Reading Lists and Posing Questions I like to read lists. I am talking about lists of what someone or some company think are the 5 or 10 best of something or the reverse. What they think are the 5 or 10 worst. I don’t always agree with them, but sometimes I will agree on one or two of the places or things they picked. The list can be of very weird things sometimes. Sometimes it isn’t even a list that tickles my fancy it is a fact, like what is the biggest, smallest, or even the smelliest type of cheese. Opinions and facts are fun, at least I feel that way. Let’s start with an easy list, what are the five biggest cities in the United States? I picked this list because the facts posed are more solid. The answer given by Investopedia was: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Phoenix. It is interesting to note even though they are in order of population, New York City has lost 3.8% of its population, Los Angeles lost 1%, Chicago lost 1.8%, Houston lost 0.6% and Phoenix gained 1%. All this happened since 2020. Now for a more interesting question, what are the 5 smallest towns in the United States? According to Google they are, Buford Wyoming which just lost its last resident, Monowi, Nebraska population 1, Lotsee, Oklahoma population 2, Lost Springs, Wyoming population 4 and Tavistock, New Jersey population 5. These people must really like their privacy. What country produced the tallest man and women in the world? I thought this was an interesting question and the answer surprised me. The country was Turkey. The tallest man is Sultan Kosen at 8 feet 3 inches tall and the woman is Rumeysa Gelgi at 7 feet 0.7 inches tall. The funny part is Turkey is not the country with the tallest people, that honor belongs to The Netherlands who have an average size of 5 feet 7.96 inches. You have to remember that average includes the entire population. I had often wondered which country had the most skyscrapers. I would have thought it was the United States, the home of the original skyscraper, but I was wrong. It turns out China has over 3090 buildings that could be called skyscrapers. I guess with such a huge population they needed more. There is more to this however, Hong Kong, which is now part of China has the most skyscrapers of any city in the world, with 553. The United States has 880 skyscrapers, and New York City has 314. We hear a lot about air power, so I thought a list of the 5 biggest air forces would be interesting. The United States is number 1 with a total of 13,247 aircraft this includes planes from the Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy. Second is Russia with a total of 4,173. Third is China with 3,285. Fourth is India with 2,186 and 5th is South Korea with 1,595. It seems we just have an overwhelming number of planes. Did you ever wonder how many museums there are in the United States? It seems like every town has at least one. What would your best guess be? It turns out there are more than 35,000 museums in the United States, according to a recent government count. If you are wondering what state has the most look no further than California which has almost 3,000. Second is New York with 2,500. The United States has more museums than any other country. Germany is second with 6,741. Japan is third with 5,738. China is fourth with 5,535 and Russia is fifth with 5,415. Did you ever wonder what country has the most cars? The answer is China and you probably thought it was China or India, since they have such huge populations, yet only 1 person in 203 in China own a car. Interestingly, there are two ways at measuring the number of cars in a country. There can be a total count, or a count by percentage of population. I am getting different numbers from different places. The top five countries per capita are New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Poland and Finland. This information was gathered from Lifestyle online. Space activities are taking place all over the world and more countries than ever are launching satellites. Did you ever wonder what five countries have launched the most? The United States is number 1 with 3,449. China is second with 541. Surprise, the United Kingdom is third with 490. Russia is fourth with 173. Japan is fifth with 97. What country invented the first practical fire engine? The answer was England. Where do you think the biggest fire station in the world is located? It is in Japan and is the Tokyo Fire Department. It has a staff of 18,408. The second biggest is the New York City Fire Department with 17,370 employees. What country has the most pets? If we are talking about dogs and cats, it is the United States with 70 million dogs and 74 million cats. Brazil is second for dog ownership with 35 million and China is second for cats with 53 million. Did you ever think about what country has the most doctors per capita of population? Did you think it was us? If so you wouldn’t even be close. The five countries with the most doctors per population are, Cuba, Monaco, Sweden, Greece and Belgium. America is not even in the top ten. The United States is 41. We can find many seafood restaurants in the United States, but how do we rank among the countries of the world in seafood consumption? We are not even in the top ten countries. The 5 countries that eat the most fish are China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Japan and India. Can you guess what is the oldest indigenous population in any country? No, it is not in the Americas. It is the Aboriginal people of Australia who have been there for over 35,000 years. Here is an interesting question, what country has the most bird species in the world? It is not that far from us. The country is Colombia, it has more than 1,878 different bird species. A number greater than even the biggest countries. What country has the most rail tracks? Could it be China? What about India or even Russia which is huge. No, it is hard to believe but the United States has the biggest railway system, but China has the largest highspeed rail network. One final question. Why are there so few airships? They seem to be nothing more than air bags with a gondola. The problem is the gas to fill them can cost upwards of $100,000 for one flight and it is said there are only 25 blimps left in the entire world because of this.
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