Did You Know ?

1. Your  are the first thing people subconsciously notice about you. Wear nice shoes.

2. If you sit for more than 11 hours a day, there's a 50% chance you'll die within the next 3 years

3. There are at least 6 people in the world who look exactly like you. There's a 9% chance that you'll meet one of them in your lifetime.

4. Sleeping without a pillow reduces back pain and keeps your spine stronger.

 5. A person’s height is determined by their father, and their weight is determined by their mother.

6. If a part of your body "falls asleep",

you can almost always "wake it up" by shaking your head.

7. There are three things the human brain cannot resist noticing - Food, attractive people and danger

8. Right-handed people tend to chew food on their right side

9. Putting dry tea bags in gym bags or smelly shoes will absorb the unpleasant odour.

10. According to Albert Einstein, if honey bees were to disappear from earth, humans would be dead within 4 years.

11. There are so many kind of apples, that if you ate a new one everyday, it would take over 20 years to try them all.

12. You can survive without eating for weeks, but you will only live 11 days without sleeping.

13. People who laugh a lot are healthier than those who don’t.

14. Laziness and inactivity kills just as many people as smoking.

15. A human brain has a capacity to store 5 times as much information as Wikipedia

16. Our brain uses same amount power as 10-watt light bulb!!

17. Our body gives enough heat in 30 mins to boil 1.5 litres of water!!

18. The Ovum egg is the largest cell and the sperm is the smallest cell !!

19. Stomach acid (conc. HCl) is strong enough to dissolve razor blades!!

20. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. & while you walk, SMILE. It is the ultimate antidepressant.

21. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

22. When you wake up in the morning, Pray to ask God's guidance for your purpose, today.

23. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

24. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, broccoli, and almonds.

25. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

26. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

27. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.

28. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

29. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Forgive them for everything !

30. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

31. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

32. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

33. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

34. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

35. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years, will this matter?'

36. Help the needy,Be generous ! Be a 'Giver' not a 'Taker'

37. What other people think of you is none of your business.

38. Time heals everything.

39. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

40. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. Each night before you go to bed ,Pray to God and Be thankful for what you'll accomplish, today !

43. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

It travels over land and water

It travels over land and water.
Who invented the HOVERCRAFT ?

A. S. Sperrow

B. O. Stricheg

C. T. Henman

D. C. Cockerell

Ans-D

Tortoise

Turtles have been on the earth for more than 200 million years. They evolved before mammals, birds, crocodiles, snakes, and even lizards.

The earliest turtles had teeth and could not retract their heads, but other than this, modern turtles are very similar to their original ancestors.

Turtles live on every continent except Antarctica.

Turtles will live in almost any climate warm enough to allow them to complete their breeding cycle.

While most turtles do not tolerate the cold well, the Blanding’s turtle has been observed swimming under the ice in the Great Lakes region.

Turtles range in size from the 4-inch Bog Turtle to the 1500-pound Leathery Turtle.

North America contains a large variety of turtle species, but Europe contains only two species of turtle and three species of tortoise.

The shell of a turtle is made up of 60 different bones all connected together.

Most land tortoises have high, domed carapaces that offer protection from the snapping jaws of terrestrial predators.

Most turtle species have five toes on each limb with a few exceptions including the American Box Turtle of the Carolina species that only has four toes and, in some cases, only three.

Turtles have good eyesight and an excellent sense of smell. Hearing and sense of touch are both good and even the shell contains nerve endings.

Some aquatic turtles can absorb oxygen through the skin on their neck and cloacal areas allowing them to remain submerged underwater for extended periods of time and enabling them to hibernate underwater.

Turtles are one of the oldest and most primitive groups of reptiles and have outlived many other species. One can only wonder if their unique shell is responsible for their longevity.

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Kilimanjaro

Elevation: 19,340 feet
Location: Tanzania, east Africa

The meaning and origin of the name Kilimanjaro is unknown. It is thought to be a combination of the Swahili word Kilima, meaning “mountain,” and the KiChagga word Njaro, loosely translated as “whiteness,” giving the name White Mountain.

Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa and fourth highest of the Seven Summits, is considered the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, rising 15,100 feet (4,600 meters) from base to summit.

Kilimanjaro is composed of three distinct volcanic cones: Kibo 19,340 feet (5,895 meters); Mawenzi 16,896 feet (5,149 meters); and Shira 13,000 feet (3,962 meters). Uhuru Peak is the highest summit on Kibo’s crater rim.

Kilimanjaro is a giant stratovolcano that began forming a million years ago when lava spilled from the Rift Valley zone. The mountain was built by successive lava flows. Two of its three peaks—Mawenzi and Shira—are extinct while Kibo, the highest peak is dormant and could erupt again.

Kilimanjaro has 2.2 square kilometers of glacial ice and is losing it quickly due to global warming. The glaciers have shrunk 82% since 1912 and declined 33% since 1989.

Kilimanjaro lies within the 756-square-kilometer Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is one of the few places on earth that encompasses every ecological life zone including tropical jungle, savannah, and desert to montane forests, subalpine plants, and the alpine zone above timberline.

Kilimanjaro has five common routes to its highest summit: Marangu Route; Machame Route; Rongai Route; Lemosho Route; and Mweka Route.

Climbing Kilimanjaro is easy and requires no technical climbing or mountaineering experience. The biggest challenge and danger is the high altitude. Climbers die from improper acclimatization and altitude sickness rather than falls.

Kilimanjaro is not a peak you can climb on your own. It is mandatory to climb with a licensed guide and have porters carry your equipment. This sustains the local economy and allows local people to reap the rewards of tourism.

The fastest verified ascent time was by Italian Bruno Brunod in 2001. He climbed Uhuru Peak from Marangu Gate in 5 hours, 38 minutes, and 40 seconds. The fastest round-trip time was by local guide Simon Mtuy who ran up and down on December 26, 2004 in 8 hours and 27 minutes.

Mount Meru, a 14,980-foot volcanic cone, lies 45 miles west of Kilimanjaro. It is an active volcano; has a snowcap; lies in Arusha National Park; and is often climbed as a training peak for Kilimanjaro.

Valcanoes

A volcano is a mountain that opens downward to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When pressure builds up, eruptions occur.
In an eruption, gases and rock shoot up through the opening and spill over or fill the air with lava fragments. Eruptions can cause lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods.
The danger area around a volcano covers about a 20-mile radius.
Fresh volcanic ash, made of pulverized rock, can be harsh, acidic, gritty, glassy and smelly. The ash can cause damage to the lungs of older people, babies and people with respiratory problems.
Volcano eruptions have been known to knock down entire forests.
An erupting volcano can trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rockfalls.
More than 80% of the earth’s surface is volcanic in origin. The sea floor and some mountains were formed by countless volcanic eruptions. Gaseous emissions from volcano formed the earth’s atmosphere.
There are more than 500 active volcanoes in the world. More than half of these volcanoes are part of the “Ring of Fire,” a region that encircles the Pacific Ocean.
Active volcanoes in the U.S. are found mainly in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington, but the greatest chance of eruptions near areas where many people live is in Hawaii and Alaska.
Even though the volcanic eruption in Iceland was relatively small, the ash cloud that was produced disrupted European air travel for six days in April 2010. The eruption created the highest level of air travel disruption World War II.
Crater Lake in Oregon formed from a high volcano that lost its top after a series of tremendous explosions about 6,600 years ago.

DOGS

Dogs have been domesticated for 10,000 years.
There are over 200 different breeds of dogs
Canis Familiaris is the Latin name for dog.
The largest dogs among all breeds, at least in terms of height, is the Irish Wolfhound.
Nearly all but two breeds of dogs have pink tongues. The two exceptions? The Chow Chow and the Shar-pei, both with black tongues.
The Basenji is the only barkless dog in the world.
Dalmatian puppies are born pure white, with their spots developing as the mature.
The ancient Chinese royalty loved the Pekingese, carrying them tucked into the sleeves of their royal robes.
Greyhounds are no doubt fast. In fact, they can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour for short amounts of time.
Many dogs’ eyes reflect the color green in the dark, but some also reflect orange or red.
Laikia, a dog, was the world’s first ever space astronaut. She was sent into space in an artificial earth satellite in 1957 by the Russian government.
Survivors of the Titanic included two dogs: a Pekingese belonging to Henry Sleeper Harper and a Pomeranian belonging to Miss Margaret Hays.
The oldest known breed of dog is the Saluki, which is an Arabic word meaning noble one. These dogs were raised as hunting dogs by ancient Egyptians.
The oldest breed of dog native to North America is the Chihuahua.
Every minute, dogs take ten to thirty breaths.
The only mammals with prostates are humans and dogs.
There are 42 teeth in a dog’s mouth.
One of the very first animals domesticated by humans was the dog.
The oldest known dog lived to be 29.
The “spring” in Springer Spaniel referred to this dog’s ability to spring or startle game.
In Flemish, Schipperke translates to “Little Captain.”
The Lhasa Apso was used by monks to guard temples.

Singapore Flyer

Diameter: Singapore Flyer is 150 metres in diameter – about the length of 87 Singaporean men lying down head-to-toe. The average Singaporean man is 1.72m tall.
Height: Singapore Flyer measures 165 metres in height – about the height of a 42-storey building. To amuse your child, describe the height as “31 male giraffes stacked on top of one another”. The average height of a giraffe is 5.3 metres.
Land area: Singapore Flyer stands on 33,700m2 or 363,000 ft2 – an area that will fit 172 tennis courts or 1,120 parking lots. A typical parking lot is 30m2.
Capsule size: Each capsule is 4 metres x 7 metres – about the size of a city bus. There are 28 capsules. Each capsule can carry up to 28 passengers.
Speed it travels: 0.24m per second, or 0.76km/h.
Total capacity per revolution: 784 passengers.
Boarding & Flying
Boarding: To board the capsule, you use the “step on platform” – it’s like walking on level ground into the capsule. There are two synchronised doors and two platforms on each side – making it easy for the elderly and those in wheelchairs to get on and off.
Rotation: Each rotation is about 32 minutes.
Smooth Rotation: Singapore Flyer is designed and built to rotate smoothly under various wind conditions at high altitudes – thanks to precision wind engineering.
View Radius: On board Singapore Flyer, you can see up to 45 kilometres away – that’s 3 kilometres more than the entire length of our island city. From the Flyer, you’ll be able to see Changi Airport, Sentosa Island, and even parts of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Design & Technology
Design: Singapore Flyer is the brainchild of world renowned architect Dr. Kisho Kurokawa (Japan) and architectural firm DP Architects (Singapore). The design is notably “avant-garde” – experimental and innovative while emphasizing simplicity and harmony.
Technological Wonder: Singapore Flyer uses a slim ladder truss rim – not the usual triangular rim used by other observation wheels.

Copper

Facts about the Definition of the Element Copper
A ductile, malleable, reddish-brown metallic element that is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity and is widely used for electrical wiring, water piping, and corrosion-resistant parts, either pure or in alloys such as brass and bronze. The most common uses of Copper are in Copper sulfate, Hammered copper, Tubing, pipes – Plumbing, Wire, Electromagnets, Statues, Watt’s steam engine, Vacuum tubes, Musical instruments, Component of coins, Cookware and Cutlery. A Copper Reaction involves a process in which Copper is mixed with another substance which react to form something else.

Interesting Facts about the Origin and Meaning of the element name Copper
The name originates from the Latin word cyprium, after the island of Cyprus. Copper was associated with the goddess named Aphrodite / Venus in Greek and Roman mythology. The island of Cyprus was sacred to the goddess. In alchemy, the symbol for copper was also the symbol for the planet Venus. In Greek times, the metal was known by the name Chalkos. In Roman times, it became known as Cyprium because so much of it was mined in Cyprus.

Facts about the Classification of the Element Copper
Copper is classified as a “Transition Metal” which are located in Groups 3 – 12 of the Periodic Table. An Element classified as a Transition Metals is ductile, malleable, and able to conduct electricity and heat.

Occurrence of the element Copper in the Atmosphere
Obtained from chalcopyrite, coveline, chalcosine
Common Uses of Copper
Copper sulfate
Hammered copper
Tubing, pipes – Plumbing
Wire
Sheets
Electromagnets
Statues
Watt’s steam engine
Vacuum tubes
Musical instruments
Component of coins
Cookware
Cutlery

The Properties of the Element Copper
Name of Element : Copper
Symbol of Element : Cu
Atomic Number of Copper : 29
Atomic Mass: 63.546 amu
Melting Point: 1083.0 °C – 1356.15 °K
Boiling Point: 2567.0 °C – 2840.15 °K
Number of Protons/Electrons in Copper : 29
Number of Neutrons in Copper : 35
Crystal Structure: Cubic
Density @ 293 K: 8.96 g/cm3
Color of Copper : red / orange / brown

9 interesting confusions

1. Can you cry under water?

2. Do fishes ever get thirsty?

3. Why don't birds fall of trees when they sleep?

4. Why is it called building when it is already built?

5. When they say dogs food is new and improved, who tastes it?

6. "I Love You" is not a question then why does it need an answer?

