A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig and its ancestor, the common Eurasian wild boar (Sus scrofa), along with other species; related creatures outside the genus include the babirusa and the warthog. Pigs, like all suids, are native to the Eurasian [1] and African continents. Juvenile pigs are known as piglets. Pigs are omnivores and are highly social and intelligent animals.

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) is usually given the scientific name Sus scrofa, although some authors call it S. domesticus, reserving S. scrofa for the wild boar. It was domesticated approximately 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Their coats are coarse and bristly. They are born brownish coloured and tend to turn more grayish coloured with age. The upper canines form sharp distinctive tusks that curve outward and upward. Compared to other artiodactyles, their head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. Their head and body length ranges from 0.9 to 1.8 m (35 to 71 in) and they can weigh between 50 and 350 kg (110 and 770 lb).

Ascaris is a genus of parasitic nematode worms known as the "Small intestinal roundworms". One species, A. suum, typically infects pigs, while another, A. lumbricoides, affects humans, typically people living in sub-tropical and tropical areas with poor sanitation. Their eggs are deposited in feces and soil. Plants with the eggs on them [1] will infect any organism that consumes them. A. lumbricoides is the largest intestinal roundworm and is the most common helminth infection of humans worldwide, a disease known as ascariasis.

Swine influenza, also called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu, is an infection caused by any one of several types of swine influenza viruses.Swine influenza virus (SIV) or swine-origin influenza virus (S-OIV) is [2] any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs. As of 2009, the known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2, H2N1, H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3.

Influenza A (H1N1) virus is the subtype of influenza A virus that was the most common cause of human influenza (flu) in 2009.

The City of Zamboanga (Chavacano: Ciudad de Zamboanga, Tagalog: Lungsod ng Zamboanga) is a highly urbanized city located in Mindanao,Philippines. It has a population of more than 807,129 according to the 2010 census.[1] Zamboanga is the 6th most populous and 3rd largest city by land area in the Philippines.[2][3] It is the commercial and industrial center of the Zamboanga Peninsula.[4]

Zamboanga was the capital of the former Moro Province, now Mindanao, from 1903 to 1913. On September 15, 1911, the Municipalidad de Zamboanga was converted into a city by the legislative order Act. No.272.[5] Known for Hispanic influences in its culture, it bears the nickname "Asia's Latin City.

The Subanen people's name for Zamboanga, 'Sung Lupa', means 'Pointed Land'. Speculation that the name of Zamboanga comes from the word 'Jambangan', meaning the 'Land of Flowers',

Nur Misuari (Bahasa Sūg: Nūr Miswāri, born Nurallaj Misuari, 1942 in Jolo, Sulu, Philippines) is a Moro politician, founder and leader of the Moro National Liberation Front.

The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) is a rebel group that was founded by Nur Misuari in 1969.[1] The MNLF struggled against the Philippine Government (GPH) to achieve independence [2] of the Bangsamoro Land (or Bangsamoro Nation, or Mindanao Nation). TheMNLF-GPH Peace Process is ongoing since the 1976 and both parties are working together to negotiate the terms and conditions of the legal framework and implementation of genuine autonomy as a peaceful path towards independence.[3] As defined by the MNLF, the territory of Bangsamoro Land covers Sulu, Mindanao, Palawan, and Sabah.

MNLF is internationally recognized by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation

The term Bangsamoro refers to a people who are natives of the Sulu archipelago, parts of Mindanao, and parts of Palawan in the Philippines, and parts of Sabah in neighboring Malaysia at the time of conquest or [1] colonization. It comes from the Malay word bangsa, meaning nation or people, and the Spanish word moro, from the Spanish word for Moor, the Reconquista-period term used for Muslims. The peace advocacy group, In Peace Mindanao led by Bishop Felixberto Calang IFI, said “(T)he government obviously brushed off the MNLF’s independence declaration on August 12 this year in Sulu, little knowing that it posed a serious armed warning from a legitimate revolutionary movement that has obviously felt left out from the Framework Agreement of the Bangsamoro (FAB),” Calang said. Former Cotabato City Mayor Muslimin Sema, who heads one faction of the MNLF in Cotabato reportedly said that MNLF chair Nur Misuari might have believed that the government is moving to terminate the Tripartite Implementation Review of the 1996 Final Peace Agreement with the MNLF.

Reports said that Misuari is in Indanan, Sulu, while MNLF Sulu commander Habier Malik has arrived in Barangay Sta. Barbara.

The Bangsamoro region will cover Isabela City in Basilan, Cotabato City, six towns in Lanao del Norte, and some areas in North Cotabato, in addition to the existing ARMM provinces. The expanded ARMM currently consists of Basilan, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

But let us point out what should be obvious. Misuari ran for governor of ARMM again, last May. He lost badly, winning only 10 percent of the vote (about a fifth of the total received by the winning candidate, Mujiv Hataman). Then he declared ―independence‖ on Aug. 12.

Mujiv Sabbihi Hataman is a Filipino politician and current party-list representative of Anak Mindanao (AMIN) in the House of Representatives (2001–present). He is serving as the Regional Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao after being appointed by President Benigno Aquino III. He started as a protégé of slain leader Wahab Akbar,

A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #.[1][2] It is a form of metadata tag. Short messages on microblogging and social networking services such as Twitter, Tout, identi.ca,Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr, Google+ or Facebook may be tagged by putting "#" before important words, as in: #Wikipedia is an #encyclopedia that anyone can edit.. Peachy Rallonza-Bretaña became a central figure in the first massive protest under the Aquino administration. Bretaña insisted she was not a leader of the Aug. 26 march to Luneta—just the person who suggested the time and the place for the march.

Currently, the Moro National Liberation Front is the Ruling Party of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The "Wrecking Ball" video is directed by the ever-controversial fashion photographer Terry Richardson, best known for boundary pushing editorials in glossy magazines. The track is the latest single off of Cyrus' upcoming album, "BANGERZ." Due out on Oct. 4, "BANGERZ" is led by Cyrus' hit single, "We Can't Stop."

"We Can't Stop" has offered its fair share of controversy for the 20-year-old singer. Cyrus made waves with the lyrics of the song, as the party track alluded to drug usage, as well as the accompanying visuals, as the music video showed a scantily clad Cyrus doing the twerking dance moves she is now famous for.

Miley Cyrus’ new song “Wrecking Ball,” even though the official music video is not my cup of tea. However, The Gregory Brothers have managed to outdo her with their cover of it.

The Gregory Brothers are the guys behind the famous Autotune the News and “The Bed Intruder Song” but, as it turns out, they’re also gifted musicians.

Hannah Montana is an American television series that originally aired on the Disney Channel from March 24, 2006 until January 16, 2011. It aired ninety-eight episodes across four seasons. The series focused on Miley Stewart (portrayed by Miley Cyrus), a girl who lives a double life as an average teenager by day and a famous pop singer Hannah Montana by night. She conceals her identity from the public, other than her close friends and family.

The series has been nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program from 2007 through 2010.[1][2] Hannah Montana: The Movie was released in theaters on April 10, 2009. The third season of the series premiered on November 2, 2008 and ended on March 14, 2010. The show was renewed for the fourth and final[3] season, which started production on January 18, 2010, and ended production on May 14, 2010.[4] The final season premiered on July 11, 2010,[5][6] and became the last Disney Channel sitcom to transition from standard definition to high definition in the process. The fourth season of Hannah Montana was promoted as Hannah Montana Forever.

The original idea for this show was based on the That's So Raven episode "Goin' Hollywood", which served as the backdoor pilot for a sitcom tentatively called Better Days to star Alyson Stoner, in which a child star of a popular TV show of the same name was to try her hand at going to a normal school. The theme song for Hannah Montana is "The Best of Both Worlds" written by Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil, produced by Gerrard and performed by Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana). John Carta,

A 30th episode, titled "No Sugar, Sugar" was produced, but never aired in the United States.

Read ―EDSA TAYO‖ vigil at the EDSA Shrine

ILOILO , Philippines – Now it can be told. A woman who hails from Sapian, the smallest town in Capiz, was the Filipina-American nurse who inherited houses and cars worth $30 million and $30 million in cash.

In his forthcoming book ―Empty Mansions,‖ Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and NBC Universal investigative reporter Bill Dedman identified the woman as Gicela Oloroso, whose father served as mayor of Sapian in the late 1960s.

The identity of the 58-year-old nurse (some reports said she is now 63 years old) was unknown to many Capizeños as she was only previously identified by her Jewish name, Hadassah Peri.

2012 Little Miss Philippines contest of ―Eat Bulaga,‖ where she is now a co-host. The child star also hosts her morning talk show, ―The Ryzza Mae Show.‖ Ryzza Mae Dizon.

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source.[7] LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting. Appearing as practical electronic components in 1962,[8] early LEDs emitted low-intensity red light, but modern versions are available across the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared wavelengths, with very high brightness.

When a light-emitting diode is switched on, electrons are able to recombine with holes within the device, releasing energy in the form of photons. This effect is called electroluminescence and the color of the light (corresponding to the energy of the photon) is determined by the energy band gap of the semiconductor. An LED is often small in area (less than 1 mm2), and integrated optical components may be used to shape its radiation pattern.[9]LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved physical robustness, smaller size, and faster switching. However, LEDs powerful enough for room lighting are relatively expensive and require more precise current and heat management than compact fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.

Light-emitting diodes are used in applications as diverse as aviation lighting, digital microscopes, automotive lighting, advertising, general lighting, andtraffic signals. LEDs have allowed new text, video displays, and sensors to be developed, while their high switching rates are also useful in advanced communications technology. Infrared LEDs are also used in the remote control units of many commercial products including televisions, DVD players and other domestic appliances. LEDs are also used in seven-segment display.

A seven-segment display (SSD), or seven-segment indicator, is a form of electronic display device for displaying decimal numerals that is an alternative to the more complex dot matrix displays. Discoveries and early devices[edit source | editbeta]

Green electroluminescence from a point contact on a crystal of SiC recreates H. J. Round's original experiment from 1907.

