If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.
What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common? They are all invented by women.
Books and reading
Continuing our exploration into the world of books, let us learn about what type of people read what kind of books. Here are some facts from a National Endowment for the Arts study.
* Only 38% of adults in 2006 said they had spent time reading a book for pleasure the previous day.
* 65% of college freshmen in 2005 said they read little or nothing for pleasure.
* 30% of 13-year-olds in 2004 said they read for fun "almost everyday," down from 35% in 1984.
* 1993-2003: The number of titles published increased 58% while fiction readers declined 14%
* Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.Books are Valuable
As children we were all advised to read books and enhance our knowledge. Did you know that it is not only the knowledge inside the book that is valuable, sometimes even books are very valuable, consider these instances.
* On July 8, 1998, Christies, London auctioned an original copy of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the first major work printed in England by William Caxton, in 1477. A private collector paid a record 4,621,500 (9 times the expected price) and bought it.
* A rare first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll raised $1.5m at auction in New York, making this the most valuable children's book ever sold.Cowboys and Horses
If you are in Texas, you must be aware that Texans love horses and the spirit of cowboys is admired here. Several people practice horse riding and the rodeo is still a very popular sport here. Let us learn some interesting things about horses today:
1. There are over 350 breeds of horses in the world
2. A horse's heart is heavy, it weighs about 10 lbs (4.5 kg), while its head weighs only about 11.8 lbs.
3. Horses drink about 10 gallons of water every day
4. The hoof of a horse is like a fingernail; it keeps on growing and needs to be clipped.
5. A male horse is known as a stallion, while a female is known as a Mare. While a baby is a foal, a young female horse is a 'filly'. There is no name for a young male horse.Funny Facts about Japan
Japanese are known to be hard working, entrepreneurial and have successfully rebounded after a crushing defeat in World War II. Here are some amazing facts about Japan and Japanese people.
1. Over 90% of the Japanese population buy a comic-magazine daily
2. Japan is a country of over 6,000 islands and has more than 40 active volcanoes
3. The Tokyo Zoo is perhaps the only one in the world which closes two months every year so that the animals can have a holiday from visitors
4. Paintballs are standard issue to police officers in Tokyo - when chasing a suspect they splatter them with indelible paint, visible under flourescent light, which makes them easily identifiable when apprehended.Know about Indian Aviation
Flying thousands of feet above land we travel from city to city and across the world, how much do you know about the aviation scene in India? Apart from the fact that one has to travel to a big city to access an international airport there are several interesting trivia.
1. Civil aviation in India started way back in 1912. The first flight was from Karachi to Delhi and was served by Imperial Airways (UK)
2. When India attained independence in 1947, there were nine airlines operating across the country. Only one, Orient Airways shifted to Pakistan
3. J.R.D. Tata was the first entrepreneur to set up a private airline in India. He piloted its inaugural flight in 1932
4. In 1948, government established Air India International Ltd in a joint venture with Air India (formerly Tata Airlines) which was later nationalized (1953).
5. After Independence, World War II-abandoned Dakotas were available for Rs 10,000 and many rich hobby fliers became aircraft owners.Mera Bharath Mahaan
Most visitors to this website have some relationship to India, either they were born and brought up there or their parents were born there. Whatever the relationship we have, it is always good to know these interesting facts about India.
1. Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
2. Indians had developed the 'Place Value System' and 'Decimal System' way back in 100 B.C.
3. The game of chess was invented in India and several Indians continue to dominate the game to this date
4. Granite as a material to build temples was used for the first time in southern part of India during the reign of Rajaraja Chola. The Brihadeswara Temple was built at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu with an 80-tonne solid granite as its shikhara.
5. Snakes & Ladders is a very popular board game which was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev and was originally called Mokshapat.
6. According to the Gemological Institute of America, India was the only source of diamonds in the world until 1896Mathematician or writer?
Did you know that Lewis Carroll, renowned author and poet was also a great mathematician? Yes, the author of several children's books most famously Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was also a great mathematician. Lewis Carroll was only the penname or pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.Tough Adventurous Journey
What comes to your mind when someone says that he is going to travel 8,120 km on a windsurfer across the ocean? Most people thought Flavio Jardim and Diogo Guerreiro had gone mad when they stated their intention to attempt this landmark journey.
But then when they completed 61-day their journey from Chui to Oiapoque on the Brazilian coast on July 18, 2005 and notched up a world record in the process, everybody was in complete awe of them. The wind surfing duo traveled 8,129 km (5,045 miles) across icy and turbulent seas to create the world record.
