Facts About All: March 2010

9 facts about the rapper 50 Cent

Curtis James Jackson III, better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper and actor.
Born in South Jamaica, Queens, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic.
As a teenager, 50 Cent was fondly known as Boo-Boo.
His real name is Curtis James Jackson III.
50 Cent rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2003) and The Massacre (2005). Both albums achieved multi-platinum success, selling more than twenty-six million copies combined.
50 Cent was expelled in 10th grade for possession of crack. Got his GED while in jail.
He has also pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin’ in 2005, the Iraq War film Home of the Brave in 2006, and Righteous Kill in 2008.
50 Cent has engaged in feuds with other rappers including Ja Rule, The Game, Cam’ron, Fat Joe, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross.
50 Cent is one of the richest hip-hop performers, having a net worth estimated at US $440 million in 2008.

12 interesting facts about Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven; was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time.
Beethoven’s earliest music instructions were the piano lessons his father started to give him when he was four or five years old.
He wrote five piano concertos and one violin concerto. He composed one ‘triple’ concerto for piano, violin and cello and he started to write, but never completed an oboe concerto. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies.
Beethoven is acknowledged as one of the giants of classical music; occasionally he is referred to as one of the "three Bs" (along with Bach and Brahms) who epitomize that tradition.
Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist.
Around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. What started as an annoying ringing in his ears worsened until he was almost totally deaf by 1816.
His only opera is Fidelio.

San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica.
Before Colombus came to Costa Rica, the territory of San José was occupied by the indigenous group called 'Huetares'.
Founded in 1738 by order of Cabildo de León, San José is one of the youngest capital cities in Latin America by year of conception, though it was not named capital until 1823.
Compared to other Central American capitals, San José is more cosmopolitan, even North Americanized. There are department stores and shopping malls, fast-food chain restaurants, and blue jeans.
The population of San José Canton is 346,799, though the metropolitan area stretches beyond the canton limits and comprises a third of the country's population.
Although the city was founded in 1737, little remains from the colonial era.
The city lies at a mean elevation of 1,161 m above sea level, and enjoys a stable climate throughout the year, with an average temperature of 25oC (77oF) and annual precipitation of 1800 mm, more than 90% of it falling in the rainy season from May to November.
University of Santo Tomás, the first university of Costa Rica was established here in 1843.
San José was a small village of little significance until 1823. In that year, Costa Rica's first elected head of state Juan Mora Fernández, moved the government of Costa Rica from the old Spanish colonial capital city of Cartago.
The downtown area, located in the Central Edificio Correos building, is loaded with cafes.
Because Costa Rica's public transport and road system radiates from San José, the capital is often used as a base from which to visit the country's many attractions.

8 interesting facts about Managua

Managua is the capital city of Nicaragua as well as the department and municipality by the same name.
The city was declared the national capital in 1852. Previously, the capital had alternated between the cities of León and Granada.
Managua has a population of roughly 1,800,000, composed predominantly of mestizos and whites; making it the second most populous city in Central America after Guatemala City.
Founded in 1819, the city was given the name: Leal Villa de Santiago de Managua.
Managua's economy is based mainly on trade. The city is Nicaragua's chief trading center for coffee, cotton, and other crops. It is also an important industrial center. Its chief products include beer, coffee, matches, textiles, and shoes.
The Nicaraguan capital has been dubbed as the Venice of Central America because of its escalating use of makeshift canals that can be found throughout the city.
Managua was built in the 1850s on the site of an indigenous community. The city occupies an area on a fault. Seismologists predict that Managua will continue to experience a severe earthquake every 50 years or less.
Residents of the city and of the department of Managua are called managüenses.

11 facts about San Salvador

San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, is the second largest city in Central America (after Guatemala City in Guatemala).
El Salvador has adopted the US dollar as its national currency.
San Salvador is located at the foot of the San Salvador Volcano in El Salvador’s Valle de las Hamazas – the Valley of the Hammocks – named for its powerful seismic activity.
The city has suffered from severe earthquakes over the years, the most disastrous of which occurred in 1854.
The most recent earthquake, in 2001, resulted in considerable damage, especially in Las Colinas suburb where a landslide destroyed homes and killed many people.
Though the city of San Salvador was founded back in 1525, the majority of San Salvador's historic buildings have collapsed over the years due to earthquakes.
San Salvador experiences two major seasons: wet and dry. San Salvador's wet season is in May to October, with the dry season occurring before and after.
Central America's largest airport, El Salvador International Airport or "Comalapa", is located right outside of San Salvador.
During the 1980s, conflicts in El Salvador erupted into a civil war, and many people fled to the city since most of the fighting occurred outside of it (San Salvador itself was not directly affected by the war until the final offensive of 1989).
The super-modern Metrocentro Mall in San Salvador isn't just the largest shopping mall of the Metrocentro chain (which also owns shopping malls in Tegucigalpa, Guatemala City and Managua, as well as others in El Salvador) but also the largest shopping mall in Central America.
El Salvador is internationally notorious for its gang problems, and most of the country's gang activity is centered in San Salvador.

7 interesting facts about Guatemala city

Guatemala City was home to one of the first Mayan societies dating back to 2000 BC.
Guatemala City is the biggest city in Central America, with a cosmopolitan atmosphere and many fine public buildings.
As of the 2002 census, the metropolitan area had a population of 2.3 million.[2] However, it has grown in excessive amounts throughout recent years.
Its full name is La Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción.
In a broad, fertile, highland valley, c.5,000 ft (1,520 m) high, it enjoys an equable climate the year round.
The present city is the fourth permanent capital of Guatemala and was founded in 1776 after Antigua Guatemala was abandoned.
An earthquake destroyed Guatemala City in 1917—18, but it was rebuilt on the same site. In 1976, another earthquake caused extensive damage to the city and its environs, resulting in more than 20,000 fatalities.

9 facts about Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander was born on March 3, 1847, at Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, to Parents Alexander Melville Bell and Eliza Grace Symonds Bell, he studied acoustics. His mother and wife, who were deaf, profoundly influenced Bell's life's work.
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone. Initially, he wanted to develop a multiple telegraph.
On 11 July 1877, a few days after the Bell Telephone Company was established, Bell married Mabel Hubbard at the Hubbard estate in Cambridge.
In 1883 Bell invented the graphophone, the first practical system of sound recording.
Bell only attended school for five years; from the time he was 10 until he was 14, but he never stopped learning. He read the books in his grandfather’s library and studied tutorials.
Alexander Graham Bell was also a professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at the Boston University School of Oratory. In 1882, Bell became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
Alexander Graham Bell died of pernicious anemia on 2 August 1922, at his private estate, Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia, at age 75.
On the day of his burial, all telephone service in the US was stopped for one minute in his honor.
Alexander Graham Bell continued his many experiments in communication, which culminated in the invention of the photophone-transmission of sound on a beam of light — a precursor of today’s optical fiber systems.

14 Interesting facts about babies

Men are the best at changing a baby’s diaper. Men take just a 1 minute 36 seconds while women can take 2 minutes 5 seconds to change a diaper.
Babies are born with swimming abilities and can naturally hold their breath. However, they shortly lose this instinct.
About 1/4 of a baby's weight is accounted for by their head.
Diaper rash occurs more often after 8 months of age.
Babies have a define preference for high contrast images, like geometric shapes in black, white and red.
If you eat fish during pregnancy you can increase your baby's brain development as well as provide them with better communication skills.
Baby oil and baby lotion lubricate the skin equally well.
Newborn babies have an acute sense of smell, which enables them to recognise the natural scent, or pheromones, from their mother’s body.
It is the father's sperm that decides the sex of your baby.
If your child is born in the month of May they are on average 200 grams heavier at birth then other babies.
Aside from medical costs, it's been determined that new parents in the U.S. typically spend $7,000 in a baby's first year on everything from diapers to formula to day care.
At birth, a child’s feet have 22 partially formed bones; by the time the child turms 18, each foot has 26 fully formed bones.
Babies are always born with blue eyes, within a few moments of delivery their eye color can change.
The more stimulating experiences you can give your baby, the more circuitry is built for enhanced learning in the future.