Electroluminescence as a phenomenon was discovered in 1907 by the British experimenter H. J. Round of Marconi Labs, using a crystal of silicon carbide and a cat's-whisker detector.[10][11] Russian Oleg Vladimirovich Losev reported creation of the first LED in 1927.[12][13] His research was distributed in Russian, German and British scientific journals, but no practical use was made of the discovery for several decades.[14][15] Rubin Braunstein[16] of the Radio Corporation of America reported on infrared emission from gallium arsenide (GaAs) and other semiconductor alloys in 1955.[17] Braunstein observed infrared emission generated by simple diode structures using gallium antimonide (GaSb), GaAs, indium phosphide (InP), and silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloys at room temperature and at 77 Kelvin.

In 1961 American experimenters James R. Biard and Gary Pittman, working at Texas Instruments,[18] found that GaAs emitted infrared radiation when electric current was applied. The two were able to establish the priority of their work based on engineering notebooks and receive the first US patent for the LED; albeit the light emitted was infrared.

The first practical visible-spectrum (red) LED was developed in 1962 by Nick Holonyak, Jr., while working at General Electric Company.[8] Holonyak first reported this breakthrough in the journal Applied Physics Letters on the December 1, 1962.[19] Holonyak is seen as the "father of the light-emitting diode".[20] M. George Craford,[21] a former graduate student of Holonyak, invented the first yellow LED and improved the brightness of red and red-orange LEDs by a factor of ten in 1972.[22] In 1976, T. P. Pearsall created the first high-brightness, high-efficiency LEDs for optical fiber telecommunications by inventing new semiconductor materials specifically adapted to optical fiber transmission wavelengths

A compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), also called compact fluorescent light, energy-saving light, and compact fluorescent tube, is a fluorescent lampdesigned to replace an incandescent lamp; some types fit into light fixtures formerly used for incandescent lamps. The lamps use a tube which is curved or folded to fit into the space of an incandescent bulb, and a compact electronic ballast in the base of the lamp.

It was 27 years ago when the Philippines won its last FIBA-Asia (then known as the ABC or Asian Basketball Confederation) title in Malaysia. The prize for victory was a ticket to the FIBA World Championships (later renamed the World Cup) in Spain on July 5-20, 1986.

What a coincidence that this year’s FIBA-Asia joust in Manila is also the qualifier for the FIBA World Cup in Spain on Aug. 30-Sept. 14, 2014. Although the Philippines won in 1986, the national team gave up its ticket to Spain because of political reasons as the EDSA Revolution refocused directions for the country. That long overdue trip to Spain will be the Philippines’ reward if it finishes among the top three at the FIBA-Asia tournament that ends here on Sunday.

The 13th ABC competition was held on Dec. 28, 1985-Jan. 5, 1986. Like in this year’s edition, there were 15 countries that participated in the Malaysia conclave. China, Thailand and Indonesia were bracketed in Group A. The Philippines, Japan, Jordan and Pakistan made up Group B. South Korea, Chinese-Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong were in Group C. Malaysia, Iran, India and Sri Lanka comprised Group D. Every team played a group-mate once in the first round of eliminations with the top finisher advancing to the final round of four. The team with the best record in the final round took the championship outright. The format had no knockout quarterfinal, semifinal or final matchups.

The Philippine team was coached by Ron Jacobs and supported by San Miguel Corp. chairman Eduardo (Danding) Cojuangco. The players were Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, Hector Calma, Franz Pumaren, Yves Dignadice, Elmer Reyes, Alfie Almario, Tonichi Yturri, Jerry Codiñera, Pido Jarencio, Benjie Gutierrez and naturalized players Jeff Moore and Dennis Still. The roster did not include another naturalized player Chip Engelland who would’ve been eligible only in 1987 because of the three-year residency FIBA rule.

______

Best-Selling Books, 2012

Rank Title Author 1. The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins The Publication Manual of the American Psychological American Psychological 2. Association, Sixth Edition Association 3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever Jeff Kinney 4. Steve Jobs Biography Walter Isaacson Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, 5. Laura Hillenbrand and Redemption 6. Water for Elephants Sara Gruen Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Todd Burpo, Colin Burpo, and 7. Trip to Heaven and Back Sonja Burpo Adam Mansbach and Ricardo 8. Go the F**k to Sleep Cortes 9. Protector Laurel Dewey 10. Boo: The Life of the World's Cutest Dog J H Lee and Gretchen

The Hunger Games is a 2008 science fiction novel by American writer Suzanne Collins. It is written in the voice of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the post-apocalyptic nation of Panem, where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. The book received mostly positive feedback from major reviewers and authors, including authors Stephen King and Stephenie Meyer. It was praised for its storyline and character development, though some reviewers have noted similarities between Collins' book and Koushun Takami's Battle Royale(1999). In writing The Hunger Games, Collins drew upon Greek mythology, Roman gladiatorial games, and contemporary reality television for thematic content. The novel won many awards, including the California Young Reader Medal, and was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year" in 2008. The Hunger Games was first published in hardcover on September 14, 2008 by Scholastic, featuring a cover designed by Tim O'Brien. It has since been released in paperback and also as an audiobook and ebook. After an initial print of 200,000, the book had sold 800,000 copies by February 2010. Since its release, The Hunger Games has been translated into 26 languages, and publishing rights have been sold in 38 territories. The novel is the first in The Hunger Games trilogy, followed by Catching Fire (2009) and Mockingjay (2010). A film adaptation, directed by Gary Ross and co-written and co-produced by Collins herself, was released in 2012.

The Hunger Games trilogy is a series of young adult science-fiction[1] adventure novels by Suzanne Collins. The trilogy consists of The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay.[2][3][4] The first two books in the series were both New York Times best sellers, and Mockingjay topped all US bestseller lists upon its release.[5][6] By the time the film adaptation of The Hunger Games was released in 2012, the publisher had reported over 26 million Hunger Games trilogy books in print, including movie tie-in books.[7] The series recently ranked second, bested only by Harry Potter, in NPR's poll of the top 100 teen novels, which asked voters to choose their favorite young adult books.[8] On August 17, 2012, Amazon announced The Hunger Games Trilogy as its top seller, surpassing the record previously held by the Harry Potter series.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a realistic fiction novel by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book is about a boy namedGreg Heffley and his struggles in middle school. Diary of a Wimpy Kid first appeared on FunBrain.com in 2004 where it was read 20 million times.[2] The hardcover was released on April 1, 2007.[1]Diary of a Wimpy Kid was named New York Times bestseller among awards and praise. A film of the same name was released on March 19, 2010. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever is a 2011 bestselling and award winning children's novel and the sixth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, written by American author Jeff Kinney.[1] The book was released on November 15th, 2011 and was the fastest selling book of 2011,[2] giving him the third strongest opening week sales for a children's author.[3] Cabin Fever had a first printing run of six million copies, which Amulet Books stated was one of their most significant titles for that year.[4] In 2012 Kinney won a "Best Author" Children's Choice Award from the Children's Book Council forCabin Fever.[5] The book was followed by 2012's The Third Wheel.

The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan A nonfiction book published in 1963, The Feminine Mystique sparked the second-wave of the Women's Movement in the United States, a movement that lasted until the early 1980s and, unlike the first-wave's focus on the one issue of suffrage, expanded its agenda to a wide variety of issues such as sexuality, reproductive rights, the workplace, and more. Friedan's book came about by accident. For her 15th class reunion, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her Smith College classmates. In talking with them, she realized how unsatisfied they were as housewives. Afterwards, she expanded her research to include other women and the media's use of advertising. She pitched her work to a variety of magazines, but when none of them wanted to publish her work as an article, she extended it into a book. diamond

Sources

The earliest sources of gem diamonds were India and Borneo, where they were found in river alluvium. All famous diamonds of antiquity were Indian diamonds, including the Great Mogul, the Orlov, the Koh-i-noor, and the Regent or Pitt. Other famous diamonds are the Hope (blue), Dresden (green), and Tiffany (yellow). In the early 18th cent., deposits similar to those in India were found in Brazil, mainly of carbonados, though they may have been known as early as 1670. In 1867, a stone found in South Africa was recognized as a diamond. Within a few years, this began a wild search for diamonds, both in river diggings and inland. In 1870–71, dry diggings, including most of the celebrated mines, were discovered. Well-known South African diamond mines are the Dutoitspan, Bultfontein, De Beers, Kimberley, Jagersfontein, and Premier. Russia, Botswana, Congo (Kinshasa), Australia, and South Africa are now the world's major diamond- producing nations; other important countries include Canada, Angola, Namibia, Ghana, and Brazil. The use of diamonds to finance African rebel groups and fuel civil strife led, in 2001 and 2002, to international agreements (the Kimberley Process) designed to certify legitimately mined diamonds, but in 2011 the permitted sale of diamonds from Zimbabwe, where the army has been accused of brutality and human rights violations in diamond mines and diamond revenues support an autocratic government, led to criticism of the certification process. Synthetic diamonds were successfully produced in 1955; a number of small crystals were manufactured when pure graphite mixed with a catalyst was subjected to pressure of about 1 million lb per sq in. and temperature of the order of 5,000°F (3,000°C). Synthetic diamonds are now extensively used in industry.

Manga and anime were mainstays in Japanese pop culture long before the art form made its way West. Indeed, the term manga dates to the late 18th century in Japan, but this type of comics didn't begin to gain in popularity in the United States until the 1960s, when the popular Japanese anime series Astro Boy was imported to the U.S. By 2007, however, the anime market in the U.S. alone had peaked at a value of approximately $4.35 billion. This number leveled out in 2010 to a more modest 400 million, according to the Japan External Trade Organization. The Rise of Manga and Anime

Manga is the Japanese term for comics. The word was first used in 1798 to describe the picture book Shiji no yukikai. The term showed up again in 1814 as the title of Aikawa Minwa's Manga Hyakujo and Hokusai Manga, books that contained drawings by the artist Hokusai. Modern manga developed amid an explosion of artistic creativity during the U.S. occupation of Japan, from 1945–1952. During the occupation, U.S. troops introduced American comics and cartoons, such as Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop, and Bambi to Japan, inspiring Japanese artists to develop their own style of comics. Japanese cartoonist, Osamu Tezuka, known as the God of Manga and Godfather of Anime, invented the distinctive large eyes prominent in both manga and anime. His manga series, Astro Boy, went on to become the first Japanese television series to embody the aesthetic that became known worldwide as anime. The series was first broadcast in Japan in 1963. Anime, pronounced "ani-may," refers to animation originating in Japan. During the 1960s, Astro Boy became the first anime series to be broadcast outside Japan. In the 1970s and 80s, other adaptations of anime made waves in overseas markets. Two of those series, Robotech and Star Blazers introduced mature themes. Star Blazers, first broadcast in the U.S. in 1979, presciently dealt with many serious issues before they became global concerns, such as radiation poising, acid rain, and global warming. In the show's first season, humans were forced to move underground to avoid radiation. Star Blazers was also the first popular English-dubbed anime series with a storyline that demanded the episodes be shown in order.

