tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31362933438080473402024-03-13T17:27:47.461+05:00Interesting & Hot FactsStrange Facts About World - Human Body, Dolphins, Tornados, Sharks, Mysteries, Love, Pollution, Wierd, Disasters, Plannet, War, Countries, Pyramids, Wonders and Everything You Want To Know!Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-17165435100856239072018-01-31T03:25:00.000+05:002018-01-31T03:25:08.577+05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Lítla Dímun is a small island between the islands of Suðuroy and Stóra Dímun in the Faroe Islands.</div>
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It is the smallest of the main 18 islands, being less than 100 hectares (250 acres) in area, and is the only uninhabited one. The island can be seen from the villages Hvalba and Sandvík.</div>
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The southern third of the island is sheer cliff, with the rest rising to the mountain of Slættirnir, which reaches 414 metres (1,358 ft). The island is only inhabited by feral sheep and seabirds</div>
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The name means "Little Dímun", in contrast to Stóra Dímun, "Great Dímun.</div>
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The island has never been inhabited by humans, but sheep were kept there from ancient times, being mentioned in the 13th century work Færeyinga Saga (Saga of the Faroese).</div>
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The saga also features the island as the site of a battle between Brestur, father of Sigmundur and Gøtuskeggjar.</div>
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The battle resulted in the death of Sigmund's father and his men and the deportation of Sigmund to Norway, where he befriended Olaf Trygvasson.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D9idq0OhM14/To3srR4x4KI/AAAAAAAAAT0/a1DdWJgVdUQ/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D9idq0OhM14/To3srR4x4KI/AAAAAAAAAT0/a1DdWJgVdUQ/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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n 1918 The Danish schooner Caspe, carrying a cargo of salt, was driven onto Lítla Dímun by a gale. The six crew were able to reach a narrow ledge just above the surf, but they had no stores, and the captain was severely injured.</div>
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Eventually they managed to move from the ledge, and found a cabin half-way up the island which had matches, fuel and a lamp.</div>
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They caught two sheep and a sick bird, and were able to survive for seventeen days before being discovered and rescued by a fishing boat. One of the shipwrecked sailors settled in the Faroes.</div>
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<b>Facts About Faroes Sheep</b></div>
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The sheep now living on the island are Faroes sheep, but until the mid-nineteenth century it was occupied by feral sheep, probably derived from the earliest sheep brought to Northern Europe in the Neolithic Period. The last of these very small, black, short-wooled sheep were shot in the 1860s. They were similar in appearance and origin to the surviving Soay sheep, from the island of Soay in the St Kilda archipelago off the west coast of Scotland.</div>
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The modern Faroes sheep of the island are gathered each autumn. People sail to the island in a fishing boat, towing several rowing skiffs. About 40 people then form a chain across the island, driving the 200 or so sheep into a pen on the north side of the island. The sheep are then caught, restrained by tying their feet together, put in nets five at a time and lowered by ropes to the skiffs. Each skiff then takes its load of 15 sheep to the fishing boat, which returns to the island of Suðuroy. The sheep are unloaded on the wharf in the village of Hvalba, where they are placed in rows and distributed to their owners. A few sheep escape the gathering, and from time to time these are shot.</div>
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<b>Litla Dimun Photo Gallery</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5vtOfFQCw/To3s3q-eD7I/AAAAAAAAAT8/gCE9XP41j98/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5vtOfFQCw/To3s3q-eD7I/AAAAAAAAAT8/gCE9XP41j98/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Litla Dimun Island covered with clouds. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZY9irvE7Bf0/To3s5FOOrgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/0yF8MOlrMXk/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZY9irvE7Bf0/To3s5FOOrgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/0yF8MOlrMXk/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Litla Dimun Island - a view of sea from island. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En7OC-g7vrM/To3s6jWR8SI/AAAAAAAAAUE/bvVixvyxpCw/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En7OC-g7vrM/To3s6jWR8SI/AAAAAAAAAUE/bvVixvyxpCw/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Faroes Sheep of Litla Dimun Island </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6vqHNreCd-k/To3s-VVMvEI/AAAAAAAAAUI/J7busMvu9mU/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6vqHNreCd-k/To3s-VVMvEI/AAAAAAAAAUI/J7busMvu9mU/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Another Covering of Clouds on Litla Island Giving a beautiful view.</div>
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Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-81052914817297981742011-10-06T23:18:00.000+05:002011-10-06T23:18:27.792+05:00Facts About Lítla Dímun Island Faroes Sheep And Trivia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">Lítla Dímun is a small island between the islands of Suðuroy and Stóra Dímun in the Faroe Islands.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is the smallest of the main 18 islands, being less than 100 hectares (250 acres) in area, and is the only uninhabited one. The island can be seen from the villages Hvalba and Sandvík.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The southern third of the island is sheer cliff, with the rest rising to the mountain of Slættirnir, which reaches 414 metres (1,358 ft). The island is only inhabited by feral sheep and seabirds</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The name means "Little Dímun", in contrast to Stóra Dímun, "Great Dímun.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The island has never been inhabited by humans, but sheep were kept there from ancient times, being mentioned in the 13th century work Færeyinga Saga (Saga of the Faroese).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The saga also features the island as the site of a battle between Brestur, father of Sigmundur and Gøtuskeggjar.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The battle resulted in the death of Sigmund's father and his men and the deportation of Sigmund to Norway, where he befriended Olaf Trygvasson.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D9idq0OhM14/To3srR4x4KI/AAAAAAAAAT0/a1DdWJgVdUQ/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D9idq0OhM14/To3srR4x4KI/AAAAAAAAAT0/a1DdWJgVdUQ/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">n 1918 The Danish schooner Caspe, carrying a cargo of salt, was driven onto Lítla Dímun by a gale. The six crew were able to reach a narrow ledge just above the surf, but they had no stores, and the captain was severely injured.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Eventually they managed to move from the ledge, and found a cabin half-way up the island which had matches, fuel and a lamp.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">They caught two sheep and a sick bird, and were able to survive for seventeen days before being discovered and rescued by a fishing boat. One of the shipwrecked sailors settled in the Faroes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Facts About Faroes Sheep</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The sheep now living on the island are Faroes sheep, but until the mid-nineteenth century it was occupied by feral sheep, probably derived from the earliest sheep brought to Northern Europe in the Neolithic Period. The last of these very small, black, short-wooled sheep were shot in the 1860s. They were similar in appearance and origin to the surviving Soay sheep, from the island of Soay in the St Kilda archipelago off the west coast of Scotland.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The modern Faroes sheep of the island are gathered each autumn. People sail to the island in a fishing boat, towing several rowing skiffs. About 40 people then form a chain across the island, driving the 200 or so sheep into a pen on the north side of the island. The sheep are then caught, restrained by tying their feet together, put in nets five at a time and lowered by ropes to the skiffs. Each skiff then takes its load of 15 sheep to the fishing boat, which returns to the island of Suðuroy. The sheep are unloaded on the wharf in the village of Hvalba, where they are placed in rows and distributed to their owners. A few sheep escape the gathering, and from time to time these are shot.</div><a name='more'></a><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b>Litla Dimun Photo Gallery</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5vtOfFQCw/To3s3q-eD7I/AAAAAAAAAT8/gCE9XP41j98/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx5vtOfFQCw/To3s3q-eD7I/AAAAAAAAAT8/gCE9XP41j98/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Litla Dimun Island covered with clouds. </div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZY9irvE7Bf0/To3s5FOOrgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/0yF8MOlrMXk/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZY9irvE7Bf0/To3s5FOOrgI/AAAAAAAAAUA/0yF8MOlrMXk/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Litla Dimun Island - a view of sea from island. </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En7OC-g7vrM/To3s6jWR8SI/AAAAAAAAAUE/bvVixvyxpCw/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-En7OC-g7vrM/To3s6jWR8SI/AAAAAAAAAUE/bvVixvyxpCw/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Faroes Sheep of Litla Dimun Island </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6vqHNreCd-k/To3s-VVMvEI/AAAAAAAAAUI/J7busMvu9mU/s1600/Litla-Dimun-Island.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6vqHNreCd-k/To3s-VVMvEI/AAAAAAAAAUI/J7busMvu9mU/s400/Litla-Dimun-Island.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Another Covering of Clouds on Litla Island Giving a beautiful view.</div></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-50574087653421182432011-10-06T20:09:00.002+05:002011-10-06T20:09:57.864+05:00Facts About Steve Jobs Apple Co-founder And Trivia<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve Jobs (1955-2011) is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On November 27, 2007, Jobs was named the most powerful person in business by Fortune Magazine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Apple Inc. co-founder and Chief Executive Steve Jobs will be taking a medical leave until the end of June - just a week after the cancer survivor tried to assure investors and employees his recent weight loss was caused by an easily treatable hormone deficiency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve Jobs announced on January 5, 2009 that his rapid weight loss was due to a "hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' [him] of the proteins [his] body needs to be healthy."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve Jobs worked for Atari, Inc., a leading corporation in the electronic arcade recreation, as a video game designer in 1974.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was portrayed by Noah Wyle in Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999).</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve was born to John Jandali and Joanne Carole Schieble. A week after he was born, his parents put him up for adoption.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve and his wife are both strict vegans, eating no animal products whatsoever.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve attended Reed College, but dropped out after the first semester.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve married Laurene Powell on March 18, 1991. They have 3 children together.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Steve graduated from Homestead High School in 1972.<br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PB1GY8YoW_E/To2zVFLqScI/AAAAAAAAATY/z2cgnjqtYwE/s1600/steveJobs.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PB1GY8YoW_E/To2zVFLqScI/AAAAAAAAATY/z2cgnjqtYwE/s400/steveJobs.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">Some Steve Jobs Quotes</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></div></div><b>Steve Jobs:</b> I've always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.<br />
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<b>Steve Jobs:</b> It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don't know any better.<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> (talking about future developments) Well, you know us. We never talk about future products. There used to be a saying at Apple: Isn't it funny? A ship that leaks from the top. So, I don't wanna perpetuate that. So I really can't say.<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> If we give people an alternative to Microsoft, it will have been a greater good.<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> (what the CEO does) I don't know. Head janitor?<br />
<br />
<b>Steve Jobs:</b> (talking about the assassination of John Kennedy) I remember John Kennedy being assassinated. I remember the exact moment that I heard he had been shot.<br />
