22 Awesome Garage Posters

Amazing World: Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two mont...

►

Amazing World: Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two mont...: Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two months The man survived inside his car by eating snow. Doctors said he may have hibernat...

Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two months

►

Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two months

The man survived inside his car by eating snow. Doctors said he may have hibernated, like a bear.

Doctors say 'igloo effect' kept 44-year-old driver in northern Sweden alive despite temperatures of -30C

A Swedish man who spent two months snowed inside his car as temperatures outside dropped to -30C is "awake and able to communicate", according to the hospital treating him, where stunned doctors believe he was kept alive by the "igloo effect" of his vehicle.

The man, believed to be Peter Skyllberg, 44, who was found near the north-eastern town of Umeå on Friday by passers-by, told police he had been in the car since 19 December without food, surviving only by eating snow and staying inside his warm clothes and sleeping bag.

Dr Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Noorland's University Hospital, said he had never seen a case like it. The man had probably been kept alive, he said, by the natural warming properties of his snowed-in car which would have acted as "the equivalent of an igloo".

"This man obviously had good clothes; he's had a sleeping bag and he's been in a car that's been snowed over," said Segerberg. "Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0C and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature. Obviously he has managed to preserve his body temperature or he wouldn't have made it because us humans can't really stand being cooled down like reptiles, for instance, which can change the body temperature."

Two months was at the "upper limit" of what a person would be able to survive without food, added Segerberg.

Skyllberg was found emaciated and very weak by a pair of snowmobilers who thought they had found a crashed car. They dug down through about a metre of snow to see its driver lying on the back seat in his sleeping bag, according to Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer.

"They were amazed at what they found: a man in his mid-40s huddled inside in a sleeping bag, starving and barely able to move or speak," Nyberg, working in Vaesterbotten county, was quoted as saying.

A rescuer told the local newspaper Västerbottens-Kuriren: "It's just incredible that he's alive considering that he had no food, but also since it's been really cold for some time after Christmas."

Police said temperatures around Umeå had fallen to -30C. One doctor, Stefan Branth, said Skyllberg may have survived by going into hibernation mode. "A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31C which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up."

But Segerberg said he was "sceptical" of this suggestion. "We can't lower body temperature very much. A little bit we can, but if we lower body temperatures more than just a little bit, we lose consciousness and go into a coma," he said, cautioning that it was not his area of expertise.

Skyllberg is being treated in an ordinary ward in the University Hospital, where Segerberg said he was "feeling well". It was unclear how he had come to be stranded in the deserted lane.

Segerberg said that, even in a part of the world where sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow are the norm, this case was unusual. "There have been cases of people caught out in the mountains, and if they can dig themselves down in the snow they are able to survive and be found. But there must be something special in this case."

Gravity has no effect on him

►

Gravity has no effect on him. Amazing illusion

This man can be met in many European countries.
His performances gather big crowds.
The thing is that he is hanging in mid air by leaning with his hand against the wall of any building.
He can stay for hours in this position. No one has discovered yet how he does it.

10 Bizarre Events and Discoveries

►

10 Bizarre Events and Discoveries

Many strange and unexplained events have been documented in modern history, events that raise important questions and baffle world populations. These events are often times initiated by a bizarre archeological discovery, strange recording, or unsolved murder. This article will be describing 10 strange and bizarre world events anddiscoveries.

The Humanzee

The humanzee is a hypothetical chimpanzee and human hybrid. The DNA sequence of a human is very similar to a chimpanzee. Many experimental tests have been conducted, determining that humans share 95% of a chimpanzee DNA, as well as 99% of all coding DNA sequences. This has led to the speculation that it may be possible to breed a human and chimpanzee. No specimen has ever been confirmed. Humans do have one fewer pair of chromosomes than apes. However, having a different numbers of chromosomes is not an absolute barrier to producing young. Similar mismatches are common in nature. The phenomenon is known as chromosomal polymorphism. In the 1920s the Soviet biologist Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov carried out a number of experiments in hopes of creating a human and ape hybrid. He began by working with human sperm and chimpanzee females, but none of his attempts created a pregnancy. He soon fell under political criticism in the Soviet Union and was sentenced to exile in the Kazakh SSR.

Research conducted by J. Michael Bedford showed that human sperm could penetrate the protective outer membranes of a gibbon egg. Throughout history there have been many reports and rumors based around the existence of humanzees. The most widely discussed humanzee sighting was a critter named Oliver. Oliver was a sideshow star in the 1970s. He is said to have come from somewhere in the Congo, although this claim has never been proven. Oliver is very different from other chimps. He typically doesn’t like being in the same general area of other apes and prefers the company of humans. Oliver possesses a flatter face than his fellow chimpanzees. He has less hair, a smaller chin, a smaller and rounder cranium, and pointed ears. He also reportedly had an unusual scent, which is different from both chimps and humans. Oliver was habitually bipedal before being struck with arthritis, meaning that he walked upright. He has never walked on his knuckles like other chimps.

Many reports have indicated that Oliver prefers human females over chimps. He was acquired as a young animal by trainers Frank and Janet Berger. The Berger’s eventually had to sell Oliver because he began to mount and attempted to mate with Janet. Janet Berger has indicated that this behavior started when Oliver reached the age of sixteen. In 1996, geneticists examined Oliver’s chromosomes. The test revealed that Oliver contains forty-eight chromosomes similar to other chimps, although Oliver’s owner Michael Miller claims he had the ape tested and the results showed only forty-seven chromosomes. These results have been widely scrutinized and challenged. His appearance has been dismissed as a genetic deformity. Scientists will not perform further tests on the hypothesis that Oliver could be an undiscovered species of chimpanzee. Oliver is still alive today, living at Primarily Primates in the state of Texas.

Marree Man

Unexplained Geoglyph

The Marree Man, or Stuart’s Giant, is an enormous geoglyph discovered by air on June 26, 1998. The drawing appears to depict an indigenous Australian man, most likely of the Pitjantjatjara tribe. He is hunting birds or wallabies with a throwing stick. The geoglyph lies on a plateau at Finnis Springs, which is 60 km west of the township of Marree in central South Australia. The figure is large, measuring 4.2 km tall with a circumference of 15–28 km. It is officially the largest non-commercial geoglyph in the world. The origin of the artwork remains a complete mystery. There are no historical accounts of the geoglyph and nobody reported witnessing its creation. The lines that make up the Marree Man are 20 to 30 cm deep and up to 35 meters wide. A lot of time and energy was spent creating this artwork. Many researchers have stated that the creation of the geoglyph would have required aerial photography or satellite imagery. The discovery of the geoglyph fascinated Australians due to its size and mystery. At the time of the discovery there was only one track entering and one track exiting the site and no footprints or tire marks were discernible.

In the weeks following the discovery, several anonymous press releases suggested that the Marree Man was created by people from the United States. The releases quoted measurements in miles, yards and inches, instead of the metric system usually used in Australia. When the site was discovered, several items were found in a small pit near the figure. Officials discovered what appeared to be a satellite photo of the Marree Man, a jar containing a small flag of the US, and a note which referred to the Branch Davidians, a religious group infamous for the Waco raid in 1993. These were the only man-made items found at the site. In January 1999, pubic officials received a strange fax from a hotel in Oxford, England. The fax discussed a plaque buried five meters south of the nose of the figure. The fax also said that the plaque was intended to have been dug up by a “prominent U.S. media figure” shortly before the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Similar clues were said to be buried near the Cerne Abbas giant near Dorset and the Long Man of Wilmington, Sussex, in England.

