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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Things you always never wanted to know
Yuma, Ariz. is one of the two sunniest places in the world, experiencing an average of 4,055 hours of sunshine (out of a possible 4,456 hours) per year. Located at an altitude of 138 feet. above sea level, the town has a population of around 71,000 and is one of Arizona's fastest growing cities.
Gary Turner of the United Kingdom has skin that stretches farther than that of any other known human being. His favorite trick is to stretch his neck skin over his mouth to create a human turtleneck, although this does not beat his stomach trick - on Oct. 29, 1999, he stretched the skin of his stomach 6.25 inches.
Emilio Marcos Palma of Argentina was born on Jan. 7, 1978, at the Sargento Cabral Base, Antarctica. To date, he is the only person known to have been born on the icy southern continent.
The United States has the world's most plastic surgeons with approximately 5,965, followed by Brazil and then Japan, according to the International Confederation for Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery. This figure is equal to almost half of the world's plastic surgeons.
New York City has the highest concentration, but San Francisco is the city with the most plastic surgeons per capita.
On Jan. 25, 2000, U.S. office workers Shameka Peterson and Joe Mascora dropped 40 floors ö 400 feet. ö in an elevator in four seconds at the Empire State Building in New York City when their elevator cable failed. Stopping just four floors from the ground, both suffered only minor bruising. It was the longest elevator fall ever survived.
The Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh, India, has an astonishing annual income of $57.02 million. The money comes mainly from collection boxes, but the most interesting source of income is human hair. Thousands of pilgrims donate their hair as a form of sacrifice and this is auctioned annually to wigmakers and chemical and fertilizer factories.
The greatest sum ever paid for a piano was $2.1 million by singer George Michael for a Steinway Model Z upright belonging to John Lennon. The piano was featured in Lennon's video "Imagine" and sold during an auction at the Hard Rock Cafe in London, Oct. 17, 2000.
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