18 facts about Ricky Martin

Ricky Martin has received popularity worldwide and helps the poor.
Ricky Martin has been nominated one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People Magazine and People en Español in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
Ricky Martin is Puerto Rican.
Ricky Martin was chosen, hi Félix Trinidad in 1999, to lead Puerto Rico's worldwide tourism campaign, both exemplifying Puerto Rico's youthfulness, enthusiasm and indefatigable character.
Ricky was named the 2006 Latin Recording Academy Person of The Year.
Ricky Martin has recorded an episode of MTV Unplugged that is set to air in November 2006. He will also release it as a CD.
Ricky Martin is currently working hard to banish Human trafficking.
Ricky Martin played Marius in Les Miserables on broadway for six months.
Ricky Martin has received a humanitarian award for his charity work.

Crude oil is a dark, thick hydrocarbon liquid found deep underground in land or sea formed from the dead remains of microorganisms called plankton that lived millions of years ago.
Oil (petroleum) was formed more than 300 million years ago.
About 20 gallons of regular gasoline can be produced from one barrel of oil.
The fuel necessary for motor vehicles and aviation and many other common products like plastic, paints, detergents, fertilizers, lubricants in daily use are derived from oil.
Oil has been used for more than 5000 years (ancient Babylonians and Sumerians had used crude oil).
Oil is made into many different products like for instance clothes, fertilizers, plastic bottles, pens and lot of other products.
Crude oil is "sweet" if it contains less sulphur and "sour" if it contains more sulphur.
Oil consumption is biggest in USA where daily consumption passes 19,5 million barrels.
Light Crude oil flows freely like water and heavy crude oil is thick and sticky like tar.
Oil biggest producer is Saudi Arabia followed by Russia.
Oil is measured in barrels "bbl". One standard barrel is 159 liters or 42 Us gallons.
Oil together with coal and natural gas supply about 88 % of the world's energy needs.
85 percent of non-OPEC countries and territories import more oil than they export.
Oil's most known product gasoline costs in Saudi Arabia about 45 cents a gallon and in Venezuela just a quarter of the dollar.
As of December 2006, the United States has the 11th largest national oil reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia has the largest reserves at over 264 billion barrels compared with the U.S.'s 21 billion barrels.
U.S. petroleum consumption averages between 20.5 and 21 million barrels per day.
The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, also known as Georgius Agricola.

12 interesting energy facts

Energy is the ability to do work. It comes in different forms thermal (heat), radiant (light), mechanical, electrical, chemical, and nuclear energy.
In physics, energy is a quantity that can be assigned to every particle, object, and system of objects as a consequence of the state of that particle, object or system of objects.
Food is stored energy. It is stored as a chemical with potential energy. When your body uses that stored energy to do work, it becomes kinetic energy.
The bicycle is the most efficient form of transportation known. It uses five times less energy than walking.
In the SI system of units, energy is measured in joules.
Different forms of energy include kinetic, potential, thermal, gravitational, sound, elastic, light, and electromagnetic energy.
German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz established that all forms of energy are equivalent - energy in one form can disappear but the same amount of energy will appear in another form.
The connection Einstein discovered between energy and mass is expressed in the equation E=mc². Here E represents energy, m represents mass, and c2 is the square of the speed of light.
Renewable energy sources are solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy, hydropower, bioenergy (bioethanol, biodiesel), ocean energy (tidal power, wave energy, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion -OTEC).
Photovoltaic cells offer a simple way to get electricity. Solar energy is sustainable and clean energy source.
In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in any isolated system remains constant but cannot be recreated, although it may change forms.
Ordinary fossil fuel power plants convert between 36% and 48% of the fuel's energy into electricity, with the remainder being lost as waste heat.

20 interesting electricity facts

The movement of electric charge is known as an electric current, and intensity of which is usually measured in amperes.
The city of San Francisco gets 25% of its electricity from wind energy.
A generator is a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The process is based on the relationship between magnetism and electricity.
16% of Canada's electricity is produced by nuclear fission.
In 1879, Thomas Alva Edison invented the first light bulb.
Electric energy is easily transportable via integrated electric grids.
Electric energy is an intermediate form of energy. It is produced in thermal power stations, in hydroelectric power stations and nuclear power stations. Smaller quantities are produced by wind, photovoltaic solar panels, sea tides, etc.
When electricity was first introduced into the domestic environment it was primarily for lighting.
In the late-1800s, Nikola Tesla pioneered the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity, which can be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current.
The first windmills were developed in Persia in about 600 B.C.

Coatis' breeding season mainly corresponds with the start of the rainy season to coincide with maximum availability of food, especially fruits: between January and March in some areas, and between October and February in others.
Coati is a neo-tropical mammal that resides in the North, Central and South America, at an elevation of 3500 meters above the sea level.
During the breeding season, an adult male is accepted into the band of females and juveniles near the beginning of the breeding season, leading to a polygynous mating system.
Coati possesses brown, black or rust colored coat, with white nose, white ringed tail and white spots above and below each eye.
The pregnant females separate from the group, build a nest on a tree or in a rocky niche and, after a gestation period of about 11 weeks, give birth to litters of 3 to 7 young.
The coati has a slim body, with dark feet, flexible snout, slender head, upward-turning nose, small ears and long tail, which helps it in balancing and signaling during movements.
Natural enemies include jaguarundis, foxes, tayras, ocelots, jaguars, hawks, eagles, and humans. White-faced capuchin monkeys also hunt their pups.
The mating season of the animal starts from January and ends in March, during which the males compete with each other for a group of females,by leaving scents of urine and musk.

Prairie dog is an extremely social animal. It lives in large colonies or towns that can go beyond hundreds of acres.
Prairie dogs are often identified as pests and exterminated from agricultural properties because they are capable of damaging crops, as they clear the immediate area around their burrows of most vegetation.
There was a huge prairie dog settlement in 1900, which extended about 100 miles by 250 miles on the high plains of Texas. It is estimated that about 400 million prairie dogs dwelled in the settlement!
Prairie dog habitat has been impacted by direct removal by ranchers and farmers as well as the more obvious encroachment of urban development which has greatly reduced their populations.
A burrow made by prairie dog has defined nurseries, sleeping quarters, and toilets. Moreover, the rodent also features listening posts near exits, so that it can easily keep a check on the movements of predators outside.
In 2010, Professor Con Slobodchikoff, a biologist from Northern Arizona University, has discovered that the prairie dogs can chat with advanced 'language', their distinct squeaky bark, which contains a great deal of information that can describe colours, size, directions of travel, speed and even different types of predator.
Since it is a social animal, prairie dog lives in family groups that include a male, 2 to 4 females and the young children. The members cooperate with each other for food, chase off other dogs, groom one another and even greet each other with a kiss.
The young ones of a prairie dog are blind and furless at birth and need about 30 days of close nurturing by their mother. In addition, they are very playful and can be seen dancing and playing near their burrows.
A prairie dog uses its dichromatic color vision to identify predators and gives an alert to others with a special high-pitched warning call. The call is made once again, when the danger is gone.
The prairie dog is a diurnal mammal that searches for grasses, roots, and seeds in the daylight.

12 facts about Mandarin garnet

Mandarin garnet is also called spessartite, from the city Spessart in Bavaria where it had originally been found.
Garnets have been known to man for over five thousand years. The spessartite garnet is the new kid on the block, only having been discovered during the 1800's in Spessart, Bavaria.
It was virtually unknown in big sizes until the beginning of the nineties when an important source was discovered in Namibia.
Until recent years spessartite garnet was not a gemstone that was well known except to gem collectors, and the price was prohibitive.
Garnet was known thousands of years before our era, and is mentioned in early biblical writings, where it was called «carbuncle», meaning «little spark» although it should be noted that in Pliny’time all glowing red gems were referred to by this name.
In 1991 there was a deposit found in Namibia, a southern African country which borders Angola, and just before the year 2000 there was another very abundant find in Nigeria.
The name garnet comes from the Latin «granatus», meaning «seed like» and was held to symbolize faith, constancy and truth.
Mandarin spessartite is from the Namibia find and got it's name from it's brilliant orange color.
Garnet was also supposed to have strong curative powers. In powder, it was used as poultice to relieve fever.
Spessartite is a reasonably hard gemstone and is usually favored by an oval or emerald cut.
As an amulet, garnet was favored among travelers for it was said to protect and preserve health and honor, cure the wearer of any disease and guard him from all the perils of a journey.
Garnet is the birthstone for January.

