A quiz day and you-facts

• How good are you at spotting fake smiles? "Most people are surprisingly bad at spotting fake smiles. One possible explanation for this is that it may be easier for people to get along if they don't always know what others are really feeling." Take the quiz here. I got 14 right out of 20.
• Burtyic acid is what makes your vomit smell disgusting. It is also found in Parmesan cheese. Take a sense quiz here.
• How does a growth spurt work? First, hands and feet expand. Next, arms and legs. The shins grow before the thighs, and the forearm grows before the upper arm. Clumsiness is caused as the brain tries to adjust to the new center of gravity. "[T]he relationship between growth of the skeleton and puberty is so strong that a teenager's developmental age can be measured by looking at the maturity of the bones in their hand and wrist. Source
• 1. "The average person will shed 40 pounds of skin in his/her lifetime."
• 2. "The human brain is composed of 75% water."
• 3. " A person produces 10,000 gallons of saliva in an average lifetime."
• 4. "A nail takes around 6 months to grow from base to the tip." Source
  

Old Al

In 1924, Al Capone was 25 years old. In today's money, Capone had a gross income of $1.27 billion and paid his workers $3,000 a week. Capone's suits cost $60,300, and he spent $603 million on police bribes. Al Capone ruled over 20 brothels, 150 "gambling places" and 161 speakeasies.

Source. In Today's St Louis Post Dispatch "NO Kidding" column, and from this book.

Tidbits

• The Eiffel Tower was built in 1889 for the Paris Centennial Exhibition and was planed to be taken down after twenty years despite numerous critics clamoring for immediate removal. In 1907, the French government decided the tower would be permanent, it was too good of a radio antenna to destroy.

• In 1822, Charles Babbage invented a steam-powered mechanical calculator called a difference engine. It was never built, however. Each time he started building his machine, he discovered an upgrade and stopped. He then made hundreds of drawings for a punch-card computer the size of a small train which could add and subtract forty digit numbers in a few seconds. His plans were too advanced, however, and his computer was never made. In 1991, a fully functional difference engine was built from his original plans. The first modern computer was built in 1946.
  

Source: p.138,74
I appreciate your patience with my lack of posts as I wind up my school year. I'm very busy at the moment. Thanks for understanding.

Will the randomness never end?

• Marc Greenbergh created Operation Grow Hair in 1993 to give LA skinheads rounded up by the FBI a "dose of reality." One of the requirements was that they watch Schindler's LIst. Source
• Giovanni Caselli, in around 1863, invented the pantelegraph, the first fax machine. It used electricity, pendulums, batteries, treated paper and wires. It stood six feet tall. By 1868, it was transmitting up to 110 faxes per hour. The Prussian invasion of 1870 stopped the use of the pantelegraph. Source.
• Concerned about declining birth rates, Singapore's Ngee Ann Polytechnic recently launched a course on flirting and relationships. The course is "Understanding Relationships: Love and Sexuality" and is backed by the government. Student Prakash comments: "I think most people who take the course would find it easier to get a girlfriend." Source
  
• In India, officials in central Madhya Pradesh are currently offering fast-tracked gun licenses to men who have vasectomies. Administrative chief Manish Shrivastav remarks: "Over 150 men have got themselves sterilised since we have offered the gun licence preference. I expect another 100 by the end of this month." source