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Did You Know Liquid oxygen is an explosive.Never dip flammable materials into liquid oxygen because flammable materials that are soaked in liquid oxygen turn into powerful explosives when lit. Apollo 1 was full of Velcro - and full of pure liquid oxygen. How Trivia got its name. It is a merging of the Latin words 'tri' (three) and 'via' (road). To educate the public, news and information were posted on boards at crossroads (where three roads met) and so the word ' trivialis' was applied to the snippets of un-related information. The word trivial is derived from this, 'trivia' as a word on its own dates to about 1920. Officially, the space shuttle program is known as the Space Transportation System (STS). The first shuttle was actually the Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise, named after the famous star ship in the Star Trek television series. It was a drop-test vehicle released from a Boeing 747 in midflight. Enterprise made five successful free-flight tests prior to Columbia's history-making maiden flight into space. What was the symbolism behind flying a flag at half-mast as a sign of mourning when the custom was first introduced at sea in the seventeenth century? The top of the mast was left empty for the invisible flag of death. In downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh. In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak. In France, there's a place called Y. In January and February, the average temperature in the high Arctic is -29 F. In May 1948, Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe, both in New Zealand, erupted simultaneously. What does WD-40 stand for? The name was taken from chemist Norm Larsen's laboratory notebook. In 1953, he was trying to concoct an anti-corrosion formula, which worked on the basic principle of displacing water. On his 40th try, Larsen finally got it right. It literally means Water Displacer, 40th try. The phrase "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey" is an old sailing ship term. Back during the days of the "Tall Ships" the wooden ships with sail before the advent of steam and diesel engines. A big brass ring was nailed to the decks of the ships to store the cannon balls in. The cannon balls were stacked in pyramids inside the brass ring to stop them from rolling around the decks as the ships pitched and yawled. The brass ring was called a brass monkey. As you know as steel and brass freezes it becomes slippery as all hell. Then the added spray of the water froze everything as well.. Once it got cold enough the balls would become so slippery that they would slide right off the brass ring or monkey hence the phrase " Cold enough to freeze the ball off a brass monkey." The production of one ton of steel can consume 280 tons of water Manufactuning one pound of paper can require as much as 700 pounds of water. To make a typical U.S. car uses 50 times the car's weight in water To produce one pound of steak from California beef cattle requires 2,500 gallons of water. Processing just one frozen chicken takes at least seven gallons of water. About 97 percent of the water on earth is in the oceans and is too salty to be used for drinking, farming and manufacturing. The seeing-eye dog, or any dog trained to guide the blind, cannot tell a red light from a green one. When it lead its master across the street, it watches the traffic flow to tell when it is safe to cross. During the 1989 invasion of Panama, United States troops blared out AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" at the highest volume possible to drive Manuel Noriega out of the Vatican Embassy. When vocalist Brian Johnson heard his music was being used as psychological torture, he is quoted as saying, "I guess now we won't get to play for the Pope." Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women. The albatross drinks sea water. It has a special desalinization apparatus that strains out and excretes all excess salt. The J. Paul Getty Museum at Malibu, CA, cost the late oil magnate nearly $42,000,000 to build, and he left $1,271,900,000 to mainain it, yet he never took the time to see it. The worlds largest hotel is the Burj Al Arab or Arabian Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emerates. Measuring 1,053 feet tall, the hotel is shaped like a sail and built on a man made island. The world's longest escalator ride can be found in Ocean Park, Hong Kong, China. With an overall length of 745 feet, the escalator boasts a vertical rise of 377 feet. A perfect diamond is called a stone "of the first water" because it is invisible in water. Three centuries ago, diamonds were graded as first, second, and third water, those of first water being of the highest quality. This old method of grading died out before 1850, but the phrase "of the first water" remains in use to indicate that the person or thing to which it is applied exemplifies the perfection of a flawless diamond. The Subiaco Bridge in Italy, built in 1358 as a memorial to 1,456 Subiaco soldiers who defeated an invading army, is exactly 1,456 inches long. (121.33 Feet) Mongolia is the largest landlocked country in the world. Scotchgard was created by Patsy Sherman in 1956. Kevlar, the material bulletproof vests