Get yer Friday Afternoon Useless Facts here!

[LynneSin]

• Astronauts get taller when they are in space.
  
• A tree in metropolitan area will survive for approximately eight years.
  
• A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.
  
• According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until the 1730's, India was the only source for diamonds in the world.
  
• An acre of trees can remove about 13 tons of dust and gases every year from the surrounding environment.
  
• An estimated 690 million people live in Africa.
  
• An olive tree can live up to 1500 years.
  
• Angel Falls in Venezuela is the world's highest waterfall, at 979 meters. This waterfall is sixteen times the height of Niagara Falls.
  
• Canada has more inland waters and lakes than any other country in the world.
  
• Corals take a long time to grow. Some corals only grow one centimeter in one year.
  
• Davao City, located at the Southern state of Philippines, is the largest city in the world in terms of area.
  
• Despite being over 27 times smaller, Norway's total coastline is longer than the USA's.
  
• Devon, England has about 33,000 miles of hedgerows, more hedgerows than any other country.
  
• Each day the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to evaporate.
  
• Even though the rose does not bear any fruit, the rose hips have more Vitamin C than most vegetables and fruits.
  
• Fine-grained volcanic ash can be found as an ingredient in some toothpaste.
  
• Finland has 187,888 lakes and 179,584 islands.
  
• Finland is also known as "the land of of the thousand lakes," because of the over 188,000 lakes found in this country.
  
• Florida has twice as many lightning injuries and deaths than any other state.
  
• In 1958, the United States Coast Guard off western Greenland measured the tallest known iceberg at five hundred and fifty feet.
  
• In 1998, approximately 1.6 billion tree seedlings were planted in the United States. This amounts to about five trees per American.
  In Albania, nodding your head means "no" and shaking your head means "yes."
  
• In France, the Big Dipper is called the "casserole."
  
• In a day, a mature oak tree can draw approximately 50 gallons of water.
  
• In a year approximately 900 million trees are cut down to make the raw materials needed for American pulp mills and paper.
  
• In approximately 18 months, the papaya tree can grow to be 20 feet tall.
  
• In some parts of the Atacama Desert it has never rained.
  
• In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.
  
• In the United States, about 33% of land is covered by forests.
  
• In the dry valleys region of Antarctica, it has not rained in 2 million years according to scientists
  
• In the early 1700's, Siberia became a place of exile for many criminals and political extremists.
  
• In the world, the Netherlands has the highest concentration of museums in the world. Just in Amsterdam alone there are 42 museums.
  
• India is the world's largest consumer of gold.
  
• India used to be the richest country in the world until the British invasion in the early 17th Century.
  
• Indonesia consists only of islands - 13,667 altogether.
  
• Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents.
  
• It takes approximately 12 years for Jupiter to orbit the sun.
  
• It would take 29 million years for a car travelling 100 miles per hour to reach the nearest star.
  
• Japan has approximately 200 volcanoes and is home to 10% of the active volcanoes in the world.
  
• Moscow was founded in 1147 by Yury Dolgoruky.
  
• Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
  
• Oak trees can live 200 or more years.
  
• Of all the countries, Brazil has the most plant species, with over 56,000.
  
• One percent of Greenland's population lives in one single apartment building, named Blok P.
  
• Pakistan has the world's largest canal based irrigation system.
  
• Persia changed its name to Iran in 1935.
  
• Rice flour was used to strengthen some of the bricks that make up the Great Wall of China.
  
• Russia is the world's largest country with an area of 17,075,400 square kilometers.
  
• Seven asteroids were especially named for the Challenger astronauts who were killed in the 1986 failed launch of the space shuttle.
  
• Soil that is heated by geysers are now making it possible to produce bananas in Iceland.
  
• Some asteroids have other asteroids orbiting them.
  
• St. Paul, Minnesota was originally called Pigs Eye after a man named Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant who set up the first business there.
  
• Stalks of sugar cane can reach up to 30 feet.
  
• Tasmania is said to have the cleanest air in the world.
  
• Thailand used to be called Siam.
  
• The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply.
  
• The Angel Falls in Venezuela were named after an American pilot, Jimmy Angel, whose plane got stuck on top of the mountain while searching for gold.
  
• The Apollo 17 crew were the last men on the moon.
  
• The Chihuahua Desert is the largest desert in North America, and is over 200,000 square miles.
  
• The Dead Sea has been sinking for last several years.
  
• The Earth's rain forest are home to about 75% of all known species of plant and animal life.
  
• The Huang He (Yellow River) in China is also called "China's sorrow." This is because it overflows its banks, and has caused many destructions. One of the biggest floods was in 1887, where approximately one million people died in China because of the flood.
  
