard, you'd end up in China, right? Nope, you'd drown in the middle of the Indian Ocean. _____________________________________________________________ The worldwide, 24-hour a day rate of zipper production is 28 miles per hour. _____________________________________________________________ Men dream more often about their male heroes, bosses, friends or role models than about women. _____________________________________________________________ If you took all the phones in America and loaded them up into trucks, 5717 full-size tractor-trailers would be required. Bumper to bumper they would form a line 71 miles long. The average American makes 1,837 phone calls per year. This is 5 calls a day. _____________________________________________________________ A NOTE ABOUT THIS DATABASE: I hope you enjoy reading this information as much I have enjoyed collecting it! Almost all of it is completely true! Some facts are disputable, especially historical accounts. All the information in this database is reliably based on what others have written. However, you may wish to conduct your own research to make absolutely sure of the facts. _____________________________________________________________ A huge volcano erupted on an island called Krakatoa. It was so loud the sound was audible 3000 miles away. _____________________________________________________________ America is a feminine name, otherwise, we would live in Amerigo. _____________________________________________________________ If you are a male, and you wish to be irresistible to females, tie the udder of a hyena around your left arm. So says a custom from ancient Greece. _____________________________________________________________ It's hard to visualize one million but perhaps this will help. You know how long one foot is - 12 inches - and you know how long you have to be cooped up in a car to travel 189 miles - approximately 4 hours. 189 miles equals one million feet. _____________________________________________________________ All of the people on earth weigh about 420 million tons. This is about 1/10,000 of all the living matter on earth. In other words, one out of every 10,000 cells on earth is a part of a human. If you took all the people of earth, and packed them tightly together, such as people on a New York City elevator, they would cover about 14 square miles, or a square about 3.75 miles on a side. It would take 100 million buses to take everyone home from this giant party. Bumper to bumper the buses would stretch 750,000 miles, from here to the moon and back, then back to the moon. _____________________________________________________________ One second after the sun sets where you are, the sun will set approximately two blocks away. So, nightfall is moving at about 2 blocks per second or 750 miles per hour, which is just about the speed of sound. _____________________________________________________________ There is an actual court case on record named: "The United States v. 350 Cartons of Canned Sardines." It has something to do with interstate commerce. _____________________________________________________________ In Kentucky it is illegal to carry ice cream in your back pocket. _____________________________________________________________ In Illinois, prison inmates were offered free plastic surgery to change their faces. Of those who elected to become "new men" their rate of committing new crimes after release was less than average. _____________________________________________________________ In Kansas it is legal to round of pi from somewhere around 3.14159265 to 3.0. _____________________________________________________________ Two out of three couples stay together through ten years of marriage. Less than half make it through 25 years together. _____________________________________________________________ What are the current human limits which we can use for comparisons of feats? A good pitcher can throw a ball 100 miles per hour. (Roughly 13% of the speed of sound) A trained sprinter can run 25 miles per hour for a short distance. (Roughly 3% of the speed of sound.) _____________________________________________________________ In the typical home, there are 8 clocks. How many do you have? _____________________________________________________________ In Jersey City, NJ, is a clock with a face 50 feet in diameter. If you could get close to it, you could actually watch the minute hand moving along at a good clip, 1/2" per second. _____________________________________________________________ All the cigarettes smoked in one year, if lined up end to end, would reach all the way to the sun, and back to earth, and back to the sun, and back to the earth, and back to the sun. (actual figure: over 467 million miles of cigarettes) Cigarettes come in all sizes, having been manufactured from 1.25" long to 11 inches long. _____________________________________________________________ Until recently in New Zealand, 66% of the children were smoking cigarettes by age seven. _____________________________________________________________ There was once a hammer manufactured which was a claw hammer (for pulling out nails) but it had no head. Instead it had a claw on each end. _____________________________________________________________ Walter Cavanagh's wallet weighs 33 pounds and contains 1,196 credit cards. _____________________________________________________________ The largest "Swiss army knife" (this one was made in England) had 1973 different blades. _____________________________________________________________ There are 3,615,122 square miles in America. If you could space all of us Americans out equally across the whole country, assuming that you