Ancient literacy: 7 historical libraries

I just love libraries; I wish I could visit every single one of them.  And I love history.  So, when I found this website, I just had to share it with you!

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1. The Great Library & Mouseion: The First Universal Library (Alexandria, Egypt)

History tells us that the first ‘universal’ library was the Great Library & Mouseion in Alexandria, Egypt. Hungry for conquest and knowledge, Alexander the Great spent the last 11 years of his life (334 to 333 B.C.) exploring the world. To broaden the enterprise, he dispatched scholars to unexplored regions to gather knowledge and map their journeys…[more info at the website below]

2. The Celsus Library: One of Antiquity’s Finest Libraries (Ephesus, Turkey)

Image: Alaskan Dude

Another early library was the Celsus Library in Ephesus, built in 110 A.D. by the Council Gaius Julius Aquila. The library became one of the largest collections of antiquity, storing an estimated 12,000 hand-written books. Books could not be taken out of the library, but were handed to readers by library officials and read in the reading room.  Interestingly, the library had its own temperature regulation system: a second set of outer walls to protect the books from humidity and temperature variations.

3. The University of Sankore: An Ancient Seat of Muslim Learning (Sankore, Timbuktu)

Image: upyernoz

All this copying provided a lot of work for scribes. The University of Sankore in Timbuktu employed an army of scribes, who earned their living copying the manuscripts. As a result, Timbuktu became a repository of an extensive collection of manuscripts.

What were scribes paid? A papyrus of the second century AD gives rates “for 10,000 lines, 28 drachmae … For 6,300 lines, 13 drachmae.” The Emperor Diocletian tried to standardise the pay scribes received throughout the Roman Empire: “to a scribe for the best writing, 100 lines, 25 denarii; for second quality writing 100 lines 20 denarii; to a notary for writing a petition or legal document, 100 lines, 10 denarii.”

4. The Bodleian: One of The Oldest Surviving European Libraries (Oxford, England)

Image: J.Salmoral

It is said that King Charles I once asked the chief librarian of the Bodleian Library if he could borrow a book. A few years later, Oliver Cromwell asked the same question. The librarian refused them both. Stuart or Roundhead, books in the Bodleian could be read on the premises or not at all.

An earlier repository of books and documents at Oxford University was destroyed in the effort to rid England of all traces of Roman Catholicism, including “superstitious books and images”. Some were burnt, some sold and others used by glove makers to press gloves. Oxford University was not a wealthy institution and did not have the resources to build up a collection of new printed books to replace those destroyed…Today’s Bodleian claims to hold 11 million volumes, and to offer fuller access to online publications and databases than any other academic institution in the UK.

5. Chetham’s Library: The UK’s Oldest Free Public Reference Library (Manchester, England)

Image: infomotions

Chetham’s library is said to be Britain’s oldest surviving public library. Karl Marx visited the library in 1846, at the invitation of his friend Frederick Engels. In the bay of the library’s reading room, they carried out the research for Das Kapital…

6. Library of Congress: Jefferson’s Legacy (Washington D.C., United States)

Image: miss_villanelle

The Library of Congress, founded in 1800, is said to be the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. However, like the libraries of Ephesus and Alexandria, it became a victim of fire. During the War for Independence in 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building and destroyed the Library’s core collection of 3,000 volumes. One year later, however, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950 and the Library was restored.

Today the Library of Congress claims to be the largest library in the world, with nearly 142 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 32 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 5.6 million pieces of sheet music and 62 million manuscripts.

7. The British Library: One of The World’s Most Extensive Collections (London, England)

Image: lisabatty

Compared to many other significant libraries, the British Library is relatively young having been brought into existence by the 1972 The British Library Act. The 1971 White Paper recognised that the constituent bodies of the proposed British Library (principally the British Museum Library) were seriously short of space and that rehousing the various collections was of top priority…

Literacy & Power: Inextricably Linked

Image: carf

…From the early sixteenth century onwards it was viewed as especially dangerous for women to read fiction.

In the Civil War era in the United States, knowledge was considered dangerous and white citizens in many areas imposed a ban on teaching slaves to read or write. In the years following the Civil War, only those who could read and write could vote, effectively fencing out many African Americans.

The First Public Libraries & The Spread of Knowledge

Image: Celeste

The dream of Thomas Bodley was to make collected books “available to the whole republic of the learned”.