14 interesting facts about San Diego, California

San Diego, California is the seventh largest city in the United States.
San Diego is California’s second largest city with a population of 1.3 million in the city proper, and almost 3 million residents throughout the county.
The Hotel del Coronado on Coronado Island is the largest wooden structure in the United States.
It has long been inhabited by native people (as early as 20,000 years ago), but the first European to set foot here was the Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who sailed into San Diego Bay in 1542.
San Diego, California is rimmed with seventy miles of beaches.
The world’s oldest, still working ship, the “Star of India” built in 1863 has her home port in San Diego. She has completed 21 circumnavigations.
San Diego's Zoo is home to a pair of giant pandas, and when Hua Mei was born here, she was the first baby panda born in the Western Hemisphere since 1990 (she is now in China).
There are many world class attractions such as the San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, Sea World San Diego and LEGOLAND to mention only a few.
Each year over 200 cruise ships berth in San Diego harbor.
San Diego, California is famed for the best climate in the United States.
Charles Lindbergh took off from San Diego in 1927, on the Spirit of St. Louis, headed for New York, and then non-stop to Paris and into history.
San Diego, California is home of the first European settlement on the West Coast.
San Diego Bay covers roughly 8 square miles and contains about 300 million cubic yards of water
Legal drinking age is 21. Across the border in Tijuana, it's 18.

15 interesting facts about lapis lazuli

Lapis lazuli or lapis for short is mostly lazurite but commonly contains pyrite and calcite.
The name of lapis lazuli has international roots. The word lapis is the Latin «lapis» meaning stone, and lazuli comes from an old Arabic word, «allazjward», meaning heaven, sky or simply blue.
The rich blue color is due to the sulfur that is inherent in the structure of lazurite.
Lapis lazuli shares with turquoise the distinction of being among the most prized of all gemstones of earlier civilizations. In a grave from the Indus valley, the lapis ornaments found were dated as 9000 years old.
In a piece of jewelry the small crystals of pyrite found in lapis blend with the setting, looking like gold in a gold setting and silver in a silver setting, giving the stone a personality all its own.
In Babylonia, Ur and ancient Egypt, lapis was very highly valued. It was believed to cure melancholy and one particular kind of recurrent fever. In Rome it was considered a powerful aphrodisiac.
Lapis lazuli is the alternative to turquoise and ruby as birthstones for December.
The best source of lapis is in the remote mountains in Afghanistan. It is also found in Chile and in lesser quantities elsewhere.
In South America, the Chilean deposit of lapis lazuli was used by ancient civilizations at least 1500 years B.C.
Lapis lazuli is one of the oldest spiritual stones known, it was used mainly by priests and royalty in ancient Egypt. Many believe that the Biblical sapphire was actually lapis lazuli.
Lapis powder was extensively used by Roman, Persian and Chinese women to paint their eyebrows.
Through the ages, lapis lazuli has been associated with power, wisdom, love, and most frequently as a stimulator for psychic abilities.
Lapis lazuli was pulverized to make a durable pigment called ultramarine, which was used extensively to produce the intense blue of many of the world’s most famous oil paintings.
It is believed to stimulate inner vision, give enhanced wisdom, insight and good judgment.
This ultramarine pigment was in use until the nineteenth century when another method to produce this color was found.

15 facts about William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born on April 23 and died on April 23.
Shakespeare's name may have meant "Shaker of Spears," indicating warrior ancestry.
Dictionaries as we know them today were not available in Shakespeare's time.
Boys and men played all the parts in Shakespeare's plays in Elizabethan times.
Actors performing in Shakespeare's time usually received only copies of their parts, not entire plays.
William Shakespeare was said to have enjoyed playing the part of the ghost in Hamlet.
William Shakespeare's first child was born six months after his marriage.
Shakespeare was 17 or 18 when he married. His wife, Anne Hathaway, was 26.
Because many people in Shakespeare's time --including King James I-- believed in the power of witches, Macbeth was a play that unnerved audiences.
Some researchers claim that Queen Elizabeth I wrote Shakespeare's plays. Few scholars take this claim seriously.
William Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic when he died.
The motto of the Globe Theatre was totus mundus agit histrionem (all the world's a stage).
No one knows how William Shakespeare died. Among the possibilities are kidney disease, murder most foul, and too much to drink.
When Thomas Edison was a child, his mother frequently read Shakespeare to him.
The river running through Shakespeare's hometown is the Upper Avon, not the Avon. In Shakespeare's time, the town was called Stratford, not Stratford-upon-Avon.

15 interesting facts about Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist.
At age 16, during World War I, Walt Disney lied about his age to join the American Red Cross.
Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
He is the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, Japan, France, and China.
Walt Disney didn’t graduate from high school.
Walt Disney won more Oscars than anyone else.
The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion.
Walt Disney was the voice of Mickey Mouse for two decades.
Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of San Francisco or two Manhattan islands.

Moonstone is the most valuable stone from the feldspar group.
Most popular color is blue, but it comes in a variety of colors. It usually has a milky, bluish sheen just under the gem's surface, giving it a unique luminescence.
A billowy or floating blue light becomes visible when the stone is rotated in front of a light source. This effect, called adularescence, is caused by the intergrowth of another feldspar in oriented positions within the main mass of the moonstone.
Moonstone comes mostly from India, Germany, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Mexico.
In many areas of the world, moonstone is believed to bring good fortune to its wearer.
Moonstone is the gem stone for the third wedding anniversary.
In ancient times, it was supposed to arouse tender passions in lovers and give them the power to read the future; to be effective as a means of determining one’s personal future, it had to be placed in the mouth when the moon was full.
Moonstone is believed to have mystical powers, and is used in Ayurvedic medicine and crystal healing.
Moonstone can occur in a variety of colors aside white, like yellow, gray, pink or green, but for these « fancy » colored moonstones, the effect produce a white eye and not a blue sheen.
Moonstone is thought to bring its wearer good luck. Ancient Greeks and Romans believed it had many curative powers.
Moonstone is the birthstone for June, alternating with alexandrite and pearl.

12 facts about labradorite

Labradorite derives its name from the peninsula of Labrador in Newfoundland, Canada, one of the places where it is found.
Gemstone varieties of labradorite exhibiting a high degree of labradorescence are called spectrolite; moonstone and sunstone are also commonly used terms, and high-quality samples with good qualities are desired for jewelry.
After a new source was found in Finland in the forties, labradorite was introduced in the gem market under the name spectrolite.
In it's massive form the stone often shows a play of colors which may include white, gray, green, bluish, reddish or yellow. Crystalline Labradorite may be colorless.
Labradorite is sometimes called rainbow moonstone.
New Age devotees report that wearing labradorite promotes psychic and other communication abilities. Also said to enhance a persons will power.
Like moonstone, this white to dark gray stone, exhibits a colored effect. But, unlike moonstone, this effect called labradorescence is visible only when rotated at an angle, and appears through the entire surface of the stone.
Labradorite is known as a powerful sleep aid.
Labradorescence is caused by light interference through the thin plates resulting from repeated twinning, characteristic to the structure of labradorite.
Finnish labradorite was sometimes buried in fields as an offering to the powerful spirits of the land.
Large slabs of low quality labradorite are used as facing material in construction building.
Labradorite occasionally occurs in transparent pale yellow color, but this collector material is fragile and does not show labradorescence.

