My Pathetic Universe

Aiko Melendez = Aiko Xioxi Blardoni Melendez
AJ Dee = Angel James Dee
Aleck Bovick - Ma. Theresa Bovick Tambis
Alice Dixson = Jessie Alice Salones Dixson
Alma Concepcion = Alma Carvajal Concepcion
Amanda Griffin = Amanda Claire Griffin
Amy Austria = Esmeralda Tuazon
Ana Roces = Marinella Adad-Montenegro
Angel Locsin = Angelica Colmenares
Angelika de la Cruz = Ma. Lourdes Egger dela Cruz
Anjo Yllana = Andres Jose Yllana, Jr.
Anne Curtis = Anne Ojales Curtis Smith
Antoinette Taus = Antoinette Cherish Flores Taus
Ara Mina = Hazel Klenk Reyes
Assunta de Rossi = Maria Assunta Shiavone
Aubrey Miles = Aubrey Sandel

Bea Alonzo = Phylbert Angellie Ranollo Pagestrom
Belinda Bright = Marian Decima
Beth Tamayo = Elizabeth Jill Tamayo
Bianca Gonzalez = Bianca Monica Malasmas Gonzalez
Bianca King = Bianca Charlotte King
Bing Loyzaga = Carla Loyzaga
Bojo Molina = Ubaldo Punongbayan

Camille Pratts = Sheena Patricia Camille Quiambao Pratts
Carla Loren = Madeline Humphries
Carlos Agassi = Amir Carlos Damaso Vahidi Agassi
Cesar Montano = Cesar Manhilot
Charlene Gonzales = Charlene Mae Bonnin Gonzales
Chynna Ortaleza = Lara Serena Ortaleza
Cindy Kurleto = Cynthia Kurleto
Claudine Barretto = Claudine Margaret Castelo Barretto
Cogie Domingo = Redmond Christopher Fernandez Domingo

Dawn Zulueta = Rachel Taleon
Dennis Trillo = Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho
Desiree del Valle = Desiree Lois del Valle Dunham
Diana Zubiri = Rosemarie Joy Garcia
Diether Ocampo = Diether Ocampo Pascual
Dina Bonnevie = Geraldyn Shaer Bonnevie
Dingdong Dantes = Jose Sixto Gonzales Dantes III
Dino Guevarra = Dino Medrano Ross
Dolphy = Rodolfo V. Quizon
Donna Cruz = Donna Cruz Yrastorza
Drew Arellano = Andrew James Arellano

Eagle = Michael Pangilinan Riggs
Ehra Madrigal = Geraldine Madrigal Gaspar
Ethel Booba = Ethyl Gabison

Fernando Poe, Jr. = Ronald Allan Kelley-Poe
Fernando Poe, Sr. = Fernando Pou
Francine Prieto = Anna Marie Falcon
Francis M = Francis Michael Durango Magalona

Gary Valenciano = Edgardo Jose Martin Santiago Valenciano 
Gelli de Belen = Anna Gianelli de Belen
Gina Alajar - Regina Alitiit
Gloria Romero = Gloria Borrego Galla
Glydel Mercado = Flordeliza Sanchez
Gwen Garci = Mai Lee Ang

Heart Evangelista = Love Marie Ongpauco

Ian Veneracion = Steven Ian Veneracion
Ina Raymundo = Rina Marie Raymundo
Isabel Oli = Maria Olivia Daytia
Iwa Moto = Aileen Iwamoto
Iya Villania = Raelene Elaine Villania
Iza Calzado = Maria Isadora Ussher Calzado

Jackielou Blanco = Lourdes Jacqueline Blanco
Jacklyn Jose = Mary Jane Guck
Jay R = Gaudencio Aquino Sillona III
Jean Garcia = Jessica Anne Garcia
Jodi Sta. Maria = Jodi Charisse Sta. Maria
Joey de Leon = Jose Ma. de Leon
John Pratts = John Paolo Quiambao Pratts
Jomar Cruz = Joseph Marvin Cruz Yrastorza
Joyce Jimenez = Joyce Reintegrado

Karylle = Ana Karylle Padilla Tatlonghari
Katya Santos = Katrina Santos
Kaye Abad = Katherine Grace Abad
KC Concepcion = Maria Kristina Cassandra Concepcion
KC Montero = Casey Wyatt Miller
Keanna Reeves = Janet Dereche Duterte
Kitchie Nadal = Anna Katrina Nadal
Klaudia Koronel = Milfe Dacula
Kris Aquino = Kristine Bernadette Aquino
Kristine Hermosa = Kristine Alburo
Kyla - Melanie Hernandez Calumpad

LA Lopez = Lyle Areanne Cruz-Lopez
Lani Mercado = Jesusa Victoria Hernandez
Lani Misalucha = Lani Bayot
Lea Salonga = Maria Lea Carmen Imutan Salonga
Lorna Tolentino = Victoria Lorna Aluquin
Lotlot de Leon = Charlotte Jennifer de Leon
Lovely Rivero = Ginebra Miguela Macalinao

