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| January 31, 2005
| Society
FactID: 230
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Rated
2.44 stars from 9 votes
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27% of America goes to school everyday (76 million).
24% of Americans 25 years or older have a college degree.
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| Source: US Census Fact Sheet
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| January 30, 2005
| Health
FactID: 228
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Rated
3.68 stars from 19 votes
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Black, Green, and oolong teas are all derived from exactly the same plant.
The differences in taste and color come from their processing.
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| Source: National Geographic (Jan 2005) via Aaron Fulkerson
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| January 28, 2005
| World
FactID: 225
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Rated
3.56 stars from 9 votes
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In 1661, Bombay (then 7 islands) was given by the Portuguese to King Charles II of England as dowry for his marriage with Catherine de Braganza.
It was then leased to the British East India Company in 1668 for 10 British Pounds a year!
Today, Bombay (Mumbai) is the financial capital of India.
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| Source: Udayan Seksaria
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| January 27, 2005
| History
FactID: 224
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Rated
3.17 stars from 6 votes
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The word "slave" originates from the many Slavs sold into slavery by conquering peoples.
"Robot" comes from the Czech word "robotnik" which means slave.
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| Source: Online Etymology Dictionary via Aaron Fulkerson
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| January 25, 2005
| World
FactID: 219
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Rated
4.00 stars from 16 votes
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Thimphu is the world's only capital city with no traffic lights.
Located in Bhutan, also the only non-smoking nation since Dec 17.
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| Source: Slate via Matt Mattila
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| January 24, 2005
| History
FactID: 220
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Rated
3.58 stars from 12 votes
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President Warren G. Harding liked to host regular poker games at the White House during his term.
Once, he got so carried away with the game that he gambled away a set of presidential china from Benjamin Harrison's administration.
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| Source: The History Channel via Jay Patel
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| January 23, 2005
| Politics
FactID: 221
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Rated
4.10 stars from 20 votes
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During his inauguration, President Bush did the "Hook 'em, 'horns" salute to greet the Longhorn marching band.
It turns out this got lost in translation in Norway, where shocked people interpreted his hand gesture (popular among heavy metal groups and their fans in Scandinavia) as a salute to Satan.
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| Source: Daytona Beach News via Katie Corbyons
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| January 21, 2005
| Science
FactID: 214
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Rated
3.92 stars from 13 votes
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The "windchill" is supposed to indicate how cold it feels.
A windchill temperature is, rather, a calculation of how cold it would have to be to cause the same rate of heat loss from your skin if there were no wind blowing. Wind chill approximates how cold it feels because the rate of heat loss corresponds with skin temperature, and skin temperature is what our nerves sense.
But they use the unusually high skin resistance of the 95th percentile of people to measure wind chill and therefore overestimate how cold it feels.
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| Source: Slate via Matt Mattila & Jason Langberg
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| January 20, 2005
| Business
FactID: 209
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Rated
4.45 stars from 11 votes
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Louis Vuitton, Moet, Hennessy, Tag Heuer, Sephora, and Donna Karan New York (DKNY) are all owned by the same company, LVMH.
That's luxury leather, champagne, cognac, watches, fragrances, and clothing all in one company.
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| Source: Yahoo Finance via Shaival Patel
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| January 19, 2005
| Science
FactID: 208
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Rated
3.75 stars from 8 votes
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The average brain uses about 10 watts of electricity.
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| Source: Jessika Allen's science test
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| January 18, 2005
| Animals
FactID: 207
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Rated
4.17 stars from 12 votes
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Birds don’t have receptors for capsaicin. Capsaicin is the molecule responsible for providing the heat in spicy food.
Spike your bird food with some cayenne and it will deter the squirrels.
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| Source: New Scientist via Aaron Fulkerson
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| January 17, 2005
| Business
FactID: 198
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Rated
3.78 stars from 9 votes
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Best Buy generates $834 of revenue per square foot of retail space annually.
Wal-Mart posts $412 of per-square-foot sales.