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</div><b>Steve Jobs:</b> (talking about the documentary, Triumph of Nerds) What can I say? I hired the wrong guy. He destroyed everything I spent 10 years working for; starting with me, but that wasn't the saddest part. I would have gladly left Apple if Apple would have turned out like I wanted it to.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px;">Steve Jobs Photo Gallery</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PxiE5AsvMa8/To2zvG_-ynI/AAAAAAAAATg/vRWsggK9qwA/s1600/stevejob.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PxiE5AsvMa8/To2zvG_-ynI/AAAAAAAAATg/vRWsggK9qwA/s400/stevejob.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A photo By Steve Jobs Fan</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h6kl0Fa2QV4/To20JCYXl7I/AAAAAAAAATk/3FgO0bsa-eo/s1600/stevejobintroducingapple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-h6kl0Fa2QV4/To20JCYXl7I/AAAAAAAAATk/3FgO0bsa-eo/s640/stevejobintroducingapple.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;">Steve Jobs as he introduces the new Apple II in Cupertino, Calif</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0X9Fu6DlSdI/To21j4wQN0I/AAAAAAAAATo/hZ1ozozhYpg/s1600/stevejobsiphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0X9Fu6DlSdI/To21j4wQN0I/AAAAAAAAATo/hZ1ozozhYpg/s400/stevejobsiphone.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;">Apple CEO Steve Jobs displays the iPod mini at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. Jobs, the Apple founder and former CEO who invented and masterfully marketed ever-sleeker gadgets that transformed everyday technology, from the personal computer to the iPod and iPhone</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OAkep3bCrm8/To21_bbyUEI/AAAAAAAAATs/YVHrulrh9L0/s1600/maclaptop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OAkep3bCrm8/To21_bbyUEI/AAAAAAAAATs/YVHrulrh9L0/s400/maclaptop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"> Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new MacBook Air after giving the keynote address at the Apple MacWorld Conference in San Francisc</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OaFYgL6joOM/To22QWTJ1lI/AAAAAAAAATw/PHj4Py9w51I/s1600/stevejobsdeath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OaFYgL6joOM/To22QWTJ1lI/AAAAAAAAATw/PHj4Py9w51I/s400/stevejobsdeath.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;">An iPhone displays an image of Steve Jobs as it sits with a memorial to the Apple founder and former CEO outside an Apple Store, Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2011 in New York. Steve Jobs passed away Wednesday at the age of 56.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">He had been patient of pancreatic cancer since 2004.</div></div></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-92067584674213143272011-05-11T01:09:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.974+05:00Martha Graham's 117 Birthday And Facts - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 - April 1, 1991), an American dancer and choreographer, known as one of the foremost pioneers of modern dance</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Martha Graham is to modern dance as Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is to the modern art school of cubism Indeed, for many dance connoisseurs, Martha Graham is synonymous with modern dance</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">She developed innovations in structure, style, technique, costuming, and in the training of choreographers and dancers that defined the movement</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">She rejected the traditional view of women dancers as beautiful, lithe, and graceful, and instead she viewed female dancers as powerful and intense</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Her colleagues have described her long career as an American archetype, because with only a few exceptions, only Graham herself—or her company—ever performed her compositions, making Graham one of the most individualistic dance artists of the 20th century</div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wnqOC4dDynI/TcmbI2G1Y3I/AAAAAAAAASw/kP0Vn82QYhk/s1600/martha_graham.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" j8="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wnqOC4dDynI/TcmbI2G1Y3I/AAAAAAAAASw/kP0Vn82QYhk/s400/martha_graham.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">Born on May 11, 1894, in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and raised in Santa Barbara, California, Graham began her formal training at Denishawn School of Dance, a Los Angeles academy started by the dancer Ruth St. Denis (1879-1968) and her partner Ted Shawn (1891-1972)</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">In 1923, Graham left Los Angeles to join the Greenwich Village Follies in New York, specializing in exotic Spanish and Indian dances</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;">She taught dance for two years at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, all the while preparing herself for her debut as a soloist in 1926</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Martha Graham gave birth to modern dance, in the sense that she changed people’s minds about what dancers—especially female dancers—could do</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Whereas traditionally, female dancers had been used by choreographers to symbolize beauty and decoration, Graham de-sentimentalized the female body by emphasizing its power, intensity, and, in her fall sequences, its recovery from defeat <br /><a name='more'></a></div></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">Graham’s varied and evolving career can be divided into four overlapping phases :-</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In the first stage, which began after her debut, Graham choreographed short solos and group works for all-women companies. Most of these compositions were based on historical figures and styles of art. Her debut, for example, included two pieces called From a XII Century Tapestry and Maid with the Flaxen Hair. She also experimented with dances that explored a single emotion, such as Lamentation (1930). In this piece, Graham developed one of her signature modern characteristics: manipulating costume to enhance the theme of her dance. Lamentation featured a tube-shaped piece of cloth that encased Graham from her neck to her feet. She remained seated throughout the dance, in which she struggled to rid herself of the tube. The dance, which has been satirized as often as it has been praised, viewed the process of grieving as being similar to feeling trapped in extreme sorrow, from which one searches for an escape. Critics have compared the dance to Kathe KOLLWITZ’s drawings of grieving women</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The second phase of Grahams career coincided with her growing interest in the theater, with the drama of American history, and with the formation of her own dance company. She also began choreographing for men; two male dancers, Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, joined her troupe in the 1930s. During the Great Depression in the United States (1930-41), some of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs focused on the arts in American culture. While Graham did not participate directly, her dances from this period reflected the focus on American history as worthy of artistic recording and celebrating. Her Appalachian Spring (1944), for example, depicted the pioneer experience in American history</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In the third period of her career, which lasted from 1944 onward, Graham interwove two related themes in her work: Greek mythology and Freudian interpretations of myths (for more on the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, see Anna FREUD). Most of the characters she focused on were women, and often, her dances had a feminist twist. For example, in Night Journey (1947), Graham portrays the female character Jocaste, in Sophocles’ play Oedipus, as the victim, rather than Oedipus. Graham also produced two dances about JOAN OF ARC, The Triumph of St. Joan (1951) and Seraphic Dialogue (1955)</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In the fourth and final phase of Graham’s career, she returned to the abstract themes of her earlier period. These dances are not attached to any particular historical figure or to a plot. Acrobats of God (1960) and Adorations (1975) both reflect Graham’s signature dance techniques: spiral movements and linear stage patterns. The spiral movements were movements in which Graham tended to view the human body as “collapsible,” and the stage on which she performed as part of the dance, not a surface merely there to be danced upon. Unlike traditional choreography, her spiral movements involved fall sequences in which she emphasized the recovery from the fall, not the descent to the ground. The stage, then, often seemed as though it was a taut drum off of which Graham and her dancers would bounce. Furthermore, Graham choreographed dances in which she used her corps onstage as though they were architecture. For example, she would use a row of dancers, rather than a stage setting, to build a wall that moved when the scene changed</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">She died in New York City on April 1, 1991</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-63516633751946221852011-05-07T22:08:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.974+05:00Osama Bin Laden Facts - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In a 1998 interview, he gave his birth date as March 10, 1957</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">His father, Muhammed bin Laden, was killed in 1967 in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot misjudged a landing</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">According to CNN national security correspondent David Ensore, as of 2002 bin Laden had married four women and fathered roughly 25 or 26 children</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Actor Bruce Willis has offered $1,000,000 reward for information leading to the capture of Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaida terror leaders</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">According to Sudanese author Kola Boof, Osama Bin Laden is a big fan of pop Diva Whitney Houston</li></ul><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqtsbGxTpns/TcV23blC78I/AAAAAAAAASs/ZmaSgKaMDIU/s1600/osama-bin-laden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqtsbGxTpns/TcV23blC78I/AAAAAAAAASs/ZmaSgKaMDIU/s400/osama-bin-laden.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Dom Jolly out of Trigger TV went to school with Osama Bin Laden</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Osama Bin Laden is the 17th of 57 children and the bounty on Osama Bin Laden is $50 million</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Real or not, Osama Bin Laden had a Facebook account that was deleted for security reasons</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">56.5 million viewers watched President Obama's speech on May 1, 2011 announcing the death of Osama bin Laden</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Osama Bin Laden never returned balls hit over his fence where he killed</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Osama Bin Laden drank lots of Pepsi and Coke and he grew (and likely smoked) marijuana<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinto</li><li style="text-align: justify;">During 2001/2002 he was apparently suffering from some serious kidney issues that most hospitals in Pakistan and Afganistan wouldn't have been able to handle</li><li style="text-align: justify;">The Taliban refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden. It wasn't until after the bombing of Afghanistan began in October 2001 that the Taliban finally did offer to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third-party country for trial, in return for the US ending the bombing and providing evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This offer was rejected by George W Bush stating that this was no longer negotiable with Bush responding that "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty"</li><li style="text-align: justify;">October 2009: An article in the British tabloid Daily Mail points out that the theory that Bin Laden died in 2001 "is gaining credence among political commentators, respected academics and even terror experts" and notes that the mounting evidence that supports the claim makes the theory "worthy of examination"</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Part of a family made rich by the Saudi oil boom, bin Laden gained a degree in civil engineering. Some reports say in his student days he could be found in flashy Beirut nightclubs, a free-spender and heavy drinker, fighting over dancers and bar girls</li><li style="text-align: justify;">How he got embroiled in radical Islamic politics is unclear, though the late 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan appears key</li><li style="text-align: justify;">With his family fortune, bin Laden used Afghanistan to set up training camps and as a base from which to plan attacks on Western countries</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Before the tape released on Friday, Bin Laden was last seen in a video statement on the eve of the November 2004 U.S. presidential election. Since then, he has issued several new audio messages, the last in July 2006 when he vowed al Qaeda would fight the United States across the world</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Mullah Dadullah, a senior Taliban commander told Al Jazeera in April 2007 that bin Laden is orchestrating militants' operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also said that he had ordered the attack on February 27, 2007 at the U.S. Bagram base during a visit by U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to Afghanistan</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Washington has wanted him dead or alive and last July, the U.S. Senate voted to double the bounty on him to $50 million and it also required U.S. President George W. Bush to refocus on capturing him after reports that al Qaeda is gaining strength</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Bin Laden was killed 3,519 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The U.S. believes bin Laden's son was also killed Sunday. Bin Laden was killed by a bullet to the head</li><li style="text-align: justify;">The compound where bin Laden was living had walls 12-18 feet high, with barbed wire at the top, a top U.S. official said. There was no telephone or Internet service</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://www.google.com/">Original Source</a></b></div><ul style="text-align: left;"></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-15980546958788898662011-04-26T22:08:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.975+05:00Facts About Don Juan Pond - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Don Juan Pond, the hypersaline lake in western Antarctica which has even greater salinity than the Dead Sea</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">With a salinity of over 40%, Don Juan Pond is the saltiest body of water in the world</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is named after the two pilots who first investigated the pond in 1961, Lt Don Roe and Lt John Hickey</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is a small lake, only 100m by 300m, and on average 0.1m deep, but it is so salty that even in the Antarctic, where the temperature at the pond regularly drops to as low as -30 degrees Celsius, it never freezes</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is 18 times saltier than sea water, compared to the Dead Sea which is only 8 times saltier than sea water</li></ul><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RZReDLsx-us/Tbb7W7cj_DI/AAAAAAAAASo/9uMEKOg4lr4/s1600/Don+Juan+Pond.