Grueling Guinea Pig Games of the 2009 Olympics

The Guinea Pig Games (GPG) Olympics have started with an amazing opening as rascally rodents display their dedication to their chosen sports. In the struggle for survival, only the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals with their stamina, prowess, and incredible feats to win gold, silver, and bronze medals.
Their docile nature, responsiveness to handling and feeding, and the relative ease of caring for them, continue to make the guinea pig a popular pet, which furry fellas world-wide fear may be the very thing that bridges them from being taken seriously in their own class of world Olympics.

But recent events in the 2009 GPG Olympics have vindicated guineas throughout the planet from these stereotypes.


Rowing rodents Ricky and Rafael clawed their way to victory in the battle of the boats for the GPG Olympic rowing event for gold. Much to the GPG official’s amazement, the pair decided only moments before the race to switch boats like a golfer decides to change clubs.

“It’s like when you try on running shoes in the store. You try a pair of Nikes and a pair of Reeboks and one just feels better.” said Rafael.

It may very well have been the deciding factor than won them their prized medal.

Wil Liam Tell displayed his expert marksman with the crossbow as he took aim at his target. Tell had been promised the gold if he shot the apple nose-on, which he performed effortlessly, splitting the fruit with a single bolt from his crossbow without mishap.

It was a slam dunk when these water rats displayed no fear in the challenge to get their fur wet. Nosing ahead, Papael Phelps performed great feats in the pool, claiming 6 gold medals and 2 bronze to match the record aggregate for a single GPG Olympics, a feat which could net him $1 million from a swimwear company.

Papael says he trains for 8 hours a day in his private pool at home. The rest of his day consists mainly of feeding on fresh grass hay, apples, cabbage, carrots, celery, and spinach along with complex dietary supplements to maintain his health fitness and garner energy.


Called the Night Rider, or better known as Sir Jules (R), the British cyclist has enjoyed more success on 2 wheels than any other cycling rodent in history, with a feat of 3 gold medals under his belt at the 2005 GPG, receiving royal recognition by the Queen.

Stunned spectators watched the race in shock as the Olympic cycling champion barely won the event by a whisker in the semi-finals. Rumors have since circulated that he was distracted by the news that guineas would no longer compete with humans in the Tour de Rats in France this upcoming summer.


In a giant leap for rodentkind in the men’s pole vaulting event, Igor Bubka of the so-called “6 meters club,” broke the outdoor men’s world-record 24 times culminating in his current world record of 20.5 feet (6.25 meters).

Igor says he had a lot of practice since childhood in his homeland where poles were used as a practical means of passing over natural obstacles in marshy places in the provinces of Friesland in The Netherlands, along the North Sea.

Artificial draining of these marshes created a network of open drains or canals intersecting each other. In order to cross these without getting wet, while avoiding tedious roundabout journeys over bridges, a stack of jumping poles was kept at every home and used for vaulting over the canals.


Setting a new gold standard for his kind, Chubby Cheeks received a taste of Bad Ronnie’s badminton supremacy, losing to the austere athlete’s expert skill in the finals of the men’s GPG Olympic badminton tournament.

But the game was not without controversy of its own, when Squeakers Solomon’s coach was caught betting on his match. The gambling stint caused an outrage amongst the GPG officials and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who called for tough love, resulting in Squeakers to be banned from the Olympics and stripped of his silver medal.


Peter Pestbrook’s (L) mother bribed him with $5 to take fencing. His talent and drive gained him a place on the 1976 Olympic Team. For more than 20 years the fluffy rodent has dominated saber fencing in the U.S. and 6 Olympics, winning the national title 13 times.

The semifinal had to be stopped for about 10 minutes after Peter lost his cork and slashed the hand of his opponent, Bitey Betus, with the score even at 42 to 42.

Pestbrook is expected to take gold for the Fencing Men’s Individual Foil, but it could be a close shave against his worldly contender.


Since 1988, table tennis has been an Olympic sport. The Chinese ping-pong team has won all medals in World Table Tennis Championships and Olympic Games 4 times, which has placed more pressure on the team.

