Facts About All: May 2010

Some facts about Alaska

Alaska is the largest state of the United States by area.
Juneau is the only capital city in the United States accessible only by boat or plane. It is also the largest U.S. city covering 3,108 square miles. Los Angeles covers only 458.2 square miles.
Total Area: 1st among states, 1,717,854 sq km (663,267 sq mi)
Approximately half of Alaska's 698,473 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area
Rhode Island could fit into Alaska 425 times.
Alaska’s name comes from the Eskimo word Alakshak, meaning great lands or peninsula.
As of 2010, Alaska remains the least densely populated state of the U.S

Arizona is a state of the United States of America located in the southwestern region of the United States.
Total Area: 6th among states, 295,254 sq km (113,998 sq mi).
The capital and largest city is Phoenix.
Arizona is roughly the size of Italy.
The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the eight Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, Surprise and then by Yuma in Yuma County.
Navajo Community College in Tsaile, was the first college on an Indian reservation.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912 - the 50th anniversary of Arizona's recognition as a territory of the United States.
The original London Bridge was shipped stone-by-stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.
Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It borders New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, touches Colorado, and has a 389-mile (626 km) international border with the states of Sonora and Baja California in Mexico.
Arizona has more parks and national monuments than any other state, more mountains than Switzerland, and more golf courses than Scotland.
It is the largest landlocked U.S. state by population.
Camels were used at one time to transport goods across Arizona.
In addition to the Grand Canyon, many other national forests, parks, monuments, and Indian reservations are located in the state.
The sun shines in southern Arizona 85% of the time, which is considerably more sunshine than Florida or Hawaii.
Despite the state's aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern day France or Germany.
Arizona has the largest percentage of its land set aside and designated as Indian lands.
The saguaro cactus blossom is the official state flower. The white flower blooms on the tips of the saguaro cactus during May and June. The saguaro is the largest American cactus.
Historically, Arizona’s strongest economic support came from the Four C’s – cotton, copper, cattle, and citrus. In recent years, a fifth – climate – has been added.
Petrified wood is the official state fossil. Most petrified wood comes from the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.
The Navajo Reservation, the nation's largest reservation, lies primarily in Arizona and extends into Utah and New Mexico.
Turquoise is the official state gemstone. The blue-green stone has a somewhat waxy surface and can be found throughout the state.
The world’s largest solar telescope is located at Kitts Peak National Observatory in the city of Sells.
The battleship USS Arizona was named in honor of the state. It was commissioned in 1913 and launched in 1915 from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Arizona became the home of the first major irrigation project by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation when former U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt dedicated a dam on the Salt River in 1911.
In 1876 the Chiricahua Apache chief Geronimo began ten years of raids against white settlements when the U.S. government attempted to move his tribe from their traditional home in Arizona to a reservation in New Mexico.

15 interesting facts about Carla Gugino

actress Carla Gugino

Carla Gugino is an American actress born on August 29, 1971 in Sarasota, Florida.
Her parents separated when she was two.
When Carla Gugino was four years old she suffered a kidney operation. Her mother decided to move to Paradise, California when Carla was only five years old.
In 1986 a modeling agency spotted her and so she moved to New York. Carla Gugino became the model of Elite Agency, but because she was too short she couldn't model on the runway.
Carla Gugino appeared in movies like "Lovelife", "Snake Eyes", "Judas Kiss", "Spy Kids" 1,2,3, "Son in Law", "The One", "Sin City", "The Life Coach" and many others.
Her most recent roles came in box office hits such as Night at the Museum (2006) and American Gangster (2007).

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States.
The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
Total Area: 28th among states, 137,732 sq km (53,179 sq mi)
The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas.
Pivot Rock balances on a base 15 times smaller than its top.
The name Arkansas comes from an Indian word that means down-stream people.
The mockingbird is the official state bird. It was designated in 1929.

Colorado is a state of the United States of America that encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains.
Denver is the capital and the most populous city of Colorado.
Total Area: 8th among states, 269,618 sq km (104,100 sq mi)
With an average elevation of about 2070 m (6800 ft), Colorado is the highest of all the states.
Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it was admitted to the Union as the 38th state in 1876, the centennial year of the United States Declaration of Independence.
In 1858 a party of prospectors led by William Green Russell discovered gold in what is now downtown Denver

Gary Coleman is an American actor, best known for his role as Arnold Jackson in the American sitcom Diff'rent Strokes (1978–1986).
In January of 2008, Gary Coleman put an autographed pair of Old Navy sweatpants up for auction on Ebay. The pants sold for more than $400,000.
Was born in February 8, 1968.
He is 4'8" tall.
Gary Coleman was born in Zion, Illinois. He was adopted by Edmonia Sue, a nurse practitioner, and W.G. Coleman, a fork-lift operator.
At the height of his fame on Diff'rent Strokes, Coleman earned as much as $100,000 per episode.
Coleman suffered a seizure on the set of The Insider on February 26, 2010. Dr. Drew Pinsky, who was with Gary Coleman at the time, assisted him until paramedics arrived.

Daniel Day-Lewis was born on 29 April 1957 in London, England.
His full name: Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis.
Day-Lewis, who grew up in London, is the son of the Irish-born Poet Laureate, Cecil Day-Lewis.
He left school when he was 13.
Daniel Day-Lewis is an Academy Award winning and Golden Globe award nominated actor.
He is known as one of the most selective actors in the film industry, having starred in only five films since 1997, with as many as five years between roles.
In 1971 Daniel Day-Lewis got a part in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday". That film made his debut in Hollywood.

American actor David Bowditch Morse was born on October 11, 1953 in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
David Morse stared his career after finishing high school, joining the Repertory Theatre in Boston in 1971.
Height 6' 4"
His middle name, Bowditch, comes from Nathaniel Bowditch.
David Morse made his debut in a substantial part in "Inside Moves" in 1980.
David Morse first came to national attention as Dr. Jack Morrison in the medical drama St. Elsewhere from 1982 to 1988.

The State of Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
Total Area: 48th among states, 14,359 sq km (5,544 sq mi)
Southwestern Connecticut is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties, including most of the state's population, are in the New York City combined statistical area, commonly called the Tri-State Region
In 1898 the first car insurance in America is issued at Hartford.
Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County.
The New Haven District Telephone Company published the first telephone book ever issued on February 1878, in New Haven.

Denise van Outen was born on May 27, 1974 in Basildon, Essex, England.
Denise van Outen is an actress and television host.
Born Denise Kathleen Outen in Basildon, Essex, she is the youngest of Ted and Kathleen Outen's three children and was raised Catholic.
Denise has a brother Terry and sister Jackie.
At the age of seven, she began modelling for knitting patterns, and showed an early flair for performing.
"van" was included by her in the name to sound more interesting.

