Some surprising, some tongue-in-cheek. Though I tried to verify everything, take it all with salt.
Since the 1950s, around 90% of
large predatory fish in the ocean are extinct.
There is enough food in the
world currently to feed everyone in it.
Most people have more than the
average number of arms (1).
The average human has slightly
less than 1 testicle & slightly less than 1 ovary (1).
CPR only works 2% of the time.
The world population has
doubled since 1960.
Thirty percent of Medicare
expenditures are attributable to the 5 percent of beneficiaries who die each
year, with 1/3 of that cost occurring in the last month of life (1).
Furthermore, higher end of life spending is correlated with decreased
near-death quality of life (2).
(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361012/
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862687/
(2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862687/
There are two countries on
Earth in which it is legal for a pharmaceutical company to advertise. These are
the United States and New Zealand (1). In the US, drug companies spend more
twice as much money on advertising than on drug research (2).
There are 5.9 popes per square
mile in the Vatican, 11.8 if you count Benedict.
More American soldiers die from
suicide than from fighting in combat.
In America, there are more than
5 empty houses for every homeless person.
Since 2006, no new malls have
been built in the US.
150,000 people die every day.
Venusian days are longer than
Venusian years.
Lunar days are the same length
as Lunar years.
Maine the closest state to
Africa.
Maine the closest state to
Moscow.
Most of South Carolina is North
of the southernmost city of North Carolina.
It is possible to go the rest
of ones life without breathing.
If I raced Usain Bolt, he would
come in second to last; I would come in second.
A standard 52 card deck of
playing cards has
80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000
possible permutations.
If you shuffle a deck, it is a
virtual certainty that you will have a unique permutation.
1990 is closer to the moon
landing than it is to today.
'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo
buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.' is a coherent, grammatically correct
American English sentence (1), as is 'James while John had had had had had had
had had had had had a better effect on the teacher' (2).
The biggest tsunami ever
recorded was 1720 feet Tall (1). The Empire State Building is 1454 feet tall
(2).
Martin Luther King Jr. received
a C in public speaking.
Stalin made a rule that no one
could enter his bedchamber. One night he pretended to scream in agony. A group
of soldiers ran in, and he had them executed for breaking the rules. He later
actually needed help in his room, didn't get it, and died within the week.
A girl born in South Africa has
a higher chance of being raped than learning to read.
One is four times more likely to be struck by lightning and 20
times more likely to drown in a bathtub than to be killed in a terrorist
attack.
If you lived in the United
States in 2013, you were more likely to have been killed by a toddler than by a terrorist.
India and Italy are the
runner-ups for number of in-service aircraft carriers in the world. They each have
two. The US has 10.
Fanta was invented for Nazi
Germany, due to a trade embargo prohibiting the importing of certain
ingredients required to make Coca-Cola.
100% of people die on or within
6 months of their birthday, with the majority dying within 3 months.
People with surnames that begin
with letters near the beginning of the alphabet are more likely to receive a
nobel prize, due to being listed first in papers.
'Give a man a fish, and you
feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime'
was coined around 1885 by Anne Ritchie.
Male puppies purposefully let
females win during playtime.
Pluto has roughly the same
surface area as Russia.
The average cost of a prom
night in the US in 2013 was $1139.
If an empty teaspoon were
dropped from one yard above a neutron star, it would strike the surface of said
star at 4.3 million mph.
1% of Alaska's land is owned by
private citizens.
Reno is farther west than Los
Angeles.
Anyone can be naked anywhere in
Oregon public places at any time as long as there is not 'intent to arouse'
(1). The same goes for Vermont, but local ordinances may bar disrobing in
public, so you would have to leave your house in the nude (2).
Canada has the largest island
in a lake on an island in a lake on an island in the world.
Canada has more coastline than
any other country.
Men are 35% more likely to be
diagnosed with prostate cancer than women are to be diagnosed with breast
cancer.
The US hasn't had a bearded
president since 1893.
Pluto
completed 30% of its orbit around
the sun from the time it was discovered in 1930 to the time it was declassified
as a planet in 2006.
There is no archeological
evidence whatsoever that Jews were ever enslaved in Egypt.
One million seconds is a little
more than 11 days.
One billion seconds is about 31
years.
One trillion seconds is about
31,700 years.
Once you were the youngest
person on Earth (1).
Everyone who was alive when the
oldest person on Earth was born is now dead (2).
Oxford university predates the
Aztec empire.
The White house has been
standing for longer than the Aztecs ruled Tenochtitlan.
Carrots were originally purple.
The Dutch made them orange to match their royal color.
All Bananas are clones.
A group of frogs is called an
army.
A group of owls is called a
parliament.
A group of ferrets is called a
business.
A group of peacocks is called
an ostentation.
A group of parrots is called a
pandemonium.
A group of ravens is called an
unkindness.
A group of rhinos is called a
crash.
A group of crows is called a
murder.
