interesting, funny facts, enhance your knowledge...:-)

2013-01-24T00:44:00.005-08:00

Interesting Facts about India

India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name 'Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus.
Chess was invented in India.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were developed in India in 100 B.C.
The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
India is the largest democracy in the world, the 7^th largest Country in the world, and one of the most ancient civilizations.
The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.
India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.
The largest employer in India is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.
The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
The Art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word 'NAVGATIH'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.
Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484 days.
The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.
Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also originated in India.Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C.during the Vedic period.Even today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).
Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world
(Source: Gemological Institute of America).
The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
Sushruta is regarded as the Father of Surgery. Over2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgeries.
Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient Indian medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism,physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
India exports software to 90 countries.
The four religions born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively.
Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.
There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.
Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively
The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.
The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.
Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.
Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.
His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharmashala in northern India.
Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.
source: official website of indian gov.

2012-12-12T11:28:00.001-08:00

10 Interesting Facts About

Samsung

Samsung is big. Or, it has grown big over the years. Currently, Samsung Groups is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. Let’s learn some interesting facts about Samsung:

1. One Samsung, Many Businesses

For those who think that Samsung is just electronics (tablets, smartphones, etc.), you couldn’t be more wrong. Samsung actually comprises of subsidiaries which do business in a wide variety of markets. Some of them are: Samsung Electronics, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung C&T, Samsung SDS, etc.

2. Samsung - A Heavyweight Corporation

Let’s talk some numbers. For the year 2011 alone, Samsung’s revenue was US$ 247.5 billion, Net Income was US$ 18.3 billion, Total Assets were US$ 384.3 billion and Total Equity was US$ 224.7 billion. What I am trying to say is that Samsung is easily amongst the most heavyweight corporations that exist on the globe. If that’s not enough to impress you, Samsung had 344,000 employees on payroll in the year of 2010.

3. Samsung Influences South Korea in a Big Way

Samsung’s revenues are larger than the total GDP of many countries in the world. The company influences politics, economic development, media and culture of South Korea in a big way. The company wields so much power that it has the capability to shape the policy of the South Korean Government when it comes to doing business with other economies of the world.

4. Samsung - The 3 Stars

Ever wondered what’s the meaning of the word ‘Samsung’? Well, the word in Korean means “three stars”. In the words of the founder of the Samsung Group, the three stands for big, numerous and powerful and stars stands for eternity. It’s living right up to its name as of now.

5. Samsung's Early Business

Samsung, in its founding days in the year 1938, dealt in groceries produced in and around the city (Su-dong) and produced noodles itself. It wasn’t even remotely associated with electronics until the 1960’s.

6. Samsung's Charity Programs

The group is not only about corporate greed and profits. It donates more than $100 million every year to the Samsung Medical Center. This is the only organization of Samsung which doesn’t make money for its bosses (it’s a non-profit organization). The facility comprises of Seoul Hospital, Kangbook Samsung Hospital, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Samsung Cancer Center and Samsung Life Sciences Research Center.

7. Number 1 Smartphone Maker

Apple is no longer the world’s largest smartphone maker, Samsung is. This achievement was bagged quite recently (in 2011).

8. Samsung Heavy Industries

Taking a break from the electronics stuff, it may surprise you that Samsung Heavy Industries is likely to supply facilities for liquefied natural gas storage to Royal Dutch Shell at a staggering US$ 48 billion for a lot of years to come.

9. A Leading Memory Chip Maker

The credit of being a leading producer of memory chips also goes to Samsung. Further, Samsung also trumped Sony in consumer popularity in 2005. All these spectacular feats have been achieved through more than two decades of hard work, commitment, passion and a desire for perfection.

10. How It Separates from American Corporation

Unlike the non-personal attitude of American corporations, the feeling of togetherness runs among the employees of the corporation as the Japanese and the Koreans have a tradition of working towards their goals as a team and bask in the glory of success as a team unlike American companies where self comes before the team.

2012-11-03T06:06:00.004-07:00

Interesting facts about Apple iPad 3

There are a few interesting facts that you need to know about the iPad 3. As the launch date gets closer & closer, your excitement will also be building up immensely. Folks!, Now get set to feel the technology heat by knowing some details about the Apple iPad 3 that you wouldn’t have heard of before. These interesting facts are:

1) The screen of the iPad 3 is a H.D one. It is so high-definition that the moment you look away after looking into the screen, the world around you becomes pixelated. The screen provides the real-world feel whereas the real-world is turned into an object here.

2) Battery life here is more than awesome!. You needn’t have to worry about recharging it often. In fact you have to worry about recharging yourself more than recharging the battery.

3) Mint money with your gadget. Use the various applications that are custom-made for money making & become rich overnight.

4) Don’t be afraid to go out in the dark!. With the iPad 3′s night light, your fears vanish.

5) Tattoo Your iPad 3 as you tattoo yourself. Get all your favorite characters tattooed on your tablet . This would make your friends jealous.

6) Make the gadget your emergency handler. Whenever you are stuck in an emergency, count on your favorite tablet to help you. Yes, there are a lot of features through which you can even tackle emergencies effectively.

So, pre-book your iPad 3 now/wait for it to be available in stores & enhance your life.

Do reply with your opinion in our comment section below.

2012-10-30T04:18:00.001-07:00

Saddam Hussein facts

( 2003-12-14 20:06) (Agencies)

Here is a brief list of facts about former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein:
Name: Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
Birth: April 28, 1937 near Tikrit, Iraq
Parents: The son of peasants. Raised by both his widowed mother and her second husband and Hussein's uncle, Khairallah Talfah, an army officer
Official family: Married to his first cousin, Sajida Khairallah Talfah, since 1963. Children: Two sons, Uday and Qusay (both deceased), and three daughters
Unofficial family: Second wife, Samira al Shahbandar. Her son, Mohammed Saffi, by her first husband was deported from the U.S. in July 2002 for being in the country without a visa
Religion: Sunni Muslim
Education:
al-Karkh secondary school, Baghdad, 1955-?
al-Qasr al-Aini secondary school, Cairo, 1960-1961
University of Cairo Law School, 1962-?
al-Mustansiriyah University, Baghdad, 1963-?
Life events and timeline:
1950s - While a student, Saddam becomes involved in the nationalist movement, which aims to over throw the British controlled Iraqi monarchy.
1956 - Saddam takes part in an unsuccessful coup to overthrow King Faisal II and Prime Minister Nuri as-Said.
1957 - Saddam formally joins the Baath Socialist Party.
July 14, 1958 - King Faisal is killed in a coup led by Abdul Karim Kassem.
October 1959 - Saddam and others attack the motorcade of Abdul Karim Kassem. The assassination attempt fails and most of the attackers are killed. Saddam escapes and flees to Syria. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser hears of Saddam's exploits and arranges for him to travel to Cairo.
February 8, 1963 - Kassem is overthrown and executed. The Baath Party assumes control of the government. Saddam returns from Cairo. The new Baath government is overthrown before the end of the year.
November 1964 - Saddam is arrested in Syria and sent to prison.
1967- Saddam escapes from prison.
July 17, 1968 - In a bloodless coup, Major General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr of the Baath party becomes Iraq's new president. Saddam becomes secretary and acting deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council.
February 1972 - Saddam visits Moscow.
October 1973 - Iraq fights against Israel in the Yom Kippur war.
1973 - Saddam is given the rank of lieutenant general.
March 6, 1975 - Saddam and Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlevi of Iran sign a treaty. Iraq gives up claims to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, while Iran agrees to end its support of the independence seeking Kurds.
1976 - Saddam is given the rank of general.
October 1978 - At the Shah's insistence, Saddam expels Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini from Iraq, where he has been in exile for 13 years.
February 1979 - The Ayatollah returns to Iran to lead the country, after the ouster of the Shah in January.
July 16, 1979 - Saddam Hussein takes over as president of Iraq.
1979 - In response to the Ayatollah's call for the overthrow of the Baathist regime, comprised mostly of Sunni Muslims, Saddam expels 40,000 Shiite Muslims. Saddam also orders the execution of Ayatollah Mohammed al-Bakr Sadr, an ally of Ayatollah Khomeini.
September 22, 1980 - Iraq launches an air attack against Iran, beginning the Persian Gulf War. In 1984 and 1986 Iraq is accused of using mustard gas and other chemical weapons against Iran. The war ends in a stalemate in 1988.
March 16, 1988 - Iraq uses poison gas against the Kurds in Halabja in Northern Iraq.
August 2, 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait.
January 17, 1991 - Operation Desert Storm begins.
February 28, 1991 - A ceasefire in the Gulf War takes effect.
August 8, 1995 - Saddam's two oldest daughters, Raghad and Rana, along with their husbands Lt. General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and Lt. Colonel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, defect to Jordan. Hussein Kamel had headed Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons program since 1987. Saddam Kamel had headed the presidential security forces.
October 15, 1995 - Saddam is reelected president.
February 23, 1996 - Saddam's sons-in-law, Lt. General Hussein Kamel Hassan al-Majid and Lt. Colonel Saddam Kamel Hassan al-Majid, are killed in a shootout, three days after returning to Iraq.
December 12, 1996 - Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son and possible successor, is shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt.
December 16, 1998 - Great Britain and the United States launch air strikes against Iraq. The attack, called Operation Desert Fox, is in response to Iraq's refusal to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors.
March 27, 2000 - Uday Hussein is elected to the National Assembly.
August 2000 - Baghdad Airport reopens, but only for humanitarian flights. Domestic air travel resumes in October.
September 30, 2000 - Iran and Iraq hold talks in Venezuela. They reaffirm their 1975 agreement, which had been in abeyance since 1980.
May 2001 - Qusay Hussein, Saddam's younger son, is elected to the leadership of the Baath Party.
September 16, 2002 - Facing the threat of U.S. airstrikes, Iraq agrees unconditionally to the return of inspectors.
September 19, 2002 - Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri delivers a letter to the UN from Saddam Hussein stating that Iraq has no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons.
October 15, 2002 - Re-elected to a seven-year term with 100 percent of the Iraqi vote, according to the Iraqi government.
November 8, 2002 - U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441, outlining strict new weapons inspections and threatening "serious consequences" if Iraq failed to comply.
November 13, 2002 - Iraq agrees to comply with Resolution 1441.
November 27, 2002 - Inspectors begin work in Iraq.
December 7, 2002 - Iraq submits to the U.N. a 12,000-page declaration of former weapons programs and civilian industries with military applications.
February 26, 2003 - CBS's airs Dan Rather's interview with Saddam on "60 Minutes II." Rather last interviewed Saddam in 1990. Saddam extended an offer to debate President Bush on a live global satellite broadcast.
March 19, 2003 - Iraq war begins when U.S. forces launched a "decapitation attack" aimed at the Iraqi president and other top members of the country's leadership. Hours later, a defiant Saddam wearing a military uniform appeared on Iraqi television to denounce the U.S.-led military campaign as "criminal" and to say his countrymen would be victorious.
April 1 & 4, 2003 - Statements from Saddam read out on television by the information minister, Mohamed Saeed al-Sahaf.
April 18, 2003 - Abu Dhabi TV broadcasts videotape showing what it says was Saddam in Baghdad's Azamiyah neighborhood on April 9, the day Baghdad fell to U.S. troops. In the tape, a man who appears to be Saddam climbs on the hood of a car and waves to a crowd of supporters. Saddam's son, Qusay, is also visible in the tape, Abu Dhabi TV says.
July 22, 2003 - Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay -- also on the coalition's most wanted list -- were killed in July, after U.S. forces stormed their hideout in Mosul.
July 29, 2003 - Saddam releases audio tape, denouncing strike on sons. He says, "Even if Saddam Hussein has 100 sons other than Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein would offer them the same path. Duty and right deserve that ... That is the hope of every fighter for God's sake, as another group of noble souls of the martyrs has ascended to their creator."
August - November, 2003 - Various audio tapes believed to have been recorded by Saddam released and broadcast on Arab media. The last audio tape was released on Nov. 16, and the CIA said the tape is "of such poor quality that the analysis is inconclusive" on whether it really is the voice of the former Iraqi leader

2012-10-30T04:17:00.001-07:00

Saddam Hussein’s Interesting Secrets – Weapons Of Gold

Saddam Hussein is no longer in this world, but he left behind a lot of interesting secrets.
A huge collection of weapons made of pure gold and silver was found.
There are grenade launchers, and pistols and assault rifles. have a look…

2012-10-30T04:14:00.002-07:00

Interesting Facts about George W. Bush

George W. Bush served as the president of the United States from 2001-2008. He was considered to be one of the most charismatic presidents of the United States. Surrounded by mystery, gossip, and rumors, the life of George W. Bush has many interesting facts and anecdotes....

George Walker Bush served as the 43rd president of the United States. He was elected and served two consecutive terms as president, from 2001 to 2008. Prior to becoming the president, he served as the Governor of Texas for 6 years. George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946 in Newhaven, Connecticut to George H. Bush (41st US president) and Barbara Bush.

Facts about George W. Bush

Bush is the oldest of 6 siblings. His younger sister, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, at the age of three.
Texas is where Bush got his elementary education. For higher studies, he was sent to Yale University.
Bush headed the cheerleading team at school, and was the head of the fraternity in his sophomore years. Like his grandfather, he also headed the Yale University 'Skulls and Bones' team.
George Bush's father, George H. Bush served as the 41st US president, from 1989 to 1993.
Unlike his father, Bush was an average student at school. He graduated from Yale University with a low C average. Nobody thought he would become the president. However, he always had leadership capabilities and stood out in that aspect.
George W. Bush followed his father as president. He is the first son to do so since John Quincy Adams followed John Adams in the early 1800s.
After Benjamin Harrison in 1888, Bush was the first presidential candidate to win the electoral college vote, but lose the popular vote.
He had a nickname: "Dubya". Mexican cuisine is his favorite and not the southern beef steaks from Texas. He only drinks diet soda and his favorite ice cream flavor is Pralines and cream.
Bush enjoys fishing and is passionate about baseball.
In his early twenties, he got addicted to alcohol and was even arrested for drunk driving, in Kennebunkport, Maine (1976).
He joined the Texas Air National Guard (1968-1973) and was trained as an air force fighter pilot.
In 1975, he bought an oil company in Midland, Texas. Since he couldn't find any oil in Texas he sold his stock. Shortly after that the company went bankrupt.
He bought part of the Texas Rangers baseball team and became the first managing general partner of a Major League Baseball team to become president.
Bush and Laura Welch were married in 1977. He was introduced to Laura, a schoolteacher and librarian, at a backyard barbecue. He proposed to her after a three months courtship. The couple settled down in Midland, Texas and have twin girls: Jenna and Barbara Pierce Bush. Laura was a positive influence on Bush. He quit alcohol in 1998.
Christian Methodist by religion, Bush is the third well-known Methodist to hold the highest office in the US, after William McKinley and his father.
Bush's viewpoints differed from the Methodist Church. The Church opposed capital punishment and the possession of hand guns. However, Bush supported both. He said that the entire country was not Methodist to make decisions in accordance with Church feelings.
Bush granted funds for projects he did not support and believe in. For example, he granted funds for stem cell and embryonic research even though he did not support it.
Bush's popularity scale features extreme statistics. His popularity increased after September 11 attacks, however, plummeted after failure to react during the Hurricane Katrina and the slump in US economy.
Bush was nearly assassinated in 2005, while visiting the Soviet State of Georgia. A man named Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live grenade at him; fortunately it failed to explode.