• The Rainbow Bridge is the world's largest natural bridge. It is located at the base of Navajo Mountain, Utah and is as long as a football field.
  
• The Red Cross is called the Red Crescent in Arab countries.
  
• The Sea of Tranquility on the moon is deeper than the highest mountain on Earth.
  
• The Tonle Sap River in Cambodia flows north for almost half the year and then south for the rest of the year.
  
• The U.S. paid Russia $7.2 million for Alaska in 1867.
  
• The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
  
• The age of a saguaro cactus is calculated by its height.
  
• The bark of an older redwood tree is fireproof. Also the redwoods extremely high water content reduces the tree's susceptibility to fire.
  
• The city of Seoul has been the capital city of Korea for more than 600 years.
  
• The city of Tokyo was originally called Edo.
  
• The country of Bolivia is named after a fighter Simon Bolivar.
  
• The country of Fiji is made up of 332 islands.
  
• The deepest mine in the world is the East Rand mine, which goes to a depth of about 3,585 metres.
  
• The deepest point on the Earth's surface is in the Pacific Ocean located in the Marianas Trench. This point is called the "Challenger Deep" and is 35,818 feet deep.
  
• The driest place on earth is Calama, in the Atacama Desert in Chile.
  
• The highest point in France is Mont Blanc, located in the Alps.
  
• The largest coral reef in the world is the Great Barrier Reef located in Australia. The reef is approximately 2023 kilometers long.
  
• The largest volcano known is on Mars: Olympus Mons, 370 miles wide and 79,000 feet high, is almost three times higher than Mount Everest.
  
• The longest freshwater shoreline in the world is located in the state of Michigan.
  
• The meaning of Siberia is "sleeping land."
  
• The oil that is found in poison ivy is called "urushiol."
  
• The only married couple to fly together in space were Jan Davis and Mark Lee, who flew aboard the Endeavor space shuttle from Sept 12-20, 1992.
  
• The planet Venus spins opposite to the other planets in the solar system.
  
• The reason why the Canadian Arctic is called the "Land of the Midnight Sun" is because during the summer many communities have light 24 hours of the day. Many people have to cover their windows with tin foil to keep the light out when they sleep.
  
• The sun is approximately 149 million kilometres from the earth.
  
• The sun is approximately 75% hydrogen, 25% helium by mass.
  
• The sun shrinks five feet every hour.
  
• The tallest tree recorded is located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California. It is a coast redwood and has been measured at 117 metres high.
  
• The thickness of the Arctic ice sheet is on average 10 feet. There are some areas that are thick as 65 feet.
  
• The word "America" comes from the European explorer "Amerigo Vespucci.
  
• The word "comet" comes from the Greek word "kometes" meaning long hair and referring to the tail.
  
• The word Thailand means "land of the free."
  
• The word tulip comes from the Turkish word for turban.
  
• The world's cleanest air is in Tasmania.
  
• The world's highest capital is La Paz, which is the capital of Bolivia. The capital is located about 12,000 feet above sea level.
  
• The world's highest tide is in the Bay of Fundy located in Nova Scotia, Canada.
  
• The world's worst earthquake occurred in the Eastern Mediterranean in July 1201, killing over one million people that were predominately in Egypt and Syria.
  
• There are over 2,000 different species of cactuses.
  
• There are over one hundred billion galaxies with each galaxy having billions of stars.
  
• There are over three trillion craters on the moon, with some being having a diameter over three feet.
  
• There have been 191 coops in Bolivia since it became a sovereign country in 1825.
  
• There is a place called Hell, Michigan. It is about 50 miles from Detroit, Michigan.
  
• There is an area located off the south-eastern Atlantic coast of the United States called the "Bermuda Triangle." It is known for a high rate of unexplained losses of ships, small boats, and aircraft, which has led some people to believe that this triangle has supernatural powers.
  
• There was once a country called Prussia. After World War II, it was divided among Poland, Germany, and the USSR.
  
• Thirty to 40 gallons of sugar maple sap must be boiled down to make just one gallon of maple syrup.
  
• Toronto was the first city in the world with a computerized traffic signal system.
  
• Tropical rainforests cover about 7% of the Earth and receive over 80 inches of rain every year.
  
• Twelve men have landed on and explored the moon.
  
• Uranus has 27 moons.
  
• Ushuaia, Argentina is the world's southernmost city.
  
• When explorers first arrived in Venezuela, they were reminded of Venice. They named the country "Little Venice", which translated into Spanish is Venezuela.
  
• When the volcano Krakatoa off the Java islands exploded in 1883, it was so loud that it woke some people up in South Australia.
  
• You can send a postcard from Hell. There is a small town located in the Cayman Islands called "Hell." They even have a post office.
  

[trackfan]

1. What happens when you plant an olive tree in a metropolitan area?