Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people. A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off until it dies from starvation. The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is over 9000 years old. One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue. In Tokyo, they sell toupees for dogs. Some lions mate over 50 times a day. The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people.

------------ Trapped Miners Eat Coal To Survive ------------ Four Chinese miners showed remarkable endurance and ironclad stomachs by surviving on a diet of coal and leaves when a landslide trapped them underground for 13 days. 33-year-old Wang Bo, a former soldier, took control of the situation and organized his colleagues to save water and start digging their way out. The four were eventually reduced to eating coal, but the trick seemed to work, because after seven days underground, they could hear rescuers digging down. Finally, on August 24, Wang and his colleagues saw the light of day.

A full-grown elephant weighs LESS than the tongue of a Blue Whale...

After all that 'elephant ears' talk in spring ark ....this IS a surprising fact.

Never thought of the connection when I posted the above tongue trivia. Hmmm. Gonna have to check with the only Spanish Pachyderm known in my world.

Go to link below for story on blood fossils ....lost heart trying to transfer it in here... sorry, you'll just have to go and look .... http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/cultures/29.14

"Spam" stands for Shoulder Pork and hAM. The concept of "escape velocity" applies only to unpowered projectiles, not powered rockets. Maryland has 47 operational State parks, including 7 parks with waterfront areas, covering 90,239 acres The first Band-Aid brand adhesive bandages were 3" wide and 18" long. You made your own bandage by cutting off as much as you needed. P.J. Tierney, developer of the modern diner, died of indigestion in 1917...after eating at a diner. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for most receiving touchdowns in a single season: 22 In 1995, the CN Tower was classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The average cost to take a family of four to an NBA game in 1999 was $266.61, based on two adult tickets, two children's ticket, four soft drinks, four hot dogs, parking, two game programs, and two souvenir caps. 100 years ago, Coca-Cola contained cocaine instead of caffeine.

Spectacular Solar Eruption on Sept 12, 2000 Space Weather News for Sept 12, 2000 http://www.spaceweather.com On Tuesday, Sept. 12, less than 24 hours after the sunspot number plunged to its lowest value of the year, the Sun unleashed a surprising full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME). The leading edge of the CME could reach Earth on Thursday, Sept 14. Forecasters estimate a 30% chance of severe geomagnetic disturbances (possibly including aurora) at middle latitudes when the shock front arrives. For more information and images, please visit http://spaceweather.com

A hockey puck weighs 0.38 pounds. In an average lifetime, the average human will produce in excess of 6,250 gallons of saliva (that's spit for those of you in Arkansas). Tuna fish swim at an average speed of 9 miles per hour. They also never stop moving. According to Metropolitan Life Insurance, major league baseball players live significantly longer than the average male - especially if you are a third baseman. The US state of Alaska's coastline is longer than that of all the US coastal states combined.

The Library of Congress houses 30 million books. Babe Ruth never had a losing season...as a pitcher! IBM will capture 4,700,000,000,000 bytes of information at the 2000 Olympics -- almost 1 byte (character) for every person on the planet. On average, we send 38 Christmas cards every year. Wayne Gretzky holds the record for most goals by a center in a season: 92 The average length of a domain name is 11 characters. The US now imprisons more people than any other country. London - A plane carrying 55 passengers circled an airport in western Scotland while an air traffic controller had lunch. The officials at the airport on the island of Benbecula in the Western Isles of Scotland apologized for the incident. They said there was just one controller at Benbecula, and she had to take a lunch break because national air traffic rules forbid any controller from working more than two hours without one. It finally touched down 55 minutes late after the controller returned to her radar screen. The water in most underground layers is salty. Layers containing fresh water are most likely to be found within a few hundred feet of the surface. At depth, fresh water is the exception.

A domestic cat has eighteen claws: fice on each of its front paws and four on each of its back paws. The tip of a whip makes a cracking sound because it is moving faster than the speed of sound. An ear of corn almost always has an even number of rows (twelve, fourteen, or sixteen). Earthworms have five hearts. The cat is the only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible.

Why do cats have dew claws? Are they like feline thumbs?

90% of all volcanic activity occurs in the oceans.

