New year by numbers

Happy new year

Quote

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
– Jim Rohn

Quote

It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Bill Gates

How to outsmart multiple choice test

William Poundstone, author of "Rock Breaks Scissors: A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody," claims to have found several common patterns in multiple-choice tests, including computer-randomized exams like the SATs.
After examining 100 tests - 2,456 questions in total - from varied sources, including middle school, high school, college, and professional school exams; drivers' tests; licensing exams for firefighters and radio operators; and even newspaper quizzes, Poundstone says he found statistical patterns across all sources.

First, ignore conventional wisdom.
You've probably been given test-taking advice along the lines of "always guess the middle answer if you don't know," or "avoid any answer that uses the words never, always, all, or none," at some point in your life. However, according to Poundstone, this conventional wisdom doesn't hold up against statistics. In fact, he found that the answers "none of the above" or "all of the above" were correct 52% of the time. Choosing one of these answers gives you a 90% improvement over random guessing.
Look at the surrounding answers.
Poundstone found correct answer choices hardly repeated consecutively, so looking at the answers of the questions you do know will help you figure out the ones you're stuck on. For example, if you're stuck on question #2, but know that the answer to #1 is A and the answer to #3 is D, those choices can probably be eliminated for #2. Of course, "knowledge trumps outguessing," Poundstone reminds us. Cross out answers you know are wrong based on facts first.
Choose the longest answer.
Poundstone also noticed that the longest answer on multiple-choice tests was usually correct. "Test makers have to make sure that right answers are indisputably right," he says. "Often this demands some qualifying language. They may not try so hard with wrong answers." If one choice is noticeably longer than its counterparts, it's likely the correct answer.
Eliminate the outliers.
Some exams, like the SATs, are randomized using computers, negating any patterns usually found in the order of the answers. However, no matter their order, answer choices that are incongruent with the rest are usually wrong, according to Poundstone. He gives the following sample answers from an SAT practice test, without including the question:
A. haphazard...radical
B. inherent...controversial
C. improvised...startling
D. methodical...revolutionary
E. derivative...gradual
Because the meaning of "gradual" stands out from the other words in the right column, choice E can be eliminated. Poundstone then points out that "haphazard" and "improvised," have almost identical meanings. Because these choices are so close in meaning, A and C can also be eliminated, allowing you to narrow down over half the answers without even reading the question. "It's hard to see how one could be unambiguously correct and the other unambiguously wrong," he says. For the record, the correct answer is D.

Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking is the former Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and author of A Brief History of Time which was an international bestseller. Now the Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics and Founder of the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge, his other books for the general reader include A Briefer History of Time, the essay collection Black Holes and Baby Universe and The Universe in a Nutshell.

In 1963, Hawking contracted motor neurone disease and was given two years to live. Yet he went on to Cambridge to become a brilliant researcher and Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. From 1979 to 2009 he held the post of Lucasian Professor at Cambridge, the chair held by Isaac Newton in 1663. Professor Hawking has over a dozen honorary degrees and was awarded the CBE in 1982. He is a fellow of the Royal Society and a Member of the US National Academy of Science. Stephen Hawking is regarded as one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists since Einstein.

#Stephenhawking  #physicist

History of leather and its role in our development

Leather has played an important role in the development of civilisation. From prehistoric times man has used the skins of animals to satisfy his basic needs. He has used hides to make clothing, shelter, carpets and even decorative attire. To the Egyptian lady, a fur piece was highly prized as her jewellery. From leather, man made footwear, belts, clothing, containers for liquids, boats and even armour. The principle protective armour of the Roman soldier was a heavy leather shirt.

In recorded history, pieces of leather dating from 1300 B.C. have been found in Egypt. Primitive societies in Europe, Asia and North America all developed the technique of turning skins into leather goods independently of one another. The Greeks were using leather garments in the age of the Homeric heroes ( about 1200 B.C. ), and the use of leather later spread throughout the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, the Chinese knew the art of making leather . The Indians of North America also had developed great skills in leather work before the coming of the white man.