Donna Dixon was born on July 20, 1957 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Donna Dixon is a well-known actress.
She began her career as a model and was named Miss Virginia USA, in 1976, and Miss Washington DC World, in 1977.
On April 29, 1983, Donna Dixon got married to Dan Aykroyd.
Dixon co-starred with Tom Hanks in the early 1980s television comedy series Bosom Buddies.
She played a guest role in the television series Moonlighting.

The State of Delaware is located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
Total Area: 49th among states, 6,206 sq km (2,396 sq mi).
The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, a British nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom (what is now called) Cape Henlopen was originally named.
Among Delaware's many historic churches is Old Swedes Church and Hendrickson House Museum, in Wilmington, which has been in use since its completion in 1698.
Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest state in area (after Rhode Island).
Delaware was the first state to ratify the United States constitution. It did so on December 7, 1787.

actress Drea de Matteo

Drea de Matteo was born on January 19, 1972.
Her full name: Andrea Donna de Matteo.
Drea de Matteo is an Emmy-winning American actress.
Drea de Matteo studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, originally hoping to become a director, not an actress.
Drea is the daughter of Donna, a playwright and playwriting teacher, and Albert De Matteo, a furniture manufacturer.
Her role in The Sopranos was one of her earliest, helping to launch her career.
Drea de Matteo has also appeared in several films including Swordfish, Deuces Wild, and the 2005 remake of John Carpenter's 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13.

Florida is located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north.
Total Area: 23rd among states, 155,213 sq km (59,928 sq mi).
It was the 27th state admitted to the United States.
Inventor Thomas A. Edison maintained a winter home and laboratory in Fort Myers.
Much of the land mass of the state is a large peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east
St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States.
It is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" because of its generally warm climate—subtropical in the northern and central regions of the state, with a true tropical climate in the southern portion.
Hurricane Andrew, which ripped through southeastern Florida in August 1992, killed 41 people and caused property damages in excess of $20 billion.
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the state population was 18,328,340 in 2008, ranking Florida as the fourth most populous state in the U.S.
The first U.S. earth satellite, Explorer I, was launched from the U.S. Air Force Missile Test Center at Cape Canaveral in 1958.
Tallahassee is the state capital, Jacksonville is the largest city, and the Miami metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area.
Key West has the highest average temperature in the United States.
"Florida" is the oldest surviving European place-name in the United States. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named the region in honor of his discovery of the land on the evening April 2, 1513, six days after Easter and still during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the "Flowery Easter" season, and for the land's appearance as a "flowered land."
Cape Canaveral is America's launch pad for space flights.
The seasons in Florida are determined more by precipitation than by temperature, with the hot, wet springs and summers making up the wet season, and mild to cool, and the relatively dry winters and autumns, making the dry season.
Fort Lauderdale is known as the Venice of America because the city has 185 miles of local waterways.
Gatorade was named for the University of Florida Gators where the drink was first developed.
The Florida Panther is the official state animal. The species is endangered, with only about 50 left in the wild.
The crocodile is classified as an endangered species and there are only 400 to 500 remaining in Florida.
The world's first scheduled commercial airline flight occurred in Florida on January 1, 1914. The flight occurred between Tampa and St. Petersburg, and traversed Tampa Bay.

Blake Lively facts

actress Blake Lively

Blake Lively (born August 25, 1987) is an American actress.
As a teenager, Blake Lively was a huge fan of Justin Timberlake and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Blake stars in the book-based TV series Gossip Girl as Serena van der Woodsen.
Blake Lively is very good friends with the whole cast of Gossip Girl.
She was raised as a Southern Baptist.
Blake's favorite movies are Waiting for Guffman, Wizard of Oz, Moulin Rouge! and Romeo and Juliet.
Blake Lively dated actor Kelly Blatz for 3 years from 2004 to 2007.
During Lively's childhood, her parents would take her with them to acting classes that they taught because they didn't want to leave her with a babysitter.

The singer Chantal Kreviazuk was born on May 18, 1974 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Her birth name is Chantal Thelma-Ramupriya Kreviazuk.
Her nickname is Chippy.
In 1996 Chantal Kreviazuk released her debut album called "Under These Rocks and Stones" in Canada.
After one year it was also released in the United States.
Chantal's parents are named Carol and John Kreviazuk, and her brothers are named Michael and Trevor.
On December 19, 1999 Chantal Kreviazuk married Raine Maida.

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States.
Total Area: 24th among states, 152,750 sq km (58,977 sq mi).
Georgia had four previous capital cities: Savannah (1733-1786), Augusta (1786-1795), Louisville (1796-1806), and Milledgeville (1807-1868). Atlanta became the capital in 1868.
Most of Georgia's large lakes are artificial bodies of water constructed by utility companies for power generation, or by the United States Army Corps of Engineers for flood control.
With an estimated 9,829,211 residents as of July 1, 2009, Georgia is the ninth most populous state.
Colonized in 1732 by James Edward Oglethorpe, Georgia was the last of the original thirteen English colonies.
Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South.

Zircon stone

Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates.
Two names have been given to zircon. One is «hyacinth», used for the red brown material, and the other is «jargoon» for the colorless to light yellow stones coming from Sri Lanka.
Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4.
Mohs scale hardness: 7.5
The name zircon is of uncertain origin. It may have come to us from the Arabic «zarkun» meaning vermillon, or from the Persian «zargun», meaning gold colored.
Colorless specimens that show gem quality are a popular substitute for diamond; these specimens are also known as "Matura diamond".
In addition to zirconium, silicon and oxygen, zircon contains small quantities of rare earths and radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium. These inclusions give zircon differents hardnesses and properties.

Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only state made up entirely of islands.
Total Area: 47th among states, 16,729 sq km (6,459 sq mi).
Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
Hawaii occupies most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia.
During the late 1800s, Hawaii developed an export economy based on sugar and pineapple cultivation, drawing thousands of Asian immigrant workers to the farms.
Hawaii’s natural beauty, warm tropical climate, inviting waters and waves, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike.
Hawaii's `Iolani Palace is the only royal residence in the United States of America.

Turquoise stones

The Persian word for turquoise is «ferozah» or «firozah», which means victorious.
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O.
The word “turquoise” is believed to have been derived from the French term “pierre turquoise” which means “stone of Turkey” or the German term “turkisher steins” which means “Turkish stones”.
In fact, turquoise came in Europe through Turkey, but its origin was Persia, where it has been mined for thousands of years.
Even the finest of turquoise is fracturable, reaching a maximum hardness of just under 6, or slightly more than window glass.
Turquoise is associated with both the fifth and eleventh wedding anniversaries.
The blue color of turquoise was thought to have powerful metaphysical properties by many ancient cultures.