10 facts about Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison built his own science laboratory at the age of 10. This was built in the basement of his home.
Thomas Edison was partially deaf. He developed this problem in his childhood days.
In 1910 Invented the Edison battery, which used an alkaline electrolyte.
Edison’s First Patented Invention was a Flop.
Besides the light bulb, he invented these things to go along with it: the parallel circuit, a durable light bulb, an improved dynamo, the underground conductor network, the devices for maintaining constant voltage, safety fuses and insulating materials, and light sockets with on-off switches.
Thomas Edison was considered one of the most prolific inventors of his time, holding a record 1,093 patents in his name.
The inventor of the electric light was not Thomas Edison. In 1802, 77 years before Edison perfected a filament for the incandescent lamp, Davy caused a platinum wire to glow by passing an electric current through it.
Edison had five dots tattooed on his left forearm. No one knew what the dots meant.
Edison was ranked thirty-fifth on Michael H. Hart's 1978 book The 100, a list of the most influential figures in history.
Thomas Edison has appeared in popular culture as a character in novels, films, comics and video games. His prolific inventing helped make him an icon and he has made appearances in popular culture during his lifetime down to the present day. His history with Nikola Tesla has also provided dramatic tension and is a theme returned to numerous times.

7 facts about Winston Churchill

Churchill painted more than 570 paintings, but only a few major shows were held in his own lifetime.
Winston Churchill was born in a ladies’ room during a dance.
During the Boer War (1899-1902) Churchill was captured and escaped. The Boers put a bounty of only 25 pounds on his head.
Churchill wrote 3 books, saw 4 wars on 4 continents and was elected to the House of Commons - all by the age of 26!
Winston Churchill was a large collector of toy soldiers.
In 1953 Churchill won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Time Magazine named Winston Churchill “man of the year” in 1940 and 1946.

10 facts about Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud is the founder of the science of psychology.
Freud was born on 6 May 1856, to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Příbor, Austrian Empire, which is now part of the Czech Republic. Freud was born with a caul, which the family accepted as a positive omen.
Sigmund Freud was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856.
Sigmund Freud had a morbid fear of ferns.
His book The Interpretation of Dreams began the complex theory of Psychoanalytic.
Diagnosed with cancer in 1923 due to frequent cigar smoking, Sigmund Freud underwent over 30 surgeries over the next 16 years.
Sigmund Freud was deathly afraid of the number 62 and would not book a room in any hotel with more than 62 rooms in case he was allotted that particular room!
In 1930, Freud received the Goethe Prize in appreciation of his contribution to psychology and to German literary culture.
Sigmund Freud had a penchant for rejecting people who did not totally agree with him.
Freud was 83 years old when he asked his doctor to end his life, and died of a physician-assisted morphine overdose in London on September 23, 1939.

18 interesting facts about Madonna

In October 2008, it was officially announced that Madonna would be getting a divorce from Guy Ritchie - her husband of seven years - confirming recent rumors that had been swirling around.
Her real name is was born Madonna Loise Veronica Ciccone. The nickname her father gave her as a child was “Little Noni”.
At age 50, Madonna was still ranked #20 in Glamour's "The 50 Most Glamorous Women of '08."
In 1989 Madonna was paid $5 million to promote Pepsi Cola.
Madonna ranked number 2 on "The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists" chart in July 2008. She was both the highest female and solo singer on the list.
Madonna was a member of the cheerleading team at Rochester Adams High School.
In March 2008, Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, after being in the business for the required 25 years.

Darwin was a prolific letter writer and sent around 14,500 during his lifetime.
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist who showed that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.
Charles Darwin shares a birthday with 16th US President, Abraham Lincoln (was born on February 12th 1809 ).
In 1825, Darwin’s father sent him to Edinburgh University to study medicine. He wasn’t cut out to be a doctor: he hated the sight of blood.
Darwin’s mother died when he was eight years old.
Today there are more than 120 species (and 9 genera) named after Darwin.
Unlike most scientists, Darwin never had a lab.
Darwin married his cousin, Emma Wedgwood, and she was a devout Christian. They had a happy and successful marriage and yielded 10 children.
For Darwin’s 25th birthday on February 12, 1834, Captain FitzRoy named a mountain after him.

11 facts about Mark Twain

Mark Twain was a steamboat pilot apprentice on the Mississippi River and eventually earned his pilot’s license.
His real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Twain adopted his pen name in 1863 in Nevada.
Twain used different pen names before deciding on Mark Twain. He signed humorous and imaginative sketches Josh until 1863. Additionally, he used the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for a series of humorous letters.
Mark Twain published more than 30 books throughout his career.
While he was a teenager, Twain worked as an amateur printer.
Twain often made bad investments, which resulted in serious financial problems.
Mark Twain was very interested in parapsychology.
Mark Twain is famous for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Mark Twain served during the American Civil War.
Mark Twain had four children: Jean, Susy, Langdon and Clara Clemens.
William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature” .

14 facts about Leonardo da Vinci

The name Leonardo da Vinci translates to Leonard from the town of Vinci. He is normally referred to as simply Leonardo.
Leonardo da Vinci, (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519), was an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, botanist and writer.
Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter.
Leonardo da Vinci was raised by his single father.
The first work that Leonardo finished in Milan was the Madonna of the Rocks.
Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first italians to use oil paint .
Most of his paintings are in Europe and only one in the United States.

Iolite comes from the Greek « ios » meaning violet. It is also called by others names such as Cordierite from the French mineralogist Pierre Louis Antoine Cordier; another is Dichroite from the Greek word meaning « two colored », because of the strong pleochroism of iolite.
Catalytic converters are commonly made from ceramics containing a large proportion of cordierite (iolite).
As the transparent variety iolite, it is often used as a gemstone.
Iolite has different colors in different directions in the crystal. A cube cut from iolite will look violetish blue, almost like a sapphire from one side, colorless from the other, and a brownish yellow from the top.
It has also been called "Viking's Compass", because of its ability to determine the direction of the sun on overcast days.
This property helped Leif Eriksson and the other legendary Viking explorers that went far out into the Atlantic Ocean to determine the exact position of the sun, and thus navigate safely to the new world and back.
Iolite was sometimes called « water sapphire », which is incorrect and now prohibited.
It is much softer than sapphires and is abundantly found in Sri Lanka, India, Burma, Australia's Northern Territory, Namibia, Brazil, Tanzania, Madagascar, Connecticut, and the Yellowknife area of the Northwest Territories of Canada.

15 interesting facts about rats

The best-known rat species are the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus).
With the lack of companionship, a rat can become depressed, lonely and stressed and hence needs a friend.
Rat is very social animal that likes to stay, play and loves to sleep curled up together. In addition, it takes care of the sick and hurt rat in its group.
The tail of the rat is very useful as it helps to balance, communicate and regulate its temperature.
Rats live in strong social hierarchy and groups that is known as mischief. The strongest and biggest rat in this hierarchy gets the best food and harborage.
Rats don’t have canine teeth, thumbs, and gallbladders.
A rat has a sharp memory and always remembers the navigation routes to the places.
A rat is a very clean animal and spends a lot of time on grooming itself and each other.
Rats have bellybuttons.
The relation between a male and a female rat can last for just 2 seconds in which they can complete courting ritual and the whole romantic ritual.
It can go longer without water than camel and can also survive unhurt after falling from 15 meters.
A rat is a curious and shy animal and would prefer to flee away sensing a danger rather than confronting it.
As for the popular notion, rat does not like cheese and is quite allergic to it. However, it loves chocolate!
The thumbs, canine teeth, gallbladders or tonsils are missing in a rat but it does have bellybuttons.
It has been used as food by people and pets and is of different value in different cultures. While it is the first animal on Chinese zodiac, it is worshipped in India by Hindus as the vehicle of lord Ganesha and has a whole temple known as Karni Mata Temple devoted to them where it is held to be destined for the reincarnation as Sadhus.

21 facts about The Ramones

The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York in 1974 and is often cited as the first punk rock group.
On September 15, 2004, Johnny Ramone died in his Los Angeles home after a five year battle with prostate cancer.
In 2003 Johnny was named the #16th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine.
Despite achieving only limited commercial success, the band was a major influence on the punk rock movement both in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The Ramones were ranked #26 on Rolling Stone magazine's The Immortals - The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
All of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname "Ramone", though none of them were actually related.

