Enthralling Facts...!

How Ants Communicate

2009-09-09T18:42:00.006+08:00

Ants? They are everywhere.. but have you ever wonder how they communicate with each other or to other insects?
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae, and along with the related wasps and bees, they belong to the order Hymenoptera. Find out how they communicate!

How Ants Communicate

Ants communicate with each other using pheromones.
Ants perceive smells with their long, thin and mobile antennae which also provide information about the direction and intensity of scents.
Ants leave pheromone trails on the soil surface to be followed by other ants.
A crushed ant emits an alarm pheromone that sends nearby ants into an attack frenzy and attracts more ants from further away.
Several ant species use "propaganda pheromones" to confuse enemy ants and make them fight among themselves.
Pheromones are also exchanged mixed with food and passed by trophallaxis, transferring information within the colony to allow other ants to detect what task group other colony members belong to.
Some ants produce sounds by stridulation, using the gaster segments and their mandibles.
Ants send tactile signals by touching and stroking each others' bodies with their antennae and forelegs.
Ants produce high-pitched chirps known as stridulations by rubbing together specialized body parts on the abdomen called files and scrapers.
The young queen stridulates frantically during mating season to announce a full sperm sac, deterring other would-be mates and allowing her to escape to begin nesting.

Sharks!!!

2009-08-06T22:37:00.003+08:00

SHARKS

Sharks are fishes, but unlike most fish their skeletons are made of cartilage, which is lighter and more flexible than bone.

A shark can hear a fish in the water from more than a mile away.

Sharks can smell one drop of blood in a million drops of water.

Sharks’ wounds heal quickly and they rarely get tumors.

Some sharks live in rivers.

Sharks do not sleep. Rather, they experience alternating periods of activity and rest.

Sharks cannot hover in the water like a goldfish and they must keep swimming forward to stop themselves sinking. Some sharks, however, habitually lie on the bottom of the sea.

The smallest shark is the spined pygmy shark that grows to around 15cm long, the same size as a chocolate bar.

Tiger sharks have such a varied diet they have earned the nickname ‘garbage can sharks’. They will eat almost anything they encounter in the water: bony fish, sharks, seabirds, turtles, lobsters, cats, dogs, number plates and octopuses.

The sand tiger shark pups developing inside the mother will eat each other until just one survives. This is called intra-uterine cannibalism.

The largest shark is the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), which can grow to 60 feet (20 meters) long. The gentle giant eats tiny plankton.

Great White Shark meat is not recommended for human consumption because it has very high mercury levels.

The Great White Shark have an enormous liver that can weigh up to 24 percent of its entire weight.

The Great White Shark lives for about 25 years.

A Great White Shark is capable of eating sea lions whole.

Great White Sharks rarely attack people and when they do, it is because they mistaken the person for their usual seal prey.

A Great White Shark can roll its eyeballs back, which protects the vital front part of the eye from being scratched.

More than 70 percent of known victims of Great White Shark Attacks survive because the shark realizes it has made a mistake and doesn’t finish off the prey.

SHARKS

ACHOO!!!

2009-07-19T11:45:00.012+08:00

SNEEZING

A sneeze (or sternutation) is a semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the lungs through the nose and mouth, most commonly caused by foreign particles irritating the nasal mucosa.

Some facts about sneezing...

Primarily caused by the irritation of our nasal mucosa (the dermal membrane inside our nose)

You always close your eyes when you sneeze

Sneezing can send tiny particles speeding out of your nose at up to 100 miles per hour

About 1 out of every 3 people sneezes when exposed to bright light (photic sneezers)

Looking toward a bright light briefly can unstick a stuck sneeze

Some people sneeze when they pluck their eyebrows

A full stomach is another factor that causes one to sneeze

You cannot or one is incapable of sneezing while at sleep

Your heart doesn't stop beating when you sneeze but just change your blood flow and the rhythm of your heartbeat

“Bless you” is uttered to a person who just sneezed

The spray of either saliva or any other particle that goes with it reaches up to five feet

Donna Griffiths holds the longest sneezing streak of being able to sneeze almost every minute and actually spent the 978 days of her life sneezing

Saying “lamp” or “cucumber” repeatedly after sensing a sneeze to be coming, delays or stops it from happening

Phobia...!

