Since the invention of Google which according to Google started out in January 1996 by two uni students, delivering information to all corners of the globe has never been easier. Finally we know what happens when you try and pop popcorn with a handful of mobile phones, nothing, that's right nothing, it's a hoax and just when you thought you would never be able to find the time difference between the Bahamas Turks and Caicos Islands and Sydney you now do and let me tell you, there was a time when I needed to know the difference all the time. Information, pictures, people, businesses and buildings are all connected and the information flows like wildfire and I love it. I Google things all the time, even my name, just to see if I have been linked to something weird and wonderful and amazing since the last time I Googled myself. But beyond childish nonsense of such a nature, Google continues to broaden my knowledge and my imagination.
In this post I have tried to find some useful facts, some interesting ones that you probably or at least I am hoping you haven't heard before because lets face it, I am tired of hearing the same old ones repeated time and time again. I have also tried to debunk some purely by investigating a bit harder, digging a bit deeper and asking the question "really, do right handed people really live longer than left? How is that possible? Why? Huh? Show me the figures!"
If I think of something I Google it, you never know when you might need to know that fact in the future, how you might slip it into a conversation and why sit there wondering unless wondering is your thing. Go hence forth to Google and open your mind to the many weird and wonderful facts available to you. Let's hope that even a small few of you find them as interesting as my husband and I do, that they spark some sort of conversation and make you giggle at Google along the way. If you know some that you want to share just comment below or contact me via the link above.
Note: Just to be a Debbie Downer I must put a disclaimer here. These statistics and facts I have below are drawn from the Internet, some I have been told, some I could have quite possibly dreamt of in my sleep and are actually hideously incorrect, others from print media, some from TV. So...take them with a grain of salt and don't go adding them into your next uni essay or child's school project without first checking that what I have checked is in fact correct. This is purely just for fun.
Happy fact finding my friends.
1. A prune is a dried plum. I know! Amazing!
2. The air temperature inside a bushfire is around 800 degrees Celsius. Hot hey! It gives a whole new meaning to bush fire season and I make no jokes about that, it is not a laughing matter. Truly!
3. Geographically the US is larger but Australia is approximately the same size at the contiguous states. The picture below explains it all.
However, the population of Australia is about 21 million compared to the nearly 300 million people populating the US of A. Now, this might be a bit of those "ahh, really dumbass moments" but I am not geographically minded, in fact you'd be disgusted if I told you how atrocious my geography really is and I blame it all on my year 7 geography teacher who in all honestly was a flat out bitch. That aside, I still find this fact amazing. After all, I have such grandiose ideas of the enormity of the States, that such a country should be far bigger and wider the Australia, but apparently not. See, terrible at geography aren't I?
4. Australia is approximately 23 times the size of Vietnam yet Vietnam has more than 4 times the population of Australia. Now, next time you complain about having to touch shoulders with someone on the train or brush past someone in the supermarket shopping isle think about what it is like for the Vietnamese. Vietnam also holds the record for the most broken bones in all countries in the world due to their large number of traffic accidents. According to statistics taken from a source published in 2009 there were 30 million motorbikes in Vietnam with traffic accidents causing the most deaths for people aged between 18-45, 80% of which are attributed to motorbikes. Causing so much devastation, traffic accidents in Vietnam are often referred to as natural disasters.
5. A 1966 Volvo 1800S and its one owner Irv Gordon of East Patchogue, New York, USA owns the Guinness world record for highest mileage in the same vehicle he has been driving for more than 45 years. As of July 2012, the car is 34,000 miles shy of the 3 million mile mark (4,828,032 km). To put this into perspective the circumference of the earth is 40,075km and the distance between Earth and the Moon, about 360,000km so essentially he could have driven to the moon and back 6.5 times over. The car was destined to be a lemon. With considerable quality control issues and poor sales the 1800S was designed to aid Volvo's entry into the sports car market after their previous models attempt only sold 68 cars.
6. I recently heard that renewable energy in the form of wind farms is the primary cause of bird and bat deaths in Australia. Well, take Spain as an example. According to Spain's Ornithological Society, its main bird conservation charity the country's 18,000 wind turbines kill up to an estimated 18 million birds and bats a year. Ouch. However we can't blame wind farms as much as one would like it, it is actually glass windows. Glass kills more birds than any other human related factor.
7. A hurricane releases more energy in 10 minutes, than all the world's nuclear weapons combined
8. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match
9. Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. Wrong! Stop worrying lefties, it was proved to be based on a floored analysis and groundless.
10. Australia has over 6,000 species of flies, about 4,000 species of ants, and about 350 species of termites. Dear God!
11. The roof of the Sydney Opera House weighs more than 161 000 000kg's (161,000 tons)
12. There are as many chickens on earth as there are humans. We can thank KFC and McDonald's for that one.
13. Former president Bill Clinton only sent 2 emails in his entire 8 year presidency. Busy man.
14. There are 200,000,000 insects for every one human. Why God, Why?
15. 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa
16. The infamous “I feel lucky” button is nearly never used on Google. However, in trials it was found that removing it would somehow reduce the Google experience. Users wanted it kept. It was a comfort button yet only 1% of Google users actually every click on it. A study found that the button actually costs Google $110 million dollars a year as it bypass's all advertising on the search engine results page taking you directly to the first search result at the top of the list.
17. Did you know that honey can contain the Clostridium botulinum bacteria which if ingested by children can result in botulism which is a rare but serious illness.
18. The reason why women’s dress shirt buttons are on the left and men’s on the right is because when buttons were first used during the Victorian period maids used to dress the ladies, and since the maids put on their shirts the buttons were put on the servants right side, hence the women’s left.
19. The most expensive shoes in the world are ruby slippers located in Harrods in London, which cost $1.6 million, has a full time security guard. The shoes are made from platinum thread and has 642 rubies in them. It took over 700 hours to produce the shoe.
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