Interesting Facts from U.S.A

6/24/2009 07:50:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

  1. On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag.

  2. On an American one-dollar bill, there is an owl in the upper left-hand corner of the "1" encased in the "shield" and a spider hidden in the front upper right-hand corner.

  3. One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.

  4. In Los Angeles, there are fewer people than there are automobiles.

  5. The United States Government keeps its supply of silver at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.

  6. The United States has never lost a war in which mules were used.

  7. 52% of Americans drink coffee.

  8. 27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon.

  9. A Californian doctor has set the record of eating 17 bananas in two minutes.

  10. Approximately 35 million Americans are linked by blood to one (or more) of the 102 pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.

  11. There are five US states with no sales tax. They are: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.

  12. Alaska is the state with the highest percentage of people who walk to work.

  13. It was once illegal to take a bath in the wintertime in Indiana.

  14. Ohio is the birthplace of more Presidents than any other state - eight

FACTS ABOUT DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

6/12/2009 09:02:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
  • In Japan they eat squid, octopus, eel, all fish, crabs, prawns, etc…
  • 14 of 45 vice presidents of US became presidents!!
  • German television airs soft-core pornography on weekend evenings.
  • A man can be arrested in italy if he wears skirt in public!!!
  • The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh.
Built in 1893 after levelling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level.

  • Japan is made up of over 6000 islands

  • The official Sanskrit name for India is Bharat.

INDIA has been called Bharat even in Satya yuga ( Golden Age )

  • India is.......the Largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest country in the world AND one of the most ancient and living civilizations (at least 10, 000 years old).
  • India has the most post offices in the world !
  • The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people
  • The' place value system' and the 'decimal system' were developed in 100 BC in India
  • China is the world's most populous country with about 1.3 billion people—20 percent of the Earth's population.
  • Los Angele's full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, LA.
  • Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined.
  • In INDIA ... it countaines 3 billioners in top ten of the world....
  • Hawaii’s Mount Waialeale is the wettest place in the world - it rains throughout the year and about 460 inches per annum.
  • India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
  • The ‘Mexican Hat Dance’ is the official dance of Mexico.
  • The keyboards in Germany have the Y and Z keys reversed from how keyboards in the United States are laid out.

INTRESTING FACTS

6/08/2009 08:56:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
1) BOOK WITHOUT LETTER 'e':
GADFY , written by Earnest Wright in 1939 is a 50,000+ word book, which doesn't contain a single word with ' e ' in it

2) WORD WITHOUT VOWEL:
RHYTHM
3) BRAIN:
Organ of body which has no sensation when cut .
4) CROCODILE:
Only animal & reptile which sheds tear while eating .
5) No of Alphabets, which SOUND AS WORDS:
They are
B Bee
C Sea
G Zee
I Eye
Q Queue
R Are
S Yes
T Tea
U You
Y Why


6) In a period of a day or 24 hours an average human:
1) HEART beats 1,03,689 times.
2) LUNGS respire 23,045 times.
3) BLOOD flows 16,80,000 miles.
4) NAILS grow 0.00007 inches
5) HAIR grows 0.01715 inches
6) Take 2.9 pounds WATER (Including other liquids)
7) Take of 3.25 pounds FOOD.
8) Breathe 438 cubic feet AIR.
9) Lose 85.60, BODY TEMPERATURE.
10) Produce 1.43 pints SWEAT.
11) Speak 4,800 WORDS.
12) During SLEEP move 25.4 times

some more intresting :-
->The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
->The name Jeep came from the abbreviation used in the army for the "General Purpose" vehicle, G.P.
->The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches

Top 100 facts of I.P.L

6/08/2009 08:43:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
1. Indian Premier League (IPL) is the richest cricket tournament in the world.
2. BCCI is the organizer of IPL..
3. IPL was start on 18 April 2008.
4. The opening ceremony was taken place in Bangalore .
5. Bangalore Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight Riders was the first match of IPL.
6.. Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan was been present in the opening ceremony.
7. There was been some cheer leaders from USA to entertain the spectators in the opening day.
8. Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly was been the captains of these two clubs.
9. IPL was been a Twenty20 format tournament.
10.Star cricketers from all over the world are going to play in Indian Premier League (IPL).
11. Schedule of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008 was in this link.
12. Some South African players may miss a couple of matches as they had home duty.
13. The rates of advertisement for TV was a bit high.
14. The rights of official website had been sold for $50 million to a Canadian company.
15.BCCI announced the plan of IPL after ICL came into existence.
16. The people of Kolkata was perhaps see a battle of Shah Rukh Khan vs Mithun Chakraborty.
17. 8 clubs was playing in Indian Premier League 2008.
18.. No national cricket team was playing in IPL. So, fans had a tough time to decide which team to support.
19. Major cricket based websites like Cricinfo was a tough time to cover IPL matches.
20.. IPL matches was shown in all corners of the world.
21. A conglomerate comprising of India’s Sony Television Network and World Sport Group from Singapore had bought the global broadcasting right of Indian Premier League (IPL) for US$1.026 billion for ten years.
22. Indian Premier League would be telecast live in almost every continent of the world in different television channels.
23. For the next five years meaning 2008-2012, IPL would get 20% of the money, while 72% would go to the eight franchises of IPL and 8% is allocated for prize money. After 2012, IPL would get a bigger share of the money.
24.. According to the deal, the consortium of Sony Television Network and World Sport Group was paid US$918 million to BCCI for the telecast right of IPL and US$108 million for promoting the tournament.
25. Ten Networks television channel of Australia would bring the IPL matches live in Australia for free to air.
26. In India , Sony SET Max would telecast the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches live for the Indian cricket fans.
27.. In Canada , Asian Television Network International Limited (ATN) had got the broadcast right of Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. ATN operated CBN would telecast the matches of IPL live in Canada .
28.. Willow television was going to telecast all of the IPL’s 59 matches live for the North American cricket fans.
29. Arab Digital Distribution (ADD) had secured the rights of telecasting IPL matches in different countries of the Middle East . The matches would be telecast live in ADD’s ART Prime Sport television channel.
30. The cricket fans of UK and Ireland were going to enjoy the IPL matches live on Setanta Sports television channel.
31. All of the eight franchises had different owners, who bought the clubs for 10 years for a whopping sum of money.
32. In Indian Premier League, the eight participating clubs was based on different cities and provinces of India
33. The eight teams of Indian Premier League (IPL) was- Bangalore Royal Challengers Squad (Bangalore franchise of IPL), Chennai Super Kings Squad (Chennai franchise of IPL), Deccan Chargers Squad (Hyderabad franchise of IPL), Delhi Daredevils Squad (Delhi franchise of IPL), Kings XI Punjab Squad (the Punjab franchise of IPL), Kolkata Knight Riders Squad (Kolkata franchise of IPL), Mumbai Indians Squad (Mumbai franchise of IPL) and Rajasthan Royals Squad (Rajasthan franchise of IPL).
34. Among the owners, there was business personalities, media personnel and Bollywood actors.
35. India ’s Business tycoon Dr. Vijay Mallya and his UB group was the owner of Bangalore Royal Challengers for which they spent second highest $111.6 million.
36. Mumbai Indians club of IPL was bought by Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Limited for $111.9 million, which is the highest amount spent to buy an IPL club..
37. Chennai Super Kings was owned by India Cements and N Srinivasan for which $91 million was spent.
38. Deccan Chronicle, an English language newspaper published in Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu, owns the Deccan Chargers, for which the newspaper spent a $107 million.
40. Actress Preity Zinta, Ness Wadia, Karan Paul (Apeejay Surendera Group) and Mohit Burman (Dabur) are owners of Kings XI Punjab, for which they spent $76 million..
41.. GMR Holdings paid $84 million for the ownership of Delhi DareDevils.
42. Emerging Media: (Manoj Badale, Lachlan Murdoch, Suresh Chellaram) owns the Rajasthan Royals club. It spent $67 million to become the owner of the club for 10 years and this was the lowest paid amount for an IPL team.
43. Kolkata Knight Riders was owned by Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla Mehta and Jai Mehta. They paid $75.09 million to secure the ownership of the club for 10 years.
44. Though there was many star players from different cricket playing countries, there was no player from England in the first edition of Indian Premier League.
