Did You Know.....

Warph · January 17, 2012, 01:36:55 AM

....that:

The first man-made item to exceed the speed of sound is the bull whip our leather whip. When the whip is snapped, the knotted end makes a "crack" or popping noise. It is actually causing a mini sonic boom as it exceeds the speed of sound.

2.Travelling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, light take 6 hours to travel from Pluto to the earth

3.A full moon always rises at sunset.

4.A bowl of lime Jell-O, when hooked up to an EEG machine, exhibited movement which is virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.

5.If the world were tilted one degree more either way, the planet would not be habitable because the area around the equator would be too hot and the poles would be too cold.

6.The opposite of a "vacuum" is a "plenum."

7.In 1980, Namco released PAC-MAN, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be PUCK MAN, but executives saw the potential for vandals to scratch out part of the P in the games marquee and labeling.

8.Clothes that are dried outside DO smell better because of a process called photolysis. What happens is this: sunlight breaks down compounds in the laundry that cause odor, such as perspiration and body oils.

9.Clouds fly higher during the day than the night.

10.Dirty snow melts faster than clean.

11.Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator, probably because of the fact that it is one of the hardest programs to get running.

12.Some early TV screens did emit excessive X-rays, as did computer monitors, but that was fixed long ago. Doctors suggest that at worst, sitting too close might cause some temporary eye fatigue—the same for reading with insufficient light—but no permanent damage, no matter what your mother claimed.

13.A "fulgerite" is fossilized lightning. It forms when a powerful lightning bolt melts the soil into a glass-like state.

14.STASI, the East German secret police organization, devised a devilishly clever way to prevent someone from giving them the slip during the Cold War: they managed to synthesize the scent of a female dog in heat, which they applied to the shoes of the person under surveillance. Then they simply had a male dog follow the scent.

15.Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision.

16.A downburst is a downward blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, since the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground. It's not lofted into the air and transported downwind.

17.On December 2, 1942, a nuclear chain reaction was achieved for the first time under the stands of the University of Chicago's football stadium. The first reactor measured 30 feet wide, 32 feet long, and 21.5 feet high. It weighed 1,400 tons and contained 52 tons of uranium in the form of uranium metal and uranium oxide. Although the same process led to the massive energy release of the atomic bomb, the first artificially sustained nuclear reaction produced just enough energy to light a small flashlight.

18.A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top. This is because the carbonation in the drink gets pockets of air stuck in the wrinkles of the raisin, which is light enough to be raised by this air. When it reaches the surface of the champagne, the bubbles pop, and the raisin sinks back to the bottom, starting the cycle over.

19.Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as 50 million of them.

20.The proper name of earth's satellite is Luna. The grammar books say that "moon" (and likewise "earth" and "sun") should be lower case, with the exception of when "earth" is in a list with other planets. The earth is Terra; the sun is Sol. This is where we get the words "extraTERREstrial" and "SOLar".

21.At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.

22.Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.

23.Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west. If measured against a fixed point in space.

24.The fastest moon in our solar system circles Jupiter once every seven hours - traveling at 70,400 miles per hour.

25.George Ellery Hale was the 20th century's most important builder of telescopes. In 1897, Hale built a 40 inch wide telescope, the largest ever built at that time. His second telescope, with a sixty inch lens, was set up in 1917 and took 14 years to build. During the 14 years Hale became convinced that he suffered from "Americanitis" a disorder in which the ambitions of Americans drive them insane. During the building of his 100 inch lens Hale spent time in a sanatorium and would only discuss his plans for the telescope with a "sympathetic green elf".

26.Hale's 100 inch lens built in the early 1900s was the largest solid piece of glass made until then. The lens was made by a French specialist who poured the equivalent of ten thousand melted champagne bottles into a mold packed with heat maintaining manure so that the glass would cool slowly and not crack.

27.The shockwave from a nitroglycerine explosion travels at 17,000 miles per hour.

28.The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, Saturn would float.

29.Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple.

