Nothing is for certain except death

The following text is originally lifted from the trivia section of The Jakarta Post dated Saturday, 3 May 2008.

~Compiled from various sources~

• The Mount of Olives in Israel is the oldest, continually used cemetery in the world.
• By law, all executed criminals in the U.S. have to have an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
• A body decomposes four times faster in water than on land.
• If you are planning on being cryogenically frozen, the ideal time to start the procedure is within 10 minutes of death.
• The first recorded means of execution is stoning. It was usually a public participation sport, and it was considered bad form to hit the victim in the head. The preferred method was to keep the victim conscious and suffering for as long as possible from internal injuries and broken bones.
• Dr. Joseph Guillotin did not invent the guillotine; he just persuaded officials to use it as a means of executions because of its speed and efficiency. It is a myth that he died by the device.
• Murderers, on average, are 7.5 years younger than their victims.
• The Vietnam Memorial has the names of 38 people engraved on it who are listed as killed, but weren't.
• Extreme cold is more lethal to humans than extreme heat. Cold makes you sleepy, and when you fall asleep, you die.
• Funeral directors in Florida gets 500 frequent flyer miles for every corpse they ship out of Daytona Beach International Airport.
• Japanese factory worker Kenji Urada became the first known fatality "caused by robot" in July 1981, in a car plant.
• The death of George V was timed so it would make the morning papers.
• In the "old days", men and women used a Laff Riot of deadly substances for cosmetics, which would often lead to their insanity and death. Lead was used for that pale white skin in the form of Lead white and Venetian Ceruse, which was absorbed into the skin, into the tissues and blood and caused acute lead poisoning. Mercury, in the form of mercury sublimate or "Solman's Water" was used to remove warts and bleach freckles. Belladonna, a fatally toxic hallucinogen, was used to redden cheeks and lips.
• It is said that most people who commit suicide "arrange" it so the people/person they want to "punish" or gave a final "I told you so" find the body.
• The most common animal people on their death beds or in death hallucinations/visions report seeing is a grey or black dog.
• More men than women commit suicide over love affairs gone wrong.
• In the 20 years of the Great California Gold Rush (1849), about 300,000 died from disease and 362 were killed by Indians.
• When Anne Boleyn was beheaded, so was her dog, Urian.
• It is estimated that in one hour, Genghis Khan's army killed 1,748,000 people. Each of his men was ordered to kill as many people as they could until they dropped down from exhaustion, and bring the ears of the victims to the officers for proof.
• Union General John Sedgewick was killed during the Battle of Spotsylvania on 9 May 1864 while sitting on his horse and making the comment that the confederate troops were so inept that they "couldn't hit an elephant from this dis...". Those were his last words.