Tsavorite gemstone

Tsavorite garnet is a rare stone. Some studies have found that it around 200 hundred times more rare than emerald.
The shining green tsavorite is a young gemstone with a very long geological history.
The name of this magnificent vivid green stone comes from the Tsavo National Park in Kenya where it was first found, in the beginning of the seventies.
Tsavorite or tsavolite is a variety of the garnet group species grossular, a calcium-aluminium garnet with the formula Ca3Al2Si3O12.
The color range of the tsavorite includes a springlike light green, an intense blue-green and a deep forest green - colors which have an invigorating effect on the senses.
Tsavorite is a member of the grossularite type of garnet.
The name tsavorite was proposed by Tiffany and Co president Henry Platt in honor of Tsavo National Park in Kenya.

The matter in the universe is so thinly dispersed that the universe can be compared with a building twenty miles long, twenty miles wide, and twenty miles high, containing only a single grain of sand.
The word Universe derives from the Old French word Univers, which in turn derives from the Latin word universum.
The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3) oxygen.
No one knows the exact number of galaxies in the universe, but it is estimated that there are more than 170 billion galaxies in the Universe.
As late as 1820, the universe was thought to be 6,000 years old. It is now thought to be between 15 and 20 billion years old.
A "light year" is a measure of distance, it is the distance that light travels in a year and is equal to about 9.5 trillion kilometres, or about 6 trillion miles.
Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the Universe.
While astronomers used to believe that galaxies were distributed more or less evenly through space, they have now found regions where galaxies are rare or absent.
Astronomers believe that the universe contains one atom for every 88 gallons of space.
It is possible that many planets in the galaxy may not orbit around stars. Recent work by Kailash Sahu found six gravitational lenses in the star cluster M22 from objects smaller than brown dwarfs, the smallest type of star. Only one gravitational lensing event by a star was found in the same work.
About 25% of the universe consists of "dark matter", and about 70% consists of "dark energy", leaving only about 5% of the universe visible to us.
According to the scientists our solar system was formed about 5 billion years ago.
Most scientists think that the universe began 13.7 billion years ago (that is 1,370 million years ago). But there is not much differece as other scientists say that the Universe is 10 to 20 billion years old.
Astronomers believe that the universe contains one atom for every 88 gallons of space.
The Earth was formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

35 Space facts

The planets

Valentina Tereshkova from Russia was the first woman in space.
Saturn’s rings are made up of particles of ice, dust and rock.
Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the Moon.
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane-like storm system that was first detected in the early 1600’s.
Our Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of 66,700 mph. Contrary to a popular myth that earth travels really slow, this is extremely fast movement, only we don't realize it.
Halley’s Comet appears about every 76 years.
Some large asteroids have their own moon.

The state of Idaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America.
Total Area: 14th among states, 216,456 sq km (83,574 sq mi).
The Cataldo mission is the oldest building in the state.
The state's largest city and capital is Boise.
The entire town of American Falls was moved in the 1920s when the original American Falls Dam was constructed.
Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890 as the 43rd state.
Seven Devils’ Peaks has Heaven’s Gate Lookout where you can see into four states.

Tourmaline bracelet

Tourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium.
Mineralogists gave tourmaline a variety of names, such as elbaite, tsilaisite, dravite, chromdravite, liddicoatite, uvite, schorl, achroite, buergerite, feruvite, foitite, povondraite and rubellite.
Tourmaline is classified as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors.
Mohs scale hardness 7–7.5
An Egyptian legend believes that as the crystals grew up from the earth, they encountered a rainbow and attained every color of the rainbow, giving the tourmaline gem stone a spectacular array of beauty.
Tourmaline is the birthstone for October and corresponds to the astrological sign of the Libra.
The name comes from the Sinhalese word "turamali" (ටුරමලි) or "toramalli" (ටොරමල්ලි), which applied to different gemstones found in Sri Lanka.

Illinois, the 21st state admitted to the United States of America, is the most populous and demographically diverse Midwestern state and the fifth most populous state in the nation.
Total Area: 26th among states, 150,007 sq km (57,918 sq mi).
The Port of Chicago connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River via the Illinois River.
Abraham Lincoln's first public office was as postmaster of New Salem, Illinois.
Metropolis the home of Superman really exists in Southern Illinois.
Capital: Springfield.
Illinois is often viewed as a microcosm of the United States; an Associated Press analysis of 21 demographic factors found Illinois the "most average state", while Peoria has long been a proverbial social and cultural bellwether.

Budgericar

The Budgerigar or Common Pet Parakeet, often called a budgie or parakeet, is a small parrot and the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus.
Like all parrots, budgerigars have two toes that face forward and two that face backward, unlike other birds that have three toes facing forward and 1 facing back.
A small long-tailed predominantly green and yellow bird with black scalloped markings on the wings and shoulders in the wild, the Budgerigar has been bred extensively with a profusion of colour forms resulting.
These birds are capable of turning their heads around at 180 degrees.
In the wild, it is a predominantly seed-eating species.
Budgerigars communicate with one another by making loud voices.

Topaz stone

All yellow stones were once called topaz but today the real orange-red “imperial” variety is a rare find.
Mohs scale: 8
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine with the chemical formula Al2SiO4(F,OH)2.
According to Pliny, the name topaz was derived from the Island of Topazos in the Red Sea, which probably refers to Zeberged, ancient source for peridot. But it is more likely that the name derives from the Sanskrit word «tapas» meaning fire.
In the Middle Ages, the name topaz was used to refer to any yellow gemstone, but in modern times it denotes only the silicate described above.
Topaz crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and its crystals are mostly prismatic terminated by pyramidal and other faces.
The ancient Greeks believed that it had the power to increase one’s strength and make its wearer invisible in cases of emergency.

The State of Indiana is a U.S. state, the 19th admitted to the Union.
Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the largest of any state capital east of the Mississippi River.
Indiana is ranked 38th in land area, and is the smallest state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains.
James Dean, a popular movie star of the 1950s was born February 8, 1931, in Marion.
It is located in the Great Lakes Region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16th in population and 17th in population density.
In a typical year, almost half of all cropland in Indiana is planted in corn.
Indiana has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 as well as a number of smaller industrial cities and small towns.

Actor Christian Slater

The actor Christian Slater (birth name Christian Michael Leonard Hawkins) was born on August 18, 1969 in New York City.
Christian Slater made his debut as an actor in television at the age of 8 in the TV soap- opera "One Life to Live".
Christian Slater appeared on the big screen when he was 16 in "The Legend of Billy Jean".
Other important films on his career are: "Tucker", "A Man and his Dream", but a real success for Christian was "Heathers". This movie made him a real star in Hollywood.
Christian Slater had relationships with Christina Applegate (actress; born November 25, 1971; dated 1996), Nina Huang (actress; 1994-1995), Samantha Mathis (actress; born May 12, 1970), Winona Ryder (actress; born October, 29, 1971; dated in 1988), Kim Walker (actress; dated 1986-1988).
Christian Slater has a son, Jaden Christopher Slater (born on April 6, 1999; mother: Ryan Haddon) and a daughter, Eliana Sophia (born on August 15, 2001; mother: Ryan Haddon).