30.The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2-1/2 pounds and cost a mere $150. (1971)

31.Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 32 comets and approximately 800 asteroids.

32.Because of the salt content of the Dead Sea, it is difficult to dive below its surface.

33.The planet Venus has the longest day.

34.The first atomic bomb exploded at Trinity Site, New Mexico.

35.All organic compounds contain carbon.

36.Three astronauts manned each Apollo flight.

37.Out of all the senses, smell is most closely linked to memory.

38.There are 7 stars in the Big Dipper.

39.The hardness of ice is similar to that of concrete.

40.Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.

41.The speed of sound must be exceeded to produce a sonic boom.

42.The nearest galaxy to our own is Andromeda.

43.The Leaning Tower of Pisa is predicted to topple over between 2010 and 2020.

44.Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.

45.Blood is 6 times thicker than water.

46.Dissolved salt makes up 3.5 percent of the oceans.

47.Three stars make up Orion's belt.

48.Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater. In Washington State alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each summer.

49.To an observer standing on Pluto, the sun would appear no brighter than Venus appears in our evening sky.

Warph · January 25, 2012, 12:49:13 AM

....that in 1966, the Beatles released the album "Yesterday and Today," featuring the "Butcher cover"... cover art depicting the band in butchers' coats holding disembodied baby dolls covered in blood (really corn syrup), which spiked outrage from the media and some fans. Capitol Records recalled the albums in order to replace the cover art, but having already produced thousands of the Butcher cover, they instead glued new covers onto the recalled ones. Fans quickly figured out the ruse and tried to peel off the new cover, in almost all cases failing. The Butcher cover has become a collector's item.

Warph · January 31, 2012, 01:38:01 AM

....that sometimes, the grandest plans go awry. And because of that, we often plan for the worst-case scenario:

On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin disembarked from a lunar lander, becoming the first people, ever, to walk on the moon. The landing, per NASA, was not the troubling part. Rather, NASA's biggest concern was whether the lunar lander would be able to leave the moon's surface and return to the lunar orbiter, piloted and manned by Michael Collins, awaiting them for the return to Earth. If the lunar lander's liftoff failed, both Armstrong and Aldrin would be marooned on the moon, with the world watching on television.

Then-President Richard M. Nixon's speechwriter, William Safire (who would later become a New York Times writer), took it upon himself to draft a plan and a message from Nixon in case of this disaster. That message outlined the plan. First, Nixon would call (in Safire's words) the "widows-to-be," offering the nation's condolences. Then, communications with the moon would be cut, and a member of the clergy would offer a prayer similar to one used for a burial at sea, and closing with the Lord's Prayer. Finally, Nixon would read the following statement to those watching on television:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they wil be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

The address was never used, and it's unclear if Nixon himself ever knew of its existence until well afterward. The astronauts, however, did learn of it. In 1999, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the successful moon landing, the late Tim Russert had Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins on Meet the Press and read the statement to them.

Bonus Fact: Eisenhower's Unread D-Day Speech
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces successfully pulled off the now-famous D-Day landing on Normandy Beach, France, a tide-turning victory in World War II. Had it failed, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower was prepared to issue a statement, seen here, taking the blame for the defeat. Having a lot on his mind, he dated the draft incorrectly – it reads "July 5." Safire cited Eisenhower's decision to draft a worst-case-scenario statement as his reason to do the same for the moon landing.

On June 5, 1944, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower jotted down the words above (larger image here; text below). He had written the speech in case the following day's D-Day invasion failed. (He got the date wrong; obviously, other things were on his mind.)

He threw the paper aside when it became clear that the invasion was a success, but a historically-aware assistant realized the value of the document and retained it.

The text of the unspoken address:
"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine
alone."

Warph · February 02, 2012, 08:55:14 AM

SUPER BOWL XLVI - THIS SUNDAY... February 5, 2012 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 ET on NBC.

What if I told you ....that I can recite every Quarterback in the NFL that won a Super Bowl in five minutes. Don't believe me?? Well, watch this!

