Breathing for most snakes is accomplished with one lung only. The left lung is either greatly reduced in size or missing completely.

In one year, Americans generate enough hazardous waste to fill the New Orleans Superdome 1,500 times over.

Tuberculosis is one of the world's oldest diseases. Some ancient mummies found in Egypt and Peru had tuberculosis.

The "Top Ten Preppiest Student Bodies" according to the 2006 edition of the Insider's Guide to Colleges published by Yale Daily News: Babson College, Colgate University, Middlebury College, Princeton University, Rollins College, Trinity College (Connecticut), University of Virginia, Vanderbilt University, Villanova University, Wake Forest ...Read more

By the end of the Civil War, between one-third and one-half of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. This served as the catalyst behind the creation of the U.S. Secret Service. On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service was created under the U.S. Treasury Department. In less than a

A Twinkie is a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling" created by Hostess, and baked by Continental Baking Co., which is owned by Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corporation. Twinkies measure 4" x 1" and are usually sold in packages of two. They have a shelf life of 25 days which is very

According to the General Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, the typical American spends an average of one year of his or her life speaking on the telephone.

Lost cats really can find their way home. Various experts point to sunlight angles, the earth's magnetic fields and another capability referred to as PSI Traveling. Whatever the case, recorded facts about cats confirm their often long and arduous journeys to reach home and a favored human

Bulgaria’s national anthem was written by Tzvetan Radoslavov (1863-1931). The original words and music were composed by Radoslavov while he was still a student in 1885 and on his way to fight in the Serbo-Bulgarian War. The song quickly became popular. It was arranged as the National Anthem, replacing the previous Republican Anthem in 1964. ...Read more

Usually Bushmen hunt with poison arrows. The poison is extracted from the pupae of beetles found in the soil beneath infested marula trees. A few drops of the poison squeezed onto an arrow are enough to kill an antelope; one drop of it can kill a human if it enters the bloodstream. For safety, arrowhead tips are not treated – the poisonous ...Read more

“Toboggan” is derived from the Algonquin language and loosely meant “instrument with which to drag a cord.”

Sexual freedom and the elimination of sexual jealousy are a major theme of Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), in which the straitlaced nurse Jill acts as a dramatic foil for the less parochial characters Jubal Harshaw and Mike. Two negative references to homosexuality have been interpreted by some readers as being homophobic, but both deal with ...Read more

Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century French mathematician, said that if Cleopatra's nose had been differently shaped – aquiline, for instance – or if Cromwell's bladder had not been obstructed and he had lived longer, the history of the world would have been altered.

The human body consists of about 60 trillion cells, and each cell has about 10,000 times as many molecules as the Milky Way has stars.

In 1894, A. G. Spalding & Bros. in Chicopee, Massachusetts invented the first official basketball. The first balls were made of panels of leather that were stitched together over a rubber bladder.

Japanese children start out by memorizing 80 brush-stroke characters by second grade, going all the way to 2,000 characters to allow them to read a newspaper in high school. Still, only 16.3 percent of test takers pass a national kanji (writing Chinese characters) exam that requires mastering about 2,000 characters. These days, more Japanese ...Read more

Men have more blood than women. Men have 1.5 gallons as compared to 0.875 gallons for women.

Thirteen popes were named Leo, including Leo the Great, who prevented the Huns from sacking Rome. Six emperors of Constantinople were also called Leo. The continuing popularity of the name probably stems for it association with the lion, long considered the king of beasts.

More than half of school-age children in the U.S. have no cavities in their permanent teeth, compared with only 26 percent who were cavity-free in the early '70s, the American Dental Association has reported.

The frigate bird can fly at a speed of 260 miles per hour.