Marian Rivera = Marian Rivera Gracia
Mariel Rodriguez = Ma. Erlinda Lucille Termulo
Maui Taylor = Maureen Anne Fainsan
Maureene Larrazabal = Maureene Larrazabal Vera Cruz
Melanie Marquez = Mimilanie Marquez
Michael V. = Beethoven del Valle Bunagan
Mikee Cojuangco = Mikaela Maria Antonia Cojuangco
Mikel Campos = Mikel Vicente Gaddi
Miko Palanca = Kristoffer Michael Palanca
Mylene Dizon = Mylene Lilibeth Dizon
Mystica = Ruby Cassidy

Nadine Samonte = Nadine Burgos Eidloth
Mancy Castiglione = Nancy Jane Jimenez Castiglione
Nida Blanca = Dorothy Jones
Nina = Marifil Nina Girado
Nora Aunor =Aurora Cabaltera Villamayor
Nyoy Volante = Nino Volante

Ogie Alcasid = Herminio Alcasid
Onemig Bondoc = Juan Miguel Bondoc

Palito = Reynaldo Hipolito 
Panchito = Alfonso D. Tagle
Patria Javier = Genesis Canlapan
Pauleen Luna = Marie Pauleen Luna
Pilar Pilapil = Delilah Veloso
Piolo Pascual = Piolo Jose Nonato Pascual
Polo Ravales = Paul Patrick Gruenberg
Pops Fernandez = Cielito Lukban Fernandez

Regine Velasquez = Regina Encarnacion Ansong Velasquez
Richard Gomez = Richard Frank Gomez
Rica Peralejo = Regina Carla Bautista Peralejo
Rita Magdalena = Geraldine Sarmiento
Rosanna Roces = Jennifer Adriano Molina
Ruffa Gutierrez = Sharmaine Ruffa Gutierrez
Ryan Agoncillo = Kristoffer Lou Ryan Gonzalez Agoncillo

Sam Milby = Samuel Llyod Lacia Milby
Sarah Geronimo = Sarah Asher Geronimo
Sheree = Cherry Ann Hazel Bautista Agustin
Susan Roces = Jesusa Sonora

Tanya Garcia = Tanya Lyttle
Tito Sotto = Vicente Sotto III
TJ Trinidad = Raul Fenstad Trinidad, Jr.
Toni Gonzaga = Celestine Cruz Gonzaga
Tootsie Guevarra = Emma Therese Cunanan
Troy Montero = Cody Andrew Garabato Miller III

Vernie Varga = Ignacia Mabugat
Vhong Navarro = Ferdinand Bong Navarro
Vic Sotto = Marvic Sotto
Vina Morales = Sharon Magdayao

Warren Austria = Warren Jonathan Daoust
Wendell Ramos = Wendell Xavier Ramos

 source: Coиaи of PinoyRepublic

When NASA first started sending up astronauts, they quickly discovered that ballpoint pens would not work in zero gravity. To combat the problem, NASA scientists spent a decade and $12 billion to develop a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, on almost any surface including glass and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to 300°C.

The Russians used a pencil.

__________________________
:: Artwork Credit

10 Making of the Moon
The Moon was created when a rock the size of Mars slammed into Earth, shortly after the solar system began forming about 4.5 billion years ago, according to the leading theory.

9 Locked in Orbit
Perhaps the coolest thing about the Moon is that it always shows us the same face. Since both the Earth and Moon are rotating and orbiting, how can this be?
Long ago, the Earth's gravitational effects slowed the Moon's rotation about its axis. Once the Moon's rotation slowed enough to match its orbital period (the time it takes the Moon to go around Earth) the effect stabilized. Many of the moons around other planets behave similarly.
What about phases? Here's how they work: As the Moon orbits Earth, it spends part of its time between us and the Sun, and the lighted half faces away from us. This is called a new Moon. (So there's no such thing as a "dark side of the Moon," just a side that we never see.)
As the Moon swings around on its orbit, a thin sliver of reflected sunlight is seen on Earth as a crescent Moon. Once the Moon is opposite the Sun, it becomes fully lit from our view -- a full Moon.

8 Moon Trees
More than 400 trees on Earth came from the Moon. Well, okay: They came from lunar orbit. Okay, the truth: In 1971, Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa took a bunch of seeds with him and, while Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell were busy sauntering around on the surface, Roosa guarded his seeds.
Later, the seeds were germinated on Earth, planted at various sites around the country, and came to be called the Moon trees. Most of them are doing just fine.

7 Punching Bag
The Moon's heavily cratered surface is the result of intense pummeling by space rocks between 4.1 billion and 3.8 billion years ago.
The scars of this war, seen as craters, have not eroded much for two main reasons: The Moon is not geologically very active, so earthquakes, volcanoes and mountain-building don't destroy the landscape as they do on Earth; and with virtually no atmosphere there is no wind or rain, so very little surface erosion occurs.

6 Sister Moons
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. Right? Maybe not. In 1999, scientists found that a 3-mile- (5-kilometer-) wide asteroid may be caught in Earth's gravitational grip, thereby becoming a satellite of our planet.
Cruithne, as it is called, takes 770 years to complete a horseshoe-shaped orbit around Earth, the scientists say, and it will remain in a suspended state around Earth for at least 5,000 years.