Their head coach has maintained low goals for 2009, stating that the current team has to face greater difficulties than the last Chinese ping-pong team for game, pet, and match, but says they still have the strength to win gold medals in the 4 events.


With the amazing prowess that would make his ancestors Heracles and Zeus proud, Hairycles defeated his fellow guinea pigs in the 100-meter running race in a record 10.73 seconds, and not only took the gold, but was also crowned with a wreath of wild olive branches.

Pumping fur iron in the heavyweight true Olympic GPG weightlifting championship is Louie Long who lifted more than 5 times his weight of 13.2 pounds (6 kilos) for the title, followed by his compatriot Stinger Skittles for silver at 12.5 pounds (5.7 kilos). The bronze medal was taken by Tim Tun Tae at 12.2 pounds (5.5 kilos).

Mad Hummad Hali, widely known for his fighting style, which he describes as “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” He’s the only guinea pig to have won the linear heavyweight championship 3 times, and the contender for this year’s gold. Hali was also the winner of the Olympic Light-heavyweight gold medal in 2005.

The heavyweight furball has made a name for himself for great hand-speed, with swift feet and taunting tactics. While Hali has been renowned for his fast, sharp out-fighting style, he also has a great chin, and has displayed great courage and an ability to take a punch throughout his career.


Splitting hairs, Lolo Lones, a beautiful world champion hurdler (L) is vying for the gold against champion hurdler Dana Dawlinson (R) who won the 400-meter hurdles world championships in 2001 and 2005 and is Australia’s best chance of a track gold.

Rani Ralkia, the reigning Olympic champion in the 400-meter hurdles, told reporters she was “shocked” to learn she had tested positive for the banned substance methyltrienolone and would be unable to defend her gold medal. A total of 15 furry pigs from Guinea including Ralkia have tested positive for methyltrienolone
source-http://www.lifeinthefastlane.ca/grueling-guinea-pig-games-of-the-2009-olympics/trucking/articles

Disgusting Delicacies

This seems like something taken out of ‘Fear Factor’. Sometimes, it is just hard to understand other cultures…Tarantulas, eaten in Cambodia



Raw Herring, eaten in Holland


Stink bugs, eaten in Irian Jaya, Indonesia


Tuna Eyeball, eaten in Japan and China
Beetles, eaten in China

Horseshoe Crab Roe; Nast, eaten in China


Raw Octopus, eaten in China



Cooked Crickets, eaten


Rotten Soybeans, eaten in various parts of Asia


Duck Fetus Egg (Balut), eaten in Southeast Asia


Bird’s nest soup, eaten in China


Codfish Sperm, eaten in various parts of Asia

Mopane caterpillars, eaten in Botswana


Grasshoppers, eaten in Oaxaca, Mexico
Dried lizards (for soup), eaten in Japan

50 Weird Facts about Humans | Amazing Facts

Here are some amazing Facts about humans. Pretty interesting facts, huh? Keep on reading..



While sitting at your desk make clockwise circles with your right foot. (go ahead no one will see you) While doing this, draw the number “6″ in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction that is a fact.

1. People with higher number of moles tend to live longer than people with lesser number of moles.

3. When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn’t condense in the cold air.

4. Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.

5. Grapefruit scent will make middle aged women appear six years younger to men. The perception is not reciprocal and the grapefruit scent on men has no effect on women’s perception.

6. The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

7. The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you’ll have a bad dream.

8. There are more people alive today than have ever died.

9. Women’s hair is about half the diameter of men’s hair

10. Women blink twice as many times as men do.

11. The average person who stops smoking requires one hour less sleep a night.

12. Laughing lowers levels of stress hormones and strengthens the immune system. Six-year-olds laugh an average of 300 times a day. Adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.

13. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

14. The human heart creates enough pressure while pumping to squirt blood 30 feet!

15. The brain operates on the same amount of power as 10-watt light bulb. The cartoon image of a light bulb over your head when a great thought occurs isn’t too far off the mark. Your brain generates as much energy as a small light bulb even when you’re sleeping.

