To support his wife and 11 children, Charles Stephens, 58-year-old "Demon Barber of Bristol," needed more money than he could make giving shaves and haircuts. Even his sideline as a daredevil, performing high dives and parachute jumps in England, barely helped cover the bills. He needed something big, something to make his reputation. There was nothing bigger and more daredevil-ish than going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Only two people had ever done it, and lived [check fact]. It didn't matter that one, Annie Taylor, was living in abject poverty or that the other, Bobby Leach, was trying to talk him out of using his heavy Russian oak barrel without first sending it on a test run. Leach'

If at first you don't succeed, shouldn't you try doing it like your wife/girlfriend told you to do it?

51. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos. 52. The numbers "172″ can be found on the back of the US 5 dollar bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. 53. Coconuts kill about 150 people each year. That's more than sharks. 54. Half of all bank robberies take place on a Friday. 55. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it. 56. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. 57. The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in WWII killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo. 58. The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour. 59. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa. He never

3 ladies were on a flight. Suddenly the pilot informed them that there was a technical problem and the plane was going to crash into the sea. A Chinese lady quickly took her cosmetics set out and started to doll herself up. A Malay lady beside her questioned her on her actions. The Chinese lady replied that if she looked beautiful, the guys coming to rescue survivors would usually save the pretty ladies first. On hearing this, the Malay lady started to put on all her jewellery. An Indian woman sitting beside the Malay lady was curious and questioned her. The Malay lady said that the rescuers would save her because she would easily be identified by the glitter of her jewels. The Indian wo

Once upon a time, there was a man holding a magical lamp, he went to a bar where he then got a drink. The bartender sees him and asks him to chat, the man says,"I have a magical lamp rite here!" The bartender says," Wow, does this mean I can wish for a million bucks." The man goes, "Yes!" Bartender goes:" I wish for a million bucks!" POOF! The air is filled with 1 million ducks. The bartender outraged says," Hey you cheated me!" The man goes, "Hey it ain't that easy!" *Sorry, Did my best

umfriend（嗯朋友）是一個新字，最近已經被放進美國字典的用字。 它是一個名詞，意思是「有曖昧不明或不可告人關係的朋友」。 它的起源很有趣： 假設有這樣一個情境，你帶一個朋友回住處，你們當天晚上發生了性關係， 完事之後（或者尚未完事），你室友（或家人）回來撞見你們兩個．．． 因為，你們不想讓別人知道你們的關係， 所以，你們可能還滿神色慌張的（或著衣衫不整）。 室友或家人可能用著懷疑的眼光打量著你們， 心虛的你為了讓這種尷尬場面趕快過去， 只好趕快把這位朋友介紹一下（講時還有é»

Pat and Mick decide to apply for jobs at a mine that had opened nearby. After sitting in the waiting room for a while, Pat gets called in for his interview. The boss asks Pat if he had worked underground mines before, and Pat replies, "Yes, of course I have." The boss asks him how deep under ground he worked, and Pat says, "Oh, about 8 to 10 feet." The boss says, "Mines are a lot deeper than that; get out of here - you're no miner!" On his way out, Pat tells Mick to tell the boss that he worked real deep underground so he could get the job. Mick gets called in. The boss asks Mick if he had worked underground mines before, to which Mick says, "Oh sure." The boss asks how deep undergroun

Larry: Why did Humpty Dumpty have a great Fall? Mary: Because he had a bad summer.

Beijing = Capital of China.

Due to insufficient activity and a measly community, it has been decided that Wocka shall be merged with Braingle.com, the sister site of Wocka but with brain teasers. The decision was not an easy one, and there has been long discussions with Jake in both the Braingle and Wocka forums. The discussion was so heated that even Braingle's debate forums could not equal it. However, consensus was in favour of the merge and there's not much you can do about it. The following measures shall be taken: 1) All Wocka users now have a Braingle account. If they've already had one before, then their Wocka score is added to their Braingle score. Jake has made sure that the passwords of every Wocka and Brai

The other day, after what felt like five days of after-school detention, I hailed a taxi - it was almost six, jeez. I opened the door and stepped inside. Making myself comfortable in the back seat, I told him my home address, without caring who the cabbie was. I sank into the seat, with a kind of uneasiness. What would mum do? Ground me for the next ten years? I checked my watch every fifteen seconds, and watched the traffic shooting by. About halfway down the road, the dumb cabbie slowed suddenly. Damn you, I thought. Before I could say anything, the cabbie turned to me. For a moment, I was frozen with fear. The cabbie was not half like anyone I'd seen before. His hair was the colour of

there was a man who lived in a small town who did not talk much to his neighbors. the only thing they knew about him was the fact that he always had the precise time, because every day at 3:00 pm (no later, no sooner) he took a walk, and came back at exactly 3:30 pm (no later, no sooner). this man was always so perfectly on time that everyone set their clocks to him, including the clock tower. one day one of the man's neighbors walked up to the old man and asked, "how do you keep your clocks so precise?" "simple," replied the old man, "i just set it to the old clock tower." who's clock was set off whose?