Weird Fact of the
Month
9/08
Perspective:
If you have food
in the refrigerator, clothes on you back, a roof over
your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the
people
in the world.
If you have money in
the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish
some place, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
This
trivia came from the book 'Zobmondo' by Randy Horn.
8/08
Red Light, Green Light:
In the late
1800's, the Ramsgate Lighthouse in England had a confusing
warning system. It flashed a GREEN light as a warning for DANGER,
and a RED light to assure ships it was SAFE to proceed.
(opinion note: these are the same people who thought driving on the
wrong side of the road was also a good idea.)
This
trivia came from the book 'Ripley's Believe it or Not', 18th Series.
7/08
Audience Participation?
To create the
language of the mutants in the 1932 film "Island of Lost
Souls", a mixture of animal sounds and foreign languages was
recorded,
then played back at alternating speeds. The sound caused
audiences
to vomit.
This
trivia came from the book 'Zobmondo' by Randy Horn.
6/08
Waiting for the other shoe to drop
(off your forehead):
Forty percent of
all women admit to having thrown shoes at men.
This
trivia came from the book 'Zobmondo' by Randy Horn.
5/08
Life Imitates Art:
Artist Paolo Zoppo
took two years to paint a miniature on glass depicting the
destruction of his hometown of Brescia, Italy, by French invaders.
When it was finally finished, he saw it shatter when he dropped it and
died of
a broken heart in 1538.
This
trivia came from the book 'Ripley's Believe it or Not', 18th Series.
4/08
Theft-Proof car gets stolen:
A Police
department in Berlin, Germany was testing a "theft-proof"
patrol car. The special BMW was equipped with surveillance
equipment,
electronic locks, and other systems to ensure that it could not be stolen.
Naturally, the car was stolen. What happened? The two officers assigned
to the test vehicle both jumped out to chase a car thief on foot, and left
the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition. They now face a
disciplinary hearing.
This
story came from the weird trivia site thisistrue.com ( This Is True).
3/08
The Ride of a Lifetime:
In February 2007,
a German paraglider survived the ride of her life
when she woke up encased in ice at 32,000 feet!
The German 2005 World Cup winner, Ewa Wisnerska, was sucked
up into a tornado-like thunderstorm in Australia and carried to a
height
of 32,612 feet (9,940 meters) which is greater than Mount Everest.
She was preparing for the tenth FAI World Paragliding Championships
near Manilla in New South Wales.
She said she was shaking all the time and remembered it was dark and
could hear lightning all around her. Her ascent took only 10 minutes
and rendered her unconscious for almost an hour.
Ewa encountered hailstones the size of oranges and the temperature
plummeted to minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit. There is no oxygen at that
height and she could have suffered brain damage, but came to again
covered in ice and slowly descended herself. She was admitted to a
hospital with severe frostbite and blistering to her face and ears,
but
was soon released.
Ewa had been trying to fly around the rapidly developing storm front,
but became trapped when two storm cells merged together.
Her flight was tracked by her personal GPS, and she landed 40 miles
from her launch site.
A Chinese paraglider was killed by the same weather system,
apparently from a lack of oxygen and extreme cold.
A British team member earlier in the same month survived an attack
by two wild eagles which sent her canopy plummeting while flying in
the same area. She was also preparing for the championships.
This is a condensed
story found on the MSN web homepage in February 2007, written
by the MSNBC News Services, with contributions from Reuters and the
Associated Press.
2/08
License 'Revoked':
In 1999, a
Tennessee man tried to marry his car. In his application for
a marriage license, he listed his Mustang's birthplace as Detroit,
father
as Ford, and blood type as 10-W-40 (oil). His request was denied,
but he vowed to keep trying.
(Yes, some people sure love their cars).
This story was found on
several internet sites.
1/08
Twisted Words:
Can you read
this?
I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rseearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres
in
a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and lsat ltteer be
in
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it
whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh,
and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
If you can raed this, then you did a garet job!
Received as an
e-mail (or suohld I say "rceveied as an e-mial)
08
Mo
.
.
Take
me to the weirdness of 2007
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