Tuesday 3 July 2012

Fun Facts About Blue Whales



What’s the biggest animal that ever lived? 

Yes, blue whales are the largest animal that ever lived – larger than the largest dinosaur!

Biggest blue whale ever recorded was ~110 feet (33m). Our whale is pretty big – she’s 85 feet long, which is about 25 m. That’s as long as two school buses parked end to end!
- A blue whale’s tail is as wide as a soccer net (a professional soccer net, not a school one). That’s about 25 ft (8m).
- A blue whale’s flipper (which is analagous to a human’s hand) is as long as you are tall.
- Blowhole (which is like your nose, it’s just on top of their head so it’s easy for them to breathe in water), is large enough for a baby to crawl through. When they exhale, the blow can reach 30 feet tall (and smells terrible).
- Arteries are big enough for a baby to crawl through, at about 9 inches in diameter (approx the same diameter as a dinner plate).
- Heart is as big as a small car (VW beetle for example).
- Blue whale mouths are huge, too – they can swallow a volume of water larger than themselves. Their throat stretches down to their navel. Tongue is the size of an elephant. You and 400 of your friends could fit in its mouth.
- A baby blue whale is about the size of 2 minivans.

Ecology

What do blue whales eat? Are they vegetarians? Do they eat other whales? Do they eat fish?

The largest animal in the world feeds almost exclusively on one of the smallest – krill (euphasiids).

What are krill?

They are small, shrimplike invertebrates, on average only 1 or 2 centimeters long. This means that blue whales are about 1250 times larger than their food. If humans ate food that much smaller than ourselves, we would eat nothing larger than a grain of sand.
They eat 4 – 6 tonnes of krill a day (about as much as an elephant, the largest land animal, weighs) Imagine eating an elephant every single day! That’s about 40 million krill – that’s more than number of people of Canada. Every day.

How do they do this?

They are filter feeders. They basically eat what’s stuck between their teeth (actually, keratin bristles called BALEEN).
They have a giant mouth – extends all the way to their belly button. They also have these big pleats, so their mouth can expand – sort of like you blowing out your cheeks, but more dramatic. They open their mouth, swallow a volume of water bigger than themselves (imagine swallowing yourself), then push all the water back out through their baleen (what they have instead of teeth). The baleen is like a comb, and the krill get stuck inside their mouths – they end up with a big mouthfull of food.
Swarms of krill can stretch for hundreds of square km of ocean – imagine swimming along for miles and miles, then stumbling on hundreds of square km of food, and swimming through it with your mouth open, eating whatever you catch. The swarms of krill aren’t always right at the surface, and whales will sometimes feed deep beneath the surface. They can dive as deep as 300 m, and can stay down for 30 minutes at a time.


Where do they live?

Whales have huge ranges, and are found in every ocean in the world. There are several distinct populations of blue whales – northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, Atlantic and Pacific. They travel thousands of km every year. They feed in the northern oceans, and build up their fat reserves – maybe you eat a little more in winter, when it’s dark and there are lots of holidays and nothing else to do, but maybe in summer you’re too busy playing outside, or hanging out with your friends – maybe you just have a salad for dinner. In summer, they head for the equator, and the warmer oceans to have their babies.

Tell me about the babies!

Moms have one baby at a time, and give birth about every 2 or 3 years. Whales start calving between age 6 and 10. Babies are 8m long when born, and weigh about 4 tonnes, about size of 2 minivans. It’s important that the moms have good fat reserves, because these babies are hungry – they drink 50-100 gallons of milk per day, which is 50-100 jugs of milk. They grow really rapidly – gain 8 pounds an hour – 200 pounds a day – that’s about a Dad a day!
Blue whales are thought to live to 100, but we don’t actually know how long they live – there are many things we don’t know about blue whales.

Evolution

What is a blue whale? What are they most closely related to? Who are their evolutionary cousins?

Answer – Hippo
But that’s a land animal! Whales are mammals that have adapted to a life in the ocean, but their ancestors lived on land. When did whales return to the ocean – during the early Eocene, about 53 – 54 million years ago.


What was the world like in the early Eocene?

It was in a period of global warming, the oceans were much warmer than they are today. Temperate forests extended to the poles, and tropical forest was found as far north ats 45 from the equator – that’s about Portland, OR. India was travelling away from Africa, colliding with Asia, and the Himalayas were born. [map of early eocene]. Palm trees grew in Alaska, and subtropical rainforest grew at the edges of Antarctica. Early members of other mammal orders were appearing, including bats, rodents, primates, and marsupials. Plants were already far along, having begun to invade the land over 400 million years ago – flowering plants have been around for ~ 200 mya.
The land ancestors of whales were carnivorous mammals called Mesonychids – the largest, Andrewsarchus, was 3.7m and was the largest carnivorous land mammal EVER!

How can we tell that the ancestors of whales lived on land?

Breathe air (no gills)
Fin bones resemble land mammals’ jointed hands except that whales are missing their middle finger.
Spine is shaped more like a running terrestrial animal than like a fish – moves up and down rather than side to side
They have tiny pelvic bones – much reduced, and a tiny femur, too (which is just a tiny little ball).  Lots of individual variation in whales for the number of metacarpals, non-cervical vertebrae. That means that when we were digging up the whale, we didn’t know exactly how many bones we were looking for.
Circulatory and respiratory systems are similar
Their lungs are adapted for diving – trachea extends all the way to the centre of their lungs – our cartilaginous windpipe only extends as far as the branching
All whales have multi-chambered stomachs, inherited from their ungulate ancestors, but of no use in the ocean, including blue whales. Baleen whale stomachs have 3 chambers – forestomach (often contains rocks, to help the muscular walls grind up fish bones and crustacean exoskeletons), main stomach, and pyloric stomach.
Whales need to sleep – but they only put one side of their brain to sleep at a time, like birds do

What are some adaptations of a whale’s body to an aquatic environment?

Streamlined bodies for moving through the water
Forelimbs have become flippers, to move them through the water
Hindlimbs are almost gone – pelvic bone is tiny, their femur is just a little ball!
Broadened tail that moves up and down, not side to side like a fish
No hair, are insulated with blubber instead (except some lip hair, perhaps 4 on their upper lip, and 40 on their lower).
Nose is on top of their head
Senses are adapted to the ocean – they have fantastic hearing (they can hear much lower frequencies than we can).

Population, Conservation, Distribution

Where are blue whales found? How many are there?

They are found in every ocean of the world, and there used to be hundreds of thousands of them. They are fast swimmers (able to reach a top speed of 50 kph when spooked), and for a long time they were too fast and elusive for the whalers to catch.
People have been hunting whales for their oil, blubber, baleen, and meat since prehistory. Blue whales were quick enough to outrun most whalers until about 1868, when the steam engine, explosive harpoons, and air compressors (what were they used for? To inflate dead whales, so they could tow them back to port to be ‘rendered’) were introduced.

What did people use whale products for?

The blubber was rendered for use in lighting, fine soapmaking, and machine lubrication. "Whalebone", the keratin plates baleen whales use to strain food out of the ocean, was prized for corset stays, umbrella ribs, and carriage springs; applications where plastic or steel would now be used.
Blue whales were hunted in great numbers from then on, reducing their numbers from 350,000 to 1 or 2 thousand.
In 1966, the International Whaling Commission banned hunting of blue whales, and today their numbers are estimated at 4,500. Blue whales are on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, and are listed as Endangered under the Canadian Species-at-Risk Act.
Today, scientists estimate there are about 4500 blue whales left on the planet, so their numbers are increasing slowly.

They are still under threat. What threatens blue whales?

