A Person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or toes.

The Cheetah

The cheetah is the only member of the cat family that has non-retractable claws. Other cats retract their claws to keep them sharp, like carving knives kept in a sheath --the cheetah's claws are designed not for cutting but for traction. This is an animal biologically designed to run.

Just a few strange facts

- The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia!

- The names of Popeye's four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye

- Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!

- Slugs have 4 noses!

- More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world!

- One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet

- Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails

- The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'

Who Was Les Paul?

The Gibson Les Paul, along with the Fender Stratocaster, is on of the world's most recognisable and iconic electric guitars. But who exactly is Les Paul?
Born Lester Polfus, Paul was working as a Jazz and blues musician in the Thirties but found himself incresingly dissatisfied with the primitive electric guitars on offer. Early attempts resulted, in 1941, in one of the world's first solid-body electric guitars. In 1951, the Gibson Guitar Corporation built a guiter based on Paul's designs and persuaded him to endorse it. Gibson has not looked back since, and its guitars are the instruments of choice for musicians past and present, from Jimi Hendrix to Slash of Guns N' Roses. Now 91 Les Paul is still to be found gigging weekly at a New York jazz club.gibson.com

A bowl of the UK version of Kelloggs All-Bran contains 133% more salt than the US version and a bowl of the UK version of Special K contains 31% more sugar than the US version. (according to the Guardian 26.10.06)

Another Friday 13th Fact

Friday the 13th it considered unlucky in English and Portuguese-speaking cultures. In the Spanish speaking world it is Tuesday the 13th that brings bad luck.

Some sources say that a fear of Friday 13th may be the most widespread superstition in the United States.

Cattle are responsible for 3% of the UK's greenhouse gasses, each cow could produce as much as 500 litres of methane per day. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6046340.stm

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday 13th

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

If you are locked in a completely sealed room, you will die of carbon dioxide poisoning first before you will die of oxygen deprivation.

The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times its own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

Why is number 13 considered UNLUCKY?

1. Several mass murderers have 13 letters in their names(eg Harold Shipman; Charles Manson; Jeffrey Dahmer)
2. Judas Iscariot was the 13th person to sit at Christ’s table
3. Norse mythology tells of 12 deities sitting down for a banquet, when Loki, the god of mischief, crashed the party, resulting in the death of one of the gods
4. Witches, to oppose themselves to Christian superstition,often make up groups of 13, called covens
5. In a deck of Tarot cards, the number 13 card is called Death

The fear of number 13 is called:Triskaideikaphobia

I never knew that!

Until the nineteenth century Tea was used as money in Siberia.

Gordon Bennett !

It is commonly believed that this expression has its origins in the popularity of James Gordon-Bennett, Jr.. His father, born in Scotland in 1795, emigrated to the US to become a journalist and subsequently founded the 'New York Herald' in 1835. The many innovations he established within newspaper publishing, including European correspondents, illustrated news articles, the joint founding of The Associated Press (1848) and the first major use of the telegraph for news, led to a successful news empire which amassed considerable wealth. It was his son, born in 1841 and known as Gordon-Bennett, who really captured the attention of the US and European populace. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he took every opportunity to live life as a playboy; his wild lifestyle and extravagant spending gained him notoriety in high society. On one occasion, at a New Year's party (1877) being held by his fiancee's father, he got so stupifyingly drunk as to mistake the fireplace for a toilet and proceeded to urinate in front of his prospective in-laws and their guests. Other tales include the occasion when, annoyed by the bulky roll of money in his back pocket, he burnt the lot in an impetuous fit. There are many more tales of his outrageous and extravagant behaviour, however not all cast him in a bad light, such as the numerous times he would donate large sums of money to charities. He took over the management of the Herald in 1867, and proceeded to invest funds in newsworthy ventures. His funding included the expedition by Stanley to Africa, in search of Dr. David Livingstone, and an ill fated attempt to explore the North Pole and Arctic region by G.W. De Long in the years between 1879 and 1881. The 'Jeanette' expedition, as the Arctic trip was known, failed miserably and led to the subsequent death, via starvation, of De Long and 19 fellow crew members. There are several islands in Siberia that bear Bennett's name. Gordon-Bennett was particularly partial to sports, being credited with introducing polo to the United States, his interests included yachting, in which he established the James Gordon-Bennett Cup for international races. Trophies were similarly given for balloon and aeroplane racing, of which the Gordon-Bennett balloon race still exists. As further testament to his involvement in the various racing arenas, it was in 1904 that the Gordon-Bennett Motor Car Road Racing Trials were first run on the Isle of Man, which was the precursor to the world famous TT races, currently still held there. From 1877 he lived in Europe, mainly on his 301 foot yacht, the Lysistrata, from where he administered the running of the New York Herald. He died in France in May 1918, aged 78. The use of James Gordon-Bennett's name as an expletive possibly bears relation to his outrageous lifestyle and involvement in newsworthy stunts. Imagine opening your daily newspaper and reading yet another news item telling you of his latest antics, and as you begin to express incredulity with a "God Almighty", you restrain your publically unacceptable language and instead say..... GORDON-BENNETT!

Kissing

It is a (scientific?) fact that the act of kissing produces the same hormone in your body that firing a gun does.
Matrimonial pollsters' studies prove that a man who kisses his wife good-bye when he leaves for work every morning averages a higher income than does the man who doesn't.

..............kites - whoopidoo!!

The smallest kite in the world which actually flies is 5mm high.

The largest number of kites flown on a single line is 11,284, this record is held by a Japanese kite maker.

The longest kite in the world is 1034 metres (3394 ft).

The largest kite in the world is the Megabite 55 x 22 metres (630sq metres).

The fastest recorded speed of a kite is over 120 mph. (193 km/h).

The record for the highest single kite flown is 3801 metres (12,471ft) - for a train of kites 9740 metres (31,955 ft).

The world record for the longest 'kite fly' is 180 hours.

Kite flying was banned in China during the Cultural Revolution, anyone found flying a kite was sent to jail for up to three years and their kites destroyed.

There are 78 rules in kite fighting in Thailand.

Kite flying was banned in Japan in 1760 because too many people preferred to fly kites than work.

The Chinese believe that looking at kites high in the sky maintains good eyesight.

The Chinese believe that when you tilt your head back to look at a kite in the sky your mouth opens slightly, which gets rid of excess body heat giving you a healthy yin-yang balance.

Large kites were banned in East Germany because of the possibility of man lifting over the Berlin Wall.

Lightning

Animals will not eat another animal that has been hit by a lightning strike

Just a few of the 'fascinating' facts about the new Wembley Stadium

The Arch

- is high enough to roll the London Eye under it
- weighs the equivalent of 275 double decker buses or 10 Jumbo Jets
- the tips of the Arch are known as 'pencil ends' and weigh 18 million times more than an average pencil
- it is made up from 500 steel tubes known as 'straws' - you can get 850 pints of milk in each one ie. 425,000 pints in all
- the amount of paint needed to coat the Arch would cover the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel 19 times

The stadium

- lay all the seating end to end at it will stretch 54 kilometres or in English 33.55 miles
- the roof weighs 7000 tonnes
- each of the two giant screens is the size of 600 domestic TVs
- it could hold 25,000 double deckers or 7 billion pints of milk
- and of course.....
- There will be 2618 toilets

At the end of the Beatles' song "A Day in the Life", an ultrasonic whistle, audible only to dogs, was recorded by Paul McCartney for his Shetland sheepdog.

A Koala Bear's (which is not a bear at all!) finger print is indistinguishable from that of a human.

Luckily they sleep alot and do not often commit crime.

A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!

Pub Names

The longest pub name in the UK is:

The Old Thirteenth Cheshire Astley Volunteer Rifleman Corps Inn

The shortest is:

Q

Both of these pubs are in Stalybridge

COBRA Meetings

Given that this group meets in emergencies you would think that COBRA stands for something very exciting. In fact it is the name of the room where they meet -
Cabinet Office Briefing Room A

Coconuts

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for
Blood plasma.

Car Adverts

Did you know the producers for Car ads all use the same system on number plates so that it can be read as a mirror image so that when they flip the film for a left or right hand drive it reads the same i.e YHY 101.

Ever wondered what's in your vaccines?

Vaccines contain formaldehyde, ethylene glycol (antifreeze), phenol (disinfectant / pesticide), and aluminum.

Boiled Alive

Boiled Alive
When the human body gets to 42c it starts to cook. The heat causes the proteins in each cell to irreversibly change, like an egg white as it boils. Before that the brain shuts down due to lack of blood coming from the overheated, overworked heart. Muscles stop working, the stomach cramps and death is inevitable.

Hotter summers are to come, an inevitable result of climate change.

Guiness

The bubbles in Guiness Beer sink to the bottom rather than float to the top like all other beers. No one knows why.

First Friday Fact

Did you know that there are enough blocks in the three great pyramids at Giza to build a 10 ft high, 1 ft thick wall around France?