Interesting Facts about Dogs

I've gathered nice collection of facts about dogs, here they are:

Dog image

That whole one year in a dog's life is the equivalent of 7 in a human's isn't exactly true. A more accurate calculation is as follows: At one year, a dog is the equivalent of 16 human years; at two dog years they are 24 human years; at 3 dog years, 30 human years; and for every dog year after that, add 4 human years.

Canis Familiaris is the Latin name for dog.

The largest dogs among all breeds, at least in terms of height, is the Irish Wolfhound.


Nearly all but two breeds of dogs have pink tongues. The two exceptions? The Chow Chow and the Shar-pei, both with black tongues.

The Poodle haircut was originally meant to improve the dog's swimming abilities as a retriever, with the pom-poms left in place to warm their joints.

Cats can see a lot better than dogs. In fact, dogs first distinguish objects by movement, then brightness, and finally by shape.

Among dogs officially registered with kennel clubs in the U.S., Labrador Retrievers are the most popular breed followed by Rottweilers and German Shepherds.

Dog image

All dogs, regardless of breed, are direct descendants of wolves and technically of the same species.

A dog's whiskers -- found on the muzzle, above the eyes and below the jaws -- are technically known as vibrissae. They are touch-sensitive hairs than actually sense minute changes in airflow.

Dogs are capable of locating the source of a sound in 6/100ths of a second by using their swiveling ears like radar dishes.

Dogs have a sense of smell that is one of the keenest in nature. Humans might smell a pot of stew cooking on the stove, but a dog can distinguish the smells of each individual ingredient, from the beef itself to the potatoes.

Dalmatian puppies are born pure white, with their spots developing as the mature.

Dog image

The ancient Chinese royalty loved the Pekingese, carrying them tucked into the sleeves of their royal robes.

Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.

The oldest breed of dog native to North America is the Chihuahua.

Survivors of the Titanic included two dogs: a Pekingese belonging to Henry Sleeper Harper and a Pomeranian belonging to Miss Margaret Hays.

Every minute, dogs take ten to thirty breaths.

The only mammals with prostates are humans and dogs.

There are 42 teeth in a dog's mouth.

Whippets can reach a maximum speed of 35 miles per hour.

The Taco Bell dog is actually a female, and her real name is Gidget.

Contrary to popular belief, dogs are not color blind but can, in fact, see color. However, their color scheme is not as vivid as ours and can be likened to our vision at twilight.

There are more than five million puppies born in the United States each year.

Have you ever seen a dog curled up with his tail covering his nose? They do that to keep the nose warm in cold weather.

Many dogs' eyes reflect the color green in the dark, but some also reflect orange or red.

The top five favorite breeds of dogs in the US are: Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Beagle, and Dachshund.

The Lhasa Apso was used by monks to guard temples.

Dog image

The Doberman breed was created in the 1860's by Louis Doberman, a German tax-collector who created the dog to protect him while he worked.

Most people think that dogs sweat by salivating, but they actually sweat through the pads of their feet.

The name Pug is believed to have derived from this dog's resemblance to the pug monkey.

There are over 200 different breeds of dogs

The Basenji is the only barkless dog in the world.

You might expect that a Great Dane can eat a lot of food. In fact, they can eat up to 8 ?? pounds a day!

Greyhounds can reach a speed of up to 45 miles per hour.

There are over 800 different dog breeds.

There is only one barkless dog in the world, the Basenji.

Dalmations are born without their spots. The spots appear as they mature.

When a puppy is born, he is blind, deaf, and toothless.

Dogs don't actually sweat by salivating. They sweat through the pads on their feet.

Smiling at a dog causes him to think you are baring your teeth to show aggression.

There are about 68 million dogs with owners in the United States.

If a dog lives to be 11 years old, it will cost approximately $13,550 to own that dog.

The Taco Bell dog is actually a female Chihuahua named Gidget.

The oldest recorded age for a dog is 29.

Dog image

The oldest known breed of dog is the Saluki, which is an Arabic word meaning noble one. These dogs were raised as hunting dogs by ancient Egyptians.

One of the very first animals domesticated by humans was the dog.

The oldest known dog lived to be 29.

The "spring" in Springer Spaniel referred to this dog's ability to spring or startle game.

In Flemish, Schipperke translates to "Little Captain."

Dogs have been domesticated for 10,000 years.

Laikia, a dog, was the world's first ever space astronaut. She was sent into space in an artificial earth satellite in 1957 by the Russian government.

Greyhounds are no doubt fast. In fact, they can reach speeds of up to 45 miles per hour for short amounts of time.

Funny Facts

The average life span of an umbrella is under two years.Chicken

There is a city called Rome in every continent.

A donkey will sink in quick sand, while a mule will not.

4,000 people are injured by tea pots every year.

The McDonald’s™ at Toronto’s ‘SkyDome’ is the only McDonald’s™ locationthat sells hot dogs.

One million $1 bills weighs 1 ton

In an average day, a four year old child will ask 437 questions.

The average speed of Heinz™ ketchup leaving the bottle is 25 miles per year.

