The air at the summit of Mount Everest , 29,029 feet is only a third as thick as the air at sea level.

Somewhere in the flicker of a badly tuned TV set is the background radiation from the Big Bang.

Even travelling at the speed of light it would take 2 million years to reach the nearest large galaxy, Andromeda.

The temperature in Antarctica plummets as low as -35 degrees celsius.

At over 2000 kilometres long The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth.

A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons.

The mortality rate if bitten by a Black Mamba snake is over 95%.

In the 14th century the Black Death killed 75,000,000 people. It was carried by fleas on the black rat.

In October 1999 an iceberg the size of London broke free from the Antarctic ice shelf.

The Earth spins at 1,000 mph but it travels through space at an incredible 67,000 mph.

It takes 8 minutes 17 seconds for light to travel from the Sun’s surface to the Earth.

10 percent of all human beings ever born are alive at this very moment.

The speed of light is generally rounded down to 186,000 miles per second. In exact terms it is 299,792,458 m/s (metres per second - that is equal to 186,287.49 miles per second).

One million, million, million, million, millionth of a second after the Big Bang the Universe was the size of a …pea.

DNA was first discovered in 1869 by Swiss Friedrich Mieschler.

The molecular structure of DNA was first determined by Watson and Crick in 1953.

The first synthetic human chromosome was constructed by US scientists in 1997.

The thermometer was invented in 1607 by Galileo.

A quarter of the world’s plants are threatened with extinction by the year 2010.

Each person sheds 40lbs of skin in his or her lifetime.

At 15 inches the eyes of giant squids are the largest on the planet

The largest galexies contain a million, million stars.

The Universe contains over 100 billion galaxies.

Wounds infested with maggots heal quickly and without spread of gangrene or other infection.

More germs are transferred shaking hands than kissing.

The longest glacier in Antarctica, the Almbert glacier, is 250 miles long and 40 miles wide.

The fastest speed a falling raindrop can hit you is 18mph.

A healthy person has 6,000 million, million, million haemoglobin molecules.

A salmon-rich, low cholesterol diet means that inuits rarely suffer from heart disease.

Inbreeding causes 3 out of every 10 Dalmation dogs to suffer from hearing disability.

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

If the Sun were the size of a beach ball then Jupiter would be the size of a golf ball and the Earth would be as small as a pea.

Englishman Roger Bacon invented the magnifying glass in 1250.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite in 1866.

Wilhelm Rontgen won the first Nobel Prize for physics for discovering X-rays in 1895.

Utopia is a large, smooth lying area of Mars.

On the day that Alexander Graham Bell was buried the entire US telephone system was shut down for 1 minute in tribute.

The low frequency call of the humpback whale is the loudest noise made by a living creature.

The call of the humpback whale is louder than Concorde and can be heard from 500 miles away.

The tallest tree ever was an Australian eucalyptus - In 1872 it was measured at 435 feet tall.

Christian Barnard performed the first heart transplant in 1967 - the patient lived for 18 days.

The wingspan of a Boeing 747 is longer than the Wright brother’s first flight.

Without its lining of mucus your stomach would digest itself.

Humans have 46 chromosomes, peas have 14 and crayfish have 200.

There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body.

An individual blood cell takes about 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

It would take over an hour for a heavy object to sink 6.7 miles down to the deepest part of the ocean.

There are more living organisms on the skin of each human than there are humans on the surface of the earth.

The grey whale migrates 12,500 miles from the Artic to Mexico and back every year.

Each rubber molecule is made of 65,000 individual atoms.

Quasars emit more energy than 100 giant galaxies.

Quasars are the most distant objects in the Universe.

The saturn V rocket which carried man to the Moon develops power equivalent to fifty 747 jumbo jets.

Koalas sleep an average of 22 hours a day, two hours more than the sloth.

The Ebola virus kills 4 out of every 5 humans it infects.

In 5 billion years the Sun will run out of fuel and turn into a Red Giant.

Giraffes often sleep for only 20 minutes in any 24 hours. They may sleep up to 2 hours (in spurts - not all at once), but this is rare. They never lie down.

A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

The largest meteorite craters in the world are in Sudbury, Ontario, canada and in Vredefort, South Africa.

Every second around 100 lightning bolts strike the Earth.

Light would take .13 seconds to travel around the Earth.

When a horned toad is angry, it squirts blood from its eyes.

The typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year.

The ostrich has a 46-foot long small intestine.

A scallop has 35 blue eyes.

Dolphins sleep with one eye open.

By some unknown means, an iguana can end its own life.

Americans spend around $3 billion for cat and dog food a year.

Pigs can cover a mile in 7.5 minutes when running at top speed.

A mule won't sink in quicksand but a donkey will.

The shell constitutes 12 percent of an egg's weight.

Some fleas have split penises like a Y shape

A group of unicorns is called a blessing.

A group of kangaroos is called a mob.