George Bush started well, but ended on a bad note. He is succeeded by President Barack Obama.

2012-10-30T04:12:00.002-07:00

Interesting Facts About Japan

1. Raw horse meat is a popular food in Japan.
2. Sometimes the trains are so crowded railway staff are employed to cram passengers inside.
3. For many Japanese couples Christmas is celebrated like Valentine's Day in the western world.
4. Poorly written English can be found everywhere, including T-shirts and other fashion items.
5. More than 70% of Japan consists of mountains, including more than 200 volcanoes.
6. Mt. Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan, is an active volcano.
7. Religion does not play a big role in the lives of most Japanese and many do not understand the difference between Shintoism and Buddhism.
8. A nice musk melon, similar to a cantaloupe, may sell for over $300US.
9. There are four different writing systems in Japan, romaji, katakana, hiragana, and kanji.
10. Coffee is very popular and Japan imports approximately 85% of Jamaica's annual coffee production.
11. Japan's literacy rate is almost 100%.
12. Sumo is Japan's national sport, although baseball is also very popular.
13. Sumo wrestlers eat a stew called Chankonabe to fatten up. Many restaurants in the Ryogoku district of Tokyo serve this nabe (Japanese word for stew).
14. Many of the western style toilets in Japan have a built-in bidet system for spraying your backside.
15. When you use the restroom in some one's home, you may need to put on special bathroom slippers so as not to contaminate the rest of the home.
16. Noodles, especially soba (buckwheat), are slurped loudly when eaten. It is often said slurping symbolizes the food is delicious, but the slurping also serves to cool down the hot noodles for eating.
17. Japan is the world’s largest consumer of Amazon rain forest timber.
18. Vending machines in Japan sell beer, hot and cold canned coffee, cigarettes, and other items.
19. When moving into an apartment it is often required to give the landlord a "gift" of money equal to two months' rent.
20. There are around 1,500 earthquakes every year in Japan.
21. In Japan it is not uncommon to eat rice at every meal, including breakfast.
22. Average life expectancy in Japan is one of the highest in the world. Japanese people live an average of 4 years longer than Americans.
23. Japan is the largest automobile producer in the world.
24. The Japanese language has thousands of foreign loan words, known as gairaigo. These words are often truncated, e.g. personal computer = paso kon. The number of foreign loan words is steadily increasing.
25. Tsukiji market in Tokyo is the world's largest fish market.
26. Although whaling is banned by the IWC, Japan still hunts whales under the premise of research. The harvested whale meat ends up in restaurants and supermarkets.
27. In the past men might shave their heads to apologize.
28. In the past women in Japan might cut their hair after breaking up with a boyfriend.
29. Tokyo has had 24 recorded instances of people either killed or receiving serious skull fractures while bowing to each other with the traditional Japanese greeting.
30. The first novel, The Tale of Genji, was written in 1007 by a Japanese noble woman, Murasaki Shikibu.
31. The term karaoke means "empty orchestra" in Japanese.
32. In a Sumo training "stable" the junior rikishi Sumo wrestlers must wash and bathe their senior sumo wrestlers and make sure their hard to reach places are clean.
33. Contrary to popular belief, whale meat is not a delicacy in Japan. Many Japanese dislike the taste and older Japanese are reminded of the post-World War II period when whale meat was one of the few economical sources of protein.
34. Rampant inbreeding of dogs has resulted in one of the highest rate of genetic defects in the world for canines.
35. Raised floors help indicate when to take off shoes or slippers. At the entrance to a home in Japan, the floor will usually be raised about 6 inches indicating you should take off your shoes and put on slippers. If the house has a tatami mat room its floor may be rasied 1-2 inches indicating you should to take off your slippers.
36. Ramen noodles are a popular food in Japan and it is widely believed extensive training is required to make a delicious soup broth. This is the subject of the movies Tampopo (1985) and The Ramen Girl (2008).
37. On average, it takes about 7-10 years of intensive training to become a fugu (blowfish) chef. This training may not be needed in the future as some fish farms in Japan are producing non-poisonous fugu.
38. Ovens are not nearly as commonplace as rice cookers in Japanese households.
39. Geisha means "person of the arts" and the first geisha were actually men.
40. It was customary in ancient Japan for women to blacken their teeth with dye as white teeth were considered ugly. This practice persisted until the late 1800's.
41. In ancient Japan, small eyes, a round puffy face, and plump body were considered attractive features.
42. Some traditional Japanese companies conduct a morning exercise session for the workers to prepare them for the day's work.
43. In Japan non-smoking areas are difficult to find in restaurants, including family restaurants. Many of Japan's politicians have interest in the tobacco industry so anti-smoking laws are almost non-existent. If you are planning a trip to Japan you may want to think twice if you are sensitive to cigarette smoke.

2012-10-30T04:11:00.001-07:00

Interesting Facts About U.S. Presidential Elections

The presidential election, held every four years, is the most closely watched and widely publicized of all U.S. elections. It is the one truly national election in American politics. History was made in 2008, with the election of Barack Obama as the nation's first African-American president, but as the following piece demonstrates, American presidential elections are full of interesting facts and trivia.

Misconceptions
- When voters cast their ballots in the presidential election, they are not voting directly for their preferred candidate but for a slate of their state's electors to vote for that candidate. The electoral vote, held about a month after the November election, decides the presidential race.
History
- If no presidential candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the U.S. House of Representatives decides the election. This has happened twice in American history: in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson won, and again in 1824, when John Quincy Adams was election.
- World's Best Accounting Software is Now in India. Get a Free Trail Now!
Significance
- It is possible for a candidate to win the most popular votes and still lose the electoral vote. Just ask Al Gore, who won the largest share of the popular vote in 2000, but still lost to George W. Bush.
Fun Fact
- James Buchanan, elected in 1856, is the nation's only bachelor president to date. No word, however, on whether he left his socks and underwear on the floor of the presidential mansion.
Identification
- In 2008, Barack Obama was elected the nation's 44th president. However, only 43 individuals have held the office. Grover Cleveland was elected twice to nonconsecutive terms; first as the 22nd president and later as the 24th.

2012-10-30T04:07:00.002-07:00

Hitler Facts

34 Facts About Nazi Leader Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler opens Reichsparteitag (Reich Party Day) ceremonies with an address.

(Picture from the USHMM, courtesy of Richard Freimark)

Hitler's Family

Despite becoming the dictator of Germany, Hitler was not born there. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria on April 20, 1889.
Hitler's parents were Alois (1837-1903) and Klara (1860-1908) Hitler.
Hitler had only one sibling that survived childhood, Paula (1896-1960).
However, Hitler also had four other siblings that died in childhood: Gustav (1885-1887), Ida (1886-1888), Otto (1887), and Edmund (1894-1900).
In addition to his sister Paula, Hitler had one step-brother, Alois (b. 1882) and one step-sister, Angela (1883-1949), both from his father's previous marriage.
Hitler was known as "Adi" in his youth.
Hitler's father, Alois, was in his third marriage and 51 years old when Hitler was born. He was known as a strict man who retired from the civil service when Hitler was only six. Alois died when Hitler was 13.

Artist and Anti-Semite

Throughout his youth, Hitler dreamed of becoming an artist. He applied twice to the Vienna Academy of Art (once in 1907 and again in 1908) but was denied entrance both times.
At the end of 1908, Hitler's mother died of breast cancer.
After his mother's death, Hitler spent four years living on the streets of Vienna, selling postcards of his artwork to make a little money.
No one is quite sure where or how Hitler picked up his virulent antisemitism. Some say it was because of the questionable identity of his grandfather (was Hitler's grandfather Jewish?). Others say Hitler was furious at a Jewish doctor that let his mother die. However, it is just as likely that Hitler picked up a hatred for Jews while living on the streets of Vienna, a city known at the time for its antisemitism.

Hitler as a Soldier in World War I

Although Hitler attempted to avoid Austrian military service by moving to Munich, Germany in May 1913, Hitler volunteered to serve in the German army once World War I began.
Hitler endured and survived four years of World War I. During this time, he was awarded two Iron Crosses for bravery.
Hitler sustained two major injuries during the war. The first occurred in October 1916 when he was wounded by a grenade splinter. The other was on October 13, 1918, when a gas attack caused Hitler to go temporarily blind.
It was while Hitler was recovering from the gas attack that the armistice (i.e. the end of the fighting) was announced. Hitler was furious that Germany had surrendered and felt strongly that Germany had been "stabbed in the back" by its leaders.

Hitler Enters Politics

Furious at Germany's surrender, Hitler returned to Munich after the end of World War I, determined to enter politics.
In 1919, Hitler became the 55th member of a small antisemitic party called the German Worker's Party.
Hitler soon became the party's leader, created a 25-point platform for the party, and established a bold red background with a white circle and swastika in the middle as the party's symbol. In 1920, the party's name was changed to National Socialist German Worker's Party (i.e. the Nazi Party).
Over the next several years, Hitler often gave public speeches that gained him attention, followers, and financial support.
In November 1923, Hitler spearheaded an attempt to take over the German government through a putsch (a coup), called the Beer Hall Putsch.
When the coup failed, Hitler was caught and sentenced to five years in prison.
It was while in Landsberg prison that Hitler wrote his book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle).
After only nine months, Hitler was released from prison.
After getting out of prison, Hitler was determined to build up the Nazi Party in order to take over the German government using legal means.

Hitler Becomes Chancellor

In 1932, Hitler was granted German citizenship.
In the July 1932 elections, the Nazi Party obtained 37.3 percent of the vote for the Reichstag (Germany's parliament), making it the controlling political party in Germany.
On January 30, 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Hitler then used this high-ranking position to gain absolute power over Germany. This finally happened when Germany's president, Paul von Hindenburg, died in office on August 2, 1934.
Hitler took the title of Führer and Reichskanzler (Leader and Reich Chancellor).

Hitler as Führer

As dictator of Germany, Hitler wanted to increase and strengthen the German army as well as expand Germany's territory. Although these things broke the terms of the Versailles Treaty, the treaty that officially ended World War I, other countries allowed him to do so. Since the terms of the Versailles Treaty had been harsh, other countries found it easier to be lenient than risk another bloody European war.
In March 1938, Hitler was able to annex Austria into Germany (called the Anschluss) without firing a single shot.
When Nazi Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, the other European nations could no longer stand idly by. World War II began.
On July 20, 1944, Hitler barely survived an assassination attempt. One of his top military officers had placed a suitcase bomb under the table during a conference meeting at Hitler's Wolf's Lair. Because the table leg blocked much of the blast, Hitler survived with only injuries to his arm and some hearing loss. Not everyone in the room was so lucky.
On April 29, 1945, Hitler married his long-time mistress, Eva Braun.
The following day, April 30, 1945, Hitler and Eva committed suicide together.

2012-10-23T12:53:00.002-07:00

10 Explanations for the Bermuda Triangle

The classic borders of the Bermuda Triangle are from Bermuda to Miami, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most of the mysterious disasters have occurred in its southern region from the Florida straits into the Bahamas. Well over a hundred sea and aircraft have vanished or been destroyed in the area, taking with them over a thousand men, women, and children, and no one yet knows why.

Plain Old Human Error

Because it isn’t exactly a dramatic revelation, human error makes only 10th place (they get more interesting). In terms of probability, those who have no interest in the supernatural — or as yet misunderstood science — will usually stop with all the ships and planes wrecking in the Triangle as a result solely of human error.
Humans make a lot of them. Even the most well trained, seasoned pilot’s concentration can momentarily lapse, and that is sometimes all it takes for disaster. The most famous plane wreck of the Triangle’s storied history is that of Flight 19, on 5 December 1945. The flight leader was Lieutenant Charles Taylor, a Naval Air Corps flight instructor. This story in particular will never let the Triangle’s mystique die, because Taylor was no rookie at the controls. They were supposed to practice dry bombing runs over the Florida keys, south of Florida, but somehow became so disoriented on the way home that they flew out over the Bahamas. Then all 14 airmen crashed into the open sea well northeast of Florida and were never heard from again.
A rescue party of 13 in a PBM Mariner was dispatched to search, but this plane is thought to have blown up in mid-air from an unknown cause. Extremely strange occurrences for professional military airmen, but it can always happen. Taylor’s radio transmissions have been preserved and indicate that his compass malfunctioned (see #5). Because he could no longer find magnetic North, he and his crew attempted to return West to the Florida coast by keeping the afternoon sun in front of them. This still did not succeed and the military’s explanation for the flight bewilderment is that Taylor mistook outline of the Bahama islands for the coastline of Florida.

The Gulf Stream

In explaining why no wreckage of various ships and downed planes has ever been found in the fairly shallow waters, the Gulf Stream is typically blamed. It is, in effect, a saltwater river on the surface of the ocean, with a warmer temperature than the surrounding seawater, causing it to flow northward along the east coast of the U. S. The current itself is in most place along the coast about 60 miles wide, and 2500 to 4000 feet deep, flowing on the surface at about 8 feet per second, with more than sufficient strength to drive enough hydroelectric plants to power all of North America. The Stream is nowhere stronger or faster on the surface than in the Triangle.
When ships sink or planes impact the water, they float momentarily, up to several hours depending on the severity of the vessel’s damage. During that time, the wreckage is carried northward by the Stream until sinks below the Stream, and finally to the bottom of the sea. Thus, a vessel could encounter disaster at one location and reach its final resting place in another. When rescuers reach the scene of last communication, they may find only the ocean, and may search a radius of several hundred square miles without finding a shred of anything. This doesn’t explain why so many ships and planes go down in the Triangle, but it can explain why almost immediate rescue efforts and subsequent deep-sea salvage operations turn up nothing at all.

