The Everything Corner

Oscar Wilde

2009-05-13T22:56:00.004+02:00

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, poet and author
Born in Dublin, his mother was a successful writer and Irish nationalist. His father was a knighted ear and eye surgeon
After graduating from Trinity College he fell in love with Florence Balcombe, who became engaged to Bram Stoker. After learning this, Wilde left Ireland permanently
In London he met Constance Lloyd, they married in 1884 and had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan
A libel trial which publicised Wilde’s homosexuality began in 1895 and resulted in a two-year imprisonment
Prison diminished his health and he spent his last three years penniless in Paris, indulging in the pleasures he had been denied in Britain. He died of cerebral meningitis on 30 November 1900
Wilde was buried in Paris. His tomb in Pere Lechaise was designed by sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein at the request of Robert Ross—probably Wilde’s first lover—who asked for a small compartment to be made for his own ashes.
The angel relief on Wilde’s tomb was originally complete with male genitals, which were broken off and kept as a paperweight by a succession of cemetery keepers. In 2000 a silver prosthesis was installed to replace the vandalised genitals.
The numerous spots on the tombstone are lipstick traces from Wilde’s admirers

Works:
(plays)
-Vera (or The Nihilists)
-The Duchess of Padua
-Salome
-Lady Windermere’s Fan
-A woman of No Importance
-An Ideal Husband
-The Importance of Being Ernest
-La Sainte Courtisane
-A Florentine Tragedy

(prose)
-The Canterville Ghost
-The Happy Prince and other stories
-The Decay of Lying
-Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime and other stories
-The Picture of Dorian Gray (his only novel)
-A House of Pomegranates
-The Soul of Man Under Socialism
-De Profundis
-The Rise of Historical Criticism
-The Letters of Oscar Wilde (1960)
-Teleny or The Reverse of the Medal (probably written by Wilde’s friends and edited by Wilde)

Quotes:
“Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.”

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”

"Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes his biography.”

“Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.”

“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”

“There is no sin except stupidity.”

“Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.”

“I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood.”

“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”

“Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.”

“When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.”

“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”

“Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.”

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

“It is through disobedience that progress has been made.”

“It is the people who don’t know how to play with fire who get burned up.”

“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.”

“Life is never fair. And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”

“Men can be analysed, women merely adored.”

“While I see that there is nothing wrong in what one does, I see that there is something wrong in what one becomes.”

“Everyone is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is.”

“To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development.”

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”

“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.”

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use reading it at all.”

“We are each our own devil, and we make this world out hell.”

“No civilised man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilised man ever knows what a pleasure is.”

“Man is many things, but he is not rational.”

“Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex.”

“Ugliness is one of the seven deadly virtues.”

“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws.”

“None of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.”

“Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”

“The gods are strange, and punish us for what is good and humane in us as much as for what is evil and perverse.”

“An excellent man has no enemies but is intensely disliked by his friends.”

“I have but the simplest taste—I am always satisfied with the best.”

“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.”

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”

The Bard

2009-05-13T22:54:00.005+02:00

Shakespeare’s true date of birth is unknown

He coined the phrase “the beast with two backs” in Othello and invented the word “assassination”

There are only two authentic portraits of William today: an engraving and a monument

The Bard never attended university

The first 26 of his 154 sonnets were said to be directed to an aristocratic young man. Sonnets 127-152 talk about a dark woman whom he seemed to have mixed feelings for

He probably wrote his first play. Henry VI, Part One, when he was around 25

William lived through the Black Death in 1603 when he was 39 and which later returned in 1608

He lost a play called Cardemio. There is no record of its story whatsoever today

He never published any of his plays. His work was posthumously recorded by two actors in a collection called “The First Folio”

He often acted in his own plays as well as other people’s.

Shakespeare is indirectly responsible for the presence of starlings in North America. The species did not exists there until a wealthy New Yorker named Scheifflin released 100 birds in the city’s Central Park in the 1890s as part of a project to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to the U.S.

At age 18 he invested money in the second most prestigious property in Stratford and later doubled his investment on some land he bought near Stratford

He was known as a keen businessman and died wealthy

Chemistry

2009-04-27T18:04:00.004+02:00

A molecule is 2 or more atoms working together in more or less stable arrangement.

H2O (2 atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen) = water

1cm3 (sugar cube size) of air contains 45 billion billion molecules.

Atoms are long-lived. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and has been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you.

It takes atoms some decades to become thoroughly redistributed.

Half a million atoms placed side by side could hide behind a human hair.

Every atom is made from 3 kinds of elementary particles: protons, electrons and neutrons.

If an atom were expanded to the size of a cathedral, the nucleus would be the size of a fly (a fly many thousands of times heavier than the cathedral)

Atoms are mostly empty space.

When two objects come together they don’t actually touch. The negatively charged fields of the two objects repel each other.

Today we know of about 120 elements, 92 of which are natural, a couple dozen are made in labs. The exact number is argued because some synthetic elements only exist for miniscule fractions of a second. Anything over the atom weight of 168 is “pure speculation”.

Life in Victorian Europe

2009-04-27T14:06:00.005+02:00

The Victorians grew up in a world where water was fetched from a well, homes were lit by paraffin lamps and it was considered obscene to leave the house without a hat and gloves.

Bathing was quite an ordeal, and thus was only done once a week. The tin bathtub would slowly be filled by carrying jugs of hot water (heated in the kitchen, of course) up the stairs and, when everyone had finished, jugs of dirty water were carried back down. The rest of the week it was normal to wash your face, feet and underarms each morning before dressing.

Flush toilets were not yet to be found in the majority of homes, bedpans were commonplace and newspaper was often used as toilet paper.

Fashionable young men wore trousers, waistcoat, high-collared shirt with a bowtie, coat and a hat which they would change -- depending on their activity-- sometimes several times a day.

Young women looked forward to 'coming out'-- a term which had a very different meaning then than it does today. It symbolised their entry into womanhood. They would put their hair up and lengthen their skirts. Wearing your hair down was a sign of youth (as in immaturity) or promiscuity. It was not acceptable for women to show their legs. Their knickers ended below the knee and corsets were worn under dresses.

The diet mainly consisted of potatoes, swede (rutabaga), carrots, herring, buttermilk, bread and meat. 60-hour work weeks + overtime was the norm. Life expectancy was about 40-50 years.

At the turn of the century there were only six electric street lamps in Linz -- seven including the one on the bridge. All other lamps used gas or petroleum. In the major cities there were considerably more.

Horse-drawn carriages and trains were the main methods of transportation.
The majority of people went everywhere on foot.

The vast majority of Austrian households were Catholic. People took their religion seriously and devout Catholics attended mass regularly every Sunday as well as additional masses held on holidays.

Families would gather before the image of the Virgin in the evening and pray the Rosary. It was customary for children to be named only after saints. In addition to celebrating your birthday every year you would also celebrate something like a second birthday--your "name day", or the day of the year commemorating the particular saint you were named after.

Coffee, anyone?

2008-10-28T10:34:00.010+01:00

Coffee is the most popular beverage worldwide.

The steam rising from a cup of coffee contains the same amount of antioxidants as three oranges.

Regular coffee drinkers have about 1/3 less asthma symptoms than non-drinkers.

Coffee is graded according to bean quality, quality of preparation, and size of bean.

Beethoven was a coffee lover so particular about his coffee that he always counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his brew.

Frederick the Great had his coffee made with Champagne and a bit of mustard.

Over 5,000,000 people in Brazil are employed by the coffee trade

All of the 50+ countries that grow coffee worldwide lie along the equator between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn

Lloyds of London began as Edward Lloyd’s Coffeehouse.