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

Animal breeders in Russia once claimed to have bred sheep with blue wool.

Dogs and humans are the only animals with prostates.

The average garden-variety caterpillar has 248 muscles in its head.

The Poison Arrow frog has enough poison to kill 2,200 people.

Emus can't walk backwards.

A group of ravens is called a murder.

A group of bears is called a sleuth.

Twelve or more cows is called a flink.

A baby oyster is called a spat.

Penguins are the only bird that can leap into the air like porpoises.

India has 50 million monkeys.

A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds.

A swan is the only bird with a penis

The left leg of a chicken in more tender than the right one.

The only dog that doesn't have a pink tongue is the chow.

A squid has 10 tentacles.

A snail's reproductive organs are in its head.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

An elephant can be pregnant for up to 2 years

Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.

The smartest dogs are the Jack Russell Terrier and Scottish Border collie.Dumbest: Afgan hound.

A rat can go without water longer than a camel can.

The fat molecules in goat milk are 5 times smaller than thosefound in cow milk. It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to breakdown as opposed tothe hour that it takes to break down cow milk.

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

Bulls are color blind.

A cow's only sweat glands are in its nose.

Mosquitoes have 47 teeth.

A domestic cat can frighten a black bear to climb a tree.

In a fight between a polar bear and a lion, the polar bear would win.

US Secret Service sniffer dogs are put up in five-star hotels during overseas presidential visits.

It costs an average of $5,000 to raise a dog to ten years old.

There are almost 60 million dogs in the United States.

Irish Wolfhound dogs have a short lifespan and live about 7-8 years.

In the United States, every year about 15 people die from dog bites.

In 2002, dogs have killed more people in the U.S. than the Great White shark has killed in the past 100 years.

If you were to remove the scent receptors from a dog's nose and lay them out flat, they would cover an area greater than the dog itself.

Dogs can be trained to detect an upcoming epileptic seizure.

Dalmatian puppies do not have any spots on them when they are born. They actually develop them as they get older.

Border collies are the most intelligent breed of dog.

Bloodhounds have been used since the 1600's for tracking criminals.

Approximately 87% of dog owners say that when they watch T.V. their dog curls up beside them or at their feet.

An average city dog lives approximately three years longer than an average country dog.

There is a doggy disco held in Italy every year where owners can dance with their dogs.

The largest dog in the world is the Irish Wolfhound.

The dumbest dog in the world is the Afghan Hounds.

The dog with the largest ears in the world is a Basset Hound named Mr. Jeffries. The dog's ears are 11.5 inches longs, and are insured for $47,800.

The Basenji dog is the only dog that is not able to bark.

Pixie, a Siberian Husky, gave birth to 7 puppies, one of which was bright green.

Nose prints are used to identify dogs, much like humans use fingerprints.

All dogs are the descendant of the wolf. These wolves lived in eastern Asia about 15,000 years ago.

About 30% of American admit to talking to their dogs or leaving messages on their answering machines for their dogs while they are away.

A dog by the name of Laika was launched into space aboard the Russian spacecraft.

Dogs can't see colors. They're color blind.

Dogs sweat only through their tongues.

Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!

The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour.

The snow leopard protects itself from extreme cold when it sleeps by wrapping its 3-foot-long tail around its nose.

The puma and the leopard are the highest jumping mammals. They are able to reach a height of 16.5 feet.

Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. Layers of cartilage in the joints get compressed during the day.

There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow.

If left alone, 70% of birthmarks gradually fade away.

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

Kidney stones come in any color--from yellow to brown.

Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear when the child is 2-6 years of age.

Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second!

The average human produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in a lifetime.

Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.

Women blink twice as many times as men do.

Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and the grapefruit scent on men has no effect on women's perception.

The most sensitive finger on the human hand is the index finger.

The human body weighs 40 times more than the brain.

After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.

A person swallows approx. 295 times while eating dinner.

Your urine will turn bright yellow if you eat too much asparagus.

If you ate too many carrots you would turn orange.

The force of 1 billion people jumping at the same time is equal to 500 tons of TNT.

A baby is born every seven seconds.

You can tell if a skunk is about if you smell only .000000000000071 ounce of its spray.

You breathe about 10 million times a year.

The human body is better suited to two four-hour sleep cycles than one eight-hour one.

A man's beard contains between 7000 and 15,000 hairs.

A beard grows an average of 140mm a year

A hair is 70 per cent easier to cut when soaked in warm water for two minutes

4 million people die annually from diarrhea infections, caused by poor sanitary conditions

The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.

Women's hair is about half the diameter of men's hair

The foot is the most common body part bitten by insects.

The typical person goes to the bathroom 6 times a day.

The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.

The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.

The life span of a taste bud is 10 days.

The largest known kidney stone weighed 1.36 kilograms.

When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air.

Humans were first infected with the HIV virus in the 1930s.