DISCOVERY DISPATCH FOR 9/15/2000 ----------------------------------------------------------- ================ IN THE SPOTLIGHT ================ THE OLYMPICS SHOWCASE Olympic Science Get the scoop on scientific advances that are helping world-class athletes shatter records at an astounding pace, including a few tricks that swimmers have learned from sharks. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S It's the Animal Olympics! The best athletes in the animal kingdom are squaring off against each other. You're the judge. Here are the matchups: Whale vs. Starfish vs. Anglerfish http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Gila Monster vs. Desert Lynx vs. Wind Scorpion http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Horseshoe Bat vs. Turkey Vulture vs. Aardvark http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Archerfish vs. Grebe vs. Crocodile http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bird-Eating Spider vs. Fer-de-Lance vs. Arrow-Poison Frog http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Shrike vs. Woodpecker vs. Dove http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=73468&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DISCOVER OUR NEW CAM UNIVERSE Exploring your world has never been easier. We've added over 100 new live cams, including real-time views of an asteroid, ferrets and a college dining hall. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pictures of the Day We're in Taiwan all this month, with some of the most vivid images you'll ever see. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=12&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Or maybe you missed some of our previous Picture of the Day road trips to: Paris http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bimini http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The Great Lakes http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Turkey and Greece http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=9&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Japan http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=10&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Tasmania http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=11&c=74091&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ============= MAIN FEATURES ============= PIGS FLY! (AND OTHER ANIMAL ADVENTURES) Revenge of the Escargot Can you imagine being done in by a killer snail? Would it be a slow death? Would your family try to cover it up by saying you met your end in "another senseless wildlife accident"? So many questions, some of which we can answer. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S What's the strangest creature you've ever seen? Well, we think we can match your experience with the peculiar sea creatures we've run into on our expedition to study coral in the Bahamas. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Pigs Fly! ... in the face of medical convention, that is. A new surgical technique using pig intestines is rewriting the book on animal-to-human transplantation. Among the many questions raised is: Why pigs? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Starting Sunday: Ask the Experts About Ticks! Outdoors people don't fear bears. Or mountain lions. Or wolves. But they quake in terror at the prospect of confronting the tiny, and sometimes lethal, tick. Our experts are here through Sept. 23 to fill you in on these creatures. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74138&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S SUCCESS IN SCHOOL ... PSSSST, HERE'S THE SECRET Maybe you haven't been the most ebullient student in the past. Well, there's no time like the present to change all that. Create a new image. Show those hand-raising, answer-knowing, down-their-nose-looking smart kids in your class that you're in on their secret. Let Webmath, A-to-Z Science and Brain Boosters be the advantage you've been looking for. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Gluing golf balls, oranges and basketballs on sticks and calling it the solar system just doesn't cut it anymore. Science Fair Central will take you to astronomical levels on your next project. And we're ready to announce the 40 finalists in the Discovery Young Scientist Challenge, too. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=74160&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S MEET YOUR FAVORITE TV PERSONALITIES You're at "Crocodile Hunter" Headquarters Steve Irwin is not your ordinary, mild-mannered animal expert. Join his discussion groups, learn his lingo in our Aussie glossary and check out his latest video ... the "Crocodile Rap!" http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Watch "Crocodile Hunter" Any Time You Want Shocking, wild and chock-full of crocodiles, alligators, pythons, wild pigs and other beasts! Visit the Discovery Store if you can't get enough of TV's most incredible animal expert. You'll find a great selection of videos with all of Steve Irwin's exciting adventures. Get close ... REALLY close ... to some snapping, sharp-toothed creatures! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Laugh and Learn With Christopher Lowell Shine a little light into your living space (and your life) with the design inspiration that can only come from Christopher, then check out the incredible work that his fans accomplished when they discovered, "You can do it!" http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Bring Christopher Lowell's Tips and Tricks Right Into Your Home Think you're not creative? Then visit the Discovery Store where you'll find Christopher's new book, "Christopher Lowell's Seven Layers of Design." Learn secrets for transforming your home into a personal oasis, and discover how easy it is to decorate your rooms with creativity and flair. You'll be painting, pasting and pleating in no time! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Lynette Jennings, Simply Extraordinary We have background information on your favorite design-and-decor diva, along with her personal-appearance schedule and the showcase of America's most beautiful homes. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=8&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=9&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Inside Information for "Home Matters" Fans! We can tell you everything you've always wanted to know about Susan Powell, not to mention the scoop on field correspondent, Chris McWatt. (Sorry ... guess we did mention it, didn't we?) http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=10&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=11&c=74194&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S GOOD HEALTH: YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN Abs-olute Power! How do they get those six-pack abs? Join world class athletes like Mia Hamm for an interactive lesson in motivation and fitness. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74236&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Dinner With "The Jetsons" Intergalactic goulash, black hole peas and planetary pudding. In the year 2120, what kind of food will keep your space colony healthy? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74236&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S The School Lunch Crunch With lunch periods across the country squeezed to just five to 10 minutes, kids barely have time to eat. Many of them forgo the noontime meal completely, leaving them in a nutritional deficit. We have expert tips on helping your kids beat the lunchtime crunch. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=74236&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S DINOSAUR CORNER Did you ever wonder what a dinosaur sounded like? So did we. Here's what the top dinosaur experts told us. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74252&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S And there are brand-new theories on how dinosaurs moved, too! http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74252&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S THE NEWS FROM SPACE Black Holes: One Size Does Not Fit All. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=74254&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S New Section of Space Station Is Ready for Occupancy. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=74254&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S ======================= INTERACTIVE MINDERS ======================= **Discovery's Tools** Send an E-Card http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Get your Health I.Q? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Build a Roller Coaster http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Search the Night Sky http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Create a Hurricane http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=6&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Watch the Growth of a Baby http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=7&c=73297&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S *****Can't Miss TV This Week***** Travel Channel, Sunday, Travel Channel Presents A three-hour marine marathon, featuring Niagara Falls, the Mississippi River and the world's most dangerous port. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=1&c=73306&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Animal Planet, Monday, Jack London's Call of the Wild What happens when the unsinkable Molly Brown blows into town? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=2&c=73306&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Discovery Channel, Tuesday, On the Inside: Family Plots The more people involved in a murder, the more likely all will be caught. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=3&c=73306&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S Discovery Health, Wednesday, Bodies on Ice Cold can kill, but might it also be the key to immortality? http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=4&c=73306&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S TLC, Thursday, The Ultimate 10 Dangerous JobsSome you'd guess (like skyscraper construction). Others may surprise you. http://ww9.lfmn.com/actv/sr2.asp?u=1002755137&v=6117&url=5&c=73306&pr=404&cf=1&pa=41&e=S

Mauna Kea may get extremely large scope Mauna Kea may be considered for a telescope with 10 times the light-collecting area of the world's largest optical telescopes, already atop the Big Island mountain. University of California and California Institute of Technology researchers who developed the 10-meter Keck telescopes have proposed building a 30-meter California Extremely Large Telescope (CELT). Almost routine discoveries have been coming out of the twin Kecks. CELT's mirror would allow astronomers to look deeper into the universe with more detail. "It means you can study fainter, more distant objects in the same vein of many observations at Keck, but you can do them better," said Jerry Nelson, University of California-Santa Cruz professor of astronomy and astrophysics who heads the telescope design working group. Mauna Kea and several sites in Chile have been mentioned for the CELT, which project leaders hope to build in 10 to 15 years. Joseph Miller, director of UC Observatories/Lick Observatory, estimated the cost at about $500 million. "We're working on the conceptual design but we don't have money in the bank so anything could happen two years from now," Nelson said in a telephone interview. "People could say, 'Whatever happened to CELT?' It's not a sure thing but we have strong support at the highest level of academic institutions." The master plan for Mauna Kea anticipated such a telescope, according to Robert McLaren, interim director of the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. In the plan, it's called "Next Generation Large Telescope," describing the class of telescopes CELT falls into -- bigger than a 25-meter aperture, McLaren said. But while the plan foresees a telescope like CELT, such a project "would have to be fully reviewed, assessed and approved," he said. As a one-time Hawaii resident, Nelson said he'd like to see the new telescope go to Mauna Kea. "But for a project like this, you have to look for the best site for scientific and technical reasons, as well as fold in political things." A couple of sites in Mauna Kea's summit area might be suitable for a telescope as massive as the CELT, he said. "Nonetheless, one must be sensitive to the political issues in Hawaii about developing the summit of Mauna Kea," he said. If that site is chosen, Nelson said, project leaders would work with the community to address concerns and "not steamroll" over them. Since the Keck telescopes are owned and operated by UC and Caltech, which CELT would be as well, Nelson thinks "there would be a very strong connection. I could envision the same headquarters in Waimea." Because of the high maintenance costs of such facilities, however, the universities might end up selling or trading off part of Keck to support CELT, Nelson said. "It's all highly speculative as to what would happen in 10 years," he said. McLaren said there is a trend to give the national astronomy community more access to large telescopes, mostly in private hands, in return for more federal support. "In the case of Keck, it's unlikely that would happen real soon," he said, noting NASA is a partner in the telescope operation. Nelson said CELT leaders probably will start thinking seriously about sites in a year and aim for a decision in about four years. With CELT and adaptive optics, astronomers should be able to study galaxies and other distant things with better angular resolution than the Hubble Telescope, he said. "You really win bigger by a bigger telescope, with more light sensitivity and better resolution, sharper. We will learn more about what's happening at the distant edge of the universe." CELT also will be powerful in exploring star-forming regions and planet formation, Nelson said. "It has a lot of potential. Our (astronomy) communities are really excited about this. "Experience has shown when you're building new facilities like this, the most exciting stuff that comes out of it you haven't anticipated at all -- things you just didn't even know."

