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The human body is a machine that is full of wonder.

This collection of human body facts will leave you wondering why in the heck we were designed the way we were.

  • Scientists say the higher your I.Q. The more you dream.
  • The largest cell in the human body is the female egg.
  • The smallest is the male sperm.
  • You use 200 muscles to take one step.
  • The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man.
  • Your big toes have two bones each while the rest have three.
  • A pair of human feet contain 250,000 sweat glands.
  • A full bladder is roughly the size of a soft ball.
  • The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades.
  • The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannica.
  • It takes the food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.
  • The average human dream lasts 2-3 seconds.
  • Men without hair on their chests are more likely to get cirrhosis of the liver than men with hair.
  • At the moment of conception, you spent about half an hour as a single cell.
  • There is about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.
  • Your body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.
  • The enamel in your teeth is the hardest substance in your body.
  • Your teeth start developing (in your gums) 6 months before you are born.
  • When you are looking at someone you love, your pupils dilate, they do the same when you are looking at someone you hate.
  • Blondes have more hair than dark-haired people.
  • Your thumb is the same length as your nose.

Submitted by Audrey, Emmitsburg, Md.
 

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Life in the 1500's

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water..

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying . It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old..

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat..

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a ...dead ringer..

And that's the truth...Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

Submitted by Audrey, Emmitsburg, Md.
 

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Easter this year is (2008):
  • Sunday March 23 As you may know; Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).
  • This "dating of Easter" is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
  • Here are a couple of things you might be interested in:
  • Based on the above, Easter can actually only be one (1) day earlier - March 22, but that is pretty rare.
  • This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives!
  • And only the most elderly of our population (95 years old or above!) have ever seen it this early.
  • None of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!
  • Here are the facts:
  • The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 - 220 years from this year!!
  • The last time it was this early was 1913 so, if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!.
  • The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 - 277 years from this year.
  • The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.

So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Submitted by Dewey, Pensacola, FL
 

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Learn something new today...
  • More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
  • The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
  • Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4 % of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
  • Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
  • Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."
  • Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
  • Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, named so because it was the first paved road anywhere.
  • Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
  • Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.
  • Los Angeles's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula --and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
  • The term "The Big Apple" was coined by touring jazz musicians of the
  • 1930's who used the slang expression "apple" for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple.
  • There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.
  • There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio, every one is manmade.
  • The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia, at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.
  • The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome, Italy in 133 B.C.
  • There is a city called Rome on every continent.
  • Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.
  • The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
  • Desert In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island.  There has been no rainfall there for two million years.
  • Spain literally means 'the land of rabbits.' Huh?
  • St. Paul , Minnesota, was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first business there.
  • Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A.: 1%, in Canada: 75%
  • The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas. It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.
  • The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
  • The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls.

Submitted by former Emmitsburg mayor Ed.
 

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Four Things You Probably Didn't Know Your Mobile Phone Could Do

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

First - The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself Out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

Second - Have you locked your keys in the car? Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a mobile phone: If you lock your keys in the car And the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone. Hold your mobile phone about a foot from your car door and have the Person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other 'remote' for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk). Editor's Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car Over a mobile phone!'

Third - Hidden Battery Power - Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument Will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

Fourth - How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone. - To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: * # 0 6 #  A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. If your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won't get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can't use/sell It either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Submitted by Lindsay, Melbourne, Australia.
 

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Eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas.

It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , KS , and reprinted by the Salina Journal. Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?

Grammar (Time, one hour)

  1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
  2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
  3. Define verse, s tanza and paragraph
  4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of "lie", "play", and "run."
  5. Define case; illustrate each case.
  6. What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
  7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

Arithmetic (Time, 65 minutes)

  1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
  2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft. wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
  3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
  4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
  5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
  6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
  7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per meter?
  8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
  9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
  10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)

  1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
  2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
  3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
  4. Show the territorial growth of the United States .
  5. Tell what you can of the h istory of Kansas .
  6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
  7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton , Bell , L incoln , Penn, and Howe?
  8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, a! nd 1865.

Orthography (Time, one hour) (Do we even know what this is???)

