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3501/ Researchers have discovered
that about 72 per cent of the 1000 genes linked with smell
are so mutated they are defective in most people, which may
account for our blunted sense of smell compared with our ancestors.
3502/ A 'Meanderthal' is an American
coined term, obviously manufactured from 'meander' and 'neanderthal'
for those annoying people who stick in the middle lane of
the motorway at a constant speed of 60mph or who idle along
the pavement in front of you at a speed that wouldn't leave
a tortoise out of breath and yet are, in their state of blissful
ignorance, incredibly hard to overtake or pass.
3503/ A mudpool in the town of
Chilica, Peru, has been touched by aliens - at least, that's
what the locals claim. Sick people from hundreds of miles
around are now flocking to bathe in the 'healing' mud. A sign
outside Chilica says it's "The Preferred Site for Interplanetary
Beings'.
3504/ The world's biggest globe
is 42 feet in diameter and has a scale of one inch to 16 miles.
It stands in the headquarters of creator David DeLorne's map-making
company in Maine. It is designed to represent the view of
Earth from Space and took two years to build. It was based
on hundreds of satellite images and maps.
3505/ The US has 2 million 'heavy'
cocaine users.
3506/ 28 per cent of British
men and 26 per cent of women smoke.
3507/ University of Glasgow scientists
found that a cherry tomato contains six times as much quercetin
(a powerful anti-oxidant, thought to protect against cancer,
heart disease and the effects of aging) as a normal-sized
tomato.
3508/ Once the world's fourth
largest lake, the Aral Sea in what used to be Soviet Central
Asia is an ecological disaster. It's now only 70 per cent
of its original size, thanks to the diversion of its two source
rivers in the 1950s for cotton field irigation. The former
port of Muynak is now 30 miles inland and none of the 24 native
species of fish survive.
3509/ If it were possible to
travel at the speed of light, a journey to the sun would take
approximately eight minutes and 32 seconds.
3510/ En-route to the Sun you
would pass Venus in 2.3 minutes and Mercury in 5.1 minutes.
3511/ Aldous Huxley was the first
British Editor of House and Garden Magazine.
3512/ Aldous Huxley's career
as a scriptwriter virtually ended when Walt Disney rejected
his script of 'Alice in Wonderland' because he 'could
only understand every third word'. Huxley struck back with
Ape and Essence (1948) which opens with an incredibly
horrific depiction of LA after an atomic Third World War.
3513/ Age affects the amount
of skin loss through major burns that our bodies can tolerate.
Up to the age of 35, we can probably survive a loss of up
to 75 per cent. In middle age that figure drops to 58 per
cent, but in old age anything higher than 23 per cent means
that death is likely to occur.
3514/ The gesture of raising
a single middle finger is not an American invention. It was
referred to in 423 BC in an early version of Aristophanes
The Clouds. Socrates is discussing 'finger rhythm'
with Strepsides when his companion gives him the finger. This
scene was cut from the final version because it was 'obscene'
although another play, where two actors beat each other with
leather phalluses, was considered to be 'art'.
3515/ A very common wound in
rodeo riding is 'rodeo thum', which occurs when the yhumb
gets caught between the saddle and the lasso rope. When the
rope is pulled taut the thumb is crushed and sometimes torn
off.
3516/ A study at Leicester University
found that callers are more likely to stay on hold if an automatic
switchboard plays pan pipe music than if it played Beatles
songs or a voice message.
3517/ Garlic attracts leeches
even though quite small doses can prove to be fatal.
3518/ The world's worst terrorist
has to be Iraq's Khay Rahjanet who in 1999 didn't pay enough
postage on a letter bomb. When it came back with 'Return to
Sender' stamped on it, Rahjanet opened it and got blown to
bits.
3519/ When a pickle is plugged
into an electric current it turns yellow and gives off a horrendous
smell.
3520/ Mariah Carey's Reaction
to the death of King Hussein of Jordan - "I'm inconsolable.
I was a very good friend of Jordan, he was the greatest basketball
player this country's ever seen or will see again."
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