Weekly Facts

December 30, 2020: Weekly Facts #53

7-Up was invented in 1929 and contained lithium citrate until 1948. It is now prescribed to treat bipolar disorder.

A nook is a corner or small area in a larger room where a cranny is a crack or small narrow space.

Hershey’s Kiss got its name from the puckering sound made by the manufacturing equipment as it looks like it is kissing the conveyor belt as it drops the the chocolate.

A platypus doesn’t smell or hear and uses electroreceptors to hunt for food.

The first recorded pizzeria in the U.S. was in 1905 by Gennaro Lombari in New York City.

December 30, 2020: Weekly Facts #52

The average person dreams around 1,460 to 2,190 times a year.

The first people to use straws to drink liquids were done by the Sumerians and Egyptians. They used it to drink their beer.

Around 3.6 million Japanese people eat KFC and strawberry shortcake and KFC for their Christmas dinner.

Dr. Percy Spencer was responsible for creating the microwave after a chocolate bar melted in his pocket d while testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron.

Elizabeth Magie, the creator of The Landlord’s Game, is the precursor to Monopoly. She was the true inventor of Monopoly and not Charles Darrow.

December 17, 2020: Weekly Facts #51

Lina Medina was almost six years when she gave birth to her son in 1939. She was the youngest person to give birth and lived in Peru. She is still living today.

Walt Disney World Resort is 30,500 acres, about the same size as San Francisco.

Everyone has a unique odor that sets them apart.

The word set, run, go, take, stand has 300+ definitions in the English language.

Our bodies have 3 billion genetic base pairs and 99.9% of them are similar among humans.

December 16, 2020: Weekly Facts #50

There’s around 100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.

Penny Black is the oldest postage stamp and was used in the mid-1800s United Kingdom.

Since space is a vacuum, a laser beam would not be visible in Star Wars. You would not hear explosions either if they occurred.

It is illegal to run out of gas in Youngstown, Ohio and illegal to swear from your car in Rockville, Maryland.

Ketchup according to the company Heinz exits a glass bottle at a rate of 0.028 miles per hour.

December 10, 2020: Weekly Facts #49

It is nearly impossible to overdose on caffeine, but it is possible for it to cause cardiac arrhythmia.

Sequoia or redwood trees are the largest tree in the U.S. They are found in Northern California and the western Sierra Nevada range of California.

A cat named Skittles walked 350 miles from Wisconsin to Minnesota after being lost on a family vacation in 2002. When the cat returned, it had been 140 days.

Montpelier, Vermont is the only capital in the U.S. that doesn’t have a McDonald’s.

The average American consumes about 8.7 liters per year.

December 1, 2020: Weekly Facts #48

Soy milk doesn’t need to be refrigerated until after it’s opened.

Clinical lycanthropy is a delusion where a person thinks s/he has transformed into an animal.

Kellogg’s corn flakes and graham crackers were developed to curb sexual urges.

The process of making soup is around 25,000 years old.

Mall of America in the U.S. has more than 2,779,242 million feet of retail space with stores, restaurants, aquarium, and a Nickelodeon theme park.

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA opened in 1937. It had 80,000 miles of steel wire cables that connected the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean. It was 4,200 feet wide/1,280 meters wide and 746 feet tall/227 meters tall.

November 22, 2020: Weekly Facts #47

Mechanical purpura is the medical term for a hickey which is basically a bruise.

The longest running TV soap opera drama was Guiding Light, which was cancelled in 2009 after 57 years.

Cornish Rex are one of the most intelligent cats.

Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt weighs about 6,500,000 tons with each block being around 2.5 tons.

It was common for Victorian aged boys to wear dresses and wear the color pink.

November 14, 2020: Weekly Facts #46

The longest verified record for continuous hula hoop spinning is held by Aaron Hibbs from Columbus, Ohio. He spun his hoop for 74 hours and 54 minutes in 2009 over three days.

Istanbul in Turkey, Suez in Egypt, Magnitogorsk in Russia, Orenburg in Russia, and Atyrau in Kazakhstan are the cities located in on two continents.

Chewing gum can reduce stress and help with overeating.

When the Big Mac and Hot Apple Pie was first sold in 1968 at McDonalds.

It cost 37,500 thousand for a commercial to run on Super Bowl Sunday in 1967 compared to 5.6 million in 2020.

Aprosexia is the inability to sustain attention.

November 6, 2020: Weekly Facts #45

Japan has 6,852 islands that are not remote with the main five being Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Okinawa.  It is the largest island country is East Asia.

There are around 8.7 million species on earth. 

The average person blinks 25 times per minute.

About 40% of people peak into someone’s medicine cabinet.

The longest beard recorded is Hans Nilsen Langseth from Norway.  His beard was 17 feet and 6 inches long.

October 28, 2020: Weekly Facts #44

Margaret Knight was the American inventor of the paper bag. 

Coca-Cola has more than 3,500 beverages and 500 different brands.

Dog bites on humans account for the highest number out of all animal bites on humans.

The countries with the most gold reserves are India, Netherland, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, China, France, Italy, Germany, and USA.

The average trick-or-treater has between 3,000 to 7,000 calories in each Halloween bag.

October 23, 2020: Weekly Facts #43

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge, 17.91 mm in diameter and 1.35 mm in thickness. 

Brown and black hair are the most common, followed by blond, and the rarest color is red at one to two percent of the population.

Before digital cameras and camera phones, there was the pinhole and photographic camera.

Theodor Seuss Geisel received a Pulitzer Prize award for Lifetime of Contributions to Children’s Literature in 1984.  He died at the age of 87 in California.

White hot chocolate drink is about 590 calories for a venti, which is one of the highest caloric drinks from Starbucks.

There are three types of distractions while driving: visual, manual, and cognitive.  Due to cellphone usage, manual is the number one distraction that causes accidents. 

