When, Who and How?

WHY DO DOGS SOMETIMES GET STUCK WHILE MATING?

2013-10-14T19:56:00.001-04:00

It's called the "Copulatory Tie"

Believe it or not, in all my years, I never knew such a thing existed between dogs that mated... until I came across a youtube video (seen further below). I was so shocked to see them 'stuck' together and even more shocked to discover it was something natural and part of their breeding process.

Apparently, to a great deal of dog breeders, this is something not only common but welcomed.

As usual, I was too darn curious. I had to research more and this is what I found out:

Unlike the human penis, at the time of insertion, a dog's penis is not erect, and is only able to penetrate the female because it includes a narrow bone called the "baculum" or penile bone, a feature of most placental mammals. When the male achieves penetration, he will usually hold the female tighter and thrust deeper. It is during this time that the male's penis expands and it is important that the bulbus gland is sufficiently far enough inside for the female to be able to trap it. So with canine copulation, the males must first penetrate the female, after which swelling of the penis to erection occurs, which usually happens rapidly.

engorged bulbus glandis

Male canines are the only animals that have a locking bulbus glandis or "bulb", a spherical area of erectile tissue at the base of the penis. During copulation, and only after the male's penis is fully inside the female's vagina, the bulbus glandis becomes engorged with blood. When the female's vagina subsequently contracts, the penis becomes locked inside the female. This is known as "tying" or "knotting". While characteristic of mating in most canids, the copulatory tie has been reported to be absent or very brief (less than one minute) in the African Wild Dog, possibly due to the abundance of large predators in its environment.

When the penis is locked into the vagina by the bulbus glandis (when the stud is "tied"), the urgency subsides and the male will usually lift a leg and swing it over the female's back while turning around. The two stand with their hind ends touching and the penis locked inside the vagina while ejaculation occurs, decreasing leakage of semen from the vagina.

After some time, typically between 5 and 20 minutes... even up to an hour, the bulbus glandis disengorges, allowing the mates to separate. Virgin dogs can become quite distressed at finding themselves unable to separate during their first copulation, and may try to pull away or run. Dog breeders often suggest it is appropriate for handlers to attempt to calm the mating dogs if they show anxiety once this stage is reached.

And this is what copulatory tying or genital locking is all about! Got it? Good, 'cause I wouldn't want to have to explain all that again!

Video

Source: medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/, wikipedia, woodhavenslabs.com/

SO WHY NOT CALL IT BLUEBERRY INSTEAD OF BLACKBERRY?

2013-02-01T11:06:00.002-05:00

Because an American marketing firm with an equally catchy name: LEXICON Branding, Inc. - said so!

You'd think they'd ask the general public or came up with the name themselves, (actually they tried to do the latter as you'll read further below), but noooo! Formerly RIM, (Research in Motion) now called BlackBerry Limited, instead, paid money to the well-known marketing firm - Lexicon Branding, Inc. - a firm whose sole purpose is to invent names for products (gosh I wish I had that job), to do just that!

BlackBerry Limited, (or RIM as I like to remember them being Canadian and all), is a telecommunication and wireless equipment company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and is best known, as you all know by now, as the developer of the BlackBerry smartphone and tablet.

So as the story goes and to make a long story short:

It was the summer of 1998, when a bunch of executives from a tiny technology company then known as RIM arrived in California, USA at the offices of Lexicon Branding Inc. They brought with them, of course, a prototype of the little gadget they had just invented, some sort of email/pager device that could send and receive e-mail wirelessly, and now wanted a name to go along with it! They originally tried themselves to come up with a name, (they had names such as the RIM 950, RIM 960, RIM 970 . . . and so on) and eventually settled on the name “PocketLink,” but the public still wasn't 'biting' it. Actually, according to author Alastair Sweeny of the book BlackBerry Planet - The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device That Took the World by Storm, RIM was frustrated that customers still used it as a pager and didn’t take advantage of its emailing strengths and realized the name was possibly the problem and that's when they decide to turn to the 'professionals'.

So why not Blueberry instead of Blackberry?

Original Blackberry
Wiki source

Well, I'll let the professionals explain it themselves. From the words of David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding:

“We wanted to give them a great name, which could really help them. At that time, they were going up against the pagers, and everybody had a pager . . . . You need to have a really distinctive name. And let the operating companies, like AT&T, let them have the more conservative and descriptive names. But I had a sense that this was going to be a really good product.”

“We looked at the form,” says Placek, “and, with all the little buttons on there, began to create metaphors. We looked at the world of fruit because it does, from a distance, look like it could be some kind of fruit. Also, BlackBerry is a very friendly, approachable name.

Some of the Lexicon team were struck by the little keyboard buttons, which resembled nothing so much as the tiny seeds covering a strawberry. Several suggest “Strawberry.” “No, ‘strawberry is a slowww syllable,” said Stanford university professor Will Leben, director of linguistics at Lexicon. “That’s just the opposite of the zippy connotation Research in Motion wants. But ‘-berry’ is good.”

“Lexicon research had shown that people associated the b sound with reliability,” said David Placek, “while the short e evoked speed. Another syllable with a short vowel would nail it. “Within seconds the Lexicon team had picked its fruit, and it was BlackBerry.”

blueberries

So why BLACKberry instead of BLUEberry? After all, those keyboard buttons looked more like little blueberries to me! Well, it's simply because the device, at the time, was black, so says Mr. Placek.

It was pretty cool too how "Mike" Lazaridis, the Greek Canadian businessman, and founder and Vice Chairman of BlackBerry remembered the occasion well:

Mike Lazaridis
Wiki source

The Lexicon team came in with “boxes of white cardboard sheets, forty of them, each one had a single word. They set them up on an easel.” As Lazaridis remembers, “after about twenty-five of them I thought, Gosh, I’ve made a big mistake . . . they put up name after name . . . there were some strange ones . . .you might have heard of the HipTop.”

“At that point,” he says, “I knew I was being set up because the last one was so much better than all the others . . . What I decided to do was have some fun with them. I leaned back in my chair, crossed my arms, and told them, ‘I don’t like any of them! — You should have seen the look on their faces.” And then he paused for effect . . . “except the last one.’ And we all burst out laughing.”

Back home, the RIM engineers weren’t sure they like their baby being named after a fruit. Gary Mousseau was “just floored” by the choice of the California marketing pros. “But we didn’t have the branding, marketing and sales experience of these guys. We just couldn’t appreciate their skill set.”

Mike liked it. The name stuck.

And as they say, the rest is history!

Did You Know?

While RIM got incredible word-of-mouth advertising when the U.S. Congress invested millions in its device after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the company has also promoted the device through special events, like giving BlackBerries to people attending last year's Academy Awards.
In March 2012, it was announced that RIM was awarded a patent for placing fuel cells behind mobile phone keyboards. Through the system, for which RIM had applied for a patent in 2009, a mobile phone would be able to recharge itself.
On January 30, 2013, During the official launch event for BlackBerry 10, the company also announced that it would immediately change its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry. The name change was made to "put the BlackBerry brand at the centre" of the company's diverse brands, and because customers in some markets "already know the company as BlackBerry". A legal name change must still be approved by shareholders at the company's next annual general meeting.

Lexicon Branding is famous for other brand names such as:

When Toyota was considering the launch of a new automotive division tailored to younger Generation Y drivers, they partnered with us to develop the Scion® brand.
When processor companies were marketing chips by numbers, we worked with Intel to help them understand how branding could affect their business and then created the Pentium® brand for them.
When sales were declining for Subaru's station wagons, we showed Subaru that launching another American West-themed car would not give them a competitive advantage. We then created the Outback® brand for them.
When Procter & Gamble reinvented the mop, we invented the Swiffer® brand, helping them to create a new category. When they revolutionized the fabric freshener business, we created the Febreze® brand so that they could tell their story.
When Verizon developed a state-of-the-art fiber optic network to market to consumers they partnered with Lexicon to create Fios®, an approachable name that also supports idea of a new level of performance.
When the Coca-Cola Company decided to enter the bottled water business we coined a new word, Dasani®, to deliver a unique personality and positioning. The Dasani brand is now the fourth largest bottled water in the United States.
When Apple developed a computer that was truly portable in size and weight, Lexicon named it the PowerBook®, a simple and elegant name.

And these are just the more famous ones!

So there you have it. I guess if you want something done right - ~~you have to do it yourself~~, go to the professionals!!

Amazon.com Widgets

Source(s): Wikipedia, lexiconbranding.com/, wikipedia, canada.com/,

WHY DO WE BOIL LOBSTERS ALIVE AND DO THEY FEEL PAIN?

2013-01-02T11:30:00.001-05:00

Because we have to and no-one truly knows!
(Warning: some not-so-nice stuff ahead)

I know, I know... everyone must have asked these questions - whether they eat lobsters or not - at least one time or another in their lifetime and believe it or not, I can't really find a solid 'yes or no' answer to the second question.

"Free the lobster"
by Flickr user yooperann

We all know animal activists (such as the Lobster Liberation Front-(LLF) and PETA) and possibly even vegetarians, have been fighting for lobsters' rights for eons in regards to the cruelness and inhumane way of killing them. (The video way below shows chef Eric Ripert saying the best way to kill them is to "take a big knife, and go through the head, and split the head in half..") before cooking them. Ouch! I don't like the sounds of that either.

Another popular question is - do they scream? Say what? Scream? I've boiled lobsters a few times before (now I can't do it anymore - getting softer as I grow older), and I don't remember hearing them 'scream' (thank God), otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat them for sure. But back to the questions - why do we have to boil lobsters alive and do they feel pain?

Why DO We Boil Lobsters Alive?
Anyone?

"July birthday boiling pot feed at Abueloville"
by Flickr user marioanima

Well, it seems the simple answer for this one is taste, texture and safety. The lobster must be cooked alive because the meat will spoil otherwise. The bacteria enters the meat quickly after death. Ehow explains that the lobster releases 'self-digestive' fluids that can spoil the meat.

I guess it's like finding a fish floating about when you go out fishing. You wouldn't eat that would you? You don't know how long it has been dead. It could cause sicknes through food poisoning and probably taste like crap anyways! So unfortunately for the lobster, it is best cooked alive. Some have tryied hypnotizing or freezing it slightly or as I've said earlier - splitting their head in half! (I cringe everytime I have to type that or even think about it).

But The Lobster Institute at the University of Maine says the lobsters will stop 'squriming around' after 30 seconds if you place them on ice or freeze them prior to boiling. So maybe that's the best 'humane' way since THEY ARE the experts. Even the Gulf of Main Research Institue backed this up scientifically:

What is the best (humane) way to cook a lobster?
How to cook a lobster in the most humane manner has been a concern of guilt-ridden chefs for generations. In order to put the matter to a rest scientifically, one researcher instructed his graduate students to boil lobsters after having subjected them to various relaxation techniques. The students determined which method of dispatching them was the kindest by counting the number of tails flicks heard in the kettle before each lobster succumbed to the boiling water. They tried hyponotizing the subjects (see how to do this further below under 'Did You Know'..), soaking them in fresh water, heating them slowly from room temperature to boiling, and other accepted strategies. They found that putting them in the fridge before cooking to numb them up, (as happens naturally in winter), resulted in the lowest number of tail twitches. So, according to modern science, a few minutes in the freezer means less agony in the kettle.

So, now for the REAL question....

Do They Feel Pain?

Wouldn't you? Ok, I know, they are NOT humans.

However, there are so many conflicting reports and expert opinions from scientific studies, professional chefs and the likes that I really don't know what to believe anymore. Some say they CANNOT feel pain:

The nervous system of a lobster is very simple – not unlike that of an insect. Neither insects nor lobsters have brains. For an organism to perceive pain it must have a more complex nervous system. Neurophysiologists tell us that lobsters, like insects, do not process pain. - The Lobster Institue

The invertebrates have such primitive nervous systems (they have no brain and 100,000 neurons versus a human’s 100 billion) that they don’t feel pain. A 2005 study financed by the Norwegian government reinforced this view. - Chow

While lobsters react to different stimuli, such as boiling water, the reactions are escape mechanisms, not a conscious response or an indication of pain, they say. - Lobster biologists in Maine aka The Lobster Institute

Then there is Mike Loughlin, who studied the boiling of lobsters when he was a University of Maine graduate student, said lobsters simply lack the brain capacity to feel pain.
"It's a semantic thing: No brain, no pain," said Loughlin, who now works as a biologist at the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. - cbsnews

Close up of head of live lobster shipped for consumption in the United States.
Source wikipedia

The Lobster Institue also explained the 'twitching' of a lobster's tail when dropped in water, as just a reflex known as the "escape response". It is a reflex action to any sudden stimulus - a reaction that was first identified by George Johnson in 1924. The lobster is reacting to an external factor, such as an elevated water temperature.

So what are they trying to say here? Would it be akin to like the doc tapping your knee and your knee jerking? No pain - just a reflex? I mean, you can cut up an earthworm and it still continues on with its business - so maybe they have something here. And remember that study financed by the Norwegian government mentioned above? What's that all about? Apparently it was a study released in 2005, which suggested that lobsters cannot feel pain due to their diminished nervous capacity. In other words, the report assumes that the violent reaction of lobsters to boiling water is a reflex to noxious stimuli. This all came about when their government was considering a ban on live worms as fish bait under revisions to its animal protection laws - but only if it hurt. Norwegian scientists were asked to investigate pain, discomfort and stress in invertebrates and Wenche Farstad of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science in Oslo claimed that the answer is no.

Well, I was ready to believe all this until PETA's Karin Robertson called the Norwegian study biased, saying the government doesn't want to hurt the country's fishing industry and when a review by the Scottish animal welfare group Advocate for Animals released in the same year reported that "scientific evidence ... strongly suggests that there is a potential for [lobsters] to experience pain and suffering". This is primarily because lobsters (and other decapod crustaceans) "have opioid receptors and respond to opioids (analgesics such as morphine) in a similar way to vertebrates", indicating that lobsters' reaction to injury changes when painkillers are applied. The similarities in lobsters' and vertebrates' stress systems and behavioral responses to noxious stimuli were given as additional evidence for their capacity for pain..
Also, the fact that even the Norwegian study stated themselves that while saying it's unlikely that crustaceans feel pain, that we must be aware that "more research is needed because there is a scarcity of scientific knowledge on the subject" makes me doubt even more.

And to make me feel even more guilty - a recent 2007 British study contradicted the Norwegian study by suggesting that crustaceans DO feel pain, and that pain responses are crucial to any organism's survival. Well, not only do I feel guilty but I don't know who or what to believe anymore.

This tanner crab was quickly cut in half before cooking
Source wikipedia

In the experiment, at Queen's University, Belfast, when the antennae of prawns were rubbed with sodium hydroxide or acetic acid, the animals showed increased grooming of the afflicted area and rubbed it more against the side of the tank. Moreover, this reaction was inhibited by a local anesthetic, even though control prawns treated with only anesthetic did not show reduced activity. Robert Elwood, who headed the study, argues that sensing pain is crucial to prawn survival, because it encourages them to avoid damaging behaviors. Some scientists responded, saying the rubbing may reflect an attempt to clean the affected area.

An even more recent study in 2009, Elwood and Mirjam Appel showed that hermit crabs make motivational tradeoffs between electric shocks and the quality of the shells they inhabit. In particular, as hermit crabs are shocked more intensely, they become increasingly willing to leave their current shells for new shells, and they spend less time deciding whether to enter those new shells. Moreover, because the researchers did not offer the new shells until after the electrical stimulation had ended, the change in motivational behavior was the result of memory of the noxious event, not an immediate reflex.

"Poor Lobsters"
Pic by Flickr user pixthree

So that's it my curious readers! I'm so sorry I can't give you a definite answer to the last question. Deep down I want to believe that they can't fell any pain. But unless you've crawled a mile in their shoes, we'll never know the true answer. As far as I'm concerned, anything that is 'alive' can feel some sort of pain - maybe not pain the way as we know it, but pain nevertheless. Maybe it's just the 'humane' side of us that can't distinguish scientific facts from feelings. Who knows.

Will this stop me from eating lobsters? Sigh, probably not because I really love lobster meat. But it has surely stopped me from cooking them myself. I can't gather up enough courage to do so anymore...

Video

Some Other Interesting Lobster-related Facts...

Did You Know?

You should never eat a cooked lobster with it's tail uncurled? This means the lobster died before it was cooked.
Although lobsters are considered by many to be 'scavengers of the sea', they are actually quite good for you? It has less calories, less total fat and less cholesterol (based on 100 grams of cooked product) than lean beef; whole poached eggs; and even roasted, skinless chicken breast. Lobster is also high in amino acids; potassium and magnesium; Vitamins A, B12, B6, B3 (niacin) and B2 (riboflavin); calcium and phosphorus; iron; and zinc.
True albino lobsters (the white ones), don't turn red when cooked?
Among other things, lobsters eat crabs, sea stars, sea urchins. They are not by nature cannibalistic, except when held in crowded conditions (traps, pounds, etc.). Even with banded claws, it's still not unusual to find partially eaten animals in the live-tank when it's emptied. As for those Lobster bands. They are not only small but strong. Lobster harvesters use a special tool that resembles a pair of pliers to open the rubber band to slip it over the lobster's claw
To hypnotize a lobster, stand it on its head with its claws laid out in front of it and its tail curled inward. Rub your hand up and down the carapace making sure to rub between the eyes. Eventually it may stand by itself. (Whoever thought of this must have been really starved for excitement.)
Lobster and lobster dishes are considered delicacies these days and can be quite expensive yet ironically, it was first considered a poor man's food since they were so in abundance.

Top Lobster pic "Boiled For Dinner" by Flickr user Brian U

Source(s): ehow.com/, lobsterinstitute.org/, chow.com/, wikipedia, lobstermanspage.net/, wikipedia, cbsnews.com/, theguardian.co.uk/, Gulf of Main Research Institute

SO WHAT'S THE MOST WATCHED VIDEO ON YOUTUBE FOR 2012?

2012-12-03T10:49:00.002-05:00

No, it's no longer The Bieb's video as first posted last year back in September 2011.

At that time, as you can see, he had hits of over 600 million!! That's alot of hits. Now the last time we checked, a few days ago, it was over 800 million. (It also seems to be the most 'hated' video of all time with 3,241,869 dislikes compared to 1,460,359 likes!)

And no, it's not

Charlie bit my finger - again !

