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- The crocodile is surprisingly fast on land. If pursued by a crocodile, a person should run in a zigzag motion, for the crocodile has little or no ability to make sudden changes of direction.
- Crocodiles can live for many months without eating because they don't use that much energy
- The Nobel Peace prize was first awarded in 1901 to Jean Henry Dunant, who was the founder of the Swiss Red Cross.
- Orchids are grown from seed so small that it would take thirty thousand to weigh as much as one grain of wheat.
- Elephants can smell water from as far away as three miles.
- Coffee is the second largest item on international commerce in the world.
- The 1,340-foot-long wall that gave New York's Wall Street its name was only 12 feet tall and erected in 1653 by Dutch colonists to protect against their enemies.
- One of the first telephone answering machines was developed in Switzerland during the 1950's. It took three days to install.
- The planet Venus has the longest day.
- Electrical stimulation in certain areas of the brain can revive long lost memories.
- Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision.
- Dandelion root can be roasted and ground as a coffee substitute.
- The flying gurnard, a fish, swims in water, walks on land, and flies through the air.
- The word "puppy" comes from the French poupee, meaning "doll."
- The letters VVSOP on a cognac bottle stand for - Very Very Superior Old Pale.
- Beer is made by fermentation cause by bacteria feeding on yeast cells and then defecating. In other words, it's a nice tall glass of bacteria doo-doo.
- The first man to distill bourbon whiskey in the United States was a Baptist preacher, in 1789.
- Peter Karpin, a German espionage agent in World War I, was seized by French Intelligence agents in 1914 as soon as he entered the country. Keeping his capture a secret, the French sent faked reports from Karpin to Germany and intercepted the agent's wages and expense money until Karpin escaped in 1917. With those funds the French purchased an automobile, which, in 1919, in occupied Rurh, accidentally ran down and killed a man, who proved to be Peter Karpin.
- During World War I, the punishment for homosexuality in the French army was execution.
- Each year in America there are about 300,000 deaths that can be attributed to obesity.