Amazing but it is true:

µ Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

µ The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

µ The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.

µ You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

µ Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.

µ Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

µ The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver.

µ The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.

µ A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.

µ The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.

µ The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.

µ King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

µ Because printed materials are being replaced by CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet, libraries that previously sank into their foundations under the weight of their books are now in danger of collapsing in extremely high winds.

µ In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.

µ Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and # when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.

µ Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

µ Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.

µ Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.

µ Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels.

µ You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.

µ To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.

µ Seven out of every ten hockey-playing Canadians will lose a tooth during a game. For Canadians who don't play hockey, that figure drops to five out of ten.

µ A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.

µ A team of University of Virginia researchers released a study promoting the practice of picking one's nose, claiming that the health benefits of keeping nasal passages free from infectious blockages far outweigh the negative social connotations.

µ Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

µ Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.

µ At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

µ Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas.

µ If you put a bee in a film canister for two hours, it will go blind and leave behind its weight in honey.

µ Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms.

µ Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.

µ Centuries ago, purchasing real estate often required having one or more limbs amputated in order to prevent the purchaser from running away to avoid repayment of the loan. Hence an expensive purchase was said to cost "an arm and a leg."

µ When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.

µ Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only during summer months.

µ Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today.

µ If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.

µ When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.

µ In WWII the US military planned to airdrop over France propaganda in the form of Playboy magazine, with coded messages hidden in the models' turn-ons and turn-offs. The plan was scrapped because of a staple shortage due to rationing of metal.

µ Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

µ Napoleon's favorite type of wood was knotty chestnut.

µ The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.

µ Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.

µ In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

µ It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.

µ The "nine lives" attributed to cats is probably due to their having nine primary whiskers.

µ The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.

µ The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry.