LITTLE KNOWN FACTS:
Glass takes one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!
Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it's buried in the ground for thousands of years.
Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end.
If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. When a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.
Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals.
Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers.
The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English-speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.
Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61 percent.
Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it's heated above 450F.
The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.
Nine out of every 10 living things live in the ocean.
The banana cannot reproduce itself. It can be propagated only by the hand of man.
Airports at higher altitudes require a longer airstrip due to lower air density.
The University of Alaska spans four time zones.
The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself.
In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage. Catching it meant she accepted.
Warner Communications paid 28 million for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday.
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
A comet's tail always points away from the sun.
The Swine Flu vaccine in 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent.
Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other pain killers, that is why it is found in some medicines.
The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armor raised their visors to reveal their identity.
If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up, you can see stars, even in the middle of the day.
When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go. The first sense lost is sight.
In ancient times strangers shook hands to show that they were unarmed.
Strawberries are the only fruit whose seeds grow on the outside.
Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.
The moon moves about two inches away from the Earth each year.
The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust.
Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters.
Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy.
Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges because they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down.
Everything weighs one percent less at the equator.
For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530 kg of excess fuel are needed at lift-off.
The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements.
Author unknown
LITTLE KNOWN TRAIN FACTS:
The first locomotive to run on rails in America was built in 1825 by John Stevens of Hoboken, New Jersey. It ran on a half-mile track behind his home.
Among the earliest locomotives in service in America the John Bull was shipped from England to the United States in 1831 and became the prototype for future locomotive development.
In 1840, only 10 years after the first American railroad line opened, there were 2,800 miles of track in the country. By 1860, there were 30,000 miles of track.
America's first railroad station was built in 1830 by the B & O Line in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1835 trains traveled 20 mph plus. American legend Davy Crockett found out the hard way by opening a window to spit. He misjudged the speed and it came back and hit him in the face.
A trip from London to Exeter (about 175 miles) once took 21 hours by stagecoach. By 1846, trains were making the journey in 6 ½ hours and at less cost.
The shortest railroad in the World is the Angels Flight in Los Angeles, California. Only a few hundred feet long, it is a registered/chartered railroad.
Early railroads in America were built primarily to promote the commercial interests of local communities, not as public services.
The first New York state passenger train trip was made August 9, 1831, aboard the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad. It made the 17 mile run in 1 hour 45 minutes.
In the 1940s most of the nation's railroads had converted or were converting to diesel locomotives. During WWII railroads were the lifeblood of America's vast industrial arsenal.
The "Big Red Cars" of Los Angeles' inter-urban electric railway system once operated 1,164 miles of track in 50 plus communities.
The 1st Fred Harvey restaurant opened in 1876 in the little red Santa Fe station in Topeka, KS. It was so successful, Fred Harvey restaurants soon opened at many other stations across the nation.
During the expansion of New York's Grand Central Station, an average of 400 car loads of dirt and granite left the excavation site every day for 10 years.
On May 10, 1869, the first transcontinental rail route in America was completed when the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific lines were linked at Promontory, Utah.
May 10, 1869 the Union Pacific Railroad opened it's newest connection, Omaha to San Francisco. A traveler from Omaha could travel to San Francisco over the Rockies in less than four days!
Author unknown
Jobs people look down on:
- Truck Drive
- Oil Worker
- Electrician
- Carpenter
- Mechanic
- Farmer
Jobs people look up to:
- Social media "influencer"
- Athlete
- Actor
- Model
Jobs that keep society running:
- Truck Drive
- Oil Worker
- Electrician
- Carpenter
- Mechanic
- Farmer
Author unknown
In times of danger and not before, God and the Soldier all men adore, when the danger is past and all things are righted, God is forgotten and the Soldier is slighted.
Author unknown