2009-07-13T22:20:00.004+08:00

Phobia

Phobia is one of the five major types of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger at all.

People with phobias will really try to avoid what they are afraid of because if they can't, they may experience panic and fear, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling and a string desire to get away.

Having a phobia may cause problems like social isolation, depression and substance abuse.

Phobias are divided into three main categories: specific phobias, social phobia, fear of open spaces (agoraphobia). Many specific phobias can be traced back to a specific triggering event, usually a traumatic experience at an early age. Social phobias and agoraphobia have more complex causes. It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combined with life-experiences play a major role in the development of anxiety disorders, phobias and panic attacks.

* Social phobia, which is also known as social anxiety disorder, fears involving other people or social situations such as performance anxiety or fears of embarrassment by scrutiny of others, such as eating in public.
* Specific phobias are fear of a single specific panic trigger such as spiders, snakes, dogs, elevators, water, waves, flying, balloons, catching a specific illness, etc.
* Agoraphobia is a generalized fear of leaving home or a small familiar 'safe' area, and of possible panic attacks that might follow.

Phobia

Below is a list of some of the phobia names from phobialist.com which i find interesting:

Achluophobia- Fear of darkness.

Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places.

Ailurophobia- Fear of cats.

Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.

Androphobia- Fear of men.

Anthrophobia or Anthophobia- Fear of flowers.

Anuptaphobia- Fear of staying single.

Batrachophobia- Fear of amphibians, such as frogs, newts, salamanders, etc.

Bibliophobia- Fear of books.

Cacophobia- Fear of ugliness.

Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.

Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors.

Chaetophobia- Fear of hair.

Coitophobia- Fear of coitus.

Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school.

Dikephobia- Fear of justice.

Dipsophobia- Fear of drinking.

Ecclesiophobia- Fear of church.

Gamophobia- Fear of marriage.

Geliophobia- Fear of laughter.

Hemophobia or Hemaphobia or Hematophobia- Fear of blood.

Kakorrhaphiophobia- Fear of failure or defeat.

Mastigophobia- Fear of punishment.

Oneirophobia- Fear of dreams.

Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams.

Suriphobia- Fear of mice.

Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13.

Heart-Wrenching Farewell of the King of Pop's Daughter

2009-07-08T23:21:00.000+08:00

At the funeral of MJ, his 11-year-old daughter, Paris, said a few words...

"I just wanted to say, ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine! I just wanted to say I love him so much,.."

A Few Facts About MJ

2009-07-07T01:32:00.005+08:00

The King of Pop
(before)

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman.
Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in 1958. The town is planning a tribute museum to the pop superstar.
Michael Jackson is the seventh of nine children.
Jackson is a vegetarian.
Jackson's favourite superhero is Morph from the X-Men.
An obsessed French Jackson superfan committed suicide in 1984 after his mother refused to allow him to undergo surgery to look like the star.

In 1984, a U.S. library accused Jackson of owing it over $1 million in overdue book fines. Officials said they would scrap the fines if he returned the books autographed.

Jackson received a Presidential Humanitarian Award from Ronald Reagan in 1984 for his support of charities helping people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.

Jackson wears his trademark black armband to remind fans of the suffering of children around the world.

Jackson's Billie Jean was the first video by a black artist to air on MTV.

The King of Pop
(after)

...DrEaM...

2009-07-07T01:07:00.001+08:00

Dreaming woman

...Some FACTS About DREAMS...

The word dream is derived from dreme, which stands for joy and music.
You cannot dream while snoring.
Kids up to the age of 3 and 4 never dream about themselves.
People who have been blind all their lives still dream. But, their dreams are formed based on their four other senses (touch, smell, taste, and sound).
The average dream lasts between 10 and 15 minutes.

The five most common dreams are that of falling, being chased, our teeth falling out, being back in school, and your spouse cheating on you.

A 1980 study showed that 42% of people felt they had had a dream about something that later came true.

Dreaming is necessary. If people are prevented from dreaming, they can suffer from personality disorders and psychological problems.

Men tend to dream more about other men, while women dream equally about men and women.

Studies indicate that our brain waves are more active when we are dreaming than when we are awake.

TeArS...!

2009-07-07T00:48:00.008+08:00

...FACTS About TEARS...