If you had 10 billion $ notes and spent one every second of every day, it would require 317 years for you to go broke.
More of our fantasies are about money... than sex.
Theft has become common by the invention of money. Temples have become the prime target as it is commonly visited by everyone including thieves.
90% of Americans who own pets buy them Christmas gifts.
92% of us would rather be rich than find the love of our lives.
The origin of the “$” sign has been variously accounted for, however, the most widely accepted explanation is that the symbol is the result of evolution, independently in different places, of the Mexican or Spanish “P’s” for pesos, or piastres, or pieces of eight. The theory, derived from a study of old manuscripts, is that the “S” gradually came to be written over the “P,” developing a close equivalent of the “$” mark. It was widely used before the adoption of the United States dollar in 1785.
Most people won't bend over to pick up money lying on the sidewalk unless it's at least a dollar.
Tax collections in Egypt and Mesopotamia have become very easy when they started using the silver and the gold bars as their currency in near about 2500 B.C.
Money is the leading cause of disagreements in marriages.
Largest numerical denomination bill ever is 1 Milliard Hungarian Pengő (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) in 1946. It was only worth twenty cents US!
The paper which was used for the U.S. bills is not made from trees. It has 75 percent of cotton and rest is linen.
The 100 dollar note has been the largest denomination of currency in circulation since 1969.

15 facts about Pete Doherty

In September 2007, photographs emerged of Pete Doherty forcing his cat to smoke cocaine. The photos show Pete holding a crack pipe over the face of his kitten, Dinger, while other sources reveal the cat has lost balance and displays other extreme side-effects.
In June 2008 Pete Doherty commissioned a sculpture of himself on a cross for a solo show in London. The religious sculpture was carved in marble and showed Pete being tortured and surrounded by strips of newspapers, symbolising his crucifixion by the media.
Pete Doherty enjoys music by The Clash.
In August 2007 it was revealed that Pete Doherty had reunited with former girlfriend, Irina Lazareanu. Pete and Irena were together in 2004. The couple announced their engagement in October, 2007. No wedding date has been set.
In May 2008 it was revealed that Pete Doherty had bought three new cats, along with several pregnant mice for the cats to enjoy. As at May 2008, Pete has 10 felines.
In May 2007, Pete Doherty was arrested on suspicion of possessing "Class A" banned drugs and held overnight in a cell.
In August 2007, Pete Doherty rescued a man after he had crashed his car into a concrete block. Pete called paramedics and the police, with the man incurring only minor injuries.

The Great Pyramid is estimated to have about 2,300,000 stone blocks weighing from 2-30 Tons each with some weighing as much as 70 tons.
The Pyramids of Ancient Egypt were built as tombs for Kings (and Queens), and it was the exclusive privilege to have a Pyramid tomb.
Two types of limestone were used for construction. A soft limestone was used for the bulk of the core blocks and a hard white limestone for the mantle. Hard limestone becomes more polished with age.
Most of the pyramids can be found on the western side of the Nile River, just into the dry desert.The reason they built the pyramids next to the Nile River was so it would be easier to get the blocks to the pyramid.
There is so much stone mass in the Great Pyramid that the interior temperature is constant and equals the average temperature of the Earth, 20 Degrees Celsius (68 Degrees Fahrenheit).
The first true pyramid was developed for King Sneferu during the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.
The outer mantle was composed of 144,000 casing stones, all highly polished and flat to an accuracy of 1/100th of an inch, about 100 inches thick and weighing about 15 tons each.
King Khufu’s great pyramid is the largest pyramid (Great Pyramid at Giza). It is well known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, standing at an impressive 146 meters.
The base of the pyramid covers 55,000m2 (592,000 ft2) with each side greater than 20,000m2 (218,000 ft2) in area.
There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt as of 2008.
The mortar used is of an unknown origin. It has been analyzed and its chemical composition is known but it can't be reproduced. It is stronger than the stone and still holding up today.
Most pyramid complexes had satellite pyramids and queens’ pyramids. The satellite pyramids were too small to serve as burial places, and their purpose remains mysterious.
The average casing stone on the lowest level was 5 ft. long by 5 ft. high by 6 ft. deep and weighed 15 tons.
There are no hieroglyphics or writing in the Great Pyramid.
The cornerstone foundations of the pyramid have ball and socket construction capable of dealing with heat expansion and earthquakes.
Its polished surfaces would have reflected light like a beacon.
With the mantle in place, the Great Pyramid could be seen from the mountains in Israel and probably the moon as well.

15 interesting facts about spiders

There are more than 30,000 species of spiders.
Spiders have two body segments. The front segment is called the Cephalothorax. The second part of the body is called the Abdomen.
A jumping spider can jump up to 25 times its own body length.
There can be up to nearly 5 million spiders per hectare.
Male spiders are almost always smaller than the females and are often much more colorful.
Black Widow ’s bite is feared because its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake’s.
The Dewdrop spider and other small spiders do not build a web but live near an orb web and eat the remains of left over insects.

Under the name garnet we only refer to the red to pink varieties like almandine, pyrope and rhodolite.
Red garnets were the most commonly used gemstones in the Late Antique Roman world, and the Migration Period art of the "barbarian" peoples who took over the territory of the Western Empire.
Garnet was known thousands of years before our era and is mentioned in early biblical writings, where it is called «carbunculus» meaning «little spark ».It should be considered, though, that in Pliny’s time all glowing red gems were referred to by this name.
Pure crystals of garnet are still used as gemstones. The gemstone varieties occur in shades of green, red, yellow and orange.
The name garnet comes from the Latin «granatus» meaning «seed like». Garnet was considered to symbolize faith, constancy and truth.
As an amulet, garnet was favored by travelers, for it was said to protect and preserve health and honor, cure the wearer of all diseases, and guard him from all perils during the course of a journey.
Garnet sand is a good abrasive, and a common replacement for silica sand in sand blasting.
Garnet was traded heavily in Carthage (Tunisia) during the beginning of the Roman times.
In the USA it is known as the birthstone for January.
Garnet was thought to have strong curative powers. In powder, it was used as poultice to relieve fever.
Garnet paper is favoured by cabinetmakers for finishing bare wood.
Rock garnet is perhaps the garnet type used for the longest period of time. This type of garnet is produced in America, China and western India.
Garnets were also used in ancient Asia and the American Southwest as bullets because the stone was said to cause wounds more dangerous than those caused by bullets.

The beauty of the bird-of-paradise

No birds in the world have brighter colors than the birds-of-paradise (Paradisaeidae). From their cheerful colors no one would guess that they are cousins of our crows.
Many of the feathers of these birds have queer shapes. Some of them make beautiful plumes. Only the male birds have the bright-colored feathers. The females are dull in color.
There are more than 30 kinds of birds-of-paradise. They live mostly in the hot, rainy forests of the island of New Guinea. A few kinds are found in Australia.
In early times the skins of these birds were used in trading in the East Indies. Travelers from Europe saw them there about 500 years ago. The feet were always cut off the birds before their skins were used. The travelers thought that the birds never had feet. The story was told that these beautiful creatures never stopped flying until they died. Even the famous scientist Linnaeus believed that they had no feet and gave them a scientific name meaning "without feet." As the picture shows, they really have good feet.
Some male birds of paradise, in fact, do a great deal of dancing and strutting about when they are courting. They make dance floors for themselves in the forest.
For a time there was danger that all the birds-of-paradise would be killed for their feathers. But now laws protect them.

10 interesting shrew facts

1. House Shrew (Suncus murinus), inhibiting in the tropical Asia is the largest species of the shrew with 15 cm length and 100 gm weight.
2. Shrew is covered with a soft, short and thick fur that is brown or gray in color.
3. The shrew is a highly energetic mammal with such a fast metabolic rate that it should be eating day and night to keep alive. Shrew can actually eat 2 or 3 times its own weight in food.
4. Among the 376 species of shrew, North America has more than 40 species including the most common short tailed shrew.
5. A shrew is a solitary mammal that is only seen together during the mating season. It is highly territorial and cannot tolerate either of the sex with them and would always drive off its rivals.
6. Though the shrew is active in both day and night, it is mainly a nocturnal animal.
7. The shrew has a high brain to body mass ratio as it holds 10% of its mass in its brain.
8. Some of the species of shrew is venomous and has toxic saliva that is painful for humans. However, it is not harmful for the humans.
9. A female shrew can have up to 10 litters in a year. The shrew living in temperate zone stop breeding during the winter season, while those in the tropics breeds throughout the year.
10. A shrew can easily be alarmed with a sudden noise like lightening which can even lead to its death.

