Most human beings can intuitively tell the difference between a genuine or "Duchenne" smile, and a fake or "Pan American" smile (named after stewardesses of the now defunct airline); apparently, it's in the eyes, since a real smile uses your orbicularis oculi muscle as well as your zygomaticus major muscle. They can also tell when you fake an orgasm; apparently, it’s in your lack of enthusiasm.

According to the CIA World Factbook, in an average year less than ten people die annually from AIDS in the Czech Republic, and less than 0.1% of the CR's population of approximately 10 million are infected with the disease. In Burkina Faso (that's in Sub-Saharan Africa) almost 30,000 people die annually from AIDS with a comparable population of roughly 14 million.

Genocide: while exact figures on mass killings are notoriously difficult to accurately calculate, here's what we found on history's most prolific murderers.

• Pol Pot: an estimated 750,000 to 1.7 million dead.

• Hitler: 11 million, in concentration camps.

• Stalin: unfathomable, though approximately 5 – 7 million people were in Gulag labour camps at any given year during Stalin's reign, with a 10% annual death rate among prisoners.

• New World Colonialism: 2 million – 100 million indigenous Americans died from disease or violence, depending on the estimate. .

National Center for Health Statistics data shows that, yes, Americans are getting fatter. It's not just your imagination. In the 2003–2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 32.9% of adults aged 20–74 are clinically obsese (not just overweight.) This is up from 15.0% in 1976–1980. If that's not scary enough, the same set of stats shows that obesity rates among toddlers has more than doubled, primary school students, almost tripled, and high school students, almost quadrupled.

CD Sales declined from 428 million in 2004 to 279 million in 2007 while sales of digital songs soared from 143 million in 2004 to 844 Million in 2007. Viva La Ipod!

Turns out kangaroo is good for you. Kangaroo meat has no saturated fat and only 28 calories per ounce, as opposed to a rib-eye cut of beef, with has 5 g of saturated fat and 46 calories per ounce. The two have similar amounts of protein. And remember the beady eyed monstrosities would eat you in a heartbeat.*

If it takes 68 mg of caffeine per pound of body weight to kill an average adult, and there's 178 mg of caffeine in a Starbucks Grande Latte, then how many lattes would it take to kill a 70 kg (that's 155 pounds, for you Americans) person? Gather your korun for 57 lattes! On a side note, anyone who drinks that much Starbucks, over any period of time, clearly deserves to die.

In 2001, a study conducted by an Ohio coroner found cocaine on 92% of the USD 10$ bills analysed. More recently, a random sample of €5, €10, €20 and €50 notes from the greater Dublin area tested for cocaine showed a 100% contamination rate. No comment.

*Kangaroos, being herbivores, would not, in actuality, eat you. But will judge you silently.

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