Little more than half of the people living in the U.S. would rather fold, than wad their toilet paper.


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The only words in the English language to contain two "U’s" back to back are: vacuum, residuum, and continuum.

998 million people play Volleyball

You consume one tenth (.1) calories when you lick a stamp.

60 % of statistics are made up...

Dragon boat racing is the 8th most popular sport in the world!(What the funk is Dragon boat racing)

The first non-human to win an Oscar was Mickey Mouse.

Pi has been calculated to over 2,260,321,363 digits.

An ostrich egg would take four hours to hard boil.

The left leg of a chicken is more tender than the right one.

Chickens can't swallow while they are upside down.

There are more chickens in the world than people.

A novel with 50,000 words, non of which contained the letter ‘E’ waswritten by Ernest Wright.

There are only 18 countries richer than Bill Gates

There have been fewer people below 2km in sea than have been on de moon

Every year more people are killed by donkeys, than in aircraft crashes.

The only word in the English language to contain three back to back double letter combinations is; Bookkeeper.

The number of births in India each year is greater than the entire population of Australia.

The smallest 'country' in the world to have its own top-level domain name is Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia.

lunar rover

The surface speed record on the moon is 10.56 miles per hour.It was set in a lunar rover.

Gibraltar is the only place in Europe were you can find wild monkeys.

Every year, the moon moves 1/2 an inch further from the earth.

In 1977, George Willig was fined $1.10 for climbing the World Trade Center building.

If you yelled for 8 years ,7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough energy to heat a cup of coffee.

Banging your head off a wall uses 150 calories an hour!(ouch)

The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps blood out to the body it could squirt blood 30 feet!

In downtown Lima, Peru, there is a large brass statue dedicated to Winnie-the-Pooh.

In space you cannot cry because there is no gravity to make the tears flow

In the Scottish Hebrides, an island is defined as being an islandonly if it is big enough to sustain 1 sheep

There are more plastic lawn flamingos in the US than real ones.

A typist fingers travel over 12 and a half miles in an average day.

2,500 left handers die each year using products designed for right handers.

The Roman Catholic Church did not acknowledge that the earth revolves around the sun until the mid 1990’s.

The world’s most common non-contagious disease is tooth-decay

In 50 million years, it is likely that Mars will have a ring around it.

The short phrases of organ music played at a baseball game is called a tucket.

Dungarees is another word for Denim

A deltiologist is someone who collects postcards

People descended from the Scottish clan of Kerr are more likely to be left handed than any other ancestrial group.

The sortest war ever recorded lasted only 38 minutes. (Britain vs. Zanzibar in 1896)

Despite a population of over a billion, China has only about 200 family names

If you told someone that they were one in a million, you'd be saying there were 1,800 of them in China

In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to 12

New York City has 570 miles of shoreline

Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system

A red-haired man is more likely to go bald than anyone else.

"Q" is the only letter in the alphabet that does not appear in the name of any of the United States.

Boston University Bridge

The Boston University Bridge is the only place in the world where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are useable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies

Two objects have struck the earth with enough force to destroy a whole city. Each object, one in 1908 and again in 1947, struck regions of Siberia. Not one human being was hurt either time.

Up to three thousand species of trees have been cataloged in square mile of the Amazon jungle.

We are in the middle of an ice age. Ice ages include both cold and warm periods; at the moment we are experiencing a relatively warm span of time known as an interglacial period. Geologists believe that the warmest part of this period occurred from 1890 through 1945 and that since 1945 things have slowly begun freezing up again.

A jogger's heel strikes the ground 1,500 times per mile.

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

Source: ioframe.com

Statistics about sex

These figures are circulating on the internet and on usenets. I can’t vouch for their scientific approach and method. I don’t even know who conducted this survey and when. This survey doesn’t address the diseases or hurt caused from promiscuous sex. Nevertheless, the figures are worth sharing.
Latino women have sex more often than either Blacks or Whites, who get down at roughly the same rate.

Women with a Ph.D. are twice as likely to be turned on by the thought of anonymous sex as women who never got a bachelor’s degree.

70% of women who smoke have had more than 4 lovers in the last year while 60% of female non-smokers had none.

Women who respond to sex surveys in magazines like Cosmo may have 5 times as many lovers as typical women.

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Women who read romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don’t.

White teenage girls who live with single mothers are 60% more likely to have sex before the age of 18 than those who live with both parents. The percentage is much lower for black girls.

Women who lost their virginity before their 18th birthday are likely to be twice as sexually active as women who don’t.

Women who have spent a night in jail are almost 50% more likely to have had more than 10 lovers in the past year than women with no criminal record.

Australian women are more likely to have sex on the first date.

Women who went to college are more likely to enjoy oral sex (giving and receiving) than high school dropouts.

National birthrates rise and fall with the height of heels.

In a bar or nightclub, the hemlines and necklines of unaccompanied women rise and fall (respectively) during ovulation.

Women who have a positive attitude towards sex tend to be less achievement oriented.

Black women are 50% more likely than White women to come every time they have sex.