What kind of world record would you like to create?Unusual Hobby
Brent Dixon of Georgia, USA has a strange hobby. He collects key chains in his home in Valdosta, Georgia. His large collection of 41,418 non-duplicated key chains attracted the attention of Guinness book of world records recently. He started collecting key chains in 2001 and in just about 7 years he has made it to the top.
Ever wonder why you throw away key chains? Next time think of Brent and start collecting them yourself.Heard of the Texas Snake Man
Most people are afraid of snakes, and almost all of us would not like to touch one of these crawlies because of the slimy feel of their skin. There are people who love these creepy creatures and one of them is Jackie Bibby of Dublin, Texas.
Texan, Jackie Bibby has earned the sobriquet The Texas Snake Man after he earned the world record by sitting a glass bathtub along with 87 poisonous and wild rattlesnakes. He achieved this feat on November 5, 2007 in Dublin, Texas. He sat in the tub with the poisonous reptiles for 45 minutes and created a new world record.Smoking is injurious to health
Tobacco is one of the most dangerous herbs to have been discovered. Cigarette smoking is responsible for over 45,000 deaths in the US. Let us learn a few facts about this dangerous habit and be away from it.
* Smoking was first started by indigenous people of South America (Brazil), who used to roll tobacco leaves in paper and smoke them.
* Christopher Columbus was the first person to introduce tobacco to Europe and thereafter to the rest of the world.
* Way back in the 1600s Tobacco was outlawed in several countries such as Turkey, China and Russia. Penalties for people caught using tobacco included death sentence.Know your President
Barack Obama created history when he was elected president of United States earlier this year. Everybody knows about his family life, education and political career but here are some facts about the great man which are not so well known:
1. Obama is a huge fan of Spiderman and Conan the barbarian comics and has been collecting them since several years
2. His high school nickname was 'O' Bomber because of his skill in basketball.
3. He is a 2006 Grammy award winner for the audio-version of his book Dreams from my father
4. He is the sixth post-war US president to be left-handed
5. He has read every one of Harry Potter books
6. He owns a set of red boxing gloves autographed by Muhammad AliWorld's Tallest Canine
Did you know that the world's tallest dog lives in the US? Read on to more about this gentle giant. Gibson, a harlequin great Dane is the tallest dog living. Standing tall at 107 cm (42.2 in/ 3 ft 6.2 in) tall on August 31, 2004, Gibson played with the Guinness officials who were trying to measure his height. His proud owner Sandy Hall of Grass Valley, California, USA was all praise and gushing with happiness at this special feat.World's Longest Motorcycle
America is definitely the land of large motorcycles. There is the Boss Hoss, Harley Davidson, BMW and numerous other brands selling amazing motorcycles here. Did you know that the world's longest motorcycle is not in the US?
Yes the world's longest motorcycle was created/ engineered by Colin Furze of United Kingdom. The home-grown motorcycle measures 14.03 meters (46 ft 3 in) in length and was recognized by the Guinness committee which measured the motorcycle at Saltby Aerodrome, Leicestershire, UK on October 14, 2008 only after Colin rode the vehicle for a little over 100 meters.The smallest state in US
1. Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US, it is just 4,002 sq km and hosts 1.05 million people.
2. This small state was the first to declare its independence from the British Crown in 1776 and they continue to celebrate their own independence day on May 4th every year.
3. The oldest synagogue in the United States, Touro Synagogue in Newport, was founded in 1762.Fun Facts about South Dakota
There are 50 states in the US, it is rare to come across an individual who has been to all of them. Today we will learn a little about South Dakota.
1. South Dakota hosts the world's largest publicly owned bison herds. There are 1,500 heads of bison in the herd and they all roam free in the Custer State Park.
2. Black Hills is a mountainous region of South Dakota from where thousands of Native Americans were evicted so that new European settlers could prospect for gold during the 1870s. The region is named Black Hills because it looks black from a distance.
3. Edible Murals are created every year out of corn, grain and grass grown in the area, on the exterior of Mitchell, South Dakota's Corn Palace. This tradition which started in 1892 continues to be followed as a tribute to South Dakota's farmers.There is more to Las Vegas
When one hears of Las Vegas, Casinos, shows and money comes to the mind. There's more than that to Las Vegas. Nevada's largest city is home to the Liberace Museum, dedicated to the life of flamboyant entertainer Liberace, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1987. It houses Liberace's collections of jewelry, clothes, antiques, pianos and custom cars.The highest and lowest!
The altitude of any place is measured in terms of its relative position to the sea level. Within the US, Colorado state is remembered as the place of mountains, and one tends to think that the highest point in the US will be located there. That is wrong, California is endowed with some tall mountains, in fact the highest and lowest points in the continental United States: Mount Whitney (14,494 ft) and Badwater in Death Valley (282 feel below sea level) are located within the precincts of California.
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