October 17, 2020: Weekly Facts #42

October 12^th is international moment of frustration scream day where people from Greenwich scream for 30 seconds to let out their frustrations.

Dark chocolate has more cacao in it, which makes it darker and purer.  Milk chocolate is lighter in color because it has milk or condensed milk in it.

The California Gold Rush happened between 1848 and 1855.  It started in Coloma, California and it led to an influx of people where it is the largest state in the U.S today.

The oldest casino in the world is Casino de Vencia in Italy and was built in 1638 and the oldest casino in the U.S. is Golden Gate Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and was built in 1906.   

The country with the highest birth rate is Angola where there are 44.20 births out of 1,000 people per year and country with the lowest birth rate is Monaco where there are 6.6 births out of 1,000 people per year.

October 5, 2020: Weekly Facts #41

The world’s first skyscraper was the Home Insurance building in Chicago.  It was 138 feet tall with 10 stories, built in 1885, and demolished in 1931.

There are 12 federal reserve banks in the U.S. created under the Federal Reserve Act of 1913.  They are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco.   

Edward Nairne invented the first eraser and Joseph Priestly first discovered the erasing properties of rubber.

Due to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert getting married, it became the norm for wedding dresses to be white.

When people die, their bodies go through a process called pallor mortis within minutes of the heart stopping, livor mortis when gravity pulls blood down the body, and rigor mortis when the body stiffens.

September 29, 2020: Weekly Facts #40

The most abused drug in the world is caffeine.  There’s about 47 mg of caffeine in 8 ounces of black tea and 96 mg of caffeine in 8 ounces of coffee.  Green tea has less caffeine at 28 mg and obviously decaf has the least amount of caffeine.  

Emerson Spartz flew from Chicago to London to buy the 5^th Harry Potter book.  He is the founder of the Dose and MuggleNet (a Harry Potter fan site). It is the longest distance someone traveled to buy a book at 3,950 miles. 

Women apologize to others more than men and men get in more fights during stressful situations than women.

Bootylicious, bitch-slap, emoji, fake news were added to the Oxford dictionary within the last 20 years. 

Panama hats are also called Ecuadorian hats and usually worn in the summer due to their lightness and breathability.

September 21, 2020: Weekly Facts #39

The costliest Apple product is the Mac Pro that can price as high as around 52,000 dollars.

There’s a long list of things that can kill or shrink brain cells, but the brain does have the ability to repair itself by growing new cells.  It is called neurogenesis.

Oklahoma has more manmade lakes than any other state with the largest lake called Eufaula.

Harry Truman was the last president to not have a college degree.

Some of the most dangerous high school and college sports are cheerleading, gymnastics, football, rugby, hockey, and basketball.

September 14, 2020: Weekly Facts #38

Spongebob Squarepants creator, Stephen Hillenburg, studied marine biology.

The Beastie Boys’ album Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to go to number on the Billboard charts in 1986, followed by Tone Loc’s Loc-ed in 1989, MC Hammer’s Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ‘Em in 1990, Vanilla Ice’s To the Extreme in 1990, and N.W.A’s Efil4zaggin in 1991

Flying car prototypes do exist like the Terrafugia Transition and LaBiche FSC-1.

The last execution by hanging in the United States was in 1996 in Delaware and last execution by electric chair in 2018 in Tennessee.

Four is the only number that has the same amount of letters as its actual value.

September 9, 2020: Weekly Facts #37 

In the late 1800s and early 1900s it was thought to be good to bath your baby in lard for their first bath in Europe and America.

Sharing makeup, combs and brushes, nail clippers, razors, and toothbrushes are good way to spread infections and diseases.

The highest mountain is Mount Everest/Sagamatha/Chomolungma at 8,848 meters or 29,029 feet.  Its range is called Mahalangur Himalaya and is in Nepal and China.

Vacuuming is about 70 (decibels) dB, chainsaw running is about 110 dB, and pain threshold is around 130 db.  If you get a chance to hear a plane take off or gunshot, that is about 140 dB.  This doesn’t come close to the whale.  It can reach as high as 230 dB.

One of the most haunted places in the world is Hoia-Baciu forest in Romania with sightings of UFOs and ghosts. One of the most haunted places in the USA is the Eastern State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania where paranormal activity has been heard such as laughter and footsteps.

September 4, 2020: Weekly Facts #36

Composting can be done in high altitudes and lower temperatures but with more patience and skill.

Chris Putnam hacked into Facebook and made thousands of profiles to look like MySpace profiles and then Facebook hired him as an engineer.

The oldest known brewery is in Haifa, Israel that was probably used in rituals.

Humans look different in terms of hair color, eye color, skin color, weight, height, and more but human DNA is genetically similar 99.9% to each other.   We share more common DNA with apes compared to insects.

Tigers have striped skin and fur.

There are 293 ways to make a change for a dollar.

 August 25, 2020: Weekly Facts #35

The longest mustache belongs to Ram Singh Chauhan from Italy.  It is 14 feet or 4.29 meters long.

Melatonin was created by Richard Wurtman to help with insomnia.

French fries are usually dipped in ketchup (highly American style) or mayonnaise (highly un-American style) but other things include guacamole, ranch dressing, barbeque sauce, malt vinegar, melted cheese, brown gravy, and marinara sauce.

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a rare brain disorder that causes sufferers to speak involuntarily in a foreign accent.

The most complete human ancestor skeleton is 3.6 million years old named Little Foot and the oldest human ancestor skeleton is 4.4 million years old named Ardi.

August 25, 2020: Weekly Facts #34

Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture and is the slowest moving planet. 

Around 75% of Americans don’t have a plan for retirement.

The highest paid teachers are in Luxembourg at $138,000 while the lowest highest paid teachers are in Estonia at $17,000.

Tasmania, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and Estonia are some countries with the cleanest air while some of the most polluted countries belong to India, Egypt, UAE, Pakistan, and Myanmar.