Click on pic to watch video

Eminem's - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

Click on pic to watch video

or even

Jennifer Lopez's - On The Floor ft. Pitbull

Click on pic to watch video

The most watched video of 2012 (as if you didn't know already) is non other than

PSY's - Gangnam Style

Bieber's video picked up the designation in July of 2010, when the then-rising star himself passed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance". Though it was posted in February of 2010, "Baby" remains popular, continuing to garner between 350k and 500k views per day.

PSY's video first spread from South Korea to the rest of the world in early August. It's been a massive hit at a global level unlike anything we've ever seen before. Each day, "Gangnam Style" is still being watched between 7 and 10 million times.

To give you a sense of how quickly "Gangnam Style" has reached this milestone, here's a chart that shows the viewership path each video took as they each approach 1 billion views. The velocity of popularity for PSY's outlandish video is unprecedented:

"Gangnam Style" and "PSY", respectively, have been the top rising searches on YouTube over the past six months. And these searches are coming from all over the world.

Searches first spiked in South Korea in late July when the video was posted. We began to see search interest rise in the U.S. and other English-speaking nations over the next month until it began to peak in September in North America and Brazil. "Gangnam Style" searches and viewing began to spike more broadly and in places like Europe and India in October.

PSY's official channel now has over 1 billion views, a considerable number. Views on Bieber's VEVO channel alone, however, still total over 3 billion... (3,168,923,650 to be exact).

Could it reach a billion views - just this one video before the year is out? Could it even set a record as the most watched video of all time? I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Source(s): youtube-trends, youtube-charts

WHY DO WE OFTEN SAY Y'KNOW.. WORDS LIKE 'YOU KNOW'?

2012-11-20T11:41:00.000-05:00

Well, apparently its universal and it's called a 'filler' word.

In linguistics, a filler is a sound or word that is spoken in conversation by one participant to signal to others that he/she has paused to think but is not yet finished speaking. The "ums", "ers", and “ahs” are among the easiest sounds to make and contain what linguists call "neutral vowel sounds".

It may be that they can be said without a great deal of thought too. "Fillers" help conversations continue smoothly.

Different languages have different characteristic filler sounds; in English, the most common filler sounds are uh and um. Among youths, the fillers "like", "y'know", "so", "actually", "literally", "basically", "right", "I'm tellin' ya" and "you know what I mean?" are among the more prevalent.

In Afrikaans, ah, em, and eh are common fillers.
In Arabic, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") and وﷲ wallāh(i) ("by God") are common fillers.
In American Sign Language, UM can be signed with open-8 held at chin, palm in, eyebrows down (similar to FAVORITE); or bilateral symmetric bent-V, palm out, repeated axial rotation of wrist (similar to QUOTE).
In Bengali, mane ("it means") is a common filler.
In Catalan, eh /ə/, doncs ("so"), llavors ("therefore"), and o sigui ("it means") are common fillers.
In Czech, fillers are called "slovní vata", meaning "word cotton/padding". The most frequent fillers are čili or takže ("so"), prostě ("simply"), jako ("like"). Overuse of jako and prostě becomes a bad habit among youth and could be viewed as simple-minded.
In Danish, øh is one of the most common fillers.
In Dutch, eh, ehm, and dus are some of the more common fillers.

As Stephen Juan, Ph.D., an anthropologist at the University of Sydney explains.. "Although we may not consciously realise it, in a two-person conversation, people speak by taking turns. When someone thinks it is their turn to talk, they do. Otherwise, they listen. A two-person conversation becomes like a tennis match. Inevitably there are short periods of silence as people pause to let the other person take over the speaking. But sometimes a speaker doesn’t want to give up their turn and instead wants a little extra time to think about what they’re going to say next. They use a “filler” to signal this.

When a listener hears the “filler”, they continue listening rather than start talking. “Um”, “er”, and “ah” are examples of phonemes. In linguistics, phonemes are the smallest meaningless speech sounds humans make. The smallest meaningful speech sounds humans make are called “morphemes”. Everything we humans say is either meaningless or meaningful. A lot of people never learn the difference.

More Filler words in different languages...

In Esperanto, do ("therefore") is the most common filler.
In Filipino, ah, eh, ay, and ano are the most common fillers.
In Finnish, niinku ("like"), tota, and öö are the most common fillers.
In French, euh /ø/ is most common; other words used as fillers include quoi ("what"), bah, ben ("well"), tu vois ("you see"), t』vois c』que j'veux dire? ("you see what I mean?"), tu sais, t'sais ("you know"), and eh bien (roughly "well", as in "Well, I'm not sure"). Outside of France, other expressions are t'sais veux dire? ("you know what I mean?"), or allez une fois ("go one time"). Additional filler words used by youngsters include genre ("kind"), comme ("like"), and style ("style"; "kind").
In German, a more extensive series of filler words, called modal particles, exists, which actually do give the sentence some meaning. More traditional filler words are äh /ɛː/, hm, so /zoː/, tja, and eigentlich ("actually").
In Hebrew, eh is the most common filler. Em is also quite common. Young speakers commonly use "Ke'ilu" (the Hebrew version of "like").
In Hindi, matlab ("it means") and "Mah" are fillers.
In Hungarian, filler sound is ő, common filler words include hát, nos (well...) and asszongya (a variant of azt mondja, which means "it says here..."). Among intellectuals, ha úgy tetszik (if you like) is used as filler.
In Icelandic, a common filler is hérna ("here"). Þúst, a contraction of þú veist ("you know"), is popular among younger speakers.
In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), anu is one of the most common fillers.
In Italian, common fillers include "tipo" ("like"), "ecco" ("there") and "cioè" ("actually")
In Irish Gaelic, abair /ˈabˠəɾʲ/ ("say"), bhoil /wɛlʲ/ ("well"), and era /ˈɛɾˠə/ are common fillers, along with emm as in Hiberno-English.
In Japanese, common fillers include eetto, ano, sono, and ee.
In Kannada,Matte for also,Enappa andre for the matter is are the common fillers.
In Korean, eung, eo, ge, and eum are commonly used as fillers.
In Lithuanian, nu, am and žinai ("you know") are common fillers.
In Maltese and Maltese English, mela ("then"), or just la, is a common filler.
In Mandarin Chinese, speakers often say 這個 zhège/zhèige ("this") or 那個 nàge/nèige ("that"). Other common fillers are 就 jìu ("just") and 好像 "very like/"kinda like"}}.
In Norwegian, common fillers are øh, altså, på en måte ("in a way"), ikke sant (literally "not true?", "no kidding", or "exactly"), vel ("well"), and liksom ("like"). In Bergen, sant ("true") is often used instead of ikke sant. In the Trøndelag region, skjø' ("see?" or "understand?") is also a common filler.
In Persian, bebin ("you see"), چیز "chiz" ("thing"), and مثلا masalan ("for instance") are commonly-used filler words. As well as in Arabic and Urdu, يعني yaʿni ("I mean") is also used in Persian. Also, eh is a common filler in Persian.
In Portuguese, é, hum, então ("so") and tipo ("like") are the most common fillers.
In Punjabi, matlab ("it means") is a common filler.
In Romanian, deci /detʃʲ/ ("therefore") is common, especially in school, and ă /ə/ is also very common (can be lengthened according to the pause in speech, rendered in writing as ăăă), whereas păi /pəj/ is widely used by almost anyone.
In Russian, fillers are called слова-паразиты ("vermin words"); the most common are Э-э ("eh"), это ("this"), того ("that"), ну ("well"), значит ("it means"), так ("so"), как его ("what's it [called]"), типа ("like"), and как бы ("[just] like").
In Serbian, znači ("means") and ovaj ("this") are common fillers.
In Slovak, oné ("that"), tento ("this"), proste ("simply"), or akože ("it's like…") are used as fillers. The Hungarian izé (or izí in its Slovak pronunciation) can also be heard, especially in parts of the country with a large Hungarian population. Ta is a filler typical of Eastern Slovak and one of the most parodied features.
In Slovene, pač ("but", although it has lost that meaning in colloquial, and it is used as a means of explanation), a ne? ("right?"), and no ("well") are some of the fillers common in central Slovenia, including Ljubljana.
In Spanish, fillers are called muletillas. Some of the most common in American Spanish are e /e/, este ("this"), and o sea (roughly means "I mean", literally means "it means"), in Spain the previous fillers are also used, but ¿Vale? ("right?") and ¿no? are very common too.
In Swedish, fillers are called utfyllningsord; some of the most common are öhm, ja ("yes"), ba (comes from "bara", which means "just"), asså or alltså ("therefore", "thus"), va (comes from "vad", which means "what"), and liksom and typ (both similar to the English "like").
In Ukrainian, е ("eh", similar to "um"), ну ("Nu (well)"), і ("and"), цей ("this"), той-во ("this one") are common fillers.
In Urdu, yani ("meaning..."), flana flana ("this and that"; "blah blah"), haan haan ("yeah yeah") and acha ("ok") are also common fillers.
In Telugu, ikkada entante ("Whats here is...") and tarwatha ("then...") are common and there are numerous like this.
In Tamil, paatheenga-na ("if you see...") and apparam ("then...") are common.
In Turkish, yani ("meaning..."), şey ("thing"), "işte" ("that is"), and falan ("as such", "so on") are common fillers.
In Welsh, de or ynde is used as a filler (loosely the equivalent of "You know?" or "Isn't it?"). Ym... and Y... are used similarly to the English "um...".

Among language learners, a common pitfall is using fillers from their native tongue. For example, "Quiero una umm.... quesadilla". While less of a shibboleth, knowing the placeholder names (sometimes called kadigans) of a language (e.g. the equivalent of "thingy") can also be useful to attain fluency, such as the French truc: "Je cherche le truc qu'on utilise pour ouvrir une boîte" ("I'm looking for the thingy that you use to open up a can").

Some Observations:

"Perhaps no profession has uttered more 'ums' or 'uhs' than the legal profession. Such words are a clear indication that the speaker's style is halting and uncertain. Eliminate these filler words. The lack of 'ums' and 'uhs' alone can make you sound more confident.

"And it's not hard to do. Just pause. Every time you feel that you're about to use a filler word, pause instead."

(Joey Asher, Selling and Communication Skills for Lawyers. ALM Publishing, 2005)

Hesitation Forms
"Modern linguists led by Leonard Bloomfield in 1933 call these 'hesitation forms'--the sounds of stammering (uh), stuttering (um, um), throat-clearing (ahem!), stalling (well, um, that is), interjected when the speaker is groping for words or at a loss for the next thought.

"You know that y'know is among the most common of these hesitation forms. Its meaning is not the imperious 'you understand' or even the old interrogatory 'do you get it?' It is given as, and taken to be, merely a filler phrase, intended to fill a beat in the flow of sound, not unlike like, in its new sense of, like, a filler word. . . .

"[T]hese staples of modern filler communication--I mean, y'know, like--can also be used as 'tee-up words.' In olden times, pointer phrases or tee-up words were get this, would you believe? and are you ready? The function of these rib-nudging phrases was--are you ready?--to make the point, to focus the listener's attention on what was to follow. . . .

"If the purpose is to tee up a point, we should accept y'know and its friends as a mildly annoying spoken punctuation, the articulated colon that signals 'focus on this.' . . . If the purpose is to grab a moment to think, we should allow ourselves to wonder: Why are filler phrases needed at all? What motivates the speaker to fill the moment of silence with any sound at all?"
(William Safire, Watching My Language: Adventures in the Word Trade. Random House, 1997)

Filler Words Across Disciplines

"Why do some people fill the air with non-words and sounds? For some, it is a sign of nervousness; they fear silence and experience speaker anxiety. Recent research at Columbia University suggests another reason. Columbia psychologists speculated that speakers fill pauses when searching for the next word. To investigate this idea, they counted the use of filler words used by lecturers in biology, chemistry, and mathematics, where the subject matter uses scientific definitions that limit the variety of word choices available to the speaker. They then compared the number of filler words used by teachers in English, art history, and philosophy, where the subject matter is less well-defined and more open to word choices.

"Twenty science lecturers used an average of 1.39 uh's a minute, compared with 4.85 uh's a minute by 13 humanities teachers. Their conclusion: subject matter and breadth of vocabulary may determine use of filler words more than habit or anxiety.

"Whatever the reason, the cure for filler words is preparation. You reduce nervousness and pre-select the right ways to say ideas through preparation and practice."
(Paul R. Timm and Sherron Bienvenu, Straight Talk: Oral Communication for Career Success. Routledge, 2011)

Personally, I don't use 'you know' often. I mean I use it, just not often. However, I know about 8 friends I can count that uses it a lot... and I mean A LOT! Having said that, it doesn't bother me in the least bit that they do this because it seems to make them feel comfortable saying this and they each say it in their own unique way whether it's said with an accent or said fast/slow etc. It makes them who they are and after awhile you just ignore it as it becomes part of their speech. So instead of trying to stop people from saying these words, I think we should all learn to accept it (as annoying as it may be to you) and move on... you know, just get over it!

Source(s): wikipedia, theregister.com/, about.com/,
Original cartoon character by Flickr user dogwelder

WHEN DOES 'DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME' BEGINS AND ENDS FOR 2012?

2012-10-26T10:33:00.000-04:00

Well, that depends on where you live.

Most of the United States and Canada begins Daylight Saving Time at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and reverts to standard time on the first Sunday in November. In the U.S., each time zone switches at a different time.

In the European Union, Summer Time begins and ends at 1:00 a.m. Universal Time (Greenwich Mean Time). It begins the last Sunday in March and ends the last Sunday in October. In the EU, all time zones change at the same moment.

Today, approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time in at least a portion of the country. Most areas of North America and Europe observe daylight saving time (DST), while most areas of Africa and Asia do not. Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.

South America is mixed, with most countries in the warmer north of the continent near the equator not observing DST, while Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay and southern parts of Brazil do. Oceania is also mixed, with New Zealand and parts of southern Australia observing DST, while most other areas do not.

What is Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight Saving Time (DST)—also "summer time" in several countries including in British English and European official terminology (see Terminology)—is the practice of temporarily advancing clocks during the summer time so that afternoons have more daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in autumn. Modern DST was first proposed in 1895 by George Vernon Hudson. Many countries have used it since then; details vary by location and change occasionally. When DST is not observed, it is called standard time, normal time or winter time.

Daylight Saving Time Around the World

Equatorial and tropical countries (lower latitudes) generally do not observe Daylight Saving Time. Since the daylight hours are similar during every season, there is no advantage to moving clocks forward during the summer. China has had a single time zone since May 1, 1980, observing summer Daylight Saving Time from 1986 through 1991; they do not observe DST now.

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Afghanistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Albania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Algeria	All locations	No DST in 2012
Andorra	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Angola	All locations	No DST in 2012
Anguilla	All locations	No DST in 2012
Antarctica	Most locations (Ex. Mawson) Some locations (Ex. South Pole)	No DST in 2012 START:Sunday, September 30 END:Sunday, April 1
Antigua and Barbuda	All locations	No DST in 2012
Argentina	All locations	No DST in 2012
Armenia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Aruba	All locations	No DST in 2012
Australia	Most locations (Ex. Melbourne) Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia,Christmas Island (Ex. Brisbane) Lord Howe Island Other (Ex. Macquarie Island)	START:Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 1 No DST in 2012 START:Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 1 DST All Year in 2012.
Austria	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Azerbaijan	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Bahrain	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bangladesh	All locations	No DST in 2012
Barbados	All locations	No DST in 2012
Belarus	All locations	No DST in 2012
Belgium	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Belize	All locations	No DST in 2012
Benin	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bermuda	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11. END: Sunday, November 4
Bhutan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bolivia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bosnia and Herzegovina	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Botswana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Brazil	Most locations (Ex. Rio de Janeiro) Amazonas, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Para,Paraíba, Ceará, Amapá, Alagoas, Rondônia, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí, Maranhão, Acre, Roraima, Tocantins (Ex. Manaus) Bahia Tocantins	START:Sunday, October 21 END:Sunday, February 26 No DST in 2012 DOES NOT START THIS YEAR END: Sunday, February 26 START: Sunday, October 21 END:Does NOT END THIS YEAR
Britische Jungferninseln	All locations	No DST in 2012
British Indian Ocean Territory	All locations	No DST in 2012
Brunei	All locations	No DST in 2012
Bulgaria	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25. END: Sunday, October 28
Burkina Faso	All locations	No DST in 2012
Burundi	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Cambodia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cameroon	All locations	No DST in 2012
Canada	Most locations (Ex.Montreal) Much of Saskatchewan, small region of British Columbia, small region of Nunavut Territory, small region of Quebec, small region of Ontario	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Cape Verde	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cayman Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Central African Republic	All locations	No DST in 2012
Chad	All locations	No DST in 2012
Chile	Most locations(Ex. Santiago) Other (Ex. Easter Island)	START: Sunday, September 2 END:Sunday, April 29 START: Saturday, September 1 END: Saturday, April 28
China	All locations	No DST in 2012
Colombia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Commonwealth of the Norther Mariana Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Comoros	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cook Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Costa Rica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cote d'lvoire	All locations	No DST in 2012
Croatia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Cuba	All locations	START: Sunday, April 1 END: Sunday, November 11
Curaçao	All locations	No DST in 2012
Cyprus	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Czech Republic	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Democratic Republic of the Congo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Denmark	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Departmental Collectivity of Mayotte	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dijibouti	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dominica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Dominican Republic	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
East Timor	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ecuador	All locations	No DST in 2012
Egypt	All locations	No DST in 2012
El Salvador	All locations	No DST in 2012
Equatorial Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Eritrea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Estonia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Ethiopia	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Falkland Islands	All locations	DST All Year in 2012
Färöer	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Fiji	All locations	START: Sunday, October 21 END: Sunday, Janurary 22
Finland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
France	Most locations (Ex. Paris) Tahiti, New Caledonia, Marquesas Islands	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 No DST in 2012
Französisch-Guayana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Französisch-Polynesien	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Gabon	All locations	No DST in 2012
Gaza Strip	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Friday, September 21
Georgia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Germany	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Ghana	All locations	No DST in 2012
Gibraltar	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Greece	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Greenland	Most locations(Ex. Nuuk) Ittoqqortoormiit Qaanaaq Danmarkshavn	START: Saturday, March 24 END: Saturday, October 27 START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Grenada	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guadeloupe	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guatemala	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guinea-Bissau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Guyana	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Haiti	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
Holy See (Vatican City)	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Honduras	All locations	No DST in 2012
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region	All locations	No DST in 2012
Hungary	All locations	START: Saturday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Iceland	All locations	No DST in 2012
India	All locations	No DST in 2012
Indonesia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Iran	All locations	START: Wednesday, March 21 END: Friday, September 21
Iraq	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ireland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Isle of Man	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Israel	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Sunday, September 23
Italy	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