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RZReDLsx-us/Tbb7W7cj_DI/AAAAAAAAASo/9uMEKOg4lr4/s400/Don+Juan+Pond.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">At its saltiest, Don Juan Pond contains 671 parts per thousand salt, compared to 35 and 300 for the ocean and the Dead Sea respectively</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">A beautiful salty pool in Antarctica's Dry Valleys is teaching scientists about the potential for life in brine pools on ancient Mars</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The study also reveals a previously unreported mechanism for producing an important greenhouse gas - nitrous oxide - in Antarctic habitats</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Research at Antarctica's 'Mars on Earth' reveals non-organic mechanism for production of important greenhouse gas</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Possibly even more important, the discovery could help space scientists understand the meaning of similar brine pools in a place whose ecosystem most closely resembles that of Don Juan Pond<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">"The pond’s soils and brines and the surrounding rock types are similar to those found on Mars,” said Samantha Joye, a faculty member in the department of marine sciences in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and lead author on the paper</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">“So it provides an ideal location to assess microbial activity in extreme environments. While we did not detect any ‘bio-gases’ such as hydrogen sulfide and methane, we did, surprisingly, measure high concentrations of nitrous oxide, which is normally an indicator of microbial activity. We needed to find out whether a non-organic process could account for this nitrous oxide production.”</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Scientists have been fascinated with Don Juan Pond since its discovery in 1961. From the time of its discovery, researchers realized they had found a place like nowhere else on Earth</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Researchers more than 30 years ago reported finding abundant and varied microflora of fungi, bacteria, blue-green algae and yeasts, since then and during the Joye team’s work, such life has been non-existent </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Since the depth level and area covered by the pond (which is fed by hypersaline groundwater) have demonstrably varied over the years, this wasn’t unexpected</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The pond was named after Lieutenants Donald Roe and John Hickey, both of whom were members of the first field party to study the pond</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The Lake Vanda station (New Zealand) is one of the oldest long term camps in the Dry Valleys</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Over the last four decades a lot of research in many disciplines has based out of this little hut</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">During the height of summer the edges of Lake Vanda melt enough to warrant the use of a small boat</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-17172306847731978062011-04-26T18:36:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.975+05:00Facts About John James Audubon - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>John James Audubon from 1785 to1851 was an American Woodsman</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">John James Audubon was not the first person to attempt to paint and describe all the birds of America (Alexander Wilson has that distinction), but for half a century he was the young country’s dominant wildlife artist</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">His seminal Birds of America, a collection of 435 life-size prints, quickly eclipsed Wilson’s work and is still a standard against which 20th and 21st century bird artists, such as Roger Tory Peterson and David Sibley, are measured</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Although Audubon had no role in the organization that bears his name, there is a connection: George Bird Grinnell, one of the founders of the early Audubon Society in the late 1800s, was tutored by Lucy Audubon, John James’s widow</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Knowing Audubon’s reputation, Grinnell chose his name as the inspiration for the organization’s earliest work to protect birds and their habitats</li></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-roRVJz_Jx7U/TbbJWSGvRWI/AAAAAAAAASk/ZV_Mk4LGayI/s1600/John+James+Audubon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-roRVJz_Jx7U/TbbJWSGvRWI/AAAAAAAAASk/ZV_Mk4LGayI/s400/John+James+Audubon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Today, the name Audubon remains synonymous with birds and bird conservation the world over</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">John James Audubon was enrolled in the French Naval Academy at he age of 14</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">He was also a limner (traveling portrait artist), dance instructor, clerk and taxidermist</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1819 he was briefly jailed for failing to pay his debts</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Audubon was born in Saint Domingue (now Haiti), the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and plantation owner and his French mistress. Early on, he was raised by his stepmother, Mrs. Audubon, in Nantes, France, and took a lively interest in birds, nature, drawing, and music</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1803, at the age of 18, he was sent to America, in part to escape conscription into the Emperor Napoleon’s army. He lived on the family-owned estate at Mill Grove, near Philadelphia, where he hunted, studied and drew birds, and met his wife, Lucy Bakewell<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">While there, he conducted the first known bird-banding experiment in North America, tying strings around the legs of Eastern Phoebes; he learned that the birds returned to the very same nesting sites each year</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">With no other prospects, Audubon set off on his epic quest to depict America’s avifauna, with nothing but his gun, artist’s materials, and a young assistant. Floating down the Mississippi, he lived a rugged hand-to-mouth existence in the South while Lucy earned money as a tutor to wealthy plantation families</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1826 he sailed with his partly finished collection to England. "The American Woodsman" was literally an overnight success</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Audubon found a printer for the Birds of America, first in Edinburgh, then London, and later collaborated with the Scottish ornithologist William MacGillivray on the Ornithological Biographies – life histories of each of the species in the work</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The last print was issued in 1838, by which time Audubon had achieved fame and a modest degree of comfort, traveled this country several more times in search of birds, and settled in New York City </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">He made one more trip out West in 1843, the basis for his final work of mammals, the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which was largely completed by his sons and the text of which was written by his long-time friend, the Lutheran pastor John Bachman (whose daughters married Audubon’s sons)</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Audubon spent his last years in senility and died at age 65 and buried in the Trinity Cemetery at 155th Street and Broadway in New York City</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">John James Audubon Quotes</span></b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b></b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">I am as dull as a beetle. -- <b>John James Audubon Quote</b></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Up the river the view was indeed enchanting.; the undulating meadows sloped gently to the water's edge on either side, and the larks that sprang up before me, welcoming the sun's rise, animated my thoughts so much that I felt tears trickling down my cheeks as I gave thanks to the God who gave life to all these in a day. -- <b>John James Audubon Quote</b></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children. -- <b>John James Audubon Quote</b></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Look at that mallard as he floats on the lake; see his elevated head glittering with emerald green, his amber eyes glancing in the light! Even at this distance, he has marked you, and suspects that you bear no goodwill towards him, for he sees that you have a gun, and he has many a time been frightened by its report, or that of some other. The wary bird draws his feet under his body, springs upon then, opens his wings, and with loud quacks bids you farewell.-- <b>John James Audubon Quote</b></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The sun at length sank beneath the waterline that here formed the horizon; and we saw the birds making their first appearance. They were in small parties of two, three, or five, and by no menas shy. --- <b>John James Audubon Quote</b></li></ul></div></div></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-7860972751640697952011-04-22T18:08:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.975+05:00Facts About Rotorua - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">A city founded in the early 1870s and named after Lake Rotorua whose Maori name means ‘Second Lake’ from roto ‘lake’ and rua ‘two’ or ‘second’</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is said that it was so named by a traveller as he went along the Kaituna River; the first was Lake Rotoiti ‘Small Lake’. However, this may be a convenient invention to justify claims to the area by the local tribe</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The city of Rotorua, about 30 miles (48 km) inland on the Volcanic Plateau, is noted for the geysers, fumaroles, boiling mud, and warm mineral bathing pools in its vicinity</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua sits squarely on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so volcanic activity is part of the city’s past and present</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The city is also the tribal home of the Te Arawa people, who settled in lakeside geothermal areas more than 600 years ago</li></ul><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_NEpylyStI/TbF9M7zJ-xI/AAAAAAAAASg/7Oz3Ki4qkG8/s1600/rotorua.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q_NEpylyStI/TbF9M7zJ-xI/AAAAAAAAASg/7Oz3Ki4qkG8/s400/rotorua.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Entertaining in any weather, and at any time of the year, Rotorua promises to keep you captivated with geothermal phenomena and special cultural experiences</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Geysers, boiling mud pools, marae stays, hangi feasts, an authentic pre-European Maori village and indulgent spa therapies will provide plenty of content for your emails home</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua also has a well-developed adventure culture – everything from sky diving to zorbing</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Functional facts: Approx. population 76,000, i-SITE Visitor Centre, domestic airport</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua is a city on the southern shores of the lake of the same name, in the Bay of Plenty region of the North Island of New Zealand</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The city is known for its geothermal activity, with a number of geysers, notably the Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa, and boiling mud pools (pictured above) located in the city<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">This thermal activity owes itself to the Rotorua caldera on which the city lies</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua is also a top adventure destination and is New Zealand’s Maori cultural heartland Rotorua city is renowned for its unique “rotten eggs” aroma, which is caused by the geothermal activity releasing sulphur compounds into the atmosphere</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">If you are ever visiting New Zealand – this is a city you must see. It was once home to the famed Pink and White Terraces and you can visit thermal wonderlands with sights that are truly astounding</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua is also a top adventure destination and is New Zealand’s Maori cultural heartland</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Rotorua city is renowned for its unique “rotten eggs” aroma, which is caused by the geothermal activity releasing sulphur compounds into the atmosphere</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The region has been a stronghold of Maori culture for centuries. The local Maori, predominantly, Te Arawa, were the first inhabitants of the region and there are still 35 Marae around the district today</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The region is also located around 11 major lakes, the largest being Lake Rotorua. This makes it a centre for fishing and other water based activities</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The main areas of employment in Rotorua are tourism, forestry, manufacturing and retailing</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-55023125504473838252011-04-22T16:59:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.975+05:00Facts About Socotra - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Measuring 1,200 square miles, Socotra (also Suqutra) Island is located in the Arabian Sea, about 500 miles from Aden and less than 200 miles from Somalia</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The sparsely populated island has a mountainous interior and most of its population engages in farming or fishing; the most striking feature of this isolated place is its biodiversity and the great number of unique flora and fauna</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The ruler of the Mahra Sultanate of Qishn and Socotra resided there under British rule during much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The island became a part of South Yemen in 1967 and, with Yemeni unification in 1990, it became a part of the Republic of Yemen (ROY)</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Given its location near the sea lanes, Socotra was long thought to be of strategic value by Western imperial powers</li></ul><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QWk-x-1oQKU/TbFs4gUQ-tI/AAAAAAAAASc/gw84IIJe50Y/s1600/socotra.