August 10, 2020: Weekly Facts #33

Workplace bullying affects between 20 to 30% of people. Most of the bullies are men and women who bully tend to bully other women. 

Disneyland was built in one year and finished in 1955 and cost 17.5 million dollars.  Cost of admission was one dollar. 

Left-Handers Day started in 1992 to make awareness of the difficulties of being left handed.

The actual communication from Apollo 13 was “Houston we’ve had a problem.”

Cochineal from beetles has been used since the 15th century as a coloring agent in foods and cosmetics. 

August 6, 2020: Weekly Facts #32

A mosquito’s saliva acts as an anesthetic, and only pregnant females bite humans.

Fastest speed of a baseball thrown was done by Aroldis Chapman at 105.1 mph. 

The summer and winter on Uranus lasts 42 years each.

The spots of light you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes  It is seeing light without it entering your eye.  They are created by movement associated with optic neuritis.

Most bank robberies occur on Friday, in the morning between 9 and 11, and in southern and western states.

July 25, 2020: Weekly Facts #31

This is for next week but at this rate, aren’t all these weeks just blending together like one nice vegetable soup during the winter. Besides I’m trying to move the pending blog entries into the posted blog entries for some reason. Probably because things have been sitting there for a while and want to clear things out.

While other drugs are much more addictive, alcohol remains the top drug to be the most overall harmful to the self and others.

There is an inner solar system including the planets and asteroids.  Think Earth, Mars, Venus (rotates clockwise), and Mercury.  There is an outer solar system including planets.  Think Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Bacteria grow fast such as the Clostridium perfringens and Esherichia coli.  They can double in size between four to 20 minutes.

The animal/insect with the shortest lifespan is the mayfly.  They live only 24 hours and have a distinctive smell.

Caterpillars have about 4,000 muscles where humans have about 800 muscles.

July 23, 2020: Weekly Facts #30

Beaver castor sacs hold castoreum that is used in some perfumes, as a food additive, and flavor contributor to cigarettes. 

Bookkeeper and its derivatives are the only words in the English with three consecutive double letters.

The oldest hotel in the world is Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan that was built in 705 in Hayakawa, Japan.  It has 35 rooms and owned by the Mahito family.

Before Steve Chen was co-founder of YouTube, he worked for PayPal and Facebook.  In 2006, he sold YouTube to Google for 1.65 billion dollars.

British Army officers had to wear mustaches to fit the dress regulations in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

Having a broken heart heart leads to all kinds of emotional stress, but it can also lead to heart attack symptoms. It is known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy.

July 20, 2020: Weekly Facts #29

Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother’s womb for survival because they are often fertilized by different males. 

A 150-pound adult would weigh 57 pounds on Mercury but 136.5 pounds on Venus and would weigh the most on Jupiter at 351 pounds.

S.O.S is for MAYDAY and not Save Our Ship when people are stranded and need help.

Termites do more than just eat buildings.  They also eat dead wood and grass, fertilize the earth, and make landscapes more resilient through their digging.  There are over 2,000 different kinds and about 27 of them only eat buildings.

About 54% of Americans live close to where they grew up and Nevada’s population comprises about 20% of born and raised people.  About 44 million people in the U.S. were born in a different country which makes up about 14% of its population.

July 9, 2020: Weekly Facts #28

Legos since 1963 are made from acylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). This plastic is heated and then injected into molds. It says it will find an alternative to this plastic by 2030.

The average time after you call 911 in the U.S. is 10 minutes. Often it takes longer in larger cities as it is also based on the number of calls at the time, number of officers on duty, and number of officers to respond to the situation.

The left handed writing people account for around 10% to 15% of the population, and some famous people include Barack Obama, Prince Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Marie Curie and Benjamin Franklin, Michelangelo, and Julius Caesar.

A horse carriage can get up to speeds of 10-30 mph or 16-48 km/h. They were popular in the 1880s and early 1900s. If you feel the need to buy a horse and carriage, the horse and carriage each costs around 1500 dollars and up. The top race horses are often sold between 10 to 30 million dollars and sometimes more. Most people use cars for transportation today and not worth millions of dollars. The fastest car today is the Bugatti Chiron that can get up to 304 mph or 490 km/h. If you need to go that fast, you can buy it for 3.9 million dollars.

If you eat a whole bunch of fries around 600 calories, it will take you around 1.5 hours to burn it off by swimming, around 3 hours of walking, around 1 hour of running, around 2.15 hours of biking, and around 1 hour of tennis. The more you weigh, the less time it will take, but sometimes this isn’t a good thing as in being overweight or obese.

July 9, 2020: Weekly Facts #27

There are five types of climate on Earth. They are tropical, dry, temperate, continental, and polar.

The largest body of water is the Pacific Ocean with a maximum depth of 11,022 meters and area of 179,650,000 square kilometers. The second is the Atlantic Ocean with a maximum depth of 9,212 meters and area of 106,100,000 square kilometers. The third is the Indian Ocean with maximum depth of 7,450 meters and area of 74,900,000 square kilometers. The fourth is the Artic Ocean with maximum depth of 7,450 meters and area of 13,230,000 square kilometers.

There are side and top loading hot dog buns, but they all probably originated from Americans thinking Germans who ate sausages on buns looked like dachshunds.

There are different kinds of burns such as friction, cold (frostbite), thermal, chemical, radiation, and electrical. Based on the severity of the burn, it ranges from first to fourth-degree burn. The first-degree is the least painful and dangerous. Think of a sunburn where the outer layer (epidermis) of skin burns. Second-degree burns burn the outer layer as well as the middle layer (dermis). Think of scalding hot water on your hand where blisters will form and maybe scarring. Third-degree burns burn the outer and middle layer to the point of damaging nerves. The fatty tissue is burned as well. Think long exposure to hot surfaces and flames. Fourth-degree burns is life threatening where all layers of the skin is burned. Think wide consuming fire and not able to escape in time.

