As of 2008, the country with least prisoners, out of a list of 218 countries for which data was available, was San Marino with only one.

The Vatican City (the Holy See) has the smallest population of any country in the world, with 821 inhabitants in 2007.

The lowest temperature endured by any bird is an average temperature of -20ºC (-4ºF) by the breeding emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) on the Antarctic sea ice where the windspeed can vary from 25–75 km/h (16–47 mph). “The means whereby Emperor penguins survive in harsh conditions are several remarkable physiological and behavioural adaptations, all arising from the need to minimize heat loss and the expenditure of energy. Their body size and shape give a relatively low surface-to-volume ratio, and the flippers and bill are 25% smaller Continue reading →

Bartholomew Parker Bidder (1809-49), a younger brother of George Parker Bidder, had a remarkable memory.  In 1838 he became an actuary to the Royal Exchange Assurance Company.  When the firm’s records were destroyed by fire he was able to reconstruct them from memory in six months.

In 1928, American travel writer Richard Halliburton paid 36 cents (7p) to swim through the Panama Canal. Halliburton followed the trails of such heroes as Ulysses and Alexander the Great, and his books include The Royal Road to Romance (1925), The Flying Carpet (1932), and Seven League Boots (1935) In 1939 he was lost at sea attempting to cross the Pacific Ocean in a junk.

The most different 18 hole golf courses played in one year is 449 courses by Cathie and Jonathan Weaver (both Canada), in various locations across Canada and the United States from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009. Husband and wife Jonathan and Cathie are both accomplished golfers with handicaps of 8 and 15 respectively. They played courses in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland (all Canada) and Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Continue reading →

Instead of a traditional block camera body, the 3-in touch screen LCD on the Casio Tryx digital camera is swivel-mounted inside a frame, upon which the lens and flash is affixed. The screen pops out of the frame and can be swivelled 360 degrees around and through the frame in landscape mode, and swivelled simultaneously 360 degrees on its frame-attached stem in portrait mode, creating an almost limitless number of shooting positions and angle combinations. Because of the camera’s twistability, left-handers and right-handers can hold Continue reading →

It has been estimated that the eye muscles move more than 100,000 times a day. Many of these rapid eye movements take place during the dreaming phase of sleep.

The most aces served by an individual player in a Grand Slam tennis match is 113 by John Isner (USA) against Nicolas Mahut (France) at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, in Wimbledon, London, UK, from 22-24 June 2010.

The US-made Stinger missile, introduced in the early 1980s, is 1.5 m (5 ft) long, weighs 9.9 kg (22 lb), and has a range of about 4.8 km (3 miles) and a speed of about 2,000 kph (1,300 mph). Based on figures from Afghanistan it is said to have a 79 % success rate. The Stinger’s cryogenically cooled infrared seeker distinguishes between an aircraft’s infrared signature and countermeasures such as flares. In the early 1990’s, the US Army took delivery of the Stinger POST (Passive Continue reading →