General Knowledge | Believe It or Not

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*Coca-Cola was originally green.

*The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

*The name of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with.

*The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.

*There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

*TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.

*Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

*You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

*It is impossible to lick your elbow.

*People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

*It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

*The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

*If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

*Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from
history.
> Spades - King David
> Clubs - Alexander the Great,
> Hearts - Charlemagne
> Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

*111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

*If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

*What do bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laser printers all have in common?
Ans. - All invented by women.

*Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this?
Ans. - Honey

*A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

*A snail can sleep for three years.

*All polar bears are left handed.

*Butterflies taste with their feet.

*Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

*On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

*Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

*Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

*The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

*The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

*The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

*Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

*Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

*The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

*Most lipstick contains fish scales.

*Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different

And finally 99% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

Interesting Fact | This is awesome - I bet you didn't know this... | Believe it or Not

This is awesome - I bet you didn't know this...

Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' & 'd' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99

(Letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred)

Letters 'a', 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999

(Letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand)

Letters 'b' & 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999

(Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion)

And

Letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in in the spellings of entire English Counting

Mysterious Stair Case !

The Mysterious Staircase !

City of Santa Fé, in New Mexico, USA. A mystery of over 130 years and attracting around 250 thousand visitors every year. Point of attention : Loretto Chapel

What makes this chapel different from all others is that the subject of the supposed miracle that took place in it is a Staircase.

A chapel was constructed somewhere in hte 19th century. When it was ready, the nuns found that there was no staircase built to take them to the top level. They spent 9 days praying to St. Joseph, who was a carpenter. On the last day, a stranger knocked at their door and said that he was a carpenter who could help them build the staircase.

He constructed the staircase, all by himself, which was considered to be the pride of carpentery. None knew how the staircase could stand by itself as it did not have a central support. Then the carpenter, who did not use a single nail or glue to construct this staircase, disappeared without even waiting for his payment.

There was a rumour in the city of Santa Fé, that the carpenter was St. Joseph himself ...sent by Jesus Christ to attend to the nuns’ problem. Since then, the staircase was known to be called “miraculous” and turned out to be the site for pilgrimage.

There are 3 mysteries in this case, says the spokesman of the chapel : the 1st mystery is that, until today, the identity of this man is not known.

The second mystery – all the architects, engineers and scientists say that they cannot understand how this staircase can balance without any central support.

And the 3rd mystery – from where did the wood come? They have checked and found out that the type of wood used to build the staircase does not exist in the entire region

There is another detail that has just increased the belief in the supposed miracle : The staircase has 33 steps, the age of Jesus Christ. M. G a llo



More on this pretty urban legend...
The Mysterious Staircase at Loretto Chapel

Great Minds | Only great minds can read this This is weird, but interesting!

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Only great minds can read this
This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs you are one of the 55

NAMAKAM KUDIRINDA
Did U Belived

76-foot pencil

Well, we did it and we had a blast! A bunch of guys from about 15 countries spent 2 weeks building the world’s largest pencil. It wasn’t easy. We had to make the pencil to scale, it had to look precisely like a normal pencil and it had to be made out of exactly the same materials. We used over 8,000 board feet of wood, 4,500 pounds of 10-inch graphite, which ran the length of the 76-foot pencil, and we even manufactured a 250-pound eraser. It took our two main carpenters a full day to sharpen the point of the pencil using a Sawzall, axes, and a grinding machine!

The pencil was designed to commemorate Sri Chinmoy’s 76th birthday. Sri Chinmoy is a highly prolific writer and artist, so we thought presenting him with a giant writing instrument would be appropriate. About 10 years ago, we built a 20-foot pencil for Sri Chinmoy, but, a few years later, the European pencil company, Faber-Castell, constructed a 64-foot pencil to erase (pardon the pun) our record. I wouldn’t have thought of getting the record back except, this past December, I happened to meet the renowned Count Faber-Castell at a vacation resort in Turkey. We became friendly and I mentioned that I had the hope of someday regaining the pencil record. He suddenly became very serious and retorted, "Impossible, you’ll never do it!” That was a challenge I just couldn’t ignore!

Minature Shoes

Ram Kumar, 36, a cobbler, works at a shoe factory in Jammu September 2007. Kumar, who works at a shoe factory in the northern town of Jammu, spends his weekends making miniature shoes, half-an-inch (1.3 cm) long, in an attempt to get into the Guinness World Book of Records or the Indian equivalent

The Mystery of the Bermuda Triangle

One of the greatest mysteries that the world faces - The Bermuda Triangle. It seemingly has an endless appetite for aircrafts and ships. How does this happen?

Ships, airplanes, helicopters and men – they have all been sucked into the Bermuda Triangle at some point of time or the other. None of them have ever returned. It is impossible to provide details of the first such disappearance because of erratic record keeping over the years, but it was the U.S. Navy that first brought the Bermuda Triangle mystery into the limelight.

On 5 December 1945, five Avenger torpedo bombers of the US Navy took off from Fort Lauderdale on a routine training flight over the Atlantic. They did not return. A large Mariner flying boat sent to search for the missing aircraft also failed to return. No trace has ever been found of the six planes or the 27-crew members. As a result of this incident, it was discovered that quite a few ships and aircraft had also been lost, apparently without explanation in the triangular area off the south-east coast of the United States bounded by Bermuda, Puerto-Rico and Florida.

Every investigator worth his salt has postulated a number of theories that attempt to satisfactorily explain the mysterious happenings at the Bermuda triangle. Some of the more bizarre explanations include extra-terrestrials, the presence of a huge magnet, the position of the moon, sudden appearing of giant waves, time/space warps, electrostatic charges, and the return of the inhabitants of the lost city Atlanta. There have been innumerable books that have been written regarding the unusual phenomenon which take place in this area.

One of the problems faced by those documenting the missing ships and aircrafts is the fact that there is lack of reliable data. Insurance companies seldom insure smaller aircrafts and ships. This area comes under the aegis of the U.S. Navy but the US Coast Guard SAR (Search and Rescue) publishes yearly statistics for calls of assistance, causes of accidents, weather, deaths, and conditions. But missing vessels are not included. However it is generally believed that around 20 aircrafts and 50 vessels have gone missing over the years. In 1492, shortly after leaving the Canary Islands, Christopher Columbus recorded in his ship's log that he and his crew had observed a large ball of fire fall into the sea and that the ship's compass showed erratic readings while in the Sargasso Sea and Triangle.

One of the more credible theories seems to belong to Dr Richard McIver, who centers his explanation on the presence of methane hydrate. Methane hydrate was first encountered in the 1920s and 1930s in the early days of the American and Soviet gas industries. Natural gases (a mixture of flammable gases found in the Earth’s crust, methane, ethane, butane and propane) were being piped across the Atlantic but occasionally the pipes would become mysteriously plugged up.

All gases except for helium, hydrogen and neon can form hydrates if enough gas and water are present, if the pressure is high enough and if the temperature is low enough. These conditions can be found naturally occurring on earth, and methane hydrate has been found to exist in huge quantities in many parts of the sea floor and is concentrated in some places on continental slopes such as the Bermuda Triangle. The structure of the molecule of methane hydrate is such that it facilitates the capturing of a large amount of gas. If this were to break-up, then even a small area could cause a large gas release.

Sediment piles on continental slopes have the tendency to accumulate on the slopes of the edge of continental plates. But it is unstable and can tumble down. When this happens, it can cause the removal of the hydrate layer, releasing the methane gas trapped below. Methane gas bubbling up through the sea will cause an area of decreased density; ships will lie lower in the water and will be swamped by the least wave; also methane gas when mixed with air in the correct proportions is highly explosive. This could account for the mysterious disappearances of both ships and aircraft.

All this activity on the sea bed occurs at the edges of tectonic plates, where there is constant activity as a result of the pressures beneath the earth’s crust; any wreckage sinking to the bottom would be lost forever beneath the moving plates.

The latest myth that is doing the rounds is that there have been disappearances in the Indian and Pacific oceans, this means that the Bermuda Triangle is widening in scope.

Snakes Vs Lizards

Snakes Vs Lizards

Cousins

There are four groups in the reptile family. Snakes and Lizards belong to the same group. In this way we can say that Snakes and Lizards are cousins. Just like you and your cousins, the snake and the lizard are different in many ways, but they have some similarities.

Supper for Snakes

Snakes eat only live food. Most snakes eat rats, birds, rabbits and sometimes they even eat their cousins, the lizards!!! Small snakes eat mice, worms, frogs, snails, and insects. African egg eating snakes eat only bird's eggs.
But guess what the favourite food of some snakes is? It's other snakes! Cobras eat lots of other snakes. Snakes don't chew their food. They swallow it whole. How rude! Snakes can open their mouths very wide. Their heads and bodies stretch to let in the big things.

Egg eating snakes can swallow eggs that are bigger then their heads! Little snakes can swallow whole frogs.And big Pythons can swallow whole pigs, small deer, or goats, hoofs and all!

Animal Actors

Many Reptiles protect themselves by pretending. The Frilled Lizard is small and harmless. But it pretends to be big and dangerous. When it opens it's mouth its throat is bright red and frightening. A big flap of skin on its neck lifts up and spreads out. The lizard suddenly looks much bigger and very dangerous!

The harmless hog- nosed snake pretends to be dangerous, too. It opens its moouth and hisses. It pretends it's going to bite. But then if its enemy isn't frightened, it pretends to be dead. It rolls over onto its back and lies still. Most animals don't like to eat dead snakes so the enemy usually goes away.

Fun Facts

Fun Fact 1

Snakes can bend and twist because thier backbone is made up of hundreds of tiny bones, all linked together like a chain.

Fun Fact 2

Most Snakes are loners, but hundreds of rattlesnakes will snuggle up together underground to sleep through the cold winter months.

Fun Fact 3

Lizards can snap off their tails when they're being attacked. The dropped tail wriggles, puzzling the enemy, and giving the lizard time to escape. A new tail grows in a few weeks

. Fun Fact 4

The stumpy- tailed skink has a stumpy tail the same shape as its head. As long as it keeps its mouth shut, its enemies can't tell whether the lizard is coming or going

History lesson | Presidential Curse | Believe it or Not

Presidential Curse

Look what happens when a President gets elected in a year with a "0" at the end. Also notice it goes in increments of 20 years.

1840: William Henry Harrison (died in office)
1860: Abraham Lincoln (assassinated)
1880: James A. Garfield (assassinated)
1900: William McKinley (assassinated)
1920: Warren G. Harding (died in office)
1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt (died in office)
1960: John F. Kennedy (assassinated)
1980: Ronald Reagan (survived assassination attempt)
2000: George W. Bush (?)

And to think that we had two guys fighting it out in the courts to be the one elected in 2000.

You might also be interested in this. Have a history teacher explain this if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Ford'.
Kennedy was shot in a car called 'Lincoln' made by 'Ford'.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the kicker.......

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.
A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Creepy huh? This is one history lesson people don't mind reading!