FACTS bot » Funny Interesting Facts

Feeds

13477 items (13477 unread) in 13 feeds

Interesting (2651 unread)

• Interesting facts (100 unread)
• Amazing facts (10 unread)
• Damn Interesting (45 unread)
• Interesting Facts Fun (697 unread)
• Interesting And Crazy Facts (1799 unread)

Funny (772 unread)

• Funny Interesting Facts (58 unread)
• Funny Daily Facts (17 unread)
• Dave's Daily (697 unread)

Science (9995 unread)

• LiveScience (2788 unread)
• Space (6451 unread)
• Technology (756 unread)

WeirdStories (59 unread)

• New Weird Stories (22 unread)
• Popular Weird Stories (37 unread)

Funny Interesting Facts (10 unread)

• 

  interesting facts about gold

  Posted: December 28th, 2008, 1:26pm EST

  Tags:  gold Facts  

  Exactly what is that fascinating and beautifully rare metallic element, so highly venerated since the dawn of creation? Gold: everyone knows what it is, but not everyone knows how truly amazing it is. Did you know…?br /pbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold is so rare/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;" that the world pours more steel in an hour than it has poured gold since the beginning of time./span/ppbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold is so rare/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;", only 90,000 tons of it have been taken from the earth in recorded history./span/ppbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold is so malleable and soft/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;" that one ounce can be stretched into a wire 50 miles long./span/ppbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold is so malleable/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;" that one ounce can be hammered into a sheet so thin it would cover 100 square feet./span/ppbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"South Africa leads the world/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;" in gold production. Other countries leading world production are Russia, Canada, and the United States./span/ppbspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold is so heavy/span/bspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;" that one cubic foot of it weighs one half a ton./span/ppspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"A one ounce natural gold nugget is brarer than a 5 carat diamond/b/span/ppspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"All the gold in the world could be compressed into an b18 yard cube./b/span/ppspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Experts estimate that there are bonly 41,000 tons of gold left /bin the earth to mine./span/ppspan style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT,sans-serif;"Gold has been bused by man for more than 66 centuries,/b In fact, the first nugget mined, now over 6,000 years old, probably exists in some form today because of its durability, considering the way gold is remelted and recast, that first nugget could be part of a ring, watch, or gold chain that you are wearing./span/ppspan style="font-weight: bold;"Gold/span can be fired into clays to produce incredibly stunning porcelain or glass.br //pphere are span style="font-weight: bold;"gold mines/span in South Africa that are more than a mile deep!br //ppspan style="font-weight: bold;"Gold/span has the chemical symbol Au, short for the Latin word for gold, span style="font-weight: bold;"‘Aurum”. /span /pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-409948288260447826?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Interesting facts about oil