Okay... let me see now... (ahem) getting ready.... (deep breath) okay, memory banks... here we go:

Bart Starr (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl I & II), Joe Namath (New York Jets, Super Bowl III), Len Dawson (Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl IV), Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts, Super Bowl V), Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl VI & XII), Bob Griese (Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl VII & VIII), Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl IX, X, XIII & XIV), Ken Stabler (Oakland Raiders, Super Bowl XI), Jim Plunkett (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Super Bowl XV & XVIII), Joe Montana (San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XVI, XIX, XXIII & XXIV), Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XVII), Jim McMahon (Chicago Bears, Super Bowl XX), Phil Simms (New York Giants, Super Bowl XXI), Doug Williams (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XXII), Jeff Hostetler (New York Giants, Super Bowl XXV), Mark Rypien (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XXVI), Troy Aikman (Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl XXVII, XXVIII & XXX), Steve Young (San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XXIX), Brett Favre (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl XXXI), John Elway (Denver Broncos, Super Bowl XXXII & XXXIII), Kurt Warner (St. Louis Rams, Super Bowl XXXIV), Trent Dilfer (Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl XXXV), Tom Brady (New England Patriots, Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII & XXVIX), Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Super Bowl XXXVII), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl XL & XLIII), Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts, Super Bowl XLI), Eli Manning (New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII), Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV), Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl XLV)

(whew.. gasp...) See, I told you and I did it in 4 min. & 53 sec.

Thank you... thank you very much...

...Warph

Warph · February 11, 2012, 02:45:38 AM

....that:

The length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.

Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.

It is impossible to lick your elbow. Well, for almost everyone... but a few can.

Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.

The human head contains 22 bones.

On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.

Breathing generates about 0.6g of CO2 every minute.

On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David
Merlini.

On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day – although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).

Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 10 cm (4 in).

In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71 metres (5'6″). Today, the average height for American men is 1,763 m (5 feet 9-and-half inches), compared to 1,815 m (5'10″) for Swedes, and 1,843 m (5'11″) for the Dutch, the tallest Caucasians.

The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi: 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall.

If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.

It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time.

55% of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn.

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.

A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.

You'll drink about 75,000 litres (20,000 gallons) of water in your lifetime.

After a certain period of growth, hair becomes dormant. That means that it is attached to the hair follicle until replaced
by new hair.

Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.

Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.

In the Middle Ages the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow was called an ell.

A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.

The first successful human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jorgensen, who became Christine Jorgensen.

The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second.

On average, you blink 15 000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.

A typical athlete's heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.

24 of the known 118 elements are found in your body – see What the average human body contains

We have four basic tastes plus umami. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides; umami is a mixture of tastes sensed along the center of the tongue.

Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.

Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.

The liver is the largest of the body's internal organs. The skin is the body's largest organ.

On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

Your middle fingernail grows the fastest.

Your finger nails grow at 1 nanometre per second (0.000 000 001 m/s). Your hair grows at 4 nanometres per second (0.000 000 004 m/s).

It takes about 3 months for the transplanted hair to start growing again.

About 13% of people are left-handed. Up from 11% in the past.

In 1900, a person could expect to live to be 47. Today, the average life expectancy for men and women in developed countries is longer than 70 years.

A newborn baby's head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.

King Henry I, who ruled in the England in the 12th century, standardized the yard as the distance from the thumb of his outstretched arm to his nose.

The bones in your body are not white – they range in color from beige to light brown. The bones you see in museums are white because they have been boiled and cleaned.

Our eyes are always the same size from birth.

Every person has a unique tongue print.

If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.

Approximately two-thirds of a person's body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.

The colored part of the eye is called the iris. Behind the iris is the soft, rubbery lens which focuses the light on to a layer, called the retina, in the back of the eye. The retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones. The rods pick up shades of gray and help us see in dim light. The cones work best in bright light to pick up colors.

We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain.