J, K, L

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Jamaica	All locations	No DST in 2012
Japan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Jordan	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: DOES NOT END THIS YEAR
Kazakhstan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kenya	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kerguelen	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kiribati	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kosovo	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Kuwait	All locations	No DST in 2012
Kyrgyzstan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Laos	All locations	No DST in 2012
Latvia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lebanon	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lesotho	All locations	No DST in 2012
Liberia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Libya	All locations	No DST in 2012
Liechtenstein	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Lithuania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Luxembourg	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28

M, N, O

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Macau Special Administrative Region	All locations	No DST in 2012
Madagascar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malawi	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malaysia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Maldives	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mali	All locations	No DST in 2012
Malta	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Marshall Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Martinique	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mauritania	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mauritius	All locations	No DST in 2012
Mexico	Most locations (Ex. Mexico City) Baja California, much of Chihuahua,Tamaulipas, Sonora (Ex. Hermosillo)	START: Sunday, April 1 END: Sunday, October 28 START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
Micronesia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Moldova	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Monaco	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Mongolia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Montenegro	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Montserrat	All locations	No DST in 2012
Morocco	All locations	START: Sunday, April 29 END: Sunday, September 30
Mozambique	All locations	No DST in 2012
Myanmar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Namibia	All locations	START: Sunday, September 2 END: Sunday, April 1
Nauru	All locations	No DST in 2012
Nepal	All locations	No DST in 2012
Netherlands	Most locations (Ex. Amsterdam) Saint Martin	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28 No DST in 2012
New Zealand	All locations	START: Sunday, September 30 END: Sunday, April 1
Nicaragua	All locations	No DST in 2012
Niger	All locations	No DST in 2012
Nigeria	All locations	No DST in 2012
Niue	All locations	No DST in 2012
Norfokinsel	All locations	No DST in 2012
North Korea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Norway	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Oman	All locations	No DST in 2012

P, Q, R

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Pakistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Palau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Panama	All locations	No DST in 2012
Papua New Guinea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Paraguay	All locations	START: Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, April 8
Peru	All locations	No DST in 2012
Philippines	All locations	No DST in 2012
Pitcairninseln	All locations	No DST in 2012
Poland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Portugal	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Puerto Rico	All locations	No DST in 2012
Qatar	All locations	No DST in 2012
Republic of Macedonia	All locations	START: N/A END: N/A
Republic of South Sudan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Republic of the Congo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Reunion	All locations	No DST in 2012
Romania	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Russia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Rwanda	All locations	No DST in 2012

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Saint Kitts and Nevis	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saint Lucia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	All locations	No DST in 2012
Samoa	All locations	START: Sunday, September 30 END: Saturday, April 1
San Marino	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Sao Tome and Principe	All locations	No DST in 2012
Saudi Arabia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Senegal	All locations	No DST in 2012
Serbia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Seychelles	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sierra Leone	All locations	No DST in 2012
Singapore	All locations	No DST in 2012
Slovakia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Slovenia	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Solomon Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Somalia	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Africa	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
South Korea	All locations	No DST in 2012
Spain	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Sri Lanka	All locations	No DST in 2012
St. Helena	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sudan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Suriname	All locations	No DST in 2012
Swaziland	All locations	No DST in 2012
Sweden	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Switzerland	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Syria	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Friday, October 26

T, U

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Taiwan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tajikistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tanzania	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon	All locations	N/A
Territory of American Samoa	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territory of Cocos (Keeling)Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Territory of Guam	All locations	No DST in 201
Thailand	All locations	No DST in 2012
The Bahamas	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
The Gambia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Togo	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tokelau	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tonga	All locations	No DST in 2012
Trinidad and Tobago	All locations	No DST in 2012
Tunisia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Turkey	All locations	START: Monday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
Turkmenistan	All locations	No DST in 2012
Turks and Caicos Islands	All locations	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4
Tuvalu	All locations	No DST in 2012
Uganda	All locations	No DST in 2012
Ukraine	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
United Arab Emirates	All locations	No DST in 2012
United Kingdom	All locations	START: Sunday, March 25 END: Sunday, October 28
United States	Most locations (Ex. Washington, D.C.) Hawaii, Arizona, Midway Islands, Wake Island (Ex. Honolulu)	START: Sunday, March 11 END: Sunday, November 4 No DST in 2012
United States Virgin Islands	All locations	No DST in 2012
Uruguay	All locations	START: Sunday, October 7 END: Sunday, March 11
Uzbekistan	All locations	No DST in 2012

V, W, Y and Z

COUNTRY	REGION/STATES	DST START and END Dates
Vanuatu	All locations	No DST in 2012
Venezuela	All locations	No DST in 2012
Vietnam	All locations	No DST in 2012
Wallis und Futuna	All locations	No DST in 2012
West Bank	All locations	START: Friday, March 30 END: Friday, September 21
Western Sahara	All locations	START: Sunday, April 29* END: Sunday, September 30*
Yemen	All locations	No DST in 2012
Zambia	All locations	No DST in 2012
Zimbabwe	All locations	No DST in 2012

There are many oddities. For example, some parts of the U.S. and Canada do not observe Daylight Saving Time, such as the state of Arizona (U.S.) and the province Saskatchewan (Canada).

Observance can also be erratic. For example, Chile delayed its changeover date for the Pope's visit in 1987, as well as for a presidential inauguration in 1990.

Europe

In general, all countries in Europe except Belarus, Iceland, Russia and Ukraine observe DST, and most change on the same date and time, starting on the last Sunday in March and ending on the last Sunday in October.

Before 1996, DST ended on the last Sunday in September in most European countries; however in the United Kingdom and Ireland DST ended on the fourth (which some years is not the last) Sunday in October.

European Countries Without DST
These countries or regions do not use daylight saving time:

Belarus, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing UTC + 03:00 all year round.

Iceland, observing UTC all year round despite being at a longitude which would indicate UTC-1, the country may be thought of as being on continuous DST. Iceland's high latitude means that sunset and sunrise times change by many hours over the year, and the effect of changing the clock by one hour would, in comparison, be small.

Russia, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing the time that formerly was DST, all year round. Many areas have its time two hours ahead of the mean solar time. Moscow has UTC + 04:00.

Ukraine, ended its last DST switching after moving the clocks forward in Spring 2011, and is now observing UTC + 03:00 all year round.

Canada
In Canada, time is under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, not federal. Since at least the 1970s, all provinces and territories have matched their DST start and end dates to those used in the United States, and when the U.S. Congress changed the rules effective 2007 the provinces and territories (except Saskatchewan) changed their time legislation to match. Since 2007, DST in Canada starts on the second Sunday in March, and returns to standard time on the first Sunday of November, to coincide with the U.S. dates. Most of Saskatchewan does not technically observe DST but rather observes a skewed 'standard time' that has been advanced one hour forward permanently (that is, observing what is sometimes known as 'year-round DST').

United States
Most areas of the United States currently observe daylight saving time. The exceptions are Arizona, Hawaii, and the territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. In Arizona, the Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time.
From 1987 to 2006, daylight saving time in the United States began on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday of October. The time is adjusted at 2:00 a.m. (02:00) local time.
By the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time (DST) was extended in the United States beginning in 2007. DST currently starts on the second Sunday of March, which is three or four weeks earlier than in the past, and it ends on the first Sunday of November, one week later than in years past. The time is adjusted at 2:00 a.m. (02:00) local time. This change resulted in a new DST period that is four weeks (five in years when March has five Sundays) longer than in previous years.

Finally...
The practice has been both praised and criticized. Adding daylight to afternoons benefits retailing, sports, and other activities that exploit sunlight after working hours, but causes problems for farming, evening entertainment and other occupations tied to the sun. Its effect on health and crime is less clear. Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited or contradictory.

DST clock shifts present other challenges. They complicate timekeeping, and can disrupt meetings, travel, billing, recordkeeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Software can often adjust computer clocks automatically, but this can be limited and error-prone, particularly when DST protocols are changed.

Source(s): wikipedia, timeanddate.com, webexhibits.org, wikipedia, nationalgeographic.com

IS DOING TOO MUCH HOMEWORK REALLY NECESSARY?

2012-10-12T20:40:00.000-04:00

Photo by woodleywonderworks

Not only is it unnecessary, but it is downright evil.

Photo by Cayusa

Now, before I go on to explain, let me say there will be many teachers and educators of varying degrees as well as parents and even some students that will be quick to argue otherwise. However, from doing extensive research on the subject in terms of reading books written and studies carried out on the subject, I was quite perturbed and shocked at what I've discovered.

I'm not going to go 'give away' the books or go into detail since there are numerous resources out there on the net, but I will give my personal feedback on what I've read and my personal experience firsthand, since I too have children attending school as I write this post. Not only is too much homework unnecessary and downright evil, but it can actually do more harm than good.

There have been extensive articles and books written and anti-homework organizations created on this issue for many years, yet many teachers still continue to cram work onto their students. One of my favourite books, The Homework Myth, by Alfie Kohn, has so many viable points and sites so many researches to corroborate these points that one cannot overlook them.

Some say homework is a waste of time, but I wouldn't go that far. Some homework is always good, but too much of anything is never good and that includes homework.

The benefits of not having too much homework certainly outweighs the risks:

Advantages

Students will perform better on tests.
Students won't be stressed out and therefore will be better able to handle problems - homework or otherwise, with greater confidence and ease.
Students will see homework more as a greater option rather than a required 'chore'.
Students will have an actual life with family and friends outside of or after school.
Students won't have back problems from carrying heavy backpacks.
Students won't miss out on their childhood.
Students will have more time to also explore their talents and develop other areas of interest such as music and sports.
Students will actually want to learn!

Disadvantages (arguably)

Students won't learn time management.
Students won't attain good study habits.
Students might not have enough homework to help them review the lessons they have learnt in school, so they won't retain the information longer.

As for academic benefits, there is no evidence that doing a lot of homework helps you to achieve even better grades. That's purely a myth. Although kids who did some homework in high school scored slightly better on standardized tests than those who did no homework, high school students who did more than 2 hours of homework a night actually had lower test scores!

Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

So how do you know when too much homework is too much?

When it becomes a burden for the parents, that is, the parents, after a long day at work, comes home only to monitor their child's homework, not just for one day but everyday.

When students start showing signs of stress.

When students are going to bed just when you are getting up, (and no, it's not from playing games or being on the internet all night since my boys aren't allowed this during school week.)

When activities after school with friends slowly diminishes.

When student has lost any or all interest in learning.

When students start to carry books in their hands along with their backpacks. Or when the backpacks become almost unbearable to lift!

I was 'fortunate' to witness the effects of too much homework twice - with my sons, to know enough that too much homework is not a good thing. Throughout primary school, most of their homework was done at school leaving time for friends and other things after school which therefore equalled good grades. As a matter-of-fact, both graduated with honours. However, once they hit high school, especially the first year, it was a disaster.

The homework stress was so bad that I had to give them 2 days off a month. (I used to give them 1 day off a month starting from kindergarten up to the end of primary school. Why? Because kids are people too - they need a break once in awhile.) The oldest son was better able to cope with the stress of it all and managed to get pass the first 2 years of high school which were the toughest and eventually went on to graduate with honours and receiving a scholarship to his favourite university.

The second one is now entering high school and is having difficulty handling the work load of all the homework assigned. Maybe it's just an adjustment he needs to learn - maybe not. Either way I will be keeping an interest in his grades and his well-being for the first semester and if either is drastically changed for the worst, i'll be talking to his respective teachers whether it's parent-teacher interview time or not!

The ideal amount of time for homework should be around 15 mins per subject, a day, after school. So for example, Math, Geography and English homework after school should take a total of 1 hour to do. Anything more and then it starts to become like a job to them. You can teach them time management and study habits in other fun ways. After all, would you like to work all day and then come home and work another 4-8 hours again? I didn't think so.

Did You Know?

It seems that over the last decade, Japanese schools have been scrapping homework, while American elementary schools have been piling it on?
Studies also show that students living in countries that don’t assign a heavy homework load – like Japan and Denmark – perform better on tests than children in homework-heavy countries?
The introduction of large scale homework assignments to younger students was a result of the scare caused by Russia’s launch of the Sputnik Satellite and their subsequent achievement of being the first country to put a man into space. We feared that a learning gap had occurred between our two countries, and tried to instill advanced learning disciplines at earlier and earlier ages to compensate.
Many studies indicate that homework has little positive effect on the performance of students in the earlier grades. There is only so much that a mind of that age can absorb through self study, and piling on homework doesn’t change that.
Many critics of the current system endorse a graduated level of homework which increases slowly as the student develops. One proposal is to limit homework to 10 minutes a day for each grade the student has achieved. For example, second graders would receive 20 minutes per day, and sixth graders an hour. By the time the student graduates from high school, they will be working 2 hours per night, and be on a path that will make them ready for the demands of college.

Other great reads:

Related News:

France to Ban Homework. Really. (Oct 15, 2012)

Resource(s): Rethinking Homework, tesh.com/, cooper.socialpsychology.org/, debate.yukozimo.com/, History of Homework

WHY ARE UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS SO EXPENSIVE?

2012-09-11T12:21:00.002-04:00

photo credit: textbookrebellion

There is really no one-answer for this.

It's that time of year again. That time where students and parents alike dread the thought of buying all those books required on their son's or daughter's list for university or college.

Then there are the horror stories of spending hundreds on textbooks only to discover those books were no longer required or was even needed in the first place! Or to get the book from your older sibling that took the same major only to find out the book has been updated, so you have no choice BUT to buy the newer version.

So why are university/college textbooks so high? Some say publishers say textbooks are costly to make - all those huge, glossy papers don't come cheap! Others say since they have to compete or rather can't compete with your best-selling novels like Harry Potter and the likes, they have to make up cost somehow.
Then there's the used book industry who publishers claim cut into their bottom line -like Amazon and eBay have made the market for textbooks much bigger and more flexible.

But the truth of the matter is, and probably the number one reason for university/college textbooks being so expensive has got to be that they (the book publishers and/or authors), have the monopoly on the market. Because just like, cinemas, airports, and sports arenas and even payphone service in prisons, consumers, like the students, face a severely limited amount of competitive suppliers; their only choices are to purchase the said books required or to make no purchase at all. Hence, captive markets such as these result in higher prices and less diversity for consumers.

Then there are regulations such as Canada’s book import regulations which grant Canadian publishers exclusive rights to distribute titles. Does your bookstore want an American textbook? They can’t get it directly from the American publisher. They have to go to the Canadian arm of the American publisher, which imports the book and charges a 10% premium on the book for the service. This can result in American textbooks being a lot more expensive in Canada than in the U.S. For example, A History of the Roman People is $100.92 on Amazon.ca and $56.71 on Amazon.com. Note that Individuals can order American books from American online retailers like Amazon.com without paying duties, although they will have to pay GST on the imported goods. Of course, you’d have to pay GST if you bought the book in Canada anyway, so no big deal. Depending on where the Canadian dollar is at, checking out American booksellers may be a good way of saving money.

So don't blame the campus bookstores - or even the professors, because what they make is a very small percentage in comparison to what the market itself makes.

But what can we do as consumers? Not much really other than to arm ourselves with as much knowledge and information out there such as - never purchase a book until you're absolutely sure it's needed, view sites where you can purchase used books, trade, or even rent books and support orgainizations such as textbookrebellion.org in the USA.

If you know of any other sites than the ones listed below or any other information regarding this subject, please share with our readers.

Some resources:

Half.com is a subsidiary of eBay which is basically eBay without the bidding aspect. It predominantly focuses on person-to-person or business-to-person sales of books/textbooks, movies, music, and games/game systems which makes it a perfect choice for those who are interested in selling an old textbook or buying one used on the cheap.Textbook listings give all the necessary information about the text and sorts copies for sale by quality. They also make it a breeze to list a book simply by entering the ISBN number.
Half.com charges a 15% commission to sellers and uses the eBay feedback system for user ratings so you can decide which sellers to trust.
Amazon is one of the biggest, most respected, and most trusted online merchants so it would make sense that it would be a great choice for buying and selling new and used textbooks. Amazon’s textbook section is very identical to Half.com. They charge the same 15% commission for textbooks and pay shipping costs to the seller. However, it may be a bit more difficult than Half.com to sift through used books. This would be a great choice if you are familiar with and enjoy the Amazon shopping experience.
Chegg has a very interesting business model. They rent textbooks rather than sell. This makes getting a hold of textbooks much cheaper and you don’t have to deal with selling them or holding on to them after you are done with the book.
Chegg is the Netflix of textbooks. How it works is simple. You go to the site and select the textbooks you need. You pay the one-time rental price for each book and pay for them to ship it to you. You then keep the book until you are finished with it or you have the option to purchase the book later. When you are finished with the book, revisit the site and you can print out a shipping label for the books you want to send back and you ship them back to Chegg. It’s as easy as that!
Buy.com is another great online-only retailer with a great discount textbook section. Buy.com is similar to Amazon in that they sell just about everything from baby things to sports. They have highly competitive pricing and discounts and pretty much takes any form of payment including Google Checkout and Paypal.
Not only do they have great prices on products, they provide inexpensive shipping, and they even compare their prices to the prices of leading competitors so you know you’re getting a good deal.
BOOKRENTER Start with the large search box that helps you trawl through 5 million textbooks. BookRenter offers you no-questions asked book return program plus free shipping. The range of categories cover almost all subjects that are taught in colleges (don’t forget to click the little ‘More’ links). BookRenter gives you different rental rates depending on the borrowing periods
Textbooks.com This too is a similar site with a very similar service. Textbooks.com shows that when it comes to cheap textbooks for purchase or rent, no site is too many as it almost mirrors the service offerings of the above two sites. The book rental site has a referral program that lets you earn $5 for each friend you refer to the site for a book rental or purchase. The site offers free shipping on orders above $25.

Source(s): mentalfloss.com/, cheaptexts.ca/, makeuseof.com/

WHAT IS THE WORLD'S LONGEST COVERED BRIDGE?

2012-08-26T20:09:00.001-04:00

There are many covered bridges all over the world as you will see later below, but the title of the WORLD'S LONGEST COVERED BRIDGE goes to

Hartland Covered Bridge, in New Brunswick, Canada.

