Top 10 Bizarre Science Experiments

Science is wonderfully equipped to answer the question “How?” but it gets terribly confused when you ask the question “Why?” (Erwin Chargaff, biochemist)

We all know that scientific experiments are meant to be conducted in a way so that they provide some sort of useful information. Whether it be an experiment to test a cure for a disease, or just to observe something naturally, most experiments are seen as beneficial as they provide new information to questions scientists have today. However, scientific experiments can be confusing and difficult to understand, and at times some would agree that they’re not always helpful or even useful.
Below are ten scientific experiments that really make you wonder, “Why?” Though they may have provided some sort of new information to the experimenters, the experiments all together really seem bizarre.
Note from Toptenz: In some cases where the photos were too disturbing, we have not included the genuine photos from these experiments.

10. Keeping a Dog’s Head Alive

You probably know all about the popular use of the guillotine during the French Revolution, which severed many heads. You may have even heard the numerous accounts of people seeing heads’ eyes blink after being severed. With these observations, many started to wonder if it was possible to keep a severed head alive. Soon enough, Sergey Brukhonenko, a Soviet physician in the 1920s decided to test this theory. Since using a human head would seem a little crazy, Brukhonenko decided to use a dog’s head, which he was able to successfully keep alive with the use of a machine he made known as an “autojector.” The machine acted like the dog’s heart and lungs, and to prove that the dog was still alive, Brukhonenko would shine a light in its eyes and it would blink. He’d also slam a heavy object on the table and the dog would flinch, and he even went as far to feed the dog food, which just fell out of its throat. By responding to stimuli, it was obvious that the dog’s head was in fact alive.
What’d We Learn
From these experiments, the first successful heart-lung machines were later created. We’ve also learned that if you do some whacky experiments, you become the talk of the town, or in Brukhonenko’s case, the talk of all of Europe. George Bernard Shaw poked fun at the experiments, stating that he’d love to be Brukhonenko’s muse and live with his head cut off so that he could continue to write literature and plays.

9. Turned-On Turkeys

Of course humans aren’t the only ones with a libido; turkeys join in on the fun as well. During the 1960’s, Martin Schein and Edgar Hale became oddly curious about the stimuli needed to “excite” a turkey, as they observed turkeys attempting to mate with a fake female turkey. To start their experiment, the two created a life-like female turkey that would attract a male. They then would remove a part of the turkey, such as the wings, tail, and feet, to see if the turkey was still interested. By the end of it all, the only thing left of the turkey was a head on a stick, and somehow the turkey was still interested, and attempted to mate with it. To go even further, the two tested out their findings on whether the turkey preferred a real turkey head or a wooden one. In the end, the turkey seemed content with both, but the real turkey head was most preferred.
What’d We Learn
We’ve realized that turkeys are highly loving creatures who do not discriminate and will always take what they are given. We’ve also learned that seemingly all male creatures aren’t very picky at all and will take what they can get. In short, this experiment didn’t provide very much to the scientific world.

8. Cerberus Minus 1

In the 1950’s, Vladimir Demikhov was determined to make some sort of new break when it came to organ transplants. To further his studies and knowledge about the subject, he decided to create a two-headed dog, which could only be done by attaching the front end of a puppy to the neck of an older German Shepherd by grafting its shoulders and head. The puppy’s two front paws were often placed on each side of the other dog’s neck and was able to live, but not for long, often because the tissue was rejected. Demikhov not only made one two-headed dog, but 20 of them, most of which died within a few weeks, the longest living about a month.
What’d We Learn
It’s said that Demikhov’s experiment with making two-headed dogs lead to advances in heart and lung transplants in humans and also encouraged other doctors to perform similar experiments, such as Dr. Robert White’s two headed-monkey. While Demikhov’s aimed to become the first to do a successful organ transplant, Dr. Christian Barnard perfected the transplant before he died.

7. Life Through A Cat’s Eyes

Dr. Yang Dan, a professional of neurobiologist, decided that it’d be interesting to tap into another animal’s brain in order to see exactly what it is seeing. To do so, Dr. Dan anesthetized and chemically paralyzed a cat and then secured it into a surgical frame to start his experiment in the late 1990’s. In order for him to see what the cat was seeing, Dr. Dan glued metal posts to the whites of the cat’s eyes and then positioned its head so that it would be looking at a screen playing a movie with moving trees and men in turtlenecks. Fiber electrodes were then put into the cat’s brain, specifically the portion that is known to control vision and vision processing. The electrodes were connected to a computer which was able to record and transmit the information, and then put it into an image. As the movie played, images of the movie were portrayed on the computer screen, just a lot blurrier.
What’d We Learn
Someone was almost able to hit the nail on the head when it comes to aversion therapy described in the movie A Clockwork Orange. If you ever wanted to see what another creature was seeing, just consult this experiment and you just might be able to do it.