#leather #history

Christmas History

The Chronography of 354 AD contains early evidence of the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus. This was in Rome, while in Eastern Christianity the birth of Jesus was already celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6.The December 25 celebration was imported into the East later: in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the 4th century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria only in the following century. Even in the West, the January 6 celebration of the nativity of Jesus seems to have continued until after 380. In 245,Origen of Alexandria, writing about Leviticus 12:1–8, commented that Scripture mentions only sinners as celebrating their birthdays, namely Pharaoh, who then had his chief baker hanged (Genesis 40:20–22), and Herod, who then had John the Baptist beheaded (Mark 6:21–27), and mentions saints as cursing the day of their birth, namely Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:14–15) and Job (Job 3:1–16). In 303, Arnobius ridiculed the idea of celebrating the birthdays of gods, a passage cited as evidence that Arnobius was unaware of any nativity celebration.Since Christmas does not celebrate Christ's birth "as God" but "as man", this is not evidence against Christmas being a feast at this time. The fact the Donatists of North Africa celebrated Christmas may indicate that the feast was established by the time that church was created in 311.

#Christmas#history

Mercury---A Ford brand

Mercury was an automobile brand of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick (and former Oldsmobile) brand, and Chrysler's DeSoto division.

From 1945 to 2011, Mercury was half of the Lincoln-Mercury division of Ford; however, for the 1958-1960 model years, the Lincoln-Mercury division was known as Lincoln-Edsel-Mercury with the inclusion of the Edsel brand. Through rebadging, the majority of Mercury models were based on Ford platforms.

The name "Mercury" is derived from the messenger of the gods of Roman mythology, and during its early years, the Mercury brand was known for performance, which was briefly revived in 2003 with the Mercury Marauder. The brand was sold in the United States, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Middle East.

Harry Houdini

Harry Houdini  was a Hungarian-American illusionist and stunt performer, noted for his sensational escape acts. He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the US and then as "Harry Handcuff Houdini" on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can.

In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London's Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown. While many suspected that these escapes were faked, Houdini presented himself as the scourge of fake spiritualists. As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who pirated his escape stunts.

Houdini made several movies, but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator, and aimed to become the first man to fly a plane in Australia.

Hepatitis

Hepatitis  is a medical condition defined by the inflammation of theliver and characterized by the presence ofinflammatory cells in the tissue of the organ. Hepatitis may occur with limited or no symptoms, but often leads to yellow discoloration of the skin, mucus membranes, and conjunctivae, poor appetite and malaise. Hepatitis is acute when it lasts less than six months and chronic when it persists longer.

Motivation

Good things comes to those who
Believe

Better things comes to those who are
Patient

N Best things comes to those who
Don't Give Up

D B Cooper--unsolved mystery

D. B. Cooper is a media epithet popularly used to refer to an unidentified man who hijacked a Boeing aircraft in the airspace between Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, on November 24, 1971, extorted $200,000 in ransom (equivalent to $1,160,000 in 2014), and parachuted to an uncertain fate. Despite an extensive manhunt and an ongoing FBI investigation, the perpetrator has never been located or positively identified. The case remains the only unsolved air piracy in American aviation history.

The suspect purchased his airline ticket using the alias Dan Cooper, but due to a news media miscommunication he became known in popular lore as "D. B. Cooper". Hundreds of leads have been pursued in the ensuing years, but no conclusive evidence has ever surfaced regarding Cooper's true identity or whereabouts. Numerous theories of widely varying plausibility have been proposed by experts, reporters, and amateur enthusiasts. The discovery of a small cache of ransom bills in 1980 triggered renewed interest but ultimately only deepened the mystery, and the great majority of the ransom remains unrecovered.

While FBI investigators have stated from the beginning that Cooper probably did not survive his risky jump, the agency maintains an active case file—which has grown to more than 60 volumes—and continues to solicit creative ideas and new leads from the public. "Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream," suggested Special Agent Larry Carr, leader of the investigation team since 2006. "Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle."

S & W model 1

The Smith & Wesson Model 1 was the first firearm manufactured by Smith & Wesson, with production spanning the years 1857 through 1882. It was the first commercially successful revolver to use rimfire cartridges instead of loose powder, musket ball, and percussion caps. It is a single-action, tip-up revolver holding seven .22 Short black powder cartridges.

Early history

As Samuel Colt's patent on the revolver was set to expire in 1856,Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson were researching a prototype for a metallic cartridge revolver. When they discovered that a former Colt employee named Rollin White held the patent for a "Bored-through" cylinder, a component needed for this new invention, the two partners approached White to manufacture a newly designed revolver-and-cartridge combination.

Rather than make White a partner in their company, Smith and Wesson paid him a royalty of $0.25 on every "Model 1" revolver that they made. It would become White's responsibility to defend his patent in any court cases which eventually led to his financial ruin, but was very advantageous for the new Smith & Wesson Company.

Benefits of Garlic

Garlic could end your hair loss problems

Garlic clears acne.

Garlic prevents and treats colds.

Soothe psoriasis with garlic.

Control your weight with garlic.

Remove a splinter with garlic

Automatic Parking

Automatic parking is an autonomous car-maneuvering system that moves a vehicle from a traffic lane into a parking spot to perform parallel, perpendicular or angle parking. The automatic parking system aims to enhance the comfort and safety of driving in constrained environments where much attention and experience is required to steer the car. The parking maneuver is achieved by means of coordinated control of the steering angle and speed which takes into account the actual situation in the environment to ensure collision-free motion within the available space.

Why do people love to play guitar?

Why do people love to play guitar?

The guitar is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Some people love to listen to it, while others try their hand at playing one, whether it’s acoustic, classic or electric. You may wonder what the appeal of playing the guitar is though.

They love the sound

The first thing that attracts a person to an instrument is the sound. If listening to an instrument is akin to nails on a chalk board for you, then you won’t want to play it. However, if you love the sound when it is played well, it will make you more likely to give it a try yourself. Guitar has a very distinctive sound.

It’s soothing

The process of playing each note is actually quite soothing, once the movements have become second nature. You don’t necessarily have to play a well known song. Sometimes it’s quite therapeutic to play guitar and see where it goes.

Guitar is portable

The guitar is one of the most portable instruments in the world. Certainly the most portable one which can produce multiple notes, and this makes it more appealing than a keyboard, because you can zip it up in its case and carry it on your back.

Easy to teach

The guitar is relatively easy to teach at its most basic level. You don’t have to read sheet music, instead learning the chords and feeling them out as you go. One of the best ways to teach someone, is by teaching them how to play certain songs

Don't be a man of success be a man of value

Rosetta Mission

Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004 on an Ariane 5 rocket and reached the comet on 6 August 2014, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. (Previous missions had conducted successful flybys of seven other comets.) It is one of ESA's Horizon 2000 cornerstone missions.The spacecraft consists of the Rosetta orbiter, which features 12 instruments, and the Philae lander, with nine additional instruments.

Personality affects maths-enhancing brain-zap method

Zapping your brain might make you better at maths tests – or worse. It depends how anxious you are about taking the test in the first place.

A recent surge of studies has shown that brain stimulation can make people more creative and better at maths, and can even improve memory, but these studies tend to neglect individual differences. Now, Roi Cohen Kadosh at the University of Oxford and his colleagues have shown that brain stimulation can have completely opposite effects depending on your personality.

Previous research has shown that a type of non-invasive brain stimulation called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) – which enhances brain activity using an electric current – can improve mathematical ability when applied to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area involved in regulating emotion. To test whether personality traits might affect this result, Kadosh's team tried the technique on 25 people who find mental arithmetic highly stressful, and 20 people who do not.

They found that participants with high maths anxiety made correct responses more quickly and, after the test, showed lower levels of cortisol, an indicator of stress. On the other hand, individuals with low maths anxiety performed worse after tDCS.

"It is hard to believe that all people would benefit similarly [from] brain stimulation," says Cohen Kadosh. He says that further research could shed light on how to optimise the technology and help to discover who is most likely to benefit from stimulation

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and  more complex,it takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move

Albert Einstein

Stripeless white tiger

The modern strain of snow white tigers came from repeated brother–sister matings of Bhim and Sumita at Cincinnati Zoo. The gene involved may have come from a Siberian tiger, via their part-Siberian ancestor Tony. Continued inbreeding appears to have caused a recessive gene for stripelessness to show up. About one fourth of Bhim and Sumita's offspring were stripeless. Their striped white offspring, which have been sold to zoos around the world, may also carry the stripeless gene.

Motivation

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon

Vegetable Intelligence

It depends on how you define intelligence.  In the way of problem solving, and flexibility of thinking, I would say probably not really, but there are things that plants can do that seem intelligent.  So, there are types of creeper that manage to grab hold of other plants and climb up them, and you use them for support.  That seems quite clever and I've seen time lapse videos of those where you can see the creepers sort of spiralling around and reaching for something to hold on to.

