FUN WEIRD FACTS 1-10 Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating. Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia. Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult. 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. A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood. During your lifetime, you'll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that's the weight of about 6 elephants. Dolphins sleep with one eye open. A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h. There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just horses. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails. |
About Me
- Mohammed Nihas
- I am basically a unplanned bob and generally easy-going. I adhere to Scientific Principles, and I am a skeptic. I tend to talk about a lot of things, and have opinions about everything I saw. I try to be straight-forward so when I say something, people will understand. I can talk sporadically. My thoughts jump around, and I’ll say whatever is there. Perhaps this will be confusing, perhaps it will not. I’m a Half-atheist. What does this mean? Exactly what it says. It does not mean I will go on rampages against religions. However, when I disagree with something, I will say so and I will say why. Sometimes, what I have to say may seem offensive. Please know that it is not my intent to offend. This is, however, my space and my freedom of speech, and I write about whatever is on my mind. More on that, I love talking to people having intelligent discussions. I’ve been known to not keep in touch with someone across the hall while talking at great length with someone across the country. The difference lies not in personality, but in the ability to converse.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Antisa Khvichava - World Olest Women Celebrates 130th Birthday
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Oldest Women
Jeanne Louise Calment of Arles, France was the world's longest living person. Jeanne was born on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997. Her height was 4'11" (1.50m). Jeanne died at the age of 122 in a nursing home in Arles. She lived 122 years and 164 days (44,724 days total). Jeanne's name appears in the Guinness Book of World Records. At age 121, she released her two CDs, one in French and another in English titled, Maitresse du Temps (Time's Mistress). During the end stage, she became blind, she could not hear properly and was confined to a wheelchair but was in high spirits and mentally alert. Interesting fact is that Jeanne smoked cigarettes until the age of 117.
Worlds Tallest Man.
The world's tallest man ever recorded in the history of mankind - Robert Wadlow, was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1918, and was 6 feet tall by the time he was even eight years old. He suffered from the disorder Gigantism that makes the lower portions of the body extremely large, while the head and torso remain at normal sizes. This is caused by a pituitary gland tumor that excretes large amounts of growth hormone, resulting in the disorder that is technically called as acromegalic gigantism. He reached a final height of 8 feet 11 inches at the age of twenty-one years, and finally died of an inflamed leg.
The story of the 256 old year man
In our today world it is impossible for one to believe that a man can live up to the age of 150 years let alone 256 years. According to Time magazine and the New York Times that were published in the year 1933, there died a man whose age was 256 years. I am not sure if he was lucky to have lived up to this age or not.
He went by the name of Li Ching-Yun. In his lifetime he was able to bury 23 wives. He was able to get 180 descendants by the time of his death. If he were in Africa he would have been the role model of many men as the worth of a man was measured by the number of wives and children one had.
Li Ching-Yun claimed that the secret to his long life was sitting like a tortoise, sleeping like a dog, walking sprightly like a pigeon and keeping a quiet heart. He shared this information with a warlord that wanted to know what to do to live that long. Li insisted that peace of mind and calmness were the main contributors to his long life. For those that wonder what the man ate, you will be surprised to learn that he mainly consumed rice and wine.
Not much is known about the early life of Li Chung. The information that is known would be that he was born in the same town where he died. This would be in the province of Szechwan in China. He was literate by the age of ten and often traveled to Shansi, Tibet, Kansu and Manchuria to get herbs.
He continued selling herbs for almost 100 years. He sold his own herbs and also other peoples herbs. Time magazine also indicates that his fingernails were six inches long.
Many people by the age of 80 are usually shriveled and cannot do a lot of things for themselves. Surprisingly Li was very youthful and could do a lot for himself. This lead to many people doubting if he was that old.
Li admitted that he was born in the year 1736 and us this would make him only 197 years contrary to the supposed 256 years. It is a professor at the Minuko University that proved that Li was born in the year 1677. He was able to proof this by producing records that show that the Chinese government honored him on his 200th birthday.
This leads to the huge question if Li had forgotten his own age or was he even the legit Li. Looking at it from a medical perspective, it seems impossible for one to be able to live for that long. The age of Li has surpassed the official record by more than 130 years. It is claimed that he looked like a sixty year old.
The only reasonable conclusion would be that he either had a superhuman body or all this stories are mere exaggerations. Problem is we may never know the complete truth
Computers Powered By Poop
Today almost everything runs on electricity. We use electricity to run trains, cook, lighting and so much more. Thus it is very important that people are able to know where they can get all the required electricity. People are able to tap energy from alternative sources of energy to help relieve the common sources of electricity.
Many companies are trying their best to try and cut down their electricity consumption. A good example would be Google. Google consumes a lot of energy. Google searches require the same energy that an 11 watt bulb requires when it's on for an hour. So one can be able to estimate how much energy is required for the Google servers and all other equipment to run. Thus Google has tried to cut their energy costs by developing advanced cooling methods and using energy saving techniques.
Others companies are also following the same trend. For example HP. It presented a paper to the 4th international conference on energy sustainability that describes how HP plans how they will use manure of cows to power their data centres. The title of the paper is design of Farm Waste-Driven supply Side Infrastructure for Data centers.
The manure that would be used will be from midsized dairy farms. Electricity will be derived form it by putting it through an anaerobic digester. The heat that is derived from this process would be used to power the turbines of the data centers cooling system. The electricity that is derived from this process will be used to power the data center. The temperature of the anaerobic digester would be regulated by the waste heat that is generated by the data center. This process ensures that there is maximum efficiency. This process also produces enough energy to be able to run the dairy farm. Thus one not only saves power use by the data centers but also the dairy farm.
According to HP, a dairy farm with about 10000 cows produces approximately 200000 tones of manure in a year. The manure produces methane gas. According to research this gas is more detrimental to the environment than carbon dioxide. The manure also pollutes the environment by polluting the rivers and streams. Thus HP using this manure to produce electricity will greatly improve the environment as it gets rid of this pollutant.
Other than reducing pollution, this process will also help boost the economy of the farms. The farms will be able to use this same electricity to run their farms and also earn huge chunks of money by selling the manure to be used elsewhere to produce the electricity. The farms can earn approximately two million dollars annually from selling the power that they produce.