Weird, Strange but true facts about the Earth
In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park, USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.
The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.
The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah'. It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.
Hunger (Hungry ) Facts...
1) Hunger and malnutrition kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
2) Every five seconds a child dies because he or she was hungry.
3) There are more than 800 million people around the world who know what it is like to go to bed hungry.
4) The world produces enough food to feed everyone but still these 800 million remain chronically hungry.
5) In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are 198 million hungry people.
6) More than 2 million people are likely to be dependent on food aid in the Darfur region of western Sudan by next year.
7) Almost 10 million people are killed around the world each year by hunger and malnutrition. That is more than the total number of people who died in World War I.
8) One out of every three people in Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from hunger.
9) Almost a quarter of the world's hungry people live in Africa.
10) Good nutrition helps prolongs the life of HIV sufferers.
11) Africa has already lost more farmers to AIDS (7 million) than there are farmers in Europe and North America.
12) By 2020, HIV is expected to have killed 20% of southern Africa's farm workers.
13) HIV and hunger work together. Malnutrition accelerates the progress of HIV. HIV worsens malnutrition.
14) There are 11 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Most never learnt how their parents grew or prepared food.
15) 10 pence a day is all it takes to feed a hungry child at school.
16) Hunger is inherited. Each year 17 million children are born underweight because their mothers are malnourished.
17) Providing pregnant mothers with nutritionally balanced food can reduce the likelihood of an underweight baby by 32%.
18) In the 1990s, global poverty dropped by 20% but the number of undernourished people around the world increased.
19) The World Food Programme devotes a larger proportion of its assistance (on average half) to Africa than any other UN agency or individual government donor.
20) Food aid from the World Food Programme has reached 1.2 billion of the world's poor over the past 4 decades - that's almost the equal to the population of India.
@# FRIDAY... The 13th @@
FRIDAY THE 13TH is back! Avoid black cats, mirrors, ladders and do not spill the salt. One of the most widespread superstitions of modern day is that Friday the 13th is an inauspicious day. In this symbolism, both Friday as well as 13 are considered to be unlucky and when added, their sum accounts double trouble.
Superstitions revolving around Friday the 13th as being unlucky have existed since ancient times beginning with the Northern countries. The modern day context originated from October 13, 1307 which is regarded as a black day in history. The catastrophe that occurred this day was known as the ‘Decimation of the Knights Templar’, the legendry order of ‘warrior monks’ formed during the crusades. Acclaimed as a fighting force for 2000 years, the order had grown so powerful; it was perceived as a political threat by kings and popes alike who sought to bring it down.
On the infamous Friday of October 13, 1307, officers of King Philip IV of France carried out mass arrests in a well-coordinated raid that left thousands of knights, templars, sergeants and priests charged with heresy, obscenities and homosexuality. None of these charges were ever proven, but the seven years following the arrests thousands of templars and knights suffered excruciating tortures and many of them were executed by the burning stake.
Ancient Romans committed the sixth day of the week to Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. When the Norsemen adopted the Roman method of naming days, they called it Freya, a translation for the goddess which eventually evolved into Friday, which was considered to be the luckiest day of the week.
Muslims regard Friday as the day God created Adam and Christians consider it as the day on which Christ was crucified.
According to a popular Scandinavian belief the number 13 indicated bad luck which resulted from Loki, their 13th demigod, who inflicted great misfortune on humans. In Christianity, Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest at the table of The Last Supper.
The biggest drawback in the theory stating that Friday the 13th is unlucky is the fact the there is no documentation of such beliefs prior to the 19th century. There is no evidence to back the fact that people observed it as a day likely to bring misfortune. Superstitions originate from beliefs or practices man used or is using to protect himself. It throws light on the fact the somewhere all of us are insecure. Despite the advancements in science and technology we are still unable to contest the paranormal.
People tend to overlook superstitions unless they are backed by concrete scientific evidence. The origin of every superstition is a belief. The phobia of Friday, the 13th is called Paraskevidekatriaphobia.
Interesting facts
The number 13 is despised by many to this extent that certain cities do not have a 13th Street or Avenue.
Some buildings do not have a 13th floor.
Certain hotels do not have a room numbered 13.
The opera house in Italy has also avoided the number.
Numerology and the number 13
According to numerology, the number signifies change. This can be positive as well as negative. Nothing associated with the number is jinxed. It is an utter myth.
Hype about Friday the 13th
After the release of the Hollywood blockbuster Friday the 13th the media created much hype about the day being ill-fated and unlucky.
Friday the 13th is not a day to be despised. We live in a superstitious world and it is likely for many to be paranoid in response to certain phobias. Today being Friday the 13th thousands of people will stay indoors, avoid driving and indulge in a number of religious affairs to ward off the so-called ill-effects of the day. Any kind of fear is a creation of the mind. One needs to learn to overcome such superstitions and beliefs by taming the mind in the right way.
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