TIPS & STRANGE BUT TRUE FACTS

STRANGE BUT TRUE . VINEGAR

STRANGE BUT TRUE . EARTH

1. The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk

2. The world’s windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica

3. Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel.  Guests have to dive to the entrance

4. About 20-30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea

5. In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe

6. Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland.  They are estimated to be about 400 million years old

7. Tibet is the highest country in the world.  Its average height above sea level is 4500 metres

8. Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180km out to sea

9. The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only –2 degrees centigrade

10. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea.  In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade

11. The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as –70 degrees centigrade

12. Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol.  Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane

TIP - HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR STAFF

Put about 100 bricks in no particular order in a closed room with an open window.  Then send 2 or 3 candidates in the room and close the door.  Leave them alone and come back after 6 hours and then analyse the situation.

If they are counting the bricks - put them in the accounts department

If they are re-counting them - put them in auditing

If they have messed up the whole place with the bricks - put them in engineering

If they are arranging the bricks in some strange order - put them in construction

If they are sleeping - put them in reception

If they have broken the bricks into pieces - put them in I.T.

If they are sitting idle - put them in human resources

If they say they have tried different combinations, yet not a brick has been moved - put them in sales

If they have already left for the day - put them in marketing

If they are staring out of the window - put them in strategic planning

And then last but not least

If they are talking to each other and not a single brick has been moved - congratulate them and put them in management!

SPAIN FACTS

1. Spain has borders with Andorra, France, Gibraltar, Portugal and Morocco

2. The total area of Spain is 504,782 sq km

3. Castilian Spanish is the official language nationwide and is spoken by 74% of the population.  Catalan is spoken by 17%, Galician is spoken by 7%, Basque is spoken by 2%

4. 94% of the Spanish people are Roman Catholic

5. There are 19 autonomous communities including the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and three small possessions off the coast of Morocco - Islas Chafarinas, Penon de Alhucemas, and Penon de Velez de la Gomera

6. In June 1947, General Franco awarded Eva Peron, the wife of the Argentine leader, Spain’s highest honour, the Cross of Isabel the Catholic

7. Euskara, the language spoken by the Basque population, is one of the oldest living languages in the world

8. The official name (nomenclature) of Spain is Kingdom of Spain

9. The Spanish have contributed a lot towards literature as we know it today.  Ernest Hemingway wrote “For Whom The Bells Toll” about the Spanish Civil War.  “Don Quixote”, considered by some to be the first modern novel, was written by the Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes

MARRIAGE

1. Nearly 70% of all married men and 60% of married women have had affairs

2. Every ten to thirteen seconds, someone gets divorced

3. 50% of women and 33% of men remain angry for 10 years after a divorce

4. Women have more trouble starting new relationships than divorced men do

5. More than 90% of divorces in long-standing marriages involve infidelities some time during the marriage

6. More than 50% may be involved in a current affair, yet only 25% cite an affair as an actual reason for divorce

7. 80% of those who divorce during an affair regret the decision

8. Over 75% who marry partners in an affair eventually divorce

9. The divorce rate and ratio of infidelity are much higher among marriage partners in an affair

10. The average affair lasts 2 to 4 years

11. If an affair becomes public it is doomed

12. If an affair replaces the marriage, it is subject to the same emotional stresses as the marriage but is twice as likely to fracture

EGGS

1. The average hen lays 257 eggs a year

2. Eggs are one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D

3. There are no nutritional differences between brown eggs and white eggs

4. Eggs contain all nine essential amino acids, making them a complete protein food

5. The egg yolk is the major source of the egg’s vitamins and minerals

6. Blood spots occasionally found on an egg yolk are caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk surface during formation of the egg or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct

7. An egg contains varying amounts of 13 vitamins but no vitamin C

8. Double-yolked eggs are often produced by young hens whose egg production cycles are not yet completely synchronised.  They’re often produced, too, by hens who are old enough to produce extra large eggs.  Genetics is a factor, also.  It is rare, but not unusual, for a young hen to produce an egg with no yolk at all.

9. In the UK, nearly 10 billion eggs are eaten a year

10. The largest egg ever had five yolks and was 31cm around the long axis

11. The heaviest egg weighed 454g - 6 times heavier than a large egg from the shops

12. Boiled eggs are the most popular way to eat eggs in Britain, followed by scrambled and fried

CATS

1. Cats with white coats and blue eyes are commonly born dead.

2. A cat’s IQ is surpassed only by that of monkeys and chimp

3. Cats have a greater chance of survival falling from 20 stories than 7.  This is because it takes them about 8 floors to realise what is happening, relax and correct themselves

4. Cats get acne

5. Cats purr at about 26 cycles per second

6. There are about 30 teeth in a cat’s mouth

7. Averaging about 16 hours per day, cats get more sleep than virtually any other animal

8. All cats walk on their toes with the back part of the foot raised, known by the term digitigrade

9. Cats age 10 years in the first 6 months of life

10. Though you need a UV light to see it, cat urine actually glows in the dark

11. Cats aren’t exactly colour blind - they can see green, blue and red

12. Cats have a sense of smell fourteen times stronger than a human’s

13. Catgut was often used for the strings in tennis rackets and musical instruments. 

EINSTEIN

1. When Albert Einstein’s mother gave birth to him, she thought his head was so big and misshapen that he was deformed

2. As a child, Einstein seldom spoke.  When he did, he spoke very slowly - indeed, he tried out entire sentences in his head (or muttered them under his breath) until he got them right before he spoke aloud

3. When he was 5 years old and ill in bed, Einstein’s father showed him a compass and this sparked his interest in science