The plaque was discovered in the suggested location. It has a small American flag on it, with an imprint of the Olympic rings. The plaque reads: “In honor of the land they once knew. His attainments in these pursuits are extraordinary; a constant source of wonderment and admiration.” The quote on the plaque comes from a book, The Red Centre, by H.H. Finlayson, in a section describing the hunting of wallabies. The Red Centre also has photographs of hunters without loin cloths, which is the same depiction as the Marree Man. The archeological site was closed shortly after the discovery of the figure, when some members of the Dieri tribe complained of harm and exploitation of the land. Certain people do believe that the geoglyph was created by an ancient civilization. The hand of the figure which is not throwing has the correct posture for the normal Aboriginal technique for throwing. The initiation scars on the chest were also placed perfectly. The creation of the Marree Man remains a mystery.

The Vela Incident

Unexplained Explosion Recorded

On July 16, 1945 the first nuclear weapon was tested near Alamogordo, New Mexico. After the end of World War II, many countries were determined to gain nuclear technology. In 1949, the Soviet Union detonated its first fission weapon. The United Kingdom followed on October 2, 1952, France on February 13, 1960, and China on October 16, 1964. These five powers are permitted to possess nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. There are four recognized sovereign states that are not parties to the treaty, including India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea. India, Pakistan and North Korea have openly tested and declared that they possess nuclear weapons, while Israel has a policy of opacity regarding its nuclear weapons program. There have been over 2,000 nuclear tests conducted since 1945. In 1963, many states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space.

After adopting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, world powers pledged to discontinue all nuclear testing. When a nuclear explosion occurs, it creates intense light, heat, and incredible explosive force. Many national defense programs have released satellites into the atmosphere that have sensors designed specifically to detect nuclear explosions. On September 22, 1979, a “double flash” was detected by the American Vela Hotel satellite. World specialists who examined the data speculated that the double flash was characteristic of a nuclear explosion and may have been the result of a nuclear weapons test. The satellite reported the characteristic double flash of an atmospheric nuclear explosion. It was detected in the Indian Ocean between Bouvet Island and the Prince Edward Islands, which belongs to South Africa. The recording was labeled the Vela Incident.

There has been much doubt as to whether the satellite’s observations were accurate. South Africa has declared that they made no such nuclear test. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 of November 4, 1977 introduced a mandatory arms embargo against South Africa, which also required all states to refrain from “any co-operation with South Africa in the manufacture and development of nuclear weapons.” The conclusions of the Presidential panel suggested that the most likely explanation of the Vela detection was a meteoroid hitting the satellite. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was convinced that a nuclear explosion was detected by the satellite. No evidence of an explosion was found, such as the presence of nuclear wastes in the air. Several passes were made by military planes from all over the world. The planes were specifically designed to detect airborne radioactive dust. However, Low levels of iodine-131 were reportedly found in the thyroid glands of sheep in the Australian States of Victoria and Tasmania soon after the “detection” of the light flashes. Studies of wind patterns confirm that fall-out from an explosion in the southern Indian Ocean could have been carried to southwestern Australia.

An observation station in Puerto Rico detected an anomalous ionospheric wave during the morning of September 22, 1979, which moved from the southeast to the northwest. The Republic of South Africa did have a nuclear weapons program during the 1970s. However, since the fall of apartheid, South Africa has disclosed most of the information on its nuclear weapons program, and according to international inspections there was no mention of the incident. In February 1994, Commodore Dieter Gerhardt, a convicted Soviet spy and the commander of South Africa’s Simon’s Town naval base at the time, talked about the incident upon his release from prison. He is quoted as saying “Although I was not directly involved in planning or carrying out the operation, I learned unofficially that the flash was produced by an Israeli-South African test, code-named Operation Phoenix. The explosion was clean and was not supposed to be detected. But they were not as smart as they thought, and the weather changed, so the Americans were able to pick it up.” It remains uncertain whether the South Atlantic flash in September 1979 was a nuclear detonation and, if so, to whom it belonged.

The Bloop

Unexplained Deep Sea Recording

The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency and extremely powerful underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) several times during the summer of 1997. The sound was traced to a remote point in the South Pacific Ocean west of the southern tip of South America. According to the NOAA reports, the sound came rapidly in frequency and lasted for around one minute. It was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over 5,000 km. The NOAA’s system ruled out any known man-made sound, such as submarine or bomb, or familiar geological sounds such as volcanoes or earthquakes. The audio profile of the Bloop resembles that of a living creature. The system identified it as unknown because it was several times louder than the loudest known biological sound.

The microphone and computer system that recorded the Bloop is a military relic of the Cold War. In the 1960s the U.S. Navy set up an array of underwater microphones, or hydrophones, around the globe to track Soviet submarines. The network was known as the Sound Surveillance System. The listening stations are located hundreds of yards below the ocean surface, at a depth where sound waves become trapped in a layer of water known as the deep sound channel. In the channel, temperature and pressure cause sound waves to continue travelling without being scattered by the ocean surface or bottom. Many sounds have been detected with the system. However, they are usually from whales, ships, or earthquakes.

Cryptozoologists have speculated that the Bloop could have come from a giant sea monster, several times bigger than the largest known living creature. Others have suggested that it could have been bubbles from some kind of huge chemical reaction in the seabed or have something to do with the interaction of powerful ocean currents. One must remember that the sound profile represented a living creature. People have also pointed out that the location of the Bloop originated from the southern Pacific Ocean, which is the claimed location of R’lyeh, linking the sound to the sleeping Great Old One Cthulhu, from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The Bloop remains a mystery of the deep ocean. In history, five other significant unexplained sounds have been named by the NOAA. They are Julia, Train, Slowdown, Whistle, and Ups

Wow! Signal

Unexplained Deep Space Recording

The Universe is defined as everything that physically exists, including all forms of matter, energy, and momentum. A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants. Over 100 billion galaxies exist in the observable universe. In 1963, Ohio State University began the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. As part of this project they developed The Big Ear radio telescope. The Big Ear telescope was used to conduct full sky survey’s of outer space in search of extraterrestrial radio sources. On August 15, 1977 The Big Ear telescope recorded a strange narrow band radio burst. The event was documented by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman, who scribbled “WoW!” in the margin of the recorded printout.

The signal came from the direction of the Sagittarius constellation. It was indicative of technological advancement as it stood out distinctly from the background noise of signals from space. The signal bore expected hallmarks of potential non-terrestrial and non-solar system origin. It lasted for a total of 72 seconds and has not been detected since. Seventy-two seconds is the exact length of time it takes for the Earth to rotate the Big Ear satellite through a signal from space. The event registered enormous strength, and the shape of the signal had a strange rise and fall calculation. Many people have speculated that the Wow signal was sent by an advanced civilization. Curiously, it was picked up by only one of the scope’s two detectors. When the second detector covered the same patch of sky three minutes later, it heard nothing.

This indicates that the first beam had detected something that wasn’t there, or that the source of the signal had been shut off or redirected in the intervening time. The event remains the strongest and most clear signal ever received from an unknown source in space, as well as the most fascinating and unexplainable. Its original discoverer Jerry Ehman doesn’t care to speculate on its source, and he remains scientifically skeptical about the incident. People have made claims that an extraterrestrial race was attempting to contact Earth. The official scientific explanation of the event is interstellar scintillation of a weaker continuous signal. The Wow Signal remains a mystery of space.

Ivy League Nude Posture Photos

Why Were These Photos Taken?

In the late 1970s an employee from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, made a startling discovery in a rarely visited room located in a section of Payne Whitney Gymnasium. The employee discovered a large collection of thousands and thousands of nude pictures. The pictures depicted young men that were profiled from the front, side, and rear position. Upon further investigation of the pictures, something disturbing was reported. It seemed that the people in the photos had a bizarre row of sharp metal pins protruding from their spines. It was discovered that the pictures were part of a strange program that was developed in the United States during the 1940s. The program involved taking nude photos of every incoming freshman who attended certain Ivy League and Seven Sisters colleges. These colleges included Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Vassar, Mount Holyoke, and Wellesley College.