An International Glossary of Comic Terms AmeriManga Manga-style comics created by American artists.

Ani-manga A term used to describe comics produced directly from the cels (frames) of animation.

Anime Animation originating in Japan.

Astro Boy Manga series and first TV series to embody the aesthetic that later became known as anime. An English-language version first aired on American TV from September 1963 through August 1965.

Bande Dessinée French term for "drawn strip."

Bleed When the comic art is allowed to run to the edge of the page, rather than having a white border around it.

Comic Con, ComiCon, or Comic-Con A convention of comic book dealers, publishers, creators, and fans.

Cosplay When fans dress up as characters at anime conventions.

Dessin Anime The French phrase that literally means cartoon. The term may have inspired the abbreviation anime.

Will Eisner An American comics writer known for his series The Spirit and for establishing the graphic novel as a form of literature.

Eshinbun Nipponchi The first manga magazine, created in 1874 in Japan by Kanagaki Robun and Kawanabe Kyosai. The magazine, with its simple drawings, was not popular and only three issues were published, but it did inspired the publication of other manga magazines.

Fanboy or Fangirl An extreme fan of comics, someone who proudly lives and breathes comics. Usually used as a pejorative term, although many fans wear it as a badge of honor.

Gekiga Japanese term for dramatic pictures. A realistic drawing style that is violent and emotionally dark.

Graphic Novels Book-length comics.

Japan Punch First magazine printed in Japan, from 1862 to 1887 by Charles Wirgman, a British cartoonist. The magazine was a huge influence on the first manga magazine, Eshinbun Nipponchi.

Kodomomuke Manga (or Anime) Manga (or anime) made for children. la nouvelle manga French comics drawn in styles influenced by Japanese manga.

Manga The Japanese term for comics. In English-speaking countries, manga is a generic term for all graphic novels and comic books originally published in Japan.

Manga Kissa Manga cafés in Japan where people drink coffee, read manga, and sometimes stay overnight.

Manwha The Korean equivalent of Manga.

The Marvel Method A technique of writing comics made popular by Stan Lee in the 1960s where the writer and artist talk over a plot outline rather than writing a script. The artist draws the page and then the writer adds dialogue.

One Shot A one-issue only comic, also referred to as stand-alone issues.

Otaku A term used to describe diehard fans of anime and manga outside of Japan. The term has a negative connotation in Japan.

Panel Refers to one block or square on a comic strip or on a page in a comic book.

Speed Racer The English adaptation name of Mach Go Go Go, the Japanese manga and anime series, which centered on auto racing. The series became a successful franchise in the U.S., spawning spinoff versions in print, TV, and film.

Splash Page A full-page drawing in a comic book, usually the first page of a comic or chapter. Credits and titles are often included on splash pages.

Star Blazers The first popular English-translated anime TV series with an over- arching storyline that required the episodes to be shown in order. First broadcast in the US in 1979, it paved the way for future plot-driven anime translations.

Osamu Tezuka A Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, and medical doctor (although he never practiced medicine.) He is often referred to as the Japanese Walt Disney, the Godfather of Anime, or the God of Manga.

Trade Paperback Collections of individual issues of a particular comic series, not to be confused with graphic novels.

Yonkoma Manga Japanese equivalent to comic strips, generally consisting of four equal sized panels ordered from top to bottom.

Manhwa (Korean pronunciation: [manβa~manwa]) is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons (common usage also includes animated cartoons). Outside of Korea, the term usually refers specifically to South Korean comics.[1] South Korea is now one of the major producers of comics.

The first woodcut manhwa, published in 1908.

Manhwa has been influenced by the dramatic modern history of Korea, resulting in a diversity of forms and genres,[citation needed] including a mainstream style same as manga. Distinctive manhwa can be found in editorial comic strips, artistically-oriented works, and webcomics serials.

Twilight Trivia

Edward talks about twilight, the time between sunset and full night, as the safest, easiest, and saddest time of day. Twilight is also defined as an intermediate state that is not clearly defined– a clear reference to the vampire's existence in a sort of undead limbo.

The song by Debussy that is a favorite of both Bella's and Edward's is called "Clair de Lune," or Moonlight. The composer died in Paris in 1918–the same year Edward "died" and was reborn as Edward Cullen.

Edward's name was inspired by Charlotte Bronte's Mr. Rochester and Jane Austen's Mr. Ferrars. Stephenie Meyer chose Isabella for her heroine because she had picked out that name for the daughter of her own flesh and blood that she never had.

Edward compares himself to a carnivorous flower; the almost surreal beauty of the vampires helps them lure human prey. There are about 630 species of carnivorous plants, which use five different techniques to capture their food: pitfall traps, flypaper traps, snap traps, bladder traps, and lobster-pot traps. There is an actual city of Forks, Washington. It is home to the Hoh Rain Forest, which in turn, is the habitat of the Sitka spruce, the Roosevelt elk, and the Douglas squirrel.

Spanish influenza (a virus strain of the subtype H1N1) caused a worldwide pandemic beginning in the year 1918. The virus struck by triggering an overstimulation of the body's immune system, a cytokine storm, and found its victims among the healthiest of the population-those with the strongest immune systems. In fact, the Spanish flu was responsible for more American deaths than World War I.

Bella suffers from a condition called hemophobia, a word derived from the Greek haima (blood) and phobos (fear). Another name for hemophobia is hematophobia.

The name Jasper means "treasurer" in Persian. This name was traditionally assigned to one of the wise men who were said to have visited the newborn Jesus. Jasper is also the name of a gemstone.

The high schoolers enjoy a beautiful driftwood fire when they go to the beach at La Push. Experts do not recommend burning driftwood in your fireplace at home; the combination of organic material in the wood and the sodium chloride (salt) can produce dioxin, a toxin.

The Quileute spun long dog hair into warm blankets and wove fine baskets–some of them capable of holding water.

The 2012 Academy Awards were presented on February 24, 2013, at the Kodak Theatre. All of the nominees are listed below; the Oscar winners are in bold.

Best Picture Argo Best Animated Picture Brave Actor in a Leading Role Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln Actress in a Leading Role Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Argo is a 2012 historical drama thriller film directed and co-produced by Ben Affleck. This dramatization is adapted from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency operative Tony Mendez's book The Master of Disguise and Joshuah Bearman's 2007 Wired article The Great Escape. The latter deals with the "Canadian Caper,"[3] in which Mendez led the rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran, Iran, during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.[4] The film stars Affleck as Mendez with Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman in supporting roles, and was released in North America to critical and commercial success on October 12, 2012. The film was produced by Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, and George Clooney. The story of this rescue was also told in the 1981 television movie Escape from Iran: The Canadian Caper, directed by Lamont Johnson.[5][6] Upon release, Argo received widespread acclaim and seven nominations for the 85th Academy Awards and won three, for Best Film Editing,[7] Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. The film also earned five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director,[8] while being nominated for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Alan Arkin.[9] It won the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the 19th Screen Actors Guild Awards with Arkin being nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. It also won Best Film, Best Editing, and Best Director at the 66th British Academy Film Awards. Argo has been criticized for its historical inaccuracies, especially for minimizing the role that the Canadian embassy played in the rescue and for falsely claiming that the American refugees were turned away by the British and New Zealand embassies.

Below find the winners of the 2012 Nobel Prizes, including prizes for Peace, Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, Literature, and Economics.

 Peace The European Union (EU), which for "over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe"  Physiology or Medicine One-half jointly to Sir John B. Gurdon (UK) and Shinya Yamanaka (Japan) for "the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent"  Physics One-half to David J. Wineland (France) and one-half jointly to David J. Wineland (U.S.) and Adam G. Riess (U.S.) for "ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems"  Chemistry Jointly to Robert J. Lefkowitz (U.S.) and Brian K. Kobilka (U.S.) for "studies of G- protein-coupled receptors"  Literature Mo Yan (China) "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary"  Economics Jointly to Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd S. Shapley (both U.S.) for "the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design"

 The Pulitzer Prizes, established and endowed by Joseph Pulitzer (1847–1911), honor excellence in American literature, journalism, drama and music. The prizes, administered by Columbia University, bestow on winners both literary prestige and a cash prize.

Letters, Drama, and Music

 Fiction:The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (Random House)  Drama: Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar  History: Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (Random House)  Biography: The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss (Crown)  Poetry: Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds (Alfred A. Knopf)  General Nonfiction: Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys by Gilbert King (Harper)  Music: Partita for 8 Voices by Caroline Shaw (New Amsterdam Records)   Synopsis|Excerpt  WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE History:

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (Random House) The struggle for Vietnam occupies a central place in the history of the twentieth century. Fought over a period of three decades, the conflict drew in all the world’s powers and saw two of them—first France, then the United States—attempt to subdue the revolutionary Vietnamese forces. For France, the defeat marked the effective end of her colonial empire, while for America the war left a gaping wound in the body politic that remains open to this day.

How did it happen? Tapping into newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations and making full use of the published literature, distinguished scholar Fredrik Logevall traces the path that led two Western nations to lose their way in Vietnam. Embers of War opens in 1919 at the Versailles Peace Conference, where a young Ho Chi Minh tries to deliver a petition for Vietnamese independence to President Woodrow Wilson. It concludes in 1959, with a Viet Cong ambush on an outpost outside Saigon and the deaths of two American officers whose names would be the first to be carved into the black granite of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. In between come years of political, military, and diplomatic maneuvering and miscalculation, as leaders on all sides embark on a series of stumbles that makes an eminently avoidable struggle a bloody and interminable reality.

