Random Funny Facts Statistics & Useless Information

Daily Brain Teaser: Card Trick

2010-06-03T07:30:00.002-05:00

Of the four suits that make up a deck of cards, only the diamonds are symmetrical, in that a diamond - unlike a club, a heart or a spade looks the same whether it is right side-up or upside-down. One of the 13 diamond cards is different when you turn it upside down. Can you name that one non-symmetrical diamond? No Cheating!! Good Luck!

The answer to today's Brain Teaser is now posted in the comments section.

This Day in History: June 3rd

2010-06-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on June 3rd:

1621: The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands, present-day New York City.
1888: The poem "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer was first published, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
1965: Astronaut Edward White became the first American to ``walk'' in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.
1968: Pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, The Factory, by actress Valerie Solanas.
1981: Pope John Paul II left a Rome hospital and returned to the Vatican three weeks after an attempt on his life.
1983: Gordon Kahl, a militant tax protester wanted in the slayings of two U.S. marshals in North Dakota, was killed in a gun battle with law enforcement officials near Smithville, Ark.
1989: Chinese army troops began a sweep of Beijing to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations.
1999: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a peace plan for Kosovo designed to end mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians and 11 weeks of NATO air strikes.
2001: Mel Brooks' musical comedy "The Producers" won a record 12 Tony Awards.
2008: Barack Obama clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, making him the first black candidate to lead his party.

Famous June 3rd Birthdays:
Anderson Cooper (Actor)
Billy Cunningham (Basketball Player)
Emmitt Thomas (Football Player)
Too Slim (Musician)
Deniece Williams (Musician)
Mike Gordon (Musician)
Lalaine (Actress)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: June 2nd

2010-06-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on June 2nd:

1851: Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.
1924: Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.
1941: Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig died at age 37 of a degenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
1953: Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey
1966: The U.S. space probe Surveyor 1 landed on the moon and began transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.
1979: Pope John Paul II arrived in his native Poland on the first visit by a pope to a Communist country.
1995: A U.S. Air Force F-16C was shot down by Bosnian Serbs while on a NATO air patrol in northern Bosnia; the pilot, Capt. Scott F. O'Grady, was rescued six days later.
1997: Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.
1998: Voters in California passed Proposition 227, requiring that all schoolchildren be taught in English.
2008: Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll, died at age 79.

Famous June 2nd Birthdays:
Justin Long (Actor)
Charlie Watts (Rolling Stones)
Jerry Mathers (Actor)
Joanna Gleason (Actress)
Dennis Haysbert (Actor)
Dana Carvey (Comedian)
Gary Grimes (Actor)
Kyle Petty (Racer)
B-Real (Rapper)
Wayne Brady (Actor)
Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes)
Dan Cahoon (Marshall Dyllon)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: November 18th

2009-11-18T07:00:00.001-06:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on November 18th:

1883: The United States and Canada adopted a system of standard time zones.
1923: Astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr., the first American in space, was born in East Derry, N.H.
1928: The first successful sound-synchronized animated cartoon, Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie" starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.
1936: Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
1966: U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
1969: Apollo 12 astronauts Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan L. Bean landed on the lunar sufrace during the second manned mission to the moon.
1976: Spain's parliament approved a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.
1978: More than 900 people died in Jonestown, Guyana, after Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones urged them to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted is unknown.
1987: The congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Ronald Reagan bore "ultimate responsibility" for wrongdoing by his aides.
1988: President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating a Cabinet-level drug czar and providing the death penalty for drug traffickers who kill.
1991: Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and educator Thomas Sutherland.
1999: A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted Shawn Allen Berry of murder for his role in the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., but spared him the death penalty.
2002: U.N. arms inspectors returned to Iraq after a four-year hiatus, calling on Saddam Hussein's government to cooperate with their search for weapons of mass destruction.
2003: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.
2004: Bill Clinton's presidential library opened in Little Rock, Ark.
2006: Actor Tom Cruise and actress Katie Holmes were married in Italy.
2008: Big Three automakers pleaded with Congress for a $25 billion lifeline, warning of a national economic catastrophe should they collapse

November 18th Birthdays:
Jacky Ward (Country singer)
Jameson Parker (Actor)
Andrea Marcovicci (Actress)
Graham Parker (Singer)
Delroy Lindo (Actor)
Kevin Nealon (Actor)
Warren Moon (Football Hall of Famer)
Oscar Nunez (Actor)
Elizabeth Perkins (Actress)
Kim WildeRock (Singer)
Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Tim DeLaughter (Rock singer)
Gary Sheffield (Baseball player)
Owen Wilson (Actor)
Duncan Sheik (Rock singer)
Peta Wilson (Actress)
Chloe Sevigny (Actress)
Jason Williams (Basketball player)
Jessi Alexander (Country singer)
Steven Pasquale (Actor)
Fabolous (Rapper)
Nate Parker (Actor)
Mike Jones (Rapper)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-11-13T08:00:00.001-06:00

A new baby usually deprives each of it's parents around 350-400 hours of sleep in the first year. That is one entire nights sleep per week, per parent.

Daily Brain Teaser: Water Balloons

2009-11-13T07:45:00.001-06:00

During a recent police investigation, Sargent Pickel was interviewing five local teens to try and identify which ONE teen threw water balloons at principal Stutter in the school parking lot.
Below is a summary of their statements:

Alex: It wasn't Jake, it was Brittany.
Brittany: It wasn't Cristina, it wasn't Jake.
Cristina: It was Jake, it wasn't Alex.
Derek: It was Cristina, it was Brittany.
Jake: It was Derek, it wasn't Alex.

It is known that each suspect told exactly one lie. Can you determine which one teen threw water balloons at principal Stutter?

This Day in History: November 13th

2009-11-13T07:30:00.000-06:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on November 13th:

In 1775: U.S. forces captured Montreal during the American Revolution.
In 1789: Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."
In 1927: The Holland Tunnel linking New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River opened to the public.
In 1942: The minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18.
In 1969: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network TV news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints.
In 1977: The comic strip "Li'l Abner" by Al Capp appeared in newspapers for the last time.
In 1979: Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
In 1982: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
In 1985: A mudslide triggered by the Nevado del Ruiz volcano buried the city of Armero, Colombia, killing some 23,000 people.
In 1997: The Disney musical "The Lion King" opened on Broadway.
In 1998: President Bill Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones $850,000, ending the four-year legal battle over her sexual harassment lawsuit that spurred impeachment proceedings against him. Clinton did not admit guilt.
In 2001: Afghanistan's ruling Taliban abandoned the capital, Kabul, without a fight, allowing U.S.-backed northern alliance fighters to take over the city.
In 2002: Saddam Hussein's government agreed to the return of international weapons inspectors to Iraq.
In 2003: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel for having "placed himself above the law."
In 2007: Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto demanded the resignation of U.S.-backed President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, dashing Western hopes the two would form an alliance to confront strengthening Islamic extremists.

November 13th Birthdays:
Monique Coleman (actress)
Neil Flynn (Scrubs)
Nikolai Fraiture (The Strokes)
Whoopi Goldberg (host)
Jimmy Kimmel (host)
Rex Linn (actor)
Chris Noth (actor)
Steve Zahn (actor)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: November 11th

2009-11-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on November 11th:

In 1620: Forty-one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick."
In 1889: Washington became the 42nd state.
In 1918: Fighting in World War I came to an end with the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany.
In 1921: President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
In 1965: Rhodesia proclaimed its independence from Britain.
In 1972: The U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese army, symbolizing the end of direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.
In 1992: The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.
In 2000: Republicans went to court, seeking an order to block manual recounts from continuing in Florida's presidential election.
In 2000: A cable car crammed with skiers and snowboarders caught fire while being pulled through an Alpine tunnel in Austria, killing 155 people.