Stuff about things having nothing whatsoever to do with this conference.... A jumbo jet is 16 times more fuel efficient than a Concorde. So, just how good was that 6-iron from 218 yards that Tiger Woods hit from a fairway bunker, over water and right at the flag, to win the Canadian Open? The Toronto Sun asked three area professionals to go to the 18th at Glen Abbey on Monday and try it. None came closer than Woods' shot, which landed 18 feet behind the flag in the first cut of rough. Ashley Chinner, who tied for 13th in 1998 Canadian Open, hit the green three times with a 6-iron. His best shot was to 30 feet from the fringe. Chris Neale, golf director at Glen Abbey, got one of his seven shots on the green with a 4-iron. Tom Jackson, who played the Canadian Tour for 12 years, hit the green three times with a 5-iron, the closest one 40 feet away. "The remarkable thing is that Tiger did it with so much on the line," said Chinner, who also works as a teaching pro. "I think everyone knows he can pull that shot off. But under that situation, it was incredible. He worked the distance out perfectly so he took as much of the risk out as possible." http://espn.go.com/golfonline/tours/s/2000/0912/738970.html In response to changes in sea temperature, humpback whales adapt their calls so they can be heard by other humpbacks over the longest possible distance. 64% of Detroit, Michigan residents own a mobile phone. London - Stephen Brain, 30, won the holiday cheeserolling race in western England. Racers chase 8-pound double Gloucester cheese down a steep 300-yard course at Cooper's Hill near Gloucester. The first racer to finish behind the fast-rolling cheese gets to keep it. The races were canceled in 1998 because 27 racers were injured in the previous year's competition. This year, only one contestant was taken away in an ambulance. Historically cheeserolling was once just one event in a big spring celebration which included long-forgotten sports including "grinning for the cake," "jumping in the bag," and "chattering for a bladder of snuff by old women." In the early 60s, IBM developed the Q7 for System Development Corporation, a private company funded by the U.S. Air Force to develop software for early air defense systems. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for consecutive games with a touchdown: 13 Abraham Lincoln (the 16th president) carried letters, bills and notes in his stovepipe hat. When two zebras stand side by side, they usually face in opposite directions.

Q. Is there a physiological limit on power output for humans? A. A person's power output rises when appropriate periods of rest are included. In 1916 a man carrying 92 pound pigs of iron 35 feet up an 8 foot high incline into a train carriage. The man carried 1,156 pigs into the train in a 10-hour day. Assuming he weighed 145 pounds and rested for about 15% of the time, this is some 200 watts average output--a remarkable figure. In fact, it is about as much energy as a human could hope to put out in a 10 hour day and was only accomplished after the introduction of rest periods! The previous record without rest had been 305 pigs. Proper rest *tripled* the total work output (if you include carrying the man's own weight back and forth). Bicycle racers use this sprint-coast-sprint sequence to maintain the highest possible average speed.

For those of you who are big Olympic fans like I am: LEARN TO SPEAK AUSSIE Ready to hit the frog and toad? Sydneysiders are waiting for you. But you might not be able to understand them if you didn't realize that "frog and toad" means "road". Learn these words from Oz before you go. Billabong = A watering hole Woop Woop = The middle of nowhere Bruce = Man Sheila = Woman Footy = Australian Rules football Mackers = McDonald's restaurant Amber Fluid = Beer

In the English language, more words begin with the letter "s" than any other letter. On average, a person swallows 295 times while eating a meal. The left bank on a river is the left side as you look downstream. If you attempted to commit suicide in England in the 1800's, and were unsuccessful, you would face the death penalty. Only the female mosquito bites. (Discovery Channel's promo ads had men dressed as mosquitoes biting humans... Egad!)

The most common surname in the world is "Chang." A golf ball, when driven off a tee, can reach speeds up to 170 miles per hour. A Chinese checkerboard has 121 holes. A person's left hand does 56 percent of typing. The Disney dog, Pluto, was originally named Rover.

1. Debra Winger was the voice of E.T. 2. Pearls melt in vinegar. 3. It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs. 4. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married. 5. The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order. 6. It's possible to lead a cow upstairs...but not downstairs. 7. Humans are the only primates that don't have pigment in the palms of their hands. 8. Ten percent of the Russian government's income comes from the sale of vodka. 9. The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," uses every letter in the alphabet. (Developed by Western Union to Test telex/two communications) 10. Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches. 11. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one know why. 12. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the round floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases. 13. The airplane Buddy Holly died in was the "American Pie." (Thus the name of the Don McLean song.) 14. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history. Spades - King David; Clubs - Alexander the Great; Hearts -Charlemagne; and Diamonds - Julius Caesar. 15. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321 16. Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down-hence the expression "to get fired." 17. Hershey's Kisses are called that because the machine that makes them looks like it's kissing the conveyor belt. 18. The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the General Purpose" vehicle, G.P. 19. The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado. 20. The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League All-Star Game. 21. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older. 22. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white. 23. If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom. 24. Snails can sleep for 3 years without eating 25. Actor Tommy Lee Jones and vice-president Al Gore were freshman roommates at Harvard. 26. The fingerprints of koalas are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene. 27. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th." 28. The man, who plays Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, is missing the entire middle finger of his right hand. 29. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. 30. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar. 31. All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

6,000,000,000 hits are expected on olympics.com this month. The Dead Sea is 1,300 feet below sea level. Michigan State University has the largest single campus student body (about 44,000) of any Michigan university, and is one of the largest universities in the country. The US incarceration rate plays such a distorting role in the labor market that one study found that the US unemployment rate would be 2% higher if prisoners and jail inmates were counted. - Justice Policy Institute, "The Punishing Decade" A snail can sleep for 3 years. The velocipede was the first bicycle with pedals The Eiffel tower grows six inches every year. In the summer the metal expands to make the tower grow, but in the winter the metal contracts to shrink the tower once again. Compared to the net worth of the average American, a nice home in Palo Alto, California costs Bill Gates $2.00.