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QWk-x-1oQKU/TbFs4gUQ-tI/AAAAAAAAASc/gw84IIJe50Y/s400/socotra.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">During the latter half of the Cold War, South Yemen allowed the Soviet Union to maintain a submarine base and other military facilities there; Russia continues to maintain a modest naval presence</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">During the late 1990s there were rumors about a deal between the United States and the ROY over military facilities on the island, but the complicated, if not strained, relations between the two countries, beginning with the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden in 2000, squelched this talk</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The considerable activities regarding Socotra now focus on its development as a tourist destination featuring and protecting its unique biodiversity</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Socotra has been described as one of the most alien-looking place on Earth, and it’s not hard to see why</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It is very isolated with a harsh, dry climate and as a result a third of its plant-life is found nowhere else, including the famous Dragon’s Blood Tree, a very-unnatural looking umbrella-shaped tree which produces red sap<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">There are also a large number of birds, spiders and other animals native to the island, and coral reefs around it which similarly have a large number of endemic (i.e. only found there) species</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Socotra is considered the most biodiverse place in the Arabian sea, and is a World Heritage Site</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">There was initially an Oldoway (or Oldowan) culture in Socotra. Oldoway stone tools were found in the area around Hadibo by V.A. Zhukov, a member of the Russian Complex Expedition in 2008</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Socotra is part of the Republic of Yemen. It has long been a part of the 'Adan Governorate, but in 2004 it became attached to the Hadhramaut Governorate, which is much closer to the island than 'Adan (although the closest governorate would be Al Mahrah)</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">A local tradition holds that the inhabitants were converted to Christianity by Thomas in AD 52. In the 10th century, the Arab geographer Abu Mohammed Al-Hassan Al-Hamdani stated that in his time most of the inhabitants were Christians</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1507, a fleet commanded by Tristão da Cunha with Afonso de Albuquerque landed an occupying force at the then capital of Suq, their objective was a Portuguese base to stop Arab commerce from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, and to liberate the presumed friendly Christians from Islamic rule</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Here they started to build a fortress</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">However, they were not welcomed as enthusiastically as they had expected and abandoned the island four years later. The island was also come across by Somali sailors</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Socotra is one of the most isolated landforms on Earth of continental origin (i.e. not of volcanic origin)</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The archipelago was once part of the supercontinent of Gondwana and detached during the Miocene, in the same set of rifting events that opened the Gulf of Aden to its northwest</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The main island has three geographical terrains: the narrow coastal plains, a limestone plateau permeated with karstic caves and the Haghier Mountains</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The mountains of Socotra rise to 5000 feet (1,524 m). The island is a little over 80 miles (128.7 km) long east to west and typically 18–22 mi (29–35.4 ) north to south</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-33121005889142647262011-04-22T15:03:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.976+05:00Facts About The Great Dune of Pyla - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Largest sand dune in Europe is the great dune of Pyla</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Size of sand dune of Pyla is about 60,000,000 cubic meters</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It measures 1,640 feet (500 m) wide and 1.86 miles (3 km long), with the height ranging from 328 to 383.8 feet (100 to 117 m) above sea level</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The Dune of Pilat is also known as the Great Dune of Pyla</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It is located in the La Teste-de-Buch of the Arcachon Bay area</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">At 60Km from Bordeaux, in the South of the Arcachon Bay, it is possible to visit the highest dune in Europe, the Great Dune of Pyla (or Pilat)</li></ul><div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s3YqdWy1GKI/TbFQwLF792I/AAAAAAAAASY/L4BmT_WC6JA/s1600/duneofpyla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s3YqdWy1GKI/TbFQwLF792I/AAAAAAAAASY/L4BmT_WC6JA/s400/duneofpyla.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This hight of dune of Pyla reaches upto a height of 107m</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">At this summit, the view is spectacular with the ocean coast, the inlet of the Bay, the large pine forest and, when the sky is very clear, the Pyrenees Range</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This Great Dune is constituted of fine sand which the siliceous grains have about the same size</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Since about ten years, this area is also became a point of start to the lover of delta planes</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The Great Dune of Pyla is located on the “La Teste de Buch” district (Gironde) and it is a national listed landscape</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Since Europe has no deserts, you’d think the title of “Europe’s largest sand dune” would go to something that wasn’t particularly impressive. But you’d be wrong<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">The Great Dune of Pyla is 3km long, 500m wide and 100m high, and for reasons I will probably never understand, it seems to have formed in a forest</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The dune is very steep on the side facing the forest and is famous for being a paragliding site</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">At the top it also provides spectacular views out to sea and over the forest (since the dune is far higher than any of the trees surrounding it)</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This unique place is great traveling opportunity for those who would like to experience how it is like to be in desert and this little version of desert is less than a hour of ride away from Bordeaux</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">A number of such smaller sand dunes can be found at the soul of sandy moor of Gascony</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">This dune is huge enough to be visible from the space. From above, it looks like huge white rectangle</li></ul></div></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-11706788980690252602011-04-22T14:26:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.976+05:00Facts About Earth Day - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Annually, April 22 is a day set aside to honor the Earth. But every day is Earth Day, and some of the things that will happen 365 times in a year are listed below</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1969, Nelson, considered one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement, developed the idea for Earth Day after being inspired by the anti-Vietnam War "teach-ins" that were taking place on college campuses around the United States</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">According to Nelson, he envisioned a large-scale, grassroots environmental demonstration "to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda."</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Nelson announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle in the fall of 1969 and invited the entire nation to get involved</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">A highlight of the United Nations' Earth Day celebration in New York City is the ringing of the Peace Bell, a gift from Japan, at the exact moment of the vernal equinox</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T63iK_dJLLA/TbFJduoBERI/AAAAAAAAASU/v7Vh9hp0zIA/s1600/EarthDay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-T63iK_dJLLA/TbFJduoBERI/AAAAAAAAASU/v7Vh9hp0zIA/s400/EarthDay.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Earth Day Networks estimates that 500 million people from 4,500 organizations in 180 countries will participate in Earth Day events during the month of April</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Earth Day is big with schools. On many school calendars, it is the third most activity-inspiring holiday, after Christmas and Halloween</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Companies have even gotten into Earth Day. Last year, office supply store Staples introduced office paper made entirely without new trees</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">As part of the celebration, some communities make Earth Day a "Car-Free Day"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Earth will travel 1.6 million miles in its annual journey around the Sun, the 4.6-billionth such round-trip. It will rotate about its axis exactly once<a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">The Sun will travel 13.5 million miles around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The Sun will fuse 51.8 billion tons of hydrogen into 51.5 billion tons of helium. (Lest you worry, it will have the capacity to do this for another 5 billion years or so.) The other 0.3 billion tons will be released as energy (Einstein's E = mc2). The energy poured forth in all directions each day is 10 trillion trillion kilowatt-hours. The fraction of this energy that bathes the Earth powers nearly everything that lives there</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The fraction of the sun's energy intercepted by the Earth at the top of its atmosphere is 6000 trillion kilowatt-hours, about 600,000 times the quantity Americans consume in a day</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The population of the world will grow by 211,000 people.3 A new Akron, Ohio will be added every day</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">40,000 acres of land, an area about the size of Boise, Idaho will be converted to desert</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">200 million tons of topsoil will be lost through erosion from croplands</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">50,000 acres of forest will be eliminated</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Between 20 and 500 species will disappear from the planet forever.We know so little about the family of life to which we belong that we cannot quantify the damage we are inflicting upon it. We do know that extinctions are occurring 100 to 1,000 times faster than the normal background rate</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">People will consume more than 3 billion gallons of oil</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Burning the oil and other fossil fuels will release 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, slowly but surely nudging the planet's temperature upward</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">3 million tons of iron ore, 575 thousand tons of tin, 330 thousand tons of bauxite (for aluminum), and 34 thousand tons of copper will be ripped from the Earth</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">800 million people will go to bed hungry and awake too weak to lead productive lives</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">18,000 children will die from chronic hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The world will spend $3 billion on military expenditures, half by one country</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">$2 billion will be invested in research and development.15 This will result in the publication of 1,900 science and engineering articles16 and granting of 150 patents</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">1.3 billion children will be educated in pre-primary, primary, and secondary schools</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">97 billion e-mail messages will be sent, more than 40 billion of which will be spam</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-62936497717574024972011-04-20T10:57:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.976+05:00Facts About Meteor Crater - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact crater located approximately 43 miles (69 km) east of Flagstaff, near Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Because the US Department of the Interior Division of Names commonly recognizes names of natural features derived from the nearest post office, the feature acquired the name of “Meteor Crater” from the nearby post office named Meteor</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Middlesboro is the only city in the United States built within a meteor crater</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The crater was created about 50,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the local climate on the Colorado Plateau was much cooler and damper</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">At the time, the area was an open grassland dotted with woodlands inhabited by woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, and camels</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tI3Xt-867ik/Ta51u4ibMLI/AAAAAAAAAPY/VXutReAv_iw/s1600/Meteor+Crater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tI3Xt-867ik/Ta51u4ibMLI/AAAAAAAAAPY/VXutReAv_iw/s400/Meteor+Crater.