16. The brain is much more active at night than during the day.

17. The brain itself cannot feel pain. While the brain might be the pain center when you cut your finger or burn yourself, the brain itself does not have pain receptors and cannot feel pain.

18. The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger. And the nail on the middle finger of your dominant hand will grow the fastest of all. Why is not entirely known, but nail growth is related to the length of the finger, with the longest fingers growing nails the fastest and shortest the slowest.

19. The lifespan of a human hair is 3 to 7 years on average.

20. Human hair is virtually indestructible. Aside from it’s flammability, human hair decays at such a slow rate that it is practically non-disintegrative. Hair cannot be destroyed by cold, change of climate, water, or other natural forces and it is resistant to many kinds of acids and corrosive chemicals.

21. The acid in your stomach is strong enough to dissolve razorblades. Hydrochloric acid, the type found in your stomach, is not only good at dissolving the pizza you had for dinner but can also eat through many types of metal.

22. The surface area of a human lung is equal to a tennis court.

23. Sneezes regularly exceed 100 mph.

24. Approximately 75% of human waste is made of water.

25. The average person expels flatulence 14 times each day. Even if you’d like to think you’re too dignified to pass gas, the reality is that almost everyone will at least a few times a day.

26. Earwax production is necessary for good ear health. While many people find earwax to be disgusting, it’s actually a very important part of your ear’s defense system. It protects the delicate inner ear from bacteria, fungus, dirt and even insects. It also cleans and lubricates the ear canal.

27. Babies are always born with blue eyes. The melanin in a newborn’s eyes often needs time after birth to be fully deposited or to be darkened by exposure to ultraviolet light, later revealing the baby’s true eye color.

28. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

29. After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.

30. Women are born better smellers than men and remain better smellers over life.

31. Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents.

32. Nails and hair do not continue to grow after we die. They do appear longer when we die, however, as the skin dehydrates and pulls back from the nail beds and scalp.

33. By the age of 60, most people will have lost about half their taste buds. Perhaps you shouldn’t trust your grandma’s cooking as much as you do.

34. Your eyes are always the same size from birth but your nose and ears never stop growing.

35. By 60 years of age, 60-percent of men and 40-percent of women will snore.

36. Monday is the day of the week when the risk of heart attack is greatest. A ten year study in Scotland found that 20% more people die of heart attacks on Mondays than any other day of the week. Researchers theorize that it’s a combination of too much fun over the weekend with the stress of going back to work that causes the increase.

37. Provided there is water, the average human could survive a month to two months without food depending on their body fat and other factors.

38. Over 90% of diseases are caused or complicated by stress.

39. A human head remains conscious for about 15 to 20 seconds after it is been decapitated. While it might be gross to think about, the blood in the head may be enough to keep someone alive and conscious for a few seconds after the head has been separated from the body, though reports as to the accuracy of this are widely varying.

40. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood the number is reduced to 206.

41. We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening.

42. It takes twice as long to lose new muscle if you stop working out than it did to gain it. Lazy people out there shouldn’t use this as motivation to not work out, however. It’s relatively easy to build new muscle tissue and get your muscles in shape, so if anything, this fact should be motivation to get off the couch and get moving.

43. Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria.

44. It is not possible to tickle yourself. Even the most ticklish among us do not have the ability to tickle ourselves.

45. The width of your armspan stretched out is the length of your whole body. While not exact down to the last millimeter, your armspan is a pretty good estimator of your height.

46. Humans are the only animals to produce emotional tears.

47. Women burn fat more slowly than men, by a rate of about 50 calories a day. Most men have a much easier time burning fat than women. Women, because of their reproductive role, generally require a higher basic body fat proportion than men, and as a result their bodies don’t get rid of excess fat at the same rate as men.

48. Koalas and primates are the only animals with unique fingerprints. Humans, apes and koalas are unique in the animal kingdom due to the tiny prints on the fingers of their hands.