The official explanation is that the photos were an attempt to gauge the rate and severity of rickets, scoliosis, and lordosis in the population. The project was run by William Herbert Sheldon and E.A. Hooton who may have been using the data to support their theory on body types and social hierarchy. These explanations have been highly scrutinized. The United States government took swift action and tracked and burned all of the photographs. Many high ranking government officials and prominent members of American society were among the people profiled. The program was active from the 1940s to the 1970s. The Ivy League nude posture photos are an extremely touchy subject among U.S. government officials. However, people have released accounts of their experience.

The freshman were summoned to the top floor of the gym and met by a man dressed in white garments. They were ordered to remove all their clothes and metal pins were placed along their spine. The pictures were labeled the “posture photos” because claims have been made that the metal pins were being used to judge posture. The people whose pins were described as erratic were required to attend posture classes. However, this does not explain why the college students were forced to remove all their clothes and why the event was documented. It seems that this information could have been obtained with only the removal of the shirt. Many people have questioned the official story behind the U.S. Ivy League nude photos. This procedure was not limited to men. Some famous Americans who reportedly had the pictures taken are George Bush, George Pataki, Brandon Tartikoff, Meryl Streep, Hilary Clinton, and Diane Sawyer.

Globster

The Mystery of the World’s Globsters

A globster is an unidentified organic mass that washes up on the shoreline of an ocean or other body of water. Many different globsters have been found over the years and the term was coined by Ivan T. Sanderson to describe the Tasmanian carcass of 1960. The Tasmanian carcass measured 20 ft (6.1 m) by 18 ft (5.5 m) and was estimated to weigh between five and ten tons. It was said to have no visible eyes, no defined head, and no apparent bone structure. A globster is distinguished from a normal beached carcass by its strange appearance. Many globsters have been scientifically identified as whales or sharks. However, many of the creatures present such a puzzling appearance that their existence remains controversial, even after being officially categorized. Some globsters lack bones, while others have tentacles, flippers, eyes, or other identifiable features. A variety of these creatures have been described as gigantic octopuses. Many different globsters have been examined after being severely decomposed, leading to unreliable data. Other carcasses have been destroyed, as happened with the famous Cadborosaurus willsi (caddy) carcass, found in 1937.

Caddy is an alleged sea serpent reported to be living on the Pacific Coast of North America. There have been more than 300 claimed sightings of Caddy during the past 200 years. Cadborosaurus willsi is said to resemble a serpent with vertical coils or humps in tandem. It has a horse-like head and long neck. It also has a pair of small elevating front flippers, and a pair of large webbed hind flippers fused to form a large fan-like tail region that provides powerful forward propulsion. The picture of Caddy taken in 1937 is one of the most famous globster photos captured. Some other famous globsters include the Hebrides Blob, which was discovered in 1990 on Benbecula beach in the Hebrides, Scotland. The New Zealand Globster is a large unidentified carcass that washed ashore at Muriwai, on the west coast of North Island, New Zealand, in 1968. The Tasmanian Globster 2 was discovered in 1970. Pictures of this globster have mysteriously disappeared. In 1997, the Four Mile Globster washed ashore Four Mile Beach in Tasmania. Many of these creatures remain a complete mystery.

The K Foundation Burn a Million Quid

Why Did The K Foundation Burn a Million Pounds of Cash?

K Foundation burn a million quid was an action that took place on August 23, 1994, in which the K Foundation, which was an art duo consisting of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, burned one million pounds in cash on the Scottish island of Jura. Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty are well known as the pop group The KLF. The KLF was one of the United Kingdom’s most successful pop acts during the early 1990s. They were the biggest selling singles act in the world for 1991. In 1992, the band stopped recording music and Drummond and Cauty formed the K Foundation. The foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo’s post-retirement KLF income. Between 1993 and 1995, the duo spent their money in a number of ways, including on a series of press adverts and wild subversions in the art world, with a strong focus on the Turner Prize. However, the most unusual event occurred when the K Foundation burned one million pounds of cash. The money took well over an hour to burn as Drummond and Cauty fed £50 notes into the fire. According to Drummond, only about £900,000 of the money was actually burnt, with the remainder heading straight up the chimney.

The pair has never fully explained their motivation for burning the money. In 1995, the group announced a 23 year moratorium on all projects. They indicated that they would not respond to questions about the burning of the cash until 2018. The incineration was recorded on a Hi-8 video camera by K Foundation collaborator Gimpo. In 1995 the footage was used in a documentary titled Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid. The K Foundation toured the film around the UK. In most cases, Drummond and Cauty would engage the audience in debate about the burning of the money and its meaning. A book recounting the event was released in 1997. It contains stills from the film, accounts of the events, and viewer reactions. The book also contains an image of a single house brick that was manufactured from the fire’s ashes. Bill Drummond spoke about the burning in 2000 and 2004. At first he was unrepentant, but in 2004, he admitted to the BBC that he regretted burning the money. Many people have reported that the K Foundation have no solid answers as to why they burned the money and what the act represented. It is truly one of the most peculiar stories ever reported.

Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm?

On April 18, 1943 four boys from the town of Stourbridge made a grisly discovery in the area of Hagley Wood, which is part of the Hagley Hall estate belonging to Lord Cobham, located in the Midlands of England. The boys had illegally traveled to the woods in order to poach birds and small critters. In the area they came across an old hollowed out wych-hazel tree. One of the boys decided to climb the tree to look inside for nesting birds. What he saw was a decomposing human skull. The boys had a suspicion that the skeleton was human, but did not report the event for a couple weeks. One of the teenagers discussed the experience with his father, who contacted the Worcestershire County Police Force. The police investigated the wych-hazel tree and found not only the human skull, but an almost complete skeleton, a shoe, and some fragments of rotted clothing.

During a careful search of the surrounding undergrowth, a severed hand from the body was also discovered buried nearby. Professor James Webster examined the remains at the Home Office Forensic Science Laboratory in England. He determined that the woman was around 35-years-old, five feet tall, with brown hair and irregular teeth in the lower jaw. She had also given birth at least once. Webster’s estimated that she had been dead for at least 18 months before she was found. There were no marks of disease or violence on the body, but her mouth had been stuffed with taffeta, which is a smooth woven fabric. The coroner declared it murder by asphyxiation. Authorities searched through the lists of missing persons, however the uncertainties of war had increased the amount of women reported missing and had forced people to change addresses frequently.

The most unusual detail was that despite exhaustive searches through dental records, no trace of the woman was found. Even after a description of the woman and the specific irregularities of her lower jaw were published in dental journals. She also had a tooth removed from the right side of her lower jaw. Towards the end of 1943, strange graffiti began to appear on the walls of empty buildings in various parts of the West Midlands of England. The first graffiti message stated “Who put Luebella down the wych-elm?” This message was followed by many other slight variations, such as “Hagley Wood Bella,” which was found on a wall in Birmingham. Over time, the message has appeared all over England, with the majority of them stating “who put Bella in the wych-elm?” The individual who wrote the first message and gave the woman the name “Bella” is unknown. On August 18, 1999 the phrase was sprayed onto the side of the Wychbury Obelisk, which is a monument constructed in 1758 by Lord Lyttelton. Many theories have suggested that the woman’s murder shows signs of ritualistic witchcraft.

10.

Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 Incident

What did Captain Kenji Terauchi Witness in the Sky?

On November 16, 1986, a Japanese crew captained by Kenji Terauchi embarked on a routine flight from Paris to Tokyo. The three-man crew was transporting wine aboard a JAL cargo jumbo freighter aircraft when they witnessed three unidentified objects while flying over Alaska, USA. The sighting gained international attention when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that it was going to officially investigate the sighting because the Air Route Traffic Control Center in Anchorage, Alaska, had reported that the UFO had been detected on radar. It is one of the few times in history when an unidentified object has appeared and then suddenly disappeared on radar. The UFOs in this case were tracked on both ground and airborne radar, witnessed by experienced airline pilots, and confirmed by a FAA Division Chief. At the time of the sighting, JAL Flight 1628 was heading towards Anchorage, Alaska to re-fuel. At 5:11 PM Captain Terauchi reported seeing three large objects 2000 feet below, describing the largest as resembling a shelled walnut. The lights were described as yellow, amber, and green. The voice of Terauchi showed strong signs of emotion as he described the size of the largest craft. He said that it was twice the size of an aircraft carrier.