Aristotle theorized that crying at a drama "cleanses the mind" of suppressed emotions by a process called catharsis: the reduction of distress by releasing the emotions.
An insincere display of grief or dishonest remorse is called crocodile tears, from the ancient anecdote that crocodiles would pretend to weep while luring or devouring their prey.
Emotional tears contain more protein than tears induced by irritants.
Tears are the liquid product of a process of lacrimation to clean and lubricate the eyes.
There are three very basic types of tears: Basal tears, Reflex tears, Psychic tears.
"Crocodile tears syndrome" is an uncommon consequence of recovery from Bell's palsy where faulty regeneration of the facial nerve causes sufferers to shed tears while eating.
"Leamy Eye" is a condition whereby there is excessive watering of one eye, seemingly for no apparent reason, in response to environmental stimuli.
Familial dysautonomia is a genetic condition which can be associated with a lack of overflow tears (alacria) during emotional crying.

Why Do Onions Make You Cry?

Onions are part of the plant genus Allium, along with garlic, chives, leeks and about 400 other cousins. These vegetables absorb sulfur in the earth, which helps form a class of volatile organic molecules called amino acid sulfoxides. These sulfoxides are the real tear-jerkers when onions go under the knife.

When you cut an onion, you break cells, releasing their contents. Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids. Enzymes that were kept separate now are free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound that wafts upward toward your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away.

Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao

2009-06-06T12:01:00.009+08:00

Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao

Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, known as Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao, was born December 17, 1978. He is a Filipino professional boxer, part-time actor and recording artist. Pacquiao was born in Kibawe, Bukidnon, Mindanao and currently resides in his home town General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines. He is married to Jinkee Pacquiao and they have four children.

His official website is http://www.mannypacquiao.ph/

Here are some facts about him:

A movie based on his life has been produced and was released on June 21, 2006. The movie is titled Pacquiao: The Movie featuring Filipino actor Jericho Rosales as Manny Pacquiao and is directed by Joel Lamangan.
After their third bout, Pacquiao and Morales appeared together in a San Miguel Beer commercial (together with Roach and friends) filmed for the Filipino audience which ended with Pacquiao and Morales toasting their friendship with San Miguels.
In another commercial advertisement of San Miguel Beer, Pacquiao was seen together with Jet Li and other Filipino celebrities such as Iwa Moto and Valerie Concepcion.
Professional wrestlers The Undertaker and Christian Cage were part of Pacquiao’s entourage during the Pacquiao vs. Velázquez fight in 2005. The Undertaker was the person who carried the US flag while leading Team Pacquiao to the ring which was confirmed by Batista (another fellow wrestler) during a televised interview in the Philippines while promoting an upcoming WWE promotional tour that was set to be shown in the philippines.
Pacquiao owns a lottery outlet for the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.
He is the owner of the Pac Man Gensan of the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association. The team is based in his hometown of General Santos City.

Recognitions:

2006 & 2008 Ring Magazine Fighter of the Year
2006 & 2008 Boxing Writers Association Of America Fighter of the Year
WBC Emeritus Champion
The Ring Magazine #1 Pound For Pound
5-Time PSA Sportsman of the Year
2008 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Honorary Award for Sports Excellence
2008 BoxingScene.com Fighter of the Year
2008 Sports Illustrated Boxer of the Year
2008 SecondsOut.com Fighter of the Year
2008 TheSweetScience.com Boxer of the Year
2008 WBC Boxer of the Year
2008 Yahoo Sports Fighter of the Year
2008 ESPN Star's Champion of Champions
2009 TIME 100 Most Influential People (Heroes & Icons Category)

Titles:

WBC Flyweight title
IBF Super Bantamweight title
WBC Super Featherweight title
WBC Lightweight title
IBO Light Welterweight
Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) Flyweight
WBC International Super Bantamweight title
WBC Super Featherweight International title
RING Super Featherweight title

Barack Hussein Obama

2009-05-31T14:22:00.001+08:00

...Some Facts About Barack Hussein Obama...

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961
Barack Hussein Obama is named after his father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. (1936-1982). “Barack” means “blessing/blessed/to bless” in Swahili and Semitic languages, and “Hussein” is a Semitic word meaning “good” or “beautiful.” Swahili was Obama Sr.’s native language
Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991

Tickets to President-Elect Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009, are being sold online for as much as $40,000 each. Entry into an inauguration is always free to anyone who requests and receives a ticket from his or her congressperson or senator

Obama is known for refusing contributions from lobbyists and political action committees (PACs). According to DNC Chairman Howard Dean: "The American people's priorities will set the agenda in an Obama Administration, not the special interests."

He would have liked to have been an architect if he were not a politician

Over the years, he has been an active writer. He is the author of two best-selling books: Dreams from My Father in 1995, and The Audacity of Hope in 2006

Obama has many, many relatives, as Obama’s father, paternal grandfather, and paternal great-grandfather each had several wives and many children. His grandfather was known in the family as “The Terror” and his father was called “Old Man.”

Barack Obama’s father was born into Kenya's Luo tribe in the village of Nyan’oma Kogela near Lake Victoria. He was a remarkable student but was kicked out of school for missing class and being disruptive. He initially identified himself as a Muslim, but spent much of his adult life as an atheist

A July 2008 poll by Newsweek found that 12 percent of voters wrongfully believed that Obama is a Muslim, and some thought he was raised in a Muslim home. Barack Obama is a Christian.

He ate dog meat, snake meat, and roasted grasshopper while living in Indonesia

As a teenager he took drugs including marijuana and cocaine

He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were "street urchins"

He was known as "O'Bomber" at high school for his skill at basketball

Obama’s schoolmates in Indonesia sometimes called him “Curly Eyelashes” because his lashes were so long and curly

He applied to appear in a black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee

Obama worked at Baskin-Robbins as a teenager and now dislikes ice cream. He also has worked in construction

Barack met his wife Michelle Robinson, a South Side Chicago native, while he was interning at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. She was his mentor and was not initially attracted to him--but after a two-year courtship, they were married in the fall of 1992 at the Trinity United Church of Christ. Reverend Wright presided and would also later baptize their two daughters, Malia Ann (born July 4,1998) and Natasha (“Sasha”) (June 10, 2001)

He took Michelle to see the Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing on their first date

He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president – he didn't

Helix aspersa...

2009-05-31T13:20:00.002+08:00

Garden Snails

Snails are very slow moving creatures and most people find them to be boring. However, there are some very interesting facts about them.

Helix aspersa, known by the common name garden snail, is a pulmonate gastropod that is one of the best-known of all terrestrial molluscs.

Here are some facts about them:

They are hermaphrodites, producing both male and female gametes.
They breathe with lungs.
They have up to 14,175 teeth! They are all located on their tongue (radula).
They mainly eat garden plants and vegetables, but they will also eat decaying plants and soil.

French researchers discovered that the digestive secretions of the garden snail are effective against stomach ulcer. 10 mg of this powder led to a decrease by 42 % of the human stomach acidity. The product was also effective against chronic bronchitis.

They hibernate during the winter and live on their stored fat. When hibernating, it avoids ice formation by altering the osmotic components of its blood (or haemolymph), and can survive temperatures as low as -5°C.

The garden snail uses love darts during mating.

They bury their eggs in shallow topsoil primarily while the weather is warm and damp, usually 5 to 10 cm down, digging with their foot.

They can be used as indicators of environmental contamination, as their shell acts as a site for deposition of toxic heavy metals, such as lead.

Garden snails evolved from sea snails about 600 million years ago.

...SALT...

2009-05-26T10:52:00.001+08:00

...Some FACTS about SALT...

Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat at 4,000 square miles, in Bolivia becomes mirrorlike when a thin layer of water lies on top of it. This reflectivity makes it a very useful tool in calibration scientific equipment from outer space. It also contains half of the world’s supply of lithium. (Some pictures shown above)
Pound bars of salt, called amoleh, were the basic currency in Abyssinia(Ethiopia) right up to the 20th century.
Ingestion of large amounts of salt in a short time (about 1 g per kg of body weight) can be fatal. Salt solutions have been used in ancient China as a method of suicide (especially by the nobility, since salt was quite valuable).
Sodium Chloride (salt) is formed when the unstable metal sodium reacts with chlorine gas. It is the only family of rocks regularly eaten by humans.

