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On 9th March 1945, American B-29 firebombs burned to death 83,793 Japanese civilians in a single night
Over 20% of the population of Koh Samui in Thailand are prostitutes
At his death, the Buddha told his disciples to follow no leader, but to follow his teachings. However, at the First Buddhist Council, Mahakasyapa was held by the sangha as their leader
RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving them a legal reason to invade
The BBC is currently banned in Zimbabwe, whose government has proscribed it as a terrorist organisation
The song "Uncle Fucka" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut was originally "Mother Fukka" but was changed to earn an R rating instead of an NC-17 rating
Places with amusing names include Fucking (Austria), Dildo (Canada), Condom (France), Intercourse (USA) and Wank (Germany)
The nations responsible for the most executions in 2006 were China (1010), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65), Sudan (65) and USA (53)
The Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den consists of 92 Chinese characters, all with the sound "shi" in different tones
Le Train de Nulle Part is a 233-page novel written without any verbs
Over 1000 children die of preventable diseases every hour
There is one PlayStation for every 60 people on Earth
EvolutionExplained.com redirects to ExploreChristianity.com
The 10 most common words used in Project Gutenberg's collection of over 20,000 books are: the, of, and, to, in, I, that, was, he & his
Pandas in Bangkok zoo were shown "panda porn" to encourage mating
Southwest Airlines was charged with racism after a flight attendent sung "Eeny meeny miny mo, Please sit down it's time to go"
Both the BBC and CNN reported that World Trade Center 7 had collapsed more than 20 minutes before it did
Andre Stander robbed 26 banks while working as police Captain of the robbery and homicide division in Johannesburg
In Levallois-Perret, Paris, over 25,000 people live in each square kilometer
35 million people live in Tokyo
Scientologists believe that 75 million years ago Xenu, ruler of the Galactic Confederacy,
brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs
In 1996 the Cult Awareness Network was taken over by the Church of Scientology
In 1997, 39 people committed suicide so that they could join Jesus on a spaceship hiding behind Comet Hale-Bopp
In the 1993 Waco Seige the U.S. government used tanks against its own citizens
Cartoon Network's [adult swim] temporarily changed its title to [Crappy 1980s Live Action Television Show Network] in response to a viewer complaint
Every year, humans add 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, over half of it coming from domestic activities
China plans to build a large, coal-fired power plant every week for the next seven years
1 million Indonesian sen is worth 1 US dollar and ten cents
In February 2002, the 12,000 year old Larsen B ice shelf, covering an area of 3,250km2 and 220m thick, collapsed into the sea
Between 1960 and 2000, Lake Chad shrunk from 26,000 km2 to 1,540 km2
In the Vietnam War, between 1 and 4 million Vietnamese civilians were killed
3% of the world population were killed in World War II
In 480 BC, 300 Spartans killed an estimated 20,000 Persian soldiers in three days
In 1991, the Protestant youth group Éclaireurs de France took their graffiti-scrubbing equipment into the Meyrieres Cave near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne carefully erased two 15,000-year-old paintings from the walls
The technology used to stop loitering by making an annoying sound that only teenagers can hear has been used to make a phone ringtone that cannot be heard by teachers
The oldest living organisms are bacteria that were re-animated after 250 million years trapped in salt crystals
The director of the film Blow, Ted Demme, died of a heart attack and cocaine was found in his bloodstream
111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 equals 12,345,678,987,654,321
The sentence "The quick fox jumps over a lazy brown dog" uses every letter in the English alphabet
Early explorers in Australia described creatures that had heads like deer without antlers, stood upright like men, leaped like frogs, and sometimes had two heads, one on top and another on the stomach
The shortfin mako shark can swim at over 31 mph
Sharks have the greatest electricity sensitivity of all animals which they use to detect the electric fields produced by all organisms
In South Africa, a group of great white sharks were seen working together to move a partially beached dead whale into deeper waters
Some species of swift sleep and mate whilst flying but are unable to take off from the ground
On 20th Febuary 2006 in Austria, David Irving was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for the speech crime of trivialising the Holocaust
London trades more US dollars than New York and more Euros than every other European city combined
Coca Cola still contains trace amounts of cocaine
Coca Cola is the biggest selling soft drink in every country except Peru (Inca Kola) and India (Pepsi)
76% of Egyptians had a negative attitude toward the United States in 2002, compared with 98% in 2006
1% of people in Jordan have favorable views of Jews
In 1964, a student cut down a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that was over 5000 years old, the oldest non-clonal organism known
Recently killed bowhead whales had spear points from the 1790's in their bodies
The Goliath Birdeater Spider has a leg span of 30cm
Quetzalcoatlus was a pterosaur with a 12m wingspan
In November 2001, Takako Konishi arrived in Fargo, North Dakota in search of the $1 million that was buried in the fictional film Fargo. She was found dead six days later.