At one point the smaller UFOs veered 1000 feet in front of the plane, the captain reported that he could feel the warmth of their glows. Terauchi flew for about six minutes before he decided to report anything to the control center. During the event, the JAL crew attempted to lose the craft by turning in a complete circle, but it remained directly on their tail. U.S. military radar picked up the two objects trailing the JAL flight and the FAA requested military intervention, however the military did not take any action, as the crafts mysteriously disappeared. The flight was able to land safely in Alaska. Captain Terauchi cited in the official FAA report that the objects were UFOs. However, for reasons unknown, the FAA did not pursue the case in depth. Within a few months after the events Kenji Terauchi was grounded, apparently for his indiscretion of reporting a UFO, even though he was a senior captain with an excellent flying record. Several years later he was reinstated by the Japanese government. In a related incident, the U.S. Air Force’s KC135 jet flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks encountered the same object in January 1986. They reported that the UFO traveled within forty feet of their plane.

Amazing facts

►

There are more cars in Southern California than there are cows in India.

The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows.

The province of Alberta, Canada is completely free of rats.

Illinois has the most personalized license plates of any state.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.

The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

There are 206 bones in the adult human body, but 300 in children (some of the bones fuse together as a child grows).

Fleas can jump 130 times higher than their own height. In human terms this is equal to a 6 foot person jumping 780 feet into the air.

Snakes are true carnivores as they eat nothing but other animals. They do not eat any type of plant material.

There are no poisonous snakes in Maine.

The blue whale can produce sounds up to 188 decibels. This is the loudest sound produced by a living animal and has been detected as far away as 530 miles.

The human eye blinks an average of 4,200,000 times a year.

It takes approximately 12 hours for food to entirely digest.

Erosion at the base of Niagara Falls (USA) undermines the shale cliffs and as a result, the falls have receded approximately 7 miles over the last 10,000 years.

The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.

The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.

North Dakota has never had an earthquake.

Alexander Graham Bell (who invented the telephone) also set a world water-speed record of over seventy miles an hour at the age of 72.

There is enough fuel in a full tank of a jumbo jet to drive an average car four times around the world.

Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year.

Chimps are the only animals that can recognize themselves in a mirror.

The leg bones of a bat are so thin that no bat can walk.

There are more living organisms on the skin of a single human being than there are human beings on the surface of the earth.

Ants do not sleep.

Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

Almonds are members of the peach family.

Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.

Americans on the average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.

One person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.

Lorne Greene had one of his nipples bitten off by an alligator while he was host of "Lorne Greene's Animal Kingdom".

The dot that appears over the letter "i" is called a tittle.

All major league baseball umpires must wear black underwear while on the job (in case their pants split).

The Spanish word esposa means "wife." The plural, esposas, means "wives," but also "handcuffs."

If all Americans used one third less ice in their drinks the United States would become a net exporter instead of an importer of energy.

If the Nile River were stretched across the United States, it would run nearly from New York to Los Angeles.

San Francisco cable cars are the only National Monuments that move.

The Hoover Dam was built to last 2,000 years. Its concrete will not be fully cured for another 500 years.

Abraham Lincoln's dog, Fido, was assassinated too.

All of David Letterman's suits are custom made - there are no creases in his suit trousers.

Cranberry Jell-O is the only flavor that contains real fruit flavoring.

Fewer than half of the 16,200 major league baseball players have ever hit a home run.

In comic strips, the person on the left always speaks first.

Richard Versalle, a tenor performing at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, suffered a heart attack and fell 10 feet from a ladder to the stage just after singing the line "You can only live so long."

If the entire population of earth was reduced to exactly 100 people, 51% would be female, 49% male; 50% of the world's currency would be held by 6 people, one person would be nearly dead, one nearly born.

In 1920, Babe Ruth out-homered every American League team.

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores.

Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals.

The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy.

The ant, when intoxicated, will always fall over to its right side.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles has issued six driver's licenses to six different people named Jesus Christ.

Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike each year than all the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

People in China and Japan die disproportionately on the 4th of each month because the words death and four sound alike, and they are represented by the same symbol.

Chicago is closer to Moscow than it is to Rio de Janeiro.

Dogs have two sets of teeth, just like humans. They first have 30 "puppy" teeth, then 42 adult teeth.

In 1950, President Harry Truman threw out the first ball twice at the opening day Washington DC baseball game; once right handed and once left handed.

A Swiss ski resort announced it would combat global warming by wrapping its mountain glaciers in aluminum foil to keep them from melting.

The chameleon has a tongue that is one and a half times the length of his body.

Beethoven dipped his head in cold water before he composed.

There once was a town named "6" in West Virginia.

Ten years ago, only 500 people in China could ski. This year, an estimated 5,000,000 Chinese will visit ski resorts.

In 1920, Babe Ruth broke the single season home run record, with 29. The same year, he became the first major leaguer to hit 30 home runs. The same year, he became the first major leaguer to hit 40 home runs. The same year, he became the first major leaguer to hit 50 home runs.

A Nigerian woman was caught entering the UK with 104 kg of snails in her baggage.

Profanity is typically cut from in-flight movies to make them suitable for general audiences. Fox Searchlight Pictures has substituted "Ashcroft" for "A**hole" in the movie Sideways when dubbed for Aerolineas Argentinas flights.

Author Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide recently, wanted to be cremated and his ashes to be shot out of a cannon on his ranch.

Sports Illustrated magazine allows subscribers to opt out of receiving the famous swimsuit issue each year. Fewer than 1% choose this option.

There is a company that will (for $14,000) take your ashes, compress them into a synthetic diamond to be set in jewelry for a loved one.

The RIAA sued an 83 year old woman for downloading music illegally, even though a copy of her death certificate was sent to the RIAA a week before it filed the suit.

Two 1903 paintings recently sold at auction for $590,000 - the paintings were in the famous "Dogs Playing Poker" series.

Russian scientists have developed a new drug that prolongs drunkenness and enhances intoxication.

Romanian firefighters could not get their trucks close enough to a burning building, so they put out the fire by throwing snowballs at it.

A perfect SAT score is 1600 combined. Bill Gates scored 1590 on his SAT. Paul Allen, Bill's partner in Microsoft, scored a perfect 1600. Bill Cosby scored less than 500 combined.

Motorists traveling outside Salem, Oregon saw one of the "litter cleanup" signs crediting the American Nazi party. Marion County officials had no choice but to let that group into the adopt-a-road program. The $500 per sign was picked up by Oregon taxpayers. The Ku Klux Klan is also involved in the adopt-a-road program in the state of Arkansas.

Spam filters that catch the word "cialis" will not allow many work-related e-mails through because that word is embedded inside the word "specialist".

McDonald's restaurants will buy 54,000,000 pounds of fresh apples this year. Two years ago, McDonald's purchased 0 pounds of apples. This is attributed to the shift to more healthy menu options (the Apple Pie, which has been at McDonald's for years uses processed Apple Pie Filling).

The biggest dog on record was an Old English Mastiff that weighed 343 pounds. He was 8 feet, 3 inches from nose to tail.

Mailmen in Russia now carry revolvers after a recent decision by the government.

All of Queen Anne's 17 children died before she did.

There are over 87,000 Americans on waiting lists for organ transplants.

American made parts account for only 1% of the Chrysler Crossfire. 96% of the Ford F-150 Heritage Truck is American.

A Dutch court ruled that a bank robber could deduct the 2,000 Euros he paid for his pistol from the 6,600 Euros he has to return to the bank he robbed.

Only 6% of the autographs in circulation from members of the Beatles are estimated to be real.