6. Setting a Homosexual Man Straight

After looking at research done by James Olds and Peter Milner regarding the septal regions of the brain, Robert Heath decided to take the information from the previous experiment and conduct his own by adding his own twist. Olds and Milner discovered that sensations of sexual arousal and pleasure are produced when the septal region of the brain is stimulated. During the 1950’s, Heath decided to try the experiment on men, instead of rats- but most importantly homosexual men. Heath aimed to test to see if he could stimulate these areas of the brain in order to turn a gay man straight. He placed electrodes into the septal region of the homosexual male’s brain and controlled the amount of applied stimulation. He then created a device that allowed the subject to “pleasure” himself, which was known as the “pleasure button.” In one session lasting three hours, the subject pressed the button 1500 times. With his libido skyrocketing, the subject was then introduced to a female prostitute. At first nothing happened, but when the prostitute offered to engage in sexual activity, the subject agreed. Not much is known of the subject after the experiments, except he became active in homosexual prostitution, but also possibly had an affair with a married woman.

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What’d We Learn
A little pleasure goes a long way in this experiment. In the end, while the experiment may have been seen as a success, Heath wasn’t fully able to convert the homosexual subject into a heterosexual. I’m not sure the experiment provided a lot of new information to scientists.

5. What Face Would You Make While Decapitating a Rat?

We all know about facial expressions. A smile usually means one is happy, a frown indicates one is sad, and so on. However, in 1924, Carney Landis wanted to test the theory and find out if there is one special expression that is universal to everyone that is made when one experiences shock or disgust. Because he was fresh out of college with a psychology degree, Landis’ subjects for his experiment were fellow college students that he had known. In order to get accurate readings of the facial expressions, Landis used paint on his subject’s faces. The experiment started off normal; he’d have subjects smell ammonia, put their hand into a bucket of frogs with slime, or flash pornographic pictures at them. While this type of stimuli seems normal for an experiment about shock and disgust, this wasn’t the end of it. To conclude his experiment, Landis would hand his subject a knife and a live rat, and tell them to decapitate it. If the subject refused, Landis would decapitate the rat himself.
What’d We Learn
From his studies, Landis noted that his subjects, when in a hurry or feeling some sort of distress, did a “clumsy” job at decapitating the rat. However, Landis was never able to successfully match a facial expression to an emotion, therefore making his experiment not so successful. However, many look at his experiment and think of Stanley Milgram, as it is very shocking to see how his subjects, at least some of them, were willing to follow out such an absurd act, showing some sort of obedience.

4. Electrifying a Human Corpse

As if keeping a head alive wasn’t enough, Aldini Galvini decided to attempt to shock life into a human corpse after he realized that electricity, in high enough volts, was able to cause a dead corpse’s limbs to twitch (thanks to his uncle Luigi Galvini’s studies). Animals weren’t good enough for this experiment, so on January 17, 1803 George Forster was the victim, a recently executed murderer. To begin, the body was laid out and wires were placed on various places of the body, all which transmitted 120-volts of electricity. By placing the wires on the mouth and ears, Galvini noted that the jaw muscles moved and his entire face seemed to be in pain. His left eye is also said to have opened. As if the experiment couldn’t get any worse, Galvini decided to wrap it up by putting a wire on the ear and sticking the other in Forster’s rectum. According to those watching, his body “was on the eve of being restored to life.”
What’d We Learn
While we don’t exactly know how to bring a dead corpse back to live, we did learn that a high amount of voltage introduced to the body will make it move, more so jerk. While the experiment wasn’t the most enlightening, both Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe used the experiment ideas as inspiration for writing.