  Posted: December 28th, 2008, 1:21pm EST

  Tags:  Technology  

  pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Below you will find some interesting information on oil, gas and ocean environment. Click on the links provided to go directly to the source of information./span/p span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat is the future of oil production?/b/spanbr /EIA estimates that, based on recent USGS estimates of the global oil resource base, worldwide oil production is likely to continue increasing for more than three decades.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld020.htm" target="_blank"http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/br /presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld020.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil is there in the world?/b/spanbr /In 1996 there were 1,047,200 million barrels of proven crude oil reserves, of which 76.6 per cent was in OPEC Member Countries.br /(from OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin: 1996).br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm" target="_blank"http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil do the top oil producers produce a day?/b/spanbr /Amount of oil produced per day: /span/pulspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"liSaudi Arabia* - 8.1 million barrels per day;br /span style="font-size:85%;" *Including share of production from the Neutral Zone/span /liliFormer Soviet Union - 6.9 million barrels per day; /liliUnited States - 6.5 million barrels per day; /liliI.R. Iran - 3.6 million barrels per day; /liliChina - 3.2 million barrels per day. /li/span/ulspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" (from OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin: 1996).br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm" target="_blank"http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm/a/i/span/span pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhich countries use the most oil and gas?/b/spanbr /The top oil user is the USA (17 million barrels per day) and top gas user is the former Soviet Union (23,000 billion cubic feet per year)br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.lib.kth.se/%7Elg/envsite.htm" target="_blank"http://www.lib.kth.se/~lg/envsite.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil does the world consume each day?/b/spanbr /The total world consumption of crude oil in 1996 was 71.7 million barrels per day (there are 42 US gallons in a barrel, or 159 litres). OPEC estimates that total world oil consumption could reach around 100 million barrels per day by the year 2020.br / (From OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin: 1996, OWEM Scenarios Report: 1998.)br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm" target="_blank"http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil enters the ocean?/b/spanbr /The amount of petroleum products ending up in the ocean is estimated at 0.25% of world oil production: about 6 million tons per year.br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/shuttle_oceanography_web/oss_122.html" target="_blank"http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/br /OCDST/shuttle_oceanography_web/oss_122.html/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil enters the oceans with oil spills?/b/spanbr /Oil spills account for only about five percent of the oil entering the oceans. The Coast Guard estimates that for United States waters sewage treatment plants discharge twice as much oil each year as tanker spills.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_threats.html" target="_blank" http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/br /education_threats.html/a/i/spanbr /During the last decade, more than one billion gallons of oil spilled worldwide.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.marinergroup.com/" target="_blank"http://www.marinergroup.com/a, see also a href="http://www.marinergroup.com/oil-spill-history.htm" target="_blank"http://www.marinergroup.com/oil-spill-history.htm/a /i/span/span/pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat is 'the number one' oil spill in terms of damage to the environment?/b/spanbr /The Exxon Valdez spill is widely considered the number one spill worldwide in terms of damage to the environment. It is also the largest ever spill in the United States, but ranks around 34th largest worldwide.br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm" target="_blank"http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat are the world largest oil spills?/b/spanbr /The three world largest oil spills are:br //span/polspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"li26 January 1991; terminals, tankers; 8 sources total Sea Island installations; Kuwait; off coast in Persian Gulf and in Saudi Arabia (240.0 millions of gallons);br / /lili03 June 1979; exploratory well Ixtoc I well; Mexico; Gulf of Mexico, Bahia Del Campeche, 80 km NW of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche (140.0 millions of gallons);br //lili02 March 1992; oil well; Uzbekistan; Fergana Valley (88.0 millions of gallons) /li/span/ol span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"(from International Oil Spill Statistics: 1997)br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.cutter.com/osir/biglist.htm" target="_blank"http://www.cutter.com/osir/biglist.htm/a/i/span/span pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow much oil was spilled during the Exxon Valdez?/b/spanbr /The amount of spilled oil was 10.8 million gallons or 257,000 barrels or 38,800 metric tonnes. This amount of oil can fill up about 125 olympic-sized swimming pools.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm" target="_blank"http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm/a/i/span/span/pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat are the most polluted ocean areas detected from space?/b/spanbr /Widespread manmade pollution of the sea that can be detected by current spaceborne systems is concentrated in the Middle East, particularly in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/shuttle_oceanography_web/oss_122.html" target="_blank"http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/CAMPAIGN_DOCS/OCDST/br /shuttle_oceanography_web/oss_122.html/a/i/span/span/pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat are the largest world oil ultimate recovery estimates?/b/spanbr /The largest world oil ultimate recovery estimates are the newly released USGS estimates. The USGS 95 percent probable value is 2,248 billion barrels (meaning there is a 19 out of 20 chance that the value will be greater than 2,248 billion barrels). Similarly, the USGS says there is a 5 percent probability (1 chance out of 20) that the value will exceed 3,896 billion barrels. The USGS mean estimate (the expected value) is 3,003 billion barrels.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld020.htm" target="_blank"http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/br /presentations/2000/long_term_supply/sld020.htm/a/i/span/span/pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhich countries have the world's largest proven crude oil reserves?/b/spanbr /Countries that have the world's largest proven crude oil reserves are (1996):br / /span/pulspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" liSaudi Arabia (261,444 millions of barrels); /liliIraq (112,000 millions of barrels); /liliUnited Arab Emirates (97,800 millions of barrels); /liliKuwait (96,500 millions of barrels); /liliIR Iran (92,600 millions of barrels). /li/span/ul span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"(From OPEC Annual Statistical Bulletin: 1996).br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm" target="_blank"http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm/a/i/span/span pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat is the role of oil and natural gas in the economy of different countries?/b/spanbr /Oil supplies the US with 30% of its energy, 50% for the UK, 10% for Japan, 22% for India and 90% for Nigeriabr /Natural gas supplies the US with 26% of its energy, 18% for the UK, 4% for India and 3% for Japanbr / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.lib.kth.se/%7Elg/envsite.htm" target="_blank"http://www.lib.kth.se/~lg/envsite.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWill oil remain the most important source of energy?/b/spanbr /Yes, OPEC forecasts that oil demand will continue to grow strongly and oil will remain the world's single most important source of energy for the foreseeable future. OPEC forecasts that oil's share of the worldwide energy market will fall from almost 40 per cent in 1995 to less than 37 per cent in 2020. But oil will still be the world's single largest source of energy. The reduction in oil's market share is largely due to the stronger growth enjoyed by other forms of energy, particularly gas. The amount of oil demanded worldwide is actually expected to rise, from around 70 million barrels per day in 1995 to about 100 million barrels per day in 2020.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm" target="_blank"http://www.opec.org/faqs.htm/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat is the role of coastal areas for the US and world economy?/b/spanbr /Although coastal areas comprise one-fifth of the land area of the contiguous 48 states, they account for more than a half of the nation's population and housing supply. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that America's coastal waters support 28.3 million jobs and generate $54 billion in goods and services every year. Over 180 million Americans visit US coasts every year. The commercial fish and shellfish industry contributes $45 billion to the economy every year, and recreational fishing contributes $30 billion.br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.coastalcoalition.org/facts/coastalregions.html" target="_blank"http://www.coastalcoalition.org/facts/coastalregions.html/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"Within thirty years a billion more people will be living along the coasts than are alive today.br /span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/education_threats.html" target="_blank" http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/br /education_threats.html/a/i/span/span/pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" /spanpspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat are the US States with the longest coastline?/b/spanbr /US States with the longest coastline are:br //span/pulspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"liAlaska (33,904 miles); /liliFlorida (8,436 miles); and /liliLouisiana (7,721 miles). /li/span/ul pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhat are the US States with the largest population?/b/spanbr /Coastal states with the largest population are:br //span/pulspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"liCalifornia (21,859,530); /liliNew York (15,026,340); and /liliFlorida (12,356,550). /li/span/ul span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"(Statistics compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.coastalcoalition.org/facts/statistics/stats.cstate.html" target="_blank"http://www.coastalcoalition.org/facts/statistics/stats.cstate.html/a/i/span/span pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bHow deep is the ocean?/b/spanbr /The depth of the ocean is remarkably variable, from the surf zones at the world's beaches to the deep ocean trenches. The deepest point in the ocean is generally believed to be in the Marianas Trench in the Western Pacific Ocean at approximately 36,160 feet [11,021 m], according to the Rand McNally Atlas of the Oceans (1977).br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/NODC-oceanfaq.html" target="_blank"http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/NODC-oceanfaq.html/a/i/span/span/p pspan style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"span style="color:#000080;"bWhere is the Exxon Valdez now?/b/spanbr /The Exxon Valdez was repaired and renamed the Sea River Mediterranean. It is used now to haul oil across the Atlantic. The ship is prohibited by law from returning to Prince William Sound.br / span style="font-size:85%;"ia href="http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm" target="_blank"http://www.oilspill.state.ak.us/history/history.htm/a/i/span/span/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-1887831943290082483?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  True facts about earthquake