In the 1840s, William Ewart, Joseph Brotherton, and Edward Edwards espoused a more democratic vision and launched a campaign to provide a system of public libraries. Brotherton and Ewart were both Liberal MPs. Edwards, however, was a Chartist and involved in the struggle for universal suffrage. A former bricklayer, he had educated himself by spending his non-working time in Mechanics’ Institute libraries, and in 1839 became an assistant in the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum.

However, when William Ewart introduced his Public Libraries Bill in 1849, he encountered considerable hostility from the Conservatives in the House of Commons. They argued that the rate-paying middle and upper classes would be supporting a service that would be mainly used by the working classes, and harked back to the old argument that: “the more education people get the more difficult they are to manage.”

After several fairly significant compromises, the Public Libraries Act became law in 1850. Due to these compromises, libraries were largely unfunded for many years and had to rely on the support of wealthy entrepreneurs. The greatest financial supporter of public libraries was Andrew Carnegie, who helped to finance over 380 libraries in Britain. It was not until 1919 that a truly comprehensive and free library service emerged.

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Please visit the website to find out about the first public libraries and more!

 

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Inflatable street art comes alive from subway exhaust system

Using only tape and garbage bags, Joshua Allen Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate.  Steven Psyllos caught up with Harris recently to discuss his older works (including a bear and a giraffe) and unveil a new beast that looks not unlike the Cloverfield monster.

NYPD testing “rumble” sirens

“Police forces in the US are piloting a new kind of police car. Not only does it make a sound and flash its lights when speeding to an emergency it also rumbles, shaking the ground up to 200 feet away giving pedestrians and other drivers advance notice to MOVE!!! The technology is currently being tested in New York.”

[12 photos] Restored church creates heavenly living quarters

A couple purchased this old church in Kyloe, North Cumberland, England.  They invested lots of money to keep the outside and inside as it was, and restored instead of renovated (3 times more money).

What a heavenly idea!

Autistic artist draws New York from memory

Stephen Wiltshire–”The Living Camera”

This astonishing 18ft drawing of the world’s most famous skyline was created by autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire after he spent just 20 minutes in a helicopter gazing at the panorama.

The unbelievably intricate picture was drawn at Brooklyn’s prestigious Pratt Institute from Stephen’s memory, with details of every building sketched in to scale.

Landmarks including the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building can be seen towering above smaller buildings after just three days in his spellbinding creation.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223790/Autistic-artist-draws-18ft-picture-New-York-skyline-memory.html#ixzz0VWxlbCeq

Warship is forged with WTC steel

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ussnewyork/2175102221/in/set-72157606613743770

The US navy’s new amphibious assault vessel, 684 feet long and built at a cost of $1.2 billion, earned a rousing reception as it nosed its way out of the Mississippi to the Atlantic yesterday.

Although it looks like any other vessel of its class, it is subtly different: the steel in its bow comes from Ground Zero in New York City.

Capable of carrying 800 marines as well as handling flight operations for helicopters and tilt-rotor aircraft, the ship will arrive on the wharfs of Manhattan in early November, where it will be formally commissioned the USS New York as a tribute to the city that suffered the worst of the attacks on September 11, 2001.  About 7.5 tonnes of steel salvaged from the collapsed Twin Towers were used in the building of the ship.

“That steel means a whole lot more than just metal,” said Ronnie Harris, the mayor of Gretna, the Louisiana town where the ship was built.  “The entire country comes together in that bow stem, and I’m so proud that this event puts it in the history books.”

Brian Corcoran, a mechanical contractor who was cheering it on from the shore with his four children, said, “Hopefully it’s going overseas to do damage to them like they did to us.”

Independent, London

USS New York

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Is this honorable or dishonorable to the WTC victims?

Inmates’ last statements and executed offender details

Image by Melody Kramer via Flickr

What follows are quotations taken from inmates’ last statements in Texas.  The statements, delivered before family members, relatives of victims, friends and the press, are compiled out of chronological order.