Black Salt in India is made by mixing salt water with harad seeds. The mixture is left to evaporate leaving behind black lumps of salt. When the salt is ground, the resulting powder is pink (as shown above).
Good quality sea salt contains many essential minerals for the body. The best type of sea salt should be slightly wet from the sea it was taken from.
Only 6% of the salt used in the U.S. is used in food; another 17% is used for de-icing streets and highways in the winter months.
In the Middle Ages, salt was so expensive it was sometimes referred to as “white gold”. The medieval pavement of one of the transportation routes for Salt still exists in Germany where it links the inland city of Lüneburg to the German Baltic coast.

Salt is so essential to the body that if you drink too much water it can flush it out of your system and cause fatal Hyponatremia. This is what killed Jennifer Strange (picture shown above with her family) who entered a “Hold your wee for a wii” competition.
In Guerande, France, salt is still gathered in the same way as it was by the ancient celts, using baskets through which the sea water is strained. This makes the salt very expensive and highly sought after, especially the finest quality version called Fleur de Sel (flower of salt). This salt is sprinkled on food prior to serving - it is never used in cooking.

The Smallest Bat

2009-05-25T12:49:00.002+08:00

Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai), also known as the bumblebee bat, is a vulnerable species of bat and the only member of the family Craseonycteridae. It occurs in western Thailand and southeast Burma, where it occupies limestone caves along rivers.

The said bat is about 29–33 millimetres (1.14–1.30 in) in length and 2 grams (0.07 oz) in mass), hence the common name of "bumblebee bat". It is the smallest species of bat and may be the world's smallest mammal, depending on how size is defined.

The bat has a distinctive swollen, pig-like snout with thin, vertical nostrils. Its ears are relatively large, while its eyes are small and mostly concealed by fur. Its teeth are typical of an insectivorous bat.

The bat's upper parts are reddish-brown or grey, while the underside is generally paler. The wings are relatively large and darker in color, with long tips that allow the bat to hover. Despite having two caudal vertebrae, Kitti's Hog-nosed Bat has no visible tail. There is a large web of skin between the hind legs (the uropatagium) which may assist in flying and catching insects, although there are no tail bones or calcars to help control it in flight.

The Difference Between Devil and Demons...

2009-05-22T15:43:00.005+08:00

The Temptation of St. Anthony by Martin Schöngauer c. 1480-90. Engraving.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Basically, the devil and demons are angels who rebelled against God.

Revelation 12:7-9 [7] And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. [8] But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. [9] The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

What is the difference between demons and devils?

Some people say that it is a matter of power and title. Devils are stronger and smarter than demons. Angels are listed as archangels and angels. So, devils would be the archangels.

A Book of Devils and Demons is a 1970 anthology of 12 fairy tales from around the world that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is one in a long series of such anthologies by Manning-Sanders and some of it are recollected in Folk and Fairy Tales (1978).

In the book's foreword, Manning-Sanders describes devils and demons as being similar in one important way: "Most of them are tricksters who delight in pestering human beings; and it is not easy to get the better of them since they have magic powers..." As for the difference between the two beings, she writes: "You can't kill a devil, but you can kill a demon. ... No power on earth, or above the earth, or under the earth, can destroy Satan and his tribe of devils. They are, like the angels, immortal: they live forever."

Here are some online quiz which you might find interesting...

http://www.quizmoz.com/quizzes/Super-Natural-Quizzes/d/Devil-Quiz.asp
http://www.christianet.com/bible/demons.htm
http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/n0YfZU/The-Demon-Personality-Quiz
http://www.quiztron.com/tests/demon_quiz_72821.htm

"My faith runs so very much faster than my reason that I can challenge the whole world and say, ’God is, was and ever shall be’."
- Mahatma Gandhi

What is a fact?

2009-05-22T02:56:00.001+08:00

F A C T

According to wikipedia.com, the word fact is derived from the latin word Factum. It is a pragmatic truth, a statement that can, at least in theory, be checked and either confirmed or denied. Facts are often contrasted with opinions and beliefs, statements which are held to be true, but are not amenable to pragmatic confirmation or denial.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it in three ways: the quality of being actual (actuality, factuality, materiality), something that actually exists (case, reality) and a single piece of information (datum, detail, nicety, particular, particularity, point).