Do You Wanna Know?

Buick: David Dunbar Buick (1854-1929), a Scotsman, merged the failing Buick Manufacturing Company with another to form the Buick Motor Car Company in 1903.

Chevrolet: Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) was a race car driver and designer who co-founded the company.

Chrysler: Walter Chrysler (1875-1940) formed the Chrysler Corporation in 1925.

Dodge: John (1864-1920) and Horace (1868-1920) Dodge founded the their own car company in 1914.

Ferrari: Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988) racing car driver and designer founded the company in 1929.

Ford: Henry Ford (1863-1947) founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903.

Mercedes-Benz: Karl Benz (1844-1929) is believed by many to be the inventor of the automobile. Mercedes Jellinek was a daughter of a German diplomat and investor.

Oldsmobile: Ransom Eli Olds (1864-1950) founded the Olds Motor Vehicle company in 1897.

Porsche: Ferdinand Porsche (1875-1951), automobile designer and manufacturer, started his own company in 1930.

Rolls-Royce: A combination of Sir Henry Royce (1863-1933) and Charles Rolls (1877-1910 ). Royce founded the company in 1903 and Rolls promoted the car.

What is past a trillion?

The big numbers past a trillion, in ascending powers of ten, are as follows: quadrillion, quintillion, sextillion, septillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion, undecillion, duodecillion, tredecillion, quattuordecillion, and quindecillion (that’s 10 to the 48th, or a one followed by 48 zeros). But wait — there’s more.

The highest number listed on Robert Munafo’s table, which coincidentally is our new favorite number, is a milli-millillion. Say that three times fast! That’s 10 to the 3000003rd. For something closer to home, a centillion is 10 to the 303rd.

The googolplex has often been nominated as the largest named number in the world. If a googol is ten to the one hundredth, then a googolplex is one followed by a googol of zeroes. Ugh, we think we feel a headache coming on.

American and Russian space flights have always included a portion of chocolate.

Cole Porter loved fudge, every month he would have crates of it sent to him.

The first civilian Humvee (Hummer) was bought by Arnie, Governor of California.

IBM’s motto, apparently is ‘Think’.

A cough releases an eruption of breath at speeds of up to 60mph!

When you lick a stamp, you gain one tenth of a calorie

Women’s hearts beat faster than men.

A murder is committed every eighteen minutes in the USA. (2007)

The ‘Flu’ killed twenty one million people world wide in 1918.

The First Academy Awards were in 1921.

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year for 1938 was Adolf Hitler!

Lance Armstrong (United States) holds the record as the only rider to have won the Tour seven times (consecutively 1999–2005); he retired after the 2005 Tour.

The tallest rider was Johan van Summeren at 1.98 meters or 6′ 5.5″.

The shortest was Samuel Dumoulin at 1.58 meters or 5′ 2″.

The heaviest rider was Magnus Backstedt at 95 kgs or 209.5 lbs.

The lightest was Leonardo Piepoli at 57 kgs or 125.7lbs.

Chris Horner and Laurent Lefevre shared the lowest resting heart rate, 35 beats per inute.

The “average” rider in 2005 was 1.79 meters (5′ 10.5″) tall, weighed 71 kgs (156.5 lbs), and had a resting heart rate of 50 beats per minute.

Youngest winner was Henri Cornet, 19 years 50 weeks in 1904.

Oldest winner was Lambot, 36 years four months in 1922.

Number of pedal strokes taken per rider for the three weeks: 324,000 (at 60 rpm); 486,000 (at 90 rpm)

Calories burned by a rider in the course of the Tour: 123,900 (based on 5900-per day average at 21 days of racing).

The course and total distance traveled changes every year.

4 racers have died while competing in Le Tour de France.