I did not know that yesterday!

A few years ago, the Lovenstein Institute claimed to have analyzed the IQs of every American president from the last 50 years. According to their findings, Bill Clinton had the highest IQ (at 182), while George W. Bush had the lowest (91). The study made for an interesting read (especially for registered Democrats), but there's just one problem -- there is no Lovenstein Institute. The study was all a hoax.

So, who was America's smartest president? We'll probably never know for certain, but an article by Steve Sailer argues it could have been any number of people. Dwight Eisenhower, despite his reputation for being "dumb as a tree stump," was keenly intelligent. Richard Nixon was said to have scored a 143 on an IQ test in high school. Such a score would make him a genius in the eyes of many.

Other contenders for "biggest egghead in the White House" include Calvin Coolidge (the last president to write his own speeches), Herbert Hoover (a successful mining engineer before he took office), and Abraham Lincoln, who many historians believe was America's greatest overall president.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Email is second only to the telephone in terms of the number of worldwide users, but it's nearly impossible to figure exactly how many emails are sent each day.

VeriSign (the exclusive registry for .com and .net domains) estimates (PDF) that there are about 2.25 billion email queries per day. However, because of caching, email queries represent only a fraction of the number of emails sent. And VeriSign doesn't track many huge email-producing domains, such as those that end in .edu. So 2.25 billion is far below the actual number of emails sent every day.

According to a CNN article, in 2001, the International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted the number of emails sent each day would exceed 36 billion by 2005. But in 2003, the IDC reported that 31 billion emails were already being sent daily, and they expected the number to double by 2006. They do offer a recent report that may be more accurate -- and you're welcome to spend the thousands to purchase it!

As best as we can figure then, the number of emails sent each day far exceeds 2.25 billion. It may be approaching 62 billion. Email this column to a friend, and it'll be higher yet...
Source: ask.yahoo.com

In a word, yes. A dairy specialist from Purdue University states that those familiar black-and-white Holsteins dotting the countryside are among the most likely to sunburn, particularly on the areas where their hair and skin are lighter colored. Grazing on certain plants, such as young wheat and some kinds of weeds, can increase a cow's sun sensitivity as well.

Pigs, too, are subject to sunburn, particularly those with lighter pigments. Swine don't sweat, so to cool themselves, they love to roll in mud or water. A good wallow protects pigs from both the sun and insect bites.

But cows and pigs aren't the only animals who need beware the sun. Other light-colored farm animals like horses and sheep can also suffer from sunburn.

So the next time you want to impress that special someone with your superior knowledge and big heart, look for a Holstein standing in a field. Climb the fence, apply sunblock to the cow, and smugly say, "Cows get sunburn too, you know."

Source: ask.yahoo.com

A newsletter from the Wolfe Clinic sets a person's total intake at 60,000 to 100,000 pounds. Another site gives the answer in terms of a math problem: "An elephant weighs about 10,000 pounds. In your lifetime, you will eat the equivalent weight of 6 elephants." We're not sure that pachyderms are the most appetizing example to illustrate food consumption, but it makes for an interesting visual.


So what else weighs 60,000 pounds?

* 60,000 paperback copies of Stephen King's "The Stand"
* 17,455 iPods (80GB model)
* 20,000 bags of Halloween candy
* 15,000 Paris Hilton pets (Chihuahuas)
* 9.4 Hummer H2s

The USDA has more tasty tidbits about our how our cravings add up over a year. In 2000, the average person ate 195 pounds of meat (red meat, poultry, and fish), 250 pounds of eggs, 593 pounds of dairy products, 74.5 pounds of fats, 200 pounds of flour and cereal products, and 707 pounds of fruits and vegetables. We think we'll skip breakfast today. Burp.

Source: ask.yahoo.com

Amy Johnson (July 1, 1903 – January 5, 1941) was a famous English aviatrix who was born in Kingston upon Hull (East riding of Yorkshire, UK).

Early Life
Having graduated with a BA Economics from the University of Sheffield,Johnson went to work in London as secretary to a solicitor. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's licence at the London Aeroplane Club in late 1929. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's license.


Notable Flights
She became well-known in 1930 when she was the first woman to fly from Britain to Australia. She left Croydon on May 5 of that year and landed in Darwin, Australia on May 24 after flying 11,000 miles. Her aeroplane for this flight a De Havilland Gipsy Moth (registration G-AAAH) named Jason, can still be seen in the Science Museum of London. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in recognition of this achievement.

In July 1931, she became the first pilot along with her co-pilot Jack Humphreys to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 1,760 mile journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and onto Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. The flight was completed in a De Havilland Puss Moth.

In 1932, she married the famous British pilot Jim Mollison, who had proposed to her only 8 hours after they had met, during a flight of theirs.

In July 1932, she set a solo record for the flight from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa in a Puss Moth, breaking her new husband's record.

With Mollison, she flew a De Havilland Dragon Rapide nonstop from Pendine Sands, South Wales, to the USA in 1933. However, their plane ran out of fuel and crash landed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, injuring them both.

The Mollisons also flew in record time from England to India in 1934 in a De Havilland Comet as part of the England to Australia MacRobertson Air Race. They were forced to retire from this race however, due to engine trouble at Allahabad.

In May, 1936, Johnson made her last record breaking flight, regaining her England to South Africa record in a Percival Gull.

Death
In 1938, Johnson divorced Mollinson. In 1940, during World War II, she joined the newly formed Air Transport Auxiliary, whose job was to transport RAF planes around the country. On January 5, 1941, whilst flying an Airspeed Oxford to RAF Kidlington near Oxford, she went off
course in poor weather. She drowned after bailing out into the Thames estuary. Although she was seen alive in the water, a rescue attempt failed and her body was lost. She was the first member of the Air Transport Auxilary to die in service.

In 1958, a collection of Amy Johnson souvenirs and mementoes were donated by Amy's father to Sewerby Hall. The hall now houses a room dedicated to Amy Johnson in their museum.

Scot singer songwriter Al Stewart sings about her in his song "Flying Sorcery" from his Year Of The Cat album.

Source: www.wikipedia.org

It's definitely not "Erotic Confessions of a Web Writer," as that remains, tragically and incredibly, unpublished. The International Herald Tribune cites "The Da Vinci Code" as the best-selling novel of all time.

A Wikipedia list of best-selling books corroborates this, pegging sales of Dan Brown's revisionist tale of Jesus Christ, a Harvard symbologist, and a self-flagellating monk at 60,500,000 copies and counting. The success of "The Da Vinci Code" helped spur sales of Brown's earlier novels, and four Brown books appeared in 2004 on The New York Times best-seller list in the same week.

But this triumph still does not put total sales of all his books anywhere near those of the best-selling fiction author of all time. (Nope, not J.K. Rowling.) The Guinness Book of World Records lists sales of mystery writer Agatha Christie 's numerous novels at an "estimated two billion copies" worldwide.

And the number-one best-selling boffo book of all stripes, all time? That would be the Bible. Fiction or nonfiction -- we'll leave that to Dan Brown and The Pope to iron out. In any event, no one has claimed royalties.

Source: ask.yahoo.com