Recycled glass uses only two-thirds the energy needed to manufacture glass from scratch. That means for every soft drink bottle that is recycled, enough energy is saved to run a television set for an hour and a half.

In 1811, Louisiana was the first state in the U.S. to declare, by statute, English as its official language. It would be 109 years before a second state in the U.S. a " Nebraska a " would issue a constitutional amendment to make English the official state idiom there.

There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.

The Cane Toad is a large, terrestrial toad native to Central and South America. Because of its voracious appetite, the Cane Toad has been introduced to many regions as a method of agricultural pest control (most notably Australia). However, it's now considered the pest in many of these introduced regions, as its toxic skin kills many native ...Read more

The thumb is such a major player in the human body that it has a special section, separate from the area that controls the fingers, reserved for it in the brain.

You're just as likely to die by falling out of bed then you are to get struck by lightning; each is a 1 in 2,000,000 chance. You have a 1 in 3,000,000 chance of being killed by a snake.

The idea of using light in telephone communications is not new. Reportedly in 1880, Alexander Graham Bell invented a phone that used sunlight in place of wires.

Astronaut John Glenn ate the first meal in space when he ate pureed applesauce squeezed from a tube aboard Friendship 7 in 1962.

Red coral became a symbol of immortality to the ancient Greeks, presumably because of its branching shape and vibrant color. The Greeks believed it to be a panacea and protector against gout, poisons, and enchantments. Red and pink corals are still said to bring good luck to their owners.

The Royal Ontario Museum was created by the signing of the Royal Ontario Museum Act in the Ontario Legislature in 1912. The Museum opened to the public on March 19, 1914, when the Duke of Connaught dedicated what now forms the back wing of the present building. The museum's collections comprise over 6 million science specimens and art and ...Read more

It takes 100 sen to equal one ringgit, which is Malaysia's basic unit of currency. Malaysia is the only country that uses the ringgit as its primary legal tender.

The art of mapmaking is older than the art of writing.

The Taylor-Burton diamond is a dazzling 69.42-carat pear-shaped diamond. Cartier bought the diamond at auction. Screen actor Richard Burton bought the rare stone the very next day for his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, an avid collector of diamond jewelry.

In 1981, a tornado lifted a baby from its pram in the Italian city of Ancona. The baby was carried 50 feet into the air and set down safely 300 feet away -- without waking.

Ten percent of men are left-handed and eight percent of women are left-handed.

The highest known score for a single word in competition Scrabble is 392. In 1982, Dr. Saladin Khoshnaw achieved this score for the word "caziques," which means an Indian chief.

George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 fared little better - at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of Fowl cooked in a broth of Turnips, cabbage and potatoes.

In the United States, species were first introduced from Europe and China around 1900 as garden predators in an effort to control pest populations. The Carolina mantis is the official state insect of South Carolina, and the European mantis is the official state insect of Connecticut.

Although manatees are excellent swimmers, the deepest that one has been observed diving is 33 feet. Typically, the large, gentle creatures feed no deeper than about ten feet below the surface of the water.

The "Sandcastle Effect" was identified by researchers at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana and first published on June 18, 1997. It explained why sandcastles do not collapse after the sand in them has almost totally dried out.