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It was probably not inhabited by humans; the earliest confirmed record of human habitation in the Americas dates from long after this impact</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 meters (54 yards) across, which impacted the plain at a speed of several kilometers per second</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Meteor Crater was originally thought to be a volcanic crater, since there were other volcanic craters, including the still-active Sunset Crater, in the region</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">However, in the 1890s, mineralogists discovered iron fragments in the crater. This led geologists to suggest that the crater was caused by a meteor crash</li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Daniel Barringer (1860-1929), a Philadelphia mining engineer who explored the site in 1903, was convinced the meteorite was buried beneath the crater. He purchased the land and, in 1906, began drilling</div><a name='more'></a></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Barringer and his team discovered enough iron and nickel-iron fragments to persuade the scientific world that the crater was probably formed by a meteor</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">During the 1930s, around $400,000 was spent on drilling bores into the floor of the crater. Fragments of nickel-iron believed to have come from the meteorite were found at depths of 260m (700ft)</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Below this, the rock was undisturbed</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">All attempts at finding the core intact below the crater have been abandoned. Scientists now believe the meteor exploded on impact, and that much of its material vaporized into the air</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The millions of nickel-iron grains discovered at the site are thought to have condensed from a hot metallic cloud that resulted from the blast</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In addition, individual nickel-iron fragments as heavy as 640kg (1,400lbs) have been found scattered over an area of 260sq.km (100 sq.mi)</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1960, scientists discovered coesite and stishovite at the site. These two rare forms of silica can only be created when the temperature and pressure is very high</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">These conditions would have been created when a meteor crashed into sandstone desert. This was proof that the crater was formed by a meteor</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Meteora, on the western edge of the plain of Thessaly, in the heart of northern Greece, is the home a group of monasteries and chapels that are perched on 24 enormous rocks</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The rocks are made of a mixture of sandstone and a type of hard, sedimentary gravel known as conglomerate</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-89276267669146505392011-04-19T01:29:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.977+05:00Facts About Mount Roraima - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Mount Roraima (mountain, South America) giant flat-topped mountain, or mesa, in the Pakaraima Mountains of the Guiana Highlands , at the point where the boundaries of Brazil, Venezuela, and Guyana meet</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">About 9 miles (14 km) long and 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) high, it is the source of many rivers of Guyana, and of the Amazon and Orinoco</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Mount Roraima is a pretty remarkable place. It is a tabletop mountain with sheer 400-metre high cliffs on all sides</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">There is only one ‘easy’ way up, on a natural staircase-like ramp on the Venezuelan side – to get up any other way takes and experienced rock climber</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">On the top of the mountain it rains almost every day, washing away most of the nutrients for plants to grow and creating a unique landscape on the bare sandstone surface</li></ul><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gj45hyTRJ0w/Taydu_cboQI/AAAAAAAAAPU/r5OqHA8w8mc/s1600/mount+roraima.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gj45hyTRJ0w/Taydu_cboQI/AAAAAAAAAPU/r5OqHA8w8mc/s400/mount+roraima.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">This also creates some of the highest waterfalls in the world over the sides (Angel falls is located on a similar tabletop mountain some 130 miles away)</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Though there are only a few marshes on the mountain where vegetation can grow properly, these contain many species unique to the mountain, including a species of carnivorous pitcher plant</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The mountain marks the border between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, although more than three quarters of the mountain is in Venezuelan territory </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is the highest mountain in Guyana, but Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains. The triple border point on the summit is at 5°12'08N, 60°44'07W</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000 km² Canaima National Park, which is roughly located in the Gran Sabana region <a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">The tabletop mountains of the park are considered some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back to the Precambrian Era, some two billion years ago</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The average height of the plateau is about 2,500 metres (8,200 feet), making it the highest point for distance of 549.44 kilometres (341.48 miles) in any direction</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The nearest peak that is taller is Cerro Marahuaca, to the west-southwest </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Despite the fact the steep sides of the plateau make it difficult to access, it was the first major tepui to be climbed: Sir Everard im Thurn walked up a forested ramp in December 1884 to scale the strangely wind-and-water sculpted plateau</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">This is the same route hikers take today</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">It is thought that the reports from early Victorian expeditions to the mountain inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his classic adventure yarn, The Lost World, in 1912 - now made into countless films</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Since long before the arrival of European explorers in Venezuela the mountain has held a special significance for the indigenous people of the region and it is central to many of their myths and legends</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The Pemon Indians of the Gran Sabana see Roraima as the stump of a mighty tree that once held all the fruits and tuberous vegetables in the world</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Felled by one of their ancestors, the tree crashed to the ground, unleashing a terrible flood. "Roroi" in the Pemon language means blue-green and "ma" means great</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Mount Roraima has been climbed on a few occasions from the Guyana and Brazil sides, but as the mountain is entirely bordered on both these sides by enormous sheer cliffs that include high overhanging (negative-inclination) stretches, these are extremely difficult and technical rock climbing routes</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-13572079445297079872011-04-19T00:46:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.977+05:00Facts About Door To Hell - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">East of the Caspian Sea in the middle of Karakum desert somewhere in Central Asia hide a secret It is something so surreal and extraordinary in the same time you thing is not real at all</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Here near a small town of Darvaza, Turkmenistan is located “The door to hell” how locals name the strange place</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In fact it is a 50 – 100 meter crater who burn continues for 35 years without any pause</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The Door to Hell, as local residents at the nearby town of Darvaza have dubbed it, is a 70 meter wide crater in Turkmenistan that has been burning continuously for 35 years</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1971, geologists drilling for gas deposits uncovered a huge underground cavern, which caused the ground over it to collapse, taking down all their equipment and their camp with it</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tIFbUXAWxck/TayUk_baa3I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/vbsCbNuWCGw/s1600/door+to+hell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tIFbUXAWxck/TayUk_baa3I/AAAAAAAAAPQ/vbsCbNuWCGw/s400/door+to+hell.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">During a drilling they found an underground cavern filled with natural gas</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In this moment the ground collapsed, leaving a large gaping hole exposed</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">To avoid poisonous gases coming out of the hole, it was decide to fire up and let the gas burn</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Since the cavern was filled poisonous gas, they dared not go down to retrieve their equipment, and to prevent the gas escaping they ignited it, hoping it would burn itself out in a couple of days</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">From its burning mouth pours the stench of sulphur, fouling the local air and making anything with nasal cavities flee from the vicinity <a name='more'></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">In addition it glows day and night, the leaping flames nested are so ferocious that they produce a hazy glow which can be seen from several miles away </li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In April 2010 the president of Turkmenistan ordered the fire to be quelled and the hole to be sealed so as to stop it removing gas from nearby gas drilling sites</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">While it is an amazing site that many would like to keep around we cannot expect it to last forever, the gas being burnt is much worse than Carbon Dioxide in its contributions to global warming</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, there was a slight miscalculation as to the amount of gas that was trapped, and the crater continues to burn to this day</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Nobody can say how many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all those time but it just seems to be infinite or it is not so ordinary place</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Derweze is a Turkmenistan village located in the middle of the Karakum Desert</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">You can see "Door To Hell" on Google Earth at 40°15′8″N 58°26′23″E</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Do you think they are somehow related to the same outfit who first came out about global warming, or the ones who decided Pluto was not a planet, or maybe the brainiacs who have changed everyone’s Zodiac sign?</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Makes you wonder… No one knows how long the gas will burn, but it seems to be unlimitless</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">It is a waste of natural resources, but hey, they created quite a phenomenon. The locals call it the “Door To Hell”</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-80057931952033070302011-04-16T14:45:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.977+05:00Proposing Girl Funny Pics - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Walk up behind girl and point fingers shaped like gun into her back</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;">"You're under arrest!" </div><div style="text-align: center;">For what? </div><div style="text-align: center;">"For stealing my heart."</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Hi, my name is Chance, Do I have one?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Are your legs tired?</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;">Girl: Why? </div><div style="text-align: center;">because you have been running through my mind all day!</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> "I lost my phone number, can I borrow yours?"</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Can you give me directions to your heart? I've seemed to have lost myself in your eyes.