 |
|
|
|
Hi, Guys. I'm sure most of you would be aware of the following facts. Since these are quite interesting, I thought I would
refresh your minds. Enjoy reading it.
DID YOU KNOW:
- The banana and Bird-of-Paradise flower are the same family.
- It takes nearly four
million flowers to create one kilogram of jasmine.
- The snapdragon is extremely sensitive to gravity. It is geotropic,
which means that when a flower is held in a horizontal position, it quickly turns upward
- Lettuce is a member
of the sunflower family
- A systemic infection is one that spreads throughout the entire body; such as measles,
colds and the flu.
- A tanka is a Japanese verse form of 31 syllables in five unrhymed lines, the first and third
having five syllables each, and the others seven.
- A ten-gallon hat holds less than a gallon of liquid.
- A vamp is the upper front top of a shoe.
- A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood.
-
A Visa Global ATM Network survey of international travelers revealed that the best restaurants in the world are in Paris,
France. Second place was awarded to Rome, and third place went to Hong Kong.
- The Pennsylvania Packet & General
Advertiser, launched in 1784, was the first successful regular daily newspaper in the United States.
- Christendom
did not begin to date its history from the birth of Christ until 500 years after his death. The system was introduced in 550
by Dionysius Exigus, a monk in Rome.
- That it took over 30 years for VCR usage to penetrate 25% of the population?
It has taken the Internet less than 7 years to accomplish the same thing.
- That Bill Gates has watched the value
of his stake in Microsoft drop roughly US$39 billion over the last year. This paper loss would cover Ecuador's gross domestic
product - twice. (Source: National Post)
- Antarctica is the only continent that does not have land areas below
sea level.
- The Hundred Years War lasted 116 years, from 1337 to 1453.
- That on 3rd January 1839 French
pioneering photographer Louis Daguerre took the first photograph of the moon?
- That a coward was originally a boy
who took care of cows?
- Babe Ruth wore a cabbage leaf under his hat to keep his head cool. He changed it every two
innings.
- That all gondolas in Venice, Italy must be painted black, unless they belong to a high official?
- The chocolate chip cookie was invented in 1933?
- A camel's backbone is just as straight as a horse's.
- In Jasmine, Saskatchewan, it is illegal for a cow to moo within 300 km of a private home?
- a quarter of Russia
is covered by forest.
- At launch, the Space Shuttle's two solid rockets consume more than 9.07 metric tons (10 tons)
of fuel each second and produce 44 million horsepower, equal to 14,700 locomotives.
- Dolphins jump out of the water
to conserve energy. It is easier to move through the air than through the water.
-A mile on the ocean and a mile
on land are not the same distance. On the ocean, a nautical mile measures 6,080 feet. A land or statute mile is 5,280 feet.
- An African elephant will eat up to 500 pounds of food a day. Their diet consists of twigs, leaves, grasses, and
fruit.
- A nanosecond is one billionth of a second.
- Dolphins swim in circles while they sleep with
the eye on the outside of the circle open to keep watch for predators. After a certain amount of time, they reverse and swim
in the opposite direction with the opposite eye open.
- An African lion was exhibited in the United States for
the first time on November 26, 1716.
- An albatross can sleep while flying.
- An alligator can go through
2,000 to 3,000 teeth in a lifetime.
- Koalas and humans are the only animals with unique prints. Koala prints cannot
be distinguished from human fingerprints.
- Koalas are marsupials, not bears. They also have no tail or eyelids.
- A perfectly clean fire produces almost no smoke. Smoke simply means that a fire is not burning properly and
that bits of unburned material are escaping.
- A person uses more household energy shaving with a hand razor at
a sink (because of the water power, the water pump, and so on) than he would by using an electric razor.
- A person
who is lost in the woods and starving can obtain nourishment by chewing on his shoes. Leather has enough nutritional value
to sustain life for a short time.
- A Polaroid emulsion transfer is an image made by "cooking" a Polaroid
in hot water until the image separates from its paper backing. The emulsion of the image can then be placed on practically
any surface.
- A quality, fully faceted round brilliant diamond has at least 58 facets. These are important for
the maximum sparkle and brilliance of the stone.
- A quarter has 119 grooves on its circumference. A dime has one
less.
- The Arctic tern travels from the top of the world, the Arctic, to the bottom, the Antarctic. A round trip of 40,250 km
- Cheddar varieties account for 57 percent of volume of cheese sold in England.