could place some people on the sides of mountains and others in the middle of factories, but assuming that all Americans had to be the same distance apart, we would be 645 feet away from each other. (about 1/2 the length of a city block) We each would have about 415,388 square feet, which is about 10 acres or the amount of land covered by 500 apartments. _____________________________________________________________ The population of the United States breaks down about like so: White : 87.5% Black : 11.1% Indian, Japanese, Chinese, all others : 1.4% _____________________________________________________________ In Detroit, where three out of every four people are black, 24 out of every 25 people attending the local baseball stadium are white. _____________________________________________________________ In the country of Macau, the population density is one person for every 441 square feet. If the people were all evenly spaced, they would each have a square 21 feet on a side. But I wonder how it really breaks down. There must be unlivable places and places such as parks and public buildings, which would increase the actual density. On the other hand, there must be multi-story buildings, so some people will live above others, reducing the density. But this isn't the most crowded place on earth. In a place called Mong Kok, in Hong Kong, the population density is 652,910 people per square mile. This is 42 square feet per person, or a box 6 feet long and 7 feet wide. 104 people lived in one room of one house in this city. Four more lived on the roof of that house. _____________________________________________________________ The world population is increasing by one medium-size city's population every day (237,400). That's more than one more person every 2 seconds. _____________________________________________________________ Tonga must have been a safe, healthy place to live in the year 1853. Only 3 people per thousand died there that year. The current world average is 11 deaths per 1000 per year. You might want to stay away from Cambodia. The death rate there was 40 per 1000 in 1980. In Japan, average life expectancy is 77.36 years. In Afghanistan, people tend to last 36.95 years. So, if you live in Japan, you will (on average) have over twice as many years available. _____________________________________________________________ There is one psychiatrist or psychologist for every 2641 Americans. _____________________________________________________________ A gun was test fired in Arizona that fired a 185-pound bullet into outer space. (112 miles up) Scientistst have speculated on the possibility of 'shooting' freight for space research into orbit. _____________________________________________________________ Since 1937, at least 696 people have jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge. 12 survived. _____________________________________________________________ Sometimes it is good to practice a favorite skill or hobby, just in case you'll need it in real life. Lang Martin of North Carolina can balance 7 golf balls, one on top of another. _____________________________________________________________ There have been over 20,000 books written about the game of Chess. _____________________________________________________________ What's the most popular magazine in America? TV Guide. _____________________________________________________________ In the book, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, is one sentence that is 823 words long. When Vic wrote to his editor enquiring about their opinion of the manuscript, he wrote, "?" They answered, "!" _____________________________________________________________ Subjects of King Mohamet II did not voluntarily visit near his castle because he was fond of archery and often shot arrows at passers-by. _____________________________________________________________ Note: Looking for something specific? Press the [S] key to search this chapter. _____________________________________________________________ At St Helen's School in Newbury, Ohio, unicycling is a mandatory subject. The students are allowed to ride their unicycles in the halls between classes. Collisions are surprisingly few. _____________________________________________________________ I'll bet you don't know what aelurophobia is. It is the fear of cats. How about amaxophobia? It is the fear of riding in a car. _____________________________________________________________ Used car dealers can buy a bottle of "new car smell" to make their second-hand cars smell like new. _____________________________________________________________ A toy available to Japanese children is a small plastic atom bomb. _____________________________________________________________ Note: You can change the colors with the keys [F3] - [F10]. _____________________________________________________________ Where did the measurements, inch, foot and yard come from? An inch is the width of a typical man's thumb, a foot, well, you can figure that one out, and a yard is measured from the center of a man's body to the fingertips of his outstretched arm. _____________________________________________________________ Don't try to beat this record: 13 minutes, 42 seconds is the longest anyone has been known to stay underwater without breathing apparatus. _____________________________________________________________ The president of Switzerland, by tradition, lives the life of a common worker. The president lives in a normal size apartment and rides public transportation. The term of presidency is one year. _____________________________________________________________ Why tombstones? The original idea was that the weight