Q. What is the world's most popular beverage? A. Despite the billions of dollars spent to promote colas and other sodas each year, soft drinks don't even rate second in the international beverage market. The dominant thirst quencher is water, but when it comes to man-made refreshment, tea reigns supreme. The worldwide obsession started over 4,000 years ago in China, when some tealeaves blew into a pot of boiling water. Today there are over 3,000 varieties of tea making up the five and a half billion pounds grown around the world. In the global tea drinking Olympics, the Irish are the biggest consumers, followed by the English in second place and the people of Qatar in third.

New Element Discovered The fire at Los Alamos has lead to another unexpected consequence. A top secret scientific document - discovered in a bunker whose security systems were mostly destroyed by fire - reveals the existence of a new element. The document describes what appears to be the heaviest element known to science. It has been tentatively named Governmentium (Gv). This new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 deputy neutrons, 75 supervisory neutrons and 111 team leader neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. According to documents, a minute amount of Governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of approximately three years; it does not decay but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the deputy neutrons, supervisory neutrons, and team leader neutrons exchange places. The mass of Governmentium actually increases over time, since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isotopes. This characteristic or moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the "Critical Morass." Although it is odorless and tasteless, you will know it when you observe it.

A moment for a serious subject - the maintainance of Spring. Yesterday, the entire Spring shut down. I felt as though someone dear to me had died. There was NO was to see Geo or anything else in any of the other conferences. Karen and I emailed and she took up the problem with Terry. We are woefully behind in our payments for the use of Yapp software. check that url above. After the first slash, that is the program which allows all things to happen here. Without it, we do not exist! Karen explained it to me thusly: I have spoken with the woman who wrote the Yapp software and she has explained why we have some periodic site losses in the afternoon, which btw corresponds to midnight GMT. It has to do with the number of hits we experience daily and the fact we are exceeding them. Just FYI, it doesn't matter if you do or don't post at Spring because lurkers generate hits as well. She has generously offered to bump up the license limit if the old license is paid for. BTW, the license is a one-time thing. Therefore, folks, this is a request for donations. All payments should be mailed to: Spring Accounting Department 182 Clover Road Cedar Creek, TX 78612 Checks and money orders should be made out to "The Spring". Be sure to include the login ID of the account. Karen can now accept PayPal payments if you like. And for those who haven't signed up for these electronic payments and would like to do so, let me know. If people sign up under my referral, I would get a signup bonus of $5, which I will turn over to the Yapp cause. Please help if you can! Karen already has my contribution and I used PayPal. It is a simple process and the funds are safely in her account. Thanks for helping keep spring flowing and Geo alive!

Lightening, not people, starts most forest fires. In 1924, American Robert LeGendre shattered the world long jump record with a leap of 25 feet, 4 inches. However, the jump was part of the pentathlon competition and LeGendre could muster only a third-place finish overall. The actual long jump competition was won with a jump of 24 feet, 5 inches. Mosquitoes have killed more people than have all the world's wars combined. 40% of Americans have married their first love. Elephants have been known to remain standing after they die. Uranus is the only planet that rotates on its side. The Oakland Bay Bridge took over 1,200,000 rivets, with a good crew installing 800 rivets per day. The temperature in eastern Siberia can get so cold that the moisture in a person's breath can freeze in the air and fall to the ground. The Utah state animal is the Rocky Mountain Elk.

From Terry concerning the need for funds to keep Spring going... Also, our monthly rate just went up about 20 times, according to the invoice I just received. Your credit card will automatically be processed. You will receive a confirmati on e-mail when your card is charged. Your total payment due is $946 (to quote the email I just received).

Oregon was jointly occupied by the US and Canada from 1818 to 1828. 90% of the visits by patients to doctors are caused by conditions that are either self-limited or beyond the capabilities of medicine in the first place. - FJ Ingelfinger, "Arrogance," New England Journal of Medicine 303(1980) http://upalumni.org/medschool/ Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for consecutive 100-catch seasons: 3 Top 10 Products sold at Toys"R"Us 08/16/98 to 08/22/98 1. Sony Computer playstation system w. dual shock controller 2. Acclaim N64 WWF Warzone 3. Nintendo Nintendo 64 system 4. Galoob Spice Girls dolls 5. Hasbro Preschool Talking Teletubbies 6. Nintendo N64 Banjo-kazooie 7. Acclaim Playstation WWF: Warzone 8. Evenflo trendsetter travel system 9. Mattel Hot Wheels Basic cars 10. Mattel Hot Wheels Mechanix Vehicles IBM's Q7, a vacuum-tube computer, had 30,000 vacuum tubes. At Vicksburg, Mississippi the United States Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station is the world's largest hydraulic research laboratory. A bird's eye takes up about 50% of its head. In 1859, 24 rabbits were released in Australia. Within six years the population had grown to 2 million Certain fireflies emit a light so penetrating that it can pass through flesh and wood.

In the 1800's, people thought the eggplant was poisonous and called it the "mad apple." "Jack" is the most common name in nursery rhymes. An adult has 206 bones. Newborn infants have 300 bones. The first minimum wage was established inthe USA in 1938 - all 25 cents per hour.

Life at the South Pole ...nice pix http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/dome/life/sun/ and a tour of the south pole center http://astro.uchicago.edu/cara/vtour/pole/

Yeah, thanks for putting that here...I was wondering where to put it....this is fine!!!

George Washington nicknamed New York as the "Empire State." Alaska doesn't have counties. Technically, neither does Louisiana (Parishes.) Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end. Honeybees and turtles are deaf. "Shiek" means "old man" in Arabic.

