Monday, January 19, 2009

Interesting Trivia

  • No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.
  • The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum.
  • Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God.

  • A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

  • The new 787 Boeing was revealed on 7/8/07 or July 8th, 07.

  • The Germans tried to copy Coca-Cola and came up with the drink Fanta.

  • Every day is about 55 billionths of a second longer than the day before it

  • Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.

  • The largest potato was grown in Lebanon by Khalil Semhat near Tyre. The spud was 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds)

  • Footprints of astronauts who landed on the moon should last at least 10 million years since the moon has no atmosphere.

  • The national orchestra of Monaco (a nation in Europe) has more individuals than its army.

  • Earthworms have five hearts

  • The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges.

  • Paraguay and Moldova are the only countries with national flags with different emblems on the obverse and reverse sides.

  • Fingerprints of koalas are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans

  • Genetically-engineered babies were born first in 2001.

  • If an Amish man has a beard, he is married.

  • If a native Hawaiian woman places the flower on her right ear, she is available. (The bigger the flower, the more desperate)

  • Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

  • Pope Pius II wrote an erotic book "Historia de duobos amantibus" in 1444.

  • SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below

  • Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese".

  • As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updates
  • Urban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts.
  • The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.
  • Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.
  • The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes.
  • Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history.
  • Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.
  • Up to 25% of hospital keyboards carry the MRSA infection.
  • In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.
  • Ghandi didn't allow his wife to take penicillin to save her life from pneumonia but took quinine to save himself from malaria.
  • Sex workers (Prostitutes) in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.
  • As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet.
  • More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.
  • The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.
  • Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.
  • Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five liters of cooking oil a year.
  • Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.
  • For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. (As of 2006)
  • Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for children
  • Forty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study.
  • The more panels a football has - and therefore the more seams - the easier it is to control in the air.
  • Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.
  • The egg came first.
  • Modern teenagers are better behaved than their counterparts of 20 years ago, showing "less problematic behavior" involving sex, drugs and drink.
  • Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based.
  • In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags.
  • The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle.
  • Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk.
  • Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.
  • Native Hawaiian women were not allowed to cook.
  • The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006.
  • The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.
  • The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.
  • A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species.
  • The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer.
  • All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.

  • The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.

  • Walt Disney was afraid of mice.

  • The first known marketer of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.

  • The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.

  • The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

  • The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.

  • The average American consumes 1.2 pounds of spider eggs a year and eat 2.5 pounds of insect parts a year. (This fact and the one prior to it have been judged as urban legends by many)

  • Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (Makes you think about ambidextrous people) This fact is based on a study that had errors in it, thus it might not be a fact.

  • Its impossible to smoke oneself to death with weed. You won\'t be able to retain enough motor control and consciousness to do so after such a large amount.

  • Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms.

  • The US national anthem actually has three verses, but everyone just knows the first one.

  • During World War II, IBM built counting machines the Nazis used to manage their death/concentration camps.

  • During World War II, the British Intelligence used the Colossus Machines (precursor to computers) at Bletchley Park to help decode the enigma code of the Nazis.

  • The first Computer was ENIAC, short for Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer, unveiled on February 14, 1946 (Thanks D.B. of AU)

  • The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population.

  • The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ.

  • Just about 3 people are born every second, and about 1.3333 people die every second. The result is about a 2 and 2/3 net increase of people every second. Almost 10 people more live on this Earth now, than before you finished reading this.

  • Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted.

  • The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the people that have died. Ever.

  • Men with a certain rare medical condition can breastfeed babies

  • There is a rare condition called Exploding Head Syndrome which you have probably never heard of.

  • Scientists have determined that fungi are more closely related to human beings and animals than to other plants.

  • In some (maybe all) Asian countries, the family name is written
    first and the individual name written second

  • Abe Lincoln bought 50 cents worth of cocaine in 1860

  • A German World War II submarine was sunk due to malfunction of the toilet.