Scandinavia has the world’s highest per capita annual coffee consumption (nearly 12 kg)

The aroma and flavour are a result of the little beads of an oily substance called coffee essence.

Coffee was first known in Europe as ‘Arabian wine’

Only about 20% of harvested coffee beans are considered to be of highest quality.

Coffee, as a world commodity, is second only to oil.

Jamaica Blue Mountain is regarded as the best coffee in the world.

The average chocolate bar contains about 30 mg of caffeine while a cup of coffee contains 100-150 mg.

BANANAS!

2008-10-28T10:06:00.005+01:00

Horticulturists believe the banana to be the Earth’s first fruit. They’ve been cultivated since the time of recorded history.

A cluster of bananas is called a hand and consists of 10-20 bananas, which are known as fingers. The word “banan” is Arabic for finger.

Banana plants are actually giant herbs of the same family as lilies, orchids and palms.

Bananas are one of the few fruits that ripen best off the plant. If left on, the fruit splits open and the pulp has a cottony texture.

In 2001 there were over 300 banana-related accidents in Britain, most involving people slipping on skins.

In Eastern Africa you can buy beer brewed from bananas.

In South East Asia the banana leaf is used to wrap food instead of plastic bags or cling film.

There are over 500 varieties of banana, including the “apple banana” and the “Red Jamaica” (which is actually red!)

Why to eat them:
* Bananas have no fat, cholesterol or sodium.
* Eating a banana relaxes you, improves your mood and generally makes you feel happier.
* They are also high in iron and potassium, reducing the risk of high blood pressure and stroke.
* Plus, they help boost brain power and digestion, they calm the stomach, soothe heartburn and have 4 times more protein than apples (not to mention 5 times more Vitamin A.)

leggy critters

2008-09-29T17:38:00.014+02:00

Spiders usually have 8 eyes, though some have 6, 4, or even 2.

Some spiders eat their used webs.

Many spiders live one year. A number live 2 or more years.

Female tarantulas live up to 20 years.

Some male spiders offer a “bribe” to the female in form of a fly or other prey prior to mating so they won’t be eaten.

The Golden Wheeling Spider of Namibia escapes wasps by flipping onto its side and cartwheeling away (tee hee!)

Spiders make a new web everyday.

House spiders often stick their nests to door and window frames.

Crab spiders can change colour to match their surroundings.

Chinese farmers build winter shelters for spiders in their fields.

S C O R P I O N S

There are about 2,000 species of scorpion.

There are no scorpions in New Zealand but a small colony live on the Isle of Sheppey in the U.K.

They are fluorescent under ultraviolet light.

On rare occasions scorpions are born with two tails.

Baby scorpions are called scorplings :)

Scorpions can live from 4 to 25 years.

Their predators include centipedes, lizards and mice.

Scorpions have two types of venom—one to stun and one to kill. They can also regulate the amount they use. The scorpion is immune to its own venom.

Scorpions kill over 1,000 people a year in Mexico.

Some scorpions can live a year without food or water.

Despite having 6-12 eyes, they have poor eyesight.

C E N T I P E D E S

Geographically centipedes have a wide range, which reaches beyond the Arctic Circle.

Females usually have more legs than males.

They have between 30 and 382 legs.

Centipedes and spiders frequently prey on one another.

The Amazonian giant centipede reaches over 30cm in length and is known to catch bats in mid-flight.

Sleep

2008-08-25T11:05:00.004+02:00

Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you’re sleep deprived. The ideal time is between 10 and 15 minutes.

A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours’ lost sleep for parents in the first year.
REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.

It’s possible that there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

The record holder for the longest period without sleep (18 days, 21 hours and 40 minutes) reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory & consciousness lapses.

REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots. Non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like with little imaginary plot (like forgetting your mobile at home).

Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep.

Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing that shining a bright light on the backs of human knees can reset the brain’s sleep-wake clock.

17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol level of 0.05%

Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake.

The natural alarm clock which enables some people to wake up when they want is caused by a burst of a stress hormone. This reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

Some sleeping pills suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period.

Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can disrupt the sleep cycle even if you don’t fully wake. The light turns off a neural switch causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

To drop off we must cool off. Ideal temperatures for sleep are between 18-30ºC.

After 5 nights of partial sleep deprivation, 3 drinks will have the same effect on your body as 6.

Teenagers need 10 hours of sleep a night. People over 65 need only 6. 8 hours is ideal for people between 25 and 55.

Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep.

Women need up to an hour more sleep than men.

In Victorian times people slept 9-10 hours a night, and sleeping habits changed with the seasons to line up with sunrise and sunset.

Random Geography

2008-08-18T10:28:00.009+02:00

Antarctica is essentially a desert and the driest place on Earth with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi Desert

Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way round.

Damascus, Syria is the oldest continually inhabited city in existence.

Istanbul, Turkey is the only city in the world located on two continents

Pitcairn Island, Polynesia is the smallest island with country status

There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.

“Spain” literally means “the land of rabbits”

Only USA and Canada border 3 oceans.

Devon is the only county in Britain with 2 coasts.

32% of all land in the USA is owned by the federal government.

“Seoul” means “the capital” in Korean.

New Zealand is the only country that contains every type of climate in the world.

Holland is the most densely populated country in the world, followed by Belgium and Japan.

South of Tucson, Arizona all road signs are in the metric system

There are almost twice as many people in Rhode Island as there are in Alaska.

A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.

Australia is the only country that is also a continent.

Europe is the only continent with no deserts.

Mexico City is sinking at a rate of about 7 inches a year because it is built on top of an underground reservoir.

Rome reached a population of 1,000,000 in 133 B.C. London reached the mark in 1810 and N.Y.C. in 1875.

Today over 300 cities boast a population in excess of 1 million.

The wettest place on earth is Mt. Waialeale on the island of Kauai.

The Trans-Siberian Railway (by far the longest on earth) is 9,288 km long and spans 8 time zones.

Singapore only has one train station.

In Greek mythology Europa was a mistress of Zeus, whom he persuaded to take a ride on his back and then he carried her away across the sea. Hence the name for the continent.

food for thought

2008-08-10T08:53:00.004+02:00

Food can only be tasted if it is mixed with saliva.
There is cyanide in apple pips.

Passion fruit has a tranquilising effect on the body.

Peaches were the first fruit eaten on the moon.
The average person can live about a month without eating.

Carrots were initially grown as medicine.
Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them. A fully ripened cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
Studies have shown that slow background music can make a person eat at a slower rate.
There are over 15,000 varieties of rice and over 400 varieties of natural cheeses.
Cabbage is 91% water.
Aubergines/eggplants are actually botanically classified as berries
A garlion is a cross between garlic and an onion.
Worcestershire sauce is made from anchovies soaked in vinegar until they have completely dissolved, bones and all. (Quite disgusting, isn't it?)
Almonds are a member of the peach family.
Apples are 25% air, which is why they float.
Butter and margarine are similar in calories.
Lettuce is the only vegetable which is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked or in any other form but fresh.
Cherries are a member of the rose family.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
Celery takes more calories to eat and digest than it actually contains.
White chocolate is not technically chocolate because it contains no chocolate liquor.
Cream is lighter than milk.
A strawberry is the only fruit which has its seeds on its outer skin.
Sometimes frozen fruits and vegetables are more nutritious than fresh, since they are frozen right after they are picked and thus have less time to lose their nutrients.