A group of gorillas is called a
band.
Etc..........
The German police force fired
36 shots with intent to harm in 2011, killing 6 people.
Women are more likely to
attempt kill themselves than males, yet men are up to three times more likely
to kill themselves.
11% of earths land is used to
grow crops.
Women have been shown to blink
up to twice as much as men, with the difference enlarging by 32% among women who take oral contraceptives.
In 1963, Stephen Hawking was
told he has two years to live by his doctors.
11% of people use 1234 as their
pin (1). Approximately 26.83% of pins could be guessed within 20 attempts by
using simple combinations such as this (2).
(1)
http://www.businessinsider.com/too-many-people-still-use-1234-as-pin-code-2013-8
(2) http://datagenetics.com/blog/september32012/index.html
(2) http://datagenetics.com/blog/september32012/index.html
Antonio Meucci invented the
telephone.
Marie Curie's research papers
are still highly radioactive. To access them, you must sign a waiver and wear
protective clothing.
More than 75% of American women
dye their hair.
100% of people who sustain
fatal injuries die. 100% of people who do not sustain fatal injuries also die,
including those who read facts on the internet.
Hyperactivity due to sugar
consumption is a myth. The 'sugar rush' is a placebo.
The shroud of Turin has been
comprehensively radiocarbon dated to the medieval period.
Sitting upright in a chair is
bad for your back. The best way to sit in a chair is to slouch at an angle of
135 degrees.
Almost all of the data in the
world has been created in the last few years.
Three countries - Burma,
Liberia, and the US - have not adopted the metric system.
Belief that one is 'not a math
person', resulting from an early failure due to a lack of adequate
preparation, is a good predictor of disengagement and subsequent lifelong lack
of mathematical ability.
The US is the only developed
country in which there is no mandatory parental leave.
The inventor of the fire
hydrant cannot be verified because the only extant copy of the patent for it
was burned in a fire.
Theodore Roosevelt believed in
the sterilization of criminals.
You are probably more likely to
die on the way to buying a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery with
that ticket.
California has a larger
population than Canada.
Vending machines kill more
people than sharks.
The average US adult seemingly
reads at an 8th grade level.
Formula 1 cars traveling near
their top speed could drive on an upside-down road indefinitely, were their
internal components constructed with such a challenge in mind. They could also drive directly up a wall, or at any other angle.
If your commute is more than 45
minutes, you are 40% more likely to get divorced.
British people are intoxicated
in 76% of their FaceBook photos.
In Yakutsk, Russia, the coldest
city on Earth, residents often leave their vehicles running all day, as
starting them is an enterprise. They do not wear glasses because they would
freeze to their face and tear off skin upon removal. Nothing can be
underground, even the water pipes are on the surface, as the entire city sits
atop impenetrable permafrost.
It is estimated that the
Mongols, under Ghengis Khan, killed 10% of the human population, meaning that
Khan may have literally decimated the human race.
The blue whale is so large that
if it were to be laid longways on a basketball court, the game would be
cancelled.
Jellyfish are technically not
fish. Jellyfish are also technically not jelly.
In developed nations, suicide
takes more lives than war, murder, and natural disasters combined. The
worldwide suicide rate has risen 60% since WW2. In the US, the suicide rate has
risen 30% in the last decade.
The distance between the Earth
and the Sun varies by 3 Million miles depending on the time of year.
A lack of friends carries a
higher risk of death than obesity, and is a health risk comparable to smoking
15 cigarettes a day.
Russia did not consider beer an
alcoholic beverage until 2011. Before then, any drink with an alcohol content
of less than 10% was considered a soft drink.
On July 2,2013, the US
government repealed a law that prohibited them from paying to distribute
propaganda domestically.
Helen of Troy is widely known
as "the face that launched a thousand ships". Thus, 1 millihelen is
the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship.
Crows recognize human faces and
hold grudges against people.
If convicted, men receive 63%
longer sentences, and women are twice as likely to avoid incarceration.
Samsung is a full time arms
manufacturer.
Young, single women who do not
have children earn an average 8% more than their male counterparts in 147 of
150 major US cities (1). Women also now earn more than 57% of bachelor degrees (2).
Many nursing homes in Europe
have fake bus stops nearby to keep patients from wandering away.
Awarding people money for
completing IQ tests makes them score higher. It has been shown that 10$
increases IQ scores by up to 20 points. IQ tests therefore partly measure
effort.
In the aftermath of 9/11,
search and rescue dog handlers had to regularly hide in the rubble to keep
their dogs' spirits up, since there were so few survivors.
Denver has more medicinal
marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks.
The human eye can see
ultraviolet light, but the lens passively filters it out. The experience is
whitish blue or whitish violet.
The US has continually been in
a state of emergency since 1933.
It is illegal to run out of
fuel on the autobahn.
An artificial Christmas tree
would have to be used for more than 20 years to have a lesser environmental
impact than getting a real tree every year.
