A little something to entertain you while we await the birth of this baby…
1. The US and Canada’s 200 million cars, buses and trucks drive on 6,500,000 km of paved roads (almost 16 times the distance of the moon)
2. Brazil is the largest source of orange juice concentrate
3. The United States of America is the largest consumer of lead, zinc and the largest importer of fossil fuels
4. North America is the largest consumer of oil, nuclear power and hydroelectricity
5. The US is the leader in waste, disposing of 864 kg per capita per year
6. Built in Birmingham in 1904, a statue of Vulcan stands 58 feet high is the largest cast iron statue in the world
7. The government of Bhutan has stopped using Gross Domestic Product (a measure of economic output) as a measure of progress; it now measures GNH or Gross National Happiness instead
8. There are 3 presidents of Bosnia and Herzegovina who rotate every 8 months
9. Bulgaria has existed as a nation for more than 13 centuries
10. Finland has about 60,000 lakes
11. Although separated by 2,300 miles of ocean, Easter Island, known for its giant Moai statues, has been a part of Chile since 1888
12. Colombia is the world’s biggest source of emerald
13. Eritrea – A mysterious language spoken by 3,000 Dahlak Islander was unknown to outsiders before 1996
14. Equatorial Guinea is the only country in Africa in which Spanish is an official language
15. The 3.7 million-year-old skeleton of Lucy one of the earliest ancestor of modern humans, was found in Ethiopia.
16. Wearing a hat is a sign of disrespect in Fijian culture
17. Budapest was originally two separate cities, Buda and Pest. The 2 areas are separated by the Danube River.
18. Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice has more than 200 volcanoes and 120 glaciers
19. India has more people than the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined. Her total population is 1.09 billion.
20. Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world
21. Lebanon has been famous for cedar trees for over 4,000 years. The cedar even appears on the country’s flag.
22. Surrounded by Switzerland and Austria, which themselves also have no access to the sea, Liechtenstein is said to be doubly landlocked.
23. Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world. (Population – 32,543, area – 1 sq. mi)
24. Mongolia is the most thinly populated country in the world. (Population – 2,832,224, area 603,909 sq. mi).
25. Slovenia has more than a thousand caves formed in the rocky areas known as karsts
26. South Africa has 11 official languages; 9 of them are native
27. Though it is home to the European headquarters of the United Nations, Switzerland did not join the UN until 2002
28. Camel racing is a popular sport in the United Arab Emirates. Racing camels are especially bred for speed and are highly prized.
29. In Oman, Muslim desert women follow religious custom by wearing a black mask to prevent her face from being seen. City woman cover only the nose, mouth and cheek.
30. Tablets found in Ugarit contain one of the world’s oldest alphabets dating back to around 1400 BC
31. The Muruntau gold mine is the world’s largest open pit gold mine
32. Damascus is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. It’s the capital of Syria.
33. Colombia leads the world in coffee
34. The national sport of Afghanistan is buzkashi. It is played on horseback and literally means goat grabbing.
35. Barbados is named after the island’s bearded fig trees (Barbados means bearded ones in Spanish)
From Purple Slinky