10 interesting facts about Cat's eye

Translucent yellowish chatoyant chrysoberyl is called cymophane or cat's eye.
The mineral chrysoberyl is found in transparent yellow to greenish yellow color, but two other varieties are widely known as gemstones: cat's eye and alexandrite.
Although other minerals such as tourmaline, scapolite, corundum, spinel and quartz can form "cat's eye" stones similar in appearance to cymophane, the jewelry industry designates these stones as "quartz cat's eyes", or "ruby cat's eyes" and only chrysoberyl can be referred to as "cat's eye" with no other designation.
Cymophane has its derivation also from the Greek words meaning 'wave' and 'appearance', in reference to the chatoyancy sometimes exhibited.
The variety of chrysoberyl containing rutile needles or negative crystals oriented in the same direction showing some exceptional and sharp chatoyancy is called cat's eye. This optical phenomenon produces the appearance of the likeness of a cat's contracted pupil in the stone.
Gems lacking the silky inclusions required to produce the cat's eye effect are usually faceted.
Chatoyancy may occur in any color of the chrysoberyl but the most highly prized is the slightly greenish yellow or brownish yellow, a color similar to honey.
Cat's eye really became popular by the end of the 19th century when the Duke of Connaught gave a ring with a cat's eye as an engagement token, this was sufficient to make the stone more popular and increase its value greatly.
In the Orient, cat's eye is highly revered as a preserver of good fortune, the belief being that it guards the owner's wealth and it protects him from poverty. In Sri Lanka cat's eye was considered to be a potent charm against evil spirits.
Early 20th century prices could go up as high as $8000 for a cut stone.

10 facts about Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement.
Mahatma Gandhi went to England when he was 19 to study law.
Gandhi is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Mahatma literally translates to ‘great soul’ in Sanskrit.
Time Magazine, the famous U.S. publication, named Mahatma Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930.
In 1930 Mahatma Gandhi led hundreds of followers on a 240-mile march to the sea, where they made salt from seawater in protest against the British salt law, which made it illegal to possess salt not bought from the government.
Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy. He started living principally on fruit and goats’ milk and olive oil.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent, for one of his first teachers was an Irishman.
On 30 January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot and killed on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi.
Gandhi’s policy of Satyagraha, based largely on Hinduism, was influenced by many diverse sources, including Christ, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau.

21 facts about Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul has sold over 30 million records.
In November 2008, a former American Idol contestant committed suicide in her car outside of Paula's home. The woman was reportedly obsessed with Paula and died following an overdose of drugs.
Paula Abdul went to Van Nuys High School and was the head cheerleader, an honor student, and played flute in the band.
Paula's religion is Judaism.
Paula Abdul has recieved two Emmy Awards: in 1989 Best Choreography of a TV Series on The Tracey Ullman Show, and in 1990 Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for The American Music Awards.
Paula's ancestry is Syrian-Brazilian and French-Canadian.
Paula Abdul has an older sister named Wendy.

The cultivated cabbage is derived from a leafy plant called the wild mustard plant, native to the Mediterranean region, where it is common along the seacoast.
The cabbage is a popular cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea Linne of the Family Brassicaceae, and is used as a leafy green vegetable.
The plant is also called head cabbage or heading cabbage, and in Scotland a bowkail, from its rounded shape.
Drinking juiced cabbage is known to assist in curing stomach and intestinal ulcers.
The plant is also called head cabbage or heading cabbage, and in Scotland a bowkail, from its rounded shape.
Cabbage is: Low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, High in Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Potassium, Manganese, Vitamin A, Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron and Magnesium.

Waterbuck is a very good swimmer and takes protection in water to save itself from the clutches of predators.
The Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) is an antelope found in Western, Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.
The base of the tail of the waterbuck has a large white ‘halo’ or hollow ring making it stand distinguished amongst other mammals. In Defassa waterbuck, the area within the circle is covered with white hair making a leftover patch.
Waterbuck stand 100 to 130 cm at the shoulder and weigh from 160 to 240 kg.
The waterbuck is a diurnal mammal i.e. it is most active in the morning followed by afternoon and evening. However, the mammal hardly moves more than half mile in a day.
Waterbuck are found in scrub and savanna areas near water where they eat grass.
The male waterbuck has sharp pointed horns that are curved backwards and upwards and are prominently ringed. It also becomes its distinguishing feature as females do not have horns.

The wrist of a dingo is quite unique in the canine world, as it can rotate easily. This helps it use its paws like hands, allowing it to turn a doorknob easily.
The Dingo (Canis lupus dingo) is a domestic dog which has reverted to a wild state for thousands of years and today lives largely independent from humans in the majority of its distribution.
The color of the coat of dingo ranges from golden to yellowish red, with white markings on the underside, feet, and tip of tail.
The name "dingo" mostly refers to populations occurring in Australia, though dingoes have been proven to exist in Thailand through genetic analyses, where they mostly live close to humans.
Dingo is an intelligent animal, but its domestication is difficult, since it is harder to train and is very independent.
The dingo is considered as an apex predator in Australia and is, together with other domestic dogs, the biggest terrestrial predator there.
The dingoes found in Australia are much larger than those in the Asian continent.

The modern version of Mother's Day in the United States, was first observed in 1907.
Mothers’ day, as we are all aware of, is one of the largest card-selling holidays celebrated worldwide.
94.1 Number of births in 2006 per 1,000 women of childbearing age in Utah, which led the nation; at the other end of the spectrum was Vermont, with a rate of 52.2 births.
Mother’s Day is now celebrated in many countries around the world. Australia, Mexico, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Belgium, Russia, China, Thailand, all have special celebrations to honor Mothers, but not in the same way or on the same day as the United States.
21,135 Number of florists nationwide. Their 101,861 employees will be especially busy selling bouquets for Mother's Day. The flowers you buy mom probably were grown in California or Colombia.

More than 24 billion newspapers are published every year.
In China, early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among court officials during the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD).
Newspapers are recycled into a number of products. One of the most common is new newsprint. According to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), the average newspaper contains 30 percent recycled fiber content.
The first modern newspapers were products of western European countries like Germany (publishing Relation in 1605), France (Gazette in 1631), Belgium (Nieuwe Tijdingen in 1616) and England (the London Gazette, founded in 1665.
In 2006, the recycling at a rate for newspapers in the U.S. reached 88 percent.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the daily circulation of the Soviet newspaper Trud exceeded 21,500,000 in 1990, while the Soviet weekly Argumenty i Fakty boasted the circulation of 33,500,000 in 1991.
The future of newspapers has been widely debated as the industry has faced down soaring newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation.
In India, The Times of India is the largest English newspaper, with 2.14 million copies daily.
In the U.S., the Wall Street Journal has a daily circulation of approximately 2.01 million, making it the most widely distributed paper in the country.

The methane gas

Methane is a colorless and odorless gas. It is found in large amounts in wells and mines in Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, in the United States, and usually occurs with petroleum deposits all over the world. It is used as a major part of cooking and heating gas. Methane is often called marsh gas.

Methane is an organic compound containing carbon and hydrogen. Its chemical formula is CHU. It is the simplest and the first in a series of compounds called hydrocarbons. This series is continued by the addition of one carbon and two hydrogen atoms. (—CH2), and a new compound is formed with each such addition. Propane (C3H8) is one of the methane series.

The gas used in homes for cooking and heating is about 85% methane. Methane is normally nonpoisonous, but in the absence of oxygen a person inhaling methane can become asphyxiated. It can also form explosive mixtures with air if the mixture is made up of about one volume of methane to ten volumes of air.

