Interesting Facts:Part 1

Happy Valentines Day!
I received the following from a friend and thought I might share them with you.


ALASKA More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

AMAZON The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

ANTARCTICA Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica. This ice also represents seventy percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

BRAZIL Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

CANADA Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
Canada is an Indian word meaning "Big Village."

CHICAGO Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.

DETROIT Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.

DAMASCUS, SYRIA Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.