49. One human hair can support 3.5 ounces. That’s about the weight of two full size candy bars, and with hundreds of thousands of hairs on the human head, makes the tale of Rapunzel much more plausible.

50. Cna yuo raed tihs? 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 forwrad it

+ 51. It cost 7 million dollars to build the Titanic and 200 million to make a film about it.

Tags: 50 Weird, Facts, about Humans, Amazing Facts, Beautiful World

Amazing Facts About Humans | interesting facts

Some interesting facts about the human body and great people.

1. Rafael "Paeng" Nepomuceno, named the greatest Filipino athlete of all time by Philippine Congress, was also inducted into the International Bowling Hall of Fame in St. Louis, MO. He is bowling world champion in 4 different decades (1970s,1980s, 1990s, and 2000s)
2. Blood vessels of one human being, if laid end to end, would encircle the globe twice over.
3. Jose P. Rizal, the Philippine National Hero, could read and write at age two and grew up to speak more than 20 languages including Latin, German, French, Chinese and Japanese.
4. Muscles produce enough heat to boil one liter of water for an hour - that's what shivering is all about.
5. David Blaine spent over 60 hours frozen in a block of ice in Time Square, New York in 2000. In 2002, he spent 35 hours without food or water perched atop a 10-storey-tall pillar in a New York park. And in 2003, he spent 44 days without food in a glass box suspended thirty feet in the air in London.
6. Would you believe that the largest ovarian cyst weighed 134 kg? It had to be carried out of the operating room on a trolley.
7. Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez hit his 400th career homerun in 2005 making him the youngest player in MLB history to pass that milestone at the age of 29.
8. Most people shed 40 lb of skin in a lifetime.
9. Jack Nicklaus, a Pro golfer, had won the most major championships with 18.
10. The brain consumes about 20 percent of the oxygen that your body takes in, even when asleep - it never rests.
11. Pete Sampras holds record of most number of All-Time Grand Slam singles win with a total of 14.
12. The Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA in a single human cell is 37 meters long when unraveled.
13. LeBron James is the youngest-ever NBA All-Star MVP in 2006.
14. Hair grows faster in the summer than in winter, just like the nails do
15. Jeff Gordon is four-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion. At 16, he was the youngest person ever granted a racing license by the United States Auto Club (USAC)
16. A Russian woman, between the years 1725 and 1765, produced 69 children including 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets.
17. The baseball player with most homeruns is Hank Aaron with 755 career homeruns while Nolan Ryan has the most strikeouts with 5,714 career strikeouts and Pete Rose has the most hits with 4,256 career hits.
18. Every four days, the world's population increases by one million people. Then why is it that the world is not yet filled with people? Of course not, people are dying as well.
19. The All-Time NBA record for career points is Kareem Abdul-Jabar with 38,387 while record for career assists is John Stockton with 15,806. The rebound king is Wilt Chamberlain with 23,924 and the 3-points king is Reggie Miller with 2,560.
20. There's no reason to be sad during your birthday even if you're alone. Just bear in mind that there are ten million people around the world celebrating their birthday on the same day as you.
21. Omar Bongo, Gabon's President since 1967, is Africa's longest serving head of state.
22. Podiatrist is one who specializes in treatment of foot problems and an internist is one who specializes in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of all forms of adult diseases.
23. James Garfield, who shares his last name with a feline cartoon character, is an ambidextrous president. He could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other at the same time.
24. Heart disease is the number one cause of death worldwide with 13% of all causes followed by stroke with 10%.
25. Harry Truman's middle name was just a single letter, representing the middle names of both his grandfathers. He became president in 1945.

Amazing facts About Cats & Dogs

What is a Cat?

1. Cats do what they want.

2. They rarely listen to you.

3. They’re totally unpredictable.

4. When you want to play, they want to be alone.

5. When you want to be alone, they want to play.

6. They expect you to cater to their every whim.

7. They’re moody.

8. They leave hair everywhere.

CONCLUSION: They’re tiny women in little fur coats.

What is a Dog?