Warph · February 13, 2012, 09:48:36 AM

....that in 1964, a fireman named Jim Templeton took his daughter on an outing to Burgh Marsh in England. According to Templeton, they were alone that day save for a handful of cows and sheep in a nearby pasture. He took a few photos during the outing. You might not recall the days before digital photography, but it used to be that you would to take your rolls of exposed film to a developer and wait for them to be returned.

Templeton did just that. When he picked up the finished photos, the developer commented, "that would have been a real nice photo of Elizabeth if that man hadn't been standing back there." Templeton didn't understand what that was supposed to mean until he saw the picture.
"The Strange Case of the Solway Firth Spaceman"

They saw no one else around in the entirety of the marsh, but the Templetons somehow caught the image of a man in what can only be described as a spacesuit, lurking about. Needless to say, Jim Templeton was disturbed about the proximity of this hitherto unseen "spaceman" so close to his little girl.

He describes his next course of action:
"I took the picture to the police in Carlisle who, after many doubts, examined it and stated there was nothing suspicious about it. The local newspaper, the Cumberland News, picked up the story and within hours it was all over the world. The picture is certainly not a fake, and I am as bemused as anyone else as to how this image appeared in the background."

After the publication of the photo in the newspaper, Templeton claims that two men showed up at his home. He described them as being dressed in what is now known as the stereotypical "Men In Black" look. They claimed to be agents of the British government but refused to produce any identification. They referred to themselves only as "#9" and "#10." They drove Templeton to the area of the marsh where the photograph was taken and asked him to describe the day to them, paying particular attention to weather conditions and "the behavior of area birds." That done, the two MIBs insisted that Templeton merely photographed a passerby. When Templeton continued to express disagreement with this assertion, the MIBs grew noticeably angry and drove off...leaving Templeton in the marsh with nothing but a bewildered feeling and a five mile walk home.
It gets weirder. There was a factory in the area by the marsh. This factory built, among other things, rockets and missiles. One of the models manufactured there was the Blue Streak missile. When this missile was going through tests at the Woomera Test Range in Australia, one launch had to be aborted when two strange figures appeared on the otherwise deserted firing range. When technicians at the test site later saw Templeton's photograph in an Australian newspaper, they recognized the "spaceman" as having the exact same size and appearance as the suited figures they sighted on the test range.

To this day, the Templeton photo remains unexplained.

So what was it? Who was it? This was long before the time of Photoshop, so that lends credibility. What's more, the Kodak Camera Company examined the film and pronounced it to be authentic not tampered with. Could this all be an elaborate hoax on the part of Jim Templeton? After all, we have only his word about there being no one else being at the marsh that day as well as for the visit from the MIBs. But if it was his own concoction, what did he gain from it? A bit of fame that was short-lived. Any monetary gain he had was slim if not non-existent. If anything, he probably had to endure more ridicule than benefit. Then there is the added weirdness of the Australian missile test.

So what are we dealing with here? A few UFO researchers were quick to claim this as an alien visitation. Not so fast, say I. The appearance of the spaceman flies in the face of the more common descriptions of aliens and that really is all we have to go on.

I'm beginning to wonder if we're being visited by time travelers. $:-\$

Warph · February 14, 2012, 11:32:29 PM

....that Madame Delphine Lalaurie: "The Evil Socialite"

was born Marie Delphine Macarty, circa 1775 to Louis Barthelemy McCarty and Vevue McCarty, prominent members of the New Orleans community. On June 12th, 1825, Marie Delphine Macarty married her third husband (the previous two had died), to Dr. Leonard Louis Lalaurie, a prominent dentist. In 1832, Dr. Lalaurie and his wife Delphine purchased the house at 1140 Rue Royale from another prominent member of New Orleans society, Edmond Soniet du Fossat who reportedly had the house constructed for the Lalaurie's. Immediately Delphine Lalaurie began decorating the home with elaborate furnishings. Costly furniture, elaborate paintings by well known artists of the day amongst other fine appointments. Soon thereafter, weekly parties were held at the Lalaurie Mansion, where the most prominent citizens of New Orleans would attend, including a judge, Judge Caponage, a very dear friend of the Lalauries.