5 Egghead
The Moon is not round (or spherical). Instead, it's shaped like an egg. If you go outside and look up, one of the small ends is pointing right at you. And the Moon's center of mass is not at the geometric center of the satellite; it's about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) off-center.

4 Moonquakes
Apollo astronauts used seismometers during their visits to the Moon and discovered that the gray orb isn't a totally dead place, geologically speaking. Small moonquakes, originating several miles (kilometers) below the surface, are thought to be caused by the gravitational pull of Earth. Sometimes tiny fractures appear at the surface, and gas escapes.
Scientists say they think the Moon probably has a core that is hot and perhaps partially molten, as is Earth's core. But data from NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft showed in 1999 that the Moon's core is small -- probably between 2 percent and 4 percent of its mass. This is tiny compared with Earth, in which the iron core makes up about 30 percent of the planet's mass.

3 The Moon is a Planet?
Our Moon is bigger than Pluto. And at roughly one-fourth the diameter of Earth, some scientists think the Moon is more like a planet. They refer to the Earth-Moon system as a "double planet." Pluto and its moon Charon are also called a double-planet system by some.

2 Ocean Tug
Tides on Earth are caused mostly by the Moon (the Sun has a smaller effect). Here's how it works:
The Moon's gravity pulls on Earth's oceans. High tide aligns with the Moon as Earth spins underneath. Another high tide occurs on the opposite side of the planet because gravity pulls Earth toward the Moon more than it pulls the water.
At full Moon and new Moon, the Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up, producing the higher than normal tides (called spring tides, for the way they spring up). When the Moon is at first or last quarter, smaller neap tides form. The Moon's 29.5-day orbit around Earth is not quite circular. When the Moon is closest to Earth (called its perigee), spring tides are even higher, and they're called perigean spring tides.
All this tugging has another interesting effect: Some of Earth's rotational energy is stolen by the Moon, causing our planet to slow down by about 1.5 milliseconds every century.

1 Bye bye Moon
As you read this, the Moon is moving away from us. Each year, the Moon steals some of Earth's rotational energy, and uses it to propel itself about 3.8 centimeters higher in its orbit. Researchers say that when it formed, the Moon was about 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Earth. It's now more than 280,000 miles, or 450,000 kilometers away.

source: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/top_10_cool_moon_facts-1.html

