The word SWIMS is the same when read upside down.

The earth's magnetic field has declined 10% over the last century.

The sun rotates once every 27 days.

Bombyx morei, the silkworm that was domesticated 4,500 years ago, can no longer survive in the wild. A silkworm makes a single continuous thread half a mile long.

If an influenza virus were the size of your fist, the cell it would attack in your body would be half the size of the Empire State Building. After eight hours the cell would be destroyed.

The 100 trillion tiny bacterial cells in a human outnumber human cells ten to one.

Humans have 60,000 miles of blood vessels.

The sciatic nerve in the hip is half an inch in diameter.

Although only 2% by weight, the human brain consumes 20% of our oxygen.

A red blood cell can circumnavigate the human body in just 20 seconds.

A red blood cell can travel 12,000 miles in a day (I'd love to have the frequent flyer miles).

Heartbeat rates per minute: Mouse 500; Human 70; Elephant 28; Whale 9;

The red-eyed tree frog embryo are smart enough to sense when fellow eggs are being eaten by a snake and drop out of their egg sac to take their chances in the water below.

Three deadliest days for pedestrians: Jan 1st, Dec 23rd, and Oct 31st.

Take a brand new deck of cards, do eight perfect shuffles with cuts and the cards will return to their original order.

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. - Sir Winston Churchill

Males with symmetrical faces have more masculine facial features, and symmetrical females have more feminine facial features.

Lions are the only social cats.

Lions hunt at night so they don't overheat.

Lions are the only cats with sexual dimorphism with the males being easily recognised by their manes.

Snakes grow until they die.

When climbing mountains, remember the peak is only half-way.

The USS Washington was the only battleship in WWII to sink another battleship unassisted.

The Desert Iguana changes from a dark color in the morning to absorb sunlight to white in the afternoon to repel sunlight.

The Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara Japan is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years. This forces the younger generations to learn how to build the temple. Since its original building in 768 it has been rebuilt 57 times.

A simple rule dictates my buying: Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. -WARREN E. BUFFETT on stock market investments

Rodents are the most sucessful mammals. There are more individual rodents than all other mammals combined. 1,800 species of the 4,500 mammals are in the Rodentia order.

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important." -Bertrand Russell

By controlling the flow of blood to its beak, the toucan can adjust its temperature.

The English dictionary is the largest in the world.

The earth is only solid for the first 41 miles, proportionately thinner than the skin of an apple.

Lowest place on earth is the Dead Sea, 1,300 feet below sea level. Amazingly, the second lowest dry point is Death Valley California at 282 feet below sea level.

The ancient Egyptians believed the love vein went from the fourth finger on the left hnad directly to the heart - this is why we wear wedding rings on that finger.

Napoleon to his staff, "Ask me for anything, anything but time."

"Are we being good ancestors?" -Jonas Salk

Hyenas clans are totally female dominated. The highest status goes to the alpha female, then beta female, down to the lowest ranking female, then the alpha male. Btw, the hyena has the second most powerful bite, 1,000 psi, in the animal kingdom.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." -Upton Sinclair

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something." - Thomas Huxley

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." -Gerald R Ford, 38th US President

The sun has not caught me in bed in fifty years. - Thomas Jefferson

"Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth; with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions." - Lord Macaulay, 1857 writing about the United States giving voting rights to everyone

"Adventure is just bad planning." -Roald Amundsen

Fewer boys in proportion to girls are born each year in industrialized countries. The proportion has declined at a rate of about one per 1000 births every year.

100 million people worldwide suffer from Dengue fever which has no cure.

A Mersenne number is a positive number that can be expressed in the form 2n-1. If the number is also a prime number, it gets the special name: a Mersenne prime. The 46th Mersenne prime is 2 raised to 43,112,609 power minus 1.

James Garfield, the 20th US president, was a professor of ancient languages and also ambidextrous. He could write in Latin with one hand and write in Greek with the other.

Tungsten has nearly the same density as gold, making it a perfect core for counterfeit gold bars.

Kiwi chicks hatch fully formed and prepared for life. They need no parental care.

Dogs have 44 times more smell receptors than humans.

John Tyler, the 10th president, fathered an impressive 15 children, fathering the last in his 70s.

If you were to unravel all the DNA in a single human cell it be six feet long. Unraveling all the DNA in a human body would reach the sun and back 611 times [type this into Google.com: ((6 ft * 100 trillion) / 93,000,000 miles)/2 ]

"Proprioception" is the sixth sense, or at least a fifth and a half sense of us humans. Are we upside down, or going around a corner in a car with our eyes shut? Some nerves in conspiracy with our inner ear tell us how our bodies are oriented in space.

A network of nerves, in conjunction with the inner ear, tells the brain where the body and all its parts are and how they're oriented. This is how you know when you're upside down, or how you can tell the car you're riding in is turning, even with your eyes closed.

"As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful."

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is probably wrong."

Bad money drives good money out of circulation.

(Rumored to be true with politicians as well).

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice."

A rule in science and philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. This rule is interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called law of parsimony.

Each traditional season starts at either an equinox or solstice. An Equinox is when day and night are of equal length. A Solstice is when the Earth is tipped the furthest toward or away from the sun.