are made of, was invented in 1971 by Stephanie Kwolek. Eleven-year-old Alexia Abernathy solved a dilemma for messy kids by creating the Oops! Proof No-Spill Feeding Bowl. If it hadn't been for Mary Anderson, driving in the rain might be a lot more treacherous. She invented windshield wipers in 1902. The first sports trophy, a copper cup depicting 2 wrestlers, was found in Iraq in 1938 and is more than 4,700 years old. Did you know that space shuttle menus currently feature more than seventy different food items and twenty different drinks? We cry about 250,000,000 tears in the course of a lifetime. Every time we blink some fluid leaves the tear ducts. What is the difference between the dolphin and a porpoise? The porpoise lacks the snout of a true dolphin. When hunting, the peregrine falcon can spot its prey from 2,000 feet and will plummet at 200 miles per hour to strike its prey. Cats have better memories than dogs. Tests conducted by the University of Michigan concluded that while a dogs memory lasts no more than 5 minutes, a cat's can last as long as 16 hours - exceeding even that of monkeys and orangutans. A female African elephant can be pregnant for almost two years. Martin Van Buren was the first U.S. born citizen to become president. It takes 8 minutes for light to travel from the sun to the earth. Elvis Presley had a reading chair in his bathroom. The Earth weighs around 6,600,000,000,000, 000,000,000 tons (5,940 billion billion metric tons)!? In the English language, more words begin with the letter "s" than any other letter. On average, a person swallows 295 times while eating a meal. For what event in February 1964 did evangelist Billy Graham break his strict rule against watching TV on Sunday? The Beatles first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" February is officially National Snack Food Month? How come my telephone operates even in a blackout? Depends on what you mean by blackout. When I've been imbibing and MY lights go out, my telephone works just fine, but I don't. So, who cares if the phone still functions? Still, it is curious that the phone goes ringy-dingy even when the electricity fails. It's not magic, and the phone does run on electric power. The source and amount of the current, though, is critical. Your phone gets juiced from the phone company, not from the electricity in your home. The phone company has storage batteries and sometimes diesel generators that keep providing current even during a long blackout. And although they have to power a lot of phones, each requires a miniscule amount of electricity. An outlet in your home typically supplies 15 amps, while your phone uses less than .00001 amps. The salt scattered on American highways each winter to keep cars from skidding on snow and ice represents 10 percent of the world's annual output of the mineral. Your heart is a muscle, but it never gets tired. The ring of fire is in the Pacific Ocean is the area where more than 75% of the world's 850 active volcanoes are located. Your tongue print is as unique as your fingerprints. 90% of the worlds mustard seeds are grown in Canada. The earth travels through space at 660,000 mph. There are 45 miles of nerves in the adult human body! Seedless oranges propagate today because of grafting. The first one was mutant. Before the barometer was discovered, German meteorologists use to predict air pressure changes with frogs. Frogs croak when pressure drops. The Jack Russell dog is named for the English minister who first bred it, Rev. John Russell. Traces of copper give the gemstone turquoise its distinctive color. Lightning travels at about 90,000 miles a second. Almost half the speed of light. (186,000 miles per second) It takes 110 domestic silkworm cocoons to make a man's tie; 630 to make a blouse. In 1882, David Jacks began shipping cheese from his dairies in Monterey, CA. Eventually, the cheese became known as simply Monterey Jack. The first air conditioner, invented by Willis Carrier, a 25-year-old engineer, was installed on July 17, 1902, at a Brooklyn printing press. Today more than 75% of us have AC in at least one room. In the South, it's 90%- -no one knows how that final 10% survives. Two hundred years ago this week, Congress established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., the nation's oldest continuously occupied military post. West Point's history dates back to the Revolution, when George Washington considered this spot on the Hudson a key strategic point. Fortificaions were built, and a chain was stretched across the river to control traffic. After the Revolution, Washington and others recognized the importance of an institution devoted to the art and science of war, and the academy was born. Best known for the many distinguished soldiers it has trained, West Point also ranks fourth among colleges in the number of Rhodes Scholars produced, with 79. In 1968, Steve McPeak traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles on a unicycle. The trip took him six weeks. Relative to their weight and size, birds are stronger than people. The Platypus can eat its weight in worms every day. Female koel birds of India have a shriek that sounds exactly like, "Who are you?" The burgundy snail (helix pomatia) has an eye on each of its 2 long tentacles, yet its vision is so poor it must find its way by feeling objects with its 2 shorter tentacles. 