The marathon is officially 26 miles with the exception of the games in 1908. Organizers added an additional 385 yards in order for the royal family to have a better view of the finish line. It must’ve been a running joke with the officials.
The five rings of the Olympics represent the five significant continents and linked to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The ring colors—blue, yellow, black, green, and red—were chosen because at least one of the colors appears on the flag of every country in the world.
Orchid
Orchids are the largest family of flowering plants with more than 100,000 kinds of purebreds and hybrids. In addition, approximately 800 new species are added each year.
In 2004, Britain’s rarest orchid was stolen from the grounds of a Lancashire golf club. The 80-year-old, purple and yellow Lady’s Slipper orchid—estimated to be worth £2,000 on the black market—was dug up from a flowerbed and never recovered.
The rare ghost orchid was made famous in the non-fiction book The Orchid Thief and the fictional movie Adaptation, but it has been discovered to grow high in an old cypress tree in a southwest Florida nature preserve. It can only be seen with binoculars and good lighting.
The Grammatophyllum speciosum—also known as Tiger orchid—is the largest orchid in the world. Weighing up to 2,000 lbs, it can produce up to 10,000 flowers on a mature plant.
Oreos®
More than 7.5 billion Oreos® are consumed every year. If all the Oreos® ever made were stacked, they’d reach the moon and back more than five times.
The Oreo® is the #1 selling cookie in China and after research proved that wafers were the fastest growing snack, Kraft redesigned the cookie to look like a wafer while retaining the same taste of the original cookie.
Brazil has a very similar cookie to Oreo® called “Negresco,” produced by Nestlé.
In 1998, the Oreo® packaging featured the OUD symbol which means the cookie was made kosher.
Along with deep-fried Twinkies and chocolate bars, deep-fried Oreos® are novel treats at carnivals and fairs. The cookies are dipped in batter and deep-fried for thirty seconds.
Introduced in Canada and sold for a limited time in the United States, the Strawberry Milkshake Oreo boasted an Oreo® cookie with strawberry flavoring.
Ostrich
A female ostrich can determine her own eggs amongst others in a communal nest.
Ostriches are so powerful that a single kick at a predator, such as a lion, could be fatal.
At a speed of 40 miles per hour, an ostrich can outrun most predators such as such as leopards, lions, and hyenas.
Ostrich meat is a red meat that resembles beef and can be cooked in the same way. Unlike beef though, ostrich is very low in cholesterol, calories, and fat.
There are approximately two million ostriches walking the face of the Earth and they can be successfully farmed from the coldest climates of Alaska to the warmest in central Africa.
Oxygen
The average brain makes up 2% of a person’s total body weight, but it requires 25% of all oxygen used by the body.
Most of us know that H2O is a compound made of hydrogen and oxygen, but few realize that oxygen dissolves into water, which is the oxygen that fish and other marine creatures breathe.
Oxygen attaches to red blood cells, which creates the bright red color of our blood. Once red blood cells release the oxygen and pick up carbon dioxide, human blood turns a dark red or maroon color.
Heavy breathing…Humans inhale more than 6 billion tons of oxygen annually.
A mature leafy tree can produce as much oxygen in one season as ten people inhale in one year.
P
Pac-Man
While having dinner, a programmer named Toru Iwatani was searching for inspiration for a game character. He saw a pizza pie with a slice missing and the Pac-man was born.
The game was originally called Puckman, derived from the Japanese phrase pakupaku, which describes the motion of eating or munching. When Bally/Midway brought the game to America, they had it changed to Pac-man.
Pac-man is the best selling video game in history.
Pac-Man travels 20% faster in areas where the dots have been eaten.
Atari passed up the rights to the game, claiming it was too simple.
The first Pac-Man World Championship was held in New York City on June 5, 2007. Ten competitors from eight countries vied for the champion title, which eventually went to Carlos Daniel Borrego of Mexico. His prize was an Xbox 360 console, specially decorated with Pac-Man artwork and signed by Toru Iwatani.
Parthenon
The Parthenon has no straight lines and contains no mortar.
The Parthenon is a temple located on the Acropolis, a hill overlooking the city of Athens, Greece. Its name literally means “virgin’s place” and was a temple for the Goddess Athena.
Approximately 13,400 stones were used to build the Parthenon.