Rogue Waves

Rogue waves were only theorised by science for centuries, until proof was established on 1 January 1995, at the Draupner oil rig off Norway. In rough seas with average waves of 39 feet, the oil rig was too high to be touched, until a single wave of at least 85 feet slammed across the underside, causing minor damage. It was recorded on sensors and proved what superstitious sailors had been swearing to in the same drunken tales of sea monsters.
The waves are possibly the most terrifying occurrences on the ocean. There can be no prior warning of them, no mathematical computation involving where and when they might occur. They are simply several dozen waves of average height for the conditions that suddenly merge into one and climb and climb. Their maximum limits are not known. An 85 footer is quite small. A 157 footer struck Fastnet Lighthouse, Ireland, in 1985. Such gigantic, nearly vertical walls of water are easily capable of flipping super tankers and sinking them in seconds. The largest ever ship was the Knock Nevis or Seawise Giant, at 1503 feet long. Titanic was only 882.5 feet. The Knock Nevis would have had to turn straight into a rogue wave and surf it in order not to turn over and founder, and even then, a 157 footer might still sink it.
Rogue waves are not caused by any one factor, but high winds and strong currents routinely cause waves to merge. They are still rare, occurring only about once every 200,000 waves. They are somewhat more prevalent in the Triangle than in calm areas of the world’s oceans, because of hurricanes and the Gulf Stream itself. A 157 foot high wave can utterly immerse and knock down any low-flying airplane or helicopter, especially those of the Coast Guard rescue, which fly low to search for shipwrecks and their survivors.

Methane Hydrates

These are more properly called “methane clathrates,” which in water environments are hydrates. How many are present around the world, and how large they are is unknown. A methane hydrate deposit is methane gas trapped in a natural lattice structure of crystallised water, similar to ice. Such deposits lie under the seafloor at almost any depth, some only inches beneath the water. Depending on their size, they can possess colossal potential energy, and when released all at once, the eruption can be sufficient to cause oil well blowouts. It was a methane hydrate that caused the Deepwater Horizon Disaster in 2010. The oil drill finally struck the hydrate deposit submerged in the ocean of oil beneath the seabed, and the methane destroyed the entire rig, sinking it a mile to the bottom.
It is quite plausible that a methane hydrate could erupt from under the seabed, expelling methane gas hundreds of feet to several miles all the way to the surface, and at the surface, a passing ship of any size could find itself centered over the escaping gas. If this occurs, the methane gas would turn the area around the ship to froth, severely decreasing the water’s buoyancy, and cause any ship, from a wood rowboat to a super tanker to sink in less than 10 seconds. No one on board would be able to abandon ship fast enough. The ocean itself would, in effect, swallow the vessel whole.

Hurricanes

The Bermuda Triangle stares down both barrels of Hurricane Alley each year. It’s rather easy to avoid one at sea, since any able seafarer will pay close attention to weather reports of it and have a week or more of prior warning to get out of the area. But that’s the case with modern technology. The Triangle’s mysterious disappearances date back to the Spanish and Portuguese conquistador era.
The most unpredictable, and thus most dangerous, by-product of a hurricane is a microburst, a sudden downdraft caused by the storm’s rotation sucking air down from high altitude. When this air reaches the surface of the ground or water, it spreads outward at speeds over 170 mph, regardless of the Hurricane’s category strength, more than sufficient to snap full-grown oak trees, or flip over any ship in the world. Airplanes are at risk of being forced into a stall and nosedive. Well trained pilots and helmsmen routinely fall prey to microbursts, and once they sink, the phrase “without a trace” is redundant given the Gulf Stream and the size of the ocean.

5/An Electromagnetic Aberration

Popularly thought of as a hole in Earth’s electromagnetic field. There are multiple places on Earth where a compass will not point North. Of course, compasses point to magnetic north, and as a compass travels across Earth’s surface, the needle will be seen to move in relation to the magnetic pole, and is quite incorrect in pointing to true North. Nevertheless, compasses behave very strangely in some places around the world.
At either magnetic pole, the needle will spin. At the actual North or South Pole, the needle will point to magnetic North, and thus be incorrect. In the Gobi Desert, some of the Altai Mountains are made of naturally magnetic stone, and within 100 miles of them, compasses will spin if surrounded, or simply follow the mountains as they pass by.
Compasses also behave erratically in the Bermuda Triangle. If you pass through any of its three borders, the aberrations will not cease instantaneously, but these reported electromagnetic aberrations can be plotted on a map with a center squarely in the Triangle. One or two mariners over the centuries could be referred to entry #10, but several thousand maritime travellers, in vehicles from small boats to large ships and airplanes, have complained of being unable to rely on their compasses during sections of their journeys through the Triangle.
It is open ocean, and no submerged anomalies have ever been reported. The sea floor has been completely mapped with sonar. Shipwrecks and plane wrecks are not magnetic, and have no bearing on compasses. Whatever causes the electromagnetic disturbances affects compasses very rarely, but there are many reports of needles intermittently spinning or spiking. It’s easy enough to navigate via the sun or stars, provided they’re visible, but the aberrant behaviour of compasses remains a mystery, and a likely cause of at least some of the disasters.

Positive Gravitational Mascon

“Mascon” is short for “mass concentration,” in this case of gravity. Gravitational mascons were theorised once the space age reached full gear, but they were, until the 1970s, only thought to exist in extremely massive celestial bodies, such as the Sun. Today, we know better. There are positive and negative mascons under every single square inch of every celestial body in the Universe. No one knows exactly what causes them, but nowhere in the known Universe are they more pronounced than on the Moon.
Astronauts from the 1960s on recorded noticeable dips in the orbits of satellites around the Moon, both manned and unmanned. These dips usually coincided with the Moon’s “seas,” such as the Sea of Tranquility, as well as the largest impact craters. It was found that the soil of the seas is made of basalt, which is why they are dark-colorer, and basalt is extremely dense compared to the lighter-colorer soil and rock around it. When an orbiting object passes over one of these seas, the denser material yanks on it with much more gravity than the Moon’s average pull. If Earth is said to have a gravitational pull of 1, the Moon is about 1/6th. Jupiter is 2.53, and a neutron star is 10 to the 11th power, or about enough gravitational pull to overpower 33% of the speed of light. The basalt of the Moon’s seas does not, however, explain the above average gravity centered in its impact craters. The Moon’s mascons are so powerful that no satellite can maintain an orbit for longer than about 4 years without being corrected. Left uncorrected, the satellite passes over multiple mascons until they finally yank it into free fall.
You are currently sitting on a mascon, whether negative or positive, but it is so microscopic in size and/or density that you cannot feel it. Nevertheless, gravity pulls slightly less in the Swiss Alps than in Paris, France. Such gravitational discrepancies are present everywhere around us. It is very possible that there are minute, yet unbelievably dense and powerful, positive mascons peppered under the seafloor throughout the Triangle. They may or may not be sufficient to affect seagoing vessels, but combined with a vessel traveling downward in a trough between two waves in rough seas, a mascon may be able to yank a ship underwater in 3 seconds or less, and continue pulling it all the way to the bottom. Since air is a much thinner medium than water, a mascon’s effect is even greater on aircraft, as evident with satellites.

Aliens

Easy enough to explain, given that they’re still pure science fiction. You could supply your own text to this entry, really. In general, all stories of aliens causing bizarre disappearances in the Triangle center on abductions. Remember, once you say “aliens” anything goes. The aliens are evidently curious about humans and periodically snatch a few from the Triangle for who-knows-what. Spielberg used this theory in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” depicting the airmen of Flight 19 stepping off the mothership at the end.
This theory has been put forth to explain the Mary Celeste, though it sailed a few hundred miles north of Bermuda, not through the Triangle. One of the most mysterious ship disappearances is that of the USS Cyclops, an armed Navy bulk cargo ship transporting 11,000 tons of raw manganese for use in munitions. Raw manganese ore is not flammable, so if there was an explosion, the manganese did not cause it. A boiler might have exploded, and that could easily sink even a huge ship, but if so, the wooden parts of the ship scattered across the water would not have sunk, and the Gulf Stream would have carried them northward along the East Coast, likely washing up on Bermuda’s beaches.
The Cyclops left Rio de Janeiro on 16 February 1918 for Baltimore, Maryland. It stopped in Bahia, Brazil on schedule on 20 February, then stopped in Barbados for a check to see if it was overloaded. It was deemed secure and seaworthy and departed on 4 March, north through the center of the Triangle, and was never seen again. Stories like this one have given rise to the theory of aliens beaming entire ships and planes into spaceships.

Rip in the Spacetime Continuum

Even less probable than alien adbuctions, but then, how much do we fully understand about Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity? He theorised that space and time combine to form one entity, and that everything in the Universe sits on this space-time, which, in effect, acts and reacts like a fabric suspended at the ends. A very massive object like the Sun rests on and indents this fabric more deeply than a less massive object like Earth. Black holes are just that, holes in the fabric of space-time. What’s on the other side? Today’s mathematics hit a brick wall at that point. No one knows.
A rip in the space-time continuum is not necessarily a black hole. Many are called Einstein-Rosen Bridges, or more popularly, wormholes. The shortest distance between two points is, in this case, not a straight line, but zero. The wormhole effectively teleports anything that enters it from Point A to B instantly, regardless of the distance, and Points A and B are not necessarily different physical locations, but could be the same location in different time periods. So you can travel from Earth to some planet in the Upsilon Andromedae star system instantly, rather than spending 44 years traveling at the speed of light. According to General Relativity, superluminal (faster than light) travel is impossible unless the laws of physics are first discarded. It also theorises that the laws of physics cease to exist inside a wormhole.
Because a full mathematical description of wormholes has not yet been formulated, it is, at least for now, possible (just not feasible) that a wormhole exists in the Triangle, though not at all times, that this wormhole instantly transports anything entering it to another location in the Universe, or to another time in the same location. Possible credence for this theory centers on Carolyn Cascio, who was mentioned in detail on another list.
In brief, she was a veteran pilot who chartered vacations in the Bahamas. On 7 June 1964, she flew from Nassau for Grand Turk Island, the largest of the Turks Islands, and densely populated. It has lots of houses, condos, hotel resorts, an airport, and many other signs that it is inhabited, but when Cascio reached Grand Turk, she radioed ahead that she thought she was lost. She stated that the island was the same shape and size of Grand Turk, but was utterly bereft of any sign of human habitation. It had nothing but woods and beaches on it.
Her radio transmissions were received by Grand Turk airport, which radioed back that she was at the right island, and could land anytime, but she didn’t. She radioed that she could not find the airport, even though she was flying directly over it. She circled it over a dozen times, being radioed frantically from the tower, but never responded. Her transmissions indicated that her radio was not receiving, though the airport received hers, and though in full view of it for 30 minutes, she finally flew off back the way she had come, and neither she, nor her passenger, nor her plane was ever seen again. The above story is true.
The mathematical theories involved with how wormholes work are not yet fully described, so until the possibility of a wormhole in the Bermuda Triangle is proven or disproven, it must be construed as possible for Cascio to have entered one at Point A sometime during her trip to Grand Turk and exited at the same location in a time, Point B, before humans had inhabited Grand Turk. She was, then, unable to fly back through the same rip in the space-time continuum.

Submerged Island of Atlantis

This theory is argued based on the evidence of apparently man-made structures in 15 to 20 feet of water, just off the northwest coast of North Bimini Island, about 50 miles east of Miami, Florida. These structures have come to be called the Bimini Road, and they were only discovered by a scuba diver on 2 September 1968. They are limestone rocks, fairly rectangular for the most part, and all roughly but neatly fitted together as a pavement about half a mile long. There are two other similar structures between this road and the island’s beach, also of limestone blocks. The blocks range in size from 6 feet to 13 feet wide. The other two roads are about 150 feet and 200 feet long, comprised of smaller blocks.
The rectangular shape of most of the blocks, as well as their orderly arrangement in straight lines of up to half a mile lead many to surmise that they are man-made, cut from limestone quarries and set up as either a road or wall. The longer road is arranged as if it were a section of wall surrounding North Bimini Island. It may be possible that the Bimini Road is the only remnant of the sunken Island of Atlantis shallow enough to have been discovered.
Plato theorised that Atlantis flourished about 9,600 BC, and had been far advanced technologically, artistically, and politically beyond his Ancient Greece, the most advanced society in the world at the time. He described it as having lain “in front of the Pillars of Heracles,” which are the Strait of Gibraltar, and that because of a horrible cataclysm, perhaps a volcanic eruption, “in one single day and night of misfortune, the Island of Atlas vanished from the face of the earth.”
It is no secret that there may have been such an island; the Atlantic Ocean is named after the same root, Atlas. If Atlantis is there at the bottom of the ocean, perhaps its civilisation was so technologically advanced as to survive submerging to an average Bermuda Triangle depth of about 3.8 miles. Sonar bathymetry maps do not show any anomalous underwater features in the Atlantic Ocean other than the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but Atlantis could have been a very flat Island that would not register on sonar equipment.
The Atlanteans’ technology could have been so far beyond even ours today that they could protect themselves from the pressure of 4 miles of water on top of them, and their descendants continue to live at least partly beneath the Triangle. Their civilization could have the power to disrupt the electromagnetic field, sink ships, down aircraft, and salvage sunken wreckage.

2012-10-23T12:45:00.002-07:00

Top 10 Most Overrated Novels

[COMPETITION: This list includes a competition.] There are many titles given to great literary works, and many awards to recognize truly great literature. This list wants to concentrate on the other side of the board: those books that are considered “classics,” but are in fact heavily overrated. These could be wildly popular books that were best sellers, but just weren’t that good, or books that are considered “among the best ever” by academics but fail as being readable or good literature beyond some fancy literary trick. In at least one case (see #10), this list also includes good books that are fun reads, but are rated way above the actual quality of writing. Here is the list of ten of the most overrated novels:

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

J.R.R. Tolkien

What better way to start a list than with controversy? “The Lord of the Rings” remains a cornerstone of the fantasy adventure genre, and the story is certainly epic. That being said, Tolkien was more of a professor and creative inventor than a writer, and that shows in these books. “The Hobbit” was by far and away the best written of all his works, and while the story from “The Lord of the Rings” is excellent and ambitious, the writing itself leaves a lot to be desired. There are the wandering plots, the many pages of details that are completely superfluous, and the often occurrence of “dues ex machine” to keep the plot moving. The story may be good, but for a series often considered one of the best of all time, the writing itself won’t measure up to that lofty praise.
Buy at Amazon: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition

A Passage to India

E.M. Forster

“A Passage to India,” is widely considered E.M. Forster’s best novel, and is still popular in academe. It is often hailed as an early radical work on race relations that was shocking at the time. Modern critics point out that as opposed to Hemingway, Joyce, Huxley, Sinclair Lewis, or other authors whose works are still popular outside of academic study, Forster’s characters sound like wooden caricatures. The writing is dated and slow, the “social commentary” questionable, and the Indian natives in this novel don’t seem that much different than the Brits, dulling it of the impact that the writers of the Harlem Renaissance had. These critics all have very valid points.
Buy at Amazon: A Passage to India (Penguin Classics)

White Noise & Underworld

Don Delillo

This is a two for one deal. Don Delillo is absolutely adored by many English professors. His works are equally despised by many grad students and other English professors. These works seem to find the far majority of their fans among professors, while the common readers aren’t biting. Add the fact that just as many professors seem indifferent to these works, and Delillo can be considered badly overrated.
Buy at Amazon: White Noise (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century)

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand might be the most divisive author not named L. Ron Hubbard. There’s also the chance she is just as divisive. While often pointed out as one of Rand’s “epic” works, “Atlas Shrugged” is a slow paced, thinly veiled, political and moral treatise whose hype is so far beyond the quality of the story that there was no way this book could avoid this list – even if it was generally considered a quality read by the majority of readers. [JFrater: you can't say we don't allow different opinions to have a voice on this site: this is one of my favorite books!]
Buy at Amazon: Atlas Shrugged (Centennial Ed. HC)

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

“A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking was nicknamed “The unread best seller,” by many critics who noted it was a best seller, but very few people actually read past the first few chapters. “100 Years” is the fictional equivalent. This is considered a genius work that is incredibly complex and ushered in magical realism as a genre, but when you need cliff notes as extensive as the book itself to kind of understand the plot, and this book is kept alive mostly by being taught in colleges, you have a problem. For a book that is almost a lock to be on any “100 best books ever” list, it is amazingly unreadable if you need to actually understand what’s going on.
Buy at Amazon: One Hundred Years of Solitude (P.S.)

5,The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown

This is a book loved by the masses, and isn’t thought of well at all by literature majors or professors. A lot of basic facts are wrong, the writing is poor and amateurish, the narrator mixes with the main character’s point of view, and there’s a lot of thinly veiled social opinions pushed forward as facts. Why is this novel not the most overrated of all time? Because a lot of readers already recognize this for what it is: a story with enough controversial elements and a good marketing gig to hit the best seller list, but a work that was not very well written at all, and a story with a ton of holes in it.
Buy at Amazon: The Da Vinci Code

Confederacy of Dunces

John Kennedy Toole

The story behind this novel is fascinating: the author commits suicide after failing to find a publisher and ten years later the novel is published and wins the Pulitzer Prize. This is a story that is a somewhat modern and Americanized “Don Quixote.” The writing is fairly good, but this is a “funny” story that does enough to get an occasional smirk, but also throws out thirty jokes that just don’t do it. Following that, this book breaks one of the cardinal rules of literature: if you’re following one character as the ‘hero,’ he has to be someone the reader likes, or can at least sympathize with. This book is an acceptable read, but its reputation now grossly exceeds its actual quality.
Buy at Amazon: A Confederacy of Dunces

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

This book went out of print for nearly three decades. Yeah, Fitzgerald was that important. Then almost thirty years after the rest of the world moved on, two professors wrote a ton of academic papers about Fitzgerald’s “brilliance” in the 1960′s and this book was put back into print to be taught in every high school in the nation. You can almost hear the recurring groans of every student who has ever wondered how this lame rehashed soap opera was ever brought out of printing banishment.
Buy at Amazon: The Great Gatsby

Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte

This book is a classic because… well… there doesn’t seem to be much explanation for that. This was a highly ambitious book, and the Brontes did make a name for women authors, but just because a book was ground breaking at the time doesn’t mean it should remain a classic. Some books are horribly dated, badly structured, and not even all ground breaking books are well written. Many argue that “Wuthering Heights” is guilty of all three literary sins, and this novel’s extremely high place in the literary canon makes it number two on the overrated list.
Buy at Amazon: Wuthering Heights (Penguin Popular Classics)

Emma

Jane Austen

Say what you will, but any book where pretty much nothing happens for 400 pages before the naïve girl suddenly matures and marries the much older man named “Mr. Knightly” (and lives happily ever after) should not be considered the greatest book ever. Through colleges and grad schools, many students have heard this book repeatedly called the perfect novel, the perfect plot, and the best novel ever written. It may have been ground breaking at the time, but it is now the equivalent of chick lit with a very basic plot that is heavily dated. It might be light summer reading for teenage girls, but it is not the best novel ever written by a long shot, making this the most overrated novel of all time.
Buy at Amazon: Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics)

2012-10-23T12:27:00.005-07:00

10 Unhealthy Foods You Think are Healthy

I love food. I do also love unhealthy food, unfortunately, and in an attempt to help myself and others with trying to eat healthier, I made this list to make people aware that what you might think of as healthy, might just be quite the opposite. But remember – if eating a kind of food makes you feel good, then do so! Being happy and content is just as important for your health as nutrition is… at least I like to think so!

Vegetable Oils

Like some of us learned in Chemistry class, fat is supposed to be more healthy the more liquid it is, therefore it’s commonly believed that all vegetable oils are healthy. And hey, they’re from plants, too! So this sounds about right. It is actually a general rule that the fat is more healthy the more liquid it is, since the “healthy” double bonds in the unsaturated (or good, if you will) kind of fat will decrease the melting point. However, what most people forget, is that ordinary butter can be liquid too, if it’s just heated a little. The “oil” used for frying in fast food restaurants, is most commonly palm oil, an almost purely saturated (unhealthy) oil. It’s semi-solid at room temperature, but is of course liquid when heated and used for frying, and it’s certainly not healthy. If another more healthy oil had been chosen for frying, those tasty fries wouldn’t have been bad for you. Not at all, as long as the potatoes are of good quality. “Then why don’t the fast food restaurants use the healthy kind of oil then?” you might ask yourself. The unhealthy stuff is cheap, and the fast food companies tend to care more about their money than your health.

Pasta

Although there are near infinite variations, and therefore several healthy variations of this food swell, the typical pasta you get when you buy your spaghetti, macaroni or noodles, at least in the Western World, is just plain white flour, mixed with water and eggs (although the small percentage of egg included don’t contribute much to the nutritional value of pasta). No vitamins, no minerals, and barely any fiber. Nothing, except empty carbs, shaped as pasta. And just to make things worse, “fast food pasta,” take-away Chinese food for instance, often contain loads of salt, mixed with unhealthy fat.

White Bread

This is pasta, but shaped like bread. You probably already knew this, but there are still people left in the world that think that all kinds of bread are good for them. White bread is not, trust me!

Soup Mix

I mean come on, you didn’t think that goofy green powder you mix into water could be good for you, did you? Well, it isn’t. When you eat soup, you eat/drink the water, milk, butter, or whatever else you had that powder mixed into, along with a mixture of tasty salt and preservatives. A lot of salt, in fact. Salt is sadly often overlooked as a risk-factor in food. Salt is actually a major contributor to heart disease. It has to be excreted from the body. The kidneys do this job, and without going too deep on the physiology, the blood pressure increases the more salt you consume, in order to excrete it. And high blood pressure is not good for you, which you probably already know.

Ketchup

Don’t let the fact that it almost got accepted as a vegetable in the United States fool you. Despite containing the antioxidant lycopene (antioxidants greatly reduce the risks of mutations in your body, and the risk of developing diseases like cancer), ketchup contains loads of sugar (as high as 26% carbohydrates, according to Wikipedia), and also a lot of salt. Most of the ketchup we eat is processed and non-organic, so the lycopene levels are much lower than what it could be from the amount of tomatoes used.

5.Diet Soda

I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this item, as I’m not sure if the definition of “food” includes drinks in the English language, as it doesn’t in my native tongue, but what the heck, I decided to just go for it anyway. You probably knew that soda would never be healthy, diet or not, but did you know that it can be quite bad for you, swell? Scientists are still unsure about this. Some even say diet coke is worse than the sugar-stuffed versions. This is actually a quite controversial debate, as there hasn’t been too many scientific studies done on the health effects of diet soda, but the few there has been, hasn’t exactly proved good for the diet soda fanatics. Some studies have shown that diet soda may not be too bad for you by it self, but it still gave the test group a considerable weight gain. A theory was that diet soda actually stimulated the appetite, so that you “ate back” more than the calories you saved by drinking a diet soda instead of a sugary version. Several animal studies have suggested that the artificial sweeteners used in diet soda can cause weight gain, just like ordinary sugars. Also, some of these sweeteners, like Aspartame, have been believed to increase the risk of certain kinds of cancer, although this has not been scientifically proven, as far as I know.

Processed Cheese

It’s probably common knowledge that cheese isn’t too good for you, but processed cheese is actually -really- bad for you! Here’s a little story from my childhood, on the subject.
Since when I first ate a hamburger at the local Burger King, I wondered what kind of cheese they used on those delicious hamburgers they sold there. It was so… good and cheesy, and yellow too! Many years passed, and I, as a burger fanatic, tried many types of cheese on my homemade hamburgers without really getting the wanted result. Then, one day when I traveled over the border to Sweden, I found the cheese I was looking for in the first grocery store I went into. “American cheese” it was named, if I’m not mistaken, and I bought a couple of these which I took home to Norway, to put them to the test. And yep, that was the yellow, cheesy cheese I had been looking for! Since we all know that Norway is a much better place to be than Sweden, despite the two countries being pretty much the same, EXCEPT for the Swedes selling this cheese, I felt had to do some investigation.
And indeed, my bad feelings turned to disbelief, as I found out that processed cheese (which doesn’t actually meet the requirements for being called cheese), was so high in salt that it was actually not sold here. Some sources also showed that the average processed cheese you get on your fast food burgers contain so much salt that you can reach far past the recommended daily intake with just 2-3 slices of cheese. I’m not sure how the Burger King here gets the cheese though, but that’s probably another story…

Soy Sauce

This actually came as a shock to me, being a lover of soy sauce. I was enjoying this tasty, fat-free sauce with a good conscience until I wrote this party popper of a list. Oh well. Unlike many other soy products, soy sauce does not contain certain antioxidants known as isoflavones, but the level of antioxidants in soy sauce is still so high that it’s often viewed (or mistaken), as healthy. On the negative side, however, soy sauce contains very high amounts of salt. There has also been several studies showing that there are often chemicals known to increase the risks of certain types of cancer, found in soy sauce. Luckily, after much stricter regulations on these chemicals and the relatively fresh knowledge of the dangers associated with high salt-contents, there now excises several kinds of low-sodium soy sauces, free of dangerous chemicals. Sadly, as with most healthy variants of various foods, it is not as tasty as the real deal.

Peanuts

Nuts are generally healthy. Most sorts come packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and lots of goodies for your body to enjoy. Peanuts is not a horrible exception, but it might not be as good as other kinds of nuts. The majority of peanuts sold as snacks come packed with salt, and they are often roasted and come coated in unhealthy fats. But the nuts themselves are healthy, you say? Well, maybe. Of course they have the before mentioned benefits of containing a lot of vitamins and minerals, but they contain A LOT of the kind of unsaturated fatty acids known as omega-6 fatty acids. You might have heard about it before, along with the omega-3 acids.
It is a scientific fact that a food intake with a too distorted omega 6:omega 3 ratio (in favor of the omega 6 version), increases the risk for many common diseases, like diabetes and Alzheimer’s. The ratio SHOULD be 1:1, but the American diet ranges between 1:20 and 1:50, in favor of the omega 6. Maybe I shouldn’t go as far as to say peanuts are bad for you, but they should be consumed in a limited quantity, and they should be eaten as nature made them – raw and without added salt.

Fruit Juice

Controversial perhaps, but this entry is number 1 for a good reason – so many people believe fruit juice is so healthy that they substitute it for all whole fruit in their diet. Now it is true that fruit juice contains a lot of vitamins but it is at great cost; most fruit juice is pumped up with extra sugar and aside from a few varieties has its pulp removed. The pulp in fruit provides essential fibre which can be considered a good counterbalance to all the natural sugar contained in the fruit. So my advice to you: ditch fruit drinks and eat whole raw fruit instead.

2012-10-23T12:11:00.002-07:00

Top 10 Incredible Food Facts

Food is something we interact with on a daily basis – frequently, in fact. There are many very obscure facts about food that are fascinating and definitely worthy of knowing. So, at the behest of Juggz, here is a nice trivia list about food.
10. Coffee

The Fact: The most expensive coffee in the world comes from civet poop
Kopi Luwak are coffee beans that come from Civet (a cat sized mammal) poo. The animals gorge on only the finest ripe berries, and excrete the partially-digested beans, which are then harvested for sale. Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States, but it is increasingly becoming available elsewhere. My question is: who the hell discovered that it tasted good?
9. Feast

The Fact: The largest food item on a menu is roast camel
The camel is stuffed with a sheep’s carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs. This feast is sometimes featured in Bedouin weddings.
8. Bugs

The Fact: The FDA allows you to sell bugs and rodent hair for consumption
The FDA allows an average of 30 or more insect fragments, and one or more rodent hairs, per 100 grams of peanut butter. I will certainly think twice before buying my next jar!
7. Soup

The Fact: The first soup was made of hippopotamus
The earliest archeological evidence for the consumption of soup dates back to 6000 BC, and it was hippopotamus soup!
6. Refried Beans

The Fact: Refried beans are only fried once
The reason for this misconception is a translation error. The originals are frijoles refritos which actually means “well fried beans” – not re-fried.
5. Worcestershire Sauce

The Fact: Worcestershire sauce is made from dissolved fish
Worcestershire sauce, the popular English sauce, is made from dissolved anchovies. The anchovies are soaked in vinegar until they have completely melted. The sauce contains the bones and all.
4. Popsicle

The Fact: The Popsicle was invented by an 11 year who kept it secret for 18 years.
The inventor was Frank Epperson who, in 1905, left a mixture of powdered soda and water out on the porch, which contained a stir stick. That night, temperatures in San Francisco reached record low temperature. When he woke the next morning, he discovered that it had frozen to the stir stick, creating a fruit flavored ice treat that he named the epsicle. 18 years later he patented it and called it the Popsicle.
3. Microwaves

The Fact: Microwave cooking was discovered accidentally, when a chocolate bar melted in someone’s pocket
This is very true and very scary – imagine what it was doing to his leg! The fact is, Percy LeBaron Spencer of the Raytheon Company was walking past a radar tube and he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He then tested popcorn in front of the tube (surely turning up the power and standing out of the beam), and it quickly popped all over the room. He is (obviously) known as the inventor of the Microwave oven.
2. Peanuts

The Fact: Dynamite is made with peanuts
Peanut oil can be processed to produce glycerol, which can be used to make nitroglycerin, one of the constituents of dynamite. Note however, there are other processes that can be used to make dynamite without using peanuts at all.
1. Coconut Water

The Fact: Coconut water can be used (in emergencies) as a substitute for blood plasma.
The reason for this is that coconut water (the water found in coconuts – not to be confused with coconut milk, which comes from the flesh of the coconut) is sterile and has an ideal pH level. Coconut water is liquid endosperm – it surrounds the embryo and provides nutrition.