Tart cherry juice or tart cherries is the fruit with the most melatonin. Other fruits and grains with melatonin are pineapples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, oats, sweet corn, rice, and barley.

June 25, 2020: Weekly Facts #26

Shopping malls take up a lot of space around the world.  The largest shopping mall is the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. It is 2,869,000 square feet or 266,500 meters.  It has 555 stores and was built in 1992.

The first lawnmower was invented by Edwin Beard Budding in 1830 in England.  It was granted a British patent on August 31, 1830.

McDonald’s salads make up only 2 to 3% of their sales but sells more than 75 hamburgers every second and is the largest toy distributor in the world.

The blood in the shower scene in Psycho was chocolate syrup because it read better on black and white film.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone has been translated into 80 languages, sold more than 500 copies, made into a movie along with all the other books in the series, and is part of Universal Parks with The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

The word ‘planet’ is from the Greek word planēt meaning “wanderer” because planets moved while the stars remained still.

June 25, 2020: Weekly Facts #25

Mercury poisoning is a slow process. The long terms effects can be uncontrollable shaking, numbness on the skin, double vision, memory problems, seizures, coordination issues, and in some cases death. This is also the reason to be careful about eating certain fish.

Back in the day, there were barber surgeons (not well trained) and physicians (well trained). The poor and common people had to rely on the barber surgeons for medical treatment such as teeth pulling, amputation, and bloodletting.

The first Rolls Royce in 1906 sold for $784 and would be around $295,000 today.

The first hair dryer/blow dryer was created in the 1890 by Alexander F. Godefroy in France. This version you had to sit down and was not portable. The first handheld hair dryer was used in 1920.

After the first mechanical dishwasher was created in 1850, by Joel Houghton, it was Josephine Cochrane and George Butters that created a better one in 1886. It was displayed at the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago.

June 14, 2020: Weekly Facts #24

McDonald’s is not known for their healthy food. The menu item with the most calories seems to be the large triple thick raspberry milkshake at 1,090 calories although if you eat anything in large portions, it will pack a bunch of calories. The breakfast meals, frappes, and large orders of any menu item will put you over the top for daily calories by the end of the day.

Any free-moving liquid including water will form itself into a sphere in outer space. This is because of its surface which is like an elastic skin.

It would take around and hour for an object to fall to the deepest part of the ocean although this is depending on the weight of the object among other factors.

Brazil is the larger than all the 48 contiguous states in the United States. Brazil has a landmass of about 3.53 million square miles where the US (contiguous) has around three million square miles.

The brain tells your body how to function by nerves. The brain has four lobes: front, parietal, occipital, and temporal. It uses about 25% oxygen in order to work properly. If it doesn’t get that amount it goes into cerebral or brain hypoxia.

June 4, 2020: Weekly Facts #23

It takes about 75,000 crocus flowers or Crocus sativus to produce one pound of saffron. It is the most expensive spice in the world by weight.

Beer is any fermented beverage made with cereal grain. It basically had four ingredients of grain (barley malt), hops (flower cones), yeast, and water. Water makes up about 95% of beer.

The moon’s orbit moves about one and half inches away from Earth every year. The Earth rotates faster than the moon which creates a bulge and pushes the moon into a higher orbit.

Monaco is the world’s second smallest nation and borders France. The native people are called Monégasques and the majority of the population left are French nationals, Italians, and British. It has the highest number of millionaires and billionaires per capita and has a high cost of living.

The word robot was first used in 1922. It’s origins come from the Czechoslovakian word robata (compulsory labor).

May 27, 2020: Weekly Facts #22

There are basically three types of lightning.  One is the intracloud (IC) that occurs within a single thundercloud unit.  Two is the cloud to cloud or intercloud (CC) that starts and ends between two different thundercloud units.  Three is cloud to ground (CG), that originates in the thundercloud and terminates on an Earth surface.

The highest proof alcohol ranges from Spirytus at 192 (96% alcohol) to Clarke’s Court Spicy Rum at 138 ( 69% alcohol).  The others include Everclear and Golden Grain at 190 (95%), Bruichladdich X4 Quadrupled Whiskey at 184 (92%), River Antoine Royale Grenadian Rum at 180 (90%), Hapsburg Gold Label Premium Reserve Absinthe at 179 (89.9%), Pincer Shanghai Strength at 177 (88.8%), Balkan 176 Vodka at 176 (88%), John Crow Batty Rum at 160 (80%), Bacardi 151 at 151 (75.5%), and King of Spirits Absinthe at 140 (70%).

Gum has a long history but in 1914 Wrigley’s Doublement became a household gum.  It was created by William Wrigley and Henry Fleer.

There is no lead in pencils but graphite.  The #2 pencil is used in schools.  The different kinds of pencils range from 9H to 9B with HB in the middle.  The darker the graphite, the higher B number.  The lighter the graphite, the higher H number. 

Beer is split into two classifications: ales and lagers.  Ales are older than lagers.  Ales are fermented at warm temperatures while lagers are fermented at cold temperatures.  There’s also hybrid and specialty beers.

Silver, aluminum, gold, platinum, brass, bronze, and copper are metals that don’t rust.

May 20, 2020: Weekly Facts #21

The longest a human has held his or her breath under water is Aleix Segura Vendrell.  As a professional free diver, he held his breath for 24:03 in February 2016 in Barcelona, Spain.

Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest planetary mountain in the solar system since 1971 when it was discovered.  It is around 22 kilometers or 13.6 miles or 72,000 feet) tall and 600 kilometers or 370 miles wide.  It is still considered the tallest mountain despite Rhesilvia’s discovering on Vesta in 2011.

Black pepper, cocoa beans, animal pelts, arrowheads, and laundry detergent are a few forms of past or present currency.

Jennifer Sharpe from Michigan holds the record for most girl scout cookies sold in during a single year with 17,328 boxes totaling $14,000 in 2008.