Logevall takes us inside the councils of war—and gives us a seat at the conference tables where peace talks founder. He brings to life the bloodiest battles of France’s final years in Indochina—and shows how from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history: Harry Truman’s fateful decision to reverse Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s policy and acknowledge France’s right to return to Indochina after World War II; Dwight Eisenhower’s strenuous efforts to keep Paris in the fight and his escalation of U.S. involvement in the aftermath of the humiliating French defeat at Dien Bien Phu; and the curious turnaround in Senator John F. Kennedy’s thinking that would lead him as president to expand that commitment, despite his publicly stated misgivings about Western intervention in Southeast Asia.

An epic story of wasted opportunities and tragic miscalculations, featuring an extraordinary cast of larger-than-life characters, Embers of War delves deep into the historical record to provide hard answers to the unanswered questions surrounding the demise of one Western power in Vietnam and the arrival of another. This book will become the definitive chronicle of the struggle’s origins for years to come.

The Brit Awards (stylised as the BRIT Awards; often simply called the Brits) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards, and the British equivalent of the American Grammy Awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored by Britannia Music Club), but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust.[1] In addition, an equivalent awards ceremony for classical music, called the Classic BRIT Awards, is held each May. Robbie Williams holds the record for the most Brit Awards, 12 as a solo artist and another five as part of Take That. The awards began in 1977 as part of the commemoration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee[2] and as an annual event in 1982 under the auspices of the British record industry's trade association, the BPI. The last BPI Awards show was the first of the ceremonies to be broadcast on television, by the BBC, and in 1989 they were renamed the Brit Awards.[3] MasterCard has been the long- time sponsor of the event.[4] The Brit Awards were broadcast live until 1989, when Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood hosted a widely criticised show in which little went as rehearsed.[5] Subsequently, the event was recorded and broadcast the following night. This was part of a revamp by Jonathan King, who created the "BRITs" moniker, and organised a new look show.[6] The 2012 Brit Awards were presented February 21, 2012.

British Album Adele, "21" British Single One Direction, "What Makes You Beautiful" British Group Coldplay International Breakthrough Act Lana Del Rey International Group Foo Fighters

International Female Solo Artist Rihanna British Male Solo Artist Ed Sheeran International Male Solo Artist Bruno Mars British Breakthrough Act Ed Sheeran Critics' Choice Emeli Sandé

British Female Solo Artist Adele British Producer Ethan Johns Outstanding Contribution to Music Blur

Facts about the Human Body

Can you feel the pulse in your wrist? For humans the normal pulse is 70 heartbeats per minute. Elephants have a slower pulse of 27 and for a canary it is 1000!

If all the blood vessels in your body were laid end to end, they would reach about 60,000 miles. Abraham Lincoln probably had a medical condition called Marfans syndrome. Some of its symptoms are extremely long bones, curved spine, an arm span that is longer than the person’s height, eye problems, heart problems and very little fat. It is a rare, inherited condition. In one day your heart beats 100,000 times. Half your body’s red blood cells are replaced every seven days. By the time you are 70 you will have easily drunk over 12,000 gallons of water. Coughing can cause air to move through your windpipe faster than the speed of sound – over a thousand feet per second! Germs only cause disease, right? But a common bacterium, E. Coli, found in the intestine helps us digest green vegetables and beans (also making gases – pew!). These same bacteria also make vitamin K, which causes blood to clot. If we didn’t have these germs we would bleed to death whenever we got a small cut! It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile. That dust on rugs and your furniture is not only dirt. It’s mostly made of dead skin cells. Everybody loses millions of skin cells every day which fall on the floor and get kicked up to land on all the surfaces in a room. You could say, “That’s me all over.” It takes food seven seconds to go from the mouth to the stomach via the esophagus.

A human’s small intestine is 6 meters long. The human body is 75% water.

Your blood takes a very long trip through your body. If you could stretch out all of a human’s blood vessels, they would be about 60,000 miles long. That’s enough to go around the world twice.

The strongest bone in your body is the femur (thighbone), and it’s hollow!

The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body.

The average human dream lasts only 2 to 3 seconds. The average American over fifty will have spent 5 years waiting in lines. The farthest you can see with the naked eye is 2.4 million light years away! (140,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.) That’s the distance to the giant Andromeda Galaxy. You can see it easily as a dim, large gray “cloud” almost directly overhead in a clear night sky.

The average person has at least seven dreams a night.

Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day.

Your brain is 80% water. 85% of the population can curl their tongue into a tube. Your tongue has 3,000 taste buds. Your forearm (from inside of elbow to inside of wrist) is the same length as your foot.

A sneeze travels at over 100 miles per hour. Gesundheit! Your thigh bone is stronger than concrete. Your fingernails grow almost four times as fast as your toenails. You blink your eyes over 10,000,000 a year. There were about 300 bones in your body when you were born, but by the time you reach adulthood you only have 206. The smallest bones in the human body are in your ear!

Your mouth uses 75 muscles when you speak!

When you wake up in the morning you are at taller than when you go to sleep, because you have let your spine straighten back out after all the bending, sitting, and moving you have done!

It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

The average growth of hair is half an inch per month.

If hair remains uncut, it can grow up to 5 feet long.

Your tongue, eye, and jaw muscles are among the strongest muscles in your body.

Facts about People Shakespeare’s tombstone in Stratford’s Holy Trinity Church bears this inscription, said to have been written by him: Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear to dig the dust enclosed here. Blest be the man that spares these stones, and curst be he that moves my bones”.

The Hindus of India once believed that the Earth was a huge bowl (to keep the oceans from falling off) held up by giant elephants standing on long pillars. No one back then ever thought to ask what the pillars were standing on! The first black surgeon to do open heart surgery was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. In 1893, he saved a man who was knifed by opening his chest and sewing together the wound, which was only a fraction of an inch from his heart. He was one of the first to do this. He accomplished this without any modern medical devices, such as x-rays. Thomas Crapper developed the flush toilet. In 1884, he simulated the materials a toilet would normally handle, to create “a super-flush which had completely cleared away: 10 apples, 1 flat sponge, 3 air vessels, Plumbers Smudge coated over the pan, 4 pieces of paper adhering closely to the soiled surface.” A fantastic feat of flushing!

Vincent Van Gogh only sold 1 painting his whole life and that was to his brother!

A Japanese explorer named Maomi Uemura was the first man to reach the North Pole alone, on April 29, 1978, after his eight-week journey.

Mark Twain, one of America’s best-loved authors, dropped out of school when he was 12 years old, after his father died.

On April 2, 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman candidate for the U.S. presidency. Babe Ruth kept a cabbage leaf under his cap to keep cool. Abraham Lincoln once invented a device for lifting riverboats over shallow water.

Did you know that the Egyptians thought the world was in the shape of a rectangle and that the heavans were held up by four giant pillars? They also warned sailors not to go to far away or you just might row off the giant rectangle called Earth. When the Queen of England heard this she sent 4 ships south, north, east and west to search for these “pillars”. When they didn’t find any (because the world is in the shape of a sphere) they questioned the Eygptians and they told her the pillars must have been farther than they predicted! Clever weren’t they?

There were about 300 bones in your body when you were born, but by the time you reach adulthood you only have 206. A dentist invented the electric chair!!! The largest baby to be born so far weighed in at 15 pounds, 5 ounces!

Sir Edmund was the first to climb Mt. Everest and return back. The tallest man in this world was Robert Wadlow, a chinese man who was 7’1″ tall! Thomas Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb, was actually afraid of the dark. Facts About World Records The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon. It can fly at a speed of 168-217 miles per hour. Hans Langseth had the longest beard at a record length of 17 1/2 feet long! When he died, his beard was given to the Smithsonian Institute. The deadliest disease was the pneumonic form of the Black Death of 1347-1351. It had death rate of 100%. The largest egg laid by a living bird is that of the North African Ostrich. It is 6 to 8 inches in length and 4 to 6 inches in diameter. The smallest is that of the hummingbird. It is less than 0.39 inches in diameter. The hottest continent on earth is Africa, where a record high of 136.4 degrees F was once recorded. Antarctica is the coldest continent on earth, where a temperature of 126.9 degrees F below zero was once recorded. Chicago is home to three of the five tallest buildings in the world — the Sears Tower, Standard Oil Building, and John Hancock Center. The hottest place on earth is in Dallol, Ethiopia, which is a sizzling 94 degrees in the shade on a typical day! Angel Falls in Venezuela is 20 times taller than Niagara Falls. The blue whale is the largest animal that ever lived (it could reach 100 feet long and weight up to 150 tons!) Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a basketball game in 1962, when he played for the Philadelphia Warriors. The longest bout of hiccups lasted 69 years! The longest conga to this date included 119,986 people. The smallest cat is the Singapuras and weighs only 4 pounds. The longest movie made lasts 85 hours and is fittingly titled “The Cure for Insomnia.” Mount Everest is the tallest mountain in the world, standing 29,028 feet high. Did you know that there is a world record for seeing how many times you can attempt a world record?! The smallest dog recorded was a Yorkie and was only 4 inches tall. The biggest dog weighed 344 pounds- more than two full grown men! The largest baby to be born so far weighed in at 15 pounds, 5 ounces! The longest recorded flight of a chicken is thirteen seconds.

“Hello Rainey”

It is reputed that Nathan B. Stubblefield, a farmer from Murray, Kentucky, made a voice transmission four years before anyone else. In 1892, Stubblefield handed his friend Rainey T. Wells a box and told him to walk away some distance. Wells said later: “I had hardly reached my post.. when I heard I heard HELLO RAINEY come booming out of the receiver.” More about the History of Radio

Northern Ireland – A brief history but, after a thousand years, the longest dispute amongst peoples.

Kashmir – the land that has been called Heaven on Earth. But hell for its people.

First to fly?

At 10h35 on Friday 17 December 1903, Orville Wright took the Flyer that he and his brother Wilbur built into the air for what has come to be known as the first powered flight. Earlier, unbeknownst to them, Gustave Whitehead and Richard Pearse were also experimenting with flying machines. Who actually took first to the sky remains a controversy.