pressing down on the body would not allow the ghost to float away. _____________________________________________________________ A voice heard over a telephone does not sound live. It sounds false or "phony." _____________________________________________________________ 3M Corporation's logo stands for Minnesota Mining and manufacturing Company. _____________________________________________________________ Socrates' wife had an interesting name: Xanthippe. _____________________________________________________________ The Sahara desert is growing. Its southern edge moves outward at a rate of 30 miles per year. _____________________________________________________________ The Hindu word khaki means "dusty." _____________________________________________________________ The word cosmetics is based on the Greek, 'skilled in decoration.' _____________________________________________________________ The longest major league baseball game ended tied at 1 to 1 after 26 innings. In 1920, this game between the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers (because you had to 'dodge' trolley cars in Brooklyn) finally had to end because they had no stadium lights. _____________________________________________________________ Miniature golf was originally called Tom Thumb Golf. _____________________________________________________________ There is a 34-year-old man who takes on volleyball teams single-handedly. That's right, his business is to be a one-man volleyball team. In the past 2000 games, he has challenged the best boys' and girl's high-school volleyball teams and won all but about 60 of the games. Just like the opposing teams, he gets three hits on a side, but he uses them all himself. They say his serve is particularly hard to return, with a heavy top-spin. _____________________________________________________________ A leaky faucet can waste 75 gallons of water per week. At that rate, it would take just less than a year to fill a built-in swimming pool. _____________________________________________________________ The most commonly spoken language in the world is Mandarin, spoken by 700 million Chinese. But Mandarin is not the most commonly known language. That is probably English with 20% of all people of the earth, or over 1 billion people who can speak it. _____________________________________________________________ Great toy idea: Get an old yard-sale typewriter for your kids. The little ones will learn the letters by banging them out and the older ones will tend to create stories in order to have something to type. _____________________________________________________________ 49% of college-age American kids go to college. _____________________________________________________________ Because of the way men tromp around, women often have to protect themselves as if they were a minority, but actually there are 6 million more women in America than men. _____________________________________________________________ The world's largest seeds weigh as much as 40 pounds each and although they look like coconuts, they are up to three times larger. They are from a rare type of palm tree. _____________________________________________________________ The reason humans walk upright might be because we learned not to drag our bodies in cold, wet snow. _____________________________________________________________ At an age of over 80, Katharine Hepburn exercises more than most young people. She stands on her head for four minutes every day. And despite a car accident that injured her right ankle so bad she almost needed amputation in 1982, she plays up to 3 hours of tennis per day. She also likes to swim in very cold lakes. _____________________________________________________________ An unusual profession: A man was named "Official Uncorker Of Bottles" by Queen Elizabeth I. A law was passed that stated all bottles found washed up on beaches had to be opened by this man, and no one else, in case they contained sensitive military messages. The penalty for anyone else opening a bottle was the death sentence. _____________________________________________________________ In some societies, dead people are buried vertically, not horizontally. _____________________________________________________________ There are about 25,000 people in the world who are at least 100 years old. _____________________________________________________________ Have you ever felt that we have this age thing backwards? Most people in modern society worship youth, but youth is only good because of its room for potential development. Age is kool. Age equals wisdom, an irreplaceable commodity that you can't just buy at Sears. If nothing else, whether you are young or old, listen to what old people have to say. They have been around and know the best ways to tackle problems that young people could otherwise only guess at. _____________________________________________________________ Surgeons have found gold tooth fillings in inflamed appendices. _____________________________________________________________ Chauffeurs date to the days of coal-fired, steam-driven cars. In fact, "chauffeur" is French for "stoker." _____________________________________________________________ In Zurich, Switzerland, authorities give away free syringes to drug addicts, to help curb the spread of AIDS. They give away 7000 needles a day. _____________________________________________________________ In 1956 an iceberg was spotted that was 200 miles long and 60 miles wide. Bigger than many countries. _____________________________________________________________ We blink 1/2 billion times in a lifetime. _____________________________________________________________ Should