There's also the fact that when you plant a seed, the roots always know to grow downwards and the shoots know to grow upwards, and that’s because of are some chemicals in the plant that tell it which way gravity is, and that allows it to know which way up to grow.  So you don’t have to worry about which way up you're planting your seeds.

Venus flytrap is a very good example

Venus flytraps are very clever.  They’ve got hairs on the inside of the trap part.  What's particularly clever about them is that they don’t get triggered if just one hair is touched and that’s to save energy because it’s quite energetically expensive for them to close.  And if they did it every time a leaf fell on them or a drop of rain or something, that will be a waste.  So they only trigger if two of the hairs are brushed in quick succession because that’s quite a good indication that there's something moving on the inside and it’s a good idea to close and trap it.

February

The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar.

At certain intervals February was truncated to 23 or 24 days, and a 27-day intercalary month.

Under the reforms that instituted the Julian calendar, Intercalaris was abolished, leap years occurred regularly every fourth year, and in leap years February gained a 29th day. Thereafter, it remained the second month of the calendar year, meaning the order that months are displayed (January, February, March, ..., December) within a year-at-a-glance calendar. The Gregorian calendar reforms made slight changes to the system for determining which years were leap years and thus contained a 29-day February.

Quantum Computers

A quantum computer is a computation system that makes direct use of quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform operations on data. Quantum computers are different from digital computers based on transistors. Whereas digital computers require data to be encoded into binary digits (bits), each of which is always in one of two definite states (0 or 1), quantum computation uses qubits (quantum bits), which can be in superpositions of states. A theoretical model is the quantum Turing machine, also known as the universal quantum computer.

Shell 'art' made 300,000 years before humans evolved

A shell etched by Homo erectus is by far the oldest engraving ever found, challenging what we know about the origin of art and complex human thought

THE artist – if she or he can be called that – was right-handed and used a shark's tooth. They had a remarkably steady hand and a strong arm. Half a million years ago, on the banks of a calm river in central Java, they scored a deep zigzag into a clam shell.

We will never know what was going on inside its maker's head, but the tidy, purposeful line (pictured above right) has opened a new window into the origins of our modern creative mind.

It was found etched into the shell of a fossilised freshwater clam, and is around half a million years old – making the line by far the oldest engraving ever found. The date also means it was made two to three hundred thousand years before our own species evolved, by a more ancient hominin,Homo erectus.

Why we shout in Anger?

A Hindu saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled'n asked.

'Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?'

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said,'Because we lose our calm, we shout.'

'But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.'asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, .

'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small...'

The saint continued,'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper'n they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other'n that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

He looked at his disciples and said.

'So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.

Fun facts

1. If you are right handed, you will tend to chew your food on your right side. If you are left handed, you will tend to chew your food on your left side.

2. If you stop getting thirsty, you need to drink more water. For when a human body is dehydrated, its thirst mechanism shuts off.

3. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

4. Your tongue is germ free only if it is pink. If it is white there is a thin film of bacteria on it.

5. The Mercedes-Benz motto is “Das Beste oder Nichts” meaning “the best or nothing”.

6. The Titanic was the first ship to use the SOS signal.

7. The pupil of the eye expands as much as 45 percent when a person looks at something pleasing.

8. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

9. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system.

10. The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear.

Astronauts pen

The Space Pen (also known as the Zero Gravity Pen), marketed by Fisher Space Pen Company, is a pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and is able to write in zero gravity, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle, and in a very wide range of temperatures.

The ballpoint is made from tungsten carbide and is precisely fitted in order to avoid leaks. A sliding float separates the ink from the pressurized gas. The thixotropic ink in the hermetically sealed and pressurized reservoir is able to write for three times longer than a standard ballpoint pen. The pen can write at altitudes up to 12,500 feet (3800 m). The ink is forced out by compressed nitrogen at a pressure of nearly 35 psi (240 kPa). Operating temperatures range from −30 to 250 °F (−35 to 120 °C). The pen has an estimated shelf life of 100 years.

Antigravity

Quantum levitation- antigravity

Quantum levitation as it is called is a process where scientists use the properties of quantum physics to levitate an object (specifically, a superconductor) over a magnetic source

Provides a frictionless motion and also works when inverted

Cryptex

The cryptex featured in the novel is described as a stone cylinder comprising "six doughnut-sized disks of marble that had been stacked and affixed to one another within a delicate brass framework"; end caps make it impossible to see inside the hollow cylinder. Each of the disks is carved with the entire alphabet and, since they can be rotated individually, the disks can be aligned to spell different five-letter words.