You’re more likely to be hungry if you’re cold.
It takes 3,500 calories to make a pound of fat.
Botanically speaking a banana is an herb and the tomato is a fruit.
Carrots were originally purple in colour, changing in the 17th century to orange with newer varieties.
One carrot provides more than 200% of recommended daily intake of Vitamin A.
Carrots also have 0% fat content.
Onions, apples and potatoes all have the same taste. The differences in flavour are caused by their smell.
Watermelons are 97% water, as is lettuce. Carrots are 90% and bread 30%.

SOME COOL THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT TOMATOES:
~There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomato.
~The tomato’s specific name ‘lycopersicum’ means WOLF PEACH :)
~Before the mid 1700s tomatoes were widely considered poisonous in England.
~Tomato leaves and stems contain poisonous glycoalkoids.
~Lycopene is one of nature’s most powerful antioxidants and is present in tomatoes, especially when cooked.
~Tomatoes can be yellow, orange, pink, purple, green, black, white, multicoloured and striped (as well as red).
~Burpee, Early Girl, Mortgage Lifter, Purple Haze and Shepherd’s Sack are all types of tomato.
~Tomatoes were long considered an aphrodisiac and thus were shunned by the Puritans.
~From the 1920s through to the 1940s “tomato” was used in America as a common slang word for an attractive woman. (Why did that die out??)
~Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary (together with its seeds) of a flowering plant.
~The heaviest tomato on record was 3.51 kg!

Our Solar System

2008-07-28T20:10:00.016+02:00

On a diagram of the solar system with the Earth reduced to the size of a pea, Jupiter would be over 300 meters away and Pluto would be 2.5 km away.
On the same scale, our nearest star neighbour Proxima Centauri would be 16,000 km away.

The best speeds we’ve reached (Voyager 1 & 2) were about 56,000 km/hour.
In 1977, with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune aligned favourably, it took Voyager 9 years to reach Uranus and 12 to cross Pluto’s orbit.

Even travelling at the speed of light (300,000 km/second) it would take 7 hours to reach Pluto.

About 4,600,000,000 years ago a great swirl of dust and gas --some 24,000,000,000 km across—accumulated in space. 99.9% of the mass became our sun. Out of the floating material left over, dust and clumps formed large bodies which collided with each other endlessly.

About 4.4 billion years ago an object the size of Mars crashed into the Earth, blowing out enough material to form our moon.

For the next 500,000,000 years the Earth was pelted relentlessly by comets, meteorites, and other debris, bringing water to fill our oceans and other components for life.

The sun’s satellites:
“Planet”= wanderer. All planets are named after Roman deities, with the exception of the Earth and Uranus.
The International Astronomical Union defines a ‘planet’ as a body
a.) orbiting around the sun
b.) having sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so it assumes a nearly round shape
c.) having cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit

Mercury (“messenger of the gods”) travels around the sun faster than any other planet, so a Mercury day is longer than a Mercury year. The 2nd smallest planet, it is 2/5 the size of Earth and has almost no atmosphere. Its dusty surface resembles that of the moon. The planet alternately bakes and freezes. The sunlit side reaches temperatures of up to 510°C and the dark side -210°C. Mercury has no rings or satellites.

Venus (goddess of love & beauty) is called the Earth’s twin because it is only 650 miles smaller in diameter than the Earth. Thick clouds covering Venus create a greenhouse effect that keeps the planet a sizzling 200°C on the surface. A Venus day is 243 Earth days and a Venus year is 225 Earth days. Venus has no rings or satellites.

The Earth is 12,756 km in diameter, has an atmosphere of 78% Nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 1% other gases. It is about 150 million km from the sun and has one satellite 386,000 km away.

Mars was named after the god of war because of its blood red colour. It is about ¼ the size of Earth, has an atmosphere of 95% carbon dioxide and temperatures as low as -187ºC. A day on Mars is 24 hours, 37 minutes and 23 seconds. A Martian year is 687 days. Mars has 2 moons.
It also has a silly face, like Jupiter!

Jupiter is the planet with the shortest day: 9 hours 55 minutes.
One Jovian year is longer than 12 Earth years.

1,320 Earths could fit inside Jupiter, and 11 lined up side by side make up its diameter.

The average temperature is -148 degrees Celcius.In 1979 Jupiter had 16 known satellites.

Now we know of 63.

Saturn

A day on Saturn = 10 hours 14 minutes.

A year on Saturn = 29.5 Earth years.

It has 18 satellites & rings and is the 2nd larges planet in the solar system.

Its rings are made up of chunks of ice, snow and dust. Some of these chunks are larger than skyscrapers.
Galileo discovered Saturn in 1610 and was confused by its appearance in his telescope ;)

Uranus

Named after the element Uranium, this planet is like a smaller version of Jupiter.

One year on Uranus is equal to 84 Earth years, with each season lasting about 20 years.

Its faint blue colour is due to the methane gas which absorbs red light and reflects blue light. Both the red and the blue photos are of the same planet.

Uranus has 16 moons, all of which appear to be 50% ice, 30% rock and 20% carbon and nitrogen materials.

Neptune is blue for the same reason as Uranus.

A Neptune day is 18 hours long and a year is equal to 165 Earth years.

It is home to the strongest winds in the solar system, some reaching speeds of 2,000 km/hour.

The cloud you see in the photo is called "The Scooter". It moves around Neptune every 16 hours or so.

Neptune has 8 satellites and rings.

Pluto, Charon, Nix and Hydra

Pluto is a "Dwarf Planet" about 2/3 the size of our moon.

From 1930 (when it was discovered) to about 1999 it was unofficially classed as a planet. In February 1999 it was officially classed as one, only to be stripped of this title in 2006. Poor Pluto.
Until recently it was the largest known object in the Kuiper Belt, recently overtaken by "Xera".

Pluto's moon Charon is about half the size of its planet.

Two more moons, Nix and Hydra, were discovered by the Hubble telescope.

A day on Pluto is 6 Earth days and 9 hours. A Pluto year is 248 Earth years, 197 days and 5 1/2 hours.

The dwarf planet is made up mainly of frozen methane and other ices.

The first two letters of its name are a monogram of Percival Lowell, who spent his life searching for this "Planet X".

Set down on top of the USA, Pluto wouldn't cover half of the lower 48 states.

Lightning

2008-06-17T14:31:00.011+02:00

How lightning initially forms is still a matter of debate.
Apart from forming in atmospheric clouds, lightning can also form within ash and dust clouds caused by volcanic eruptions and forest fires.
As a thundercloud moves over the Earth’s surface, an equal but opposite charge is induced in the ground below. The induced ground charge follows the movement of the cloud. The electric field is highest in trees and tall buildings.

Lightning strikes the Earth about 6,000 per minute (100 times per second, that is) and heats the air around it almost instantaneously to an incredible 10,000ºC. The heat creates a shockwave that registers to us as thunder.

The width of a bolt of lightning averages about 6 inches (15cm) and is about 1.6 km (1 mile) long. It travels at speeds of up to 60,000 meters per second and can reach temperatures approaching 30,000ºC, hot enough to transform soil or sand into glass.

A typical strike is made up of 3 to 4 strokes or more, separated by 40-50 milliseconds. The voltage depends on the length of the lightning bolt. The direct current is 3 million volts per meter.

There are over 16 million lightning storms every year.

The longest recorded lightning bolt was 190 km (118 miles) in length

An animal will not eat another animal that has been killed by lightning.

80% of lightning is in-cloud and 20% cloud-to-ground. It is more common in the summer months. Congo has the highest rate of lightning strikes, followed by Singapore and Brazil.

A Bolt from the Blue
Positive lightning is a rare occurrence, making up less than 5% of all lightning.
Its charge is several times more powerful than that of regular lightning and it can strike tens of kilometres from the clouds.
The strike lasts longer and is considerably more dangerous. It is known to have caused a number of plane crashes.
So-called Anvil-to-ground lightning is a special type of positive lightning that can occur kilometres from or ahead of the main storm, sometimes striking on a sunny day (hence the name).

Ball lightning is typically 20-30 cm in diameter, although ball lightning several meters in diameter have been reported.
It has been seen in tornadoes and also witnessed to have split apart and recombine.
Ball lightning is thought to occur when lightning strikes silicon in soil.

Water

2008-06-17T12:50:00.012+02:00

There is exactly the same amount of water on Earth as there was when the Earth was formed billions of years ago-- over 326 million trillion gallons. It is a closed cycle that has remained unchanged for about 2,000,000,000 years.

All water arrived on planet Earth in the form of countless comets which pelted the young planet during its formation.

Think about that the next time you have a drink.

Water regulates the Earth’s temperature and enables life as we know it to take place.

There is saltwater and freshwater. Freshwater alone can be applied as drinking water and contains less than 1% salt (dissolved concentration). 1/1000 salt in water is enough to classify it as “saline”.

In a 100-year period, a water molecule spends 98 years in the ocean, 20 months as ice, about two weeks in lakes and rivers and less than a week in the atmosphere.

Water freezes at 0°C and vaporizes at 100°C, and is the only substance on Earth that is found naturally in 3 forms: liquid, gas and solid.

Water expands by about 9% as it freezes.

Frozen water is 9% lighter than liquid water, which is why ice floats.

98% of the weight of water is oxygen

Groundwater can take a human lifetime to traverse a single mile.

Most of the Earth’s surface water is either salty or permanently frozen.

97% of the total amount of Earth’s water is in the oceans, 2% of which is frozen.
20% of our water is ground water or atmospheric. Only 2.5% is fresh water.

Over 90% of the world’s freshwater supply is in Antarctica.

Less than 1% of Earth’s water can be used as drinking water.

The total amount of water in the body of an average adult is 37 litres (9.7 gallons)

A potato is 80% water, a cow 74% and a tomato 95%

The sun evaporates a trillion tons of water each day.

You should never drink water straight from a river or lake.

Water leaves the stomach 5 minutes after consumption.

Today’s drinking water meets over 100 different quality standards.

It is recommended that we drink 2-3 litres of water a day—that’s about ½ to ¾ gallons (…How many glasses have you had today?)

Some more stuff to think about…
-Americans use 5 times more water than Europeans
-Humans use an average of 190 litres of water daily
-Flushing a toilet uses anywhere from 7.5 to 26.5 litres of water
-A 5-minute shower uses 95 to 190 litres of water
(Baths use less water than a typical shower)
- Brushing your teeth uses 7.5 litres of water

Creepy Crawlies

2008-06-16T10:55:00.015+02:00

Common bed mite (magnified image)

10% of the weight of a 6-year-old pillow is from the waste and dead remains of common bed mites. Hordes of these microscopic creatures live in your matress and bedding, surfacing at night while you sleep to feed on your oily secretions and dead skin.

They are present on every inch of your epidermis.

Each of your eyelashes hosts at least 300 of these mites. Take a good look at the picture above and be grateful these little passengers of ours are so small we can't see them.

Here are are few more tidbits for you-- some cool, some silly, and others a tad disturbing :)

- There are over 200,000,000 insects to every human on the planet
- Australian termites can build mounds over 6 meters high and 30 meters wide
- Aphids are born pregnant and can give birth just 10 days after being born
- The first baby queen bee that emerges from her cell will instinctively destroy all the other queen bees in their cells and reign alone
- Honeybees have hair on their eyes
- Bumblebees use 21 muscles to sting
- Ladybugs’ correct name is the Ladybird Beetle
- There are some 5,000 different kinds of ladybug and over 2,500 varieties of mosquito
- The world’s smallest winged insect is the Tanzanian parasitic wasp. It is smaller than the eye of a housefly
- Female centipedes usually have more legs than males (averaging between 30 and 382 legs)
- The Amazonian Giant Centipede reaches over 30 cm in length and is known to eat bats, catching them in mid-flight
- The Malaysian jungle nymph (stick insect) lays eggs larger than a peanut
- Mosquitoes are attracted most to the colour blue. They prefer to feed on the blood of children to that of adults, and blondes to brunettes
- Mosquitoes also have teeth
- Moths have no stomachs
- The blood of insects is yellow
- The animal with the largest brain in relation to its body is the ant
- Despite having 5 eyes—3 “simple” eyes and 2 compound eyes—most ants have poor eyesight and others are blind altogether
- Most male ants survive only a few weeks, workers live from 1 to 3 years and queens can live up to 30 years
- Insects eat 1/3 of the Earth’s food crop each year
- A midge fly beats its wings 1,046 times per second
- Spiders usually have 8 eyes, though some have 6, 4, or even 2
- The average person will eat 8 spiders in their lifetime
- Accidentally destroy a spider’s web last time you cleaned your house? No need to feel guilty. Spiders make a new web everyday anyway.
- Of the 35,000 species of spiders, only 27 species are known to have caused human fatalities
- The Golden Wheeling Spider of Namibia escapes predators by flipping onto its side and cartwheeling away (tee hee!)
- Dragonflies have 30,000 lenses in each eye and a lifespan of 24 hours
- The heaviest insect in the world is the Goliath Beetle from Africa. A male can weigh up to 100 grams (3.5 ounces)
- The praying mantis hunts hummingbirds
- Fleas are essential to armadillos and hedgehogs. Deloused, these animals do not survive long.
- The common housefly transmits more diseases than any other animal

P.S.
Some food for thought:
The average chocolate bar in the U.S. contains at least 8 insect parts (as if you needed another reason to lay off the stuff)

Third Rock from the Sun

2008-06-15T10:46:00.022+02:00

Our planet Earth in a nutshell

We Earthlings are truly fortunate creatures, given the circumstances…

Just 1% further from--or 5% closer to--the sun, and our planet would be uninhabitable.
Our neighbouring planets illustrate this point. Venus, a mere 25 million miles closer to the sun, has a surface temperature of 470°C, while Mars is a frozen waste.

Of the billions and billions of species that have existed since the dawn of time, most of them (99.99%) are no longer around. The average species only lasts around 4 million years or so.

Just 12% of the Earth’s total land area (4% of the Earth’s total surface) is inhabited, and less than 1% of the Earth’s water can be used as drinking water.

Without the moon’s steadying influence, the Earth would wobble like a dying top. But the moon is slipping away from the Earth’s grasp at about 4 cm per year. In another 2 billion years it won’t keep us steady anymore.

Some 2,000 asteroids big enough to imperil our existence regularly cross our orbit.
In 1991 one sailed past us at a distance of only 170,000 km. Two years later another one missed us by just 145,000 km—the equivalent of a bullet passing through a sleeve. Near-misses like these happen about 2 or 3 times a week and go unnoticed.
Even a “small” asteroid (say, the size of a house) could wipe out a city. And asteroids are generally much, much larger than that. (I’ll do an article on them later on… for now let’s go back to the dangers from nearer by!)

Earthquakes are also more common than you may think. Everyday on average there are two of a magnitude of 2.0 or higher. The longer the interval between quakes, the greater the pent-up pressure. Tokyo stands on the meeting point of 3 tectonic plates and hasn’t had a major earthquake since 1923. With a population of over 30,000,000, specialists have dubbed it “the city waiting to die”.

