Sixty Amazing-but-True Facts!

PART one

o In the weightlessness of space a frozen pea will explode if it comes in contact with Pepsi.

o The increased electricity used by modern appliances is causing a shift in the Earth’s magnetic field. By the year 2327, the North Pole will be located in mid-Kansas, while the South Pole will be just off the coast of East Africa.

o The idea for “tribbles” in “Star Trek” came from gerbils, since some gerbils are actually born pregnant.

o Male rhesus monkeys often hang from tree branches by their amazing prehensile penises.

o Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of the Toledo Post-Dispatch.

o Smearing a small amount of dog *** on an insect bite will relieve the itching and swelling.

o The Boeing 747 is capable of flying upside-down if it weren’t for the fact that the wings would shear off when trying to roll it over.

o The trucking company Elvis Presley worked at as a young man was owned by Frank Sinatra.

o The only golf course on the island of Tonga has 15 holes, and there’s no penalty if a monkey steals your golf ball.

o Legislation passed during WWI making it illegal to say “gesundheit” to a sneezer was never repealed.

o Manatees possess vocal chords which give them the ability to speak like humans, but don’t do so because they have no ears with which to hear the sound.

o SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below.

o Catfish are the only animals that naturally have an ODD number of whiskers.

o Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender’s system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

o Polar bears can eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting.

o The first McDonald’s restaurant opened for business in 1952 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featured the McHaggis sandwich.

o The Air Force’s F-117 fighter uses aerodynamics discovered during research into how bumblebees fly.

o You *can* get blood from a stone, but only if contains at least 17 percent bauxite.

A Chinese farmer has invented baby-shaped pears - and he is planning to export his novel idea

Plucky farmer Gao Xianzhang has created 10,000 of the mini marvels this season and he plans to take the fruits of his labour to the UK and Europe.

Britain could soon see the arrival of the pears, which are shaped like mini buddhas.

If the idea catches on, sales of the mini pears could hit the profits of British farmers who are already struggling to fend off sales of cheaper foreign produce in recession-hit Britain.

Gao spent six years perfecting the intricate baby-shaped pears, carefully crafting each one which grows inside an individual mould.

Despite their hefty cost of £5 each, locals in his home village of Hexia, in Hebia, northern China, have reportedly been snapping them up.

'People seem to think they are cute or lucky and will buy them as soon as they're off the tree,' Gao explained.

Luckily for Gao, he should have few problems getting his quirky shaped fruits past EU officials.

In July, wonky shaped fruit and vegetables such as curvy cucumbers and knobbly carrots returned to supermarket shelves after EU rules restricting the size and shape of 36 types of fruit and vegetables

For the last 20 years, EU-wide marketing standards have encouraged the sale of finest-looking produce for sale in shops.