Facts About Pollution - strangefacts

• Indoor pollution is 10 times more toxic than outdoor pollution

• Corn is used to produce fuel alcohol. Fuel alcohol makes gasoline burn cleaner, reducing air pollution, and it doesn't pollute the water

• 80 percent of all pollution in seas and oceans comes from land-based activities

• Each average-sized tree provides an estimated $7 savings in annual environmental benefits, including energy conservation and reduced pollution

• For every mile driven a motorcycle produces 10 to 20 times more pollution than a new car

• During winter months, 49 percent of soot and other particle pollution in Sacramento is caused by burning wood in fireplaces and wood stoves

• The World Bank reported in 2002 that pollution causes 2.42 billion dollars worth of damage to the Egyptian environment annually - equaling about 5 percent of the country’s annual gross domestic product

• The risk of cancer from breathing diesel exhaust is about ten times more than ingesting all other toxic air pollutants combined, with diesel emissions contributing to over 70% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the USA

• During the 1990s, carbon dioxide emissions increased approximately 1.3% each year. But since 2000, the rate has increased to 3.3% per year, with an estimated annual global CO2 emissions increase of 35% from 1990 to 2006

• A recent study from Toronto Public Health estimates over 440 deaths a year in the Canadian city can be directly attributed to traffic emissions

• According to the US-EPA, emissions from power plants contribute to over 2,800 lung cancer deaths and 38,200 heart attacks annually in the US

Facts About Adolf Hitler - strangefacts

• Adolf Hitler was claustrophobic and installed a mirror in his elevator just to keep him from being scared 

• King Kong was Adolf Hitler's favorite movie

• Adolf Hitler loved chocolate cake

• Adolf Hitler wanted to be an architect, but he failed the entrance exam at the architectural school in Vienna

• Adolf Hitler was one of the people that was responsible in the creation of the Volkswagen Beetle

• Hitler and Napolean both had only one testical

• Adolf Hitler was Time's Man of the Year for 1938

• Richard Marowitz who lives in New Jersey once took one of Adolf Hitler's hats and now keeps it in safety deposit box. The hat is said to be worth $35,000

• Germania was the name Adolf Hitler gave to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin, part of his vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II

• Adolf Hitler's typewriter survived from his mountain retreat and is exhibited at the Hall of History in Bessemer

• During the final days of the war in 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress Eva Braun. Less than 24 hours later, the two committed suicide

• The Holocaust was the systematic annihilation of six million Jews during the Nazi genocide by Hitler and in 1933 nine million Jews lived in the 21 countries of Europe that would be occupied by Nazi Germany during World War 2

• By 1945 two out of every three European Jews had been killed and estimates range as high as 1.5 million murdered children during the Holocaust

• A German businessman trained his dog to do the Hitler salute 

• The Dr Seuss book 'Yertle the Turtle' was based on Adolf Hitler

• The New York phone book has 22 'Hitler' names listed before World War II, and none after

Facts About India - strangefacts

• A 13-year-old boy in India produced winged beetles in his urine after hatching the eggs in his body

• Bill Gates donated close to $100 million to fight AIDS in India. As a percent of his total wealth, this would be comparable to him donating ten cents if he only had $60

• From 1526 to 1707, the first six Mogul emperors of India ruled in unbroken succession from father to son

• In America, 38% of doctors are Indians

• In India, a 9-year-old girl was "married" to a stray dog, which tribal custom requires in order to protect a child whose first tooth appears on the upper gum

• In the marriage ceremony of the Ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other

• Native Indians have been known to paint their doors blue, which they believe keeps the bad spirits out

• Shridhar Chillal from India is known to have the record for the longest fingernails in the world, which were each at least three feet long

• The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system in India, employing over 1.6 million people

• The Uape Indians, who live in the Amazon, mix the ashes of their recently cremated relatives with alcohol, then all members of the family drink the mix with fond memories of the deceased

• 41% world's poor people live in India

• In India, people are legally allowed to marry a dog

• Indians go out to the movies 3 billion times a year - much more than any other nation

• In India, people do not wear shoes in the kitchen because some food is prepared on the floor

• The world’s largest recorded gathering of people was at a Hindu religious festival in India in 1989. It was attended by about 15 million people

• The Aztec Indians of Mexico believed turquoise would protect them from physical harm, and so warriors used these green and blue stones to decorate their battle shields

• The Aztec Indians in Central America used animal blood mixed with cement as a mortar for their buildings, many of which still remain standing today

• When the U.S. War Department was established in 1789, there were 840 soldiers in the regular army. Their job was to supervise public lands and guard the Indian frontier

• The Taj Mahal complex in India was built between 1631 and 1634 at a cost of about 40-million rupees

• Under the Travancore kingdom of Kerala, India, low caste women had to pay a tax for the right to cover their upper body

Facts About Cats - strangefacts

• Napoleon was terrified of cats

• One-third of all asthma cases in the United States is related to an allergy to cats

• King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats

• Babies that are exposed to cats and dogs in their first year of life have a lower chance of developing allergies when they grow older

• In 1888, an Egyptian peasant discovered an estimated three hundred thousand mummified cats in Beni Hassan, Egypt

• In Ancient Egypt, cats were often buried with their masters, or in a special cemetery for cats

• Reports from owners of cats and dogs indicate that 21% of dogs and 7% of cats snore

• Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the death of their cats

• Cats and people both have identical regions in the brain responsible for emotion

• There are 75 million cats in the U.S., with 35.5% of the nation's households having at least one cat

• There are more than 500 million domestic cats in the world, with 33 different breeds

• The domestic cat is the only cat species able to hold its tail vertically while walking. All wild cats hold their tails horizontally or tucked between their legs while walking

• Cats have 290 bones in their bodies, and 517 muscles and cats knead with their paws when they're happy

• The most popular names for female cats in the U.S. are Missy, Misty, Muffin, Patches, Fluffy, Tabitha, Tigger, Pumpkin and Samantha

• The richest cat in the Guinness Book of World Records is a pair of cats who inherited $415,000 in the early '60s. The richest single cat is a white alley cat who inherited $250,000

Facts About Thomas Edison - strangefacts

• Thomas Edison had a collection of over 5,000 birds 

• Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

• Thomas Edison' s first major invention was the quadruplex telegraph

• As a boy, Thomas Edison suffered a permanent hearing loss from head injury

• A person sneezing was the first action caught on video by Thomas Edison

• Thomas Edison once designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder that blew up his factory

• Anthea Turner, Walt Disney, Tom Cruise, Susan Hampshire, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Edison, Henry Winkler, Cher, Brian Conley, and Leonardo DaVinci are, or were, dyslexic 

• 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb

• Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory

• Thomas Edison once saved a boy from the path of an oncoming locomotive who was a station official's child. For his bravery, the boy's father taught Edison how to use the telegraph

• During one four-year period, Thomas Edison obtained 300 patents, or one every five days

• Lazy Susans are named after Thomas Edison's daughter. He invented it to impress a gathering of industrialists and inventors

• When Thomas Edison was a youngster, his teacher told him he was too stupid to learn anything. He was counseled to go into a field where he might succeed by virtue of his pleasant personality

• The public saw an electric light for the first time in Louisville. Thomas Edison introduced his incandescent light bulb to crowds at the Southern Exposition in 1883

• The light bulb, phonograph (record player), motion picture projector were invented by Thomas Edison in his Menlo Park laboratory

Facts About Stonehenge - strangefacts

• Stonehenge is surely Britain's greatest national icon, symbolizing mystery, power and endurance. Its original purpose is unclear to us, but some have speculated that it was a temple made for the worship of ancient earth deities  

• Of all the world’s famous monuments, none has gained as much of a reputation for pure, simple mystery as Stonehenge

• Stonehenge has been inspiring debate among scholars, scientists, and historians since the Middle Ages

• Stonehenge is located in the English countryside, the landmark is believed to date back to 2500 BC, and consists of several mammoth pieces of rock arranged and piled on top of one another in what appears at first to be a random design

• The site is surrounded by a small, circular ditch, and is flanked by burial mounds on all sides

• Although the rock formations that still remain are undoubtedly impressive, it is thought that the modern version of Stonehenge is only a small remnant of a much larger monument that was damaged with the passing of time

• It is believed that the ditch was dug with tools made from the antlers of red deer and, possibly, wood

• It is largely believed that the building process was so extensive that it could have lasted on and off for anywhere from 1500 to 7000 years

• About 2,000 BC, the first stone circle (which is now the inner circle), comprised of small bluestones, was set up, but abandoned before completion

• The stones used in that first circle are believed to be from the Prescelly Mountains, located roughly 240 miles away, at the southwestern tip of Wales

• The bluestones weigh up to 4 tons each and about 80 stones were used, in all. Given the distance they had to travel, this presented quite a transportation problem

• The Neolithic people who built the monument left behind no written records, so scientists can only base their theories on the meager evidence that exists at the site

• This has led to wild speculation that the monument was left by aliens, or that it was built by some eons-old society of technologically advanced super-humans

• All craziness aside, the most common explanation remains that Stonehenge served as some kind of graveyard monument that played a role in the builders’ version of the afterlife, a claim that is backed up by its proximity to several hundred burial mounds

• Another theory suggests that the site was a place for spiritual healing and the worship of long dead ancestors

Facts About Sphinx of Egypt - strangefacts

• Sphinxes are massive stone statues that depict the body of a reclining lion with the head and face of a human

• The Great Sphinx's paws and head are out of proportion, suggesting there may have been an even larger, earlier statue which was adapted

• Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid - around 4,500 years ago

• Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation

• The figures are found all over the world in different forms, but they are most commonly linked with Egypt, which features the most famous example in the form of the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Incredibly, the statue is carved out of one monolithic piece of rock, and at 240 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet tall, it is considered to be the biggest monument of its kind in the world

• Historians largely accept the function of the Sphinx to have been that of a symbolic guardian, since the statues were strategically placed around important structures like temples, tombs, and pyramids

• It stands adjacent to the pyramid of the pharaoh Khafra, and most archeologists believe that it is his face that is depicted on that of the statue

• Despite its reputation as one of the most famous monuments of antiquity, there is still very little known about the Great Sphinx of Giza

• Egyptologists might have a small understanding of why the statue was built, but when, how, and by who is still shrouded in mystery

• The pharaoh Khafra is the main suspect, which would date the structure back to around 2500 BC, but other scientists have argued that evidence of water erosion of the statue suggests that it is much older and perhaps even predated the dynastic era of the Egyptians

• This theory has few modern adherents, but if true it would mean the Great Sphinx of Giza is even more mysterious than previously believed