USELESS TIDBITS

In 2000, Guinness credited Madonna as the most successful female recording artist of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of 120 million albums. Madonna is the highest earning female singer of all time, according to the 2007 Guinness Book of Records.

Van Halen's standard concert contract called for them to be provided with a bowl of M&Ms backstage, but with provision that all the brown candies must be removed. The presence of even a single brown M&M in that bowl, was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to peremptorily cancel a scheduled appearance without advance notice. The legendary "no brown M&Ms" contract clause was indeed real, but the purported motivation for it was not. The M&Ms provision was included in Van Halen's contracts not as an act of caprice, but because it served a practical purpose: to provide an easy way of determining whether the technical specifications of the contract had been thoroughly read (and complied with).

Britney Spears has sold over seventy-six million records worldwide according to TIME magazine. Having sold over 31 million albums in the US, Britney Spears ranks as the eighth best-selling female artist in American music history. At the age of 11, Britney Spears starred in the 1993–94 seasons of The New Mickey Mouse Club. Other performers on the The New Mickey Mouse Club included Justin Timberlake, and Joshua Chasez whom later became members of the pop group 'N Sync, Keri Russell, fellow pop singer Christina Aguilera, and actor Ryan Gosling.

In 1938, when Elvis Presley was three years old, his father was convicted of forgery. Vernon Presley, Gladys's (Elvis' mother's) brother Travis Smith, and Luther Gable went to prison for altering a check from Orville Bean, Vernon's boss, from $3 to $8 and then cashing it at a local bank. Vernon was sentenced to three years at Mississippi State Penitentiary. Though Vernon was released after serving eight months, this event deeply influenced the life of the young family. During her husband's absence, Gladys lost the house and was forced to move in briefly with her in-laws next door. The Presley family lived just above the poverty line during their years in East Tupelo.

Asphalt road surface is the most widely recycled material in the US, both by gross tonnage and by percentage. According to a report issued by the Federal Highway Administration and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, 80% of the asphalt from road surfaces' that is removed each year during widening and resurfacing projects is reused as part of new roads, roadbeds, shoulders and embankments.

Bulgaria has had the slowest population growth of any country in the world since 1950, with the exception of Saint Kitts and Nevis (due to their high emigration rate). In fact, population growth has been negative since the early 1990s, due to the economic collapse and high emigration rate. Now Bulgaria suffers a heavy demographic crisis. In 1988 the population of Bulgaria was 8,859,000 people (after a census), and a 2001-census shows a 7,950,000 population

Spilled animal parts and a Tomahawk missile that tumbled out of a truck caused some of the worst traffic nightmares of 2006, according to a report on roadway incidents. A meatpacking truck carrying cow body parts was involved in an accident near San Francisco, spilling its cargo across a freeway and causing massive headaches for commuters, said the compilation by Metro Networks traffic reporting firm. A truck in Houston involved in an accident tumbled off a ramp, breaking open and spilling frozen chickens onto a freeway below. New York had one of the most bizarre incidents of the year. A truck overturned in the Bronx in July, sending a Tomahawk missile it was carrying onto the roadway.

The Guinness Book of World Records itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted series. It was created by Sir Hugh Beaver, then the managing director of the Guinness Brewery.