The time spent deleting SPAM costs United States businesses $21.6 billion annually.

60.7 percent of eligible voters participated in the 2004 presidential election, the highest percentage in 36 years. However, more than 78 million did not vote. This means President Bush won re-election by receiving votes from less than 31% of all eligible voters in the United States.

John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, loved to skinny dip in the Potomac River.

La Paz, Bolivia has an average annual temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. However, it has never recorded a zero-degree temperature. Same for Stanley, Falkland Islands and Punta Arenas, Chile.

41% of Chinese people eat at least once a week at a fast food restaurant. 35% of Americans do.

A Wisconsin forklift operator for a Miller beer distributor was fired when a picture was published in a newspaper showing him drinking a Bud Light.

G-rated family films earn more money than any other rating. Yet only 3% of Hollywood's output is G-rated.

Richard Hatch, winner of the first "Survivor" reality series, has been charged with tax evasion for failing to report his $1,000,000 prize.

The entire fleet of Unicoi County Tennessee's salt trucks was rendered out of commission in one accident. All three trucks were badly damaged when one of them began skidding down a road, causing a chain reaction accident. Officials blamed road conditions.

More people study English in China than speak it in the United States of America (300 million).

Fast food provider Hardee's has recently introduced the Monster Thickburger. It has 1,420 calories and 107 grams of fat.

More than 2,500 left-handed people are killed each year from using products that are made for right-handed people.

For every person on earth, there are an estimated 200 million insects.

There are 2,000,000 millionaires in the United States.

1.5 million Americans are charged with drunk driving each year.

A Georgia company will mix your loved one's ashes with cement and drop it into the ocean to form an artificial reef.

The Washington Times newspaper is owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The busiest shopping hour of the holiday season is between 3:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Christmas Eve.

In 2002, women earned 742,000 bachelor's degrees. Men earned only 550,000 during the same year. The difference is growing so large that many colleges now practice (quietly) affirmative action for male applicants.

Most of the deck chairs on the Queen Mary 2 have had to be replaced because overweight Americans were breaking them.

Actor Bill Murray doesn't have a publicist or an agent.

The day after President George W. Bush was reelected, Canada's main immigration website had 115,000 visitors. Before Bush's re-election, this site averaged about 20,000 visitors each day.

Only 30% of stolen artwork worth more than $1,000,000 each is recovered.

The typical American child receives 70 new toys a year, most of them during the holiday season.

90% of Canada's 31,000,000 citizens live within 100 miles of the U.S. border.

Costco is the largest wine retailer in the United States. Annual wine sales are about $700 million.

The worst air polluter in the entire state of Washington is Mount St. Helens.

There are less than 100 surviving American World War I veterans.

Actor Bruce Willis has filed a lawsuit against the movie studio that produced his film "Tears of the Sun", alleging he was struck in the forehead by a fake bullet. Since 2002 (when the movie was in production), the lawsuit claims he has endured "extreme mental, physical, and emotional pain and suffering".

A ten year old mattress weighs double what it did when it was new, because of the -ahem- debris which is absorbed through the years. That debris includes dust mites (their droppings and their decaying bodies), mold, millions of dead skin cells, dandruff, animal and human hair, secretions, excretions, lint, pollen, dust, soil, sand and a lot of perspiration, of which the average person loses a quart per day. Good night!

About 20% of gift cards never are redeemed at the full value of the card.

John Kerry's hometown newspaper, the Lowell Sun, endorsed George W. Bush for president in 2004. Bush's hometown newspaper, the Lone Star Iconoclast, endorsed John Kerry for president in 2004.

Only 939 of the 1,400,000 high school seniors who took the SAT in 2004 got a perfect score of 1600. Two of them are twin brothers Dillon and Jesse Smith from Long Island, NY.

Billboard magazine has recently launched a top 20 chart of cell phone ringtones.

The US Army is handing out $2,500 to Fallujah residents whose property was destroyed by US planes and artillery.

George W. Bush, who presents himself as a man of faith, rarely goes to church. Yet he received votes from nearly two out of three voters who attend church at least once a week.

In 2015, it is estimated that half the federal budget will be spent on programs for the elderly.

A private elementary school in Alexandria, Virginia, accidentally served margaritas to its schoolchildren, thinking it was limeade.

The Chicago Cubs are suing former Hartford Courant newspaper carrier Mark Guthrie to get back $301,000 in pay that was intended to go to a Cubs pitcher with the same name. The Tribune Company owns both the Hartford Courant and the Chicago Cubs.

In February 2004, a Disney World employee was killed when he fell from a parade float and was trapped between two float sections. OSHA termed this a serious workplace violation, but Disney was fined only $6,300.

Even today, 90% of the continental United States is still open space or farmland.

The second Saturday in September is usually a popular time for weddings. Not in 2004, as most couples did not want their anniversaries on September 11.

Mel Gibson has personally earned almost $400,000,000 from his movie "The Passion of the Christ".

Austin High School in Texas has removed candy from its vending machines. Now some enterprising students are earning $200 per week dealing in black market candy.

In 2004, Virgin Atlantic Airlines introduced a double bed for first class passengers who fly together.

The world's largest book, "Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey" is in a Chicago public library. The book measures 5 feet tall by 7 feet wide when open. It weighs 133 pounds.

If the recent U.S. election was held in Canada, John Kerry would have beaten George Bush in a landslide - 64% to 19%.

Oprah Winfrey and Elvis Presley are distant cousins.

55% of Americans claim they would continue working even if they received a $10,000,000 lottery prize.

The company that manufactures the greatest number of women's dresses each year is Mattel. Barbie's got to wear something.

All radios in North Korea have been rigged so listeners can only receive a North Korean government station. The United States recently announced plans to smuggle $2,000,000 worth of small radios into the country so North Koreans can get a taste of (what their government calls) "rotten imperialist reactionary culture".

La Paz, Bolivia is the world's most fireproof city. At 12,000 feet about sea level, the amount of oxygen in the air barely supports a flame.

The estates of 22 dead celebrities earned over $5 million in 2004. These celebrities include Elvis Presley, Dr. Seuss, Charles Schulz, J.R.R. Tolkien and John Lennon.

George Washington spent about 7% of his annual salary on liquor.

Each year, more people are killed by teddy bears than by grizzly bears.

If you disassembled the Great Pyramid of Cheops, you would get enough stones to encircle the earth with a brick wall twenty inches high.

Nearly one third of New York City public school teachers send their own children to private schools.

The New York City Police Department has a $3.3 billion annual budget, larger than all but 19 of the world's armies.

CBS's fine for Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" in the 2004 Super Bowl show was $550,000. This could be paid with only 7.5 seconds of commercial time during the same Super Bowl telecast.

In September 2004, a Minnesota state trooper issued a speeding ticket to a motorcyclist who was clocked at 205 mph.

Al Gore's roommate in college (Harvard, class of 1969) was Tommy Lee Jones.

In her later years, Florence Nightingale kept a pet owl in her pocket.

The New York Jets were unable to find hotel rooms for a game in Indianapolis recently because they had all been booked up by people attending Gencon, a gaming convention.

China is the world's largest market for BMW's top of the line 760Li. This car sells for $200,000 in China - more than almost all people in China make in a lifetime.

A chef's hat is shaped the way it is for a reason: its shape allows air to circulate around the scalp, keeping the head cool in a hot kitchen.

Life expectancy for Russian men has actually gone down over the past 40 years. A Russian male born today can expect to live an average 58 years.

Each year, sixteen million gallons of oil run off pavement into streams, rivers and eventually oceans in the United States. This is more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.

An employee of the Alabama Department of Transportation installed spyware on his boss's computer and proved that the boss spent 10% of his time working (20% of time checking stocks and 70% of the time playing solitaire). The employee was fired, the boss kept his job.

In 1985, the most popular waist size for men's pants was 32. In 2003, it's 36.