  Posted: November 22nd, 2008, 1:54pm EST

  Tags:  Weird Facts  

  1. Earthquake: shaking and trembling at the surface of the earth resulting from underground movement along a fault plane of from volcanic activity. An earthquake is a vibration or a shaking movement of the Earth’s surface. Earthquakes typically result from the movement of faults, quasi-planar zones of deformation within its uppermost layers.br /br /2. Earthquakes can’t be prevented, but they can be mitigated.br /br /3. Hypocenter is the point where the earthquake rupture begins, usually deep down on the fault.br /br /4. Epicenter is the point on the surface directly above the hypocenter.br /br /5. The Circum-Pacific belt is the zone in Pacific Ocean where about 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur.br /br /6. The world’s deadliest recorded earthquake occurred in 1557 in central China (more than 830000 people were killed).br /br /7. The Richter Scale is used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes, as determined by seismograph measurements of the height of ground oscillations during an earthquake. The Richter scale has no upper limit.br /br /8. The Modified Mercalli Scale measures the intensity of an earthquake; it’s scale based on observable earthquake damage. This scale is composed of 12 increasing levels of intensitybr /br /9. Seismograph are device that detects and records the vibrations of an earthquake.br /br /10. Most viewed video about earthquake at Youtube is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__r5J3ODNx0div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-9006229586356231339?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  facts about barack obama

  Posted: November 22nd, 2008, 1:43pm EST

  Tags:  Famous People  

  a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9oRrx031L9o/SShUCBaRATI/AAAAAAAAAD8/DciP9f2Wpro/s1600-h/bark_obama_interesting_facts.jpg"img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 246px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9oRrx031L9o/SShUCBaRATI/AAAAAAAAAD8/DciP9f2Wpro/s320/bark_obama_interesting_facts.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5271555757552238898" border="0" //abr /h2br //h2h2 style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"Barack Obama Facts/h2 div style="text-align: left;" ulliBarack Obama was born in Hawaii, to a black man and a white woman./liliBarack Obama is the nominee of the democratic party in the 2008 presidential election./liliAt age six, Obama moved to Indonesia, where he lived for a few years./liliObama worked as a community organizer immediately after graduation./liliHe also worked as a university professor, political activist, and lawyer before serving in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004./liliHe was propelled to stardom by giving the 2004 democratic convention keynote speech./liliObama has sponsored bills ranging from lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, weapons control, nuclear terrorism, and better veterans care./liliObama had never had much of a relationship with ACORN.span style="font-size:0;"a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/us/politics/11acorn.html"[more]/a/span/liliObama has never run a foundation with Bill Ayers.span style="font-size:0;"a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/790/"[more]/a/span/lilispan style="font-size:0;"hocolatebr //spanh2 style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"Top 10 Interesting Facts About Barack Obama/h2/lili1.) He won a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Spoken Word Recording. It was for the audio version of his book Dreams From My Father.br /br /2.) He and his wife bought a house in Chicago in 2005. Back then it cost $1.65 million. The house has 4 fireplaces.br /br /Barack Obama's House In Chicagobr /br /3.) He doesn’t like ice-cream. He worked in Baskin-Robbins as a teenager. That’s where his distaste for ice-cream comes from.br /br /4.) He loves playing Scrabble. He never commented on how good he is, though.br /br /5.) He is bi-racial. He was born to a Kenyan father and a white American mother. In his book Dreams From My Father he writes that he barely noticed the racial difference between his mum and dad in his young age.br /br /6.) He experimented with drugs. Back in his early years he tried marijuana and cocaine. According to his own words he is not proud of it and considers it a mistake as a young man.br /br /7.) He smokes but wants to quit. After all, there is a non-smoking policy in the White House.br /br /Barack Obama with a cigarette. He is trying to quit butbr /br /8.) He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii but went to live in Indonesia with his mum when the parents divorced. There he was introduced to dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper.br /br /9.) According to his wife Michelle he is very romantic. He is not a door opener but he remembers every anniversary and brings her flowers all the time.br /br /10.) Every night when he is at home he reads the Harry Potter books to his oldest daughter Malia.br /br //li/ul /divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-4730520623194756195?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Interesting 7 Brain Habits you Weird to know

  Posted: November 14th, 2008, 1:35pm EST

  Tags:  Funny Facts  

  pBrain is certainly the most amazing part of human body. It becomes more interesting when it does not work the way you expect it should. Psychology frequently establishes our intuitions about how human mind works, but it reveals a number of surprises as well…/p pAlthough some psychology students will have heard one or two of these before, here’s a list of brain habits you probably didn’t realize you had:/p h31) The maximum capacity of your short-term memory is seven./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/memory-capacity.jpg" alt="short-term memory is seven" //div pHumans have basically three forms of memory: Sensory, Long-term and Short-term. Long-term memory is just like hard-drive space. Similarly, Short-term memory functions like a very small RAM. This Short-term memory is capable to hold only about five to nine (seven is an average) items at a time./p pRetrieving information longer than this will need you to either pack it together into seven units or store it in Long-term memory. Have you observed that the most phone numbers have only seven digits?/p h32) The most visible color is Chartreuse./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/Chartreuse-path.jpg" alt="most visible color is Chartreuse" //div pYellowish green, chartreuse, is naturally placed right in the middle of the frequencies of visible light. Human eyes have receptors for green, blue and red colors. Being placed in the middle, chartreuse actuates the most of these receptors to fire, making it distinct and easier to spot. For the same reason, in some metropolises, firetrucks have been modified from red to a yellowish green color to make them more visible and obvious to the eye./p h33) Subconscious is smarter than you./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/Subconscious.jpg" alt="Subconscious is smarter than you" //div pSubconscious is smarter than you. In other words, it is more powerful. In a recent study, a square was attributed to a location on a computer screen through a complex pattern. After watching it out, people began to get results better than the chance of recognizing where the square would crop up next. However, when they were inquired to consciously find out the pattern, even given a few hours, nobody really did it!/p h34) There are two nervous systems./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/nervous-systems.jpg" alt="There are two nervous systems" //div pWe have two sets of nervous systems. One controls excitation, while the other controls inhibition. If you hold out your hand, you might observe minor tremors. This is actually stimulated by slight, random differences in the amount each of the two systems are firing./p h35) Brain is exceptionally bad at probability./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/Probability.jpg" alt="Brain is exceptionally bad at probability" //div pYour high-school math teacher might have told you about this one. Here what’s interesting isn’t that your brain is bad at probability. But how? In one study, recipients were asked:/p blockquotepJessica is 31 years old, single, candid, and very promising. She graduated in philosophy. As a student, she was anxious about discrimination issues and social justice, and also took part in anti-nuclear demonstrations. /p pAssign a rank to the following statements from most probable to least probable: Jessica is a teacher in an elementary school. /p olliJessica works in a bookstore and takes Yoga classes./liliJessica is active in the feminist movement./liliJessica is a psychiatric social worker./liliJessica is a member of the League of Women Voters./liliJessica is a bank teller. /liliJessica is an insurance salesperson./liliJessica is a bank teller and strongemis active in the feminist movement./em/strong/li/ol /blockquote pNearly 90% of students responded that #7 was more probable than #5. This is despite the fact that to be a bank teller and in the feminist movement is entirely contained within the set of #5 (just being a bank teller). It is observable that our minds like to think more details make events more probable, not less./p h36) Memory isn’t great either./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/memory.jpg" alt="Memory isn’t great either" //div pResearch has revealed that people are highly probable to misremember past events. Even worse, it is quite easy to suggest a memory that never happened. Due to this fact, so-called “repressed” memories should be given a lot of consideration. It is extremely easier to suggest a memory of a situation that never encountered, then it is to recover one that actually did./p h37) Depth is perceivable with one eye./h3 divimg src="http://www.mindcafe.org/images/brain-habits/one-eye.jpg" alt="Depth is perceivable with one eye" //div pIt’s not quite true that depth perception is totally the result of having two eyes. Binocular vision does help in making a three-dimensional image. Still, most of your capability to perceive depth comes from inside your brain. It has been wired to look at angles and proportions to measure distance./p pIf you needed two eyes to perceive depth, then most optical illusions wouldn’t work and it would be extremely difficult to gather information from two-dimensional images. Not to mention a great number of one-eyed pirates walking overboard./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-3543233903010577153?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Paypal Alternatives

  Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 3:30pm EDT

  Tags:  Technology  

  pA lot of people continuously bombard me with the questions as to who the best online payment processor is, from where can I get an online merchant account for their website to accept payments, is there an alternative of Paypal, How can I get a paypal account, etc./p pSo here is my condensed list. Over the days, I will slowly make public the reviews I had done on each and everyone of these payment processors / gateways, etc./p pFor now, be content with the list, hope it helps. If you know of any other, please do write it down in the comments section./p pstronga href="http://www.2checkout.com/community/"2CO/a/strongbr /a href="https://www.alertpay.com/index.aspx"Alert Pay/abr /a href="http://www.altergold.com/"Alter Gold/abr /stronga href="http://www.authorize.net/"Authorize.net/a/strongbr /stronga href="http://www.bankofamerica.com/small_business/merchant_card_processing/index.cfm?templat%3Cbr%20/%3Ee=internet_e_commerce"Bank of America/a/strongbr /a href="http://www.bluepay.com/"Blue Pay/abr /a href="http://www.cashu.com/"Cash U/abr /a href="http://www.ccavenue.com/"CC Avenue/abr /a href="http://www.ccbill.com/"CC Bill/abr /a href="http://www.ccnow.com/"CC Now/abr /a href="http://www.cdgcommerce.com/"CDG Commerce/abr /a href="https://c-gold.com/"C-Gold/abr /a href="http://www.charge.com/"Charge/abr /a href="http://www.concordefsnet.com/home/ProdEfsnethome.asp"Concorde FS Net/abr /a href="http://www.cyberbit.com/"CyberBit/abr /a href="http://www.daopay.com/"Dao Pay/abr /a href="http://www.durangomerchantservices.com/"Durango Merchant Services/abr /a href="http://www.echarge.cc/index.html"eCharge/abr /a href="http://www.ebs.in/"EBS/a (Processor for Indian companies only)br /a href="http://www.ecsuite.com/"EC Suite/abr /a href="http://www.echonline.com/"Echo Online/abr /a href="http://www.e-gold.com/"E-Gold/abr /a href="http://www.elavon.com/acquiring/"Elavon/abr /a href="http://www.electracash.com/"Electracash/abr /a href="http://www.entropay.com/"Entropay/abr /a href="https://www.epassporte.com/"ePassporte/abr /a href="http://www.facebook.com/applications/Coinjars/6489937223"Face Book Paymentbr /Application/abr /a href="http://www.failsafepayments.com/"Fail Safe Payments/abr /a href="http://www.fastspring.com/"Fastspring/abr /a href="https://www.first-pay.com/index.html"First Pay/abr /a href="http://www.gate2shop.com/en/home"Gate2Shop/abr /a href="http://globill.net/home.htm"GloBill/abr /a href="http://www.gorealtime.com/"Go Real Time/abr /stronga href="https://checkout.google.com/"Google Payments/a/strongbr /stronga href="https://www.ikobo.com/"iKobo/a/strongbr /a href="http://www.intabill.com/index.php"InstaBill/abr /a href="http://www.internetsecure.com/"Internet Secure/abr /a href="http://www.itransact.com/index.html"iTransact/abr /a href="http://www.libertyreserve.com/en/"Liberty Reserve/abr /a href="http://www.linkpoint.com/"Link Point /abr /a href="http://www.mivamerchant.com/services/payment/"Miva Merchant/abr /stronga href="http://www.moneybookers.com/app/"Money Bookers/a/strongbr /a href="http://www.moneygram.com/index.htm"Money Gram/abr /a href="http://www.netbilling.com/"Net Billing/abr /a href="http://www.nochex.com/"No Chex/abr /a href="https://www.payomo.com/"Pay Omo/abr /stronga href="https://www.paypal.com/"Pay Pal/a/strongbr /a href="https://www.paypay.com/"Pay Pay/abr /a href="https://www.payoneer.com/"Payoneer/abr /a href="http://pecunix.com/"Pecunix/abr /a href="http://www.planetpayment.com/"Planet Payment/abr /a href="http://www.plimus.com/"Plimus/abr /a href="http://www.plugnpay.com/"Plug n Play/abr /a href="http://www.psbill.com/"PS Bills/abr /a href="http://www.psigate.com/"PSI Gate/abr /a href="http://www.regnow.com/index.html"RegNow/abr /a href="https://www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com/"Revolution Money Exchange/abr /a href="http://www.roboxchange.com/"Robo Xchange/abr /a href="http://www.rtware.net/"RTWare/abr /a href="http://www.safecharge.com/"Safe Charge/abr /a href="https://www.safepaycard.com/"Safe Pay Card/abr /a href="https://www.safepaysolutions.com/"Safe Pay Solutions/abr /a href="http://www.skipjack.com/"Skip Jack/abr /a href="http://www.transfirst.com/"Trans First/abr /a href="https://www2.viaklix.com/Admin/main.asp"Via Klix/abr /stronga href="http://www.westernunion.com/info/selectCountry.asp"Western Union/a/strongbr /a href="http://www.wmtransfer.com/"WM Transfer/abr /a href="http://www.worldpay.com/"World Pay/abr /a href="http://www.w-pay.com/"W-Pay/abr /a href="https://www.xcoin.com/"Xcoin/abr /a href="https://www.xoom.com/"Xoom/a/p pEntries in Bold, needless to say are the most well-known ones./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-5999045334438643037?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Strange Business & Politics Facts

  Posted: July 23rd, 2008, 3:25pm EDT

  Tags:  Countries Facts  

  American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad in first class.br /There are 100 million internet users in China. Some of the sites they can't access are BBC news, Amnesty International and Dalailama.com.br /The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy.br /Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores.br /If the entire population of earth was reduced to exactly 100 people,50% of the world's currency would be held by 6 people.br /Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.br /Members of the armed forces and the police cannot vote in the Dominican Republic.br /The Mall in Washington, D.C. is 1.4 times larger than Vatican City.br /72% of people in Mali earn less than $1 per day.br /More than 20% of the votes in the 2001 elections in Argentina were invalid.br /You can be imprisoned for not voting in Fiji, Chile and Egypt - at least in theory.br /Former enemies, America and Russia now have a great deal in common - they both lead the world in locking people up.br /The word "politics" describes the process so well: "Poli" in Latin meaning "many" and "tics" meaning "bloodsucking creatures."br /Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Dostoyevsky were all epileptics (aka brain disorder).br /The first owner of the Marlboro Company died of lung cancer.br /Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.br /The 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.br /The highest publicly reported amount of money paid for a domain name is $7.5 million! Paid for business.com.br /A single individual, Dr. Lieven P. Van Neste, owns over 200,000 domain names!br /Every 23 seconds a Tupperware party starts somewhere in the world.br /The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system, employing over a million people!br /The major air-polluting industries are iron, steel and cement.br /Sweden is the largest spender on ketchup.br /Adolf Hitler had only one testicle.br /Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian.br /A company, Warner Communications paid $28 million for the copyright to the song 'Happy Birthday'.br /The 'save' icon on Microsoft Word shows a floppy disk, with the shutter on backwards.br /More Monopoly money is printed yearly than real money throughout the world.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-3133488918698985931?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Nostradamus and World War III Predictions

