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694

The Sarladais Tower of Lanquis Chateau in Dordogne, France has seven sides.

695

According to DNA experts in the 1987 Virginia prosecution, the chances of somebody other than Timothy Spencer (The South Side Rapist) leaving semen behind at each of the murder scenes were less than one in seven hundred million.

696

On October 14, 2007, Anne Dickson of Fife, Scotland gave birth to her baby boy Rhys (after being told at the hospital that she wasn't in labour) whilst travelling home on the number seven Stagecoach bus.

697

There are seven films in the George Formby Collection DVD box set.

698

In a 2oo7 article stating that my hometown of Blackpool had become the drugs death capital of the UK, with a death rate of 19.4 per 100,000 people over 16 years old, it was stated that of the annual national number of deaths - 1,366 - 77 per cent were males.

699

In the episode of Wacky Races (a Hanna-Barbera cartoon which started in then late 1960's) titled Seesaw to Arkansas, the Anthill Mob find a house to use as a hideaway. Upon entering, they find that it has seven hats, seven coats, seven chairs and seven little beds, and therefore deduce that The Seven Dwarves live there.
The Anthill Mob consists of seven members (Clyde, Danny, Kurby, Mac, Ring-A-Ding, Rug Bug Benny and Willy), and the car they drive (The Bullet Proof Bomb) bears the racing number '7'.

700

There is a sculpture (made of earth and seeded with grass) alongside the M8 motorway in Scotland called Sawtooth Ramps, resembling seven linked pyramids.

701

On the cover of the Crass album Penis Envy, the blow-up doll has seven eyelashes above its left eye.

702

Seven of the known moons in our solar system are larger than the planet Pluto.

703

In the book Fata Morgana by William Kotzwinkle (in my edition, on page 105 - seven times fifteen) Inspector Picard sends a telegram bearing seven words: "Nailed Mantes Nurenberg - have Lazare's trail - Picard".

704

David Koresh originally became a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, before joining a disaffected Seventh Day Adventist group calling themselves the Branch Davidians. Later, when he had worked up the ladder to complete control of the group, he would claim that he was the Keeper of the Seven Seals, and could trigger the end of the world. The siege at Waco lasted seven weeks.

705

Adolf Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess was held in cell No. 7 of Berlin's Spandau prison from 1967 until his suicide in 1987, aged 93. Hess was officially known as prisoner number seven. (Hess was born on 26 / 4 / 1894. 2+6+4+1+8+9+4 = 34; 3+4 = 7)

706

Human milk contains seven per cent protein.

707

In a story published on 14^th December 2007, it was reported that computer skills are still undervalued in the UK boardroom, according to software giant Microsoft. It surveyed 500 UK business leaders and found that a knowledge of information technology (IT) was seen as the seventh most important workplace skill.

708

7 May 1977: The Prime Minister opened the seven-nation summit meeting at 10 Downing Street, London, UK. The conference ended with a joint declaration of seven pledges to prevent world economic disorder and create more jobs, especially for the young.

709

At the start of the 1857 Grand National horse race, there were seven false starts.

710

There are seven sea turtle species (of which three are critically endangered, three are endangered and one has unknown status).

711

The actor Robert Reed wrote a memo explaining why he refused to play in episode 116 of The Brady Bunch, which started with the following list of seven items:
"There is a fundamental difference in theatre between:
       1. Melodrama
       2. Drama
       3. Comedy
       4. Farce
       5. Slapstick
       6. Satire &
       7. Fantasy"

712

The Group of 77 at the United Nations is a loose coalition of developing nations, designed to promote its members' collective economic interests and create an enhanced joint negotiating capacity in the United Nations. (There were 77 founding members of the organization, but the organization has since expanded to 130 member countries).
The group was founded on June 15, 1964 by the "Joint Declaration of the Seventy-Seven Countries" issued at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The first major meeting was in Algiers in 1967, where the Charter of Algiers was adopted and the basis for permanent institutional structures was begun. There are Chapters of the Group of 77 in Rome (FAO), Vienna (UNIDO), Paris (UNESCO), Nairobi (UNEP) and the Group of 24 in Washington, D.C. (IMF and World Bank).

713

When I saw The Boredoms perform live in Manchester, UK on 22. 10. 2oo7 (these digits add up to two sevens, tenuously) they used a guitar-based percussion instrument consisting of seven stringed necks fastened to an upright frame.