2012-10-19T04:36:00.003-07:00

Top 10 Common Misconceptions

Following the popularity of our historical misconceptions, we offer you another list – top 10 common misconceptions. Feel free to add your own in the comments.
10. Napoleon was unusually short

Much of the reason for the rumours that Napoleon was a short man (and thus had to compensate by invading countries and becoming ruler of Europe) comes from the confusion between old French feet and Imperial (British) feet. Measured shortly after his death in 1821, Napoleon was recorded at 5ft 2in in French feet, which corresponds to 5ft 6.5in in Imperial feet, or 1.69m. This makes him slightly taller than the average Frenchman of the 19th century. Napoleon’s nickname of ‘le petit caporal’ has also perpetuated the rumour, with non-francophones interpreting ‘petit’ to refer to his height, when it was actually a term of affection referring to his camaraderie with ordinary soldiers.
9. Danish Pastries come from Denmark

Arguably the world’s most misleadingly named food, Danish pastries actually originated in Austria, inspired by Turkish baklava. Their name comes from Danish chef L.C. Klitteng who popularized them in Western Europe and the United States in the early 20th century, including baking it for the wedding of US President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. In Denmark and much of Scandinavia, Danish pastries are called ‘Viennese Bread.’
During the Islamic cartoon controversy of 2006, Danish pastries were renamed ‘Roses of the Prophet Muhammad’ in Iran, due to its association with the offending country.
8. Meteorites are hot when they hit Earth

We’ve all seen the cartoons where a meteor falls to Earth (at which point it becomes a meteorite) with a red-hot tinge and smoke blowing off it in all directions. In truth, small meteorites are cold when they hit Earth – in fact many are found with frost on them. A meteorite has been in the near–absolute zero temperature of space for billions of years, so the interior of it is very cold. A meteor’s great speed is enough to melt its outside layer, but any molten material will be quickly blown off, and the interior of the meteor does not have time to heat up because rocks are poor conductors of heat. Also, atmospheric drag can slow small meteors to terminal velocity by the time they hit the ground, giving them time to cool down.
7. Water spins in different directions

Another bane of cartoons. Toilet water does NOT spin in a given direction due to being in a particular hemisphere of the Earth. That phenomenon only occurs in weather patterns of hundreds of miles in size like hurricanes, due to the rotation of the Earth. So there.
6. Bats are blind

A common misconception perpetuated by its use in metaphors and similes (see also 5), bats actually have fairly normal eyesight, although they are very photosensitive and often dazzled by excessive light. However, bats do often use echolocation in situations where their eyesight fails them, such as times of darkness.
5. Chameleons change colour to match their surroundings

An interesting and fun idea, sure, but simply not true. While chameleons can be perceived to change their colour to match their background, a chameleon’s colour change is actually the expression of the physical and physiological condition of the lizard. Chameleon’s are already naturally camouflaged to match their surroundings, and change their colours depending on their mood, and sometimes a sign of communication. A chameleon that is frightened, for example, will turn black.
4. A duck’s quack doesn’t echo

Sounds ludicrous right? Well this rumour somehow worked up a cult following on the Internet who protested its factuality with an almost religious fervour. It got to the point that a respected scientist actually decided to take valuable time out of his day, when he could be curing cancer or something else unimportant, to test this theory. Trevor Cox, of the University of Salford, England, confirmed what all us logical people knew all along – a duck’s quack DOES echo.
He placed a duck in a reverberation chamber and tested its quack. Sure enough he concluded that a duck’s quack does echo, though the sound that comes back is very soft due to the fading nature of the actual quack. Hooray for science.
3. Hitler was an atheist

“We were convinced that the people needs and requires this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out.”
– Adolf Hitler, Berlin, 1933
Christianity – a religion of peace and tolerance that preaches moral values and love for one’s enemies. Well clearly, from a historical perspective, this has certainly not always been the case, although it’s not so much the religion’s fault as the people who attempt to follow it. With over a billion worldwide adherents, is it really probable that everyone who considers themselves a Christian is a pious, holy and moral human being?
One of the most damning criticisms of Hitler and of atheism in general is that Hitler, as an atheist had no morals and thus could kill freely without care or feeling. Well Hitler was certainly not an atheist; he was born a Roman Catholic, although how religious he actually was is debatable. It is clear though that Hitler was an evil man, and that his religion was irrelevant to his malevolent personality.
In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote fondly of his experiences in Church festivals, and as leader of the Nazi party made many references to the glory of Christianity in his speeches. Including making references to Jesus’ death at the hand of the Jews in an attempt to rile up anti-Semitic sentiment in his mostly religious audiences. He adopted many aspects of Catholic hierarchy, liturgy and symbolism, though he was very critical of Catholicism in private. In fact, Hitler favoured Protestantism, due to it being open to interpretation. He also ridiculed occultism and neo-Paganism that was relatively popular in Germany at the time.
Strangely enough, Hitler greatly admired the Muslim faith and tradition saying, “the Mohammedan religion too would have been much more compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its meekness and flabbiness?”
2. Humans evolved from monkeys

One of the most common misconceptions about Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is that Darwin claimed we evolved from chimpanzees. Darwin never actually said this, nor will any respectable biologist. This myth was actually spread by religious zealots during the 19th century in order to try and discredit Darwin and promote anti-evolutionism among the religious. Humans and chimpanzees are actually cousins (we share about 94% of our DNA with them) and both evolved from a common ancestor, thought to be Sahelanthropus tchadensis, around 7 million years ago.
1. “Just Desserts”

‘Just desserts’? Does that even make sense in context? The correct phrase is actually ‘just deserts’, and don’t worry if you didn’t know that because you’re not alone, and the chances are that someone much more intelligent than you didn’t know it either. The reason for this misunderstanding comes from the rarely used noun form of the verb ‘to deserve’; something which is deserved is a ‘desert’ (pronounced dessert). It’s hard to tell when the usurpation of the original word was made, but it probably had something to do with witty restaurateurs naming their businesses ‘Just Desserts’ as a pun, and the phrase catching on as the original is forgotten.

2012-10-19T04:32:00.003-07:00

15 Fascinating Lesser-Known Science Facts

here we have focussed especially on lesser-known trivia. Hopefully you will find at least a handful of items here that are completely new to you. Be sure to add your own fascinating facts to the comments.

1. An iceberg contains significantly more total heat energy than a burning match. The reason is the sheer size of the iceberg.
2. Caves breathe. They inhale and exhale great quantities of air when the barometric pressure on the surface changes, and air rushes in or out seeking equilibrium. [Source]
3. While the chances of being struck by a meteor are extremely slim, there have been a number of documented cases: On June 21, 1994, Jose Martin of Spain was driving with his wife near Madrid when a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) meteor crashed through his windshield, bent the steering wheel and ended up in the back seat. Martin suffered a broken finger while his wife was uninjured. [Source]
4. When a new queen bee emerges in a hive, she “pipes” (repeatedly sings a G# or A note) to incite her worker bees to fight for her if another queen in the hive needs killing. You can listen to the piping in the youtube clip above. All bees pipe the same note – but Africanized bees pipe more frequently and louder. You can hear another clearer example here. The difference in pitch between the video clip and the sound file is cause by compression and quality of recording devices.
5. There is a current scientific hypothesis that the sun has a companion which is currently about 1-1.5 light years away. It is believed that it has an elliptical orbit which, every 26 million years, sends matter towards the earth causing mass Extinction events. It was the discovery of these seemingly regular events that gave rise to the hypothesis in the first place. The star is predicted to be most likely a red or brown dwarf and has been named Nemesis or “Death Star”. [More]

Facts 6 – 10

6. Fulgurite is the name for fossilized lightning. They are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, or silica, or soil by lightning strikes and are formed when lightning with a temperature of at least 1,800 degrees Celsius instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together. The image above is a fulgurite.
7. When Anders Celsius (1701–1744) created the celsius scale, he invented it upside-down with 0 ℃ being the boiling point of water and 100 ℃ being the freezing point. It was reversed in the year of Celsius’ death by Carolus Linnaeus.
8. When dropped on a very hard, rigid surface, glass balls and steel balls will bounce higher than rubber ones. The reason is that rubber balls deform significantly on impact, flattening onto the surface, and then springing back. In the process of this squashing, some energy is lost. [Source - physics.illinois.edu]
9. 65 Million years ago, a meteor impact in Chicxulub, Mexico caused megatsunamis thousands of feet high. It is believed by some scientists that this impact was the single cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. [More]
10. Sound travels much faster through a steel than it does air: Sound travels at 5100 m/s through steel, 1480 m/s through water and 330 m/s through air.

Facts 11 – 15

11. Most icebergs are salt-free water caused by mainland glaciers. Some sea-water icebergs do exist – they are green. When an icebergs pics up sea-water, it can create green stripes. Additionally, normal water that freezes more rapidly in the ‘berg can cause blue stripes. These are quite stunning to see and the picture above is a good example of this effect. Click the image above for a larger view; and no, it isn’t photoshopped. Here’s proof.
12. The cracking sound of a whip is actually a sonic boom – this is because the tip of the whip travels faster than the speed of sound. The whip is the first man made device capable of exceeding the sound barrier.
13. At this moment, the earth is in the middle of an ice age which began around 2.58 million years ago. We are in an interglacial period which started between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago and may last for a further 50,000 years before global glaciation begins again. [Source - NASA]
14. The Nintendo gaming software company first opened its doors to business in 1889 as “Nintendo Koppai”. Its first product? Playing cards. [Why is this item on the list? Computer science.]
15. The world’s first nuclear reactor was built in a squash court beneath a Chicago football stadium on December 2, 1942. While it only generated enough power to light a flashlight, it proved that nuclear power was feasible.

2012-10-18T05:20:00.001-07:00

Top 10 Cool Facts about Space

There is still so little known about outer space by modern science, but of that little we do know, there are some extraordinarily amazing things. This is a list of the top 10 cool facts about Space.

10. Lightweight

Fact: If you put Saturn in water it would float

The density of Saturn is so low that if you were to put it in a giant glass of water it would float. The actual density of Saturn is 0.687 g/cm³ while the density of water is 0.998 g/cm³. At the equator Saturn has a radius of 60,268 ± 4 km – which means you would need an extremely large glass of water to test this out.

9. Constantly Moving

Fact: We are moving through space at the rate of 530km a second

Our Galaxy – the Milky Way is spinning at a rate of 225 kilometers per second. In addition, the galaxy is travelling through space at the rate of 305 kilometers per second. This means that we are traveling at a total speed of 530 kilometers (330 miles) per second. That means that in one minute you are about 19 thousand kilometers away from where you were. Scientists do not all agree on the speed with which the Milky Way is travelling – estimates range from 130 – 1,000 km/s. It should be said that Einstein’s theory of relativity, the velocity of any object through space is not meaningful.

8. Farewell old friend!

Fact: The moon is drifting away from Earth

Every year the moon moves about 3.8cm further away from the Earth. This is caused by tidal effects. Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century. Scientists do not know how the moon was created, but the generally accepted theory suggests that a large Mars sized object hit the earth causing the Moon to splinter off.

7. Ancient Light

Fact: The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old

The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago – it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun! The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 kelvins. All of the energy produced by fusion in the core must travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight or kinetic energy of particles.

6. Solar Diet

Fact: The Sun loses up to a billion kilograms a second due to solar winds

Solar winds are charged particles that are ejected from the upper surface of the sun due to the high temperature of the corona and the high kinetic energy particles gain through a process that is not well understood at this time. Also, did you know that 1 pinhead of the sun’s energy is enough to kill a person at a distance of 160 kilometers? [Sourced from Planet Science]

5. The Big Dipper is not a constellation

Fact: The Big Dipper is not a constellation, it is an asterism

Many people consider the big dipper to be a constellation but, in fact, it is an asterism. An asterism is a pattern of stars in the sky which is not one of the official 88 constellations; they are also composed of stars which are not physically related to each other and can be vast distances apart. An asterism can be composed of stars from one or more constellations – in the case of the Big Dipper, it is composed entirely of the seven brightest stars in the Ursa Major (Great Bear) constellation.

4. George’s Star

Fact: Uranus was originally called George’s Star

When Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he was given the honor of naming it. He chose to name it Georgium Sidus (George’s Star) after his new patron, King George III (Mad King George). This is what he said:

In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, ‘In the reign of King George the Third.’

Uranus was also the first planet to be discovered with the use of a telescope.

3. Extra Moons

Fact: Earth has at least 4 moons

Okay – that is not actually true – but it is very close. In 1986, Duncan Waldron discovered a asteroid (5km across) that is in an elliptic orbit around the sun with a period of revolution virtually identical to that of Earth. For this reason the planetoid and earth appear to be following each other. The periodic planetoid is namedCruithne (pronounced krin-yə) after an ancient group of Scottish people (also known as the Picts). Because of its unusual relationship with Earth, it is sometimes referred to as Earth’s second moon. Cruithne, is fainter than Pluto and would require at least a 12.5 inch reflecting telescope to attempt to be seen. Since its discovery, at least three other similar asteroids have been discovered. These types of objects are also found in similar relationships to other planets in our Solar System. In the image above (courtesy of Paul Wiegert), the earth is the blue circle with a cross in it, and Cruithne’s orbit is shown in yellow.

2. Sunspot Music

Fact: Sunspot activity may be the primary reason for the beautiful sound of Stradivarius violins

Antonio Stradivari is considered to be the greatest violin maker ever. He lived in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Scientists have been unable to work out what it is about his violins that makes them so incredible, but they do know that the timber used to make them is a very important contributing factor. From the 1500s to 1800s, the earth underwent a little ice age mostly due to increased volcanic activity and decreased solar activity (this is called the Maunder Minimum). As a result of this cooling, the types of trees that Stradivari used for his violins were particularly hard (due to slow growth). Hard timber is especially good when making violins. It is very probable that had Stradivari lived in a different age, his violins would not be prized as they are today. This picture above is made of three overlapping photos. It shows the rings in the spruce tree used to make the most famous Stradivarius violin, the “Messiah.” The first row of numbers gives the width of each ring in millimeters (one mm is about the thickness of a fingernail). The bottom row gives the years in which each ring grew.

1. Cold Welding

Fact: If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently stuck together

This may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form in to one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesn’t happen on earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces. This might seem like it would be a big problem on the space station but as most tools used there have come from earth, they are already coated with material. In fact, the only evidence of this seen so far has been in experiments designed to provoke the reaction. This process is called cold welding. For those who still don’t believe it, here is the Wikipedia article on Cold Welding.