  1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, and syllabication.
  2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
  3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, sub vocal, diphthong, cognate letters, and lingual.
  4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u.' (HUH?)
  5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
  6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
  7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi-, dis-, mis-, pre-, semi-, post-, non-, i nter-, mono-, and sup-.
  8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
  9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
  10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

Geography (Time, one hour)

  1. What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
  2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
  3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
  4. Describe the mountains of North America
  5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
  6. Name and locate! the principal trade centers of the U.S.
  7. Name all the republics of: Europe and give the capital of each.
  8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
  9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
  10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

Notice that the exam took FIVE HOURS to complete. Gives the saying "he only had an 8th grade education" a whole new meaning, doesn't it? This also shows you how poor our education system has become... and, NO! I don't have the answers, and I failed the 8th grade test!

If you think this is hard ... check out the final exam to become a Naval Nuclear Engineer ... and having been one, it's not far from the truth ...
 

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An interesting fact Manure:

In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touc h this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term 'S.H.I.T', (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word. Neither did I. I had always thought it was a golf term.

Submitted by my Blacksmith Dick, Williamsport, Md.

(If a blacksmith says it's true, then it has to be true - Mike)
 

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Now you know everything!
  • A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
  • A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
  • A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
  • A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
  • A snail can sleep for three years.
  • Almonds are a member of the peach family.
  • An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
  • Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
  • February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
  • In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
  • If the population of China walked past you, 8 abreast, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
  • Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
  • Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite!
  • Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
  • The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
  • The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
  • The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
  • The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
  • There are more chickens than people in the world.
  • Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
  • Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Submitted by Dick, Williamsport, Md.
 

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We've all caught someone at sometime picking their nose.

Some try to do it in secret. Others do it openly without embarrassment. Maybe even you have been caught in the act. Nose-picking is one disgusting habit and is certainly not socially acceptable. So, are these people normal? One would guess that this is not the type of thing researched at our institutions of higher learning. Guess again. The Americans did.

Of course, scientists must give everyday things complicated scientific names. Nose picking is a term for us common folk. Nose-picking should really be referred to as rhinotillexomania (rhino=nose, tillexis=habit of picking at something, mania=obsession with something). So, the next time that you see a person picking their nose, tell them that they are a rhinotillexomaniac.

The researchers prepared their "Rhinotillexomania Questionnaire" and randomly mailed it to 1000 residents in Dane County, Wisconsin. Each survey included a cover letter that stated, "The University of Wisconsin is conducting a survey of a common but understudied habit scientifically known as 'rhinotillexomania'. Its common name is nose-picking." Even better, the letter actually defined what nose-picking is: "Insertion of a finger (or other object) into the nose with the intention of removing dried nasal secretions." I'll bet that you already knew that. Can you imagine getting this survey in the mail? Even with the University's seal on the stationary, one would have to wonder whether this was a joke or not.

Now for the results (assuming that they are reliable): Of the 1000 surveys mailed out, only 254 were completed and returned to the researchers:

  • 8.7% claim that they have never picked their nose. (In other words, they are liars or they can't remember doing it as a kid.)
  • 91% stated that they had picked their nose in the past and were still actively practicing this habit. Yet, only 49.2% of the respondents actually thought that nose-picking was common in adults.
  • 9.2% rate their pickin' as "more than average."
  • 25.6% actually pick their noses daily, 22.3% do it 2 to 5 times each day, and three people admitted to doing it at least hourly.
  • 55.5% spent 1-5 minutes, 23.5% spent 5-15 minutes, and 0.8% (2 people) spent 15-30 minutes each day cleaning their nostrils. One lone soul claims to devote over 2 hours each day to this ritual (I'm not a doctor and I can tell you that this guy definitely has rhinotillexomania).
  • 18% reported nosebleeds, while 0.8% claimed perforation of the nasal septum from their nose-picking.
  • 65.1% use their index finger, 20.2% use their pinky, and 16.4% use their thumb (must have BIG nostrils to fit a thumb in) as their instrument of choice.
  • Most people (90.3%) disposed of the goop in a tissue or a handkerchief, while 28.6% used the floor, and 7.6% stuck it to the furniture.
  • 8% of the respondents actually ate the end product. In case you are thinking of trying this delicacy, the study claims that the pickings are quite tasty (salty).

So, what have we learned from this groundbreaking study? Basically, boogers apparently taste good, although I can guarantee to you that I will never do the taste testing to find out.

And we are wondering why there is no cure for Cancer yet!

Submitted by Kenneth, Shropshire, England
 

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