714

In John Carpenter's film The Village of the Damned - near the beginning, I'd like to think it was seven minutes into the film but it might have been a little more - , there is a shot of a car driving towards the town past a roadsign that reads: 'Midwich 7 (miles)'.

715

In 2008 Emma Kon, an epilepsy sufferer from the UK, had a 'risky' operation in which UK surgeons hacked away seven parts of her brain. Emma began having chronic convulsions after a near-fatal brain virus at 17 left her in a three-week coma and gave her amnesia. The operation was undertaken after her family paid £7,000 for Belgian experts to pinpoint the parts of her brain behind the attacks.

716

The Apostles, 1980's avant-garde and post-punk band, released seven singles and seven albums during their career.

717

There are seven canonical hours: matins, prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers and compline.

718

Golfer Jon Sharples hit a hole in one on 7 / 7 / 07 off the seventh tee with his 7 Iron at Brampton Park, Cambridgeshire, UK.

719

"She remembered reading an article which had explained that the central processing unit of the human brain only had seven memory registers, which meant that if you had seven things in your mind at the same time and then thought of something else, one of the other seven would instantly drop out."

720

The top commander of detention operations at Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba has confirmed the existence of the mysterious Camp 7, which is for key alleged al-Qaida members and is so secret that its very existence was not publicly known until it was mentioned in December 2007.

721

To exorcise a person of possession by an evil Djhinn (as told in the book Arabian Nights):
"It is said that by taking seven hairs out of the tail of a cat that was all black except for a white spot on the end of its tail, and then burning the hairs in a small closed room with the possessed, filling their nose with the scent, this would release them from the spell of the jinn inside them."

722

Francesco Lentini, 'The Three-Legged Wonder', found difficulty coming to terms with the extra leg that grew from the right-hand side of his body. He visited an institution for severely handicapped and deformed children at the age of seven; this helped him snap out of the depression induced by becoming aware that he was an oddity. After marrying and having children, he retired to Florida where he died in 1966 at the age of seventy-seven.

723

For determining sea level, satellite readings are taken and then averaged out over an area of seven kilometres in diameter.

724

Goldfrapp have an album called Seventh Tree.

725

The book Encyclopaedia of Snow by Sarah Emily Miano has so many references to the number seven that to go through the book again and pull them all out for inclusion here would be too mammoth a task to endure (and it is unclear which of the facts are real and which might be fictional). I think the author must be as obsessed with the number seven as I am! All I can suggest is that you track down a copy of the book for yourself and see how many you can spot (I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are 77 references to the number seven contained within its pages).

726

Aleistair Crowley wrote a Cabbalistic text entitled 777.

727

When Burke & Hare were questioned about murders committed for the supply of bodies for anatomical dissection, they were let down by their alibi. Mr Burke instructed his wife to tell the police that a missing woman had left their house at 7. She said 7 pm, he told them 7am.

728

My friend HeF's fridge-freezer and washing machine both malfunctioned at the same time, during December 2007. They were both on an insurance policy, which would see them mended or replaced. When he contacted the insurers, he was told that both policies had expired, and were not renewed as the machines were now seven years old.

729

My friend HeF e-mailed me this:
"This frosty morning (the 22nd of December 2007 - 2+2+1+2+2+7=16, 1+ 6 = 7!), I was walking Beano*, and I took some bread for the horses and the ducks. Today there were seven ducks, so I quickly snapped a photo for you."
*HeF's dog

730

My hometown of Blackpool has the seventh highest density of licensed premises in the UK.

731

Here’s a list of the world’s seven smelliest creatures.

7. Bombardier beetle
The Bombardier beetle gets its name from the mixture of chemicals it can fire from its rear. The beetle has two separate chemicals, hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide, stored in its body. Whenever the beetle feels threatened the chemicals mix with some special enzymes and that heat up the liquids. It then shoots a boiling, stinky liquid and gas from its rear, causing some serious woe for anything that happens to get sprayed with the liquid. Darwin allegedly experienced the sting and smell of the beetle’s spray after he put one in his mouth to free up a hand during a beetle collecting expedition.

6. Wolverines
Unlike the X-Men character, real wolverines are shy members of the weasel family. They’re seldom seen by humans, but they’re frequently smelled. Like most members of the weasel family, the wolverine has glands that it secretes fluid from to mark its territory. The musky scent is supposed to be very unpleasant, and has given the wolverine the colourful nicknames of “skunk bear” and “nasty cat”.

