10 Interesting Facts About Coca-Cola !!

Most Popular Fun Facts

* The name 'India' is derived from the River Indus, the valleys around which were the home of the early settlers. The Aryan worshippers referred to the river Indus as the Sindhu.
* The Persian invaders converted it into Hindu. The name 'Hindustan' combines Sindhu and Hindu and thus refers to the land of the Hindus
* Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
* The world's highest cricket ground is in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Built in 1893 after leveling a hilltop, this cricket pitch is 2444 meters above sea level
* Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
* India exports software to 90 countries.
* Jainism and Buddhism were founded in India in 600 B.C. and 500 B.C. respectively.
* Islam is India's and the world's second largest religion.
* Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively
* Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.
Read more http://goo.gl/grSy2

Research: Avg. Teenager Sends 3,339 Text Per Month

Texting, the activity of sending text messages via your cell phone, is increasing in popularity among teens, which have been logged as sending more than 3,000 text messages in one month. This, the math shows, is equal to 6 texts an hour. On average, both sexes included, teen users of cell phones send out roughly 3,339 text messages a month, which breaks down into 4,050 texts/ month for girls and 2,539 texts/month for boys.

Statistics

This data was collected by the Nielsen poll group, in a monster study looking at the texting habits of over 60,000 cell phone users and more than 3,000 US teens from April-June 2010. Naturally, part of this is due to the increase in downloadable applications on the iPhone and similar devices, which encourage sending out text messages, as well as the increasing numbers of children who have gain access to cell phones.

The most text-savvy demographics were teens aged 13-17, i.e. newly pubescent teenagers who were likely getting their first taste of freedom and social interaction. The number of texts they sent out is astounding, and constantly rising, with no end seemingly in sight – this number represents an increase of 8% over the statistical survey data collected in 2009. As mentioned above, girls outnumber and outdo boys in the texting stakes by over 1,500 texts on average per month

High interest rates affected GDP: India Inc

Industry lobby groups Tuesday said the slowdown in India's GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2010-11 was mainly on account of high interest rate regime, aimed at taming inflation.

The Reserve Bank, which has hiked key rates nine times since March, 2010 to tame inflation, has led to high borrowing costs for the industry and hit their margins.

"The disaggregated figures reveal that the growth of industrial sector has slowed down across the board. The persistent tightening of monetary policy is surely leaving an imprint on the performance of industry," said Ficci secretary general Rajiv Kumar.

"The trend ...which is particularly evident in the Q4 figures for 2010-11 is a worrying trend," Kumar added.

On the same lines, Assocham president Dilip Modi said "tightening of monetary supply to control inflation leads to high interest rates and consequently restricts fresh investments in the infrastructure sector."

In the fourth quarter ended March, the economy grew by just 7.8 percent due to poor performance of the manufacturing sector, as against 9.4 percent in the same period of 2009-10.

During the quarter, growth in the manufacturing sector slowed down to 5.5 percent from 15.2 per cent in the same quarter of 2009-10.

For the entire fiscal, however, the economic expansion was only marginally off at 8.5 percent as against the projected 8.6 percent.

Modi said "The manufacturing sector has not performed as expected due to low level of new investments. We must learn to live with acceptable levels of inflation. Raising interest rates is not the best way to address inflation. What we need is good infrastructure for the industry to grow fast".

Meanwhile, CII president B Muthuraman said, "Reforms need to be pursued in the areas of land and labour so that large-scale manufacturing projects can be implemented."

PHD Chamber suggested the government to increase the declining share of agriculture sector in GDP as more than 60 percent of our population is dependent on it.

"The share of agriculture in India's real GDP is continuously decelerating; it has been decelerated to 14.4 percent in FY 2011 as compared with 14.6 per cent in FY 2010," PHD Chamber President Salil Bhandari said.

However, farm output in Q4 shot up to 7.5 percent compared to meager 1.1 percent in the same period last year.

Source: http://goo.gl/8veje

Other Universe Facts !!

The universe is so vast in relation to the matter it contains that it can be compared in the following way: A building 20 miles long, 20 miles wide and 20 miles high that contains 1 grain of sand.

The three most common elements in the universe are 1) hydrogen; 2) helium; 3) oxygen.

As late as 1820, the universe was thought to be 6,000 years old. It is now thought to be between 15 and 20 billion years old.

Scientists believe that hydrogen comprises approximately 90 to 99 percent of all matter in the Universe.

A bucket filled with earth would Weigh about five times more than the same bucket filled with the substance of the sun. However, the force of Gravity is so much greater on the sun that a man Weighing 150 pounds on our planet would Weigh 2 tons on the sun.

A space vehicle must move at a rate of 7 miles per second to escape the earth's Gravitational pull. This is equivalent to going from New York to Philadelphia in about twenty seconds.

There are approximately 10,000 pieces of equipment revolving around the earth. About 3,000 of these pieces are satellites, the rest are odd bits of Debris.

Astronomers believe that the universe contains one atom for every 88 gallons of space.

First Happens Facts

Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate spring in 3,000 B.C. 13th century Macedonians were the first Christians on record to use colored eggs in Easter celebrations. Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate Easter and other warm weather holidays.

An American cow called Fawn was not afraid of flying. In May 1963, she was swept up by a tornado and carried half a mile, only to land safely in another farmer's field. Five years later, another tornado carried her over a bus. She survived this too, and lived to the ripe old age of 25.

The greatest snow fall ever in a single storm was 189 inches at the Mount Shasta Ski Bowl in February, 1959.

The 1st feature-length animated film, released by Disney Studios in 1937, was "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

The town of Tidikelt in the Share Desert once went ten years without rainfall.

The record for the biggest one day rainfall was set on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, on March 15, 1952, where 74 inches of rain fell in 24 hours.

The word "earthling" was first found in print in 1593.

The first man-made object to circle the earth was Sputnik I, launched in 1957.

The coldest outdoor temperature ever recorded on earth was 127 below zero in Antarctica on August 24, 1960.

Even when all the molecules in a single breath of air have been dispersed evenly in the earth's atmosphere, there will still be one or two of the same ones taken into the lungs with every subsequent breath. Every time you breathe in, you inhale one or two of the same molecules that you inhaled with the first breath you took as a baby.

An earthquake on Dec. 16, 1811 sent the Mississippi River backwards.

The only two days of the year in which there are no professional sports games (MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL) are the day before and the day after the Major League all-stars Game.

The first footprints at Grumman’s Chinese Theater (now Mann's Chinese Theater), were made by Norma Tallmadge in 1927. Legend has it that she accidentally stepped in wet concrete outside the building. Since then, over 180 stars have been immortalized, along with their hands and feet and even noses (Jimmy Durant).

The Beatles were depicted in wax at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London, in 1964, the first pop album stars to be honored.
Read more: First Happens Facts

All about Earth !!

Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day.

At one time the earth consisted of one land mass and a huge body of water. Geologists today call the land Pangaea (from the Greek words "all land" while the water was called Panthalassa (from the Greek words "all sea"). Between 180 and 200 million years ago, Pangaea split into two parts: Laurasia, which consisted of North America, Europe and Asia; and Gondwanaland, which consisted of Africa, South America, India, Antarctica and Australia.

Astronauts brought back about 800 pounds of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analyzed.

Approximately 40,000 tons of meteoric dust hits the Earth each year.

According to Hawaiian lore, the earth mother Papa mated with the sky father Wake to give birth to the Hawaiian Islands.

About one-tenth of the earth's surface is permanently covered with ice.

A Red Giant(a kind of exploded star) has a lower density than any vacuum here on earth.

A Blue Earth, Minnesota, law declares that no child under the age of twelve may talk over the telephone unless monitored by a parent.

You would need to travel at 6.95 miles per second to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. This is equivalent to traveling from New York to Philadelphia in about twenty seconds.

Venus rotates so slowly that in a typical day lasts approximately 244 Earth days (5,856 hours).

If you dig in your backyard, don’t worry about running into the earth’s core. You’d have to dig a hole 4,000 miles (6,437 kilometers) deep!

Some scientists believe that the earth began billions of years ago as a huge ball of swirling dust and gases.

Read more: All about Earth

Interesting Language Facts !!

According to Illinois state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is "American."

Widow is the only female form in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding male term (widower).

Victor Hugo's Les Miserable contains one of the longest sentences in the French language 823 words without a period.

There is only ONE word in the English language with THREE CONSECUTIVE SETS OF DOUBLE LETTERS.... Bookkeeper

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs five times: "indivisibility."

There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

There are thirteen languages spoken by more than 100 million people. They are: Mandarin Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Portuguese, Malay-Indonesian, French, Japanese, German, and Urdu.

There are roughly 6,500 spoken languages in the world today. However, about 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers. The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese. There are 885,000,000 people in China that speak that language.

There are only two sequences of four consecutive letters that can be found in the English language: "rstu" and "mnop." Examples of each are understudy and gynophobia.

There are only 4 words in the English language which end in "duos": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

There are at least two words in the English language that use all of the vowels, in the correct order, and end in the letter Y: abstemiously & facetiously.

There are 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.

The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

The word "honcho" comes from a Japanese word meaning "squad leader" and first came into usage in the English language during the American occupation of Japan following World War II.

source: Interesting Language Facts

Playboy Hefner gets knotty again

LOVE, the true variety or otherwise, knows no age barriers — and Playboy chief Hugh Hefner is living proof of this. The 84- year- old has apparently got engaged to his 24- year- old girlfriend Crystal Harris.

Hefner tweeted that he has gifted Harris a ring on Christmas eve, the celebrity gossip website TMZ. com reported. “ After the movie ( The Tourist ) tonight ( Friday), Crystal and I exchanged gifts. I gave Crystal a ring. A truly memorable Christmas Eve,” he posted.

While Harris may well have jumped at the chance to be Mrs Hugh Hefner, her happiness could be tempered by Hefner’s marriage history. He has tied the knot twice before; with Mildred Williams, their marriage lasting from 1949 to 1959, and later with model- actress Kimberly Conrad with whom he split earlier this year.

He met Mildred or Milly, with whom he shared his first sexual experience, in college. Of the marriage, Hefner has said: “ I think the relationship was probably held together by two years of foreplay. That wasn’t unusual for our time. In fact, most of my immediate friends didn’t have sex until they married. Milly and I had it just before.”

“ I had literally saved myself for my wife, but after we had sex, she told me that she’d had an affair. That was the most devastating moment in my life. My wife was more sexually experienced than I was. After that, I always felt in a sense that the other guy was in bed with us, too.”

Nonetheless, he and Milly remained married for ten years and had two children, Christie, was has been chairman and chief executive officer of Playboy since the mid- 80s, while Hefner has remained the magazine's editor- in- chief.

In September 2009, Hefner asked for his marriage to former playmate Kimberly Conrad, 47, to be ended because the two were feuding about money. Hefner wanted his support payments for Conrad to be cut by half to $ 20,000 a month, saying he has already given his estranged wife close to $ 12 million since their separation in 1998.

At the time, Hefner had told TMZ : “ I am happy to be out of the marriage. I only remained married for the sake of the children, at her request.”

In recent years, Hefner has had numerous girlfriends — including Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, who starred alongside him in the reality show The Girls Next Door.

Read More Six decades apart! Playboy Hefner gets ‘ knotty’ again

Cool facts about Space !!

There is still so little known about outer space by modern science, but of that little we do know, there are some extraordinarily amazing things. This is a list of the top 10 cool facts about Space.

10. Lightweight

Saturn's Rings

Fact: If you put Saturn in water it would float

The density of Saturn is so low that if you were to put it in a giant glass of water it would float. The actual density of Saturn is 0.687 g/cm3 while the density of water is 0.998 g/cm3. At the equator Saturn has a radius of 60,268 ± 4 km – which means you would need an extremely large glass of water to test this out.

9. Constantly Moving

Milkyway Pan1

Fact: We are moving through space at the rate of 530km a second

Our Galaxy – the Milky Way is spinning at a rate of 225 kilometers per second. In addition, the galaxy is travelling through space at the rate of 305 kilometers per second. This means that we are traveling at a total speed of 530 kilometers (330 miles) per second. That means that in one minute you are about 19 thousand kilometers away from where you were. Scientists do not all agree on the speed with which the Milky Way is travelling – estimates range from 130 – 1,000 km/s. It should be said that Einstein’s theory of relativity, the velocity of any object through space is not meaningful.

8. Farewell old friend!

600Px-Moon Pia00302

Fact: The moon is drifting away from Earth

Every year the moon moves about 3.8cm further away from the Earth. This is caused by tidal effects. Consequently, the earth is slowing in rotation by about 0.002 seconds per day per century. Scientists do not know how the moon was created, but the generally accepted theory suggests that a large Mars sized object hit the earth causing the Moon to splinter off.

7. Ancient Light

800Px-The Sun1

Fact: The light hitting the earth right now is 30 thousand years old

The energy in the sunlight we see today started out in the core of the Sun 30,000 years ago – it spent most of this time passing through the dense atoms that make the sun and just 8 minutes to reach us once it had left the Sun! The temperature at the core of the sun is 13,600,000 kelvins. All of the energy produced by fusion in the core must travel through many successive layers to the solar photosphere before it escapes into space as sunlight or kinetic energy of particles.

6. Solar Diet

800Px-171879Main Limbflarejan12 Lg

Fact: The Sun loses up to a billion kilograms a second due to solar winds

Solar winds are charged particles that are ejected from the upper surface of the sun due to the high temperature of the corona and the high kinetic energy particles gain through a process that is not well understood at this time. Also, did you know that 1 pinhead of the sun’s energy is enough to kill a person at a distance of 160 kilometers? [Sourced from Planet Science]




5. The Big Dipper is not a constellation

637Px-Ursa Major Constellation Map

Fact: The Big Dipper is not a constellation, it is an asterism

Many people consider the big dipper to be a constellation but, in fact, it is an asterism. An asterism is a pattern of stars in the sky which is not one of the official 88 constellations; they are also composed of stars which are not physically related to each other and can be vast distances apart. An asterism can be composed of stars from one or more constellations – in the case of the Big Dipper, it is composed entirely of the seven brightest stars in the Ursa Major (Great Bear) constellation.

4. George’s Star

602Px-Uranus Voyager 2

Fact: Uranus was originally called George’s Star

When Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781, he was given the honor of naming it. He chose to name it Georgium Sidus (George’s Star) after his new patron, King George III (Mad King George). This is what he said:

In the fabulous ages of ancient times the appellations of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were given to the Planets, as being the names of their principal heroes and divinities. In the present more philosophical era it would hardly be allowable to have recourse to the same method and call it Juno, Pallas, Apollo or Minerva, for a name to our new heavenly body. The first consideration of any particular event, or remarkable incident, seems to be its chronology: if in any future age it should be asked, when this last-found Planet was discovered? It would be a very satisfactory answer to say, ‘In the reign of King George the Third.’

Uranus was also the first planet to be discovered with the use of a telescope.

3. Extra Moons

S3753 2

Fact: Earth has at least 4 moons

Okay – that is not actually true – but it is very close. In 1986, Duncan Waldron discovered a asteroid (5km across) that is in an elliptic orbit around the sun with a period of revolution virtually identical to that of Earth. For this reason the planetoid and earth appear to be following each other. The periodic planetoid is named Cruithne (pronounced krin-yə) after an ancient group of Scottish people (also known as the Picts). Because of its unusual relationship with Earth, it is sometimes referred to as Earth’s second moon. Cruithne, is fainter than Pluto and would require at least a 12.5 inch reflecting telescope to attempt to be seen. Since its discovery, at least three other similar asteroids have been discovered. These types of objects are also found in similar relationships to other planets in our Solar System. In the image above (courtesy of Paul Wiegert), the earth is the blue circle with a cross in it, and Cruithne’s orbit is shown in yellow.

2. Sunspot Music

Messiah-Mosaic-1

Fact: Sunspot activity may be the primary reason for the beautiful sound of Stradivarius violins

Antonio Stradivari is considered to be the greatest violin maker ever. He lived in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Scientists have been unable to work out what it is about his violins that makes them so incredible, but they do know that the timber used to make them is a very important contributing factor. From the 1500s to 1800s, the earth underwent a little ice age mostly due to increased volcanic activity and decreased solar activity (this is called the Maunder Minimum). As a result of this cooling, the types of trees that Stradivari used for his violins were particularly hard (due to slow growth). Hard timber is especially good when making violins. It is very probable that had Stradivari lived in a different age, his violins would not be prized as they are today. This picture above is made of three overlapping photos. It shows the rings in the spruce tree used to make the most famous Stradivarius violin, the “Messiah.” The first row of numbers gives the width of each ring in millimeters (one mm is about the thickness of a fingernail). The bottom row gives the years in which each ring grew.

1. Cold Welding

Space Station 0614

Fact: If two pieces of metal touch in space, they become permanently stuck together

This may sound unbelievable, but it is true. Two pieces of metal without any coating on them will form in to one piece in the vacuum of space. This doesn’t happen on earth because the atmosphere puts a layer of oxidized material between the surfaces. This might seem like it would be a big problem on the space station

Read more: Cool facts about Space

Some facts about Brain !!

Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men in the United States.

The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons.

From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain.

People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.

Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced.

It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation.

A women from Berlin Germany has had 3,110 gallstones taken out of her gall bladder.

In America, the most common mental illness is Anxiety Disorders.

Your brain is 80% water.

Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day.

Read more: Some facts about Brain

Some Facts About the Sun !!

Our sun has an expected lifetime of about 11 billion years.

Our sun and the surrounding planets orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy once every 250 million years.

Only 55% of all Americans know that the sun is a star.

On its trip around the sun, the earth travels over a million and a half miles per day.

No solar eclipse can last longer than 7 minutes 58 seconds because of the speed at which the sun moves.

Lightning bolts can sometimes be hotter than the sun. (about 50 000º F)

It takes only 8 minutes for sunlight to travel from the sun to the earth, which also means, if you see the sun go out, it actually went out 8 minutes ago.

In Spit Bergen, Norway at one time of the year the sun shines continuously for three and a half months.

In Newport, Rhode Island it is illegal to smoke from a pipe after sunset.

In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.

If the sun stopped shining suddenly, it would take eight minutes for people on earth to be aware of the fact.

For 186 days you can not see the sun in the North Pole.

Every eleven years the magnetic poles of the sun switch. This cycle is called"Solarmax".

Because of the speed at which the sun moves, it is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 7 minutes and 58 seconds.

Aztecs believed that the sun died every night and needed human blood to give it strength to rise the next day. So they sacrificed 15,000 men a year to appease their sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Most of the victims were prisoners taken in wars, which were sometimes started solely to round up sacrificial victims.

Read more: Some Facts About the Sun

Interesting Facts About China !!

1. The modern word “China” most likely derives from the name of the Qin (pronounced “chin”) dynasty. First Emperor Qin Shi Huang (260-210 B.C.) of the Qin dynasty first unified China in 221 B.C., beginning an Imperial period which would last until A.D. 1912.k
2. China is often considered the longest continuous civilization, with some historians marking 6000 B.C. as the dawn of Chinese civilization. It also has the world’s longest continuously used written language.c
3. China is the fourth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, and the U.S.). It has an area of 3,719,275 square miles (slightly smaller than the U.S.) and its borders with other countries total more than 117,445 miles. Approximately 5,000 islands lie off the Chinese coast.a
4. One in every five people in the world is Chinese. China’s population is estimated to reach a whopping 1,338,612,968 by July 2009. China’s population is four times that of the United States.a
5. Fortune cookies are not a traditional Chinese custom. They were invented in 1920 by a worker in the Key Heong Noodle Factory in San Francisco.i
6. China is also known as the “Flowery Kingdom” and many of the fruits and flowers (such as the orange and orchid) are now grown all over the world.i

toilet paper
Invented in China, toilet paper was initially only for emperors
7. Toilet paper was invented in China in the late 1300s. It was for emperors only.m
8. The Chinese invented paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing.c
9. The Chinese invented kites (“paper birds” or “Aeolian harps”) about 3,000 years ago. They were used to frighten the enemies in battle, and Marco Polo (1254-1324) noted that kites were also used to predict the success of a voyage. It was considered bad luck to purposely let a kite go.i
10. Cricket fighting is a popular amusement in China. Many Chinese children keep crickets as pets.m
11. Despite its size, all of China is in one time zone.h
12. Many historians believe soccer originated in China around 1000 B.C.f
13. Ping-pong is one of the most popular games in China, but it was not invented in China. It originated in Britain, where it is called table tennis.m

stamp collecting
Viewed as a status symbol, stamp collecting is China’s number one hobby
14. The number one hobby in China is stamp collecting.m
15. Giant Pandas (“bear cat”) date back two to three million years. The early Chinese emperors kept pandas to ward off evil spirits and natural disasters. Pandas also were considered symbols of might and bravery.i
16. White, rather than black, is the Chinese color for mourning and funerals.i
17. Though Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is credited with designing the first parachute, Chinese alchemists successfully used man-carrying tethered kites by the fourth century A.D. Parachutes were not used safely and effectively in Europe until the late 1700s.m
18. The custom of binding feet (euphemistically called “golden lilies”) began among female entertainers and members of the Chinese court during the Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1279). Tightly wrapped bandages gradually broke the arch of the foot and caused the woman's toes and heel to grow inward toward one another. Her leg muscles would also atrophy and become very thin. Bound feet were seen as highly sexual.m
19. Historians speculate that as the Chinese population grew, people had to conserve cooking fuel by chopping food into small pieces so that it could cook faster. These bite-sized foods eliminated the need for knives and, hence, chopsticks were invented.c
20. In A.D. 130, Zhang Heng, an astronomer and literary scholar, invented the first instrument for monitoring earthquakes. The machine could detect and indicate the direction of an earthquake.c

ice cream
The Chinese invented ice cream by packing a milk mixture and rice into snow
21. China invented ice cream, and Marco Polo is rumored to have taken the recipe (along with the recipe for noodles) back with him to Europe.i
22. A civil servant named Su Song built the first mechanical clock between A.D 1088 and 1092. It could tell the time of day and also track the constellations so that accurate horoscopes could be determined.c
23. On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang made the first spacewalk by a Chinese astronaut.l
24. The Chinese were the first to invent the waterwheel to harness water in A.D. 31—1,200 years before the Europeans. China was also the first country in the world to use an iron plow. Europe didn’t begin using the iron plow until the seventeenth century.m
25. The name of China’s capital has changed over the centuries. At one time or another it has been known as Yanjing, Dadu, and Beiping. Peking or “Beijing means “Northern Capital.” Beijing is the officially sanctioned pinyin spelling based on the Mandarin dialect. Beijing is the second largest city after Shanghai.h
26. It was customary for wealthy men and women in the late empire to grow the nails of their little fingers extremely long as a sign of their rank. They often wore decorative gold and silver nail guards to protect their nails.c
27. By the fourth century B.C., the Chinese were drilling for natural gas and using it as a heat source, preceding Western natural gas drilling by about 2,300 years.m
28. By the second century B.C., the Chinese discovered that blood circulated throughout the body and that the heart pumped the blood. In Europe, circulation wasn’t discovered until the early seventeenth century by William Harvey (1578-1657).m
29. The Chinese were using the decimal system as early as the fourteenth century B.C., nearly 2,300 years before the first known use of the system in European mathematics. The Chinese were also the first to use a place for zero.m
30. The crossbow was invented and first used by the Chinese. They were also the first in the world to use chemical and gas weapons, 2,000 years before gas was used in Europe during WWI.m
31. The Three Gorges Hydroelectric Dam spans the Yangtze River and is the largest dam in the world. It is also the most controversial dam in the world because it has been plagued by corruption, human rights violations, technological difficulties, and has caused dramatic environmental changes.e

chinese tea
Tea was supposedly discovered when a tea leaf fell into a Chinese emperor’s boiling water
32. According to popular legend, tea was discovered by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 B.C. when a tea leaf fell into his boiling water. The Chinese consider tea to be a necessity of life.i
33. Martial arts are practiced throughout China and were largely developed from ancient farming and hunting methods.i
34. The most important holiday in China is the Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year. Chinese traditionally believe that every person turns one year older on the New Year and, thus, that day is considered to be everyone’s birthday.i
35. Chinese is spoken by 92% of China’s population. There are at least seven major families of the Chinese language, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Hakka, Gan, Xiang, and Min.i
36. Red symbolizes happiness for the Chinese and is commonly used at Chinese festivals and other happy occasions such as birthdays and weddings.i
37. In ancient China, the lotus was seen as a symbol of purity and was sacred to both the Buddhists and Daoists. The peony (“King of Flowers”) symbolized spring, the chrysanthemum symbolized long life, and the narcissus was thought to bring good luck.i

silk
Anyone caught smuggling the secrets of silk making out of ancient China were put to death
38. The Chinese have made silk since at least 3,000 B.C. The Romans knew China as “Serica,” which means “Land of Silk.” The Chinese fiercely guarded the secrets of silk making, and anyone caught smuggling silkworm eggs or cocoons outside of China was put to death.i
39. According to a Chinese legend, silk was discovered in 3000 B.C. by Lady Xi Ling Sui, wife of the Emperor Huang Di. When a silk worm cocoon accidentally dropped into her hot tea, fine threads from the cocoon unraveled in the hot water and silk was born.i
40. The oldest piece of paper in the world was found in China and dates back to the second or first century B.C. Paper was so durable, it was sometimes used for clothing and even light body armor.m
41. The Chinese were the first in the world to use stirrups in the third century A.D.m
42. China’s “one child” policy has contributed to female infanticide and has created a significant gender imbalance. There are currently 32 million more boys than girls in China. In the future, tens of millions of men will be unable to find wives, prompting some scholars to suggest that this imbalance could lead to a threat to world security.m
43. The first known species of Homo erectus, the Peking Man, was found in China and lived between 300,000-550,000 years ago. It is thought that he knew how to manipulate fire.c
44. During the first half the twentieth century, Shanghai was the only port in the world to accept Jews fleeing the Holocaust without an entry visa.i
45. Chinese mathematics evolved independently of Greek mathematics and is consequently of great interest to historians of mathematics.m
46. Originating as far back as 250 B.C., Chinese lanterns were an important symbol of long life. Lanterns were once symbols of a family’s wealth, and the richest families had lanterns so large, it required several people with poles to hoist them into place.i
47. In the Tang dynasty, anyone with an education was expected to greet as well as say goodbye to another person in poetic verse composed on the spot.i
48. In 1974, a group of farmers digging for a well in the Shaanxi province uncovered some bits of very old pottery. They discovered the tomb of Qin (259-210 B.C.) the first emperor who united China. The tomb contained thousands of amazing life-sized soldiers, horses, and chariots.c

grand canal China
The Grand Canal of China is the world’s longest canal
49. China’s Grand Canal is the world’s oldest and longest canal at 1,114 miles (1,795 km) long with 24 locks and around 60 bridges.e
50. The bat is a traditional good luck symbol that is frequently depicted in designs for porcelain, textiles, and other crafts.i
51. The bicycle was introduced into China around 1891 by two American travelers named Allen and Sachtleben. The bicycle is now the primary transportation for millions of Chinese. The last Qing emperor (Puyi) rode a bicycle around the Forbidden City in Beijing. China is currently the leading bicycle manufacturer.i
52. The Boxer Rebellion between 1898 and 1901 in northern China was against Christian missionaries, foreign diplomats, and technology by a secret group called the “Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists” (Yihequan or I-ho-ch’uan) so named because its members practiced weaponless martial arts as well as secret rituals. Westerns called it “shadow boxing” and the members “Boxers.”m
53. Suspension bridges were invented in China in 25 B.C, 1,800 years before such bridges were known in the West.m
54. The first American woman to win the Nobel Prize was Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) for her novels about China, most notably The Good Earth (1931). Amy Tan (1952-) is a best-selling Chinese-American author of The Joy Luck Club.i
55. The Chinese word for civilization (wen) is pronounced the same as the word for script, pattern, or calligraphy. In fact, calligraphy was thought to reveal the calligrapher’s moral and spiritual self-cultivation as a type of “heart print.”i
56. The carp is a symbol of strength and perseverance. The scales and whiskers of the fish make it resemble a dragon, the greatest symbol of power in China. Fish in general play a large role in Chinese culture and the words for “fish” and “abundance” are pronounced the same in Chinese (yu).i

pigtails
In some regions of ancient China, pigtails were indicative of girl’s marital status
57. In some parts of China, “pigtails” were associated with a girl’s marital status. A young girl would wear two pigtails, and when she married, she would wear just one. This may have contributed to the Western view that pigtails are associated with children and young girls.i
58. In ancient China, mirrors were believed to protect their owners from evil, making hidden spirits visible and revealing the secrets of the future. A person who had been scared by a ghost could be healed by looking in the mirror. Mirrors were often hung on the ceilings of burial chambers.i
59. The longest river in China is the 3,494-mile Yangtze (Changjian) River and the 2,903-mile-long Yellow (Huanghe) River.e
60. The Chinese developed a theory of three levels of heaven—Heaven, Earth, and man—which has been influential in landscape painting and flower arrangements.e
61. The horse most likely originated in Central Asia and became very important in China. A horse is considered to be associated with the masculine symbol, yang, and with the element of fire. A person born in the Year of the Horse is considered cheerful, independent, clever, talkative, quick to anger, and able to handle money.i
62. Because the cicada (katydid) has the longest life span of any insect (up to 17 years) and sheds its skin, it has long been a symbol of regeneration and rebirth for the Chinese. In ancient China, the Chinese would place jade cicadas in the mouths of the dead because they were thought to slow down the decay process and speed up the rebirth in another world.i
63. Concubinage has been practiced throughout Chinese history, primarily by wealthy men who could afford it. Chinese emperors had large harems with hundreds of concubines.j
64. The phoenix is the most important bird in Chinese legend and represents the feminine power of the empress. The graceful crane, which is a symbol of long life, is the second most important bird in Chinese legend. Ducks are also important symbols and represent happiness and marital faithfulness.i
65. The Cultural Revolution (the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution) from1966-1976 resulted in severe famine, thousands of deaths, and the erosion of thousands of acres of farmland.m
66. While the dragon is typically seen as an evil creature in Western culture, it holds first place among the four greatest creatures in Chinese mythology, including the phoenix, tiger, and tortoise. It is typically associated with the emperor.i
67. The highest mountain in the world (29,028 feet) is named in the honor the Englishman Sir George Everest who was the first surveyor of India. The Chinese call Mount Everest Qomolangma, which means “Mother Goddess of the Earth.”e

chinese flag
The position of the stars on the Chinese flag represents the people’s unity under Communism
68. China’s national flag was adopted in September 1949 and first flown in Tiananmen Square (the world’s largest public gathering place) on October 1, 1949, the day the People’s Republic of China was formed. The red in the flag symbolizes revolution. The large star symbolizes communism and the little stars represent the Chinese people. The position of the stars represents the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party.i
69. China has the world’s oldest calendar. This lunar calendar originated in 2600 B.C. and has 12 zodiac signs. It takes 60 years to complete.i
70. The number of birth defects in China continues to rise. Environmentalist and officials blame China’s severe pollution.d
71. The consumption of mushrooms was recorded in Chinese historical documents more than 3,000 years ago. In 1996, China produced 600,000 tons of mushrooms, making it the world’s leading producer, and it has 60% of the world’s mushroom varieties.i
72. In 2007, dog food and toothpaste products made in China were recalled because they contained poisonous ingredients. In July, China’s head of the State Food and Drug Administration was found to have accepted bribes from pharmaceutical companies. He was executed.g
73. Famous Chinese and Chinese-American actors include Jackie Chan (Hong Kong), Chow Yun Fat (Hong Kong), Bruce Lee (San Francisco), Jet Li (Beijing), Zhang Ziyi (Beijing), and Lucy Lui (New York).e
74. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were the most expensive games in history.b While the 2004 Athens Games were estimated to cost around $15 billion, the Beijing Games were estimated to cost a whopping $40 billion.j

source: Interesting Facts About China

61 Interesting Facts About India !!

1. India is about 1/3 the size of the United States, yet it is the second most populous country in the world, with a population of 1,166,079,217. India is the seventh largest country in the world, at 1.27 million square miles.g
2. India is the largest democracy in the world.i
3. The Kumbh Mela (or Grand Pitcher Festival) is a huge Hindu religious festival that takes place in India every 12 years. In 2001, 60 million people attended, breaking the record for the world’s biggest gathering. The mass of people was photographed from space by a satellite.c
4. Many Indians find toilet paper repellent and consider it cleaner to splash water with the left hand in the appropriate direction. Consequently, the left hand is considered unclean and is never used for eating.f
5. To avoid polluting the elements (fire, earth, water, air), followers of Zoroastrianism in India don’t bury their dead, but instead leave bodies in buildings called “Towers of Silence” for the vultures to pick clean. After the bones dry, they are swept into a central well.f

rupee
It is illegal for foreigners to import or export Indian currency (rupees)
6. It is illegal to take Indian currency (rupees) out of India.f
7. India leads the world with the most murders (32,719), with Russia taking second at 28,904 murders per year.j
8. India has one of the world’s highest rates of abortion.e
9. More than a million Indians are millionaires, yet most Indians live on less than two dollars a day. An estimated 35% of India’s population lives below the poverty line.l
10. Cows can be found freely wandering the streets of India’s cities. They are considered sacred and will often wear a tilak, a Hindu symbol of good fortune. Cows are considered one of humankind’s seven mothers because she offers milk as does one’s natural mother.k
11. Dancing is one of India’s most highly developed arts and was an integral part of worship in the inner shrines of every temple. It is notable for its expressive hand movements.f
12. Rabies is endemic in India. Additionally, “Delhi Belly” or diarrhea is commonplace due to contaminated drinking water.f
13. Many Indian wives will never say her husband’s name aloud, as it is a sign of disrespect. When addressing him, the wife will use several indirect references, such as “ji” or “look here” or “hello,” or even refer to him as the father of her child.f
14. A widow is considered bad luck—otherwise, her husband wouldn’t have died. Elderly women in the village might call a widow “the one who ate her husband.” In some orthodox families, widows are not allowed near newlyweds or welcomed at social gatherings.b
15. India is the birthplace of chess.l The original word for “chess” is the Sanskrit chaturanga, meaning “four members of an army”—which were mostly likely elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers.d
16. The Indian flag has three horizontal bands of color: saffron for courage and sacrifice, white for truth and peace, and green for faith, fertility, and chivalry. An emblem of a wheel spinning used to be in the center of the white band, but when India gained independence, a Buddhist dharma chakra, or wheel of life, replaced the spinning wheel.m

Khajuraho erotic sculptures
Khajuraho’s exotic art may suggest that sex was a step for attaining ultimate liberation or moksha
17. The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their erotic sculptures and are one of the most popular tourist attractions in India. Scholars still debate the purpose of such explicit portrayals of sexual intercourse, which sometimes involves animals.a
18. The earliest cotton in the world was spun and woven in India. Roman emperors would wear delicate cotton from India that they would call “woven winds.” Mogul emperors called the fabrics “morning dew” and “cloth of running water.”i
19. In ancient and medieval India, suttees, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, were common.b
20. The Himalayas—from the Sanskrit hima, meaning “snow,” and alaya, meaning “abode”—are found in the north of India. They extend 1,500 miles and are slowly growing taller, by almost an inch (2.5 cm) a year. Several ancient Indian monasteries are found nestled in the grandeur of these mountains.m
21. India is the world’s largest producer of dried beans, such as kidney beans and chickpeas. It also leads the world in banana exports; Brazil is second.l
22. In India, the fold and color of clothing are viewed as important markers of social classification. Additionally, women will be viewed as either a prostitute or a holy person depending on the manner in which she parts her hair.k
23. With 150,000 post offices, India has the largest postal network in the world. However, it is not unusual for a letter to take two weeks to travel just 30 miles.f
24. In India, grasping one’s ears signifies repentance or sincerity.f
25. The Bengal tiger is India’s national animal. It was once ubiquitous throughout the country, but now there are fewer than 4,000 wild tigers left.m
26. Indians hold prominent places both internationally and in the United States. For example, the co-founder of Sun Microsystems (Vinod Khosla), the creator of the Pentium chip (Vinod Dahm), the founder/creator of Hotmail (Sabeer Bhatia), and the GM of Hewlett-Packard (Rajiv Gupta) are all Indian.h
27. Alexander the Great of Macedon (356-323 B.C.) was one of the first important figures to bring India into contact with the West. After his death, a link between Europe and the East would not be restored until Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) landed in Calicut, India, in 1498.l
28. The British Raj, or British rule, lasted from 1858 to 1947 (although they had a strong presence in India since the 1700s). British influence is still seen in Indian architecture, education system, transportation, and politics. Many of India’s worst famines are associated with British rule in India.i
29. Every major world religion is represented in India. Additionally, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism all originated in India.f
30. About 80% of Indians are Hindu. Muslims are the largest minority in India and form approximately 13% of the country’s population. In fact, India has the third largest population of Muslims in the world, after Indonesia and Pakistan.i
31. India has the world’s largest movie industry, based in the city of Mumbai (known as the “City of Dreams”). The B in “Bollywood” comes from Bombay, the former name for Mumbai. Almost all Bollywood movies are musicals.l
32. Mumbai (Bombay) is India’s largest city, with a population of 15 million. In 1661, British engineers built a causeway uniting all seven original islands of Bombay into a single landmass.l
33. Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) is known around the world as Mahatma, which is an honorific title meaning “Great Soul” in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. He devoted his life to free India from British rule peacefully and based his campaign on civil disobedience. His birthday, October 2, is a national holiday. He was assassinated in 1948.m

Lotus Temple
The Lotus temple is one of the most visited temples in the world, with over 50 million visitors per year
34. The lotus is sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists. The Bahá'í house of worship in Delhi, known as the “Lotus Temple,” is shaped like a lotus flower with 27 gigantic “petals” that are covered in marble.i
35. The banyan, or Indian fig tree, is considered a symbol of immortality and is mentioned in many Indian myths and legends. This self-renewing plant is India’s national tree.m
36. Marigold flowers are used as decoration for Hindu marriages and are a symbol of good fortune and happiness.i
37. The official name of India is the Republic of India. The name “India” derives from the River Indus, which most likely is derived from the Sanskrit sindhu, meaning “river.” The official Sanskrit name of India is Bharat, after the legendary king in the epic Mahabharata.m
38. Introduced by the British, cricket is India’s most popular sport. Hockey is considered the national sport, and the Indian field hockey team proudly won Olympic gold in 1928.i
39. Indians made significant contributions to calculus, trigonometry, and algebra. The decimal system was invented in India in 100 B.C. The concept of zero as a number is also attributed to India.m
40. The national fruit of India is the mango. The national bird is the peacock, which was initially bred for food.m
41. Most historians agree that the first recorded account of plastic surgery is found in ancient Indian Sanskrit texts.b
42. Hindi and English are the official languages of India. The government also recognizes 17 other languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali, Manipuri, Konkani, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu). Apart from these languages, about 1,652 dialects are spoken in the country.l
43. India’s pastoral communities are largely dependent on dairy and have made India the largest milk-producing country in the world.l
44. India has the world’s third largest road network at 1.9 million miles. It also has the world’s second largest rail network, which is the world’s largest civilian employer with 16 million workers.f

Ganges
Though the Ganges is one of the dirtiest rivers in the world, bathing in the river is thought to wash away one’s sins
45. Rivers have played a vital role in India’s popular culture and folklore—they have been worshipped as goddesses because they bring water to an otherwise dry land. Bathing in the Ganges in particular is thought to take away a person’s sins. It is not unusual to spread a loved one’s ashes in the Ganges.f
46. Raziya Sultana (1205-1240) was the first woman leader of India. She was considered a great leader, though she ruled for only three years before being murdered.b
47. Most Indians rinse their hands, legs, and face before eating a meal. It is considered polite to eat with the right hand, and women eat after everyone is finished. Wasting food is considered a sin.i
48. During the Vedic era in India, horse sacrifice sanctioned the sovereignty of the king.a
49. It is traditional to wear white, not black, to a funeral in India. Widows will often wear white in contrast to the colorful clothes of married or single women.k
50. All of India is under a single time zone.g
51. On India’s Independence Day, August 15, 1947, the country was split into India and Pakistan. The partition displaced 1.27 million people and resulted in the death of several hundred thousand to a million people.g
52. In recent years, Indian authors have made a mark on the world with such novels as Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988), Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy (1993), and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997).i
53. India experiences six seasons: summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer monsoon, and winter monsoon.m
54. India is the world’s largest tea producer, and tea (chai) is its most popular beverage.f

Taj Mahal
According to legend, to prevent the builders from ever replicating the beauty of the Taj Mahal, their hands were cut off
55. The Taj Mahal (“crown palace”) was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666) for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal (1593-1631). This architectural beauty has been called “marbled embroidery” for its intricate workmanship. It took 22,000 workmen 22 years to complete it.m
56. The first and greatest civilization in ancient India developed around the valley of the Indus River (now Pakistan) around 3000 B.C. Called the Indus Valley civilization, this early empire was larger than any other empire, including Egypt and Mesopotamia.l
57. After the great Indus Civilization collapsed in 2000 B.C., groups of Indo-Europeans called Aryans (“noble ones”) traveled to northwest India and reigned during what is called the Vedic age. Aryans spoke and imported Sanskrit into India, which is the mother of all European languages. The mingling of ideas from the Aryan and Indus Valley religions formed the basis of Hinduism, and the gods Shiva, Kali, and Brahma all have their roots in Aryan civilization. The Aryans also recorded the Vedas, the first Hindu scriptures, and introduced a caste system based on ethnicity and occupation.l
58. Alexander the Great invaded India partly because he wanted to solve the mystery of the “ocean,” which he had been told was a huge, continuous sea that flowed in a circle around the land. When he reached the Indian Ocean, he sacrificed some bulls to Poseidon for leading him to his goal.m
59. Greek sculpture strongly influenced many portrayals of Indian gods and goddess, particularly after the conquest of Alexander the Great around 330B.C. In fact, early Indian gods had Greek features and only later did distinct Indian styles emerge.m
60. Chandragupta Maurya (340-290 B.C.), a leader in India who established the Mauryan Empire (321-185 B.C.), was guarded by a band of women on horseback.a
61. When the first independent prime minister of India, pacifist Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), was featured in Vogue, his distinctive close fitting, single-breasted jacket briefly became an important fashion statement for the Mod movement in the West. Named the Nehru jacket, the prime minister’s coat was popularized by the Beatles and worn by such famous people as Johnny Carson (1925-2005) and Sammy Davis Jr. (1925-1990).n

61 Interesting Facts About India

How to be rich by 40 !!

Couples who score well on a simple test of numeracy ability are more likely to earn more wealth by middle age than those who score poorly, suggests a study.

Researchers found that when both spouses answered three numeracy-related questions correctly, family wealth averaged 1.7 million dollars, while among couples where neither spouse answered any questions correctly the average household wealth was 200,000 pounds.

Numeracy is the ability to reason with numbers and other mathematical concepts, and are skills typically learned during school.

"We examined several cognitive skills and found that a simple test that checks a person's numeracy skills was a good predictor of who would be a better family financial decision maker," said James P. Smith, of the Labor Markets and Demographic Studies at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization.

Researchers found that choosing the wrong person as a family's primary financial decision maker can have consequences.

While families choose the less-numerate spouse less than 20 percent of the time, when this does happen total household wealth is lower.

Researchers said the skills needed to make successful investment choices are among the most cognitively demanding that a family has to make, especially as they get older and assume greater control of decisions about their wealth, pensions and health care.

Source: Being good with numbers 'can make you rich'

Tata's Nano catches world's most powerful man's eyes !!

President Barack Obama , who heads the world's richest economy, today checked out the world's cheapest car -- Nano.

No sooner the powerful US couple was introduced to Ratan Tata, who heads the USD 72 billion conglomerate, President Obama told the first lady Michelle that this is the person who created the USD 2,500 wonder car.

Eyewitnesses said that Michelle immediately expressed the desire to see the car that revolutionised the auto industry and put India prominently on the global map.

After the discussion last evening, Tata immediately organised a gleaming Nano along with a chauffeur, right at the porch of luxurious Taj Mahal Palace hotel in front of Gateway of India, where Obama and entourage was camping since yesterday.

The couple stepped out in the morning to have a good look at the car, with Michelle even sitting in the small Nano and admiring the engineering marvel.

When contacted, a Tata spokesperson confirmed. "Yes, we showcased the Nano at the Taj Mahal hotel."

After years of hard work, Tata fulfilled his commitment to bring the world's cheapest car on road for Rs one lakh last year.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/auto/automobiles/Tatas-Nano-catches-worlds-most-powerful-mans-eyes/articleshow/6883681.cms

50 Amazing Facts !!

The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.

Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon.

Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions!

What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France.

"Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

"Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel.

In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child

A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off!

Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete.

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath

There is a city called Rome on every continent.

It's against the law to have a pet dog in Iceland!

Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day!

Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness.

The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London

Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people

Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, everytime you breathe!

The elephant is the only mammal that can't jump!

One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet!

Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different!

The first known transfusion of blood was performed as early as 1667, when Jean-Baptiste, transfused two pints of blood from a sheep to a young man

Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails!

Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin!

The present population of 5 billion plus people of the world is predicted to become 15 billion by 2080.

Women blink nearly twice as much as men.

Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."

Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it.

On average a hedgehog's heart beats 300 times a minute.

More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes.

The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words.

More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food.

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times!

The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

Earth is the only planet not named after a god.

It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA.

You're born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206.

Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food!

Dolphins sleep with one eye open!

It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open

The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old!

The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds

Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not

Slugs have 4 noses.

Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue.

A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years!

A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue!

The average person laughs 10 times a day!

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain

source: http://www.world-english.org/facts.htm

Dawood, Osama on Forbes' most powerful list !!

Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden are among the most powerful people in the world, according to Forbes magazine.

Putting Ibrahim on 63rd place, Forbes said 'Ibrahim, a prime suspect in 1993 Mumbai blasts, is now India's most wanted man and is the boss of Mumbai-based 5,000-member organised crime syndicate D-Company'.

'The US declares him a global terrorist. US government says he shares smuggling routes with Al Qaeda and has collaborated with both Al Qaeda and its South Asian affiliate, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out November 2008 Mumbai attacks, possibly with Ibrahim's help,' the magazine said on its website.

About bin Laden, who is ranked 57th, Forbes said: 'Despite infrequent communications, persistent rumours of his death, symbolic power undiminished: Impressionable youths continue to self-detonate in his name.'

According to the magazine, the list comprises 'the 68 who matter' of the 6.8 billion people on the planet.

Yoga boosts heart health !!

Want to have a healthy heart? Practice yoga daily as Indian researchers have claimed that breathing exercises, stretching, relaxation and meditation improve heart health .

According to the researchers at IIT-Roorkee in Uttarakhand, heart rate variability, a sign of a healthy heart, has been shown to be higher in yoga practitioners than in non-practitioners.

Ramesh Kumar Sunkaria, Vinod Kumar and Suresh Chandra Saxena of the Electrical Engineering Department evaluated two small groups of men in order to see whether yoga can improve heart health.

The team said that in their preliminary study of 84 volunteers, there was strengthening of parasympathetic (vagal) control in subjects who regularly practice yoga, which is indicative of better autonomic control over heart rate and so a healthier heart.

They analysed the "HRV spectra" of the electrocardiograms (ECG) of 42 healthy male volunteers who were non-yogic practitioners, and 42 who are experienced practitioners, all volunteers were aged between 18 and 48 years.

The spectral analysis of HRV is an important tool in exploring heart health and the mechanisms of heart rate regulation, according to the team.

What is worrying Indian CEOs ??

Is it time for India Inc. to pursue new business opportunities after recovery from the slowdown? Perhaps not. Caution still remains the buzzword, or at least that is what CEO Views 2010 India, a survey of 30 CEOs carried out by executive search firm BTI Consultants, reveals.

"The clear signals to emerge from the survey are that growth is not assured; that threats linger, and the focus will be largely on existing markets and customers," says James Agrawal, Consulting Director and Head of BTI Consultants in India. Leading global search firm Kelly Services, the holding company of BTI Consultants, has been studying the views of CEOs in India for the last 15 years.

This CEO survey is the first of its kind. "After the recovery, business confidence was perceived to be positive and growing. But when we would meet business leaders, they would sound cautious and hence we decided to understand their concerns," says Agrawal.

According to the survey, there are both near term business concerns as well as more deep-seated labour market issues confronting corporate leaders. The nervousness about the global economy and a shortage of skilled personnel are the key concerns in terms of immediate outlook for business activity.

Also, the CEOs plan to focus on existing customers and markets, and will avoid higher-risk expansion strategies. Their key challenge is to maintain profitable growth. "With one eye turned to the financial crisis in Europe and the other on the tentative recovery in the United States, Indian CEOs are not yet ready to splurge on new ventures in such an uncertain market," says Agrawal.

Ideally, The single biggest HR issue facing the CEOs, however, is talent retention and acquisition. Skills shortage is another top of the mind concern with the industry and is considered a longterm obstacle to national development. Over a third of the CEOs surveyed rank it as the most pressing workforce issue.

The next critical issue is "disruption of workforce". "The mismatch between the industry's needs and the output of skilled workers remains chronic, and one that impacts productivity and profitability," says Agrawal, adding that lack of employable talent is hurting the plans of the CEOs.