The cryptex works "much like a bicycle's combination lock", and if one arranges the disks to spell out the correct password, "the tumblers inside align, and the entire cylinder slides apart" . In the inner compartment of the cryptex, secret information can be hidden, written on a scroll of thin papyrus wrapped around a fragile vial of vinegar as a security measure: if one does not know the password but tries to force the cryptex open, the vial will break and the vinegar will dissolve the papyrus before it can be read.

Do now

History of car rims

The industry might be new, but wheel culture is not. People have been tricking out rims in this country since the wagons went West. But rims didn’t become big business until the mid-’90s. That’s also when “rim inflation” exploded, taking us into the current world of 32-inch rims. It’s a world that earlier generations of car and wheel aficionados could not have imagined.

The story of how modern wheels blew up past 30 inches is a long and complicated one. Which came first: big wheels or big rims? “You’re going to get a different story from everyone you ask,” says David Zuckerberg, a pioneer in the development of donk culture.

Veteran observers say that the pendulum is beginning to swing. “I see standard sizes falling back and settling in between 18 and 22 inches,” says Quincy Jonathan of Victoria Tire & Wheels, the Los Angeles showroom that has been in the business since 1965. “It’s already starting to go down, and I’m seeing a lot of 24 inches right now.”

Whatever the size of the wheel, more people around the world are taking wheels seriously. The Asian market is growing, with China seen as the next big customer. We recently spoke to some custom car experts about how wheels became an art form, and what we can expect in the future.

What makes italian marble good?

The most famous of the marbles is from the Carrara region of Italy. Used by Michelangelo, Donatello and Canova in their sculptures, Carrara marble was always chosen for its purity and durability. Calacatta and Statuario, in all their different forms (and there are many of them), are more of the Italian marbles from this region, similarly admired for their white colour. (By the way, "Carrera" is a Porsche and "Carrara" is the Italian marble.)

In our experience, Italy has many of the best marbles in the world, having stood the test of time in some of the most famous places in the world. For example, in the displays at the Vatican Museum, the Italian marble is of exceptional quality.

Italian marble has earned its reputation primarily because the quarries in Italy have access to some of the best raw material in the world. Secondly, Italian quarries have set the highest standards for quality control and everything from selecting and cutting the blocks to packaging and shipping is done with precision.

So that you can better understand where to use Italian marble in your home, it helps to learn about how it is formed.

Marble has also been known as “crystallized limestone” because this is exactly how it is formed. When the sedimentary rock (limestone) is subject to a high temperature and immense pressure, large crystals form and bind together to create the metamorphic rock, marble. In marble however, we do not see the fossils in the same way that we would in limestone as the heat needed to form the crystals means that most of the impurities (fossils) are destroyed. So you are left with large sections of white marble with a varying degree of coloured ‘veins’ running through it which depends on the type of minerals present in the rock; this naturally varies depending on the original location of the marble, giving a uniqueness to each and every one.

The intense heat and pressure in the earth's core and the consequent formation of large crystals means that marble is harder and more durable than the limestone it originated from. This makes it an ideal choice for any areas of your home that are in frequent use, such as kitchens, bathrooms and hallways. Marble has been used for centuries not only in construction but in art too, for statues and vases for example, thanks to it resilient nature. Marble can be polished to give a high shine due to the way that light reflects off of the large, pure crystals. A simple sheet of polished marble with its exquisite veining can, in its own right, be a work of art produced by nature.

The fact that marble is generally more durable than limestone does not mean, however, that it is indestructible. It requires a little awareness of what can damage it.

Motivation

How goosebumps form

Goosebumps form when adrenaline causes contractions of tiny muscles attached to each hair. The muscles pull the hairs up and the hairs pull the skin.
you can also get goose bumps when you get a chill from your thrill. Being afraid can make You sweat..which cools you off. The raised hairs that produce goose bumps are an attempt to trap air and body heat

How goosebumps form

Goosebumps form when adrenaline causes contractions of tiny muscles attached to each hair. The muscles pull the hairs up and the hairs pull the skin.
you can also get goose bumps when you get a chill from your thrill. Being afraid can make You sweat..which cools you off. The raised hairs that produce goose bumps are an attempt to trap air and body heat

Be positive

True fact

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz) from fixed and mobile devices, and building personal area networks (PANs). Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994.