Out of all the regions in the U.S., the Midwest spends the lowest average cost for an engagement ring at around $5,300 where the Mid Atlantic spends the highest average cost around $7,500.

May 16, 2020: Weekly Facts #20

The gaming franchise to earn the most money is Mario.  It is owned by Nintendo and has earned an estimated 32.4 billion dollars as of 2019.

Q is the only letter that doesn’t appear in any state in the United States.

Some cheese, jerky, peanut butter, oatmeal, salad dressing, margarine, pickles, yogurt, popcorn, protein bars, canned fruit have artificial food coloring.

The first interracial kiss on TV was on the British soap opera called Emergency Ward in 1964.

Spoons are older than knives and both are older than forks when it comes to eating.

In the beginning it cost around 25,000 to 30,000 dollars to broadcast the yellow first-down line in a football game and was first used live in 1997.

May 10, 2020: Weekly Facts #19

The Hollywoodland Sign was built in 1923 and originally cost $21,000.   The letters were 30 feet wide and 50 feet tall.  It was lit by 4,000 light bulbs.  The “land” was removed in 1945 and the old letters were replaced with steel letters in 1978.  The donors included Terrence Donnelly, Giovanni Mazza, Les Kelley, Gene Autry, Hugh Hefner,Andy Williams, Alice Cooper on behalf of Groucho Marx, Warner Bros. Records, and Thomas Pooleyon behalf of Michael Williams.  It is 450 feet wide and still 50 feet tall.

The top five imports into the U.S. is electronic equipment, machines and engines, vehicles, fuel, and pharmaceuticals.

The Sound of Music was the first movie to reach 100 million dollars in the U.S. and Canada during its initial release.  Titanic was the first movie to reach 500 million dollars in the U.S. and Canada during its initial release. Star Wars:  The Force Awakens was the first movie to reach 900 million dollars in the U.S. and Canada during its initial release.  Only two films, Avengers: Endgame and Avatar have reached 2.5 billion dollars worldwide.

A duffle bag got its name from a town called Duffel in Belgium.  It also goes by the name kit bag or sea bag and is made usually from canvas.

May 4, 2020: Weekly Facts #18

The world’s largest pyramid is in Cholula de Rivadabia, Puebla, Mexico.  It is called the Great Pyramid of Cholula or Tlachihualtepetla.  It stands 55 meters or 180 feet and  measures 450 by 450 meters  or 1,480 by 1,480 feet. The pyramid has been viewed being dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl.

MIT, Harvard, and Beth Israel Deaconess scientists say there is evidence that the human brain can be persuaded to change their moral judgments by using a powerful magnetic field.  This translates into scrambling the moral center of the brain so people have more difficulty in understanding intentions and outcomes.

When you eat lunch or dinner, get a haircut, get a massage, the standard practice is to tip in the United States.  Not doing so is looked down upon but not if you live in Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan, etc although some of these countries have service fees.

The human tooth can’t repair lost enamel but each tooth has about 55 miles of canals.  Most people have 20 baby teeth and 32 adult teeth.  If you smoke, you will lose about two teeth every 10 years.

Cinco de Mayo is to commemorate the Mexican Army’s victory at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.  In the United States, it is celebrated to commemorate Mexican-American culture.  Mexico’s Independence Day, independence from Spain, is in the fall on September 16th.

April 27, 2020: Weekly Facts #17

Game of Thrones fans passed character names onto their own children with the most popular names being Arya, Khalessi, Daenerys, and Yara.  The male names were less popular of Tyrion, Jorah, Theon, and Jaime.

The United States is responsible for 12% of all waste with 4% of the global population.  On the other hand, China and India account for 36% of the global population but generates 27% of waste.  The world produces a lot of trash and around 2.3 billion tons of solid waste each year. 

Humans can grow protrusions or horns and is made of keratin, the same protein in nails and hair.  This condition is called cornu cutaneum.

Henry H. Goddard, a psychologist and eugenicist, created the IQ test.  The IQ scores meant you were either gifted (130+), normal (71-129), moron (70-51), imbecile (50-26), or idiot (0-25).

A snood is a type of hairnet used to cover facial hair or head hair when working around food.

International DNA Day is a United States holiday on 4/25.  It acknowledges James Watson, Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin’s discovery of the DNA structure in 1953. 

 April 20, 2020: Weekly Facts #16

There are basically three types of lightning.  One is the intracloud (IC) that occurs within a single thundercloud unit.  Two is the cloud to cloud or intercloud (CC) that starts and ends between two different thundercloud units.  Three is cloud to ground (CG), that originates in the thundercloud and terminates on an Earth surface.

The highest proof alcohol ranges from Spirytus at 192 (96% alcohol) to Clarke’s Court Spicy Rum at 138 ( 69% alcohol).  The others include Everclear and Golden Grain at 190 (95%), Bruichladdich X4 Quadrupled Whiskey at 184 (92%), River Antoine Royale Grenadian Rum at 180 (90%), Hapsburg Gold Label Premium Reserve Absinthe at 179 (89.9%), Pincer Shanghai Strength at 177 (88.8%), Balkan 176 Vodka at 176 (88%), John Crow Batty Rum at 160 (80%), Bacardi 151 at 151 (75.5%), and King of Spirits Absinthe at 140 (70%).

Gum has a long history but in 1914 Wrigley’s Doublement became a household gum.  It was created by William Wrigley and Henry Fleer.

There is no lead in pencils but graphite.  The #2 pencil is used in schools.  The different kinds of pencils range from 9H to 9B with HB in the middle.  The darker the graphite, the higher B number.  The lighter the graphite, the higher H number. 

Beer is split into two classifications: ales and lagers.  Ales are older than lagers.  Ales are fermented at warm temperatures while lagers are fermented at cold temperatures.  There’s also hybrid and specialty beers.

Silver, aluminum, gold, platinum, brass, bronze, and copper are metals that don’t rust.

