The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia
Page 10
Mount Everest (8,848 meters), the highest mountain in the world, is part of the Himalayas in Nepal.
Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first people to climb Mount Everest in 1953.
When climbing Mount Everest, low air pressure in the high altitudes means less oxygen. Once a climber reaches 10,000 ft, they must remain at that height for three days, so their body acclimates to the decrease in oxygen. Many climbers can suffer from disturbed sleep, headaches and dizziness, though these symptoms generally subside within three days. Severe acute mountain sickness can occur when a climber ascends too quickly because a lack of oxygen causes fluid to leak from the blood vessels into the brain or the lungs. This eventually causes shortness of breath, confusion, loss of co-ordination, and hallucinations.
Honey
Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage mead, which is also known as “honey wine” or “honey beer” (although it is neither wine nor beer, respectively).
Beer that is brewed with more than 30% honey as a source of sugar by weight is known as braggot.
Burying the dead (especially nobility) in or with honey was common practice in Egypt, Assyria, and other regions. Honey was also used to embalm the dead.
Apitherapy is the medical use of honey bee products, which includes honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly, and bee venom. The American Apitherapy Society states that bee venom is beneficial for a variety of problems such as eczema, psoriasis, warts, laryngitis, emphysema, asthma, and glaucoma.
Historically, honey was used as a salve, either alone or mixed with fat. Because of its antibiotic properties and high sugar content, it was said to heal dead tissues and ulcers. Honey was often used to treat gun shot wounds not only because of its bactericidal properties, but also because the consistency prohibited air and irritants from entering the wound, and in many cases it was more accessible than other forms of treatment. Honey has even been used in hospitals as a dressing for wounds, burns, and cuts.
Hot Dogs
7-Eleven is North America’s number-one retailer of fresh-grilled hot dogs, selling approximately 100 million each year.
The frankfurter originated in Germany, but the hot dog gained popularity in the U.S. more than 100 years ago under the nickname “dachshund’s sausage.” It was dubbed “hot dog” by the cartoonist T.A. “Tad” Dorgan in 1906. He depicted a dachshund inside an elongated bun as a character in his comic strip, and the name stuck.
When King George VI of England visited the United States in 1939, no expense was spared—President Franklin D. Roosevelt served him hot dogs and beer. When Queen Elizabeth II held a royal banquet for the American Bar Association in 1957, she included hot dogs on the menu. And, First Lady Rosalynn Carter continued the tradition when she served hot dogs at a White House picnic in 1977.
Mickey Mouse’s first words were “hot dogs” which he said out loud (obviously) in the 1929 short The Karnival Kid.
The World’s Longest Hot Dog created was 60 m (196.85 ft), and rested within a 60.3 m (198 ft) bun. The hot dog was prepared by Shizuoka Meat Producers for the All-Japan Bread Association, which baked the bun and coordinated the event, including official measurement for the world record. The giant dog was the highlight of a media event, which celebrated the Association’s 50th anniversary on August 4, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.
Hula Hoop
Greatest number of hula-hoops caught and spun was 236 performed by Liu Rongrong of China in September 2007.
Native Americans used hoops as a target for teaching hunting accuracy.
The word “hula” was added in the early 18th century when sailors who visited Hawaii noticed the similarity between hula dancing and tripping hoops.
After the hoop was released in 1958, the company Wham-O sold 25 million in the first four months and over 100 million in its first year. As the fad ran its course, Wham-O again struck gold with the release of a flying disc known as a Frisbee.
The largest hula-hoop on record is 52.8 ft in diameter. Roman Schedler of Austria spun this hoop for 15:21 minutes on September 9, 1999.
Human Brain
Early man practiced brain surgery since Neolithic times, and Hippocrates himself left copious notes on how to treat head injuries and depression.
The color blue causes the brain to release calming hormones.
At the time of birth, the size of the brain is approximately 400gms while the adult brain is approximately 1400gms.
The height of an adult brain measures 3.6 in; length 6.3 in; and width 5.5 in.
A small area in the brain called the amygdala is responsible for your ability to read someone else’s face for clues to how they are feeling.
Information transmits at different speeds within different types of neurons—it can be as slow as 0.5 meters per second or as fast as 120 meters per second.
750ml of blood pumps through the brain every minute.
Human Heart
The human heart can create enough pressure to squirt blood at a distance of 30 ft.