– CLAIRE CAMERON, the author of “The Line Painter”

• Go ahead?
• Nothing I can say can change the past.
• I done lost my voice.
• I would like to say goodbye.
• My heart goes is going ba bump ba bump ba bump.
• Is the mike on?
• I don’t have anything to say. I am just sorry about what I did.
• I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don’t know what to say.
• Man, there is a lot of people there.
• I have come here today to die, not make speeches.
• Where’s Mr. Marino’s mother? Did you get my letter?
• I want to ask if it is in your heart to forgive me. You don’t have to.
• I wish I could die more than once to tell you how sorry I am.
• Could you please tell that lady right there — can I see her? She is not looking at me — I want you to understand something, hold no animosity toward me. I want you to understand. Please forgive me.
• I don’t think the world will be a better or safer place without me.
• I am sorry.
• I want to tell my mom that I love her.
• I caused her so much pain and my family and stuff. I hurt for the fact that they are going to be hurting.
• I am taking it like a man.
• Kick the tires and light the fire. I am going home.
• They may execute me but they can’t punish me because they can’t execute an innocent man.
• I couldn’t do a life sentence.
• I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That’s the biggest joke.
• To my sweet Claudia, I love you.
• Cathy, you know I never meant to hurt you.
• I love you, Irene.
• Let my son know I love him.
• Tell everyone I got full on chicken and pork chops.
• I appreciate the hospitality that you guys have shown me and the respect, and the last meal was really good.
• The reason it took them so long is because they couldn’t find a vein. You know how I hate needles. … Tell the guys on Death Row that I’m not wearing a diaper.
• Lord, I lift your name on high.
• From Allah we came and to Allah we shall return.
• For everybody incarcerated, keep your heads up.
• Death row is full of isolated hearts and suppressed minds.
• Mistakes are made, but with God all things are possible.
• I am responsible for them losing their mother, their father and their grandmother. I never meant for them to be taken. I am sorry for what I did.
• I can’t take it back.
• Lord Jesus forgive of my sins. Please forgive me for the sins that I can remember.
• All my life I have been locked up.
• Give me my rights. Give me my rights. Give me my rights. Give me my life back.
• I am tired.
• I deserve this.
• A life for a life.
• It’s my hour. It’s my hour.
• I’m ready, Warden.

A version of this article appeared in print on September 20, 2009, on page WK10 of the New York edition.

Source

Related article

Executed offenders (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) – This reveals the offenders name, prior prison record, summary of the crime, and much more.

Source

(7) Lighthouse Hotels [photos]

Boy, would I love to spend a weekend in one of these lighthouse hotels!  Some are remote and accessible only by helicopter, some have spas, some have in-house light keepers, while others rent the entire island.

In alphabetical order, here are some exterior/interior views and US prices of:

East Brother Light Station – East Brother Island, California [US $400 to $550]

Harlingen Lighthouse – Harlingen, Netherlands [US $400 to $550]

Heceta Head Lighthouse – Yachats, Oregon [US $250 -$400]

Molja Lighthouse – Aalesund, Norway [US $250 -$400]

Saugerties Lighthouse – Saugerties, New York [US $400 to $550]

Svinoey Lighthouse – 6099 Heroy, Norway [US $100 to $250] *accessible only by helicopter

West USK Lighthouse – Newport, UK [US $100 to $250]

To see more pictures of these lighthouses, click here.

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Question: Have you ever spent a night or a weekend in a lighthouse?  If so, describe the experience!

Yikes! Unilateral epistaxis [photo/video]

The things people get lodged in their bodily cavities is astounding!  Watch a video of this thing being removed…

Unilateral Epistaxis

A 44-year-old man presented with a 7-day history of epistaxis on the left side. He reported that he had washed his face in a freshwater stream 7 days before the onset of symptoms. A suspected blood clot was seen in the left middle turbinate on anterior rhinoscopy, although endoscopic examination showed that the possible clot was a living leech. After lidocaine nasal spray was applied to the left nasal cavity, the leech was retrieved with an aspirator (video). The epistaxis subsequently resolved. Although leech infestation is not a common cause of nasal bleeding, it should be considered when an exposure that is consistent with such infestation has occurred.

Source

(39) Heart-warming photos of Barak Obama

Here are my favorite “behind the scene” photos taken from the website below.  I love the “natural” depictions of the President.  The first example is my favorite.  And take note of the caption in the second photo–how precious is that!

