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Category: E

Earth

  • Earth is the densest planet in the solar system and the only one not named after a God
  • Earth is egg shaped
  • The Earth’s equater is actually growing fatter. Accelerated melting of Earth’s glaciers is taking the blame for the gain in equatorial girth. Reported in Aug. 2 issue of the journal Science
  • Earth gets heavier every year. Roughly 1000 tonnes of space dust land of its surface annually

earthquake

  • In the United States between 1975 – 1995, there were only four states without earthquakes: Florida, Iowa, North Dakota, Winconsin
  • Alaska is the most earthquake prone zone in the world
  • Earthquakes also occur on the moon (“moonquakes”)
  • The world’s deadlist earthquake was in central China in 1556, killing 830,000 people
  • On the Richter scale, 1.0 is equivalent to a construction site blast while 5.0 is equivalent to the Nagasaki atomic bomb. The Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 stood at 9.3

Easter

  • The first Easter baskets were made to imitate bird’s nests
  • The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians where the egg was a symbol of life
  • Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies
  • In medieval times a festival of egg-throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choir boys. It was then tossed from one choir boy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg
  • Painting eggs is called Pysanka
  • Americans celebrate Easter with a large Easter egg hunt on the White House Lawn
  • 76% of people prefer to eat the ears off the easter bunny chocolate first
  • The myth of the Easter Bunny, as he is currently portrayed today, actually dates back to an old German tale about a woman who used to decorate eggs and leave them for her children to find. This story was based in a time when a famine was plaguing the land; therefore the eggs were considered a valuable and surprising gift. It is reported that as her children found the eggs they saw a bunny rabbit hopping away. Naturally, the children thought the bunny had left the eggs for them
  • According to Bede, the English monastic historian, the English word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as “Eostremonath” in the AngloSaxon tongue and since Pascha was most often celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it “Easter”. Bede also notes that the month was named after the Anglo-Saxon goddess Esostre. Rituals related to the goddess Eostre focus on new beginnings, symbolized by the Easter egg, and fertility, which is symbolized by the hare (or Easter bunny)

echidna

  • The echidna share characteristics with many different creatures. They are part bird because they lay eggs, part mammal because they feed their young with milk, part reptile because their legs go out and then down like a lizard, and they lay eggs. They are also part marsupial because they have pouches for their young.
  • A baby echidna is called a puggle, and is smaller than a jellybean
  • Echidnas do not have nipples, so a puggle has to prod the skin inside the pouch and lick the milk that comes out

Edison, Thomas

  • Thomas Edison, lightbulb inventor, was afraid of the dark
  • He also helped create the electric chair
  • The first words that Thomas A. Edison spoke into the phonograph were, “Mary had a little lamb.”
  • The first sound recording was recently discovered to be made 17 years before Edison’s phonograph. It was recorded by French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville who recorded it visually on smoked paper

egg

  • Because of an egg’s structure, you won’t be able to break it by squeezing the ends of an egg with your thumb and finger. Thats why people use the design so often for building arches, gutters, drain pipes, and even when God created the skull. Makes sense doesn’t it? Thanx J Kennedy
  • An egg will float if placed in water in which sugar has been added

Egypt

  • Egyptians used to wear distinctive eye make-up made of lead which were able to boost the immune system
  • In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes
  • The heart was the only organ of the body that was not removed while mummifying, because they believed that after you died, it was your heart that was weighed against a feather to reveal your character
  • A Pharaoh would have slaves stand naked in honey to keep the flies away
  • Egyptians were the first to use anesthesia and the first to set broken bones. They invented the potter’s wheel, the scissors, toothpaste, the key, clock, metal pipes and even the calendar
  • For contraceptives they used crocodile dung
  • Some people killed themselves with an asp because it was believed that those who died from a snakebite would receive immortality

Eiffel tower

  • There are 1792 steps in the Eiffel tower

Einstein, Albert

  • After Albert Einstein died, his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study
  • Albert Einstein was offered the presidency of Israel in 1952 (73 years old), but he declined
  • Einstein often needed the help of mathematicians to recheck his calculations
  • Einstein disliked wearing socks, and after the death of his 2nd wife would wear sandals
  • Einstein said that the hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax

electric chair

  • The electric chair was first thought up by a dentist and was later commissioned to be built by Thomas Edison