Every second 100 lightning bolts hit the ground.
A bolt of lightning travels at an astounding 435,000 km/hour and can heat the air around it to 28,000°C (that’s several times hotter than the surface of the sun!)

At any given moment, 1,800 thunderstorms are in progress around the globe—about 40,000 a day.
Now some other neat facts about this old rock of ours:

Our Earth is just under 150,000,000 km from the sun. It weighs under 6 billion trillion tons, has a diameter of 12,756 km and is estimated to be around 4,550,000,000 years old.

The Earth orbits the sun at an incredible 30 km/second.

A true Earth day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds. A true Earth year is 365.2 days.

The distance from the Earth’s surface to its centre is 6,370 km. The deepest gold mines in South Africa go over an incredible 4 km down, but if we look at the Earth as an apple, we haven’t even broken through the skin yet.

The temperature at 10,000 meters down is a sweltering 180°C (381°F)
And the temperature at 10 km up is a very chilly -57°C (-69°F)
An altitude of 7,500 meters above sea level is known as the Death Zone. Dangerous illness and debilitation starts at 4,500m. The absolute limit we humans can tolerate is an altitude of about 5,500m.

The speed of the Earth’s spin varies from over 1,600 km/hour at the equator, to 0 km/hour at the poles.

In London the speed is 998 km/hour. But it is slowing down. In a few million years there won't be a leapyear.

All water on Earth is approximately 3.8 billion years old and came from multiple comets which crashed into the young planet’s surface.

Earth accumulates some 30,000 tons of space dust every year.

Earth’s outer liquid core is the seat of its magnetism. This changes its direction back and forth rather sporadically and scientists believe we are on the verge of another magnetic shift. These is unnerving, as it is this very magnetism that shields us from the sun’s destructive flares, and the planet is especially vulnerable during such shift periods.

I’ll do articles in future that go into more depth about a number of the points touched on here.
If you enjoy these tidbits as much as I do, pick up a copy of Bryson's “A Brief History of Nearly Everything” for further reading :)
-A

Some Things You May Not Have Known About Your Language

2008-06-13T13:10:00.023+02:00

“English is a tongue of small account, stretching no further than this island of ours, nay, not there overall.”
-Richard Mulcaster, 1582

The total English vocabulary runs to about half a million words.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 words are added every year. In 1900 it was 1,000 per year

About 4,000 words are used differently in the UK than in the USA

There are about 350,000,000 native speakers in the world.

English is the official language of 44 countries and is used as a second language by about 400,000,000 people worldwide.

The number of people learning English in China is bigger than the entire population of the USA. English as a second language (“ESL” books, courses, etc.) is a £6 billion/year business.

A bit of background history:

The Anglo Saxons were “uncultured” and pagan, a fact reflected in the names of four days of the week: Tuesday after the god Tiw, Wednesday after Woden, Thursday after Thor and Friday after Woden’s wife Frig. Saturday, Sunday and Monday take their names from Saturn, the sun and the moon.

Like European languages, English once had three genders. Wheat used to be masculine and corn was neuter.

In 850 the Vikings returned to the Thames with 350 ships. After 28 years of war and an English victory, control of Britain was divided.
The Danish influence was enormous. 1,400 place names in Northern England are of Scandinavian origin.
Some adapted Scandinavian words which survived:
Freckle, rotten, scream, leg, clasp, trust, skull, crawl, lift, meek, dazzle, take and husband.

‘Them’, ‘they’ and ‘their’ were also adopted from Scandinavian.

The Normans gave 10,000 words to the English language.
About 85% of the 30,000 Anglo-Saxon words died out under the influence of the Danes and the Normans.
Only 4,500 (1% of the total number of words in the Oxford English Dictionary) survived. A few examples are:
man, sister, drink, to, but, and, at, in, on,
wife, live, sleep,
child, fight, eat,
brother, love and house.

In the Elisabethan Age, people sometimes said "shoes" and other times "shoen". They'd alternate between using "houses" and "housen."
Today just three of these 'weak plurals' remain: children, brethren and oxen.
Other traces of Old English still lurk in plurals such as men, women, feet, geese and teeth.

A CHAOS OF DIALECTS

-No other place in the English-speaking world has more dialects than Great Britain—no less than 13, and some say as many as 42.
9 in Scotland
3 in Ireland
30 in England and Wales

-J.R.R. Tolkien was one of the first to think of recording/studying dialects in Great Britain before they all died out.

-The USA is divided into 4 main speech groups: Northern, Midland, Southern and New England. 2/3 of Americans speak with the same accent.

-There are 3 main accents in Australia:
10% “cultivated”/British
10% broad working class accent
80% something in between the first two

For more informtion, check out Bill Bryson's splendid work:

'Mother Tongue'

Animals (pt I)

2008-06-13T11:06:00.002+02:00

Armadillos jump straight up into the air when frightened, and thus are often killed head-on by cars, not caught under the tyres.
They have 4 perfect quadruplets at a time, always the same gender
They sleep more than 18 hours a day and can walk underwater
They are the only animal besides humans that can get leprosy.
Octopuses have 3 hearts and rectangular pupils
Ants never sleep
They always fall over on their right side when intoxicated
Polar bears are left-handed
They have black skin and translucent fur (not white)
They can also eat as many as 86 penguins in a single sitting
Starfish don’t have brains and can turn their stomachs inside out
Porcupines float in water
Hummingbirds weigh less than a penny and they cannot walk
Jellyfish are 95% water
Sharks are the only fish that can blink with both eyes
Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump, and they have a gestation period of 22 months
Crocodiles cannot stick their tongues out
Giraffes have no vocal chords, can go longer without water than camels, and can clean their ears with their 21-inch tongues
Cows give more milk when they listen to music
They produce 200 times more gas than humans
After Columbus’ second voyage to America it became law that each ship must have one cow to every five people
Penguins can jump as high as 6 feet in the air
They are monogamous and when they lose a chick they often attempt to steal one from another couple
Camels have eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand
Camel’s milk does not curdle
They can drink between 100-150 litres in one go and they won’t begin to sweat until their body temperature exceeds 41 degrees
Until 1978 Camel cigarettes contained minute particles of real camels
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave
The Venezuelan brown bat can detect and dodge individual raindrops, arriving back at its cave completely dry
Aardvarks are allergic to radishes, but only in summer
A hedgehog’s heart beats 300 times per minute
Donkeys kill more people annually than plane crashes
Turtles can breathe through their anuses
A dog’s rear end leaves no bacteria when pressed against a carpet
The urine from male cape water buffalos is so flammable that some tribes use it for lantern fuel
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain
A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4-foot-tall child inside
The longest recorded flight of a chicken was 13 seconds
and there are more chickens in the world than there are people
The placement of a donkey’s eyes in its head enables it to see all 4 of its feet at all times
Tigers have striped skin as well as fur

Rule, Britannia

2008-05-23T10:17:00.008+02:00

- Edinburgh is built on an extinct volcano
- In 1879 Blackpool was the first place in the world to have electric street lighting
- Dublin has over 600 pubs in the city
- It rains about 300 days a year in Ireland
- Britain is slowly tilting up in the north and down in the south due to post-glacial rebound

- There is a town in North Wales called LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
- The largest prehistoric monument in England is not Stonehenge but Avebury Circles nearby (a circle of stones surrounding most of the village of Avebury dating back to 1800 BC).
- Built around 2800 BC, Stonehenge was designed to align exactly with the sun’s rays on the 21st of June. It was built over centuries from ca. 2800BC-1550 BC
- While the world was celebrating the New Year in 1900, a powerful gale blew over one of the ancient stones at Stonehenge

