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Abdul Kassam Ismael
  • Abdul Kassam Ismael, Grand Vizier of Persia in the tenth century, carried his library with him wherever he went. Four hundred camels carried the 117,000 volumes.

advertisement
  • Some 30 sec adverts shown during the American NFL Superbowl cost more than full length feature films
  • Some advertisements have funny translations in Chinese:
  • A&W’s “That frosty mug sensation” became “Feel like your face is frozen”
  • American Express’ “Don’t leave home without it” became “Stay home with it”
  • Budweiser’s “When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all” became “After Budweiser, you will not be able to speak”
  • Camel’s “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” translated as “A camel asked me to walk two kilometers”
  • KFC’s “Finger Licking Good” became “Tastes like human fingers”
  • Nike’s “Just do it” translates as “Have Sex!”
  • and finally, Wheaties’ “Breakfast of Champions” is “Breakfast of Mao”

air
  • The weight of air in a milk glass is about the same as the weight of one aspirin. (But one also wonders how big a milk glass is… anyone?)
  • There is air in space, but very little of it. In fact, it is equivalent to a marble in a box 5 miles wide. Most of the gas is captured by the gravitational pull of other celestial bodies.Thanx M.Lerner

air conditioning
  • In Iraq, the US spends more in air conditioning ($20 billion) than NASA does in an entire year ($19 billion)

airplane
  • The first United States coast to coast airplane flight occurred in 1911 and took 49 days
  • When airplanes were still a novel invention, seat belts for pilots were installed only after the consequence of their absence was observed to be fatal – several pilots fell to their deaths while flying upside down
  • An airplane’s “blackbox”‘ is a device which records conditions and events on an air vessel. A “blackbox” is actually orange in color to make it more visible in the wreckage. The term black box might come from its charred appearance after an air crash
  • A 747-400 has six million parts (half of which are fasteners) made in 33 different countries
  • Seventy-five thousand engineering drawings were used to produce the first 747
  • The outer skin of an aeroplane is only 5 mm thick. Only 7.5 in (19 cm) separate the passengers from the outside
  • During takeoff, when full of high pressure air, the takeoff weight is increased by about a ton

Al Gore
  • Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones were once roommates. Thanx Rebecca

alarm clocks
  • Apparently 1/3 of people with alarm clocks hit the ‘snooze’ button every morning, and in the 25-34 age group, it is over half. (Are you 1 of them?)

alcohol
  • New research says that a glass of alcohol a day increases your risk of colon cancer by 10% (International Journal of Cancer)

aluminium
  • A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days.
  • Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours
  • An aluminium can will outlive over 10 generations
  • We use over 80,000,000,000 aluminum soda cans every year.
  • At one time, aluminum was more valuable than gold
  • In a year, recycling steel saves enough energy to light up 18,000,000 homes

Americans
  • On average, Americans spend about 6 months of their lives waiting at red traffic lights
  • Everyday, almost 1 in 2 Americans are on a diet


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