Life in the Mansion
Although she would throw lavish parties with guest lists consisting of some of the most prominent people in the city, the manner in which Delphine LaLaurie tortured her slaves is probably the most widely known of the French Quarter's macabre tales. In 1833, after several neighbors allegedly saw her cowhiding a young servant girl in the mansion's courtyard, rumors began to spread around town that LaLaurie treated her servants viciously. According to one tale, a young slave girl was brushing LaLaurie's hair in the upstairs bedroom when the comb hit a snag in her mistress's hair, enraging LaLaurie.

LaLaurie whipped the 12-year-old slave girl, who tried to escape but fell to her death from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The girl was quickly brought into the LaLaurie Mansion, but not before being observed by neighbors, who filed a complaint. The neighbors later asserted that the young girl was buried under a tree in the yard.

The legalities of the situation were handled by Judge Jean Francois Canonge, a friend of the LaLauries, who had visited the house on a previous occasion concerning the welfare of the LaLaurie servants. The LaLaurie slaves were confiscated and put up for auction, and the LaLauries were fined $500. Some of the LaLaurie relatives arranged to buy the slaves back and quickly returned them to her.

The Attrocities
On April 10, 1834, during another party, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the mansion. The kitchen — as was the norm in Spanish mansions — was separate from the home and located over the carriageway building across the courtyard. The firemen entered the building through the courtyard. To their surprise, there were two slaves chained to the stove in the kitchen. It appeared as though the slaves had set the fire themselves in order to attract attention. The fire itself was soon subdued. It was then that the real horror of what had happened in the mansion became apparent.

Published on 11 April, 1834, the New Orleans newspaper, The Bee, described how, "Upon entering the apartments the most appalling spectacle met their eyes. Several slaves more or less horribly mutilated were seen suspended from the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other . . . the slaves belonged to a woman cast as demon, and they had merely been kept alive to prolong their suffering." It was said that slaves had had their bones broken and their bodies re-shaped, their lips sewn together, that women had been found nailed to the floor, that crude attempts at sex change operations had taken place, and that buckets full of body parts and gore had been found – a Grand Guignol Horror! Surviving slaves later described how they trembled with fear at the prospect of being taken to the attic, because no one ever re-emerged from the attic.

LaLaurie escaped by horse and carriage to Bayou St. John, where she allegedly paid the captain of a schooner to carry her across to Mandeville or Covington. Many claimed they escaped to Paris. Others say they remained on the outskirts of New Orleans. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphine_lalaurie ]

Her Death
Several different accounts of the death of Delphine LaLaurie are given. One report said she was killed by a wild boar in a hunting accident in France. Another story, as reported in The Daily Picayune of March 1892, insisted she died among friends and family in Paris.

Warph · February 16, 2012, 12:49:28 AM

...that in 2007, a series of photographs surfaced on the Internet that shows a bizarre aircraft hovering in different areas of California. According to various accounts, the object was almost completely silent and moved very smoothly. It was witnessed moving slowly until it took off in the blink of an eye. In April, May and June of 2007, the object was photographed in Lake Tahoe, Capitola, and Big Basin, California. Each account is strange, but the pictures are yet to be authenticated by any type of authority and could be fabricated.

Warph · February 18, 2012, 10:39:38 PM

What's the largest living organism?

The elephant? The blue whale? The T-Rex? No. The largest ever living organism is a mushroom. And not even a particularly rare one. The Armillaria ostoyae or 'Honey fungus' is very common, and is probably in your garden as we speak. However, lets hope it doesn't grow as large as the largest ever recorded specimen, in Malheur National forest, in Oregon. It covers 2,200 acres (890 hectares)!! And is between 2,000 and 8,000 years old!! The majority of the organism is under ground, in the form of a massive mat of tentacle-like mycelia (the mushroom's equivalent of roots). The giant honey fungus was originally thought to grow in different clusters around the forest, but researches have confirmed it is in fact one very, very large single organism!

So, when someone asks you,"What's the largest living organism? ... you can tell them that it is a Mushroom.

http://www.extremescience.com/biggest-living-thing.htm

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What is the number of the Devil?

616. For 2000 years, 666 has been the number of the dreaded anti-Christ. An unlucky number for many, even the European parliament leaves seat number 666 vacant. The number is from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible.
However, in 2005, a translation of the very earliest known copy of the book of revelation clearly shows it to be 616, not 666! The 1,700 year old copy was recovered from the city of Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, and deciphered by a palaeographical research team from the University Of Birmingham, UK. The team was led by Professor David Parker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast

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How many senses do you have?

At least nine. The five we all know about: Sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, were first proposed by Aristotle, but there are now four more which are agreed among scientists to be official senses, these are:

1. Thermoception – the sense of heat (or it's absence) on our skin,
2. Equilibrioception – our sense of balance, which is determined by the fluid filled cavities in our inner ear.
3. Nociception – Pain.
4. Proprioception – or 'body awareness'. This is the conscious knowledge of where our body parts are without having to look, for example, close your eyes and waggle your big toe, you still know where it is in relation to the rest of you.

Some neurologists also argue that there are even more than 9. What about hunger? Or thirst? It's certainly a grey area.

http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/best/senses.html

Warph · February 19, 2012, 09:20:15 PM

...that in 1886, Atlanta, Georgia passed a short-lived law prohibiting the sale and/or manufacture of alcohol. In response, a pharmacist named John Pemberton created a faux wine, mixing together fruit flavors with extracts from kola nuts (caffeine) and coca leaves (cocaine). He dispensed it via soda fountains — at the time, carbonated water was believed to have a medicinal benefit — and with that, Coca-Cola was born.

While the original Coke formula had a significant amount of cocaine in it, that was quickly stemmed and, by 1903 or thereabouts, eliminated from the recipe. This was done, in part, because the desired flavor can be extracted from the coca leaves, thereby removing the cocaine, setting the drug aside as a byproduct. But we do know that, to this day, Coca-Cola needs coca leaves to make its drinks; as a Coke exec told the New York Times, "Ingredients from the coca leaf are used, but there is no cocaine in it and it is all tightly overseen by regulatory authorities." http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/01/business/how-coca-cola-obtains-its-coca.html

In fact, the United States (and most other nations) expressly prohibits the sale and trade of coca leaves. In order for Coca-Cola to continue to exist in its current form, the company has a special arrangement with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allowing it to import dried coca leaves from Peru (and to a lesser degree, from Bolivia) in huge quantities. The dried coca leaves make their way to a processing plant in Maywood, New Jersey, operated by the Stepan Corporation, a publicly traded chemicals company. The Stepan factory imports roughly 100 metric tons of the leaves each year, stripping the active ingredient — the cocaine — from them. The cocaine-free leaves are then shipped off to Coke to turn into syrup, and, ultimately, soda.

What does Stepan do with the cocaine? It goes to the Mallinckrodt Corporation, which creates a legal, topical anesthesia called cocaine hydrochloride. Cocaine hydrochloride is used to numb the lining of the mouth, nose, or throat, and requires a DEA order form to obtain.

Bonus fact: Coca-Cola's recipe contains a mystery flavoring, known as the "7X flavor." It is heavily guarded. In early 2011, This American Life broadcast an episode discussing a potential early recipe for the drink, but almost certainly not the one in use today. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/427/original-recipe

(Coke denied that NPR had discovered the true formula. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/16/bubbly-buzz-coca-cola-says-its-secret-recipe-is-still-a-secret/)

In that episode, Mark Pendergrast, author of "For God, Country, and Coca-Cola," an unauthorized history of the company (and beverage), told This American Life (via TIME) that "only two people know how to mix the 7x flavoring ingredient" and that "[t]hose two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes; it's this carefully passed-on secret ritual and the formula is kept in a bank vault." http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-coca-colas-secret-formula-discovered/

Double bonus!: The image above is a coupon for a free Coca-Cola. The coupon, which dates back to 1888, is believed to be the first coupon ever issued.