The Top 9 Amazing True
Facts About the Internet

9> In 2005, Ms. Emily Hanson, 24, of Boulder, CO spent 37 hours straight surfing MySpace pages and never once left someone a lurid animated graphic in their comments box.

8> The term “Internet” originally started out as “Intern-net” because ARPA researchers frequently used it to direct their interns to bring them coffee.

7> Richard Perkoney of Athens, OH, has downloaded over 150,000 images of women from the Internet, all of them fully and demurely clothed.

6> The first Usenet newsgroup was actually started in 1887 by a group of railroad telegraph operators.

5> Mr. Roger Lurren of Corning, Iowa, has had the same email address for over five years, yet has never received a single piece of spam.

4> As of July 13th, 2007, the number of Nigerian businessmen needing help laundering funds exceeded the population of Nigeria.

3> So-called “dark fiber” refers to the roasted bran husks that are used to wrap and protect fiber optic cables.

2> A consortium of children’s bathtub soap manufacturers once threatened to sue the Internet over the term “Internet Bubble.”

and the Number 1 Amazing True Fact About the Internet…

1> The world loses $1.5 billion in productivity every year due to people pronouncing “www” as “double-you double-you double-you” rather than “world wide web”.

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Credits:

Selected from 36 submissions from 12 contributors.
This week’s list authors are:

Matt Van Opens, Watertown, WI — 1, 3, 8 (Hat trick!)
Barry Wallace, Knoxville, TN — 2, 9
Doug Crews, San Diego, CA — 4
Bill Livingston, Decatur, AL — 5
Douglas Frank, Crosby, TX — 6
Bruce W. Alter, Fairfax Station, VA — 7
Kim Moser, New York, NY — List Moderator, Topic