You're gonna say I didn't know that! --

[Guest guest]

Subject: Fw: "You're gonna say "I didn't know

that!"

“You're

gonna say "I didn't know that!" at least 5

times. Really neat stuff here.

Alaska

More

than half of the coastline of the entire

United States is in

Alaska .

Amazon

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20%

of the world's oxygen supply.

The Amazon River pushes so

much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of

the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.

The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the

next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three

times the flow of all rivers in the

United States .

Antarctica

Antarctica is the only land on our

planet that is not owned by any country.

Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica .

This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh

water in the world.

As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert;

the average yearly total precipitation is about two inches.

Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, ice.),

Antarctica is the driest place on the planet,

with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil

Brazil got its name from the

nut, not the other way around.

Canada

Canada has more lakes than the

rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning '

Big Village '.

Chicago

Next

to Warsaw ,

Chicago has the largest Polish population

in the world.

Detroit

Woodward

Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1,

so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria

Damascus,

Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years

before Rome was founded in 753 BC,

making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in

existence.

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul,

Turkey, is the only city in the world

located on two continents.

Los

Angeles

Los Angeles' full name is:

El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de

Los Angeles de

Porciuncula

-- and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size:

L.A.

New

York City

The

term 'The Big Apple' was coined

by touring jazz musicians of the 1930s

who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city.

Therefore, to play New

York City

is to play the big time - The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in

New York City

than in Dublin , Ireland ;

more Italians in New

York City

than in Rome , Italy ;

and more Jews in New

York City

than in Tel Aviv , Israel .

Ohio

There

are no natural lakes in the state of

Ohio , every one is

manmade.

Pitcairn Island

The

smallest island with country status is Pitcairn

in Polynesia , at just

1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.

Rome

The

first city to reach a population of 1 million people

was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C.

There is a city called

Rome on every continent.

Siberia

Siberia contains more than 25%

of the world's forests.

S.M.O.M.

The

actual smallest sovereign entity in the world

is the Sovereign Military Order of

Malta (S.M.O.M).

It is located in the city of Rome , Italy ,

has an area of two tennis courts

and, as of 2001, has a population of 80

-- 20 less people than the

Vatican .

It is a sovereign entity under international law,

just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert

In

the Sahara

Desert , there is a town named

Tidikelt ,

Algeria ,

which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.

Technically though, the driest place on Earth

is in the valleys of the Antarctic near

Ross Island ..

There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain

Spain literally means 'the

land of rabbits'.

St.

, Minnesota

St. , Minnesota, was originally called Pig's

Eye

after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant

who set up the first business there.

Roads

Chances

that a road is unpaved:

in the U.S.A. = 1%;

in Canada = 75%

Russia

The

deepest hole ever drilled by man is the

Kola Superdeep Borehole, in

Russia .

It reached a depth of 12,261 meters

(about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles).

It was drilled for scientific research

and gave up some unexpected discoveries,

one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen

- so massive that the mud coming from the hole

was boiling with it.

United

States

The

Eisenhower interstate system requires

that one mile in every five must be straight.

These straight sections are usable as airstrips

in times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls

The

water of Angel Falls (the world's highest) in

Venezuela

drops 3,212 feet (979 meters).

They are 15 times higher than

Niagara Falls .

I have always said, you should learn

something new every day. Unfortunately, many

of us are at that age where what we learn today, we

forget tomorrow.

But, give it a shot

anyway.

=

--