20% of women who live with their boyfriends have more than one sex partner.

Source: ioframe.com

Interesting Facts About Architecture and Construction

The Incas considered bridges to be so sacred that anyone who tampered with one was put to death Among the most impressive Inca bridges were the chacas, or rope bridges, that spanned great distances over gorges and rivers They were made of plaited grasses woven together into a single cable as thick as a man's body, and they sometimes extended for 175 feet It took as many as a thousand people to build such a bridge, and many of these remarkable structures lasted more than five hundred years

A bridge built in Lima, Peru around 1610 was made of mortar that was mixed not with water but with the whites of 10,000 eggs The bridge, appropriately called the Bridge of Eggs, is still standing today

The Column of Trajan, built in 113 AD to commemorate the Roman emperor Trajan's victories against the Dacian tribes of the lower Danube, contains a continuous frieze a yard wide and 218 feet long in which more than 2,500 human figures as well as hundreds of boats, horses, vehicles, and pieces of military equipment are depicted This great column, still standing today, rises 128 feet from the ground, is 12 feet thick at the base, and is made entirely of gilded bronze Inside is a circular staircase where the ashes of Trajan were sprinkled

There are 10 Million bricks in the Empire State Building

Japanese farmers, after removing the hulls from their rice crop and sorting out the white kernels, take the hulls from the leftover rice, mix them into a kind of paste, mold the substance into brick-shaped blocks, and build houses with them Such buildings are known in Japan as "houses of rice skin"

Many houses in the rural districts of Nepal are constructed of cow dung mixed with mud, sand, and clay

The Escorial, the famous palace located outside Madrid, was built in the shape of a gridiron because Saint Lawrence, to whom the palace was dedicated, was roasted on one

It takes a person fifteen to twenty minutes to walk around the Pentagon once

The base of the Great Pyramid in Egypt is large enough to cover ten football fields According to the Greek historian Herodotus, it took 400,000 men twenty years to construct this great monument

In the mid-sixteenth century Hicleyoshi, the so-called peasant ruler of Japan, ordered that all the swords in the nation be collected and melted down The metal was then used, in 1586, to construct an enormous statue of Buddha It took 50,000 artisans more than six years to build the statue, and exactly ten years after it was completed an earthquake razed it Not a trace of this giant figure remains today

The sixty story John Hancock Tower in Boston is haunted by one of more of the more mysterious problems in skyscraper history: it's windows, huge 4 X 11 foot panes of glass, pop out unexpectedly and shatter on the street below The building, completed in 1972, was less than a month old when suddenly dozens of its windows began popping for no discernible reason Determined to remedy the situation, the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company replaced all 10,334 windows with 400-pound sections of half-inch tempered glass The windows kept popping out Today the mystery remains unsolved, and windows occasionally still pop To protect passers John Hancock has hired two permanent guards who do nothing but peer up and spot the cracked panes before they tumble to the sidewalk

The only manmade structure visible from space is the Great Wall of China

Source: ioframe.com

Interesting Facts About Cars

In 1924 a Ford automobile cost $265.

Most American automobile horns beep in the key of F.

The Buick, first automobile manufactured by the General Motors Corporation, was actually built by a man named David Buick. Buick, a plumber by trade, also invented a process whereby porcelain could be annealed onto iron, hence making possible the production of the white porcelain bathtub.

No two-cycle engines are allowed in Singapore. The license fee for a new car is low, about $5.00, but as the vehicle gets older, this fee increases. When the automoblie reaches 8 years old, it is no longer allowed on the streets. This is opposite of the license-fee structure in the U.S. While strict, Singapore's auto law has virtually wiped out air pollution in the country.

For every 50 miles driven in an automobile, a person has a 1 in a million chance of being killed in a motoring accident.


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In 1950 the United States had 70 percent of all the automobiles, buses, and trucks in the entire world.

The first automobile race ever seen in the United States was held in Chicago in 1895. The track ran from Chicago to Evanston. The winner was J. Frank Duryea, whose average speed was 71.5 miles per hour.

The price of the average American automobile doubled during the ten-year period between 1968 and 1978.

In 1906 a car known as the Autocar was manufactured in the United States with a new invention-headlights (they burned kerosene). The Autocar, however, lacked another important accessory, the steering wheel. The driver directed the vehicle by means of a stick-like shaft situated to the right of the driver's seat.

The high roofs of London taxicabs were originally designed to keep gentlemen from knocking off their top hats as they entered and left the vehicles.

In 1905 the Bosco Company of Akron, Ohio, marketed a "collapsible Rubber Automobile Driver." The figure, deflated and kept under the seat when not in use, was a kind of dummy intended to scare thieves away when the car was parked.