• The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth.
• When Albert Einstein died, his final words died with him. The nurse at his side didn't understand German.
• St Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was not Irish.
• The lance ceased to be an official battle weapon in the British Army in 1927.
• St. John was the only one of the 12 Apostles to die a natural death.
• Many sailors used to wear gold earrings so that they could afford a proper burial when they died.
• Some very Orthodox Jew refuse to speak Hebrew, believing it to be a language reserved only for the Prophets.
• A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.
• Born 4 January 1838, General Tom Thumb's growth slowed at the age of 6 months, at 5 years he was signed to the circus by P.T. Barnum, and at adulthood reached a height of only 1 metre.
• Because they had no proper rubbish disposal system, the streets of ancient Mesopotamia became literally knee-deep in rubbish.
• The Toltecs, Seventh-century native Mexicans, went into battle with wooden swords so as not to kill their enemies.
• China banned the pigtail in 1911 as it was seen as a symbol of feudalism.
• The Amayra guides of Bolivia are said to be able to keep pace with a trotting horse for a distance of 100 kilometres.
• Sliced bread was patented by a jeweller, Otto Rohwedder, in 1928. He had been working on it for 16 years, having started in 1912.
Before it was stopped by the British, it was the not uncommon for women in some areas of India to choose to be burnt alive on their husband's funeral pyre.
• Ivan the terrible claimed to have 'deflowered thousands of virgins and butchered a similar number of resulting offspring'.
• Before the Second World War, it was considered a sacrilege to even touch an Emperor of Japan.
• An American aircraft in Vietnam shot itself down with one of its own missiles.
• The Anglo-Saxons believed Friday to be such an unlucky day that they ritually slaughtered any child unfortunate enough to be born on that day.
• During the eighteenth century, laws had to be brought in to curb the seemingly insatiable appetite for gin amongst the poor. Their annual intake was as much as five million gallons.
• Ancient drinkers warded off the devil by clinking their cups
• The Nobel Prize resulted form a late change in the will of Alfred Nobel, who did not want to be remembered after his death as a propagator of violence - he invented dynamite.
• The cost of the first pay-toilets installed in England was tuppence.
• Pogonophobia is the fear of beards.
• In 1647 the English Parliament abolished Christmas.
• Mao Rse-Tang, the first chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, was born 26 December 1893. Before his rise to power, he occupied the humble position of Assistant Librarian at the University of Peking.
• Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.
• King George III was declared violently insane in 1811, 9 years before he died.
• In Ancient Peru, when a woman found an 'ugly' potato, it was the custom for her to push it into the face of the nearest man.
• For Roman Catholics, 5 January is St Simeon Stylites' Day. He was a fifth-century hermit who showed his devotion to God by spending literally years sitting on top of a huge flagpole.
• When George I became King of England in 1714, his wife did not become Queen. He placed her under house arrest for 32 years.
• The richest 10 per cent of the French people are approximately fifty times better off than the poorest 10 per cent.
• Henry VII was the only British King to be crowned on the field of battle
• During World War One, the future Pope John XXIII was a sergeant in the Italian Army.
• Richard II died aged 33 in 1400. A hole was left in the side of his tomb so people could touch his royal head, but 376 years later some took advantage of this and stole his jawbone.
• The magic word "Abracadabra" was originally intended for the specific purpose of curing hay fever.
• The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols, judging them to be out of keeping with the true spirit of Christmas.
• Albert Einstein was once offered the Presidency of Israel. He declined saying he had no head for problems.
• Uri Geller, the professional psychic was born on December 20 1946. As to the origin of his alleged powers, Mr Geller maintains that they come from the distant planet of Hoova.
• Ralph and Carolyn Cummins had 5 children between 1952 and 1966, all were born on the 20 February.
• John D. Rockefeller gave away over US$ 500,000,000 during his lifetime.
• Only 1 child in 20 are born on the day predicted by the doctor.
• In the 1970's, the Rhode Island Legislature in the US entertained a proposal that there be a $2 tax on every act of sexual intercourse in the State.
• Widows in equatorial Africa actually wear sackcloth and ashes when attending a funeral.
• The 'Hundred Years War' lasted 116 years.
• The British did not release the body of Napoleon Bonaparte to the French until twenty days after his death.
• Admiral Lord Nelson was less than 1.6 metres tall.
• John Glenn, the American who first orbited the Earth, was showered with 3,529 tonnes of ticker tape when he got back.
• Native American Indians used to name their children after the first thing they saw as they left their tepees subsequent to the birth. Hence such strange names as Sitting Bull and Running Water.
• Catherine the First of Russia, made a rule that no man was allowed to get drunk at one of her parties before nine o'clock.
• Queen Elizabeth I passed a law which forced everyone except for the rich to wear a flat cap on Sundays.
• In 1969 the shares of the Australian company 'Poseidon' were worth $1, one year later they were worth $280 each.
• Julius Caesar wore a laurel wreath to cover the onset of baldness.
• Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour during World War II, left school at the age of eleven.
• At the age of 12, Martin Luther King became so depressed he tried committing suicide twice, by jumping out of his bedroom window.
• It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary.
• The Turk's consider it considered unlucky to step on a piece of bread.
• The authorities do not allow tourists to take pictures of Pygmies in Zambia.
• The Dutch in general prefer their french fries with mayonnaise.
• Upon the death of F.D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman became the President of America on 12 April 1945. The initial S in the middle of his name doesn't in fact mean anything. Both his grandfathers had names beginning with 'S', and so Truman's mother didn't want to disappoint either of them.
• Sir Isaac Newton was obsessed with the occult and the supernatural.
• One of Queen Victoria's wedding gifts was a 3 metre diameter, half tonne cheese.
• Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never phoned his wife or his mother, they were both deaf.
• It was considered unfashionable for Venetian women, during the Renaissance to have anything but silvery-blonde hair.
• Queen Victoria was one of the first women ever to use chloroform to combat pain during childbirth.
• Peter the Great had the head of his wife's lover cut off and put into a jar of preserving alcohol, which he then ordered to be placed by her bed.
• The car manufacturer Henry Ford was awarded Hitler's Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. Henry Ford was the inventor of the assembly line, and Hitler used this knowledge of the assembly line to speed up production, and to create better and interchangeable products.
• Atilla the Hun is thought to have been a dwarf.
• The warriors tribes of Ethiopia used to hang the testicles of those they killed in battle on the ends of their spears.
• On 15 April 1912 the SS Titanic sunk on her maiden voyage and over 1,500 people died. Fourteen years earlier a novel was published by Morgan Robertson which seemed to foretell the disaster. The book described a ship the same size as the Titanic which crashes into an iceberg on its maiden voyage on a misty April night. The name of Robertson's fictional ship was the Titan.
• There are over 200 religious denominations in the United States.
• Eau de Cologne was originally marketed as a way of protecting yourself against the plague.
• Charles the Simple was the grandson of Charles the Bald, both were rulers of France.
• Theodor Herzi, the Zionist leader who was born on May 2 1860, once had the astonishing idea of converting Jews to Christianity as a way of combating anti-Semitism.
• The women of an African tribe make themselves more attractive by permanently scaring their faces.
• Augustus II, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland seemed to have a prodigious sexual appetite, and fathered hundreds of illegitimate children during his lifetime.
• Some moral purists in the Middle Ages believed that women's ears ought to be covered up because the Virgin May had conceived a child through them.
• Hindus don't like dying in bed, they prefer to die beside a river.
• While at Havard University, Edward Kennedy was suspended for cheating on a Spanish exam.
• It is a criminal offence to drive around in a dirty car in Russia.