Pic source by Flickr user *Muhammad*

Pic source by Flickr user catlennox

The bridge was originally constructed in 1901 by the Hartland Bridge Company which was formed by citizens on both sides of the St. John River. It was funded by tolls until it was purchased by the provincial government in 1906. The bridge was not originally built covered. The 1907 fire burnt some of the structure and nearly destroyed the toll house.

The side walkway, which is a small bridge in itself, was added to this 1,282 foot bridge in 1945 and on June 23, 1980, the Hartland Covered Bridge was declared a National Historic Site and on September 15, 1999 it was declared a Provincial Historic Site.
The original completion date was to be May 14, 1901, but as the day approached, an emergency forced the first person to cross the bridge twelve hours early. At about 9:00pm on Monday the 13th of May, Dr. Estey responded to an urgent call to attend to a patient on the west side of the river. Dr. Estey approached the bridge and revealed to the workers, his circumstances. Workers then placed planks so he could drive across the bridge.

Pic source by Flickr user cmh2315fl

Repairs were done to the bridge in 1982-83 when a car struck a steel strain rod, causing the bridge to drop and break the main beam on the western most span.

The car received an estimated $400.00 damage, while the bill for repairing the bridge was $140,000.00. The bridge finally reopened for traffic, on February 10, 1983.

Pic source by Flickr user cmh2315fl

Hartland Bridge, from the Somerville side looking back toward Hartland.
Pic source by wikimedia

Since the bridge was covered, in the early years snow had to be hauled and placed on the floor so the sleds could easily travel on it in the winter?
The Olympic torch was carried through the bridge as part of celebrations of the 1988 Winter Olympics held in Calgary?
When the bridge was mostly used by horse and wagon, young men trained their horses to stop about half way across the bridge. The horse would wait until the couple shared a couple of kisses and then it would continue to the other side of the bridge?
And that the first wedding on the bridge was celebrated in September 1993 between Charmaine Laffoley and David Hunt from Toronto?
It is thought by some locals to be good luck to hold one's breath the entire way across while driving?
On September 1, 1995, Canada Post Corporation launched a postage stamp honouring the bridge?

On July 4, 2012, in honour of its 111th anniversary, it was celebrated with a Google Doodle on Google's Canadian homepage?

MORE COVERED BRIDGES

Pavia, ITALY - Covered bridge on Ticino river
Pic source by wikipedia

Irgandı Köprüsü, in Osmangazi, TURKEY 1367
Pic source by Flickr user salihozkan

Holzbrücke, over the river Rhine from Bad Säckingen, GERMANY, to Stein, SWITZERLAND
first built before 1272, destroyed and re-built many times.
Pic source by wikipedia

The oldest surviving covered railroad bridge existing in the UNITED STATES
The Contoocook Covered Railroad Bridge - Hopkinton, New Hampshire
Pic source by wikimedia

Chengyang Wind-Rain Bridge in Sanjiang county,Liuzhou city,Guangxi, CHINA
Pic source by Flickr user oliverlaumann

Kapellbrücke, in Lucerne, SWITZERLAND – 204-metre (669 ft) long, originally built 1333; destroyed by fire 1993 and rebuilt

"鞘橋"(Saya Bridge) in Kotohira, JAPAN
Pic source by Flickr user fujiwash

Xijin Bridge in Zhejiang, CHINA

Source(s): town.hartland.nb.ca/, wikipedia,

WHAT IS THE SMALLEST LIVING BIRD IN THE WORLD?

2012-06-18T12:31:00.000-04:00

You'll need your binoculars for this one!

Pic source

The world's smallest bird is the Mellisuga helenae or zunzún, as it is known it's native Cuba.

The Bee Hummingbird, as it is more commonly known, is about the size of a - you guessed it - a bee! Well maybe just a touch bigger but that translates to 2.5 inches or 6.2 cm in length and 1.6 grams or 0.06 oz in weight.

Like all hummingbirds, it is a swift, strong flier. It also can hover over one spot like a helicopter.

Pic source

Half of their length is made up of tail and beak. Females are a bit larger. They are very mobile, fervent and unaccomodating birds; also they are extremely courageous in attacks with the larger birds, especially during the period when they are in the care of their baby birds.

They fly extremely fast - up to 80 km/h. 80 swings in a second. At rest, the heart of the hummingbird usually work with frequency of 500 beats per minute, and during physical activity of 1200 or more beats per minute.

The maximum life expectancy of the bee hummingbird is 8-10 years, depending on habitat.

So, of course, it's only fitting that the smallest bird would also lay the world's smallest bird eggs - which are about the size of your smallest fingernail.

To maintain their high energy requirement, bee hummingbirds will eat half their total body mass and drink eight times their body mass every day. They eat every ten minutes. Their diet is mainly small insects and nectar. They feed by moving their tongue rapidly in and out of their mouth. In the process of feeding, the bird picks up pollen on its bill and head. When it flies from flower to flower, it transfers the pollen. In this way, it plays an important role in plant reproduction. In the space of one day the bee hummingbird may visit 1,500 flowers.

Source(s): thelongestlistofthelongeststuff.com/, weirdexistence.com/, ehow.com/, wikipedia

WHAT IS THE TALLEST WATERSLIDE IN THE WORLD?

2012-06-05T08:29:00.000-04:00

As If Most Of You Don't Know Already...

The Tallest Waterslide in the World - According to the Guiness World Record is the one and only:

Insano -

at Beach Park in Brazil

Judging by it's name and just looking at it, this is one INSANE ride - all under 5 secs- from top to bottom! You’ll be traveling at a speed of 105 km/h from a 134 ft. drop/41m!

Built in 1989, this 14-story water slide still holds the record as the tallest water slide in the world.

So, if insanity is what you seek, you’ll have to head to Ceara, Brazil. Just near the city of Fortaleza to experience the thrill.

Pics are great and all, but let's see it in action!

"Holy heart failure, Batman!"

Just one thing I have to say - hold on to, and make sure them swimmin' trunks and bikinis are strapped on reeeeeeal tight!

Source

WHAT IS THAT GIANT SHIP THAT SHIP OTHER SHIPS?

2012-04-11T11:44:00.003-04:00

There Can Be Only One...

☟

The BLUE MARLIN

I heard of this ship before... I just couldn't remember the name, hence my curiosity!

When one needs to transport a large number of ships (perhaps they aren’t ocean-ready), move a gigantic oil rig (like BP’s Thunder Horse PDQ) or perhaps carry a damaged warship home (The USS Cole), the MV Blue Marlin heeds the call.

Blue Marlin is a semi-submersible heavy lift ship designed to transport very large semi-submersible drilling rigs above the transport ship’s deck. It is equipped with 38 cabins to accommodate 60 people, a workout room, sauna and swimming facilities.

Blue Marlin and her sister ship MV Black Marlin comprise the Marlin class of heavy lift ship. They were owned by Offshore Heavy Transport of Oslo, Norway, from their construction, in April 2000 and November 1999 respectively, until 6 July 2001, when they were purchased by Dockwise Shipping of the Netherlands.

The semi-submersible ship M/V Blue Marlin carrying damaged USS Cole | Photograph by PH2 Leland Comer

HISTORY
The U.S. Navy hired the Blue Marlin from Offshore Heavy Transport to move the destroyer USS Cole back to the United States after the warship was damaged by an Al-Qaeda suicide bomber attack while anchored in the port of Aden, Yemen. During the latter part of 2003, work done on the Blue Marlin boosted its capacity and added two retractable propulsors to improve maneuverability.
The ship re-entered service in January 2004. Following these improvements, the Blue Marlin delivered the oil platform Thunder Horse PDQ, weighing 60,000 tons, to Corpus Christi, Texas, for completion.
In July 2005 Blue Marlin moved the gas refinery Snohvit from its construction site in Cadiz to Hammerfest, an 11 day trip. This transport was filmed for the TV show Extreme Engineering on the Discovery Channel, and also the TV show Mega Movers on the History Channel.
In November 2005, Blue Marlin left Corpus Christi, Texas, to move the massive Sea-based X-band Radar to Adak, Alaska, via the southern tip of South America and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It arrived at Pearl Harbor on 9 January 2006, having travelled 15,000 miles. In January 2007, the Blue Marlin was employed to move two jack-up rigs, the Rowan Gorilla VI and the GlobalSantaFe Galaxy II, from Halifax Harbour to the North Sea.

Photograph by Robert Smith @ shipspotting.com

Blue Marlin Specifications

Initial
Length overall: 217 m (712 ft)
Length PP: 206.5 m (677 ft)
Breadth moulded: 42 m (138 ft)
Depth moulded: 13.3 m (44 ft)
Summer draft: 10 m (33 ft)
Deadweight: 56,000 metric tons
Submerged depth above deck: 10 m (33 ft)
Free deck length: 178.2 or 157.2 m (585 or 516 ft)
Free deck area: More than 7,215 m2 (77,660 sq ft)
Main engine output: 12,640 kW (17,160 BHP)
Bow thruster: 2,000 kW (2,712 BHP)
Cruise speed: 14.5 knots
Cruise range: 25,000 nm
Accommodation: 55 people
Building yard: CSBC, Kaohsiung

Post-2004
Depth: 13.3 m (44 ft)
Max sailing draft: 10 m (33 ft)
Max draft submerged: 29.3 m (96 ft)
Water above deck submerged
- aft 16 m (52 ft)
- forward 12 m (39 ft)
Deck space: 63 × 178.2 m (207 × 584.6 ft)
Deck area: 11,227 m2 (120,850 sq ft)
Propulsor output: 4,500 kW (6,035 hp) each

Blue Marlin transporting the U.S. Navy minesweepers USS Raven and USS Cardinal.
Photograph by United States Navy, LTJG Chuck Bell

Sea-Based X-Band Radar enters Pearl Harbor on 9 January 2006 on its way to Adak Island, Alaska, transported by MV Blue Marlin.
Photograph by Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan C. McGinley, U.S. Navy

Photograph by Ron @ shipspotting.com

Video

Source(s): wikipedia,

WHAT IS THE WORLD'S SMALLEST PRODUCTION CAR EVER MADE?

2012-03-15T17:29:00.003-04:00

No, it's not the Mini Cooper!

The Mini Cooper is a small, front-wheel drive city car from BMW's MINI automotive brand.

The Mini is a small car that was made by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors from 1959 until 2000. The original is considered a British icon of the 1960s, and its space-saving front-wheel-drive layout (which allowed 80% of the area of the car's floorpan to be used for passengers and luggage) influenced a generation of car-makers. The vehicle is in some ways considered the British equivalent to its German contemporary, the Volkswagen Beetle, which enjoyed similar popularity in North America. In 1999 the Mini was voted the second most influential car of the 20th century, behind the Ford Model T.

Coming in at over 12 ft, in length, 5.5 ft in width and 4ft. 6 inches in height and weighing in at roughly 2,000 lbs., this 'little' car is nowhere close to being the smallest car ever in production!

No, it's not the Toyota iQ!

The Toyota iQ is a city car first shown to the public at the March 2008 Geneva Auto Show, with Japanese sales having begun in October 2008 and European sales in January 2009. The production iQ followed a concept vehicle presented at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show. A North American version of the iQ, branded as the Scion iQ, is slated for release in the U.S. beginning in October 2011 with the West Coast states and Canada.

The name iQ, an initialism of the term intelligence quotient, recalls a competitor, the Smart Fortwo. According to Toyota, the i stands for "individuality" "innovation" and "intelligence", while the Q stands for "quality" and points to the iQ's "cubic" shape. It was Japanese Car of the Year for 2008.

The iQ was designed at the Toyota European Design and Development (Toyota ED²) studio in Nice, France.

At just under 10 feet (3 meters) long and about 5 feet 6 inches (1.7 meters) wide, the iQ is not the smallest and surely not the lightest car ever in production, weighing in at 860 kgs (1,896 lbs.)

No, It's not the Smart Fortwo!

The Smart Fortwo is a rear-engined two-seater city car manufactured by Smart GmbH, introduced at the 1998 Paris Motor Show as the Smart City Coupé, and currently in its second generation. The name refers to its seat capacity.

The Smart Fortwo is a little more than 2.5 meters (8 feet) long, less than 1.5 meters (5 feet) wide and about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall and weighs in around 730 kgs (1,600 lbs).

No, It's not the Tata Nano!

The Tata Nano is a city car manufactured by Tata Motors. One of the smallest as well as lowest powered (35ps) cars in the world, it was designed to be the cheapest car in India aimed mainly at the lowest price segment in the Indian domestic market.

The Nano sold in India is a 624cc, rear-engine (for a less complex and hence cheaper transmission), manual transmission, four-passenger, four-door car. The car lacks power steering and safety features like air-bags and ABS.

The Nano measuring around 3.1 meters (10 feet) long and 1.6 meters (5 feet) tall, and weighing in between 600 kg (1,300 lb)–635 kg (1,400 lb) is small, but not the smallest.

No, it's not the G-Wiz!

The REVAi, known as G-Wiz in the UK, is a small micro electric car, made by the Indian manufacturer REVA Electric Car Company since 2001. The REVA have sold more than 4,000 vehicles worldwide by March 2011 and is available in 26 countries.

This car is a small 3-door hatchback measuring 2.6 m (8 ft 6 in) long, 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) wide and 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) high. The car can accommodate two adults in the front and two children in the rear. The back seats can fold down to provide cargo space. The maximum passenger and cargo weight is 270 kgs (600 lbs).

The lightest version of the G-Wiz weighs in at 565 kgs (1,250 lbs). Small, yes, but still not the smallest or lightest car ever in production, by any means.

It's not even the Peel Trident!

The Peel Trident was the second three-wheeled microcar made by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man. It was manufactured in 1965 and 1966. The Trident featured a clear bubble top and either two seats or one seat with a detachable shopping basket.

This car is 72 ins (1,829 mm) long and 42 ins (1,067 mm) wide, with a weight of 198 lbs (90 kgs).

Approx. 82 tridents were built from December 1964 to December 1966. (A few tridents were fitted with an optional shopping basket in place of the passenger seat - this allowed a 16 year old learner driver to drive alone).

198 lbs. people! And it's still not the smallest!

The World's Smallest Car Ever in Production Goes to the...

Peel P50!

The Peel P50 is a three-wheeled microcar originally manufactured from 1962 to 1965 by the Peel Engineering Company on the Isle of Man. It currently holds the record for the smallest automobile to go into production. It has no reverse gear thus proving difficult to maneuver in tight situations.

Designed as a city car, it was advertised as capable of seating "one adult and a shopping bag." The vehicle's only door was on its left side, and equipment included a single windscreen wiper and only one headlight. Standard colors were Daytona White, Dragon Red and Dark Blue. The 1963 model retailed for £199 when new (about £1400 in 2010, or $2200 USD). 50 of them were produced, and only 27 of them are known to be still in existence.

In 2010, production of a replica version was started by a newly formed company, called Peel Engineering Ltd based in England (not to be confused with the original Peel Engineering Company from the Isle of Man). Externally this car was very similar to the original but with many major mechanical differences in the suspension, steering and drivetrain. Driven by an electric motor and with a top speed of 16 km/h (10 mph), this version was produced as a display vehicle and was not road legal. In 2011 production commenced on a new road legal petrol version. Most colors from the original are used in the 2010 models with only Dark Blue being replaced by Capri Blue.

Production is located in an undisclosed location in northern England.

At 54 in (1,372 mm) long and 41 in (1,041 mm) wide and with an unladen weight of 59 kilograms (130 lb), the P50 holds the record as the smallest ever to go into production.

130 lbs.!! At that weight, you can carry the darn thing... as you will see in the video below.

Source(s): wikipedia, wikipedia, toxel.com/, wikipedia, wikipedia, auto.howstuffworks.com/, homepage.ntlworld.com/, technologicvehicles.com/

WHAT IS THE WORLD'S MOST TRAVELLED BAND?

2012-02-20T01:20:00.004-05:00

"Liquid Blue"

Liquid Blue is an independent recording and touring act based in San Diego, California. Featuring the sensational BlueGirls trio, the seven-member ensemble has performed in more than 100 countries on 7 continents, a feat which no other band has accomplished.

In 2010 the band scored a Billboard Top-10 Hit as Earth Passport went to #3 on the Hot Dance Singles Chart.

Liquid Blue and their hit song received a Guinness World Record for "Song Sung in the Most Languages".

The nomadic troop has performed over 2000 shows in over 400 cities and has been featured on five magazine covers.

Although many fans consider "Dominate" to be the band's best song ever, the multi-language "Earth Passport" became the bands biggest hit:

Resource(s): wikipedia, liquid-blue.com/,

WHAT IS THE STRONGEST BEER IN THE WORLD?

2012-02-13T23:58:00.001-05:00

Read on to find out!

The answer to this question wasn't as easy as I had hoped it would have been. It seems the battle for the title of the strongest beer has been going on for the past few years especially between two breweries - Brew Dog from Scotland and Schorschbräu Brewery from Germany. And tangled up in the mess at one point were also Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head, who were pushed out of the race before you could say "I thought this beer was the strongest!". I've read a number of sites in regards to this question but this site explained it best.

From - Chris Knox, of quora.com:

Tactical Nuclear Penguin

Sink the Bismarck

← First there was Brew Dog with their Tactical Nuclear Penguin at 27% abv. That was soon beat by Schorschbräu Brewery's 31% abv Schorschbock.

Brew Dog fired back with their Sink The Bismarck, ⟶
which boasted a seemingly unbeatable 41%!

Schorschbock

Then, Schorschbräu did the unimaginable and dethroned Brew Dog once again with a 43% abv version of their Schorschbock. ⟶
And once again, Brew Dog was not about to lay down and be submissive, so they trumped Schorschbräu even further this time with...

End Of History, ↷

End of History - 55% Beer,
inside a taxedermied rodent in a tuxedo

a 55% abv brew of which they only made 12 bottles, each packaged in a preserved squirrel (yep, I said squirrel) complete with a certificate of authenticity and an astonishing price tag of $780 per bottle (which has long since been sold out!)

And Just When You Thought the Battle Was Over...
Brouwerij (brewery) 't Koelschip (the cooling ship), from the Netherlands was quietly crafting the brew that would dethrone Brew Dog with its Start The Future
which weighs in at a VERY impressive 60% abv!!! That's right, you read that right...60%!!! That's 120 proof, for those who are more liquor lingo inclined. So, they currently hold the title for strongest beer in the world, though for how long is anyone's guess.

An interesting side note is that there are many beer experts who have been debating whether these high octane brews can even technically be called beer. The detractors claim that the brewing process used to create these "beers" requires quite a bit of manipulation, mostly involving a type of freeze distillation, that pushes them far past the limits of what should technically be referred to as beer and into the realm of spirits. The supporters say that tasting these beers reveal their true "beer" nature. You be the judge!

abv - (alcohol by volume)

Speaking of Beer - want to find out some uses for beer other than drinking it? Then check it out here.

Updated! - Oct.26/20112
There is a new stronger beer created by Scottish firm Brewmeister! At a whopping 65%, 'Armaggedon' seems to hold the official title as the world's strongest beer... for now. - Source

Source(s): quora.com/, putaforkinit.wordpress.com/, reuters.com/article/

WHY DO WE SOMETIMES 'JERK' AS WE ARE DOZING OFF?

2012-02-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

Well, there's a name for this...

It's called Hypnic jerk. A hypnic jerk, hypnagogic jerk, sleep start, or night start, is an involuntary myoclonic twitch, (an involuntary twitching of a muscle or group of muscles), which occurs during hypnagogia, (the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, i.e., the onset of sleep), often causing them to awaken suddenly. Physically, hypnic jerks resemble the "jump" experienced by a person when startled, often accompanied by a falling sensation. A higher occurrence in people with irregular sleep schedules is reported.

Ok, so now we have a 'scientific' name for it, but what causes it? Why do we do this?

Well, experts are still not completely sure why the body does this, although the occurrence is well known and has been well documented. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine there are a wide range of potential causes, including: anxiety, caffeine, stress, and strenuous activities in the evening. Close to 70 percent of all people experience this phenomenon just after nodding off, according to a recent study at the Mayo Clinic. Most experts agree that this is a natural part of the sleeping process, much like slower breathing and a reduced heartbeat.

The consensus among researchers is that, as the muscles begin to slack and go into a restful state as sleep is entered, the brain senses these relaxation signals and misinterprets them as indications of falling. The brain then sends signals to arm and leg muscles in an attempt to regain balance. This misinterpretation that takes place in the brain may also be responsible for the "falling" dreams that accompany the falling sensation. These "dreams" are not really normal dreams, as they are not produced from REM sleep, but rather more like a daydream or hallucination in response to the body’s sensations.

While this phenomenon happens to most, studies have recently begun to link some occurrences of "Hypnic jerks" to sleep anxiety, fatigue, and discomfort. People who are having trouble sleeping or cannot get comfortable in bed appear to experience the sensation more often throughout the night. It is especially more common with people who are trying to fight falling asleep or have deprived themselves of sleep for more than 24 hours.

Researchers believe that the lack of sleep from sleep anxiety or sleep deprivation confuses the muscles and the brain. The muscles continually attempt to relax and shut down for rest, while the brain remains awake creating continued "misinterpretations" of falling or loss of balance.

Scientists and researchers continue to study sleep twitching and jerking in a small capacity, but state that the sensation is completely normal for our bodies and is of little medical significance. Our bodies go through several procedures of shutting down and preparing for an extended period of rest. "Hypnic jerking" is just one of them. It does not appear to cause damage to the body and poses no danger to its physical wellbeing.

Hypnic jerks can occur in anyone. These jerks or sleep startles normally occur at the onset of sleep, rather than at the offset. During an epilepsy and intensive care study, the lack of a preceding spike discharge measured on an epilepsy monitoring unit, along with the presences only at sleep onsets, helped differentiate hypnic jerks from epileptic myoclonus.

According to another study on sleep disturbances, hypnic jerks occur during the non-REM sleep cycle and is an “abrupt muscle action flexing movement, generalized or partial and asymmetric, which may cause arousal, with an illusion of falling.” Hypnic jerks are more frequent in childhood with 4-7 per hour at the age ranging from 8 to 12 years old, and it decreases toward 1-2 per hour at 65 to 80 years old.

Source(s): wikipedia, sleep.com/

WHAT ARE THE MEANINGS HIDDEN IN THE JAPANESE CUSTOM OF BOWING?

2012-01-15T16:08:00.000-05:00

In Japan, people greet each other by bowing. A bow ranges from a small nod of the head to a long, 90 degree bend at the waist. Bowing is considered extremely important in Japan, so much so that, although children normally begin learning how to bow from a very young age, companies commonly provide training to their employees in how to execute bows correctly.

A Westerner probably won't notice the sophisticated use of the bow in Japanese culture. The Japanese bow to one another as a greeting, a parting gesture, a way of expressing humility, respect or apology, and an alternative to waving or saying "Hi." The Japanese often bow every time they meet someone, even if they have already seen that person several times that day. Sometimes they even bow to each other while they are riding bicycles.

There are four bows, each with a different meaning:

The nod-bow, 5 Degrees: This is just a small nod of your head. The simplest, (which is reserved mostly for pretty good friends and therefore the least casual of all bows), is at an angle of five degrees. You can also use this bow if you are higher in rank (in terms of society, work etc.) than the person you're bowing to.

The other three more common types of ways to bow, are called eshaku, keirei, saikeirei.

The degree of the bow expresses the level of respect towards the other person. In general bowing by about 15% is regarded as sufficient – especially for foreigners. When bowing to someone of higher social status, a deeper, longer bow indicates respect. Conversely, a small head nod is casual and informal. However, most Japanese do not expect foreigners to know proper bowing rules and so a nod of the head is usually sufficient.

Greeting Bow, Eshaku (会釈), 15 Degrees: This bow is for greetings, mostly for people you already know or are equals with. The 5 degree bow” above is similar, but for when you know someone a lot better. This bow is probably for people you’ve met before and are familiar with, but not familiar enough to just go for the nod.

Respect Bow, Keirei (敬礼), 30 degrees: This is where bowing gets respectful. Thirty degrees is actually quite a lot and feels like quite a lot, if you go ahead and do it. This bow is reserved for your boss / other people who are higher ranking than you. You could probably do a little more than 30 degrees if you wanted to, too. You wouldn’t use this bow with good friends or relatives (unless you were making a joke), so save this for people you don’t know / people who are above you on that societal scale.

Highest Respect Bow, Saikeirei 最敬礼, 45 degrees: This bow conveys deep respect or an apology.

You only ever bow lower than 45 degrees if the other person is extremely higher status to you, which is why Obama caused such an uproar in the U.S. back in 2009 when he bowed at 90 degrees to the Japanese Emperor, as seen in the video below.

Critics claimed the sign of deference went against state department protocol, which decrees that presidents bow to no one. These deep bows are performed by people in inferior positions, for example you will see car salesmen bowing deeply to customers leaving their parking lot. You also see clerks giving deep bows to customers in department stores and students giving deep bows to their teachers. Yes, it is a sign of respect, but it is a sign of respect given by a person in an inferior position to someone else who is in a superior position. On the other hand, very low bows like this are a sign of great respect and deference to a superior in Japan, but as for this incident, I'm sure the Japanese people just brushed it off as a simple 'goof'.

As for the etiquette on bowing:
Bow with a straight back and eyes cast downward. The hands stay pinned to the side, feet together and you bow straight at the waist. A lot of Americans bring their hands together like they're praying but that's not the right way to do it.

There are differences between the way women and men bow. Whereas men keep their hands at the side of the body, women put the hands in front of the body.

Don't bow more for than a couple of seconds except when praying. Sometimes Japanese bow slightly to one side so they don't bump heads with the person they are bowing to.
To be polite bow as low or lower than the person you are bowing to. It is also a good idea to lower your eyes and keep you hands and fist unclenched against your side.

Welcome girls at Japanese department stores greet every customer with a bow. A columnist with a Tokyo newspaper once calculated that an average welcome girl bowed 665,600 times a year if she worked a five day work-day and 798,720 times if she worked six days.

While researching this question, I came across, several times, of an interesting mention of a recent five-year period of which twenty-four residents of Tokyo died while bowing to each other!

Source(s): japan-guide.com/, about.com/, afscottd.blogspot.com/, tofugu.com/, latimesblogs.latimes.com/, hoshuha.com/, factsanddetails.com/

WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BROWN EGGS AND WHITE?

2012-01-10T09:48:00.000-05:00

Apparently not much at all!

I was always under the impression that brown eggs, for whatever reasons, were better for you or just plain taste better, than white eggs. I guess I was wrong! Other than their colour, and price, there's no difference.

Chickens need between twenty-four and twenty-six hours to produce one egg. After a half-hour rest, they start the process over again. Occasionally, they will stop laying and rest from between three to ten days. The colour of the eggs' shells has nothing to do with their quality.

Hens that produce brown eggs are larger than white-egg-producing hens, and require more feed and care; that extra expense is passed on to the consumer. Although it might be cheaper to raise white-egg-producing hens, brown eggs continue to sell well, so they’re still a smart business choice for farmers.

It’s a widespread belief that hens with darker feathers and red earlobes (like the popular Rhode Island Red chickens), produce brown eggs, while hens with white feathers and white earlobes (like the popular White Leghorn chickens), produce white eggs. Kenneth E. Anderson, professor and poultry extension specialist at North Carolina State University, says it’s not an absolute rule, though he does acknowledge that most hens with white earlobes produce white eggs, and most hens with red earlobes produce brown eggs. Ultimately, eggshell color is a matter of a chicken’s genetics.

Some Egg Stats and Facts:

U.S. egg production during September 2011 was 6.49 billion table eggs, which is up from last September's 6.43 billion table eggs.
Exports of processed egg products to Japan, the single largest importing country for U.S. egg products reached $48.543 million for the first quarters of 2011, an increase of 59.1 percent from the same period a year earlier. Export value to Japan accounted for 52.9 percent of U.S. total export value worldwide. The second largest export market for processed egg products is EU-27 region. Exports to the EU-27 were $17,061 million, down 36.5 percent from the same time period in 2010. Other top markets for the first nine months of 2011 include Canada, in which exports were down 22.8 percent to $5.484 million, and South Korea which totaled $3.803 million, up 36.8 percent year on year. Exports to Middle East region are growing significantly.
Table egg exports to Hong Kong, the top market for U.S. table eggs reached 27.272 million dozen for the first nine months of 2011, an increase of 29.3 percent from the same period a year earlier. Shipments to Canada were 11.984 million dozen, down 5.8 percent year on year. Exports to the United Arab Emirates were 7.523 million dozen, down 7 percent down 3.2 percent for the same period a year earlier. Combined exports to these top three markets were 46.779 million dozen accounting for 78.8 percent of U.S. total shipments worldwide.

With only 70 calories and packed with 14 essential nutrients which your body needs, an egg is a nutrient-dense food. Nutritionally, eating an egg is like taking a multivitamin pill.
Eggs are one of the few sources of protein that can be kept refrigerated for 4 to 5 weeks without spoiling. The Best Before date on the carton indicates how long an egg will stay fresh and maintain its Grade A quality.
The protein in eggs can help you lose weight by controlling the rate at which your body absorbs calories. A recent study compared an egg-based breakfast to a bagel-based breakfast, each containing the same number of calories. Those who ate eggs for breakfast consumed 163 fewer calories at lunch, felt less hungry and ate 418 less calories over a 24-hour period.
How good are those eggs in the grocery store? The rougher the shell, the fresher the egg.
Never store eggs in the door of your refrigerator because that's where the temperature fluctuates the most.
Here's an easy way to seperate an egg: Crack it directly into a funnel; the white slides through and the yolk remains.
Egg whites last one week when covered and stored in the refrigerator.
Egg yolks last only 3 days in the fridge, in a covered container. Submerge unbroken yolks in water to keep them moist.

Source(s): chow.com/, getcracking.ca/, aeb.org/, getcracking.ca/dozenreasons

WHY DO MOST PUBLIC DOORS OPEN OUTWARD AND HOUSE DOORS INWARD?

2011-12-29T08:01:00.000-05:00

For Security and Safety

A great deal of you may already know the answer to this question - a great deal of you may not, but I've never really thought about it until friends from abroad would visit us here in Canada and they would always have a tendency to 'push' instead of 'pull' the doors whenever we entered restaurants and other public places.

Here in North America, there are perfectly good reasons why the doors open the way they do.

House Doors (Inward Opening)

Beside the fact that you don't want to strike your guests or visitors in their faces when opening the front door of your home, lol, or possibly knocking them down the stairs (if you have stairs leading up to your door), inward-opening of house doors has its reasonings behind it.

House doors are built opening inwards for reasons such as easier to install, easier to repair and even easier to build! It's also easier to disassemble by removing the hinge pins which detaches the door completely from the frame, thereby making it much easier to squeeze in that oversize couch you just bought!

While this may be easier on you as a homeowner, it's not something you want easier on possible intruders, so, for this reason, the hinge mechanism needs to be positioned inside the house - making it the natural way for the door opening to be inwards.

Public Doors (Outward Opening)

Because of such tragedies such as the Cocoanut Grove fire of 1942:

".. other unlocked doors, like the ones in the Broadway Lounge, opened inwards, rendering them useless against the crush of people trying to escape. Fire officials later testified that, had the doors swung outwards, at least 300 lives could have been spared...."

laws were enacted and enforced for public places in regards to the opening direction of, not only main entrances, but exit doors as well.

Unlike a private home, a public building usually contains a larger amount of people. In the case of a fire or other emergency, these people need to be able to escape or be evacuated as quickly as possible. When a panic-stricken crowd of people rushes an exit, it’s very hard for somebody to open the door inward. Everyone pushes up against the door, and there’s no room for it to open. Therefore an effective emergency door has to open outward, moving with the force of the crowd.

Wide Panic bar or Crash bar on door

This is also why a lot of emergency exits are built with wide panic bars instead of ordinary door knobs. The basic idea is to build the exit so even the most out of control crowd will be able to escape.

The idea was first put into practice after the events of the Victoria Hall disaster in Sunderland, England in 1883. It saw widespread use after the Iroquois Theater Fire in Chicago, USA, which killed 602 people on December 30, 1903, and the Italian Hall Disaster on Christmas Eve 1913.

To maintain perimeter security, public exits are typically build with concealed or protected hinges, which are much harder to detach than a simple pin hinge. These doors are more expensive to install and repair, making them impractical for anybody’s normal house. And as long as you don’t have an unruly mob living with you, these outward opening doors don’t offer any real advantage in your home.

There’s another reason for outside doors as well. Any public building that contains a lot of people is normally required to pump in extra outside air to keep oxygen levels high and carbon dioxide levels low. This air is just brought in from the outside through the heating and air conditioning system. This usually over-pressurizes large buildings, so if you had an inward opening door, that over-pressurization would tend to push the door shut and make it really hard to open. With an outward opening door, it’s much easier to get the door open against that over-pressurization. The air pressure works with you to open the door.

So which way do doors open in YOUR country?

Source(s): howstuffworks.com/, wikipedia,

WHY DO THEY DRIVE ON THE LEFT-SIDE IN THE UK?

2011-12-16T11:26:00.000-05:00

Actually, the UK is not the only state that drives on the left!

(I thought they were, lol)

Though originally most traffic drove on the left worldwide, today about 66.1% of the world's people live in right-hand traffic countries and 33.9% in left-hand traffic countries. About 72% of the world's total road distance carries traffic on the right, and 28% on the left.

The countries and islands that do continue to drive on the left, seems to be mostly old British colonies. Though this may seem somewhat strange to the rest of the right-handed traffic world, there is actually a perfectly good explanation:

In the past, almost everybody travelled on the left side of the road because that was the most sensible option for feudal, violent societies. Since most people are right-handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him. Moreover, it reduced the chance of the scabbard (worn on the left) hitting other people.

Wiki source

Some historians, such as C. Northcote Parkinson, believed that ancient travellers on horseback generally rode on the left side of the road. As more people are right-handed, a horseman would thus be able to hold the reins with his left hand and keep his right hand free.

Furthermore, a right-handed person finds it easier to mount a horse from the left side of the horse, and it would be very difficult to do otherwise if wearing a sword (which would be worn on the left). It is safer to mount and dismount towards the side of the road, rather than in the middle of traffic, so if one mounts on the left, then the horse should be ridden on the left side of the road.

In 1998, archaeologists found a well-preserved track leading to a Roman quarry near Swindon, England. The grooves in the road on the left side (viewed facing down the track away from the quarry) were much deeper than those on the right side. These grooves suggest that the Romans drove on the left, at least in this particular location, since carts would exit the quarry heavily loaded, and enter it empty.

The first legal reference in Britain to an order for traffic to remain on the left was in 1756 with regard to London Bridge. The Highway Act 1773 contained a recommendation that horse traffic should remain on the left and this is enshrined in the Highway Act 1835
In the late 18th century, the shift from left to right that took place in countries such as the United States was based on teamsters' use of large freight wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. The wagons had no driver's seat, so a postilion sat on the left rear horse and held his whip in his right hand. Seated on the left, the driver preferred that other wagons pass him on the left so that he could be sure to keep clear of the wheels of oncoming wagons. He did that by driving on the right side of the road.

Countries that became part of the British Empire adopted the British keep-left rule, although some have since changed. In Canada, the Maritime provinces and British Columbia initially drove on the left, but changed to the right to make border crossings to and from other provinces easier. Nova Scotia switched to driving on the right on 15 April 1923.

Left-hand Traffic

All traffic is generally required to keep left unless overtaking.

Oncoming traffic is seen coming from the right.

Right-turning traffic must cross oncoming traffic.

Most traffic signs facing motorists are on the left side of the road.

Traffic on roundabouts (traffic circles or rotaries) goes clockwise.

Pedestrians crossing a two-way road look first for traffic from their right.

The lane designated for normal driving and turning left is on the left.

Most dual carriageway (divided highway) exits are on the left

Other vehicles are overtaken (passed) on the right, though in some circumstances overtaking on the left is permitted.

Most vehicles have the driving seat on the right.

A left turn at a red light may be allowed after stopping.

On roads without a footpath pedestrians may be advised to walk on the right.

Righ-hand Traffic

All traffic is generally required to keep right unless overtaking.

Oncoming traffic is seen coming from the left.

Left-turning traffic must cross oncoming traffic.

Most traffic signs facing motorists are on the right side of the road.

Traffic on roundabouts (traffic circles or rotaries) goes anticlockwise.

Pedestrians crossing a two-way road look first for traffic from their left.

The lane designated for normal driving and turning right is on the right.

Most dual carriageway (divided highway) exits are on the right

Other vehicles are generally overtaken (passed) on the left, though in some circumstances overtaking on the right is permitted.

