Did you know there
are two kinds of pandas? There is the Long-tailed Himalayan carnivore that
looks like a raccoon and there is the Giant panda bear that lives in
Western China.
The Blue
Whale's whistle is the loudest noise made by an animal.
Did you know there are
two kinds of camels? One is the Arabian that lives in Western Asia and
Northern Africa. It has one hump. And the second kind is called Bactrian
which has two humps and lives in Mongolia and Chinese Turkistan.
There are two kinds of elephants:
the African that is taller and has larger ears and the Indian that is
small and has smaller ears.
The fastest
human swimmer can swim at 6 miles per hour. The fastest mammal - the
dolphin - can swim up to 35 miles per hour.
The smallest
bird in the world is the Hummingbird. It weighs 1oz.
Did you know fishes talk
to each other? Some of them communicate by making noises in their throats
by rasping their teeth, others use their swim bladders to make sounds
The bird that can fly
the fastest is called a White It can fly up to 95 miles per hour.
Napoleon
Bonaparte (15 Aug 1769 - 5 May 1821
Napoleon's
christening name was Italian: Napoleone Buonaparte(OR Bonaparte). He was
born on the island of Corsica one year after it became French property. As
a boy, Napoleon hated the French.
The brain of an
average adult male weighs 1,375 gm (55 oz). The brain of Russian novelist
Turgenev weighed 2021 gm (81 oz), Bismark's weighed 1807 gm (72 oz), while
that of French statesman Gambetta was only 1294 gm (51 oz). Einstein's
brain was of average size.
--The
the oldest living thing on earth is 12,000 years old. It is the flowering
shrubs called creosote bushes in the Mojave Desert.
-- A
crocodile can't move its tongue and cannot chew.
Its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.
-- Money notes are not made
from paper, they are made mostly from a special blend of cotton and linen.
In 1932, when a shortage of cash occurred in Tenino, Washington, USA,
notes were made out of wood for a brief period.
-- The
Grammy Awards were introduced to counter the threat of rock music. In the
late 1950s, a group of record executives were alarmed by the explosive
success of rock ‘n roll, considering it a threat to "quality"
music.
-- Tea
is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some
tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water. The tea bag was
introduced in 1908 by Thomas Sullivan of New York.
-- Over
the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialised nations
has increased 10 cm (about 4 inches). In the 19th century, American men
were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71m (5'6"). Today, the
average height for American men is 1,75m (5'7"), compared to 1,77
(5'8") for Swedes, and 1,78 (5'8.5") for the Dutch. The tallest
nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi.
-- In
1955 the richest woman in the world was Mrs Hetty Green Wilks, who left an
estate of $95 million in a will that was found in a tin box with four
pieces of soap.
Queen Elizabeth of Britain and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands count
under the 10 wealthiest women in the world.
-- Joseph Niepce developed
the world's first photographic image in 1827. Thomas Edison and W K L
Dickson introduced the film camera in 1894. But the 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 1935 a
writer named Dudley Nichols refused to accept the Oscar for his movie The
Informer because the Writers Guild was on strike against the movie
studios. In 1970 George C. Scott refused the Best Actor Oscar for Patton.
In 1972 Marlon Brando refused the Oscar for his role in The Godfather.
-- The
system of democracy was introduced 2 500 years ago in Athens, Greece. The
oldest existing governing body operates in Althing in Iceland. It was
established in 930 AD.
-- A
person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week
without water.
If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel
thirsty.
If it's reduced by 10%, you'll die.
-- According
to a study by the Economic Research Service, 27% of all food production in
Western nations ends up in garbage cans. Yet, 1,2 billion people are
underfed - the same number of people who are overweight.
-- Camels
are called "ships of the desert" because of the way they move,
not because of their transport capabilities. A Dromedary camel has one
hump and a Bactrian camel two humps. The humps are used as fat storage.
Thus, an undernourished camel will not have a hump.