- The British national anthem originated in a patriotic song first performed in 1745. There is no authorised version.
- “Blighty” is another nickname for Britain. In the first World War, soldiers hoped for a blighty—a wound that would get them sent back home for treatment
- England has no definitive national costume
- The most common name for a pub in Britain is ‘The Red Lion’

LONDON
- In 1868 London had the first traffic lights, used for horse buggies
- London is home to about 1,200 hotel, 6,000 restaurants, 200 museums, 1,700 parks, 30,000 shops, 3,500 pubs and half a million surveillance cameras
- Buckingham Palace has over 600 rooms
- Harrods installed the first escalator in 1878
- The department store still delivers goods in London by horse drawn carriage
- Taxi drivers in London are required to pass a training test based upon the Blue Book. Preparation for this test takes between 2-4 years. 8 or 9 out of 10 who start drop out before completion
- London boasts 31 Michelin-starred restaurants. Gordon Ramsay is the only 3-starred restaurant
- As of 2008, 40% of London’s total population was from an ethnic minority group
- Since 1965 Greater London has been divided into 32 boroughs
- London has an official population of over 7.5 million, Greater London over 8 million and the metropolitan area between 12 and 14 million
- London has 5 major airports and is the largest aviation port in the world. Heathrow carries more international passengers than any other airport
- In London the average tourist is caught on surveillance cameras about 300 times per day

THE UNDERGROUND
- London underground has several abandoned stations
- There are 287 tube stations in use
- Travelling on the tube for 40 minutes is the equivalent of smoking two cigarettes
- The oldest tube line (Metropolitan line) opened on 10 January 1863
- More of the Underground is actually open than in a tunnel
- Bank has the most escalators (15) plus two moving sidewalks
- The peak hour for tube suicides is 11 am. Victoria and King’s Cross record the highest number of suicides
- All 409 Underground escalators do the equivalent of two round the world trips each week
- Angel has Western Europe’s longest escalator (318 steps)
- The first escalator was introduced at Earl’s Court in 1911
- Early escalators were made of wood. A man with a wooden leg named Bumper Harris was employed to travel up and down the tube’s first escalator to prove that it was safe
- The only person born in a tube carriage was christened Thelma Ursula Beatrice Elanor in 1924
- An estimated half a million mice live in the Underground system
- Pigeons regularly travel from West Ham to Central London on the tube in order to get more food
- The air in the Underground is 10° C hotter than the air on the surface.
- Mosquitoes that live in the Underground have evolved into a completely different species
- The most popular route for tourists is Leicester Square to Covent Garden. It is quicker to walk this distance.

Our Sun

2008-05-22T15:02:00.009+02:00

About 4.6 billion years ago a great swirl of dust and gas (some 24 billion kilometres across) accumulated in space.
99.9% of the mass of our solar system went to make the sun.

Our sun is a yellow G2 Dwarf the perfect size, age, distance, temperature and brightness to sustain life on Earth.
It is almost halfway through its life, and at its most stable point in its lifetime. Eventually it will expand, eating up the inner planets before collapsing to become a white dwarf.

It weighs about 1,989,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kgs.
Its surface temperature is 5,527°C. Its core temperature is 1,560,000°C
At present it is about 70% hydrogen, 28% helium and the remaining 2% is metals and other elements.
As the sun’s energy travels out toward the surface, it is continually absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures. By the time it reaches the surface it is primarily visible light.

The sun also emits a solar wind at 450 km/second. This affects everything from power line surges and radio interference to the tails of comets and the trajectory of spacecraft.
A typical solar flare, unnoticeable to us on Earth, releases the equivalent energy of a billion hydrogen bombs. Earth’s magnetism steers them to the poles, producing the auroras.
Every year the sun loses 360,000,000 tons of its mass.
Only the sun’s outer surface shines brightly. The inside of the sun is complete darkness.
The sun’s light takes about 8.5 minutes to reach Earth, 40 minutes to reach Jupiter and 7 hours to reach the edge of the solar system.
The sun orbits around the centre of the Milky Way at 800,000 km/h, taking 225,000,000 years to complete a full orbit
Our sun is about 4.5 billion years old. It has used up half of its core hydrogen. It will continue to radiate peacefully for another 5 billion years or so, though its luminosity will double in that time.

The surface is called the photosphere
The chromosphere lies above the photosphere
Sunspots are cool regions (only 3800K) and can reach up to 50,000 km in diameter
The corona extends millions of kilometres into space but is only visible during an eclipse

A heavenly body’s distance from the sun varies in the course of its year. Its closest approach to the sun is called its perihelion; its farthest is called its aphelion.

The solar system as we know it will last until the sun begins its journey off of the main sequence. As the sun burns through its hydrogen fuel supply it grows brighter at a rate of 10% every 1.1 billion years.
Around 6.4 billion years from now the sun will expand to about 100 times its current size, becoming a red giant.
At this point, it will have cooled and dulled. Eventually its outer layers will fall away, leaving an extraordinarily dense white dwarf, about the size of our Earth.

The Stars

2008-05-21T08:40:00.005+02:00

Index of star types:
Red Supergiant
Red Giant
Red Dwarf
White Dwarf
Brown Dwarf
Black Dwarf
Blue Giant
Blue Supergiant
Wolf-Rayet Star
Orange Dwarf
Yellow Dwarf

Red Supergiants – the largest stars in the universe in terms of size, but not the most massive.
The 4 largest known RSGs are Mu Cephei, KW Sagitarii, V354 Cephei, and KY Cygni. All of these have radii ca. 1,500 times that of our sun.
These massive stars are just ‘hot vacuums’ and can quickly shrink to Blue Supergiants.
Betelgeuse (one of the largest stars known to us) and Antares are RSGs.

Red Giants – giant luminous stars of low to intermediate mass in the late phase of their evolution. The decrease in surface temperature through massive expansion shifts the stars’ visible light output toward the red (hence the name) even though the actual colour is usually orange-ish.
Aldebaran (Alpha Tauri), Gamma Crucis and Alpha Vulpeculae (Lucida Anseris) are RGs.

A Red Dwarf is a small, relatively cool star. The vast majority of stars are RDs. They have no more than 40% the mass of our sun and emit little light. They have very long life spans – up to trillions of years.
Proxima Centauri is a RD.
Planets have been observed orbiting RDs such as Gliese 581.

White Dwarfs or “Dangerous Dwarfs” are dense little stars thought to be the final evolutionary state of all stars whose mass is not too high (97% of the stars in the Milky Way).
Over a very long time they will cool to temperatures at which their light is no longer visible and become a cold Black Dwarf. No Black Dwarfs are thought to exist yet.
Sirius B is a White Dwarf.

Brown Dwarfs are sub-stellar objects without enough mass to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, like our sun does. They don’t emit much light. The BD Glirdr 229B in the constellation Lepus is ca. 20-50 times the mass of Jupiter.

A Blue Giant is an extremely luminous blue star. Much of its energy output is invisible to us because it’s on the ultraviolet range, and they have short lives because they are so hot and dense. Most of them go Supernova.

Blue Supergiants are extremely hot and bright, with surface temperatures of 20,000-50,000° C and typical solar masses of 10 to 50. These rare, short-lived and enigmatic stars are amongst the hottest and brightest in the known universe, and tend to be seen in the arms of spiral galaxy cores and irregular galaxies. These stars will likely go Supernova.
Rigel is a BSG.