45. From selling the club ownership, Indian Premier League (IPL) got US$723.59 million from the auction of the bidding. The amount was way more than the base price of auction, US$400 million.
46. An Icon player did not take part in the auction of the players. Rather, they were selected by IPL authority to lead a particular team based on the city or province from where the icon players hail.
47. Five out of eight teams of Indian Premier League (IPL) have an icon player. The five teams that include an icon player each was Bangalore Royal Challengers, Kings XI Punjab, Mumbai Indians, Delhi DareDevils and Kolkata Knight Riders.
48.. The icon players was Sachin Tendulkar for Mumbai Indians, Yuvraj Singh for Kings XI Punjab, Sourav Ganguly for Kolkata Knight Riders, Virender Sehwag for Delhi DareDevils and Rahul Dravid for Bangalore Royal Challengers. V.V.S. Laxman was also offered to become the icon player for Deccan Chargers, but he rejected it thinking of the financial benefit of his club in the player auction.
49. The icon players was paid 15% more than the next highest paid players in their respective teams.
50. Shane Warne is the only foreign captain in the first season of Indian Premier League (IPL).
51. The captains of the eight IPL teams was Sachin Tendulkar (Mumbai Indians), Sourav Ganguly (Kolkata Knight Riders), Rahul Dravid (Bangalore Royal Challengers) , Yuvraj Singh (Kings XI Punjab), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Chennai Super Kings), Virender Sehwag (Delhi DareDevils), V. V. S. Laxman (Deccan Chargers) and Shane Warne (Rajasthan Royals).
52. Andrew Symonds becomes the highest paid foreign player. He was signed by Deccan Chargers for $1,350,000.
53. Kings XI Punjab spent highest amount of money in the player auction. The Punjab team spent $6,503,750 for including the stars like Brett Lee, Irfan Pathan, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Ramnaresh Sarwan etc.. Indian Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has become the highest paid player of Indian Premier League as he signed for Chennai Super Kings for a whopping $1,500,000.
54. In IPL 2008, the first edition of the Indian Premier League, there would be 59 matches.
55. All of Indian Premier League (IPL) teams had a home ground.
56. The other teams also spent huge amount in the player bidding auction of Indian premier league (IPL). Bangalore Royal Challengers spent $5,795,000, Chennai Super Kings spent $6,225,000, Delhi DareDevils $6,372,500, Deccan Chargers spent $6,105,000, Rajasthan Royals spent $3,610,000, Kolkata Knight Riders spent $6,222,500, Kings XI Punjab spent $6,503,750 and Mumbai Indians $5,496,250.
57. In the group stage, each of the eight participating teams would play against each other twice; once at home and
58. The winners of the semi final round was face each other in the tournament final due to take place on 1 June.
59. The four teams with highest points earned after the end of the group stage was progress to the semi final of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008.
60. The semi final and the final match of the tournament was take place at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.
61. The home grounds of the eight teams was- M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore for Bangalore Royal Challengers; Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali, Chandigarh for Kings XI Punjab; Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi for Delhi Daredevils; Eden Gardens, Kolkata for Kolkata Knight Riders; Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur for Rajasthan Royals; MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai for Chennai Super Kings; Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad for Deccan Chargers. However, Mumbai Indians will play two different home grounds: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai and Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai
62. Not more than two matches was take place in a day. If there was two matches scheduled in a day then the first match will kick off at 16:00 local time (10:30 GMT) and the second match will start at 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT). However, if there was only one match then the match will kick off at 20:00 local time (14:30 GMT).
63. Each of eight teas of Indian Premier League (IPL) consists of some local and some foreign cricketers.
65. Each of the players had come through a bidding process in the player auction, except the icon players.
66 If a player remains completely unavailable in the season or could not play 25% matches of his respective teams, then 25% of the player fee bid in the player action was not be counted within the $5 million mark set up by IPL for the participating teams.
67. According to the IPL rules, a team could not spent more than $5 million for buying players for 2008.69. As per the IPL rules, each of the IPL teams might a squad of at minimum 16 players for the tournament.
70. Not more than 4 foreign players could be taken in the final XI of a match.
71. Each of the participating teams could include maximum 8 foreign players in the squad.
72. According to IPL rules, each of the teams must include at least four players from the catchment area. The catchment areas was decided on the basis of a player’s registration with his local cricket association.
73. A squad must include minimum 4 under 22-year old players (as of 1 April of the season).