New measurements Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter: EskimoPi 2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Wonton 1 millionth of a mouthwash: 1microscope Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement: 1 bananosecond Weight an evangelist carries with God: 1billigram Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour: Knot-furlong 365.25 days of drinking low-calorie beer because it's less filling: 1 liteyear 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone: 1 RodSerling Half of a large intestine: 1semicolon 1000 aches: 1megahurtz Basic unit of laryngitis: 1hoarsepower Shortest distance between two jokes: A straight line 453.6 graham crackers: 1 pound cake 1 million-million microphones: 1 megaphone 1 million bicycles: 2 megacycles 365.25 days: 1 unicycle 2000 mockingbirds: two kilomockingbirds 10 cards: 1 decacards 1 kilogram of falling figs: 1 FigNewton 1000 grams of wet socks: 1 literhosen 1 millionth of a fish: 1 microfiche 1 trillion pins: 1 terrapin 10 rations: 1 decoration 100 rations: 1 C-ration 2 monograms: 1 diagram 8 nickels: 2 paradigms 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V.League 100 Senators: Not 1 decision

That's wonderful. Very funny, Marcia.

My son, who sends very few forwards sent that and I just about wiped me out. A contingent of gentlemen who will appreciate it and do not read Geo(that I know of) I am wondering how well it translated into other languages. Do Spaniards and the English understand what an Esquimo Pie is???

Er, actually there were a few that didn't compute ...eskimo pie being one of them, but being the 'academic' I am I didn't like to show my ignorance!!!

An Eskimo Pie is chocolate covered vanilla ice cream and is disk-shaped. Play on words, of course. We all must learn thing like that fag means different things on either side of the Atlantic... Next puzzlement - I need to know what needs translations!

Thanks - never heard of that!!!! Yup, Fag does have two different meanings at least here .....! considering the others ....

wait, back a few posts...how did our monthly usage costs increase 20 times? what happened there?

Good question Wolfie .....

Terry explained in in How's your connectin to the Spring topic which is linked to Drool . Topic 43, I think! Lots of lurkers? (Yeah, those millions of men who are checking out that URL I posted in Yahoo and AOl and on ICQ.) I do not have any way of checking who is lurking so I have no idea where they are looking, but I'll wager a goodly sized jewel that it is NOT in Geo!!! Karen also explained in the post I put with my own comments attached. I have no idea where they are lurking, I just know I never want to see Geo go invisible agin!!!

I am haing considerable trouble getting my email. I can send it but the only incoming I can get is kilauea83@yahoo.com at the moment...*sigh* And there has just been a massive CME!!! Look for Aurora!!!

Just been out and looked ...clear night (for once!!) but nothing except stars to be seen .... *sigh*

*sigh...perhaps tomorrow night...the photons are just beginning to hit here now. Just an aside...anyone who thinks Telnet for email is the best there is...Arrrrgh!!! Three email programs and only one works!!

Almost like cable television, 63 channels and nothing fit to watch on any one of them, at most times.

I spent 4 months in a home with itd own TV dish. I had 900 channels of nothing to watch! Olympics, however, I make an exception for. I'll wantch anything Olympic! The letters "M.G." on the British sportscar actually stand for "Morris Garage." Calvin Coolidge's will was one sentence long. One of the primary reasons the mayflower pilgrims ended their voyage at Plymouth rock was pretty much the same reason people today suspend their journeys: they ran out of beer. You have to count all the way to one thousand before the letter "a" is used in spelling a number. Fireflies light up as a means of sexual attraction.

Most of the books you own today will disintegrate in 50 years (approximately) unless they are printed on acid-free paper. Seals have been known to swim for as long as 8 months, and as far as 6,000 miles, without touching land. New York's World Trade Center has over 43,000 windows. I'd hate to have to pay and replace all of them. An ant's sense of smell is comparable to a dog's. William Shakespeare has no living decendants. (but His publisher, John Heminge does... Me!)

The candlefish is so oily that it was once burned for fuel. 23 publishers rejected Dr. Seuss's first book. The Library of Congress houses 80 million non-book items. To keep from being separated while sleeping, sea otters tie themselves together with kelp, often drifting miles out to sea during the night. Montana has the largest migratory elk herd in the US. IBM's Q7s were deployed in pairs to ensure a backup if one went down, and took up three floors of a building, with one floor entirely devoted to air conditioners. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, gives out 26 times as much light as the sun. Human bones can withstand stresses of 24,000 pounds/square inch. In the Old West a "straight shooter" was an honest person you could rely on. "Shooting straight" meant that the person was like a bullet's path: true, not crooked.

A hummingbird feeds at 1,500 flowers per day. As of 1999 the white population in California is 16,500,000 while there are now 17,000,000 Latinos, Asian Americans, blacks and Native Americans. The Latino population has grown 35.8% in the 1990s to 10.5 million. The Asian population grew by 36.8% in the 1990s. Wisconsin has 7,446 streams and rivers. World Population growth: 1 billion in 1804 2 billion in 1927 (123 years) 3 billion in 1960 ( 33 years) 4 billion in 1974 ( 14 years) 5 billion in 1987 ( 13 years) 6 billion in 1999 ( 12 years) Projected World Population: 7 billion in 2013 ( 14 years) 8 billion in 2028 ( 15 years) 9 billion in 2054 ( 26 years) Venetian blinds were invented in 1769, by an Englishman. Tidal effects are moving the Moon further from the Earth into slower orbits and lengthening our day in the process. This will not stop until the Moon is in geostationary orbit and the Earth's day length equals the month length. The Spanish Inquisition once condemned the entire Netherlands to death for heresy. Compared to the net worth of the average American, where $100 will buy you tickets, food and parking to take your family to see an NHL hockey game, Bill Gates could buy the team for 100 "Bill bills".

I love watching the Olympics too, Marcia. I think the defining moment of the current games will be Cathy Freeman winning the 400 meter race. It seemed that the whole world loved her; although not as much as the Australians, of course.

I love watching the Olympics too, Marcia. I think the defining moment of the current games will be Cathy Freeman winning the 400 meter race. It seemed that the whole world loved her; although not as much as the Australians, of course.

That was a really strange hiccup on one of my posts. I don't know what happened.

It happens when lots of postings are being processed at the same time. It is a glitch in Yapp software that used to happen to me a lot!!! If all of the oceans in the world evaporated, Hawaii would be the tallest mountain in the world. Honey is used to make antifreeze. Dog meat is a delicacy in China. A fella by the name of Robert Earl Hughes used to be the heaviest person in the world. He weighed *just* 1,067 pounds. Shooting stars are not stars - they are meteors.

