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- Rome is considered "The Eternal City."
- If you could cut out the United States, its center of gravity would be at Friend, Nebraska.
- In downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh.
- Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below sea level.
- Alaska is the only state without a state motto.
- In Brazil, Christmas is celebrated with fireworks.
- Portugal is the world's largest producer of cork. The country has regulations protecting cork trees dating back to 1320. During the 1920’s and 30’s, it became illegal to cut down the trees other than for essential thinning and removal of old non-producing trees.
- La Paz, the capital city of Bolivia is the highest capital in the world. Ski resorts there operate only on weekends during the South American summer (November to March). At an elevation of over 17,000 feet, it is too cold to operate during the South American winter.
- Using satellite-surveying techniques, scientists have determined that Los Angeles, California is moving east. At a rate estimated to be about one-fifth on an inch per year, the city is moving closer to the San Gabriel Mountains.
- Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonald's.
- Although people in the majority of countries of the world drive on the right side of roads, there are some fifty nations in which people drive on the left. These include England and many former English colonies such as Australia and New Zealand—but not the U.S. or Canada. There are several non-English countries where people also drive on the left including Japan.
- The Hudson River along the island of Manhattan flows in either direction depending on the tide.
- Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names.
- The San Blas Indian women of Panama consider giant noses a mark of great beauty. They paint black lines down the center of their noses to make them appear longer.
- The chiao is an official unit of currency in China. Also known as jiao, it is a copper-zinc coin that is one-tenth of a yuan and equal to 10 fen.
- There are only three world capitals that begin with the letter "O" in English: Ottawa, Canada; Oslo, Norway; and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
- Only five countries in Europe touch only one other: Portugal, Denmark, San Marino, Vatican City, and Monaco.
- Devon is the only county in Great Britain to have two coasts.
- The many sights that represent the Chinese city of Beijing were built by foreigners: the Forbidden City was built by the Mongols, the Temple of Heaven by the Manchurians.
- The world's largest democracy is India, with a much larger population than the United States and pretty good turn-out in elections, although it also has lots of election violence. Democracy is the fastest-spreading form of government worldwide.
- Reversing Falls is in Canada, where the St. John River flows into the Bay of Fundy at St. John, New Brunswick. The rapids at this juncture flows normally at low tide, backwards at high tide. Between tides there is a 15-minute period in which the river is placid and boaters sail by very quickly.
- Iowa has more independent telephone companies than any other state.
- Australia is the richest source of mineral sands in the world.
- The German Bundestag, or Parliament, has 672 members and is the world's largest elected legislative body.
- Dominica, Mexico, Zambia, Kiribati, Fiji and Egypt all have birds on their flags.
- The smallest 'country' in the world to have its own top-level domain name is Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia.
- The only borough of New York City that isn't an island or part of an island is the Bronx.
- People in Sweden, Japan, and Canada are more likely to know the population of the United States than are Americans.
- Shortest Intercontinental Commercial Flight in the world is from Gibraltar (Europe) to Tangier (Africa.) Distance 34 miles, flight time 20 minutes.
- The official, neutral name of Switzerland, which has multiple official languages, is the latin "Confederation Helvetica", or the Helvetic Confederation, thus the "CH" on license plates, stickers and e-mail addresses.
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