April 9, 2020: Weekly Facts #15

One of the first lighters was invented by the German chemist named Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner in 1823.  The match was used in China around the 577 AD.  The Zippo lighter was invented by George Grant Blaisdell in 1932.  Friction matches (invented by John Walker) and safety matches are still used today. 

Women started removing their hair back in the day of ancient Rome and Egypt.  Razors were originally made of copper around 3000 BCE and tweezers were first used around the 6th century.  It went even further when bare skin was more visible, thus the shaving of armpits and legs.  

The top five fast food chains to dominate the world are McDonalds, Subway, Starbucks, KFC, and Burger King where all bring in billions of profit every year.

Nicotine is also used in insecticide, starting in the late 1600s.  China uses neonicotinoids in their food, but there are levels they can’t exceed if that makes you feel any better.

The most expensive coffee in the world is called Luwak coffee from Indonesia.  It costs $160 per pound. It amounts to fermented coffee cherries excreted by Asian civets.  The tenth most expensive coffee in the world is called Yauco Selecto AA from Puerto Rico.  It costs $24 per pound.

April 4, 2020: Weekly Facts #14

The U.S. and Canadian border is the longest border in the world without military.  It is around 5,525 miles or 8,891 kilometers long.  The 13 states touching Canada is Alaska, Michigan, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Washington, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, New Hampshire, Idaho, and Pennsylvania.  The eight provinces touching the U.S. is Ontario, British Columbia, Yukon, Quebec, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Manitoba, and Alberta.

Captain Kirk Never said, ‘Beam me up Scotty’ in any Star Trek episode or movie.  The most interesting usage of the phrase is referring to getting high off of a mixture of cocaine and PCP.  I’ve never seen an episode of Star Trek but never say never.

Europeans blamed the tomato for their reason for getting sick.  They were thought to be poisonous and called the ‘poison apple.’  There are around 7,500 varieties of tomatoes, all in different colors, shapes, and sizes.  i haven’t tried too many varieties but garden tomatoes and grape tomatoes are the best.

The consensus is greeting cards are touched a lot by people before being bought.  It says on average 25 times that people touch the cards and envelopes.  That is why I always grab the card from the back.

Australia doesn’t have active volcanoes because it doesn’t have plate boundaries.  There is evidence that volcanoes did exist at some point on the continent in the past 60 million years.  Likewise the Australian continent has a few animals that doesn’t exist on any of the other continents.

Milk from cows is 101 degrees Fahrenheit when inside and shortly after when milked.  If you do drink milk, keep it in the refrigerator and don’t let it sit out on the counter for long because it’s more likely for pathogenic organisms to grow in it.

March 27, 2020: Weekly Facts #13

The element of Mercury was named after the planet.  The element of Mercury is silver in color and the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.  Think old thermometers.  The symbol for Mercury is Hg that comes from hydrargyrum meaning liquid silver in Greek.  The planet Mercury, on the other hand, is made mostly of solid iron and is a fast moving.  It has a cratered surface and no, you can’t find Hg on Mercury.

Astronauts obviously have to stay in their spacesuit or else they will suffocate and die, but in addition to this they need to use special pens in order to write legibly and special pots to boil water evenly.  Astronauts sense of smell is heightened, physically train to maintain muscle mass, and is not recommended to sneeze.

A study conducted by a University student in a Masters’ program results showed 88% of Facebook users kept tabs on their exes if the break up happened within the last 12 months.

The two most common causes of nosebleeds is either dry air or nose picking.  Some other causes include sinus infections, cocaine use, common colds, deviated septum, blood thinners, bleeding disorders, and chronic congestion.  Less common ones include leukemia, nasal polyps, pregnancy, and alcohol use.  The most common way to stop a nosebleed is pinching your nostrils shut for five to 10 minutes while leaning forward.  Some think a cold pack to the back of your neck helps too.

The most germ infested places in your house/apartment include cutting boards, coffee makers, countertops, knobs and switches, make up bags, drains, faucets, toothbrushes, toilets, tubs, keyboards, phones, tablets, remote and game controls, keys, wallets, lunch boxes.  This means cleaning them more than not including changing your dish towels and shower towels on a regular basis.

March 22, 2020: Weekly Facts #12

A person walks an average of 7,500 steps a day.  Based on this a person will have walked around 216,262,500 steps or 111,000 miles until the age of 80.  This is about three to five times around the Earth at the equator.

The color green can symbolize many things including but not limited to nature, life, springtime, freshness, youth, tolerance, jealousy, envy, love, dragons, monsters, fairies, poison, sickness, and prosperity.

Whether light, medium, or dark, all coffee has caffeine and which has more depends on who you’re talking to.  Light roasts are more acidic where dark roasts are smoother.

Iran (Persia), Greece, and China were the first countries to eat ice cream.

The human heart is the size of your fist and beats 100,000 times each day and sends 2,000 gallons of blood through the body.  A person is more likely to have a heart attack on Monday, which usually means high stress levels.

The largest stadium in the world belongs in Pyongyang, North Korea.  The Rungrado 1st of May Stadium seats 114,000 people.  The largest stadium in the United States is in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  The Michigan Stadium seats 107,601 people.

March 15, 2010: Weekly Facts #11

Skin is the largest human organ on your body.  Not hard to believe because we shed around 600,000 particles of skin every hour.  It translates into about one and half pounds of skin every year.  If you’re lucky enough to live to age 70, you will have lost 105 pounds and even luckier by age 100, you will have lost 150 pounds.

The average number of Girl Scout cookies sold each year is about 2.5 million boxes according to 2015.  This means it equals about 10 million dollars worth of cookies.  I’m sure online buying is helping too.

All plants need water, some more than others, but it seems plants prefer room water at room temperature.  It’s common sense not to water plants with extremely hot or cold water.

