Useless Tips

If a dollar bill of any denomination glows completely or the watermark is visible when put under UV light, it is counterfeit. ONLY the security slip should be visible.

On the same note (get it?), the cost to produce any denomination of bill is a whopping 4¢.

The Mayan Calendar stops on the date, December 21 (or 23), 2012, which some believe to mark the end of the world.

Two of the largest named numbers are googol, which is equal to 10¹⁰⁰, and googolplex, which is equal to 10^googol, and the names were invented by a nine-year old nephew of the guy who suggested the numbers.

Google got its name from the name googol, showing that is has a ton of information.

The percentage of the population who has said that they don't follow any religion has gone up from 8 to 15 percent since 1990, according to the 2009 American Religious Identification Survey.

The same survey has shown that now, the Northeast is the new location of most of the atheists - it used to be the Northwest.

Suicide and murder of women, children, and unarmed civilians is forbidden in the Qur'an (Koran), the holy book of Muslims.

Fire needs four things to burn: heat, oxygen, fuel, and a chain reaction to keep going.

Samus Aran (from the Metroid series) was supposed to be a guy when they were first developing the first game of the series, Metroid.

Microsoft's biggest rival is Apple, but they worked together when Microsoft was designing desktop accessories for Windows 1.0.

In English, the diaeresis ( ¨ ) is placed over the second vowel in adjacent vowels to show that the vowels are to be pronounced separately as in coöperate and reëstablish.

Between weeks one and eight of a kitten's life is when it bonds with humans. How much human attention the kitten gets within that time, will affect how much the kitten will interreact with humans as an adult.

Your largest organ is the easiest one to see: your skin. It weighs on average 9 lbs.

Everyone's skeleton is different, due to the various stresses we endure. Also, your skeleton is never more than 10 years old, as that is how often it gets overhauled.

It is estimated that there are 8.1 trillion tons of copper in the Earth, of which less than 10% has been mined since its discovery about 10,000 years ago.

Most bells today, like those seen in churches, are made up of a bronze containing 80% copper and 20% tin, known in the industry as "Bell Bronze". This mizture is chosen for its sound quality.

The Great Lakes hold 20% of the Earth's fresh water, and 90% of North America's fresh water.

Water flows over Niagra Falls at the rate of 4.5 million gallons of water per minute.

1.3 billion years ago, the tallest mountains in the world at that time, the Grenville Mountains, towered over what is now the Great Lakes area.

400 million years ago, a warm, tropical sea filled the Michigan Basin, which contains the Great Lakes. As the North American plate drifted away from the Equator, the sea evaported, creating the salt deposits that now dot the Michigan Basin.

Glaciers gouged out the Great Lakes' current shape during the last Ice Age (2 million - 10,000 years ago). Once the glaciers melted at the end of the Ice Age, melt water filled the basin to form the lakes.

Georgian Bay and Lake Huron used to be separated, with the Lucas Channel flowing from Huron and cresting over a waterfall into Georgian Bay, which was higher than Niagra's Horseshoe Falls.

There have been at least five supercontinents over the span of Earth's existence: Vaalbara (3.1 - 2.8 billion years ago [bya]), Kenorland (2.7 - 2.5 bya), Columbia (1.8 - 1.5 bya), Rodinia (1100 - 750 million years ago [mya]), and Pangaea (300 - 180 mya). There might also be others, yet to be discovered or verified.

It is believed that Americans are developing more Hindu-like beliefs, such as reincarnation and that there is more than one path to God, yet most still identify themselves as Christians.

Also, in a recent survey (taken in 2008), the 33% of people who said that they want to be cremated, that number has increased from 7% in 1975.

Commonly Swapped Words (When Writing)

Affect vs. Effect
- Affect is a verb. I affect any and all of your decisions indirectly.
- Effect is a noun. The effect of my actions on your psyche is yet to be determined.

Everyday vs. Every Day
- Everyday is an adjective. The everyday feel of the restaurant made it seem like an inexpensive one.
- Every day is an adverb. I used to go to school every day. -or- Every day, I walk to and from the park.
They're vs. There vs. Their
- They're is a contraction of "they are". They're ugly.
- There is a word indicating a direction off in the distance. The flowers you are looking for are over there.
- Their is a word indicating a possession by a group of people. Their bicycles were neatly placed against the wall.