Great YouTube Channel = http://www.youtube.com/user/UniqueApps

Hi everyone,
i want to share with you a great youtuber's channel - UniqueApps. Every friday - givaways of stuff! You might want to check it out!

Christmas fun facts Part 1

There's no other holiday like Christmas. Many of us celebrate the holidays without knowing how our traditions got started or what they signify. Christmas is much more fun when you know some facts behind the holiday.

Most of these facts are very interesting and reminds us that there is quite a bit of history behind our family customs. Try using the trivia to make your own Christmas quiz for holiday parties and add a unique touch with personal favorites.

	Christmas Trivia and Fun Facts

There's no other holiday like Christmas. Many of us celebrate the holidays without knowing how our traditions got started or what they signify. Christmas is much more fun when you know some facts behind the holiday.

Most of these facts are very interesting and reminds us that there is quite a bit of history behind our family customs. Try using the trivia to make your own Christmas quiz for holiday parties and add a unique touch with personal favorites.

Christmas Holiday Trivia

The word Christmas is Old English, a contraction of Christ's Mass.

The first president to decorate the white house Christmas tree in the United States was Franklin Pierce.

Germany made the first artificial Christmas trees. They were made of goose feathers and dyed green.

Electric lights for trees were first used in 1895.

 The first Christmas cards were vintage and invented in 1843, the Victorian Era. (You can read more about the history of Christmas Cards here.)

  "It's a Wonderful Life" appears on TV more often than any other holiday movie.

  Rudolph" was actually created by Montgomery Ward in the late 1930's for a holiday promotion. The rest is history.

  The Nutcracker" is the most famous Christmas ballet.

  Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.

  If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 gifts.

  The poinsettia plant was brought into the United States from Mexico by Joel Poinsett in the early 1800's.

  Holly berries are poisonous.

  Contrary to common belief, poinsettia plants are non-toxic.

  Mistletoe was chosen as Oklahoma's state flower in 1893 and later changed to the state floral emblem.

  In 1843, "A Christmas Carol" was written by Charles Dickens in just six weeks.

  The first state to recognize the Christmas holiday officially was Alabama.

  Christmas became a national holiday in America on June, 26, 1870.
Clearing up a common misconception, in Greek, X means Christ. That is where the word "X-Mas" comes from. Not because someone took the "Christ" out of Christmas.

Traditionally, Christmas trees are taken down after Epiphany.

More diamonds are sold around Christmas than any other time of the year.

In Mexico, wearing red underwear on New Year's Eve is said to bring new love in the upcoming year.
Source

Top 15 Shocking Facts You Didn’t Know About Office Paper Waste:

1. 
   A typical business office will produce about 1.5 pounds of paper waste per employee each day.
   
2. 
   If you were to eliminate office paper from your waste stream you can cut your waste bill by 50 percent or more.
   
3. 
   For every ton of recycled paper it can save up to 17 trees.
   
4. 
   The paper industry ranks 4th in contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, and contributes 9% of the manufacturing sector’s carbon emissions
   
5. 
   If the U.S could cut office paper use by just 10% it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases (the equivalent of taking 280,000 cars off the road).
   
6. 
   One year’s worth of the New York Times newspaper weighs 520 pounds.
   
7. 
   To print a Sunday edition of the New York Times it takes 75,000 trees.
   
8. 
   With all the office paper we waste every year we could build a 12-foot high wall of paper from New York to California.
   
9. 
   The average American attorney uses one ton of paper every year.
   
10. 
    Recycling one ton of paper saves 682.5 gallons of oil (think about that next time you’re standing at the pump).
    
11. 
    American consumers receive 41 pounds of junk mail per year.
    
12. 
    US Offices create 12.1 trillion sheets of paper Per Year
    
13. 
    40% of the solid mass in landfills is paper and paperboard waste
    
14. 
    More than 100 million trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail
    
15. 
    Paper usage is rising by around 20% every year, with the average office worker using approximately 50 sheets of paper every day in the typical office.
    
    [Source]
    

Top 20 Amazing Science Facts:

Another trivia list! This list explores a variety of fascinating scientific facts that you probably are unaware of. Science is still a very mysterious subject so there are millions of trivial facts about it – this will be the first of many scientific fact lists in the future.

1. There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body – laid end to end they would circle the earth 2.5 times

2. At over 2000 kilometers long The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth

3. The risk of being struck by a falling meteorite for a human is one occurrence every 9,300 years

4. A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons

5. A typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent to 8,000 one megaton bombs

6. Blood sucking hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide

7. The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 166.94 mph by Fred Rompelberg

8. We can produce laser light a million times brighter than sunshine

9. 65% of those with autism are left handed

10. The combined length of the roots of a Finnish pine tree is over 30 miles

11. The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents to a depth of nearly 500 feet

12. The interstellar gas cloud Sagittarius B contains a billion, billion, billion liters of alcohol [JFrater is planning to move there in the near future]

13. Polar Bears can run at 25 miles an hour and jump over 6 feet in the air

14. 60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor

15. Polar Bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur

16. The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life

17. A single rye plant can spread up to 400 miles of roots underground

18. The temperature on the surface of Mercury exceeds 430 degrees C during the day, and, at night, plummets to minus 180 degrees centigrade

19. The evaporation from a large oak or beech tree is from ten to twenty-five gallons in twenty-four hours

20. Butterflies taste with their hind feet and their taste sensation works on touch – this allows them to determine whether a leaf is edible

[Source]

Top 5 surprising turkey facts:

Since Lincoln made Thanksgiving a holiday, turkeys have changed a lot.
The average American eats 17.6 pounds of turkey per year, more than double the figure for 1970, according to the National Turkey Federation. To feed the growing appetite, some 273 million turkeys will be raised in the United States in 2009, and a good number of them will be consumed on Thanksgiving, after which many Americans will loll about, overstuffed, sleepy and in many cases intoxicated.

This is not what the Pilgrims had in mind.

The first Thanksgiving was a moment for the Pilgrims to thank God for allowing them to kill enough game and grow sufficient crops to get through the winter, says Anne Blue Wills, assistant professor of religion at Davidson College. Those Pilgrims would have spent much of their day in church contemplating the mercies of God's covenantal love, Wills argues.