November 11th Birthdays:
Leonardo DiCaprio (actor)
Calista Flockhart ("Ally McBeal")
Demi Moore (actress)
Jonathan Winters (comedian)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: November 7th

2009-11-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on November 7th:

In 1874: The Republican Party was symbolized as an elephant for the first time, in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly magazine.
In 1893: Passage of a referendum made Colorado the first state to grant women the right to vote.
In 1916: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.
In 1929: The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened.
In 1944: President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey.
In 1962: Richard M. Nixon, who failed in a bid to become governor of California, held what he called his last press conference, telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."
In 1962: Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt died at age 78.
In 1967: Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African-American mayor of a major American city.
In 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a bill establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
In 1973: Congress over-rode President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a president's power to wage war without congressional approval.
In 1989: L. Douglas Wilder won the governor's race in Virginia, becoming the nation's first elected African-American governor.
In 1989: David N. Dinkins was elected New York City's first African-American mayor.
In 1991: Basketball star Magic Johnson announced that he had tested positive for the AIDS virus and was retiring.
In 2000: Republican George W. Bush was elected president over incumbent Democratic Vice President Al Gore, though Gore won the popular vote by a narrow margin. The winner was not known for more than a month because of a dispute over the results in Florida.
In 2000: Hillary Rodham Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate from New York, becoming the first first lady to win public office.

November 7th Birthdays:
Billy Graham (Evangelist)
Yunjin Kim ("Lost")
Christopher Knight ("The Brady Bunch")
Jason London (Actor)
Jeremy London ("7th Heaven")
Barry Newman (Actor)
Julie Pinson ("As the World Turns")
Greg TribbettRock musician (Mudvayne)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-11-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

Barbie's measurements if she were life size are 39-23-33

This Day in History: November 5th

2009-11-05T07:30:00.001-06:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on November 5th:

In 1872: Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in a presidential election.
In 1895: George B. Selden of Rochester, N.Y., received the first U.S. patent for an automobile.
In 1912: Woodrow Wilson was elected president, defeating incumbent William Howard Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt
In 1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term in office, beating Republican challenger Wendell L. Willkie
In 1968: Republican Richard M. Nixon won the presidency, defeating Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and third-party candidate George C. Wallace.
In 1974: Ella Grasso of Connecticut became the first woman elected governor in the United States without succeeding her husband.
In 1994: Former President Ronald Reagan disclosed he had Alzheimer's disease
In 1994: George Foreman became boxing's oldest heavyweight champion at age 45 by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their WBA fight in Las Vegas.
In 1996: President Bill Clinton won a second term over former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole.
In 1998: A study showed strong genetic evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave, Sally Hemings.
In 1999: U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson declared Microsoft Corp. a monopoly, saying the software giant's aggressive actions were "stifling innovation" and hurting consumers.
In 2006: Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity. (He was executed the following month.)
In 2007: Hollywood writers went on strike.
In 2009: 13 people were killed and 30 more injured in the shooting rampage at Fort Hood Army base in Texas by an active-duty military psychiatrist that resided on the base.

November 5th Birthdays:
Bryan Adams (singer)
Art Garfunkel (singer)
Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
Kevin Jonas (Jonas Brothers)
Tatum O'Neal (actress)
Judy Reyes (actress)
Chris Robinson (actor)
Sam Rockwell (actor)

Source: NY Times

Daily Brain Teaser: Marbles

2009-10-23T07:30:00.001-05:00

You are a prisoner sentenced to death. The Emperor offers you a chance to live by playing a simple game. He gives you 50 blue marbles, 50 pink marbles and 2 empty bowls. He then says, "Divide these 100 marbles into these 2 bowls. You can divide them any way you like as long as you use all the marbles. Then I will blindfold you and mix the bowls around. You then can choose one bowl and remove ONE marble. If the marble is blue you will live, but if the marble is pink... you will die." How do you divide the marbles up so that you have the greatest probability of choosing a blue marble?

The answer to today's Brain Teaser is now posted in the comments section!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

Some asteroids have other asteroids orbiting them.

This Day in History: October 18th

2009-10-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 18th:

In 1767: The boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania, the Mason-Dixon line, was agreed upon.
In 1867: The United States took possession of Alaska from Russia.
In 1892: The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York was opened.
In 1898: The American flag was raised in Puerto Rico shortly before Spain formally relinquished control of the island to the United States.
In 1931: Inventor Thomas Alva Edison died at age 84 in West Orange, N.J.
In 1962: Dr. James D. Watson of the United States, and Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice Wilkins of Britain, were named winners of the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA.
In 1969: The federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they cause cancer in laboratory rats.
In 1977: West German commandos stormed a hijacked Lufthansa jetliner on the ground in Mogadishu, Somalia, freeing all 86 hostages and killing three of the four hijackers.
In 1977: Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees became the second player to hit three home runs in a World Series game as he led New York to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the deciding Game 6.
In 2006: The Dow Jones industrial average passed 12,000 for the first time before pulling back to close at 11,992.68.
In 2007: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan, ending eight years of self-imposed exile; a suicide bombing in a crowd welcoming her killed more than 140 people, but Bhutto escaped unhurt.

October 18th Birthdays:
Chuck Berry (musician)
Pam Dawber ("Mork and Mindy)
Mike Ditka (Chicago Bears coach)
Zac Efron (actor)
Josh Gracin ("American Idol")
Joy Lauren ("Desperate Housewives")
Erin Moran ("Happy Days")
Jean-Claude Van Damme (actor)
Dawn Wells ("Gilligan's Island")
Ne-Yo (singer)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Leonardo da Vinci was dyslexic in his handwriting

Daily Brain Teasers: Zero

2009-10-17T07:30:00.000-05:00

What number can you subtract half from to result in a zero?

Hint: The answer is not zero.

Put your answer to the Brain Teasers in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

This Day in History: October 17th

2009-10-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 17th:

In 1777: British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.
In 1919: The Radio Corporation of America was created.
In 1931: Mobster Al Capone was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939.
In 1933: Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
In 1973: Arab oil-producing nations announced they would cut back oil exports to Western nations and Japan; the result was a total embargo that lasted until March 1974.
In 1978: President Jimmy Carter signed a bill restoring U.S. citizenship to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
In 1979: Mother Teresa of India was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta.
In 1989: An earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck northern California, killing 67 people and causing $7 billion worth of damage.
In 2007: President Bush, raising Beijing's ire, presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal and urged Chinese leaders to welcome the monk to Beijing.

October 17th Birthdays:
Julie Adams (actress)
Eminem (rapper)
Alan Jackson (singer)
Mike Judge (animator)
Norm Macdonald (actor)
Ziggy Marley (singer)
Rob Marshall (director)
Michael McKean (actor)
Chris Kirkpatrick (N'Sync)
George Wendt (actor)

In Memory:
Rita Hayworth (actress)
10.17.1918 - 5.14.1987
Jerry Siegel (cartoonist)
10.17.1914 - 1.28.1996

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: October 16th

2009-10-16T18:24:00.003-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 16th:

In 1973: Marie Antoinette was beheaded during the French Revolution.
In 1962: The Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.
In 1964: China detonated its first atomic bomb
In 1973: Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho, who negotiated a cease-fire in the Vietnam War, were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize; Tho declined the award.
In 1978: Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected pope by the Roman Catholic Church's College of Cardinals; he took the name John Paul II.
In 1991: A man crashed a pickup truck into a restaurant in Killeen, Texas, and opened fire, killing 23 people before taking his own life.
In 1995: A vast throng of black men gathered in Washington for the "Million Man March" led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
In 2002: The White House announced that North Korea had disclosed it had a nuclear weapons program.
In 2002: President George W. Bush signed a congressional resolution authorizing war against Iraq.

October 16th Birthdays:
Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
Jeremy Jackson (actor)
Andy Kindler (comedian)
Angela Lansbury (actress)
Tim Robbins (actor)
Suzanne Somers (actress)
Randy Vasquez (actor)
Bob Weir (Grateful Dead)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

In Oregon, there is an enormous mushroom that covers over 2,200 acres and is at least 2,400 years old, possibly older. It is the largest living organism in the World. To learn more read this article.

Daily Brain Teaser: Dreaming

2009-10-15T07:30:00.000-05:00

While on patrol a night shift guard dreams the King will die in a fiery plane crash. First thing in the morning the guard tells the King of his dream and begs him not to fly that night. The King tells the guard not to worry and boards his flight. When the King returns home, safely, from his trip he fires the guard. Why did the King fire the night shift guard?

Put your answer to the Brain Teaser in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

This Day in History: October 15th

2009-10-15T07:00:00.000-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 15th:

In 1860: Eleven-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.
In 1945: The former premier of Vichy France, Pierre Laval, was executed.
In 1946: Nazi war criminal Hermann Goering fatally poisoned himself hours before he was to have been executed
In 1957: The comedy "I Love Lucy" premiered on CBS.
In 1966: President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill creating the Department of Transportation.
In 1969: Peace demonstrators staged activities across the country, including a candlelight march around the White House, as part of a moratorium against the Vietnam War.
In 1976: Democrat Walter F. Mondale and Republican Bob Dole faced off in the first debate between vice-presidential nominees.
In 1990: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1990: South Africa's Separate Amenities Act, which had barred blacks from public facilities for decades, was scrapped.
In 2003: China launched its first manned space mission.
In 2005: Iraqis voted to approve a constitution.

October 15th Birthdays:
Freddy Cole (pianist)
Keyshia Cole (singer)
Paige Davis (tv host)
Elena Dementieva (tennis player)
Ginuwine (singer)
Tito Jackson (singer)
Emeril Lagasse (tv chef)
Barry McGuire (singer)
Mark Reznicek (musician)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: October 14th

2009-10-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 14th:

In 1066: Normans under William the Conqueror defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings.
In 1890: Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States, was born in Denison, Texas.
In 1933: Nazi Germany announced it was withdrawing from the League of Nations.
In 1944: German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
In 1947: Air Force test pilot Charles E. Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier when he flew the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California.
In 1960: Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested formation of a Peace Corps during a talk at the University of Michigan.
In 1964: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
In 1968: The first live telecast from a manned U.S. spacecraft was transmitted from Apollo 7
In 1979: Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scored the first of his National Hockey League record 894 goals in a home game against the Vancouver Cancucks.
In 1986: Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1998: Federal authorities charged Eric Robert Rudolph with the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
In 2002: An FBI analyst was killed in a mall parking lot in Falls Church, Va., in a shooting linked to the Washington-area sniper.
In 2003: John Allen Muhammad pleaded innocent to murder in the Washington-area sniper case. (He was later convicted and sentenced to death.)
In 2004: A suicide bomber killed four Americans in the U.S.-guarded "Green Zone" in Baghdad.
In 2006: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose punishing sanctions on North Korea for carrying out a nuclear test.

October 14th Birthdays:
Harry Anderson (actor)
Greg Evigan (actor)
Ralph Lauren (designer)
Natalie Maines (Dixie Chicks)
Jon Seda (actor)
Usher (singer)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-13T08:00:00.000-05:00

There are 365 steps on the front of the U.S. Capitol Building - one for every day of the year.

Daily Brain Teaser: Word Game

2009-10-13T07:30:00.002-05:00

See if you can figure out this five-letter 'trickle down' puzzle. Change one letter at a time to reach the final word (each step along the way has to be a legitimate word).

STOPS
_____
_____
_____
_____
CHINA

Put your answer to the Teaser in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

This Day in History: October 13th

2009-10-13T07:00:00.001-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 13th:

In 1775: The Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet.
In 1792: The cornerstone of the White House was laid during a ceremony in the District of Columbia.
In 1845: Texas ratified a state constitution.
In 1943: Italy declared war on Germany, its one-time Axis partner.
In 1960: Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy participated in the third televised debate of the presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, Calif., and Kennedy in New York.
In 1960: The World Series ended with a home run for the first time as Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit a round-tripper in the ninth inning of Game 7 against the New York Yankees.
In 1974: TV host Ed Sullivan died at age 73.
In 1998: The National Basketball Association canceled the first two weeks of its regular season because of a lockout.
In 1999: The JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months; prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old's strangulation.
In 2000: South Korean President Kim Dae-jung was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2006: Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, pleaded guilty in an influence-peddling investigation of Congress.

October 13th Birthdays:
Rhett Akins (singer)
Ashanti (singer)
Joey Belladonna (Anthrax)
Sacha Baron Cohen (actor)
Sammy Hagar (singer)
Nancy Kerrigan (figure skater)
Marie Osmond (singer)
Doc Rivers (coach)
Paul Simon (singer)
Margaret Thatcher (Former British prime minister)
Kate Walsh (actress)
Demond Wilson (actor)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: October 12th

2009-10-12T18:47:00.003-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 12th:

In 1492: Columbus sailed the Ocean blue! Christopher Columbus arrived with his expedition in the present-day Bahamas.
In 1860: General Robert E. Lee died in Lexington, Va., at age 63
In 1960: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev disrupted a U.N. General Assembly session by pounding his desk with a shoe during a dispute.
In 1984: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escaped an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb exploded at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.
In 1986: Superpower talks in Reykjavik, Iceland, ended in stalemate, with President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev unable to agree on arms control or a date for a full-fledged summit in the United States
In 1997: Singer John Denver, 53, died in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California.
In 1998: Matthew Shepard, a gay student at University of Wyoming, died five days after he was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside of Laramie.
In 2002: A bomb destroyed a nightclub on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people, many of them foreign tourists. Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida were blamed.
In 2007: Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm over global warming.
In 2008: North Korea said it would resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the United States removed the communist country from a list of states that sponsored terrorism.

October 12th Birthdays:
Carlos Bernard (actor)
Kirk Cameron (actor)
Hugh Jackman (actor)
Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks)
Chris Wallace (journalist)

Source: NY Times

Daily Brain Teaser: Fill in the Blank

2009-10-10T07:30:00.001-05:00

What goes in the blank?
_ T T F F
S S E N T
E T T F F
S S E N T

Hint: it's not E

This Day in History: October 10th

2009-10-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 10th.