74. No Objection Certificate (NOC) must be required for a player from the cricket board of his country to take part in Indian Premier League.
76. According to Cricket Australia , the regulatory body of cricket in Australia , no IPL franchise can in clude more than two Cricket Australia centrally contracted players and more than two players from each State Association in Australia .
77. Each of the IPL teams includes a catchment area from where it had to include at least four players. The catchment areas for each team was Mumbai (Mumbai, Maharashtra and Vidarbha), Bangalore (Karnataka, Goa and Services), Chennai (Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Railways), Kolkata (Bengal, Jharkhand , Assam , Tripura and associate member Sikkim ), Hyderabad ( Hyderabad , Andhra and Orissa), Delhi ( Delhi , Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), Mohali (Haryana, Punjab, Himachal and Jammu & Kashmir) and Jaipur (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Baroda and Saurashtra).
78. Bangalore Royal Challengers had a 24-player squad in which 10 players were from abroad. There are four under 22 players in the squad.
79. Chennai Super Kings squad also comprises of 24 players in which there was 7 foreign players and 6 under 22 players.
80. Former Indian pace medium fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad was the coach of Bangalore Royal Challengers.
81. Deccan Chargers squad includes 20 players in total in which 8 players was from abroad and 6 under 22 players.
82. Kepler Wessels was the coach of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2008 tournament.
83. There was 21 players in the Delhi Daredevils squad including 8 foreign players and 5 under 22 players.
84. F81. Kepler Wessels was the coach of Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2008 tournament.rmer Indian all rounder Robin Singh was the coach of Deccan Chargers.
85. Greg Shipperd is the coach of Delhi Daredevils team.
86. Former coach of Sri Lanka national cricket team Tom Moody was the coach of Kings XI Punjab.
87. Kings XI Punjab had a squad of 25 players in which 9 are from abroad. There are 8 under 22 players in the squad.
88. Former Australia national cricket team coach John Buchanan had been appointed as the coach of Kolkata Knight Riders.
89. Kolkata Knight Riders includes 22 players in the squad including 8 foreign players and 6 under 22 players.
90. Indian Cricket League (IPL) had gained the approval of ICC.
91. Lalchand Rajput was the coach of Mumbai Indians team.
92. Rajasthan Royals includes 26 players in its squad in which there was 10 foreign players and 4 under 22 players.
93. Mumbai Indians squad consists of 27 players was including 8 players from abroad and 4 under 22 players..
94. DLF Universal, a real estate developer from India , has become the title sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years for INR 200 crore (over US$50 million).
95. Former Australian great Shane Warne was be seen as both captain and coach of Rajasthan Royals.
96. From all the revenues of sponsorship rights, 40% was go to IPL, 54% was be given to the eight franchises, and the remaining 6% was be spent for prize money
97. Soft-drink company Pepsi had become the tournament's Official Beverage for five years by signing a deal of USD 12.5 million.
98. Hero Honda had come under a deal of US$22.5 million to become the associate sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) for five years.
99. Indian Premier League (IPL) offers a whopping Rs 12 crore prize money. The champion team of IPL 2008 would receive a cheque of Rs 4.8 crore. The runner up side will be awarded Rs 2.4 crore. Even the last placed team will be given Rs 40 lakh. The two losing semi finalists can get a cheque of Rs 1.2 crore each.. The fifth, sixth and seventh placed teams, as per the points achieved in group stage will be given Rs 80 lakh, Rs 70 lakh and Rs 50 lakh respectively.

100. Signing a five year deal for Rs. 106 crores (appx. US$ 26.5 million), Kingfisher Airlines had become the IPL's umpire partner by which the company could advertise in umpire’s clothes and sponsor third umpire’s decision during the matches for next five years.

MICROSOFT CRAZY FACTS

5/28/2009 10:37:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
MAGIC #1Nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable. ..At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!TRY IT NOW, IT WILL NOT CREATE "CON" FOLDER

MAGIC #2This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable. ..At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!Try it out yourself...Open Microsoft Word and type=rand (200, 99)and then press ENTER

MAGIC #3 For those of you using Windows, do the following:1. Open an empty notepad file2. Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)3. Save it as whatever you want.4. Close it, and re-open it.is it just a really weird bug?You can try the same thing above with another sentence "this app can break

Facts About Planet EARTH

5/28/2009 10:27:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
Few very strange ,little known facts about our planet



In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.



* About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.



*A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.



*Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.



*Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.



*Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.



*Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.



*The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.



*The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.



*In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.



*American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.



*The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.



*The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah' . It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.



*The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.



* The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricy.



*The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.



*Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.



*Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.



*Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.



*The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.



*There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.



* The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.

Weird facts

5/28/2009 10:18:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »
All of These Facts Were Proven to be True by Investigations:

If the current trend continues, by the year 2215 midgets will outnumber "normal-sized" people.

The Australian aborigine language has over 30 words for "dust."

Anyone convicted of animal cruelty in Sedalia, Missouri, is sentenced to a month's confinement in the county animal shelter.

Fewer divorces occur in families in which the children wake their parents before 6 a.m. on Saturdays.

A bad case of laryngitis forced Abraham Lincoln to lip-sync the Gettysburg Address. The speech was actually delivered by an aide hidden beneath the stage.

As the sheer volume of Internet traffic has increased, the friction of the electrons passing around the planet has increased the overall global temperature by .07 degrees.

An early draft of the Declaration of Independence included a line by Benjamin Franklin inviting King George to "kisse our collective arse."

Nearly three percent of the ice in Antarctic glaciers is penguin urine.

Johnny Plessey batted .331 for the Cleveland Spiders in 1891, even though he spent the entire season batting with a rolled-up, lacquered copy of a newspaper.

Replying more than 100 times to the same piece of spam e-mail will overwhelm the sender's system and interfere with their ability to send any more spam.

Approximately one-sixth of your life is spent on Wednesdays.

King Henry VIII slept with a enormous axe.

Human saliva has a boiling point three times that of regular water.


Among items left behind at Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan were 27 issues of Mad Magazine. Al Qaeda members have admitted that bin Laden is reportedly an avid reader.

Although very difficult, it's possible to start a fire by rapidly rubbing together two Cool Ranch Doritos.

The French language has seventeen different words for "surrender."

If a cricket were the size of Mount Rushmore, it could jump to the moon.

The flush toilet was invented in Flushing, NY.

During his famous "Blue Period," Pablo Picasso invented the substance that eventually became known as Play-Doh.

Nobody born in Kentucky has ever been elected to Congress.

15 Fascinating Facts About Salt

5/28/2009 05:02:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

1. Right up to the 20th century, pound bars of salt (called amoleh) were the basic currency in Abyssinia (now called Ethiopia).

2. The amazing Salar de Uyuni (the world’s largest salt flat at 4,000 square miles) in Bolivia becomes mirrorlike when a thin layer of water lies on top. This reflectivity makes it a very useful tool in calibration scientific equipment from outer space. This amazing salt flat also contains half of the world’s supply of lithium. The salt flat is pictured above.

3. Salt is so essential to the body that if you drink too much water it can flush it out of your system and cause fatal Hyponatremia. This is what killed Jennifer Strange who entered a “Hold your wee for a wii” competition.

4. Consumption of too much salt can be deadly - you need to take about 1 gram of salt per kilogram of weight to die and this was used as a method of ritual suicide in China - especially amongst the nobility as salt was so expensive.

5. Good quality sea salt contains many essential minerals for the body. The best type of sea salt should be slightly wet from the sea it was taken from

6. In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as “white gold”. The medieval pavement of one of the transportation routes for Salt still exists in Germany where it links the inland city of Lüneburg to the German Baltic coast.

7. Black Salt is made in India by mixing salt water with harad seeds. The mixture is left to evaporate leaving behind black lumps of salt. When the salt is ground, the resulting powder is pink (as can be seen in the image above).

8. In Guerande, France, salt is still gathered in the same way as it was by the ancient celts, using baskets through which the sea water is strained. This makes the salt very expensive and highly sought after, especially the finest quality version called Fleur de Sel (flower of salt). This salt is sprinkled on food prior to serving - it is never used in cooking.

9. There is a very common misconception that Roman soldiers were paid in salt (hence the word Salary), but in fact they were paid in normal money. The connection with salt is possibly through the fact that the soldiers protected the salt roads leading to Rome (Via Salarium). Roman Soldiers were private employees - rather than state employees.

10. Before Biblical Judaism ceased to exist, salt was mixed with animal sacrifices. This originated from Moses in Leviticus 2:13 which states: “Whatsoever sacrifice thou offerest, thou shalt season it with salt, neither shalt thou take away the salt of the covenant of thy God from thy sacrifice. In all thy oblations thou shalt offer salt.” The salt was a symbol of wisdom and discretion.


11. After aviation fuel is purified, salt is mixed with it to remove all traces of water before it can be used.

12. Sodium Chloride (salt - pictured above) is formed when the unstable metal sodium reacts with chlorine gas. It is the only family of rocks regularly eaten by humans.