The actor Cuba Gooding Jr. was born on January 2, 1968, in The Bronx, New York.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is the son of the Cuba Gooding Sr., the vocalist of the pop band Main Ingredient.
During high school Cuba Goading Jr. performed in a play and after that he was a constant presence in TV Commercials. That led to a minor part in an episode in "Hill Street Blues".
His debut on the stage was of a break dancer in the show of Lionel Richie at Olimpiada.
Cuba Gooding Jr. was suggested by Roger Moore to replace Pierce Brosnan as James Bond.
Cuba Gooding Jr. was awarded with an Oscar for the Best Minor Part in "Jerry Maguire".
Cuba Gooding Jr. has two sons, Mason (born in 1996) and Spencer Gooding (born in 1993).

Tiger's eye stone

Tiger's eye is one of the birthstones listed for the Planetary stone of Gemini and is suggested as an anniversary gift for the ninth wedding anniversary.
Tiger's eye is a quartz with inclusions of very small quartz crystals that are stained and which replace the crocidolite fiber inclusions of the gem.
If crocidolite has not been completely replaced by silica, the original grayish blue color of crocidolite remains and produces what is called hawk’s eye or falcon’s eye.
The presence of the fibrous structure produce a silky sheen when the material is cut. If well cut in cabochon, it can reproduce an «eye» quite well.
Hardness 6.50 - 7.00

Des Moines is Iowa's capital and largest city.
Total Area: 26th among states, 145,754 sq km (56,276 sq mi).
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland."
Amana, in east central Iowa, is one of seven small villages established by a German religious sect in the 1850s and early 1860s.
The state derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration.
In Spillville, near Decorah, is the house where the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvorák lived in the summer of 1893 during his visit to America.
Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France.

The Actress Chloe Hunter was born on August 26, 1976 in Thousand Oaks, California.
Chloe Hunter is an actress and a model and her hand and stomach were used to create the poster for the "American Beauty".
Chloe Hunter was a cheerleader. But she's also a born entertainer, the lucky number seven amongst eight children. Her mother is a dance instructor and her father is a chiropractor.
Chloe Hunter was crowned "Miss Westlake Village" in 1992.
In 2002, her acting career had an important success after she had played in 'Spun". Her character was tied up in bed and nude.

Cheryl Hines was born on September 21, 1965 in Miami Beach, Florida.
Full name: Cheryl Ruth Hines.
While Cheryl was in high school, she attended the Young Actors Theatre.
Cheryl Hines attended the Florida State University where studied television, radio and theatre, graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Communication with a Minor in Theater Performance.
Cheryl's husband, Paul Young, is Chairman of L.A.'s Groundlings Theater. That is also where Cheryl went to begin a career in acting and to study improvisational comedy.
Cheryl Hines spent her childhood in Tallahassee, Florida and attended the Young Actors Theatre.
Cheryl's mother's name is Rosemary.

Clive Owen

Clive Owen was born on October 3, 1964, in Keresley, Coventry, Warwickshire, England.
Clive Owen is a famous English actor.
Clive Owen made his debut in television at first in 1986 in the soap-opera Boon.
His wife is Sarah-Jane Fenton (actress; married on March 6, 1995).
His debut on the big screen happened in 1987 in "Vroom".
Clive Owen has two daughters, Hannah and Eve.
His first important part was in 1997 in "Bent".

The State of Kansas is located in the Midwestern United States.
In 1990 Kansas wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 33 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves.
Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
At one time it was against the law to serve ice cream on cherry pie in Kansas.
Historically, the area was home to large numbers of nomadic Native Americans who hunted bison.
A grain elevator in Hutchinson is ½ mile long and holds 46 million bushels in its 1,000 bins.
When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state.

Chandra Wilson was born on August 27, 1969 in Houston, Texas.
Full name: Chandra Danette Wilson.
Chandra Wilson studied at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and the New York University, Tisch School of the Arts.
Wilson is an accomplished singer, and has sung in several productions.
One of her most important roles was in Bob Patterson, a television series which aired in 2001. Then Chandra was seen in "Law & Order", "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" and some others.
Wilson and her husband have three children; daughters Serena and Joy were born in 1992 and 1998, respectively, and son Michael was born on October 31, 2005.

The total number of episodes for the sitcom "I Love Lucy" was 180.
Only 1/3 of all “Gilligan’s Island” episodes are about getting off the island.
In 1907 Russian scientist Boris Rosing became the first inventor to use a CRT in the receiver of an experimental television system. He used mirror-drum scanning to transmit simple geometric shapes to the CRT.
In most advertisements the time displayed on an analog watch is 10:10.
One in every 4 Americans has appeared on television.
The first TV couple to sleep in the same bed was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
The first toilet ever seen on television was on “Leave It To Beaver”.
In 1926, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Tihanyi designed a television system utilizing fully electronic scanning and display elements, and employing the principle of "charge storage" within the scanning (or "camera") tube.
Today there are almost a billion TV sets in the world.
In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
In 1927, Philo Farnsworth made the world's first working television system with electronic scanning of both the pickup and display devices,[9] which he first demonstrated to the press on 1 September 1928.
US citizens watch the most TV. By age 65, an American would have watched the equivalent of 9 years uninterrupted screening, viewing more than 20,000 TV commercials per year.
The first practical use of television was in Germany. Regular television broadcasts began in Germany in 1929 and in 1936 the Olympic Games in Berlin were broadcast to television stations in Berlin and Leipzig where the public could view the games live.
The first TV interview was made with Irish actress Peggy O'Neil in April 1930.
In 1936, Kálmán Tihanyi described the principle of plasma television, the first flat panel system.
In the US there are more TV sets than telephones.
The General Lee cars used in the popular show The Dukes of Hazards were 1969 Dodge Chargers.
The first televised sporting event was a Japanese elementary school baseball game, broadcast in September 1931.
The Muppet Show was banned from TV in Saudi Arabia because one of its stars was a pig.
The first regular TV soap was DuMont TV's A Woman to Remember, which began its run in February 1947.
The first music video ever played on MTV Europe was by Dire Straits, "Money For Nothing."
The first daily broadcast was started by the BBC in November 1936.
The childhood word game Hangman was the inspiration for TV's Wheel of Fortune.
The world's first TV news helicopter was introduced by KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles on 4 July 1958.
The first letter Vanna White ever turned on the game show Wheel of Fortune was the letter "T."

