Speech Recognition Line-by-line training Interesting, useful or useless information – for practice typing using speech input. A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second. An iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes. The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments. Coca-Cola was originally green. A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body. It is impossible to lick your elbow. There are about a billion bicycles in the world, twice as many as motorcars. Almost 400 million bicycles are in China. The bicycle as we know it today, with two wheels of the same size, looks almost exactly the same as one from 1900. Amphibians see no color; they perceive only black and white. Amphibians’ eyes come in a variety shapes and sizes. Some even have square- or heart-shaped pupils. An ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain. A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why. A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't. A newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in length. A rat can last longer without water than a camel can. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. Chameleons can move their eyes in two different directions at the same time. Cheetahs make a chirping sound that is much like a bird's chirp or a dog's yelp. The sound is so an intense, it can be heard a mile away. Ants are social insects and live in colonies which may have as many as 500,000 individuals. Ants don't sleep. The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies. If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes. Armored knights raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute. China's labor force stands at 706 million people, almost three times that of Europe and twice that of North and South America combined No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple. Ducks will lay eggs only in the early morning. Dolphins swim in circles while they sleep with the eye on the outside of the circle open to keep watch for predators. After a certain amount of time, they reverse and swim in the opposite direction with the opposite eye open. Dolphins jump out of the water to conserve energy. It is easier to move through the air than through the water. One-of-a-kind ... There is only one Q in a Scrabble game. The only rock that floats in water is pumice. Bats are the only mammal that can fly. Bats have only one baby a year. Teeth are the only parts of the human body that can't repair themselves. The bloodhound is the only animal whose evidence is admissible in an American court. The city of Chicago has the only post office in the world where you can drive your car through. The hummingbird is the only bird that can fly backwards. The hyoid bone in the throat is the only bone in the human body not joined to another. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Australia is the only country that is also a continent. Kittens are born both blind and deaf, but the vibration of their mother's purring is a physical signal that the kittens can feel – it acts like a homing device, signaling them to nurse. There are more than 700 species of plants that grow in the United States that have been identified as dangerous if eaten. Among them are some that are commonly favored by gardeners: buttercups, daffodils, lily of the valley, sweet peas, oleander, azalea, bleeding heart, delphinium, and rhododendron. Koalas and humans are the only animals with unique prints. Koala prints cannot be distinguished from human fingerprints. Koalas are marsupials, not bears. They also have no tail or eyelids. Sea water is salty. The water evaporated from the sea by the sun and wind leaves the salt behind it, so the sea is becoming more and more salty! A bolt of lightning can strike Earth with a force as great as 100 million volts. A bolt of lightning travels at speeds of up to 100 million feet per second, or 72 million miles per hour. Elephant tusks grow throughout an elephant's life and can weigh more than 200 pounds. Among Asian elephants, only the males have tusks. Both sexes of African elephants have tusks. The African boabab tree can have a circumference as large as 100 feet. One such tree in Zimbabwe is so wide that the hollowed-out trunk serves as a shelter at a bus stop, with a capacity to hold as many as 40 people. The bleakest places on Earth are the two poles: the South Pole has no sunshine for 182 days each year; the North Pole does slightly better — it has no sunlight for 176 days. Dragonflies are one of the fastest insects, flying 50 to 60 mph. The California redwood – coast redwood and giant sequoia – are the tallest and largest living organism in the world. The blue whale is the largest living animal. Some weigh as much as 24 elephants, several times as much as the heaviest dinosaurs or more than 1,500 people! Its nearest rival is probably the sperm whale. Which animal walks sideways? Crabs are famous for walking sideways! They are crustaceans, meaning they have shells, and five pairs of legs, two eyes on movable stalks and four antennae. Some crabs are as tiny as insects; the great spider crab of Japan is the largest with legs 120 centimetres long. Most crabs live completely or partly in water. In its entire lifetime, the average worker bee produces 1/12th teaspoon of honey. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand. Only two people signed the American Declaration of Independence on July 4th, John Hancock and Charles Thomson. Most of the rest signed on August 2, but the last signature wasn't added until 5 years later. Famous Firsts of the 1900's Cynthia M. Trudell 1999 --- 1st woman to head a US car company, Saturn Corp. Elizabeth Ann Oliver 1998 --- 1st woman to have her baby's birth broadcast live over the Internet. (June 16) Craig Breedlove 1998 --- 1st person to break the sound barrier in a car, at Lake Bonneville, UT, with a trap speed of over 760 MPH. Dolly, the lamb 1996 --- 1st cloned mammal. Madeleine Albright 1996 --- 1st female US Secretary Of State. Billy Crystal 1992 --- 1st guest on "The Tonight Show," when Jay Leno permanently replaced Johnny Carson as host. Famous Firsts of the 1900's Antonia Novello 1990 --- 1st woman and first Hispanic to be named Surgeon General of the US. Michael Jordan 1988 --- 1st basketball player pictured on a box of Wheaties cereal. Kurt Browning 1988 --- 1st figure skater to land a quadruple jump in competition. Christa Sharon McAuliffe 1986 --- 1st teacher selected for the NASA Teacher in Space program. She died, along with the rest of the crew, when the space shuttle Challenger blew up not long after launching. Margaret Thatcher 1979 --- Britain's 1st female prime minister. Sandra Day O'Connor 1981 -- 1st female US Supreme Court justice. Famous Firsts of the 1900's Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin 1961 --- 1st human in space, 1st human to orbit Earth. Antonio Abertondo 1961 --- 1st person to swim the English Channel non-stop in both directions. Sirimavo Bandaraneike 1960 --- 1st woman to be elected the head of state. She became the president of Sri Lanka. Julia Child 1958 --- 1st woman designated a full-fledged "Chef." Ferenc Szisz 1906 --- Winner of the 1st Grand Prix held at Le Mans, France. The Romanian driver drove a Renault. Roald Amundsen - Norwegian explorer 1911 --- 1st man to reach the South Pole, beating out an expedition led by Robert F. Scott. Marie Sklodowska Curie 1911 --- 1st person ever to win two Nobel Prizes. Her first was in Physics (1903) and the second in Chemistry (1911.)