:: Amazing Facts ::

[mark]

well while we're nitpicking, i'd say it's highly unlikely that the origin of tipping is the acronomn "to insure prompt service".



Acronomns were practically unheard of pre-WWI (or maybe even 2 i can't remember), and lots times words people think are acronms is just a case of reverse engineering. see POSH for example.



also it should be "ensure" if the phrase was to be correct.

[The Jackal]

I got this email couple of years ago.Check it out:





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

(Hardly seems worth it.)



If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.

(Now that's more like it!)



The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body

to squirt blood 30 feet.

(O.M.G.!)



A pig's orgasm lasts 30 minutes.

(In my next life, I want to be a pig.)



A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death. (Creepy.)

(I'm still not over the pig.)



Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.

(Do not try this at home...... maybe at work.)



The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its

body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male's head off.

("Honey, I'm home. What the....?!")



The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

(30 minutes... lucky pig... can you imagine??)



The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.

(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)



Some lions mate over 50 times a day.

(I still want to be a pig in my next life...quality over quantity)



The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

(Hmmmmmm........)



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

(If you're ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)



Butterflies taste with their feet.

(Is that the male pig, or the female pig?)



Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.

(OK, so that would be a good thing....)



A cat's urine glows under a black light.

(I wonder who was paid to figure that out?)



An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

(I know some people like that.)



Starfish have no brains.

(I know some people like that too.)



Polar bears are left-handed.

(If they switch, they'll live a lot longer.)



Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.

(What about that pig??)

[enigma]

mmm... I dunno abt cashew fruits... my relatives had cashew tree and we used to eat both fruits and cashews raw. Its very sticky (Jeedi ) May be its not poisonous enough to make a person sick.

Well tussi great ho Mr Shastri isliye aapko kuch nahi hua

[enigma]

A flute made of bone is the oldest playable musical instrument in the world. It’s a flute carved from a bird’s wing bone more than 9,000 years ago. The flute was discovered with other flutes at an ancient burial site in China.

---------------------------

A cat sees about six times better than a human at night because of the tapetum lucidum , a layer of extra reflecting cells which absorb light.

--------------------------

Ants don't sleep.

[Ar!e$]

INTERESTING FACT ABOUT India :

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

[Ar!e$]

Thunderstorms cause an average of 200 deaths and 700 injuries in the United States each year.

[Ar!e$]

To estimate the distance between you and a lightning strike, count the number of seconds between when you see the lightning flash and hear the thunder. Each five seconds is roughly equivalent to one mile in distance, i.e. 10 seconds between flash and thunder means the lightning was about two miles away.

[Ar!e$]

Lightning bolts are classed as either "hot" or "cold." A hot strike lasts up to a tenth of a second, has a high amperage, and sets fire to flammable materials in its path. A cold strike is much faster, has a higher voltage in relation to amperage, and has an explosive rather than a flammable effect. A large bolt of cold lightning has enough power to lift a 44,000 ton OCEAN LINER six feet in the air.

[HH]

... POSH***** for example.

***** P O S H and S H I T ...

Probably the most popular acronymic etymology is that proposed for posh. There is a widely-held believe that the word is an acronym formed from Port Outward, Starboard Home, which refers to the location of the most expensive accommodations aboard ships traveling between England and India. Such accommodations were said to be more expensive because they were cooler due to receiving less direct sunlight. Some versions of this etymology even include details of the pink labels reading P.O.S.H. which were pasted onto steamer trunks by the Pacific and Orient shipping line. Unfortunately for this story, the P & O line has denied all knowledge of such a practice and the explanation in general has never been substantiated.

Instead, it is thought that posh comes from the earlier posh "dandy" (from around 1890), which in some versions was written push. It is most likely to have derived from posh, a Romany word meaning "half". Posh karoon meant "half-a-crown" (a quarter of a gold sovereign) and posh itself meant "halfpenny". From these meanings posh came to mean simply "money" and thence our current usage.

Visit;
http://www.takeourword.com/Issue063.html

** Beware of SHIT:
... exporters of manure were legally obliged to stamp all bundles of the material with the words "SHIP HIGH IN TRANSIT", thereby advising ship loaders to stow the hard manure bundles sufficiently high off the lower decks to ensure that any bilge water that (inevitably) leaked into the hold would not come into contact with this volatile cargo^^^. [ ...^^^ releasing METHANE ... "candle-lantern check" ... with the inevitable result: BOOOOOM!!]
Also, The Oxford English Dictionary traces the word back to Old English and beyond. It was not an abbreviation.