One possible origin of Father Christmas is the flying shaman of Siberia. During the midwinter festival he would enter homes through the chimney, bringing with him a sack of magic mushrooms to give to the inhabitants.
Wielding a stungun and wearing the mask from V for Vendetta, Li Ao sprayed tear gas at the Taiwanese parliament in protest of the $16 billion purchase of US helicopters and rockets
Nike was the Greek goddess of victory
Titan Rain is the name given to a series of coordinated attacks on American computer systems that are believed to be the result of Chinese military hackers
1 in 3 people in Botswana are infected with HIV
After American Airlines Flight 11 had already hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center, Flight 77 deviated from its assigned course and switched its transponder off. The FAA did not contact NORAD for 30 minutes.
After deciding that American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked, over 17 minutes passed before the FAA contacted NORAD
The North American Aerospace Defence command (NORAD) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided incorrect information about the response to the 9/11 hijackings in testimony and media appearances
In the US there have been multiple cases of fetal abduction, the murder of a pregnant woman and theft of the fetus
A 14 year old boy conspired to have himself murdered by tricking his friend into stabbing him
Fertility doctor Cecil Jacobson fertilised 75 patients with his own sperm
In 1809, as revenge for flogging the son of Māori chief, most of the crew of the Boyd were killed and eaten
The food additive L-cysteine is usually made from human hair
Edward Gein made a number of household items and clothes from human corpses he had exhumed
655,000 Iraqis have died as a consequence of the invasion
The film Nil by Mouth uses the word "fuck" more than 3 times every minute
Brian Haw has been camping outside the Houses of Parliament since June 2001 in protest of UK foreign policy
In 1979, computers at North American Aerospace Defense Command's Cheyenne Mountain site, the Pentagon's National Military Command Center, and the Alternate National Military Command Center in Fort Ritchie, Maryland, all showed a massive Soviet nuclear strike aimed at the US. It was
later determined that a training tape had been accidentally inserted
into the computer running the nation's early-warning programs.
In 1980, a computer chip failure caused random numbers of attacking nuclear missiles to be displayed at US command posts
In 1983, Russian military mistook reflected sunlight for five US nuclear missiles but did not respond because "when people start a war, they don't start it with only five missiles"
In 1995, Russian military mistook a US rocket used to study atmospheric conditions as a nuclear warhead
In the UK, it is illegal to use abusive or insulting words within the hearing of a person likely to be caused alarm or distress
To overcome missile limitations, the US developed the MIRV, a collection of nuclear weapons carried on a single ballistic missile
Two British soldiers disguised as civillians were arrested by Iraqi police for killing a policeman. Aljazeera BBC CNN Washington Post Xinhua
One of the investors of Arbusto Energy, George W. Bush's oil and gas exploration company, was Salem bin Laden, half-brother and cousin of Osama bin Laden
Dick Cheney was was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Halliburton Energy Services and is still a major stockholder
Condoleezza Rice has served on the board of directors for the Chevron Corporation, and headed its committee on public policy
Donald Rumsfeld was on ABB's board of directors when it sold 2 nuclear reactors to North Korea
A World of Warcraft player killed another player (in real life) who had stolen his virtual sword
A four month-old girl suffocated to death while her parents were playing World of Warcraft
Iran has the third largest oil reserves in the world, almost a tenth of all the world's oil
The USA has 10,000 nuclear warheads
In the UK, there is one CCTV camera for every 15 people
The US & UK covertly overthrew the democratically-elected president of Iran to secure oil reserves
A Rubik's Cube can have 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different positions but can always be solved in less than 30 moves
Over 150,000 people will die today
Since 1968, 3227 American citizens have been killed by terrorists and over 2 million have been killed by themselves
Non-UK citizens can vote in the general elections if they are employed in the City of London (in central London)
A proportion of employees in the City of London (in central London) can vote twice in the general elections
Ozzie Ozborne bit off the head of a live dove during a meeting with his newly signed record company
George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany
Over 3% of the UK's House of Lords are bishops of the Church of England
The parliamentary representation of the City of London is one MP for 8,600 people compared with Cornwall's one MP for 103,500 people
In the US presidential elections, a Wyomingite's vote is over three times more effective than a Californian's
The USA pays over $5 million every day to the Israeli military
In the time it takes for England to lose a game of football over 2000 children have died of preventable diseases
174,000 cigarettes are smoked every second
4 babies are born every second
11% of the world's land is in Russia
The average American consumes over 28 gallons of oil each day
Over 7 million people in the United States are unemployed
Tony Blair's salary is £185,000 per year
The USA PATRIOT Act is an acronym of "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" Act
Between 1975 and 1979, 2 million Cambodians were killed out of a total population of around 7 million