  Posted: July 12th, 2008, 7:02am EDT

  Tags:  Famous People  

  pInternet discussion forums seems abuzz with talk that Nostradamus forecast the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Thousands of people have received e-mails from known/unknown sources containing this prophecy, often with a second part forecasting that the b attack on the twin towers/b will mark the b beginning of World War III/b. Several versions are doing the rounds. This is one of many:/p blockquote pspan style="color:#800080;"bIn the year of the new century and nine months,br / from the sky will come a great king of terror...br / the sky will burn at forty-ive degree.br / fire approaches the great new city.../b/span/p pspan style="color:#800080;"b In the city of york there will be a great collapse,br / 2 twin brothers torn apart by chaosbr / while the fortress falls the great leader will succumbbr / third big war will begin when the city is burning./b/span/p /blockquote pThe author of the first link came up with the following conclusions :/p blockquote pb--2001 is the first year of the new century and this is the 9th month./b/p pb--New York is located at the 41st degree Latitude./b/p pb--Nostradamus also said that this would be the third World War and it would be bigger than the last two wars./b/p /blockquote pThe author wrapped-up his posting by uttering his anxiety - b"I hope he is wrong, but judging from his predictions of Hitler, Napoleon, and Pearl Harbor...."/b/p pReally a scary situation, indeed- if really happens, isn't it ? But as being a skeptic and rationalist, span style="color:#ff0000;"bI have investigated the whole issue thoroughly, and I respectfully disagree with the above mentioned "wishful" prophecy./b/span Before giving my reply to above-mentioned post, lets check the common FAQ about Nostradamus from a skeptic's point of view. /p pMichel Nostradamus was a 16th century French physician and astrologer. But his modern followers now a day consider him as a prophet. They found some magical quality in his prophecies: b they are muddled and obscure before the predicted event, but become crystal clear after the event has occurred !/b Nostradamus actually was educated as a physician in his early life and was noted for his work during the plagues of the 16th century. But in later years, he worked as an astrologer to clients who included the Queen of France.br /br /Nostradamus wrote four-line verses (quatrains) in b groups of 100 (Centuries)/b. Nostradamus' methods of prophecy can be broken down into three techniques:/p blockquote pbspan style="color:#0000ff;"First/span/b, he takes past events and puts them in symbolic language (nowhere any real name, place or event used) which renders these events unrecognizable, then puts them in the future tense,/p pspan style="color:#0000ff;"bSecond/b/span, he describes a series of well-chosen probabilities based on contemporary conditions, and also puts these events in the future tense,/p pand the bspan style="color:#0000ff;"Third/span/b technique for predicting the future is Nostradamus' series of random guesses./p /blockquote pAnb span style="color:#800000;" Unbiased study/span/b on Nostradamus and his famous prediction by the skeptics and rationalists proved that his prediction or prophecy is far from being a "miracle", but it is just a bspan style="color:#800000;"hoax/span/b. Skeptics consider the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to be mainly gibberish. bSuccess of His "prediction" now a day entirely dependent on misleading and wishful translation of his supporters. The supporters of Nostradamus are very good at predicting events not before but span style="color:#ff0000;"AFTER THE FACT/span occurred, often relying on doubtful translations of the original French to bolster their case. But they have had absolutely NO SUCCESS at predicting the correct future. His prediction AFTER THE THINGS HAPPENED is just a hoax. /bHis supporters ("believers") have attempted to show that some of Nostradamus's quatrains predict the career of Adolf Hitler, and even the Japanese aggression in 1941 in the same way that the apologists try to prove that Quran or Bible predicted Big Bang, Black hole or Red Star Nebula etc./p pUp until a few years ago most Nostradamus books were predicting a nuclear war between America and the USSR. None of them could predict correctly the breakup of the Soviet block. They only started chaos after the things happened.br /br /One of the great believers of Nostradamus,b Erika Cheetham/b, believe that Nostradamus foresaw the invention of bombs, rockets, submarines, and airplanes. He predicted the Great Fire of London (1666) and the rise of Adolph Hitler and many other wonders. /p p Here I wish to quote the original French version of a verse of Nostradamus as an example:/p blockquote pbispan style="color:#800080;"Bestes farouches de faim fleuves trannerbr / Plus part du champ encore Hister serabr / En caige de fer le grand sera traisnerbr / Quand rien enfant de Germain observa./span/i/b/p /blockquote pbErica Cheetham Translated as :/b/p blockquote pbspan style="color:#0000ff;"Beasts wild with hunger will cross the rivers,br / The greater part of the battle will be against Hitler.br / He will cause great men to be dragged in a cage of iron,br / When the son of Germany obeys no law.br / /span/bbr / /p /blockquote pReaders may see that Erica Cheetham wish fully used "Hitler" in his translation. There was no mention of Hitler in the original verse of Nostradamus. Yes, there is one word "Hister" (not Hitler). There is no relation at all between those two words- Hister and Hitler. It sounds as if someone interpreting "Erica Cheetham" as Erica Cheatingbaz (cheater).br /br //p pSkeptics, such as James Randi, have rejected such interpretation of Nostradamus' quatrains. His translation of the above verse is -/p pbRandi's translation:/b/p blockquote pspan style="color:#0000ff;"bBeasts mad with hunger will swim across rivers,br / Most of the army will be against the Lower Danube.br / The great one shall be dragged in an iron cagebr / When the child brother will observe nothing.br / /b/spanbr / /p /blockquote You see there is no Hitler in the above verse. "The great one shall be dragged in an iron cage" - if someone wish to give a humane face of "great one" - can easily interpret as Stalin, Lenin, Saddam Hussain, Muhammed, Hitler, Halaku khan or even Osma Bin Laden ! So you see it entirely depends upon translator's tricky interpretation.br /Famous Bengali Rationalist Prabir Ghosh ( a href="http://humanists.net/avijit/prabir/"http://humanists.net/avijit/prabir//a ) and His son Peenakeey Ghosh documented some of the more spectacular (mis)interpretations of Nostradamus in their famous book "Alukik Noy, Loukik" (Nothing Supernatural- 4th part), and showed them to be completely bogus. Not content simply to showed the silliness of others, both Randi and Prabir Ghosh provides a few interpretations from the original French. They showed that the most famous 'predictions' are nothing but wishful translation of the translator. pDear Readers, Have you forgot about the famous prediction of doomsday by Nostradamus just a year back ? Here is the report of the failure of his "famous" prediction./p pInterpreters, including fashion designer Paco Rabanne, have said Nostradamus' writings had predicted doomsday for the solar eclipse Wednesday. Many were disappointed that the scene was far from apocalyptic./p blockquote pspan style="color:#800080;"Report from Paris: "SURVIVOR'S APERITIF"br /-------------------------------------------------br /A group called "F..k the apocalypse" invited fellow residents of the city to a "survivor's aperitif" on the solar eclipse day, in front of fashion designer Paco Rabanne's botique on the fashionable Rue du Cherche-Midi. As the city of lights did not disappear in the ball ofbr /fire as predicted by Rabanne, the party began at 12.23 pm, exactly one minute after the predicted devastation./span/p pspan style="color:#800080;"Based on the predictions of the 16th century astrologer Nostradamus, Rabanne had written a book forecasting that the Russian space station Mir would tumble into Paris and destroy the city during the solar eclipse. Though the book sales went well and the forecast was taken seriously by some, Rabanne's prediction was good humour for many. The residents' association in the south-eastern city of Lyon had created a "provisional government of France without Paris", to "take control" of the country if Rabanne's prediction came true.br //span /p /blockquote pThe problem is nobodyspan style="" /spanwants to remind those failure stories or remembers them, because human beings have a tendency toward b "confirmation bias"/b, as psychologists call it - we remember events that confirm our beliefs but forget those that do not, which is probably why 69% of adults in a recent poll said they believe in miracles (Ref. a href="http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/hunt_19_3.html"http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/hunt_19_3.html/a article of Morton Hunt) .br //p pNow let's discuss logically whether Nostradamus could really predict the recent New York attack. Many people actually do not want to investigate what actually written in Nostradamus's famous book -"The centuries". One of our Mukto-mona member (Free person Smith) have investigated the issue and found the following (Ref. Mukto-mona message # 2360)- /p blockquote pispan style="color:#800000;""I have received numerous emails about an alleged prophecy by the famous secret Jew and Kabbalist Nostradamus. The alleged prophecy supposedly predicted the destruction of the Twin Towers and a warning that WWIII will soon follow./span/i/p pispan style="color:#800000;"I was suspicious about this so-called prophecy because it did not quote a source in Nostradamus's book, "The Centuries."/span/i/p pispan style="color:#800000;"I made contact with the world renown Nostradamus expert John Hogue, who bconfirmed for me that this so-called prophecy is indeed a hoax. Hogue calls it a "pretty clever fraud because it takes real lines from other Nostradamus prophecies and ties them to completely spurious insertions."/b/span/i/p pispan style="color:#800000;"Whoever started this false prophecy has alarmed and frightened many. This is a grievous sin especially in light of recent events. Please advise everyone you know that this so-called prophecy is a definite fraud./span (received by Rabbi Ariel bar Tzadok)"/i/p /blockquote pAnother member Nasima Khatun, after investigating the facts wrote in Mukto -mona (message #2352) :- /p blockquote pispan style="color:#800000;""This mail is with reference to the Nostradamus quote that is flying all over the net. I would like to tell to all that it is a hoax. Being Intrigued myself, I went to check Nostradamus' writing. What i found was that somebody had taken different words and sentences from different sections of his book and put it together to make out that it represented Tuesday incidents."/span/i /p /blockquote pDear Readers, If we think logically we would perceive that Nostradamus died in the year of 1566, so it's rather unlikely he wrote this passage in 1654. Most importantly,b the quatrain which is fly in the Net to scare people is not to be found in his published oeuvre. It's a hoax.br / /b /ppI also personally investigated the whole issue. I found from a various sources from the Net that the text apparently originated on a Web page entitled "A Critical Analysis of Nostradamus," written several years ago by a student named bNeil Marshall/b. Marshall imade up/i the quatrain to demonstrate — quite ironically, in light of how it is now being misused — that the bspan style="color:#ff0000;" writings of Nostradamus are so cryptic that they can be interpreted to mean almost anything./span/b/p pA Mukto-mona member Bulbul Amir made a very interesting comparison regarding the Nostradamus's prediction (message #2355) : /p blockquote pispan style="color:#800000;"Take one A1 size paper sheet (may be of 1000mmX1000mm size) and draw many thousands of dot on it in an irregular fashion. Now you declare it is the N sheet that can predict any thing, will happen in future. But be sure always prove it once things are happened. How ? its simple, just join different dots of your sheet to draw a picture that resemble the happening want to be predicted./span/i/p pispan style="color:#800000;"bNOSTRADAMUS prediction is also same, difference is, it uses alphabets instead of dots/b, and prove a prediction by showing words (or sentences) what you have to do it by a picture./span/i/p pispan style="color:#800000;"NOSTRADAMUS prediction, thus, is a HOAX./span/i/p /blockquote pSo, dear readers, do not scared by so called flying prophecies in the Net, as we already found that - /p pspan style="color:#800080;"b"In the city of thunder/york there will be a great collapse,br / 2 twin brothers torn apart by chaosbr / while the fortress falls the great leader will succumbbr / third big war will begin when the city is burning."/b/span/p pbspan style="color:#ff0000;"This was NOT written by Nostradamus. It was written by a high school student in 1996 to illustrate how a "randomly made up" quatrain could be interpreted to mean almost anything./span/b/p pbInterested readers can check the following links:br //bbr /a href="http://fury.com/article/925.php"http://fury.com/article/925.php/a a href="http://www.ed.brocku.ca/%7Enmarshal/nostradamus.htm"http://www.ed.brocku.ca/~nmarshal/nostradamus.htm/abr /a href="http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa091101b.htm"http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa091101b.htm/abr /a href="http://www.nostradamus-repository.org/cityofgod.html"http://www.nostradamus-repository.org/cityofgod.htmlbr /www.hippy.freeserve.co.uk/prophecy.htmbr //a/p pInterested readers can take a look of the two book (A good general "skeptic" reference) on Nostradamus:/p pbspan style="color:#800080;"The Mask of Nostradamusbr /James Randibr /Charles Scribner's Sonsbr /ISBN 0-684-19056-7br /BF1815.N8R35 1990br //span /bbr //p pbspan style="color:#800080;"Aloukik Noy, Loukik (in Bangla)br /Probir Ghosh (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Part)br /Dey'j Publication.br //span /bbr //p pRegards,br /Avijit/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-6769279879633063309?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  Interesting Olympic Facts