Source: ioframe.com

Interesting facts about India

  • India never invaded any country in her last 100000 years of history.
  • When many cultures were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization)

  • 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.
  • Chess was invented in India.
  • Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus are studies, which originated in India.
  • The 'Place Value System' and the 'Decimal System' were developed in India in 100 B.C.
  • The World's First Granite Temple is the Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamil Nadu. The shikhara of the temple is made from a single 80-tonne piece of granite. This magnificent temple was built in just five years, (between 1004 AD and 1009 AD) during the reign of Rajaraja Chola.
  • India is the largest democracy in the world, the 6th largest Country in the world, and one of the most ancient civilizations.
  • The game of Snakes & Ladders was created by the 13th century poet saint Gyandev. It was originally called 'Mokshapat'. The ladders in the game represented virtues and the snakes indicated vices. The game was played with cowrie shells and dices. In time, the game underwent several modifications, but its meaning remained the same, i.e. good deeds take people to heaven and evil to a cycle of re-births.
  • 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.
  • India has the largest number of Post Offices in the world.
  • The largest employer in the world is the Indian Railways, employing over a million people.
  • The world's first university was established in Takshila in 700 BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.
  • Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to mankind. The Father of Medicine, Charaka, consolidated Ayurveda 2500 years ago.
  • India was one of the richest countries till the time of British rule in the early 17th Century. Christopher Columbus, attracted by India's wealth, had come looking for a sea route to India when he discovered America by mistake.
  • The Art of Navigation & Navigating was born in the river Sindh over 6000 years ago. The very word Navigation is derived from the Sanskrit word 'NAVGATIH'. The word navy is also derived from the Sanskrit word 'Nou'.
  • Bhaskaracharya rightly calculated the time taken by the earth to orbit the Sun hundreds of years before the astronomer Smart. According to his calculation, the time taken by the Earth to orbit the Sun was 365.258756484 days.
  • The value of "pi" was first calculated by the Indian Mathematician Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is known as the Pythagorean Theorem. He discovered this in the 6th century, long before the European mathematicians.
  • Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus also originated in India. Quadratic Equations were used by Sridharacharya in the 11th century. The largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Hindus used numbers as big as 10*53 (i.e. 10 to the power of 53) with specific names as early as 5000 B.C. during the Vedic period. Even today, the largest used number is Terra: 10*12(10 to the power of 12).
  • Until 1896, India was the only source of diamonds in the world (Source : Gemological Institute of America).
  • The Baily Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.
  • Sushruta is regarded as the Father of Surgery. Over 2600 years ago Sushrata & his team conducted complicated surgeries like cataract, artificial limbs, cesareans, fractures, urinary stones, plastic surgery and brain surgeries.
  • Usage of anaesthesia was well known in ancient Indian medicine. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, embryology, digestion, metabolism, physiology, etiology, genetics and immunity is also found in many ancient Indian texts.
  • India exports software to 90 countries.
  • The four religions born in India - Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, are followed by 25% of the world's population.
  • 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.
  • There are 300,000 active mosques in India, more than in any other country, including the Muslim world.
  • The oldest European church and synagogue in India are in the city of Cochin. They were built in 1503 and 1568 respectively.
  • Jews and Christians have lived continuously in India since 200 B.C. and 52 A.D. respectively
  • The largest religious building in the world is Angkor Wat, a Hindu Temple in Cambodia built at the end of the 11th century.
  • The Vishnu Temple in the city of Tirupathi built in the 10th century, is the world's largest religious pilgrimage destination. Larger than either Rome or Mecca, an average of 30,000 visitors donate $6 million (US) to the temple everyday.

  • Sikhism originated in the Holy city of Amritsar in Punjab. Famous for housing the Golden Temple, the city was founded in 1577.
  • Varanasi, also known as Benaras, was called "the Ancient City" when Lord Buddha visited it in 500 B.C., and is the oldest, continuously inhabited city in the world today.
  • India provides safety for more than 300,000 refugees originally from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who escaped to flee religious and political persecution.
  • His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, runs his government in exile from Dharmashala in northern India.
  • Martial Arts were first created in India, and later spread to Asia by Buddhist missionaries.
  • Yoga has its origins in India and has existed for over 5,000 years.

Source: india.gov.in

Interesting Facts About Crime

Based on the victim-to-population ratio, an adult has a greater chance of being physically assaulted in the state of Arizona than anywhere else in the country. The state with the second highest rate of assault is North Carolina, third is New Mexico.

An embezzler in Thailand, sentenced to 865 years in jail, was lucky enough to get his sentenced reduced to just 576 years.

Forensic scientists can determine a person's sex, age, and race by examining a single strand of hair.

Today, handguns are used in 51 percent of all murders committed in the United States. Knives were used in 20 percent of all murders, shotguns in 8 percent, and personal weapons such as rocks and bottles in 9 percent. Six percent of murders were committed by miscellaneous methods, and another 6 percent by poisoning. This, however, may be a deceptive statistic, as it is estimated that 64 percent of all murders by poisoning go undetected.

In ancient China the punishment for small criminal infractions such as shoplifting or breaking a curfew was to brand the offender's forehead with a hot iron. Petty thieves and people who molested travelers had their noses sliced off. For the crime of damaging city bridges or gates, the ears, hands, feet, and kneecaps were cut off. Abduction, armed robbery, treason, and adultery were punished by castration. Death by strangulation was the price one paid for murder and for an even more unspeakable crime-drunkenness.