  • Washington State has the longest single beach in the United States.Long Beach, WA

  • The largest living thing on the face of the Earth is a mushroom underground in Oregon, it measures three and a half miles in diameter.

  • The town of Los Angeles, California, was originally named "El Pueblo la Nuestra Senora de Reina de los Angeles de la Porciuncula"

  • 9 out of 10 people believe Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.This isn't true; Joseph Swan did.

  • 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.

  • The Population of the world can live within the state boundaries of Texas.

  • Plastic lawn flamingos outnumber real flamingos in the U.S.A.

  • Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

  • Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is not considered an insult! Despite the expensive food, tipping is welcome as in any other country.

  • The largest pumpkin weighed 377 pounds.

  • The largest cabbage weighed 144 pounds.

  • Pinocchio was made of pine.

  • Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button for it was eliminated during surgery.

  • A quarter has 119 grooves around the edge.

  • A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

  • Cranberry Jell-0 is the only kind that contains real fruit.

  • The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets.

  • Maine is the toothpick capital of the world.

  • New Jersey has a spoon museum with over 5,400 spoons from almost all the states.

  • There was once a town in West Virginia called "6."

  • The parking meter was invented in North Dakota.

  • Napoleon made his battle plans in a sandbox.

  • Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a senator.

  • The green stuff on the occasional freak potato chip is chlorophyll.

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

  • There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.

  • The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.

  • "Jaws" is the most common name for a goldfish.

  • On an average work day, a typist's fingers travel 12.6 miles.

  • Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.

  • Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.

  • On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

  • Blue and white are the most common school colors.

  • Swimming pools in Phoenix, Arizona, pick up 20 pounds of dust a year.

  • In a normal lifetime an American will eat 200 pounds of peanuts and 10,000 pounds of meat.

  • A new book is published every 13 minutes in America.

  • America's best selling ice cream flavor is vanilla.

  • Every year the sun loses 360 million tons.

  • Because of Animal Crackers, many kids until they reach the age of ten, believe a bear is as tall as a giraffe.

  • The Gulf Stream could carry a message in a bottle at an average of 4 miles per hour.

  • The bulls-eye on a dartboard must be 5 feet 8 inches off the ground.

  • The doorbell was invented in 1831.

  • The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.

  • Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.

  • There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.

  • Napoleon was terrified of cats.

  • The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.

  • The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.

  • The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.

  • The oldest known vegetable is the pea.

  • Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.

  • The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.

  • The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.

  • France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.

  • The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback."

  • The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.

  • George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.

  • Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.

  • The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.

  • Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.

  • The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.

  • The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.

  • The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.

  • Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939.

  • Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated.

  • The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used.

  • Toilet paper was invented in 1857.

  • Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States.

  • Before Prohibition, Schlitz Brewery owned more property in Chicago than anyone else, except the Catholic church.

  • If you put a raisin in a glass of champagne, it will keep floating to the top and sinking to the bottom.

  • Kermit the Frog is left-handed.

  • Nondairy creamer is flammable.

  • The car in the foreground on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.

  • If you can see a rainbow you must have your back to the sun.

  • The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.

  • It's rumored that sucking on a copper penny will cause a breathalyzer to read 0. Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel proved this wrong.

  • The ship, the Queen Elizabeth 2, should always be written as QE2. QEII is the actual queen.

  • The correct response to the Irish greeting, "Top of the morning to you," is "and the rest of the day to yourself."

  • Columbia University is the second largest landowner in New York City, after the Catholic Church.

  • When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers play football at home to a sellout crowd, the stadium becomes the state's third largest city.

  • Ohio is listed as the 17th state in the U.S., but technically it is Number 47. Until August 7, 1953, Congress forgot to vote on a resolution to admit Ohio to the Union.

  • When Saigon fell, the signal for all Americans to evacuate was Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" being played on the radio.

  • The pet ferret was domesticated more than 500 years before the house cat.