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| Source: Forbes
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| January 16, 2005
| Entertainment
FactID: 197
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Rated
4.45 stars from 11 votes
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The top three shows among men aged 18-49 are as follows:
- Monday Night Football
- CSI
- Desperate Housewives
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| Source: Nielsen ratings via Fortune
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| January 12, 2005
| Society
FactID: 194
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Rated
4.00 stars from 5 votes
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Seattle is the fittest city in the US.
Houston is the the fattest city in the U.S (for the fourth time in the past 5 years).
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| Source: Reuters via Udayan Seksaria
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| January 11, 2005
| Astronomy
FactID: 193
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Rated
3.75 stars from 4 votes
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We're landing a probe (Huygens) on Titan, one of Saturn's moons, for the first time on January 14, 2005. It's riding aboard the Cassini spacecraft - check out the view.
Or check out a 8400x3300 px image of saturn and other interesting facts
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| Source: NASA JPL, Astronomy Picture of the Day
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| January 9, 2005
| History
FactID: 191
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Rated
3.67 stars from 6 votes
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The word Armageddon is derived from Megiddo, since the prefix har means "hill" in Hebrew; hence, Armageddon means "Hill of Megiddo".
The plains of Megiddo are perhaps one of the bloodiest places on earth having battles fought there by, among many others, Egypt, Persia, Assyria, the British Empire, and Napoleon. In fact, the earliest known recorded battle took place at Megiddo.
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| Source: History Channel via Aaron Fulkerson
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| January 8, 2005
| World
FactID: 190
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Rated
4.11 stars from 9 votes
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On December 31, 2004, the Taipei 101 became the world's tallest building at 508 meters tall (1,600+ ft.) and 101 floors. The previous record holder, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, is only 452 meters and the World Trade Center towers were 415 meters. The Taipei 101 has the world's fastest elevators with speeds of almost 40mph.
A 900 ton tuned mass damper is suspended from the 90th floor down to the 87th floor (pic). When the building sways (in the breeze or in an earthquake), the ball naturally sways the opposite way because of inertia and serves to dampen the vibration.
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| Source: Skyscraperpicture.com via Ravi Agarwal
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| January 7, 2005
| Society
FactID: 189
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Rated
4.00 stars from 5 votes
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The Red Cross has an annual revenue of $3,018,783,874 - 3 billion dollars in donations, grants, etc.
They provide relief for more than 70,000 disasters every year with their 1 million volunteers and 36,000 employees!
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| Source: Charity Navigator via Sharat Nagaraj
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| January 6, 2005
| Science
FactID: 188
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Rated
3.67 stars from 6 votes
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One molecule of water is composed of three atoms (H20).
One molecule of natural rubber is composed of approximately 295,000 atoms (175,000 carbon atoms and 120,000 hydrogen atoms). Damn.
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| Source: "Intro to Matter" textbook via Madeleine DeBlois
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| January 3, 2005
| Society
FactID: 182
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Rated
3.57 stars from 7 votes
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About 62% of all working women are the contributors of half or more of their household income.
I believe this means that most working women are contributing as much or more than their husbands in terms of household income.
At the same time, although women account for about half of managerial and professional positions, they account for only 8% of executive vice presidents and above at Fortune 500 companies.
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| Source: AFL-CIO 2004 survey via Fortune
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| January 2, 2005
| Cars
FactID: 178
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Rated
4.64 stars from 11 votes
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It's more fuel efficient to drive with air conditioning than with the windows down (if you're on a highway).
The Mythbusters tested a 2004 Ford Explorer going 55mph and got 11.7mpg with windows up and AC on. The mileage dropped to 11.3mpg with windows down and AC off.
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| Source: Mythbusters on Discovery Channel
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| January 1, 2005
| History
FactID: 177
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Rated
2.86 stars from 7 votes
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Manhattan Island of New York City was purchased for $24 in beads and other trinkets from the Algonquian native inhabitants of the area around 1624. "Manhattan" is Algonquian for "hilly island".
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| Source: Wikipedia via Sharat Nagaraj
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