</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hRwkHOb8buQ/TalfW8iH-mI/AAAAAAAAAN0/t-mnVJqzpKM/s1600/Propose+A+Girl+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hRwkHOb8buQ/TalfW8iH-mI/AAAAAAAAAN0/t-mnVJqzpKM/s400/Propose+A+Girl+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Take a look at the tag on the girls shirt, jacket, etc. She would say,"What are you doing"</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;">you respond,"Oh, just checking to see if you were made in Heaven."</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Pick up a flower and walk over to girl. "I was just showing this flower how beautiful you are."</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Is it hot in here or is it just you?</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> Hey Girls, walk up to a guy and say: "Are you from Greece?" "No" he answers.</li></ul><div style="text-align: center;">Then you say, "Oh, I thought all the Gods were from Greece"</div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> GEEEEE.. I FEEL LIKE RICHARD GERE STANDING BESIDE YOU ........... PRETTY WOMEN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7n-OW7KnP-8/TalfWC9EaJI/AAAAAAAAANw/CcmqdV_rCj4/s1600/Propose+A+Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div><a name='more'></a><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7n-OW7KnP-8/TalfWC9EaJI/AAAAAAAAANw/CcmqdV_rCj4/s1600/Propose+A+Girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7n-OW7KnP-8/TalfWC9EaJI/AAAAAAAAANw/CcmqdV_rCj4/s400/Propose+A+Girl.jpg" width="300" /></a></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-urFq4Xt6pyU/TalkON66z1I/AAAAAAAAAN4/giZb-4sBwBg/s1600/Propose+A+Girl+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-urFq4Xt6pyU/TalkON66z1I/AAAAAAAAAN4/giZb-4sBwBg/s400/Propose+A+Girl+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2e_WYBB1xq8/Talk6iwcfjI/AAAAAAAAAOE/SND8EgUXDws/s1600/Propose+A+Girl+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2e_WYBB1xq8/Talk6iwcfjI/AAAAAAAAAOE/SND8EgUXDws/s400/Propose+A+Girl+5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dB-97TDLe2M/TalkPEVAC2I/AAAAAAAAAN8/1wygZv8K6jk/s1600/Propose+A+Girl+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dB-97TDLe2M/TalkPEVAC2I/AAAAAAAAAN8/1wygZv8K6jk/s640/Propose+A+Girl+3.jpg" width="433" /></a></div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-53591249965818224432011-04-16T12:26:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.977+05:00Facts About Charlie Chaplin - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>He was born four days before Adolf Hitler, in 1889</li></ul><ul><li>Charlie Chaplin was so popular during the 1920s and 1930s, he received over 73,00 letters in just 2 days during a visit to London</li></ul><ul><li>After adopting his trademark Little Tramp costume, consisting of baggy pants, bamboo cane, bowler hat, and over-sized shoes, Chaplin became a Hollywood icon</li></ul><ul><li>Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look alike contest</li></ul><ul><li>He was the first actor to appear on Time magazine. Chaplin appeared on the July 6, 1925 issue of Time magazine, a U.S.-based news magazine. He was the first actor ever to appear on the magazine known for its influential cover photo</li></ul><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uzEyw5jHcvk/TalBuTzCjvI/AAAAAAAAANs/F5qihk36Lkw/s1600/charlie+chaplin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uzEyw5jHcvk/TalBuTzCjvI/AAAAAAAAANs/F5qihk36Lkw/s400/charlie+chaplin.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screenshot From Movie "THE GREAT DICTATOR"</td></tr></tbody></table><ul><li>His understudy in England was Stan Laurel; they sailed to America together and shared a boarding house when they arrived</li></ul><ul><li>In 1925, he was the first actor to appear on the cover of Time magazine</li></ul><ul><li>At the height of his popularity, he failed to win a Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest</li></ul><ul><li>His imprints were removed (and subsequently lost) from the Hollywood walk of fame because of his suspected communist views</li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Although Adolf Hitler despised Chaplin, he was aware of his popularity, and grew the Chaplin mustache to endear himself to the people</div><a name='more'></a></li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">He had bright blue eyes and </span>He never became a U.S. citizen</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">He composed about 500 melodies, including Smile</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The last film he saw, in 1976, was Rocky</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">In 1978, his dead body was stolen for over two months. When it was recovered, it was re-buried in a vault encased in cement</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">He won only one non-honorary Oscar, and it was 21 years "late". Chaplin won an honorary Academy Award ("Oscar") in 1929, during the first presentation of awards</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">Chaplin was married 4 times. He was 29 and his first wife was 16 when they married. His second marriage was to 16-year-old Lita Grey, when he was 35. His third and possibly fictional marriage to Paulette Goddard, was rumored to have occurred when he was 47 and she was 28. He married his last wife, Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill, shortly after Oona turned 18. Chaplin was 54</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">He was ordered to pay child support for a child that was not his own. In the 1940s, Charlie had a brief relationship with actress Joan Barry. Several months after their breakup, she claimed that Chaplin was the father of the child to which she had just given birth. When blood tests proved that Chaplin was not the father of the child, Barry's attorney moved to have the tests ruled inadmissible as evidence. Because there was little historical precedent to admit the test results into the trial, the judge did not allow them to be used as evidence of Chaplin's non-paternity. After a mistrial and a retrial, Chaplin was ordered to pay Barry $75 per week for child support, a respectable amount in those days</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">His corpse was stolen. Three months after Chaplin died on Christmas, 1977, his body was stolen in an effort to extort money from his family. Chaplin's body was recovered 11 weeks later after the grave-robbers were captured. He is now buried under 6 feet of concrete to prevent further theft attempts</li><li style="text-align: justify;">He has an asteroid named after him. Four years after his death, Ukrainian astronomer, Lyudmila Karachkina, named an asteroid after him. Ms. Karachkina, discoverer of 131 asteroids, named one of them 3623 Chaplin. It resides in the asteroid "belt" between Mars and Jupiter and appears as a magnitude 12.1 object, making it visible in a moderately strong telescope</li></ul><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">His daughter portrayed his mother in the movie Chaplin. The accomplished actress, Geraldine Chaplin, is Charlie's daughter with his last wife Oona. In the 1992 Hollywood movie adaptation of Charlie Chaplin's life, Chaplin, she portrayed Hannah Chaplin, Charlie's mother</li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-74720370104707053582011-04-12T12:56:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.977+05:00Facts About Yuri Gagarin - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Colonel Yuri A. Gagarin was born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934 </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space and the first man to orbit the Earth making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"> His father was a carpenter. Yuri attended the local school for six years and continued his education at vocational and technical schools </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Yuri Gagarin joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honors from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957 </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Soon afterward, he became a military fighter pilot. By 1959, he had been selected for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of USSR cosmonauts</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VyCixAypSDY/TaQDs3dDQvI/AAAAAAAAANo/QlHw8bnCEhg/s1600/yuri+gagarin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VyCixAypSDY/TaQDs3dDQvI/AAAAAAAAANo/QlHw8bnCEhg/s400/yuri+gagarin.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"> On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth. Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"> The flight lasted 108 minutes. At the highest point, Gagarin was about 327 kilometers above Earth </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"> Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer program sending radio commands to the space capsule Although the controls were locked, a key had been placed in a sealed envelope in case an emergency situation made it necessary for Gagarin to take control. As was planned, Cosmonaut Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by parachute<a name='more'></a> </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Colonel Yuri Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 when the MiG-15 he was piloting crashed near Moscow. At the time of his death, Yuri Gagarin was in training for a second space mission </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">According to this book, Yuri Gagarin started dreaming about and planning his trip into space while he was still a kid. Before anyone had been in space. Follow your dreams, kids </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Lots of things are named for him now, like a crater on the moon, and the town near where he grew up. He also has a few statues, like this one coming to London </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Former indie rockers Ozma named not one, but two songs after the cosmonaut: “The Flight of Yuri Gagarin” and the “Landing of Yuri Gagarin.” </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Gagarin was an environmentalist! “Orbiting Earth in spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!” So even if you never make that trip into space yourself, at least you honour Gagarin’s memory by taking care of our planet </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">On April 12, 1961, the Russian cosmonaut became the first human launched into space. His 108-minute mission made him a world-wide hero. Gagarin died in 1968 at the age of 34 in a crash during a jet training flight </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space less than a month later </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The USSR also had plans to go to the moon and at one time Gagarin, desperate to make a second spaceflight, was suggested as the back-up for the mission to land a cosmonaut on the moon </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;">The name of the capsule that carried Yuri into space was Vostok </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li style="text-align: justify;"> Yuri Gagarin died in 1968 and he left behind a wife and two daughters </li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-43808186568281518072011-04-08T17:57:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.978+05:00Facts About Human Brain - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Human brain neurons system is so large that you start from earth and take a round of moon and back to starting position</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Average human brain usage is upto 2 % out of 100 % while <span class="answerbag_vibrant">Einstein uses his brain upto 15 %, thats why he is so genius</span></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The odds are 1 out of 7,143 (.014%) that you have a brain tumor </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Nerve impulses to and from the brain travel as fast as 170 miles per hour</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The average human brain has about 100 billion nerve cells</div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ENJI5jk9rlY/TZ8F7E_ih_I/AAAAAAAAANk/ZfBVYQBeal0/s1600/brain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" r6="true" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ENJI5jk9rlY/TZ8F7E_ih_I/AAAAAAAAANk/ZfBVYQBeal0/s400/brain.