-Migrating geese
fly in a V- formation to conserve energy. A gooses wings leave an air current behind. In the flying wedge, each bird is in
position to get a lift from the current left by the bird ahead
- Cheddar, often sold as "American"
or store cheese, constitutes about two-thirds of the cheese sold in the United States.
-An owl is the only bird
to drop its upper eyelid to blink. All other birds raise their lower eyelids
- The wandering albatross has the
largest wingspan of all birds in the world. Its wing reach 3.5 metres across
- In ancient China and certain parts
of India, mouse flesh was considered a great delicacy.
- In ancient Egypt, onions were an object of worship.
The onion symbolized eternity to the Egyptians who buried onions along with their Pharaohs. The anatomy of the onion suggested
a circle-within-a-circle structure, symbolizing eternal life.
- Chewing gum reached the United States in the
late 1800s when Santa Ana was exiled to New York after the Mexican revolution, bringing chicle (gum) with him. Chicle is a
gum taken from the sapodilla tree, which grows in the Yucatan desert of Mexico.
- Chicago isnt just a city in
Illinois; it is also a slang term for a pineapple. So a Chicago sundae is a dessert made with pineapples.
- Papaya
leaves and unripe papaya have an enzyme called papain that breaks down protein in meat to make it tender. Thats why papaya
can be used as a meat tenderizer.
- Parsley is a common herb of the Mediterranean area and was well known to
the ancient Greeks. They considered it too sacred to eat. Romans did serve it as a garnish and to improve the taste of food.
They believed it had special powers and would keep them sober.
-Air pressure at sea level is roughly equal to
the weight of an elephant
-Before beginning his movie career, Keanu Reeves managed a pasta shop in Toronto
-A bubble is round because the air within it presses equally against its parts, thus causing all surfaces to
be equidistant
-All pilots on international flights identify themselves in English, regardless of their country
of origin
-A balloon released into the jet stream would take two weeks to travel completely around the globe
-Before pursuing a career in comedy, Drew Carey worked as a waiter at a Dennys Las Vegas and served in the
Marine Corps
-A car that shifts manually gets 3.2 km more per litre of gas than a car with automatic shift
-In 1975, a birdhouse costing $10,000 was built in Quebec City by the city fathers.
-According
to a Fortune magazine survey conducted a few years ago, Seattle topped the list of best major U.S cities to balance work and
family
-The first female operator was Emma. M. Nutt, who started working for Telephone Dispatch Company in
Boston on September 1,1878, Prior to that, all operators were men
-The Las Vegas MGM Grands 170,000 square
foot casino larger then the playing field of Skydome and contains more than 3,000 gaming machines
-Germany
was the first European country to establish a system for health insurance for its workers in 1888
-Built in
1967, the worlds only flying saucer launching pad in St. Paul, Alberta.
-The first dentists in the world were
the Etruscans. They carved false teeth from various mammal teeth in 700 B.C. They also produced partial bridgework that strong
enough to eat with
-Author of Animal Farm and 1984, George Orwell worked as a policeman before turning to writing
-The Millennium Force roller coaster at Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio, has drop of 90 metres and reaches
almost 60 km/h
-One out of every fifteen American adults got his/her first job in McDonalds
-In
eighteenth-century English gambling dens, their was an employee whose only job was to swallow the dice if there was a police
raid
-Cabal is a small group involved in secret schemes
-Gorillas and Cats sleep about 14 hours a day
-The
Border between Canada and the United States is the worlds longest frontier. It stretches 6,416 km
-Knights of
medieval times were warriors. Any man who trained to fight could become a knight
-Chili is the official state dish
of Texas
-Cats consume 28 times their own weight in food each year and the same amount again in liquids. Cats cannot
survive on a vegetarian diet
-In Medieval England, beer was often served with breakfast
-Fresh apples
float because 25% of their volume is air
-The Eaton Centre is the number one tourist attraction in Canada. Latest
figures show that more than 2.4 million people visit it annually
-Some Lipsticks have fish scales in it
-Gypsies is the name given to Indians who are nomadic and speak the language of Romany. About 400,000 Gypsies live in
US today
-Page is the name given to a person who delivers messages and serves as a guide.
|
|
|
- The world's population grows by 100 million each year. Some 950 million people in the world are malnourished.
- A nuclear family is made up of parents and their children.
MOTHERS DAY FACTS
The pink carnation is
a gesture to honour a living mother, while a white carnation is worn to symbolize remembrance.