In 1845: The U.S. Naval Academy opened in Annapolis, Md.
In 1886: The tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
In 1911: Revolutionaries under Sun Yat-sen overthrew China's Manchu dynasty.
In 1943: Chiang Kai-shek took the oath of office as president of China.
In 1957: President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologized to Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, the finance minister of Ghana, after the official had been refused service in a Dover, Del., restaurant.
In 1964: The 18th Summer Olympic Games opened in Tokyo.
In 1970: Fiji became independent after nearly a century of British rule.
In 1979: Wayne Gretzky made his National Hockey League debut as the visiting Edmonton Oilers took on the Chicago Blackhawks.
In 2002: The House voted 296-133 to give President George W. Bush broad authority to use military force against Iraq. (The Senate followed suit the next day.)
In 2003: Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh announced during his syndicated radio show that he was addicted to painkillers and was checking into a rehab center.
In 2004: Actor Christopher Reeve, who became a quadriplegic after a May 1995 horse riding accident, died at age 52.

October 10th Birthdays:
Dale Earnhardt Jr (auto racer)
Brett Favre (football player)
Mike Malinin (Goo Goo Dolls)
Mya (singer)
David Lee Roth (Van Halen)
Julia Sweeney (actress)
Tanya Tucker (singer)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

Other than fruit, honey is the only natural food that is made without destroying any kind of life.

Daily Brain Teaser: Who did it?

2009-10-09T07:30:00.001-05:00

A man was found murdered on Sunday morning. His wife immediately called the police. The police questioned the wife and staff and got these alibis:
The Wife said she was sleeping.
The Cook was cooking breakfast.
The Gardener was picking vegetables.
The Maid was getting the mail.
The Butler was cleaning the closet.
The police instantly arrested the murdered. Who did it and how did they know?

This Day in History: October 9th

2009-10-09T07:00:00.002-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 9th:

In 1701: The Collegiate School of Connecticut - later Yale University - was chartered in New Haven.
In 1776: A group of Spanish missionaries settled in present-day San Francisco.
In 1888: The public was first admitted to the Washington Monument.
In 1930: Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, Calif.
In 1936: The first generator at Boulder (later Hoover) Dam began transmitting electricity to Los Angeles.
In 1958: Pope Pius XII died, 19 years after he was elevated to the papacy.
In 1967: Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia while attempting to incite revolution.
In 1985: The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered after the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt.
In 2001: Letters postmarked in Trenton, N.J., that later tested positive for anthrax spores were mailed to Sens. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
In 2002: A man was gunned down moments after filling his tank at a gas station near Manassas, Va., in the latest sniper shooting in the Washington, D.C., area.
In 2006: North Korea announced that it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test, drawing condemnation from around the world.
In 2006: Google Inc. announced it was snapping up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion in a stock deal.

October 9th Birthdays:
Scott Bakula (actor)
Gary Bennett (singer)
Zachery Ty Bryan (actor)
John O'Hurley (actor)
Sharon Osbourne (host)
Brandon Routh (actor)
Tony Shalhoub (actor)
Annika Sorenstam (golfer)
Randy Spelling (actor)

In Memory:
John Lennon (The Beatles)
10.9.1940 - 12.8.1980

Source: NY Times

Daily Brain Teaser: Birthday

2009-10-08T15:30:00.004-05:00

The day before yesterday Chuck said he was 25 and that next year he will be 28. This is true only one day out of the year. What day is Chuck's birthday?

Put your answer to the Teaser in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

The answer to today's Brain Teaser is now posted in the comments section. Thanks for your guesses!

This Day in History: October 8th

2009-10-08T15:02:00.003-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 8th:

In 1869: Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, died in Concord, N.H., at age 64.

In 1871: The Great Chicago Fire erupted. The blaze destroyed four square miles of the city, killing about 250 people and leaving some 90,000 homeless.

In 1918: Sgt. Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132 in the Argonne Forest in France

In 1944: "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" made its debut on CBS Radio.

In 1945: President Harry S. Truman announced that the secret of the atomic bomb would be shared only with Britain and Canada.

In 1956: Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series as the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers 2-0 in Game 5.

In 1985: The hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro killed American passenger Leon Klinghoffer and dumped his body and wheelchair overboard.

In 2004: Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart reported to prison to begin serving a sentence for lying about a stock sale.

In 2005: A major earthquake flattened villages on the Pakistan-India border, killing an estimated 86,000 people.

October 8th Birthdays:
Nick Cannon (actor)
Chevy Chase (actor)
Matt Damon (actor)
Darrell Hammond (comedian)
Paul Hogan (actor)
Jesse Jackson (activist)
Emily Procter (actress)
Molly Quinn (actress)
C.J. Ramone (The Ramones)
R. L. Stine (author)
Sigourney Weaver (actress)

Source: Ny Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-07T08:00:00.001-05:00

Marie Curie, the Nobel prize winning scientist who discovered radium, died of aplastic anaemia, a blood disease that results from exposure to large amounts of radiation. Radiation poisoning.

Daily Brain Teaser: A Poem

2009-10-07T07:30:00.001-05:00

What is this poem referring too?

Bright as diamonds,
Loud as thunder,
Never still,
A thing of wonder.

This Day in History: October 7th

2009-10-07T07:00:00.003-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 7th.

In 1849: Author Edgar Allan Poe died at age 40.

In 1949: The Republic of East Germany was formed.

In 1954: Marian Anderson became the first black singer hired by New York's Metropolitan Opera.

In 1963: President John F. Kennedy signed the documents of ratification for a nuclear test ban treaty with Britain and the Soviet Union.

In 1968: The Motion Picture Association of America adopted a film-rating system.

In 1982: The musical "Cats" opened on Broadway, beginning its record run of 7,485 performances.

In 1996: Fox News Channel made its debut.

In 1998: Matthew Shepard, a gay college student, was beaten, robbed and left tied to a wooden fence post outside Laramie, Wyo.; he died five days later. (Two men are serving life sentences for Shepard's murder.)

In 2001: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants wrapped up his record-breaking season with his 73rd homer,

In 2002: The Washington-area sniper struck again, shooting and critically wounding a 13-year-old boy in Bowie, Md.

In 2003: California voters recalled Gov. Gray Davis and elected actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him.

October 7th Birthdays:
Mary Badham (actress)
Toni Braxton (singer)
Simon Cowell (American Idol)
Taylor Hicks (singer)
Dick Jauron (Bears coach)
Jill Larson (actress)
John Mellencamp (musician)
Christopher Norris (actor)
Tony Sparano (Dolphins Coach)
Tico Torres (Bon Jovi)
Desmond Tutu (Nobel Peace Prize winner)
Thom Yorke (Radiohead)

Source: NY Times

This Day in History: October 6th

2009-10-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 6th.

In 1683: Thirteen families from Krefeld, Germany, arrived in present-day Philadelphia to begin Germantown.

In 1889: The Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Paris.

In 1973: Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday.

In 1976: In a debate with Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter, President Gerald R. Ford asserted there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." Ford later conceded that he had misspoken.

In 1989: Actress Bette Davis died at age 81.

In 2004: The top U.S. arms inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, reported finding no evidence Saddam Hussein's regime had produced weapons of mass destruction after 1991.

In 2007: Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf won a presidential election boycotted by most of his opponents.