Most vehicles have the driving seat on the left.

A right turn at a red light may be allowed after stopping.

On roads without a footpath pedestrians may be advised to walk on the left.

So Which Countries Keep to the Left, and Which Ones to the Right?

Jurisdictions with left-hand traffic

Total: 76 countries, territories and dependencies

Today road traffic in the following seven European jurisdictions drives on the left: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Malta and Cyprus. None shares a land border with a country that drives on the right and all were once part of the British Empire.

Some Commonwealth countries and other former British colonies, such as Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Singapore, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago drive on the left, but others such as Canada, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and the United States drive on the right. Other countries that drive on the left in Asia are Thailand, Indonesia, Bhutan, Nepal, East Timor and Japan. In South America, only Guyana and Suriname drive on the left. Most of the Pacific countries drive on the left, in line with Australia and New Zealand, with Samoa joining most recently, on 7 September 2009, the first country for three decades to change the side on which it drives.

Jurisdictions with right-hand traffic

Total: 164 countries and territories

Countries in Africa, Asia and South America have land borders where drivers must change to the other side of the road.

Where neighbouring countries drive on opposite sides of the road, drivers from one to the other must change sides when crossing the border. Thailand is particularly notable in this context. Thailand drives on the left; since Burma changed from left to right in 1970, 90% of Thailand's borders are with countries that drive on the right (only Malaysia drives on the left). Thailand is the only sizable country with this issue.

Other notable borders where a changeover is necessary are between Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hong Kong and China, and between South Sudan and Uganda.

When borders coincide with natural barriers, such as mountains (which may be in remote areas) or rivers, the traffic volumes are relatively low and the number of border crossings is reduced. This is true of many borders where traffic changes sides of the road, especially in Asia.

More Interesting Related Facts:

The Lotus Bridge 蓮花大橋 (Macau )

Have you ever wondered what happens to traffic at a border between two countries that drive on opposite sides?

The Lotus Bridge is a bridge that links the island of Taipa in Macau with Zhuhai in mainland China. Completed in 1999, the bridge has three lanes in each direction. The uniqueness of the bridge is not only to buffer traffic but to facilitate the switching of traffic from left-side driving in Macau to right-side driving in China. It does this though an unusual arrangement that causes the ramps to loop over and around each other by 360° switching direction of the traffic in the process. Amazing, isn't it?

Vehicles are usually manufactured in left-hand drive (LHD) and right-hand drive (RHD) configurations, referring to the placement of the driving seat and controls within the vehicle. Typically, the placement of the steering wheel is opposite to the rule of the road: LHT countries use RHD vehicles, and RHT countries use LHD vehicles. This is so that the driver's line of sight is as long as possible down the road past leading vehicles, an important consideration for overtaking (passing) manœuvres. However, there are LHT countries where most vehicles are LHD - and there are some countries with RHT and mostly RHD vehicles, such as Afghanistan, Burma, and the Russian Far East. Many countries permit both types of vehicles on their roads. Terminological confusion can arise from the misuse of left-hand drive or right-hand drive to indicate the side of the road along which vehicles are driven.

Left-side entry in Campinas, Brazil

In the past, several countries had different rules in different parts of the country (e.g., Canada until the 1920s). Currently, China, the United States and the United Kingdom each have territories which differ from their primary traffic rule. In China the bulk of the country drives on the right, but the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau – which were transferred to the country in the late 1990s – drive on the left. In the United States most of the country drives on the right side of the road, but traffic in the US Virgin Islands – like on many Caribbean islands – drives on the left side of the road. The United Kingdom drives on the left, but the overseas territory of Gibraltar drives on the right.
Although Brazil has right-hand traffic, there are buses with additional doors on the left side for operation at bus stops in the medians of streets in cities such as Campinas.
In northern Italy trucks were often RHD so that the driver could see the edge of the road on Alpine passes. In Spain trucks were RHD until the 1950s, to enable drivers to watch for unstable road edges.

Canada Post van

Post Office cars and vans in some countries such as the United States, Canada, Finland, Estonia, and Sweden have the steering wheel on the opposite side to normal vehicles. This is so drivers can easily drive up next to post boxes or get out straight onto the pavement without having to walk around their vehicles, or put post in boxes without getting out of their vehicles at all.

This section gives details about the road traffic, including trams and other light rail systems. (Afghanistan to Venezuela). Click to Expand or Contract each section.

Specific Jurisdictions (Afghanistan - Hong Kong and Macau)

Afghanistan
Right hand traffic was introduced in Afghanistan by Ghulam Mohammad Farhad, the Mayor of Kabul, in the early 1950s, first in Kabul and later in the rest of the country.
Today most vehicles in much of the country, however, are RHD cars imported from neighbouring Pakistan (with the exception of Herat and other western provinces).
In the capital Kabul, most drivers have adapted to this problem, leaning over the passenger seat (on the car's left side) before making a left turn
or before overtaking other vehicles by veering into the left (oncoming traffic) lane.
The country also has a large volume of military vehicle traffic from the US, Canada and EU militaries, much of which is LHD.

Argentina
When the Pan American Highway from Alaska to Cape Horn was planned in the 1930s, it was decided it should use one side of driving its entire length.
A few countries along the route used left-hand traffic, one being Argentina. On 10 October 1944 Decreto Nacional 26965 was issued, introducing right-hand traffic in Argentina
eight months later, on 10 June 1945. Strict speed limits kept the number of fatal accidents low after the conversion. 10 June is still observed each year as
Día de la Seguridad Vial,(Road Safety Day), in Argentina.
Trains built by the British, as well as underground in Buenos Aires, run on the left.

Australia
Australia drives on the left. The decision to drive on the left side of the road was made in the early 19th century in the early period of the British colony of New South Wales by
Governor Lachlan Macquarie after the first road was built, and followed the British practice.
Australian states and territories had used the "give way to the right" rule; in the absence of regulations specific to a particular situation, drivers must yield the right of way to all vehicles to their right.
This applies to most uncontrolled intersections except for T-intersections. Give way to the right does not apply to merging lanes, in that instance vehicles must give way to any vehicle that is ahead.
This is sometimes called zip merging. If lines are marked, vehicles are not zip merging but changing lanes, and they must give way accordingly. All LHD vehicles must be converted to RHD
if under 30 years old, except in Western Australia where they are only required to be 15 years old for registration.

Austria-Hungary
The Austro-Hungarian Empire drove on the left. Successor countries switched to the right separately. Austria did it in stages, beginning from the west:

Vorarlberg: 1919,

Tirol and western half of Salzburg: 1930,

Carinthia and East Tirol: 1935,

Upper Austria, Styria, eastern half of Salzburg: 1 June 1938,

Lower Austria: 19 September 1938.

Poland's Galicia switched to the right around 1924. Czechoslovakia planned to start driving on the right on 1 May 1939, but the change in Bohemia and Moravia was prompted by the German occupation forces (Bohemia: 17 March 1939, Prague: 26 March, see switch to right hand traffic in Czechoslovakia for details). Hungary also acted later than planned: the government decided about the change in June 1939 but postponed it and finally introduced it at 3am on 6 July 1941 outside Budapest and at 3am on 9 November 1941 in Budapest.

Bahamas
As a former British colony, the Bahamas has left hand traffic. Most vehicles are imported from the United States and are thus left-hand-drive vehicles.

Bangladesh
Being a former British colony, Bangladesh has left-hand traffic. Regulations require all imported vehicles to be right-hand drive—except those imported by foreign embassies or consulates—hence the popularity of used vehicles from Japan.

Belgium
Before 1899, there was no uniform system in Belgium. In some cities or provinces traffic drove on the left and in others on the right. Beginning on 1 August 1899, right-hand traffic was introduced in the whole country.

Belize
As a former British colony, Belize (known until 1973 as British Honduras) drove on the left until 1961, when it changed to the right in anticipation of the Pan-American Highway being built to pass through the country. However, after Hurricane Hattie the government had to divert funds earmarked for the construction of the highway to disaster relief, so the highway does not in fact run through Belize.

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina was part of the Austro Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, and after the collapse of the empire, it started driving on the right.

Bolivia
Bolivia, like most South American countries, drives on the right with the exception of the notorious "El Camino de la Muerte" or simply known as Yungas Road where it drives on left.The reason for this configuration is to help drivers see their outer wheel while traversing the road.

Burma(Myanmar)
As a former British colony, cars in Burma drove on the left until 1970; the military administration of Ne Win decreed that traffic would drive on the right hand side of the road beginning 7 December 1970. It is alleged that this was because Ne Win had been advised by his astrologer, who had said "move to the right". In spite of the change, most passenger vehicles in the country continue to be RHD, being pre-changeover vehicles and second-hand vehicles imported from Japan, Thailand, and Singapore. Buses imported from Japan that were never converted from RHD to LHD, have doors on the right side in offset position, unlike their counterparts in the Philippines. However, government limousines, imported from the People's Republic of China, are LHD. Virtually all vehicles are driven with a passenger called a "spare" in place to watch the oncoming traffic and inform the driver as to whether it is safe to overtake or not, as the driver cannot see this from the RHD position.

Cambodia
Cambodia follows a keep-to-the-right rule derived from France. In 2001 RHD cars, usually second hand from Thailand, were banned.

Canada
Canada drives on the right in LHD (left-hand-drive) vehicles. Until the 1920s, the rule of the road in Canada varied by province: British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island had left-hand traffic, and the other provinces and territories had right-hand traffic. Starting on the west coast on 15 July 1920 and ending on the east coast on 1 May 1924, right-hand traffic was adopted uniformly throughout Canada. Newfoundland was not part of Canada until 1949, and had left-hand traffic until 2 January 1947.

One of the very few places in Canada where traffic appears to drive on the left is in Montreal on Autoroute 20 for the 3 kilometres (2 mi) between its junctions with Route 138 and Autoroute 15. The two roadways remain separated by a railway right-of-way for this entire distance, and the changing of sides does not interfere with the flow of traffic.

Caribbean
The English-speaking Caribbean typically follows the keep-to-the-left rule and as a result, most cars have a RHD configuration. Examples of this may be noted in such countries as Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago.

However in some islands, mostly Lesser Antilles (such as the British Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, as well as Turks and Caicos Islands) and the Bahamas, most passenger cars are still LHD equipped (despite they drive on the left), being imported from the United States or Brazil. Only some government cars and those imported from RHD countries (Japan and the United Kingdom among others) are RHD. The US Virgin Islands are particularly known for having a high accident rate caused by American tourists from the mainland who are unfamiliar with driving on the left in their LHD rental cars.

The French Antilles (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Martin) and the Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire, Curaçao and Sint-Maarten) drive on the right, with LHD car configurations, like in their metropolitan area in Europe or in most countries of continental Americas.

China
Before 1946, driving in China was mixed, with cars in the northern provinces driving on the right, and cars in the southern provinces such as Guangdong driving on the left. From 1946, China became a right hand traffic-only country.

Croatia
Croatia was part of the Austro Hungarian Empire before the First World War, and after the collapse of the empire, it started driving on the right. Sometimes, on multi-storey car park entrances of the left side of a one-way street the lanes on the entrance are reversed to provide for unrestricted flow of traffic between the car park and the street. One such example is the Importanne Gallery multi-storey car park.[62] This was done so the traffic lanes in the one way street from which one enters the car park would not cross.

Cyprus
A former British colony, Cyprus drives on the left, and cars sold locally are right hand drive, including those used by the British forces in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. However, there is a sizable number of left-hand drive vehicles in the occupied areas which were imported from Turkey in the 1980s. Since Cyprus is now an EU member it is common to find left-hand drive vehicles also (tourists overland or else second hand imports from other EU countries with LHD vehicles). An increasing number of right hand drive grey import vehicles from Japan and the UK are now sold throughout the island.

Egypt
Road vehicles in Egypt use right hand traffic due to French cultural influence, during the era of Mohamed Ali in the early 19th century when the traffic system was planned. An exception is a section of one main street in Alexandria city centre called The Tram Road, where cars drive on the left for a few kilometres. The railway system was established in Egypt in the late 19th century by British companies during the British Colonial Era, and so trains travel on the left.

Ethiopia and Eritrea
Ethiopia changed from left-hand to right-hand traffic on 8 June 1964. Eritrea was at that time part of Ethiopia, so the same date is applicable for that country. The reason for the change is not clearly understood, as neighbouring Kenya in the south and Sudan in the west were driving on the left.

France
France has long been a right-hand traffic country.

However, along the 350 metres (380 yards) of Avenue du Général Lemonnier in Paris, which connects the Pont Royal to the Rue de Rivoli, traffic drives on the left, separated only by a hump. The N205 from Annecy up to Chamonix has a 5 km section between Le Fayet and Le Châtelard where the down carriageway has been built into the mountain side throwing the up carriageway onto high cantilevered sections giving the unnerving experience of driving not just high in the air but on the left for several minutes before the carriageways recross and revert to the French norm.

Despite the rule of the road, trains (except the Paris Métro) are still typically driven on the left track, as long as they use their autonomous ways and there is usually no risk of confusion, and also because cars are forbidden to drive on the same lanes (traffics are physically separated). However, some local services tracks (notably those around harbours) which have very low traffic, are built on ways that are most often used by cars or open to cycles and pedestrians. In these cases, these special tracks may be driven by trains (only short carriers) in the same direction as the car traffic, at very low speed and with limitations of charge to avoid accidents.

Gambia
The Gambia was the first of the former British colonies in west Africa to adopt right-hand traffic. The Gambia's only neighbour is the former French colony of Senegal. The Gambia implemented the switch-over 1 October 1965, months after its independence.

Ghana
Ghana changed to driving on the right-hand side on 4 August 1974; several stamps were issued as part of the information drive.

Gibraltar
Although the British overseas territory of Gibraltar changed to driving on the right on 16 June 1929 to avoid accidents involving vehicles from Spain, some public buses until recently were RHD, with a special door allowing passengers to enter on the right hand side. However, most passenger cars are LHD, as in Spain, with the exception of second-hand cars brought in from the UK and Japan as well as UK registered military vehicles used by the British Forces.

Guyana and Suriname
Guyana and Suriname are the only two remaining countries in the mainland Americas that drive on the left. As a result of the construction of the Pan-American Highway, four mainland American countries switched to driving on the right between 1943 and 1961, the last of which was British Honduras (now Belize). Both Guyana and Suriname are separated from their neighbours by large rivers, with the first bridge crossing one of these only opening in April 2009. The inland south of both countries is sparsely populated with very few roads and hence no border crossings.

In the south-west of Guyana, near Lethem, work was finally completed on 26 April 2009 on the Takutu River Bridge across the Takutu River into neighbouring Brazil, which drives on the right. The changeover system is on the Guyana side, with one lane passing under the other on the bridge's access road. Construction proceeded slowly over the years before being completed by the Brazilian army. Brazil had been keen to open the bridge, as it now gives Brazil access to Caribbean sea ports on the north coast of South America. Brazil intends to permit Guyana registered (RHD) vehicles to go no further than the Brazilian border town of Bonfim. It is expected that Brazilian (LHD) vehicles will be able to drive all the way through Guyana to the coast. The Takutu Bridge is the Americas' only border crossing where traffic changes sides of the road.

In Suriname most of the privately owned buses are imported from Japan, and the exits are designed for driving on the left. Most state-owned buses, however, are from the US (LHD) and often the placement of the exits has to be adjusted.

Hong Kong and Macau
As a former British colony, Hong Kong follows the United Kingdom in driving on the left. Macau, a former Portuguese colony, historically followed Hong Kong in driving on the left because most of the RHD cars in Macau were imported through Hong Kong. Macau did not follow either Portugal in 1928 or China in 1946 in switching to driving on the right.

Under the auspices of the one country, two systems arrangement, the practice of driving on the left continues in Hong Kong and Macau, now Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China. Most vehicles, even those of the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison, are RHD. LHD exceptions include some buses providing services to and from the mainland.

There are four road border crossing points between mainland China and Hong Kong. The largest and busiest is Lok Ma Chau Control Point (aerial map), which features two separate changeover systems on the mainland side. In 2006, the daily average number of vehicle trips recorded at Lok Ma Chau was 31,100. The next largest is Man Kam To, where there is no changeover system and the border roads on the mainland side simply intersect as one-way streets with a main road.

There are two border crossing points between mainland China and Macau. The newer crossing point is the Lotus Bridge, which crosses a narrow channel of sea between the mainland and Macau, and was opened at the end of 1999 (aerial map). The Lotus Bridge was designed to cater for high traffic volumes and features three lanes in each direction as well as a full changeover system on the mainland side, comprising bridges that loop around each other by 360 degrees to swap the direction of the traffic. At the older Macau crossing point, there is no changeover system, and the border roads continue with traffic on the left on the mainland side and simply intersect with a roundabout.

Specific Jurisdictions (Iceland-Portugal)

Iceland
Iceland switched traffic from left to right at 06:00 on Sunday 26 May 1968, known as H-dagurinn. As in Sweden, most passenger cars were already left hand drive.[70] The only injury attributed to the changeover was to a boy on a bicycle, who broke his leg. Numerous buses were also stuck in traffic jams.

India
Following British colonial influence, India drives on the left hand side of the road. Now all vehicles are RHD with the government banning all new LHD vehicles in the country except under special circumstances, such as cars imported duty free by foreign embassies. All left hand drive vehicles (including new ones manufactured for export) carry a prominent sticker reading 'Left Hand Drive Vehicle' on their back to warn other drivers. There are some legal exceptions to this rule, to overcome traffic problems, where traffic moves on the right hand side of the road. In Bangalore, for example, near the main city bus stand (Kempegowda Bus Station), to enable the city buses to enter and exit easily, normal traffic moves on the right hand side.

Indonesia
Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, drives on the left, despite being a former colony of the Netherlands, which drives on the right. This originated from British rule in the Dutch East Indies (as it then was) under Thomas Stamford Raffles between 1811 and 1816. Even though the country is an archipelago, there are three land borders, with Malaysia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea. All of these countries also drive on the left: Malaysia as a legacy of British rule, East Timor as a legacy of Portuguese rule and Papua New Guinea as a result of Australian rule following World War I until 1975.

However, there is one exception: in Surabaya city, on Praban Street (one of the main streets in central Surabaya), traffic drives in both directions on the right hand side for approximately 500 metres (550 yards). The street is very crowded and the right hand drive style helps the efficient flow of traffic, especially from Gemblongan Street, from which vehicles can directly turn right to Praban Street. Vehicles from Blauran Street can similarly turn directly right. Because there is a separator dividing the two sides of the street, local drivers have little difficulty.