In past centuries infants in China were sometimes kidnapped and turned into "animal children." Every day, starting with the back, the captors would remove a bit of the unfortunate child's skin and transplant pieces of the hide of a bear or dog in its place. The process was tedious, for the hide adhered only in spots, and the children had a habit of dying in the midst of treatment, The captors also destroyed their victims' vocal cords, forced them by means of ingenious mechanical contraptions to walk on all fours, and tortured them to such an extent that the innocents were soon bereft of all reason. One result of such atrocities was the "wild boy of Kiangse," exhibited in the nineteenth century before a group of westerners in China. The child walked on all fours, made a peculiar barking sound, and was covered with a fuzzy, leathery kind of hide. An American doctor named Macgowan who witnessed this spectacle recorded that another method of creating child-monsters in China was to deprive the children of light for several years so that their bones would become deformed. At the same time they were fed certain foods and drugs that utterly debilitated them. Macgowan mentioned an Oriental priest who subjected a kidnapped boy to this treatment and then displayed him to incredulous observers, claiming he was a religious deity. The child looked like wax, having been fed a diet consisting mostly of lard. He squatted with his palms together and was a driveling idiot. The monk, Macgowan added, was arrested but managed to escape. His temple was burned to the ground.

According to the Federal Aviation Authority, airline securitycheck stations at airports have, since 1973, detected more than 15,000 firearms that passengers have tried to smuggle onto airplanes. More than 5,000 arrests have resulted from these discoveries.

In seventeenth-century Europe there were wandering bands of smugglers called comprachicos whose stock in trade was buying children, deforming them, and selling them to the aristocracy, who thought it fashionable to have freaks in court. The comprachicos' "arts" included stunting children's growth, placing muzzles on their faces to deform them (it was from this practice that Dumas took his theme for The Man in the Iron Mask), slitting their eyes, dislocating their joints, and malforming their bones. James 11 of England hired comprachicos to kidnap the heirs of families whose lines he wished to extinguish. Victor Hugo's The Man Who Laughs had a grotesque permanent smile carved by the comprachicos.

Source: ioframe.com

Interesting Olympic Facts

By Jennifer Rosenberg

The Official Olympic Flag
Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant conti
nents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world. The Olympic flag was first flown during the 1920 Olympic Games.

The Olympic Motto
In 1921, Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, borrowed a Latin phrase from his friend, Father Henri Didon, for the Olympic motto: Citius, Altius, Fortius ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger").

The Olympic Oath
Pierre de Coubertin wrote an oath for the athletes to recite at each Olympic Games. During the opening ceremonies, one athlete recites the oath on behalf of all the athletes. The Olympic oath was first taken during the 1920 Olympic Games by Belgian fencer Victor Boin. The Olympic Oath states, "In the name of all competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules
that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams."

The Olympic Creed
Pierre de Coubertin got the idea for this phrase from a speech given by Bishop Ethelbert Talbot at a service for Olympic champions during the 1908 Olympic Games. The Olympic Creed reads: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

The Olympic Flame
The Olympic flame is a practice
continued from the ancient Olympic Games. In Olympia (Greece), a flame was ignited by the sun and then kept burning until the closing of the Olympic Games. The flame first appeared in the modern Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam. The flame itself represents a number of things, including purity and the endeavor for perfection. In 1936, the chairman of the organizing committee for the 1936 Olympic Games, Carl Diem, suggested what is now the modern Olympic Torch relay. The Olympic flame is lit at the ancient site of Olympia by women wearing ancient-style robes and using a curved mirror and the sun. The Olympic Torch is then passed from runner to runner from the ancient site of Olympia to the Olympic stadium in the hosting city. The flame is then kept alight until the Games have concluded. The Olympic Torch relay represents a continuation from the ancient Olympic Games to the modern Olympics.

The Olympic Hymn
The Olympic Hymn, played when the Olympic Flag is raised, was composed by Spyros Samaras and the words added by Kostis Palamas. The Olympic Hymn was first played at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens but wasn't declared the official hymn by the IOC until 1957.

Real Gold Medals
The last Olympic gold medals that were made entirely out of gold were awarded in 1912.

The Medals
The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city's organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.

The First Opening Ceremonies
The first opening ceremonies were held during the 1908 Olympic Games in London.

Opening Ceremony Procession Order
During the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the procession of athletes is always led by the Greek team, followed by all the other teams in alphabetical order (in the language of the hosting country), except for the last team which is always the team of the hosting country.

A City, Not a Country
When choosing locations for the Olympic Games, the IOC specifically gives the honor of holding the Games to a city rather than a country.

IOC Diplomats
In order to make the IOC an independent organization, the members of the IOC are not considered diplomats from their countries to the IOC, but rather are diplomats from the IOC to their respective countries.

First Modern Champion
James B. Connolly (United States), winner of the hop, step, and jump (the first final event in the 1896 Olympics), was the first Olympic champion of the modern Olympic Games.