October 6th Birthdays:
Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon)
Emily Mortimer (actress)
Jeremy Sisto (actor)
Tommy Stinson (musician)

Source: NY Times

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

The tune for the "A-B-C" song is the same tune as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Daily Brain Teaser: Humpty Dumpty

2009-10-05T07:00:00.003-05:00

You are standing in the middle of a vacant, hard concrete parking lot. How can you drop a raw egg 4 feet without breaking or cracking it?

Put your answer to the Teaser in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

Today's Brain Teaser answer has now been posted in the comments section!

This Day in History: October 5th

2009-10-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

New Feature!!

This article highlights historical events that took place on October 5th.

In 1921: The World Series was broadcast on radio for the first time.

In 1947: The first televised White House address featuring President Truman.

In 1962: The Beatles' first hit, "Love Me Do," was released in the United Kingdom.

In 1969: "Monty Python's Flying Circus" made its debut on BBC Television.

In 2001: A man died of inhaled anthrax in Boca Raton, FL.

In 2001: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit the 71st and 72nd home run of the season, breaking Mark McGwire's 70 home run record.

In 2003: Israel bombed an Islamic Jihad base in Syria.

October 5th Birthdays:
Daniel Baldwin (Actor)
David Bryson (Counting Crows)
Jeff Conway (actor in "Taxi")
Grant Hill (Phoenix Suns)
Nicky Hilton (Heiress)
Brian Johnson (AC/DC)
Guy Pearce (Actor)
Paul Thomas (Good Charlotte)
Kate Winslet (Actress)
James Valentine (Maroon 5)

In Memory:
Ray Kroc (McDonald's founder)
10.05.1902-1.14.1984
Chester Arthur (21st president of the USA)
10.05.1829-11.18.1886

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-10-04T08:00:00.001-05:00

A cockroach can live for weeks without it's head. After decapitated the antennae on the head will move back and forth for several hours until it runs out of steam. If given nutrients and refrigerated, a roach head can last even longer than the body. (Yes scientist actually did this! Read more here.)

Daily Brain Teaser: Math Problem

2009-10-04T07:00:00.003-05:00

Place the numbers 1 through 9 in the blanks so that this statement is true. Each number can only be used once. Good Luck!

_ _ X_ = _ _ _ = _ _ X _

Today's answer to the Brain Teaser has now been posted in the comments section. How did everyone do?

Daily Brain Teaser: Phrases

2009-09-26T08:00:00.002-05:00

New Feature!

What are these common phrases:

1. 60 S in a M

2. 1 R A in E B

3. 100 C in a D

4. 2 S to an A

5. 9 L of a C

6. 26 L in the A

7. 12 S of the Z

8. 18 H on a G C

9. 30 D has A, J, S and N

10. 13 S on a US F

Hint: 12 M in a Y : 12 Months in a Year.

The answer to today's Brain Teaser has now been posted in the comments section. Leave me a comment to let me know how you did!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-09-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

The average small intestine is almost 22 feet long. That adds up to 264 inches. The average height for an adult male is 5'9", which adds up to 69 inches. So, if a small intestine was straightened out it would be as long as 3.83 adult males!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-09-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

Daily Brain Teaser: Hidden Phrases

2009-09-25T07:00:00.004-05:00

Can you figure out the 6 phrases is this puzzle?

The answers to today's Brain Teasers have now been revealed in the comments section. Look and see how well you did. Did anyone get them all right?

Daily Brain Teaser: Marrying Three Men

2009-09-24T07:00:00.004-05:00

New Feature!

A woman named Stacey has legally married three men in the past year. She has never gotten a divorce or legal separation, she is not a widow and her religion believes you marry one person and spend the rest of your lives together. So, how is it that Stacey has married three men?

Put your answer to the Teaser in the comments section, even if someone else has already guessed your answer. I will post the answer this evening, if you can't wait contact me via email, facebook or twitter. Good luck and check back often!

The answer to today's Brain Teaser has now been posted in the Comments section. Look and see if your answer is correct!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-09-05T08:00:00.003-05:00

To prolong the life of freshly cut flowers add a spoonful of sugar to the vase.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-08-21T16:20:00.000-05:00

The average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey in it's life time. Hope you enjoyed this random funny fact of the day.

More Fun Mind Tricks

2009-08-06T17:10:00.012-05:00

Here are some more fun mind tricks and optical illusions. To get a better view click on the picture to enlarge it. The answers are at the bottom of the pictures. Hope you enjoy these!

1. Stare at the black dot in the center.

2. What do you see in this photo? Hint: The top half and bottom half are two different photos.

3. Stare at the center of the photo.

4. How many faces do you see in this picture?

5. Stare at the purple circles.

Answers:

1. The outer circles should move in a circle.

2. The top half is a bird and the bottom is a fisherman in a boat with a fish under him.

3. It looks like your going to go into a black hole.

4. There are 9 faces.

5. The purple circles look like they are moving in a circle.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-08-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

It only costs 4 cents to make US paper currency no matter what the denomination is. Hope you enjoy today's random funny facts!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-08-03T08:00:00.001-05:00

When people meet someone for the first time they usually shake their hand. Traditionally, the right hand is extended for this act of respect. The main theory as to why the right hand is used is because in many early societies the left hand was used for wiping after using the rest room. Hope you enjoyed your random funny facts of the day!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-29T08:00:00.001-05:00

An estimated 80,000,000 Hershey's Kisses are wrapped each day, using enough aluminum foil to cover over 50 acres of space. That's almost 40 football fields! This aluminum is recyclable. Hope you've enjoyed your random funny facts!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-28T08:00:00.001-05:00

Catfish have 100,000 taste buds. Humans only have 10,000 taste buds. Hope you've enjoyed your random funny facts!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-24T08:00:00.002-05:00

The color of an eggs yolk varies depending on the hens diet. If you add artificial coloring to their food they will lay eggs with varicolored yolks! Perfect for Easter time! Hope you enjoyed today's random funny facts!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-23T08:00:00.005-05:00

45% of every dollar bill you have ever owned has been in an exotic dancer's a.k.a. stripper's G-string. Yuck!! Make sure you wash your hands after handling all dollar bills! Hope you enjoyed today's random funny facts!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

The Greek name for hippopatamus is "water horse". Hope you enjoyed today's random funny facts!

Photo of baby hippo after being born

in Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park in Patna.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

A cow produces around 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

If a woman reaches her 50th birthday without cancer or heart disease, she can expect to see 92.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

On July 1, 2015 Earth, Venus and Jupiter will be ordered on a single line.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-07T18:49:00.000-05:00

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-06T08:00:00.001-05:00

A bee must tap 4 million beautiful flowers to make only 2 pounds of honey.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. Wow!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating any of it's letter is uncopyrightable.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

The average chicken can run up to 9 mph. The average police officer..... not so sure!

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-07-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

United States McDonald's throw away more food in one day that is needed to feed Americans for a day.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-06-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

Chameleons can move their eyes in two different directions at the same time.

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-06-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

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

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-06-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Sharks are the healthiest animals in the world. They are immune to every known disease even cancer!

Photo Source

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-06-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

Random & Fun Laws: Alabama

2009-06-27T07:55:00.002-05:00

I love reading about weird and random laws throughout the United States. I thought it would be fun to research some of the craziest laws we have. I have found a lot, so I thought I would do them alphabetically by state. Since there are so many states it might take me awhile to get to all of them, so if there is a certain state you would like me do research first just shoot me an email at randomfunfacts@hotmail.com Let's start with Alabama! Please keep in mind that some of these laws are State and some of them are County.