The frieze of the Parthenon is one of the first to depict common people along with the Gods, reflecting the Greek love and belief in democratic principles.
Nashville, TN, is home to a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition.
Parton, Dolly
“I’m not offended by dumb blonde jokes because I know that I’m not dumb. I also know I’m not blonde.”—Dolly Parton
“9 to 5” is the theme song to the 1980 film starring Parton along with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. The song reached #1 on the country charts as well as on the pop and adult contemporary ones, making Parton one of the few female country singers to have a #1 across three charts simultaneously.
Parton has performed on a top-40 country hit in each of the last five decades.
Parton can play the autoharp, banjo, drums, dulcimer, guitar, harmonica, fiddle, and piano.
At the tender age of four, Parton was already composing songs and her mother would often write down the music when she heard Dolly singing in the house.
Opened in 1986 and co-owned by the country music legend, Dollywood in Tennessee brings in approximately 2.5 million visitors annually.
Dolly Parton’s 40DD breasts are nothing short of inspiring. In 1996, a sheep was the first mammal to be cloned. Since the sheep was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of an adult ewe, stockmen came up with the idea to name the lamb after the famed country singer.
Pasta
The names of various forms of pasta all have meanings—whether descriptive, humorous, or even pedantic. For example, the term spaghetti is derived from the Italian word spago, or “string.”
Pasta in brodo is simply translated as “pasta in broth” while the term pasta asciutta translates literally to the “dry” pasta, the kind of pasta which is not designed for broth—spaghetti, vermicelli, rigatoni, lasagne, etc.
Records indicate that the Chinese were eating pasta as early as 5,000 BC.
On September 13, 2007, Italian consumer groups called a one-day strike against buying pasta in protest of the increasing costs that had seen its price rise by almost 20%.
When Thomas Jefferson was the U.S. Ambassador to France, he once dined in Naples, Italy, and fell in love with a certain dish. He immediately ordered crates of “macaroni” as well as a pasta-making machine and shipped them to the States. This is why some say that Jefferson introduced macaroni to the States.
The average person in Italy consumes more than 51 pounds of pasta every year as opposed to the average North American who eats about 15.5 in that same time.
Pentagon
As one of the world’s largest buildings, the Pentagon is twice the size of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and has three times the floor space of the Empire State Building in New York.
23,000 military and civilian employees contributed to the planning and execution of the defense of the U.S.
Dial in…More than 200,000 telephone calls are made every day through phone lines that are conn
ected by 100,000 miles of telephone cable at the Pentagon.
There are 17.5 miles of corridors, but it only takes seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.
Pepper
Achoo! Whether it’s white, black, or green, pepper contains an alkaloid of pyridine called “piperine,” which acts as an irritant if it gets into the nose. It irritates the nerve endings inside the mucous membrane, and causes you to sneeze.
The pungency and fiery hotness associated with chili peppers come from the compound capsaicin in the internal partitions of the fruit.
Looking rather green…all sweet bell peppers start out green, and change color as they ripen. Thus, red, orange, and yellow peppers are more expensive because they require more time to ripen and also have a shorter storage life.
In 2009, the cops at a North Carolina college used pepper spray to tame a rowdy crowd after a mass snowball fight got out of control. Police stated they were forced to use the pepper spray because unruly students were rushing the officers. One student was arrested for throwing a snowball at a cop who had his back turned to him.
It may seem like an unlikely pair, but strawberries and black pepper complement each other. A hint of black pepper accentuates the berries by adding a subtle warmth and heat…when used sparingly of course.
Perfume
The word originates from the Latin word per fumum, which means “through smoke.”
In 2007, Italian archaeologists claimed to have sniffed out the world’s oldest perfumes on the island reputed to be the birthplace of Aphrodite. Remnants of the perfumes were extracted from an ancient factory that was part of a larger complex at Pyrgos.
Common ingredients added to perfumes include ginger, grapefruit, musk, peppercorns, mandarin peel, fig leaves, rose, watercress, bamboo, clementine, vanilla, honeysuckle, and green tea.
To preserve perfumes, it is best to keep them in light, tight aluminium bottles and to refrigerate them at low temperatures between 3-7°C.
Perfume fragrances last longer on people with oily skin because their skin has more natural moisture content to hold the fragrance.
Chanel No. 5 has been around since 1921 and is the company’s most popular perfume. They estimate that one bottle is sold worldwide every 55 seconds.