The longest traffic jams occurred in São Paulo, Brazil in 2013 due to the holiday; Beijing, China in 2010 due to the holiday; Bethel, NY, USA in 1969 due to Woodstock; Chicago, IL, USA in 2011 due to a blizzard; Tokyo, Japan in 1990 due to the holiday and typhoon; Houston, TX, USA in 2005 due to a hurricane; Paris, France in 1980 due to the holiday, and East and West Germany in 1990 due to their reunification.

Crayola makes around 3 billion crayons each year or around 13 million daily.  They are made out paraffin wax and around 3.5 inches long.  They first were developed by Binney & Smith in 1903.

March 6, 2020: Weekly Facts #10

Between 269 to 306 billion email messages are sent every day so that makes around 3.7 billion email users.  Of these emails, about 45% to 55% is spam so that makes around 14.5 billion spam email messages sent every day.

Mr. Potato Head was invented by George Lerner in 1949.  It was made by Hasbro and was the first toy advertised on television in 1952.  It went from being a real potato to a plastic potato body that started in 1964.

Humans actually have nine senses, not the normal five we think of as seeing/vision, hearing/audition, taste/gustation, touch/tactition, and smell/oflaction. The other four include thermoception or heat/cold, nociception or pain, equilibrioception or balance and proprioception or body awareness.

Like fingerprints and footprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

There are around 100,000 chemical reactions in the human brain every second. Headaches are caused by a chemical reaction in your brain combined with the muscles and nerves of your neck and head.  The adult brain weighs around three pounds.  The brain contains around one hundred billion neurons.

The Lagere Gemengde School in Belgium launched a program in  2001 to replace sugary drinks and soda in lunches with beer (1.5 to 2.5% alcohol).  Kids had the choice between lager or bitter.

People have the urge to yawn after merely reading about yawning and we all know it’s contagious when you’re around someone who yawns.

February 27, 2020: Weekly Facts #9

What constituted the fashionable woman changed over time but cleavage remained a vital part of display and dress.  In the 14th century, Western culture emphasized lower necklines and tight clothes.  Corsets are still in use as well as taping and surgery in relation to cleavage.

We all sneeze, some more forceful than others.  I’m a forceful sneezer and there’s nothing wrong with that.  How far my fluid travels is another topic.  The issue is people sneeze into the open without covering their fluids in some way.  Research says you can get sick without ever coming into contact with the host.  If a sneeze travels at more than 100 mph, it’s more important to wear masks (I don’t and should) and when it comes to coughing, cover your mouth and wash your hands more than less. 

Around 95% of North American consumers want to be left alone in stores according to HRC Retail Advisory.   This isn’t surprising because we’ve all been around the insistent store associate.  In addition to this high number, 85% like to check prices on their own at scanners, 69% like to order online for technology products and pick it up at the store, and 65% do the same thing for clothing items.  Basically, much of the world has become an online consumer.

There are some city names in the U.S. that are a little odd.  Here are a few: Chicken in Alaska, Hooker in Oklahoma, Cool in Texas, Truth Or Consequences in New Mexico, Cut And Shoot in Texas, Virgin in Utah, and Oblong in Illinois. 

If you don’t have saliva, you won’t taste your food.  Why?  Because your tongue’s taste buds needs to bind with liquid.  The tongue has different receptors for different tastes.  Taste buds can become compromised and lost over time so if you still have them intact, count yourself lucky.

February 23, 2020: Weekly Facts #8

The oldest recipe in existence is for beer.  This doesn’t surprise me.

In 1977 a 13 year old child found a tooth growing out of his left foot.  I can believe this.

In Britain’s 2001 census, 390,000 people listed ‘Jefi’ as their religious affiliation.  Not sure what Jefi means.

The Empire State Building in New York gets struck by lightning about 23 times a year.  Not surprising.

The idea of painting fingernails originated in China where the color indicated their social rank.  I’m guessing this was only for women.

Temperature can affect a person’s appetite.  A cold person is more likely to eat food.  I guess this is why they call it the 5 to 10 you gain during winter or maybe it’s because of the holidays.

February 16, 2020: Weekly Facts #7

An astronaut can be up to two inches taller returning from space.  The cartilage disks in the spine expand in the absence of gravity.  Sounds like I need to go to space to become taller?

J is the only letter that doesn’t appear in the periodic table of elements.  Interesting for science geeks or maybe not.

Abraham Lincoln’s corpse has been buried, exhumed, inspected, or reburied about 17 times since his death.  This doesn’t surprise me, but safe to say Lincoln won’t be dug up again.

Without an atmosphere, the surface temperature on Earth at the equator would be 176 degrees by day and fall to -200 degrees at night.  No thanks.

Kissing can reduce tooth decay.  Okay, I’d rather brush my teeth.

Brandy is the liquor most likely to cause the most severe hangover.  Good to know for those who drink heavily although this is probably already known.

February 5, 2020: Weekly Facts #6

The human body produces enough saliva during your lifetime to fill two swimming pools. We produce up to 2 to 4 pints a day and if your mouth is really dry like mine is, chew gum or suck on something, but also stay hydrated.

If an egg floats in water, has it gone bad and should it not be eaten? The better option is to crack it and see if it stinks. Why does it float? The air cell inside it becomes bigger over time. If they fall past the expiration date, boil them and if you have time to spare, try to crack them only using your hand (after they have cooled off).

In Toy Story’s most productive week during productions, Pixar completed 3.5 minutes of animation. This was in 1995, remember.

The U.S. dollar sign ($) is a combination of the letters p and s, ps being the abbreviation for pesos, also known as peso de 8 reales, the principal coin used in the U.S. until 1794.

The largest living thing is a mushroom, Armillaria ostoyae, located in Malheur National Forest at Strawberry Mountains of eastern Oregon. It covers around 2,200 acres or 3.5 square miles, estimated to be around 8,000 years old, and weights as much as 35,000 tons.

Babies can breathe and swallow at the same time until they are six months old. Why? Because their larynx hasn’t dropped yet and they tend to be nose breathers at this time.