Marriage:

Incestuous marriages are legal.
Wives are able to retain all property they owned prior to marriage in the case of divorce.
However, there isn't anything stating the husband is entitled to any of his property prior to marriage.
In Auburn County, men who deflower virgins, regardless of age or marital status, may face up to five years in jail.
Wives clothing is considered separate property in divorce whether or not they were bought with husband's financial or a gift.
Any person authorized under to celebrate the rites of matrimony is entitled to a $2.00 fee for each marriage solemnized. Now that's cheap!

Traffic:

You may not drive barefooted.
If any trash is thrown from the vehicle it is considered the driver's responsibility. The fine for this is no more that $500 and may also be sentenced to hard labor for the county for not more that six months.
It is legal to drive the wrong way down a one-way street if you have a lantern attached to the front of your automobile.
You must have windshield wipers on your car

Occupation:

There is a $10 permit fee to read palms or 'future telling'.
In beauty parlors the use of aluminum is prohibited to use to stop the flow of blood.
No massage parlor shall be used as a dormitory or place of sleep.
No masseur, masseuse, or other employee or attendant in any massage parlor shall apply or administer any massage or other treatment to any person behind locked doors.
In a massage parlor treating a person of the opposite gender could result in a fine of $500 or/and 12 months in jail.
What do they have against massage parlors? Maybe a few offered 'happy endings' :)

Clothing:

It is unlawful to wear women’s pumps with sharp, high heels
It shall be unlawful for any person to appear in any public place in a state of nudity or indecent or lewd dress
Masks may not be worn in public
Anniston: You may not wear blue jeans down Noble Street.
It is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.

Random:

It is considered an offense to open an umbrella on a street, for fear of spooking horses.
It is illegal to sell peanuts in Lee County after sundown on Wednesday.
If you shoot a deer you are only able to butcher it at a slaughterhouse, abattoir, meat-packing or processing plant in the state.
Putting salt on a railroad track may be punishable by death.
A mother may breastfeed her child in any location, public or private.
Boogers may not be flicked into the wind.
You may not have an ice cream cone in your back pocket at any time.
Auburn:It is unlawful for any person to spit upon the sidewalks, or upon the floors of places of worship, buses, public halls, theaters or other public places.
Auburn:It is illegal to bike, roller-skate, skateboard, or in line skate in a commercially zoned area.
It shall be unlawful to sell, dispose of, give away or use 'stink balls' or 'funk balls' within the city limits.
No bathing feet, hands or feet in any city fountains. Also no obstructing the flow of water in the fountains
It shall be unlawful and an offense against the city for any person to have in possession, keep, store, use, manufacture, sell, offer for sale, give away or handle any confetti or other substance similar.
No person shall spit or throw fruit skins, parings or peelings upon any sidewalk in the city or upon the floor of any bus operated within the city, in any public elevator, public building, public theater or public hall or any walkway in any public park in the city.
It shall be unlawful and an offense against the city for any person to have in his/her possession, keep, store, use, manufacture, sell, offer for sale, give away or handle any "spray string," "snap pops," within the city.
Beer or ale may be sold in containers that do not exceed 32 ounces in size.

I wonder what happened that caused some of these laws to go into effect. Like why is silly spray string banned?? And do they have a huge problem with people throwing orange peels in elevators? How about confetti? Not only can you not use confetti, but you will be fined for even handling it! Too funny! Hope you enjoyed these and look for more to come.

Source

Fun Fact of the Day

2009-06-26T18:41:00.002-05:00

A firefly's (lightning bug) flashing light is radiated by the oxidation of the chemical, Luciferin. The purpose for the flashing light is mating, warning and as a way of defense for the firefly.

Weird News! Man Impersonates Dead Mother

2009-06-17T18:48:00.003-05:00

New York, NY- A man in Brooklyn was been arrested for impersonating his dead mother for nearly 6 years! He has been collecting social security checks, rent subsides, took out a mortgage and even sued himself all while dressing up as his deceased mother!

When Irene Parkin died in 2003 her son, Thomas Prusik-Parkin, started his elaborate scam by giving the funeral home the wrong birth date and social security number so she wouldn't be registered as deceased. Thomas then started collecting $700 a month in social security. He also received $65,000 in city rental assistance over the 6 years for a town home which was originally owned by Irene.

In 1996 Irene deeded her home to Thomas. He then took out a mortgage to start up a company that eventually went under. Thomas was unable to keep up on his mortgage payment and his house was sold to Samir Chpora in 2003. Trying to get the house back Thomas impersonated Irene and sued himself! He dressed up as his mother wearing dark glasses (even inside), a scarf around his neck covering his adams apple, a wig, lipstick, and even wore an oxygen mask. "Irene" alleged that Thomas forged the 1996 deed transfer and wasn't responsible for the mortgage Thomas took out on the house. The home was given back to "Irene" and then Thomas took out an almost million dollar mortgage on the home.

Samir Chpora, angry over the dispute, tipped off the police to Thomas' scam. Police discovered that Thomas had a friend, Mhilton Rimolo, take him all over posing as her 'nephew.' The above picture is a surveillance video from the DMV office showing Thomas dressed as his mother and accompanied by Mhilton. Mhilton has also been arrested. Thomas has pleaded not guilty to 47 counts of grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges. Both men are being held on a $1 million bail. If convicted he faces up to 25 years in prison.

Weird News of the Day!-1,000 Traffic Tickets

2008-09-29T21:31:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday night in Sao Paulo, Brazil police were making what they thought to be a routine traffic stop. When they ran the name of 36-year-old Armando Clemente da Silva they discovered he has $1.9 million in unpaid fines. He has been ticketed nearly 1,000 times since 2001 for speeding and running red lights. Silva said he never received any of the tickets because he was to busy to register the car in his name. The car is worth about $6,600 and was impounded. It will be auctioned off unless Silva comes up with the money he owes. I couldn't even imagine getting 1,000 tickets within 7 years! That would mean he would be getting pulled over around 11-12 times a month!! Or even worse, every 3-4 days! Wow!

Source

Contact Information

2008-09-21T18:10:00.001-05:00

Thank you for visiting Random & Fun Facts! I hope you have enjoyed reading this site as much as I've enjoyed writing it. If you have any questions or comments please be sure to ask. Also, if there are any facts that you would like to share or would like to know more information about just let me know. You may contact me by leaving a comment after each entry or send me an email. To keep updated on all your favorite Random & Fun Facts follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Look for a new feature coming soon called "Fun Photos" This is a collection of photos taken, edited or drawn of anything crazy odd different and of course fun! If you would like to submit a photo send it in an email with a statement that I may post your photo. I will include your info and a link to your site if you would like

Email: randomfunfacts@hotmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/RandomFunFact

Facebook: Click HERE or Search for Random Fun Facts

Random Facts & Statistics About Plane Crashes

2008-09-20T15:38:00.006-05:00

With the tragedy of Travis Barker and DJ AM's devastating plane crash, I thought what are the odds of being in a plane crash? I found some really interesting, random facts and statistics about plane crashes.

What are the Odds

I'm sure you've all heard the saying 'your more likely to die in a car crash than in a plane crash.' That saying is actually true your chances of dieing in a commercial airplane accident are approximately 1 in 20,000, while your chances of dieing in a motor vehicle accident are 1 in 100. I've always had a fear of flying, but those statistics sound pretty good!

What are the Causes of Plane Crashes?

There are many reasons for a plane to come crashing down. The reported causes of plane accidents from 1929 - 2007 unfortunately show sabotage or explosive devices as the most reported cause with 51 reported plane crashes. Running out of fuel comes in second with 46. Next is 28 Hijackings (with fatalities) reported. Then cargo or cabin fire with 22 reported. Tied at fifth is air traffic control errors with 19 and design flaws also with 19 reported. Also making the list is 14 by lightning strikes, 12 by pilot incapacitation and last 7 reports of bird strikes.

When Does the Plane Crash?

When do you think the plane is more likely to crash? During take off/climb, cruise or final approach/landing? Well, most plane crashes happen during the final approach/landing with 51% of the total accidents happening at this time. 17% of accidents happen during take off and 6% during the long cruise. Although most crashes happen during landing, your more likely to have a fatality during take off. 22% of fatalities are during take off.

September 2008 Plane Crashes

Plane Crashes are a lot more common than I thought. Just so far this month There have been 4 plane crashes, all with fatalities. On September 1st near Bukavu, Congo a humanitarian flight to Goma, crashed into a ridge 8 miles NW of Bukavu while approaching the airport for a landing in severe weather. All 17 aboard lost their lives. On September 3rd off Dubai, United Arab Emirates a helicopter crashed on to the deck of the Maersk Resilient oil drilling rig, broke up and fell into the sea 43 miles off Duabi with all 7 passengers dieing. On September 14th in Perm, Russia an aircraft crashed into a ravine adjacent to railroad tracks and near an apartment building as it was approaching Perm for a landing. The plane was at 3,600 when contact was lost with the tower. There were 88 aboard the airline with 88 fatalities. Then of course late Friday night in Columbia, South Carolina a plane was attempting to take off from Columbia Metropolitan Airport when it overran the runway, crashed through a perimeter fence, struck antennas and came to rest on an embankment adjacent to highway 32. Travis Barker, former drummer for Blink-182 and Adam Goldstein, also know as DJ AM were critically injured; two other passengers and two crew members were killed. Let's please keep Travis Barker, DJ AM, their families, and the families of the lives lost in our prayers.

Stupid Deadly Mistakes

Sometimes deadly mistakes are made in the aircraft industry that cause plane crashes. Like on March 27, 1979 a KLM Boeing 747 met a Pan Am Boeing 747 head on as they were both trying to negotiate the runway in dense fog. The KLM flight hadn’t waited for permission to depart and met the Pan Am flight, which did have permission to taxi along the runway. A total of 583 crew and passengers died because of the pilot’s defiance in not waiting for the order. This is the worst plane crash in European history. This is also the plane crash that I have pictured to the left of this entry. Another mistake made was on August 12, 1985 when 520 people were killed on the Japan Air Lines 747 that crashed by Mt Fuji. An aft bulkhead ruptured during the flight and seriously damaged the tail of the plane. This caused the plane to spiral out of control. It was human error, but not on the part of the pilot. The bulkhead had been repaired 7 years earlier and had been an accident waiting to happen ever since. The repairs had been botched and it was a wonder they had held for as long as they did. Unfortunately I found several mistakes made causing deadly crashes. I can't fit them all on here, but I will share one more of the 5 worst plane crases. In Riyadh on August 19, 1980 there were 301 people killed on board flight Saudia L-1011. Although the flight had taken off on its way to Karachi, it touched back down in Riyadh just after takeoff. It touched down safely but there was no evacuation. If the crew had have evacuated the passengers immediately nobody would have died, but as it was the plane’s engines continued to run and ultimately caused a flash fire to ravage the plane about 3 minutes after it landed. To this day, nobody knows why the crew failed to begin the evacuation procedures or how many lives it would have saved. Although this technically isn’t a plane crash, it’s still one of the biggest tragedies to ever occur on an airplane. I found a great list of plane crashes with dates, location and number of fatalities if you would like to read more.

I hope you learned a few random facts about plane crashes. I also hope I didn't scare you too much for your next flight! I found some great links if you would like to learn more about plane crashes. The links are for unusual accidents, list of famous deaths, and warning sounds.

Weird News of the Day!-Dog Calls 911

2008-09-20T00:43:00.006-05:00

In Phoenix, AZ a German Shepard calls 911 while his owner is having a seizure. When the operator answers the line she can hear the dog barking and whimpering. "Hello, this is 911. Hello ... Can you hear me? Is there somebody there you can give the phone to," says the dispatcher, Chris Scott. The owners address was flagged in the system with a notification that a trained assistance dog could call 911 when the owner was incapacitated. The operator sent emergency crews to the home and the owner spent 2 days in the hospital where he made a full recovery.

The German Shepard, Buddy, was adopted at the age of 8 weeks from Michigan-based Paws with a Cause, which trains assistance dogs, and trained him to get the phone if he began to have seizure symptoms. Buddy, now 18 months old, is able to press programmed buttons until a 911 operator is on the line. It's incredible what these dogs are trained to do. I hope you enjoy this story and if you have any odd news stories to share send me a link!

Read entire article here

Fun Facts About Wedding Traditions

2008-09-09T15:03:00.007-05:00

I'm sure everyone has been to a wedding or two, with 2.4 million weddings performed a year in the U.S. There is so much that goes into a wedding from the veil to the cake, but have we ever really thought about why brides wear a veil or why the bride and groom have a wedding cake. I have found the meanings behind several common wedding traditions as well as many I've never heard of.

The Proposal
Most couples are engaged for 16 months with 99% of men doing the proposing. When the rules of courtship were stricter, men were the only ones able to pop the question. However, in 5th century Ireland when St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait so long for a man to propose. St. Patrick said the yearning females could propose on one day in February. Which day? Valentine's Day? No, February 29th! So women could only propose to a man once every four years, and if the man refused the proposal he was fined 100L.

The Rings
It is customary for the man to privately buy the engagement ring for his prospective bride and then present it to her when he proposes. The average engagement ring costs $2,000 or two months of the man's salary. Most engagement rings are diamonds, because in medieval times a man would buy his bride and pay for her with precious stones. Eventually brides were not being bought, but diamond remained a tradition. In most countries the ring is worn on the left hand dating back from an early usage reportedly referring to the fourth finger of the left hand as containing the vena amoris or "vein of love". In some countries, like Poland and Ukraine, it is customary for the ring to be worn on the right-hand. It is tradition for the woman to wear the wedding ring below the engagement ring, making it closer to the heart. In Spain, the woman sometimes buys an engagement wristwatch for the man after accepting his marriage proposal.

The Wedding Gown
For most weddings a white wedding gown is worn, a tradition started by Queen Victoria's wedding to Prince Albert in 1840. The white was known to represent purity of the heart and the innocence of childhood. You were also only suppose to wear a white wedding gown if you were a virgin. The longest wedding train ever measured was over 515 feet. Another traditional part of the gown is the veil. The Ancient Greeks and Romans believed the veils protect the brides from evil spirits, and have been continued to be worn to this day. We all know the old saying; Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a silver sixpence in her shoe, but where did that come from? This good luck saying dates back to Victorian times as many brides would try to arrange their wedding attire accordingly. Something old represents the link with the bride's family and the past. Something new represents good fortune and success in the bride's new life. Something borrowed is to remind the bride that friends and family will be there for her when help is needed. Something blue is the symbol of faithfulness and loyalty. A silver sixpence in her shoe is to wish the bride wealth.

The Reception
There are many traditions preformed at the reception. Let's start with the cake. In Roman times they would break a loaf of bread over the bride's head as part of a fertility ritual. Later the 'breaking' of the loaf turned into 'eating' the loaf. The champagne toast along with the feeding of cake is the couples giving to each other a sip from the Cup of Love and to eat from the Bread of Life and Health. Next, is the tradition of throwing the bride's garter and bouquet. Tossing the garter comes form the ancient custom of witnesses at the marriage bed (to make sure the couple consummated the marriage, it is believed if you don't consummate the marriage than it is not valid); the witnesses would bring the garter forth as a sign of the witnessing. It became such a violation of privacy that eventually the bride would have the groom throw it to prove consummation. This is one of the oldest customs surviving wedding rituals. The tradition of tossing the bouquet began with the ancient belief that good luck herbs were contained inside the arrangement. In an effort to pass her good fortune on to the guests, the bride would present her bouquet to one lucky guest at the end of the ceremony. Now adays it is believed if you catch the bouquet or garter you will be the next to find true love!

source

A Fun Mind Trick Video

2008-09-08T23:14:00.004-05:00

This video was shown to me today, and I thought it would be a good addition to the previous mind trick entry. Push play and look at the center of the video, then look away and everything in your room looks crazy! Hope you enjoy this!

Fun Mind Tricks

2008-09-05T16:55:00.002-05:00

I've always loved getting the emails with mind tricks and optical illusions, so I thought I would share with you some of my favorites. I suggest clicking on the photos so you can enlarge them and get a better look. So here goes and have fun!

Can you focus on just one green dot? Kind of difficult huh?!

This is a test of the brain to see which side is more dominant. Try to say the color not the words. The right side of the brain wants to say the color while your left side insists on saying the word. So which side of your brain is more dominant? Mine most be the left side because I kept wanting to say the words instead of the colors!

Is this picture a spiral or a bunch of circles?

ANSWER: It is actually a bunch of circles, follow the lines of one of the circles to see for your self!

What do you see in this picture?

ANSWER: Liar

Which line is bigger, the one on the left or right? ANSWER: They are both the same size, it's true get out the ruler and see for yourself!

On this one, look at the circle in the middle and move your head back and forth. It looks like the center of the circle is moving!

A quick test of intelligence
Read this sentence:
FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTIF-
IC STUDY COMBINED WITH
THE EXPERIENCE OF YEARS.
Now count the F's in that sentence.

ANSWER:
There are six F's in the sentence.
A person of average intelligence finds three of them.
If you spotted four, you're above average.
If you got five, you can turn your nose at most anybody.
If you caught six, you are a genius
There is no catch. Many people forget the "of"s'. The human brain tends to see them as V's and not F's.
Pretty weird, huh?

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did. I will post more another day. If you have any you would like me to share feel free to send me a message. Thanks for looking!

Source

How many insects have you eaten today?

2008-09-04T17:58:00.003-05:00

Someone once told me that the average person has inadvertently consumed over a pound of insects in their lifetime. So that got me thinking, how is that possible? The answers are really surprising! The first thing that comes to mind is while I'm sleeping. This is true, it is believed that you will consume 4 spiders in your lifetime while your sleeping. Now, I'm no mathematician but I doubt that 4 spiders adds up to over a pound. So what are the other ways? Food. You would be really surprised how many insects or insect parts are in your favorite foods. The Department of Health and Human Services has actually set a standard called the Food Defect Action Levels, which (to quote a publication) "are set on the basis of no hazard to health. These levels are set because it is not possible, and never has been possible, to grow in open fields, harvest and process crops that are totally free of natural defects." Yuck! But if you think about it (which I really don't want to do!) how would they get all of the insects out of grain, for instance. There are many flour beetles and weevils that live in grain and are milled and grounded up with the grain to end up as tiny black specs in your bread. The standard set by the FDA is 75 insect fragments per 50g of wheat flour. I've always wondered what those 'black specs' were. Now, I'm sorry I know! Insects are also really common in canned and processed foods, and of course fruits and vegetables.

Some other common foods and the standard amount of insects in them are:

Berries with 4 larvae per 500g OR 10 whole insects per 500g
Ground paprika with 75 insect fragments per 25g
Chocolate with 80 microscopic insect fragments per 100g
Canned sweet corn with 2 3mm-length larvae, cast skins or fragments
Cornmeal with 1 insect per 50g
Canned mushrooms with 20 maggots per 100g
Peanut butter with 60 fragments per 100g (136 per lb)
Tomato paste, pizza, and other sauces with 30 eggs per 100g OR 2 maggots per 100g

Now I know where they get the 'over a pound' estimate at. I don't know about you, but I will definitely be thinking about the food I eat in a whole other way! I've always heard about people eating insects, and they are a delicatesy, and I never thought I would want to try them but I guess I have! I hope you found these random and fun facts about eating insects interesting. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment! Thanks for stopping by!

Source: The Food Defect Action Levels: Current Levels for Natural or Unavoidable Defects for Human Use that Present No Health Hazard. Department of Health & Human Services 1989.

Random & Fun Facts About Your Heart!

2008-09-02T19:44:00.002-05:00

Here are some great random and fun facts about your heart that I bet you didn't know!

Your heart, which weighs 9-11 ounces in an adult, is made of mostly muscle and can perform enough work in one hour to lift 3,000 pounds! That's about the weight of a small car being lifted one foot off the ground!
Your heart beats 101,000 times a day.
During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.
A typical athlete's heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.
A study of 2,500 men aged 49 to 54 found that having an orgasm at least three times a week, cut in half the likelihood of death from coronary heart disease. I'm sure men just love those results!
Laughing is great for the heart. It can increase blood flow for up to 45 minutes after the laugh attack. So keep laughing.
In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body
A breakup with a loved one or news of a family death literally can lead to broken hearts in the form of heightened risk for heart attack.
Your 'broken' heart can also trigger the release of stress hormones into the bloodstream that temporarily "stun" the heart and give you symptoms that make you feel as if your having a heart attack..
The human heart is fully developed about eight weeks after conception, when the embryo is only about one inch long. The heart actually begins to beat even earlier: about four weeks after conception.
The heart is a universal symbol of love dating back to ancient times, when the heart was given special importance, because the Chinese considered that happiness originated in the heart, and the Egyptians considered the heart to be the source of intelligence and emotion.
The Ancient Greek physician Galen discovered in 100 A.D. that the heart set the body's blood in motion.
Diseases of the heart and blood vessels are now the leading cause of death in the United States. More than twice as many people die from these diseases as from all forms of cancer, and more than half these deaths are by heart attacks.
Red wine is very beneficial for heart health. Scientists believe that the antioxidants, called flavonoids, in red wine reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
Heart disease is almost twice as likely to develop in inactive people than in those who are more active.
Regular physical activity (even mild to moderate exercise) can help reduce your risk of heart disease. The best exercises to strengthen your heart and lungs are the aerobic ones like brisk walking, jogging, cycling and swimming.

I hope you learned a random and fun fact or two about your heart. Remember to laugh often, drink red wine, exercise daily, and if your a man...well...you know what to do to help keep your heart healthy! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to leave me a comment to let me know what you think about this entry.