The tongue of the blue whale weighs more than an elephant! (Thank you Portland Oregonian.)

There is misinformation about the most-replicated image in world history. Some hold that the honor is held by Queen Elizabeth II, whose image appears on all money, postage stamps and other government documents, not only in England, but in many other countries that are part of the British Commonwealth. However, the image has been updated a number of times since she succeeded to the throne, to accommodate the change in her appearance as she aged. Of course her image has appeared on countless other printed sheets of paper in addition, but of course, few of these images would be exactly the same.

NASA maintains that an image of the planet earth taken by some astronauts back during the Apollo missions (or whatever) holds the honor. Doesn't come near. This claim is reprinted frequently without critical examination by the editors that reprint it (for example, "Marilyn's" puzzle column in the weekly Parade magazine, and the Smithsonian,) or they would skip it.

There used to be a column entitled "E.M. Boyd's Grab Bag." This was of the strange-but-true type, as is this one here, and it was pretty good, but its author retired, and the column stopped. He discussed the matter and nominated the image of King C. Gillette, the perfector and marketer of the safety razor, as the owner of the most replicated image in history, and speaking of the printed image, he (E.M. Boyd) was probably right. There were billions of these blades sold, and until the fifties Mr. Gillette's image adorned each pack of five, if I remember.

But even this astronomical number (there were thirty billion blades sold during this period, according to my reckonings after reading Mr. Gillette's biography, and the information in it) doesn't come close to the number of Lincoln pennies minted since the image came into play back around 1910. By now there are 12 billion of these minted EVERY YEAR to make up for the increased population and those that are lost or thrown away. This amounts to 32,854,000 per day, 1,368,000 per hour. About 33,000 tons per year. Since there are 280 million people in the US approx., this amounts to about 43 pennies lost by every man, woman and child in a year, give or take the increased need to accomodate expanding population. Not all that much when you come to think of it!

Punctuate this one so that it makes sense: "Jack where John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher."

Answer: 'Jack, where John had had "had," had had "had had;" "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.'

One rye-grass plant has over one thousand miles of roots under it!

A bird's feathers weigh more than twice as much as its bones. They weighed an eagle's dismembered body and found 9 oz. bones and 20 oz. of feathers. An eagle's talons are so strong that it can break a man's forearm with its grip.

The Arctic Tern migrates 20,000 miles a year---and finds time to raise babies at the same time. It flies from the nearest land to the North Pole south to the ocean near the South Pole, and then back. Plus what flying it does to find food. It flies all the time, since it only comes to land to raise chicks. Nobody has figured out how some of these birds of passage get any rest, for some of them are not waterproof and cannot land, while the albatross has such long wings it is in danger of getting stuck on the surface when there is no wind. These birds scoop their food off of the surface of the waves.

The DNA of the simplest organism contains as much information as a small 'phone book. This is supposed to have happened by chance combination of molecules near a volcanic vent at the bottom of the ocean???!

All of neo-Darwinism is based on the unprovable assumption that there is only chance in nature to explain change, no intent. This is as much a creation-myth as any other, e.g. Genesis 1:1 et seq. (Cf. Jeremy Narli, The Cosmic Serpent, pps. 138 and 142.)