Methane can be prepared in the laboratory; however, most methane is obtained commercially from natural gas. It is slightly soluble in water and very soluble in alcohol, ether, and other organic solvents.

25 interesting facts about Las Vegas

A 1910 law made it illegal to gamble in Las Vegas. The Nevada Legislature later approved a legalized gambling bill in 1931.
The city of Las Vegas celebrated its 100th birthday on May 15, 2005. The event celebrated the May 15, 1905 land auction when 110 acres of land in downtown Las Vegas were auctioned off.
Year first casino was licensed: 1931.
The Hoover Dam was completed in 1935. It took a total of 21,000 men five years to complete the structure.
Approximate number of Las Vegas city residents: 500,000.
Approximate number of Clark County residents: 1,500,000.
The first hotel and casino to open in Las Vegas was the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino in 1906.

It is believed that the name ‘Macau’ was derived from the A-Ma Temple, a place of worship that was build in 1448, with Matsu (the goddess of seafarers and fishermen) as its deity.
In Macau one of the most practised sports is Rink Hockey, left by the Portuguese.
The official languages of Macau are Portuguese and Chinese.
Majority of the people living in Macau are Buddhists, while one can also find Roman Catholics and Protestants here.
Local cooking in Macau consists of a blend of Cantonese and Portuguese cuisines.
Chinese form as much as 95% of the total population of Macau, whereas the rest of the 5% comprise of people belonging to Portugal, Europe and other countries.

Los Angeles is regarded as the entrepreneurial capital of the world. It has about 200,000 small businesses, which is twice as many small businesses that can be found in any other region of the United States.
Twenty-four million people come to Los Angeles every year for their vacation.
The world’s 18th largest economy is the Los Angeles County. If the Los Angeles County was to be regarded as a state, it would be the fourth largest in US.
The Los Angeles five-county area has a population of almost 20 million. It includes Los Angeles, Riverside, Ventura, Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
LA would be the ninth largest state in US when ranked on the basis of population ahead of any other state of US except for California, Texas, and New York.
The city flower is the bird of paradise and the city tree is the coral tree.
LA County is also the 11th largest economy in the world with regard to the Gross Domestic Product and falls ahead of Netherlands, South Korea, and Mexico and is just behind Canada, China, and Spain.
Despite its image of an oasis with water and palm trees everywhere, Los Angeles is more like a desert, with an annual rainfall of only 15 inches (38 cm).

Nicknames for the flag include the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and The Star-Spangled Banner (also the name of the national anthem).
The five pointed stars is used as symbol in states like Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and the once sovereign nations of the Republic of Texas and the Kingdom of Hawaii.
The flag has been changed 26 times since the new, 13-state union adopted it.
The fifty stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states and the 13 stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British monarchy and became the first states in the Union.
When the flag is affixed to the side of a vehicle or uniform, it should be oriented so that the union is towards the front.
On Memorial Day it is common to place small flags by war memorials and next to the graves of U.S. war veterans.
Only State Governors and the President of the United States order when the flags on government buildings are to be set at half staff.
The flag is displayed at half-staff (half-mast in naval usage) as a sign of respect or mourning.
The flag of the United States is one of the nation's most widely recognized symbols.
There’s a theory that the red and white stripes on the flag were based on George Washington’s coat of arms.

18 interesting facts about Jeff Bridges

In 2010, Jeff Bridges won the Academy Award for Best Actor, Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for his role as Bad Blake in the film Crazy Heart.
Jeff Bridges has been nominated for two SAG Awards. In 2001, he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role for The Contender. In 2004, he was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for Seabiscuit.
At the age of 17, Jeff Bridges was addicted to marijuana. His parents contacted a group called Developing Adolescents Without Narcotics, which put Bridges through an "intervention" to kick his habit.
In 1983, Jeff Bridges formed the End Hunger Network. It is a non-profit organisation whose mission is to feed children around the world.
Jeff Bridges incorporates his drawings at his website, notable because it is almost completely hand-written and drawn art.
Although Jeff and his father Lloyd Bridges appeared in six different productions together, they never played father and son.
Jeff Bridges is a big fan the The Beach Boys and, Brian Wilson, former lead singer/song writer for the group.

In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially-sold, coin-operated video game.
The first console to have games available in the form of add-on cartridges was the Fairchild Channel F console, introduced in August 1976.
In 2005 Sony hired painters which draw 7 walls in different towns of USA as an advertisement of Playstation Portable.
The electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms.
The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, spawning the video game industry.
Producers of Sega’s Space Channel 5 had a court examination with one lady, because of the character in the game was very alike her look - of course, she lost the hearing.
Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%).
The president of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aime worked in Pizza Hut (this is what means “being smart”!)
On March 6, 2009, Nintendo announced that it had shipped its 100-millionth Nintendo DS system.
The score record of all times in Pac-Man is 3,333,360 points.

12 facts about Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was 6’4”, making him our country’s tallest president.
Abraham Lincoln served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
Abraham Lincoln was afraid of dentists because a dentist broke off part of Lincoln’s jawbone by pulling a tooth.
He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery.
Abraham Lincoln, Nebraska was named after Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln was the first president to be assassinated.
Lincoln’s education comprised only 18 months of schooling. Thereafter, he was self-educated and benefited a lot from his habit of reading.
Lincoln was the first president to be photographed at his inauguration. John Wilkes Booth (his assassin) can be seen standing close to Lincoln in the picture.
His face is on the American penny.
Abraham Lincoln was the first president to wear a beard.
Abraham Lincoln was called “Old Abe” by his friends when he was only 30 years years old because his skin was yellowish and wrinkled by that time.
Abraham Lincoln had four sons, but only 1 lived to adulthood.

12 facts about World War 1

The World War 1 was fought by the Allies on one side, and the Central Powers on the other.
World War 1 or the First World War, 1914 - 1918, was the first war that involved nations spanning more than half the globe.
The World War 1 was commonly called “The Great War” or sometimes “the war to end wars” until World War II started .
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. He was the heir to the Austrian throne and was murdered by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This was the spark that caused war to be declared.
First known use of chemical weapons (mustard Gas) was in World War 1.
More than 70 million military personnel were mobilized in World War 1.
After the German march on Paris was brought to a halt, the Western Front settled into a static battle of attrition with a trench line that changed little until 1917.
More than 9 million died on the battlefield, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat.
There were 70,000,000 men and women in uniform of that number one-half were either killed, wounded or became prisoners of war.
Germany surrendered on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.
By the war's end, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires—had been militarily and politically defeated, with the last two ceasing to exist.
The League of Nations was formed in the hope of preventing another such conflict.

21 facts about Helena Bonham Carter

In 1982 when Helena Bonham Carter was 16 years old, she got her first real work as an actor. She landed a part as Juliet in an ad for stereos.
Bonham Carter played the villainous Red Queen, alongside notable actors such as Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Anne Hathaway, and Christopher Lee, in Burton's 2010 film, Alice in Wonderland
Helena Bonham Carter is a British actress.
Helena Bonham Carter turned down the role of Bess in BREAKING THE WAVES (1996) due to the sexual content. The role went to Emily Watson who was nominated for an Oscar for that role.
On 15 December 2007, Helena Bonham Carter gave birth to her daughter Nell. She says she named her daughter "Nell" after all the "Helens" in her family lineage.
Helena is best known for her portrayals of Lucy Honeychurch in the film A Room with a View, Marla Singer in the film Fight Club, Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter film series
Her height is 5' 4½" (1.64m).

According to Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron is very flirtatious guy.
In 2009, Zac Efron purchased a new home in Los Angeles worth more than $2.2 million.
If Zac Efron could swap lives with someone, it would be the Queen of England.
Zac's worst habit is to scratch himself particularly when his skin gets dry.
Zac Efron is 5 feet 9 inches tall.
Zac's first celebrity crush is Tyra Banks.
Zac's dream job would be designing and testing video games or playing poker.