3. A Remote-Controlled Bull

We’ve heard of a remote-controlled car, and maybe even a remote-controlled airplane, but a remote-controlled bull? While it seems completely impossible, Jose Delgado was able to entirely control a bull with the press of a button in 1963. In order to control the bull’s actions, a chip, known as a stimpceiver, was implanted into his brain and was controlled by the remote Delgado held. The remote was able to electrically stimulate different parts of the brain, which control different actions and behaviors.  To prove it a success, Delgado stood in a typical bull-fighting ring, and once the bull saw him, it began to charge, but with the press of the button, the bull immediately became uninterested and just walked away. Because of his experiment, scientists all over during the 1970s and even the 1980s did heavy research into electrical stimulation of the brain and attempted to find ways to control a person’s mind.
What’d We Learn
If you really want to control something or someone, just find an ethical way to implant a chip in their brain and voila. While it may seem crazy, there have been many studies recently regarding electrical brain stimulation, and researchers have been able to create remote-controlled anything, including sharks and pigeons.

2. LOL Just Kidding, You Aren’t Dying

If you’ve ever been in a near-death experience, you probably know just how scary it is. Well, imagine you were put into a near-death situation for experimental reasons. In the 1960s, the Army did just that. Ten soldiers were sent high into the sky on a training flight, one that would probably be the most stressful in their lives. During the flight, the main pilot told all ten soldiers that somehow the aircraft had become disabled and that the plane would need to crash into the ocean. As they were told that the plane was going down at some point, each soldier was given an insurance form to sign stating that the Army could not be held liable in court for any injury or death sustained during the training flight. In the end, the soldiers learned that the plane was fine and that they were going to live. The outcome of the experiment:  “The fear of imminent death indeed causes soldiers to make more mistakes than usual when filing in forms.”
What’d We Learn
Common sense isn’t so common, at least apparently not to those in the Army during the 1960s. Who in their right mind would assume anyone would be able to fill out something properly minutes before their death? Scientific purpose: none.

1. Dying Heartbeat

Sometimes people really make you wonder, and this scientific experiment does just that. On October 31, 1938, John Deering sat down and willingly put his life in the hands of another. He had volunteered to participate in an experiment that would kill him, and seemed to be okay with it due to the fact that he was due to be executed anyhow. The experiment was conducted by Stephen Besley. A prison guard put a black hood on Deering to cover his head and placed a target on his chest. The prison guard would be the one to fire the shot, but beforehand, an electrocardiogram was connected to Deering’s chest in order to read his hearts beats. Before being shot, his heart was racing at 120 beats per minute. Once he heard the okay to fire, his heart raced to 180 beats per minute. He was then shot 4 times, one bullet piercing the right side of his heart. According to the electrocardiogram, his heart went into a spastic rhythm for about 4 seconds and then 15.4 seconds later, his heart stopped.
What’d We Learn
A bullet to the heart kills you. Also that when you’re about to die with a gun aimed at your chest, you’re more than likely to be deathly (no pun intended) afraid. After the experiment, a press was given in which Dr. Besley said, “he put on a good front. The electrocardiograph film shows his bold demeanor hid the actual emotions pounding within him. He was scared to death.”

Worst Initiation Rituals

A brief look into getting accepted

Whether it’s a trendy venue with a six mile queue or a golf club that requires its members to wear all tweed, exclusive clubs have always tested the fanatical limits of would-be members. If you want to be one of the elite, chances are you’ll have to earn that privilege, in a nasty, self-respect destroying way. In an effort to prove this madness is real, Don’t Panic examines the worst and asks what you would do for a shiny membership card.

 

College hazing

 

One of the most commonly accepted rituals, with a recent survey revealing that more than half of American students had undergone some demeaning ritual. Most amount to a painful week of shame after eating a urinal cake or being molested by a pensioner, but it can get a lot more serious. Last year a student of Delhi medical college was killed after a fraternal beating turned nasty, while even more recently seven New England College boys were arrested in connection with severe branding ceremonies. As all students past and present secretly understand, it all gets a bit Lord of the Flies when Mum’s not around.

 

Navy

 

The Navy have a long prized method of turning young pups into hard bitten sea-dogs. The shellback initiation comes into effect whenever a ship crosses the equator, the cue for all newbies, or ‘pollywogs’, to regret having ever been born. The ceremony used to involve a savage beating and/or being thrown overboard, but in this liberal age the shellbacks have got more creative. These days, new sailors are forced to dress as women and crawl through the worst garbage the crew can find (plenty bad). The crowning glory comes when they are ‘interrogated’ by an experienced shellback, which involves licking liquid filth (uncooked eggs, fish guts) from their bellies. Variations include the golden shellback and royal diamond shellbacks, which take place at different equatorial locations.