7. Why does round pizza come in a square box?

8. Why doesn't glue stick to its bottle?

9. If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

Kuala Lumpur

Full name: Kuala Lumpur (more commonly known as K.L)
Area: 243.65 km² / 95.18 sq mi
Population: Estimated 1.8 million
National Language: Malay Language (Bahasa Melayu)
Other Spoken Languages: English, Chinese, Tamil
Ethnic Groups: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, Indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, Others 7.8% (2004 est.)
Religions: Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Christian, Sikh
Currency: Ringgit Malaysia (RM)
National Anthem: Negaraku
Country code + Area code: +603
Time difference: GMT + 8 (day light savings do not apply)
Weather: tropical; annual southwest (April to October) and northeast (October to February) monsoons
Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz, standard two or three pin British-style plugs
Emergency number: 999 (medical, police and fire)
Places Of Interest: Petronas Twin Towers, Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, Menara K.L, Lake Gardens, Dataran Merdeka, National Mosque, National Museum, National Monument, Chinatown, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, National Theatre.
Festivals: Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali, Wesak, Federal Territory Day, etc.
Districts: Ampang, Bangsar, Damansara Heights , Cheras, Segambut, Sri Hartamas, etc.
Transportation: Light Rail Transit (LRT), K.L Monorail, Rapid K.L (Bus), KTM Commuter Trains, Taxis

China

China is the most populous nation on earth. With more than 1.2 billion people, it contains one-fifth of the world’s population.
Approximately 93 percent of the people are Han Chinese; the remainder is made up of 350 minority groups — 55 of them are commonly recognized — which have their own language, culture, and religion.
China has the third largest landmass of any nation. Only Russia and Canada are larger. China is slightly larger than the United States.
There are 31 provinces, autonomous regions and special municipalities. Hong Kong, which reverted to China in 1997, is referred to as a special administrative region.
The four largest cities, Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin are administered directly by the central government.
Approximately half the land is occupied by minority people groups such as Mongols, Tibetans, Yugur, and Bai. Only about 15 percent of China’s land is farmable, so there is a great strain on the land to feed so many people.
Mandarin Chinese (also known as Putonghua) is the primary language, and is spoken by more than 70 percent of the population. Cantonese prevails in Hong Kong and in parts of the Guangdong Province. Many other dialects abound.
With its first recorded history dating back to 1500 BC, China claims the world’s oldest existing civilization.
During most of its history, China was ruled by a series of dynasties. The last dynasty ended in 1911 with the establishment of a republic by Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
From 1911 until 1949 there was great turmoil in China as various factions fought for supremacy, ending with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.
Since 1949, the country has been under communist rule. China’s governments claims that during that time there has been an eradication of opium, an increased life expectancy, and a reduction of the infant mortality rate.
But, there have also been periods of great turmoil, the worst of which was the Cultural Revolution, officially lasting from 1966-1970, though many historians extend its effects until the death of Mao Ze-dong in 1976.
The Cultural Revolution was a period of unprecedented turmoil in which society was virtually turned upside down.
Students, in the form of Red Guard, went on a rampage. Schools and universities were closed, intellectuals and artists of all kinds were dismissed, persecuted, sent to labor in the countryside, or killed.
Temples, monuments, and works of art were defaced and destroyed. All religious institutions were closed and religious workers were sent to prison or to work in factories or in the countryside. This was a time of suffering for all the Chinese people. Its effects are still felt in society.
Except for a few minority groups and some rural dwellers, families are strongly discouraged from having more than one child.
Those who ignore the admonitions can be severely penalized. The government takes pride in this intrusive manner of population control.
China’s economy has been improving rapidly since 1979 when China opened the doors to foreign investment and opened the economy to more private initiative.
This has resulted in a vast increase of consumer activity, so that upper middle class families have many symbols of middle class affluence: refrigerators, telephones, color televisions, video CD players, and more.
Commercialism and materialism are increasingly popular in China. However, there is still terrible poverty as well.
Even though the Communist government encourages atheism, there are five recognized religions in China today: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, and Protestant Christianity.
Ancestor worship is a daily practice for many. Confucianism is not officially a religion, though through the centuries, there have periodically been temples devoted to the worship of Confucius.
In any case, Confucianism remains a major element of the Chinese value system. The government cracked down on a very popular Falunggung religious practice in 1999, terming it a dangerous cult.
Robert Morrison was the first Protestant to introduce Christianity in China. He arrived in Canton in 1807.
From that time until 1949, hundreds of sending agencies sent thousands of missionaries to serve in China. China was a difficult mission field; converts came slowly. In 1949 there were no more than 750,000 Protestant Christians in China.
After all the foreign missionaries left China in the early 1950s and all religious institutions were closed from about 1966 because of the Cultural Revolution, it was feared that Christianity might have died out once again.
But, when the churches began to open up in 1979 it was discovered, even to the Chinese Christians’ amazement, that there were at least 6 million Christians.
No longer foreign, all Chinese churches are just that: indigenous Chinese churches, and thousands of Chinese, young and old, are turning to Christ every day.
Nobody really knows how many Christians there are in China. Accurate statistics are hard to come by because there is no systematic or standard reporting system and the numbers change rapidly.
Estimates for members of registered (government sanctioned) congregations range up to 15-20 million, with more than 37,000 congregations meeting in church buildings referred to as churches and 25,000 meeting in other locations, referred to as meeting points.
But there are also many millions of believers, perhaps 45-80 million of them, who meet in house churches that are not government approved.
Even by placing the estimate at the high end of 100 million total Christians, one is reminded that there are still more than one billion Chinese who don’t know Christ!

Snakes

There are around 3000 snake species in the world, and about 375 of these are venomous. From enormous ones like the python, which can swallow animals as large as a deer whole, to snakes that are just a few inches long, snakes can be found in all types of habitats.
While some climb trees, others live underground, and still others are found in the waters of lakes and even seas. Given below are some more fascinating facts about snakes.
Snakes are reptiles that have an elongated body that is flexible and limbless. The shape of the body of snakes is dependent on the habitat they live in.
For example, snakes that burrow underground have a tendency of being more compact, whereas the types that live in trees tend to be slender and long equipped with a prehensile tail which they use to grasp branches, while the body of aquatic snakes is generally flattened.
Snakes occur in a large variety of colors, ranging from dull to brilliant hues with striking patterns. Snakes that have dull coloring use it for camouflage, while those that are brightly colored are usually poisonous.
They use their bright colors to warn predators to stay off. Some non-poisonous snakes mimic the patterns and bright colors of poisonous snakes to fool predators.
As for the size, while the anaconda can grow up to 38 feet in length, the brahminy blind snake is just 2 inches long, making it the smallest snake.
Snakes occur practically all over the world, apart from places like Greenland, Iceland, and Antarctica. However, it is in the tropical regions of the world that most snakes are found.
Like all reptiles, snakes are cold-blooded, which means they do not have the ability of generating adequate amounts of heat in order to keep their body temperature at a constant level. Instead, they are dependent on the heat from their surroundings and the sun to control the temperature of their body. This is the reason most snake species are found in the humid and warm climes of tropical regions.
Another interesting fact about snakes is that they need to shed their skin regularly while they grow, a process known as molting. Snakes shed their skin by rubbing their head against something rough and hard, like a piece of wood or a rock.
This causes the skin, which is already stretched, to split open. The snake keeps on rubbing its skin on various rough objects, resulting in the skin peeling off from its head, enabling it to crawl out, turning the skin inside out.
Snakes have the ability of surviving without food for many days at a stretch after having a filling meal. This is because they have a slow rate of metabolism. In fact, the King Cobra, for example, can go for months without food.
Snakes do not have any eyelids; instead, a transparent scale protects their eyes. Also, they are deaf to airborne sounds, and they ‘hear’ by picking up vibrations through their jawbones.
Plus, snakes use their forked tongue to smell. The tongue gathers particles that are airborne which it then passes to the Jacobson’s Organ, a specialized organ located on the roof of the snake’s mouth.
Snakes have the unique ability of swallowing prey three times larger than their mouth. They can do this because the special tendons located in their mouth are highly stretchable and because the two halves of their jaws are not attached to each other rigidly.
Snakes have more than 200 teeth, which they do not use to chew, since they point backwards, but bite and grip their prey securely.
Being extremely shy animals, we are just beginning to learn more interesting facts about snakes. However, many of their species are disappearing completely for various reasons like being wantonly killed due to fear or for their skins, while their habitats are being continuously eroded and destroyed by us.

Footwear

Sandals originated in warm climates where the soles of the feet needed protection but the top of the foot needed to be cool.

4,000 years ago the first shoes were made of a single piece of rawhide that enveloped the foot for both warmth and protection.
In Europe pointed toes on shoes were fashionable from the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries.
In the Middle East heels were added to shoes to lift the foot from the burning sand.
In Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries heels on shoes were always colored red.
Shoes all over the world were identical until the nineteenth century, when left- and right-footed shoes were first made in Philadelphia.
In Europe it wasn’t until the eighteenth century that women’s shoes were different from men’s.
Six-inch-high heels were worn by the upper classes in seventeenth-century Europe. Two servants, one on either side, were needed to hold up the person wearing the high heels.
Sneakers were first made in America in 1916. They were originally called keds.
Boots were first worn in cold, mountainous regions and hot, sandy deserts where horse-riding communities lived. Heels on boots kept feet secure in the stirrups.
The first lady’s boot was designed for Queen Victoria in 1840.

Watch

 

The use of quartz in watches makes use of a long-known type of electricity known as piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity is the current which flows from or through a piece of quartz when the quartz is put under electrical and/or mechanical pressure (piezo is from the Greek verb meaning “to press”).

The oldest means of determining time is by observing the location of the sun in the sky. When the sun is directly overhead, the time is roughly 12:00 noon.
A slightly later development, and one less subject to an individual’s judgment, is the use of a sundial. During the daylight hours, sunlight falls on a vertical pole placed at the center of a calibrated dial, thus casting a shadow on the dial and providing the reader with a relatively accurate time reading.
The invention of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth century was a major advancement—it provided a more concise and consistent method of measuring time.
The mechanical clock includes a complicated series of wheels, gears, and levers powered by a falling weights and with a pendulum (or later a wound-up spring). These pieces together moved the hand or hands on a dial to show the time.
The addition of chimes or gongs on the hour, half hour, and quarter hour followed soon afterward. By the eighteenth century, smaller clocks for the home were available, and, unlike their predecessors, were closed and sealed in a case.
Developments in metal technology and in miniaturization, the lubrication of small parts, and the use of first, natural sapphires (and then artificial sapphires) at the spots that received the most stress (the jeweled movement) all became integral components of horological science.
Small pocket watches, perhaps two to three inches (five to seven centimeters) in diameter, were available by the end of the nineteenth century. Mechanical wristwatches were an everyday item in the United States by the 1960s. And yet, the central problem faced by watch and clockmakers remained the same: mechanical parts wear down, become inaccurate, and break.
In the years immediately following World War II, interest in atomic physics led to the development of the atomic clock. Radioactive materials emit particles (decayed) at a known, steady rate.
The parts of a mechanical clock that ratcheted to keep the time could be replaced by a device that stimulated the watch movement each time a particle was emitted by the radioactive element. Atomic clocks, incidentally, are still made and sold, and they are found to be consistently accurate.
With the development of the microchip in the 1970s and 1980s, a new type of watch was invented. Wristwatches that mixed microchip technology with quartz crystals became the standard; there are few non-quartz wristwatches made today.
The microchip is utilized to send signals to the dial of the watch on a continual basis. Because it is not a mechanical device with moving parts, it does not wear out.
A quartz watch uses the electricity from a piece of quartz subjected to the electricity from a battery to send a regular, countable series of signals (oscillations) to one or more microchips. (Electrical wall clocks, in contrast, use the regularity of wall current to keep track of time.)
The most accurate quartz watches are those in which the time appears in an electronically controlled digital display, produced via a light-emitting diode (LED) or a liquid crystal display (LCD).
It is possible, of course, to have the microprocessor send its signals to mechanical devices that make hands move on the watch face, creating an analog display.
But because the hands are mechanically operated through a portion of the watch known as a gear train, analogue watches usually are not as accurate as digitals and are subject to wear.
Both types of watches achieve tremendous accuracy, with digital watches commonly being accurate to within three seconds per month.

Mango

The mango is known as the ‘king of fruit’ throughout the world.
The Mango is a member of the cashew family of flowering plants; other species include the pistachio tree and poison ivy.
The name ‘mango’ is derived from the Tamil word ‘mangkay’ or ‘man-gay’. When the Portuguese traders settled in Western India they adopted the name as ‘manga’.
Mangos originated in East India, Burma and the Andaman Islands bordering the Bay of Bengal. Persian traders took the mango into the middle east and Africa, from there the Portuguese brought it to Brazil and the West Indies. Mango cultivars arrived in Florida in the 1830′s and in California in the 1880′s.
The Mango tree is a symbol of love.
Mango leaves are used at weddings to ensure the couple bear plenty of children (though it is only the birth of the male child that is celebrated – again by hanging mango leaves outside the house).
Many Southeast Asian kings and nobles had their own mango groves; with private cultivars being sources of great pride and social standing, hence began the custom of sending gifts of the choicest mangoes.
Burning of mango wood, leaves and debris is not advised – toxic fumes can cause serious irritation to eyes and lungs.
Mango leaves are considered toxic and can kill cattle or other grazing livestock.
Mangos are bursting with protective nutrients. The vitamin content depends upon the variety and maturity of the fruit, when the mango is green the amount of vitamin C is higher, as it ripens the amount of beta carotene (vitamin A) increases.
There are over 20 million metric tons of mangos grown throughout the tropical and sub-tropical world. The leading mango producer is India, with very little export as most are consumed within the country. Mexico and China compete for second place, followed by Pakistan and Indonesia. Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil, Philippines and Haiti follow in order.
The fruit of the mango is called a Drupe – consisting of the mesocarp (edible fleshy part) and endocarp (large woody, flattened pit).
The mango is a member of the Anachardiaceae family. Other distant relatives include the cashew, pistachio, Jamaica plum, poison ivy and poison oak.
The over 1,000 known mango cultivars are derived from two strains of mango seed – monoembryonic (single embryo) and polyembryonic (multiple embryo). Monoembryonic hails from the Indian (original) strain of mango, polyembryonic from the Indochinese.
Dermatitis can result from contact with the resinous latex sap that drips from the stem end when mangos are harvested. The mango fruit skin is not considered edible.
Mangiferin – rich in splenocytes, found in the stem bark of the mango tree has purported potent immunomodulatory characteristics – believed to inhibit tumor growth in early and late stages.
Mangoes contain as much vitamin C as an orange.
To choose a Mango gently squeeze the ‘nose’ of the fruit. If there is slight give then the mango is ripe. Color is not the best indicator of ripeness.
A Mango stored at 55 degrees will last for up to two weeks. Do not refrigerate.
Mangoes are some of the best sources of beta carotene; they contain 20 percent more than cantaloupe and 50 percent more than apricots.

Thendayuthapani Temple

Name

Other names: Chettiar Hindu Temple

Proper name: Sri Thendayuthapani Temple

Tamil: ஸ்ரீ தண்டாயுதபாணி கோவில்

Location

Country: Singapore

Location: 15 Tank Road

Architecture and culture

Primary deity: Murugan

Architectural styles: Dravidian architecture

History

Date built: 1859

Creator: Nattukkottai Chettiar Community

The Sri Thendayuthapani Temple, better known as the Chettiar Hindu Temple, is one of Singapore Hindu community’s most important monuments. It was built in the year 1859 by Nattukkottai Chettiar community.   This Shaivite temple, dedicated to the six-faced Lord Subramaniam (Lord Muruga), is at its most active during the festival of Thaipusam, where the procession ends here. It is here, during the annual Thaipusam festival, that hundreds of pilgrims, their bodies pierced by hooks, spears and spiked steel structures called Kavadi, end their walk from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple on Serangoon Road.

The act of penance is carried out by devotees in gratitude to Lord Subramanian or Murugan, son of Lord Siva, for granting their prayers of supplication.

The First Consecration Ceremony

As quoted in their website, the slab stones found at Sri Thendayuthapani Temple show that the temple was consecrated on 4.4.1859. That would mean that the building works had started one or two years earlier.

In fact the community bought the land, where the present temple stands, from the estate of Mr Oxley, the first Surgeon General of Singapore. The temple in its original form was of a simple structure.

At the entrance to the temple, two raised platforms similar to that found in Chettiar households in Tamil Nadu were erected. It had an alangara mandapam and an artha mandapam.

The alangara mandapam was used to house the decorated deities on special occasions while the artha mandapam was the centre hall leading to the main sanctum. The main sanctum was of course dedicated to Lord Muruga in the form of Sri Thendayuthapani.

Subsequent Consecrations  

The old temple underwent some renovation and restoration works on two occasions when the consecration ceremonies were held in 1936 and 1955. However, the community felt the need to upgrade the temple with modern facilities so as to keep pace with the development of Singapore.

The Nagarathars decided in the late seventies, to rebuild the temple on the same site. The temple was to be in the centre with a wedding hall and staff quarters flanking its sides. The food courtyard known as the karthigai kattu was replaced by a wedding hall with car parking facilities. The piling work started on 4 Jan 1981 and was completed on 19 Jan 1983.

Facts About Rain

1. The umbrella was originally invented to protect people from the hot sun.

2. Rain drops can fall at speeds of about 22 miles an hour.

3. Rain starts off as ice or snow crystals at cloud level.

4. Light rain is classified as being no more then 0.10 inchese of rain an hour.

5. Heavy rain is classified as being more then 0.30 inches of rain an hour.

6. Louisiana is the wettest state in the U.S, which receoved an annual rainfall of 56 inches.

7. Rain drops range in size from 0.02 inches to about .031 inches.

8. Rain drops do not fall in a tear drop shape, they originally fall in the shave of a flat oval.

9. Rain that freezes before it hits the ground is known as frozen rain.

10. Rain is recycled water that evaporated from our worlds lakes, rivers, oceans, seas etc.

Ice Skates

The oldest pair of skates known date back to about 3000 B.C., found at the bottom of a lake inSwitzerland. The skates were made from the leg bones of large animals, holes were bored at each end of the bone and leather straps were used to tie the skates on. An old Dutch word for skate is “schenkel” which means “leg bone”.

Around the 14th Century, the Dutch started using wooden platform skates with flat iron bottom runners. The skates were attached to the skater’s shoes with leather straps.

Poles were used to propel the skater. Around 1500, the Dutch added a narrow metal double edged blade, making the poles a thing of the past, as the skater could now push and glide with his feet (called the “Dutch Roll”).

In 1848, E. V. Bushnell ofPhiladelphia, PA invented the first all steel clamp for skates.

In 1865, Jackson Haines, a famous American skater, developed the two plate all metal blade. The blade was attached directly to Haines’ boots.

The skater became famous for his new dance moves, jumps and spins. Haines added the first toe pick to skates in the 1870′s, making toe pick jumps possible.

The first artificial ice rink (mechanically-refrigerated) was built in 1876, atChelsea, London,England and was named the Glaciarium. It was built near the King’s Road inLondon by John Gamgee.

In 1914, John E. Strauss, a blade maker fromSt. Paul, Minnesota, invented the first closed toe blade made from one piece of steel, making skates lighter and stronger.

The largest outdoor ice rink is the Fujikyu Highland Promenade Rink inJapan, built in 1967 and boasts an ice area of 165,750 square feet– equal to 3.8 acres.

Teddy Bear

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, is the person responsible for giving the teddy bear his name. On November 14, 1902, Roosevelt was helping settle a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana.

During his spare time he attended a bear hunt in Mississippi. During the hunt, Roosevelt came upon a wounded young bear and ordered the mercy killing of the animal.

The Washington Post ran a editorial cartoon created by the political cartoonist Clifford K. Berryman that illustrated the event.

The cartoon was called “Drawing the Line in Mississippi” and depicted both state line dispute and the bear hunt.   At first Berryman drew the bear as a fierce animal, the bear had just killed a hunting dog.

Later, Berryman redrew the bear to make it a cuddly cub. The cartoon and the story it told became popular and within a year, the cartoon bear became a toy for children called the teddy bear.

Who made the first toy bear called teddy bear?  

Well there are several stories, below is the most popular one:   Morris Michtom made the first official toy bear called the teddy bear.

Michtom owned a small novelty and candy store in Brooklyn, New York. His wife Rose was making toy bears for sale in their store.

Michtom sent Roosevelt a bear and asked permission to use the teddy bear name. Roosevelt said yes. Michtom and a company called Butler Brothers, began to mass-produce the teddy bear. Within a year Michtom started his own company called the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company.

Intel

In 1968, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore were two unhappy engineers working for the Fairchild Semiconductor Company who decided to quit and create their own company at a time when many Fairchild employees were leaving to create start-ups. People like Noyce and Moore were nicknamed the “Fairchildren“.

Robert Noyce typed himself a one page idea of what he wanted to do with his new company, and that was enough to convince San Francisco venture capitalist Art Rock to back Noyce’s and Moore’s new venture.

Rock raised $2.5 million dollars in less than 2 days by selling convertible debentures. Art Rock became the first chairmen of Intel.

Intel Trademark  

The name “Moore Noyce” was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so the two founders decided upon the name “Intel” for their new company, a shortened version of “Integrated Electronics“. However, the rights to the name had to bought from a company called Intelco first.

Intel Products

In 1969, Intel released the world’s first metal oxide semi-conductor (MOS) static ram, the 1101. Also in 1969, Intel’s first money making product was the 3101 Schottky bipolar 64-bit static random access memory (SRAM) chip. A year later in 1970, Intel introduced the 1103, DRAM memory chip.

In 1971, Intel introduced the now-famous world’s first single chip microprocessor (computer on a chip), the Intel 4004, invented by Intel engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor.

In 1972, Intel introduced the first 8-bit microprocessor the 8008. In 1974, the Intel 8080 microprocessor was introduced with ten times the power of the 8008.

In 1975, the 8080 microprocessor was used in one of the first consumer home computer – the Altair 8800 that was sold in kit form.