• The Emperor Caligula once decided to go to war with the Roman God of the sea, Poseidon, and ordered his soldiers to throw their spears into the water at random.
• The Ecuadorian poet, José Olmedo, has a statue in his honour in his home country. But, unable to commission a sculptor, due to limited funds, the government brought a second-hand statue .. Of the English poet Lord Byron.
• In 1726, at only 7 years old, Charles Sauson inherited the post of official executioner.
• Sir Winston Churchill rationed himself to 15 cigars a day.
• On 7 January 1904 the distress call 'CQD' was introduced. 'CQ' stood for 'Seek You' and 'D' for 'Danger'. This lasted only until 1906 when it was replaced with 'SOS'.
• Though it is forbidden by the Government, many Indians still adhere to the caste system which says that it is a defilement for even the shadow of a person from a lowly caste to fall on a Brahman ( a member of the highest priestly caste).
• In parts of Malaya, the women keep harems of men.
• The childrens' nursery rhyme 'Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses' actually refers to the Black Death which killed about 30 million people in the fourteenth-century.
• The word 'denim' comes from 'de Nimes', Nimes being the town the fabric was originally produced.
• During the reign of Elizabeth I, there was a tax put on men's beards.
• Idi Amin, one of the most ruthless tyrants in the world, before coming to power, served in the British Army.
• Some Eskimos have been known to use refrigerators to keep their food from freezing.
• It is illegal to play tennis in the streets of Cambridge.
• Custer was the youngest General in US history, he was promoted at the age of 23.
• It costs more to send someone to reform school than it does to send them to Eton.
• The American pilot Charles Lindbergh received the Service Cross of the German Eagle form Hermann Goering in 1938.
• The active ingredient in Chinese Bird's nest soup is saliva.
• Marie Currie, who twice won the Nobel Prize, and discovered radium, was not allowed to become a member of the prestigious French Academy because she was a woman.
• It was quite common for the men of Ancient Greece to exercise in public .. naked.
• John Paul Getty, once the richest man in the world, had a payphone in his mansion.
• Iceland is the world's oldest functioning democracy.
• Adolf Eichmann (responsible for countless Jewish deaths during World war II), was originally a travelling salesman for the Vacuum Oil Co. of Austria.
• The national flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
• The Matami Tribe of West Africa play a version of football, the only difference being that they use a human skull instead of a more normal ball.
• John Winthrop introduced the fork to the American dinner table for the first time on 25 June 1630.
• Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Bristol, England on 3 February 1821, was the first woman in America to gain an M.D. degree.
• Abraham Lincoln was shot with a Derringer.
• The great Russian leader, Lenin died 21 January 1924, suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. At the time of his death his brain was a quarter of its normal size.
When shipped to the US, the London bridge ( thought by the new owner to be the more famous Tower Bridge ) was classified by US customs to be a 'large antique'.
• Sir Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' cloakroom after his mother went into labour during a dance at Blenheim Palace.
• In 1849, David Atchison became President of the United States for just one day, and he spent most of the day sleeping.
• Between the two World War's, France was controlled by forty different governments.
• The 'Crystal Palace' at the Great Exhibition of 1851, contained 92 900 square metres of glass.
• It was the custom in Ancient Rome for the men to place their right hand on their testicles when taking an oath. The modern term 'testimony' is derived from this tradition.
• Sir Winston Churchill's mother was descended from a Red Indian.
• The study of stupidity is called 'monology'.
• Hindu men believe(d) it to be unluckily to marry a third time. They could avoid misfortune by marring a tree first. The tree ( his third wife ) was then burnt, freeing him to marry again.
• More money is spent each year on alcohol and cigarettes than on Life insurance.
• In 1911 3 men were hung for the murder of Sir Edmund Berry at Greenbury Hill, their last names were Green, Berry , and Hill.
• A firm in Britain sold fall-out shelters for pets.
• During the seventeen century , the Sultan of Turkey ordered his entire harem of women drowned, and replace with a new one.
• Lady Astor once told Winston Churchill 'if you were my husband, I would poison your coffee'. His reply …' if you were my wife, I would drink it ! '.
• There are no clocks in Las Vegas casinos.
• The Great Pyramid of Giza consists of 2,300,000 blocks each weighing 2.5 tons.
• On 9 February 1942, soap rationing began in Britain.
• Paul Revere was a dentist.
• The Budget speech on April 17 1956 saw the introduction of Premium Savings Bonds into Britain. The machine which picks the winning numbers is called "Ernie", an abbreviation, which stands for' electronic random number indicator equipment'.
• Chop-suey is not a native Chinese dish, it was created in California by Chinese immigrants.
• The Russian mystic, Rasputin, was the victim of a series of murder attempts on this day in 1916. The assassins poisoned, shot and stabbed him in quick succession, but they found they were unable to finish him off. Rasputin finally succumbed to the ice-cold waters of a river.
• Bonnie Prince Charlie, the leader of the Jacobite rebellion to depose of George II of England, was born 31 December 1720. Considered a great Scottish hero, he spent his final years as a drunkard in Rome.
• The Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, was born of the 29th December 1809. Apparently, as a result of his strong Puritan impulses, Gladstone kept a selection of whips in his cellar with which he regularly chastised himself.
• A parthenophobic has a fear of virgins.
• South American gauchos were known to put raw steak under their saddles before starting a day's riding, in order to tenderise the meat.
• There are 240 white dots in a Pacman arcade game.
• In 1939 the US political party 'The American Nazi Party' had 200,000 members.
• King Solomon of Israel had about 700 wives as well as hundreds of mistresses.
• Urine was once used to wash clothes.
• North American Indian, Sitting Bull, died on 15 December 1890. His bones were laid to rest in North Dakota, but a business group wanted him moved to a 'more natural' site in South Dakota. Their campaign was rejected so they stole the bones, and they now reside in Sitting Bull Park, South Dakota.
• St Nicholas, the original Father Christmas, is the patron saint of thieves, virgins and communist Russia.
• Dublin is home of the Fairy Investigation Society.
• Fourteen million people were killed in World War I, twenty million died in a flu epidemic in the years that followed.
• People in Siberia often buy milk frozen on a stick.
• Princess Ann was the only competitor at the 1976 Montreal Olympics that did not have to undergo a sex test.
• Ethelred the Unready, King of England in the Tenth-century, spent his wedding night in bed with his wife and his mother-in-law.
• Coffins which are due for cremation are usually made with plastic handles.
• Blackbird, who was the chief of Omaha Indians, was buried sitting on his favourite horse.
• The two highest IQ's ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women.
• The Tory Prime Minister, Benjamin Disreali, was born 21 December 1804. He was noted for his oratory and had a number of memorable exchanges in the House with his great rival William Gladstone. Asked what the difference between a calamity and a misfortune was Disreali replied: 'If Gladstone fell into the Thames it would be a misfortune, but if someone pulled him out again, it would be a calamity'.
• The Imperial Throne of Japan has been occupied by the same family for the last thirteen hundred years.
• In the seventeenth-century a Boston man was sentenced to two hours in the stocks for obscene behaviour, his crime, kissing his wife in a public place on a Sunday.
• President Kaunda of Zambia once threatened to resign if his fellow countrymen didn't stop drinking so much alcohol.
• Due to staggering inflation in the 1920's, 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 German marks were worth 1 US dollar.
• Gorgias of Epirus was born during preparation of his mothers funeral.
• The city of New York contains a district called 'Hell's Kitchen'.
• The city of Hiroshima left the Industrial Promotion Centre standing as a monument the atomic bombing.
• During the Medieval Crusades, transporting bodies off the battlefield for burial was a major problem, this was solved by carrying a huge cauldron into the Holy wars, boiling down the bodies, and taking only the bones with them.
• A ten-gallon hat holds three-quarters of a gallon.
• George Washington grew marijuana in his garden.

