10 Interesting facts about India:

 

• The famous board game, called Chess, was invented in India.
• In India's 100,000 years of history, it has never invaded any other country.
• India is the 7th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and one of the oldest civilizations.
• India was one of the richest countries in the world before the British invasion in 17th century.
• The value of "pi" used in mathematics was first calculated by the Indian mathematician Budhayana in 6th century.
• India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products. It exports software to over 90 countries.
• India is home to the world's largest pilgrimage destination called the Vishnu Temple. The temple is located in the city of Tirupati. About an average of 30,000 people visit this temple donating about $6 million US dollars, everyday.
• India originated Yoga about 5,000 years ago.
• India has the most number of mosques. It has 300,000 mosques which is much more than the Muslim world.
• Christians and Jews have been living in India since 52 A.D. and 200 B.C. respectively.

A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside.

27% of Americans believe we never landed on the moon

1 in every 3 people in the country of Israel use a cell phone.

"Canada" is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".

An Australian cat named Smokey survived 13 shots to the head from an air rifle and then found his way home after what police on Tuesday called a "shocking" act of animal cruelty.

A medical examination revealed 13 pellets lodged in his head and face. Sergeant Craig Pearse said it was remarkable Smokey had managed to get home after his ordeal. The nine-year-old moggy turned up on his owners' doorstep bleeding from his head last week, three days after he went missing from the family home in Maryborough, central Victoria.

Kit Kat is a chocolate-covered wafer biscuit bar confection that was created by Rowntree's of York, England, and is now produced worldwide by Nestlé, which acquired Rowntree in 1988, except in the United States where it is made under licence by The Hershey Company. Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar separately. Bars typically have 2 or 4 fingers. Single fingered larger Kit Kat Chunky bars are also popular

Polar bear males can weigh more than 1,500 lbs. But when they are born, they weigh only 2lbs

World's First Computer Mouse (1964): by Douglas Engelbart

The world's first computer mouse was made by Douglas Engelbart in 1964, it consisted of two gear-wheels positioned perpendicular to each other -- allowing movement on one axis. Ergonomic shape, great button placement -- and it's made of wood.

Cat Inherits $13 Million From Owner:

Maria Assunta, a 94-year-old widow and heiress from Italy, left her 10 million euro fortune plus several properties scattered across Europe to her 4-year-old kitty, Tommaso, according to London's Daily Telegraph.

The wealthy widow, who died, originally wanted to leave her fortune to an animal welfare association that would commit to looking after Tommaso. But when Assunta's lawyers couldn't find a group that lived up to her standards, she instead drew up a will in November 2009 leaving her estate to Tommaso through a nurse named Stefania, according to the Telegraph.

Stefania, who cared for Assunta in her final months, had promised she would look after the cat and make sure he was loved after her patient died. Stefania told the Telegraph she had no clue Assunta was so wealthy.

"She was very discreet," Stefania said. "I knew very little of her private life. She only told me that she had suffered from loneliness a lot."

Tommaso, Stefania and another cat now live in a house outside Rome.

BEAUTIFUL PORTRAITS MADE WITH OLD WINE CORKS

Some artists like to be inspired over a nice bottle of wine; artist Scott Gundersen however, lets others enjoy the wine and makes art from the differently dyed corks. For his most recent portrait "Grace", he used a total of 9,217 corks to create the beautiful and surprisingly detailed image.

ORGANIC ART: HOUSES WOVEN WITH STICKS

For the past 25 years, Pacific northwest artist Patrick Dougherty has been creating beautiful, biologically based sculptures out of an unusual material: the twigs and branches of saplings.

METALMORPHOSIS:A SCULPTURE THAT ROTATES

Swirling bands of polished stainless steel form a moving, morphing bust in this fantastic sculpture by Czech artist David Černý.

"Europe has 'Silent Discos.' You
listen to music on your
headphones."

Due to noise ordinances in Europe,
club owners have created "silent
discos" where clubbers listen to
music through headphones. Rather
than use a speaker system, some
club owners have resorted to
wireless headphones to entertain
club goers.
Music is broadcasted via FM-
transmitter to the clubber's
headphones. It's called "silent
discos." The style of clubbing is
popular for music festivals, when
people want to party long after
noise ordinances would allow. Two
DJ's often compete for the
listeners, too.

THE HONEY HUNTERS OF NEPAL

When we think of honey, we don't think of scaling a cliff with giant bees to get it. These images tell the photographic story, shot by Eric Valli, of the Himalayan Gurung men of Nepal harvesting honey. The images, shot in 1987, are so modern for being an almost 25 year old shoot and while the unbelievable nature of the photos make it hard to believe that they are not staged, they simultaneously have an intimate feeling that is so natural and real.