you wash or mend clothes first? Mend them first. Washing machines take advantage of tears and rips them even more, but if they are sewn first, no further damage occurs. _____________________________________________________________ The Leaning Tower of Pisa is 180 feet tall and now tipped over 16 feet to one side. Scientists estimate that at it has at least 100 years left before structural collapse. Its foundation is only 7 feet deep. Almost 1/2 million people a year visit the tower. _____________________________________________________________ 7% of married couples have never had intercourse. _____________________________________________________________ If you need to move a refrigerator, washing machine, piano or other large item across a smooth floor, pour a little dishwashing liquid on the floor first. The large appliance will slide smoothly, then you can simply mop up the soap. _____________________________________________________________ There have been 19 cases where computer viruses have originated through retail (store-bought) software. Only one case originated with shareware, and that one was stopped before any distribution began, according to Shareware Magazine. _____________________________________________________________ According to Father Andrew Greeley, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona, 95% of Americans believe in God. 75% of Americans believe in life after death. _____________________________________________________________ What is a philatelist? I'll tell you in a minute. _____________________________________________________________ In New York City, it is illegal to greet anyone "by placing the end of his thumb against the tip of his nose, at the same time extending and wriggling the fingers of his hand." _____________________________________________________________ At a school that had recently suffered much damage by a vandal who used spray paint: A boy carrying spray paint while walking across the roof late at night, fell through a skylight into the gymnasium and was paralyzed. He sued the school district (taxpayers) for his injuries and won! _____________________________________________________________ Because of a Massachusetts law stating that every child under age 16 is entitled to an education, the Cuttyhunk Elementary School on an island off Cape Cod had to stay open these past three years even though there was only one student. John Paul graduated in June and so the school, which required one teacher, and one superintendent, will close. Until now, the school has cost the taxpayers $30,000 per year. Until three years ago it was more cost effective at the rate of $15,000 per student, because there were two students in the school, John and his older brother Keith. _____________________________________________________________ During part of the 1940's it was illegal in America for a person to buy more than 3 pairs of shoes per year. Why? Stay tuned. _____________________________________________________________ A philatelist is a stamp collector. _____________________________________________________________ Your author once went roller skating with a bunch of folks, one of which was deaf (and good-humored). The rink was quite loud with it's old-fashioned organ and scores of yelling children. Tom, our deaf friend, could read lips fairly well and without ever hearing speech, had learned to talk very clearly. But he had no way to know how loud to talk. All night we kept asking him to talk louder, until he was yelling to be heard over the noise. Suddenly, the music stopped, and through the loud speakers, we were all asked to stand against the walls. A kid had fallen and medical assistance might be required. (Later we found out that the child had merely twisted an ankle slightly.) It was so quiet you could hear a feather fall. Tom, not knowing what was happening, yelled at the top of his lungs, "WHAT'S GOING ON?" Tom was a technician who worked in a carpeted shop. It was his duty to vacuum the floor every night just before quitting time. One night, after vacuumming awhile, he noticed that the suction wasn't working right. He felt the end of the hose and then looked at the vacuum. Then he followed the cord back to the wall, where he saw a semi-circle of his co-workers laughing so hard they were falling over. They had unplugged the vacuum cleaner five minutes ago. One day, he bought a new convertible. Not wanting to be different than anyone else, he had a radio in it. When he came to proudly show me his new car, I could hardly get near it. Tom had the radio turned on full-blast, and tuned between two stations. For those of you who might be sensitive to me making fun of handicapped people, let me tell you that Tom taught us a lot. He was a good friend, and vastly interesting because he saw many things in a different light. He was always a good friend, with a wonderful sense of humor, who would rather play jokes on normal people, and have jokes played on him by his friends (in whatever harmless form these jokes may take) than be forced by society to associate only with other deaf people who would know what might offend him, and what might not. _____________________________________________________________ Why was it illegal to buy more than three pairs of shoes during the 1940's? Leather was needed for the war effort. Most shoes at that time mere made almost entirely from leather, yet today many are made from cloth and plastic or rubber. _____________________________________________________________ MTV (Music TeleVision) was born August 1, 1981, so it is just over 10 years old and now reaches over 2 billion viewers worldwide. It is even available in the Soviet