Facts of R

· Racecar spelled backwards is racecar.

· Radio and TV producer John Guedel was the originator of the musical commercial.

· Rain falls at 11kmph (7mph)

· Raindrops aren't actually tear-drop shaped. They are rounded at the top and flat on the bottom.

· Rape is reported every six minutes in the U.S.

· Rats and horses can't vomit.

· Rats are omnivorous, eating nearly any type of food, including dead and dying members of their own species.

· Rats can survive without water longer than camels.

· Red is the most commonly colored vehical involved in accidents each year.

· Red is the most popular car color in the U.S.

· Red paint is the cheapest color to make.

· Refried beans aren't really what they seem. Although their name seems like a reasonable translation of Spanish frijoles refritos, the fact is that these beans aren't fried twice. In Spanish, refritos literally means "well-fried," not "re-fried."

· Regular coffee drinkers have about one-third less asthma symptoms than those non-coffee drinkers. So says a Harvard researcher who studied 20,000 people.

· Reindeer milk has more fat than cow milk.

· Rene Descartes came up with the theory of coordinate geometry by looking at a fly walk across a tiled ceiling.

· Research indicates that mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas.

· Research show that only 43% of homemade dinners served in the US include vegetables.

· Ribbon worms eat themselves if they cant find food

· Rice paper isn't made from rice but from a small tree which grows in Taiwan.

· Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first US president whose name contains all the letters from the word "criminal." William Jefferson Clinton is the second.

· Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.

· Rin Tin Tin was born to a war-dog mother in a German trench in France during World War I. Deserted when the Germans retreated, the German shepherd puppy was found by an American officer who happened to be a police-dog trainer from California. During Rin Tin Tin's training after the war, the dog's intelligence came to the attention of Warner Brothers, which signed the dog up for what turned out to be a long career as one of the biggest box-office draws of the silent screen era.

· Roasted coffee beans start to lose small amounts of flavor within two weeks. Ground coffee begins to lose its flavor in one hour. Brewed coffee and espresso begins to lose flavor within minutes.

· Robert Goddard a scientist and holder of 214 patents fired the first rocket using liquid propellant in 1926.

· Robert Wadlow is regarded as the tallest man ever known. He was 8'11" at the time of his death at the age of 21.

· Robert William Thomson, a Scottish engineer, invented the first rubber tire in 1845.

· Roger Bannister of Great Britain was the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. On May 6, 1954, he ran the mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds.

· Roman statues were made with detachable heads, so that one head could be removed and replaced by another.

· Rosalind Franklin was the woman behind Watson and Crick's doudle helix DNA model. She did all the experiments, but died before she was paid credit. Watson and Crick merely took her results and interpreted it.

· Roulette was invented by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal. It was a by-product of his experiments with perpetual motion.

· Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

· Rubbing cocoa butter on your abdomen during pregnancy will prevent stretch marks.

· Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter was reported to have said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers."

· Running cold water over the onion and the knife will keep you from crying when you cut it, because water neutralizes the chemical that makes you cry.

· Rutherford Hayes became U.S. President by one vote.