Sun Facts

One million Earths could fit inside the Sun

The Sun will one day be about the size of Earth and will be called white dwarf

The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass in the Solar System

The Sun is an almost perfect sphere

Light from the Sun takes eight minutes to reach Earth

The Sun travels at 220 kilometres per second

The Sun has a very strong magnetic field

The temperature inside the Sun can reach 15 million degrees Celsius

Chimps are mentally superior

Chimpanzees are better at memorizing things and recalling numbers than almost any human, according to a controversial new study.

Results of a research project at Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute in Japan involving 14 chimpanzees have shown the animals have quick-working minds to rival their two-legged counterparts.

The ground-breaking findings were presented this week during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston by Professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa.

Ayumu, age 12, has learned the sequence of digits from one to 19, and it only takes him a second to remember their exact positions on the monitor

The chimp touches the number one. The remaining numerals are automatically hidden behind white squares. But relying on his memory, Ayumu can correctly touch the spot where each number was, in ascending order - something that an average person is incapable of doing.

The researcher told the Toronto Star that that the reason chimps can memorize and recall things better than humans is because the animals are living only in the present, and their minds are not overloaded with thinking of the past and future.
Matsuzawa said his findings are considered controversial because many people in the West are not ready to accept that chimps are mentally superior to humans

Earth's most silent place

The longest anyone can bear Earth's quietest place is 45 minutes

They say silence is golden – but there’s a room in the U.S that’s so quiet it becomes unbearable after a short time. The longest that anyone has survived in the ‘anechoic chamber’ at Orfield Laboratories in South Minneapolis is just 45 minutes. It’s 99.99 per cent sound absorbent and holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s quietest place, but stay there too long and you may start hallucinating.

It achieves its ultra-quietness by virtue of 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass acoustic wedges, double walls of insulated steel and foot-thick concrete. The company’s founder and president, Steven Orfield, told MailOnline: ‘We challenge people to sit in the chamber in the dark - one reporter stayed in there for 45 minutes.

Strange facts

In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes!

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos!

Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500!

The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad!

Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating!

Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult!

One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year!  

A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun's surface!

It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times!

When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second!

Norwegian Spiral Anomaly

On December 9, 2009, a strange phenomenon was witnessed over Russia, and photographed in northern Norway and Sweden. The event began when a blue light soared up from behind a mountain in the north end of Russia. The light stopped in mid-air, and then began to move in circles. Within seconds a giant spiral had covered the entire sky. Once expanded, a green-blue beam of light shot out from the center of the object, lasting for ten to twelve minutes before disappearing completely. Thousands of onlookers described the event. One account indicated that the object appeared as a giant fireball which traveled around in circles. It had a powerful light that surrounded its center, and some shooting star visuals. The pictures and video of the bizarre event quickly spread over the Internet, and were accompanied by many claims that the lights looked like a path to another dimension, similar to one that you would see in the movies. After the story was published all over the world, the Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged a failed test of a RSM-56 Bulava missile, on the day in question. It has been suggested that the phenomenon was the result of the failed missile test.Apparently, the missile failure caused the exhaust of the projectile to travel out sideways, sending the object into an uncontrolled spin. However, people have proclaimed that the event looks like a wormhole opening up, and that the occurrence has been linked with the recent high-energy experiments undertaken at the Large Hadron Collider, in Switzerland. Many Intellectuals have voiced a problem with the official explanation of a failed missile launch, stemming from the fact that the event was sustained for so long. Some have gone so far as to draw connections with the famous Project Blue Beam conspiracy theory, which involves a NASA plan to trick the world population into believing in extraterrestrial life, using high powered lasers that are often mistaken for UFOs. Others suggest a secret government weapons test involving the HAARP program or a Russian equivalent.

Oregon vortex

A Place Where Gravity Has a Mind of Its Own

The Oregon Vortex is the name given to a naturally occurring physical phenomenon that can be witnessed in Gold Hill, Oregon, and it surrounding areas. For anyone unfamiliar, Oregon is a U.S. state located in the north-west corner of the country. The area has a long and storied history in the Native American culture and was often viewed as cursed land. The Oregon Vortex has been described as a spherical field of force that causes objects to defy the laws of gravity. It covers a large area and every person standing on the grounds appears to be leaning in one direction. It feels as if you are
standing straight up, but your body is inclined towards the magnetic north or south. This creates an optical illusion that drastically changing a person’s height. Someone can walk across the grounds and it looks like they are shrinking or growing.