Weird treatment in Indonesia

July 13, residents of the province of West Java, Indonesia, lying on the tracks, they believe the current through the rails can help people heal various diseases.

Your brain comes out to play at night: You'd think that your brain is more active during the day, when the rest of your body is. But it's not. Your brain is more active when you sleep.

~Shax

Source: http://bsnprogram.com/2010/50-incredibly-weird-facts-about-the-human-body/

Megapixel Camera? Try Gigapixel

ScienceDaily (June 20, 2012)

— By synchronizing 98 tiny cameras in a single device, electrical engineers from Duke University and the University of Arizona have developed a prototype camera that can create images with unprecedented detail.

The camera's resolution is five times better than 20/20 human vision over a 120 degree horizontal field.

The new camera has the potential to capture up to 50 gigapixels of data, which is 50,000 megapixels. By comparison, most consumer cameras are capable of taking photographs with sizes ranging from 8 to 40 megapixels. Pixels are individual "dots" of data -- the higher the number of pixels, the better resolution of the image.

There are 169,518,829,100,544,000,000,000,000,000 ways to play the first ten moves in a game of chess..!

1.The name 'Google' was an accident. A spelling mistake made by the original founders who thought they were going for 'Googol'.

2.Google started in January, 1996 as a research project at Stanford University, by Ph.D. candidates Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 years old and 23 years old respectively.

3.Google is a mathematical term 1 followed by one hundred zeroes. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasne.

4.Number of languages in which you can have the Google home page set up, including Urdu, Latin and Klingon: 88

5.Employees are encouraged to use 20% of their time working on their own projects. Google News, Orkut are both examples of projects that grew from this working model.

"A Rubik's cube has
43,252,003,274,489,856,000
possible combinations."

With 6 colored sides, 21 pieces and
54 outer surfaces, there's a
combined total of over 43
quintillion different possible
configurations.To put that into
perspective: if you turned the
Rubik's cube once every second it
would take you 1400 trillion years
to finish to go through all the
configurations.If you had started
this project during the Big Bang,
you still wouldn't be done yet

Dinner use to mean Breakfast:

In fact, the English word dinner comes from the French word disnar, which means breakfast. Traditionally, dinner (meaning breakfast) was the first meal of the day, eaten around noo. It also happend to be the biggest meal of the day, with a lighter meal known as supper

Worlds Smallest Deer:

The pudús are two species of South American deer they are the world's smallest deer. Pudús range in size from 32 to 44 centimeters (13 to 17 in) tall and up to 85 centimeters (33 in) long. As of 2009, both species are classified as Vulnerable

Mike - The Headless Chicken:

On September 10, 1945, farmer Lloyd Olsen of Fruita, Colorado, United States, had his mother-in-law around for supper and was sent out to the yard by his wife to bring back a chicken. Olsen chose a five-and-a-half-month-old cockerel named Mike. The axe missed the jugular vein, leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.

Despite Olsen's botched handiwork, Mike was still able to balance on a perch and walk clumsily; he even attempted to preen and crow, although he could do neither. After the bird did not die, a surprised Mr. Olsen decided to continue to care permanently for Mike, feeding him a mixture of milk and water via an eyedropper; he was also fed small grains of corn.

When used to his new and unusual center of mass, Mike could easily get himself to the highest perches without falling. His crowing, though, was less impressive and consisted of a gurgling sound made in his throat, leaving him unable to crow at dawn. Mike also spent his time preening and attempting to peck for food with his neck.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO DECOMPOSE
.
Paper Towel - 2-4 weeks
Banana Peel - 3-4 weeks
Paper Bag - 1 month
Newspaper - 1.5 months
Apple Core - 2 months
Cardboard - 2 months
Cotton Glove - 3 months
Orange peels - 6 months
Plywood - 1-3 years
Wool Sock - 1-5 years
Milk Cartons - 5 years
Cigarette Butts - 10-12 years
Leather shoes - 25-40 years
Tinned Steel Can - 50 years
Foamed Plastic Cups - 50 years
Rubber-Boot Sole - 50-80 years
Plastic containers - 50-80 years
Aluminum Can - 200-500 years
Plastic Bottles - 450 years
Disposable Diapers - 550 years
Monofilament Fishing Line - 600 years
Plastic Bags - 200-1000 years

Facts on a Child's Developing Brain

1. DURING EARLY PREGNANCY, NEURONS DEVELOP AT A RATE OF 250,000 NEURONS A MINUTE.

2. THE FIRST SENSE TO DEVELOP IN UTERO IS THE SENSE OF TOUCH.

3. 60% OF A BABY'S ENERGY GOES INTO BRAIN DEVELOPMENT.

