The average laboratory mouse runs five miles per night on its treadmill. - San Diego Union, 4/17/08
Used condoms are being recycled into hair ties and rubber bands in South China. - USAToday, 11/15/07
In late April 2008, the boat "Earthrace" will attempt to break the maritime around-the-world speed record, using only biofuels - including fat liposuctioned from its skipper, Pete Bethune. - London Daily Mail, 12/19/07
Microsoft is piloting a project called "MyLifeBits", which attempts to capture everything that happens in an individual's life. Automatically archiving e-mails, text documents, webpages, the project also includes a wearable camera that snaps a picture every thirty seconds. - Discover Magazine, 5/08
Football greats Peyton and Eli Manning are so close they sometimes share the same bathroom stall. - New York Daily News, 4/13/08
Collisions with birds cause more than a billion dollars worth of damage to civil aircraft each year. - Discover Magazine, 5/08
An Indian man lost his life savings when termites invaded his bank's safe deposit box, turning his 682,000 rupees into dust. - Banking Times, 4/7/08
An 8-year-old Colorado boy has been suspended from elementary school for sniffing a Sharpie marker. Sharpies are non-toxic and cannot be used to get high, but the principal wanted to send a warning to students. - Denver Post, 4/4/08
An average tree produces 8,333 sheets of paper. - San Diego Union, 4/20/08
An average office worker prints 10,000 pages each year, of which 14% are promptly thrown into the trash. - San Diego Union, 4/20/08
The original creators of Superman, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, sold their rights to the character in 1938 for $130. - New York Times, 3/29/08
The minority population of Los Angeles County, California (7,000,000 people) is larger than the total population of 38 states. - San Diego Union, 4/7/08
The odds are 1 out of 230 (.43%) that you are legally blind. - The Week Magazine, 3/28/08
It's estimated that United States businesses lose $800,000,000 every Friday the 13th due to absenteeism and reluctance to travel or make decisions. - Chicago Tribune, 3/15/08
New York State lottery officials closed down betting on the number 871 in March 2007 because too many people were playing it. 871 is the room number in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D. C. where former Governor Eliot Spitzer met with the prostitute named Kristen. - The Week Magazine, 3/28/08
A London man hid a $12,000 engagement ring inside a helium balloon to present to his girlfriend. Unfortunately, he let go of the balloon. His girlfriend now refuses to speak to him. - Reuters, 3/14/08
Zach Dunlap, a 21 year old Oklahoma City man, was declared brain dead. Doctors were preparing to remove his organs for transplant when he began to move his foot and hand. He slowly regained consciousness and was sent home to continue his recovery. - CNN.com, 3/24/08
The odds are 1 out of 62,370 (.000016%) that you will die in a traffic accident while riding a motorcycle this year. - The Week Magazine, 4/11/08
An Air National Guard pilot mistakenly dropped a 22 pound practice bomb on an apartment complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was supposed to be dropped on a practice field in Kansas. - New York Times, 3/15/08
Last year, New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens was paid $19,800,000. This averages $200,000 per inning he pitched. - The Week Magazine, 4/11/08
Zach Dunlap, a 21 year old Oklahoma City man, was declared brain dead. Doctors were preparing to remove his organs for transplant when he began to move his foot and hand. He slowly regained consciousness and was sent home to continue his recovery. - CNN.com, 3/24/08
Presidential candidate Barack Obama's staff thought it might be a good idea to show Obama bowling on a recent trip to Pennsylvania. Obama bowled a 37. - Boston Globe, 3/30/08
Wausau, Wisconsin police raided an " underage keg party" only to discover the kegs were filled with root beer. A total of 90 breath tests were given, but none turned up positive for alcohol. - MSNBC, 3/28/08
Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees makes more money than the entire Florida Marlins team. - San Diego Union, 4/2/08
The Washington Generals basketball team has won only six games during the 42 years 1953 to 1995. During the same time period, they have lost more than 13,000 games. The Generals play only one opponent - the Harlem Globetrotters. - Sporting News, 3/31/08
Ground temperatures in Death Valley can be about 40% higher than the surrounding air temperature. The highest ground temperature in Death Valley was 201 on July 15, 1972. - San Diego Union, 3/23/08
Wisconsin mother and college student Keely Givhan spent six days in jail for unpaid library fines. - LaCrosse Tribune, 3/2/08
There is no question that cars are getting safer and safer. However, experts around the country say that the new technology is also hindering extraction of injured people, forcing rescue crews to work deeper into the "golden hour" between accident and treatment by emergency room doctors. - San Diego Union, 3/20/08
A Sicilian court has ruled that an accused Mafioso can go home because he was too big (462 lbs.) to fit through prison doors and in an prison bed. - MSNBC, 3/12/08
The 2008 presidential election will be the first that finds two sitting United States Senators against each other. - The Week Magazine, 3/21/08
The odds are 1 out of 3 (33%) that you have fallen asleep or have felt very sleepy at work in the last month. - EWeek Magazine, 3/17/08
Matthew McConaughey wants to name his son "Bud" in honor of his favorite beer. It must be a family tradition, as McConaughey's older brother Michael named his second son "Miller Lyte". - The Week Magazine, 3/21/08
The odds are 1 in 23,483 (.00425%) that you will be wrongly declared dead this year as a result of a data entry error by the U. S. Social Security Department staff. - San Diego Union, 3/20/08
Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan public libraries now offer check-out of video games for all major console game systems. The hope is that more kids will discover the library. - Detroit Free Press, 2/17/08
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station apparently have access to a gun. Every spacecraft carries survival gear for crash landings, and the Russian Soyuz has a kit that includes a gun. All space station crew members are aware of the gun's location - that worries some critics because astronauts work in tight quarters under a lot of stress. - WESH.com (Orlando, FL), 2/14/08
The Major League Baseball Florida Marlins are creating an all-male, plus-size cheerleading squad to be dubbed the Manatees. They hope to recruit seven to ten tubby men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and Saturday home games this season. - New York Daily News, 2/23/08
The presidential candidates missed a lot of votes in the Senate in 2007. John McCain missed 57%, Barack Obama 40% and Hillary Clinton missed 27% of votes. - The Week Magazine, 2/22/08
Oceanside, California teacher John Corcoran admitted that he taught high school for 17 years without being able to read or write. - 10 News (San Diego), 2/14/08
The number of ski resorts in the United States has dropped from 727 in 1985 to 485 in 2008. The drop is attributed to global warming. - The Week Magazine, 2/22/08
The odds are 1 out of 214 (.4667%) that you will be admitted into the hospital with knee problems this year. - San Diego Union, 2/19/08
By the end of 2008, more than 50% of the world's population will own a mobile phone. - The Week Magazine, 2/22/08
Every blue-eyed person on planet Earth has descended from a single common ancestor with a genetic mutation who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, according to research at the University of Copenhagen. - San Diego Union, 2/14/08