An AT&T Survey
estimated that 122.5 million phone calls to Mom are made on mothers day, 11 percent never call their mothers and three percent
of the 68% planning to ring up Mom, called her collect.
Mothers Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of February
in Norway.
In India, Hindus celebrate the Divine Mother, Goddess Durga during the 10-day festival in October.
In Spain and Portugal, Mothers Day is closely linked to the church. December 8th is the day that tribute is paid to Virgin
Mary and the day when children honour their mothers.
- In India, women wear rings in their noses to show they are married.
- Approximately 1.5 million Canadians are living with
diabetes.
- In many North African countries, children ride to school on donkeys.
- Extra is a person with a nonspeaking part in a movie
- Some Native Americans have two names, one of which is never made public because of the power it would give another person
over them.
- Smith is the most common last name in the US
- Santa is called "Father Christmas" in UK
- Christmas was once Illegal in England.
- If you find a statue of a person on a Horse and the horse has both the front legs in the air, then the person died
in a battle.
Dog Facts
-More than one million stray dogs and 500,000 stray cats live in New York City metropolitan
area.
-Mother Prairie dogs will nurse their young only while underground in the safety of the burrow. If an infant
tries to suckle above the ground, the mother will slap it.
-The dogs that bite the least are 1. Golden Retriever 2.Labrador
Retriever 3.Shetland Sheepdog 4. Old English Sheep dog and the Welsh terrier.
-Contrary to the popular belief, Dogs
do not sweat by salivating but through the pads of their feet.
-Pekinese dogs were sacred to the emperors of China
for more than 2000 years. They are the oldest dog breeds in the world.
Vacation Facts
-New York city named
by Americans as the most dangerous, least attractive and rudest city in a recent poll is also the Americans top choice as
the city they would most like to visit or live.
-A Club Med survey found that couples who dieted while on vacations
argued three times more than those who didnt. Those who didnt diet had three times as many romantic interludes.
-The
average worker in Japan takes only half of his/her earned vacation time each year.
-Tourists who are eager to visit
recently erupted volcanoes while on vacation should take heed. Volcano ash has been known to remain hot for a period of nearly
100 years.
-The average time between blinks of the eye is 2.8 seconds
-The average womens thighs are one and
a half times in circumference than the average mans
-Type O is the most common blood type in the world. Type AB is
the rarest. There is also a subtype called A-H, but to date, only three people in the world are known to have it
-The
bacteria found on human skin are roughly the numerical equivalent of all the humans on Earth.
Insect Facts
-The
Goliath Beetle of Africa has huge armour that makes it the heaviest flying insect in the world. In fact, it weighs more than
eight mice and is a common pet with African children, who fly it from a string
-The golden orb-weaver spiders of Papua
New Guinea spin the biggest, strongest webs. With supporting threads reaching up to six metres, their webs can reach 1.5 metres
across.
-The toughest of all the worlds insects is the mosquito. It has been found in the coldest regions of northern
Canada and Siberia, and can live quite comfortably at the North Pole. It is equally at home in equatorial jungles.
-If
all four legs are on the ground then the person died of natural causes.
- A Hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
- A cat's urine glows under a black light.
- Porcupines float in water.
- One ragweed plant can release
as many as one billion grains of pollen.
- Finland has the highest rate of cellphone users - 577 per 1000 inhibants.
- New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893.
- In the 1980s and 1990s, Bill
cosby was the uncontested King of product endorsements earning an approximate $125,000 per hour or $1 million per day.
-
Michael Jordan always wore his blue North Carolina shorts under his Bulls uniform for good luck.
- An Ostrich's eys
is larger than its brain.
- In the 1940's, FCC asigned TVs Channel 1 to mobile services(e.g. two-way radio)but did
not re-number the other channel assignments. That is why there is NO channel 1 on Televisions.
Here are some interesting facts about India and Indians.
There
are 3.22 Million Indians in U.S.A.
38% of Doctors in U.S.A. are Indians.
12% of Scientists in U.S.A. are
Indians.
36% of NASA employees are Indians.
34% of MICROSOFT employees are Indians.
28% of IBM employees are Indians.
17%
of INTEL employees are Indians.
13% of XEROX employees are Indians.
Some of the following facts were recently
published in a German Magazine
which deals with WORLD HISTORY.
1.India never invaded any country in
her last 10000 years of history.
2.India invented the Number System. Zero was invented by
Aryabhatta.
Decimal point was also invented by India.
3.The World's first university was established in Takshila in 700BC.
More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60
subjects. The University of Nalanda
built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of
education.