Vanuatu land diving
Less demeaning but more scary than the last two. In accordance with the legend of the tribe’s founding father, who chased his wife-to-be up a tree before plunging to his death, any young man wishing to marry must endure a sacred land-dive. They leap from a purpose built platform with their feet bound to elasticated vines, in a ritual which pre-dates bungee jumping. The vines are measure to stop just as the man’s head touches the ground, allowing him to kiss the earth and gain it’s blessing for his marriage. However, this is hardly an exact science and many a groom has ended up too dead to make the wedding.

Hell’s Angels
Plenty of legends exist over this famous but inaccurately portrayed organisation, not least surrounding their entry test. Some ex-angels have alleged that new members must bring a ‘sheep’ (lady) willing to “cover the crowd” (have sex with everyone), but the veracity is disputed. More plausible and widely reported are cases of a member’s new uniform being smeared with communal excrement, which he is then obliged to wear for a week without washing. Though far from civilized, this makes the bikers slightly friendlier than some other gangs, such as the Roto Gang (witness a disemboweling), or the Triads (have to drink a bowl of their own blood).
Witchcraft
For initiation and each subsequent promotion, a witch must undergo a process of ‘scourging’ at the altar. She must recite an oath of allegiance to the four guardians of the earth, while she is anointed with the sacred oil. In days gone by she would then be beaten to the tune of forty strokes with a club, but in this modern, wimp-infested era this element is deemed unnecessary. There are more rituals for puberty, marriage etc. but these require less organisation.

Top 10 Deadly Diseases

The human body is capable of many amazing things, but its power can often end in the fatality of thousands. Check out the top 10 deadliest diseases and learn about their causes, symptoms and ways to avoid them!
10. Trachea, Bronchus, Lung Cancers
One wonders if our caveman ancestors were smoking nuts and berries, but for whatever reason, the use of nicotine products seems to be wired into the human genome. The more cigarettes you smoke per day and the earlier you started smoking, the greater your risk of lung cancer. But what is even scarier is that more than 3,000 non smoking adults will die each year from lung cancer caused by breathing in second hand smoke. It is the deadliest type of cancer for both men and women. Every year, more people die of lung cancer than breast, colon and prostate cancers combined. So put out those ciggys and step away from those who continue to puff away, because nothing good can come from either!

 

9. Malaria
Everyone despises being eaten alive by pesky mosquitoes in the summer, but you would be surprised how many of those annoying bugs could actually lead to our demise! Malaria is caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another through the bite of an infected mosquito. In humans, the parasites travel to the liver, where they mature. Once matured, they release another parasite that then enters the bloodstream and infects the red blood cells. The parasites multiply at a rapid speed, but symptoms could take up to one year to show. The disease is a major health problem in much of the tropics and subtropics. It is estimated that there are 300-500 million cases of malaria each year, and more than 1 million people die from the disease. It presents a major health hazard for travelers to warm climates — something definitely to be weary of when planning that once-in-a-lifetime trip to the rain forest.

