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Illustration by Holly Randall
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Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
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Things you always never wanted to know
A tuna can swim 100 miles in a single day.
The average American eats more than 22 pounds of tomatoes every year. More than half this amount is eaten in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce.
Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa have never adopted Daylight Savings Time.
The nation of Bangladesh covers approximately the same land area as the state of Wisconsin. It ranks eighth in population among all the world's countries.
In Brazil, Christmas is celebrated with fireworks.
The hydrochloric acid of the human digestive process is so strong and corrosive that it easily can eat its way through a cotton handkerchief, and even through the iron of an automobile body. Yet, it does not endanger the walls of the stomach, which are protected by a film of sticky mucus.
Bolivia was liberated from the rule of Spain in 1825. Between then and 1925, the nation had over 40 presidents, six of whom were assassinated while still in office. During the same 100 years, Bolivia had 187 armed revolts. Between 1828 and 1871, there were nine different Bolivian constitutions.
When a vigilante organization raided a communist bookshop in Oklahoma City in 1940, it seized a number of publications thought to be "advocating violence" and publicly burned them at the city stadium. Among the publications picked for destruction were the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
"Flower clocks" provided a unique and decorative means of telling time in the formal gardens of 19th-century Europe. A series of flowerbeds was laid out to form a clock face, with each bed representing a daytime hour. The beds were planted with flowers known to open or close at the prescribed hours. On a sunny day, the time on a flower clock could be determined to within a half hour.
President Thomas Jefferson told Congress that the Louisiana Purchase he had effected was unconstitutional, but he urged that the agreement with Napoleon be ratified, casting behind them "metaphysical subtleties."
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