The First Marathon
In 490 BCE, Pheidippides, a Greek soldier, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to inform the Athenians the outcome of the battle with invading Persians. The distance was filled with hills and other obstacles; thus Pheidippides arrived in Athens exhausted and with bleeding feet. After telling the townspeople of the Greeks' success in the battle, Pheidippides fell to the ground dead. In 1896, at the first modern Olympic Games, held a race of approximately the same length in commemoration of Pheidippides.

The Exact Length of a Marathon
During the first several modern Olympics, the marathon was always an approximate distance. In 1908, the British royal family requested that the marathon start at the Windsor Castle so that the royal children could witness its start. The distance from the Windsor Castle to the Olympic Stadium was 42,195 meters (or 26 miles and 385 yards). In 1924, this distance became the standardized length of a marathon.

Women
Women were first allowed to participate in 1900 at the second modern Olympic Games.

Winter Games Begun
The winter Olympic Games were first held in 1924, beginning a tradition of holding them a few months earlier and in a different city than the summer Olympic Games. Beginning in 1994, the winter Olympic Games were held in completely different years (two years apart) than the summer Games.

Cancelled Games
Because of World War I and World War II, there were no Olympic Games in 1916, 1940, or 1944.

Tennis Banned
Tennis was played at the Olympics until 1924, then reinstituted in 1988.

Walt Disney
In 1960, the Winter Olympic Games were held in Squaw Valley, California (United States). In order to bedazzle and impress the spectators, Walt Disney was head of the committee that organized the opening day ceremonies. The 1960 Winter Games Opening Ceremony was filled with high school choirs and bands, releasing of thousands of balloons, fireworks, ice statues, releasing of 2,000 white doves, and national flags dropped by parachute.

Russia Not Present
Though Russia had sent a few athletes to compete in the 1908 and 1912 Olympic Games, they did not compete again until the 1952 Games.

Motor Boating
Motor boating was an official sport at the 1908 Olympics.

Polo, an Olympic Sport
Polo was played at the Olympics in 1900, 1908, 1920, 1924, and 1936.

Gymnasium
The word "gymnasium" comes from the Greek root "gymnos" meaning nude; the literal meaning of "gymnasium" is "school for naked exercise." Athletes in the ancient Olympic Games would participate in the nude.

Stadium
The first recorded ancient Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE with only one event - the stade. The stade was a unit of measurement (about 600 feet) that also became the name of the footrace because it was the distance run. Since the track for the stade (race) was a stade (length), the location of the race became the stadium.

Counting Olympiads
An Olympiad is a period of four successive years. The Olympic Games celebrate each Olympiad. For the modern Olympic Games, the first Olympiad celebration was in 1896. Every four years celebrates another Olympiad; thus, even the Games that were cancelled (1916, 1940, and 1944) count as Olympiads. The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was called the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad.

Top 17 Free Email Services

1. Gmail - Free Email Service

Gmail is the Google approach to email and chat. Practically unlimited free online storage allows you to collect all your messages, and Gmail's simple but very smart interface lets you find them precisely and see them in context without effort. POP and powerful IMAP access bring Gmail to any email program or device.
Gmail puts contextual advertising next to the emails you read.

2. AIM Mail - Free Email Service

AIM Mail, AOL's free web-based email service, shines with unlimited online storage, very good spam protection and a rich, easy to use interface.
Unfortunately, AIM Mail lacks a bit in productivity (no labels, smart folders and message threading), but makes up for some of that with very functional IMAP (as well as POP) access.

3. GMX Mail - Free Email Service

GMX Mail is a reliable email service filtered well of spam and viruses whose 5 GB of online storage you can use not only through a rich web interface but also via POP or IMAP from a desktop email program.
More and smarter ways to organize mail could be nice.

4. Yahoo! Mail - Free Email Service

Yahoo! Mail is your ubiquitous email program on the web with unlimited storage and RSS news feeds, SMS texting and instant messaging to boot.
While Yahoo! Mail is generally a joy to use, free-form labelling and smart folders would be nice, and the spam filter could catch junk even more effectively.

5. Zenbe - Free Email Service

Zenbe organizes your emails and attachments (from Zenbe and existing POP accounts) with labels and search — and integrates calendar, to-do list, twitter and Facebook updates, too.
With a focus on elegant simplicity, Zenbe provides many sweet shortcuts but also shows quirks and omissions in others. The spam filter is good, but it would be great if IMAP access was possible for all folders (not just the inbox).

6. Inbox.com - Free Email Service

Inbox.com not only gives you 5 GB to store your mail online but also a highly polished, fast and functional way to access it via either the web (including speedy search, free-form labels and reading mail by conversation) or through POP in your email program.
Unfortunately, IMAP access is not supported by Inbox.com, and its tools for organizing mail could be improved with smart or self-teaching folders.

7. Gawab.com - Free Email Service

Gawab.com is a speedy, stable and very usable free email service with 2 GB online space, POP access and many a web-based goodie.
It's a pity Gawab.com lacks IMAP access and full message search.

8. FastMail Guest Account - Free Email Service

FastMail is a great free email service with IMAP access, useful features, one of the best web-based email interfaces and few ads.