Not until Sarah Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine promoted for 50 years the idea of a regular Thanksgiving holiday did President Abraham Lincoln make it one in 1863. In the years since, the turkeys we eat have changed dramatically, and so has scientific knowledge of them. Among the things you might not know:

1. Turkeys can fly
Wild turkeys feed on the ground, which might explain the myth of their flightlessness. They can in fact soar for short bursts at up to 55 mph. But their tendency to stay on or near the ground contributed to successful hunting that brought the wild population of turkeys down to about 30,000 in the 1930s. There are now 7 million of them.

2. Dark meat is rare because ...
Meat is muscle. And muscle is fed by blood. In the blood is myoglobin, which binds with oxygen and stores it in muscles for when it's needed. Myoglobin also makes meat dark. Muscles that are used most, like those in drumsticks (legs), have more myoglobin. Domestic turkeys are too fat to fly, so they don't use their breast muscles much, which is why breast meat is white. The breast of a wild turkey is entirely different, darker (and far tastier for those who are game).

 3. Turkey eggs wouldn't sell

Chickens are champion egg-producers. Turkeys, not so good. Turkey eggs are bigger, so their nests tie up coop space. And farmers have learned that they make more raising turkeys for meat rather than eggs. Oh, and some turkeys are protective of their eggs, making the gathering more challenging.

4. It's not the turkey that makes you sleepy
Turkey contains a natural chemical called tryptophan, which we need to build proteins for our bodies. Indeed, tryptophan is also related to the production of serotonin, which helps us sleep. But all meat has about the same amount of tryptophan. Cheddar cheese has a lot more. What really makes you sleepier after a Thanksgiving meal compared to other meals is eating too many carbohydrates, from potatoes to pies. Alcohol can contribute, too.

5. Dinosaurs had wishbones, too
The wishbone, called a furcula, is the fusion of two collarbones at the sternum. It's where a bird’s flying muscles hook up. It's elastic and great for flapping. Turns out T. Rex and the Velociraptor had wishbones, too. While they didn't fly, this fairly recent discovery is one of the many bits of evidence that shows birds evolved from dinosaurs.

Sarah Hale probably never thought about any of this back in the mid-1800s. She just wanted the nation to celebrate a pious, patriotic holiday, said Wills, the Davidson College researcher. Hale used columns and stories in her magazine to portray Thanksgiving as a triumph of domesticity and rural simplicity over urban sophistication. She urged President Lincoln to create a single day on which all states would mark the holiday as a national event.

Source

Amazing but true facts Load #2

Calvin, of the "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip, was patterned after President Calvin Coolidge, who had a pet tiger as a boy.

Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a three-hour baseball game.

Until 1978, Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels.

You can actually sharpen the blades on a pencil sharpener by wrapping your pencils in aluminum foil before inserting them.

To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine.

Seven out of every ten hockey-playing Canadians will lose a tooth during a game. For Canadians who don't play hockey, that figure drops to five out of ten.

A dog's naked behind leaves absolutely no bacteria when pressed against carpet.

A team of University of Virginia researchers released a study promoting the practice of picking one's nose, claiming that the health benefits of keeping nasal passages free from infectious blockages far outweigh the negative social connotations.

Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

Urine from male cape water buffaloes is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel.

At the first World Cup championship in Uruguay, 1930, the soccer balls were actually monkey skulls wrapped in paper and leather.

Every Labrador retriever dreams about bananas.

If you put a bee in a film canister for two hours, it will go blind and leave behind its weight in honey.

Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms.

Never hold your nose and cover your mouth when sneezing, as it can blow out your eyeballs.

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."

When Mahatma Gandhi died, an autopsy revealed five gold Krugerrands in his small intestine.

Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only during summer months.

Coca-Cola was the favored drink of Pharaoh Ramses. An inscription found in his tomb, when translated, was found to be almost identical to the recipe used today.

If you part your hair on the right side, you were born to be carnivorous. If you part it on the left, your physical and psychological make-up is that of a vegetarian.

When immersed in liquid, a dead sparrow will make a sound like a crying baby.

In WWII the US military planned to airdrop over France propaganda in the form of Playboy magazine, with coded messages hidden in the models' turn-ons and turn-offs. The plan was scrapped because of a staple shortage due to rationing of metal.

Although difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

Napoleon's favorite type of wood was knotty chestnut.

The world's smartest pig, owned by a mathematics teacher in Madison, WI, memorized the multiplication tables up to 12.

Due to the natural "momentum" of the ocean, saltwater fish cannot swim backwards.

In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.

It is nearly three miles farther to fly from Amarillo, Texas to Louisville, Kentucky than it is to return from Louisville to Amarillo.

The "nine lives" attributed to cats is probably due to their having nine primary whiskers.

The original inspiration for Barbie dolls comes from dolls developed by German propagandists in the late 1930s to impress young girls with the ideal notions of Aryan features. The proportions for Barbie were actually based on those of Eva Braun.

The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops in mid-flight, arriving safely back at his cave completely dry. 

Source

Amazing but true facts Load #1

In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.

The increased electricity used by modern appliance parts is causing a shift in the Earth's magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.

The idea for "tribbles" in "Star Trek" came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.

Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.

Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.

Smearing a small amount of dog feces on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.

The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren't for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.

The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.

The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there's no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.

Legislation passed during WWI making it illegal to say "gesundheit" to a sneezer was never repealed.

Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don't do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.

SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below.

Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.

Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

The first McDonald's restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

The Air Force's F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.

You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

Silly Putty was "discovered" as the residue left behind after the first latex condoms were produced. It's not widely publicized for obvious reasons.

Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

The skin needed for elbow transplants must be taken from the scrotum of a cadaver.

The sport of jai alai originated from a game played by Incan priests who held cats by their tails and swung at leather balls. The cats would instinctively grab at the ball with their claws, thus enabling players to catch them.

A cat's purr has the same romance-enhancing frequency as the voice of singer Barry White.

The typewriter was invented by Hungarian immigrant Qwert Yuiop, who left his "signature" on the keyboard.

The volume of water that the Giant Sequoia tree consumes in a 24-hour period contains enough suspended minerals to pave 17.3 feet of a 4-lane concrete freeway.