The above mention of Hawaii refers to The Big Island of Hawaii. The surrounding sea is 28,000' deep (8534.4M) and almost 14,000' above sea level (4267M) making a total height of Mauna Kea (the highest peak ) 42,000' (13,161M) That's a whol lot of mountain when you consider that the mass of Mauna Loa is large enough to contain several mountain chains and is really just a side peak on the entire mountain mass amking up this island. Actually, the Island of Hawaii is made of five fused volcanoes: Kohala, Mauna Kea, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea. The list is from oldest to youngest. Mauna Kea and Kohala are considered dormant (though Kohala might just be extinct), Hualalai and Mauna are currently dormant, too, but they have erupted in recent history. Kilauea is active, even as I write this.

(This alst post reminded me ...Marcia, did you get the Hawaii pix I sent ....or do I need to resend them ...oops!! they're on the laptop!!! Pray I get that modem fixed ...found the problem ...got computerworking fine, just modem not..time's running out for me...)

Many healing words said in behalf of your laptop!! Black-eyed peas are not peas. They are beans. The flying fox is not a fox - it is a bat. Catgut string does not come from a cat - it is from a sheep's intestines. The kangaroo rat is not a rat - it is a gopher. The silkworm is not a worm - it is a caterpillar. Blackboard chalk is not chalk - it is plaster of Paris. The pineapple is a berry. St. Patrick was born in Britain. A prarie dog is not a dog - it's a rodent. A horned toad is a lizard.

The first McDonald's was opened in 1955. The revenue from the first day's business? $366.12 www.olympics.com has thus far been viewed by 5.7 million people from 146 countries. Drop Tea tablets, developed by the Towa Company of Tokyo, are made of tea leaves tightly compressed into pellets. To make a fresh brew you just drop three or four into hot water. Because the compacted leaf surfaces are protected from air, they are claimed to stay fresh longer than loose leaves. Added to hot water, the leaves open up to brew Earl Grey, Darjeeling, Assam, apple or lemon tea. Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is more transparent than glass. http://www.psrc.usm.edu/macrog/pmma.htm If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, the planet Saturn would float. The winter of 1847-48 was so extraordinarily severe in the country that heavy ice formed in Lake Erie. When it was broken up during the latter part of March, the winds swept the ice into the entrance of the Niagara River at Buffalo, where it jammed in a solid mass, completely choking the outlet of Lake Erie, with the result that on March 29, 1848, the falls of Niagara were practically dry. In the Middle Ages, monks were forbidden to eat meat. If you are divorced man you are four times more likely to die in an accident than if you are married. The Alamo is located in San Antonio. It is where Texas defenders fell to Mexican General Santa Anna and the phrase "Remember the Alamo" originated. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and the state's most popular historic site.

(healing prayers for the laptop worked ..I'm back online after reinstalling Win98! Dyed my hair to cover grey caused by the crash, and now reinstalling all my programmes and realising I lost all my links etc again .. GRRR)

Think I should dye mine too...but it will not turn a living room into a bedroom and keep my favorite painting wall from being turned into a Wall of Fame....!!! What color do you sugggest??? Right now, something witchy and black sounds about right! Brava and kudos on your recovered modem. That was scary!!! Back it all up on your zip drive NOW!!! *hugs*

Backed all data and progs I haven't got disks for before I reformatted hard disk!!!! Now downloading slowly to make sure everything works properly before adding new progs. Still waiting for unlock codes for Norton sysem works to arrive ...I NEED that!!! Nah, black would look awful with your colouring ....I always go pretty close to natural ..that way roots don't show and it just enhances ...may not help LR prob but sure boosts ego ....and gives confidence to stand firm ... HUGS

Oh, I hear you! Amen! Anyway, I turned grey much too young - the few I have - but not chestnut again. Look miserable as a blond. How about flaming red??? Yeah, I know...make it subtle and match what you already have!!!

I'm just lazy ...want to lift the colour, but can't be bothered with touching up roots and stuff ...not much grey, but fading a bit ...and it will be bleached by the African sun soon ...

I think I will remain as was intended by nature. in this BIG little town, it surely would be wondered about, Maybe that is what this town needs...a bit of fresh gossip to talk about, but, not about me!!!

The FBI go through 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition each month at their training center. The Princess Anne and Princess Margaret hovercrafts have stopped service across the English Channel. Originally designed to last 10 years, they operated for 32, logging a million hours of operation across the 6 vessels. They had a top speed of 60 to 70 mph and were raised 12 feet in the air when the air cushion was inflated. Doctors, as a trade, stand high in the ranks of those who go mad, top themselves, filch pills, sniff gas, run from their spouses, weep in the night, live chronically disjuncted lives. - M Bywater, "The Doctors We Deserve?" http://upalumni.org/medschool/ The top 5% of American wage earners pay 86% of the total income tax collected. Wood Frogs can survive being frozen. In fact, they spend winters frozen on land, thawing in the spring. The planet Pluto takes 248 Earth years to orbit the Sun. For twenty of those years, it is closer to the sun than the planet Neptune. The nature of its orbit, however, always prevents it from colliding with Neptune. One day on Pluto is about the length of a week on Earth. When Heinz ketchup leaves the bottle, it travels at a rate of 25 miles per year. Jerry Rice holds the NFL record for longest consecutive games with a reception streak: 193 Only 4% of Americans asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.

Heinz ketchup travels at the amazing rate of 25 miles per year. That would be perhaps even slower than the sloth which moves so slowly fungus grows on its fur.

Marcia, you might not want to go with ketchup red hair. You might consider red, but not quite that red.

Or Sunkist orange, either. No, being subtle is more my style. Not into anything flaming unless it is NOT im public... That Ketchup thing must be just after you have dislodged the initial plug and you end up with half the bottle on your hamburger! As the daughter of a chemist, I know how to avoid that happenstance.

Well, I'm pleased with my new hair colour ..yup, subtle chestnut ..brightened it up nicely ...now where's the scissors???

Here are 5 questions. See if you can answer them. Answers will follow, but don't cheat! 1. Where was Kentucky Fried Chicken's Colonel Sanders born? 2. Name the three countries closest to the United States. 3. What do the following ten places have in common: Atlanta, Cleveland, Dayton, Hartford, Jacksonville, New Haven, Newark, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Phoenix? 4. What country celebrates Thanksgiving on the second Monday of October? 5. Where is the world's largest garbage dump? **************** Answers: 1. Indiana. 2. Canada, Mexico, and Russia. 3. They are all towns in New York state. 4. Canada. 5. Staten Island, New York.

The Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple. Top 4 Favorite Traditional Amusement Parks: 1. Kennywood, (West Mifflin, PA) 2. Knoebel's Amusement Resort, (Elysburg, PA) 3. Cedar Point, (Sandusky, OH) 4. Blackpool Pleasure Beach, (Blackpool, UK) Mongooses were brought to Hawaii to kill rats. This did not work as rats are nocturnal while the mongoose hunts during the day. The space station is a $60 billion effort of 16 nations. It will cover almost an acre and have as much pressurized space as a Boeing 747 when completed in 2005. Nevada native tribes include the Shoshone, Washo and Paiute. Australia's new parliament building in Canberra are one of the largest buildings in the southern hemisphere, with 4,500 rooms and about 2,700,000 square feet of space.

Contact Earth Imagine if you will... the leader of the fifth invader force speaking to the commander in chief... "They're made out of meat." "Meat?" "Meat. They're made out of meat." "Meat?" "There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." "That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars." "They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines." "So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact." "They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines." "That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat." "I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat." "Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage." "Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?" "Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside." "Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through." "No brain?" "Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!" "So... what does the thinking?" "You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat." "Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!" "Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?" "Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat." "Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years." "So what does the meat have in mind?" "First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual." "We're supposed to talk to meat?" "That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing." "They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?" "Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat." "I thought you just told me they used radio." "They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat." "Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?" "Officially or unofficially?" "Both." "Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing." "I was hoping you would say that." "It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?" "I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?" "Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact." "So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe." "That's it." "Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?" "They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them." "A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream." "And we can mark this sector unoccupied." "Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?" "Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again." "They always come around." "And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

TFTD-L@TAMU.EDU US Code as of: 01/23/00 Title 4, Sec. 8. Respect for flag No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. ... (b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise. (c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free. (d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, ... -http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/8.html ***** tftd would like for the US Olympic Committee to instruct the US athletes on proper conduct including respect for our flag.

that was funny!

About the meat, I trust. I loved it and did not want it to languish in Screwed unappreciated! The flag comments should also be meaningful to you... *hugs*

IBM's Q7s used 10% of Santa Monica's power and were left on day and night for fear of causing destructive surges in the city's power. It has now been revealed that Colossus was in fact the world's first electronic digital computer, not ENIAC. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,39198,00.html A student of Carroll High School was blocked from accessing his high school's home page from his own high school's library computer. It turns out the high school had installed filtering software to filter "all questionable material" and this included filtering out pages containing the word "high." http://dfn.org/Alerts/contest.htm Compared to the net worth of the average American, who might buy a plane ticket on a Boeing 747 for $1200, Bill Gates could buy three 747s for 100 "Bill bills". The first police force was established in Paris in 1667. Police dogs were first used in Scotland in 1816. The Texas Rangers, established in 1816 were the first US state police force. The first police car was an electric powered vehicle in Akron, Ohio in 1899. The Internet Trade Show List lists 595 Internet-related trade shows. The brain requires 25% of the oxygen used by the body. The earth's magnetic field pulls the electron beams hitting the cathode ray tube in computer monitors. Every computer monitor has to be calibrated relative to its position in the earth's magnetic field. Adjust a monitor in the northern hemisphere and its colors will be wrong if you plug it into a computer in the southern hemisphere.

Half of the peanuts grown in America are used to make peanut butter. Boston College is in Chstnut Hill, Massachusetts. Leonardo da Vinci could draw with one hand and write with the other - all at the same time. A kangaroo can hop at a pace of 40 miles per hour.

Robert E. Lee was buried barefoot as the coffin was too small to allow for his boots. The electric razor made its debut in America on March 18, 1931. General Custer's soldiers called him "Hard Ass." Ping Pong is the national sport of China. A bear has 42 teeth.

VIRUS ALERT!!! October 06, 2000 You may have heard about a variation of the LoveLetter virus called the "US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS". It's a 'worm' virus that spreads through e-mail as a chain letter. The worm uses Microsoft's Outlook e-mail application to spread. The subject header will be US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS=PLEASE VISIT(HTTP://WWW.2600.COM) or a randomly generated 6 letter word displayed in all capital letters, or it might be blank. The worm will also include a randomly chosen attachment. The size of the attachment is approximately 12,609 bytes. Our current virus signature files will detect this worm. However, if you receive an e-mail prefaced with "US PRESIDENT AND FBI SECRETS" (Even if it sent by someone you know!) DELETE THE E-MAIL IMMEDIATELY!

The cornea of the eye is the only living tissue in the body that contains no blood vessels. Nutrients come from the tears and from the liquid that fills the chamber behind the cornea. Pigeons and hummingbirds have tiny magnetic particles in their heads that respond to the Earth's magnetic fields and that they use for navigation. In the marriage ceremony of the ancient Inca Indians of Peru, the couple was considered officially wed when they took off their sandals and handed them to each other. If you blow in a dog's face he won't like it, but take him for a ride in the car and the first thing he does is stick his head out of the window. Jerry Rice shares the NFL record with Steve Young for most touchdowns by a WR-QB combo: 84 For over 20 years the medical literature has carefully documented the under-treatment of all types of pain by physicians. http://upalumni.org/medschool/appendices/appendix-76.html The 12,831 foot long Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is the world's longest suspension bridge. It was opened on April 5, 1998. Staying awake for 17 to 19 hours can dampen your mental and physical reaction times as dramatically as two drinks. http://www.sciam.com/news/091900/5.html 100 years ago, 18% of households in the United States had at least one full-time servant or domestic.

High altitude and continuous darkness in winter combine to make interior Antarctica the coldest place on Earth. The lowest temperature ever recorded was -126.9 F at 11,500 feet above sea level at the Russian station of Vostok on August 24, 1960. Dolphins don't automatically breath but have to tell themselves to. IBM spent seven years working on the systems for the Sydney Olympics. The first sponsored television was in 1930 and was seen on 44 television sets. Rain contains vitamin B12. On Thursday, October 5, 2000, the space shuttle program will launch its 100th shuttle. The program has transported into space 596 people and 3,000,000 pounds of cargo. Wayne Gretzky holds the record for most All-Star game points in a career: 25 A hummingbird hums because of the nature of the 10 primary feathers on each wing. These feathers are extremely long and narrow. When the wings flap, these feathers vibrate, making the humming sound.

HOW DID MANHATTAN GET ITS NAME? It's a derivative of the Indian word Manahachtaniek, which means "the island where we all get drunk," apparently referring to a spirited encounter between the Native Americans and some newly arrived Dutchmen. WHY DOES IVORY SOAP FLOAT? Too much air - originally an error in production. In 1878, Harley Procter and cousin James Gamble decided to create for their company a white soap that would rival the popular castile soaps of their competitors. The product was successfull. Then, in 1879, a worker mistakenly allowed the soap solution to be overmixed. The new version of the soap was an immediate success because it bobbed to the surface of the water.

