Some More Interesting Facts !

Continuing with some more amazing facts, collected from the net. Enjoy !

• In France, Christmas is called Noel.

• It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred clockwise.

• Christmas trees are grown much like any other agricultural crop. About 112,000 acres in the northwest United States are planted with about 11 million trees.

• Roulette was invented by French mathematician Blaise Pascal. The popular game of chance was a byproduct of his experiments with perpetual motion.

• "Hybristophilia" is arousal derived by having sex with people who have committed crimes.

• According to international definition, fog occurs when visibility is 600 feet (200m) or less.

• The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.

• The blueprints for the Eiffel Tower covered more than 14,000 square feet of drafting paper.

• The little hole in the sink that lets the water drain out, instead of flowing over the side, is called a porcelator.

• The nest in which spiders or other insects deposit their eggs is called a ‘nidus’

• The word "toast," meaning a wish of good health, started in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine.

• Joseph Priestley, the English chemist, invented carbonated water. It was a by-product of his investigations into the chemistry of air.

* In 1935, Jesse Owens set six track and field world records in less than one hour.

• The metal part of a lamp that surrounds the bulb and supports the shade is called a harp.

• Guinness is considered an aphrodisiac in some African countries, and is marketed under the slogan "a baby in every bottle."

• In ancient Egypt, the only person who was allowed to wear cotton was the High Priest.

• During World War II, Russians used dogs strapped with explosives to blow up German tanks. They trained the dogs to associate the tanks with food and ended up destroying about 25 German tanks using this method.

• The distance between an alligator's eyes, in inches, is directly proportional to the length of the alligator, in feet.

• A chemical (isothiocyanates) found in cabbages may lower the risk of lung cancer in smokers by as much as 38%.

• In fourth century Sparta, in Greece, males 20 years of age and over were required by law to eat 2 pounds of meat a day. It was believed to make one brave.

• The origins of the soldier term "G.I." is an abbreviation for "Government Issue," which was stamped on all government kits supplied to recruits in the US Army during World War II.

• In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. Thus the origin of the phrase “to wear your heart on your sleeve.”

• Limousines originally got their name because they were first built in the Limousin region of France.

• The reason most mosquito bites itch is because mosquitoes inject saliva into the persons skin before they suck your blood. They take it out once they are done, but if they are forced to fly away, they don't get a chance to draw the saliva out. And it is their saliva that causes the itch.

• Rattlesnakes gather in groups to sleep through the winter. Sometimes up to 1,000 of them will coil up together to keep warm.