In a lifetime, the heart pumps about one million barrels of blood.
In 1707, medical pioneer John Flower of Staffordshire, invented a stopwatch to measure the human pulse.
The aorta has a diameter similar to a garden hose. Capillaries on the other hand are incredibly thin; it takes 10 of them to equal the diameter of a human hair.
The human heart beats about 100,000 times each day and about 35 million times in a year. The heart, during an average life span, will beat more than 2.5 billion times.
The first human-to-human heart transplant was in 1967. In Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Christian Barnard successfully transplanted the heart of an 18-year old car accident victim into Louis Washkansky. Washkansky only lived for 18 days before dying of pneumonia.
I
Ice Cream
In the first century AD, the Roman Emperor Nero developed a taste for a frozen dessert. He ordered runners to pass buckets of snow from the mountains along the Appian Way down to Rome. The snow was flavored with red wine and honey to be served at banquets.
The Chinese may have been the inventors of ice cream. In the first millennium AD, Marco Polo returned to Venice from his trip to the Far East, with ancient recipes for concoctions made of snow, fruit juice, and fruit pulp.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream…In 1984, President Ronald Reagan officially designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month would be celebrated as National Ice Cream Day. More ice cream is sold on Sunday than any other day of the week.
Wall’s was the first company to sell ice cream from tricycles. In 1924, this new marketing concept was launched with the slogan “Stop me and buy one.” To “equalize the seasonality,” the Wall’s company would complement their summer ice-cream season with a winter sausage one.
The top five most popular ice-cream flavors in the U.S. are vanilla, chocolate, Neapolitan, strawberry, and cookies n’ cream, in that order. Vanilla accounts for nearly ¼ of all sales.
In 1924, the average American ate eight pints a year. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the figure had jumped to 48 pints a year by 1997.
Iceland
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996, was the world’s first female president.
Iceland, like Hawaii, was formed by volcanoes. When the Askja volcano erupted in 1875, it caused massive devastation including widespread famine and a crushed economy.
Iceland’s flag’s coloring depicts a vision of the nation’s landscape. Red is the fire produced by the volcanoes, white reflects the ice and snow, and blue is for the Atlantic Ocean.
Though one might believe that Bjork has the country’s fastest-selling records of all time, the honor actually goes to an opera singer by the name of Gardar Thor Cortes.
The Icelandic word “bjork” translates to birch tree and is a common name for Scandinavian girls.
Open arms…Iceland is not a member of the EU and has no armed forces.
In 1985, it declared itself a nuclear-free zone.
Iceland boasts 10,000 waterfalls, 5 glaciers, 15 active volcanoes, and more than 10 million puffins.
Most Icelanders do not have a surname (i.e. Johnson or Smith). Rather, the children adopt the father’s given name. For example, Jon’s son would be called Thor Jonsson and his daughter would be called Hadis Jonsdottir.
India
The name “India” originates from the River Indus, the surrounding valleys which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
India is second only to China in country population. It’s growing by approximately 17 million people a year and could potentially surpass China by 2030.
Bollywood, the Mumbai-based production empire, is the largest film industry in the world…including Hollywood.
Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
Yoga has existed for more than 5,000 years in India.
Our counting system was actually invented in India, then borrowed and popularized by the Arabs.
Nek Chand Saini, of Chandigarh, India, has created over 20,000 sculptures, waterfalls, and bridges around his home using old car parts, light bulbs and bicycle frames.
Insomnia
The art of sleep proved challenging for Vincent van Gogh. He could only sleep by smothering his mattress and pillow with camphor to clear his mind of all his strange thoughts.
The Earl of Rosebery (Prime Minister of England 1894-1895) was forced to resign from his position due to his chronic insomnia.
Insomnia is more common among the elderly and women, especially after menopause.
Not only does insomnia affect concentration and focus, it can cause irritability, impaired motor skills, exhaustion, impaired memory, blurry vision, stress intolerance, constant appetite changes, and discomfort.
Fatal familial insomnia (FFI) is a very rare disease of the brain, which has been found in just 28 families worldwide. If one parent has the gene, the child has a 50% chance of inheriting it. The patient’s progression into complete sleeplessness is incurable, and ultimately fatal.
Sleepless in Sea…Research has revealed that newborn dolphins and killer whales can forego sleep for their entire first month. Both species of the mammals can remain active 24/7 for weeks after birth.
Internet
The forerunner of the Internet was the ARPAnet—the ARPA stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the US Defense Department that possessed linked computers across North America, and used them to exchange information. ARPAnet was planned in 1966, started working in 1969 but ceased operations by 1990.
Video artist Nam June Paik coined the phrase “information superhighway” in a 1974 study for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Google’s name is a play on the word “googol,” which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. Google’s play on the term reflects the company’s mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web.
The growth of the Internet has far exceeded other forms of communication. It took 38 years for radio to reach 50 million users, 13 years for TV, and only 5 years for the Internet.
Asia has the highest number of Internet users with 3,776,181,949 signing on by 2008.
Ivory
Ivory carvings were produced in ancient Egypt between 4,000 and 3,200 BC. Civilization in ancient Egypt was highly religious and this was reflected in the subject matters of their carvings, which generally depicted gods and goddesses.
Prior to the use of plastics, ivory was used for billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, and buttons.
According to wildlife conservation groups, poachers in Africa are killing more elephants today than they have anytime in the past two decades. In 2006, an estimated 23,000 elephants were killed illegally so that their ivory could be sold on the black market.
A species of hard nut is gaining popularity as an alternative to ivory, although its size limits its usability. It is called vegetable ivory, or tagua.
The narwhal is a toothed whale closely related to the all-white beluga and has a single tusk that ranges between 7 ft to 10 ft long. An exclusively Arctic species, it is hunted only in Canada and Greenland, where 300 and 500 animals are taken annually by native people. The sale of narwhal ivory is still legal, although the trade has to be monitored.
J
Jalapeño
Jalapeños can be sold canned, sliced, and pickled and are commonly added to products—such as sausage, cheese, and jelly—during processing. Pace Foods uses 22 million pounds a year, more fresh jalapeños than anyone else in the country.
Hot and spicy! Texas uses its two official peppers, the jalapeño and the chiltepin, in their official dish: chili.
Jalapeño pepper jelly originated in Lake Jackson, TX, and was first marketed commercially in 1978.
The jalapeño was the first pepper to be taken into space.
Dried and smoked jalapeños are chipotles, generally known in a class of their own.
The jalapeño pepper was named after the town of Jalapa in Mexico, though it is no longer commercially grown there.
James Bond, 007
Actress Eunice Gayson, who played Sylvia Trench in the opening sequence of Dr. No, once stated that she was instructed to take Sean Connery out for a drink to help him relax because he was flubbing up his famous line “The name’s Bond. James Bond.” He accidentally kept giving his own name.
Casino Royale is the first Bond film not to feature a female dancing silhouette in the opening titles.
Author Ian Fleming wrote one Bond novel a year from 1952 (Casino Royale) to his death in 1964. All were written in Jamaica, where Fleming vacationed. He also wrote a story for his young son called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Magical Car.
James Bond wasn’t a successful book series in America until JFK included From Russia With Love on a list of his favorite books in 1961.
Roger Moore was the oldest Bond actor at 58.
Shaken, not stirred…and often. In the films up to Casino Royale, Bond has a total of 114 drinks, or one every 24.3 minutes.
Since the first book in 1962, Bond has killed over 150 men and slept with 44 women…¾ of whom have attempted to kill him.
Japan
Japan is unrivalled when it comes to bizarre museums. The variety includes museums dedicated strictly to parasites, kites, laundromats, sand, buttons, and lighters. It’s nice to finally see that sand is getting the respect it deserves.
The Japanese are renowned for their longevity. There are an estimated 20,000 Japanese who are 100 years old or older living in Japan. Some attribute this to a low-calorie and cholesterol-free diet.
Five couples get married each year at Tokyo’s Sanrio theme park, Puroland. The Sanrio Company has a host of branded characters, but they are best known for Hello Kitty.
Sociologists recognize that Hello Kitty has helped propel a cultural shift in Japan during the past generation, resulting in greater spending and relaxation.
Japan boasts more than 30,000 sushi restaurants yet a sweeping majority refuse to hire women. Women are considered to have a higher body temperature and other physiological differences that may affect their preparations of something as delicate as sushi.
The Japanese word kimono translates literally as “thing to wear.”
The sleeve length of a kimono can indicate a woman’s marital status. Married and older women usually wear a short-sleeved kimono. Unmarried, young women wear a long-sleeved kimono, called a “furisode.”