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">The average human loses 85,000 brain cells each day, while only 50 are regenerated each day</div></li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">According to UCLA neuroscientists, only one brain cell is needed to spot a familiar face</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">After age 30, the brain begins to lose about 50,000 neurons per day - shrinking the brain .25% each year</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The human central nervous system filters out 99% of what your senses register so the brain doesn't have to bother processing unimportant matters</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">More electrical impulses are generated in one day by a single human brain than in all the telephones in the world</div></li></ul><a name='more'></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">After the death of the genius, Albert Einstein, his brain was removed by a pathologist and put in a jar for future study </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Scientists have actually performed brain surgery on cockroaches </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The first coin operated machine ever designed was a holy-water dispenser that required a five-drachma piece to operate. It was the brainchild of the Greek scientist Hero in the first century AD </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The average person's skin weighs twice as much as their brain</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The human brain cell can hold 5 times as much information as the Encyclopedia Britannic</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Ishi had made it very clear before he died that he did not want to be autopsied. However, his wishes were ignored and his body was autopsied and the brain removed and sent to the Smithsonian</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-53149070233643798622011-04-08T16:41:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.982+05:00Facts About Xenarthrans - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters (Xenarthra) are notable for the unique joints in their backbone that provide them with the strength and support they need to dig and burrow</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Armadillos, sloths, and anteaters have few or no teeth and a small brain</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Xenarthra are an ancient group of placental mammals that once roamed across Gondwanaland before the continents of the southern hemisphere separated into their present-day configuration</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">When Gondwanaland divided, it split up to form South America, Africa, India, Arabia, New Zealand, and Australia, Xenarthra were initially isolated on the continent of South America but have since spread northward into areas of Central America and southern parts of North America</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Though xenarthran populations were absent from Africa, Asia, and Australia, these regions contain unrelated species that evolved to resemble xenarthrans</div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zm0jpoIPYRY/TZ7zUYbmpcI/AAAAAAAAANg/tfQYyIwCsmI/s1600/Armadillo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zm0jpoIPYRY/TZ7zUYbmpcI/AAAAAAAAANg/tfQYyIwCsmI/s400/Armadillo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Similar environmental conditions in these distant parts of the world resulted in species that, although unrelated, adapted in a similar manner and as a result resemble each other in some ways. This evolutionary dynamic is known as convergent evolution</div></li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Examples of species that display convergent evolution with the xenarthrans include the aardvark (Africa), the pangolin (Africa and SE Asia), and the spiny anteater (Australia)</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">These animals all have genetically different ancestors than the xenarthrans and consequently belong to different orders than the xenartrhans, yet they have evolved similar characteristics</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Xenarthrans were classified in the past together with the pangolin , also scaly anteater or Tenggiling, is a mammal of the order Pholidota</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">There is only one extant family and one genus of pangolins, comprising eight species</div></li></ul><a name='more'></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Anteaters, armadillos, and sloths are a group of eutherian mammals known as the Xenarthra</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">They were once placed in the order Edentata and are still often referred to as edentates, a word that means "toothless"</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Although xenarthrans such as anteaters are indeed toothless, the giant armadillo has as many as 100 teeth, more than almost any other mammal</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Members of the mammalian group Edentata not only include the 31 living species of armadillos, true anteaters, and tree sloths, but also contain eight families of extinct ground sloths and armadillo-like animals</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Xenarthrans are a small group of insectivores and herbivores of small to medium body size (up to around 60 kg)</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In the past however, xenarthrans were much more diverse and numerous</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">They radiated into about a dozen families in South America, including not only the groups known today but also animals such as the extinct giant ground sloths and giant armored gylptodonts</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Several groups of xenarthrans, mainly the ground sloths and armadillos, successfully crossed the Central American land bridge to North America when it formed during the Pliocene</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Today, only one of these species, an armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus), still survives there; the majority of living species live in Central and South America</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-60400778711396785272011-04-07T10:15:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.983+05:00Facts About Butterflies - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Having a wingspan of only ½", the smallest butterfly is in the world is found in South Africa. It is know as the Dwarf Blue Butterfly</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Did you know that butterflies need the warmth of the sun to enable them to fly? Butterflies are cold-blooded and will not fly if the temperature is below 50 degrees </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Fiction, you will not hurt a butterfly if you touch it, although you might rub off some of the color of its wings which are actually miniature scales </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Butterfly wings are actually clear. Their colors and patterns are made by the reflection of the scales that cover them</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In Pacific Grove, California, it is a misdemeanor to kill a butterfly</div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CvSd7QGdy04/TZ1IJzr830I/AAAAAAAAANc/TbXCoel6YC4/s1600/butterfly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CvSd7QGdy04/TZ1IJzr830I/AAAAAAAAANc/TbXCoel6YC4/s400/butterfly.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">Caterpillars do NOT have bones, they have over 1,000 muscles in which they use to move from place to place and they can move at a very quick pace</div></li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">If you find a caterpillar and place him in a designated place, before you know it , he will have crawled out of sight</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Nicole Kidman has a morbid fear of butterflies </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Butterflies taste with their feet </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Butterflies can see color in the ultraviolet range, revealing patterns on flowers to them that humans can’t see</div></li></ul><a name='more'></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Butterflies have taste sensors on their feet, allowing them to stand on a leaf and see if their baby caterpillars can eat it</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">There are about 165,000 known species of butterflies</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The fastest butterflies can fly up to 37 miles per hour, but most can only fly 5 to 12 miles per hour</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">There are some species of butterflies like the Red Admiral that actually prefer feeding on rotting fruit and animal dung </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Some butterflies can fly as much as 10,000 feet and others can migrate up to 3,000 miles</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Milkweed, the host plant for the monarch butterfly also known as "Pleurisy Root" is also used for medicinal purposes</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Butterflies "taste" with their feet! Butterfly feet are actually tiny receptors which allow them to "taste" the food that they are standing on</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Chances are it is an adult cabbage white butterfly depositing eggs on your cabbage or vegetables in the cabbage family</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The caterpillar of the cabbage white is velvety and just the right shade of green to blend in perfectly with the cabbage leaves</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Fiction, once a bird has eaten a monarch it is definately a reminder NOT to eat another one, for the milkweed that the monarch eats as a caterpillar has a toxic effect when the butterfly is ingested</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-54985712714875628372011-04-06T22:58:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.983+05:00Facts About Ice Cream - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Ben and Jerry's send the waste from making ice cream to local pig farmers to use as feed. Pigs loved every flavor except for Mint Oreo</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Julia Roberts and Christie Brinkley once sold ice cream</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Barack Obama worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager and now can't stand ice cream</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1984, Ronald Reagan declared the month of July to be "National Ice Cream Month." </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">One out of five people that eat ice cream binge on ice cream in the middle of the night. The person is usually between 18 - 24 years old </div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9BO4x9KhwVg/TZyomvblATI/AAAAAAAAANY/FOVtJxtM7J4/s1600/icecream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" r6="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9BO4x9KhwVg/TZyomvblATI/AAAAAAAAANY/FOVtJxtM7J4/s400/icecream.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>The last thing Elvis Presley ate before he died was four scoops of ice cream and 6 chocolate chip cookies </li><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Donald F. Duncan, the man who made the yo-yo an American tradition, is also credited with popularizing the parking meter and introducing Good Humor "ice cream on a stick </div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Dolley Madison is credited with inventing ice cream </div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Nancy Johnson, the wife of a naval officer, is credited for inventing the ice cream freezer</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Ice cream cones were first served in 1904 at the world’s fair in St. Louis, MO. US Patent # 3,477,070<br /><a name='more'></a></div></li><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The ice cream "sundae" was named in Evanston, Illinois</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1924, the average America ate eight pints of ice cream a year. By 1997, the International Dairy Foods Association reported that the figure had jumped to 48 pints a year</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Vanilla is the most popular ice cream flavor in the USA, snagging anywhere from 20 to 29 percent of sales. Chocolate comes in a distant second, with about 9 to 10 percent of the market</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the major ingredients in ice cream is air. Without it, the ice cream would be as hard as a rock </div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">One out of every five ice cream eaters share their treat with their dog or cat</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1984, President Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream Month</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the biggest ice cream sundae in the world was made in Alberta, Canada, in 1988. It weighed nearly 55,000 pounds</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The world's largest ice cream sandwich tipped the scales at nearly 2,500 pound</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In New York, a person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in their pocket</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">During World War II, the US Navy commissioned the world's first floating ice cream parlor for service in the Pacific theatre</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-65761403006220823612011-04-06T22:26:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.983+05:00Facts About Kissing - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">You burn 26 calories in a one-minute kiss</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Longest underwater kiss - 2 minutes and 18 seconds in Tokyo, Japan, on April 2, 1980</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Ancient Egyptians kissed with their noses instead of with their lips </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The average amount of time spent kissing for a person in a lifetime is 20,160 minutes</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The longest kiss on record lasted 30 hours and 45 minutes. Dror Orpaz and Carmit Tsubara recorded it on April 5, 1999 at a kissing contest held in Tel Aviv, Israel </div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DM3Q-NTqIDE/TZyh1_KPJtI/AAAAAAAAANU/Vz3_oyDFBGg/s1600/kissing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" r6="true" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DM3Q-NTqIDE/TZyh1_KPJtI/AAAAAAAAANU/Vz3_oyDFBGg/s400/kissing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">It takes 20 different muscles to form a kiss </div></li></ul></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">James Bond is also known as Mr. Kiss-Kiss-Bang-Bang </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The first far eastern country to permit kissing in films was China. The first oriental screen kiss was bestowed on Miss Mamie Lee in the movie "Two Women in the House" </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">People are more likely to tilt their heads to the right when kissing instead of the left (65 percent of people go to the right!)</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The record for most kisses in a movie is 127 in Don Juan<br /><a name='more'></a></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">8 percent of Americans kiss with their eyes open</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">During a kiss , as many as 278 bacteria colonies are exchanged</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Lips are 100 times more sensitive than the tips of the fingers. Not even genitals have as much sensitivity as lips</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">On July 5-6, 2005 a couple in London locked lips for 31 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds, making it the longest kiss ever recorded</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Mothers who passed chewed solid food to their infants during weaning may have created the first kiss</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Alfred Hitchcocks’ creative attempt to circumvent Hollywood’s Hays Code led to one of the sexiest kisses in cinematic history</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">"Eskimo" kisses are loosely based on a traditional Inuit greeting called a "kunik"</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The average woman will kiss 22 men, enjoy four long-term relationships and have their heart broken five times before she meets ‘the one’</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The average guy will kiss 23 women, have 10 one-night stands, and have his heart broken six times before he finds The One</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Let's talk science. Kissing generally uses one muscle, called the orbicularis oris, that is responsible for puckering your lips when you kiss. The science of kissing itself is called philematology</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-90267029742812873212011-03-24T13:00:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.984+05:00Facts About Bats - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><ul><li>More species of bats live in Texas than in any other part of the United States</li></ul><ul><li>Tens of thousands of bats live in the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico</li></ul><ul><li>The largest known colony of bats lives in Bracken Cave in Texas. Biologists estimate more than 20 million Mexican Free-Tail bats call this cave home</li></ul><ul><li>In China, bats are considered good fortune</li></ul><ul><li>Bats make up almost a fourth of all mammal species. Only the order of rodents has more</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qQsnHkbK5Rk/TYr3FHYpLWI/AAAAAAAAANQ/VuL8f8-ajxg/s1600/bats.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qQsnHkbK5Rk/TYr3FHYpLWI/AAAAAAAAANQ/VuL8f8-ajxg/s400/bats.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ul><li>Bats are the only mammals that can truly fly. Other mammals may glide and give the appearance of flight, such as squirrels and lemurs, but only bats possess powered flight and can hover, flap and soar</li></ul><ul><li>The term "blind as a bat," is incorrect. Bats have perfectly acceptable eyesight, but the majority use echolocation while in flight, and hunting</li></ul><ul><li>Male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of any mammal</li></ul><ul><li>Vampire bats use rivers to navigate</li></ul><ul><li>Bat wings are made of two thin layers of skin stretched over the bat's arm and fingers. Bats have a thumb and four fingers, just like people <a name='more'></a></li></ul><ul><li>When bats fly, they don't just flap up and down. If you watch them closely, it almost looks like they're pulling themselves through the air -- the movement is similar to the butterfly stroke in swimming</li></ul><ul><li>When most of us think of bats, the Vampire Bat is one of the first to come to mind. Vampire bats don't really turn into Count Dracula, they rarely bite people and they rarely kill their prey</li></ul><ul><li>Vampire bats prey mainly on cows, horses and other large mammals. They make a shallow wound with their razor-sharp teeth then they lick up the blood. Each bat only drinks about an ounce of blood each night</li></ul><ul><li>Scientists have found evidence that bats have existed for 50 million years. Some scientists believe it may have been even longer</li></ul><ul><li>Bats feed at night (they are "nocturnal") and spend the day sleeping in caves or in tree tops. The place where a bat sleeps is called its "roost"</li></ul><ul><li>Caves aren't the only place that bats "hang out". Bats also sleep in trees, mines, under bridges, in bushes and even in old buildings or barns. Some tiny South American bats make tent-like shelters out of palm tree leaves</li></ul><ul><li>During spring, bats return from migration or awaken from hibernation and the females begin having baby bats called "pups"</li><li>Bats smell, hear, taste, feel and see just like people do. The term "blind as a bat" isn't really accurate. Bats have perfectly good eyes for seeing in the daylight. The problem is, they do most of their hunting at night</li></ul><ul><li>There are a lot of different kinds of bats -- from the tiny bumblebee bat (which is the size of a jellybean and weighs less than a penny) to the huge Bismarck flying fox (with a wingspan as long as an average man)</li></ul><ul><li>Bats are grouped into two main groups -- the large fruit eating bats (also known as "flying foxes" or "megabats") and the smaller bats ("microbats") who eat insects, blood, fish, lizards, birds and nectar</li></ul></div></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-75335671734424364792011-03-24T00:59:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.984+05:00Facts About Harry Houdini - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Harry Houdini (1874-1926) The Great Houdini is a name that will forever define the term "escape artist."</div></li></ul></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">As the Budapest-born, American-bred performer would so often proclaim, "No prison can hold me; no hand or leg irons or steel locks can shackle me. No ropes or chains can keep me from my freedom."</div></li></ul></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The real name of Harry Houdini was Erich Weiss</div></li></ul></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">There is no question that Houdini is the most famous magician in history. His name is synonymous with escapes; his ability to get out of seemingly impossible situations- and his knack for publicizing these events- made him a legend in his own time.</div></li></ul></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The Houdini myth is about to be examined, and truth really is stranger than fiction!</div></li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TPMYh86m7cc/TYpSRSTZbRI/AAAAAAAAANM/VZSf1TrRvrM/s1600/houdini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" r6="true" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-TPMYh86m7cc/TYpSRSTZbRI/AAAAAAAAANM/VZSf1TrRvrM/s400/houdini.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li>Houdini was born Erich Weiss on March 24, 1874. Though he claimed throughout his life that Appleton, Wisconsin was his birthplace</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">He was really born in Budapest, Hungary. He was four years old when his family moved to America</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Houdini was small, standing a mere 5'5", with dark, wavy hair, dark gray eyes and a high-pitched voice</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Houdini was poorly educated. He was, however, extremely athletic and highly motivated to succeed</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">According to an autobiographical pamphlet published by the magician in 1920, Houdini said that his favorite place was Hollywood, California and that his favorite song was Auld Lang Syne (the traditional New Year's Eve tune) <br /><a name='more'></a></div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Houdini became fascinated with magic after seeing Dr. Lynn, a traveling magician, as a young boy. He did not, as legend has it, run away with a circus, nor was he an apprentice to a locksmith</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In reality, he turned to magic at age 17 as an alternative to factory work. He teamed up with Jack Hayman, a fellow magic enthusiast, to form the Houdini Brothers</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Surprising as it may seem, Houdini was not an instant success. For the first five years, he tried every type of magic, from card manipulations (billed as the "King of Cards") to illusions and run-of-the-mill box escapes</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1896, ready to give up, he actually ran a newspaper ad offering to sell all of his magic and secrets for $20. There were no takers </div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His one big success was the Needle Trick, a grisly effect involving the swallowing of dozens of needles and thread, then the regurgitation of the thread with all the needles neatly threaded on. This effect would be a cornerstone of his act throughout his life</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">During a visit to a psychiatrist friend in Nova Scotia in 1896, Houdini saw his first strait jacket. Rather than be shocked by it, he was inspired to create an act around escaping from it. And Houdini didn't just escape from a strait jacket- he did it hanging upside down from his ankles, suspended yards above the ground</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The 1953 movie Houdini starring Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh did much to create the commonly-held belief that Houdini died onstage attempting to perform the Water Torture Cell illusion</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">The sad truth is that Houdini was in the middle of a U.S. tour in the fall of 1926 when he and Bess began to experience severe stomach discomfort. A performer to the core, Houdini refused medical treatment, because that would have meant missing some shows. Quite possibly Houdini was suffering from the onset of appendicitis, and his own stubborn refusal to see a doctor might have spelled his doom. Houdini was tired, and unusually accident-prone</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Both Houdini's New York and Los Angeles homes were said to be haunted by his ghostly spirit. The New York townhouse still stands at 278 W. 113th Street (it was recently offered for sale); Houdini's "HH" initials are set in mosaic tile on the bathroom floor. His Los Angeles home at 2350 Laurel Canyon burned many years after his death, but the site is still rumored to be visited by ghostly apparitions</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">For ten years, Bess presided over annual well-publicized séances held on October 31, the anniversary of Houdini's death. Though she stopped participating in 1938, séances to contact Houdini continued</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3136293343808047340.post-4680455855522412472011-03-14T18:16:00.000+05:002011-05-14T01:42:57.984+05:00Facts About Meteorites - strangefacts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">A meteorite is bits of the outer space that enter the earth surface surviving the impact. They are chunks and are no bigger than particles of dust and sand</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">When in the outer space they are known as meteoroids but once when they enter the earth surface they are called meteors</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">A meteor is a bright streak of light in the sky, popularly known as the shooting star or falling star, which is produced by the entry of a small meteoroid into the Earth's atmosphere</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteoroids move very fast. Some enter the Earth's atmosphere at as much as 130,000 miles per hour</div></li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites contain the oldest known rocks in our solar system</div></li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OBg0Vs5Bojo/TX4RZx2esUI/AAAAAAAAAJM/aLwLAAc7NL8/s1600/meteorite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" q6="true" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-OBg0Vs5Bojo/TX4RZx2esUI/AAAAAAAAAJM/aLwLAAc7NL8/s400/meteorite.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">They also contain 'pre-solar grains', which are minerals that formed around other stars probably billions of years before our solar system was born</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Up to 4 billion meteoroids fall to Earth everyday</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">But most of them are too tiny to do any noticeable harm</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2004, a 30-foot-wide meteoroid hit the atmosphere over Antarctica, leaving 2 million pounds of dust in its wake</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">That was enough to seed rain clouds and affect climate all the way on the other side of the planet</div></li></ul><a name='more'></a><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 24,000 meteorites are known to have landed on Earth, but only 34 are believed to have originated on Mars</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites are named for the locale, region, or nearby town in which the "fall" occurred</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Although the fusion crust may be warm or hot immediately after impact, the inside of the meteorite is still deep frozen from eons in cold space</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">For years, the standard price for meteoritic material was $1/lb. Now, many meteorites are worth as much as gold!</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites have been used by unsuspecting finders as blacksmith anvils, dog bowls, or to prop up machinery or autos</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites often contain minerals not found on Earth</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorite falls often knock out power and anything electrical in the area. This may be due to the EMP, or electromagnetic pulse, of the fast-moving meteor</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites have been found on the Moon and Mars</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">They are called meteoroids when they are in space. When they enters the atmosphere, impact pressure causes the body to heat up and emit light, thus forming a fireball, also known as a meteor or shooting star</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transited the atmosphere or impacted the Earth are called falls. The other meteorites are known as finds</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">As of mid-2006, there are approximately 1,050 witnessed falls having specimens in the world's collections</div></li></ul><ul><li><div style="text-align: justify;">In contrast, there are over 31,000 well-documented meteorite finds Meteorites are broadly categorized into three types- stony, iron and stony-iron</div></li></ul></div>Rashid Naeemhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12435468168721802221noreply@blogger.com