King Henry VIII slept with a gigantic axe.

Because printed materials are being replaced by CD-ROM, microfiche and the Internet, libraries that previously sank into their foundations under the weight of their books are now in danger of collapsing in extremely high winds.

In 1843, a Parisian street mime got stuck in his imaginary box and consequently died of starvation.

Touch-tone telephone keypads were originally planned to have buttons for Police and Fire Departments, but they were replaced with * and # when the project was cancelled in favor of developing the 911 system.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.

Source

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart:

Matters of the heart have baffled humans since the dawn of time, with sonnets and entire books devoted to the meaning of love. Now scientists are finding that the blood pump in your chest is just as complex. You can't live or love without it. Find out the sappy scoop on the heart, including how sex and laughter are indeed good for it, and how bad news really can break it. -- Jeanna Bryner

10. Sex Appeal
If you can't make it to the gym, try fooling around. Your heart might thank you. A study of 2,500 men aged 49 to 54 found that having an orgasm at least three times a week cut in half the likelihood of death from coronary heart disease. And barring underlying health issues and the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted disease, sex can give you a workout. By some estimates, a vigorous sex session can double a person's heart rate and burn up about 200 calories, or the equivalent of a brisk 15-minute run. So staying in bed might be just what the doctor orders.
9. Female Hearts
Girls rule in some matters of the heart, but when it comes to research into cardiovascular disease it's the guys who come into the spotlight. For decades, heart disease and heart attacks have been viewed as a man's illness. But this is far from the truth. Heart disease kills 500,000 American women each year, topping male numbers by 50,000. Another gender gap: Women don't tend to experience the Hollywood-standard heart attack in which gripping chest pain sends you keeling over. Instead, women have reported tightness, aching or pressure in the heart, plus other symptoms like nausea, back and jaw pain.
8. Heart Mend
A love-torn heart can be painful enough to make you wish you could get a new heart or at least a cardio repair kit. Both of the latter options could some day be realities. Scientists are studying the red-spotted newt to help them develop cell therapies for humans with physically damaged hearts. This amphibian can turn its cells back in time, as if they were stem cells, in order to build up new heart muscle. In another study, scientists engineered a beating heart from embryonic stem cells in the lab.
7. Heart-to-Heart
A seemingly sheepish look from Fido or that endearing brush-by from your cat can make you wonder if your pet could possibly communicate with you. A recent study adds equine friends to the list of emotionally-responsive animals. A scientist found that horse's heart rates mirror those of human subjects touching them. The horse emotion-detector could someday replace procedures used to measure a patient's stress hormones. Next, the researcher will study service dogs to better match them with humans.
6. Big Hearts
Some people really do have bigger hearts than others. Rather than a sign of affection, an enlarged heart can signal underlying heart disease. The most common type, called dilated cardiomyopathy, occurs when the heart's chambers stretch out and enlarge. The bulging saps the heart's pump power, depriving the body's organs of enough blood. If left untreated, a big heart can lead to heart failure.
5. LOL: It's Good for You
A hearty laugh e the kind that sends a stream of tears from your eyes e does more than warm the soul. Research has shown the guffaw can cause the lining of blood vessel walls called endothelium to relax, increasing blood flow for up to 45 minutes after the laugh attack. Damage to the endothelium can lead to the narrowing of blood vessels and eventually cardiovascular diseases. That's no laughing matter...or maybe it is...
4. Drink to Your Heart
A glass of Merlot can go straight to the heart, and recent research shows that so too can the white variety. Scientists have attributed the heart benefits of reds to grape skins, which are chock full of certain antioxidants. Since the purple-hued skins get removed to make Chardonnays, many scientists had assumed white wine likely wouldn't do the heart any good. A lab experiment on rats showed that a grape's pulp conceals cardio-protective compounds that rival those found in reds. Red or white? Just follow your heart.
3. Powerful Pump
In under a minute, your heart can pump blood to every cell in your body. And over the course of a day, about 100,000 heart beats shuttle 2,000 gallons of oxygen-rich blood many times through about 60,000 miles of branching blood vessels that link together the cells of our organs and body parts. That's a hefty job for a fist-sized muscle.
2. Broken Heart
Alas, a broken heart can cause one to swoon. A breakup with a loved one or news of a family death literally can lead to broken hearts in the form of heightened risk for heart attack, studies have shown. Such trauma can also trigger the release of stress hormones into the bloodstream that temporarily "stun" the heart. The resulting symptoms mimic those of a heart attack - chest pain and shortness of breath - but this type of achy heart can bounce back in days with some TLC and rest.
1. Love Sign
Weighing in at 10 ounces, the blood-filled muscle called the heart has become the universal symbol of love. The Greeks believed the heart was the seat of the spirit, the Chinese associated it with the center for happiness and the Egyptians thought the emotions and intellect arose from the heart. No one is sure the exact origin of the love association, however. One idea is that the heart got its "love mark" in the ancient Greek city of Cyrene, now in modern-day Libya. The colony was known for a plant called Silphium, with heart-shaped seed pods. Silphium had medicinal properties, and possibly also was used as an herbal contraceptive.
Source

Fact: Fast Food Items Highest In Trans Fat The 88 least healthy foods:

The absolute worst ingredient your food could possibly contain is trans fat. Maybe you've heard of it?
If not, here's a quick run down of some of the horrible things that studies have shown may be caused by a diet high in trans fat:

• Coronary Heart Disease (Raise bad cholesterol AND lower good cholesterol)
• Stroke

• Diabetes 

There then exists some (albeit less) evidence that trans fat may also cause:

• Cancer
• Obesity
• Liver Dysfunction
• Infertility

Like I said, it's the worst ingredient your food could contain. And, guess what? Fast food is pretty much the most common place you'll find this evil type of fat. Fast food is also the place you'll find the highest amounts of it.
Knowing this, I looked over the nutrition facts of literally every single item from the menus of McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, A&W, Arby's, Hardee's, In-N-Out Burger, Jack in the Box, Little Caesars, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Sonic, Subway, Taco Bell, Wendy's, White Castle, Popeyes, Del Taco, Carl's Jr., and Dairy Queen to put together a list of the 88 fast food items highest in trans fat.
Keeping in mind just how terrible trans fat is and all of the terrible things it can cause, I have given this the very catchy nickname of "The 88 Fast Food Items Most Likely To Kill You." When you look over this list with the understanding that you should be eating 0 grams of trans fat per day, you'll realize that my little nickname really isn't that much of an overstatement. So, without further ado...
...The 88 Fast Food Items Most Likely To Kill You:

1. 
   
   
   White Castle Homestyle Onion Rings - Sack
   
   Trans Fat: 30 grams
   
   
2. 
   
   
   White Castle Fish Nibblers - Sack
   
   Trans Fat: 16 grams
   
   
3. 
   
   
   KFC Chicken Pot Pie
   
   Trans Fat: 14 grams
   
   
4. 
   
   
   Burger King Hash Browns - Large
   
   Trans Fat: 13 grams
   
   
5. 
   
   
   White Castle Chicken Rings - 20 rings
   
   Trans Fat: 13 grams
   
   
6. 
   
   
   Jack in the Box Fish & Chips - Large
   
   Trans Fat: 12 grams
   
   
7. 
   
   
   Jack in the Box Bacon Cheddar Potato Wedges
   
   Trans Fat: 12 grams
   
   
8. 
   
   
   White Castle Clam Strips - Sack
   
   Trans Fat: 12 grams
   
   
9. 
   
   
   Dairy Queen Chicken Strip Basket 6-piece
   
   Trans Fat: 12 grams
   
   
10. 
    
    
    White Castle French Fries - Sack
    
    Trans Fat: 11 grams
    
    
11. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Fish & Chips - Medium
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
12. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Natural Cut Fries - Large
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
13. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Onion Rings (8)
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
14. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Seasoned Curly Fries - Large
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
15. 
    
    
    White Castle Onion Chips - Sack
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
16. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Chicken Strip Basket 4-piece
    
    Trans Fat: 10 grams
    
    
17. 
    
    
    Burger King Hash Browns - Medium
    
    Trans Fat: 9 grams
    
    
18. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Fish & Chips - Small
    
    Trans Fat: 9 grams
    
    
19. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Large Onion Rings
    
    Trans Fat: 9 grams
    
    
20. 
    
    
    McDonald's Large French Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 8 grams
    
    
21. 
    
    
    Burger King French Fries King Size
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
22. 
    
    
    Domino's Garlic Dipping Sauce
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
23. 
    
    
    White Castle Onion Rings - Sack
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
24. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Natural Cut Fries - Medium
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
25. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Sampler Trio
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
26. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Spicy Chicken Bites (16)
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
27. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Seasoned Curly Fries - Medium
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
28. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Spicy Chicken Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
29. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Regular Onion Rings
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
30. 
    
    
    Boston Market Pastry Top Chicken Pot Pie
    
    Trans Fat: 7 grams
    
    
31. 
    
    
    Arby's Apple Turnover
    
    Trans Fat: 6.5 grams
    
    
32. 
    
    
    Burger King BK Chicken Fries 12pc
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
33. 
    
    
    Burger King French Fries Large
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
34. 
    
    
    Burger King Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
35. 
    
    
    Arby's Cherry Turnover
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
36. 
    
    
    White Castle Chicken Rings - 9 rings
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
37. 
    
    
    White Castle Clam Strips - Regular
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
38. 
    
    
    White Castle Mozzarella Cheese Sticks (10 sticks)
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
39. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Chicken Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
40. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
41. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Large Choc. Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard
    
    Trans Fat: 6 grams
    
    
42. 
    
    
    A&W Large Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 5.5 grams
    
    
43. 
    
    
    McDonald's Baked Apple Pie
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
44. 
    
    
    Burger King Sausage Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
45. 
    
    
    McDonald's Medium French Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
46. 
    
    
    Burger King Ham, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
47. 
    
    
    Burger King Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
48. 
    
    
    Burger King Hash Browns - Small
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
49. 
    
    
    White Castle Onion Chips - Regular
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
50. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Natural Cut Fries - Small
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
51. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Seasoned Curly Fries - Small
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
52. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Bacon, Egg & Cheese Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
53. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Original French Toast Sticks (4)
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
54. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Sausage Biscuit
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
55. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Large French Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 5 grams
    
    
56. 
    
    
    Burger King BK Chicken Fries 9pc
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
57. 
    
    
    McDonald's Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips (5 pc)
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
58. 
    
    
    Boston Market Chocolate Cake
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
59. 
    
    
    KFC Chicken and Biscuit Bowl
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
60. 
    
    
    Burger King Onion Rings King Size
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
61. 
    
    
    Burger King French Fries Medium
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
62. 
    
    
    Sonic French Toast Sticks (4)
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
63. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Sourdough Ultimate Cheeseburger
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
64. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Stuffed Jalapenos (7)
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
65. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Blueberry French Toast Sticks (4)
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
66. 
    
    
    White Castle Fish Nibblers - Regular
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
67. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen Med. Choc. Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
68. 
    
    
    A&W Onion Rings
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
69. 
    
    
    A&W Crispy Chicken Sandwich
    
    Trans Fat: 4.5 grams
    
    
70. 
    
    
    Burger King Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
71. 
    
    
    McDonald's Hotcakes (2 pats margarine & syrup)
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
72. 
    
    
    Burger King Onion Rings Large
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
73. 
    
    
    Burger King Cini-minis
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
74. 
    
    
    White Castle French Fries - Regular
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
75. 
    
    
    White Castle Homestyle Onion Rings - Regular
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
76. 
    
    
    White Castle Chicken Rings - 6 rings
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
77. 
    
    
    White Castle Hot Chocolate Large
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
78. 
    
    
    Arby's Cinnamon Twist
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
79. 
    
    
    A&W Papa Burger
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
80. 
    
    
    A&W Original Bacon Double Cheeseburger
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
81. 
    
    
    A&W Original Double Cheeseburger
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
82. 
    
    
    A&W Chili Cheese Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
83. 
    
    
    A&W Cheese Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
84. 
    
    
    A&W Chili Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
85. 
    
    
    A&W Kids Fries
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
86. 
    
    
    Dairy Queen 1/2 lb. FlameThrower GrilllBurger
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
87. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Mozzarella Cheese Sticks (6)
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams
    
    
88. 
    
    
    Jack in the Box Sausage Croissant
    
    Trans Fat: 4 grams 
    
    

*NOTE* The above list shows every fast food item that contained 4 or more grams of trans fat per serving. There were TONS of items that contained less than 4 grams (anywhere from 0.5 to 3.5) but I decided on 4 grams as the cut off point for the WORST 88 foods. 3.5 grams of trans fat is still terrible, but the above 88 are the worst of the worst.

Trans Fat FAQ

How much trans fat are we supposed to eat per day?

The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day. Not per meal or per food, but per day total. And, get this. They also say that there is enough naturally occurring trans fats in some meat and dairy products that most people already reach this maximum 2 grams without the additional consumption of the industrially manufactured trans fats contained in the foods on the above list. So, to sum up, if you care at all about your health and enjoy being alive, you should be eating 0 grams of trans fat per day.

So does this mean we should never eat fast food ever?

In a perfect world, pretty much. I mean, you know it's junk. Besides trans fat, there's the always fun stuff like saturated fat, calories, and sodium to also think about. It really is the type of food that should never be eaten... ever. Sure, there are some better choices you can be making at these types of restaurants. And, if you're going to eat this stuff, you should definitely be making those choices. For starters, avoiding the 88 foods on this list would be a fantastic idea.

Is this information all current? When was it put together and when was it last updated?

This list was originally created in October 2007, and last updated in November 2007. I'm thinking of updating the list once or twice a year to keep it all up to date. When I do update it, it will be mentioned right here.



 Source

25 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Your Body and Health

In the spirit of those annoying, addictive, you-know-you're-reading-them-even-though-you-wish-you-weren't Facebook notes popping up everywhere, Health.com presents its list of 25 random things you might not know about the human body, nutrition and exercise, sex, sickness, and health. Go ahead: Pass it on to your friends.

1. Rinsing your nose with salt water can help keep you healthy and ward off allergy symptoms. Nasal irrigation is a cheap and easy way to find relief if you have spring allergies, nasal congestion, stuffy noses or post-nasal drip, says Dr. Melissa Pynnonen, co-director of the Michigan Sinus Center and an assistant professor in the University of Michigan's department of otolaryngology.

2. Dogs can smell cancer and low blood sugar. The Pine Street Foundation, a cancer-education and research center in San Anselmo, Calif., published a study showing it was possible to train dogs to identify, based on breath samples, which patients had lung and breast cancer. Now the organization is recruiting ovarian cancer patients and dogs for a new study. In diabetics, the presence of ketones—substances made by the body during the metabolic process—can be smelled in urine and on the breath when blood sugars are high. Dogs can pick up on other smells that humans can’t when glucose levels drop.

3. Researchers at Cornell University found that people who pass through an entryway near the kitchen tend to eat 15 percent more than those who use the front door.

4. You're more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday, or up to three days after you've been diagnosed with the flu or a respiratory tract infection. The risk of dying from a heart attack increases by a third during outbreaks of the flu and related respiratory diseases, found researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The study authors estimate that 90,000 coronary deaths could be prevented a year in the United States if more heart patients simply got a flu shot.

5. You can't get a tan from your computer screen. The Computer Tan Web site was created as a hoax to raise awareness about skin cancer.

6. Obese people spend approximately $485 more on clothing, $828 on extra plane seats, and $36 more on gas each year than their thinner counterparts. Researchers say an overweight driver burns about 18 additional gallons of gas a year. Plus-sized clothing costs 10 percent to 15 percent more than smaller-sized clothes. When it comes to jet fuel, a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicineestimated that the extra weight of obese Americans caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel.

7. Smokers are four times as likely to report feeling unrested after a night's sleep than nonsmokers. Smokers often experience withdrawal symptoms at night, thus causing periods of restlessness and waking. Smokers were also 1.69 times as likely to develop hearing loss than non-smokers, as smoking may affect antioxidative mechanisms or the blood vessels that feed the auditory system.¹

8. Eating fruits and vegetables may help the human body make its own aspirin. Findings from the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistryindicate that study participants who received benzoic acid, a natural substance in fruits and vegetables, could make their own salicylic acid, the key component that gives aspirin its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties.

9. A 20-minute nap can improve your overall alertness, boost your mood, and increase productivity. William Anthony, co-author of The Art of Napping at Work (Larson Publications, 1999),says the post-nap boost can last for several hours. In addition, your heart may reap benefits from napping. In a six-year study of Greek adults, researchers found that that men who took naps at least three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of heart-related death.

10. Your kitchen sink is dirtier than your bathroom: There are typically more than 500,000 bacteria per square inch in its drain. The faucet, basin, and sponge are crawling with germs as well. Bacteria colonies with a total population exceeding 50 million can live on a single dirty sponge. And just think—that's what you use to wipe down countertops, forks and drinking glasses.

11. Four out of five doctors in the UK don't work out enough. Heavy workloads, lack of time and poor motivation contributed to the lack of exercise.²

12. Baking soda can whiten teeth, garlic can help treat athlete's foot, and honeycan soothe a hangover.

13. Using a food diary can double a person's weight-loss efforts. Your food diary makes you accountable to yourself and provides you with clues on where the extra calories are sneaking in.

14. Regular exercise can lower a woman's cancer risk—but only if she's getting enough sleep. The National Cancer Institute followed 5,968 women for almost 10 years, during which 604 of them developed some form of cancer. Women in the top half of physical activity levels showed an approximate 20 percent reduction in cancer risk compared to those who exercised less. For a segment of those women, sleeping less than seven hours per night had a decreased benefit to exercise. Their cancer risk was greater than those who exercised but slept more—but still lower than those who exercised the least.

15.Watching yourself run in a mirror can make a treadmill workout go by faster and feel easier.

16. Third-hand smoke—the particles that cling to smokers' hair and clothing and linger in a room long after they've left—is a cancer risk to young children (and pets).

17. Walking against the wind, in the water, or while wearing a backpack burns about 50 more calories per hour than walking with no resistance. People who wear pedometers also tend to burn more calories and lose more weight.

18. Trained sexologists can infer a woman's orgasm history by observing the way she walks.³ In other research news, men find women who wear red sexier than those who wear "cool" colors such as blue and green.

19.Foreign accent syndrome and exploding head syndrome are real (but very rare) medical conditions. The American Sleep Association explains that a person with exploding head syndrome experiences a a loud, indecipherable noise that seems to originate from inside the head.

20. Vitamins don't seem to help older women guard against cancer or heart disease.

21. Some men experience pain, headaches, or sneezing as a result of ejaculation. The increased activity in the nervous system during orgasm may be the culprit in triggering headaches.

22. Germ-killing wipes can spread bacteria from one spot to another if you reuse them. Researchers at the Welsh School of Pharmacy at Cardiff University in Wales issued their concern on the use of the wipes in hospitals and the importance of a routine surveillance program in reducing risks of infection to patients.

23. Oatmeal, citrus fruits, and honey can boost your sex drive and improve fertility. Oats produce a chemical that releases testosterone into the blood supply, increasing sex drive and orgasm strength. Vitamin C found in citrus fruits improves sperm count and motility, while vitamin B from honey helps the body use estrogen, a key factor in blood flow and arousal.

24. Twenty-nine percent of Americans say they have skipped filling a prescription due to the cost, and 23 percent use pill splitting as a way to save money.

25. Facebook may be good for your health: Studies show that staying in touch with family and friends can ward off memory loss and help you live longer.

Source

Odd facts:

There are over 58 million dogs in the U.S!

Dogs and cats consume over $11 billion worth of pet food a year!

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!

Humans blink over 10,000,000 times a year!  

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II was named an "Honorary Harlem Globetrotter."!

Every second, Americans collectively eat one hundred pounds of chocolate

A fetus develops fingerprints at eighteen weeks!

The fear of vegetables is called Lachanophobia!.. More fears...

There are approximately fifty Bibles sold each minute across the world!

Every year, kids in North America spend close to half a billion dollars on chewing gum!

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards!

A person uses approximately fifty-seven sheets of toilet paper each day!

Honolulu is the only place in the United States that has a royal palace!

One gallon of used motor oil can ruin approximately one million gallons of fresh water!

More money is spent on gardening than on any other hobby!

In 32 years. there are about 1 billion seconds!

Rice paper does not have any rice in it!


In England, in the 1880's, "Pants" was considered a dirty word!

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!

The blesbok, a South African antelope, is almost the same color as grapejuice!

The average person laughs 13 times a day!

Dogs can hear sounds that you cant!

Men are 6 times more likely to be struck by lightning than women!

It is estimated that millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them!  

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, "Gadsby", which contains over 50,000 words -- none of them with the letter E!

Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions!

A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans!

Every 45 seconds, a house catches on fire in the United States!

The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!

The most used letter in the English alphabet is 'E', and 'Q' is the least used!

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year!

The original name for the butterfly was 'flutterby'!  

Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!

The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!



Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints!


Bulls are colorblind, therefore will usually charge at a matador's waving cape no matter what color it is -- be it red or neon yellow!

Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings!

Smelling bananas and/or green apples (smelling, not eating) can help you lose weight!



A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it's there, though!

The average ice berg weighs 20,000,000 tons!

The poison-arrow frog has enough poison to kill about 2,200 people! 

A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court!

After eating, a housefly regurgitates its food and then eats it again!

Announcement - upcoming christmas special facts!

Dear readers,
I want to inform you that after 20 December 2009 there will be some post with inresting chrismas facts so you might want to subscribe to the posts ;)

The 6 Most Frequently Quoted Bullshit Animal Facts:

#6. Lemmings Commit Mass Suicide

Why You Know This "Fact":Calling people a bunch of lemming is like calling them "sheeple." The small, furry lemmings are known for being mindless followers who will even commit mass suicide by jumping off cliffs. They've shown up in cartoons, commercials and video games doing exactly that.

Too bad none of it is true.

This rumor was probably started in the early 19th Century. Scientists would see sudden bursts of the lemming population that would just as suddenly shrink, and they couldn't figure out why. In 1908 a man named Arthur Mee decided that "mass suicide" seemed as good an answer as any and published it in hisThe Children's Encyclopedia.

Arthur Mee refused to shelter children from the harsh realities of the shit he totally made up.

Mee concludes that the self-inflicted almost total annihilation of lemmings is "sad and terrible, but if the dismal exodus did not occur lemmings would long ago have eaten Europe bare." This means that Mee believes that lemmings kill themselves out of an instinctual drive to preserve Europe at the expense ofkilling themselves, and everyone reading along at home said, "Yeah, that sounds right."

Still, Mee's pointless nerd book and all the myths therein would have faded into obscurity, if it wasn't for Walt Disney.

In 1958, Disney filmed the groundbreaking nature documentary White Wilderness, where they managed to capture lemming suicide on film for the first time. We spend a few hours watching an entire lemming migration and cap the whole film off with shots of lemmings diving off a cliff to their deaths.

And, for the few kids out there who aren't into encyclopedias or nature documentaries wherein cute rodents kill themselves, game designer Psygnosis spread the myth even further, with Lemmings, an incredibly addictive video game where the player had to save the adorably stupid green-haired protagonists from certain death. Thankfully, the game was recently, ported to the PS3 keeping the lie alive for another generation at the very least.

Why It's Bullshit:

Lemmings are good at two things: eating and fucking. A female lemming is capable of birthing 80 baby lemmings a year, a staggering number that most of them reach because when you're a lemming you've got shit else to do.

The end result of a bunch of hungry lemmings with their sex organs set to "Super Fuck" is what we call a "population problem." When this happens, the lemmings empty their surroundings of all possible food and have to go search for more, out in the world. Now you've gone from too many lemmings in a lemming habitat to too many starving lemmings frantically running around in unfamiliar territory.

 As you would expect, panic sets in and they make rash decisions. Sometimes this means absentmindedly falling off a cliff or being accidentally bumped into a river by one of the other hundreds of lemmings. It's not mass suicide. Think about it. If that was the case, there wouldn't be any more lemmings. A creature that's instinctively driven to kill itself isn't designed for longevity; it's as simple as that.

As for the "groundbreaking nature documentary" White Wilderness, it turns out that it's total bullshit. The creators of the film simply grabbed up about a dozen lemmings and sent them to Canada. The film assured us that we were seeing an entire lemming migration when, in reality, they were filming the same handful of lemmings over and over again.

So how do you make 12 of the same lemmings running around into family friendly entertainment? Well, if you're Disney, you toss the lemmings off a cliff and tell your audience it was a suicide. That. Happened.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science was so outraged that they gave White Wilderness an Oscar for Best Documentary.

#5 Ostriches Stick Their Heads in the Sand

The famous Roman thinker, Pliny the Elder, came up with this bit of nonsense in the year 79 AD forNatural History, the epic encyclopedia he created as a home for all of the world's knowledge (including the not real parts). He wrote that the ostriches would bury their heads in the sand on the belief that, when the head is hidden, "the whole of their body is concealed."

Here's an artist's rendering of Pliny making shit up

The reason that this myth has stuck around for as long as it has is that it's an incredibly versatile political metaphor. Do you want to imply that President Obama is being naive about the war in Iraq? Say he's sticking his head in the sand. Do you want to revitalize an unpopular political party? Say you're taking your head out of the sand. Do you want to assert that Hillary Clinton is blindly appeasing a foreign country, while expressing that opinion as confusingly as you can? Say she's sticking the USA's head in Pakistani soil. Whenever you want to say that any person, party or organization is being willfully ignorant about a single issue, draw a picture of an ostrich with its head in the sand and scribble the party name on the ostrich's torso. It has never been easier to be a political cartoonist.

Why It's Bullshit:

Just like the lemming, the fact that the ostrich isn't extinct from sheer stupidity should have been your first clue that this wasn't even close to being true. Any animal that thinks hiding its head in the sand makes it invisible to predators is an animal too dumb to survive.

In reality, they'll get all up in your grill.

The truth is that while ostriches can't fly, they're the fastest animal in the world on two legs, capable of reaching speeds of 45 miles-per-hour (twice the top speed of a human), and maintaining that speed for up to a half-hour. So if the ostrich sees a leopard off in the distance, it doesn't bother hiding, it just runs, much in the same way that you'd run away from a wheelchair-bound serial killer instead of, say, putting your hands over your eyes in an attempt to disappear.

There are two possible reasons why people might believe this myth and, unfortunately, both of them are as stupid as the ostrich is supposed to be. First, the ostrich occasionally pecks at the ground for stones, which it uses to digest its food.

Second, the ostrich sleeps laying down. In either case, the argument is: "Hey, from far away, it looks like the ostrich has its head buried in the sand. I'm content to believe this is true and further conclude that ostriches think they're invisible, this matter requires no further investigation." This is why, today, we base our animal facts on actual experiments and field research, and not the simple What Things Look Like To Pliny the Elder method of animal classification.

#4 St. Bernards Carry Beer/Brandy Around Their Necks

Why You Know This "Fact":

It's all because of an English painter named Edwin Landseer, in 1820.

Landseer was a bit of a child prodigy, beloved by both Queen Victoria and the masses for his landscapes and animal portraits. When, at age 17, he painted "Alpine Mastiffs Reanimating a Distressed Traveler," (Edwin was not the kind of artist who forced you to interpret his meaning), he decided to make it approximately 50 times more awesome by adding a barrel of brandy around the necks of the Alpines (St. Bernards). And the people ate it up.

One dog is going for the jugular, while the other isn't sure what he's stepping on. Some rescue.

Now, we know that, as members of the Cracked audience, you're incredibly well-versed and always up-to-speed on popular art throughout the ages, but how did your average John Q. Public hear about this myth? Probably the way they learn about everything else, by which we mean old Looney Tunes cartoons (see 2:30). Yep, once Looney Tunes decided to depict the St. Bernard-as-bartender (inspired by Landseer's painting), the myth was cemented in pop culture history.

What's interesting about this myth is that it wasn't as if Landseer once knew a St. Bernard that carried brandy, and it's not like the dogs regularly carried supplies and Landseer wrongly assumed it was brandy; there was no genuine excuse for Landseer to depict the dogs this way apart from "I felt like it." He was just a 17-year-old kid who thought dogs would be cooler if they were also bars (he's right), and the world just decided to take his word as gospel.

Why It's Bullshit:

Sadly, the world isn't that cool; there are three simple reasons why letting a St. Bernard carry brandy around would be absolutely irresponsible (that's "people die" irresponsible, not "throwing a party while your parents are gone" irresponsible). First, burdening a rescue animal with a heavy keg would obviously slow it down. Second, since Brandy is 36-60 percent alcohol, sub-zero (oF) temperatures could make it slushy or freeze it solid. If you're thinking that would be the best slushy ever, remember that when you'refreezing to death, the last thing you want is a snow cone, even if it is beer-flavored.

Finally, and most importantly, alcohol actually causes you to lose heat faster, which means giving brandy to someone suffering from hypothermia would be about as effective as shoving ice cubes up their asshole.

#3 Piranhas Will Strip a Cow to the Bone in Under a Minute

Why You Know This "Fact":

Teddy "Motherfucking" Roosevelt.

As you can tell byre at Cracked we're big fans of Teddy Roosevelt as he is without a doubt the most awesome person ever to live. Basically, any factoid about Teddy's life contains enough testosterone to kill an ox, and this is no different.

Archive photo of Roosevelt using Thor's magic hammer to battle Satan in the final days of WWII.

The year was 1913, and Teddy was touring the Brazilian Amazon. At this point, his reputation for badassery had become globally recognized, and the Brazilians realized that to impress someone like Roosevelt, they had to step it up a notch and show him something incredible. So before he came, they roped off a small lake and tossed a couple hundred piranhas in without any food; by the time Teddy arrived, the fish were starving and completely crazy.

When the guides lowered in a juicy cow, the piranhas went after it like tiny guided missiles and reduced it to bones in a little less than 60 seconds. Teddy was quite impressed, and wrote about the ferocity in his 1914 book Through The Brazilian Wilderness, which is how everyone else learned about it (when Teddy Roosevelt tells you something, you fucking pay attention.)

We like to imagine that as soon as Teddy returned to the U.S., he started breeding his own piranhas in an attempt to finally find an animal that could stand up to him in a fight. Like all other such attempts, this was doomed to failure from the start.

Plenty of cartoons and short stories took Roosevelt's report and ran with it, portraying any body of water rumored to have piranhas as a cross between a hot tub and a garbage disposal. Dip your toe in, on come the boiling piranha jacuzzi jets, and off comes everything but bone. Hollywood picked this myth up in 1978 and created Piranha and Piranha 2, which [SPOILER ALERT] outfitted the piranhas with fucking wings.

Why It's Bullshit:

Piranhas are really freaking good at eating shit, there's no question about that. In a large school, they specialize in efficiently organized group-eating that utilizes a system of constant rotation. They're also very fast eaters but, even with all of that in mind, they're still very small, and they still dine almost exclusively on other fish. (For a fish, growing dependent on eager-to-impress Brazilians lowering cows into your home isn't the most reliable dietary plan.)

Waiting for cows--they're already dead.

Yes, despite their fearsome faces, piranhas are just scavengers, going after the weak and sick and destroying them. If you're wondering, technically, in cases of extreme drought, schools of piranhas can turn into those swarms of pointy teeth we've all heard about. But (and this is a big but) every animal faced with starvation will do the same thing. In Roosevelt's case, the group of piranhas was much larger than an average school and the Brazilians intentionally starved them.

Also, like all animals, piranhas are inherently predisposed to want to impress Roosevelt. You may act allabove piranhas, but if Teddy Roosevelt walked into your house, you'd eat the shit out of a live cow if you thought it might make the big guy smile.

#2 Bumblebees Violate the Laws of Aerodynamics

Why You Know This "Fact":

It all started at a college dinner in Gottingen, Germany. Unsurprisingly, plenty of strong German beer was served, and, as the professors and scientists got drunker and drunker, one aerodynamicist decided to work out the principles behind bee flight as a party trick. He did some quick figuring, a few calculations and, astonished, announced that bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly at all, as they simply didn't generate enough lift relative to their size. Preferring the "BEES ARE WITCHES" theory to the slightly more conventional, "Look, they're flying so they probably have it figured out" principal, a biologist started shouting this discovery from the rooftop for all to hear.

The next morning, when the aerodynamicist woke up and realized his mistake (getting incredibly drunk and talking about bees), it was too late. The excitable biologist had already spread the story around like wildfire.

I did what with a bumblebee? Oh, shit.

Since then, this myth has become a staple of motivational speeches, as it shows that you should never give up, no matter what anyone says about you. It's also popped up in all sorts of random places, fromDoctor Who to the Jerry Seinfeld animated vehicle Bee Movie, which would be disastrous to the bumblebees's reputation, had anyone seen that movie.

Why It's Bullshit:

It's confusing how something with such a comically rotund body can even get off the ground with such tiny wings, never mind fly. And it's true that, compared with birds, there's no way a bumblebee should be able to fly at all. But that's exactly the point: The bumblebee isn't like a bird, a plane or even Superman. As it turns out, the bumblebee has a lot more to do with a helicopter than anything else; and when you start thinking of its wings as miniature propellers, everything makes sense aerodynamically. So the bumblebee isn't a buzzing example of scientific failure after all (though that biologist up above certainly is).

You win this time, science.

The funny thing is, physicists figured out bumblebee flight 80 years ago, realized there was nothing special about it, and went back to work, figuring that the controversy would blow over. A half-century later one of them took his nose out of a textbook long enough to realize that people still believed that shit, and promptly disproved it by showing that the bumblebee's "propeller wings" created a "low-pressure vortex" to produce lift, which we think means that bumblebees can create mini-tornadoes which, if true, carries a lot more horrifying possibilities than arguments about lift and body weight.

#1 Chameleons Change Color to Blend in With Their Environment

Why You Know This "Fact":

This lie was first started by a Greek named Antigonus of Carystus. The odd thing is, the considerably more famous Greek philosopher Aristotle had correctly linked chameleon color change with emotion a century before, so there's no reason anyone should have believed Antigonus. But apparently the word of a Antigonus carries more weight than Aristotle, despite the fact that, according to The Book of General Ignorance, Antigonus was famous for his "entertaining stories" based on personal observation and, according to the world, Aristotle was famous for "discovering fucking everything."

Stone cold badass.

No one really knows why this particular myth happens to be so pervasive, but, as we always do, we choose to blame Culture Club's song "Karma Chameleon" and its delightfully androgynous singer Boy George. Just to give you some context, Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" made it to #65 on the US Billboard, Nirvana's"Smells Like Teen Spirit" made it to #6 and John Lennon's "Imagine" peaked at #3. "Karma Chameleon" made it to #1. Where it stayed.

For three weeks.

If It Were True:

Chameleons would be the ninjas of the animal world. Able to instantly blend into their surroundings, they could sneak into and out of any high-security location virtually undetected; the only indication they had ever been there would be a sudden lack of flies, and possibly a lack of precious jewelry as well. There could be a chameleon standing right in front of you right now, and you wouldn't notice until your keyboard started typing itself.

Why It's Bullshit:

Chameleons can change color; in fact they do it all the time. But it has nothing to do with camouflage. As you learned above from Aristotle (as everyone else should have learned a billion years ago), the color of a chameleon depends on what emotional state it's in: If he sees a lovely lady lizard, he turns a shade of light blue, while when he's furious he goes jet black. If you're thinking that last one sounds kind of badass, just remember that this makes the chameleon nature's mood ring.

The opposite of badass.

In fact, now that we think about it, being a chameleon would suck in that everything you think literally shows up on your face. So if, for example, your creepy, annoying uncle tells you he's going to die soon and you turn bright green with happiness, you can count on not getting any bugs from his will. Similarly, if your wife confronts you about cheating on her with that bug-eyed beauty on the tree next door and you turn dark pink with guilt, you'll probably be looking for a new mate come morning.

Occasionally, chameleons change color because of light or temperature, so if you are caught in either of of those two scenarios, you could pass it off by saying, "It's just the heat." But we doubt anyone would buy that.

Source