What’s that smell? At www.perpetualkid.com, a crayon-scented perfume will have you re-living your preschool days of a bygone childhood. If you want a slightly more sophisticated scent, consider the other perfumes in the collection, which include vinyl, vanilla cake batter, and sushi.
Picasso, Pablo
One of the most celebrated artists in the world, Pablo Picasso was so poor early in his career that he stayed warm by burning some of his drawings.
Picasso was named after just a few saints and relatives. He was baptized Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.
His first word was “piz,” short for lapiz, the Spanish word for pencil.
Picasso completed his first painting—Le picador—when he was only nine years old. He was 13 years old when he had his first exhibit, showing his paintings in the back room of an umbrella store.
Though he may have been a brilliant artist, he was an awful student who rebelled against authority and spent much of his time in detention. “For being a bad student I was banished to the ‘calaboose,’ a bare cell with whitewashed walls and a bench to sit on. I liked it there, because I took along a sketch pad and drew incessantly…”
In 2006, casino mogul Steve Wynn was prepared to sell the painting “Le Rêve,” for $139 million. The day before the sale was to be completed, he accidentally put his elbow through the canvas. Suffice to say, he kept the painting.
Pigeons
In Europe between the 16th and 18th century, pigeon poo was prized as an invaluable resource. As fertilizer, it was considered to be more potent than farmyard manure and armed guards were stationed in front of dovecotes (pigeon houses) to stop thieves from stealing it.
In the early 19th century, the Rothschild family set up a network of homing pigeons to carry information between its financial houses throughout Europe. This method of delivery provided to be quicker and more efficient than any other carrier at the time. The family became one of richest and most famous of the time, due in part to the ability to send and receive information ahead of the competitors.
As a pigeon has monocular vision, it bobs its head for depth of perception. The pigeon’s eyes generally work better with stationary images.
Male and female parent pigeons can produce a unique substance known as “pigeon milk” to feed their hatchlings during the first week of life.
While most birds sip water and then throw back their heads so it trickles down their throats, pigeons use their beaks like straws to suck up the water.
Pony Express
The Pony Express was an expedited mail service crossing the North American continent from April 1860 to October 1861, using horseback riders to courier deliveries. Mail traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast in about ten days.
Each rider traveled about 75 miles and then handed the mail to the next rider.
183 men were known to have ridden for the Pony Express during its 18 months of operation. The youngest Pony Express rider was Charlie Miller, aka Broncho Charlie, who was just 11 years old.
Riders were paid $100 per month.
One job ad in California read: “Wanted. Young, skinny, wiry fellows. Not over 18. Must be expert riders. Willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”
Post-it® Notes
Artist Melynda Schwier-Gierard used 60,000 1½ in × 2 in Post-it® Notes to create an art piece of uniquely textured, wall-sized panels.
In 1998, a workplace study showed that the average professional receives eleven Post-it® messages a day.
Approximately 506,880,000 Post-it® Notes would be required to encircle the world once (based on the earth’s circumference of 24,000 miles and using 2-⅞ in square Post-it® Notes).
Esquire magazine named Post-it® Note inventor Art Fry one of “The 100 Best People in the World.”
The name “Post-it” and the signature canary yellow color are trademarks of company 3M.
Pregnancy
The number of caesarean deliveries has increased by more than 40% in the last decade to 27% of births, the highest rate ever reported in the United States.
Tuesday is the most popular day for babies to be born and Saturday the least. This could be due to the fact that many doctors do not schedule C-sections for Saturdays.
In 1945, a Mrs. Hunter had been pregnant 375 days (instead of the normal 280) before her baby was born at Los Angeles’ Methodist Hospital. Her daughter, Penny Diana, weighed only 6 lb and 15 oz.
According to ancient Chinese beliefs, Pregnancy is considered a “hot” condition, so to balance the scale between “ying and yang” cold foods must be consumed throughout pregnancy. On the contrary, post partum is considered a “cold” condition due to blood loss during labor, so the mother should consume hot foods only.
Pregnant women should avoid eating more than 12 ounces of fish each week. Fish—including swordfish, shark, king mackerel, and tilefish—may contain high amounts of mercury, a metal that can be toxic to babies, children, and even adults.
The Utterly, Completely, and Totally Useless Fact-O-Pedia Page 14