HOME |
RSS | 
Rutherford B. Hayes was the first US President to have a telephone and a typewriter in the White House.
You may not remember Hayes, but he started the very first Easter Egg hunt on the lawn of the White House, a tradition that still continues today on the Monday after Easter.
Every second, the sun produces more energy than human civilizations have ever produced in history.
Indeed, every second, the sun produces about 400 trillion trillion watts of energy. That’s the equivalent of a trillion 1 megaton atom bombs! (Source)
There are more hazardous waste sites in New Jersey than anywhere else in the United States.
In 1998, The Garden State had 109 hazardous waste sites on the national priorities list for the federal Superfund program or 8.7% of the national total. The state’s land area is just 0.2% of the United States. New Jersey’s hazardous waste density (the number of sites per 1,000 square miles) was 14.7 or 40 times the national average. (Source: A Geography of New Jersey: The City in the Garden by Charles A. Stansfield)
If you like to go on vacations, move to Italy. The average number of vacation days every year there is 42 days.
In the United States, on the other hand, employees only get an average of 13 days of vacation each year.
In 2007, Oklahoma made watermelon its official state vegetable.
Yes, you read that right: on April 17, 2007, the Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill declaring that not only is watermelon a vegetable (related to cucumbers, they said), it’s also the state’s official vegetable. (Source)
Other states have official vegetables are:
Arkansas – South Arkansas vine ripe tomato
Georgia – Vidalia sweet onion
Idaho – potato (what else?)
Louisiana – sweet potato
New Mexico – chile and pinto bean
North Carolina – sweet potato
Texas – sweet onion
Utah – Spanish sweet onion
Washington – Walla Walla sweet onion
H. Ross Perot Jr. (yes, the son of Ross Perot) piloted the first ever helicopter round the world flight.
On September 1, 1982, H. Ross Perot Jr. and Jay Coburn left Fort Worth, Texas, on a Bell 206 L-1 Long Ranger II and returned 28 days later. They flew on average of eight and a half hours a day, refueled 56 times and flew over 26 countries. (Source)
Before anti-smoking groups had their way, Mr. Potato Head’s favorite accessory was a smoking pipe.
The pipe was discontinued by Hasbro in 1987. (Image: wm.edu)
The original Mr. Potato Head was an actual potato. In the early 1950s, as a young boy in a poor farming family, George Lerner took potatoes from his mother’s garden and used grapes as eyes and a carrot as a nose to make a doll for his younger sister.
Superman has a pet monkey named Beppo.
Beppo was originally a test animal used by Superman’s father Jor-El to develop a spaceship. The monkey stowed away on board of the craft when it launched baby Kal-El to earth.
Because it’s from Krypton, Beppo the monkey had super powers … that it used for mischief! Superboy had to lead the super monkey into deep space and left him there.
The Bic ballpoint pen was invented by Frenchman Marcel Bich in 1950.
He dropped the "h" from Bich because he feared that people would call it the Bitch pen. Technically, it’s name is the BIC CRISTAL.
Each Bic pen has enough ink for up to 2 miles (3.2 km) of writing. If you accidentally get its ink on clothing, just use alcohol-based hairspray to dissolve it.
Bic pen is incredibly useful. Besides writing, it can be used to unlock a Krytonite bike lock, make a chandelier and a weapon for intra-office warfare, as well as to perform an emergency tracheotomy (as Hawkeye did in M*A*S*H).
In 2005, BIC announced that it has sold its 100 billionth pen.
Until 1973, the American Psychiatric Association defined homosexuality as a mental illness.
The APA listed homosexuality as a mental illness in their Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II), a guide book that list different categories of mental disorders and criteria for diagnosing them. In 1973, they removed homosexuality and replaced it with "sexual orientation disturbance."
The present DSM-IV also does not list homosexuality as a mental disorder, but still has "Sexual Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" as a diagnosis for someone with "…persistent and marked distress about sexual orientation." (Source: Healthieryou.com, Photo: Bonkersinstitute.org)
Suicide is non-existent among the Tiv of Nigeria, the Andaman Islanders, and the Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego.
Suicide is present but very rare among black American females, Irish Catholics, Mexicans, and Muslims in Egypt; Suicides are common in Hungary, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Japan, and Finland. (Source: Comprehensive Textbook of Suicidology)
One theory is that the word "testify" was derived from the ancient Roman custom of men holding their testicles with their right hands before giving testimony in court.
And why did the Romans have to hold their balls before they could testify in court? It was so that eunuchs and women were excluded.
We should say that etymologists aren’t unified on this: some say that the origin of testify came from the latin "testis" which means "third person standing by" or "witness." But that’s boring. (Source: American Heirtage Dictionary of the English Language)
The Muppets Bert and Ernie were designed by Don Sahlin based on two fruits: Bert was a banana and Ernie was an orange.
Rumor was, Bert and Ernie were named after two characters in Frank Capra’s "It’s a Wonderful Life" (Bert the cop and Ernie the cabbie).
One-pack-a-day smoking habit will cost you at least 2 teeth every 10 years.
According to 30-year studies at Tufts University, chain smokers lost an average of 2.9 teeth after 10 years of smoking one pack a day. Non-smokers lost an average of 1.3 teeth after 10 years. A smoker that quit will reduce his or her toothloss to 1.7 teeth. (Source)
In the Siege of Acre in 1191, Richard the Lionheart constructed two trebuchets that he named "God’s Own Catapult" and "Bad Neighbor."
