Nutty Facts & Trivia

During the 16th and 17th centuries anyone caught drinking coffee in Turkey was put to death. 

It costs more to buy a new car today in the United States than it cost Christopher Columbus to equip and undertake three voyages to and from the New World. 

Millie the White House dog earned more than four times as much money as President Bush in 1991. 

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

The term "the whole 9 yards" came from WWII fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got "the whole 9 yards." 

Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation. 

The drive-through line on opening day at the McDonald's restaurant in Kuwait City, Kuwait was seven miles long at its peak. 

All 50 US states claim the test scores in their elementary schools are above the national average. 

It is illegal for a US citizen to have any contact with extraterrestrials. 

One third of all the land in the US is owned by the government. 

One out of five people in the world live on less than $1 per day. 

Large ocean liners each pay $250,000 to go through the Panama Canal.

Did You Know That...? 
...anxiety affects your balance. When you experience severe levels of anxiety, you can also have frequent balance problems, like feeling dizzy for no apparent reason or swaying more than others while standing normally. This begins at an early age, but studies have shown that treating the balance problem during childhood can help reduce anxiety and boost self-esteem. 

...kids who play an instrument or take extended music classes can develop better visual abilities, form a higher verbal IQ, and are often happier at school in almost every area - even in classes and activities that have no relation to music. 

...twinstrangers.com is a website where you can try to find your lookalikes from anywhere in the world by uploading photos of yourself, selecting your facial features, and sorting through matches. 

...one of the best ways to remember something is to tell someone about it. When you immediately relay what you've learned to somebody else, you're more likely to remember the details longer than if you just keep re-reading them. This is because your brain assumes that any information you've told to another person must be pretty important, and when it's categorizing memories, the ones flagged 'most important' are kept in a more readily-accessible place. 

...U.S. college textbook prices have risen more than 1,000% since 1977. Because college students are forced to purchase every book their professors choose, they are considered 'captive customers'. Due to a student's obligation to buy these books no matter what they cost, prices have increased at 3x the rate of inflation. 

...Honeycrisp apples are expensive because they're so high maintenance. They demand a specific soil, ripen at various times, must be harvested by hand, and need a trellis to support their delicate branches. Growers also didn't expect them to be so popular, so there aren't as many trees producing the fruit as there are people to buy it.