Pollution – mammals store pollution in their tissues, and they pass it all on to their firstborn, while it’s gestating and breastfeeding.
Oil spills
Changes in ocean that affect food supply (krill)
Ship strikes (our blue was probably killed by a ship strike)
Noise pollution – blue whales are not only the biggest, but also the loudest animal on the planet – their call is 190 decibels, which is louder than a jet engine, more than twice as loud as a person shouting (about 70 dB). If you happened to be swimming next to one (and you wouldn’t be, because you can’t withstand the pressures at that depth, it would do some serious damage. 150 dB will cause permanent hearing damage.
Whales use song to communicate with one another, and to find mates. Blue whales are mostly solitary. They can call to each other across thousands of km. In Newfoundland, you can hear whales singing in Puerto Rico (that’s like being able to hear someone in Toronto singing when you’re standing where you are right now).
A whale’s acoustic bubble used to be about 1000 km, and now it’s just 100km.  There’s so much noise pollution in the oceans from propellers, sonar, etc., that if people were working down there, WorkSafe BC would make them wear ear protection.
Imagine being a single blue whale out in the ocean, and you’re looking for a mate – you used to have hundreds of thousands to choose from, and you used to be able to hear songs from thousands of km away – now there are only a few thousand, and you can’t hear most of them because of all the noise – they’re living in a construction site.

Monday 2 July 2012

Ten interesting facts about giant pandas



1. Approximately 99 percent of a panda’s diet – bamboo leaves and shoots – is void of much nutritional value. Its carnivore-adapted digestive system cannot digest cellulose well, thus it lives a low-energy, sedentary lifestyle but persists in eating some 60 species of bamboo. Pandas must eat upwards of 30 pounds of bamboo daily just to stay full.
2. Historically speaking, pandas are one of the few animals whose parts have not been used in traditional Chinese medicine.
3. The WWF logo was inspired by Chi-Chi, a giant panda brought to the London           Zoo in 1961, when WWF was being created. Says Sir Peter Scott, one of those founders and the man who sketched the first logo: “We wanted an animal that is beautiful, is endangered and one loved by many people in the world for its appealing qualities. We also wanted an animal that had an impact in black and white to save money on printing costs.”
4 .The giant panda’s genome was sequenced in 2009, according to the journal Nature.
5. The first panda came to the United States in 1936 – a cub to a zoo in Chicago. It took another 50 years before the States would see another.

6. A newborn panda cub is 1/900th the size of its mother and is comparable to the length of a stick of butter.
        7. A panda’s paw has six digits – five fingers and an opposable pseudo-thumb        (actually an enlarged wrist bone) it uses merely to hold bamboo while eating.

8. Of all the members of the bear family, only sloth bears have longer tails than pandas.

9. Pandas rely on spatial memory, not visual memory.

10. Female pandas ovulate once a year and are fertile for only two or three days.

Amazing facts about Dolphins




  1. … dolphins are mammals? They give birth to live young and nurse them with milk.
  2. … dolphins have to come up to the surface to breathe? Most dolphins surface every few minutes, but they can stay under water for up to 15 minutes. A dolphin breathes through the blowhole on top of its head.
  3. … dolphins evolved from land animals? The land ancestor of the dolphin lived about 50 million years ago and looked a little like a wolf. This animal hunted in shallow waters and by and by adapted itself to life in water: the forelegs became flippers, the hindlegs disappeared and the fluke evolved, the fur disappeared and the nostrils moved to the top of the head.
  4. … dolphins use echolocation to navigate and to find food? Dolphins send out clicks that are returned from other objects in the water (just like an echo). This way a dolphin can locate food, other dolphins, predators or rocks.
  5. … dolphins live in families? These families are usually led by a female dolphin. The dolphins in a family help each other, for example when raising their young. When travelling or hunting, several families might join together to make a larger group, a school of dolphins.
  6. … the largest dolphin is the orca? It can reach up to ten metres in length. For more information on this dolphin, read our text about orcas.
  7. … dolphins have a thick layer of fat beneath their skin? This layer of fat is called blubber. As dolphins have no fur, they need the blubber to keep warm. Dolphins in colder waters usually have a thicker layer of fat than dolphins in warm waters.
  8. … dolphins are endangered? Humans are the greatest threat to dolphins: environmental pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing are the main reasons why so many dolphin species are endangered. Lots of dolphins get stuck in fishing nets and in some countries, dolphins are deliberately killed because they eat the fish that the fishermen want to catch. If we do not do anything about it, dolphins might soon be extinct.
  9. … not all dolphins live in seawater? There are some species that live in fresh water: the river dolphins. Unfortunately, river dolphins are critically endangered and it is even feared that one species, the baiji, has already died out.
  10. … you can help to protect dolphins? Educate yourself about these animals and tell others about them. Care more about our environment and start to recycle more things. Raise money for an organisation that helps to support dolphins.




  1. You can hear a tiger roar over a mile away!
  2.  A tiger can eat 100 pounds of meat a night! Compare that to 400 hamburgers! They need a lot of food because they go days between meals.
  3.  Tigers have been called man eaters, yet they eat frogs, monkeys, porcupines  fowl, and tortoises, especially  when a good deer is hard to find.
  4.  Tigers have eyes that are the brightest of any other animal in the world. At dusk, or in the beam of a torch, they blaze back the ambient light with awe-inspiring intensity.
  5.  Tigers are the biggest cats in the world. They live in steamy hot jungles as well as icy cold forests. There are five different kinds or subspecies of tiger alive in the world today. These tigers are called Siberian, South China, Indochinese, Bengal, and Sumatran. Tigers are an endangered species; only about 5,000 to 7,400 tigers are left in the wild. Three tiger subspecies, the Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers have become extinct in the past 70 years.
  6.  Depending on the subspecies, the head-body length of a tiger is about 41/2 to 9 feet (1.4-2.8 m). The length of the tail is 3 to 4 feet (90-120 cm). The foot pads vary in size with age, resulting in inaccurate estimates when used in censuring wild populations.
  7.  Tigers have round pupils and yellow irises (except for the blue eyes of white tigers). Due to a retinal adaptation that reflects light back to the retina, the night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
  8.  Siberian tigers are the heaviest subspecies at 500 or more pounds (225 kg), with males heavier than females. The lightest subspecies is the Sumatran; males weigh about 250 pounds (110 kg) and females around 200 pounds (90 kg).
  9.  The size of a tiger's territory depends on the amount of food available, and usually ranges from about 10 to 30 square miles (26-78 sq. km). Siberian tigers sometimes have really big territories (as large as 120 square miles).
  10.  Although tigers usually live alone, tiger territories can overlap. A male tiger's territory usually overlaps those of several female tigers.
  11.  Tigers mark their territories by spraying bushes and trees with a special mixture of urine and scent gland secretions. They also leave scratch marks on trees.
  12.  Tigers can see in the dark six times better than humans can. They can also see in color.
  13.  The heaviest tiger recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records is a 1,025-pound male Siberian tiger.
  14.  Young tigers live with their mother until they are two to three years old, then they find their own territories.
  15.  Unlike some big cats like lions, adult tigers like to live alone (except for mother tigers with cubs). This is partly because in the forest, a single tiger can sneak up and surprise its prey better than a group of tigers can.
  16.  Most tigers have an orange coat with dark brown or black stripes accented with white. Tigers that live in cold climates (Siberian tigers) have thicker fur than tigers that live in warm climates.
  17.  A tiger's tail is 3 to 4 feet long, about half as long as its body. Tigers use their tails for balance when they run through fast turns. They also use their tails to communicate with other tigers.
  18.  No one knows exactly why tigers are striped, but scientists think that the stripes act as camouflage, and help tigers hide from their prey. The Sumatran tiger has the most stripes of all the tiger subspecies, and the Siberian tiger has the fewest stripes. Tiger stripes are like human fingerprints; no two tigers have the same pattern of stripes.
  19.  A tiger's paw prints are called pug marks.
  20.  Like domestic cats, tiger claws are retractable. Tiger scratches on trees serve as territorial markers.
  21.  They often carry the Chinese mark of Wang or King on the forehead.
  22.  The life span of tigers in the wild is thought to be about 10 years. Tigers in zoos live twice as long.
  23.  Tiger cubs are born blind and weigh only about 2 to 3 pounds (1 kg), depending on the subspecies. They live on milk for 6-8 weeks before the female begins taking them to kills to feed. Tigers have fully developed canines by 16 months of age, but they do not begin making their own kills until about 18 months of age.