For the Northern Hemisphere:
Spring (vernal) Equinox - 21 March
Summer Solstice - 21 June
Autumn Equinox - 23 Sept
Winter Solstice - 22 Dec

Although the above describes the "traditional" seasons, the actual weather varies greatly depending on where your feet are planted.

When minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual politically-correct generalities, but what they heard instead was a stirring prayer, passionately calling our country to repentance and righteousness. The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In six short weeks, the Central Christian Church had logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of the prayer from India, Africa and Korea. Commentator PAUL HARVEY aired the prayer on The Rest of the Story on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired !!

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, "Woe on those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We confess that:
We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism.
We have worshiped other gods and called it multi-culturalism.
We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn children and called it a choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it political savvy.
We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will. I ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let's hope the 1929 economy is not later called "The Great Depression I".

Things you never hear: "Let's go out to eat at the hospital tonight!"

Part of the reason the Mongol army was so amazingly successful is that they elected officers from the lower ranks and the upper officers were selected by ability and not birthright. In contrast, European commanders of the time were appointed based on property which was inherited and not ability.

A) The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
B) On the other hand, the French eat a lot of fat and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
C) The Japanese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans.
D) The Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine, and also suffer fewer heart attacks than the British or Americans
E) Conclusion: Eat and drink what you like. It's speaking English that kills you. - Author Unknown

The small white nodules or 'stones' in the crypts of the tonsils are called tonsilloliths and occur in 2 to 3% of the population.

America hosts twelve broods of 17-year cicadas and three broods of 13-year cicadas. The different broods may take to the air in different years, but all wait their alloted interval. Cicadas only emerge after a prime number of years to reduce the number of predators. If they were to emerge every three years, and some broods drift into a neighboring years, their predators might adapt and be waiting for them. By waiting a prime number of years, they wait out all predators.

In "On Duties", Cicero has suggestions for good conversation: speak clearly; speak easily but not too much, do not interrupt, be courteous, never criticize absent people, stick to subjects of general interest, do not talk about yourself; and never lose your temper.

The Papyrus Ebers was written in Egypt about 1552 B.C. and gives us these great medical tips:

1. To prevent hair from turning gray, anoint it with the blood of a black calf which has been boiled in the fat of a rattlesnake.
2. To prevent balding mix together the fat of a horse, a hippopotamus, a crocodile, a cat, a snake and an ibex. Then mix in the tooth of a donkey crushed in honey.
3. Splinters are to be treated with a mixture of worm's blood and donkey dung.
4. To stop bleeding, rub donkey dung on a cut.
5. To remove wrinkles, split a toad in half and apply to wrinkled area.

Four Personality Types

Based on the four humors popularized by Greek physician Hippocrates (460-370 BC)

-------------- interesting questions ------------------------
What brings you to tears?
Why do people like you?
Who would like to spend an evening just with you?
What would you do if money was no object, and you knew you wouldn't fail?
What is wrong with the world?

* Q: What is an experienced Emacs user?
* A: A person who wishes that the terminal had pedals.


 
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because 
we do not dare that they are difficult. -Seneca


Is it not better to aim your spear at the moon and strike only an eagle, 
than to aim your spear at the eagle, and strike only a rock?
 

The world is made for people who aren't cursed with self-awareness. 
  -the character Annie Savoy in the film Bull Durham



Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a
man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams. 
     -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BC 3-65 CE)

 

It is in vain to hope to please all alike.  Let a man stand with his face 
in what direction he will, he must necessarily turn his back on one half 
of the world. -George Dennison Prentice

Three-quarters of teen suicides are from single parent families - NPR

From the Calendar FAQ:

   The solution to problem 2) depended on the fact that it was felt that
   21 March was the proper day for vernal equinox (because 21 March was
   the date for vernal equinox during the Council of Nicaea in AD
   325). The Gregorian calendar was therefore calibrated to make that day
   vernal equinox.

   By 1582 vernal equinox had moved (1582-325)/128 days = approximately
   10 days backwards. So 10 days had to be dropped.

   [Dropping 10 days in the 1500s brought the Gregorian calendar in sync
   with the Julian calendar of the 3rd century. But AD 325 is in the 4th
   century.]


   2.2. What is the Gregorian calendar?
   ------------------------------------

   The Gregorian calendar is the one commonly used today. It was decreed
   by Pope Gregory XIII in a papal bull in February 1582.

   In the Gregorian calendar, the tropical year is approximated as
   365 97/400 days = 365.2425 days. This gives an error of 1 day in
   approximately 3300 years.

   The approximation 365 97/400 is achieved by having 97 leap years
   every 400 years.
   ...
   Great Britain and Dominions (including what is now the USA):
                2 Sept 1752 was followed by 14 Sept 1752

When is Easter? (Short answer)
Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Marriage is like a phone call at night - first you get the ring, then you wake up.

We use kids as gods in our house.

Do not handicap your children my making their lives easy. -Robert Heinlein

Who you are is who you are when no one is watching.

If you are a good leader who talks little, they will say when your work is done and your aim fulfilled,  "We did it ourselves."   Lao-Tse

If you believe in telekinesis, raise my right hand.