  Posted: June 4th, 2008, 4:05pm EDT

  Tags:  Funny Facts  

  pbThe Official Olympic Flag/bbr /Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games. /pp bThe Olympic Motto/bbr /In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger")./p p bThe Olympic Oath/bbr /Pierre de Coubertin wrote an oath for the athletes to recite at each Olympic Games. During the opening ceremonies, one athlete recites the oath on behalf of all the athletes. The Olympic oath was first taken during the 1920 Olympic Games by Belgian fencer Victor Boin. The Olympic Oath states, "In the name of all competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams." /pp bThe Olympic Creed/bbr /Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The Olympic Creed reads: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." /pp bThe Olympic Flame/bbr /The Olympic flame is a practice continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection. In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern Olympic Torch relay. The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics. /pp bThe Olympic Hymn/bbr /The Olympic Hymn, played when the Olympic Flag is raised, was composed by Spyros Samaras and the words added by Kostis Palamas. The Olympic Hymn was first played at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens but wasn't declared the official hymn by the IOC until 1957. /pp bReal Gold Medals/bbr /The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912. /pp bThe Medals/bbr /The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold. /pp bThe First Opening Ceremonies/bbr /The first opening ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic Games in London. /pp bOpening Ceremony Procession Order/bbr /During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country. /pp bA City, Not a Country/bbr /When choosing locations for the Olympic Games, the IOC specifically gives the honor of holding the Games to a city rather than a country. /pp bIOC Diplomats/bbr /In order to make the IOC an independent organization, the members of the IOC are not considered diplomats from their countries to the IOC, but rather are diplomats from the IOC to their respective countries. /pp bFirst Modern Champion/bbr /James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games. /pp bThe First Marathon/bbr /In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides. /pp bThe Exact Length of a Marathon/bbr /During the first several modern Olympics, the marathon was always an approximate distance. In 1908, the British royal family requested that the marathon start at the Windsor Castle so that the royal children could witness its start. The distance from the Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium was 42,195 meters (or 26 miles and 385 yards). In 1924, this distance became the standardized length of a marathon. /pp bWomen/bbr /Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games. /pp bWinter Games Begun/bbr /The winter Olympic Games were first held in 1924, beginning a tradition of holding them a few months earlier and in a different city than the summer Olympic Games. Beginning in 1994, the winter Olympic Games were held in completely different years (two years apart) than the summer Games./pp bCancelled Games/bbr /Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944./pp bTennis Banned/bbr /Tennis was played at the Olympics until 1924, then reinstituted in 1988. /pp bWalt Disney/bbr /In 1960, the Winter Olympic Games were held in Squaw Valley, California (United States). /pdivscriptzSB(3,3)/script/div In order to bedazzle and impress the spectators, Walt Disney was head of the committee that organized the opening day ceremonies. The 1960 Winter Games Opening Ceremony was filled with high school choirs and bands, releasing of thousands of balloons, fireworks, ice statues, releasing of 2,000 white doves, and national flags dropped by parachute. p bRussia Not Present/bbr /Though Russia had sent a few athletes to compete in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games, they did not compete again until the 1952 Games./pp bMotor Boating/bbr / Motor boating was an official sport at the 1908 Olympics. /pp bPolo, an Olympic Sport/bbr /Polo was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936. /pp bGymnasium/bbr /The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude; the literal meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude. /pp bStadium/bbr /The first recorded ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE with only one event - the stade. The stade was a unit of measurement (about 600 feet) that also became the name of the footrace because it was the distance run. Since the track for the stade (race) was a spade (length), the location of the race became the stadium. /pp bCounting Olympiads/bbr /An Olympiad is a period of four successive years. The Olympic Games celebrate each Olympiad. For the modern Olympic Games, the first Olympiad celebration was in 1896. Every four years celebrates another Olympiad; thus, even the Games that were cancelled (1916, 1940, and 1944) count as Olympiads. The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was called the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad./pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-2888852746448924182?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div
• 

