Forty-four percent of registered* voters* in the U.S. think there is intelligent* life on other planets.

　　Turkeys* are the only farm animal that is 100 percent dependent on artificial insemination* for reproduction*.

　　In 1963, Valentina Tereshkova-Nikolaeva was the first woman in space; she was a Russian astronaut.

　　The first passengers on a hot air balloon* ride were a duck, a rooster* and a sheep in 1780.

　　Vampire bats* rarely bite humans. They dislike human blood.

　　Winter solstice* is Dec. 22, the longest night of the year.

　　The first successful transmission* of TV was demonstrated (by Bell Telephone) in 1927 from President Hoover’s office.

　　The largest nerve* in the human body is the sciatic*. It is as thick as a pencil and runs from the spinal cord* down the back of each leg.

　　Hurricanes* never cross the equator*.

　　Heat cannot flow from a colder to a hotter body.

　　A large swarm* of locust can eat 20,000 tons of grains and vegetation daily.

　　The longest day of the year is 20 minutes longer than the longest night of the year (due to the bending of light around the earth causing the sun to appear to rise before and set after they actually do).

　　Benjamin Franklin was the first to map the Gulf Stream*.

　　Benjamin Franklin

　　(SD-Agencies)(Difficulty: senior)