26% of U.S. patents are created by foreign-born people. Immigrants to the U.S. are 20% of all medical doctors, 22.7% of all Ph.D's, 81% of all farmhands, and 10.7% of the self-employed. Stilts were invented by French shepherds who herded sheep in marshes near the Bay of Biscay. Caddys? The word caddy (or caddie, as its sometimes spelled) comes from France, via Scotland, and is a corruption of "cadet." In France a cadet was a rich man's younger son. Since the eldest son inherited the whole estate, any males born after him often joined the army, which gives us the military sense of cadet. Eventually cadet came to mean someone who did lowly work, a "go-for" or errand boy--just the kind of person to serve another person who wants only to putter around. Karen Roman grew the world's largest cauliflower. It weighed 22 pounds. Diane Sheer holds the record for licking the most stamps in a five minute period. Charles Dickens kept the head of his bed aligned with the North Pole. He believed that the earth's magnetic field would pass longitudinal through his body and ensure him a good night rest. Each foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 107 ligaments, 19 muscles and tendons. Although playing cards were invented in China centuries ago, in their present form they only go back to 14th century France. It has been speculated the four standard suits represent the four major classes of 14th century Frencn society. Hearts, shaped like a shield, represented the nobility and the church. Spades, shaped like a spear tip, represented the military. Clubs, shaped like a clover, represented the rural peasant. Diamonds, shaped like the tiles associated with merchants' shope, represented the middle class. What's the difference between England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom? Great Britain is the island encompassing the political entities of England, Scotland and Wales. The United Kingdom consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The official name of the United Kingdom is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Why do camels have humps? Well, it's not to store water. The humps are there to store fat. Similar to how most animals store fat around their bellies (and Gagler has a lot of it, let me tell ya), camels store it in their one or two humps on their backs. When camels can not get to food they live off of the stored fat in their humps. As this fat is consumed by the camel's body, the hump shrinks, and in the case of a two-humped Bactrian camel the tops of the humps flop over to one side. The humps will resume their full shape once a camel eats again. Sandy Gardiner, an Ottawa, Ontario journalist, coined the phrase 'Beatlemania' to describe the frenzy created by the 1960s British rock group. He came up with the term while covering The Beatles during a trip to Liverpool in the Fab Four's early days. Why do some chefs wear tall white hats? Legend has it that royal cooks were once honored with cloth "crowns" that covered any loose locks. Over time, the hats became white (to show food stains) and taller (to better ventilate the head). Today this headwear remains a symbol of the master chef. True or false? Put ice on a burn. FALSE! Ice reduces the blood flow, which can slow healing. Instead, run cool water on the burn for at least 10 minutes. Then look at the spot. If it's blistered or charred, go to the ER. Sweat itself is odorless, only when combined with bacteria that are breaking down dead skin cells does it become smelly. Smelly sweat is called bromohidrosis. Sweat is composed of water, sodium chloride, potassium salts, urea, and lactic acid. The B-2 bomber has a wing span of 172 feet (52 meters), yet its radar "signature" (apparent size on a radar screen) is as big as that of a bird. Not only that, but it makes very little sound and is difficult to see, from the ground or from the air. The bomber's construction uses graphite composites, which trap radar waves inside the plane, and its outer surfaces contain no flat parts and no right angles, which would reflect radar. The jet's hot exhaust is mixed with cool air before being released, foiling heat-seeking missiles. Its engines are also hidden deep inside the plane, where their noise is muffled by the structure of the aircraft. Even the plane's shape is designed to fool the eye, making it difficult to tell whether it's coming or going. The result is an aircraft that is able to fly deep into enemy territory without detection. Seagulls are heavy in the front and light in the back. They experience less wind resistance when they face into the wind. When you see them at the beach on a windy day facing the same direction, they are trying to minimize the wind's resistance by facing into the wind. Why is aluminum foil shiny on one side and dull on the other? Aluminum foil is made by flattening blocks of aluminum into long thin sheets and then passing these sheets between two highly polished steel rollers. These sheets enter the rollers two sheets at a time. The sides of the sheets coming into direct contact with the steel rollers emerge with a high shine. The two inner sides come out with a pretty dull finish. As a result, the difference