In 1976, Intel introduced the first micro-controllers, the 8748 and 8048, a computer-on-a-chip optimized to control electronic devices.

Though produced by theUSA’s Intel Corporation, the 1993 Pentium was basically the outcome of a research conducted by an Indian engineer. Popularly known as the Father of the Pentium chip, the inventor of the computer chip is Vinod Dham.

Toilets

King Minos of Crete had the first flushing water closet recorded in history and that was over 2800 years ago.

A toilet was discovered in the tomb of a Chinese king of the Western Han Dynasty that dates back to 206 BC to 24 AD.

The ancient Romans had a system of sewers. They built simple outhouses or latrines directly over the running waters of the sewers that poured into the TiberRiver

Chamber pots were used during the middle ages. A chamber pot is a special metal or ceramic bowl that you used and then tossed the contents out (often out the window).

In 1596, a flush toilet was invented and built for Queen Elizabeth I by her Godson, Sir John Harrington.

The first patent for the flushing toilet was issued to Alexander Cummings in 1775.

During the 1800s, people realized that poor sanitary conditions caused diseases. Having toilets and sewer systems that could control human waste became a priority to lawmakers, medical experts, inventors, and the general public.

In 1829, the Tremont Hotel of Boston became the first hotel to have indoor plumbing, and had eight water closets built by Isaiah Rogers. Until 1840, indoor plumbing could be found only in the homes of the rich and the better hotels.

Beginning in 1910, toilet designs started changing away from the elevated water tank into the modern toilet with a close tank and bowl.

HORSE

One of the first horses was called a Hyracotherium. It lived about 50 million years ago and was as tall as a fox. It had toes!
This horse changed over millions of years to become a modern horse.
Camargue horses are completely white as adults. Their babies are pure black when they are born.
There is a breed of horse from Russia called Akhal-Teke. It can go for days without food or water.
You can tell how old a horse is by how many teeth it has. A horse gets all of its teeth by the time it is five years old. After that, they just get longer.
A female horse is called a mare.
In the wild it is the mare that decides when the herd moves on to another spot to find food.
A male horse is called a stallion. Usually only one stallion will stay with a herd.
Any marking on a horse’s forehead is called a star, even if it is not shaped like a star.
Horses and ponies feel safer when they are in a herd.
Mustangs are one of the few breeds of horses that live wild in North America. They are related to the horses that the Spanish explorers brought to North America 400 years ago.
Horses can communicate how they are feeling by their facial expressions. They use their ears, nostrils, and eyes to show their moods.
Beware of a horse that has flared nostrils and their ears back. That means it might attack!
A hoof is like a fingernail. It is always growing and needs to be clipped so that it won’t be uncomfortable for the horse.
A farrier is a person who makes horse shoes and fits them on your horse.
They also clip hooves to keep them from getting overgrown.
A horse can move in four ways: walk, trot, canter, and gallop. A gallop is the fastest gait.

Strange Facts

Cars were first made with ignition keys in 1949.

J.B Dunlop was first to put air into tires.

Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone, also set a world water-speed record of over seventy miles an hour at the age of seventy two.

Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.

The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour. It was set with the lunar rover.

If you could drive to the sun — at 55 miles per hour — it would take about 193 years

Hawaii is moving toward Japan 4 inches every year.

The North Atlantic gets 1 inch wider every year.

The average ocean floor is 12,000 feet.

Shrimp’s hearts are in their heads.

Porcupines float in water.

A cat’s jaws cannot move sideways.

Only humans sleep on their backs.

A crocodile’s tongue is attached to the roof of its mouth.

Malibu Hindu Temple

Malibu Hindu Temple, a temple of the Hindu god Venkateswara, built in 1981, is located in the city of Calabasas near Malibu, California in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is owned and operated by the Hindu Temple Society of Southern California. Built in the traditional South Indian style, it is frequented by followers of Hinduism in Southern California.

The priests are situated and live on the grounds of the temple. The temple has many gatherings for ceremonies, and provides numerous space for meditation, picknicking, it has a full stage for special cultural and Hindu programs.

Temple Complex  

The Hindu temple has two complexes – the upper complex with Lord Venkateswara as the presiding deity and the lower complex with Lord Shiva as the presiding deity. In addition to the presiding deity, both complexes have shrines for other deities.

In Popular Culture

 In 1997, the temple was used in a small scene in the movie Beverly Hills Ninja starring Chris Farley, and in 1998 in a song in the Tamil film Jeans. In January 2006, the pop-star singer Britney Spears had her 4-month-old son blessed in a large ceremony by the Hindu priests of this temple. The event had world-wide coverage in the media.

WHAT IS Email ?

Computer engineer, Ray Tomlinson invented internet based email in late 1971. Under ARPAnet several major innovations occurred: email (or electronic mail), the ability to send simple messages to another person across the network (1971).

Ray Tomlinson worked as a computer engineer for Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN), the company hired by the United States Defense Department to build the first Internet in 1968.

Ray Tomlinson was experimenting with a popular program he wrote called SNDMSG that the ARPANET programmers and researchers were using on the network computers (Digital PDP-10s) to leave messages for each other.

SNDMSG was a “local” electronic message program. You could only leave messages on the computer that you were using for other persons using that computer to read.

Tomlinson used a file transfer protocol that he was working on called CYPNET to adapt the SNDMSG program so it could send electronic messages to any computer on the ARPANET network.

 

The @ Symbol

Ray Tomlinson chose the @ symbol to tell which user was “at” what computer. The @ goes in between the user’s login name and the name of his/her host computer.

 

First Email

The first email was sent between two computers that were actually sitting besides each other. However, the ARPANET network was used as the connection between the two. The first email message was “QWERTYUIOP”.

Ray Tomlinson is quoted as saying he invented email,”Mostly because it seemed like a neat idea.” No one was asking for email.

Marina Bay Sands

Address:10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore 018956

Opening date

Grand opening – 15th Febuary 2011

Official opening – 23 June 2010

Preview opening – 27 April 2010

No. of rooms: 2,561

Permanent shows: Disney’s The Lion King

Signature attractions:

Sands SkyPark, The Shoppes atMarina Bay Sands, The Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Bay Floral, MarinaBay Club, MarinaBay Sands Art Path, ArtScienceMuseum and Wonder Full

Notable restaurants :

CUT, DB Bistro Moderne, SavoySingapore, Imperial Treasure Fine Chinese Cuisine, SANTI, Waku Ghin, Pizzeria and Osteria Mozza, Hide Yamamoto, Rasapura Masters, L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon and Chinois by Susur Lee

Casino type: Land-Based

Owner: Las Vegas Sands Corp

Website: marinabaysands.com

Marina Bay Sands is an integrated resort frontingMarina Bay in Singapore. Developed by Las Vegas Sands, it is billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including cost of the prime land.

With the casino complete, the resort features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) convention-exhibition centre, the 800,000-square-foot (74,000 m2), The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands mall, a museum, two large theatres, seven “celebrity chef” restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.

The complex is topped by a 340m-long SkyPark with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67m.

The 20-hectare resort was designed by Moshe Safdie Architects. The local architect of record was AedasSingapore, and engineering was provided by Arup and Parsons Brinkerhoff (MEP). The main contractor was Ssangyong Engineering and Construction.

Originally set to open in 2009, Las Vegas Sands faced delays caused by escalating costs of material and labour shortages from the onset. The severe global financial crisis also pressured the company to delay its projects elsewhere to complete the integrated resort.

Although Marina Bay Sands has been compared on scale and development costs to MGM’s CityCenter, the latter is a mixed-use development, with condominium properties (comprising three of the seven main structures) being sold off.

The resort was officially opened with a two-day celebration on 23 June 2010 at 3.18 pm, after a partial opening (which included the casino) on 27 April 2010.

The SkyPark opened a day later on 24 June 2010. The theatres were completed in time for the first performance by Riverdance on 30 November 2010.

The indoor skating rink, which uses artificial ice, opened to a performance by Michelle Kwan on 18 December 2010. TheArtScience Museum opened to the public and the debut of a 13-minute light, laser and water spectacle called Wonder Full on 19 February 2011 marked the full completion of the entire Integrated Resort.

The grand opening of Marina Bay Sands was held on 17 February 2011. It also marked the opening of the seven celebrity chef restaurants. The highly-anticipated Broadway musical The Lion King debuted on 3 March 2011.

The last portion of the Marina Bay Sands, the floating pavilions, were finally opened to the public when the two tenants (Louis Vuitton and Pangaea Club) opened on 18 September 2011 and 22 September 2011 respectively.

Ripon Building

Ripon Building is the seat of the Chennai Corporation (Madras Corporation) in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu. This is a fine example of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, a combination of three types of architectural styles – Gothic, Ionic and Corinthian.

The Ripon Building is white in colour and is located near the Central station in Chennai. Commissioned in 1913, it was built by Loganatha Mudaliar.

It took 4 years to build at a cost of 750,000. Ripon building was named after Lord Ripon, Governor-General of British India and the Father of local self-government.

Earl of Minto, the then Viceroy and Governor General of India laid the foundation on 12 December 1909.   The Municipal Corporation of Madras, after functioning from several other places, settled at Ripon building in 1913, with P.L. Moore as the President of the Municipal Corporation at the time of the inauguration.

Building Information

The building is rectangular and is 85 meters long and 32 metres wide.

The first of its three floors offers about 2,800 square metres of space.

Its central tower is 43 metres tall and has a clock 2.5 metres in diameter.

The walls were constructed with stock bricks, set and plastered with lime mortar.

The roofs are supported with teak wood joists. The original flooring of the ground floor was Cuddapah Slate. This has now been replaced with marble.

One of the main attractions Yof the building is the Westminster Quarter chiming clock. This was installed by Oakes and Co. in 1913. The clock has a mechanical key system, which is wound every day. There are a total of 4 bells, which were cast by Gillet and Johnston in 1913.

HITLER

Hitler never allows anyone to see him while he is naked or bathing. He refuses to use cologne or scents of any sort on his body

No matter how warm he feels, Hitler will never take off his coat in public

In 1923, Nazi press secretary Dr. Sedgwick tried to convince Hitler to get rid of his trademark mustache or grow it normally. Hitler answered: “Do not worry about my mustache. If it is not the fashion now, it will be later because I wear it!”

While dining with the others, Hitler will allow the conversation to linger on general topics, but after a couple of hours he will inevitably begin one of his many monologues.

These speeches are flawless from start to finish because he rehearses them any time he gets a moment.   His favorite topics include: “When I was a soldier,” “When I was in Vienna,” “When I was in prison,” and “When I was the leader in the early days of the party.”

If Hitler begins speaking about Wagner and the opera, no one dares interrupt him. He will often sermonize on this topic until his audience falls asleep.

Hitler has no interest in sports or games of any kind and never exercised, except for an occasional walk.   He paces frequently inside rooms, always to the same tune that he whistles to himself and always diagonally across the room, from corner to corner.

Hitler’s handwriting is impeccable. When famous psychologist Carl Jung saw Hitler’s handwriting in 1937, he remarked: “Behind this handwriting I recognize the typical characteristics of a man with essentially feminine instinct.”

Hitler loves the circus. He takes real pleasure in the idea that underpaid performers are risking their lives to please him.

He went to the circus on several occasions in 1933 and sent extremely expensive chocolates and flowers to the female performers. Hitler even remembered their names and would worry about them and their families in the event of an accident.

 He isn’t interested in wild animal acts, unless there is a woman in danger   Nearly every night Hitler will see a movie in his private theatre, mainly foreign films that are banned to the German public.

He loves comedies and will often laugh merrily at Jewish comedians. Hitler even liked a few Jewish singers, but after hearing them he would remark that it was too bad he or she wasn’t Aryan.

Hitler staff secretly made films for him of torture and execution of political prisoners, which he very much enjoyed viewing.

His executive assistants also secured pornographic pictures and movies for him. He loves newsreels – especially when he is in them.

He adores gypsy music, Wagner’s operas, and especially American college football marches and alma maters.

To excite the masses, he also uses American College football-style music during his speeches. His rallying cry – “Sieg Heil!” – was even modeled after the cheering techniques used by American football cheerleaders.

Trigonometry

Trigonometry (from Greek trigōnon “triangle” + metron “measure”) is a branch of mathematics that studies triangles and the relationships between their sides and the angles between these sides.

Trigonometry defines the trigonometric functions, which describe those relationships and have applicability to cyclical phenomena, such as waves.

The field evolved during the third century BC as a branch of geometry used extensively for astronomical studies. It is also the foundation of the practical art of surveying.   Trigonometry basics are often taught in school either as a separate course or as part of a precalculus course.

The trigonometric functions are pervasive in parts of pure mathematics and applied mathematics such as Fourier analysis and the wave equation, which are in turn essential to many branches of science and technology.

Spherical trigonometry studies triangles on spheres, surfaces of constant positive curvature, in elliptic geometry. It is fundamental to astronomy and navigation. Trigonometry on surfaces of negative curvature is part of Hyperbolic geometry.

History

Sumerian astronomers introduced angle measure, using a division of circles into 360 degrees. They and their successors the Babylonians studied the ratios of the sides of similar triangles and discovered some properties of these ratios, but did not turn that into a systematic method for finding sides and angles of triangles.

The ancient Nubians used a similar methodology. The ancient Greeks transformed trigonometry into an ordered science.   Classical Greek mathematicians (such as Euclid and Archimedes) studied the properties of chords and inscribed angles in circles, and proved theorems that are equivalent to modern trigonometric formulae, although they presented them geometrically rather than algebraically. Claudius Ptolemy expanded upon Hipparchus’ Chords in a Circle in his Almagest.

The modern sine function was first defined in the Surya Siddhanta, and its properties were further documented by the 5th century Indian mathematician and astronomer Aryabhata.

These Greek and Indian works were translated and expanded by medieval Islamic mathematicians. By the 10th century, Islamic mathematicians were using all six trigonometric functions, had tabulated their values, and were applying them to problems in spherical geometry.