Things flung during a medieval siege included: rocks, fire bomb, carcasses of animals and people (to spread disease and demoralize the enemy), and burning sand. Now, hobbyists build trebuchet mainly to chuck pumpkins.
Americans are getting bustier: In the 1970′s the average bra size was 34B. Now it’s 36C … and climbing!
Some statistics say that up to 85% of American women are wearing the wrong bra size. Indeed, Oprah Winfrey once did a "bra intervention" and got so excited she said: "I’m so excited. Whoo, whoo. Whoo, whoo. Whoo!" (Source)
Thanks to Bette Midler, we all know that the brassiere was invented by Otto Titsling. (YouTube)
Oprah’s favorite bra is the Le Mystere Tisha Bra #955 (Source). But that’s just a creepy trivia, so let’s stop there before it gets any weirder.
More than a third of American adults hit the snooze button every morning an average of 3X.
The "snooziest" group is the 25 to 34-year-olds: 57% of them hit the snooze button. Compare this to seniors: only 10% of Americans over 65-years-old regularly hit the snooze button (Source).
The ZIP code 12345 belongs to the world headquarters of General Electric in Schenectady, New York.
Every year, GE gets thousands of mails from children who believed that it’s only logical that Santa Claus has the ZIP code 12345.
Urban Legend has it that when Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon, he said "Good Luck, Mr. Gorsky!"
This is an oldie but goodie urban legend; supposedly when Armstrong was a child, he overheard his next door neighbor Mrs. Gorsky shouting to her husband: "You want oral sex? You’ll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the moon!" Snopes has the story.
The Road Runner in Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes cartoons is actually named Beep Beep.
Theodore Roosevelt was the only U.S. President sworn in without a Bible.
Ansley Wilcox, who owned the Wilcox Mansion where Roosevelt was inaugurated, wrote: "According to my best recollection no Bible was used, but President Roosevelt was sworn in with uplifted hand." (The Presidents and Their Wives)
Franklin Pierce was the only president who affirmed the oath of office, and was not sworn in at all. (More Presidential Inauguration Trivia here: Link)
When the Sound of Music was released in South Korea, it was so popular that one theater owner sought to maximize his profit by showing it more often. His solution was to shorten the movie by cutting out all of the songs!
Trace amounts of cocaine are found in 4 out of every 5 dollar bills in circulation.
The average amount of cocaine found is 16 micrograms (0.000016 gram)
If you’re afraid of being in a bank during a bank robbery, don’t go to the bank on Friday mornings between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Banks used to have more money on a Friday because it was historically a payday. Also, bank robbers believed that there’s more money in the bank at the beginning of the day rather than the end. Interestingly, banks in the supermarkets are actually safer than a regular bank branch. (Source)
The photo is the infamous Duct Tape Robber, read more about him and other stupid criminals in Neatorama’s Top 10 Stupid Criminals of 2007.
Two more bank robbery facts:
The Largest Bank Heist in History
The largest bank heist in history occurred in 2003, when nearly $1 billion was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq just hours after US bombed Baghdad in the Iraq War. The culprit was Saddam Hussein and his family. Only about half of the money was recovered (source).
The First U.S. Bank Robbery
The first bank to be robbed in the United States was the Bank of Pennsylvania. The vault was robbed of $162,821 ($1.8 million in 2006 dollar) in 1798.
Because there was no sign of forced entry, the authorities believed that it was an inside job (locks on the vault’s door was just changed). The blacksmith that changed the lock was Pat Lyon, who left Pennsylvania to escape a raging yellow fever epidemic that swept Philadelphia. Lyon suspected that a carpenter was responsible, and went back to Philly to clear his name. The authorities didn’t believe him and threw him in the Walnut Prison.
The culprit turned out to be someone who earlier had visited Lyon’s shop, named Isaac Davis. He and a partner (an inside man, the bank porter who later died in the epidemic) pulled off the heist but did something monumentally stupid: he started to deposit his stolen money back in the bank! Confronted by the authorities, Davis confessed and gave back all the money. As part of a plea deal, he never served a day in prison.
Even after that confession, the authorities refused to release Lyon. Later, charges against him were dismissed and Lyon sued the bank and law officials. He got $12,000 (a large amount at the time) for false imprisonment.
Pat Lyon at the Forge by John Neagle (1892)
Pat Lyon, who became a hero after his trial, was immortalized by a painting by John Neagle titled Pat Lyon at the Forge. If you look closely, there’s a cupola of the Walnut Prison in the background.
King James II of Scotland banned golf in 1457 because it was distracting his soldiers from practicing archery.
Comments Off
A jiffy is actually an actual unit of time. It’s 1/100th of a second!
In a room of 57 or more people, the probability of two people having the same birthday is 99%.
In a group of 23 randomly chosen people, that probability is 50%. For a full explanation, see Birthday Paradox [wiki]
The holes in Swiss cheese are known as "eyes."
These holes are caused by bubbles that are produced by bacteria called Propionibacter during the late stage of cheese production. The larger the eyes, the better flavor of the cheese. Swiss cheese with no eyes are known as "blind."
Wilma Flintstone was the first animated character that was portrayed as pregnant.
A typical mattress is home to 100,000 to 10 million dust mites.
If that’s not enough to gross you out, consider this: dead mites and their droppings constitute one-tenth of the weight of a two-year-old pillow. Oh, and what exactly do they eat? Dead human skin cells.
| FEATURED ITEMS FROM THE NEATOSHOP | |
 |
Mustache Bottle Opener |
 |
My Cryptozoological Family - Family Car Stickers |
 |
Zombie Hand Bottle Opener |
View more: New Items &
Best Sellers |
|