Solid structures (parking lots, roads, buildings) in the United States cover an area the size of Ohio.

A Brussels Airlines flight to Vienna was aborted because the pilot was attacked in the cockpit. The attacker was a passenger's cat, who got out of its travel bag.

Physicists have already performed a simple type of teleportation, transferring the quantum characteristics of one atom onto another atom at a different location.

At General Motors, the cost of health care for employees now exceeds the cost of steel.

There is a regulation size half-court where employees can play basketball inside the Matterhorn at Disneyland.

One of pitcher Nolan Ryan's jockstraps recently sold at auction for $25,000.

Television stations hung banners at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, including Al-Jazeera, until it was noticed and taken down.

A woman was chewing what was left of her chocolate bar when she entered a Metro station in Washington DC. She was arrested and handcuffed; eating is prohibited in Metro stations.

The New York City subway system, in an effort to raise revenue, is considering selling sponsorships of individual stations to corporations. Riders could soon be getting off at Nike Grand Central Station or Sony Times Square.

The Nike swoosh was designed by a Portland State University student, and purchased by Nike for $35.

Gerald Ford once worked as a cover model for Cosmopolitan magazine.

Gillette spent $1,000,000 to place razor samples in the welcome bags handed out at the Democratic National Convention, only to have them confiscated as they were considered a threat. This caused huge delays at all security checkpoints.

Quebec City, Canada, has about as much street crime as Disney World.

Jim Carrey voted in 2004 at the Beverly Hills City Hall. He had an assistant wait in line for him, however.

As part of a charity event, 500 cats were spayed and neutered in the cafeteria of an elementary school. School was cancelled for days and $10,000 was spent on cleaning and sterilizing the room.

The United States has five percent of the world's population, but twenty-five percent of the world's prison population.

Seven percent of Americans claim they never bathe at all.

The largest McDonald's is in Beijing, China - measuring 28,000 square feet. It has twenty nine cash registers.

A house in Baghdad worth $15,000 before the Iraq war now sells for $120,000 to $150,000.

There are between 5,000 and 7,000 tigers kept as pets in the United States.

The fertility rate in states that voted for George Bush is 12% higher than states that favored John Kerry.

The chicken is one of the few things that man eats before it's born and after it's dead.

The number of US college students studying Latin is three times the number studying Arabic.

In 2004, one in six girls in the United States enter puberty at age 8. A hundred years ago, only one in a hundred entered puberty that early.

If you hook Jell-O up to an EEG, it registers movements almost identical to a human adult's brain waves.

Some dogs can predict when a child will have an epileptic seizure, and even protect the child from injury. They're not trained to do this, they simply learn to respond after observing at least one attack.

32 out of 33 samples of well-known brands of milk purchased in Los Angeles and Orange counties in California had trace amounts of perchlorate. Perchlorate is the explosive component in rocket fuel.

The remains of 125 people will be launched into space where they will orbit the Earth for centuries.

The leading cause of on-the-job deaths in workplaces in America is homicide.

So far, Congress has authorized $152,600,000,000 for the Iraq war. This is enough to build over 17,500 elementary schools.

Americans take an average of just ten days per year vacation. In France, the law guarantees everyone five weeks of vacation, and most full-time workers get two full months vacation.

The IRS admits that one in five people who call their help line get the wrong answer to their question.

20% of Americans think that the sun orbits around the Earth.

Van Halen singer David Lee Roth trained to be an EMT in New York City, and planned to be certified by November 2004.

The thong accounts for 25% of the United States women's underwear market.

On average, 40% of all hotel rooms in the United States remain empty every night.

When you hear a bullwhip snap, it's because the tip is traveling faster than the speed of sound.

There is a new television show on a British cable called "Watching Paint Dry". Viewers watch in real-time. Gloss, semi-gloss, matte, satin, you name it. Then viewers vote out their least favorite.

The largest ocean liners pay a $250,000 toll for each trip through the Panama Canal. The canal generates fully one-third of Panama's entire economy.

French author Michel Thaler published a 233 page novel which has no verbs.

The spring thaw finally allows cemeteries in Alaska to start digging graves for those who died during the winter.

When Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen turn 18 in mid-2004, they will take official control of a company worth more than the gross national product of Mongolia. Their earnings in 2003 topped $1 billion.

Orthodox rabbis warned that New York City drinking water might not be kosher; it contains harmless micro-organisms that are technically shellfish.

David Bowie thinks he is being stalked by someone who is dressed like a giant pink rabbit. Bowie has noticed the fan at several recent concerts, but he became alarmed when he got on a plane and the bunny was on board.

A party boat filled with 60 men and women capsized in Texas after all the passengers rushed to one side as the boat passed a nude beach.

In 1997, a woman in Bradenton, Florida lost her cat. In 2004, she got a call from the local animal shelter. The cat turned up wandering the streets in San Francisco, California. The cat's identity was proven with a microchip that had been implanted prior to 1997.

Almost 20% of the billions of dollars American taxpayers are spending to rebuild Iraq are lost to theft, kickbacks and corruption.

The treasury department has more than twenty people assigned to catching people who violate the trade and tourism embargo with Cuba. In contrast, it has only four employees assigned to track the assets of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

There are 40,000 New York City cab drivers, who collectively drive more than a million miles each day.

An estimated 800,000 senior citizens voluntarily give up their driving privileges each year. The average age at which they surrender the wheel is 85.

More than 8,100 US troops are still listed as missing in action from the Korean war.

3,400,000 Americans are considered "Extreme Commuters". These people commute over 90 minutes round trip every day to work.

82% of Americans made a purchase at Wal-Mart in 2002.

Oslo, Norway is the world's most expensive city. A gallon on gas costs almost $5, and it costs $1.32 to use the public restrooms.

Villanova University's commencement speaker this year is the actor who plays Big Bird.

In 1965, auditions were held for the "Monkees" TV show. Some of the people who responded (but were not hired) were Stephen Stills, Harry Nilsson, Paul Williams and Charles Manson.

Kevin Spacey's older brother is a professional Rod Stewart impersonator.

71% of office workers stopped on the street for a survey agreed to give up their computer passwords in exchange for a chocolate bar.

George W. Bush and John Kerry are 16th cousins, three times removed.

If current trends continue, Medicare costs will absorb 51% of all income tax revenues by 2042.

The prison system is the largest supplier of mental health services in America, with 250,000 Americans with mental illness living there.

Newest trend in the Netherlands: Tiny jewels implanted directly into the eye.

Researchers have found that doctors who spend at least three hours a week playing video games make about 37% fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery than surgeons who didn't play video games.

Before he had his own show, Jerry Seinfeld appeared on three episodes of the TV show "Benson" as the governor's speechwriter.

There are 1,008 McDonald's franchises in France.

Hostess Twinkies were originally filled with banana filling. The filling was changed during World War II when the United States experienced a banana shortage.

World War II veterans are now dying at the rate of about 1,100 each day.

George W. Bush is probably going to be the eighth president in US history to have completed a term in office without ever having issued a single veto.

A deployed air bag adds as much as $2,000 to the cost of repairing a vehicle. That's enough for insurance companies to often declare the car "totaled".

For the first time in history, the number of people on the planet aged 60 or over will soon surpass those under 5.

A British gymnast survived a fall from a fourth story window because he went into a somersault and came down on two feet.

One out of five people in the world (1.1 billion people) live on less than $1 per day.

The Swedish pop group ABBA recently turned down an offer of $2 billion to reunite.

The New Yorker magazine now has more subscribers in California than New York.

Five years ago, 60% of all retail purchases were made with cash or check. Now it's 50%. By 2010, 39% of purchases will be made by cash or check.

35 Billion e-mails are sent each day throughout the world.

The richest self-made American under 40 is Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Computers. He is worth $18 billion.

Legislators in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are considering a law that would require pets to wear seat belts when traveling in a car.