Garde a l’eau!

It is often incorrectly quoted that the toilet was invented by a Mr Thomas Crapper in the 18th century. There was a Mr Crapper around at the time – he happened to be a successful plumber, appropriately. But who invented the toilet?

Running out of steam

Heron of Greece invented steam power in 50 BC. But the leaders of the day thought that it would cause unemployment which may lead to unrest and the invention, well, ran out of steam. There were many such untimely inventions.

Mickey Mouse has a history

The first film animation was “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces” made in 1906 by American J. Stuart Blacton. But it was in 1919, when 18-year-old Walt Disney teamed up with Ub Iwerks, that the art of film animation took roots. They produced a series of cartoons entitled “Alice in Cartoonland.” The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923, and in 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife Lillian convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.

Mickey debuted the same year in “Plane Crazy,” which was followed with “Galloping Goucho.” In 1928, Disney launched the first animation with synchronized sound, “Steamboat Willy”, with Walt as the voice of Mickey Mouse. In 1937, Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Not to be outdone, two other Americans, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, created Tom and Jerry in 1939. They went on to win their first Oscar for Yankee Doodle Mouse in 1943. Six more Oscars would follow for them. But it was a Disney company movie that won the first Best Picture Oscar for an animation, with “Beauty and the Beast” in 1991.

Oldest living things on earth:

1. Cyanobacteria – survived every major extinction – 2.8 billion years. 2. Nautilus – the only shelled cephalopod – 500+ million years. 3. Jellyfish – 505+ million years. 4. Sponge – 580 million years. 5. Horseshoe crab – 445 million years. 6. Coelacanth – this fish species have been around for 380 million years. 7. Gingko Biloba tree – the only living representative of the order Ginkgoales – 270 million years. 8. Horseshoe shrimp – unchanged for 200 million years. 9. Sturgeon – 200 million years old. 10. Martialis Heureka species of ant – 120 million years old.

Popes of the Roman Catholic Church

Of the 266 Popes there has been only one English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear, who became Pope Adrian IV (1154 – 1159) but no American Pope. Pope Francis, selected in 2013, was the first Pope born outside Europe since St. Gregory III (who was Pope from 731 to 741) and first from the Americas and indeed, from the Southern Hemisphere. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936 in Argentina. Pope Francis was the first Jesuit to become Supreme Pontiff.

World’s tallest buildings

It’s a status symbol for the countries that have them built and there seem to be no end in the quest to build the world’s tallest buildings. Known as skyscrapers, they differ from towers in that these buildings offer residential and/or office and have floors all the way up.

Building Stories Metres Feet City, Country Year Architects

Skidmore, Owings

1 Burj Khalifa 160 800 2,640 Dubai, UAE 2008 & Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill 2 Russia Tower 134 648 2,126 Moscow, Russia 2010

International Business Seoul, South 3 130 580 1,903 2008 UN Studio Centre Korea

Busan, South Stephan Huh,

4 Lotte World II 107 512 1,680 2012 Korea Parker Design

5 Taipei 101 Tower 101 509 1,670 Taipei, Taiwan 2004 C.Y. Lee & Partner

Shanghai World 6 101 492 1,614 Shanghai, China 2008 Kohn Pedersen Fox Financial Center

Hong Kong, 7 Union Square Phase 7 102 474 1,555 2010 Kohn Pedersen Fox China

Busan, South 8 Suyong Bay Tower 102 462 1,516 2010 Kohn Pedersen Fox Korea

John Portman & 9 Xujiahui Tower 92 460 1,509 Shanghai, China 2010 Associates

Kuala Lumpur, 10 Petronas Towers 1 & 2 88 452 1,483 1998 Cesar Pelli Malaysia

World’s tallest towers

Towers differ from buildings in that they do not have floors all the way up and are not built for residential or business office use. They are, however, just as an impressive engineering feat as buildings. And most of them feature a fantastic observation deck.

Tower Metres Feet City, Country Year Architects

Toronto, John Andrews Architects, WZMH

1 CN Tower 554 1,815 1976 Canada Architects

Ostankino Moscow, 2 537 1,762 1967 Nikolai Nikitin

Tower Russia Birth stones and birthday flowers

JANUARY Stone: Garnet Flower: Carnation FEBRUARY Stone: Amethyst Flower: Violet MARCH Stone: Aquam Flower: Jonquil APRIL Stone: Diamond Flower: Sweet Pea MAY Stone: Emerald Flower: Lily JUNE Stone: Pearl Flower: Rose JULY Stone: Ruby Flower: Larkspur AUGUST Stone: Peridot Flower: Gladiolus SEPTEMBER Stone: Sapphire Flower: Aster OCTOBER Stone: Opal Flower: Calendula NOVEMBER Stone: Topaz Flower: Chrysanthemum DECEMBER Stone: Turquois Flower: Narcissus

World’s smallest countries: 1. Vatican City – 0.17 sq m (0,44 sq km) 2. Monaco – 0.77 sq m (2 sq km) 3. Gibraltar – 2.5 sq m (6,47 sq km) 4. Nauru – 8.2 sq m (21,23 sq km) 5. Tuvalu – 10 sq m (25,9 sq km) 6. Macau – 11.9 sq m (29,5 sq km) 7. Sint Maarten – 13.1 sq m (34 sq km) 8. Norfolk Island13.3 sq m (34,6 sq km) 9. Pitcairn Islands 18.1 sq m (47 sq km) 10. Bermuda 20.6 sq m (53,2 sq km)

The word “religion” is derived from the Latin religiō, the origins from which is not yet known. It could mean both a respect for something that is sacred or something that is taboo. Ultimately, it means to “bind fast”. 10 largest religion in the world by estimated number: 1. Christian – 2.1 billion 2. Islam – 1.5 billion 3. Agnostic – 1.1 billion 4. Hindu – 1 billion 5. Chinese traditional – 400 million 6. Buddhist – 380 million 7. Indigenous – 300 million 8. African traditional – 100 million 9. Sikh – 25 million 10. Juche – 20 million

What is it called?

Sometimes it’s on the tip of your tongue… “What is it called again?” It’s not always easy to remember those out-of-the-ordinary things but to refresh your memory, here’s what it is called. Mid-men, the male versions of mid-wives, are called accouchers. The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called aglets. The study of creatures such as Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and the Loch Ness monster is called cryptozoology. Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans coined the term to describe his investigations of animals unknown to science. The apparatus used in alcohol distilleries for freeing the spirit from water is called the dephlegmator. One that speaks two languages – is bilingual – can be said to be diglot. Ducks are never male. The males of the species are called drakes. In a casino, however, ducks is a nickname for a pair of deuces. The working section of a piano is called the action. Shoemakers are commonly called cobblers but correctly speaking a cobbler is a shoe repairmen. A shoemaker is a cordwainer – they also made leather bottles and harnesses. The distance that a place holder falls from a glass when it is lifted (you know, place holders sometimes get stuck to the bottom of a cold glass when you lift the glass) is called a bevemeter, a sniglet coined by comedian Rich Hall (who also coined “sniglet”). The device at the intersection of two railroad tracks to permit the wheels and flanges on one track to cross or branch for the other is called a frog. A specific length of thread or yarn according to the type of fiber is called a hank. For linen, a hank is 274 metres (300 yards); for cotton, it is 768 metres (840 yards). The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula. The thin line of cloud that forms behind an aircraft at high altitudes is called a contrail. A depth of 2 fathoms (3,6 metres) is called a Mark Twain. Originally a fathom was the space reached by with two arms outstretched. In the early days of film making, people who worked on the sets were called movies. The films were called motion pictures. The tendency of the leaves or petals of certain plants to assume a different position at night is called nyctitropism. The back of the human hand is the opisthenar. Revealing personality traits through writing is referred to as graphology. See What Your Handwriting Means Someone who uses as few words as possible when speaking is called pauciloquent. People that study fish are called ichthyologists. The little lump of flesh just forward of your ear canal is called a tragus – it also aids in capturing sounds that come from behind you. The pin that holds a hinge together is called a pintle. The gland responsible for producing the hormone that regulates growth is called the pituitary gland. It is the size of a pea. A melody is a group of notes in a certain order that results in a sweet or agreeable sound. An easily remembered melody is called a tune. Compulsive shopping was identified by a German psychiatrist almost a hundred years ago. Clinically it is known as oniomania. Shopaholics are the people who do not suffer from chrematophobia, which is the fear of touching money. Also see phobias In early France the distance a man could walk while smoking one pipeful of tobacco was called a pipee. The central shaft of a bird’s feather which bears the vane or web of the feather is called a rachis. The small cup in which an espresso is served is called a demitasse. A philologist study linguistics and etymology. People who cannot smell suffer from anosmia. Loss of taste is called ageusia. The hairless area of roughened skin at the tip of a bear’s snout is called the rhinarium. Someone who habitually picks his/her nose is called a rhinotillexomaniac (rhino=nose, tillexis=habit of picking at something, mania=obsession with something). A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium. The study of flags and emblems is called vexillology. The study of signs is called semiotics. The making of maps is called cartography. The ear-splitting sound produced by the high notes of a bagpipe is called a skirl. The fleshy projection above the bill on a turkey is called a snood. People who chase after rare birds are called twitchers. Stomach growls technically are called borborygmi; the growls are caused by contractions of the muscles of the stomach and small intestine and sometimes by muscles contractions of the large intestine (colon). 4 gills of ale and beer is 1 pint, 2 pints = 1 quart, 4 quarts = 1 gallon, 9 gallons = 1 firkin, 2 firkins = 1 kilderkin, 3 kilderkins = 1 hogshead, 2 hogsheads = 1 butt. The practice of eating insects is called entomophagy. Most insects are edible. According to eatbug.com, there are 1,462 recorded species of edible insects. And they’re quite nutritious. For instance, 100 grams of cricket contains only 121 calories, less than half of beef. A cricket contains only 5,5 grams of fat, compared to 21,2g of beef. Beef contains more protein (23,5g – a cricket 12.9g) but the 100g of cricket also contains 5,1g of carbohydrates, 75,8 mg calcium, 185,3 mg phosphorous, 9,5 mg iron, thiamin, riboflavin, and niacin.