 8. Tuberculosis
Mucous, fever, fatigue, excessive sweating and weight loss. What do they all have in common? They are symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis, or TB. TB is a contagious bacterial infection that involves the lungs, but it may spread to other organs. The symptoms of this disease can remain stagnant for years or affect the person right away. People at higher risk for contracting TB include the elderly, infants and those with weakened immune systems due to other diseases, such as AIDS or diabetes, or even individuals who have undergone chemotherapy. Being around others who may have TB, maintaining a poor diet or living in unsanitary conditions are all risk factors for contracting TB. In the United States, there are approximately 10 cases of TB per 100,000 people.
7. Diarrheal Diseases
It is never pleasant to have to excuse yourself during an important meeting to rush to the toilet or to spend much of your long-awaited trip to the beach in your hotel room because of diarrhea. Now just i magine if those embarrassing bowel movements caused your whole immune system to shut down! Diarrhea is defined as loose or watery stools that can last for a day or two. If it lasts for weeks or even months, diarrhea is considered a chronic disease. Diarrhea of any kind can cause dehydration, which means the body loses a lot of important fluids and electrolytes. People of all ages can get diarrhea; according to the National Institutes of Health, in the United States adults average one occurrence of severe diarrhea a year while children have an average of two episodes a year. So it seems that this unpleasant ailment is relatively common, but if left untreated, it can lead to severe dehydration … and even death!
6. Perinatal Conditions
Childbirth can be a magical moment between young parents and a newborn, but it can also tragically take a turn for the worse. Every year, about half a million women worldwide die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, including severe bleeding/hemorrhaging, infections, unsafe abortions, obstructed labor and eclampsia, and more than 90 percent of maternal deaths occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These perinatal complications can not only be fatal for mothers but for their young children as well, with medical conditions such as low birth weight contributing to more than one in five deaths in children. Of those deaths, more than 3 million infants die during the first week of life. Many of these deaths can be prevented, however! They are usually caused by a lack of nutrition and poor maternal health. I nadequate medical care during pregnancy and delivery can also result in perinatal conditions.
5. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is definitely a mouthful, but a mouthful of something nobody wants to taste. Commonly known as COPD, is it one of the most common forms of lung disease, and it makes it very difficult to breathe. There are two different forms. One is chronic bronchitis, which is defined by a long- term cough with mucous. The other is emphysema, which is the destruction of the lungs over time. Most people with COPD have a combination of both. Smoking is the leading cause of this disease, although some people smoke for years and seem to dodge the bullet! Other risk factors include exposure to gases or fumes in the work place as well as exposure to heavy second hand smoke. Bottom line, stay away from that nicotine!
4. HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS was first reported in the 1980s, and throughout the decades this chronic life-threatening medical condition has affected more and more humans. HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus, and it is one "bug" that we as a species can't seem to kick. HIV infection weakens the immune system to the point that it can't fight off anything anymore, and something as simple as the common cold can turn fatal. The virus attacks T cells and CD4 cells, both of which we need to fight off infection. HIV eventually fights off so many CD4 cells that the body cannot battle any infection or illness, at which point the person develops full-blown AIDS. AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency, is when your immune system is not working as it should. HIV/AIDs can be acquired through blood transfusions or the sharing of needles or bodily fluids.
3. Lower Respiratory Infections
We all need to breathe. It is one of the necessities of life. But if you suffer from a lower respiratory infection, breathing ain't a walk in the park. There are two types of lower respiratory infections, bronchitis and pneumonia. Some common symptoms of these infections are runny nose and sneezing, headache, and sore throat. Children are also susceptible to this disease. It can be difficult to diagnose lower respiratory infections properly, as they can be caused by either a virus or bacterial growth in the lungs.

2. Cerebrovascular Disease
Cerebrovascular disease is a fancy way of saying stroke. Either way, this disease is not pleasant. A stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain is interrupted because a blood vessel in the brain is blocked (ischemic stroke) or bursts open (hemorrhagic stroke). If blood flow is stopped for longer than a few seconds, the brain can't get blood and oxygen. Brain cells then die, causing permanent damage. When brain cells die, the body panics. High blood pressure is the No. 1 risk factor for a stroke — so keep that blood running smoothly and no one gets hurt!
1. Ischemic Heart Disease
When an organ is forgotten by the body, we are in trouble. With ischemic heart disease, that is exactly what happens. "Ischemic" means that an organ (such as the heart) is not getting enough blood and oxygen. When the arteries that bring blood and oxygen to the heart are blocked, it means you have ischemic heart disease — and a very big problem. If left untreated, t his disease can lead to heart failure and death. Ischemic Heart Disease affects 1 out of 100 people, often middle-aged to elderly males. But ladies, don't wipe your brow just yet, because it can affect you too! Risk factors include diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. The best thing you can do to prevent ischemic heart disease is take great care of yourself and make sure no organ is left behind!

Some World Records for you

 The largest drum set is comprised of 340 pieces, is owned by Dr Mark Temperato (USA) and was counted in Lakeville, New York, USA. Dr Mark Temperato is a member of the band called Jesus the Soul Solution. He transports the drum set in a custom-built trailer.

 The heaviest rideable bicycle weighs 750 kg (1650 lb) and was built by Wouter van den Bosch (Netherlands) and ridden in Arnhem, Netherlands.
  The tallest living dog is ‘Zeus’ (USA) a Great Dane, who measured 1.118 m (44 in) tall and is owned by Denise Doorlag and her family, of Otsego, Michigan, USA.Zeus also takes over the 'Tallest dog ever' title from previous holder 'Giant George'.
The tallest mohican measures 113.5 cm (44.68 in) and belongs to Kazuhiro Watanabe (Japan). The length was verified at Bloc de l'art hair salon, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.
 
  The oldest gymnast is Johanna Quaas (b 20 November 1925, Germany) who, at the age of 86 years, is a regular competitor in the amateur competition Landes-Seniorenspiele, staged in Saxony, Germany. She performed a floor-and-beam routine on the set of 'Lo Show dei Record' in Rome, Italy.

