Nobel laureates by country, as of July 2006:
- United States: 160
- United Kingdom: 110
- Germany: 92
- France: 44
- Switzerland: 25
- USSR and Russia: 21
- Italy: 19
- Canada: 18
- Sweden: 18
- Netherlands: 18
- Hungary: 16
- Denmark: 14
- Poland: 14
Nobel laureates by country, as of July 2006:
Joshua Gardner may be a sex offender, but he’s a creative one. Last year the 22-year-old visited Minnesota’s Stillwater Area High School three times, claiming to be Caspian James Crichton-Stuart IV, the Fifth Duke of Cleveland. He spoke in an English accent and insisted that students, staff and even the principal call him “your grace.”
Student journalists caught on when he misspelled the name of his “castle,” and they soon discovered Gardner was on probation after having sex with a 14-year-old girl in 2002. He now faces up to 21 months in prison.
Before World War II, this photo emerged from Japan — Emperor Hirohito inspecting a fleet of giant tubas, with anti-aircraft guns in the background.
They’re actually acoustic locators, designed to listen for plane engines. Radar made the whole project obsolete.
Throughout his entire professional career, Andy Kaufman kept a day job busing tables at Jerry’s Famous Deli in Los Angeles.
“Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” — Mel Brooks
An optical illusion. The two figures are the same size.
“Don’t just do something, stand there.” — Clint Eastwood’s acting coach
When Fidel Castro was 12 years old, he sent the following letter to Franklin Roosevelt:
Colegio de Dolores
Apartado 1
Santiago de CubaSantiago de Cuba.
Nov 6, 1946
Mr. Franklin Roosvelt,
President of the United StatesMy good friend Roosvelt:
I don’t know very English, but I know as much as write to you. I like to hear the radio, and I am very happy because I heard in it that you will be President for a new (período)
I am twelve years old. I am a boy but I think very much but I do not think that I am writing to the President of the United States.
If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green american, in the letter, because never I have not seen a ten dollars bill green american and I would like to have one of them.
My address is:
Sr. Fidel Castro
Colegio de Dolores
Santiago de Cuba
Oriente, Cuba.I don’t know very English but I know very much Spanish and I suppose you don’t know very Spanish but you know very English because you are American but I am not American.
Thanks you very much.
Good by, Your friend,
Fidel Castro
He added a postscript:
“If you want iron to make your ships I will show you to you the bigest (minas) of iron of the land. They are in Mayari, Oriente, Cuba.”
There’s never a good time for a tsunami, but the one that hit Hawaii in 1946 (visible at center right) was particularly unfortunate. It landed on April 1, and many residents dismissed the warnings as an April Fools prank. Ultimately 165 people died.
New York’s Library Hotel has 10 floors, each decorated according to a major category in the Dewey Decimal System. Each room has its own subcategory or genre, including appropriate books and art. Rooms: