Page 34 - The 'X' Zone Book of Triviology

o Earth’s oldest living thing: 4,000-year-old General Sherman tree, Sequoia National Park, CA. o What they provide us: sheep - insulin; cows - smallpox vaccines; horses - serums for tetanus shots. o Harvest from the sea: sulfur, oil, magnesium, bromine, salt, manganese, gold, and diamonds. o Fish do not sleep in an upright position; most keep moving at varying speeds. o Edison’s first incandescent electric lamp created in October 1879 burned for 40 hours. o By 1882 Edison had successfully lit one square mile of New York City. o The first car ad was in Scientific American in July 1898. o Ford Motor Company was founded in 1903; the assembly line was introduced in 1913. o Tree sap is a conductor of electricity - why ‘s dangerous to stand under a tree in a storm. o The first intersection equipped with an electric traffic light was in Cleveland, Ohio. o The first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. o The first commercial color TV show aired in 1921; regular color broadcasts took till 1954. o First functional typewriter was invented in 1867; word processors began to replace them in 1974. o Dr. Christiaan Barnard successfully performed the first human heart transplant in 1967. o The first permanent artificial heart transplant was not performed until 1982. o Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1974 to write software for small computers. o Kotex was first manufactured as bandages, during World War I. o The first Apple computer is 1976 had 8 bytes of RAM and cost about $700. o IBM introduced the personal computer in 1981. o VCRs, invented in the 1960s, were the fastest-selling domestic appliances in history. o By 1991, three out of every four American homes had a VCR. o Forensic entomologists can estimate how long someone has been dead by the corpse’s insects. o “Borborygmus,” the stomach rumbling sound, is fluid and gas going through the intestines. o The inspiration for Pac-Man was a pizza with one slice missing. o If an orangutan belches at you, watch out. He’s warning you to stay out of his territory. o Pac-Man’s name is based on a Japanese slang for the motion of a mouth eating - “paku paku.” o The average fashion model weighs 120 pounds. o Levi’s were invented for the California gold miners in 1873. o The first transcontinental phone call was in 1915 from New York to San Francisco. o A brown bear eats up to 10 salmon before it is full equal to a kid eating 40 burgers at once. o The biggest known pumpkin in history weighed almost 700 pounds. o The theme song to “Mr. Ed” was written by the composers who wrote “Que Sera, Sera.” o Einstein couldn’t speak fluently when he was nine. His parents thought that he was retarded. o There are an average of around 700 tornadoes every year in the U.S. o In 1988, Michael Jackson earned an estimated $60 million. o Chanel No. 5 is the most popular perfume in the world. o When he died, Elvis’s estate was valued at $10 million. o As a person ages, the first sense to go is the sense of smell. o The “first electronic computer” was built in 1889 for the U.S. Census Bureau. o Miami’s border includes two national parks: the Everglades and Biscayne National Park. o The smallest snake is the blind snake, which could wrap around your fingertip. o The largest recorded anaconda was 350 pounds (158 kg) and was 38 feet (11.5 m) long. o Mosquitoes’ small wings vibrate very quickly and make a high whining sound. o A bumblebee’s larger wings vibrate more slowly and make a low buzzing sound. o Egrets use their wings like an umbrella to cut the water’s glare and look for fish below.