10 Facts About the Titanic



In 1898 (14 years prior to the Titanic tragedy), Morgan Robertson wrote a novel called Futility. This fictitious novel was about the largest ship ever built hitting an iceberg in the Atlantic ocean on a cold April night. The fictional ship (named Titan) and the real ship Titanic were similar in design and their circumstances were remarkably alike. Both ships were labeled "unsinkable".
•RMS stands for Royal Mail Steamer. RMS, in formal terms, means "Royal Merchant Ship". However, the dual meaning was also "Royal Mail Steamer", because the Titanic carried mail under the auspices of His Majesty's postal authorities. At that time, all ships, military and civilian, that were under the British flag carried the distinction of "R.M.S." This, in effect, gave the ship the protection of the British Crown. An attack on an R.M.S. was considered an attack on the crown and an act of war.
•Two dogs were among the Titanic survivors.
•There were no cats on the Titanic. Cats were often brought on ships as a form of good luck. They also controlled rodents.
•The Titanic is about as long as the Empire State building is tall.
•The Tower Bridge, located in London England, is approximately the same length and height as the Titanic.
•Originally, the Titanic's design only included 3 funnels (smokestacks). The aftmost funnel (towards stern) was added to make the Titanic look more impressive-it gave the feeling of "power and grace". It only functioned as an air vent.


•No one ever claimed that the Titanic was "unsinkable". The quote, "practically unsinkable" was taken out of context. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article describing the construction of the Titanic. The article stated that when the watertight doors were closed, the ship would be "practically unsinkable".
•It was customary to break a bottle of champagne on the bow of a boat when launched. The Titanic launching did not include the traditional bottle-breaking.
•Many of the passengers were not originally suppose to be traveling on the Titanic. Due to a strike, coal was in short supply. This shortage threatened Titanic's maiden voyage and forced the White Star Line to cancel travel on the Oceanic and Adriatic and transfer their passengers and coal stocks to the Titanic.
•There were 13 couples on board celebrating their Honeymoons.
•Captain Smith was planning to retire after Titanic's maiden voyage.
•The Titanic had 4 elevators (3 in First class and 1 in Second class).
•At the time, Titanic's whistles were the largest ever made.
•Titanic's whistles could be heard from a distance of 11 miles.
•The Titanic carried 900 tons of baggage and freight.
•The Titanic used 14,000 gallons of drinking water every 24 hours.
•Coal consumption per day: 825 tons.
•Carried 20 lifeboats and 3560 life jackets. The life jackets were made of canvas and cork.
•More than 3 million rivets were used to build the Titanic.
•In a test done to determine stopping distance, the Titanic was accelerated to 20 knots and then the engines were reversed at full power. The distance required to stop the Titanic was about half a mile.
•The Titanic's radio call sign was: MGY.
•Port of Registry - Liverpool, England. Registry date: March 24, 1912.
•Official ship number: 131,428
•The number 3909 04 was NOT assigned to the Titanic as a hull number.


•The lookouts in the crow's nest did not have binoculars. Having binoculars might have prevented the Titanic tragedy.
•The time interval from first sighting of the iceberg to impact was a little over 30 seconds.
•The Titanic sank 2 hours and 40 minutes after hitting the iceberg.
•It probably took Titanic about 15 minutes to sink to her final resting place on the ocean floor. That means that Titanic sank at a rate of 10 miles per hour (or 16 km per hour).
•The Titanic hit the iceberg on the starboard (right) side of the bow. It has been speculated that the Titanic may have suffered only minor damage and minimal loss of life had it hit the iceberg head-on. It has also been suggested that the Titanic may have completely avoided colliding with the iceberg had the bridge not requested that the engines be reversed ("Full Astern"), prior to steering the ship to the left ("Hard-a-starboard"). This action would have decreased the forward momentum of the Titanic causing it to turn at a slower rate.
•July and August are the only two months the weather permits expeditions to the Titanic wreck site.

Top 10 Interesting Taj Mahal Facts



1. One of the most interesting Taj Mahal facts  is that the building will appear to be a different color depending on what time of day it is, and whether or not there is a moon at night.

2. The Taj Mahal is one of the most popular Agra tourist attractions, and the building was started in 1631 by Shah Jahan.

3. No Golden Triangle tours in India would be complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal. This building is recognized by people all around the world, even those who have never been to India.

4. Taj Mahal facts which are fascinating include the fact that all of the artisans and skilled workers had their hands removed when the building was finally finished. This was to ensure no other structure could compare to the magnificent Taj Mahal.

5. The construction of the Taj Mahal took twenty two years to complete, and required more than twenty two thousand workers who were brought in from all over. There were more than one thousand elephants that were used just to haul the materials needed.

6. Interesting Taj Mahal facts include the symmetry of the structure, which is perfect except for the interior tombs. Tradition dictated that the tomb for the male must be larger than the one for the female.

7. There are many Agra tourist places, and a popular one is the black marble base. This base was intended as a mirror image of the Taj Mahal, except for black marble being used in place of white, but the structure was never completed.

8. The Taj Mahal has been designated as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and it draws people from everywhere on the globe.

9. One of the really fascinating Taj Mahal facts has to do with the exterior pillars. These were placed at an outward tilt, so if an earthquake occurred the fall of the pillars could be controlled.

10. One of the less common known Taj Mahal facts is that many jewels and semi precious gems were used to decorate the structure. Over the years and through a number of wars and pillages these jewels were removed, but you can still see where they were.

