Fast Facts
August 23, 2006
- The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. The concrete in it will not even be fully cured for another 500 years.
In Turkey, the color of mourning is violet. In most Muslim countries and in
China, it is white.
The most dangerous job in the United States is that of sanitation workers. Fire fighters and police officers are a close second and third, followed by leather tanners in fourth place.
Vodka sales makes up 10 percent of Russian government income.
In 1936, American track star Jesse Owens beat a racehorse over a 100-yard course. The horse was given a head start.
At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth’s atmosphere.
More than a third of the field mice in the Kesterson National Wildlife refuge near Los Banos, Calif., have both male and female
reproductive organs.
Traveling by air is the safest means of transportation. Every year, more people are killed by donkeys than in plane crashes.
The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000.
The only three U.S. presidents who ever had to deal with real or impending impeachment – Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton – all have names that are euphemisms for “”penis”” – Johnson, Dick and Willie.
The Beatles performed their first U.S. concert in Carnegie Hall.
The most difficult tongue twisteris “”The sixth sick Sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick.””
A full 7 percent of the entire Irish barley crop goes into the production of Guinness beer.
The average Americanchews 190 sticks of gum, drinks 600 sodas and 800 gallons of water and eats 135 pounds of sugar and 19
pounds of cereal per year.