21 facts about cartoons

In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
In modern print media, a cartoon is a piece of art, usually humorous in intent. This usage dates from 1843 when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages, particularly sketches by John Leech.
The most filmed cartoon character - Zorro has been shown in 69 films. Created by Johnston McCully, he was the first comic strip character to be the subject shown in a major film, The Mark of Zorro (USA 1920).
The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923, and in 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife Lillian convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.
The most valuable cartoon movie poster was a poster for the Walt Disney short, Alice's Day at Sea (USA 1924), was sold in London England at $36534.00 in 1994.
Pinocchio is Italian for “pine eye”!

Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America.
The origin of Kentucky's name does not have a consensus. The most likely etymology is that it comes from an Iroquoian word kenhtake meaning "meadow" or "prairie"
The Kentucky Derby is the oldest continuously held horse race in the country. It is held at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
Kentucky's economic growth during the first half of the 19th century was marked by the development of large-scale commercial agriculture, especially the growing of hemp and tobacco.
Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts).
The radio was invented by a Kentuckian named Nathan B. Stubblefield of Murray in 1892.
Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 it became the 15th state to join the Union.

With almost $1 billion in yearly revenues, the NFL is the world’s richest professional sports league.
Up until 1912, a touchdown was only worth five points.
Saints running back Reggie Bush was high school teammates with 49ers quarterback Alex Smith.
The first night game was played in 1929 in Providence against the Chicago Cardinals.
The Indianapolis Colts are the first team in NFL history to win 12 or more games in five consecutive years.
The American Professional Football Association became the NFL on June 24, 1922. The Chicago Staleys became the Chicago Bears that year, and are the only team not to change name or city.
No network footage exists of Super Bowl I. It was reportedly taped over (for a soap opera, according to some rumors).

Baseball infield

On one day every season even the president of the United States takes part in a game.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each.
Baseballs and bats are very carefully made. The balls are made of cork, rubber, yarn, and horsehide. They weigh about 5 ounces and are about 9 inches around. Baseball bats are usually made of ash wood. They cannot be longer than 42 inches, or thicker than 2-3/4 inches.
In April of 1961 Maris hit only one home run, but had 50 before September 1st. The only player to reach that mark before September until Sosa and McGwire did it in '98. Maris had no stolen bases that year.
In the United States there are many baseball leagues. The two major leagues are the National League and the American League. At the end of the season the winners in these two leagues play the World Series.
The New York Yankees have won 26 World Series titles, which is more than any other team.
The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.
Ted Williams won the AL batting titles when he was 39 and again at 40. The last At Bat of Ted's career was a homerun on the last day of the 1960 season.
The first World Series was played between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 and was a nine-game series. Boston won the series 5-3.
The first "Babe" in baseball was Babe Adams who pitched from 1906 to 1926.
Baseball stars from the National League and the American League played the first All-Star Game in 1933In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central.
Former Yankees right fielder Mickey Mantle holds the record for most career home runs (18) and RBI (40) in World Series history.

Catherine Deneuve was born on October 22, 1943 in Paris, France.
Birth name: Catherine Fabienne Dorleac.
Catherine Deneuve is the daughter of actor Maurice Dorleac.
Catherine Deneuve made her debut in film performing in "Les Collegiennes" (1965), at the age of 13.
Catherine Deneuve was awarded in 1980 as Best Female Act with "The Last Metro" by the French Cinema Academy and with "Place Vendome" in 1998.
In 2000, the movie star Catherine Deneuve was carefully watched by critics when she showed up in the musical "Dancer in the Dark". This film was awarded with Palme D'Or at the Film Festival at Cannes.

Christopher Reeve

Christopher Reeve was born on September 25, 1952, in New York City.
Christopher Reevewas a famous American actor, director, producer and writer.
On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from his horse in an eventing competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He required a wheelchair and breathing apparatus for the rest of his life.
Christopher was a student at one time at Cornell University.
Christopher Reeve made his debut with a small part in "Gray Lady Dawn" (1977).
"Superman" was the film that made Christopher Reeve one of the most famous actors in Hollywood.
To get the main part of that film, Christopher Reeve had to defeat great names of the big screen of all the times, such as: Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood.
After starring in Richard Donnol's super-movie, he wrote the script for Superman IV in 1987.

Tanzanite

Tanzanite is the blue/purple variety of the mineral zoisite which was discovered in the Meralani (Merelani) Hills of Northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha.
Tanzanite in its rough state is usually a reddish brown color. It requires artificial heat treatment to 600 °C in a gemological oven to bring out the blue violet of the stone.
Its rich purple and blue often has a depth comparable to the finest sapphire.
Tanzanite is a rare gem. It is found mostly in the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro.
When tanzanite is found in the ground, the brown color dominates. However, with gentle heating, the cutter can watch the blue color bloom and deepen in the stone.
The mineral is named after Tanzania, the country where it was discovered.

The state of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America.
Total Area: 31st among states, 128,595 sq km (49,651 sq mi).
Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans.
Parts of the Mississippi River delta plain near New Orleans lie below sea level.
Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties.
Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643–1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis".

Pixar Animation Studios is an American CGI animation production company based in Emeryville, California.
The company was originally owned by Lucasfilm, and was created to develop advanced animation technology for use in live-action movies.
To date, Pixar has earned twenty-four Academy Awards, six Golden Globes, and three Grammys.
In 1986, the company was purchase by Steve Jobs, the head of Apple, Inc.
Pixar started in 1979 as the Graphics Group, a part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006.
The 2007 release, Ratatouille amazed many critics with the individual detail now possible in CGI-rendered hair and fur.
Pixar has made 10 feature films beginning with Toy Story in 1995 and each one has achieved critical and commercial success.
Pixar followed Toy Story with A Bug's Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters, Inc. in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003 (which is, to date, the most commercially successful Pixar film, grossing over $800 million worldwide), The Incredibles in 2004, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E in 2008, and Up in 2009 (the first Pixar film presented in Disney Digital 3-D).
Along with cutting-edge technology, the studio is known for extremely popular original story lines.
Pixar's eleventh film, Toy Story 3, is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010, with Cars 2 to be released in Summer 2011 and Monsters, Inc. 2 scheduled for Winter 2012.
Unlike traditional Disney films, none of the Pixar movies have been based on legends or fairy tales.
Up is the first Pixar film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
In 2006, The Walt Disney Company purchased Pixar for $7.4 billion USD.

Twenty five facts about Cher

Cher is an American pop singer-songwriter, actress, director and record producer.
Cher refuses to read the gossip magazines, or watch the tabloid television, sticking to CNN for her news. She grew tired of being harassed by the paparazzi and reading the hurtful lies that the magazines put out there, so she quit looking.
Cher has graced the cover of People magazine 25 times.
Cher shares a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with Sonny Bono, which is located at 7018 Hollywood Blvd. The star is for their contribution to television and reads "Sonny and Cher."
Cher is the only female solo artist to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the previous four decades.
Cher and her daughter Chastity produce the reality television show Family Outing for the LOGO network, Viacom's gay channel.