  The Importance of Bananas

  Posted: June 1st, 2008, 4:04pm EDT

  Tags:  Funny Facts  

  p The Importance of Bananasbr /br /A professor at CCNY for a physiological psych class told his class about bananas.He said the expression 'going bananas' is frombr /the effects of bananas on the brain.br /br /Never put your banana in the refrigerator! !!br /This is interesting.br /After reading this, you'll never look at a banana in the same way again.br /br /Bananas contain three natural sugars - sucrose, fructose and glucose combined with fiber. A banana gives an instant, sustained andbr /substantial boost of energy.br /br /Research has proven that just two bananas provide enough energy for a strenuous 90-minute workout. No wonder the banana is thebr /number one fruit with the world's leading athletes.br /br /But energy isn't the only way a banana can help us keep fit. It can also help overcome or prevent a substantial number of illnessesbr /and conditions, making it a must to add to our daily diet.br /br /Depression: According to a recent survey undertaken by MIND amongst people suffering from depression, many felt much better afterbr /eating a banana. This is because bananas contain tryptophan, a type of protein that the body converts into serotonin, known to makebr /you relax, improve your mood and generally ma k e you feel happier.br /br /PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood.br /br /Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.br /br /Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure.br /So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit's abilitybr /to reduce the risk of blood pressure and strokebr /br /Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school (England) were helped through their exams this year by eatingbr /bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit canbr /assist learning by making pupils more alert.br /br /Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problembr /without resorting to laxatives.br /br /Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms thebr /stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system.br /br /Heartburn: Bananas have a natural antacid effect in the body, so if you suffer from heartburn, try eating a banana for soothingbr /relief.br /br /Morning Sickness: Snacking on bananas between meals helps to keep blood sugar levels up and avoid morning sickness.br /br /Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Manybr /people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation.br /br /Nerves: Bananas are high in B vitamins that help calm the nervous system.br /br /Overweight and Work?br /Studies at theInstituteofPsychologyinAustriafound pressure at work leads to gorging on comfort food like chocolate andbr /chips. Looking at 5,000 hospital patients, researchers found the most obese were more likely to be in high-pressure jobs. The reportbr /concluded that, to avoid panic-induced food cravings, we need to control our blood sugar levels by snacking on high carbohydratebr /foods every two hours to keep levels steady.br /br /Ulcers: The banana is used as the dietary food against intestinal disorders because of its soft texture and smoothness. It is thebr /only raw fruit that can be eaten without distress in over-chronicler cases. It also neutralizes over-acidity and reduces irritationbr /by coating the lining of the stomachbr /br /Temperature control: Many other cultures see bananas as a 'cooling' fruit that can lower both the physical and emotional temperaturebr /of expectant mothers. InThailand, for example, pregnant women eat bananas to ensure their baby is born with a cool temperature.br /br /Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD): Bananas can help SAD sufferers because they contain the natural mood enhancer tryptophanbr /br /Smoking amp;Tobacco Use: Bananas can also help people trying to give up smoking. The B6, B12 they contain, as well as the potassium andbr /magnesium found in them, help the body recover from the effects of nicotine withdrawal.br /br /Stress: Potassium is a vital mineral, which helps normalize the heartbeat, sends oxygen to the brain and regulates your body's waterbr /balance. When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, thereby reducing our potassium levels. These can be rebalanced with thebr /help of a high-potassium banana snack.br /br /Strokes: According to research in The New England Journal of Medicine, eating bananas as part of a regular diet can cut the risk ofbr /death by strokes by as much as 40%!br /br /Warts: Those keen on natural alternatives swear that if you want to kill off a wart, take a piece of banana skin and place it on thebr /wart, with the yellow side out. Carefully hold the skin in place with a plaster or surgical tape!br /br /So, a banana really is a natural remedy for many ills. When you compare it to an apple, it has four times the protein, twice thebr /carbohydrate, three times the phosphorus, five times the vitamin A and iron, and twice the other vitamins and minerals. It is alsobr /rich in potassium and is one of the best value foods around So maybe its time to change that well-known phrase so that we say, 'Abr /banana a day keeps the doctor away!'br /br / strong style="color: rgb(51, 204, 0);"For Maddy - Bananas must be the reason monkeys are so happy all the time!/strong/p want a quick shine on our shoes?? Take thebr /INSIDE of the banana skin, and rub directly on the shoe...polish with dry cloth. Amazing fruit.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/4690577357294452467-8199199877557893820?l=cool-interesting-facts.blogspot.com' alt='' //div