Switzerland has no official
capital.
Alfred Nobel invented dynamite.
90% of the world's population
lives in the northern hemisphere.
There has been only one
confirmed case of a human being struck by a meteorite.
All GPS units sold to civilians
are programmed to deactivate at 1200 mph or 60,000 ft.
Anne Frank and MLK Jr were born
in the same year.
Mammoths were still alive
during the construction of the pyramids.
111,111,111
x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
11^2
is 121
111^2 is 12321
1111^2 is 1234321
Etc.
111^2 is 12321
1111^2 is 1234321
Etc.
.999...= 1
Pepsi owned the world's 7th
largest submarine force for a short time.
The thickness of a piece of
paper folded 42 times would reach the moon.
Hassan Rouhani, Iran's
president, has more cabinet members with PHDs from the US than Barack Obama
does.
There is an island off the
coast of Brazil with 1-5 snakes per square meter. The Brazilian navy has
quarantined it.
Lego is the world's largest
tire manufacturer, by number of tires.
Bots have been shown to account
for 61% of net traffic.
George Washington will always
be the highest ranking general of the US Army. If someone is promoted his
level, a new rank will be invented and posthumously awarded to him so that he
remains the highest.
The largest stadium in the
world is in Pyongyang.
Henry Ford was awarded the
highest honor that could be given to a foreigner by the Nazi party. He is the
only American mentioned in 'Mien Kampf'.
If you do not reproduce you
will literally be the first creature to do so in your specific line going back
all the way to the first cell dividing on earth.
The largest known star is 5
billion times larger than Sol.
There are 7 states in the US
where nonreligious people are explicitly barred from public office.
http://americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2012-05-unelectable-atheists-us-states-that-prohibit-godless
California Has More
Billionaires Than Every Country Except The U.S. And China
If you are seven feet tall and between
the ages of 20 and 40, there is a 17% chance you play or have played in the
NBA.
JP Morgan has 'bailed out' the
US treasury twice.
For 15 years, the US nuclear
launch code was 00000000.
It is illegal to die in
Longyearbyen, Norway.
There are two to four
escalators in Wyoming, depending on who you ask.
1 in 4 to 1 in 5 Greenlanders
attempt suicide.
Sending sound waves through a
submerged air bubble produces light.
75% of tornados occur in the
US.
Correcting for body size, the
male human brain is an average 9% larger than the female brain. Increased
gyrification in women seems to make up the difference, yielding an
approximately even IQ score between men and women.
Authors are 50% more likely to
commit suicide, and creative professions reliably correlate to mental illness.
Many sharks near Australia are
fitted with GPS devices, and Australians receive alerts when a shark enters the
area.
Bridges, tunnels and roads in Switzerland are usually wired to explode, so that the country can
quickly become less easily invaded.
All of the exhumed gold in the
world could be formed into a cube that measures 20.5 meters on a side.
Fruit loops are all the same
flavor and differ only in color.
Insuffulating cocaine increases
the chances of having a heart attack within the hour by 2400%.
29% of San Francisco's air
pollution comes from China.
The terminal velocity of a cat
is generally non-lethal, meaning that cats have difficulty dying from falling.
Medical mistakes are the #3
cause of death in the US.
1/3 of divorce filings in 2011
contained the word 'FaceBook'.
Deaf people usually sneeze silently.
Sharks killed 12 people in the
year 2011. People kill 11,417 roughly sharks per hour.
Slaves did not build the
Pyramids. Nor did aliens.
The most frequently awarded
grade at Harvard is an A, and the median grade is an A-.
There is a neutron star that
spins 716 times every second. The speed at it's equator is 24% the speed of
light.
Consuming asparagus affects the
smell of urine, but only 22-50% of the population can smell the difference.
Pistachios are prone to
spontaneous combustion when stored in large quantities.
The US pledge of allegiance was
conceived by a magazine to sell American flags to public schools.
There are more public libraries
than McDonalds in the US.
Blind people have four times
more nightmares than sighted people.
Coffee is more prone to spills
than beer.
Roughly 2/3 of Americans cannot
name a living scientist.
http://www.researchamerica.org/sites/default/files/uploads/MostAmericansCantNameaLivingScientist.pdf
11% of Indonesians who said
they use FaceBook also said that they do not use the internet.
The national animal of Scotland
is the unicorn.
TIL In 1850 42% of Free Negroes
in Charleston, SC owned slaves.
Having older biological
brothers (not sisters or foster brothers) increases the likelihood of same-sex
orientation in right-handed males (but not left handed), even if the biological
brothers are raised elsewhere. blanchard et al 2006. The effect is sufficiently
strong to account for 1 in 7 gay men.
Homosexual people are more
likely to be left handed than is the general population.
Saddam Hussein got a key to
Detroit.
The US Navy has the 2nd largest
air force in the world, behind the USAF.
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