At about the same time, Chinese mathematicians developed trigonometry independently, although it was not a major field of study for them. Knowledge of trigonometric functions and methods reached Europe via Latin translations of the works of Persian and Arabic astronomers such as Al Battani and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.

One of the earliest works on trigonometry by a European mathematician is De Triangulis by the 15th century German mathematician Regiomontanus. Trigonometry was still so little known in 16th century Europe that Nicolaus Copernicus devoted two chapters of De revolutionibus orbium coelestium to explaining its basic concepts.

SALT

SALT

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 as 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.

TEAM WORK

Conquests of Alexander in India

In 327 BCE Alexander the Great began his foray into Punjab. King Ambhi, ruler of Taxila, surrendered the city to Alexander. Many people had fled to a high fortress/rock called Aornos.

Aornos was taken by Alexander by storm after a successful siege. Alexander fought an epic battle against the Indian monarch Porus in the Battle of Hydaspes (326). After victory, Alexander made an alliance with Porus and appointed him as satrap of his own kingdom. Alexander continued on to conquer all the headwaters of the Indus River.

East of Porus’ kingdom, near the Ganges River, was the powerful kingdom of Magadha, under the Nanda Dynasty.

According to Plutarch, at the time of Alexander’s Battle of the Hydaspes River, the size of the Magadha’s army further east numbered 200,000 infantry, 80,000 cavalry, 8,000 chariots, and 6,000 war elephants, which was discouraging for Alexander’s men and stayed their further progress into India:

“ As for the Macedonians, however, their struggle with Porus blunted their courage and stayed their further advance into India. For having had all they could do to repulse an enemy who mustered only twenty thousand infantry and two thousand horse, they violently opposed Alexander when he insisted on crossing the river Ganges also, the width of which, as they learned, was •thirty-two furlongs, its depth •a hundred fathoms, while its banks on the further side were covered with multitudes of men-at‑arms and horsemen and elephants. For they were told that the kings of the Ganderites and Praesii were awaiting them with eighty thousand horsemen, two hundred thousand footmen, eight thousand chariots, and six thousand fighting elephants. And there was no boasting in these reports. For Androcottus, who reigned there not long afterwards, made a present to Seleucus of five hundred elephants, and with an army of six hundred thousand men overran and subdued all India. ”

–Plutarch, Parallel Lives, “Life of Alexander”

Exhausted and frightened by the prospect of facing another giant Indian army at the Ganges River, his army mutinied at the Hyphasis (modern Beas), refusing to march further East. Alexander, after the meeting with his officer Coenus, was convinced that it was better to return.

Alexander was forced to turn south, conquering his way down the Indus to the Indian Ocean. He sent much of his army to Carmania (modern southern Iran) with his general Craterus, and commissioned a fleet to explore the Persian Gulf shore under his admiral Nearchus, while he led the rest of his forces back to Persia by the southern route through the Gedrosia (modern Makran in southern Pakistan).

Alexander left behind Greek forces which established themselves in the city of Taxila, now in Pakistan. Several generals, such as Eudemus and Peithon governed the newly established province until around 316 BCE. One of them, Sophytes (305–294 BCE), was an independent Greek prince in the Punjab.

Jainism

Jainism, is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation.

Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state of supreme being is called a jina (“conqueror” or “victor”).

The ultimate status of these perfect souls is called siddha. Ancient texts also refer to Jainism as shramana dharma (self-reliant) or the “path of the niganthas” (those without attachments or aversions).

Jain doctrine teaches that Jainism has always existed and will always exist, although historians date the foundation of the organized or present form of Jainism to sometime between the 9th and the 6th century BC.

Like most ancient Indian religions, Jainism may have its roots in the Indus Valley Civilization, reflecting native spirituality prior to the Indo-Aryan migration into India.

Other scholars suggested the shramana traditions were separate and contemporaneous with Indo-Aryan religious practices of the historical Vedic religion.

Contemporary Jainism is a small but influential religious minority with as many as 4.2 million followers in India, and successful growing immigrant communities in North America, Western Europe, the Far East, Australia and elsewhere.

Jains have significantly influenced and contributed to ethical, political and economic spheres in India. Jains have an ancient tradition of scholarship and have the highest degree of literacy for a religious community in India. Jain libraries are the oldest in the country.

Beauty Parlour

A beauty salon or beauty parlor (International spelling: beauty parlour) (or sometimes beauty shop) is an establishment dealing with cosmetic treatments for men and women. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons and spas.

There is a distinction between a beauty salon and a hair salon and although many small businesses do offer both sets of treatments; beauty salons provide more generalized services related to skin health, facial aesthetic, foot care, aromatherapy, — even meditation, oxygen therapy, mud baths, and innumerable other services.

Beauty treatments

Massage for the body is a popular beauty treatment, with various techniques offering benefits to the skin (including the application of beauty products) and for increasing mental well-being and relaxation.

Facials refers to a treatment for the face.

Manicure refers to a treatment for the hands, incorporating the fingernails and cuticles and often involving the application of nail polish.

Pedicure refers to a treatment for the feet, incorporating the toenails and the softening or removal of calluses.   Manicures and pedicures take place at nail salons.

Beauty salons offer treatments such as waxing and threading for hair removal.

Fish

Fish have been on the earth for more than 450 million years.

Fish were well established long before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

There are over 25,000 identified species of fish on the earth.

It is estimated that there may still be over 15,000 fish species that have not yet been identified.

There are more species of fish than all the species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals combined.

40% of all fish species inhabit fresh water, yet less than .01% of the earth’s water is fresh water.

The spotted climbing perch is able to absorb oxygen from the air and will crawl overland using its strong pectoral fins.

Some fish like sharks don’t posses an air bladder to help keep them afloat and must either swim continually or rest on the bottom.

Some fish make sounds by grating their teeth and others like some catfish make sounds from their air filled swim bladder.

Some species of fish can fly (glide) others can skip along the surface and others can even climb rock.

Fish have a specialized sense organ called the lateral line which works much like radar and helps them navigate in dark or murky water.

The largest fish is the great whale shark which can reach fifty feet in length.

The smallest fish is the Philippine goby that is less than 1/3 of an inch when fully grown.

Some species of fish have skeletons made only of cartilage.

Fish have excellent senses of sight, touch, taste and many possess a good sense of smell and ‘hearing’.

Fish feel pain and suffer stress just like mammals and birds.

Basketball

In the very beginning the color of the basketball was brown, but later it was changed into a brighter color; that is orange.

The first basketball game took place in 1982, where the court was half the size of today’s courts, and only one point was scored during the match.

The NBA (National Basketball Association) was founded in 1949, after the combination of the NBL (National Basketball League) and the BAA (Basketball Associate of America).

Basketball was first played by a soccer ball untill it was changed in 1929.

Michael Jordan is considered one of the best basketball players around the world. The record score of 5,987 made him a legend in the world of basketball.

The reason why a backboard was added is because the audience in the balcony used to interfere in the game by handling the ball.

In 1967, slam dunks were considered illegal; nine years later it was legalized again.

The first hoop was like a peach with a bottom and every time a team scores, the referee would climb a ladder to get the ball.

Women’s basketball began in 1892, and some rules were modified to fit women.

The game was made an official Olympic game in berlin Germany, 1936.