Union. There, viewers receive it over the air waves, they don't need to subscribe to cable. But, it is only on Friday nights for two hours. _____________________________________________________________ Because of a shortage of textbooks in the new Czechoslovakia, now headed by a former playwright, television will play a major role in education. _____________________________________________________________ Actor, Ed Begley, Jr, probably most known for his role as the always somewhat confused young doctor on St. Elsewhere, does not own a car. Well, actually he has two cars, but they are electric powered. He has huge solar panels on his roof to keep their batteries charged and to run his household appliances including his computer. He also had his house framed with two-by-six studs, not two-by-fours, so that his home is better insulated and therefore heating is more energy-efficient. He says there is a fringe benefit to the extra insulation: Inside his house is quieter, regardless of what is happening outside. Why is he going to such lengths in energy-efficiency? He probably doesn't need to save money. The reason is that he wants to use the position his fame has earned him to teach a more environmentally-reasonable way to live. He wants us all to realize we all have to work to provide a comfortable future for ourselves and our kids. _____________________________________________________________ Nine out of every 10 scientists who ever lived are alive today. _____________________________________________________________ At a freeway off-ramp somewhere in Colorado is a ordinary-looking orange traffic cone. But this one is different because inside is some special electronic equipment which can determine how much air pollution cars are emitting as they drive past it. Also inside is a hidden video camera to record the license plates of offending cars. With this, the drivers of the old, smoky wrecks can be sent traffic tickets for pollution law violations. _____________________________________________________________ In most cases, if you have two objects, equal in all respects, except that one is white and the other is black, the black one will usually look smaller. _____________________________________________________________ Charles Lindbergh was not only a famous aviator, but also was the inventor of an artificial heart. If the heart had performed better, he might have changed the medical world in 1938. His personal history regarding WWII is interesting. At first, he was awarded a medal by Adolf Hitler, and he publicly stated that Germany had the best air force in Europe. Later, in America, he took an anti-war stance, he criticized war in general and advocated against any possible war with Europe. For this, the United States took away his Air Corps Reserve status and forced him out of his membership on the National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics. Many said he was "pro-German." As the war developed, Lindbergh ended up flying for the US Air Force and consulting to military aircraft manufacturers. _____________________________________________________________ In the Transformers TV show, a children's Saturday morning favorite, there are 83 acts of violence per hour. _____________________________________________________________ 25% of the ninth-graders in the state of Colorado have been drunk enough to pass out. _____________________________________________________________ Almost 1/2 million people move to Florida every year. _____________________________________________________________ What is better for our environment, use of polystyrene cups, or paper cups? Polystyrene. It takes 24 times more power to produce a paper cup. Furthermore, when a paper cup decomposes in a moist landfill (in dry soil, it doesn't decompose any faster than plastic) it produces methane gas, a threat to add to the greenhouse effect. _____________________________________________________________ Although not proven, it has been said that Leonardo da Vinci slept in 15 minute catnaps several times a day, totalling less than 2 hours sleep per day. _____________________________________________________________ 6 people per year die from accidents related to fireworks. _____________________________________________________________ In a study of people using telephone booths, researchers found that when no one was waiting to use the phone, callers averaged 90 seconds talking, then walked away. But if someone was waiting around to make a call, the callers averaged 4 minutes per call. _____________________________________________________________ It has been estimated that 77% of the productive work accomplished on computers is word processing. Financial calculation, databasing, programming and all other pursuits make up the other 23%. _____________________________________________________________ There is a chemical called scrooge which is specially designed to smell bad, much like a skunk's smell, but worse. A typical use of scrooge is to spray it in doorways of warehouses and unguarded inner city buildings to keep tramps away. _____________________________________________________________ You may remember reading that 'type A' people, those who are nervous, workaholics, agressive in business, tend to have more heart attacks. Now scientists have narrowed it to people who are cynical, angry or distrustful of others. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the man who hated communists, died when he was 48 years old. _____________________________________________________________ chapter end. Although copyrighted, ALMANAC 1992 is freeware. Please feel free to copy and distribute as long as all files remain intact & unchanged.