Facts to Shock

· The first use for the umbrella, in ancient Egypt, was to protect from the sun, not the rain. Perhaps this explains the choice of the word "umbrella", which is Italian for "little shadow".

· Plato's Academy operated from 387 B.C. to 529 A.D.: 916 years.

· When male tarantulas are between the ages of 5 to 7 years, they leave the burrow in search of a female, usually in the early fall. This migration signals the beginning of the end of their life cycle. They mate with as many females as they can and then they die around mid-November.

· The Montana Yogo Sapphire is the only North American gem to be included in the Crown Jewels of England.

· Most of America's salmon, crab, halibut, and herring come from Alaska.

· Many species of insects are lower in fat, higher in protein and have a better feed to meat ratio than beef, lamb, pork or chicken. There are more than 1,450-recorded species of edible insects.

· Cats are the only animals that walk directly on their claws, not on their paws. This method of walking is called "digitigrade".

· Giraffes have no vocal cords.

· The world's longest escalator ride can be found in Ocean Park, Hong Kong. 745 feet long, it has a vertical rise of 377 feet.

· It takes a lobster about seven years to grow to be one pound (half kilo).

· In the great fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 death recorded.

· The top 1% of Internet subscribers account for 25% of Internet traffic.

· The brain reaches its maximum weight at age 20 - about 3 pounds. Over the next 60 years, as billions of nerve cells die within the brain, it loses about 3 ounces.

· There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

· Teens who drink two or more cans of soda per day are twice as likely to fail in school as those who do not.

· The worlds largest hotel is the Burj Al Arab or Arabian Tower in Dubai, United Arab Emerates. 1,053 feet tall, it is shaped like a sail and built on a man made island.

· Meat contains about 14 times more pesticides than plant foods. Dairy products 5.5 times more than plant foods.

· Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.

· "Uncopyrightable" is the only 15 letter word that is spelled without repeating a letter.

· Deep sea clams can live to be more than 100 years old.

· Teddy Roosevelt was the Police Commissioner of New York in 1895 when he formed the "Bicycle Squad". Members of the squad chased down speeders who exceeded the speed limit of 8 miles per hour.

· The world's longest suspension bridge opened Sunday (18-10-2009) in Japan. The 12,906-foot Akashi Kaikyo Bridge links the island of Shikoku to the island of Honshu. The middle span of the bridge measures 6,570 feet.

· In prehistoric times, 60% of the earth's surface was covered by forests. Today it is 30% and falling.

· Jamestown, the first of the original 13 Colonies, was founded for the purpose of silk cultivation. The silk was to be traded with the Court of King James but after a fungus destroyed the mulberry trees (the silkworm's only food), sericulturist planted tobacco instead.

· Livestock raising is the primary reason for the elimination or endangerment of plant species in the U.S.

· The rush of air from a cough moves at up to 600 mph.

· Aquafina & Dasani are purified municipal water.

· The average square inch of skin has a thousand nerve endings.

· To reach rivers and lakes where they spend most of their lives, many newborn eels swim for up to 3,000 miles nonstop.

· Kangaroo rats can live their entire lives without taking a drink of water.

· Eighty per cent of all body heat escapes through the head.

· Asian tree frogs build nests in trees over water. When their tadpoles hatch, they drop directly into the water.

· Your skull is made up of 29 different bones.

· Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) has a master's in electrical engineering from Queen's College, Oxford.

· One square inch of human skin contains 625 sweat glands.

· Dendrochronology is the science of calculating a tree's age by its rings. Tree rings provide precise information about environmental events, including volcanic eruptions.