Plywood was first made 5,500 years ago in ancient Egypt.

Only 1% of the world’s water is in a form that is usable to humans. The rest is salt water or in solid form as ice caps and glaciers.

The human heart, full of blood, weighs three-quarters of a pound.

The standard for the kilogram – a chunk of metal, under triple lock and key since 1889 at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, near Paris – is actually 50 micrograms lighter.

Clint Eastwood used to be a hay baler.

This article appears in February 4 • 2011.

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