2012-10-18T05:18:00.002-07:00

Top 10 Misconceptions About Islam

In the words of Swiss journalist and author, Roger Du Pasquier “The West, whether Christian or dechristianised, has never really known Islam. Ever since they watched it appear on the world stage, Christians never ceased to insult and slander it in order to find justification for waging war on it. It has been subjected to grotesque distortions the traces of which still endure in the European mind. Even today there are many Westerners for whom Islam can be reduced to three ideas: fanaticism, fatalism and polygamy. Of course, there does exist a more cultivated public whose ideas about Islam are less deformed; there are still precious few who know that the word islam signifies nothing other than ‘submission to God’. One symptom of this ignorance is the fact that in the imagination of most Europeans, Allah refers to the divinity of the Muslims, not the God of the Christians and Jews; they are all surprised to hear, when one takes the trouble to explain things to them, that ‘Allah’ means ‘God’, and that even Arab Christians know him by no other name. “

10
Muslims are Arabs

Misconception: All Muslims are Arabs

The common image of a Muslim is a turbaned dark Arab man with a long beard. However this image is part of the minority of Muslims. Arabs make only 15% of the world’s Muslim population. As a matter of fact the Middle East comes in third with East Asia coming in at first (69%) and Africa (27%) coming in at second. Another common misconception is that all Arabs are Muslims. While the vast majority of Arabs are Muslims (75%), there are many other religions that Arabs practice including Christianity and Judaism.

9
Muslims and Jesus

Misconception: Muslims Hate Jesus

There are many similarities between the historical references of Christianity and Islam. Many people are amazed to find out that according to Muslim belief, Jesus is one of the greatest messengers of God. One cannot be a Muslim without believing in the virgin birth and the many miracles of Jesus Christ. Jesus is also mentioned in many verses of the Quran and is often used as an example of good virtue and character. However, the main difference between Christianity and Islam is that Muslims do not believe that Jesus was God. Pictured above is Jesus in an Islamic portrayal of the last judgement.

8
Children’s Rights

Misconception: Children have no rights

Children, according to Islamic law, have various rights. One of these is the right to be properly brought up, raised, and educated. Islam encourages children to be brought up well because it is the responsibility of an adult to raise his child to become a moral and ethical adult. Children must also be treated equally. When giving financial gifts they should all be the same amount and there should be no preference among them. Children are even permitted to take moderately from their parent’s wealth to sustain themselves if the parent declines to give them proper funds for living. A child is also not allowed to get hit in the face or hit by anything larger than a pencil.

7
Religious Intolerance

Misconception: Islam is intolerable to other religions

‘Kill the infidel’ is the phrase many people believe is the ideology that Muslims have towards the non Muslims. This, though, is not a correct portrayal of Islamic law. Islam has always given respect and freedom of religion to all faiths. In the Quran it says “God does not forbid you, with regards to those who fight you not for religion nor drive you away out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them, for god loves those who are just.” There are many historical examples of Muslim tolerance towards other faith. One such example was when the caliph Umar was ruler of Jerusalem from 634 to 644 AD. He granted freedom to all religious communities and said that the inhabitants of his city were safe and that their places of worship would never be taken away from them. He also set up courts that were designated to the non Muslim minorities. Whenever he would visit holy areas he would ask for the Christian patriarch Sophronius (pictured above) to accompany him.

6
Islamic Jihad

Misconception: Jihad means to fight for the sake of god

The true Arabic meaning of the word jihad is struggle. However in Islam it is often used to describe the striving in the way of god. There are many forms of jihad but the most important ones are Jihad al-nafs (jihad against ones self), jihad bil-lisan (jihad by being vocal), jihad bil yad (jihad by using action), and Jihad bis saif (jihad by using the sword). Each jihad is ranked differently and it was reported that Muhammad returned from a battle and said “We have returned from the lesser jihad (going into battle) to the greater jihad (the struggle of the soul).” This means that a Muslim struggling against himself and his soul is more important than the jihad of going into war. Another misconception is that only when a person dies in war does that person becomes a martyr. This is, however, false and it is believed that anyone doing anything for the sake of god and is killed becomes a martyr. A person who dies while performing pilgrimage in Mecca, a woman who dies while giving birth, or even someone who dies in a car crash while he was on his way to the mosque are all considered martyrs.

5.Child Bride

Misconception: The Prophet Muhammad was a pedophile

While it is true that he married a girl that was at the age of nine that does not constitute pedophilia. Historically, the age at which a girl was considered ready to be married has been puberty. This was the case in Biblical times, and is still used today to determine the age of marriage in many parts of the world. This was part of the norm and is not something that Islam invented. The girl he got married to had reached puberty 3 years before marriage. It is upon reaching the age of puberty that a person, man or woman, becomes legally responsible for their actions under Islamic law. At this point, they are allowed to make their own decisions and are held accountable for their actions. It should also be mentioned that in Islam, it is unlawful to force someone to marry someone that they do not want to marry. There is no indication that the society at that time criticized this marriage due to the girl’s young age. On the contrary, the marriage was encouraged by the girl’s family and was welcomed by the community at large.

4
Muslim Savages

Misconception: Muslims are savages and barbaric during war

Quite the contrary, when it comes to the conduct of war there are ten rules that every Muslim army must obey:

1. Do not commit treachery
2. Do not deviate from the right path
3. Do not mutilate dead bodies
4. Do not kill children
5. Do not kill women
6. Do not kill aged men
7. Do not harm or burn trees
8. Do not destroy buildings
9. Do not destroy an enemy’s flock, unless you use it for your food
10. When you pass people who have devoted their lives to monastic services leave them alone

During the crusades when Saladin defeated the franks he honored the defeated Frankish army and supplied them with food and during the third crusade when Saladin’s enemy king Richard fell sick, Saladin sent him a gift of fruits and horses.

3
Women’s Rights

Misconception: Women have no rights

The image of a woman wearing a veil from head to toe, a woman who gets unfair justice or a woman who is not allowed to drive is an all too familiar notion when it comes to women treatment in Islam. And while there are Muslim countries in the world that do implement many harsh rulings against women, this should not be portrayed as Islamic law. Many of these countries have cultural differences that go against the teachings of Islam. It should be noted that during pre-Islam Arabia women were used for fornication only and had no independence. The birth of a daughter in a family was considered humiliating and the practice of female infanticide was uncontrolled. When Islam came to being, verses in the Quran condemned the practice of female infanticide. Islam gave back many human rights to the woman and Muhammad(s) was even reported saying that “women are the twin halves of men.” A Muslim woman is allowed to reject and accept any suitor for marriage and has the right to seek divorce. There is nothing in Islam that forbids a Muslim woman from exiting her house and is allowed to drive. Also in regards to education, a woman is obligated to seek knowledge and it is considered a sin if she refuses.

2
By the Sword

Misconception: Islam was spread by the sword

Historian De lacey O’Leary states “History makes it clear however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated.” There is no record in history that shows people being forced by sword point to convert to Islam. When Islam spread through countries they would set up private churches and synagogues for the non Muslims they were governing and because of the good treatment they had received they themselves would convert. If one considers the small number of Muslims who initially spread Islam to the west all the way from Spain and Morocco and into east from India and China one would realize that such a small group of people could not force others to be members of a religion against their will. It is also interesting to note that when the Mongols invaded and conquered large portions of the Islamic empire, instead of destroying the religion they adopted it!

1
Islamic Terrorism

Misconception: Muslims are terrorists

This is by far the biggest misconception of Islam, given unfairly by stereotyping and the public image that the media gives. Has anyone else noticed how when a specific group of people attack another group of people it is labeled as a ‘hate crime’, but when a Muslim opens fire on anybody it is quickly regarded as ‘terrorism’. Many political dictators and officials or extremist groups use the name of Islam as a strategy to garner followers and attention when many of their practices go against the true basis of Islam. The media has also portrayed Islam as a cult or a club where if you join you become a terrorist and that is now part of your agenda. However all over the world people practice Islam in the true form and use it as a way of life. There are many verses in the Quran that go against the idea of terrorism. Some of these verses include “fight in the way of Allah those that fight you but do not transgress limits for god does not love transgressors.” This basically means do not fight except in self defense and even in doing so do not go beyond defense. Another verse states “if they seek peace, then you seek peace,” which means do not attack people for no reason or kill innocent people. There is nowhere in Islam, whether it be in the Quran or the teachings of Muhammad, that promotes the killing of innocent people. Pictured above is a conference of Muslims against Terrorism.

2012-10-18T05:17:00.002-07:00

8 Scandalous Michael Jackson Moments

Michael Jackson who has featured on this site in the past died on Thursday, June 25. Therefore, as an odd tribute to his talent as a musician, we have put together this list of the most bizarre and scandalous moments in his 50 years.

8
Crotch Grab

In the 18-minute music video for “Bad”—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. While he has described this as “choreography,” it garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as “infamous”. The racy “crotch grab” dance move became Jackson’s trademark. The move is commonly seen in today’s music videos but at the time, the crotch grabbing shocked the world.

7
Cosmetic Surgery

In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty surgery was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson’s second rhinoplasty and other subsequent operations. Many believe that he used this as an excuse to get a nose job. In 1993, the popstar stated that he had only had two cosmetic operations – on his nose and chin – done, for medical reasons. His extreme physical transformation suggests that he’s had more than just two, however.

6
Concert Cancellations

After Jackson reportedly cancelled numerous concerts in 1999, Munich event organiser and Jackson’s friend Marcel Avram lodged a complaint of ‘breach of contract’ against the singer. Jackson then threw the same charge at Avram. After a tug of war in the court room, the two friends managed to come to an agreement.

5
Hurricane Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, Jackson promised to record a song about the disaster to aid charity. He worked on the project with artists from London and Los Angeles, according to reports in the autumn of 2005 — but the single never eventuated.

4
Bad Debts

In a bizarre twist on the “rags to riches” genre, Michael returned to rags after pouring out enormous quantities of money in defending himself in the various lawsuits against him in recent years. Reports of financial problems for Jackson became frequent in 2006 after the closure of the main house on the Neverland Ranch as a cost-cutting measure. One prominent financial issue for him concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. Jackson had been one of the world’s richest popstars, reportedly worth several hundred million dollars in the 1990s.

3
Neverland

Jackson’s home “Neverland” contained, among other things, a zoo and a theme park, with a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, zipper, spider, sea dragon, wave swinger, super slide, dragon wagon kiddie roller coaster, and bumper cars. It is named after Neverland, the fantasy island in the story of Peter Pan, where children never grow up. On February 25, 2008, Jackson received word from Financial Title Company, the trustee, that unless he paid off $24,525,906.61 by March 19, a public auction would go forward of the land, buildings, and other items such as the rides, trains, and art. On May 12, 2008, a foreclosure auction for the ranch was canceled after an investment company, Colony Capital LLC, purchased the loan. Jackson was in default on the $24.5 million owed on the 2,500-acre (10 km2) property. In a press release, Jackson stated, “I am pleased with recent developments involving Neverland Ranch and I am in discussions with Colony and Tom Barrack with regard to the Ranch and other matters that would allow me to focus on the future.”

2
Balcony Baby

In 2002, Jackson brought his new born son (Prince Michael Jackson II – also known as Blanket) onto the balcony of his hotel room in Berlin, as fans stood below. Holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby’s face, Jackson briefly extended the baby over the railing of the balcony, four stories above ground level, causing widespread criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it “a terrible mistake”.

1
Child Abuse

This is undoubtedly the most controversial scandal that occurred in Michael Jackson’s life. In 2003, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit a child sexual abuse felony against Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time. Earlier that year, a Granada Television documentary, called Living with Michael Jackson, showed the pop star holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with Arvizo. Jackson denied these allegations, saying that the sleepovers were in no way sexual in nature. Jackson was found not guilty but this ultimately ended his music career.

This article is licensed under the GFDL because it contains quotations from Wikipedia. Some information courtesy of Bild with thanks.

2012-10-18T05:14:00.002-07:00

10 Common Misconceptions About Britain

If you are British, or know a lot about Britain, you won’t be surprised by the misconceptions below. However, you may be even MORE surprised to learn that in some places these things are believed! If you believe all or any of these points, sorry, but you are mistaken – but fortunately listverse is here to correct things. Here they are, in no particular order:

10
British Nation

Misconception: Britain is a country.

While “Britain” or “Great Britain” does refer to the general area, neither of them refers to a country. Britain is a general term for Wales, Scotland and England collectively, while The British Isles also includes Ireland (Northern and the Republic). England is most often incorrectly named in this way, and English people are often referred to as “British”. Northern Ireland is part of the “United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland” which differentiates between the part of Ireland that is governed by England (hence the suspension of the Northern Ireland government in 1972 and the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2002) from the Republic of Ireland which is a self-governing nation.

While calling an English person British is technically correct, it is quite unspecific in the same way that calling a Canadian person “North American” would be; only Britain is not a continent.

9
Warm Beer

Misconception: British people drink beer warm or room temperature.

I myself have heard this said a number of times but I have yet to discover where it comes from. Walking into a British bar and ordering a beer any way but cold would raise eyebrows just like everywhere else.

In fact, the most popular lager beers in Britain tend to be of the “Extra Cold” variety, and this applies to most bitter beers and ales too! Nobody likes a warm beer, the British included.

Having said that, most Americans like their Beer super cold, so an English beer may appear to be warm in comparison, but it is still cold. Chilling beer too much can damage its flavor.

8
The Book of British Smiles

Misconception: British people have bad teeth.

This one is commonly referred to in comedy shows poking fun at Britain, but is believed by many to be hard fact.

While a percentage, just like any other country, will suffer from dental problems, the standard of oral hygiene is generally very high. In fact, the shortage of available NHS dentists is a constant issue in England. Just like anywhere else in the world, a person with bad teeth is considered the slightly gross exception, not the rule in Britain.

7
God Save The Queen

Misconception: “God Save The Queen” is the National Anthem of England.

That’s right, I said England, not Britain. GSTQ is the national anthem of Britain, but not England itself. Despite this, even English people will insist that the song is our national anthem. This is not the case. Wales has it’s own national anthem, as do Scotland and Northern Ireland. What sets England apart is not that its national anthem is applied to the whole of Britain too, but that it in fact does not even have an official national anthem at all!

So what happens when (for example) England plays against Scotland in a game of football? We can’t both use GSTQ for the opening, this isn’t a problem for Scotland who can bring out their own anthem, but England’s choice will vary. Common stand-ins for when GSTQ cannot be used (for whatever reason) are “Land Of Hope And Glory”, “I Vow To Thee My Country” or “Jerusalem”. All of which are popular contenders for becoming the official anthem. Sadly none of them are official, and neither is GSTQ, which is only official for Britain itself.

People may be interested to know that God Save The Queen is the official anthem of New Zealand which is one of the very countries in the world which has two anthems of equal status. New Zealand’s other anthem is God Defend New Zealand.

6
Absolute Power

Misconception: The Queen is the ruler of Britain.

Did I hear you say “But she IS the ruler of England!”? Sorry, you’re still wrong. The monarchy has not had political power in Britain for a long time. Each British country has it’s own parliament and are ruled politically by their own Prime Minister.

While the monarchy does technically rule Britain, it does not have any power outside of ceremony. The Queen does not have power in Britain any more than she does in Canada and other commonwealth countries. All of these countries are technically “ruled” by the Queen, but she does not have power in any of them.

The British monarchy exists today mainly for ceremonial and tourist reasons.

5.How Now Brown Cow

Misconception: British people speak the “Queen’s English”.

Or to use the more common term, British people talk “posh”. Look at any representation of Britain from a foreign country and you will see British people speaking in a manner that is considered just as ridiculous to most of Britain. We all know what that sounds like, if not, take a look at Fry’s Holophonor tutor in Futurama. Know what I mean? Then read on.

This may come from the way in which English is generally written in Britain. It is always taught that you should write “properly” and use correct language in formal writing so that it is easier to understand when read. Despite this, British people rarely speak the way they write, myself included.

In reality, Britain has a wide variety of accents, some even bordering on dialects, the majority of which do not sound remotely like how British speech is presented in foreign media. To see some examples of this, I suggest watching some British television or British cinema. (NOT the news! Newsreaders are told to use Queens English so that they can be understood by all, this is even called “BBC English”).

Good examples are Trainspotting (Scottish accent – in the clip above – warning: clip contains bad language and drug use), 28 Days Later (Modern London and Manchester accents) and Sweeny Todd (Old London accent).

People who speak the way British people are commonly presented sound just as snooty and posh to British people.

4
Free Healthcare

Misconception: Britain has free universal healthcare.

Ahhh… The good ol’ NHS (National Health Service)! Sadly, as is commonly unknown to people outside of Britain, the NHS is not free, nor will it cover any illness or injury. The NHS is paid for through taxes and donations and will only provide certain approved services or treatments.

While it is true that emergency treatment is almost always free of charge, treatment for long-term illness or injury is almost always charged. Certain drugs will be provided for certain illnesses, but if your illness or the drugs and treatment you require is not on the “approved” list. You will not get it from the NHS. This is always a controversial issue in Britain.

The NHS is also not available to non-British citizens except in the case of emergency. Even then the emergency must have taken place within Britain.

3
Scottish Money

Misconception: Scottish money is legal tender in the rest of Britain.

If you have ever attempted to use Scottish pounds sterling in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, you will know that many places will not accept it.

Scottish pounds sterling are not legal tender in all of Britain, and shops in outside of Scotland are not legally obliged to accept it. Banks outside of Scotland will accept it, but legally it is down to the manager’s discretion whether or not to accept it in any other location. What is the difference between Scottish pounds sterling and the pounds sterling used in the rest of Britain? Actually nothing. Aside from how it looks.

So why do many places outside of Scotland refuse to accept it? The most common reasons are that either they are not commonly seen and so are not recognised, or due to the idea that its design and the fact that most people outside of Scotland rarely see it make it easy to forge.

It may be frustrating if you come from Scotland for a trip around Britain, but there really is nothing to say that shopkeepers have to accept Scottish money, no matter how much you insist.

2
Rain Rain Everywhere

Misconception: It always rains in Britain.

When people think of Britain, we all tend to immediately think of bad weather. We see rain clouds, storms and bitter wind. General misery. However, compared with many other parts of the world, Britain enjoys comparatively pleasant weather!

During the winter the average temperature can become bitterly cold (between 0 and 6 degrees C), but the average summer temperature ranges between 15 and 23 degrees, often higher. Britain ranks a comfortable 46th in a chart of worldwide average rainfall, falling well behind such countries as New Zealand (29th) and even the USA (25th).

Why does Britain have a reputation for bad weather? Most likely because winters tend to be longer than summers in Britain, most artwork of Britain depicts the weather based on expectation and we all like to dwell on a period of bad weather, even if the weather is generally good.

1
British Tea

Misconception: British people drink excessive amounts of tea.

There are many ways of looking at which regions drink the most tea, but whichever way you look at it; Britain is not the biggest tea-drinking region by a long way. Taking population into account, Britain ranks somewhere around 3rd worldwide, falling well behind Turkey and India. Depending on your source, China still sits above Britain in the tea-drinking league tables even when considering population.

Where does this notion come from? Well, it is true that Britain does drink a lot of tea, but it is far from the top. Britain actually drinks almost as much coffee as it does tea. This misconception may actually stem from a linguistic difference between us and other English speaking regions. In most places, the evening meal is referred to as “dinner” or “supper”. This is correct terminology in Britain too, but an evening meal is very often referred to as “tea”. So when a British person invites you round for tea, they are inviting you for a meal, not to just sit and drink tea, which is how some people imagine the situation. This is also true of the commonwealth nations, where “come for tea” usually means “come for the main evening meal”.

A British person will almost never invite you round solely to drink tea, although if you stop by it will commonly be offered. Tea is most often drunk after a meal at dessert, or after strenuous activity as another option to coffee.

Bonus Fact: I am British, and I never drink tea, I don’t like the taste. This isn’t uncommon either!

2012-10-18T05:11:00.001-07:00

Top 10 Facts About Earth and its Orbit

The Earth passes through four seasons as it orbits the Sun, along with increasing daylight length in the six months between the winter and summer solstice and decreasing daylight length between the summer solstice and the winter solstice. We also experience a 24-hour cycle that is the Earth’s daily rotation, and a 28-day cycle that is the Moon’s rotation around the Earth. These are cycles that repeat indefinitely. However, many subtleties are hidden in and around these cycles, that most people do not know about, cannot explain, or do not notice.

High Point

Fact: The Sun is not necessarily the highest at noon.

The change in the time the sun is at its highest point in the sky (true noon) varies throughout the year. This happens for two reasons: the Earth’s orbit is an ellipse, rather than a circle, and the Earth is tilted with respect to the Sun. Since the Earth is rotating at a (very nearly) constant speed but is orbiting faster at some times of year than others, sometimes the Earth’s rotation is either ahead of, or is lagging behind its respective orbital in a circular orbit. The change due to Earth’s obliquity can best be thought of by imagining points close to each other all around the Earth’s equator. If you tilt the circle of points by 23.44 degrees (the current value of Earth’s obliquity), you see that all except the points now on the equator and tropics change their longitude. There is also a change in the time the point the Sun is highest in the sky with the observer’s geographical longitude (that is which longitude they reside in their local time zone) but that factor is constant for each longitude.

Sunrise Direction

Fact: Sunrise/sunset times do not change direction immediately at the solstices.

Most people think that, in the northern hemisphere, the sun sets the earliest on the December solstice and sets the latest on the June solstice. This is not actually true. The solstices are simply the dates in which, the daylight length is the longest or the shortest. However, the change in the time of true noon pulls the sunrise and sunset times with it. At the December solstice, true noon is getting later at a rate of 30 seconds per day. Since there is no change in daylight length right on the solstices, sunset is also getting later at a rate of 30 seconds per day and so is sunrise. Since sunset is getting later at the winter solstice, the earliest sunset has already happened. Since sunrise is also getting later at this date, the latest sunrise still has yet to come. It also happens that the latest sunset takes place a short time after the summer solstice and the earliest sunrise takes place a short time before the summer solstice. However, this difference is not as significant as that of the December solstice, because the change of noon due to eccentricity at this solstice is detracting from the change of true noon due to obliquity, (change of true noon due to obliquity is positive at both solstices), but the total rate of change is still positive.

Earth’s elliptical orbit

Most people know that the Earth orbits the Sun in an ellipse, rather than a circle, but the value of the Earth’s orbital eccentricity is approximately equal to 1/60. A planet that orbits its sun periodically always has an eccentricity between 0 and 1, including 0 but excluding 1. An eccentricity of 0 means the orbit is a perfect circle with the Sun at the center and the planet orbiting at a constant speed. However, such an orbit is extremely unlikely as there is a continuum of possible eccentricity values. The eccentricity, in a closed orbit, is measured by dividing the distance between the Sun and center of the ellipse by the length of the semi-major axis of the ellipse. The orbit becomes increasingly longer and thinner the closer the eccentricity gets to 1. The planet always orbits fastest when it’s nearest to its Sun and slowest when it’s farthest from its Sun. When the eccentricity is greater than or equal to 1, the planet comes around its Sun once and flies back out into space never to be seen again.

Earth wobbles

The Earth goes through periodic wobbles, known and nutation. This is due mainly to outside gravitational forces pulling on the Earth’s equatorial bulge. The Sun and Moon pull on Earth’s bulge, making the Earth wobble. However, for casual astronomical observations, these effects are negligible. The Earth’s obliquity and longitude have a period of 18.6 years, the time it takes for the Moon to circle through its nodes, and lesser wobbles of six months and two weeks, which are due to the orbit of the Earth around the Sun and the Moon’s orbit around the Earth, respectively.

Flat Earth

Fact (kinda): Earth really is flat.

I suppose the Catholics from Galileo’s era were maybe just a tiny bit right in believing the Earth to be flat. It just so happens that the Earth is almost spherical but it is slightly flattened at the poles. The Earth’s equatorial radius is 6378.14 kilometers, but its polar radius is 6356.75 kilometers. Consequently, geologists have had to come up with different versions of latitude. Geocentric latitude measures the viewers latitude as an angle with respect to the equator and the center of the Earth. Geographic latitude measures the viewer’s latitude as an angle with respect to the equator and a straight line extending directly below his feet. Geographic latitude is the standard for plotting maps and identifying coordinates. However, the angle measuring the Earth-Sun declination (how far north or south the Sun shines on the Earth depending on the time of year) is always measured as a geocentric value.

5.Precession

The Earth’s axis slowly spins like that of a top. Also, the ellipse forming the Earth’s orbit very gradually rotates, making the shape traced out by the earth around the Sun over many years form a daisy. Due to both types of precession, astronomers have identified three types of years: sidereal year, (365.256 days) which is one orbit with respect to distant stars, anomalistic year (365.259 days), which is the length of time it takes for the Earth to travel from its closest point (perihelion) to its farthest point from the Sun (aphelion) and back again, and tropical year (365.242 days) the duration from one spring equinox to the next.

Milankovitch Cycles

Astronomer, Milutin Milankovitch, discovered, in the early 20th century, that the Earth’s obliquity, eccentricity and precession are not constant. Over a period of about 41,000 years, the Earth completes one cycle in which it goes from being tilted 24.2-24.5 degrees down to 22.1-22.6 degrees and back again. Currently, the Earth’s axial tilt is decreasing and we are pretty well exactly halfway through our descent down to a tilt of a 22.6-degree minimum, which we will hit around the year 12,000. The Earth’s eccentricity goes through a much more erratic cycle, with a 100,000-year period. The eccentricity of the Earth ranges from being around 0.005 to 0.05. As stated in item 8, it is currently 1/60 or 0.0166, but is currently decreasing. It will bottom out to around 0.006 in around the year 28,000. He conjectured that these cycles cause the ice ages. When the obliquity and eccentricity are particularly large, and the precession is such that the Earth is tilted directly away or directly toward the Sun at aphelion, excessively cold winters result in the hemisphere tilted away from the Sun with too much ice to thaw during the spring or summer.

Slowing rotation

Due to friction caused by the tides and stray space particles, the Earth’s rotation is very gradually slowing down. Estimates indicate that every century, the Earth takes about one five-hundredth of a second longer to rotate once. Around the beginning of the Earth’s formation, a day lasted about 13 or 14 hours, instead of today’s 24. The Earth’s slowing rotation is the reason we add one leap second once every few years. However, the time when our 24-hour system is no longer valid is so far off in the future, not many people have speculated what we will do when that time comes. Some reports suggest that we could add one extra duration of time on the end of each day, perhaps, eventually giving us 25-hour days, or change the duration of hour-length to divide the longer days into 24 equal pieces.

Moon moving away

Every year, the Moon moves about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) out from its orbit around the Earth. This is due to the tides the Moon brings to the Earth. The gravity of the Moon on the Earth distorts the Earth’s crust by a few centimeters. Since the Moon rotates much faster than the Moon orbits, the bulge pulls the Moon ahead and pulls it out of its orbit.

Seasonal Lag

You may notice that the solstices and equinoxes mark the beginning of their respective seasons, rather than the middle. This is because the Earth takes time to warm up or cool down. Therefore, the seasons lag behind their respective daylight length. This effect is called seasonal lag and varies depending on the observer’s geographical location. The farther one travels to either pole, the smaller the lag tends to be. In many North American cities, the lag tends to be about a month, bringing the coldest weather around the 21st of January and the warmest weather around the 21st of July. For instance, at the end of August, you may still be taking advantage of the last of the summer weather, dressing lightly, making one last trip to the beach. However, the date, on the other side of the summer solstice which brings the same daylight length would be approximately the tenth of April. Most people wouldn’t even be anticipating summer then.

2012-10-18T04:42:00.001-07:00

Top 15 Amazing Facts About The Human Body

a great list of amazing human facts. These are the fifteen most wonderful things about our bodies that, hopefully, are news to most of our readers! So, onwards:

1. The stomach’s digestive acids are strong enough to dissolve zinc. Fortunately for us, the cells in the stomach lining renew so quickly that the acids don’t have time to dissolve it.
2. The lungs contain over 300,000 million capillaries (tiny blood vessels). If they were laid end to end, they would stretch 2400km (1500 miles).
3. A mans testicles manufacture 10 million new sperm cells each day – enough that he could repopulate the entire planet in only 6 months!
4. Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tonnes – that is four times as much as concrete can support.
5. Each finger and toenail takes six months to grow from base to tip.

6. The largest organ in the body is the skin. In an adult man it covers about 1.9m2 (20sq ft). The skin constantly flakes away – in a lifetime each person sheds around 18kg (40 lb) of skin.
7. When you sleep, you grow by about 8mm (0.3in). The next day you shrink back to your former height. The reason is that your cartilage discs are squeezed like sponges by the force of gravity when you stand or sit.
8. The average person in the West eats 50 tonnes of food and drinks 50,000 liters (11,000 gallons) of liquid during his life
9. Each kidney contains 1 million individual filters. They filter an average of around 1.3 liters (2.2 pints) of blood per minute, and expel up to 1.4 liters (2.5 pints) a day of urine.
10. The focusing muscles of the eyes move around 100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you would need to walk 80km (50 miles) every day.

Facts 11 – 15

11. In 30 minutes, the average body gives off enough heat (combined) to bring a half gallon of water to boil.
12. A single human blood cell takes only 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.
13. A foreskin, the size of a postage stamp, from circumcised babies take only 21 days to grow skin that can cover three (3) basketball courts. Amazing isn’t it. Thanks to science. The laboratory-grown skin is used in treating burn patients.
14. The eyes receive approximately 90 percent of all our information, making us basically visual creatures.
15. The female ovaries contain nearly half-a-million egg cells, yet only 400 or so will ever get the opportunity to create a new life.

2012-10-17T04:29:00.001-07:00

10 Unusual Things You Didn't Know About Steve Jobs

More than anything, Steve Jobs was known for his technological innovations.
But did you know that he dated Joan Baez or once was homeless?

Apple's former CEO will be remembered most of all for his technologial and business achievements.
So, 10 unusual things you didn't know about Steve Jobs.
1) Nature versus Nurture. His sister is Mona Simpson but he didn't know it until he was an adult. Mona Simpson was one of my favorite novelists from the late 80s. Her first novel, Anywhere but Here, was about her relationship with her parents. Which, ironically, were Steve Jobs' parents. But since Steve Jobs was adopted (see below), they didn't know they were brother-sister until the 90s when he tracked her down. It's proof (to an extent) of the nature versus nurture argument. Two kids, without knowing they were brother and sister, both having a unique sensibility of life on this planet to become among the best artists in the world in completely different endeavors. And, to me it was great that I was a fan of both without realizing (even before they realized) that they were related.

2) His father's name is Abdulfattah Jandali. If you had to ask me what Steve Jobs' father's name was I never in one zillion years would've guessed that and that Steve Jobs biologically was half Syrian Muslim. For some reason I thought he was Jewish. Maybe it's because I wanted to be him so I projected my own background onto him. His parents were two graduate students who I guess weren't sure if they were ready for a kid so put him up for adoption and then a few years later had another kid (see above). So I didn't know he was adopted. The one requirement his biological parents had was that he be adopted by two college-educated people. But the couple that adopted him lied at first and turned out not to be college educated (the mom was not a high school graduate), so the deal almost fell through until they promised to send Steve to college. A promise they couldn't keep (see below). So despite many layers of lies and promises broken, it all worked out in the end. People can save a lot of hassle by not having such high expectations and overly ambitious worries in the first place.

3) He made the game "Breakout." If there was one thing I loved almost as much as the games on the Apple II+, it was playing Breakout on my first-generation Atari (I can't remember, was that the Atari 2600?). And then Breakout on every version of my Blackberry since 2000. If he had never done anything else in life and I had met him and he said, "I'm the guy who made Breakout," I would've said, "you are the greatest genius of the past 100 years." Funny how things turn out. He went on from Atari to form Apple. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari, went to form the greatest restaurant chain in the history of mankind: Chuck E. Cheese.
4) He denied paternity on his first child, claiming he was sterile. The mother had to initially raise the kid using welfare checks. I have no judgment on this at all. Raising kids is hard. And when you have a kid you feel like this enormous energy and creativity you have for the world is going to get misdirected into a... little baby (Jobs' parents must've felt that way as well. Like father, like son). Heck, I originally wanted my first kid to be aborted. But people change, mature, grow up. Eventually Jobs became a good father. And that's what counts in the end. Much worse if it was the reverse. I didn't know this either: that the Lisa computer (the "Apple III") was named after this first child.
5) He's a pescetarian. In other words, he eats fish but no other meat. And he eats anything else a vegetarian eats (including eggs and dairy). I think from now on I'm going to be a pescetarian, just because Steve Jobs is one. Except when I'm in Argentina. In Argentina you have to eat steak. Ted Danson and Mary Tyler Moore consider themselves pescetarians. Somehow, even the world "pescetarian" seems like it was invented in California.
6) He doesn't give any money to charity. And when he became Apple's CEO he stopped all of their philanthropic programs. He said, "wait until we are profitable". Now they are profitable, and sitting on $40b cash, and still not corporate philanthropy. I actually think Jobs is probably the most charitable guy on the planet. Rather than focus on which mosquitoes to kill in Africa (Bill Gates is already focusing on that), Jobs has put his energy into massively improving quality of life with all of his inventions. People think that entrepreneurs have to some day "give back". This is not true. They already gave at the office. Look at the entire iPod/Mac/iPhone/Disney ecosystem and ask how many lives have benefited directly (because they've been hired) or indirectly (because they use the products to improve their quality of life). As far as I know, Jobs has never even commented about his thoughts on charity. Good for him. As one CEO of a (currently) Fortune 10 company once told me when I had my hand out for a charitable website, "Screw charity!"
7) He lied to Steve Wozniak. When they made Breakout for Atari, Wozniak and Jobs were going to split the pay 50-50. Atari gave Jobs $5000 to do the job. He told Wozniak he got $700 so Wozniak took home $350. Again, no judgment. Young people do things. Show me someone who says he's been honest from the day he was born and I'll show you a liar. It's by making mistakes, having fights, finding out where your real boundaries in life are, that allow you to truly know where the boundaries are.
8) He's a Zen Buddhist. He even thought about joining a monastery and becoming a monk. His guru, a Zen monk, married him and his wife. When I was going through some of my hardest times my only relief was sitting with a Zen group. Trying to quiet the mind to deal with the onrush of non-stop pain that was trying to invade there. The interesting thing about Jobs being a a Zen Buddhist is that most people would think that serious Buddhism and being one of the wealthiest people in the world come into conflict with each other. Isn't Buddhism about non-attachment? Didn't Buddha himself leave his riches and family behind?
But the answer is "no". It's normal to pursue passions and outcomes, but just not to become overly attached to those outcomes. Being happy regardless of the outcome. A great story is the Zen master and his student walking by a river. A prostitute was there and needed to be carried over the river. The Zen master picked her up and carried her across the river and then put her down. Then the master and student kept walking. A few hours later the student was so agitated he finally had to ask, "Master, how could you touch and help that prostitute! That's against what we believe in!" And the Master said, "I left her by the river. Why are you still carrying her?"
9) He didn't go to college. I actually didn't know this initially. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are the famous college dropouts that I knew about. But apparently Steve Jobs went to Reed College for one semester and then dropped out. I guess you don't need college to program computers, make computers, build businesses, make movies, manage people, etc. (Of course, you can see all my other posts on why kids should not go to college.)
10) Psychedelics. Steve Jobs used LSD at least once when he was younger. In fact, he said about the experience, it was "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life." Apple's slogan for many years was "Think Different". Maybe using a drug which tore him from the normal frame of reference taught him how to look at problems from such a unique perspective. I don't think LSD is for everyone, but when you combine it with the innate genius the man had, plus the many ups and downs that he experienced, plus the Zen Buddhism and all of the other things above, it's quite possible it all adds up to the many inventions he's been able to produce.
Steve Jobs' story is filled with nuance and ambiguity. People study Steve Jobs by looking at his straightforward business successes. Yes, he started Apple in a garage. Yes, he started Pixar and almost went broke with it. Yes, he started and sold Next and he was fired as CEO of Apple, and blah blah blah. But none of that will ever explain the man behind the genius. None of that will explain all the products he invented that we use today. None of that will tell us about the iPad, Toy Story, the MacBook Air, the Apple II+, etc. A man's successes can be truly understood only if we can count his tears. And unfortunately in the case of Steve Jobs, that is one task that's impossible.

2012-10-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

facts about Abdul Kalam

Abdul Kalam

Abdul Kalam (born 1931), the Indian scientist & politician

person, politician, author, Muslim, statesman, Sunni Muslim, Tamil, Libra person

Legal name, Full name: "Abul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam"
Born: ▶ 1931, October 1931, October 15th 1931, India, Asia, …
Wrote: Wings of Fire, Ignited Minds
Occupation: politician
Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Kalam
Gender: male
Nationality: indian
Educated: King's College London
Last Name: "Kalam"
First Name: "Abul"
Organisations: Tamil
Main Occupation: scientist
Class: ▶ person, Tamil, Sunni Muslim, politician, statesman, …
President of: India
Religion: Islam
Born During: 1930s
Attributes: male, Tamil
Related Websites: ▶ http://server1.msn.co.in/sp07/abdulkalam/index.asp, http://deshgujarat.com/2007/07/20/dr-apj-abdul-kalams-leadership-speech-at-ahmedabadvideo, http://www.icbs.com/IIT/abdul-kalam-speech.htm, http://path-creators.blogspot.com, http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/abdulkalam.htm, …
Freebase ID: "/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000007746d"
Rare Terms: "apjak"
Middle-name: "Abdul", "Jainulabdeen", "Pakir"
Birthday: the 15th of October
Quotes: ▶ "You have to dream before your dreams can come true."; "Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? Is it a legacy of our colonial years? We want foreign television sets. We want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported?"; "We will be remembered only if we give to our younger generation a prosperous and safe India, resulting out of economic prosperity coupled with civilizational heritage."; "We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us."; "We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!"; …
Freebase Primary MID: "/m/0gy3f"

2012-10-15T08:23:00.001-07:00

Does Coffee or Tea Affect Fasting for Cholesterol?

To obtain an accurate cholesterol test, abstain from drinking anything but water for nine to 12 hours before the test, according to MayoClinic.com. Drinking a little of either may not significantly affect test results but, if you eat or drink anything during the fasting period, ask your doctor whether you should reschedule your blood screening.

1. Boost Your Health With Tea

Not only is tea yummy and satisfying, but it is also beneficial to your health. Studies show that tea is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, such as vitamin A, thiamine, Riboflavin, vitamin C and folic acid. Tea also contains caffeine which, when consumed in moderation, could benefit your metabolism and brain function.

2. All Teas Are Not Created Equal

Tea is one of the most common drinks worldwide, and there are many varieties. Many people think all teas are alike, but they're not. The most common are green, black, white and oolong, and these are not the same as herbal teas. Even though they are different types of tea, each of these four teas comes from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. Workers harvest white tea before the leaves are fully opened; they allow black tea to oxidize, but they do not allow green tea to oxidize. Oolong tea gets oxidized, but only slightly.

3. Get to Know Your Herbal Teas

You can infuse almost any herb into a tea, as well as some fruits like peaches, mangoes and oranges. Some teas are medicinal, such as echinaecea, which many people use to boost their immune systems. Other herbal teas calm your system, such as chamomile. Since some herbs are toxic, such as foxglove and comfrey, never brew them for casual tea sipping.

4. Grow Your Own Tea

If you live in the Midwest or southern states, you're in the prime climate to grow Camellia sinensis. This is the same plant from which green, black, white and oolong teas come. This small shrub likes sandy, well-drained soil that is a little on the acidic side. You'll need to wait at least three years before you begin to harvest your tea leaves. You can even grow your own herbs for tea. If you don't have enough land for an herb garden, plant them in small containers.

5. Brew a Warm Pot

Use about one to two teaspoons of your chosen loose tea or herbal tea per each 8-ounce cup. You can always add a little more if you would like. Use an infuser or a tea ball so you don't have to drink the leaves. Allow your water to come to a boil and then cool before brewing your tea. You can enjoy at least two to three cups of tea using the same tea leaves. It is also acceptable to use tea bags in the same method.

1. Wake Up With a Cup of Pesticide

Imagine drinking a cup of pesticide and herbicide each morning--that ought to wake you up. Years of ingesting pesticides and herbicides from foods gradually affect a person's body and overall health. In general, coffee ranks as the most chemically treated agricultural product on the planet. Although a controversial topic, research is currently being conducted to evaluate the consequences of long-term ingestion of pesticides and herbicides. Advocates of organic coffee and other foods believe both pesticides and herbicides damage cells and organs in human bodies and often lead to several types of cancer. Organic coffee growers use natural pesticides and herbicides, such as other bugs that are harmless to coffee plants. Artificial pesticides and herbicides also have long-term affects on the environment.

2. Organic Includes Environmentally Friendly Fertilizers

Growers of organic coffee use natural fertilizers, made up of organic matter. Non-organic coffee growers tend to apply inorganic chemicals as fertilizers to soil and to the coffee plants themselves. When artificial fertilizers are used, just as with the use of artificial pesticides/herbicides, chemicals stay with the beans and end up in your body. Synthetic fertilizers are also bad for the environment. These fertilizers eventually ruin soil and contaminate the water supply. Using organic fertilizers, such as blue green algae, naturally promotes plant growth without harming humans and damaging the environment.

3. Organic Coffee Tastes Better

Unlike non-organic coffees, organically produced coffee has a pure taste. Many coffees not organically grown tend to leave you with a metallic or chemical aftertaste, or they are harsher on your stomach. Granted, coffee beans from different regions and plantations produce varying tastes and strengths, but typically it's not the bean, itself, causing such aftertastes or upset stomachs.

4. Discover Certified Organic Suppliers

Make sure to buy certified organic coffee. Certification agencies, such as the Organic Crop Improvement Association, test and evaluate plantation growing environments, soils and agriculture techniques used. Coffee plantation owners pay fees for organic inspection and certification. When you buy organic coffee, look for the certification label. Find a list of organic coffee suppliers on the "Organic Trade Association" website.

5. Java That's Bird Safe

Most non-organic coffee is mass-produced on plantations where they cut down the trees. The goal is a higher coffee yield for these farmers. Unfortunately, most of these plantation areas are clear-cut and void of all trees, thereby eliminating the habitats of all sorts of species of birds around the world. In some countries, agriculture is causing the elimination of entire rain forests, and many of the new plantations are for coffee. Organically treated coffee plants grown under shade is good for the environment, and song birds like to use the actual coffee plants as a natural habitat. Promoting biodiversification, growing coffee plants under shade also decreases the call for herbicides and fertilizers.

2012-10-14T09:55:00.006-07:00

Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal (born: 1968), the Indian social activist and crusader for greater transparency in Government

person, activist, civil servant, award winner

Legal name, Full name: "Arvind Kejriwal"
Born: 1968, Haryana, Hisar
Website: http://www.parivartan.com/home.asp
Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arvind_Kejriwal
Won: Ramon Magsaysay Award
Gender: male
Nationality: indian
Last Name: "Kejriwal"
First Name: "Arvind"
Class: person, civil servant, award winner, activist
Related Websites: ▶http://www.jaagore.com/blog/usse-kuchh-farak-padega-kya,http://www.lokrajandolan.org, http://www.pcrf.in,http://www.parivartan.com/home.asp,http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/3103, …
Attributes: male, indian
Freebase ID: "/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000000ddeca2"
DBPedia URI: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Arvind_Kejriwal
Freebase Primary MID: "/m/0fww52"