5. Musk ox
Speaking of musk, you know an animal is likely to smell when its name derives from producing a smell. The musk ox is a furry, horned mammal that inhabits the Arctic. While it’s called an ox it’s more closely related to sheep and goats than normal oxen. The “musk” of the musk ox is only produced by the males. The smell comes from the animal’s urine, which it uses to mark its territory during mating season. This is important, because during the mating season male musk oxen are particularly aggressive. Much like rams, they’ll fight with head on crashes until one submits. They’re so aggressive they’ve even been known to charge birds who alight in their territory. When the musk ox marks its territory, a lot of the smelly urine gets matted into the hairy belly of the animal. This accounts for its generally gross smell.

4. Stink bugs
Much like the musk ox, stink bugs have a name that’s fitting. There’s no single “stink bug”. The name applies to a variety of members of the hemiptera order. The insects produce a stinky substance in their thorax, between the first and second pairs of legs. The smelly liquid is actually very similar to pheromones in its chemical makeup, but the small changes make a world of difference. Very few bugs are going to be drawn to the stink bugs’ secretions in hope of a little nookie. Like the bombardier beetle, the stink bugs’ foul smelling liquid is a defence mechanism.

3. Skunk
For many people skunk would be the first thing that springs to mind when the phrase “smelly animals” is brought up. Plenty of us have been driving along quite happily, only to suddenly recoil in horror as we recognized the pervasive stench of skunk roadkill beginning to fill the car. There are 11 species of skunk, two in Asia and nine in the Americas. All of them have the ability to spray a foul smelling chemical when threatened. The famous skunk spray is a mix of sulphuric chemicals, and skunks can spray accurately up to 15 feet. The stench is so powerful almost every animal leaves it alone, the sole exception being the Great Horned Owl which has almost no sense of smell. Despite the power of their spray, skunks don’t really like to use it. They only carry about 15 cc of their smell chemicals in their body, enough for about five sprays, and it can take a week and a half to replenish their stench supply.

2. Tasmanian devil
While the Tasmanian devil has become a cartoon caricature for some, the creature’s stench is legendary. According to some who have encountered it in the wild its stench can never be forgotten. It’s said to reek of death which, along with its ghastly cries and vicious feeding behaviour, may have given it its reputation as a fearsome creature. In reality, the devil is shy and solitary and doesn’t generally go around stinking up the joint. They aren’t even particularly prolific hunters, preferring to get together and chow down on carrion. It’s only when the devil is agitated that it starts to produce its horrible smell. Of course, for a fairly animal running into a human can be fairly agitating so that may have given rise to the idea they constantly reek of death and decay.

1. Striped Polecat
The striped polecat, also known as the zorilla, is a skunk-like member of the weasel family. The African mammal is almost certainly the world’s smelliest creature. Its anal glands can allegedly be smelled from a half a mile away. That’s over seven football fields. Much like the skunk, the striped polecat can shoot these smelly secretions from their anal glands to help deter predators. While the animal’s smell is amazing enough, even more amazing is the fact that some native peoples actually use the polecat’s incredibly nasty secretions as a perfume. It’s likely they use it to mask their own smell when hunting, however, rather than an affinity for the smell of a striped polecat.

732

Find seven horses:

733

One of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s earliest recollections is that at age seven, he knew he “would like to go to Mars instead of the Moon”.

734

HMP Strangeways in Manchester, UK (known as HM Prison Manchester since 1990) staged the fastest execution in British history - seven seconds.

735

A Central European mediaeval superstition suggested that a woman could reclaim her lost virginity by bearing seven bastards.

In the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, when Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent are in the Horse and Groom public house at lunchtime, just before the world is about to end, they drink bitter beer (as a muscle relaxant) and then Ford buys four packets of peanuts (later used to replace salt and proteins) which cost 28p - seven pence each.

On page 77 of my copy of the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy it states that Zaphod Beeblebrox was recently voted the Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Galaxy for the seventh time.

740

In relation to body-size, barnacles have the biggest penises in the animal kingdom - up to seven times their own body-length.

741

It is claimed that a DNA test which looks at a part of a person's genetic code called the mitochondrial DNA can trace an individual's ancestry back to one of the seven founding mothers of ancient races that existed between about 15,000 and 45,000 years ago.

742

In an essay titled What we need is an Avant Gardener . . . written by Andy Martin, we learn that "The American composer Lamonte Young must have achieved a world record for the shortest music score of all time in his Composition No.7 (1960). On a single sheet of paper is written 'B and F#, to be held for a long time'."