13. In the early 1800s salt was 4 times as expensive as beef on the frontier - it was essential in keeping people and livestock alive.

14. Only 6% of the salt used in the U.S. is used in food; another 17% is used for de-icing streets and highways in the winter months.

15. In the late 17th century, salt was the leading cargo carried from the Caribbean to North America (most tonnage). Salt Cod was the leading cargo carried from North America to the Caribbean. It was used to feed slaves on sugar plantations.

Top 20 Facts About Sleep

5/28/2009 05:00:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses.

2. It’s impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

3. Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you’re still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

4. Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It’s possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

5. REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.


6. Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film

7. Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

8. Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others think we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.

9. Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.

10. Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain’s sleep-wake clock.

11. British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers’ body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers’ retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo.

12. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.

13. The “natural alarm clock” which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

14. Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a “neural switch” in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

15. Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.

16. Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode.

17. Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.

18. Most of what we know about sleep we’ve learned in the past 25 years.

19. The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

20. Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.

Top 15 Amazing Facts About The Human Body

5/28/2009 04:58:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

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 man’s 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 litres (11,000 gallons) of liquid during his life.

9. Each kidney contains 1 million individual filters. They filter an average of around 1.3 litres (2.2 pints) of blood per minute and expel up to 1.4 litres (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.


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

Top 20 Amazing Science Facts

5/28/2009 04:55:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

1. There are 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body - laid end to end they would circle the earth 2.5 times

2. At over 2000 kilometers long The Great Barrier Reef is the largest living structure on Earth

3. The risk of being struck by a falling meteorite for a human is one occurrence every 9,300 years

4. A thimbleful of a neutron star would weigh over 100 million tons

5. A typical hurricane produces the energy equivalent to 8,000 one megaton bombs


6. Blood sucking hookworms inhabit 700 million people worldwide

7. The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 166.94 mph by Fred Rompelberg

8. We can produce laser light a million times brighter than sunshine

9. 65% of those with autism are left handed

10. The combined length of the roots of a Finnish pine tree is over 30 miles


11. The oceans contain enough salt to cover all the continents to a depth of nearly 500 feet

12. The interstellar gas cloud Sagittarius B contains a billion, billion, billion liters of alcohol [JFrater is planning to move there in the near future]

13. Polar Bears can run at 25 miles an hour and jump over 6 feet in the air

14. 60-65 million years ago dolphins and humans shared a common ancestor

15. Polar Bears are nearly undetectable by infrared cameras, due to their transparent fur


16. The average person accidentally eats 430 bugs each year of their life

17. A single rye plant can spread up to 400 miles of roots underground

18. The temperature on the surface of Mercury exceeds 430 degrees C during the day, and, at night, plummets to minus 180 degrees centigrade

19. The evaporation from a large oak or beech tree is from ten to twenty-five gallons in twenty-four hours

20. Butterflies taste with their hind feet and their taste sensation works on touch - this allows them to determine whether a leaf is edible


more intresting facts

5/28/2009 04:11:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

The average lead pencil can draw a line that is almost 35 miles long or you can write almost 50,000 words in English .....

It is really bad to a smoke cigarette..

The Taj Mahal is one of the wonders of the world.

Chocolate kills dogs! . A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!

The world's tallest woman is Sandy Allen. She is 2.35m (7 ft. 7 in.).

Socrates became famous for asking questions about almost everything !!

The mother of all European languages is Sanskrit, which is considered the most suitable language for computer software -

The earliest maps were made by the Babylonians about 2300 B.C.

Cell Phone Etiquette - It is considered rude to talk aloud while on the cell-phone

The greenhouse effect causes trouble by raising the temperature of the planet.

Did you know......... some interesting facts


All the planets in our solar system rotate anticlockwise, except Venus. It is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

Hummingbirds are the only animal that can also fly backwards.

Insects do not make noises with their voices. The noise of bees, mosquitoes and other buzzing insects is caused by rapidly moving their wings.

The cockroach is the fastest animal on 6 legs covering a meter a second.

The word "listen" contains the same letters as the word "silent".

The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and the parrot.

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by Aryabhatta.

The whip makes a cracking sound because its tip moves faster than the speed of sound.

A hippopotamus can run faster than a man.

India never invaded any country in her last 10000 years of history.

'Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia' is the fear of long words.

Didaskaleinophobia is the fear of going to school.

Phobatrivaphobia is a fear of trivia about phobias !!

It is impossible to lick your elbow. ( We know you gonna try this !!! )

A snail can sleep for 3 years. ( wow, lucky chap eh ? )

The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start

In 1883 the explosion of the volcano Krakatoa put so much dust into the earth's atmosphere that sunsets appeared green and the moon appeared blue around the world for almost two years.

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

Twenty-Four-Karat Gold is not pure gold since there is a small amount of copper in it. Absolutely pure gold is so soft that it can be molded with the hands.

Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Say no evil ).

55 per cent of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn. Reading about yawning makes most people yawn. hello, zzzzz zzzz ?

facts about different things

5/28/2009 04:08:00 AM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet!

-A chameleon's tongue is twice the length of its body.

-A chimpanzee can learn to recognize itself in a mirror, but monkeys can't.

-A rat can last longer without water than a camel can.

-About 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

-A typical bed usually houses over 6 billion dust mites.

-A person afflicted with hexadectylism has six fingers or six toes on one or both hands and feet

-A woodpecker can peck twenty times a second.

-A zebra is white with black stripes.

- Porpoises and dolphins communicate with each other by squeaking, growling, moaning, and whistling. Porpoises and dolphins are mammals. There are about 40 species or kinds of porpoises and dolphins. Most porpoises and dolphins navigate by using "echolocation". The largest member of the dolphin family is called an orca or killer whale.

- The hippopotamus gives birth under water and nurses its young in the river as well, though the young hippos do come up periodically for air.

-A cow gives nearly 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime

The world's largest rodent is the Capybara. An Amazon water hog that looks like a guinea pig, it can weigh more than 100 pounds.

The world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.

-- How the wind blows. As the sun warms the earth’s surface, the atmosphere warms too. Some parts of the earth receive direct rays from the sun all year and are always warm. Other places receive indirect rays, so the climate is colder. Warm air, which weighs less than cool air, rises. Then cool air moves in and replaces the rising warm air. This movement of air is what makes the wind blow.

- Dolphins sleep with one eye open!

--Why do we might feel warmer wearing a dark-colored jacket than a light-colored one? . Dark colors absorb light energy. Light colors and white reflect light energy. When light shines on your dark jacket, the jacket fabric absorbs light energy. The absorbed light energy causes electrons in the atoms of the jacket to vibrate. This activity releases heat energy, which makes the jacket—and you—warmer. That's why we like to wear more dark colors in winter and more light colors in summer.

-While sleeping, one man in eight snores, and one in ten grinds his teeth.

-At 188 decibels, the whistle of the blue whale is the loudest sound produced by any animal.

--A flute made of bone is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China.

- The fastest dog, the greyhound, can reach speeds of upto 41.7 miles per hour. The breed was known to exist in ancient Egypt 6,000 years ago

-- Glue dates back to prehistoric times. Artists once mixed colorings with raw eggs, dried blood, and plant juices to make sticky paints for cave murals. Later, ancient Egyptians and other people learned to make stronger glues by boiling animal bones and hides. Today companies make glues using synthetic substances.

-A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.

-A cat uses whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through. The whiskers act as antennae, helping the animal to judge the precise width of any passage.

-A cat will clean itself with paw and tongue after a dangerous experience or when it has fought with another cat. This is an attempt by the animal to soothe its nerves by doing something natural and instinctive.

-The grizzly bear can run as fast as the average horse!!

- The female lion does more than 90% of the hunting while the male simply prefers to rest. !!

- A jellyfish is 95 percent water!

- At birth, a panda is smaller than a mouse and weighs about four ounces.

-Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!

-You blink over 10,000,000 times a year!

- Of all the words in the English language, the word ' set ' has the most definitions!

- The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth!-

- Dogs and cats, like humans, are either right or left handed... or is that paws?!

- A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!

- A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

-A cat's jaws cannot move sideways.

-More people are killed annually by donkeys than die in air crashes.

- "Go." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language

The vocabulary of the average person consists of 5,000 to 6,000 words.

- No word in the English language rhymes with "month".

- An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

-An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

The average person laughs about 15 times a day.

The average person walks the equivalent of twice around the world in a lifetime.

- All polar bears are left handed.

-Ants don't sleep

-The opposite sides of a dice cube always add up to seven!