Jet fuel went up to $1.81 per gallon in January of 2006. Yes, that's right, it IS cheaper than petrol, too bad we can't use it in our cars. A Boeing 747 holds 57,285 gallons of the stuff. To fill a Boeing 747 in January of this year cost a whopping $103,685.85. This is the main reason why the U.S. airlines are losing billions of dollars a year.

Did you ever wonder why the Nazi period was called the Third Reich? Here is the answer. The First Reich was when Otto the Great ruled the Holy Roman Empire in 962 A.D. The Second Reich occurred in 1871 and lasted until 1918. It was founded by Otto von Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian War. By the way Reich means empire. While we are on the subject, what exactly was meant by the Aryan race? They were a group of people whose language came from a common source. The word Aryan means noble. There is actually no race that is an Aryan race. In Nazi Germany in was generally meant to mean people with blond hair and light skin.

Many people believe that in nature, the hottest temperature in this solar system is generated by the sun. The truth is that lightning bolts can generate temperatures five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Did you ever see those movies of sand storms. You will notice that the people caught in them have to cover their eyes, but no one ever covers the camel's eyes. That is because camels have three eyelids. This protects their eyes naturally from the blowing sand.

The entire United Kingdom can fit into New York State. Many people believe that Monaco is the smallest country. It is truly small at only 0.7 square miles in area but the Vatican has it beat. Vatican City is only 0.2 miles square. If we were to look at the 15 smallest countries in the world, the largest would be Antigua and Barbuda which is 171 square miles. To give you something to compare it to, the city of Chicago is 230 square miles in area.

The world's oldest living dog is Brambles who lives in England. He is 27 years old. Scientists believe that they have discovered the oldest animals ever found. They date back 580 to 600 million years and have tiny fossil remains.

The Eiffel Tower is made of steel as we all know. It took 2.5 million rivets to build it. It sways almost 4 inches at the top in high winds. Its height can vary up to about 5 inches according to the temperature. Over 40 tons of paint cover the tower. It was constructed from 15,000 pieces not counting the rivets. When we talk of swaying in the wind some other structures sway much more. The CN Tower in Toronto, Canada is built to sway 3.5 feet at the antenna mast if the wind reaches about 80 mph. The upper observation deck will sway 1.5 feet in the same wind and the open observation deck will sway 9 inches in the same wind. Boy I wouldn't want to be up there in a high wind. Currently there is a patent for a device that limits sway. It is a set of vanes at the top of the structure. Sway is detected and the vanes open conducting the air from a large fan inside the building to the opposite side of the building from the wind, thus limiting the sway.

The top mileage non hybrid car in the U.S. is the Volkswagen Jetta/Golf TDI diesel. It gets 42 mpg city and 49 mpg highway.

You have all seen knights wearing armor in the movies or at festivals. The truth about the armor is that the heaviest weighed about 100 pounds and the lightest full armor weighed about 35 pounds. Wow if you got knocked off your horse wearing that 100 pound armor you might need help to get back up.

The Mallet locomotive built in 1941 is said to be the world's most powerful steam engine. A Mallet locomotive is a type of steam engine that uses two steam engines and one boiler all on the same car.

What is the world's biggest bird? Some say it is the huge Condor that plies the skies of South America, but the answer is that it is the Ostrich. The eye of the Ostrich is bigger than its brain. An adult male can weigh up to about 350 pounds.

Never try to out run a Cheetah. A Cheetah can reach 70 mph at full speed. A Cheetah is the only cat in the entire world that can't retract its claws. A Cheetah sometimes chirps like a bird, the chirp is so loud that it can be heard over a mile away.

Talk about stomach acid. The digestive juices in a Crocodile's stomach can digest a steel nail. Crocodiles can't chew or stick their tongues out. Crocodiles can outrun a human, but if you run in a zigzag pattern they can't catch you because they are not agile enough. If you can't do this, bring along someone who is slower than yourself.

Forest fires are very strange, they move much faster uphill than downhill.

The average heart beats over 100,000 times per day.

The world's biggest army is the Chinese army. It has over 2.8 million soldiers, 8,500 tanks, 4,000 planes. The navy has 61 submarines and 54 surface ships. The Chinese have 400 nuclear war heads.

The slowest vehicle in the world is believed to be a vehicle that weighs 12.6 million pounds and stands 451 feet off the ground. It is the mobile launcher used to launch rockets at the Kennedy Space Center. It transports rockets to their launch area and travels at a maximum speed of .75 miles per hour.