Wolf-Rayet Stars are evolved, massive stars that are rapidly losing their mass through strong 2000 km/sec. solar winds. WR Stars can collapse in on themselves to form black holes.

Orange Dwarfs/KV Stars have a mass of 0.5 to 0.8 times that of our sun.
Alpha Centauri B and Epsilon Indo are KV Stars. Our sun is a Yellow G2 Dwarf, a small class of stars. The term Yellow Dwarf is a misnomer, as YDs (including our own sun) are in fact white. These are also called GV stars.

General information

There are relatively few stars within ten light years (95 trillion km) of the sun. The closest is the 3-star system Alpha Centauri, which is ca. 4.4 light years away.

Our largest star neighbour is Sirius, a bright star twice the sun’s mass which is orbited by a white dwarf called Sirius B (8.6 light years away)

A Supernova occurs when a giant star collapses then explodes, releasing the energy of 100 billion suns or a trillion hydrogen bombs. Thankfully most of these are so far away from us that their light reaches us as a faint twinkle. They are the biggest events in creation. A single spoonful of their condensed matter would weigh about 90 billion kilos. But only a few dying stars actually explode.

Even at a distance of 500 light years, a supernova would wipe out our Earth.
Alpha Centauri is too small to go supernova. The nearest star which could is Betelgeuse (50,000 light years away). It has shown signs of instability for years.

Proxima Centauri is 4.3 light years away from us. To reach it by spaceship would take at least 25,000 years.

The average distance between stars is over 30 million million km.

There are more stars than there are grains of sand on Earth.
You can see the stars from the bottom of a well even in the daytime.

All the stars comprising the Milky Way revolve around the centre of the galaxy once every 200 million years.

Our galaxy has about 250 billion stars, and it is estimated that there are a further 100 billion galaxies.

An average-sized galaxy of about 100 billion suns produces less energy than a single Quasar.

The brightest stars (from our vantage point) are the Sun (Sol), Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri A, Vega, Rigel, Procyon, Achernar, Betelgeuse and Hadar.

Alcohol & Drinking

2008-05-20T14:29:00.017+02:00

“The problems with alcohol relate not to the use of a bad thing,

but the abuse of a good thing.”
-Abraham Lincoln

BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM was introduced in 1974.
It contains homogenised cream, whiskey, chocolate, vanilla, caramel, and sugar (Mmmm, so yummy!)

The whiskey is the only ingredient used to preserve the cream.
As with milk, cream will curdle when it comes into contact with a weak acid such as lemon, tonic water or traces of wine. Some cocktails encourage this coagulation.

VODKA is a diminutive of VODA (BOДA) which means water. It supposedly originated in the grain-growing regions of Eastern Europe.
The ‘perfect’ alcohol percentage is 38%, but was rounded up to 40% to simplify alcohol tax in the past.
In 1925 the production of clear vodkas was made a Polish government monopoly.
The final distilled and filtered vodka may have up to 96% ethanol and must be diluted prior to bottling.
Traditionally, vodka is made from grain or potatoes.
ABSOLUT is the 3rd largest brand of alcoholic spirits in the world (after Bacardi and Smirnoff).
The ad campaign, with over 1,500 ads, is the longest running ever.

CHAMPAGNE is first capped with a crown cap. The neck is then frozen and the cap is removed. The pressure in the bottle forces out the ice and the bottle is quickly corked to maintain the carbon dioxide solution.
It has been shown that alcohol is more rapidly absorbed when mixed with carbonated water.
Open the Champagne bottle at a 45° angle and rotate the bottle, not the cork.
Blanc de noirs is a white wine produced entirely from black grapes.
Blanc de blancs is used to designate champagnes made only from Chardonnay grapes.
There is about three times more pressure in a bottle of Champagne than a car’s tire.

WINE dates back ca. 8,000 years and is thought to originate in what is today Georgia or Iran.
In medieval Germany, beer was banned and considered pagan and barbaric, while wine consumption was viewed as civilised.
Wines from everywhere except Europe are generally named for their grape variety.
The most common wines purchased for investment are Port and Bordeaux
Wine grapes grow almost exclusively between 30°-50° north or south of the equator, and poorer soil tends to produce better wine

Most wines do not improve with age
Red wine contains no fat and 80 kcal per 100g
Boxed wine stays fresh for up to a month after opening, while bottled wine oxidizes from the moment of opening
White wine gets darker with age, and red wine gets lighter
It takes about 600 grapes to make one bottle of wine
And yes, Fat Bastard Chardonnay is a French wine label :)

BEER is legally defined as a staple food in Bavaria
It was customary in the 13th century to baptise children with beer.
The most expensive beer is called Tutankhamen and is prepared according to an ancient Egyptian recipe. It costs ca. $52 per bottle.
In Olde England, town inns paid a government tax called “scot” for serving beer. Those who left town to drink at rural pubs were said to be drinking “scot free”.
Root beer was originally called root tea. The name was changed to get people interested.
Guinness sells ca. 7,000,000 glasses of beer a day

DRINKING & ALCOHOL FACTS

- "Alcohol" is derived from the Arabic 'al kohl' which means the essence

- 'Proof' comes from early days when whiskey was mixed with gunpowder to see if it contained enough alcohol to burn. It expresses the proportion of alcohol in a beverage as twice the percent (100 proof=50% alcohol)
- People who drink in moderation tend to live longer and healthier than those who abstain from or abuse alcohol
- Distilled spirits—whiskey, brandy, rum, tequila, gin, etc—contain no carbohydrates, fat or cholesterol of any kind
- Contrary to a common misperception, alcohol does not destroy brain cells. In fact, moderate consumption is often associated with improved cognitive functioning
- High-protein foods such as cheese and peanuts help slow the absorption of alcohol into the body
- Alcohol in drinks with a content of between 15%-30% tends to be absorbed into the body more quickly than alcohol in drinks above or below these percentages
- A mixed drink containing carbonated beverage is absorbed more quickly than straight shots
- Methyphobia is the fear of alcohol
- Drinking lowers rather than raises the body temperature
- Most vegetable- and all fruit juices contain alcohol

- Mai Tai means 'out of this world' in Tahitian

- The strongest any drink can be is 190 proof (95% alc.) At a higher percentage the drink draws moisture from the air and self-dilutes
- The “Bible Belt” region of the U.S. that consumes the least alcohol is also known by doctors as 'Stroke Alley'

Sexy Sex Facts

2008-05-20T13:01:00.008+02:00

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it"
-Oscar Wilde

Ladies first...

- 30 % of women over 80 still have sex
- Sex produces oestrogen in women, making their hair shiny and skin smooth
- Women are most likely to want sex when they are ovulating
- 40% of women say they’ve had an orgasm while dreaming about sex
(80% of men say they have)
- The frequency with which a woman has orgasms during her sleep increases as she ages during her childbearing years
- About 1 in 200 women is born with an extra nipple
- A female orgasm is a powerful painkiller due to the release of endorphins
- Up until 1884, a Victorian-era woman could be sent to prison for denying her husband sex
- In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her husband with her bare hands. The husband’s lover may be killed in any manner desired
- Lipstick was said to have been invented in Egyptian times for women who specialised in oral sex and wanted to make their lips look more inviting
- Women who read romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don’t