Tonsurephobia is the fear of haircuts that comes from the word tonsure, meaning to cut in Greek.

January 30, 2020: Weekly Facts #5

The five interlocking Olympic rings are black, blue, red, white, and yellow because at least one of these colors appears on every flag. It has a white background and was created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1913, released in 1914, and first used at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.

The total weight of bacteria living in the human body is around 4.4 pounds.

Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard and skepticism is the longest word in which you alternate hands on every letter. I am so glad for keyboards where you can delete with a press of a button. I’ve worked on typewriters and they are not fun when dealing with margins and the bottles of white out.

The answers vary but the average person laughs between 10 to 15 times a day.

In the 1920s popcorn was banned from movie theaters because it was too noisy and encouraged littering. It was the first snack to be smuggled into theaters during the 1930s. I would say keep the popcorn because I love it a little too much and get rid of the people who talk throughout any movie in any theater.

January 22, 2010: Weekly Facts #4

Don’t whisper into someone’s ear when they are moose hunting in Alaska because it’s illegal to do this. How do they monitor this? Do they take the word of someone who reports this? This would be classified as a stupid law to most people.

One pound of peanut butter can contain up to 150 bug fragments and five rodent hairs. The FDA permits companies allowances for “other ingredients” in food. One example is spices such as cinnamon, oregano, and majoram having insect fragments. Another example is cocoa beans having a small amount of animal feces.

King Charles I’s favorite joke was to place his 18 inches tall court dwarf between two halves of bread and pretend to eat him. His name was Jeffrey Hudson and was given the moniker Lord Minimus. I’m sure he didn’t think this was funny and to top it off he died poor and buried in an unmarked grave.

Pluto is about the same size as Russia. Pluto is about 17,646,012 square kilometers or 6,813,163 square miles. Russia is about 17,075,200 square kilometers or 6,592,772 square miles.

TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed) makes sure the product is made a certain way. in the EU and when speaking of pizza, Italy. A Neapolitan pizza must meet specific traditional regulations to have the TSG and AVPN logos attached to it.

Hawaii is moving closer to Japan and is due to movement of plates. It is estimated Hawaii moves between 2 to 4 inches per year.

January 17, 2020: Weekly Facts #3

1.  Thinking in a foreign language makes decisions more rational and judge risks more clearly.
2.  Mondays are the most unproductive days of the week.  Only about 3.5 hours of work are actually done on Mondays.  This isn’t too surprising because as some people call it the Sunday dread. 
3. Minnesota has about 90,000 miles of shoreline.  This is more than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined.  This is hard to believe, but the Mall of America is the size of 78 football fields.
4. McDonald’s daily customer traffic is 62 million.  This is more than the population of Great Britain.  I still feel sorry for the McDonald brothers and Ray Kroc could’ve been a lot nicer to them along the way.
5. You burn more calories sleeping than watching TV.  This makes sense because not only does watching TV tend to numb the mind, but sitting it not good for your body.  I know because I sit at work, sit when I write, sit when I blog, sit when I watch TV.  We have become a people of sitting.

January 11, 2020: Weekly Facts #2

Office desks have 400 more times bacterial than a toilet seat. Think about it. You sneeze, blow your nose, eat and drink, blow dust from it. Other people come to your desk and touch your stuff. It’s a dirty surface so clean it more than less.

It takes about fifteen minutes for a healthy sleeper to fall asleep. If it takes less than five minutes, it is likely some kind of sleep deprivation. It never takes me less than five minutes unless I’m completely exhausted, but taking an hour to fall asleep isn’t good either.

Imagining doing exercises increases muscle strength. Okay, so the brain is powerful. It probably is better thinking of executing arm curls when compared to the shake weight, but we all know actually putting weights into your hands and lifting is the much better option if you want to see results. Case closed.

There’s quite a bit of range so I’m sticking with the answer that it would take a person yelling for eight years, seven months, and six days would heat up a cup of coffee. The other answers were seven years, one year, and five days. The bottom line is it takes energy to heat up coffee whether done by yelling, machine, microwave, and old school maybe on the stove.

The human being has survived for two million years while the dinosaurs survived for 150 years. We have a long ways to go and unless scientists and technology can purify salt water, human beings will probably die out from lack of water over anything else. A person can live without food for a good month, but the average is ten to fifteen days. Water is a different story. We last about three to five days without water.

Most lip balm is made to be addictive. The more you use it, the more you need it. This might be the case, but I’d rather be addicted to it than have cracked and bloody lips. I’ve had this happen before and worse, it hurts especially during cold winters. I don’t know what people used to do to protect and moisturize their lips before lip balm was invented. I would have suffered even greater.

January 5, 2020: Weekly Facts #1

Some think on the one dollar bill in the U.S. that there’s an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the 1 and a spider hidden at the upper right-hand corner. According to the Bureau of Engraving and printing, this is not intentional and a coincidental part of the printing process.

We’ve all heard of the fat American. Americans love to eat. They do exist. The country ranked #12 by World Health Organization (WHO) with 36.2 percent of Americans being obese in 2018. This translates to Americans eating an average of 18 acres of pizza every day. This means pizza taking up about 18 football fields. That’s way too much cheese and pepperoni. Even if it’s made with a cauliflower crust and vegan cheese, still too much pizza.

Here’s one for all the science people. A raisin dropped in a glass of champagne will bounce up and down because of carbonation. The raisin gets air pockets stuck in the wrinkles of the raisins. The bubbles pop on the top, creating the raisin to fall into the glass. Loads of fun for all you wine drinkers.

Barbie’s life-size measurements would be 39-23-33, stand seven feet and two inches tall, and her neck would be twice the size of a normal neck. According to the CDC in 2013 (a little outdated, I know), the average height of a female is 64.29 inches or 5.35 feet tall at age 19 and the average size waist was 33.62 in inches. Think what you want, but from what I hear people like a little meat on a woman’s bones.