Cheryl Ladd was born on July 12, 1951 in Huron, South Dakota.
Cheryl Ladd; is a American singer and actress.
Cheryl Ladd; was a cheerleader during high school.
Her father, Marion Wayne Stoppelmoor, was an engineer and her mother Delores H. Katz, was a waitress.
The role that made her a famous actress was as Kris Munroe on "Charlie's Angels" in 1977. Since then Cheryl Ladd has appeared in many movies, television series and shows.

Calista Kay Flockhart was born on November 11, 1964 in Freeport, Illinois.
Calista Flockhart is a popular American actress.
Calista Flockhart studied at the Shawnee High School in Medford.
Her mother, Kay, was a high school teacher and her father, Ronald, was an executive at Kraft Foods.
In spring 1989, Calista Flockhart made her first television appearance in a minor role in an episode of Guiding Light as a babysitter.
The role that made her famous was in the television series "Ally McBeal" where Calista had the main role.
Flockhart played the role of Helena in the 1999 film version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The state of Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
Maine's original capital was Portland, the largest city in Maine, until it was moved to Augusta in 1832 to make it more central within the state.
Total Area: 39th among states, 87,389 sq km (33,741 sq mi).
Maine is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, New Hampshire to the southwest, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast.
Maine is the only U.S. state to have a name that is one syllable long, and the only state which borders exactly one other state.
Maine is the northernmost portion of New England and is the easternmost state in the contiguous United States. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, and its heavily forested interior—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.

badminton

Badminton is officially the fastest racquet sport in the world. The shuttle is smashed around the court at speeds of up to 200 mph.
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players (singles) or two opposing pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net.
Badminton claims to be the second most-popular participation sport in the world. Only football (soccer) beats it.
Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their opponents' half of the court.
1.1 billion people watched the first Olympic badminton tournament on TV.
The shuttlecock (or shuttle) is a feathered projectile whose unique aerodynamic properties cause it to fly differently from the balls used in most racquet sports; in particular, the feathers create much higher drag, causing the shuttlecock to decelerate more rapidly than a ball.

Chris Tucker is a famous American actor and comedian.
Chris Tucker was born on August 31, 1972 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Christopher "Chris" Tucker is best known for his roles as Detective James Carter in the Rush Hour trilogy and Smokey in the 1995 film Friday.
Chris Tucker was born in a family with 5 children: three boys and two girls.
Chris Tucker made his debut in acting career in 1994, in "House Party 3", playing a small,but remarkable part.
Chris has a son named Destin Christopher Tucker, who was born in 2000 and lives with his mother in Los Angeles.
In 2002 Chris Tucker went to Africa together with the ex-president of the USA, Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey to help people on their fight against AIDS.

Courtney Hansen is a model, actress, television personality and syndicated columnist.
Courtney Hansen was born in 1978 in Los Angeles, California.
When Courtney Hansen was a child she lived in Orono, Minnesota and used to stay around the pits at racing tracks. That's why she likes so much the cars.
Her father's name is Jerry Hansen and he is the former owner of the Brainerd International Raceway.
When Courtney Hansen finished collage she hired in a corporate and after that she hosted the Jack Nicklaus pilot Killer Golf and segments on the Travel Channel.
FHM magazine declared her one of the "100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005".
She is the published author of The Garage Girl's Guide To Everything You Need To Know About Your Car.

To understand earthquakes, think of the Earth as a big roun egg and imagine that the shell has been cracked. This cracked outer layer of the Earth (the eggshell) is called the lithosphere, and it is divided into huge pieces called plates.

Underneath the lithosphere is a softer layer called the asthenosphere. The plates of the cracked lithosphere are constantly gliding over this softer layer, moving away from one another, toward one another, or past one another. These plates average about 60 miles thick. Earthquakes result when plates collide.

The cracks in the lithosphere that separate the plates are called faults. It is along these lines that many earthquakes occur as the plates smash into each other or grind alongside each other.

Twenty one Christian Bale facts

Christian Bale was born on January 30, 1974 in Haverford, West Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK.
Christian Bale is a famous English actor.
Christian Bale spent his childhood in England, Portugal and USA.
Christian Bale loves riding horses and dancing, adores animals and has two dogs: Ulojo and Ramone and three cats: Miriam, Molly and Lilly.
Christian Bale is considered to be one of the most handsome actors in Hollywood having the same success as a teenager as well as an adult.
Christian Bale lost 1/3 of his body weight for his role in "The Machinist".
Christian was one of several actors considered for the role of Will Turner in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Clint Eastwood was born on May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, California.
Clint Eastwood is a famous American actor, film director and film producer.
He has a sister, Jean Eastwood.
By the middle of the 50's Clint Eastwood got to Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood had relationships with Sondra Locke (actress; together from 1977 to 1989), Frances Fisher (actress; born on May 11, 1952), Roxanne Tunis (actress), Jacelyn Reeves (airline hostess).
Clint Eastwood performed minor parts at first at the Universal Pictures. Later on, he became a real artist in Hollywood, due to his performance in the three westerns of the director Sergio Leone: "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), "For a Few Dollars More" (1968) and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966).
His best role in a movie was as Harry Callahan in "Dirty Harry". (1977)

Rafael Nadal

Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all ages.
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt past a net into the opponent's court.
Billie Jean King was the first player in the Open era to win back-to-back US Opens (1971-1972).
The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including people in wheelchairs.
Yellow tennis balls were used at Wimbledon for the first time in 1986.
The rules of tennis have not changed much since the 1890s. Two exceptions are that from 1908 to 1960 the server had to keep one foot on the ground at all times, and then the adoption of the tie-break in the 1970s.

actor Brandon Lee

Brandon Bruce Lee was born on February 1, 1965 in Oakland, California.
Brandon Lee was born on Chinese New Year's eve.
Brandon Lee is of Chinese, German and Swedish descent.
Brandon Lee was an American actor.
Brandon Lee is the son of the legendary Bruce Lee and his wife Linda.
His father died suddenly from a cerebral edema.
His first years of childhood Brandon Lee spent in Hong Kong.

The State of Maryland is an American State located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States.
Annapolis, home of the U.S. Naval Academy, has served as the state capital of Maryland since 1694 and is one of the oldest settlements in Maryland.
Total Area: 42nd among states, 31,849 sq km (12,297 sq mi).
Maryland is comparable in overall area with the European country of Belgium.
Baltimore was home to the nation’s first umbrella factory, the first coal-burning steam engine in 1830, and elevated electric railway in 1893.
For 2009, Maryland ranked first—for the third year in a row—as the U.S. state with the highest median income for 2008, with a median income of $70,545.
The first dental school in the United States opened at the University of Maryland.