- A man ejaculates ca. 18 quarts of semen in his lifetime
- According to a recent survey, the man is the most likely partner to be tied up during sex
- Studies have shown that men become sexually aroused nearly every time they dream
- Intelligent men tend to have more frequent wet dreams than less intelligent men
- A man’s testicles increase by 50% in size when he is aroused
- The left testicle usually hangs lower than the right for right-handed men.
The opposite is true for left-handed men
- 56% of men admit to having had sex at work
- The average number of times a man will ejaculate from masturbation in his lifetime is 2000. The total number of times he will ejaculate is ca. 7,200
- 54% of men say they masturbate at least once a day
- The average number of erections a man gets per day is 11, and 9 at night
- Most men have erections every 60-90 minutes during sleep
- A man’s beard grows fastest when he anticipates sex
- More than half the American men surveyed admitted to having sex with women they disliked
- Men think of sex every 7 seconds on average

- The average person has sex about 4,239 times in their lifetime and spends 2 weeks of their life kissing
- Due to the angle at which the optic nerve enters the brain, staring at a blue surface during sex greatly increases the intensity of orgasms
- Conception occurs more often in December than any other month
- The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation
- It is illegal to have sex with a corpse anywhere in the U.S.
- Odours that increase blood flow to the penis include lavender, liquorice, chocolate, doughnuts and pumpkin pie
- 1 in 8 women and 1 in 7 men will have an affair within the first 2 years of marriage
- During the Middle Ages, those found guilty of bestiality were burnt at the stake alongside their animal partners
- The Romans would crush a first-time rapist’s gonads between two stones
- It is illegal to have unprotected sex in Nevada
- The word ‘pornography’ comes from Greece, meaning the ‘writing of prostitutes’
- The first legalised condoms in the U.S. were made from thick vulcanised rubber. They were expensive and meant to be reused.
- The most recorded orgasms in an hour was 134 for a woman and 16 for a man
- Studies have proven that it is harder to tell a convincing lie to someone you find sexually attractive
- 1 in 3 people have had an extramarital affair
- Everyday 200 million couples around the world have sex (that’s over 2000 at any given moment)
- Male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of any mammal
- Coffee drinkers and people who chew ice have higher sex drives
- Sex is bio chemically no different from eating large quantities of chocolate

Human Biology - some facts

2008-05-20T10:11:00.013+02:00

Some pointless info about your bits...

- Scientists say the higher your IQ, the more you dream
- The average human dream lasts between 2 and 3 seconds
- The average person is ¼ inch taller in the morning
- The largest cell in the human body is the female egg. The smallest is the male sperm
- The average woman is 5 inches shorter than the average man
- The human liver performs over 500 functions
- Food takes ca. 12 hours to digest
- A full bladder is about the size of a softball
- Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve razor blades
- Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks, otherwise it will digest itself
- You will eat the weight of about 6 elephants in food in your lifetime - The surface area of the lungs is roughly the size of a tennis court
- It takes food 7 seconds to travel from your mouth to your stomach
- The body gives off enough heat in 30 minutes to bring ½ gallon of water to a boil
- Blondes have more hairs on their head than dark-haired people
- The thumb is the same length as the nose
- ¼ of the bones in your body are in your feet
- The big toe has two bones, all the rest have three
- Fingernails grow 4 times faster than toenails
- Human feet have about 250,000 sweat glands
- Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear between the 2nd and 6th year
- Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete
- It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open or lick your elbow
- You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. Unconsciousness occurs 8-10 seconds after loss of blood supply to the brain
- Scuba divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or more
- Cow’s milk is the #1 food allergy
- You’re born with 300 bones, but by adulthood you have only 206
- There are 4 taste zones on the tongue: the back is bitter, the rear sides are sour, the front sides are salty and the tip is sweet
- A smile takes 14 muscles to pull, a frown takes 43
- The strongest muscle is the masseter muscle, which is located in the jaw
- Muscles account for 40% of your body weight
- There are 230 joints in the body
- Kids have 20 first teeth, adults have 32
- On average we shed 40 lbs of skin in a lifetime
- Our eyes are the same size from birth to death, but our nose and ears never stop growing
- Women blink nearly twice as much as men
- All babies are colour blind at birth
- Each of our eyes has 120,000,000 rods (to see B&W) and 6,000,000 cones (colour)
- 1 in 12 men is colour blind
- You blink about 20,000 times a day
- Your pupils dilate when you look at someone you love. They also dilate when you look at someone you hate
- An eyelash lives about 150 days before falling out
- About 400 gallons of blood flow through your kidneys in one day
- Women’s hearts beat faster than men’s
- Your heart beats about 100,000 times a day
- The body contains 8 pints of blood
- Your heart stops briefly each time you sneeze
- You breathe 20 times per minute, 10,000,000 times per year and about 700,000,000 times in your lifetime
- The average human has 100,000 hairs on his/her head
- The slowest growing fingernail is the thumb nail. The fastest growing one is on the middle finger
- Watching an hour-long soap opera burns more calories than watching a 3-hour baseball game
- To human taste buds, Zima is virtually indistinguishable from zebra urine
- The human brain is ca. 75% water
- A hard-working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of it evaporates.
- Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair
- Every minute about 35,000 dead skin cells fall off your body
- May babies are, on average, 200g heavier than others
- Smells detected from the right nostril are more pleasant, while smells from the left are more accurate
- The sensitivity of a woman’s middle finger is reduced during menstruation

Hey Jupiter

2008-05-20T08:00:00.006+02:00

Jupiter is a big fat bastard planet with a red mouth that makes it look like a silly face. It is this blogger’s favourite planet of all and thus I thought it appropriate to make it the inaugural post on a site dedicated to interesting stuff.

You see, everything about Jupiter is interesting.

Let’s start with its size. To give you an idea of just how big it is, let’s use our Earth. About 1,320 Earths could fit inside Jupiter. That’s a diameter of 11 Earths lined up side by side (142,800 km).

Because of its great size, it has an enormous gravitational pull.
In 1979 Jupiter’s known satellites counted 16. To date we know of 63*

Despite its massive dimensions, Jupiter spins insanely rapidly. So fast, in fact, that it bulges noticeably at the equator.

Its moons are interesting as well.
Take Ganymede, for instance. It is the largest moon the solar system (bigger than the planet Mercury) and has its own magnetic field. If Ganymede and its sister satellite Callisto happened to orbit the sun instead of Jupiter, they’d be classified as planets.

There is evidence of oceans on both Callisto and Europa.

Some basic facts:
- A Jovian year is a bit shorter than 12 Earth years
- Jupiter is the planet with the shortest day – 9 hours 55 minutes
- Jupiter has rings which are constantly being pulled inward
- Jupiter’s average temperature is -148º C.
- The planet does not experience seasonal changes. Its internal heat plays a greater role on its weather than the sun!
- Powerful crosswinds, storms and lightning (1,000 times stronger than Earth’s) dominate Jupiter’s atmosphere.

*Jupiter’s numerous moons:
The Galilean moons:
Io
Europa
Ganymede
Callisto
The inner moons:
Metis
Adrastea
Amalthea
Thebe
Prograde satellites:
Themisto
Leda
Himalia
Lysithea
Elara
S/2000J11
Carpo
Captured moons:
S/2003J12
Euporie
S/2003J3
S/2003J18
Thelxinoe
Euanthe
Helike
Orthosie
Iocaste
S/2003J16
Praxidike
Harpalyke
Mneme
Hermippe
Thyone
Ananke
S/2003J17
Aitne
Kale
Taygete
S/2003J19
Chaldene
S/2003J15
S/2003J10
S/2003J23
Erinome
Aoede
Kallichore
Kalyke
Carme
Callirrhoe
Eurydome
Pasithee
Cyllene
Eukelade
S/2003J4
Pasiphaë
Hegemone
Arche
Isonoe
S/2003J9
S/2003J5
Sinope
Sponde
Autonoe
Kore
Megaclite
S/2003J2