Fact of the day

Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Fact N° 1085
U.S. $1 million in one dollar bills weighs 1 metric ton (1.1 tons).
A new dollar bill weighs exactly 1 gram, or about .002 lbs; thus, one million grams calculates nicely to a single metric ton. However, you would be a lot wiser to get that money in $100 bills since it would weigh considerably less, about 22 pounds (10 kilograms).
Fact N° 1087
U.S. currency was originally printed in green as a measure against counterfeiters.
During the Civil War, paper began to overtake the use of coins as the primary currency used in the U.S. At the same time, photography was becoming popular, and the government feared that people could too easily take pictures of paper currency and print counterfeit bills if they only printed in black and white. As for why green was chosen, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing can only speculate that green ink was readily available at the time.
Fact N° 1088
Aaron Burr is the only sitting Vice President in U.S. history to be indicted for murder.
Burr earned this distinction while serving as VP to Thomas Jefferson in 1804, after his infamous duel with rival Alexander Hamilton ended in Hamilton's death from a gunshot wound. Burr was indicted for murder in both New York and New Jersey, but was acquitted. Burr was the only VP in history to shoot someone while in office -- that is, until Dick Cheney's quail hunting incident in February of 2006.
Fact N° 1089
Christmas wasn't a federal holiday in the U.S. until 1870.
Christmas Day, along with New Year's Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving, were all established in the first federal holiday law in 1870, signed by President Grant. Initially, they only applied to federal employees working in Washington, D.C. That Christmas should be a federal holiday at all has been challenged in court several times by citizens claiming that it violates the separation of church and state. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld its status, claiming the holiday has "a valid secular purpose."
Fact N° 1090
Abbreviating "Christ" with an X (as in "Xmas") began as shorthand for Christian clerics.
Contrary to what many believe, terms like Xmas are not insulting products of some commercial convenience or efforts to remove the Christian aspect of Christmas. In fact, the usage is traced to the religious writings of church clerics as many as 1,000 years ago. For them, making copies of the gospels meant rewriting the word "Christ" numerous times, and since parchment wasn't cheap, clerics began using the Greek letter "chi" (X) to abbreviate the Greek word for Christ, XPICTOC (khristos).
Fact N° 1091
The next total solar eclipse will occur on August 1, 2008.
Visible from northern Canada, northern Russia, parts of China and Mongolia, the entire event will only last for about four and a half hours, peaking at 10:21 a.m. UTC. In those regions, when the sun is "eclipsed," the level of light will plummet by a factor of 10,000. The term "eclipse" comes from the Ancient Greek and translates roughly as "I vanish."
Fact N° 1102
Entertainer Maxi Mounds holds the record for World's Largest Augmented Breasts.
Mounds, an ex-dancer and occasional soft-porn actress, was awarded the title by Guinness in late 2003 after she approached them. At that time, the title did not exist, so the organization created it. On her website, the 6'-tall Mounds gives her measurements as 156MMM-26-36, and claims that each breast weighs an astonishingly uncomfortable-sounding 20 lbs.

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