President Barack Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a family visit to the Oval Office. The young boy wanted to see if the president's hair felt like his own. (May 8, 2009)

Source

Vanity Fair’s editors redline Palin’s resignation speech

This is an interesting angle regarding Sarah Palin’s resignation speech:

“If you watched Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, you know one thing: her high-priced speechwriters moved back to the Beltway long ago.  Just how poorly constructed was the governor’s holiday-weekend address?  We asked V.F.’s red-pencil-wielding executive literary editor, Wayne Lawson, together with representatives from the research and copy departments, to whip it into publishable shape. Here is the colorful result.”

Source

Library waives $52,000 fine

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The largest library fine I ever received was for $42 for late fees because I misplaced some video tapes during a move–oh, the shame.  Then I found out about this gentleman…

An Illinois handball coach returned a book that was over 145 years overdue!

“The leather-bound volume was taken from the shelves of the Washington and Lee University library in Lexington, Virginia on 11 June 1864 by a Union soldier when General David Hunter and his army of West Virginia raided the area. Passed down by the soldier, CS Gates, through generations of his family, it eventually came into the possession of Mike Dau, of Lake Forest, Illinois, from one of Gates’s descendents.”

Read the whole story here

(13) Celebrity inventors

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Check out these patent-holding celebrity inventors:

1. Abraham Lincoln invented a convoluted device that involved putting a set of bellows on the bottom of a boat.
2. Christie Brinkley received a patent for an educational toy she designed in 1991 that seems to mostly be useful for helping kids learn the alphabet.
3. Eddie Van Halen invented a support that could flip out of the back of his axe’s body to raise and stabilize the fretboard so he could tap out searing songs like “Eruption.”
4. Gary Burghoff invented a device he calls “Chum Magic,” a floating apparatus that fishermen can fill with chum to lure fish to their boats.
5. Hedy Lamarr received a patent for a “secret communication system” that could use carrier waves of different frequencies to remotely control devices like zeppelins and torpedoes.
6. Jamie Lee Curtis designed and patented a disposable diaper that included a waterproof pocket that held baby wipes.
7. Lawrence Welk received a design patent for a new type of ashtray that looked like an accordion.
8. Marlon Brando received a patent for a “drumhead tensioning device and method,” one of several patents he held for drum devices.
9. Michael Jackson patented this “method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion” in 1993.
10. Penn Jillette received a patent for a “hydro-therapeutic stimulator”–a spa with jets strategically located to make the experience enjoyable for female bathers. [Hmmm]
11. Prince got the thumbs-up for a design patent for a “portable keyboard instrument.”…a keytar.
12. Steven McQueen filed a design patent for an improved bucket seat.
13. Zeppo Marx received a patent for a cardiac pulse rate monitor that was designed to let people with heart problems know if their pulse was shifting into a danger zone.

Get more details about the patents at the website below.

Source

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(10) “Retouched” magazine photos gone bad [news/photos]

Here’s an interesting spin on the media and how they retouch photos to increase clarity:

“Many news photographs are Photoshopped here and there to increase clarity or to optimize for print or online display. But there have been several instances with where retouching has been pushed too far, changing the original intent or accuracy of the photo.”

Samples:

You will find retouched images from the following magazines:

1. National Geographic, February 1982
2. TIME Magazine, June 1994 [OJ Simpson]
3. Los Angeles Times, March 2003 [Soldier in Basra]
4. USA Today, October 2005 [Condoleeza Rice]
5. Liu Weigiang, 2006 [Tibetan railroad]
6. The Charlotte Observer, July 2006
7. Reuters, August 2006 [Beirut fires]
8. The Toledo Blade, April 2007
9. Liberty Times, December 2007 [Papal delegation]
10. Klavs Bo Christensen, April 2009

Source

Related Links

How extensively are professional magazine photos retouched? | Ask …

Celebrity Retouching: 10 Reasons to Revise Your Reality

Joss Stone Not Happy Over Retouched Magazine Photos – Starpulse …

Australian Teen Magazine Goes Retouch-Free For An Issue from The Frisky

Tour the White House online [photos/videos]

I’ve never toured the White House but I’m grateful for websites like this that make it possible.  It has too many features to mention so you’ll just have to visit and see for yourself.  Sit back and enjoy the tour.

First floor of the East Wing

This online tour will take you through more than 140 areas in the grounds and mansion of the White House with photos and illustrations going back more than 200 years.

…This Web site is a private, unofficial, online effort to provide a place to explore the history and heritage of the home of the president of the United States of America…This site merely celebrates the architecture, history, and cultural significance of the White House in America and abroad.