Here on Earth it's almost always true, that tomorrow will follow today. Yet there is a place where yesterday always follows today. Where is this place?

I don't know, since I'm meat I may well be at a disadvantage. The posting on the aliens was too funny. So where is it that yesterday always follows today? This is one of those Sphinx Riddle things, isn't it? A bear has 42 teeth. I'll take your word for it as I don't want to wait a few months, find a hibernating bear, pry its mouth open, and count the teeth. The world's largest garbage dump, the Freshkills Landfill on Staten Island is well on its way, or just has become, the highest point on the east coast of the United States. The Dutch actually bought Manhattan from a tribe of Indians who lived in what is now Brooklyn. There were Indians living on Manhattan at the time, but they lived up in what is now Washington Heights. As far as I know, no one consulted them on the deal. Have those imported mongeese become a problem in Hawaii? Lastly, Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians at Spring.

*gonna kill me* Tomorrow comes before yesterday in a dictionary...*ducking*

Loved that meat one...blame that dictionary one on my being meat...

i did love the meat story!

I should post it in Food/vegetarian so Autumn will see it!

Originally developed in the Philippines around 1500, the Yo-Yo was a weapon. It consisted of a four pound stone attached to a rope about 20 feet long. Tribesmen used it in two ways. When hunting, they stood off to one side, held one end of the rope and threw the rock towards the legs of an animal. The rope became tangled around the animals legs, and with a tug, the hunter brought the animal down. Against enemies, the stones would be dropped on their heads. The tribesmen would quickly recover the stones, ready for a second blow if necessary. In 1927, an American named Donald Duncan saw a Yo-Yo in a museum and spent the next several years transforming this concept into his new toy. His Yo-Yo's were made of wood, and the name - the same as the Philippine weapon - is a legal trademark. Only later did Duncan discover that toys similar to his Yo-Yo, had been made of ivory with expensive silk strings, had been used in China as far back as 1000 B.C., and had showed up in Europe centuries later. This enabled other toy manufacturers to make similar toys legally, though only Duncan was ever allowed to use the name Yo-Yo. On October 7th, 2000 a 38-year-old Slovenian became the first person to ski nonstop down Mount Everest. It took five hours to ski from the peak to the 18,000 base camp. Incredibly, a sherpa recently set the record for the climb from base camp to the peak of just 16 hours! http://everest.simobil.si/eng/default.shtml Napster users downloaded 1,390,000,000 MP3 files ...in September, 2000. Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times. 20% of American men proposed on one knee. The 28th President (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson allowed sheep to graze on the White House lawn during World War I; their wool helped raise money for the Red Cross. Despite its size, IBM's Q7 had a single CPU running at about 12 KHz (83,333 times slower than 1 gHz Athlon) and 64K of RAM (1,000 times less than the minimum today). Cats spend 70% of their time sleeping. Fossilized remains of life 50 million years ago have been arranged in unusual forms, which is Lemmon's mark of distinction at the world's largest petrified wood park in South Dakota.

All of this is memorable stuff, but nothing like as memorable as my day has been. My son brought his new fiancee home to meet his volcano, to wlak the lava flows and to admire the glory of a lava flow in the night. Imagine this great lady's courage! She accepted his proposal even after meeting me in July!

Overshadowing them all was the W incident...in th ecategory of momumentality

During the Cambrian period (500 million BC) an Earth day was only 20.6 hours long. Cisco Systems and Microsoft capitalized on the windfall profits of their employees to wipe out their federal income tax bills last year. Cisco, the second-most valuable U.S. company, behind General Electric, eliminated a $1.8 billion income tax liability by deducting the gains that its employees realized from stock options during the company's most recent fiscal year. Microsoft, the world's largest computer-software company, recorded a $5.5 billion tax benefit by deducting its employees' profits from stock options during its last fiscal year. Microsoft reported federal and state tax liabilities of $4.74 billion in the year ending June 30. http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-3145717.html Only 15 to 20% of the population functions well in an environment where they are to be competitive with others. John Walker, an English chemist, never patented the match that he invented because he thought it was too important to be anything but public property. The Klondike Historical Park in Seattle is only 5000 square feet and can be safely explored in about an hour. It is also inside. In 1937 the tiny asteroid Hermes came within 500,000 miles from Earth. In ancient Greece women didn't start counting their age until their wedding day, rather than the actual day they were born. They believed the wedding date was the real start of a woman's life. Young priests of the island of Leukas, Greece were required to don the wings of an eagle and plunge from Cape Dukato into the sea in order to qualify for service at the temple of Apollo. This feat was routinely performed for hundreds of years yet no diver was ever hurt. The height of the dive? 230 feet. Black cats are considered lucky in England.

This will not update but the page does regularly and you can see what my kiddies will be feeling as they reacquaint themselves with Kilauea: http://tux.wr.usgs.gov/results/seismic/BigIsland.html

In the above image, which is a satellite image inhanced, please notice the sea bed just off the southeast coast... Notice the Fan of sediment there? That came from massive faulting and slumping into the sea from that flank of Kilauea volcano. It will as surely happen again as tomorrow will. I just do not want to be here for the earthquake and resulting tsunami from this "mass wasting!" You will also notice similar fans of slump off the north end of the island. Loihi, the name in red at the bottom of the image just off the southeast tip is the newest volcano in the chair. The hot spot is moving!

and how are your babies doing?

My *babies* are fanstastic. Today they are paying homage to the volcano and introducing her to the relism of fluid rock. I wanna go, too, but he wants it to be a special introduction - which I certainly understand! Still, I wnt to go see....*sigh* I might as well be living living in the middle of the outback of Australia for how close I get to that most amazing of sights. ...polishing up my Alexandrite and thinking Wonderful Wild and Wicked things...

For those of you about to travel: Here's a little tip from me to you as an experienced traveler. Wake-up calls: worst way to wake up. The phone rings; it's loud; you can't turn it down. I leave the number of the room next to me, and then it rings kind of quiet, and you hear a guy yell, "What are you calling me for?" Then you get up and take a shower. It's great. -- Garry Shandling Thanks for asking about my kiddies, Wolfie! *hugs*

Q. Why are most cameras black? A. For a while, chrome was popular as a camera finish, but professional photographers covered it in black tape to cut down on surface reflections and that led to the color change. The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river. - H. Ross Perot