Fastfacts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tuesday, November 2, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
The Incas considered bridges to be so sacred that anyone who tampered with one was put to death. Among the most impressive Inca bridges were the chacas, or rope bridges, spanning great distances over gorges and rivers. They were made of plaited grasses woven together into a single cable as thick as a man's body, and they sometimes extended for 175 feet. It took as many as a thousand people to build such a bridge, and many of these remarkable structures lasted more than 500 years.
The United States Postal service assures its customers that they will not get fat licking stamps. There is no more than one-tenth of a calorie's worth of glue on every stamp.
Roughly 40 percent of the population of the underdeveloped world is under 15 years old.
The drug thiopentone can kill a human being in one second if injected directly into the blood.
Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew Cannabis sativa (marijuana) on their plantations.
The temperature of the earth's interior increases by 1 degree every 60 feet down.
Ten cords of wood stacked 4 feet wide by 4 feet high by 80 feet long have the same heating potential as 1,400 gallons of oil.
The Nazis used the guillotine to execute prisoners during World War II. Their version of the punishment had the condemned person lying on his back with his eyes forced open so that he had to watch the blade as it descended.
The first macaroni factory in the United States was established in 1848. It was started by Antoine Zegera in Brooklyn, NY.
Wadakin and Matsuzuka beef, raised in Japan, are considered the two most tender kinds of beef in the world. The steers from which this meat is taken are isolated in totally dark stalls, fed on beer and beer mash and hand-massaged by specially trained beef masseurs three times a day.
50 gallons of maple sap are needed to make a single gallon of maple sugar.