By buying and selling goods to and from himself, Ray Woolley stole £38 million from the UK government in 6 months
8% of the world's oil is in Iraq
One sixth of all people that die are under 5 years old (Source: The World Health Report, 2003, The World Health Organization)
If the whole world had the current child mortality rate of Iceland, over 10 million child deaths would be prevented each year
In Botswana, 1 out of every 50 people die of AIDS every year
The average life expectancy in Mozambique is 32 years old
It costs 30 pence (50 cents) a day to protect someone from malaria which kills someone every 25 seconds (Source: The World Health Report, 2003, The World Health Organization)
In 1956, Marion King Hubbert predicted that world oil production would peak within "about half a century"
The United States have been at war every year since World War II
George Bush and John Kerry were both members of the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale
The US military fund films that portray them positively, such as Top Gun and Pearl Harbour
Vesna Vulović survived a fall of 33,000 feet in the tail section of an exploded plane
Al-Qaida, meaning "the database", was originally the list of soldiers who the CIA spent over $3 billion recruiting and training
One pencil can draw a line 35 miles long
Captain Fumio Nakahira, of the Japanese Imperial Army, was found still fighting the Second World War in 1974
1 in every 5 people live in China and 33 million Chinese people do not live in China
For 300 years, all the graphite for British pencils came from one small cave
Tiananmen means "Garden of Heavenly Peace" in Mandarin
The longest official German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Brian Harvey (East 17) ran over himself after eating too many baked potatoes
The most common last name in the world is Chang
Peperami are 49% fat
The United States government planned to commit acts of terrorism on their own soil in order
to generate public support for military action
In 2002,
Saparmurat Niyazov, president of
Turkmenistan, renamed bread after his mother
The motto on the US dollar bill translates as "God favours our undertakings, a new order of the ages"
The UK labor force consists of 1.5% agriculture, 19.1% industry and 79.5% services
Diet Coke contains 34% more caffeine than Coca Cola Classic
If you gave a single E. coli bacterium (and the offspring it then produces) a sufficient supply of food for three days, the resulting colony of bacteria would be ten thousand times the size of the Earth
In a group of 20 people, there is more than a 50% chance that two will have the same birthday
A googol is a 1 with a hundred zeroes after it. A googolplex is a 1 with a googol zeroes after it.
John Lennon claims that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was named after a picture drawn by his son
The Shamen's song Ebeneezer Goode (with the lyrics "E's are good! E's are good!") was number one in the UK during the BBC's drugs awareness week
Three World Trade Center towers were destroyed in Manhattan on 11th September 2001
The Simpsons are named after Matt Groening's family
An elephant pregnancy lasts 22 months
Over 64,000 people were forcibly sterilized under eugenic legislation in the United States between 1907 and 1963
The first concentration camps were operated by the British
Water can form distinct layers due to differences in temperature or salinity
The majority of fish have a swim bladder which is thought to have evolved from a lung
Around 70,000 years ago humans almost went extinct
Eight US citizens committed suicide by self-immolation (setting fire to themselves) in protest of the Vietnam conflict
The Holocaust killed a third of all Jews
The USA dropped more bombs in Vietnam than they did in World War II, 4.9 tonnes for every square kilometer of Vietnamese territory, 40kg for every Vietnamese person
Scientists have created a robot that can feed on flies
A CIA Station Chief estimates that a minimum of 6 million people were killed illegally by the US from 1940 to 1980
The British Royal Family changed their surname to Windsor from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha because of its German origin
Scientists have given a slime mould robotic legs that it can control
South Africa is the only country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
Isaac Hayes, who plays Chef, has left South Park after an episode mocked Scientology
Botos are the only dolphins to have hair as adults
Some food colourings are made from crushed insects
The human body contains over a billion miles of DNA
The goliath frog is 2 feet long and can jump 10 feet in a single bound
'Come Alive with th Pepsi Generation' was mistranslated into Mandarin as 'Pepsi brings your ancestors back from dead'
Nigeria, the world's most church-going nation, is the second most corrupt
Kiyoko Matsumoto's volcano suicide caused 300 children to do the same
Brazil nuts are radioactive
An SAS soldier has quit the British Army because of Coalition behaviour in Iraq
Coral is a colony of animals
The USA are the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons offensively. Over 90,000 civilians were killed
Saddam Hussein was given a key to the city of Detroit in 1980
Humpty Dumpty was a canon
We are more closely related to mushrooms than mushrooms are to plants
Arnold Schwarzenegger has had 2 motorcycle accidents in the USA and doesn't have a license
The Alaskan wood frog completely freezes for 2-3 months every winter
There are more molecules in a spoonfull of water than there are spoonfulls of water in the ocean
Coalition forces have killed over 23 000 infants (under 1 year old)
There is a 63% correlation between male suicide rates and coconut exports to the USA
Rats can't vomit or burp