  The heaviest competing sportswoman living is sumo wrestler Sharran Alexander (UK) of London, UK, who weighs 203.21 kg (448 lbs).

The world's largest biceps belong to Mostafa Ismail (Egypt) and were measured for left arm flexed at 64.77 cm (25.5 in) and non-flexed 62.23 cm (24.5 in) and for right arm flexed at 63.5 cm (25 in) and non-flexed 60.96 cm (24 in). The measurements were taken in Franklin, Massachusetts, USA which is where Mostafa now resides.

100 Interesting Facts

1.Most soccer players run 7 miles in a game. 2.The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning its head are the rabbit and the parrot. 3.Whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound. 4.It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it. 5.When hippos are upset, their sweat turns red. 6.Every time you sneeze some of your brain cells die. 7.Your left lung is smaller than your right lung to make room for your heart. 8.Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day. 9.Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying. 10.The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren’t for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over. 11.Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs. 12.The world’s smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12. 13.In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives. 14.Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas once in a while. 15.Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays. 16.You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them. 17.111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 18.12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily. 19.123,000,000 cars are being driven down the U.S’s highways. 20.160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world’s widest road. 21.A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off. 22.A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate. 23.A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person. 24.A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. 25.A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours. 26.A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue. 27.A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can. 28.A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. 29.A pregnant goldfish is called a twit. 30.A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee. 31.A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. 32.A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove. 33.A whale’s penis is called a dork. 34.America once issued a 5-cent bill. 35.An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. 36.An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. 37.Bats always turn left when exiting a cave. 38.Ben and Jerry’s send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs love the stuff, except for one flavor: Mint Oreo. 39.Dolphins sleep with one eye open. 40.Hershey’s Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it’s kissing the conveyor belt. 41.If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. 42.If you toss a penny 10,000 times, it will not be heads 5,000 times, but more like 4,950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom. 43.In most advertisements, including newspapers, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10. 44.It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (Don’t try this at home!) 45.More Monopoly money is printed in a year, than real money printed throughout the world. 46.More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes. 47.More people use blue toothbrushes, than red ones. 48.Mosquitoes have teeth. 49.Most Americans’ car horns beep in the key of F. 50.Most cows give more milk when they listen to music. 51.Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin. 52.Most lipstick contains fish scales. 53.Over 1000 birds a year die from smashing into windows. 54.Owls are one of the only birds who can see the color blue. 55.The average person falls asleep in seven minutes. 56.The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year. 57.The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night. 58.The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing. 59.The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable. 60.The only nation whose name begins with an “A” but doesn’t end in an “A” is Afghanistan. 61.The “save” icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards. 62.There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. 63.There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball. 64.There are over 52.6 million dogs in the U.S. 65.There are more chickens than people in the world. 66.There are more plastic flamingos in America than real ones. 67.There are only four words in the English language which end in “-dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. 68.There are only thirteen blimps in the world. Nine of them are in the United States. 69.When snakes are born with two heads, they fight each other for food. 70.Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland. 71.You’re born with 300 bones, but when you get to be an adult, you only have 206. 72.You’re more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather. 73.Windmills always turn counter-clockwise. Except for the windmills in Ireland. 74.The sound of E.T. walking was made by someone squishing her hands in Jello. 75.The starfish is one of the only animals who can turn it’s stomach inside-out. 76.The state of Florida is bigger than England. 77.The name Wendy was made up for the book “Peter Pan.” 78.The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses. No one in Greece has memorized all 158 verses. 79.The Neanderthal’s brain was bigger than yours is. 80.The oldest known goldfish lived to 41 years of age. Its name was Fred. 81.The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. 82.The glue on Israeli postage stamps is certified kosher. 83.The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. 84.The housefly hums in the middle octave, key of F. 85.The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. 86.The katydid bug hears through holes in its hind legs. 87.The “L.L.” in L.L. Bean stands for Leon Leonwood. 88.The longest one-syllable word in the English language is “screeched.” 89.The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds. 90.The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural. 91.The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building. 92.The Boston University Bridge (on Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts) is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane. 93.The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra’s “Its A Wonderful Life”. 94.The condom – made originally of linen – was invented in the early 1500s. 95.The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. 96.The Earth weighs around 6,588,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons. 97.The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. 98.The electric chair was invented by a dentist. 99.The elephant is the only mammal that can’t jump. 100.The first Ford cars had Dodge engines.

