• Due to the growing problem among their upper-class citizens, Singapore recently outlawed the use of LASIK or other eye-altering procedures to degrade one's eyesight enough to avoid compulsory military service.
• Nearly one-third of teenagers whose families are on one or more government assistance programs own an iPod.
• The Software Publishing Association estimates that on average the chance of a software patch causing crashes or serious compatibility problems is seven times greater than the likelihood of running into the bug or security issue which the patch was intended to fix.
• Every year an average person will unknowingly consume roughly one ounce of feces.
• While not considered a country, Antarctica had the highest mortality rate in the world in 2003. This was due to a single death among the small permanent population.
• Every minute, the human brain processes about 17GB of visual input, 5GB of audio input 20MB of tactile input, 350kB of olfactory input, and 100 kB of gustatory input.
• Walter Chalmers, who died in 1982, fluently spoke 68 different languages, more than anyone else in recorded history.
A tourist from New York City unsuccessfully attempted to plead not guilty recently to a murder he committed in Las Vegas, citing the advertising slogan: "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" as his defense.
Only 7 percent of Americans pronounce the second 's' in the word 'asterisk'.
• The strongest earthquake in recorded history took place in 241 BC off the coast of China. It is estimated to have been at least magnitude 9.4.
• Kites were invented as a siege weapon, but were relatively ineffective. It was another 30 years before they were first made as toys.
• There have been 572 attempts to patent the wheel in the United States. Seven of these were granted, but revoked when they were challenged in court.
The 12 layers on the pyramid of a one dollar bill were intended to signify the twelve apostles.
• The laser in a CD burner is powerful enough to ignite paper.
• Several species of chimpanzee determine group leadership by a nonviolent majority vote.
• The longest golf drive on record was 532 yards.
The former game giant Sega takes its name from a variation of the Japanese word for "onion."
• Bottle caps cost more to make than most bottles.
• The average television remote control emits every type of electromagnetic radiation except visible light.
One in five Harvard graduates will be a millionaire before they turn 35.
• At its present rate of depletion, it would take 210 years to cut down five percent of the Amazon forest.
• The man with the world's largest hands can reach 18 inches from the tip of his thumb to the tip of his pinky.
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