Vol.V, No.9
www.realestatenewsline.com
Odd But It’s A Fact By Pat Farrell
PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID San Antonio, Texas Paid Permit #1590
There are so many unusual bits of information out there that have been proven to be true but when one hears them they may think, “that can’t be right, can it?” For example (for you lead footers), did you know that one stretch of Texas Highway 130 has an 85 mph speed limit, the highest in the country? Maybe we should call it the “Austin Autobahn!” While we are on the subject of travel did you know that there are more than 60,000 travelers in the air over the United States at any moment of any day and that during a normal flight the temperature outside the aircraft is usually a chilly -60o F? If you are on a Boeing 767 airliner you might want to know that it is made up of 3,100,000 separate parts (what could possibly go wrong?) and that of all the airports in the world one third are located here in our country. But, all the travelling local WorldVentures members should be happy to learn that studies show that travel
can actually increase one’s creativity. We might all agree that for the most part newborn babies are just happy little guys and gals with not a care in the world and only have needs that can be readily satisfied by feeding, diaper changes, a bath and some cuddling. They grow and learn over time and eventually come of age and have responsibilities. But, did you know that before 1913 parents could mail their kids to Grandma’s – through the postal service? And what about growing up to have children of one’s own? Well, a Peruvian woman (?), Lina Medina, gave birth to her first child at the age of five years, seven months, and 21 days. The world’s youngest parents were age 8 and 9 and, living in China, had their first child in 1910. In England during the year 1542 Henry VI became King when he was not yet 9 months old and Mary Queen of Scots became Queen at the ripe old age of six days. There is dispute as to his actual age as the youngest Pope (somewhere between 11 and 20 years) when Pope Benedict IX assumed the Papacy. Tough being a kid at that time! Most of us have heard that if one does some specific unacceptable thing that “his name will be Mud” but did you know that it comes from the shame associated with Dr. Samuel Mudd who set the broken leg of President Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth? Anyone who has been around for a while (is older than dirt) can tell you that the prices of things today have in many cases increased at least twenty times? For example, it costs more today to buy a new car in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World. With the exception of the “knee takers” most Americans love their country and enjoy living there and while the government does own 1/3 of the land, there are 2,000,000 American millionaires here. And did you
know that the United States has five percent of the world's population, but also has twentyfive percent of the world's prison population. It was estimated that in 2004 the population of the United States was increasing by one person every 12 seconds as there was one birth every eight seconds, one immigrant was added every 25 seconds, and one death occured every 13 seconds. (wonder what the rate is today). A hint as to the care and concern of the children coming of age today is that there are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year. Sometimes what one says can be very prophetic as was true when 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." Here is something to consider: although the Great Pyramid of Cheops was constructed about 2600 BC solely by human hands it contains enough stone to circle the world at a height of 20 inches, whereas the Pentagon in Washington D.C., the largest modern structure built primarily by humans using machines and tools, could only circle the world at a height of 2 inches. And, have you ever noticed on a map that the right coast of South America and the left coast of Africa, along the Atlantic, look like they would fit together like two pieces of a giant puzzle? Well that is because millions of years ago they were one continent before magma from deep in the Earth broke through thin places between the two continents and pushed them apart, and today they are still slowly moving apart so the Atlantic Ocean is growing wider. And, New York also drifts about one inch farther away from London each year Remember when you were a kid you would, on a clear night, look up into the sky to see the stars and start counting? Well, to save future generations from the task, it is estimat-
September 2019 ed that you can see between 2,000 and 3,000 of them with the naked eye, but that doesn’t mean that is all there are, by any means. And, considering all the “drifting” mentioned above when you think you are standing still you might want to know that even though you don’t feel it, our entire local group of galaxies is moving at about one million miles per hour toward another galaxy group called the Virgo Cluster so the Earth has traveled more than 5,000 miles in the past 5 minutes., Bon Voyage! “Be with you in a jiffy!” Did you know a Jiffy is an actual unit of time? 1 Jiffy = 1/100 of a second. Not sure who has the time to determine these things but an average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime; butterflies can travel over 3,000 miles; you breathe on average about 8,409,600 times a year; hamsters run up to 8 miles at night on a wheel; our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing; just like fingerprints, everyone has different tongue prints; you are 1% shorter in the evening than in the morning and Sea otters hold hands when they sleep so that they do not drift apart. Now don’t you think it was important for you to know all those fantastic facts? Finally, some of the things I personally find fascinating include: 111,111,111 X 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321; the founders of Google were willing to sell Google for $1 million to Excite back in 1999, but Excite turned them down. Google is now worth $527 billion; you can’t sneeze with your eyes open nor hum while holding your nose closed (tried it, didn’t you?). No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple and "Go," is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. There are so many other odd facts, too many to note here and now, but if you would be interested in learning more just let us know.