4. In 1895, aged 17, Einstein applied for early admission into the Swiss Federal Polytechnical School.  He passed the math and science sections of the entrance exam, but failed the rest (history, languages, geography, etc).  He had to go to a trade school before he retook the exam and was finally admitted to ETH a year later

5. In the 1980s, Einstein’s private letters revealed something new about the genius - he had an illegitimate daughter with a fellow former student Mileva Madric (whom Einstein later married)

6. After his death in 1955, his brain was removed - without permission from his family - by Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy.  He was later fired from his job

WINE

1. 5.3 million gallons of wine were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake

2. Champagne can be made from 3 grapes - 2 red and 1 white (Pinot Noir, Pinot Menieur and Chardonnay)

3. Wine is fat-free and contains no cholesterol

4. It takes 600-800 grapes to produce one bottle of wine

5. The word “toast” originated in ancient Rome, where a piece of toasted bread was dropped into wine as a wish of good health

6. Australians are the biggest wine drinkers in the English-speaking world

7. The colour of red wines comes entirely from the skin.  The juice of most wine grapes is clear and red wines must be fermented with their skins in order to extract colour

8. There are more than 700 chemical compounds in wine which have been identified and named.  Probably a couple of hundred contribute significantly to flavour, making wine potentially one of our most complex foods

9. Wine is a sterile medium because of its acidity, alcohol and pH.  Pathogens cannot live in it, which means it’s very safe to drink

10. Moderate wine drinking decreases both the risk of coronary heart disease and mortality rates in people aged over 40.

SLEEP - Bet you didn´t know!!

1. The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon.  The record holder reported hallucinations, paranoia, blurred vision, slurred speech and memory and concentration lapses

2. Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep, but lie down for REM sleep

3. Nobody knows for sure if other species dream, but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans

4. The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role

5. It is estimated that fatigue is involved in one in six fatal road accidents

6. A night on the booze will help you get to sleep but it will be a light slumber and you won’t dream much

7. After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you’ve slept enough

8. Humans sleep around three hours less than other primates like chimps, monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours

9. Ducks at risk of attack by predators are able to balance the need for sleep and survival, keeping one half of the brain awake while the other slips into sleep mode

10. Ten per cent of snorers have sleep apnoea, a disorder which causes sufferers to stop breathing up to 300 times a night and significantly increases the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke

COWS - Bet you didn´t know!!

Cows do not have upper front teeth.  However, it grazes up to 8 hours a day, taking in about 45kg of feed and the equivalent of a bath tub full of water.  A healthy cow gives about 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A cow has four stomachs: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasums.  The rumen is the largest stomach and acts as a fermentation chamber.  The abomasums is last of the four and comparable in both structure and function to the human stomach.

With all its grazing and many stomachs, it is no wonder that cows are one of the main contributors to the hole in the ozone layer.  Apart from CFC, the biggest culprit is hydrocarbon emissions from cars and cows.  Yes, cows!  Cows release some 100 million tons of hydrocarbon annually - by releasing gas.

To give an idea of how much gas a cow emits, if the gas of 10 cows could be captured, it would provide heating for a small house for a year.

Unlike what you were thinking, cows release hydrocarbon mostly by burping.

DOGS

>>  Mosaics meaning “Beware the Dog” could be found on doorsteps in ancient Roman cities

>>  The world’s first dog show was held in Britain in 1859

>>  The oldest dog ever died aged 29

>>  The tallest dog ever was a Great Dane who stood 41 inches high

>>  People in ancient China stayed warm by carrying toy breeds in their sleeves

>>  The smallest mature dog was a Yorkshire Terrier that was 2 1/2 inches high at its shoulder

>>  Breeds classified as hounds are not meant to hunt birds

>>  The British bred Basset Hounds to have short legs so hunters could keep up with them

>>  Bull Terriers were bred by crossing Bulldogs with terriers

>>  Commoners in Imperial China were forbidden to own Pekinges

>>  The Great Dane is the national dog of Germany

>>  Labrador Retrievers were originally bred to retrieve fishing nets

>>  In the 19th century, Dalmations defended carriages against highwaymen and kept away animals that could scare the horses

>>  Siberian Huskies have been used to herd reindeer in Siberia for 3000 years

>>  Luis Doberman, a German tax-collector, created the Doberman breed in the late 1860s to protect him while he worked

GARLIC

2. The “stinking rose” has been coveted and cultivated back at least as far as history is recordedIts antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal properties were recognised by different cultures the world over and to this day garlic plays a prominent role in virtually all native cuisines

3. Over 5000 years ago, Chinese herbalists used garlic to reduce blood pressure, cardiac and other circulatory problems

4. Slaves labouring on the Egyptian pyramids were fed garlic for strength and endurance

5. According to Welsh rhyme “Eat leeks in March and wild garlic in May and all year after physicians may play!”

6. Garlic has been shown to inhibit blood clotting, decrease blood cholesterol and increase “good” cholesterol (HDL).

7. Nutritionally, garlic is a valued source of potassium and phosphorus and contains significant amounts of B and C vitamins as well as calcium and protein.  It is also rich in selenium, said to prevent some of the effects of ageing and especially effective in removing contaminations of some heavy metals from our bodies

8. Allicin is the compound that gives raw, cut garlic its distinctive odour and sharp, hot taste.  It is not generated until the garlic is cut or crushed (or chewed!) and is the result of a sulphur-containing compound (aliin) and an enzyme (Allinase) combining.  Allicin is what makes garlic effective against bacteria, viruses, molds and yeasts.