Michael Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, 1st round, 3rd overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.
In the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona, Spain, Michael Jordan was part of the U.S. basketball team, named the "Dream Team". Along with him were Scottie Pippen, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. They won the gold medal making this Jordan's second gold medal in the Olympics.
His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."
Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984.
During game two of the 1985-1986 playoffs against the Boston Celtics, Michael Jordan set the record for the most points scored in a playoff game. He made a total of 63 points in a double-overtime loss.
In 1991, Jordan won his first NBA championship with the Bulls.
Michael Jordan enjoys playing golf.

The mystery of bird migration

During the summer season there are barn swallows in almost all parts of North America. They build nests and raise their young there. But early in the fall the swallows leave their summer homes. They fly south for the winter. Some go as far south as Argentina. A barn swallow's winter home may be several thousand miles from its summer home. In the spring the swallows make the long journey back to the north.

Many other birds spend the summers in one part of the world and the winters in another. The traveling of birds between their summer homes and their winter homes is called bird migration.

The champion bird traveler is the arctic tern. This bird flies every fall from the far north to the far south. It returns every spring. Its fall and spring journeys together may be 22,000 miles—almost as long as a trip around the world at the equator.

Over 20% of the american population suffers from significant sleep disorders.
Sleep is a heightened anabolic state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and muscular systems.
Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.
One in six road accidents happens because of sleepy drivers.
In mammals and birds, sleep is divided into two broad types: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM or non-REM) sleep.
Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.
It is observed in all mammals, all birds, and many reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
REM sleep is so called because our eyes can be seen to move under our eyelids.
Eight hours of sleeping gives sixteen hours of work.
60% Males and 40% Females over the age of 60 snore.
If you average only 6 hours of sleep at night, your immunity to viral infection can be affected by 50%. Poor sleep can make us more vulnerable to viruses which cause the common cold or influenza.
We move on average 40 times in bed per night.
In humans, other mammals, and a substantial majority of other animals that have been studied (such as some species of fish, birds, ants, and fruit flies), regular sleep is essential for survival.
One-third of young adults are pathologically sleepy during the day.

15 interesting heart facts

The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2.5 billion times during an average 66 year lifespan.
In the average lifetime, the heart beats 2.5 billion times. The human heart beat roughly 35 million times a year. Women hearts beat faster than men.
Obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol can increase the risk of developing heart disease. However, fully half the amount of heart attacks occur in people with normal cholesterol levels.
The heart is the first organ to begin functioning during embroyonic life.
At 21 days after conception, the human heart begins beating at 70 to 80 beats per minute and accelerates linearly for the first month of beating.
There is no difference in female and male heart rates before birth.
Heart disease is a major cause of death (and the number one cause of death in the Western World).

10 interesting facts about blood

1. One out of every 10 people admitted in a hospital needs blood.

2. Plasma, which comprises 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (90% by volume)

3. Blood makes up about 7% of your body’s weight.

4. Some animals, such as crustaceans and mollusks, use hemocyanin to carry oxygen, instead of hemoglobin.

5. 31 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women have high blood pressure.

6. Giving blood will not decrease your strength.

7. The blood cells present in blood are mainly red blood cells and white blood cells, including leukocytes and platelets.

8. Insects and some molluscs use a fluid called hemolymph instead of blood, the difference being that hemolymph is not contained in a closed circulatory system.

9. Blood fights against infection and help heal wounds, keeping you healthy.

10. The kidneys filter over 400 gallons of blood each day.

12 interesting bones facts

1. Although the outsides of a bone are hard, they are generally light and soft inside. They are about 75% water.

2. Bones can serve to protect internal organs, such as the skull protecting the brain or the ribs protecting the heart and lungs.

3. The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes bone which is located in the ear.

4. Bones provide a frame to keep the body supported.

5. The longest bone of the human body is the femur or thigh bone, which comprises roughly 1/4 of the persons overall height.

6. A total of 54 bones are found in both of your wrists, hands and fingers.

12 interesting human brain facts

1. The brain can stay alive for 4 to 6 minutes without oxygen. After that cells begin die.

2. The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals.

3. Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy.

4. Each cubic millimeter of cerebral cortex contains roughly one billion synapses.

5. 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. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation.

6. Eating foods rich in vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C may help lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

11 interesting facts about cholesterol

1. Recent research shows that cholesterol acts as an antioxidant.

2. The name cholesterol originates from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid), and the chemical suffix - ol for an alcohol.

3. More women over age 45 have high cholesterol than men.

4. Doctors estimate that there are 15 million to 25 million Americans that appear to have healthy total cholesterol scores, but are in fact at risk of cardiovascular disease simply because their HDL is too low.

5. The liver is the place where this cholesterol is manufactured and circulated into the blood stream flowing across the body.

6. Cholesterol is needed but not in excess. If the level of cholesterol increases too much there is a risk of stroke and heart attack.

7. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, including meat, chicken, fish, eggs, organ meats and high-fat dairy products.

8. Cholesterol is recycled. It is excreted by the liver via the bile into the digestive tract. Typically about 50% of the excreted cholesterol is reabsorbed by the small bowel back into the bloodstream

9. To help reduce your cholesterol level, you need to cut down on saturated fats and trans fats and replace them with monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats.

10. One egg contains 213 mg of cholesterol, all of which is contained in the yolk.

11. For a person of about 68 kg (150 pounds), typical total body cholesterol synthesis is about 1 g (1,000 mg) per day, and total body content is about 35 g.

9 interesting facts about antibiotics

In common usage, an antibiotic is a substance or compound that kills, or inhibits the growth of, bacteria.
Penicillin was introduced in the 1940s.
The term "antibiotic" was coined by Selman Waksman in 1942 to describe any substance produced by a microorganism that is antagonistic to the growth of other microorganisms in high dilution.
In 1954 two million pounds of antibiotics were produced in the U.S. In the year 2000 this figure exceeds 50 million pounds.
Scientists have developed more than 150 antibiotics to help stop the spread of infectious diseases.
More antibiotics are used on animals than on humans.
Antibiotics can kill most of the bacteria in your body that are sensitive to them, including “good” bacteria.
Antibiotics should only be used when prescribed by your doctor. Certain antibiotics (aminoglycosides) can only be given as an injection.
In addition to this origin-based classification into natural, semisynthetic, and synthetic, antibiotics may be divided into two broad groups according to their effect on microorganisms: those that kill bacteria are bactericidal agents, while those that only impair bacterial growth are known as bacteriostatic agents.

Interesting facts about Paul Anka

Paul Anka was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1993.
Father of Amanda Anka.
Paul Anka was Mel Brooks first choice for the role of Leo Bloom in "The Producers." Brooks started writing it as a Broadway play called "Springtime for Hitler," and envisioned Anka as the lead character.
Married second wife Anna Åberg in Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy. They have one son, Ethan (b. 2004).
Paul Anka discovered Michael Bublé, Corey Hart and David Clayton-Thomas.
He is friends with Ryan Reynolds and meets him once in a while (according to Ryan).
To date, Paul Anka has recorded 125 albums--including songs in Japanese, German, Spanish, French, and Italian--and sold more than 15 million worldwide.

On July 19, 2007, Paris Hilton attempted to demonstrate her environmental consciousness by telling Us Weekly magazine that she had ordered a "Hummer Hybrid." However, a Hummer spokesperson told the magazine that, "Such a car doesn't exist."
In June 2007, Warner Brothers execs revealed they had dropped Paris Hilton from their label.
On May 5th, 2007, Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in prison for a parole violation, after she was caught driving on a suspended license in February following her no contest plea to drunk-driving.
In March 2007, Paris Hilton said that Randy Spelling was her first lover.
Paris Hilton is considering plastic surgery to correct her drooping left eyelid. While she has had the problem since a toddler, she has ignored doctors' orders not to wear her tinted contacts. Paris has naturally brown eyes but has always worn blue tinted contact lenses to keep up her Barbie-style image.
In Paris Hilton’s new biography, author Jerry Oppenheimer says Paris’s parents Rick and Kathy are proud of their daughter’s graphic sex video, 1 Night In Paris, because it made her the star she is today.
Paris' favorite sport is golf.

What is a depressant?

statscounter

Facts about birthstones

Pages