I decided to create an online museum-like tour of the White House residence, offices, and grounds to help educate people on the amazing 200-year-old mansion, museum, state event host, office building, television and radio studio, and intelligence operations center known so simply as “The White House.”

Derek Jensen, Museum Director

Source

Aerial tour of New York

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I don’t have the money to travel but thanks to the internet I can virtually travel to all kinds of places–like New York.  All made possible by Pixelcase.  What a stunning tour of this city!  See it for yourself.  Just click any of the icons to zoom in, zoom out, travel west, etc.

Source

via The Presurfer

(13) Quotes to live by

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1. Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. – Unknown
2. You get what you tolerate. – Unknown
3. Your mind is an open window. Make sure you take time to look out of it; you may just find what you’re looking for. – Unknown
4. Live each day in a day-tight compartment. Touch a button and hear, at every level of your life, the iron doors shutting out the Past–the dead yesterdays. – Unknown
5. Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope. Henry Wheeler Shaw
6. Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk. [Doug Larson]
7. For every person with a spark of genius, there are a hundred with ignition trouble.
8. God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. – Unknown
9. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill
10. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. – Eleanor Roosevelt
11. A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can see from a mountain top.
12. A word is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and context according to the circumstance and the time in which it was used. [Oliver Wendell Holmes]
13. The man who put on his armor should not brag. It’s the man who lives to take it off who has the right to brag [1 K 20:11]

On the lighter side–maps, preachers, lovers and eskimos [humor]

Image via Wikipedia

All Over the Map

“The Washington Post” asked its readers to combine two countries into one great nation.  Here’s what they came up with:

Spain+Italy: Spitally, where the first three rows of the National Opera come with complimentary raincoats.

Oman+Bolivia: Oblivia, the land that time–and everyone–forgot.

Tuvalu+Sudan: Tudalu, where people leave as soon as they can.

Fiji+Haiti: Fijiti, with the highest per capita caffeine consumption.

Botswana+Kuwait: Bobwait, the corporate headquarters of Ginsu International and Ronco Worldwide.

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A pastor asks his flock, “What would you like people to say when you’re in your casket?”  One congregant says, “I’d like them to say I helped people.”  Another says, “I’d like them to say I was a fine family man.”  A third responds, “I’d like them to say, “Look!  I think he’s moving!”

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The Language of Love

Author Cindy Chipack has coined these useful neologisms to help the unaatached negotiate the wilds of singlehood.

Man-Me-Down Men who are passed along from one woman to the next after a faield attempt at romance.

Cupidity The faulty logic that leads a well-meaning but clueless third party to believe that two random singles are perfect for each other.

DNRR (Do Not Resucitate Romance)  A directive that you are not, under any circumstance, allowed to revive a past relationship.

__________

Two Inuit newlyweds spent the night together.  The next morning, the bride found out she was six months pregnant.

__________

Source: From Reader’s Digest, May 2009

Look at how much we’ve changed…

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The year is 1909.  One hundred years ago…

• The average life expectancy was 47 years.
• Only 14% of the homes had a bathtub.
• Only 8% of the homes had a telephone.
• There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
• The average wage in 1909 was $.22 per hour.
• The average worker made between $200-$400 per year.
• Yearly wages for the following careers: a competent accountant ($2000); a dentist ($2,500); a veterinarian ($1,500-$4,000); an engineer ($5,000).
• More than 95% of all births took place at home.
• 90% of all doctors had no college education.  Instead, they attended so-called medical schools–many of which were condemned in the press and the government as ’substandard.’
• Sugar cost $.04 per pound, eggs were $.14 per dozen, coffee was $.15 per pound.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into the country for any reason (the shame!)
• The five leading causes of death: 1. Pneumonia and influenza, 2. Tuberculosis, 3. Diarrhea, 4. Heart disease, 5. Stroke.
• The American flag had 45 stars.
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30.
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet.
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write.
• Only 6% of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores.  Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.”
• 18% of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the entire USA!

If you were at the inauguration, check this out…[photos]

If you were at President Obama’s inauguration, you might be able to see yourself there.  There clarity is quite amazing.  You can zoom in to see the faces of people in the orchestra, the men on top of the camera scaffold (don’t know the technical term), and you can even see close ups of the people at the back near the water.