Life Savers got their shape by a malfunctioning machine, which mistakenly punched a hole in the center of each candy.

SUV sales are up 18% in the first quarter of 2004 vs. the same period of 2003, even though gas prices are skyrocketing. Consumer surveys show that gas prices would have to hit $3.75 per gallon before there will be any real impact on SUV sales.

Airport security agents at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts caught a passenger trying to sneak a severed seal head onto a plane inside a cooler. The man said he was a biology professor and had found the dead animal on the beach.

Jimmy Carter once reported a UFO in Georgia.

There are 150,000,000 cell phones in use in the United States, more than one per every two human beings in the country.

A Boeing 767 airliner is made of 3,100,000 separate parts.

The average child recognizes over 200 company logos by the time he enters first grade.

Last December, the House of Representatives earmarked $50,000,000 to create an indoor rain forest in Iowa.

Amusement park attendance goes up after a fatal accident. It seems many people want to ride upon the same ride that killed someone.

Jeffrey and Sheryl McGowen in Houston turned to vitro fertilization. Two eggs were implanted in Sheryl's womb, and both of them split. Sheryl gave birth to two sets of identical twins at once.

For every ton of fish that is caught in all the oceans on our planet, there are three tons of garbage dumped into the oceans.

June Foray did the voice for Rocky the Flying Squirrel and the Chatty Cathy dolls.

Japanese and Chinese people die on the fourth of the month more often than any other dates. The reason may be that they are "scared to death" by the number four. The words four and death sound alike in both Chinese and Japanese.

People with initials that spell out GOD or ACE are likely to live longer than people whose initials spell out words like APE, PIG, or RAT.

More people in the United States die during the first week of the month than during the last, an increase that may be a result of the abuse of substances purchased with benefit checks that come at the beginning of each month.

In the film Forrest Gump, all the still photos show Forrest with his eyes closed.

There are an average of 18,000,000 items for sale at any time on EBay.

The New York Times reports that in February 2004, 62% of all e-mail was spam.

A Massachusetts surgeon left a patient with an open incision for 35 minutes while he went to deposit a check.

In 1991, the average bra size in the United States was 34B. Today it's 36C.

U.K. telecom provider Telewest Broadband is testing a device that hooks to your PC and wafts a scent when certain e-mails arrive.

The average North Korean 7-year-old is almost three inches shorter than the average South Korean 7-year-old.

In 1993, David McLean developed lung cancer. He died on October 12, 1995. McLean's death made him the second Marlboro Man to die of lung cancer. Another actor, Wayne McLaren, died in 1992 at the age of 51 from lung cancer.

There is a bar in London that sells vaporized vodka, which is inhaled instead of sipped.

According to market research firm NPD Fashionworld, fifty percent of all lingerie purchases are returned to the store.

On EBay, there are an average of $680 worth of transactions each second.

The Eiffel Tower shrinks 6 inches in winter.

The first FAX machine was patented in 1843, 33 years before Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone.

72% of Americans sign their pets' names on greeting cards they send out.

In an effort to encourage the use of nuclear energy, the United States lent highly enriched uranium to countries all over the world between 1950 and 1988. Enough weapons-grade material to make 1,000 nuclear bombs has still not been returned by such countries as Pakistan, Iran, Israel and South Africa.

Homing pigeons use roads where possible to help find their way home. In fact, some pigeons followed roads so closely that they actually flew around traffic circles before choosing the exit that led them home.

Every year, 2700 surgical patients go home from the hospital with metal tools, sponges, and other objects left inside them. In 2000, 57 people died as a result of these mistakes.

A snowflake can take up to a hour to fall from the cloud to the surface of the Earth.

Only 5 percent of the ocean floor has been mapped in as much detail as the surface of Mars.

The only people whose likenesses adorn Pez dispensers are Betsy Ross and Paul Revere.

We forget 80 percent of what we learn everyday.

Pain is measured in units of "dols". The instrument used to measure pain is a "dolorimeter".

In a nod to astronauts, Texas is the only state that permits residents to cast absentee ballots from space.

Eleven top executives of the Direct Marketing Association (the telemarketers' group that is trying to kill the federal "Do Not Call" list) have registered for the list themselves.

An iceberg the size of Long Island, New York, has broken off Antarctica and has blocked sea lanes used by both ships and penguins.

In 2003, the Transportation Security Administration dropped a requirement that air marshals pass a marksmanship test. Some applicants were even hired after they repeatedly shot flight attendants in mock hijacking episodes.

As of January 2004, the United States economy now borrows $1,500,000,000 each day from foreign investors.

A Costa Rican worker who makes baseballs earns about $2,750 annually. The average American pro baseball player earns $2,377,000 per year.

Former keyboard player for Jethro Tull David Palmer is now a woman named Dee Palmer. He waited until his wife died before going through with his longtime desire for a sex change.

During Bill Clinton's entire eight year presidency, he only sent two e-mails. One was to John Glenn when he was aboard the space shuttle, and the other was a test of the e-mail system.

Albert Einstein never knew how to drive a car.

The UK's best selling hiking magazine published faulty coordinates for descending Scotland's tallest peak (Ben Nevis), and recommended a route that leads climbers off the edge of a cliff.

The Mars Rover "Spirit" is powered by six small motors the size of "C" batteries. It has a top speed of 0.1 mph.

Zeppo Marx (the unfunny one of the Marx Brothers) had a patent for a wris****ch with a heart monitor.

The entire town of Capena, Italy (including children as young as 2 years old) lights up cigarettes each year in honor of St. Anthony's Day. This tradition is centuries old.

The Amish a diet high in meat, dairy, refined sugars and calories. Yet obesity is virtually unknown among them. The difference is since they have no TVs, cars or powered machines, they spend their time in manual labor.

Microsoft threatened 17 year old Mike Rowe with a lawsuit after the young man launched a website named MikeRoweSoft.com.

As of January 1, 2004, the population of the United States increases by one person every 12 seconds. There is a birth every eight seconds, an immigrant is added every 25 seconds, but a death every 13 seconds.

There is a Starbucks in Myungdong, South Korea that is five stories tall.

Astronauts cannot burp in space. There is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in their stomachs.

There has been no mail delivery in Canada on Saturday for the last thirty five years.

The weight of air in a milk glass is about the same as the weight of an aspirin tablet.

The world's smallest winged insect is the Tanzanian parasitic wasp. It's smaller than the eye of a housefly.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.

The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher.

If you have three quarters, four dimes and four cents, you have $1.19. But you cannot make exact change for a dollar.

There are more plastic flamingoes in the United States than real ones.

The chance that you will die on the way to buy your lottery ticket is greater than the chance of you winning the big prize in most lotteries.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

Dolly Parton once lost a Dolly Parton Look-Alike contest.

An average of 100 people choke to death on ball point pens each year.

The National Anthem of Greece has 158 verses.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

The liquid inside young coconuts can be used as a substitute for blood plasma.

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

The Bible has been translated into Klingon.

Toto was paid $125 per week while filming the "Wizard of Oz".

All polar bears are left handed.

Fidgeting can burn about 350 calories a day.

To help reduce budget deficits, several states have begun reducing the amount of food served to prison inmates. In Texas, the number of daily calories served to prisoners was cut by 300, saving the state $6,000,000 per year.

The only member of the band ZZ Top without a beard has the last name Beard.

Pope John Paul II is the world's Scrabble champion in the over-70 category.

Montpelier, Vermont is the only state capitol without a McDonald's.

Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

In 1993, the board of governors at Carl Karcher Enterprises voted (5 to 2) to fire Carl Karcher. Carl Karcher is the founder of Carls Jr. restaurants.

The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a "porcelator."

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 jet is longer than the Wright Brothers' first flight.

Ted Turner owns 5% of New Mexico.

Over 8 years, this happened 284 times: "Cosmo" Kramer went through Jerry Seinfeld's apartment door.

The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth 2 moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel fuel that it burns.