99 Fun Facts About Dogs!!!!!!



  1. All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelled in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus, a direct forbear of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.g
  2. Ancient Egyptians revered their dogs. When a pet dog would die, the owners shaved off their eyebrows, smeared mud in their hair, and mourned aloud for days.b
  3. Small quantities of grapes and raisins can cause renal failure in dogs. Chocolate, macadamia nuts, cooked onions, or anything with caffeine can also be harmful.c
  4. Apple and pear seeds contain arsenic, which may be deadly to dogs.c
  5. Rock star Ozzy Osborne saved his wife Sharon’s Pomeranian from a coyote by tackling and wresting the coyote until it released the dog.d
  6. Dogs have sweat glands in between their their paws
  7. Dogs have sweat glands in between their paws.e
  8. In 2003, Dr. Roger Mugford invented the “wagometer,” a device that claims to interpret a dog’s exact mood by measuring the wag of its tail.d
  9. Dogs have three eyelids. The third lid, called a nictitating membrane or “haw,” keeps the eye lubricated and protected.i
  10. A dog’s shoulder blades are unattached to the rest of the skeleton to allow greater flexibility for running.e
  11. Puppies are sometimes rejected by their mother if they are born by cesarean and cleaned up before being given back to her.c
  12. The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in seventeenth-century England. During heavy rainstorms, many homeless animals would drown and float down the streets, giving the appearance that it had actually rained cats and dogs.d
  13. During the Middle Ages, Great Danes and Mastiffs were sometimes suited with armor and spiked collars to enter a battle or to defend supply caravans.h
  14. Pekingese and Japanese Chins were so important in the ancient Far East that they had their own servants and were carried around trade routes as gifts for kings and emperors. Pekingese were even worshipped in the temples of China for centuries.b
  15. The shape of a dog’s face can help predict how long a dog will live
  16. The shape of a dog’s face suggests how long it will live. Dogs with sharp, pointed faces that look more like wolves typically live longer. Dogs with very flat faces, such as bulldogs, often have shorter lives.d
  17. After the fall of Rome, human survival often became more important than breeding and training dogs. Legends of werewolves emerged during this time as abandoned dogs traveling in packs commonly roamed streets and terrified villagers.d
  18. During the Middle Ages, mixed breeds of peasants’ dogs were required to wear blocks around their necks to keep them from breeding with noble hunting dogs. Purebred dogs were very expensive and hunting became the province of the rich.d
  19. The most dogs ever owned by one person were 5,000 Mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.d
  20. The American Kennel Club, the most influential dog club in the United States, was founded in 1884.e
  21. The most popular male dog names are Max and Jake. The most popular female dog names are Maggie and Molly.d
  22. Some scholars speculate that Dorothy’s dog, Toto, may represent the Egyptian god of death, Anubis
  23. Scholars have argued over the metaphysical interpretation of Dorothy’s pooch, Toto, in the Wizard of Oz. One theory postulates that Toto represents Anubis, the dog-headed Egyptian god of death, because Toto consistently keeps Dorothy from safely returning home.d
  24. Weird dog laws include allowing police offers in Palding, Ohio, to bite a dog to quiet it. In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.d
  25. The first dog chapel was established in 2001. It was built in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, by Stephan Huneck, a children’s book author whose five dogs helped him recuperate from a serious illness.c
  26. Those born under the sign of the dog in Chinese astrology are considered to be loyal and discreet, though slightly temperamental.h
  27. In Iran, it is against the law to own a dog as a pet. However, if an owner can prove the dog is a guard or hunting dog, this restriction doesn’t apply. Muslim reticence concerning dogs is perhaps due to the fact that rabies has always been endemic in the Middle East.d
  28. The Mayans and Aztecs symbolized every tenth day with the dog, and those born under this sign were believed to have outstanding leadership skills.d
  29. The ancient Mbaya Indians of the Gran Chaco in South America believed that humans originally lived underground until dogs dug them up.b
  30. Plato once said that ”a dog has the soul of a philosopher”
  31. Plato once said that “a dog has the soul of a philosopher.”d
  32. French poodles did not originate in France but in Germany (“poodle” comes from the German pudel or pudelhund, meaning “splashing dog”). Some scholars speculate the poodle’s puffs of hair evolved when hunters shaved the poodle for more efficient swimming, while leaving the pom-poms around the major joints to keep them warm.b
  33. The name of the dog on the Cracker Jacks box is Bingo. The Taco Bell Chihuahua is a rescued dog named Gidget.d
  34. The first dogs were self-domesticated wolves which, at least 12,000 years ago, became attracted to the first sites of permanent human habitation.f
  35. Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.d
  36. Laiki, a Russian stray, was the first living mammal to orbit the Earth, in the Soviet Sputnik spacecraft in 1957. Though she died in space, her daughter Pushnika had four puppies with President John F. Kennedy’s terrier, Charlie.d
  37. Dalmatians are completely white at birth.d
  38. The term “dog days of summer” was coined by the ancient Greeks and Romans to describe the hottest days of summer that coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.b
  39. Alexander the Great is said to have founded and named a city Peritas, in memory of his dog.b
  40. In ancient Greece, kennels of dogs were kept at the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Dogs were frequently sacrificed there because they were plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to control. During the July 25 celebration of the kunophontis (“the massacre of dogs”), dog sacrifices were performed to appease the ancestors of Apollo’s son, Linos, who was devoured by dogs..g
  41. Dog trainers in ancient China were held in high esteem. A great deal of dog domestication also took place in China, especially dwarfing and miniaturization.d
  42. The ancient religion Zoroastrianism includes in its religious text titled the Zend Avesta a section devoted to the care and breeding of dogs.b
  43. The earliest European images of dogs are found in cave paintings dating back 12,000 years ago in Spain.g
  44. The dog was frequently depicted in Greek art, including Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding the entrance to the underworld, and the hunting dogs which accompanied the virgin goddess of the chase, Diana.b
  45. During the Renaissance, detailed portraits of the dog as a symbol of fidelity and loyalty appeared in mythological, allegorical, and religious art throughout Europe, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Diego Velázquez, Jan van Eyck, and Albrecht Durer.b
  46. A puppy is born blind, deaf, and toothless.c
  47. The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog
  48. The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog.e
  49. A dog most likely interprets a smiling person as baring their teeth, which is an act of aggression.f
  50. The origin of amputating a dog’s tail may go back to the Roman writer Lucius Columella’s (A.D. 4-70) assertion that tail docking prevented rabies.d
  51. One of Shakespeare’s most mischievous characters is Crab, the dog belonging to Launce in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. The word “watchdog” is first found in The Tempest.d
  52. President Franklin Roosevelt created a minor international incident when he claimed he sent a destroyer to the Aleutian Islands just to pick up his Scottish Terrier, Fala, who had been left behind.d
  53. Within hours of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, specially trained dogs were on the scene, including German Shepherds, Labs, and even a few little Dachshunds.d
  54. It costs approximately $10,000 to train a federally certified search and rescue dog.d
  55. The smallest dog on record was a matchbox-size Yorkshire Terrier. It was 2.5" tall at the shoulder, 3.5" from nose tip to tail, and weighed only 4 ounces.d
  56. Hollywood’s first and arguably best canine superstar was Rin Tin Tin, a five-day-old German Shepherd found wounded in battle in WWI France and adopted by an American soldier, Lee Duncan. He would sign his own contracts with his paw print.d
  57. At the end of WWI, the German government trained the first guide dogs for war-blinded soldiers.d
  58. A dog can locate the source of a sound in 1/600 of a second and can hear sounds four times farther away than a human can.c
  59. Touch is the first sense the dog develops. The entire body, including the paws, is covered with touch-sensitive nerve endings.e
  60. Eighteen muscles or more can move a dog’s ear.e
  61. The names of 77 ancient Egyptian dogs have been recorded. The names refer to color and character, such as Blackie, Ebony, Good Herdsman, Reliable, and Brave One.d
  62. In Egypt, a person bitten by a rabid dog was encouraged to eat the roasted liver of a dog infected with rabies to avoid contracting the disease. The tooth of a dog infected with rabies would also be put in a band tied to the arm of the person bitten. The menstrual blood of a female dog was used for hair removal, while dog genitals were used for preventing the whitening of hair.h
  63. In early Christian tradition, Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, is sometimes depicted with a dog’s head.g
  64. The oldest known dog bones were found in Asia and date as far back as 10,000 B.C. The first identifiable dog breed appeared about 9000 B.C. and was probably a type of Greyhound dog used for hunting.g
  65. There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world.d
  66. The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world. France has the second highest.d
  67. Dog nose prints are as unique as human fingerprints
  68. Dog nose prints are as unique as human finger prints and can be used to identify them.c
  69. Bloodhound dogs have a keen sense of smell and have been used since the Middle Ages to track criminals.e
  70. It is much easier for dogs to learn spoken commands if they are given in conjunction with hand signals or gestures.a
  71. Dogs in a pack are more likely to chase and hunt than a single dog on its own. Two dogs are enough to form a pack.a
  72. Dogs can see in color, though they most likely see colors similar to a color-blind human. They can see better when the light is low.c
  73. Studies show that petting a dog lowers blood pressure
  74. Petting dogs is proven to lower blood pressure of dog owners.a
  75. Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years. Cats have lived with people for only 7,000 years.h
  76. Zorba, an English mastiff, is the biggest dog ever recorded. He weighed 343 pounds and measured 8' 3" from his nose to his tail.d
  77. The average dog can run about 19 mph. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on Earth and can run at speeds of 45 mph.c
  78. One female dog and her female children could produce 4,372 puppies in seven years.c
  79. The most popular dog breed in Canada, U.S., and Great Britain is the Labrador retriever.d
  80. Greyhounds appear to be the most ancient dog breed. “Greyhound” comes from a mistake in translating the early German name Greishund, which means “old (or ancient) dog,” not from the color gray.g
  81. The oldest dog on record was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey who lived 29 years and 5 months. In human years, that is more than 160 years old.d
  82. Most experts believe humans domesticated dogs before donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, cattle, cats, or chickens.h
  83. A person standing still 300 yards away is almost invisible to a dog. But a dog can easily identify its owner standing a mile away if the owner is waving his arms.i
  84. Dogs with big, square heads and large ears (like the Saint Bernard) are the best at hearing subsonic sounds.c
  85. Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.a

  86. Studies show that some dogs can detect cancer by smelling a person's breath
  87. Some dogs can smell dead bodies under water, where termites are hiding, and natural gas buried under 40 feet of dirt. They can even detect cancer that is too small to be detected by a doctor and can find lung cancer by sniffing a person’s breath.c
  88. Dogs have a wet nose to collect more of the tiny droplets of smelling chemicals in the air.i
  89. Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.a
  90. Different smells in the a dog’s urine can tell other dogs whether the dog leaving the message is female or male, old or young, sick or healthy, happy or angry.a
  91. Male dogs will raise their legs while urinating to aim higher on a tree or lamppost because they want to leave a message that they are tall and intimidating. Some wild dogs in Africa try to run up tree trunks while they are urinating to appear to be very large.a
  92. In Croatia, scientists discovered that lampposts were falling down because a chemical in the urine of male dogs was rotting the metal.a
  93. Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150-200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words.a
  94. Countess Karlotta Libenstein of Germany left approximately $106 million to her Alsatin, Gunther III, when she died in 1992.d
  95. A lost Dachshund was found swallowed whole in the stomach of a giant catfish in Berlin on July 2003.d
  96. In Australia, a man who was arrested for drug possession argued his civil rights were violated when the drug-sniffing dog nuzzled his crotch. While the judge dismissed the charges, they were later reinstated when a prosecutor pointed out that in the animal kingdom, crotch nuzzling was a friendly gesture.d
  97. The Beagle came into prominence in the 1300s and 1400s during the days of King Henry VII of England. Elizabeth I was fond of Pocket Beagles, which were only 9" high.d
  98. Golden Retrievers may improve a person’s chance of attracting a date
  99. The best dog to reportedly attract a date is the Golden Retriever. The worst is the Pit Bull.d
  100. The Akita is one of the most challenging dogs to own. Some insurance companies have even characterized it as the #1 “bad dog” and may even raise an Akita owner’s homeowner insurance costs.d
  101. The Beagle and Collie are the nosiest dogs, while the Akbash Dog and the Basenji are the quietest.d
  102. One survey reports that 33% of dog owners admit they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on answering machines while they are away..d
  103. Thirty percent of all Dalmatians are deaf in one or both ears. Because bulldogs have extremely short muzzles, many spend their lives fighting suffocation. Because Chihuahuas have such small skulls, the flow of spinal fluid can be restricted, causing hydrocephalus, a swelling of the brain.d
  104. Intense grief over the death of a pet dog is normal and natural
  105. The grief suffered after a pet dog dies can be the same as that experienced after the death of a person.a
  106. There are almost 5 million dog bites per year; children are the main victims. Dog bites cause losses of over $1 billion a year.d
  107. A person should never kick a dog facing him or her. Some dogs can bite 10 times before a human can respond.d
  108. The most intelligent dogs are reportedly the Border Collie and the Poodle, while the least intelligent dogs are the Afghan Hound and the Basenji.d

Some Interesting Facts About the Internet



  1. 30,000,000,000 pieces of content are shared every month on the Internet.
  2. 127 Trillion emails were sent on the Internet in 2010.
  3.  There are 255,000,000 websites on the worldwide web.
  4. 48,000,000,000 apps (applications) have been downloaded
  5. By 2013, there will be one trillion devices that can connect to the Internet.  That’s 140 per person.  In 2007, there were 500 million.
  6. In February 2011, eBook sales reached 90,300,000.  Paperback sales at the same time were 81,200,0
  7. 1 out of 8 couples met on the Internet.
  8. Personal MySpace pages are visited 30 times a day.
  9. There are 2.7 trillion searches on Google each month.
  10. The number of text messages sent each day is greater than the population of the world.
  11. The average teenager sends 2,272 text messages per month.  That is almost 76 per day.

Facts About U.S. Nuclear Weapons


1. Cost of the Manhattan Project (through August 1945): $20,000,000,000

SOURCES: Richard G. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr., The New World: A History of the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Volume 1, 1939/1946 (Oak Ridge, Tennessee: U.S. AEC Technical Information Center, 1972), pp. 723-724; Condensed AEC Annual Financial Report, FY 1953 (in Fifteenth Semiannual Report of the Atomic Energy Commission, January 1954, p. 73)

2. Total number of nuclear missiles built, 1951-present: 67,500

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

3. Estimated construction costs for more than 1,000 ICBM launch pads and silos, and support facilities, from 1957-1964: nearly $14,000,000,000

Maj. C.D. Hargreaves, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office (CEBMCO), "Introduction to the CEBMCO Historical Report and History of the Command Section, Pre-CEBMCO Thru December 1962," p. 8; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Ballistic Missile Construction Office, "U.S. Air Force ICBM Construction Program," undated chart (circa 1965)

4. Total number of nuclear bombers built, 1945-present: 4,680

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

5. Peak number of nuclear warheads and bombs in the stockpile/year: 32,193/1966

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

6. Total number and types of nuclear warheads and bombs built, 1945-1990: more than 70,000/65 types

U.S. Department of Energy; Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

7. Number currently in the stockpile (2002): 10,600 (7,982 deployed, 2,700 hedge/contingency stockpile)

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

8. Number of nuclear warheads requested by the Army in 1956 and 1957: 151,000

History of the Custody and Deployment of Nuclear Weapons, July 1945 Through September 1977, Prepared by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Atomic Energy), February 1978, p. 50 (formerly Top Secret)

9. Projected operational U.S. strategic nuclear warheads and bombs after full enactment of the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty in 2012: 1,700-2,200

U.S. Department of Defense; Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

10. Additional strategic and non-strategic warheads not limited by the treaty that the U.S. military wants to retain as a "hedge" against unforeseen future threats: 4,900

U..S. Department of Defense; Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

11. Largest and smallest nuclear bombs ever deployed: B17/B24 (~42,000 lbs., 10-15 megatons); W54 (51 lbs., .01 kilotons, .02 kilotons-1 kiloton)

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

12. Peak number of operating domestic uranium mines (1955): 925

Nineteenth Semiannual Report of the Atomic Energy Commission, January 1956, p. 31

13. Fissile material produced: 104 metric tons of
plutonium and 994 metric tons of highly-enriched
uranium

U.S. Department of Energy

14. Amount of plutonium still in weapons: 43 metric tons

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

15. Number of thermometers which could be filled with mercury used to produce lithium-6 at the Oak Ridge Reservation: 11 billion

U.S. Department of Energy

16. Number of dismantled plutonium "pits" stored at the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas: 12,067 (as of May 6, 1999)

U.S. Department of Energy

17. States with the largest number of nuclear weapons (in 1999): New Mexico (2,450), Georgia (2,000), Washington (1,685), Nevada (1,350), and North Dakota (1,140)

William M. Arkin, Robert S. Norris, and Joshua Handler, Taking Stock: Worldwide Nuclear Deployments 1998 (Washington, D.C.: Natural Resources Defense Council, March 1998)

18. Total known land area occupied by U.S. nuclear weapons bases and facilities: 15,654 square miles

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

19. Total land area of the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New Jersey: 15,357 square miles

Rand McNally Road Atlas and Travel Guide, 1992

20. Legal fees paid by the Department of Energy to fight lawsuits from workers and private citizens concerning nuclear weapons production and testing activities, from October 1990 through March 1995: $97,000,000

U.S. Department of Energy

21. Money paid by the State Department to Japan following fallout from the 1954 "Bravo" test: $15,300,000

Barton C. Hacker, Elements of Controversy: The Atomic Energy Commission and Radiation Safety in Nuclear Weapons Testing, 1947 -1974, University of California Press, 1994, p. 158

22. Money and non-monetary compensation paid by the the United States to Marshallese Islanders since 1956 to redress damages from nuclear testing: at least $759,000,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

23. Money paid to U.S. citizens under the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act of 1990, as of January 13, 1998: approximately $225,000,000 (6,336 claims approved; 3,156 denied)

U.S. Department of Justice, Torts Branch, Civil Division

24. Total cost of the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program, 1946-1961: $7,000,000,000

"Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Program," Report of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, September 1959, pp. 11-12

25. Total number of nuclear-powered aircraft and airplane hangars built: 0 and 1

Ibid; "American Portrait: ANP," WFAA-TV (Dallas), 1993. Between July 1955 and March 1957, a specially modified B-36 bomber made 47 flights with a three megawatt air-cooled operational test reactor (the reactor, however, did not power the plane).

26. Number of secret Presidential Emergency Facilities built for use during and after a nuclear war: more than 75

Bill Gulley with Mary Ellen Reese, Breaking Cover, Simon and Schuster, 1980, pp. 34- 36

27. Currency stored until 1988 by the Federal Reserve at its Mount Pony facility for use after a nuclear war: more than $2,000,000,000

Edward Zuckerman, The Day After World War III, The Viking Press, 1984, pp. 287-88

28. Amount of silver in tons once used at the Oak Ridge, TN, Y-12 Plant for electrical magnet coils: 14,700

Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Bomb, U.S. Army Center for Military History, 1985, pp. 66-7

29. Total number of U.S. nuclear weapons tests, 1945-1992: 1,030 (1,125 nuclear devices detonated; 24 additional joint tests with Great Britain)

U.S. Department of Energy

30. First and last test: July 16, 1945 ("Trinity") and September 23, 1992 ("Divider")

U.S. Department of Energy

31. Estimated amount spent between October 1, 1992 and October 1, 1995 on nuclear testing activities: $1,200,000,000 (0 tests)

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

32. Cost of 1946 Operation Crossroads weapons tests ("Able" and "Baker") at Bikini Atoll: $1,300,000,000

Weisgall, Operation Crossroads, pp. 294, 371

33. Largest U.S. explosion/date: 15 Megatons/March 1, 1954 ("Bravo")

U.S. Department of Energy

34. Number of islands in Enewetak atoll vaporized
by the November 1, 1952 "Mike" H-bomb test: 1

Chuck Hansen, U.S. Nuclear Weapons: The Secret History, Orion Books, 1988, pp. 58-59, 95

35. Number of nuclear tests in the Pacific: 106

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

36. Number of U.S. nuclear tests in Nevada: 911

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

37. Number of nuclear weapons tests in Alaska [1, 2, and 3], Colorado [1 and 2], Mississippi and New Mexico [1, 2 and 3]: 10

Natural Resources Defense Council, Nuclear Weapons Databook Project

38. Operational naval nuclear propulsion reactors vs. operational commercial power reactors (in 1999): 129 vs. 108

Adm. Bruce DeMars, Deputy Assistant Director for Naval Reactors, U.S. Navy; Nuclear Regulatory Commission

39. Number of attack (SSN) and ballistic missile (SSBN) submarines (2002): 53 SSNs and 18 SSBNs

Adm. Bruce DeMars, Deputy Assistant Director for Naval Reactors, U.S. Navy

40. Number of high level radioactive waste tanks in Washington, Idaho and South Carolina: 239

U.S. Department of Energy

41. Volume in cubic meters of radioactive waste resulting from weapons activities: 104,000,000

U.S. Department of Energy; Institute for Energy and Environmental Research

42. Number of designated targets for U.S. weapons in the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP) in 1976, 1986, and 1995: 25,000 (1976), 16,000 (1986) and 2,500 (1995)

Bruce Blair, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

43. Cost of January 17, 1966 nuclear weapons accident over Palomares, Spain (including two lost planes, an extended search and recovery effort, waste disposal in the U.S. and settlement claims): $182,000,000

Joint Committee on Atomic Energy Interoffice Memorandum, February 15, 1968; Center for Defense Information

44. Number of U.S. nuclear bombs lost in accidents and never recovered: 11

U.S. Department of Defense; Center for Defense Information; Greenpeace; "Lost Bombs," Atwood-Keeney Productions, Inc., 1997

45. Number of Department of Energy federal employees (in 1996): 18,608

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Worker and Community Transition

46. Number of Department of Energy contractor employees (in 1996): 109,242

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Worker and Community Transition

47. Minimum number of classified pages estimated to be in the Department of Energy's possession (1995): 280 million

A Review of the Department of Energy Classification Policy and Practice, Committee on Declassification of Information for the Department of Energy Environmental Remediation and Related Programs, National Research Council, 1995, pp. 7-8, 68.

48. Ballistic missile defense spending in 1965 vs. 1995: $2,200,000,000 vs. $2,600,000,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

49. Average cost per warhead to the U.S. to help Kazakhstan dismantle 104 SS-18 ICBMs carrying more than 1,000 warheads: $70,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project; Arms Control Association

50. Estimated 1998 spending on all U.S. nuclear weapons and weapons-related programs: $35,100,000,000

U.S. Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project

Strange Facts About Einstein



1. Einstein Was a Fat Baby with Large Head
When Albert’s mother, Pauline Einstein gave birth to him, she thought that Einstein’s head was so big and misshapen that he was deformed!

As the back of the head seemed much too big, the family initially considered a monstrosity. The physician, however, was able to calm them down and some weeks later the shape of the head was normal. When Albert’s grandmother saw him for the first time she is reported to have muttered continuously "Much too fat, much too fat!" Contrasting all apprehensions Albert grew and developed normally except that he seemed a bit slow. (Source)

2. Einstein Had Speech Difficulty as a Child

Earliest Known Photo of Albert Einstein (Image credit: Albert Einstein Archives,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

As a child, Einstein seldom spoke. When he did, he spoke very slowly – indeed, he tried out entire sentences in his head (or muttered them under his breath) until he got them right before he spoke aloud. According to accounts, Einstein did this until he was nine years old. Einstein’s parents were fearful that he was retarded – of course, their fear was completely unfounded!

One interesting anecdote, told by Otto Neugebauer, a historian of science, goes like this:

As he was a late talker, his parents were worried. At last, at the supper table one night, he broke his silence to say, "The soup is too hot."
Greatly relieved, his parents asked why he had never said a word before.
Albert replied, "Because up to now everything was in order." (Source)

In his book, Thomas Sowell [wiki] noted that besides Einstein, many brilliant people developed speech relatively late in childhood. He called this condition The Einstein Syndrome.

3. Einstein was Inspired by a Compass
When Einstein was five years old and sick in bed, his father showed him something that sparked his interest in science: a compass.

When Einstein was five years old and ill in bed one day, his father showed him a simple pocket compass. What interested young Einstein was whichever the case was turned, the needle always pointed in the same direction. He thought there must be some force in what was presumed empty space that acted on the compass. This incident, common in many "famous childhoods," was reported persistently in many of the accounts of his life once he gained fame. (Source)

4. Einstein Failed his University Entrance Exam
In 1895, at the age of 17, Albert Einstein applied for early admission into the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule or ETH). He passed the math and science sections of the entrance exam, but failed the rest (history, languages, geography, etc.)! Einstein had to go to a trade school before he retook the exam and was finally admitted to ETH a year later. (Source)

5. Einstein had an Illegitimate Child
In the 1980s, Einstein’s private letters revealed something new about the genius: he had an illegitimate daughter with a fellow former student Mileva Marić (whom Einstein later married).

In 1902, a year before their marriage, Mileva gave birth to a daughter named Lieserl, whom Einstein never saw and whose fate remained unknown:

Mileva gave birth to a daughter at her parents’ home in Novi Sad. This was at the end of January, 1902 when Einstein was in Berne. It can be assumed from the content of the letters that birth was difficult. The girl was probably christianised. Her official first name is unknown. In the letters received only the name “Lieserl” can be found.

The further life of Lieserl is even today not totally clear. Michele Zackheim concludes in her book “Einstein’s daughter” that Lieserl was mentally challenged when she was born and lived with Mileva’s family. Furthermore she is convinced that Lieserl died as a result of an infection with scarlet fever in September 1903. From the letters mentioned above it can also be assumed that Lieserl was put up for adoption after her birth.

In a letter from Einstein to Mileva from September 19, 1903, Lieserl was mentioned for the last time. After that nobody knows anything about Lieserl Einstein-Maric. (Source)

6. Einstein Became Estranged From His First Wife, then Proposed a Strange "Contract"
After Einstein and Mileva married, they had two sons: Hans Albert and Eduard. Einstein’s academic successes and world travel, however, came at a price – he became estranged from his wife. For a while, the couple tried to work out their problems – Einstein even proposed a strange "contract" for living together with Mileva:

The relationship progressed. Einstein became estranged from his wife. The biography reprints a chilling letter from Einstein to his wife, a proposed "contract" in which they could continue to live together under certain conditions. Indeed that was the heading: "Conditions."

A. You will make sure
1. that my clothes and laundry are kept in good order;
2. that I will receive my three meals regularly in my room;
3. that my bedroom and study are kept neat, and especially that my desk is left for my use only.
B. You will renounce all personal relations with me insofar as they are not completely necessary for social reasons…

There’s more, including "you will stop talking to me if I request it." She accepted the conditions. He later wrote to her again to make sure she grasped that this was going to be all-business in the future, and that the "personal aspects must be reduced to a tiny remnant." And he vowed, "In return, I assure you of proper comportment on my part, such as I would exercise to any woman as a stranger." (Source)

7. Einstein Didn’t Get Along with His Oldest Son
After the divorce, Einstein’s relationship with his oldest son, Hans Albert, turned rocky. Hans blamed his father for leaving Mileva, and after Einstein won the Nobel Prize and money, for giving Mileva access only to the interest rather than the principal sum of the award – thus making her life that much harder financially.

The row between the father and son was amplified when Einstein strongly objected to Hans Albert marrying Frieda Knecht:

In fact, Einstein opposed Hans’s bride in such a brutal way that it far surpassed the scene that Einstein’s own mother had made about Mileva. It was 1927, and Hans, at age 23, fell in love with an older and – to Einstein – unattractive woman. He damned the union, swearing that Hans’s bride was a scheming woman preying on his son. When all else failed, Einstein begged Hans to not have children, as it would only make the inevitable divorce harder. … (Source: Einstein A to Z by Karen C. Fox and Aries Keck, 2004)

Later, Hans Albert immigrated to the United States became a professor of Hydraulic Engineering at UC Berkeley. Even in the new country, the father and son were apart. When Einstein died, he left very little inheritance to Hans Albert.

More about Hans Albert: Obituary by UC Berkeley

8. Einstein was a Ladies’ Man

Einstein with his second wife and cousin, Elsa (Image credit)

After Einstein divorced Mileva (his infidelity was listed as one of the reasons for the split), he soon married his cousin Elsa Lowenthal. Actually, Einstein also considered marrying Elsa’s daughter (from her first marriage) Ilse, but she demurred:

Before marrying Elsa, he had considered marrying her daughter, Ilse, instead. According to Overbye, “She (Ilse, who was 18 years younger than Einstein) was not attracted to Albert, she loved him as a father, and she had the good sense not to get involved. But it was Albert’s Woody Allen moment.” (Source)

Unlike Mileva, Elsa Einstein’s main concern was to take care of her famous husband. She undoubtedly knew about, and yet tolerated, Einstein’s infidelity and love affairs which were later revealed in his letters:

Previously released letters suggested his marriage in 1903 to his first wife Mileva Maric, mother of his two sons, was miserable. They divorced in 1919, and he soon married his cousin, Elsa. He cheated on her with his secretary, Betty Neumann.

In the new volume of letters released on Monday by Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Einstein described about six women with whom he spent time and from whom he received gifts while being married to Elsa.

Some of the women identified by Einstein include Estella, Ethel, Toni and his "Russian spy lover," Margarita. Others are referred to only by initials, like M. and L.

"It is true that M. followed me (to England) and her chasing after me is getting out of control," he wrote in a letter to Margot in 1931. "Out of all the dames, I am in fact attached only to Mrs. L., who is absolutely harmless and decent." (Source)

9. Einstein, the War Pacifist, Urged FDR to Build the Atom Bomb

Re-creation of Einstein and Szilárd signing the famous letter to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939. (Image credit: Wikipedia)

In 1939, alarmed by the rise of Nazi Germany, physicist Leó Szilárd [wiki] convinced Einstein to write a letter to president Franklin Delano Roosevelt warning that Nazi Germany might be conducting research into developing an atomic bomb and urging the United States to develop its own.

The Einstein and Szilárd’s letter was often cited as one of the reasons Roosevelt started the secret Manhattan Project [wiki] to develop the atom bomb, although later it was revealed that the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 probably did much more than the letter to spur the government.

Although Einstein was a brilliant physicist, the army considered Einstein a security risk and (to Einstein’s relief) did not invite him to help in the project.

10. The Saga of Einstein’s Brain: Pickled in a Jar for 43 Years and Driven Cross Country in a Trunk of a Buick!
After his death in 1955, Einstein’s brain [wiki] was removed – without permission from his family – by Thomas Stoltz Harvey [wiki], the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy. Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from his job for refusing to relinquish the organ.

Many years later, Harvey, who by then had gotten permission from Hans Albert to study Einstein’s brain, sent slices of Einstein’s brain to various scientists throughout the world. One of these scientists was Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley, who discovered that compared to a normal person, Einstein had significantly more glial cells in the region of the brain that is responsible for synthesizing information.

In another study, Sandra Witelson of McMaster University found that Einstein’s brain lacked a particular "wrinkle" in the brain called the Sylvian fissure. Witelson speculated that this unusual anatomy allowed neurons in Einstein’s brain to communicate better with each other. Other studies had suggested that Einstein’s brain was denser, and that the inferior parietal lobe, which is often associated with mathematical ability, was larger than normal brains.

The saga of Einsteins brain can be quite strange at times: in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer Michael Paterniti on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein’s granddaughter. They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey’s Buick Skylark with Einstein’s brain sloshing inside a jar in the trunk! Paterniti later wrote his experience in the book Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain

Interesting Facts About World War 2



1. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the
Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed
by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was
LtGen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for the
allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He
was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about
his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress)

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was called
CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's
45th. Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train
was named "Amerika. All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps.
While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being Killed
was 71%.

5. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and
1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098
fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.

6. Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One
estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had
instead been dropped on power plants German industry would have
collapsed.

7. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter
pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace
Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger
on a cargo plane.

8. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round
with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. The tracers
had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting
the target 80% of your rounds were missing.
Worse yet the tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire
and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a
string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out
of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy.
Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double
and their loss rate go down.

9. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee
in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston
Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself
photographed in the act).

10. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it
wasn't worth the effort.

11. A number of air crewman died of farts.(ascending to 20,000 ft. in an
unpressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%).

12. The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in
mid-air (they also sometimes cleared mine fields by marching over them).
"It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army" - Joseph Stalin

13. The US Army had more ships than the US Navy.

14. The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions
and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne
operations. The German Army had paratroops that WERE capable of
airborne operations. Go figure.

15. When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment
brought ashore was 3 complete Coca-Cola bottling plants.

16. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several
Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they
were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army
until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for The
German Army until the US Army captured them.

17. A malfunctioning toilet sank German submarine U-120.

18. The Graf Spee never sank. The scuttling attempt failed and the
ship was bought as scrap by the British. On board was Germany's newest
radar system.

19. One of Japan's methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large
artillery shell with only the nose exposed. When a tank came near enough
a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no
excuse for defeat." - LtGen. Mutaguchi

20. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops
stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire fight. It
would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.

21. The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for the US
artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He
dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols
damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing.
Whereupon they landed and took the Germans
prisoner. I don't know where they put them since the MISS ME only had 2
seats.

22. Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.

23. The only nation that Germany declared war on was the USA.

24. During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong British officers objected
to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer's mess. No
enlisted men allowed you know.

25. Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from
German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided
covering fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily
to grab a beer bottle full of precious "Heavy Water". He finally
reached England still clutching the bottle. Which contained beer. I
suppose some German drank the Heavy Water.

30 facts about Apple



30. The "forgotten founder" Apple Ron Wayne illustrated the first Apple logo and wrote the Apple I manual. He also wrote their partnership agreement.

29. Apple wasn't started in a garage, it was started in a bedroom at 11161 Crist Drive in Los Altos.

28. Jobs and Woz previously worked together as summer employees at HP in Palo Alto.

27. All 3 founders worked at Atari before forming Apple.

26. In 1977, VC Mike Markkula spent USD$250,000 to buy one-third of Apple Computer. He was also CEO from 1981-83.

25. The first newsletter from March 15, 1975 of the famous Homebrew Computer Club (of which Jobs and Woz belonged) asked: "What will people do with a computer in their home?" Answers ranged from "private secretary functions: text editing, mass storage, memory, etc., to control of house utilities: heating, alarms, sprinkler system, auto tune-up, cooking, etc., to GAMES: all kinds."

24. The first Apple II computers went on sale on June 5, 1977 with a 1 MHz microprocessor and 4 KB of RAM (expandable to 48 KB).

23. Apple DOS 3.1, which was the first disk-based operating system for any Apple computer, was released in June 1978 for the Apple II.

22. Steven Weyhrich: "On the old Apple DOS 3.2 disks was a cool Integer BASIC program called "APPLE-VISION". In hi-res graphics, it drew a room with a TV, and after the picture was complete, the man on the screen danced to the song "Turkey In The Straw". It was amazing to see what that 4K Apple II was capable of doing!"

21. 1980's Apple III was the first completely new computer designed by Apple Computer, Inc. It was a commercial failure though and the Apple II was the one that paved the way in the 80's.

20. 1983's Apple IIe was the longest-lived Apple computer of all time, having a run of nearly eleven years.

19. The Apple Lisa was first introduced in January 1983 (announced on January 19) at a cost of $9,995 US ($19,000 in 2005 dollars). It was the first commercial personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI), however it was a commercial failure.

18. Named after the McIntosh apple, the original Macintosh was released on January 24, 1984. It was the first commercially successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI) and mouse instead of the then-standard command line interface.

17. The first 50,000 Apple IIGS computers in 1986 came with Steve Wozniak's "Woz" signature silkscreened on the front and were referred to as the "Woz Limited Edition."

16. Apple computers were cloned in the past and many of the clones had fruit names (e.g. "Pineapple") - geddit? :-)

15. Apple's Macintosh product line took over from the Apple II line in the early '90s.

14. Apple announced the iMac on May 7, 1998, and started shipping the iMac on August 15 of that year.

13. The iPod was unveiled by CEO Steve Jobs on October 23, 2001 as a Mac-compatible product with a 5 GB hard drive that put “1,000 songs in your pocket.”

12. It wasn't until July 17 2002 that Apple began selling a Windows-compatible iPod.

11. iTunes was developed from SoundJam MP, a popular commercial MP3 application distributed by the Macintosh software company Casady & Greene.

10. The iTunes Music Store was introduced to the world on April 28, 2003 - selling songs for 99c and becoming a major reason for the iPod's success.

9. In October 2003, Apple released their first TV commercial of the silhouette campaign, which had already been featured for some time in print.

8. On January 6, 2004, Apple introduced the first iPod mini. It had 4 GB of storage and featured for the first time the "click wheel".

7. Apple announced iPod shuffle at Macworld Expo on January 11, 2005 with the taglines "Life is random" and "Give chance a chance". It had flash memory rather than a hard drive.

6. On September 7, 2005, Apple announced the successor to the iPod mini, the iPod nano.

5. iPod Car integration allows one to connect an iPod to a car - in 2006 it'll be available in a range of cars such as Lexus, Nissan, Mazda, Daihatsu, BMW, MINI, smart, and Alfa Romeo.

4. The iPod has sold 41 million overall and in the 2006 Q1 it sold 14 M - double the previous quarter!

3. On January 24 2006, Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney had agreed to purchase Pixar in an all-stock transaction worth $7.4 billion - which when confirmed will make Jobs The Walt Disney Company's largest single shareholder with 7% stock.

2. At Apple's "Fun Products" Day on February 28, 2006, Steve Jobs announced the iPod Hi-Fi - an amplified loudspeaker system that docks with the iPod.

1. On 1 April 2006 Apple turned 30.

Those are just some of the highlights of 30 years of Apple. Feel free to add your personal highlights in the comments section.

1O interesting facts about nokia



1) The ringtone "Nokia tune" is actually based on a 19th century guitar work named "Gran Vals" by Spanish musician Francisco Tárrega. The Nokia Tune was originally named "Grande Valse" on Nokia phones but was changed to "Nokia Tune" around 1998 when it became so well known that people referred to it as the "Nokia Tune."

2) The world's first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.


3) Nokia is currently the world's largest digital camera manufacturer, as the sales of its camera-equipped mobile phones have exceeded those of any conventional camera manufacturer.

4) The "Special" tone available to users of Nokia phones when receiving SMS (text messages) is actually Morse code for "SMS". Similarly, the "Ascending" SMS tone is Morse code for "Connecting People," Nokia's slogan. The "Standard" SMS tone is Morse code for "M" (Message).

5) The Nokia corporate font (typeface) is the AgfaMonotype Nokia Sans font, originally designed by Eric Spiekermann. Its mobile phone User's Guides Nokia mostly used the Agfa Rotis Sans font.

6) In Asia, the digit 4 never appears in any Nokia handset model number, because 4 is considered unlucky in many parts of Southeast/East Asia.

7) Nokia was listed as the 20th most admirable company worldwide in Fortune's list of 2006 (1st in network communications, 4th non-US company).

8. Unlike other modern day handsets, Nokia phones do not automatically start the call timer when the call is connected, but start it when the call is initiated. (Except for Series 60 based handsets like the Nokia 6600)

9) Nokia is sometimes called aikon (Nokia backwards) by non-Nokia mobile phone users and by mobile software developers, because "aikon" is used in various SDK software packages, including Nokia's own Symbian S60 SDK.

10) The name of the town of Nokia originated from the river which flowed through the town. The river itself, Nokianvirta, was named after the old Finnish word originally meaning sable, later pine marten. A

Facts about Android



1. Android was developed byAndroid Inc in 2003 byAndyRubin and Rich Miner
2. Google Purchased Android Inc in 2005 for $50 million
3. 000gle announced Android as a mobile platform on November 5th 2007
4. Open HandsetAlliance, a consortium of 71 hardware, software, and telecom companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices and for collaborative development ofAndroid was formed in Novemebr 2007
5. Android is based on Linux Kernel
6. Android has been available as open source since 21 October 2008
7. The Android operating system consists of 12 million lines of code including 3 million lines ofXML, 2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines ofJava, and 1.75 million lines of C++
8. 000gle released most ofthe Android code underthe Apache License, a free software and open source license.With the Apache License, vendors can add proprietary extensions without submitting those back to the open source community.
9. The updates for Android are named after Pastries
10. The past releases were named as Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, with Gingerbread going to be launched
11. The first phone to run on Android OS was HTC Dream and was released on 22 October 2008
12. Android 1.1 was launched on 9th February 2009
13. Android 1.5 named as Cupcake was launched on 30th April 2009 and was based on Linux Kernel 2.6.27
14. Android 1.6 named as Donutwas launched on 15th September 2009 and was based on Linux Kernel 2.6.29
15. Android 2.1 named as Eclairwas launched on 12th January2010 and was based on Linux Kernel 2.6.29
16. Android 2.2 named as Froyo (Frozen Yoghurt) was launched on 20th May 201 0 and was based on Linux Kernel
2.6.32
1 7. Android 3.0 named as Gingerbread is planned for released during October end 2010
‘18. The firstAndroid SDKwas released on 12th November2007
19. Android marketwas announced on 28th August 2008
20. Android 1.0 SDK was released on 23rd September2008 aiding for developers to develop applications for Android
Os

20 Amazing Honey Bee Facts



1. The honey bee has been around for millions of years.

2. Honey bees, scientifically also known as Apis mellifera, are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.

3. It is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.


4. Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water; and it's the only food that contains "pinocembrin", an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

5. Honey bees have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses (one on each side of the head), 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 pairs of wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach.

6. Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory abilities include kin recognition signals, social communication within the hive, and odor recognition for finding food. Their sense of smell was so precise that it could differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from metres away.

7. The honey bee's wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200 beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.

8. The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

9. A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.

10. It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world.

11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

12. The bee's brain is oval in shape and only about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has remarkable capacity to learn and remember things and is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency.

13. A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.

14. The queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day. Click here to learn more about the Honey Bee Life Cycle,


15. Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating.

16. Each honey bee colony has a unique odour for members' identification.

17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but they don't leave the hive to help defend it.

18. It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.

19. Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing".

20. During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.