Did You Know...…

• The first emoticon is commonly credited to Kevin Mackenzie in 1979, but was a rather simple -) and didn’t really look like a face. 3 years later, was proposed by Scott Fahlman and has become the norm. For Japanese’s emoticons are bigger and better. ~~~ヾ (＾∇＾) • The first webcam was deployed at Cambridge University computer lab – its sole purpose to monitor a particular coffee maker and hence avoid wasted trips to an empty pot. • Google estimates that the Internet today contains more than 5 million terabytes of data (1TB = 1,000GB), and claims it has only indexed a paltry 0.04% of it all! You could fit the whole Internet on just 200 million Blue-Ray disks. • There is no Nobel Prize for mathematicians. Moths are unable to fly during an earthquake.1 x 8 + 1 = 9; 12 x 8 + 2 = 98; 123 x 8 + 3 = 987; 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876; 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765; 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654; 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543; 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432; 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321 • The term “bank teller” originated in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, when banks began hiring low-paid workers to “tell” throngs of frantic depositors that their money was gone. The sound made when a duck passes gas is the precise acoustic opposite of its quack; if it does both simultaneously, there’s no audible sound. • The rhesus monkey is the only animal that can be taught to hum a tune. • Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water. • Centuries ago, purchasing real estate often required having one or more limbs amputated in order to prevent the purchaser from running away to avoid repayment of the loan. Hence an expensive purchase was said to cost “an arm and a leg.” • In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives. • If the air in your car’s tires is not completely replaced every two years, it can turn to liquid and cause severe damage. • The ancient Arabic word “jorgbushii” translates roughly to “evil one who comes disguised in peace to drink Earth’s black blood.” • Charles Darwin once attempted to breed flying monkeys by crossing chimpanzees with vultures. Children conceived on airplanes never suffer from motion sickness. • A common misconception is that the term “salsa dancing” derives from the food condiment called salsa. Actually, the dance was invented in the 1930s by a dance teacher named Frankie Salsa. • Eskimoes have hundreds of words for snow but none for hello. Ends