There are more 100 dollar bills in Russia currently than there are in the United States.

It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

65% of Elvis impersonators are of Asian descent.

Burt Reynolds was originally cast to be Han Solo in the first Star Wars film. He dropped out before filming.

Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter" in 2000.

There are only three types of snakes on the island of Tasmania and all three are deadly poisonous.

It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is "shake" and the 46th word from the last word is "spear".

If you stretch a standard Slinky out flat it measures 87 feet long.

The strength of early lasers was measured in Gillettes, the number of blue razor blades a given beam could puncture.

The drive-through line on opening day at the McDonald's restaurant in Kuwait City, Kuwait was at times seven miles long.

Point Roberts in Washington State is cut off from the rest of the state by British Columbia, Canada. If you wish to travel from Point Roberts to the rest of the state or vice versa, you must pass through Canada, including both Canadian and U.S. customs.

The Pentagon in Washington, D. C. has five sides, five stories, and five acres in the middle.

Sylvia Miles had the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar with "Midnight Cowboy." Her entire role lasted only six minutes.

There is an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which has a winter population of 200.

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

Newborn babies are given to the wrong mother in the hospital 12 times a day worldwide.

The Starbucks at the highest elevation is on Main Street in Breckenridge, Colorado.

Each year, over 1,000,000 people fail to itemize out the mortgage interest deduction on their income taxes. Last year, this amounted to $473,000,000 in taxes.

In 1998, more fast-food employees were murdered on the job than police officers.

The lead singer of The Knack, famous for "My Sharona," and Jack Kevorkian's lead defense attorney are brothers, Doug & Jeffrey Feiger.

Two very popular and common objects have the same function, but one has thousands of moving parts, while the other has absolutely no moving parts - an hourglass and a sundial.

One out of three employees who received a promotion use a coffee mug with the company logo on it.

If you know a (male) millionaire who happens to be married, The most likely profession of his wife is a teacher.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

1 pound of lemons contain more sugar than 1 pound of strawberries.

The "you are here" arrow on maps is called an ideo locator.

60% of all US potato products originate in Idaho.

61,000 people are airborne over the US at any given time.

A flamingo can eat only when its head is upside down.

Mark Twain was born on a day in 1835 when Halley's Comet came into view. When he died in 1910, Halley's Comet was in view again.

The Weddell seal can travel underwater for seven miles without surfacing for air.

In 1963, baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, "They'll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run." On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Gaylord Perry hit his first (and only) home run.

The longest words in the English language with only one syllable are the nine-letter "screeched" and "strengths".

Pinocchio is Italian for "pine eye".

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" read 4:20.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

A baby is born without kneecaps. They appear between age 2 and 6.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.

A snail can have about 25,000 teeth.

A snail can also sleep for three years.

A starfish can turn its stomach inside out.

A strand from the web of a golden spider is as strong as a steel wire of the same size.

A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.

About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.

According to Genesis 1:20-22 the chicken came before the egg.

Soldiers from every country salute with their right hand.

The microwave oven was invented by mistake when an engineer testing a magnetron tube noticed that the radiation from it melted the chocolate bar he had in his pocket.

Moisture, not air, causes super glue to dry.

Only 14% of Americans say they've skinny dipped with the opposite sex.

"60 Minutes" on CBS is the only TV show to not have a theme song or music.

Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace.

Most boat owners name their boats. The most popular boat name requested is Obsession.

100% of all lottery winners gain weight.

An average American will spend an average of 6 months during his lifetime waiting at red lights.

The Olympic flag's colors are always red, black, blue, green and yellow rings on a field of white. This is because at least one of those colors appears on the flag of every nation on the planet.

Cats can hear ultrasound.

In a recent survey, Americans revealed that banana was their favorite smell.

In all three Godfather films, when you see oranges, there is a death (or a very close call) coming up soon.

The arteries and veins surrounding the brain stem called the "circle of Willis" looks like a stick person with a large head.

Brushing your teeth regularly has been shown to prevent heart disease.

If you were to spell out numbers, you would you have to go until 1,000 until you would find the letter "A".

23% of employees say they have had sex in the office.

Bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers were all invented by women.

Married men change their underwear twice as often as single men.

A kiss stimulates 29 muscles and chemicals causing relaxation. Women seem to like it light and frequent, men like it more strenuous.

There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.

Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny) was allergic to carrots.

40% of all people who come to a party in your home snoop in your medicine cabinet.

3.9% of all women surveyed say they never wear underwear.

Superman is featured on every episode of "Seinfeld", either by name or pictures on Jerry's refrigerator.

85% of the men who cheat on their wives die while having sex.

Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury.

American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class.

Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28

Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38

Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80

Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50

Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58

Percentage of women who say they are happier: 85

Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches

Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90

Percentage of mammal species that are monogamous: 3

Chances that a burglary in the United States will be solved: 1 in 7

One third of the land in the United States is owned by the government.

The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards.

Antarctica is the only continent without reptiles or snakes.

An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.

In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

When George Lucas was mixing the American Graffiti soundtrack, he numbered the reels of film starting with an R and numbered the dialog starting with a D. Sound designer Walter Murch asked George for Reel 2, Dialog 2 by saying "R2D2". George liked the way that sounded so much he integrated that into another project he was working on.

The youngest pope was 11 years old.

Mark Twain didn't graduate from elementary school.

Proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses.

Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.

Your nose and ears never stop growing.

They have square watermelons in Japan - they stack better.

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.

Heinz Catsup leaving the bottle travels at 25 miles per year.

It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.

Men get hiccups more often than women.

Armadillos can be housebroken.

Human teeth are almost as hard as rocks.

The first Fords had engines made by Dodge.

A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite.

Ancient Egyptians slept on pillows made of stone.

A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside.

A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove.

A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it is known as Tennessee.

The flashing warning light on the cylindrical Capitol Records tower spells out HOLLYWOOD in Morse code.

Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year.

One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

The average American will eat about 11.9 pounds of cereal per year.

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.

Over 1,000 birds a year die from smashing into windows.

The State of Florida is bigger than England.

Ants stretch when they wake up in the morning.

It's against the law to have a pet dog in Iceland.

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day.

Thomas Edison, light bulb inventor, was afraid of the dark.

During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food. That's the weight of about 6 elephants.

Some ribbon worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

The world's oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old.

In space, astronauts cannot cry, because there is no gravity, so the tears can't flow.

About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.

More people use blue toothbrushes than red ones.

A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.

Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, every time you breathe.

In the White House, there are 13,092 knives, forks and spoons.

Slugs have 4 noses.

Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to watch TV for 3 hours.

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.

Owls are the only birds who can see the color blue.

The average American drinks about 600 sodas a year.

It's against the law to slam your car door in Switzerland.

There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses.

Honeybees have hair on their eyes.

A jellyfish is 95 percent water.

In Bangladesh, kids as young as 15 can be jailed for cheating on their finals.

A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.

The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump.

The penguin is the only bird who can swim, but not fly.

The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

Q is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.

One quarter of the bones in your body are in your feet.

America once issued a 5-cent bill.

You'll eat about 35,000 cookies in your lifetime.

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under is cap to keep him cool. He changed it every 2 innings.

Fortune cookies were actually invented in America, in 1918, by Charles Jung.

A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years.

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

The pitches that Babe Ruth hit for his last-ever homerun and that Joe DiMaggio hit for his first-ever homerun where thrown by the same man.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.

The praying mantis is the only insect that can turn its head.

In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs.

There are over 52.6 million dogs in the U.S.

Dogs and cats consume almost $7 billion worth of pet food a year.

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.

Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.

The Pentagon has twice as many restrooms as necessary. When it was built, segregation was still in place in Virginia, so separate restrooms for blacks and whites were required by law.

In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word.

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin.

In 2003, there were 86 days of below-freezing weather in Hell, Michigan.

The average person laughs 15 times a day.

Amazing World