  • The dome on Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home, conceals a billiards room. In Jefferson's day, billiards were illegal in Virginia.

  • The most common speed limit sign in the United States is 25 m.p.h.

  • At any one time, there are 100 million phone conversations going on in the United States.

  • The world's record for continuous pogo stick jumping is 41 hours.

  • The Ottoman Empire once had seven emperors in seven months. They died of (in order): burning, choking, drowning, stabbing, heart failure, poisoning and being thrown from a horse.

  • You can make edible cheese from the milk of 24 different mammals.

  • Sir Isaac Newton, who invented Calculus, had trouble with names to the point where he would forget his brothers' names.

  • In medieval Thailand, they had moveable type printing presses. The type was made from baked oxen dung.

  • By law, employees do not have to wash hands after sneezing.

  • The average American consumes enough caffeine in one year to kill a horse.

  • More American workers (18%) call sick on Friday than any other day of the week. Tuesday has the lowest percent of absenteeism (11%).

  • Enough beer is poured every Saturday across America to fill the Orange Bowl.

  • A newborn expels its own body weight in waste every 60 hours.

  • Whales die if their echo system fails.

  • Florida's beaches lose 20 million cubic yards of sand annually.

  • Naturalists use marshmallows to lure alligators out of swamps.

  • It takes a ton of water to make a pound of refined sugar.

  • Weevils are more resistant to poisons in the morning than at night.

  • Cacao, the main ingredient of chocolate is the most pest-ridden tree in the jungle.

  • In deep space most lubricants will disappear.

  • America once issued a 5-cent bill.

  • The average person can live 11 days without water.

  • In 1221 the daughter of Genghis Khan ordered the killing of the entire population of the city of Nishapur (about 60,000) in one hour. The order came after her husband killing. (Moguls claim that 1.7 million were killed)

  • There are 35 million digestive glands in the stomach.

  • In 1800 on 50 cities on earth had a population of more than 100,000.

  • More steel in the US is used to make bottle caps than to manufacture automobile bodies.

  • It is possible for any American citizen to give whatever name he or she chooses to any unnamed mountain or hill in the United States.

  • King Henry III of France, Louis XVI of France and Napoleon all suffered from ailurophobia--fear of cats.

  • Before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and stuffed with feathers.

  • Clocks made before 1687 had only one hand, and hour hand.

  • The motto of the American people, "In God We Trust," was not adopted as the national slogan until 1956.

  • More Americans have died in automobile accidents than have died in all the wars ever fought by the United States.

  • The ampersand (&) was once a letter of the English alphabet.

  • The principality of Monaco consists of 370 acres.

  • There are more than 40,000 characters in Chinese script.

  • During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who had a beard was required to pay a special tax.

  • The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone.

  • Coca-Cola was originally green.

  • Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than the U.S. treasury.

  • The Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters (I was thankfully corrected by a friend: The Hawai'ian alphabet has 13 letters, A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W, ' (which is called an okina).

  • Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Custom Background Image for Windows Explorer

"Windows Explorer Background Images
... Ever get confused which hard drive you are working in? Well, the Windows Explorer can put different backgrounds on them to help you remember. Just create a file at the root of your drive called desktop.ini and place the following in it:

[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Attributes=1
IconArea_Image=background.gif

Next, find a washed-out image or create a light color in MSPAINT and put it there called background.gif. (be sure to make the file type a GIF too) Open Windows Explorer and see your creation! ... "

This is kind of neat... It is a very quick and simple way to customize a folder, including a drive's root folder.

Some notes:
1. The change is not recursive. So the background image does not show in subfolders.
2. The background.gif will tile.
3. Windows Explorer doesn't need to be restarted for this change to take effect (i.e. the desktop.ini is read each time the folder is displayed)

For a little more information on the Desktop.ini, check out, Customizing Folders with Desktop.ini

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Hexaflexagon

I have some interests in playing with papers - I love all those origami people does. I surfed youtube and found this very common but funny origami :)

Interesting Triva

Well, Bipu forwarded some interesting info to me yesterday I thought why don I share 'em with all :)
  • Coca-Cola was originally green.
  • Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than for the US Treasury.
  • Smartest dogs: 1)border collie; 2)poodle; 3)golden retriever
  • Dumbest: afghan
  • Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters.
  • Men can read smaller print than women; women can hear better.
  • Chances that an American lives within 50 miles of where he/she grew up: 1 in 2
  • Amount American Airlines saved in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served first class: $40,000
  • City with the most Rolls Royces per capita: Hong Kong
  • State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
  • Chances of a white Christmas in New York: 1 in 4
  • Portion of US annual rainfall that falls in April: 1/12
  • Percentage of Africa that is wilderness: 28
  • Percentage of North America that is wilderness: 38
  • Estimated percentage of American adults who go on a diet each year: 44
  • Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33
  • Percentage of Americans who say that God has spoken to them: 36
  • Percentage of Americans who regularly attend religious services: 43
  • City with the highest per capita viewership of TV evangelists: Washington, DC.
  • Percentage of American men who say they would marry the same woman if they had it to do all over again: 80
  • Percentage of American women who say they would marry the same man: 50
  • Percentage of men who say they are happier after their divorce or separation: 58
  • Percentage of women who say they are happier: 85
  • Number of different familial relationships for which Hallmark makes cards: 105
  • Cost of raising a medium-sized dog to the age of eleven: $6,400
  • Average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000.
  • Percentage of Americans who have visited Disneyland or Disney World: 70
  • Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.
  • Portion of ice cream sold that is vanilla: 1/3
  • Portion of potatoes sold that are French-fried: 1/3
  • Percentage of Americans that eat at McDonald's each day: 7
  • Percentage of bird species that are monogamous: 90
  • Percentage of mammal species that are: 3
  • Number of US states that claim test scores in their elementary schools are above national average: 50
  • Portion of Harvard students who graduate with honors: 4/5
  • Chances that a burglary in the US will be solved: 1 in 7
  • Portion of land in the US owned by the government: 1/3
  • Only President to remain a bachelor: James Buchanan
  • Only first lady to carry a loaded revolver: Eleanor Roosevelt
  • Only president to win a Pulitzer: John F. Kennedy, for "Profiles in courage"
  • Only president awarded a patent: Abraham Lincoln, for a system of buoying vessels over shoals
  • Only food that does not spoil: honey
  • Only person to win $64,000 Challenge and $64,000 Question: Dr. Joyce Brothers (her subject was boxing)
  • Only bird that can fly backwards: Hummingbird
  • Only continent without reptiles or snakes: Antarctica
  • Only animal besides human that can get sunburn: Pig
  • Ostriches stick their heads in the sand to look for water.
  • An eagle can kill a young deer and fly away with it.
  • In the Caribbean there are oysters that can climb trees.
  • Polar bears are left-handed.
  • Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
  • Eskimos never gamble.
  • The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
  • The youngest pope was 11 years old.
  • Mark Twain didn't graduate from elementary school.
  • Proportional to their weight, men are stronger than horses.
  • Pilgrims ate popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
  • Your nose and ears never stop growing.
  • Jupiter is bigger than all the other planets combined.
  • Hot water is heavier than cold.
  • The parachute was invented by da Vinci in 1515.
  • They have square watermelons in Japan. They stack better.
  • Starfish have eight eyes--one at the end of each leg.
  • Iceland consumes more Coca-Cola per capita than any other nation.
  • First novel ever written on a typewriter was "Tom Sawyer."
  • There are more collect calls on Father's Day than any other day of the year.
  • Heinz Catsup leaving the bottle travels at 25 miles per year.
  • It is possible to lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
  • Men get hiccups more often than woman.
  • Armadillos can be housebroken.