At the Oregon vortex, objects appear to roll up hills and can balance on their sides. Many people claim that the site is paranormal in nature and sits at the intersection of ley lines, at the boundary of geomagnetic fields, and is an actual gravitational anomaly. The strange effects are most strong during a full moon and many people get ill and dizzy when visiting the vortex. Others feel that the area is simply full of optical illusions and one large gravity hill.

A gravity hill is a place where the layout of the surrounding land produces an optical illusion that makes it seem like a very slight downhill slope is an uphill slope. This does not explain the height illusion, but people claim that the changes in height are due to the theory of forced perspective, which involves a distorted background causing an optical illusion. However, this theory has been disproved, as the height effect can be viewed from every angle in the area with many different background settings

Self Confidence

The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear and get a record of successful experiences behind you.

Biodegradable car parts

A car made from grass may not sound sturdy, but scientists say plant-based cars are the wave of the future.

Researchers in Australia and England are working on developing materials from plants like hemp and elephant grass to replace plastic and metal-based car components. Scientists say the materials are biodegradable and can increase fuel efficiency since they weigh about 30 percent less than currently used materials.

"The lighter the car, the less fuel you need to propel it," explains Alan Crosky of the School of Material Science and Engineering in the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Crosky and his partners have been developing tough material from hemp, the reedy, less controversial cousin of the marijuana plant. "Hemp fibers have higher strength-to-weight ratios than steel and can also be considerably cheaper to manufacture," he says.

The hemp used in car construction contains only traces of the narcotic tetrahydrocannabinol, which lends marijuana its psychedelic effect.

Crosky explains building cars—even their outer shells—from plants like hemp could reduce the number of rusting car bodies and rotting car parts on old lots. The plant fibers are cleaned, heated, in some cases blended with small amounts of biodegradable plastics and molded into hardened paneling and filling.

Predicta TV

The Philco Predicta is an American television made in several models by the Philco company in the late 1950s. It is arguably the most iconic television set in existence and is to many people the "classic" 1950s TV set. With its trademark detached picture tube, it is atypical of most early television sets which were build in sturdy wooden or Bakelite cabinets. It was one of the first commercially released televisions to feature a nearly flat screen.

Pain n Gain

Invisible ship experiment

The Philadelphia Experiment is an alleged military experiment that is said to have been carried out by the U.S. Navy at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania some time around October 28, 1943. The U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was claimed to be rendered invisible (or "cloaked") to enemy devices.

The experiment was allegedly based on an aspect of the unified field theory, a term coined by Albert Einstein; the theory aims to describe– mathematically and physically– the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity—in other words, uniting the fields of electromagnetism and gravity into a single field.

According to the accounts, unspecified "researchers" thought that some version of this field would enable using large electrical generators to bend light around an object via refraction, so that the object became completely invisible. The Navy regarded this of military value and, by the same accounts, it sponsored the experiment.

Testing allegedly began in the summer of 1943, and it was supposedly successful to a limited degree. One test allegedly resulted in the Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some witnesses[citation needed] reporting a "greenish fog" appearing in its place. Crew members supposedly complained of severe nausea afterwards. Also, it is said[citation needed] that when the ship reappeared, some sailors were embedded in the metal structures of the ship, including one sailor who ended up on a deck level below that where he began and had his hand embedded in the steel hull of the ship as well as some sailors who went "completely bananas."

The story is widely believed to be a hoax but some people claims it to be true.

Bonsai tree

Although the word ‘Bon-sai’ is Japanese, the art it describes originated in the Chinese empire.  By the year 700 AD the Chinese had started the art of ‘pun-sai’ using special techniques to grow dwarf trees in containers.  Originally only the elite of the society practiced pun-tsai with native-collected specimens and the trees where spread throughout China as luxurious gifts. During the Kamakura period, the period in which Japan adopted most of China’s cultural trademarks, the art of growing trees in containers was introduced into Japan. The Japanese developed Bonsai along certain lines due to the influence of Zen Buddhism and the fact that Japan is only 4% the size of mainland China.  The range of landscape forms was thus much more limited.  Many well-known techniques, styles and tools were developed in Japan from Chinese originals.  Although known to a limited extent outside Asia for three centuries, only recently has Bonsai truly been spread outside its homelands.