*** large shipments of manure to customers overseas - mainly farmers ***

Visit:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_boar ... s/332.html

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand.

[Ar!e$]

The average person laughs 10 times a day!

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

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

[Ar!e$]

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

[Jaszalcatraz]

The largest item on any menu in the world is probably the roast camel, sometimes served at Bedouin wedding feasts. The camel is stuffed with a sheep's carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs.



yummy!!

[akhilis2cool]

The largest item on any menu in the world is probably the roast camel, sometimes served at Bedouin wedding feasts. The camel is stuffed with a sheep's carcass, which is stuffed with chickens, which are stuffed with fish, which are stuffed with eggs.

yummy!!

Indeed

[enigma]

An atomic clock is accurate to within 1 second in 1,7 million years.

Thomas Cook, the world's first travel agency in the world, was founded in 1850.

A fathom is 1,8 metres (6 feet).

There are more TV sets in the US than there are people in the UK.

Before the year 1000, the word "she" did not exist in the English language. The singular female reference was the word "heo", which also was the plural of all genders. The word "she" appeared only in the 12th century, about 400 years after English began to take form. "She" probably derived from the Old English feminine "seo", the Viking word for feminine reference.

There are no letters assigned to the numbers 1 and 0 on a phone keypad. These numbers remain unassigned because they are so-called "flag" numbers, kept for special purposes such as emergency or operator services.

After the French Revolution of 1789 selling sour wine was considered against national interest and the merchant was promptly executed.

For 3000 years, until 1883, hemp was the world's largest agricultural crop, from which the majority of fabric, soap, paper, medicines, and oils were produced.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both grew hemp. Ben Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. The US Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper.

The word malaria comes from the words mal and aria, which means bad air. This derives from the old days when it was thought that all diseases are caused by bad, or dirty air.

The names of all the continents end with the letter they start with.

On every continent there is a city called Rome.

The oldest inhabited city is Damascus, Syria.

The first city in the world to have a population of more than one million was London, which today is the 13th most populated city, with about 8 million residents.

The most populated city in the world - when major urban areas are included - is Tokyo, with 30 million residents.

Tokyo was once known as Edo.

The pin that holds a hinge together is called a pintle.

The Vatican is the world's smallest country, at 0,44 square km (0,16 square miles).

The US flag displays 13 stripes - for the original 13 states.

To most Americans, the orient is China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam; to Europeans it is the area of India and Pakistan.

The words "electronic mail" might sound new but was introduced 30 years ago. Queen Elizabeth of Britain sent her first email in 1976.

Eskimos use refrigerators to keep food from freezing.

MasterCard was originally called MasterCharge. More at creditcards

Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon with his left foot first.

The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter of the alphabet.

Lightning strikes men about seven times more often than it does women.

Women make up 49% of the world population.

About 50% of Americans live within 50 miles of their birthplace. This is called propinquity.

The pleasant feeling of eating chocolate is caused by a chemical called anadamide, a neurotransmitter which also is produced naturally in the brain.

From the Middle Ages until the 18th century the local barber's duties included dentistry, blood letting, minor operations and bone-setting. The barber's striped red pole originates from when patients would grip the pole during an operation.

The US nickname Uncle Sam was derived from Uncle Sam Wilson, a meat inspector in Troy, New York.

The living does not outnumber the dead: since the creation about 60 billion people have died.

The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

Midday refers to the moment the sun crosses the local meridian.

Due to earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 metres.

It is not true that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made structure that can be viewed from space - many man-made objects, including the Dutch polders, can be viewed from space.

[enigma]

Thomas Cook, the world's first travel agency in the world, was founded in 1850.

In the West the most popular male names are James and John. The most popular female name is Mary.

The name Wendy was first used in JM Barrie's Peter Pan.

There are about 5,000 prince and princesses in each Saudi Arabian royal.

Lady Peseshet of Ancient Egypt (2600-2100 BC) is the world's first known female physician.

The 16th century Escorial palace of King Phillip II of Spain had 1,200 doors.

Adriaan van der Donck was the first and only lawyer in New York City in 1653.

A Duke is the highest rank you can achieve without being a king or a prince.

The British royal family changed their surname (last name) from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, the name of their castle, in 1917.

Before writing 007 novels, Ian Fleming studied languages at Munich and Geneva universities, worked with Reuters in Moscow, and then became a banker and stockbroker.

Julius Caesar was known as a great swimmer.

There are more than 600 million telephone lines today, yet almost half the world's population has never made a phone call.

