Fact Of The Day

Depression, loneliness, poor self-esteem, substance abuse, feelings of inadequacy, anger, and anxiety are common among people who develop eating disorders. Additionally, those who are praised or ridiculed for their weight or sexual development are also at greater risk.

The agent that gives Twinkies their smooth feel, cellulose gum, is also used in rocket fuel to give it a slightly gelatinous feel.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped more than 1,000 different gods and goddesses. The most important god of all was Ra, the sun god.

More than 65 million men from 30 countries fought in WWI. Nearly 10 million died. The Allies (The Entente Powers) lost about 6 million soldiers. The Central Powers lost about 4 million.

Only one half of a dolphin’s brain goes to sleep at a time. Dolphins are capable of what is known as unihemispheric sleep, in which one hemisphere of the brain goes into a deep sleep while the other hemisphere remains awake. This allows dolphins to sleep under water without drowning. Dolphins spend approximately one third of their lives asleep.

Americans eat an average of 100 acres worth of pizza daily. There are approximately 61,269 pizzerias in America.

The original title for Ghostbusters (1984) was “Ghost Smashers.”

The oldest American dog breed is the American Foxhound, which dates back to 1650.

The brothers who gave the world the term “Siamese twins” were born in 1811 in a village near Bangkok. The twins Eng and Chang were joined at the chest and left Thailand for the U.S when they were 17 years old. Each brother married, and between them they had 22 children. In 1873, Eng caught pneumonia and died. Chang died a few hours later.

The longest bridge in the world is the Second Lake Pontchartrain Causeway located in Louisiana (US), with a length of 23.87 miles. The longest bridge span is the Akashi Kaikyo suspension bridge in Japan with a length of 6,532 feet.

In English, to “decimate” means to completely destroy. The word comes from the Latin decimare, which evolved from the practice of killing every tenth Roman soldier if they tried to mutiny.

The following is a list of some automobiles named after people: Aston Martin (Lionel Martin), Audi (August Horch, Latin translation of Horch), Bugatti (Ettore Bugatti), Cadillac (Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, founder of Detroit), Chevrolet (Louis Chevrolet), Chrysler (Walter Chrysler), Citröen (André-Gustave Citroën), Daimler (Gottlieb Daimler), Ferrari (Enzo Ferrari), Ford (Henry Ford), Honda (Soichiro Honda), Lamborghini (Ferruccio Lamborghini), Lancia (Vincenzo Lancia), Maserati (Maserati brothers), Mercedes (Emil Jellinek's daughter Mercedes), Opel (Adam Opel), Peugeot (Armand Peugeot), Porsche (Ferdinand Porsche), Rolls-Royce (Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce), and Toyota (Sakichi Toyoda).

The history of the word mattress shows how the object came to Europe and then the Americas from the Middle East. During the earlier part of the Middle Ages, Arabic culture was more advanced than that of Europe. One of the amenities of life enjoyed by the Arabs was sleeping on cushions thrown on the floor. Our word is derived from the Arabic word matrah meaning "place where something is thrown," "carpet or cushion." This kind of sleeping surface was adopted by the Europeans during the Crusades, and the Arabic word was taken into Old Italian and then into Old French, from which comes the Middle English word materas, first recorded c 1300.

The Sealing of NY’s Adoption Records
In 1935, the then acting NY Governor Lehman, an adoptive father, signed a bill making NY a sealed record state. His children were adopted from the most infamous baby thief of them all, Georgia Tann and it is not a farfetched thought to think of New York States adoption records becoming closed upon her request ala quid pro quo.
As a portion of the estimated 6 million adoptees, our New York adoptees have two “official” birth certificates. The original one, which truthfully states the information about their physical birth, including their original names, their natural parents names, the hospital, doctor, date, time and weight, becomes forever sealed under a court of law when their adoption is finalized. At that point, the new adoptive parents are issued a new amended birth certificate which might or might not state the real birth information such as date, time, hospital and weight, and replaces the natural parents names with the adoptive parents names “as if” the child was born to them. The name of the child is also reborn and all identity from the point of finalization on is replaced. The OBC is forever more sealed under Domestic Relations law and never to be seen in the light of day by anyone. No one has access to it but the clerks that hold the keys and they are sworn to the subjective secrecy. The adoptive parents have no rights to it, not the adoptee, and not the original parents whose names are also listed. This 75 year old law continues to frustrate and mystify all to this day