in the two sides of aluminum foil is only a result of the manufacturing process and has nothing to fo with which side should be placed next to your food. The amount of play money printed each year for use in the game, Monopoly is more than the amount of real money issued every year by the U.S. government. There really is a disease called the laughing disease, where people literally laugh themselves to death. The difference between a mural and a fresco is that a mural is painted on the wall when the plaster is dry whereas a fresco is painted on the wall when the plaster is still wet. Since 1982, Canada has followed the Constitution Act, of 1982. This Act allows Canada to amend their own constitution without having to get approval from Britain. Prior to 1982, Canada followed a different constitutional act. This Act was in existence from 1867-1982, the "British North American Act". About 2 billion tons of animal manure are produced in the U.S. every year. France, Holland and Belgium have been classified by the European Community as "manure surplus" regions because they produce more than their land can absorb. According to suppliers, Purple is by far the favorite ink color in dabbers used by bingo players. Four tablespoons of ketchup, about the amount you would eat with a order of fries, contains the nutritional equivalent of an entire ripe medium tomato. There are about 2 million sweat glands in the average human body. The average adult loses 540 calories with every liter of sweat. Men sweat about 40% more than women. Adult electric eels 5ft to 7ft long produce enough electricity -- 600 volts -- to stun a horse. A large Caribbean parrot fish excretes a ton of sand a year. Using two oversized front teeth, it nibbles on seagrass and scrapes algae. Another set of teeth in its throat grinds up the coral it ingests. The giraffe has a black tongue that is 14 inches long and has no vocal cords. The only desert in Canada is located in Osoyoos B.C. Paul McCartney is responsible for 32 #1 hits on the Billboard charts; more #1's than any other artist. From crocodile farms, Australia exports about 5,000 crocodile skins a year. Most go to Paris, where a crocodile purse can sell for more than $10,000. Although it's on the Mediterranean, Greece is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Greece joined NATO in 1952 and allowed the U.S.A. to set up military bases on its territory in 1953. At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal. Some lady beetle, or lady bug, colonies have been reported to contain as many as 500 gallons of beetles. A gallon of beetles contains from 72,000 to 80,000 adults. The National Institute of Mental Health places fear of flying (aerophobia), second only to fear of public speaking. The female Victorian aristocracy in Britain would change their clothes at least four times a day. 1981 - MTV (Music Television) made its debut at 12:01 a.m.. The first music video shown on the rock-video cable channel was, appropriately, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles. MTV's original five veejays were Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, J.J. Jackson and Alan Hunter. The first movie shown in a drive-in theater was "Wife Beware", in 1933. Emperor Aurelian (212-275) of Rome, enacted the most dramatic tax cut in history when he wiped out all the tax liabilities of his subjects in 274 by burning all the tax records in a huge bonfire. In medieval Europe, alchemists mixed powdered gold into drinks to "comfort sore limbs," one of the earliest references to arthritis. In ancient Rome, gold salves were used for the treatment of skin ulcers. Today, gold leaf plays an important role in the treatment of chronic ulcers. As long as 4,500 years ago, the Egyptians used gold in dentistry. Remarkable examples of the artistry of these early orthodontists have been found, perfectly preserved, by archaeologists of our own time. Today, American dentists use some 13 tons of gold each year for crowns, bridges, inlays and dentures. The reason? Gold is non-toxic, it can be shaped easily, and it is tough -- it never wears, corrodes or tarnishes. The average mattress contains 2 million house dust mites. The Australian Emu holds the land speed record for birds at 31 mph. Over a third of all pineapples come from Hawaii. Pineapples do not ripen after they have been picked. Pomology is the study of fruit. Seeds are missing from a navel orange. It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there has only been 230 years of total peace throughout the civilized world. China was the first country to introduce paper money (in 812), but it wasn't until 1661 that a bank (Banco-Sedlar of Sweden) issued banknotes. Ice Cream Sundaes were created when it became illegal to sell ice cream with flavored soda on a Sunday in the Evanston, Illinois during the late 19th century. Some traders got round it by serving it with syrup instead, calling it an 'Ice Cream Sunday' and eventually replacing the final 'y' with an 'e' to avoid upsetting religious leaders. The sense of touch: electrical impulses travel from the skin toward the spinal cord at a rate of up to 425 feet per second. You blink every 2-10 seconds. As you focus on each word in this sentence, your eyes swing back and forth 100 times a second, and every second; the retina performs 10 billion computer-like calculations. Vaudevillian Jack Norworth wrote "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in 1908 after seeing a sign on a bus advertising BASEBALL TODAY - POLO GROUNDS. Norworth and his friend Albert von Tilzer (who write the music) had never been to a baseball game before his song became a hit sing-along. The Japanese national anthem is expressed in only four lines. The Greek anthem runs 158 verses. This site provides information about Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time began for most of the United States at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday of April. Time reverts to standard time at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday of October. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time. In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1 am Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It starts the last Sunday in March, and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment. http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving Each red blood cell lives an average of 4 months and travels between the lungs and other tissues 75,000 times before returning to the bone marrow to die. An Englishman invented Scotland's national dress - the kilt. It was developed from the philamore - a massive piece of tartan worn with a belt and draped over the shoulder - by English industrialist Thomas Rawlinson who ran a foundry at Lochaber, Scotland in the early 1700s and thought a detachable garment would make life more comfortable for his workers. Mail to the Havasupai Indian Reservation in northern Arizona is delivered by mule. It is the only U.S. Postal Service route of its type in existence today. According to the folks at Disney - there are 6,469,952 spots painted on dogs in the original 101 Dalmatians. The Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. has 365 steps, representing every day of the year. The first modern brassiere was patented by Mary Phelps Jacob in 1914. Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater. In Washington State alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each summer. While many people believe that a camel's humps are used for water storage, they are actually made up of fat. The hump of a well-rested, well-fed camel can weigh up to eighty pounds. Birds do not have sweat glands, so their bodies cannot cool down through perspiration. Their bodies cool by flight or, when at rest, panting. William Gray of Hartford, Connecticut patented the coin-operated telephone in 1889. The first taxicab took to the streets of New York City in 1907. Over time, the early taxicabs were replaced by yellow Checker Taxicabs, which became a typical feature of the Big Apple. In 1934 cartoonist Al Capp began his famous comic strip, "Li'l Abner". The cartoon strip was carried in eight newspapers. Eventually, it would be in more than 500, and would be the basis for a Broadway play and a Hollywood movie. The Fish Bowl was invented by Countess Dubarry, Mistress of King Louis XV (Born 1710 Died 1774). About 500 meteorites hit the Earth each year. The largest known meteorite was found at Grootfontein in Namibia, southwest Africa, in 1920. It is 9 feet (2.75m) long and 8 feet (2.43m) wide. 1926 - The first television picture was broadcast on April 11 from Arlington, Virginia to Washington, D.C. The technological achievement was of a picture of a weather map. Charles Darwin's cousin invented the IQ test. Cost of raising a medium-size dog to the age of eleven: $6,400 The world's most expensive cities are Tokyo, Moscow, and Hong Kong. The least expensive city surveyed is Blantyre in Malawi followed by Bangalore in India. This site provides a survey of city rankings. http://www.finfacts.com/costofliving.htm In 1979, the World Health Organization announcd the eradication of one of history's deadliest killers: smallpox. The last naturally-occurring case was in Somalia in 1977; the last known case was due to a 1978 lab accident in England. The next disease most likely to be eradicated is polio. It could be gone by 2005. The number of cases has dropped by 99% since a global anti-polio initiative was launched in 1988. A vacine was introuced in 1954. A cactus on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean blooms only once every 50 years. A cactus on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean blooms only once every 50 years. Cut and planed lumber was hard to come by in the New World, and since the Pilgrims didn't intend to go back to Europe, they dismantled the Mayflower and used it's lumber to build a barn. Baby chicks do breathe inside the egg. An eggshell may look solid, but it actually has nearly 8,000 pores that are large enough for oxygen to flow in and carbon dioxide to flow out. Chickens that are raised for processing are usually butchered after seven or eight weeks of life. If kept away from the frying pan, they would live for about eight years. Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida has been closed only one (1) day since it opened in 1971. Hurricane Floyd on September 15, 1999 was the cause for the closure. A 16-year-old English girl named Euphonia Allen wrote the Piano favorite "Chopsticks", in 1877. The song was published under the name Arthur de Lulli and despite Euphonia's promising beginning; this was the only song she ever wrote. The name had nothing to do with Asian cooking utensils; it was derived from the chopping motion of the hands needed to play the waltz. The largest stained-glass window is in the Resurrection Mausoleum in Justice, Illinois. It consists of 2,448 panels and it measures 22,381 square feet. The window was completed in 1971. Sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi of France named his sculpture "Liberty Enlightening the World". Of course we know it today as "The Statue of Liberty". Bartholdi used his mother as the model for the statue's face and his girlfriend as the model for her body. Since its opening in 1937, more than 1,200 people have jumped to their death from the roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. Of those who have taken the 250-foot drop, only 23 are know to have survived. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine. In 1875 British swimmer Matthew Webb was the first documented person to swim across the English Channel. The day before, smeared in porpoise oil for insulation, he departed Dover (England) and twenty-one hours and 45 minutes later waded ashore at Cape Gris Nez, near Calais (France). Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward were married - while suspended in parachutes at the World's Fair in New York City (1940). What is the chemical symbol for water? H20 Water is composed of two elements: Hydrogen and Oxygen. 2 Hydrogen + 1 Oxygen equals H20. Nearly 97 percent of the world's water is salty or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2 percent is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves just one percent for all of humanity's needs - all its agricultural, residential, manufacturing, community and personal needs. 75 percent of the human brain is water and 75 percent of a living tree is water. A person can live about a month without food, but only about a week without water. Scientists have determined that there is the same amount of water on Earth today as there was when the Earth was formed. The koala bear and the desert rat do not drink water. Paul Deschanel (1856-1922) was the only French president who was not born in France. He was born in Belgium and served as president in 1920. The Petri Church of Berlin, Germany, completed in 1726, burned to the ground on the very first day it opened its doors. It was hit by lightning in the morning, and the fire was extinguished, but that afternoon it was struck again and destroyed. The groundhog is only accurate in predicting the weather 28% of the time. Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's was worth between $250 million and $500 million. If you rang his doorbell, you'd hear the chimes play, "You Deserve a Break Today." The highest tidal wave ever recorded occurred in 1737. It was 210 feet high. As recently as the 1930s, morphine injections were commonly used by physicians to treat alcoholism. "Tangerine" is named for Tangiers, a port in Morocco. The tangerine was once referred to as "the kid-glove orange" because its skin slipped off as easily as a glove and had the feel of fine leather. Bears are extremely shortsighted creatures, which means they live mainly in a world of scent and sound. Because of their weight, which averages 22 pounds, Japanese cranes require a run of more than 30 feet to become airborne. Santa's Trolley is a Chistmas street car driven by a motorman dressed as Santa Claus, which annually travels the shopping district of Zurich, Switzerland, each afternoon of December. Imhotep, who was the chief justice of Egypt and court physician to Pharoah Zoser, invented the first calendar in 2,780 B.C. A female lobster is called a hen or chicken. A lobster hen can lay 100,000 eggs at a time. The speed of sound in water is about five times faster than the speed of sound in air. Sound travels at nearly a mile per second in water in 68 degrees Fahrenheit. That's because sound uses molecules to travel. Molecules in water are much closer together than those in air, thus shortening the travel time. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. The word "shrimp" comes from the German "schrumpfen", meaning something that has shriveled or gotten smaller - as some store-bought shrimp seem to do when cooked. Playwright William Wells Brown was the first black American to write a play in the United States. "Escape", or "A Leap for Freedom", was written in 1858. The device that switches off the ringer on a Japanese cell phone is called the "manners button," and its LCD icon is a heart. The baby on the Gerber baby food label was a little girl named Ann Turner. Artist Dorothy Hope Smith drew the picture in 1928. Paul Deschanel (1856-1922) was the only French president who was not born in France. He was born in Belgium and served as president in 1920. The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are known collectively as "The Bill of Rights." The longest street in the world is Yonge Street, which starts in Toronto, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, and winds its way north then west to end at the Ontario-Manitoba-Minnesota border. Peanuts are a vegetable and are from the same family as peas. |