Why?

Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy food? The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don’t mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices. What can you do to calm your aching tongue? Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called “casein” which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Alcohol also dissolves oily spices. Why does wet fabric appear darker? When fabric gets wet, light coming towards it refracts within the water, dispersing the light. In addition, the surface of the water causes incoherent light scattering. The combination of these two effects causes less light to reflect to your eyes and makes the wet fabric appear darker.

Why is blue for boys and pink for girls? In ancient times, it was believed that certain colors could combat the evil spirits that lingered over nurseries. Because blue was associated with the heavenly spirits, boys were clothed in that color, boys then being considered the most valuable resource to parents. Although baby girls did not have a color associated with them, they were mostly clothed in black. It was only in the Middle Ages when pink became associated with baby girls.

Why do people kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas? In ancient myth, when the son of the Norse goddess Frigga, Baldr, was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe and then brought back to life, she blessed the mistletoe and bestowed a kiss on all who passed beneath it. In the 18th century, the legend was adopted as a promise to marry. At Christmas a lady standing under a mistletoe may not refuse a kiss. If she does, she cannot expect to marry the following year. So it is told.

Why are there bunnies and eggs at Easter? The ancient Anglo-Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a carnival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eostre. The word carnival possibly originated from the Latin ‘carne vale’ meaning “flesh, farewell” or “meat, farewell.” The offerings were rabbits and colored eggs, bidding an end to winter. As it happened, the pagan festival of Eostre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ and it didn’t take the Christian missionaries long to convert the Anglo-Saxons when they encountered them in the second century. The offering of rabbits and eggs eventually became the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.

If blood is red, why are veins blue? Blood is bright red in its oxygenated form and a dark red in deoxygenated form. In simpler terms, it is bright red when it leaves the lungs full of oxygen and dark red when it returns to the lungs for a refill. Veins appear blue because light penetrating the skin is absorbed and reflected in high energy wavelengths back to the eye. Higher energy wavelengths are blue.

Why did Columbus and others try to sail around the world? You probably know that people native to the Americas are called “Indians” because early explorers like Christopher Columbus thought they had come across the Indian spice islands. Traders were forced to sail westward after the spice route to the East by land was blocked for Europeans by Muslim uprisings.

Why is it called a “loo?” The British word for toilet, “loo”, derives from the French “garde a l’eau!” In medieval Europe people had little conception of hygiene and threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window into the street below. In France the practice was preceded by “garde a l’eau!” (“watch out for the water!”). In England, this phrase was Anglicized, first to “gardy-loo!”, then just “loo”, and eventually came to mean the toilet/lavatory itself. The American word for toilet, “john”, is called after the John Harington who in 1596 invented an indoor water closet for Queen Elizabeth I.

Why is the sky blue? When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules. These molecules scatter the light. The shorter the wavelength of light, the more it is scattered by the atmosphere. Because it has a shorter wavelength than the other colors, blue light is scattered more, ten times more than red light, for instance. That is why the sky is blue. Why does the setting sun look reddish orange? When the sun is on the horizon, its light takes a longer path through the atmosphere to reach your eyes than when the sun is directly overhead. By the time the light of the setting sun reaches your eyes, most of the blue light has been scattered out. The light you finally see is reddish orange, the color of white light minus blue.

Why do onions make you cry? Onions, like other plants, are made of cells. The cells are divided into two sections separated by a membrane. One side of the membrane contains an enzyme which helps chemical processes occur in your body. The other side of the membrane contains molecules that contain sulfur. When you cut an onion, the contents on each side of the membrane mix and cause a chemical reaction. This reaction produces molecules such as ethylsufine which make your eyes water. To prevent crying when you cut an onion, cut it under a running tap of cold water. The sulfur compounds dissolve in water and are rinsed down the sink before they reach your eyes. You can also put the onion in the freezer for ten minutes before you cut it. Cold temperatures slow down the reaction between the enzyme and the sulfur compounds so fewer of the burning molecules will reach your eyes.

Why do you get hiccups? Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the muscle that controls our breathing, becomes irritated and start to spasm and contract uncontrollably. With each contraction, air is pulled into the lungs very quickly, passes through the voice box, and then the epiglottis closes behind the rush of air, shaking the vocal chords, causing the “hic” sound. The irritation can be caused by rapid eating, emotional stress and even some diseases. The best cure? Breathing into a paper bag. This calms the diaphragm by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.

Why are camels called “ships of the desert?” Camels are called “ships of the desert” because of the way they move, not because of their transport capabilities. Camels sway from side to side because they move both legs on one side at the same time, elevating that side. This is called pacing, a ship-like motion which can make the rider feel sick.

Why you shouldn’t smoke If you smoke, you’re also inhaling arsenic, benzene, cadmium, hydrogen cyanide, lead, mercury and phonol. In all, 4 000 harmful chemicals, including 44 types of poison, of which 43 are proven cancer-causing substances. Read the full story on smoking

*TRIVIA FOR FUN AND INFORMATION*

"SEVENS" SEVEN DEADLY SINS: Pride, Avarice, Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, Sloth and Lust. SEVEN Dwarfs: Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy and Sneezy. SEVEN SEAS: Indian, North Pacific, South Pacific, Antarctic, Arctic, North Atlantic and South Atlantic. SEVEN VIRTUES: Faith, Hope, Charity (Love), Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Temperance. SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD Antiquity: Colussus of Rhodes, Egyptian Pyramids, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Lighthouse at Alexandria, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia and the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. SEVEN WORKS OF MERCY: Bury the dead. Clothe the naked. Feed the hungry. Give drink to the thirsty. House the homeless. Tend the sick. Visit the fatherless and afflicted. SEVEN HILLS OF ROME: Aventine, Cailian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal and Viminal. SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD Middle Ages: Catacombs of Alexandria, Coliseum of Rome, Great Wall of China, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Mosque of St. Sophia at Constantinople, Porcelain Tower of Nanking and Stonehenge at Salisbury Plain, England.

The first home TV set was demonstrated in 1928 and the size of the screen was 3-inches by 4- inches. President George Washington owned foxhounds named DRUNKARD, TIPLER and TIPSY. As a twelve-year-old contestant, star PATTY DUKE won over $8,000 on the TV game show "THE $64,000 CHALLENGE". It takes 110 domestic silkworm cocoons to make a man's tie and 630 to make a blouse. PHILLIP DRINKER and Louis Agassiz Shaw built the first IRON LUNG with two vacuum cleaners at Harvard University in 1927. Iron Lungs are known as DRINKER RESPIRATORS. The first vending machines in the United States were installed on New York City train platforms in 1888 and dispensed CHEWING GUM. For his first JAMES BOND film Dr. No, 32-year-old SEAN CONNERY received a reported $16,500. By 1966, his salary was $750,000. "IN GOD WE TRUST", motto of United States, adopted July 30, 1956, first appeared on US coins in 1864. CHRISTMAS became a National Holiday in the U.S. in 1890. The FIRST TRANSOCEANIC CABLE MESSAGE was sent on August 16, 1858 and said "Europe and America are united by telegraph. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men". BUDDY was the name of the FIRST SEEING EYE DOG in AMERICA, brought to the U.S. in 1928 from Switzerland by owner Morris Frank. The Pony Express only lasted 18 months, from April 1860 to October 1861. The Lone Ranger's mask was made from the vest of his dead brother Capt. Daniel Reid by Tonto. Actor JAY SILVERHEELS who played the character TONTO retired from showbusiness in 1984 and became a HARNESS-RACING DRIVER. DERRY CHURCH, PA was the original name of the town known today as HERSHEY, PA home of HERSHEY CHOCOLATE. CLEO and CAESAR were early stage names of CHER and SONNY Bono.