4.Sanskrit is the mother of all the European languages. Sanskrit is the most suitable language for
computer software - a report in Forbes magazine, July 1987.
5.Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to
humans.
Charaka, the father of medicine consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
Today Ayurveda is fast
regaining its rightful place in our civilization.
6.Although modern images of India often show poverty and lack of
development,
India was the richest country on earth until the time of British invasion in the early 17th Century.
7.The art
of Navigation was born in the river Sindh 6000 years ago.
The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word
NAVGATIH.
The word navy is also derived from Sanskrit 'Nou'.
8.Bhaskaracharya calculated the time taken by the
earth to orbit the
sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. Time taken by earth
to
orbit the sun: (5th century) 365.258756484 days.
9.The value of "pi" was first calculated by 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.
10.Algebra,
trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest
numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 10^6 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as
10^53 (10 to the power of 53) with
specific names as early as 5000 BC
during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Tera 10^12 (10
to the power of 12).
11.According to the Gemological Institute of America, up until 1896,India was the only source for
diamonds to the world.
12.USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century old suspicion in
the world scientific
community that the pioneer of wireless communication was Prof. Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.
13.The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.
14.According
to Saka King Rudradaman I of 150 BC a beautiful lake called 'Sudarshana' was constructed on the hills of Raivataka during
Chandragupta Maurya's time.
15.Chess (Shataranja or AshtaPada) was invented in India.
16.Sushruta is the father of surgery.
2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted complicated surgeries like cesareans, cataract,
artificial
limbs, fractures, urinary stones and even plastic surgery and brain surgery. Usage of anesthesia was well
known in ancient India. Over 125 surgical equipment were used. Deep knowledge of anatomy, physiology, etiology,
mbryology,digestion,
metabolism, genetics and immunity is also found in many texts.
17.When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers
over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu valley (Indus Valley Civilization)
18.The
place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC.
19.India is the only country other than
US and Japan, to have built a super computer indigenously.
20.India is among the few countries in the world to have
its own space
program and satellites.
21.Pentium chip was invented by an Indian.
22.India
is the largest English speaking nation in the world.
23.India has the second largest pool of Scientists and Engineers in
the World.
24.India is the largest Democracy in the World.
25.India is one of the few countries in the World,
which gained independence without violence.
26.India has largest number of Pager and Cell phone subscribers.
Some interesting quotes about India.
27.Albert Einstein said:
"We owe a lot to the Indians,who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have
been made.
28.Mark Twain said: "India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history,
the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most structure materials in
the history of man are treasured up in India only."
29.French scholar Romain Rolland said: "If there is one place on
the face of earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began
the dream of existence, it is India."
30.Hu Shih, former Ambassador of China to USA said: "India conquered and dominated
China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border."
YEAR 2001 is should be nicknamed the Year of Earthquakes. There were
eight major earthquakes in the first 2 months of the Year.
Jan 1 Mindanao(Phillipines) Magnitude 7.4
Jan 9 Vannatu
Islanda (New Caledonia) 7.0
Jan 10 Kodiak Islands (Alaska) 7.0
Jan 13 El Salvador 7.7
Jan 26 Gujarath (India)
7.7
Feb 14 Greece 5.0
Feb 14 Indonesia 7.3
Feb 28 Seattle Washington and BC Canada 6.8
Fastest things in America .......
1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance..
2. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions
while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front..
3. Only in America......do people order double cheese burgers,
large fries, and a diet coke..
4. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to
the counters..
5. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless
junk in the garage..
6. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting
so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't want to talk to in the first place..
7. Only in America......do we
buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight..
8. Only in America.....do we use the word 'politics'
to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'..
THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU DIDN'T KNOW
It
is impossible to lick your elbow.
A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.
A shrimp's heart is in its head.
In
a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the
sand.
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
More
than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
Horses can't vomit.
The
"sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
If you sneeze
too hard, you can fracture a rib.
If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head
or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18
months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria
in your ear by 700 times.
If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14,
Section 1211 of the
Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16,
1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with
extra-terrestrials or their vehicles?
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman
somewhere.
A duck's quack doesn't echo, and no one knows why.
23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by
people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
Most lipstick contains fish scales.
Like fingerprints,
everyone's tongue print is different.
Over 75% of people who read this will try to
lick their elbow.
Did You Know all these................ Interesting Is'nt it
I would be bringing more fun facts every week. If
you know any, Please E mail me and that would be published with your name.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