4. HOLDING AND CUDDLING AN INFANT CAUSES THEIR BRAIN TO RELEASE IMPORTANT HORMONES WHICH STIMULATES THEIR GROWTH.

5. PROVIDING A YOUNG CHILD WITH A RICH AND STIMULATING ENVIRONMENT CAN SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE IQ.

6. SPENDING "PLAYTIME" WITH A CHILD (TALKING, SINGING, READING AND PLAYING WITH THEM) IS THE BEST WAY TO STIMULATE BRAIN DEVELOPMENT.

7. READING ALOUD AND TALKING TO YOUNG CHILDREN PROMOTES THEIR BRAIN DEVELOPMENT.

8. BASIC EMOTIONS ARE PRESENT AT BIRTH (JOY, HAPPINESS, SHYNESS, FEAR). HOWEVER, THE WAY THESE DEVELOP DEPENDS ON THE TYPE OF NURTURING THE CHILD RECEIVES.

9. BEING RAISED BY SENSITIVE CAREGIVERS ENABLES A CHILD TO HANDLE STRESS BETTER – AND THIS CONTINUES INTO THEIR ADULT LIFE.

10. THE CEREBRAL CORTEX GROWS THICKER THE MORE WE USE IT (IN BOTH CHILDHOOD AND ADULTHOOD).

11. CHILDREN WHO ARE BILINGUAL BEFORE THE AGE OF FIVE HAVE DENSER GREY MATTER IN THEIR BRAIN.

~ 9 Amazing Penguin Facts ~

* They eat snow as a source of fresh water.

* A group of penguins are called colonies or rookery.

* They usually move in large groups to keep warm.

* Penguins can't fly, they swim.

* They are ancient species that first appeared around 40 million years ago.

* Penguins lay eggs.

* When the chick hatches, it immediately starts calling so that its parents will learn to recognize its voice.

* About 75% of a penguins life is spent in water, where they do all their hunting.

* In general, a penguins lifespan ranges from 15 to 20 years.

~ 7 Amazing Space Facts ~

* Jupiter is known as the dumping ground for our solar system, as a large percentage of asteroids are pulled in by Jupiter's gravity.

* There are now 4 dwarf planets in the Solar System: Ceres, Pluto, Eris and Makemake.

* As space has no gravity, pens won't work!

* The term "astronaut" is derived from the Greek words ástron, meaning "star", and nautes, which means "sailor". So, the word astronaut means star sailor!

* Red Dwarf stars that are low in mass can burn continually for up to 10 trillion years!

* The first living mammal to ever go into space was a dog named "Laika" from Russia.

* Mercury's days are twice as long as it's year!

Chaitén Volcano, Chile

Lightning bolts appear above and around the Chaiten volcano as seen from Chana, some 30 kms (19 miles) north of the volcano, as it began its first eruption in thousands of years, in southern Chile May 2, 2008.

Cases of electrical storms breaking out directly above erupting volcanoes are well documented, although scientists differ on what causes them.

23 million chickens are killed for food in the U.S. every day.
That's 269 birds turned into KFC every second! Modern chickens are also bred to be normally heavy, which means that many cannot support their own body weight. The California Poultry Federation estimates that 30 chickens are consumed per Californian! All in all, 9 billion chickens are slaughtered for food per year, which makes up 90% of the total land animals that are killed for human consumption.

uhh... you gonna eat that ?

Refrigerated batteries last longer.....!!!!!

Storing batteries in the freezer (or refrigerator) will make themlast longer, but it depends on what kind of battery you're using.

For NiMH and Nicad batteries (often used for electronics), storing them in the freezer might be more practical. These kinds of batteries lose their charge after a few days when kept at room temperature. But they'll retain a 90% charge for months if you store them in the freezer.
For alkaline batteries (the most common kind of household battery), putting them in the freezer will extend their shelf life by less than 5%. And cold batteries can't be used immediately

The faster you move, the heavier you get:

The more energy you put into something, the more mass it accumulates. So if you're moving fast, you gain weight. It's only a tiny, temporary weight gain, but if you were traveling close to the speed of light your mass would increase rapidly.

The longest recorded time for someone to have the Hiccups is 69 years:

Charles Osborne (1894-1991) of Anthon, Iowa, the US, started hiccupping in 1922 while attempting to weigh a hog before slaughtering it. He was unable to find a cure, and continued hiccupping until February 1990, a total of 68 years. During the first few decades, he hiccupped up to 40 times a minute, slowing to 20 a minute in later years.