1967 introduced NEW Words and Phrases into our vocabulary: Boutique, Hippie or Hippy, Teeny-Bopper, Nitty Gritty, Permanent Press, Narc, Hipsters, Kinky, Public Television, Scam, Swap Meet and Think Tank. Counterculture figurehead Dr.Timothy Leary advises, "Turn on, tune in, drop out". TV's MR.ED who's real name was Bamboo Harvester, was once a parade horse. He was bought for $1,500 by Filmway Productions. Stephen Stills, John Sebastian and Paul Williams all failed auditions to become members of the MONKEES. JIMI HENDRIX was the opening act for the MONKEES on their first tour. The parts of the human body that have only three letters are: arm, ear, eye, gum, jaw, leg, lip, rib and toe. Ian Fleming, creator of the JAMES BOND adventure novels also wrote "CHITTY-CHITTY BANG BANG". The last time a cigarette commercial appeared on TV was December 31, 1970. Benjamin Franklin wanted the TURKEY as the national symbol of the United States. According to SMURF legend, a baby SMURF is born "Once in a Blue Moon". The U.S. Post office introduced the Zone Improvement Plan (Zip codes) in 1963. IRON-EYES CODY is the name of the Cherokee Indian actor, notable for his "one tear" ecology spot on TV. In 1902, Joshua Lionel Cowen named his toy train company LIONEL after his middle name. On July 4, 1979, DONALD DUCK presented Teresa Salcedo the first birth certificate ever given for being born in DISNEYLAND. The first TEST TUBE BABY born in the United States on December 28, 1981 is Elizabeth Jordan Carr. When they were babies, both BROOKE SHIELDS and musician DR. JOHN posed for IVORY SOAP. PAMPERS disposable diapers were invented in 1961. Cartoon character "PEBBLES" Flintstone was born on February 22, 1963. To help celebrate the event, the Mattel toy company manufactured over 250,000 "PEBBLES" dolls, which were among the company's hottest-selling toys that year. The band "PEARL JAM" was named for lead singer Eddie Wedder's grandmother, PEARL, and the hallucinogenic PRESERVES (JAM) she made from peyote. APRIL DANCER, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. was played by Stephanie Powers. NIPPER the RCA dog was a Fox Terrier. There were 5 MARX brothers: GROUCHO (Julius), CHICO (Leonard), HARPO (Adolph), GUMMO (Milton), ZEPPO (Herbert). UNDERDOG'S secret identity was "Shoeshine Boy". The Russian government between the Czars and the Bolshevists was called Provisional. The color KHAKI was first used during the AFGHAN WAR in 1880 because the color was considered good camouflage. G.I. JOE first appeared in 1942. The cartoonist DAVE GERGER combined G.I. and JOE in his strip for "YANK". In World War II Army slang for an ARMY DONKEY was G.I. MOE. In 1964, HASBRO introduced an 11 1/2-inch doll called G.I. JOE, with 21 movable parts to "move G.I.JOE into action positions"..."America's Movable Fighting Man"....'fighting man from head to toe...on the land...on the sea...in the air...' First-year sales for the doll and his equipment reached $10 million. The FIRST TELEPHONE MESSAGE by Alexander Graham Bell on March 10, 1876 to his assistant Thomas Augustus Watson was "Mr. Watson, come here I need you". L'Oreal introduced the first hair spray in 1960 called ELNETT. RONALD McDONALD made his first national television appearance in 1967. CANNED COCA COLA was first introduced in the domestic market in 1960. In 1952 KELLOGG'S introduced two new cereals: "SUGAR SMACKS" and "SUGAR FROSTED FLAKES. The TV DINNER was introduced during WWII by SWANSON because cans and metals were rationed during the war. The skateboard was invented in 1963. According to both FRENCH and PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH tradition, BELLS NICHOLS is the name of Santa's BROTHER. The comic book character WONDER WOMAN was created by William Moulton Marston who also invented the LIE DETECTOR. SUPERMAN made his debut in Action Comics in 1938 and the artist was Joe Shuster and the writer was Jerry Siegel. "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings at a single bound, look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's Superman!" In the comic books, BEPPO was the name of Superman's MONKEY and COMET was his SUPER HORSE. Superman's real parents were Jor-El and Lara who died when the planet KRYPTON was destroyed. WHISTLER'S MOTHER is not what Whistler called his famous picture. His name for it was ARRANGEMENT in GRAY and BLACK. The initials used in C.A.R.E. stand for Cooperative American Relief Everywhere but originally stood for Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe. The MOON PLAQUE placed by the crew of APOLLO 11 reads:"Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969, A.D. We came in peace for all mankind." The British ship CARPATHIA was the first ship that answered the SOS of the "TITANIC". The first heavyweight boxing title bout in which gloves were used was in 1892 between John L. Sullivan and James J. Corbett. It was won by Corbett in 21 rounds. MUHAMMAD ALI once said "When a man can fight sex, you know he's strong". The BEATLES won a GRAMMY in 1964 for "BEST NEW ARTIST". The BEATLES's movie HELP was originally titled "Eight arms to hold you". The BEATLES played Shea Stadium in New York City on August 15, 1965 playing for 35 minutes and sang 12 songs in front of 56,000 fans. They were paid $160,000. The BEATLES movie "A Hard Day's Night" won TWO Academy Awards. The BEATLES gave The ROLLING STONES their first hit single "I WANNA BE YOUR MAN". Before he was a BEATLE, JOHN LENNON was the leader of the group called THE QUARRYMEN, named after The QUARRY BANK GRAMMAR SCHOOL located in Woolton, England. BRIAN JONES of The ROLLING STONES plays sax on The BEATLES' single "Baby You're a Rich Man". Sixteen year old Jane Chester posed for the "Columbia Pictures" LOGO called the PROUD LADY. In 1982, seven books by Jim Davis about GARFIELD were on the New York Times best-sellers list at the same time. The Kings in a deck of cards are named: Alexander, Caesar, Charles and David. In 1995, BLUE replaced TAN in the standard package of M&M candies. Blue was the overwhelming choice in a vote taken by MARS, Inc. The runner-up colors were purple and pink. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison all died at the age of 27. There were 15 STRIPES on the official AMERICAN FLAG before Congress passed a law forever setting the number to 13. The number had increased to 15 in 1795 to include Kentucky and Vermont. Since more and more states were joining the Union, the number of stripes was reduced to 13 as of July 4, 1818 to represent the ORIGINAL 13 STATES. GEORGE WASHINGTON was the FIRST President of the United States to have an "INAUGURAL BALL". It was held in New York City, NY on May 7, 1789. The first building erected by the Federal Government in Washington, DC was the EXECUTIVE MANSION which would later be known as the WHITE HOUSE. It was first occupied in 1800 by JOHN ADAMS. Hands Across America took place in 1986. It was 4,150 miles long. The Presidential Retreat in Maryland was originally called "Shangri-La". It was renamed "CAMP DAVID" by President Eisenhower in 1953 for his grandson. The HALL of FAME for "GREAT AMERICANS" is located on the grounds of New York University in New York City. So far, GENE AUTRY is the only entertainer to have FIVE STARS on Hollywood's "Walk of Fame"...one in each of the "Walks" five categories of FILM, TV, RECORDING, RADIO and THEATER. Helium is named after the Greek word for "sun". The modern hamburger on a bun got it's start at the ST. Louis World's Fair in 1904. HOWDY DOODY has a twin BROTHER named DOUBLE Doody and a SISTER named HEIDY Doody. To insure a worldwide audience, ALFRED HITCHCOCK filmed his opening and closing remarks in English, French and German. He also drew the famous profile of himself that he steps into before each episode of ALFRED HITCHOCK PRESENTS. The plastic on the end of a shoelace is called an AGLET. In Italian: "MAFIA" means "BEAUTY, EXCELLENCE and BRAVERY"; "COSA NOSTRA" means "OUR THING". The word "Highjack" originated during prohibition. When a truck of illegal liquor was taken, the gunman would say "HIGH, JACK", indicating how the driver should raise his hands. TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA is the unnatural fear of the number "13". "ROSEBUD" was CITIZEN KANE'S last word on his deathbead in the movie Citizen Kane made in 1941. ROSEBUD was a SLED he had as a child and the frame of the story of the movie was searching for the meaning his last word.

Half of the world's chameleon species lives in Madagascar.

Mangos are known throughout the world as the "King of Fruits." The cheetah is the world's fastest land mammal.

The fastest bird in the world is the Peregrine Falcon.

The only country in the world that has a Bill of Rights for Cows is India.

For every human in the world there are one million ants..

Oil tycoon, John D. Rockefeller, was the world's first billionaire.

Monopoly is the best-selling board game in the world. After chocolate and vanilla, orange is considered the world's most favorite flavor.

The hottest chili in the world is the Tezpur chili pepper.

40 percent of the almonds in the world are used by manufacturers of chocolate.

Rice is the chief food for half the people in the world.

Brazil produces the most oranges in the world.

The largest bird egg in the world today is that of the ostrich.

Grapes are grown around the world more than any other fruit.

The rarest coffee in the world is Kopi Luwak, which is found in Indonesia.

The smallest book in the world is "Chekhov's Chameleon," which measures 0.9 by 0.9 millimeters.

The coconut is the largest seed in the world.

The anaconda, one of the world's largest snakes, gives birth to its young instead of laying eggs.

There are more than 2,500 mushroom varieties grown in the world today.

Argentineans eat more meat than any other nation in the world. India's movie industry, Bollywood, is the largest in the world producing over eight hundred movies a year.

Finland has the greatest number of islands in the world, 179,584.

Black pepper is the most popular spice in the world.

The Netherlands are the lowest country in the world.

Panama is the only place in the world where one can see the sun rise on the Pacific Ocean and set on the Atlantic.

The population of the entire world in 5000 B.C. was 5 million.

Petroleum accounts for nearly half the world's energy supply.

The only poisonous birds in the world are the three species of Pitohui.

The world is an oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles, and bulging at the equator.

Millions of trees in the world are accidentally planted by squirrels who bury nuts and then forget where they hid them.

Eighty percent of the world's rose species come from Asia. The top three cork producing countries in the world are Spain, Portugal, and Algeria.

Forty six percent of the world's water is in the Pacific Ocean.

The largest water eddy in the world is the Sargasso Sea between the Azores and the West Indies.

The world's rarest gem is Painite.

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year.

The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park, California, is the largest tree in the world.

The Great Lakes are the largest group of freshwater lakes in the world.

The tallest mammal in the world is the giraffe.

Belize is the only country in the world with a jaguar preserve.

Twenty thousand plants are listed by the World Health Organization as being used for therapeutic purposes.

The Hope diamond is the biggest blue diamond known in the world.

Disney Trivia

Walt Disney got his idea for Mickey Mouse while watching the mice play one night in a garage. In 1992, when EuroDisney first opened in France, the public beat some of the park characters because at the time most people had been against the park being built. At Disneyland Paris, the park’s famous Sleeping Beauty Castle is known as Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant. Donald Duck's middle name is Fauntleroy. The largest employer in Central Florida is Walt Disney World with 50,000 people employed. The story of Mulan had been told in China for almost 1,500 years before it was made into a movie. Mickey Mouse is known as "Topolino" in Italy. "EPCOT" stands for “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” Walt Disney had originally suggested using the name Mortimer Mouse instead of Mickey Mouse. The Disney film Mary Poppins (1964) was shot entirely indoors. H.R. Haldeman and Ron Ziegler, who helped plan the Watergate burglary for President Nixon, both worked at Disneyland when they were younger. Disneyland and Walt Disney World amusement parks are in counties with the same name. Disneyland is in Orange County, California; Disney World is in Orange County, Florida. The Swiss Family Robinson tree house in Disneyland has 300,000 fake leaves on it. There were 6,469,952 spots painted on the dogs in the original 101 Dalmatians. The female name Minnie is a Scottish variation of the name Mary. Walt Disney had a fear of mice.

Titanic Facts

RMS stands for Royal Mail Steamer.

Although there were 4 funnels only 3 were operational. The 4th funnel was for looks.

The studios wanted Matthew McConaughey cast as Jack Dawson but James Cameron insisted on Leonardo DiCaprio.

Titanic's total capacity was 3547 passengers and crew, fully loaded.

The Titanic was designed to hold 32 lifeboats, though only 20 were on board because the management was concerned that too many boats would sully the aesthetic beauty of the ship.

The wreckage of Titanic was located in 1985, 12,500 feet down, about 531 km southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.

The cost of the Titanic in 1912 was $7,500,000.