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source: http://home.bitworks.co.nz/trivia/human.htm

• A cockroach will live nine days without its head, before it starves to death.
• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
• A pig's orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• All Polar bears are left-handed.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
• An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
• Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
• Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, dogs only have about ten.
• Cat's urine glows under a black light.
• China has more English speakers than the United States.
• Donald Duck comics were banned in Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
• Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
• Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.
• Every time you lick a stamp, you're consuming 1/10 of a calorie.
• February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
• Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
• I am. is the shortest complete sentence in the English language
• If Barbie were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet, two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human's neck.
• If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.
• If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
• If you keep a goldfish in a dark room, it will eventually turn white.
• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
• In ancient Egypt, priests plucked EVERY hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
• In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
• It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
• Marilyn Monroe had six toes.
• Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
• More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
• No word in the English language rhymes with month.
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.
• One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the '30s lobbied against hemp farmers, they saw it as competition.
• Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.
• Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
• Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do.
• Shakespeare invented the word "assassination" and "bump."
• Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
• Starfish haven't got brains.
• Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.
• The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• The average human eats eight spiders in their lifetime at night.
• The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
• The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
• The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
• The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
• The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.
• The most common name in the world is Mohammed.
• The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan."
• The Pentagon, in Arlington, Virginia, has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s, the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
• The sentence, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.
• The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
• The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
• The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
• The word racecar and kayak are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left.
• There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.
• Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
• You are more likely to be killed by a Champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
• You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.
• You share your birthday with at least nine million other people in the world.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners
Both were succeeded by Southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are comprised of fifteen letters.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Kennedy".
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln".

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker....

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was in Marilyn Monroe.

Jerome Rodale, who founded The Rodale Press publishing house, was taping an interview on the Dick Cavett Talk show. He was bragging about how he was so healthy he'd live to be 100 when he slumped over, dead from a heart attack. The show was never broadcast to the public because it'd be kinda funny.

Pope Johann XII died at age 18 after being beaten to death by his lover's husband.

Jim Fixx, who wrote "The Complete Book of Running" and lectured about how running and a healthy diet would promote longevity, dropped dead from a heart attack while running. An autopsy revealed he had 3 massively blocked heart arteries.

In ancient Japan, it was thought that somewhere on the tail of a cat there was a single hair that would restore life to a dying person. Relatives would sometimes bring a cat to the dying person, letting them pluck a hair to try their luck. So they'd die anyway, but with a cat swatting their face with their claws...

It's impossible to kill yourself by holding your breath, so if a kid pulls that on you, say, "That's nice, dear. Go right ahead.."

Cosmic Irony - The person who wrote the famous song, "Keep the Home Fires Burning" burnt to death when their home caught fire.

In 1970, television newsman Chris Hubbock announced, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of always bringing you the latest in gore and guts in living color, you're about to see another first - an attempted suicide". Then she pulled out a gun and fatally shot herself in the head.