Early European tickle torture punishments included a method in which salt water was applied to the feet of victims and goats were mad to lick it, the method was repeated until the victims died of laughter

The first product with a bar code was Wrigley's Gum.

Humans may think they run the world, but there is another superpower who is really on top. They outnumber us a million to one. And little can stand in their way. Their engineers breach wide gaps in a single bound. Their workers lift weight twice their size. And the total weight of ants matches that of the entire human race.

Weird!

People who sleep less appear to eat more the next day:

Scientists have known for years that less sleep is associated with weight gain. Now new research, reported in this week's "Really?" column, may help explain why. In one study, men were asked to sleep either four or eight hours. When the men slept less, they ate roughly 22 percent additional calories the next day compared with nights when they got more sleep.

Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes cant Transmit Malaria.

Scientists at the University of California at Irvine and and the Pasteur Institute in Paris
say they've used genetic engineering to create mosquitoes that can't infect people
with malaria.
They used Anopheles stephensi mosquito — a major source of malaria
in India and the Middle East — but say the technique could be used on dozens of
different types of mosquitoes.
Malaria parasites picked up by these mosquitoes are
killed by the the mosquitoes' immune systems.
So the insects can't transmit malaria through their bites. —

Have a better eyesight with better nutrition
To improve your eyesight, you need to make sure that your body receives these nutrients:

Vitamin A: in tomatoes, papaya, carrots and fortified milk.
Vitamin C: in oranges, strawberries, peppers and broccoli.
Vitamin E: in oils, nuts and seeds.
Zeaxanthin and Lutein: in leafy green vegetables, mangoes, kiwi, honeydew, peas, broccoli, yellow squash, corn, red grapes and oranges

~Heaven-LinkingAvenue or the Big Gate Road~

Heaven-Linking Avenue, also known as the Big Gate Road, in Tianmen Mountainin the Hunan province of China as been called the "most dangerous" roads in China. Starting from 200 meters below sea level the serpentine road reaches 1300 meters above sea level making a total of 99 hair-pin turns along the way.In Chinese culture, 9 is considered a lucky number because it is believed that heaven has 9 places. A road with 99 turns symbolizes heaven, and hence the term Heaven-Linking Avenue or Avenue Towards Heaven.

FLOATING BICYCLISTS !!!

Chinese photographer Zhao Huasen photographed hundreds of cyclists going about their way in Shanghai. He then digitally erased the bicycles from the photographs, leaving only their shadows and the mysteriously floating rider calmly pedaling away through thin air.

Honey never goes bad, and archaeologists have tasted 2000 year old jars of honey found in Egyptian tombs.

200,000 Ants Cry Every Time You See This Painting...

For some people painting with regular paints seems not to be enough, like for Chris Trueman from California who has became famous by his unusual painting but the price of his fame was pretty big. He had to kill 200,000 ants to create his weird painting of his younger brother.

THE CHAMELEON BANDAGE

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Only a small village itself (around 1,600 people are said to inhabit Ha Long Bay), it is a particular popular destination with tourists, all of whom are eager to see the many different limestone formations that are so eerily beautiful in the water.

Hazy Ring of Titan
The +Cassini–Huygens spacecraft looks toward the dark side of Saturn's largest moon and captures the halo-like ring produced by sunlight scattering through the periphery of +Titan's atmosphere.

A detached, high-altitude global haze layer encircles Titan. See PIA07774 to learn more. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). North on Titan is up and rotated 29 degrees to the left.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 30, 2012. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 123,000 miles (197,000 kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygensmission is a cooperative project of +NASA , the +European Space Agency, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygensmission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org/ .
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
full size - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14613

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Hazy Ring of Titan
The +Cassini–Huygens spacecraft looks toward the dark side of Saturn's largest moon and captures the halo-like ring produced by sunlight scattering through the periphery of +Titan's atmosphere.

A detached, high-altitude global haze layer encircles Titan. See PIA07774 to learn more. This view looks toward the Saturn-facing side of Titan (3,200 miles, or 5,150 kilometers across). North on Titan is up and rotated 29 degrees to the left.

The image was taken in visible green light with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Jan. 30, 2012. The view was obtained at a distance of approximately 123,000 miles (197,000 kilometers) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 162 degrees. Image scale is 7 miles (12 kilometers) per pixel.

The Cassini-Huygensmission is a cooperative project of +NASA , the +European Space Agency, ESA and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygensmission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/ or http://www.nasa.gov/cassini . The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org/ .
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
full size - http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14613

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The first university in the world

"Gurkha" is the name given those Nepalese nationals who serve in the British army. An awesome gurkha's work