9. Yahoo! Mail Classic - Free Email Service

Yahoo! Mail Classic is a comfortable, reliable and secure email service with unlimited storage. A pretty good spam filter keeps the junk out, and you can send rich emails using Yahoo! Mail's HTML editor.

10. Windows Live Hotmail - Free Email Service

Windows Live Hotmail is a free email service that gives you a 5 GB of online storage, fast search, solid security and an interface easy as a desktop email program.
When it comes to organizing mail, Windows Live Hotmail does not go beyond folders (to saved searches and tags, for example), its spam filter could be more effective, and POP or IMAP access are missing.

11. BigString.com - Free Email Service

BigString.com is a free 2 GB email service that includes rich secure and certified mail services and lets you password-protect, expire or edit sent messages, for example.
Unfortunately, BigString.com is not equally well equipped for handling incoming mail and lacks organizing tools.

12. Lavabit - Free Email Service

Lavabit nets you a solid, secure and privacy-conscious email account which you can access in your email program using POP or IMAP and in your browser using a rudimentary web interface.
It's a pity Lavabit restricts statistical spam filtering to paid accounts and lacks a fully fledged web interface.

13. Zapak Mail - Free Email Service

Zapak Mail is a bare-bones free email service with unlimited storage and POP access to boot. With the exception of some background images, Zapak Mail offers no frills and does not help much with handling mail efficiently.

14. HotPOP - Free Email Service

HotPOP offers free, reliable email accounts you can use with any email program using POP3 and SMTP. In addition, HotPOP lets you forward incoming messages to multiple other addresses.
Unfortunately, HotPOP lacks IMAP access and a web-based email interface and is a bit short on storage space.

15. My Way Mail - Free Email Service

My Way Mail is a clean, fast and fun (though not particularly advanced) free email service.
It lacks secure messaging and other advanced, non-essential features, though.

16. Care2 E-mail - Free Email Service

Care2 E-mail provides solid free email with an environmental conscience. The spam filters and editing gimmicks in Care2 E-mail are nice, but so would be message search, IMAP access and smart folders.

17. Mail.com - Free Email Service

Mail.com is great for its domain names (use them with forwarding!), but it is missing some of the security and convenience of other web-based email services.

Top 10 Live Show Fights!



omg!!! live show fights people!

Top 10 Windows Error You Never Want To See

...Top 10 Windows Error You Never Want To See:

1. Watching The Evening News




2. Ordering at McD's Drive-Thru




3. Shopping in N.Y.C.



Top 10 Video Games & Consoles

1. Nintendo Wii Console

Following a trend begun with the GameCube and continued with the DS handheld, Wii evidences a significant split of Nintendo's philosophy from those of its consolemaking competitors, Microsoft and Sony. As suggested by its development codename, "Revolution," Nintendo did not want this console to represent another evolution in gaming technology, but a new direction in the video game industry.

Instead of concentrating strictly on advancing the processing and graphics capabilities of its next game machine, Nintendo's research and development focused on easing accessibility, widening its audience beyond young and "hardcore" gamers, and expanding the scope of games that people make and play. With Wii, Nintendo aimed to innovate instead of simply improve.

This focus on innovation is manifest in the console's two most notable features: its controller and its backward compatibility. The Wii controller is rectangular and slender, similar to a television remote control. It is wireless and, unlike the GameCube's WaveBird, features a builtin vibration function. The wandlike Wii controller senses threedimensional motion up and down, back and forward, side to side allowing it to be aimed like laser pointer, wielded like a sword, swung like a baseball bat, cast like a fishing rod, and employed in other intuitive control schemes.


2.Wii Fit

The hit combination of Wii Sports and the Wii Remote brought golf swings and tennis serves into people’s homes. Now Nintendo turns the living room into a fitness center for the whole family with Wii Fit and the Wii Balance Board. Family members will have fun getting a "core" workout, and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.

Lean to block soccer balls, swivel hips to power hoop twirls or balance to hold the perfect yoga pose. As users stand on the Wii Balance Board, included with Wii Fit, their body’s overall balance is tied to the game in a way they’ve never experienced before. Wii Fit also uses the Wii Balance Board for daily tests.

3. Sony PlayStation 3 Console

Featuring the world's most powerful processor, PlayStation 3 delivers an experience beyond anything you know today. With a built in Blu-ray Disc drive, PlayStation 3 invites you to a whole new generation in high-definition graphics and media capabilities. Whether it's high-definition gaming, Blu-ray movies, music or online services, PlayStation 3 takes you where you've never dreamed possible - a place where you can play beyond.


4.
Xbox 360 Console

The followup to Microsoft's Xbox debut into the video game console market, Xbox 360 was first officially unveiled in a halfhour promotional program that aired May 12, 2005, on MTV, and was further revealed at the 11th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), held the following week.

The Xbox 360 is smaller and sleeker than its predecessor, and can be operated in a horizontal or vertical position, similar to the PlayStation 2. The Xbox 360 was designed according to an "inhaling gesture" concept, and the longer edges of the console's front profile are slightly concave. The case is a silvery white color, but the unit accepts swappable face plates, available in a variety of colors and styles.