Ireland
The Republic of Ireland is the second largest European state, after the United Kingdom, with a left-hand traffic system. Visitors are likely to encounter warning signs (in English, French and German) near Irish airports, seaports and major tourist attractions, as well as outside major urban areas, reminding them to drive on the left. The country's only land border is with the United Kingdom, so there is no change-over to impede the large volume of cross-border traffic between the two parts of Ireland. Nevertheless, the Republic of Ireland displays a few yellow tri-lingual warning signs at the border, particularly in very rural areas. Car ferries from France to Ringaskiddy and Rosslare Harbour are the main source of LHD traffic.

Israel
In Israel, you drive on the right. Trains, on the other hand, ride on the left side.

Italy
Which side of the road the Ancient Romans drove on is disputed. Archaeological evidence in Britain seems to indicate driving on the left but old Roman roads in Turkey suggest Romans used the right hand side of the road. In Italy the practice of traffic driving on the right first began in the late 1890s, but it was not until the mid 1920s that it became standard throughout the country. There was a long period when traffic in the countryside drove on the right while major cities continued to drive on the left. Rome, for example, did not change from left to right until 20 October 1924. Milan was the last Italian city to change to driving on the right (3 August 1926). Cars had remained right-hand drive (RHD) until this time. Italian car makers Alfa Romeo and Lancia did not produce LHD cars until as late as 1950 and 1953, respectively.

A few highways have some sections of road where the directions cross, resulting in traffic driving on the left, such the A6 highway between Savona and Turin, the A20 highway between Messina and Palermo, and the A19 highway between Palermo and Catania. However, these are short segments of motorway, where the different directions do not interact, therefore vehicles still overtake on the left on these sections. Furthermore, exceptions to the rule can be necessary in urban contexts. For example, the Palatino bridge in Rome is known to Romans to be "all'inglese" (English-style), because drivers are required to drive on the left hand side of the bridge. This situation is analogous to (although obviously reversed from) that of Savoy Court in London.

Jamaica
See under Specific Jurisdictions (A-H)- Caribbean

Japan
Japan is one of the few countries outside the Commonwealth of Nations to drive on the left. An informal practice of left-hand passage dates at least to the Edo period, when samurai are said to have passed each other to the left to avoid knocking their longer katana swords with each other (as swords were always worn to the left side)[citation needed]. During the late 19th century, Japan built its first railways with British technical assistance, and double-tracked railways adopted the British practice of running on the left. Stage Coach Order issued in 1870 and its revision in 1872, followed in 1881 by a further order, stipulated that mutually approaching horses had to avoid each other by shifting to the left.[76] An order issued in 1885 stated that general horses and vehicles had to avoid to the left, but they also had to avoid to the right when they met army troops, until the double standard was legally resolved in 1924.

After the defeat of Japan during World War II, Okinawa was ruled by the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands and compelled to drive on the right. Okinawa was returned to Japanese control in 1972 and changed back to driving on the left six years later, at 06:00 on 30 July 1978, as certain treaties required nations to have one system throughout their territory. The changeover operation was known as 730 (Nana-San-Maru). Okinawa is one of very few places to have changed from right- to left-hand traffic in the late 20th century.

Japan does allow both RHD and LHD vehicles on their roads. In some cases the same vehicle is available in both LHD and RHD configurations.

Korea (North and South)
Since the end of the Second World War, traffic in both North and South Korea drive on the right. However this was not the case for historic Korea. In the 19th century traffic travelled on the left as the country was under nominal influence of China's Qing Dynasty. When Japan annexed Korea in 1910 it also maintained the left-hand rule.

On September 8, 1945, American forces arrived in the southern half of Korea while at the same time Soviet-backed forces were occupying the North. Shortly afterwards the peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel. Driving on the right was implemented in both countries as the vehicles (particularly military) used by the Korean states were either American-made or Russian-built LHD models.

Lebanon
Lebanon is a right-hand traffic country. However, there is a seventy-meter crossing at Sanayeh/Hamra intersection in Beirut on which left-hand traffic is applied.

Malaysia
Malaysia has left-hand traffic, a legacy of British influence. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule. In Peninsular Malaysia, right-hand traffic can be found at the Damansara-Puchong Expressway in the short tunnel under the Damansara Perdana flyover and the Sunway bridge at the Federal Highway Route 2 interchange.

Right-hand traffic can also be found at Wisma Saberkas, Kuching, Sarawak where the whole stretch of parking areas are right-hand traffic. The "Keep Right" signboards are eminent in every corners of the road to remind road users of the right-hand driving. Right-hand driving was to ease congestion at Wisma Saberkas exit to Jalan Green (near SK St. Paul).

Until it was pedestrianised, the northern section of Penang Road in George Town, Penang, now known as Upper Penang Road, had traffic passing on the right hand side of the road, with a concrete kerb in the middle. This was to allow clockwise traffic from the one-way sections of Northam Road and Farquhar Street (at either end of the road) to pass clockwise through the road without crossing oncoming traffic.

There are some of the LHD vehicles on the road. Some may possess the "Left Hand Drive" sticker on the rear of the vehicle, but others may not.

Malta
Malta was a British colony from 1800 to 1964, and continues with left-hand traffic. As a standard on new imported cars, local vehicles are right hand drive. Since Malta is now a EU member it is now common to find left hand drive vehicles also (second hand imports from other EU countries with LHD vehicles, especially from Sicily).

Mongolia
Mongolia is a right-hand traffic country, with steering wheels mounted on the left-hand side of vehicles. There are, however, a number of second-hand vehicles from Japan in use, with the steering wheel mounted on the right-hand side.

There have been plans to prohibit the driving of vehicles with the steering wheel mounted on the right-hand side, but none have been passed by the parliament.

Nepal
Nepal is a left-hand traffic country, with steering wheels mounted on the right-hand side of vehicles. However, the stretch of road between Rani Pokhari and Ratna Park in Kathmandu is right-handed to facilitate one-way traffic the adjacent roads.

New Zealand
New Zealand drives on the left, owing to its British colonial heritage. The left-hand traffic rule is currently legislated in section 2.1 of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004.

At intersections, the general rule for priority in New Zealand is "Give way to the right, and turning traffic give way to traffic not turning", but there is an unusual variation compared with other countries. When turning left at an intersection, traffic must also give way to traffic turning right from the opposing road onto the road into which both vehicles intend to turn. This is to give priority to vehicles turning right across traffic so they spend minimal time in the road exposed to rear-end collisions; many New Zealand intersections lack right-turn bays. It also reduces the chance of a collision with the right (driver's) side of the vehicle. In September 2010 the government announced this rule will be changed in early 2012 to align with common practice in other countries; the predicted effects include increased road safety and reduced driver confusion, but there will be costs associated with driver reeducation, modification to intersections, and retiming traffic lights.

On the underground access road to the Manapouri Power Station vehicles must drive on the right. The tunnel is one long spiral and drivers have very limited forward visibility. Initially, tour buses drove on the left, but there were many collisions, with buses wiping each other's wing mirrors off. The change to driving on the right made it easier for drivers to see how close they are to the tunnel wall.[81] The road is, however, only used by authorised vehicles and is not open to the public.

Nigeria
As a British colony, Nigeria formerly drove on the left. However, as it was surrounded by former French colonies driving on the right, right-hand traffic was adopted in Nigeria on 2 April 1972.

Pakistan
Pakistan drives on the left hand side of the road after its independence from Britain in 1947. Pakistan is the westernmost country in Asia to drive on the left. The Khyber Pass border crossing with Afghanistan is one of the most well known places where traffic changes sides of the road.

Paraguay
Right-hand traffic was introduced in Paraguay from the 25th of February 1945 by dint of Decreto 6956 ("Decree 6956").

Philippines
Right-hand traffic was introduced in the Philippines on the last day of the Battle of Manila, 10 March 1945, to facilitate the combined Filipino and American troop movements. In the earlier part of the 20th century, left-hand traffic was the norm.

Although road traffic switched to the right, rail traffic remained on the left until the construction of the LRT and MRT, where trains ran on the right, in 1984 and 1999 respectively. The Philippine National Railways, where trains historically ran on the left, switched to the right in 2010.

Poland
Poland was recreated in 1918 as a sovereign republic from territories formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian Empires (Partitions of Poland). In the former Austrian areas left-hand traffic was in force. This was changed in the 1920s. In Lwow (at that time in Poland) the change-over took place in 1922 and in Kraków in 1925.

Portugal
Portugal changed from left-hand to right-hand road traffic on 1 June 1928. This change was also implemented in most of its overseas territories, except Goa, Macau and Mozambique, which had land borders with countries that drove on the left. In East Timor right-hand traffic was introduced in 1928, but changed back by Indonesia in 1975.

Specific Jurisdictions (Romania-Venezuela)

Romania
According to the Order of the Minister of Transport, Constructions and Tourism no. 2132/20052005 approval of the Regulations concerning the approval, release the identity card and authenticity certification of road vehicles - RNTR 7, RHD vehicles must be retrofitted with headlamps suitable for use on the right-hand side of the road.

Russia
Driving on the right was introduced in Russia by the edict of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna on 5 February 1752.

Although Russia drives on the right, cheaper used cars from Japan are almost as popular as LHD cars of the same class. Russia is estimated to have more than 1.5 million RHD vehicles on its roads. In the far eastern regions, such as Vladivostok or Khabarovsk, RHD vehicles make up to 90% of the total. This includes not only private cars, but also police cars, ambulances, and many other municipal and governmental vehicles.

During spring 2005, the rumour that RHD vehicles would be completely banned from the roads drove thousands of Russian protesters to the streets. On 19 May 2005 the Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko announced that RHD vehicles would be allowed on the roads but would have to conform to all Russian traffic safety requirements. Many automobile owners blocked the roads (in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Vladivostok and many other cities), protesting against such an interdiction On 19 May 2005 two automobile movements were born defending the interests of RHD automobile owners. Due to technical regulation published on September 2009, import of RHD will be proceeded in September 2010.

Rwanda
Rwanda, a former Belgian colony in central Africa, currently drives on the right. In 2005, a Presidential Decree was issued banning the import of RHD cars, eventually requiring them to be phased out completely by the end of 2009.

In early August 2009 several African newspapers reported that, following the results of a public survey, Rwanda was considering switching to driving on the left, in order to bring the country in line with other members of the East African Community (EAC), Burundi being the only other EAC member to drive on the right.

The survey, carried out by the Ministry of Infrastructure in 2009, indicated that 54% of Rwandans were in favour of the switch, compared to just 32% who were opposed to it. Reasons cited were the perceived lower costs of RHD vehicles as opposed to LHD versions of the same model, easier maintenance and the political benefit of harmonisation of traffic regulations with other EAC countries. The same survey also indicated that right-hand drive cars are 16 to 49 per cent cheaper than their left-hand drive equivalents. Because of this, investment in passenger service vehicles and goods transport is expected to increase should the switch go ahead, due to the high costs of sourcing suitable LHD vehicles and the relative abundance of alternatives from elsewhere in the EAC. Furthermore, in November 2009, Rwanda's application to join the Commonwealth of Nations was approved, another group which is largely dominated by LHT countries.

In September 2010, Infrastructure Minister Vincent Karega said that new traffic guidelines had been submitted to the Prime Minister's office, paving the way for the Cabinet to formally approve the switch. At the same time, if the switch does go ahead, it will necessitate repealing the 2005 Presidential Decree banning RHD cars. According to Karenga, the private sector has been a keen supporter of the switch, citing the harmonisation of EAC regulations and the cheaper cost of RHD cars.

Samoa
Samoa used to be a German colony until occupied by New Zealand at the beginning of the First World War. During the Second World War Samoa (then known as Western Samoa) was used by the Allies as a staging area for the invasion of several Pacific islands to the east of Samoa. Most US military vehicles were LHD and reinforced the German practice of driving on the right-hand side of the road until September 2009. This practice had been in place for more than a century. A plan to drive on the left was first announced by the Samoan government in September 2007 and was confirmed on 18 April 2008 when Samoa's parliament passed the Road Transport Reform Act 2008. On 24 July 2008 Tuisugaletaua Avea, the Minister of Transport, announced that the switch would come into effect at 6:00 am on Monday, 7 September 2009. He also announced that the 7th and 8th would be public holidays, so that residents were able to familiarise themselves with the new rules of the road. Samoa is the first territory in over 30 years to change which side of the road is driven on, the most recent to change being Nigeria, Ghana, Yemen and Okinawa.

A new political party, The People's Party, had formed to try to block the change but was unsuccessful as was the People Against Switching Sides protest group which launched a last-minute legal challenge against the decision, arguing it violated the right to life in the Samoan constitution. The decision remains controversial, with an estimated 18,000 people attending demonstrations against it in Apia in April 2008 and road signs reminding people of the change having been vandalised. The motor industry was also opposed to the decision as 14,000 of Samoa's 18,000 vehicles are designed for right-hand traffic and the government has refused to meet the cost of conversion. Bus drivers whose doors are now on the wrong side of the road threatened to strike in protest at the change.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi says the purpose of adopting left-hand traffic is to allow Samoans to use cheaper right-hand-drive vehicles sourced from Australia, New Zealand, or Japan, and so that the large number of Samoans living in Australia and New Zealand can drive on the same side of the road when they visit their country of origin. In order to reduce accidents, the government has widened roads, added new road markings, erected signs and installed speed humps. The speed limit was also reduced and sales of alcohol banned for three days.[105] The Congregational Christian Church of Samoa has held prayer sessions for an accident-free changeover and Samoa's Red Cross carried out a blood donation campaign in case of a surge of accidents.

The change came into force following a radio announcement at 5.50 local time (16.50 GMT) which halted traffic and an announcement at 6.00 local time (17.00 GMT) for traffic to switch from the right to the left-hand side of the road. The change also coincided with more restrictive enforcement of the speeds drivers choose and whether car occupants choose to use seatbelts.

South Africa
As a legacy of British rule, South Africa drives on the left. This has also influenced neighbouring countries. After South Africa occupied South West Africa (now Namibia) during World War I, it was made a South African mandate by the League of Nations. As a German colony, the territory drove on the right.

South Yemen
South Yemen, formerly the British colony of Aden, changed to driving on the right on 1 January 1977. North Yemen already drove on the right.

Sierra Leone
The change from left- to right-hand traffic occurred on 1 March 1971; a postal stamp was issued to commemorate the occasion.

Singapore
In Singapore, all motorised traffic drives on the left, in vehicles with right-hand drive configuration, a legacy of British colonial rule as a crown colony. Some roads, however due to foreseeable considerations, are designed to prevent traffic flow problems that could result with the standard practice, such as Grange Road between Orchard Road and Somerset Road which is separated by a refuge island, Carver Street by North Bridge Road, parking and compound entrances along the right side of North Bridge Road. In any roads with such a requirement, an entry sign is often displayed at the road divider. Cycling designated lane in parks also practises the keep left rule to correspond with motorway traffic as a safety consideration. As of this, Singapore prohibited new registrations of LHD vehicles.

Pedestrian traffic follows a similar approach as when on a motorway, where pedestrians keep left generally, sometimes with the direction of signs displayed at walkways, stairs and pavements as a form of crowd control. In contrast to most practices, the escalator etiquette follows the British, presumably a legacy of Singapore's continued British colonial status when the Malaysian Federation has been inaugurated (the practice is the same in Brunei and Hong Kong), stationary users keep to the right and while allowing passthrough on the left side. An example can be found on the escalator at the entrance to the basement of the Excelsior Hotel Shopping Centre. However, in certain trains stations usually accompanied by signs to do so, users stands on the left and allow urgent users pass through on the right side, mirroring the practice in Japan.

Spain
Spain has right traffic. In the capital city, Madrid, left-hand traffic was in force until 10 April 1924; as a result the Madrid Metro, which dates from 1919 still runs on the left-hand side on all lines.

Sudan
After the Ethiopian change-over from driving on the left to driving on the right in 1964, Sudan had only short borders with only two other countries driving on the left: Kenya and Uganda. In August 1973 Sudan adopted right-hand traffic in accord with most other countries of the Arab world.

Suriname
See Guyana and Suriname.

Sweden
Main article: Dagen H

Sweden had legal left-hand traffic (vänstertrafik in Swedish) from approximately 1734, when it changed back from a short period of right-hand traffic starting in 1718. With or without legal rule, traditionally the left side was used for carriages. Finland, under Swedish rule until 1809, also drove on the left, and continued to do so as a Russian Grand Duchy until 1858.

This continued well into the 20th century, despite the fact that virtually all the cars on the road in Sweden were LHD. (One argument for this was that it was necessary to keep an eye on the edge of the road, something that was important on the narrow roads in use at the time). Also, Sweden's neighbours Norway and Finland already drove on the right, leading to confusion at border crossings.

In 1955 a referendum was held on the issue, resulting in an 82.9%-to-15.5% vote against a change to driving on the right. Nevertheless, in 1963 the Swedish parliament passed legislation ordering the switch to right-hand traffic. The changeover took place at 5am on Sunday, 3 September 1967, which was known in Swedish as Dagen H (H-Day), the 'H' being for Högertrafik or right traffic.

Since Swedish cars were LHD, experts had suggested that changing to driving on the right would be safer, because drivers would have a better view of the road ahead. The accident rate dropped sharply after the change. However, the accident rate soon rose back to near its original level. The speed limits were temporarily lowered.

Swedish trains have left handed traffic till today, as it has been considered to be too expensive to change this.

Taiwan
Taiwan was an LHT area when it was ruled by Japan, but the Republic of China government changed the system to RHT in March 1946.

Thailand
Thailand is an unusual case of a LHT country almost totally surrounded by RHT neighbours.(Except Malaysia) Thailand shares long borders with Burma, Laos, and Cambodia—all of which drive on the right. The border with left-driving Malaysia is a short stretch.

Thailand does allow both RHD and LHD vehicles on their roads.

Tunisia
Tunisia is a right-hand traffic country. However, there is a twenty-metre crossing of the Ave. Habib Bourguiba in Tunis on which left-hand traffic is applied.

UNITED KINGDOM
The UK has LHT. Many other countries that drive on the left do so due to British colonial influence.

As a result of European Union legislation ensuring the free movement of goods, many British consumers exercise their right to buy RHD cars from car dealers in any other EU country, where they are often cheaper, despite originating from the same factories as UK-sourced cars. Models obtained from other EU countries often have a lower value upon resale due to shorter warranty periods and UK dealers refusing to buy them or accept them in part-exchange.