The Titanic had electric elevators, a swimming pool, a squash court, a Turkish Bath, and a gymnasium with a mechanical horse and mechanical camel.

Survivors were rescued by the Carpathia which was 58 miles southeast of Titanic when it received the distress call.

In 1912, skilled shipyard workers who built Titanic earned $10 per week.

The two pieces of the Titanic lay 1,970 feet apart from one another on the ocean floor.

White Star Line was the company that built the Titanic, and was owned by J.P. Morgan.

The price of a single first-class ticket was $4,700, about $50,000 in today's money.

There were 6 ice warnings received by Titanic on the day of the collision. They were all ignored by the wireless operator who was preoccupied with transmitting passenger messages.

On the night of the collision, because the moon was not out, and the water was so still, it was very difficult to see the iceberg. A less calm water would have caused breakers around the iceberg making it easier to see it from afar.

The iceberg that the Titanic struck was not a very big one. It did not even come up as high as the bridge of the ship.

As the ship was sinking, the stern rose out of the water, and broke into two pieces between the third and fourth funnels. James Cameron drew all the sketches in Jack's sketchbook and the sketch of Rose wearing the famous necklace.

Math Facts

A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

1 and 2 are the only numbers where they are the values of the numbers of factors they have.

'Forty' is the only number that has all its letters in alphabetical order.

'FOUR' is the only number in the English language that is spelt with the same number of letters as the number itself

Multiply 37,037 by any single number (1-9), then multiply that number by 3. Every digit in the answer will be the same as that first single number.

1x9 +2 = 11 , 12x9 +3 = 111 , 123x9+4 = 1111 etc

2 and 5 are the only primes that end in 2 or 5.

The 772-778 digits of pi are 9999998, the greatest sum of 7 consecutive digits in the first 1,000,000 or so digits.

There are 2,598,960 five-card hands possible in a 52-card deck of cards.

The largest prime number is 13,395 digits long; more than the number of atoms in the universe.

142857 is a cyclic number, the numbers of which always appear in the same order but rotated around when multipled by any number from 1 to 6. 142857 * 2 = 285714 142857 * 3 = 428571 142857 * 4 = 571428 142857 * 5 = 714285 142857 * 6 = 857142

Tycho Brahe, a 16th century astronomer, lost his nose in a duel with one of his students over a mathematical computation. He wore a silver replacement nose for the rest of his life.

If you multiply 1089 x 9 you get the exact reverse, 9801.

Earth Facts

Jellyfish have been on Earth for over 650 million years, before sharks and dinosaurs.

Sharks have survived on earth for about 400 million years.

There are more than 50,000 earthquakes throughout the world every year.

On Venus, the Sun rises in the west and sets in the east.

The Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. A space vehicle must move at a rate of at least 7 miles per second to escape Earth's gravitational pull.

All the coal, oil, gas, and wood on Earth would only keep the Sun burning for a few days.

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply.

The Dead Sea has been sinking for last several years.

There are more insects in one square mile of rural land than there are human beings on the entire earth.

The Sun contains 99.8 percent of the total mass of the solar system.

The meaning of Siberia is "sleeping land."

The Sun is approximately 149 million kilometers from the earth.

Approximately 70 percent of the Earth is covered with water. Only 1 percent of the water is drinkable.

The world's highest capital is La Paz, which is the capital of Bolivia.

The Pacific Ocean covers 28% of the Earth's surface.

The oceans of the world would rise about 60 meters if Antarctica's ice sheets melted.

Of all known forms of animals life ever to inhabit the Earth, only about 10 percent still exist today.

One Neptune year lasts 165 Earth years.

An earthquake in 1811 caused parts of the Mississippi River to flow backwards.

A galactic year is 250 million Earth-years.

Copper is the second most used metal in the world.

Pigeons and hummingbirds have tiny magnetic particles in their heads that are used for navigation.

The Atlantic Ocean is saltier than the Pacific Ocean.

Of the twenty-five highest mountains on Earth, nineteen are in the Himalayas.

The deepest point on the Earth's surface is in the Pacific Ocean located in the Marianas trench.

Russia is the world's largest country with an area of over 17 million square kilometers.

A neutron star is the strongest magnet in the universe. A pulsar is a small star made up of densely packed neutrons.

A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere.

About 27 tons of dust rains down on the earth each day from space.

Finland is also known as "the land of of the thousand lakes".

It is impossible for a solar eclipse to last more than 8 minutes.

If you were standing on Mercury, the Sun would appear 2.5 times larger than it appears from Earth.

The Earth travels through space at 660,000 miles per hour.

Each day the sun causes about one trillion tons of water to evaporate.

If all the salt were to be extracted from the oceans, there would be enough salt to cover all the continents five feet deep.

Aluminum forms one-twelfth of the Earth's crust.

World Facts and Trivia

 The total land area of the earth's surface is estimated at 148,647,000 sq km. This is about 29.1% of the total surface area of Earth.  The largest and most populated continent is Asia, with an area of 44,579,000 sq km. The idea of its size can be had from the fact that the total land expanse of the world can't contain even four continents of this size.

 According to latest data for 2011, the world population stands at more than 7 billion. Amazingly, the world population has doubled during the last 40 years. It is expected to touch about 10.5 billion by the year 2050.  On average, there are 47 people for every sq km of the world. Macau, an administrative region in China, has the highest population density - 18,534 per sq km; on the other hand, places like Mongolia have less than 2 people every sq km!

 By area, the largest country is Russia - 17,075,400 sq km. The smallest one is Vatican City, a mere 0.44 sq km. Believe it or not, Russia can hold close to 39 million countries the size of Vatican City!  The estimated literacy rate for the world is 82%. Overall, the male literacy rate (87%) happens to be higher than the female literacy rate (77%). Greenland is the largest island, with an area of 2,175,600 sq km. However, still larger is Australia, even though it is not considered an island officially. If it were, it would beat Greenland by 3.5 times its size!

 Caspian Sea is regarded the largest lake in the world. Because of its large spread (371,000 sq km) and saline water, the ancient people considered it an ocean!  There are 24 time zones around the world.  The earthquake that devastated central China in 1557 and killed 830,000 people was the most lethal of its kind.  The maximum depth of ocean in world is 6.9 miles.  There are 10 families into which countries around the world can be categorized.  There are 540 volcanoes on earth's surface.  There are certain countries or regions that have descriptive names not really indicative of them, such as Greenland and Dead Sea.  The seasons around the world change owing to earth's orbital positioning.  There are 10 countries in the world that are known by separate English names.  The average rate of lightings on a global scale is 100 per second.  There are 14 countries and cities whose names have been changed in the last few years.  The estimated amount of snow crystals that drop from skies every year all over the world is 1 septillion.  China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos are the only countries where Communism is still active.  At any time 10% of earth's surface is under ice.  France has the maximum overseas dependencies - 16 and Denmark and the Netherlands have the least - 2.

 From space earth looks the brightest among all planets, thanks to its water bodies that reflect sunlight.  There are 10 places in the world that are known for their distance from habitable locations such as Badlands in USA and Highlands in UK.  Bay of Fundy experiences the highest difference in changes in tide.  The quantity of water used on a daily basis around the world is 400 billion gallons.  Monaco has the highest population concentration in the world.  The world has only 3% fresh water.  Peregrine Falcon has the maximum speeds among birds of the world.  The aggregate surface are of world is 197 million square miles.  Iceland has ranked as the most livable country in 2007 and in the same year, Sierra Leone ranked as the least livable country.  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has 26 member nations.  The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is made up of 12 countries.  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has 12 member nations.  G-8 or Group of 8 has 8 member nations: France, Canada, Italy, Germany, Russia, Japan, U.S., and UK.  Burj Khalifa (previously Burj Dubai in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, is the tallest building in the world.  In 2010, Shanghai in China ranked as the most populated city in the world.  Vatican city is the smallest nation in the world.  The tallest waterfall in the world is the Angel Falls in Venezuela.  The Earth moves through space at a speed of 66,700 miles/hour.  The Persian Gulf is the hottest sea in the world.  Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the tallest peak in the world (elevation 29,035 feet).  Machu Picchu in Peru is also known as "The City in the Clouds" and is one of the Seven Wonders of the world.  South Africa has three capital cities - Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial).  Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the world, is situated in the Pacific Ocean.  Antarctica is the driest, tallest, and coldest continent in the world.  Situated in Hawaii, the Mauna Loa volcano is the biggest volcano in the world.  With a length of 4,132 miles, the Nile River in Africa is the longest river in the world.

BMW, as in the car, stands for Bavarian Motor Works.

The longest U.S. highway is route 6 which starts in Cape Cod, Massachusetts and ends in Bishop, California.

In M&M candies, the letters stand for Mars and Merrie.

The first (and, well, only) President of the USA to hold a doctorate was Woodrow Wilson, who was President of Princeton University before becoming President of the United States in 1913.

Coffee is the second largest item of international commerce in the world. The largest is petrol.

The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.

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

The world’s smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand, weighing less than a penny.

The letters “M.G.” on the British sportscar actually stand for “Morris Garage.”

Shiek” means “old man” in Arabic.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Istanbul, Turkey is actually in two continents – Asia and Europe.

The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.

Until 1796, there was a state in the United States called Franklin. Today it is known as Tennessee.

Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn’t wear pants.

Dr. Seuss actually pronounced Seuss such that it sounded like Sue-ice.

The ZIP in Zip-code stands for Zoning Improvement Plan.

The “You are here” arrow on a map is called the IDEO locator.

The lowest temperature ever recorded was 129 degrees below 0 at Vostok, Antarctica, on July 21, 1983.

The smallest bone in the body is the stirrup.

Abraham Lincoln died in a bed slept in by his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

The kiwi is the only bird that has nostrils at the end of its bill.

Nepal is the only country in the world which does not have a rectangular flag – it has two triangular pennants, one on top of the other.

The letter “Q” is the only letter not used in the spelling of any of the 50 US states. As you probably know, when people face an emotional situation, their faces and necks turn red and warm. This is due to your nerves, called vasodilators, being stimulated which makes the tiny blood vessels in your face and neck expand. Because of this, more blood is allowed to travel through these blood vessels and, as a result, giving them a red appearance.