Eric II, King of Denmark, died in 1104. He was known as Eric the Memorable. No one remembers why.

Nosophilia refers to those who get sexually aroused by the knowledge that a partner is terminally ill. They will even stake out support groups for those with terminal illness like others flock to dating services, pretending to have had a family member or friend that passed from the disease, which is why they're there "trying to learn". . Oh, so that's why they're so attentive and understanding!

Napoleon killed over a thousand people with a cough. In 1799 he was deciding whether to release 1,200 Turkish prisoners of war when he coughed and said, "Ma sacré toux!" (my darned cough) which sounded to officers like "Massacrez tous!" (Kill them all!). So they did.

Paul Revere was the fist person to ever identify a body by dental records. He recognized the dead man because of work he had done joining two teeth together with silver wire.

The most expensive funeral so far was that of Alexander the Great. It'd cost about $600,000,000 in today's money. One of the reasons was the building of a road from Babylon to Alexandria, big enough move a jewel studded hearse the size of a small building which was pulled by 64 horses. .

The French playwright Molière became sick and died while playing the role of a hypochondriac in his play "The Imaginary Invalid"

Necrosadism is sadistic acts on corpses for sexual arousal. Jeffrey Dahmer as well as most serial killers do this

Mummies were so plentiful when first discovered that they were ground up and sold as fertilizer and put into medicines

The residents of death row in Texas are forbidden to smoke. Guess they're afraid they'd get cancer and die. Perhaps some can enlighten me as to why?

Mysophilia is the practice of ingesting the body fluids of corpses, particularly urine.

A few months before he got killed in a car accident, James Dean made a driver's safety TV ad in which he said, "Drive safely; the life you save may be mine".

Elvis and Charles Schultz were the #1 and #2 money earning dead people in 2002. Elvis made $31 million; Schultz made $9 million

Playwright Tennessee Williams died after choking on the cap of a bottle of eyedrops. He was a habitual pill-taker and drunk, and in an impaired state he put the cap in his mouth, mistaking it for another pill. It got stuck.

Mark Twain, born on a year Halley's Comet visited us, correctly predicted he would die the next time it came by.

It is a myth that the hair and nails grow after death; the skin shrinks, giving the illusion of their growth

Seven breeds of dog account for 98% of all fatal dog attacks. In order they are: Pit Bull, German Shepherd, Chow, Malamute, Husky, Wolf Hybrids, and the Akita. Mothers-in-Law ranked # 11.

Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA is the largest in the U.S. - 1200 acres in four parks.

Crematoria ovens heat typically to 1,100-1,300 F and will burn up a 180 lb. man in about an hour and a half. There's always bones and chunks left; everything is then ground up and those are the 'ashes' you get back.

President Abraham Lincoln was so distraught over his young son Willie dying, he had his coffin exhumed twice so he could look at him again. And they say Mary was the nutty one...

The Cunard Line, which owns the Queen Elizabeth II, has a service by which relatives can book passage for deceased if they want to be buried at sea. Here in Chicago we just put them in a sack and throw them in the river. Much cheaper

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is the first person to have their ashes put aboard a rocket and "buried" in space.

The word 'mausoleum' comes from the memorial tomb of Mausolus, ruler of Caria, who died in 353 B.C. When he died his wife had him cremated, mixed his ashes with water, and drank him. Cheers!

The tradition of funeral wreaths originated from the belief that the wreath would encircle the spirit of the dead and keep it at bay.

The Mount of Olives in Israel is the oldest, continually used cemetery in the world.

In 1355, when King Pedro of Portugal was crowned, he dug up his mistress to have her properly honored as queen. Loyal subjects bowed before the decorated corpse and had to kiss her hand. That was nice of him - most women can't even get their husbands to take them out to a simple dinner while they're alive ...

By law, all executed criminals in the U.S. have to have an autopsy to determine cause of death. I guess "He was executed by lethal injection" isn't good enough...

It's a myth that more people commit suicide around "the holidays"; in fact it's quite the opposite.

A body decomposes four times faster in water than on land.

Last words of Thomas Grasso, executed in 1995: "I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this". Oh, quit whining and have a seat.

If you're planning on being cryogenically frozen, the ideal time to start the procedure is within 10 minutes of death.

The first recorded means of execution is stoning. It was usually a public participation sport, and it was considered bad form to hit the victim in the head. The preferred method was to keep the victim conscious and suffering for as long as possible from internal injuries and broken bones. Think that's horrible? They still do this in some countries.

Dr. Joseph Guillotin did not invent the guillotine; he just persuaded officials to use it as a means of executions because of it's speed and efficiency. It is a myth that he died by the device.

Henry the VIII executed some 72,000 subjects. His favorite method was boiling people to death .

The ashes of astronomer Eugene Shoemaker were put aboard the 1999 Lunar Prospector flight and was "control" crashed into a crater to give him a moon burial.

Only four U.S. States are on record as having never engaged in a lynching - Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

William Kemmler was the first person to be executed in the electric chair in 1890, at Auburn Prison in New York. It was a disaster. The executioner had to administer several rounds of juice while Kemmler kicked, seared, smoked, thrashed and convulsed, finally dying after 8 minutes. An autopsy showed he literally cooked to death, from the inside out.

