FACT-OF-THE-DAY ARCHIVE
"Our life is what our thoughts make it."
- Marcus Aurelius
NOV 2013

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DATE FACT OF THE DAY 11/1/13      Insomnia is almost twice as common in women as it is in men. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/2/13      Sun bears have the longest claws of any bear. They also have the longest tongues, which can reach 9.8" long. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/3/13      The worst volcanic disaster of the twentieth century is considered to be the eruption of Mt. Pelee in 1902 on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean which killed 30,121 people. Only two people survived: a shoemaker living on the edge of the island and a prisoner who had been locked in a dungeon cell with thick stone walls. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/4/13      From Earth, only 59% of the moon is visible. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/5/13      The technical term for a cat's hairball is a "bezoar." - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/6/13      Over 83% of adults who stuttered as children said they had been teased or bullied. Approximately 71% said that bullying happened at least once a week. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/7/13      Scientists report that the severely outdated Safe Drinking Water Act (1974) cannot adequately prevent Americans from being exposed to serious health dangers in their drinking water. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/8/13      The probability of a woman giving birth to a baby girl instead of a baby boy increases significantly the nearer the mother lives to the equator. While the cause of this gender selection is unknown, scientists believe the constant sunlight hours and abundant food supply in tropical regions may favor female births. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/9/13      While the equatorial diameter of Earth is 27 miles greater than its diameter measured from pole to pole, the two diameters for Venus are virtually the same, making the planet an almost perfect sphere. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/10/13      Approximately 11% of all Americans aged 65-74 have diabetes. About 20% of those over 75 years old have diabetes, and nearly half of them are unaware they have the disease. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/11/13      There were 21.2 million military veterans in the United States in 2012. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/12/13      The hurricane season in 2008 stripped approximately 70% of Haiti's crops. This damage was the most expensive in Haiti's history at an estimated $1 billion. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/13/13      During the past 400 years, nearly a quarter of a million people have been killed as a direct result of volcanic eruptions. Indirect aftereffects such as famine, climate change, and disease most likely have tripled that number. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/14/13      The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is currently investigating whether colleges are discriminating in favor of boys in order to achieve gender balance. Colleges have found that when a college has 60% girls, high school boys stop applying there. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/15/13      It is common to hear that the mortar used to bind the stones was made from human bones or that men are buried within the Great Wall of China to make it stronger. However, the mortar was actually made from rice flour - and no bones, human or otherwise, have ever been found in any of the Great Wall's walls. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/16/13      More and more doctors and researchers are referring to autism as autisms, because each child's case is different, as are each child's causes and treatments. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/17/13      The longest rivers in China are the 3,494-mile Yangtze (Changjian) River and the 2,903-mile-long Yellow (Huanghe) River. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/18/13      The sun rotates on its axis once every 25.38 Earth days or 609.12 hours. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/19/13      Hawaii's nickname is the "Aloha State." The word aloha is derived from the Proto-Polynesian, alofa, and its meanings include "love," "compassion," and "mercy." Aloha is used both as "hello" and "goodbye." - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/20/13      Chocolate has evolved into such a massive industry that between 40 and 50 million people depend on cacao for their livelihood. Over 3.8 million tons of cacao beans are produced per year. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/21/13      Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is one of the more famous proponents of cocaine. After trying the drug for the first time in 1884, he recommended it as a useful treatment for depression, alcoholism, and morphine addiction. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/22/13      When a cat chases its prey, it keeps its head level. Dogs and humans bob their heads up and down. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/23/13      The first person to draw a map of the moon as it appears through a telescope was British astronomer Thomas Harriot (c. 1560-1621). - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/24/13      A single hurricane stirs up millions of miles of air and can dump more than 2.4 trillion gallons (9 trillion liters) of rain a day. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/25/13      A woman's brain shrinks during pregnancy and takes up to six months to regain its full size. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/26/13      The first printing press in North America was used in Mexico City in 1539. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/27/13      Because whales must rise to the surface often to breathe, only one half of their brain sleeps at a time. This process allows their body to get adequate rest while still providing for the necessary function of breathing to survive. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/28/13      There were 254 million turkeys raised in the United States in 2012. That is up 2 percent from the number raised during 2011. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/29/13      Human trafficking is estimated to surpass the drug trade in less than five years. Journalist Victor Malarek reports that it is primarily men who are driving human trafficking, specifically trafficking for sex. - Provided by RandomHistory.com 11/30/13      Carcinogens in cigarettes may accumulate in household carpet. Because dogs and cats, not to mention children and infants, spend a great deal of time on the floor, they may be at risk for developing lung cancer in households with cigarette smokers. - Provided by RandomHistory.com

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