The front of the console features two slots for memory cards and two USB ports. No physical controller ports are required, as all Xbox 360 controllers are wireless. The standard Xbox 360 controller is similar in design to the "S"style controllers manufactured for the original Xbox, though the "black" and "white" buttons have been moved to the spine of the device, as triggers. A globular, greenlit button on the center of the controller offers gamers quick access to the console's builtin user interface, which is similar to the original Xbox's "dashboard" but far more extensive. The standard Xbox 360 controller is manufactured in silvery white plastic, to match the console.


5. Nintendo DS Lite Console

With impressive 3D rendered graphics and ultra-bright screens, Nintendo DS Lite delivers cutting-edge portable games for fans of any genre. Plus, you can connect wirelessly to Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and challenge players around the world.


6. Sony PSP Slim & Lite Console

The PSP Slim & Lite is a natural design evolution for the PSP system. It also includes a video output, which means that your PSP can now be connected to a TV, enabling you to play, share and watch your games, videos and photos on a TV. The speaker location has also been improved providing an even better sound experience than before.


7.Wii Music Nintendo Wii

Wii Music Orchestra is a Wii demo that lets you act as a conductor for a virtual orchestra.


8. Rock Band 2 PlayStation 3

Continue Your Rock and Roll Fantasy

Rock Band 2 lets you and your friends take your band on an even more expansive and immersive world tour - in person or online - and continue your rock and roll fantasy.

Harmonix, deliver Rock Band 2, the next step to the platform that lets audiences of all ages interact with music in an all-new way. Rock Band 2 lets players vicariously jam out as some of the best guitarists, bassists, drummers and singers of all time.

Featuring a track list with more than 100 on-disc and downloadable tracks from some of the most hallowed bands of the rock pantheon, Rock Band 2 by challenges rockers to master lead guitar, bass guitar, drums and vocals.

9. Fallout 3

The third game in the Fallout series, Fallout 3 is a singleplayer action role-playing game (RPG) set in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC. Combining the horrific insanity of the Cold War era theory of mutually assured destruction gone terribly wrong, with the kitschy naivety of American 1950s nuclear propaganda, Fallout 3 will satisfy both players familiar with the popular first two games in its series as well as those coming to the franchise for the first time


10. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Nintendo DS

The legendary Castlevania series is back in its 3rd installment on the Nintendo DS. Order of Ecclesia follows on the success of Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin. This time you play as a member of the Ecclesia, an organization that has sworn to defeat the evil forces of Dracula. Use the brand new Glyph attack system that has more than 100 different combinations to battle Dracula and his minions throughout 20 explorable areas. Take part in side quests and collect items to power up your character in the next great Castlevania game produced by Koji Igarashi.

Interesting Facts About Sex

  • Sex is biochemically no different from eating large quantities of chocolate.
  • Males, on average, think about sex every 7 seconds.
  • Each day, there are over 120 million sexual intercourse taking place all over the world.
  • Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England - but only in tropical fish stores. (But of course!)
  • There are men in Guam whose job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the 1st time.
  • Sex burns 360 calories per hour!
  • Male and female rats may have sex twenty times a day.
  • 22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.
  • For every ‘normal’ webpage, there are five porn pages.
  • The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
  • Turkeys can reproduce without having sex. It’s called parthenogenesis.
  • In india it is cheaper to have sex with a prostitue than buy a condom!
  • “Formicophilia” is the fetish for having small insects crawl on your genitals. Gross!!
  • “Ithyphallophobia” is a morbid fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis.
  • When swans go on a date, they’ll put their heads together. Then they stick together for life.
  • Sex is the safest tranquilizer in the world. It is 10 times more effective than valium!
  • Male bats have the highest rate of homosexuality of any mammal.
  • The average shelf-life of a latex condom is about two years.
  • The word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek word gymnazein which means “to exercise naked.”
  • Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
  • In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands.
  • 85% of men who die of heartattacks during intercourse, are found to have been cheating on their wives.
  • An adulterous Greek male was sometimes punished by the removal of his pubic hair and the insertion of a large radish into his rectum.
  • The greatest recorded number of children one mother had was 69 children. Do the math!
  • The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
  • The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television were: Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
  • 25% of women think money makes a man sexier.
  • Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
  • Snakes have two sex organs.
  • Women who read romance novels have sex twice as often as those who don’t.
  • The average person spends 2 weeks of its life kissing.
  • The Ramses brand condom is named after the great phaoroh Ramses II who fathered over 160 children.
  • A man’s beard grows fastest when he anticipates sex.
  • A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
  • Donald Duck comics were once banned from Finland because Donald doesn’t wear pants.

source: ioframe.com

Alcohol in the UK


According to government figures, a child under 10 is admitted to hospital due to alcohol problems every three days in England.

(It's not that surprising when you realise that some supermarkets offer beer at 54p a pint, and a 750ml bottle of branded water, sells for the equivalent of 57p a pint.)













Winebasket.com - Unique Gifts & Gift Baskets


source: interesting-facts.fun-with-english.co.uk