For example, take a look at these screenshots:

Overall view of the inauguration

Zooming in to see the President.

Closer shot of President Obama.

Now check out George Bush’s expression…

You can get even closer.  Now try locating yourself here.

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The Hudson airplane journeys through NJ [photos]

Probably won’t see this one again anytime soon! When they took the plane out of the Hudson they ended up having to detour through East Rutherford NJ.  These roads were not made for planes.

Thousands of free video lectures from top universities [videos]

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Academic Earth believes in giving everyone a world-class education.

Learn from world leading scholars.  See and hear full course lectures from MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale.  Some of these are grouped into courses, which each contain anywhere from 4 to 50 lectures.

If you want to save the videos, you need to register.

AcademicEarth

Rate your physician

I found a valuable website that allows you to rate your doctor.  At present, I am looking for a general practitioner.  The ratings and comments on RateMDs are definitely helping me decide which one to choose.

You can browse doctors by name, city, region, and specialty (GPs, Surgeons, Chiropractors, etc).  You rate them according to knowledge, waiting time, helpfulness, and more.

RateMDs

The Barak Obama engraved journal [product]

Although I’m a Canadian, I thought this was a nice product for Americans: The Barak Obama Engraved Journal.

The Barack Obama HOPE Laser Etched and Engraved Moleskine Notebook is bound in cardboard, with a ‘moleskine’ cover with rounded corners and an elastic enclosure. The acid-free pages are thread bound and the notebook includes an expandable inner note holder made of cardboard and cloth. Each Moleskine journal has a ribbon placeholder and removable card with the history of Moleskines.

Visit here to see all of the Obama covers available.

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(50) Detective blogs

Image by pixieclipx via Flickr

This has links to the 50 top detective blogs.  It includes posts from detectives, police officers, lawyers, fictional detectives, and

… lets you play detective–or at least feel like you were on the scene–with reports and analysis of true crimes.

Source

Trivia 2: Cigarettes, gold, snowflakes, and more…

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Anatomy

• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
• By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
• The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.
• Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.
• Our eyes remain the same size from birth but our noses and ears never stop growing.
• Everyone has a unique tongue print.
• Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.
• Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.
• If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

Animals

• The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
• The largest ant colony in the world stretches from Spain, through Germany, all the way to Italy, mostly underground. Thanks to the hive mentality of ants, any two of them, even if taken from the opposite ends, would instantly recognize each other.
• A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
• A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate. I know some people like that!
• If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
• The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
• Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
• Goldfish have an attention span of 3-5 seconds.
• Sheep in Scotland faint if you jump out at them.
• Mosquito repellents don’t repel–they hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they don’t know you’re there.
• To escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.
• A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.
• There are more chickens than people in the world.
• According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.
• A snail can sleep for three years.
• All polar bears are left handed.
• Butterflies taste with their feet.
• Mosquitos are more attracted to the color blue than any other color.
• Koalas and humans are the only animals that have finger prints.
• There are 200,000,000 insects for every one human.
• Octopus have three hearts.
• Tiger shark embryos fight each other in their mother’s womb.  The survivor is born.
• A blue whale’s tongue weighs more than an elephant.
• Nose prints are used to identify dogs, just like humans use fingerprints.

Entertainment

• During the chariot scene in “Ben Hur,” a small red car can be seen in the distance.
• Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
• Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves.
• The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA.”
• Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
• Elvis got a “C” in music in grade 8.
• Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.
• Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

Food

• A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
• Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
• 40 percent of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
• Chocolate kills dogs!  It affects a dog’s heart and nervous system.  A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.
• The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.
• Apples are more efficient than caffeine in keeping people awake in the mornings.

Language/Literature/Words

• There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple and silver.
• The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
• The name Wendy was made up for the book “Peter Pan.” There was never a recorded Wendy before.
• Sherlock Holmes NEVER said “Elementary, my dear Watson.”
• The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
• 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
• “Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt”.
• “I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.
• “Bookkeeper” is the only word in English language with three consecutive double letters.
• The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every Letter in the English language.

Other

• Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.
• The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
• The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles.  At that time, the most known player on the market was the Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
• Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
• An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
• The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
• Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
• Drunk drivers can be sentenced to death by firing squad.
• The “number of the beast” (666) mentioned in Revelations was actually a mathematical representation of the name Caesar Nero.
• Two-thirds of the world’s lawyers practice in the United States.
• Dacryphilia is arousal from seeing tears in a partner’s eyes.
• Porphyrophobia is a morbid fear of the color purple.
• The initials YKK on your zipper stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer.
• Ketchup was sold in the 1830’s as medicine.
• Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.  It also took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa’s lips.
• There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
• Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.
• Adolf Hitler’s mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.
• The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
• The “pound” (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.
• Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
• It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
• In Chinese, the KFC slogan “finger lickin’ good” comes out as “eat your fingers off”.
• We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.
• Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines .
• Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.
• Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.
• The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.
• There are more telephones than people in Washington , D.C.
• The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.
• The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette company died of lung cancer.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.
• When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.
• Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned his wife or mother because they were both deaf.
• The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu – a New Zealand hill.
• More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.
• Coca-Cola was originally green.
• The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.
• Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades: King David; Clubs: Alexander the Great; Hearts: Charlemagne; Diamonds: Julius Caesar.
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.  If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.  If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
• American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
• Most lipstick contains fish scales.
• The Romans used licorice near their pillows to shoo away bad dreams.
• The largest recorded snowflake was 15 Inch wide and 8 Inch thick. It fell in Montana in 1887.
• Former president Bill Clinton only sent 2 emails in his entire 8 year presidency.
• 250 people have fallen off the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
• A lump of pure gold the size of a matchbox can be flattened into a sheet the size of a tennis court.
• If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion!
• The average person has over 1,460 dreams a year!

Sources come from all over the internet.

Q: What facts can you contribute to this list?

Did you know these facts about President Barak Obama?

Cover via Amazon

1. Obama’s ancestors owned slaves:

A distant cousin from his mother’s side, Gabriel Duvall, a Supreme Court Justice and a member of the US House of Representatives, from the second district of Maryland was also a friend of Thomas Jefferson and the owner of 37 slaves

2. His maternal grandparents liked to move around:

Born in Kansas, Obama’s maternal grandparents lived in four states before settling in Hawaii.

3. Obama’s great-uncle liberated a Nazi concentration camp:

Charles T. Payne, served in the U.S. Army 89th Division and helped liberate Buchenwald concentration camp.

4.  Obama has highly educated family members

Father Barack Hussein Obama got a Master degree in economics from Harvard University, Mother Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro got a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Hawai, Half-sister Auma Obama got her PhD from the University of Heidelberg.

5.   China Business Consultant among family members

Mark Ndesandjo, Barack Obama’s half-brother, son of Ruth Nidesand and Barack Obama Sr. runs an Internet company called WorldNexus that advises Chinese corporations how best to reach international customers.

6.   Obama’s Grandmother was a bank president

Barack Obama’s maternal grandmother was a bank vice president in Hawaii.

7.   His wife was assigned to be his mentor

In 1989 Michelle Obama was asked to mentor a summer associate from Harvard name Barack Obama. Michelle Robinson initially brushed off advances from Barack because he was an intern, and she was higher up the law firm’s hierarchy as an associate.

8.  Obama has won two major media awards

Obama has won two Grammy Awards. First for Best Spoken Word Album in 2005 for the audio book edition of Dreams From My Father (2004), and again in 2007 for the audio book edition of The Audacity of Hope (2006).

9.  Gandhi is Obama’s hero

His heroes are Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Pablo Picasso and John Coltrane.

10. Who would Obama choose to play Obama in a movie?

Obama has said that he would like Will Smith to play Obama in a movie.

[Source]

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

NEWS: US Army awards researchers to develop “thought helmets”

At the moment I’m developing “thought knots” from trying to wrap my understanding around all the possibilities emerging from the hi-tech research that’s trying to hack into our brains–and those of animals (see my post link below).

Now, the US Army is trying to use “thought helmets” to transmit brain waves which would be translated into words in other soldiers’ headphones.

The US Army has recently awarded a five-year $4 million contract to researchers from the University of California at Irvine (led by UCI´s Mike D´Zmura), Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Maryland to study the concept.

Because the brain is a complex system and generates such large amounts of data, researchers must also make improvements in computing power. Soldiers will also have to be trained to think “loudly” to make it easier for the system to pick out their words from the brain´s background noise. Also, every individual´s EEG signals are a little different, so users and computers will have to be calibrated so that computers recognize each person´s unique mental pattern.

Read more here

* See my related post on dream research [Link]