Lethal injection was first used in 1982. Three separate drugs are used, starting with a barbiturate which knocks the victim out. I'm told by someone who works in a Texas prison and who has witnessed this up close that the recipient is not aware that they are "dying" in any way and that, physically at least, it is a painless procedure. Which is a shame.

When John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, it was not a federal felony to kill a President of the United States.

Singer Steve Goodman had his ashes buried under the home plate in Chicago's Wrigley Field.

An eternal flame lamp at the tomb of a Buddhist priest in Nara, Japan has been tended to and kept burning for 1,127 years (2003)

Utah and Ohio are the only states which still can execute by firing squad.

The name of the pilot of the ill-fated TWA Flight 800 which exploded over New York, was Ralph Kevorkian

The first drive-in mortuary was opened in Atlanta in 1968 by Hirschel Thornton. While the deceased rested behind a glass wall, those wanting to pay last respects could drive by without having to get out of their cars. There's "caring' for you, huh? Wonder if they'll have burgers to go, next...

From the 1850s to the 1880s, the most common reason for death among cowboys in the American West was being dragged by a horse while their foot was still caught in the stirrups. Then I guess someone noticed this and said, "Hey! We ought to be more careful!" So it stopped.

Tens of millions of people died of smallpox but now there are only two live samples of the virus left in the world. Both are in sealed test tubes; one is in a lab in Moscow and the other is at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The last reported case of smallpox in the world was in 1978 in England, when the virus accidentally escaped from a lab. Most smallpox photos you see showing "smallpox" these days are some horrible black pustules that are the product of the archaic mercury treatments that used to give - not the smallpox.

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, his pal Henry Ford trapped the inventor's last dying breath in a bottle.

A taphophile is a person who is interested in the history and art of cemeteries, funerals and gravestones

When the first landing party went to Krakatoa after the 1883 eruption, the only living thing they found on the entire island was one spider, who was spinning a new web. I really like that spider.

King Cambyses of Persia (525 BC) marched 50,000 troops into the desert to attack Amun, on the Libyan border. A sandstorm of epic proportions boiled up and buried them all.

The leading cause of death to military personnel in peace time is drunk driving.

Murderers, on average, are 7.5 years younger than their victims.

The Viet Nam Memorial has the names of 38 people engraved on it who are listed as killed, but weren't.

Extreme cold is more lethal to humans than extreme heat. Cold makes you sleepy, and when you fall asleep, you die

Actor Bela Lagosi was buried in his favorite Dracula cape.

Funeral directors in Florida get 500 frequent flyer miles for every corpse they ship out of Daytona Beach International Airport.

Japanese factory worker Kenji Urada became the first known fatality 'caused by robot' in July, 1981, in a car plant.

It would take more than 2.5 minutes to fall from the top of Mt. Everest. Then you'd go --->S P L A T <---

It's a myth that there's a "curse of King Tut's tomb" and 'most ' of the people who were present at the opening of the tomb died swift, horrible deaths. Of the 22 present at it's opening, 21 were alive 10 years later.

The death of George V was timed so it'd make the morning papers

In the 'old days' men and women used a Laff Riot of deadly substances for cosmetics, which would often lead to their insanity and death. Lead was used for that pale white skin in the form of Lead white and Venetian Ceruse, which was absorbed into the skin, into the tissues and blood and caused acute lead poisoning. Mercury, in the form of mercury sublimate or "Solman's Water" was used to remove warts and bleach freckles. Ditto. Belladonna, a fatally toxic hallucinogen, was used to redden cheeks and lips.

It's said that most people who commit suicide 'arrange' it so the people/person they want to 'punish' or give a final "See I told you so" find the body

Armadillos and humans are the only animals that get leprosy.

The most common animal people on their death beds or in death hallucinations/visions report seeing is a grey or black dog.

More men than women commit suicide over love affairs gone wrong.

In the 20 years of the Great California Gold Rush (1849) about 300,000 died from disease and 362 were killed by Indians.

When Anne Boleyn was beheaded, so was her dog, Urian. Guess that showed her.

It's estimated that in one hour, Genghis Khan's army killed 1,748,000 people. Each of his men was ordered to kill as many people as they could until they dropped from exhaustion, and bring the ears of the victims to the officers for proof.

Elephants have been known to die of broken hearts if a mate dies. They refuse to eat and will lay down, shedding tears until they starve to death. They refuse all human help.

Union General John Sedgewick was killed during the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 9, 1864 while sitting on his horse and making the comment that the confederate troops were so inept that they "couldn't hit an elephant from this dis - - - " Those were his last words.

Direct Dialing inspired by death - Almon Strowger was one of two undertakers who worked in Kansas City in the 1800s. When a dear friend died, he thought it was pretty strange he hadn't been called by the family to take care of the funeral arrangements. It just so happened that the only telephone operator in Kansas City, who received and directed all the city's phone calls, was the other undertaker's wife. Hmmm.... Strowger didn't get mad, he got even. He invented the world's first automatic telephone exchange system (and the first dial phone) making it possible for people to dial numbers directly and not have to use operators. Take that.