Crazy World Facts You may not Know

Alaska – More than half the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Amazon – More than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen supply comes from the Amazon rainforest. Also, the Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that more than 100 miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon River is greater than the next 8 largest rivers in the world combined and 3 times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica – Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. 90 percent of the world’s ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents 70 percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice, Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil – Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Canada – Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ‘big village’.

Chicago – Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest population of Polish citizens on Earth.

Detroit – The first paved road anywhere in the United States was Woodward Ave. in Detroit.

Damascus – Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple thousands years before the city of Rome was founded in 753 BC, making Damascus the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

Istanbul – Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents – Europe and Asia.

Los Angeles – Los Angeles’ full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula.

New York – The term ‘The Big Apple’ was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930’s who used the slang expression ‘apple’ for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the ‘Big’ apple. Also, there are actually more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ohio – There are no natural lakes within the state of Ohio. Every one is man-made.

Pitcairn Island – The smallest island designated as a sovereign country is Pitcairn Island in Polynesia. It is 1.75 square miles (4.53 square km).

Rome – The first city on Earth to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome in 133 BC. Thanks to the vastness of Rome’s historic empire, there is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia – Siberia contains more than 25 percent of the world’s forests.

Sovereign Military Order of Malta – The smallest sovereign country in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area the size of two tennis courts and as of 2001, had a population of 80. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert – In the Sahara Desert, there is a town named Tidikelt, Algeria, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic. There has been no rainfall there for an estimated 2 million years.

Spain – Spain means, ‘the land of rabbits’.

St. Paul – St. Paul, Minnesota, was originally called Pig’s Eye after a man named Pierre ‘Pig’s Eye’ Parrant who set up the first business there.

Russia – The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia. It reaches a depth of 12,261 meters, or 7.62 miles. It was drilled for scientific research and revealed a giant deposit of hydrogen gas, so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.

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

The author of the above fun facts is unknown. The details were provided by a Whiteout Press subscriber. While we only verified a couple of the statistics, the few that we did check were completely accurate and true.

50 Random Facts That Make You Wonder What In The World Has Happened To America

 