Swimming has been part of the modern Olympic Games since their inception in 1896, and is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA).
The aquatic sport of swimming is based on the human act of swimming, that is, locomotion in water by self propulsion, usually with the goal to complete a given distance in the smallest amount of time.
There are also swimming competitions based on endurance or precedence rather than speed, such as crossing the English Channel or some other stretch of open water.
Breaststroke is the oldest type of stroke.
Competitive swimming consist of four different strokes. The different strokes one can swim in a race are the butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle (or front crawl), and backstroke.
In freestyle and backstroke you touch with only one hand when you finish.

Bill Maher was born on January 20, 1956 in New York.
Bill Maher is an actor, comedian, writer and producer.
Maher was born in New York City, the son of Julie (née Berman), a nurse, and William Maher, Sr., a network news editor and radio announcer.
Bill Maher attended the Pascack Hills High School in New Jersey and the Cornell University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in English.
Maher was raised in his Irish American father's Catholic religion, and did not find out that his mother was Jewish until his teenage years.
In 1979 Bill Maher became host of the New York City comedy club "Catch a Rising Star".

sunstone gem

Sunstone is a member of the plagioclase Feldspar group of minerals and is closely related to Moonstone and Labradorite.
Sunstone is also called aventurine feldspar. Its golden spangled effect is due to the presence of tiny platelets of included minerals such as goethite or hematite.
The name Feldspar comes from the German “feldt spat,” meaning “field stone.”
Sunstone is formed and crystallized in lava flows.
Mohs scale hardness 6.00 - 6.50
Pope Clement VII (1478-1534) was reputed to have in his possession a sunstone «with a golden spot that moves across the surface in accord with the apparent motion of the sun from sunrise to sunset».

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States.
Total Area: 45th among states, 23,934 sq km (9,241 sq mi).
Massachusetts is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean.
Capital: Boston
Boston Common became the first public park in 1634.
Many of Massachusetts's towns were founded by colonists from England in the 1620s and 1630s.
Plymouth was the second permanent English settlement in North America.
Boston Latin School became the first secondary school in 1635.

Bo Derek

Bo Derek was born on November 20, 1956 in Long Beach, California. Bo is a famous actress.
Her mother, Norma Collins and her father, Paul have four children.
Bo Derek went to the Nathaniel Narbonne High School in Harbor City.
Her mother is a hair and make-up artist.
On June 10, 1976 she got married to John Derek, actor and director who died in 1998.
Derek first came to prominence when she co-starred in the 1979 Blake Edwards film 10, in which Dudley Moore's character is torn between his love for Julie Andrews and his fascination with Derek. Her appearance shot her to instant stardom and status as a sex symbol.
In March 1980 Bo Derek appeared for the first time in the Playboy magazine.

The 2002 World Cup was held in two places—Seoul, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan. Brazil won the 2002 World Cup and also has won the most World Cups (five) since the tournament began in 1930.
Soccer is the world's most popular game.
Pele's real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football.
From 1962 to 1996 the world cup has been won alternately by South Americans and Europeans. Like once it goes to South Americans and the next time goes to the Europeans. Though its just a co-incidence. Amazing!
Today the sport is generally known simply as football in English-speaking countries in which it is the most popular football code. In countries where other codes are more popular, the sport is more commonly referred to as soccer.
The term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as a slang abbreviation of the word "association", often credited to former England captain Charles Wreford-Brown.
A practice match of Arsenal was the first soccer match to be telecasted on TV.
Soccer became an olympic event in 1908.
The World Cup is the biggest soccer tournament in the world. It is held every four years in a different country. Billions of people watch the televised games as the national teams from countries around the globe battle it out for soccer supremacy.
Gerd Müller, who played for West Germany in the 1970 and 1974 World Cups, holds the career record for most World Cup goals with 14.
The Women's World Cup was played in the United States in 1999 and again in 2003, and the U.S. won
their second Cup in 1999 when Brandi Chastain scored in a penalty shootout to defeat China. The German team took the 2003 Women's World Cup.
On June 14 1974, Carlos Caszely of Chile was the first player to be shown a red card in a match of World Cup.
The United States' Major League Soccer made its debut in 1996, shortly after the wildly successful 1994 World Cup was hosted by the United States.
The University of North Carolina has won an incredible 16 national championships in women's soccer since the first tournament was played in 1982.
In 2002, Germany's Oliver Kahn became the first goalkeeper to win the Most Valuable Player of the World Cup.
Brazilian striker Ronaldo was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1998 World Cup, even though his team lost in the championship game to France. THe has also been named World Player of the Year three times.
The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) made its debut in 2001. Eight teams participated, and Brandi Chastain's Bay Area CyberRays won the inaugural league championship over Atlanta. The league disbanded in 2003.
Mia Hamm, a star forward on the U.S. women's national team, was once a two-time national collegiate player of the year for the University of North Carolina. She was on the 1996 and 2004 Olympic gold medal winning U.S. team as well as the 1999 World Cup team.
In 217 A.D. the British soldiers said that they played soccer with the skulls of defeated Roman soldiers from a liberated village.

Where does U.S. energy come from?

Nearly 86% of the energy used in the U.S. came from fossil fuels (39.5% from petroleum, 23.4% from natural gas, and 23% from coal). The rest came mostly from hydropower (water power), nuclear energy, and renewable resources such as geothermal, solar, and wind energy, and from burning materials such as wood and animal waste.

What is Smog?

city smog

The brownish haze seen mostly in the summer and especially around big cities is smog. The main ingredient in smog is ozone. When ozone is high up in the atmosphere, it helps protects us from the Sun’s stronger rays. But near the ground, ozone forms smog when sunlight and heat interact with oxygen and particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels. Smog makes it hard for some people to breathe, especially those with asthma. "Ozone alerts" are not just for Los Angeles (famous for its smog). Many cities in the U.S. issue them through newspapers, TV, and radio stations to let people know when the air can be unhealthy for outdoor activities.

Brooke Shields facts

Brooke Christa Shields was born on May 31, 1965 in New York, New York.
Brooke Shields is a famous actress and ex-wife of Andre Agassi.
Her mother's name is Teri Shields.
Brooke Shields started her modeling career when she was a child and continued it during teenage.
While filming The Blue Lagoon in 1980, she had to have her hair glued to her breasts so nothing would show.
At sixteen years old Brooke Shields was already famous and was on the cover of famous Vogue magazine.
Brooke Shields has Italian, German and English origins.

What is the Ozone layer?

Our atmosphere is made up of different layers, One layer, between 6 and 30 miles above the Earth, is made up of ozone gas. This ozone layer protects us from the Sun’s harshest rays can, called ultraviolet or UV rays. These rays can cause sunburn and skin cancer.

