Fast Facts
February 17, 2006
The average American sees or hears 560 advertisements a day.
The female praying mantis devours the male while they are mating. The male sometimes continues copulating even after the female has bitten off his head and part of his upper torso.
Termites are not related to ants. They are part of the cockroach family.
Murder is the only crime that does not increase during the full moon. Theft, disorderly conduct, larceny, armed robbery, assault and battery, illegal breaking and entering and rape all statistically increase dramatically during the full moon.
What is called a “”French kiss”” in England and the United States is known as an “”English kiss”” in France.
The National Safety Council reports that bicycles, stairs and doors, in that order, cause more accidents in the home than any other objects.
The town of Tidikelt in the Sahara Desert once went 10 years without rainfall.
When leeches mate, the leech playing the male role (leeches are hermaphrodites and can assume either sex) clings to the body of the female and deposits a sac of sperm on her skin. This sac produces a strong, flesh-deteriorating enzyme that eats a hole through the female’s skin and fertilizes the eggs within her body.
At birth, baby kangaroos are only about an inch long – no bigger than a large waterbug or queen bee.