Our world is changing at a pace that is so staggering these days that it can be really hard to fully grasp the significance of what we are witnessing.  Hopefully the collection of random facts below will help you to "connect the dots" just a little bit.  On one level, the facts below may not seem related.  However, what they all do have in common is that they show just how much the United States has fundamentally changed.  Do you ever just sit back and wonder what in the world has happened to America?  The truth is that the America that so many of us once loved so much has been shattered into a thousand pieces.  The "land of the free and the home of the brave" has been transformed into a socialized Big Brother nanny state that is oozing with corruption and has accumulated the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.  The greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen is falling apart before our very eyes, and even when our politicians actually try to do something right (which is quite rare) the end result is still a bunch of garbage.  For those who still love this land (and there are a lot of us) it is heartbreaking to watch America slowly die.
The following are 50 random facts that show just how dramatically America has changed....
#50) A new report released by the United Nations is publicly calling for the establishment of a world currency and none of the major news networks are even covering it.
#49) The state of California is so broke that Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered California State Controller John Chiang to reduce state worker pay for July to the federal minimum allowed by law -- $7.25 an hour for most state workers.
#48) A police officer in Oklahoma recently tasered an 86-year-old disabled grandma in her bed and stepped on her oxygen hose until she couldn't breathe because they considered her to be a "threat".
#47) In early 2009, U.S. net national savings as a percentage of GDP went negative for the first time since 1952, and it has continued its downward trend since then.
#46) Corexit 9500 is so incredibly toxic that the UK's Marine Management Organization has completely banned it, so if there was a major oil spill in the North Sea, BP would not be able to use it.  And yet BP has dumped over a million gallons of dispersants such as Corexit 9500 into the Gulf of Mexico.
#45) For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
#44) It has come out that one employee used a Federal Emergency Management Agency credit card to buy $4,318 in "Happy Birthday" gift cards.  Two other FEMA officials charged the cost of 360 golf umbrellas ($9,000) to the taxpayers.
#43) Researchers at the State University of New York at Buffalo received $389,000 from the U.S. government to pay 100 residents of Buffalo $45 each to record how much malt liquor they drink and how much pot they smoke each day.
#42) The average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen to an all-time high.
#41) The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#40) In the U.S., the average federal worker now earns about twice as much as the average worker in the private sector.
#39) Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers.  Today, each retiree's Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers.  By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
#38) According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
#37) The federal government actually has the gall to ask for online donations that will supposedly go towards paying off the national debt.
#36) The Cactus Bug Project at the University Of Florida was allocated $325,394 in economic stimulus funds to study the mating decisions of cactus bugs.
#35) A dinner cruise company in Chicago got nearly $1 million in economic stimulus funds to combat terrorism.
#34) It is being reported that a 6-year-old girl from Ohio is on the "no fly" list maintained by U.S. Homeland Security.
#33) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
#32) According to a new report, Americans spend twice as much as residents of other developed countries on healthcare, but get lower quality and far less efficiency.
#31) Some experts are warning that the cost of bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could reach as high as $1 trillion.
#30) The FDA has announced that the offspring of cloned animals could be in our food supply right now and that there is nothing that they can do about it.
#29) In May, sales of new homes in the United States dropped to the lowest level ever recorded.
#28) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive's paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1.  Since the year 2000, that ratio has ranged between 300 to 500 to one.
#27) Federal border officials recently said that Mexican drug cartels have not only set up shop on American soil, they are actually maintaining lookout bases in strategic locations in the hills of southern Arizona.
#26) The U.S. government has declared some parts of Arizona off limits to U.S. citizens because of the threat of violence from Mexican drug smugglers.
#25) According to the credit card repayment calculator, if you owe $6000 on a credit card with a 20 percent interest rate and only pay the minimum payment each time, it will take you 54 years to pay off that credit card.  During those 54 years you will pay $26,168 in interest rate charges in addition to the $6000 in principal that you are required to pay back.
#24) According to prepared testimony by Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, Goldman Sachs shorted roughly $615 million of the collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities the firm underwrote since late 2006.
#23) The six biggest banks in the United States now possess assets equivalent to 60 percent of America's gross national product.
#22) Four of the biggest U.S. banks (Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup) had a "perfect quarter" with zero days of trading losses during the first quarter of 2010.
#21) 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.
#20) BP has hired private security contractors to keep the American people away from oil cleanup sites and nobody seems to care.
#19) Barack Obama is calling for a "civilian expeditionary force" to be sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to help overburdened military troops build infrastructure.
#18) On June 18th, two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan and within 3 minutes 8 policemen surrounded them and placed them under arrest.
#17) It is being reported that sales of foreclosed homes in Florida made up nearly 40 percent of all home purchases in the first part of this year.
#16) During a recent interview with Larry King, former first lady Laura Bush revealed to the world that she is actually in favor of legalized gay marriage and a woman's "right" to abortion.
#15) Scientists at Columbia University are warning that the dose of radiation from the new full body security scanners going into airports all over the United States could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated.
#14) 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
#13) The FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.
#12) The judge that BP is pushing for to hear an estimated 200 lawsuits on the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster gets tens of thousands of dollars a year in oil royalties and is paid travel expenses to industry conferences.
#11) In recent years the U.S. government has spent $2.6 million tax dollars to study the drinking habits of Chinese prostitutes and $400,000 tax dollars to pay researchers to cruise six bars in Buenos Aires, Argentina to find out why gay men engage in risky sexual behavior when drunk.
#10) U.S. officials say that more than three billion dollars in cash (much of it aid money paid for by U.S. taxpayers) has been stolen by corrupt officials in Afghanistan and flown out of Kabul International Airport in recent years.
#9) According to a report by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the baggage check fees collected by U.S. airlines shot up 33% in the first quarter of 2010 to $769 million.
#8) Three California high school students are fighting for their right to show their American patriotism - even on a Mexican holiday - after they were forced to remove their American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.
#7) Right now, interest on the U.S. national debt and spending on entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare are somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 to 15 percent of GDP.  By 2080, they are projected to eat up approximately 50 percent of GDP.
#6) The total of all government, corporate and consumer debt in the United States is now about 360 percent of GDP.
#5) A 6-year-old girl was recently handcuffed and sent to a mental facility after throwing temper tantrums at her elementary school.
#4) In Florida, students have been arrested by police for things as simple as bringing a plastic butter knife to school, throwing an eraser, and drawing a picture of a gun.
#3) School officials in one town in Massachusetts are refusing to allow students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
#2) According to one new study, approximately 21 percent of children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010.
#1) Since 1973, more than 50 million babies have been murdered in abortion facilities across the United States.