When old refrigerators, air conditioners, and similar items are thrown away, gases from them called chloroflourocarbons, or CFCs rise into the air and destroy some of the ozone in this layer. Most countries no longer produce CFC's, but the gas can stay in the atmosphere for years - destroying ozone and adding to the greenhouse effect.

Each August, a hole in the ozone layer forms over Antarctica (it usually closes by December). Since it was discovered in the 1980s, it has doubled to about the size of North America. It sometimes extends over souther Chile and Argentina. On some days, people in Punta Arenas, Chile (the world's southernmost city), may limiy their sun exposure to no more than 20 minutes between noon and 3 P.M. Other days, they don't go out at all!

Twenty Michigan facts

The State of Michigan is located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America.
The state Capitol with its majestic dome was built in Lansing in l879.
Total Area: 11th among states, 250,465 sq km (96,705 sq mi)
The name Michigan is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake".
The first state police radio system in the world was established in 1929 by the Michigan State Police.
A person in the state is never more than six miles (10 km) from a natural water source or more than 87.2 miles (140.3 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline.
Eau Claire holds the annual International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship contest. The record set in 1988, was for spitting 72 feet, 7 1/2 inches.

What is acid rain?

Acid rain is a kind of air pollution caused by chemicals in the air. Eventually these chemicals can make rain, snow, or fog more acidic than normal. The main source of these chemicals is exhaust from cars, trucks, buses, waste incinerators, factories, and some electric power plants, especially those that burn fossil fuels, such as coal.

When these chemicals mix with moisture and other particles, they create sulfuric acid and nitric acid. The wind often carries these acids many miles before they fall to the ground in rain, snow, and fog, or even as dry particles.

Acid rain can harm people, animals, and plants. It is especially harmful to lakes. Thousands of lakes in Canada, Finland, Norway, and Sweden have been declared "dead." Not even algae can live in them.

Birds and other species that depend on the lakes for food are also affected. Acid rain can also affect crops and trees. Buildings, statues, and cars are also damaged when acid rain destroys metal, stone, and paint.

Twelve Barbara Hershey facts

Barbara Hershey was born on February 5, 1948 in Hollywood, California.
Barbara Hershey is a famous American actress, known for her many film roles.
Born and raised in Hollywood, Barbara Hershey took drama classes at Hollywood High.
At 17, Barbara landed a recurring role on TV's Gidget, starring Sally Field.
Barbara Hershey's first starring role was as Martin Scorsese's Boxcar Bertha in 1972.
Hershey lived with actor David Carradine between 1969 and 1975, and was married to Stephen Douglas, an artist, between 1992 and 1993.
In 1990, Barbara Hershey won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special for her turn as real-life murderer Candy Morrison in A Killing in a Small Town.

Red Spinel

The origin of the name spinel is unknown. It may be a derivative of the Latin word «spinella» or from a Greek word meaning spark, in reference to the bright red or orange color of some crystals.
Spinel is the magnesium aluminum member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula MgAl2O4.
Many famous rubies in crown jewels are in fact spinel.
In the past, before the arrival of modern science, spinels and rubies were equally known as rubies. After the 18th century the word ruby was only used for the red gem variety of the mineral corundum and the word spinel became used.
A faceted red spinel of more than 400 carats belonged to Empress Catherine II of Russia, and is now part of the Russian Treasure in the Kremlin.
True spinel has long been found in the gemstone-bearing gravel of Sri Lanka and in limestones of the Badakshan Province in nowadays Afghanistan and of Mogok in Burma.

Bryce Dallas Howard

Bryce Dallas Howard was born on March 2, 1981 in Los Angeles, California. She is an American actress.
Bryce Dallas Howard was conceived in Dallas, Texas (the reason for her middle name).
Her father, named Ron Howard, is a former actor turned Oscar-winning director. Her mother is actress and writer Cheryl Howard (nee Alley).
Bryce Dallas Howard was raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, because her parents decided to raise their four children as far away from the trappings of showbiz milieu as possible.
During most of her childhood she really did not have much access to a TV. Bryce Dallas Howard attended Greenwich Country Day School, and Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York.
She appeared in several of her father's (Ron Howard) films as an extra before her feature film début came in director Alan Brown's 2004 drama, Book of Love.
In June 2006, she married actor Seth Gabel, whom she met at New York University and had dated for five years.

Bill Murray was born on September 21, 1950 in Wilmette, Illinois.
Bill Murray is a famous American comedian and actor.
Bill Murray tried to find his way in life by joining his eldest brother Brian Doyle-Murray. That way he obtained a part in "Chicago's Second City", a group of comics
Bill Murray showed up in 1984 in "Ghostbusters" together with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Another films to be mentioned in his career are: "Shame of the Jungle" (1975), "Meatballs" (1979), "Where the Buffalo Roam" (1980), "The Razor's Edge" (1984) and "Ghostbusters 2" (1989).
His ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field went over the backstop.
He is a partner with his brothers in Murray Bros. Caddy Shack, a restaurant chain located near St. Augustine.

The state of Minnesota is located in the Midwestern United States.
Nearly sixty percent of Minnesota's residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area known as the "Twin Cities", the center of transportation, business and industry, education and home to an internationally known arts community.
Total Area: 12th among states, 225,181 sq km (86,943 sq mi).
Because of its thousands of lakes, Minnesota has 90,000 miles of shoreline, more than California, Florida and Hawaii combined.
The large majority of residents are of German or Nordic descent, but ethnic diversity has increased in recent decades.
During the winter of 1888, residents of St. Paul built an ice palace at the winter festival. Before melting, it was considered one of the largest buildings in the world, measuring 14 stories high and covering an acre of land.

Olympic rings

The Olympic Games were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various city-states of Ancient Greece held in honor of Zeus.
The exact origins of the Games are shrouded in myth and legend but records indicate that they began in 776 BC in Olympia in Greece.
During a celebration of the Games, an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their countries to the Games in safety.
In 1894, a French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin, proposed a revival of the ancient tradition, and thus the modern-day Olympic Summer Games were born.
The first Winter Olympic Games were held in Chamonix, France in 1924.
The ancient Olympics were rather different from the modern Games. There were fewer events, and only free men who spoke Greek could compete (although a woman, Bilistiche is also mentioned as a winner).

Chess game

Did you know that you can play the first four turns in a game of chess in 318,979,564,000 ways?
Soccer is the world's most popular game.
Golf was first played by ancient Romans who used bent wooden sticks and leather ball stuffed with feathers for this purpose.
National Football League (NFL) used to be APFA before June 1922.
Turkey knocked Spain out during a World Cup qualifier by drawing straws. The straws were picked by a blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco.
Laos, Thailand and Cambodia have built a 27-hole golf course on the border between the three countries. Most of this golf course was previously a minefield.
The first boxing match ever filmed was between Mike Leonard and Jack Cushing in 1894.

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