743

According to legend, St Raphael (the patron saint for happy encounters) helped Tobias enter into marriage with Sarah, who had seen seven previous bridegrooms perish on the eve of their weddings.

744

Andy Paciorek sent me an e-mail on 02 12 2007 (2+1+2+2+7=14, two sevens) at 12:49 PM (1+2+4+9=16, 1+5=7) which told me:
"There is a big spider with 7 legs living in my bathroom."

Larry Silverstein, who leased the World Trade Centre only seven weeks before 9/11, commented that his reason for purchasing the towers was, "I felt a compelling urge to own them". Silverstein had breakfast in Windows On The World Restaurant (on the 107th floors of the North Tower) every morning following the purchase, however on 9/11 he didn't show up; neither did his daughter who worked in building seven.

David Bruno e-mailed me the following:
"Today was the 17th, and a woman who I work for gave me a piece of calcite on host rock shaped like a number seven. In all she gave me seven pieces of haematite and seven other rocks".

748

In the chapel in Edinburgh Castle there is the St. Margaret altar cloth. The middle cloth has seven lines used in a prism to create a spectrum (rainbow) meaning completion and perfection.

749

The Seven Sacraments are baptism, communion, confirmation, penance, ordination, marriage, and extreme unction.

750

Ronnie Hazlehurst, composer and former musical director at the BBC, was closely involved with the Eurovision Song Contest and conducted the UK entry on seven occasions (most notably in 1977 using a rolled-up umbrella).

751

In the episode Call of the Yeti from the television programme The Mighty Boosh series two, in the scene where the Yeti is chasing Howard, Vince, Nabu and Bollo through Shamansbury's, the cashier makes an announcement over the intercom: "security to aisle seven please".

752

Laurel and Hardy's 1927 film The Second Hundred Years was their seventh, and was widely regarded as the first 'proper' Laurel and Hardy film.

753

The jury in a Miami terrorism conspiracy trial were told that seven men plotted to bring down the US Government by poisoning salt shakers and bombing landmark buildings. The 'Liberty City Seven' aimed to create chaos as part of a holy war to pave the way for Al Qaeda-affiliated guerrillas to take over the United States. Allegedly.

754

". . . British doctors' warnings that today's drinking culture is leading to a rapid rise in liver disease and more than seven million people are pulling their health at risk".

755

On August 30^th, 1980, the Bergen County grand jury returned a twenty-one-count indictment against serial killer Richard Cottingham. He was ultimately convicted of seven murders and assaults in New Jersey and New York.

756

The Walpiri people (Australian Aboriginals) manufacture a boomerang called the wirlki, also known as the 'hooked' or 'Number seven' boomerang.

757

A typical new American home contains approx seven tonnes of Gypsum, which is used in the manufacture of plaster, plasterboard, cement, paper, tiles and textiles. (Blackboard chalks are also made out of Gypsum, not Chalk).

758

Football: in the 1953 Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers, Sir Stanley Matthews (who virtually won the game for Blackpool single-handed) wore the number seven shirt. Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3, meaning that there were seven goals in the game.

759

In the Coen Brothers' film Fargo, the character Marge is a police officer who wears a badge which is a star with seven points. (Having seen other seven-pointed examples in films, I wonder if all police badges in America have seven points?)

760

761

Seawater contains about 70 times the amount of salt that humans can safely metabolise.

762

World consumption of bottled water is increasing by seven per cent per year.

763

Rainforests receive seven times as much rain per annum as England.

764

A religious system which existed in Nigeria until recent times saw the Ju-Ju, or priest-king, elected for seven years, during which time he had the riches of his people heaped upon him. At the end of the seven years, he was expected to kill himself.

765

When police in Brisbane, Australia, arrested 43-year-old James Everding (4+3=7) he had no explanation for the seven chainsaws he had in his car. His legal defence claimed he suffered from" voices in his head".

766

The renowned Belgian anatomist, Andreas Vesalius, published a seven volume tract entitled 'On the Fabric of the Human Body'. (A seven word title).

767

768

Stilton Cheese is made exclusively in the UK counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire from local milk. Only seven dairies, using the original centuries-old recipe, are licensed to produce Stilton.

769

The UK's Rich List database in 2000 suggested that you're seven times more likely to be a millionaire if you're called Patel than if you're called Smith.

770

This picture (reproduced from a 1925 postcard) is of a Troupe of Midget Performers who appeared at the Regina Fair in 1925. There are seven of them.

This is 77 facts about the Number 7 page ten

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