During an average lifetime, a man will spend 3,350 hours removing 8.4 meters of stubble

4.5 million people have their health 'adversely affected' by air pollutants each year.

4 million children die each year from inhaling smoke from indoor cooking fires that burn wood and Dung

Sex is biochemically no different from eating large quantities of chocolate.

Males, on average, think about sex every 7 seconds.

Each day, there are over 120 million sexual intercourse taking place all over the world.

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England - but only in tropical fish stores. (But of course!)

Sex burns 360 calories per hour!

Male and female rats may have sex twenty times a day.

22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.

For every ‘normal’ webpage, there are five porn pages.

The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.

Turkeys can reproduce without having sex. It’s called parthenogenesis.

In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals , but the animals must be female. Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.

In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination. He may only see their reflection in a mirror.

“Formicophilia” is the fetish for having small insects crawl on your genitals. Gross!!

“Ithyphallophobia” is a morbid fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis.

When swans go on a date, they’ll put their heads together. Then they stick together for life.

Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. It is 10 times more effective than valium!

Male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of any mammal.

The average shelf-life of a latex condom is about two years.

The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek word gymnazein which means “to exercise naked.”

Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception: prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only “in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for on the premises.”

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. (The husband’s lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.)

85% of men who die of heartattacks during intercourse, are found to have been cheating on their wives.

An adulterous Greek male was sometimes punished by the removal of his pubic hair and the insertion of a large radish into his rectum

The greatest recorded number of children one mother had was 69 children.

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

The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were: Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

25% of women think money makes a man sexier.

Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

Snakes have two sex organs.

Women who read romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don’t.

The average person spends 2 weeks of its life kissing.

The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.

A man’s beard grows fastest when he anticipates sex.

A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.

Donald Duck comics were once banned from Finland because Donald doesn’t wear pants.

Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers; the sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.

Most Middle Eastern countries recognize the following Islamic law: “After having sexual relations with a lamb, it is a mortal sin to eat its flesh.”

There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time. Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.

In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens her mother must be in the room to witness the act.

In Santa Cruz, Bolivia it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.

The average life span of an umbrella is under two years.

There is a city called Rome in every continent.

A donkey will sink in quick sand, while a mule will not.

4,000 people are injured by tea pots every year.

The McDonald’s™ at Toronto’s ‘SkyDome’ is the only McDonald’s™ location that sells hot dogs.

One million $1 bills weighs 1 ton

In an average day, a four year old child will ask 437 questions.

The average speed of Heinz™ ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles per year.

Little more than half of the people living in the U.S. would rather fold, than wad their toilet paper.

The only words in the English language to contain two "U’s" back to back are: vacuum, residuum, and continuum.

998 million people play volleyball

You consume one tenth (.1) calories when you lick a stamp.

60 % of statistics are made up...

Dragon boat racing is the 8th most popular sport in the world!(What the funk is Dragon boat racing)

The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.

Pi has been calculated to over 2,260,321,363 digits.

An ostrich egg would take four hours to hard boil.

The left leg of a chicken is more tender than the right one.

Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

A novel with 50,000 words, non of which contained the letter ‘E’ was written by Ernest Wright.

There are only 18 countries richer than Bill Gates

There have been fewer people below 2km in sea than have been on the moon

Every year more people are killed by donkeys, than in aircraft crashes.

The only word in the English language to contain three back to back double letter combinations is; Bookkeeper.

The number of births in India each year is greater than the entire population of Australia.

The smallest 'country' in the world to have its own top-level domain name is Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia.

The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set in a lunar rover.

Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where you can find wild monkeys.

Every year, the moon moves 1/2 an inch further from the earth.

In 1977, George Willig was fined $1.10 for climbing the World Trade Center building.

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

Banging your head off a wall uses 150 calories an hour!(ouch)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps blood out to the body it could squirt blood 30 feet!

In downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh.

In space you cannot cry because there is no gravity to make the tears flow

In the Scottish Hebrides, an island is defined as being an islandonly if it is big enough to sustain 1 sheep

There are more plastic lawn flamingos in the US than real ones.

A typist fingers travel over 12 and a half miles in an average day.

2,500 left handers die each year using products designed for right handers.

The Roman Catholic Church did not acknowledge that the earth revolves around the sun until the mid 1990’s.

The world’s most common non-contagious disease is tooth-decay

In 50 million years, it is likely that Mars will have a ring around it.

The short phrases of organ music played at a baseball game is called a tucket.

Dungarees is another word for Denim

A deltiologist is someone who collects postcards

People descended from the Scottish clan of Kerr are more likely to be left handed than any other ancestrial group.

The shortest war ever recorded lasted only 38 minutes. (Britain vs. Zanzibar in 1896)

Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names

If you told someone that they were one in a million, you'd be saying there were 1,800 of them in China

In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to 12

New York City has 570 miles of shoreline

A red-haired man is more likely to go bald than anyone else.

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

The Boston University Bridge is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies