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US debt
  • If the US debt was piled up in dollar notes, they would overshadow a skyscraper twice the height of the empire state building
  • To pay off the US debt of $12 trillion dollars, every person in America will need to come up with $40,000
  • Increasing the debt ceiling to 14.3 trillion means another $6000 from every person
  • In 1791, The US owed $75 million dollars. Today, that would only take them 1 hour to accure

bank
  • In the early days, temples were used as banks and the first loans were taken out against rice
  • Just before the US started bombing Baghdad, nearly $1 billion dollars was stolen from the Central Bank of Iraq and is now the largest bank robbery in history
  • The Bank of America on Disneyland’s Main Street was in fact a functioning bank (for Cast Members) until the late ’70′s. It was also  the only bank in America that was open on Sunday.
  • The Bank of America was originally called The Bank of Italy
  • In 2010, the Bank of America was the 3rd largest company in the world
  • In 2007, the top five hold $6,775,079,249,000.00 in assets. That’s six trillion dollars!
  • In Papua New Guinea, people can enter a bank just wearing a penis sheath (koteka)

salt
  • Roman soldiers were once paid in salt coins
  • The word ‘salary’ actually comes from the root word of salt
  • The word ‘salad’ also originated from the word salt. Thats an ironic fact
  • The bible refers to salt 30 times
  • In 1933,the Dalai Lama was burried atop a bed of salt

Gates, Bill
  • Bill Gates’ house was designed using a Macintosh computer
  • Bill Gate had a SAT score of 1590. The top score for the test is 1600
  • Bill Gates earns $250 every second; that’s about $20 million a day and $7.8 billion a year
  • By the age of 17, Gates had sold his first computer program, a time-tabling system for his high school, for $4,200

James Bond 007
  • James Bond Casino Royale is actually based on Ian Flemming’s first Bond novel
  • There have been seven American Bond Girls, four English , three French, two Swedish and one each from Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland , Italy, and Poland
  • Bond was born in Germany
  • Roger Moore was the oldest Bond actor at 58
  • The Bond franchise has raked in almost $4 billion dollars
  • Sean Connery’s wife doubled for actress Mie Hama in a water-dive scene for You Only Live Twice

war
  • The longest civil war is fought in Myanmar which has been in strife since 1948 – present
  • The longest ongoing war (not civil) is between Isreal and Palastine which started in 1947
  • The longest war in history goes to the incorrectly named 100-year-war between Britain and Frace which went on for 116 years
  • The shortest war took place in 1896 when Zanzibar surrendered to Britain after 38 minutes
  • Chevy Chase was a battle that took place on the english-Scottish border in 1388
  • Global spending on defence total more than $700 billion. Global spending on education is less than $100 billion

prisons
  • The United States has more than double the prison population of any other country. (Over 2.9 million people)
  • The Faroe Islands has a prison population of 9 inmates. This is because they ship most of them to Denmark, which is much like how England shipped inmates to Australia
  • In Abu Ghraib, only 3-5% of detainees were caught by the USA. The other 95% were handed in by foreigners for monetary rewards

wealth
  • The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations

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”

money
  • Scientists in Dublin have found traces of cocaine on 100% of the Irish banknotes they tested
  • If you have 3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies, you have $1.19. You also have the largest amount of money in coins without being able to make change for a dollar
  • The numbers ’172′ can be found on the back of the U.S. $5 dollar bill in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial
  • On the old Canadian 2 dollar bill,the flag flying over the Parliament Building is NOT an American flag.Thanx Doug B. and Dwain


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