When Alexander Graham Bell passed away in 1922, every telephone served by the Bell system in the USA and Canada was silent for one minute.

The people killed most often during bank robberies are the robbers.

Orville Wright numbered the eggs that his chickens produced so he could eat them in the order they were laid.

On New Year's Day, 1907, Theodore Roosevelt shook hands with 8,513 people.

The oldest person on record is Methuselah (969 years old).

An exocannibal eats only enemies. An indocannibal eats only friends.

Alexander Graham Bell never phoned his wife or mother because they were deaf.

Burt Reynold's father was the chief of police in West Palm Beach, Florida.

On 5th October 1974, four years, three months and sixteen days after Dave Kunste set out from Minnesota, he became the first man to walk around the world, having taken more than 20 million steps.

English sailors came to be called Limeys after using lime juice to combat scurvy.

English solders were called Tommies because the example name on the soldier forms was Thomas Atkins. (The example name on US forms is John Smith.)

The word "Machiavellian" is named after Niccolo Machiavelli, who was friends with Leonardo da Vinci.

Queen Isabella of Castile, who dispatched Christopher Columbus to find the Americas, boasted that she had only two baths in her life - at her birth and before she got married.

Leonardo da Vinci could write with the one hand and draw with the other simultaneously.

Until he was 18, Woody Allen read virtually nothing but comic books but did show his writing skills. He sold one-liners for ten cents each to gossip columnists.

In the 18th century Dr Monsey of Chelsea, England tied a piece of catgut around a patient's tooth, threaded the other through a hole drilled in a bullet, loaded the bullet into his revolver and pulled the trigger.

Thomas Jefferson wrote his own epitaph without mentioning that he was US President.

Winston Churchill was a stutterer. As a child, one of his teachers warned, "Because of his stuttering he should be discouraged from following in his father's political footsteps."

The 17th-century French Cardinal Mazarin never travelled without his personal chocolate-maker.

King Louis XIV of France established in his court the position of "Royal Chocolate Maker to the King."

Napoleon reportedly carried chocolate on all his military campaigns.

The word "electric" was first used in 1600 by William Gilbert, a doctor to Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1973, Swedish confectionery salesman Roland Ohisson was buried in a coffin made entirely of chocolate.

.

[enigma]

In 1894, Lord Kelvin predicted that radio had no future; he also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible.

The word "sneaker" was coined by Henry McKinney, an advertising agent for N.W. Ayer & Son.

Charles Macintosh invented the waterproof coat, the Mackintosh, in 1823.

Air-filled tyres were used on bicycles before they were used on motorcars.

The paperclip was invented by Norwegian Johann Vaaler. More

Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.

The can opener was invented 48 years after cans were introduced.

Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar.

Optical fibre was invented in 1966 by two British scientists called Charles Kao and George Hockham working for the British company Standard Telecommunication.

The first neon sign was made in 1923 for a Packard dealership.

The first fax process was patented in 1843.

The Monopoly game was invented by Charles Darrow in 1933. He sold the rights to George Parker in 1935, then aged 58. Parker invented more than 100 games, including Pit, Rook, Flinch, Risk and Clue.

One hour before Alexander Graham Bell registered his patent for the telephone in 1876, Elisha Grey patented his design. After years of litigation, the patent went to Bell.

The hair perm was invented in 1906 by Karl Ludwig Nessler of Germany.

The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. When a coin was dropped into a slot, its weight would pull a cork out of a spigot and the machine would dispense a trickle of water.

Leonardo da Vinci never built the inventions he designed.

Thomas Edison filed 1,093 patents, including those for the light bulb, electric railways and the movie camera. When he died in 1931, he held 34 patents for the telephone, 141 for batteries, 150 for the telegraph and 389 patents for electric light and power.

Count Alessandro Volta invented the first battery in the 18th century.

During the 1860s, George Leclanche developed the dry-cell battery, the basis for modern batteries.

Joseph Niepce developed the world's first photographic image in 1827.

The very first projection of an image on a screen was made by a German priest. In 1646, Athanasius Kircher used a candle or oil lamp to project hand-painted images onto a white screen.

In 1894 Thomas Edison and W K L _ introduced the first film camera.

In 1895 French brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere demonstrated a projector system in Paris. In 1907 they screened the first public movie.

The first electronic mail, or "email", was sent in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson. It was also his idea to use the @ sign to separate the name of the user from the name of the computer.

In 1889, Kansas undertaker Almon B. Strowger wanted to prevent telephone operators from advising his rivals of the death of local citizens. So he invented the automatic exchange.