Although the United Kingdom is separated from Continental Europe by the English Channel, the level of cross-Channel traffic is very high; the Channel Tunnel alone carries 3.5 million vehicles per year between the UK and France. Most vehicles crossing the English Channel, whether via the Channel Tunnel or on ferries, are UK-registered RHD vehicles. Relatively few drivers from Continental Europe take their LHD cars to the UK, but large numbers of British drivers take their RHD cars to Continental Europe for holidays and even for one-day shopping trips.

Today, UK motor vehicles including postal delivery vehicles and waste collection vehicles are normally RHD. The main exceptions are service vehicles such as road sweepers and gritters where view of the kerb is more important than of the centre line. These are generally LHD, although some have controls on both sides.

In cities with heavy tourism, LHD coaches can cause problems as their passengers get off the vehicle into the path of traffic, rather than on a pavement. Some fleet operators who regularly tour from Continental Europe to the UK use coaches with doors on both sides. Conversely, some double-decker buses exported to LHD countries for tourist purposes are converted to have their doors on the other side.

For a variety of reasons, Continental European LHD heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) have become common on the UK's roads, particularly on major routes radiating from ports and the Channel tunnel. An issue arising from this concerns the safety of large LHD vehicles, with blind-spots arising from the LHD and the probable inexperience of drivers with these problems.

Exceptions to the rule
There are some locations in the UK where road routing and layout causes traffic to approximate or mimic right-hand traffic patterns and practice. The most notable is Savoy Court outside the Savoy Hotel. Another example is the short links between the two carriageways of Russell Lane in Whetstone. The running-together of two slip roads at the interchange of the M4 and A329M near Winnersh is a particularly distinctive example.

It is also permissible to drive in any lane on a one-way street. The Highway Code usually says 'keep to the left' and this is the norm on motorways and other fast roads, i.e. use the leftmost lane available. But on small roads in towns and cities it is common for one-way streets to split direction at some point, so drivers choose the most appropriate lane, and are encouraged to do so with lane markings, signage, and so on.

During the Lockerbie bombing trial of 2000–02, Camp Zeist in the Netherlands was decreed to be British territory subject to Scots law. However, Dumfries and Galloway Police, who were responsible for policing traffic movements within the compound, effected a clause which required drivers to comply with the Continental European practice of driving on the right.

Traffic drives on the left in the service tunnel of the Channel Tunnel, part of which is in France; however, this is not a public highway.

Military fleets and bases
On some British Army training locations, where the army once trained for conflict in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, traffic is meant to travel on the right. Most military bases in the UK, though, have the normal rule of driving on the left.

Vehicles within United States visiting forces bases in the United Kingdom drive on the left, even though the United States does not provide right-hand drive vehicles for its green fleet. However, its white fleet does have some right-hand drive vehicles for elements such as Non-Appropriated Fund activities and UK-only specialist vehicles. Most white fleet vehicles (known as "GSA" or "TMP" vehicles) are shipped over from the United States and are LHD. This is unlike British practice in Germany, where even UK green fleet vehicles for British Forces Germany have been left-hand drive.

During World War II, American truck makers Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge built 'Canadian Military Pattern truck' [CMP] for use throughout the British Empire and most were right-hand drive to use in left-traffic countries.

On the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, traffic drives on the right due to the large US military presence there even though it is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory.

United States
All US states and territories except the US Virgin Islands drive on the right. The first keep-right law in the United States, passed in 1792, applied to the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. New York in 1804 and New Jersey in 1813 also enacted keep-right rules. Only the formerly British thirteen colonies historically drove on the left; the historically French, Spanish, Russian and Hawaiian portions of the United States all drove on the right by the time they were annexed by the United States.

Early American motor vehicles, however, were right-hand drive, following the practice established by horse-drawn buggies. This changed in the early years of the 20th century: Ford changed to LHD production in 1908 with the Model T, and Cadillac in 1916.

Today, US motor vehicles are normally left-hand drive. Common exceptions include garbage trucks, postal mail, and package delivery vehicles. Imported right-hand drive cars are also found on the road in the United States, mostly Tuner Cars, classics, or other collectors' items. Also a large number of vehicles used for rural mail delivery are RHD, thus enabling the driver to access roadside mail receptacles without leaving the vehicle.

American drivers nearly always drive on the right and pass on the left, but state traffic laws generally allow for passing on the right if there is sufficient space to the right of the leading vehicle to pass it safely. Since this is not usually the case, right-side passing is rare except on multi-lane roads and divided highways, or when passing other vehicles that are preparing to turn left.

The United States Virgin Islands is the only American jurisdiction that still has left-hand traffic, because the islands drove on the left when the United States purchased the former Danish West Indies from Denmark in 1917. Although Denmark drove and still drives on the right, the Danish West Indies drove on the left because the majority of the European aristocracy living there were British; but there is also a claim the practice of left-side drive was due to the first cars being RHD vehicles imported from Barbados, then still a British colony.

Some limited-access freeways in the US have small sections of road where the directions cross, resulting in traffic that appears to drive on the left. Examples include the Golden State Freeway (I-5) in Southern California during the descent/ascent of the Castaic Grade, several miles of Interstate 85 in Davidson County, North Carolina, Interstate 77 at its interchange with Interstate 85 in Charlotte, North Carolina, a very brief section of Interstate 275 in St. Petersburg, Florida, Interstate 8 east of Yuma, AZ, Arizona State Route 87 in Maricopa County, Arizona through Rincon Pass and small parts of approaches to Interstate 64 running through Chesapeake, Virginia as part of the Hampton Roads Beltway. Diverging Diamond Interchanges are another example. Because of the limited-access restrictions, the left-hand/right-hand orientation of the oncoming traffic is of no consequence to the driver.

Traffic at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport also drives on the left around most of terminal 2, as does traffic paralleling LeJeune Road in Miami to the east of Miami International Airport.

Two blocks of Bainbridge Street in Philadelphia are divided with traffic driving on the left due to flows from nearby streets and the one-way nature of the street on undivided blocks.

Some parking garages on the left-hand side of one-way streets have left-hand traffic in the driveway, as described above under Croatia.

During Mardi Gras in New Orleans parades drive on the left of Canal Street and against the normal flow of traffic on St. Charles Avenue. In the New Orleans suburb of Metairie, LA all Mardi Gras parades travel down Veterans Memorial Boulevard on the left side of the roadway.

Uruguay
Uruguay in 1918 required all motorized and non-motorized vehicles to drive on the left, but as in many other countries in South America, this was changed in 1945, at exactly 4:00 am on Sunday, September 2. A speed limit of 30 km/h (19 mph) was observed until September 30 in order to avoid major collisions and help ease the public into the new system.

Venezuela
In all of Venezuela, traffic drives on the right. However, there are exceptions within the heavily congested capital, Caracas. In the neighbourhood of Las Mercedes, Calle Caroní is LHT for one block due to oncoming traffic turning into it from the one-way Av. Río de Janeiro. In Los Chaguaramos neighbourhood, Av. Las Ciencias is a LHT street because it connects two one-way streets, Calle Humboldt and Av. Neverí. Within the campus of Universidad Simón Bolívar, which is surrounded by a one-way street, there is a street aptly named Calle Inglesa (English Street in Spanish) because left-hand traffic allows a better flow of traffic.

Source(s): wikipedia, worldstandards/, wikimapia.org/

WHAT IS THE BLOOD ALCOHOL CONTENT (BAC) LIMIT FOR DRIVING - WORLDWIDE?

2011-12-09T08:24:00.001-05:00

Determining your own BAC is extremely difficult as there are many factors which affect your level of impairment. The four main factors impacting the level of impairment are the rate of alcohol consumption, gender, body weight and the amount of food eaten.

Blood alcohol content (BAC), also called blood alcohol concentration, blood ethanol concentration, or blood alcohol level is most commonly used as a metric of alcohol intoxication for legal or medical purposes.

Blood alcohol content is usually expressed as a percentage of alcohol in the blood. For instance, a BAC of 0.10 means that 0.10% (one tenth of one percent) of a person's blood, by volume, is alcohol.
For purposes of law enforcement, blood alcohol content is used to define intoxication and provides a rough measure of impairment. Although the degree of impairment may vary among individuals with the same blood alcohol content, it can be measured objectively and is therefore legally useful and difficult to contest in court. Most countries disallow operation of motor vehicles and heavy machinery above prescribed levels of blood alcohol content. Operation of boats and aircraft are also regulated.

The alcohol level at which a person is considered to be legally impaired varies by country. The list below gives limits by country. These are typically blood alcohol content limits for the operation of a vehicle. In the United States, the legal limit can vary by state but for all states as of 2011 is 0.08 blood alcohol content as measured by a breath device, urinalysis or blood test. This legal limit is down from 0.15 just a few decades previously.

Source(s): icap.org/, wikipedia, driveandstayalive.com/, drinkdriving.org

WHY IS GOLD SO RARE YET FOUND ALL OVER THE WORLD?

2011-12-08T19:21:00.001-05:00

Because a tiny amount of this element - whose creation is due to a rare phenomena - has the ability to be hammered into thin sheets!

Gold is an element, meaning that it is not formed, but exists as an atomic structure.

Unlike diamonds or gem stones, which are produced under the Earth by extreme pressures and heat, gold is a non-terrestrial metal, meaning that all the gold that exists today, above and below ground, is all there ever will be. Gold is not produced by the geology of the Earth; in fact, Gold doesn’t even originate from this solar system.

To create elements heavier than iron, like gold and silver, requires the most destructive

forces known in our universe. As a star undergoes its death-throes, once its nuclear fuel

is consumed, explosive emissions of heavy material are ejected in a violent process

known as a supernova.

Washington Monument
555 feet 5-1⁄8 inches
(169.294 m)

During a supernova, a star emits as much energy in a very short period of time as it does during its entire lifespan of running the fusion process. In this explosive event, some materials undergo further fusion to form elements heavier than iron. And this is what leads to the formation of heavier elements like platinum and gold.
Our Earth’s core is not producing any gold and neither is our Sun.
Our Earth is the by-product of a star that went supernova about 4.5 billion years ago and during that supernova, our Earth collected some rare formations of Gold atoms. Not every star goes supernova when it runs out of nuclear fuel to burn. In fact 97% of stars never explode which makes a supernova and the chances of gold atoms forming in the universe that much rarer.

Hence the rarity of gold. To put it into perspective:

The entire gold that has been mined in the history of our planet would fit in a cube roughly 20.5m a side. Or put another way, it would fill about 3.5 Olympic size swimming pools.
If the entire amount of gold that exists in the world today, as bullion, jewelry or coins, was melted down into a single block, it would only be as large as about one-third of the Washington Monument.

As for it's malleability:

A cube the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet that would cover that same swimming pool or tennis court, and one tiny ounce (28.3 grams) of gold can be stretched into a wire fifty miles (80.4 kilometers) long! A little gold sure goes a long way!

Source(s): macmllc.com/pdf, bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/, thedailygold.com/

WHAT IS THE TALLEST MOUNTAIN IN THE WORLD?

2011-12-07T17:53:00.001-05:00

Well, that depends...

Are you talking from the sea floor or from sea level?

If you are measuring from the sea level, then the tallest mountain in the world would be the famed Mt. Everest which is part of the Himalaya mountain range along the border of Nepal and Tibet in Asia, with the highest 'altitude' of 29,035 feet or 8,850 meters!

However, if you are measuring from the sea floor, (where the mountain originates from below the sea), then Mauna Kea, in Hawaii, beats Mt. Everest hands down!

But because a lot of Mauna Kea rests below the water, its height from sea level (where we can see it or begin to climb it) is less than Mount Everest: Only 13,796 feet.

Mauna Kea is over 10,000 meters tall compared to 8,848 meters for Mount Everest - making it the world's tallest mountain.

More Interesting Heights:

Highest Mountain in AfricaKilimanjaro, Tanzania: 19,340 feet / 5895 meters

Highest Mountain in Antarctica
Vinson Massif: 16,066 feet / 4897 meters

Highest Mountain in Australia
Kosciusko: 7310 feet / 2228 meters

Highest Mountain in Europe
Elbrus, Russia (Caucasus): 18,510 feet / 5642 meters

Highest Mountain in Western Europe
Mont Blanc, France-Italy: 15,771 feet / 4807 meters

Highest Mountain in Oceania
Puncak Jaya, New Guinea: 16,535 feet / 5040 meters

Highest Mountain in North America
McKinley (Denali), Alaska: 20,320 feet / 6194 meters

Highest Mountain in the 48 Contiguous United States
Whitney, California: 14,494 feet / 4418 meters

Highest Mountain in South America
Aconcagua, Argentina: 22,834 feet / 6960 meters

Source(s): teameverest03.org/, wikipedia, geology.com/, whyzz.com/, about.com/

HOW MANY CONTINENTS ARE THERE ON EARTH?

2011-12-06T15:42:00.001-05:00

No, it's not 5! (I thought it was. )

There are seven 7 continents on earth.

Continents are land masses of the earth with characteristics (geographically and/or culturally), unique to each. For example, Europe and Asia are physically part of the same landmass, but the two areas are culturally diverse. (That is, the various cultural groups in Asia have more in common with one another than with those of Europe.)

By convention there are seven continents - they are (from largest in size to smallest): Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. If you count Europe and Asia continent as one continent (Eurosia) there are 6 continents. In other parts of the world, students learn that there are just five continents: Eurasia, Australia, Africa, Antarctica, and the Americas.

The earth was never divided into 7 continents billions of years ago. There have been many 'transformations' within that time. As a matter of fact, it is said that many scientists figure Earth began as one huge continent — dry as a bone. Water was delivered in comets, the thinking goes, and then the oceans developed.

Plate tectonics has continually shifted the position of landmasses; while some were rifted apart, creating new landmasses, others collided to create tall mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, and combine landmasses.

Some Interesting Points:

The terms Oceania or Australasia are sometimes substituted for Australia to denote a continent encompassing the Australian mainland and various islands of the Pacific Ocean not part of other continents. For example, the Atlas of Canada names Oceania, as does the model taught in Italy, Greece and in Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

The seven-continent model is usually taught in China and most English-speaking countries. The six-continent combined-Eurasia model is sometimes preferred in the former states of the USSR and Japan. The six-continent combined-America model is sometimes taught in Latin America and in some parts of Europe including Greece (equivalent 5 inhabited continents model (i.e. excluding Antarctica) still also found in texts), Portugal and Spain. Using this latter model as a starting point, the Olympics use only inhabited continents (excluding Antarctica) and thus a five-continent model as depicted in the Olympic logo.
Geographers divide the planet into regions, and generally not continents, for ease of study. Various geographers have various definitions of these world regions. This Official Listing of Countries by Region divides the world into eight regions: Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Australia and Oceania.

Source(s): wikipedia, howmanyarethere.net/, about.com/, lifeslittlemysteries.com/,

WHAT IS THE YOUNGEST AGE TO HAVE GIVEN BIRTH?

2011-11-28T09:10:00.001-05:00

FIVE!

Believe it or not, that was the actual age of a child named Lina Medina, who gave birth to a baby boy, Gerardo, (named after her doctor), via C-section.

"Into the hospital at Pisco, Peru last month came a tired, ragged Indian woman from the foothills of the Andes. She led by the hand a shy little girl, scarcely three feet tall, with chestnut braids and an enormously bulging abdomen. Pointing to the frightened child, the Indian woman begged Surgeon Geraldo Lozada to exorcise the evil spirits which had taken possession of her..." - time.com

Lina Medina,
seven and a half months into pregnancy

Lina Medina (born September 27, 1933, in Ticrapo, Huancavelica Region, Peru) is the youngest confirmed mother mother in medical history, giving birth at the age of five years, seven months and 17 days. She currently lives in Lima, the capital of Peru.

Born to silversmith Tiburelo Medina and Victoria Losea, Medina was brought to a hospital by her parents at the age of five years due to increasing abdominal size, after the shamans of their village couldn’t find a cure. She was originally thought to have had a tumor, but her doctors determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to Lima, Peru, prior to the surgery to have other specialists confirm that Medina was pregnant.

A month and a half after the original diagnosis, on May 14, 1939, Medina gave birth to a boy by a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis. The surgery was performed by Dr. Lozada and Dr. Busalleu, with Dr. Colareta providing anaesthesia. Her case was reported in detail by Dr. Edmundo Escomel in the medical journal La Presse Médicale, including the additional details that her menarche had occurred at eight months of age, in contrast to a past report stating that she had been having regular periods since she was three years old (or 2½ according to a different article). The report also detailed that she had prominent breast development by the age of four. By age five, her figure displayed pelvic widening and advanced bone maturation.

When doctors performed the caesarean to deliver her baby, they found she already had fully mature sexual organs from precocious puberty.

Her Son and Later Life
Medina's son weighed 2.7 kg (6.0 lb; 0.43 st) at birth and was named Gerardo after her doctor. Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister, but found out at the age of 10 that she was his mother. He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a bone marrow disease.

Medina never revealed the father of the child nor the circumstances of her impregnation. Dr. Escomel suggested she might not actually know herself by writing that Medina "couldn't give precise responses". Medina's father was arrested on suspicion of rape and incest, but was later released due to lack of evidence. According to a 1955 article reviewing the case, "Some pointed out there were frequent festivities celebrated by Indians in Andean villages like the one where Lina was born. These often ended up in orgies in which rape was not uncommon. But if this theory were accepted, there still was no explanation of how a five-year-old girl could conceive a child. There hasn't been to this day."

In young adulthood, she worked as a secretary in the Lima clinic of Dr. Lozada, who gave her an education and helped put her son through high school. Medina later married Raúl Jurado, who fathered her second son in 1972. As of 2002, they lived in a poor district of Lima known as "Chicago Chico" ("Little Chicago"). She refused an interview with Reuters that year, just as she had turned away many reporters in years past.

Lina Medina, 5, with her doctor
and son at age 11 months

Although the case was called a hoax by some, a number of doctors over the years have verified it based on biopsies, X rays of the fetal skeleton in utero, and photographs taken by the doctors caring for her. Extreme precocious puberty in children 5 or under is very uncommon; pregnancy and delivery by a child this young remains extremely rare. Extreme precocious puberty is treated to suppress fertility, preserve growth potential, and reduce the social consequences of full sexual development in childhood.

Source(s): wikipedia, time.com,