1. Dogs spend all day sprawled on the most comfortable piece of furniture in the house.

2. They can hear a package of food opening half a block away, but don’t hear you when you’re in the same room.

3. They can look dumb and lovable all at the same time.

4. They growl when they are not happy.

5. When you want to play, they want to play.

6. When you want to be alone, they want to play.

7. They leave their toys everywhere.

8. They do disgusting things with their mouths and then try to give you a kiss.

9. They go right for your crotch as soon as they meet you.

CONCLUSION: They’re tiny men in little fur coat

10 Amazing facts about moms in nature

A long time to be pregnant! Elephants have the longest pregnancy in the animal kingdom at 22 months. The longest human pregnancy on record is 17 months, 11 days.

That was quick! Possums have one of the shortest pregnancies at 16 days. The shortest human pregnancy to produce a healthy baby was 22 weeks, 6 days -- the baby was the length of a ballpoint pen.

Whoa, big family! A female oyster produces 100 million young in her lifetime, the typical hen lays 19 dozen eggs a year, and it is possible for one female cat to be responsible for the birth of 20,736 kittens in four years. Michelle Druggar holds the record for largest human family, having given birth to 17 children.

Never grow up. Chimpanzees have the longest childhoods (apart from humans), staying with their mothers for up to 7 years. These days human children have been taking longer and longer to leave home -- with more than 50% of adults under 24 still living with mom and dad. In 2006, the phenomenon was so big that it became the premise for a Hollywood movie called "Failure to Launch."

Got milk? Whale Calves nurse for 7 to 8 months and are weaned when they reach 52 feet (16 m) in length. At that time they weigh about 23 tons (20,900 kg). During the nursing period, calves consume 100 gallons of the fat-rich mother's milk each day. By comparison, human babies consume a little over 3 cups of their mother's milk on a daily basis.

Male mommies. Male seahorses can actually give birth to offspring. While this is normally impossible for human beings, Thomas Beatie, who had his gender legally changed from female to male, is currently the world's first pregnant man.

That's a lot of kids! Tiger sharks can have anywhere from 10 to 80 young in one birth. The largest number of human children that have survived from one birth are the McCaughey septuplets (in birth order, Kenneth Robert, Alexis May, Natalie Sue, Kelsey Ann, Nathan Roy, Brandon James, Joel Steven), who were born in Des Moines, IA in 1997.

A very....close knit family. All pet hamsters are descended from a single female wild golden hamster found with a litter of 12 young in Syria in 1930. Inbreeding in humans significantly increases the chances of genetic defects, and is widely shunned. However, marrying aunts, uncles and cousins is still very common among European royal families -- even the Queen of England and her husband Phillip are second cousins once removed.

More than one womb? Kangaroos have two wombs. While rare, this does occur in humans -- and there have been cases of mothers with two wombs giving birth to triplets..

That's an, um, unique birthing position Giraffes are born with the mother standing up, on the lookout for predators. That means a long drop of 5 to 7 feet to the ground -- long enough to break the baby's umbilical cord. Ancient drawings show human women giving birth standing up as well, and contemporary mothers interested in natural birth sometimes opt for this position (though there's always someone there to catch the baby!).

Facts About Blood Donation

Blood Donation


Person above 18 years of age and over 50 Kgs. in weight can donate blood once in three months.


* A normal adult has five to six liters of blood in his/her body of which only 300 ml is used during blood donation.



* This blood is replaced by your body within 24 to 48 hours!



* No special diet, rest or medicine is required after blood donation.



* The donor should not have taken any medicine in the last 48 hours.



* The donor should not have contacted jaundice in the previous three years.



* Every donor is given a medical checkup prior to donation to see if he/she is medically fit and doesn't suffer from anemia, high blood pressure etc.,



* The donor cannot contract AIDS or any other disease by donating blood.
Make Blood donation a habit .



* There are many persons

including females who has donated blood more than 10 -20 times in their life

Start with your B'day or from just today. Your little contribution can save someone's life.

White And Golden hair tiger looks awesome

Beautiful Golden hair tiger and White Tigers are amongst the most ferocious animals that inhabit planet earth. They are dreaded by human beings as well as other animals of the jungle. Essentially, tigers belong to the cat family and are the wild species of the smaller domesticated pets people keep at home. There are varied species of tigers that are found in various places of the world, amongst them is the most endangered species: The white tigers.

The white tigers are also known as the Bengal Tigers, as well as the Indian tiger. The scientific name for this animal is Panthers Tigris, and are found in Asia, more specifically in the India subcontinent. In its natural habitat the white tiger is found in the dense forest and fertile grasslands. This species of the tiger normally reaches its full adult size at the age of two to three years. The male generally 200 to 230 kilograms and grows up to three meters in length. On the other hand the females weigh between 130 to 170 kilograms. They grow up to the length of to 2.5 meters.

The tigers of this species have stripes that look like fingerprints all over their body. Another distinguishing characteristic feature of the Bengal tigers is that they have a distinct white spot, which is on the back of their ears. This look likes an eye. They can run up to a maximum speed of 60 kilometers per hour. However, in spite of this they do not possess optimum stamina and need to sleep for an average of 16 to 18 hours, per day.

The Bengal tigers are very patient when trying to catch their prey, patiently waiting to make the perfect move. They generally hide in the tall grass areas so that they can catch their prey unawares, without having to make much of an effort. This tiger species can swim swiftly in water. Another unique characteristic of this species is that it can shed, as well as grow its body hair according to the temperature.

Amazing Facts On Butterflies

These are some of the Amazing facts on butterflies that we have gathered for you.

* The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
* A housefly, regurgitates food after eating and eating again.
* A dragon fly lives for 24 hours.
* Butterflies can have a size of 1/8 inch to a huge almost 12 inches.
* Butterflies can see red, green, and yellow.
* Night butterflies have ears on their wings.
* The top butterfly flight speed is 12 miles per hour.
* Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees.
* There are about 24,000 species of butterflies.
* The Brimstone butterfly has the longest lifetime of the adult butterflies: 9-10 months.
* The females of some moth species don’t have wings.
* Some moths don’t have mouths.
* Many butterflies can taste with their feet.
* Many insects can carry 50 times their own body weight.
* There are over a million described species of insects.
* Most insects are beneficial to human in the form of honey, silk and other medicinal uses.
* Butterflies have their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, called the exoskeleton

Strange Historical Facts

Facts: In 200 BC, when the Greek city of Sparta was at the height of its power there were 20 slaves for every citizen.



The first-known contraceptive was crocodile dung and was used by the Egyptians in 2000 BC.



The Hundred Year War actually lasted for 116 years – from 1337 to 1453.



The shortest war there has ever been was between Britain and Zanzibar during 1896. It lasted for a pathetic 38 minutes.



Everyone in the Middle Ages believed -- as Aristotle had -- that the heart was the seat of intelligence.



Fourteenth century physicians didn't know what caused the plague, but they knew it was contagious. As a result they wore an early kind of bioprotective suit which included a large beaked head piece. The beak of the head piece, which made them look like large birds, was filled with vinegar, sweet oils and other strong smelling compounds to counteract the stench of the dead and dying plague victims.



In England and the American colonies they year 1752 only had 354 days. In that year, the type of calendar was changed, and 11 days were lost.



The condom was invented in the early 1500's, and was originally made of linen.



In the Great Fire of London in 1666 half of London was burnt down but only 6 people were injured.



It has been calculated that in the last 3,500 years, there have only been 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world.



At the height of inflation in Germany in the early 1920s, one U.S. dollar was equal to 4 quintillion German marks.



In 1778, fashionable women of Paris never went out in blustery weather without a lightning rod attached to their hats.



During the time of Peter the Great, any Russian man who wore a beard was required to pay a special tax.



In 1892, Italy raised the minimum age for marriage for girls to 12.



Ancient Egyptians shaved off their eyebrows to mourn the death of their cats.



In ancient Rome, a runaway slave was considered a criminal because he had stolen himself (i.e. the property of his master)!



Roman women especially enjoyed when their husbands went to war against Germany because the naturally-blond hair of Germans captured in battle would be used to make wigs!



According to Juvenal, the streets of Rome were so noisy that people living near them would die from lack of sleep! (Hyperbolic ally speaking, of course)



The punishment of a Vestal Virgin who broke her oath of chastity was to be buried alive!



In early Rome, a father could legally execute any member of his household!



In May 1948, Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe, both in New Zea land, erupted simultaneously.

Amazing Facts About Your Amazing Eyes

Some Amazing facts about your eyes showing you how powerful and amazing they are, and how delicate too.

Ever wanted to know how powerful and amazing your eyes are?

Well here are some amazing facts on the human eye.

* Uses 65% of your brainpower, the most out of any body part
* They can process about 36,000 bits of information an hour
* They are number 2 in the most powerful body parts next to the brain
* Only 1/6 of the eye if showing
* The actual eye is always working and never sleeps
* Controls 85% of all the knowledge you will ever get
* The reason why we blink is to lubricate our eyeballs so they don't get too dry
* Don't pull out your eyelids, they protect your eyes from dirt and bacteria
* The approximate weight of a human eyeball is about 28 grams
* Men can read fine print better then women
* You would normally read faster from a sheet of paper then from a computer screen
* The most crucial part of your eye is as delicate as a wet tissue
* The normal person blinks about 10,000 times a day
* The images that are sent to your brain are actually upside down and backwards
* Your eyes adjust in just milliseconds in order to keep balance whenever you move your head
* Your pupil changes in size in order to let in the right amount of light
* The #1 cause in blindness in the US is diabetes
* The only part of the body that doesn't contain blood vessels is the cornea
* The human eye can distinguish about 500 shades of gray,
* The average human eye is about 1 inch in diameter
* Blind people can see their dreams as long as they weren't born blind
* Color blind doesn't mean they only see black and white, but just that they just can't see things in as many colors as people who have normal vision

Geography Facts

# Alaska: More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.
# Amazon: The Amazon rain forest produces more than 20% the world's oxygen supply. The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean. The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.
# Antarctica: Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country. Ninety percent of the world's ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents seventy % of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches. Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, i.e.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.
# Brazil: Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.
# Canada: Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ' Big Village .
# Chicago: Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world.
# Detroit: Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road any where.
# Damascus , Syria: Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.
# Istanbul , Turkey: Istanbul (AKA Constantinople), Turkey , is the only city in the world located on two continents.
# Los Angeles: Los Angeles' full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula -- and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
# New York City: The term 'The Big Apple' was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930's who used the slang expression 'apple' for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time - The Big Apple. There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin, Ireland; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.
# Ohio: There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio , every one is man made.
# Pitcairn Island: The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. miles.
# Rome: The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C. There is a city called Rome on every continent.
# Siberia: Siberia contains more than 25% of the world's forests.
# S.M.O.M: The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.MO.M.). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican. It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.
# Sahara Desert: In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt, which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years. Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island . There has been no rainfall there for two million years.
# Spain: SPAIN literally means 'the land of rabbits.'
# St. Paul, Minnesota: St. Paul, Minnesota , was originally called Pig's Eye after a man named Pierre 'Pig's Eye' Parrant who set up the first business there.
# Roads: Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A: 1%, in Canada : 75%.
# Texas: The deepest hole ever made in the world is in Texas . It is as deep as 20 empire state buildings but only 3 inches wide.
# United States: The Interstate System requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.
# Waterfalls: The water of Angel Falls (the World's highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet. IT is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls

Sweet Facts About Chocolates

Everybody likes chocolates. Here are some sweet facts about chocolates.



1. Chocolate is a good source of magnesium, potassium and calcium. Chocolate acts as a natural anti depressant.
2. Chocolate contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties, which help in preventing cancer and heart diseases
3. Phenyl ethylamine in chocolate enhances endorphin levels in the body
4. Eat chocolate three times a month which will be able to add a year to your life
5. As chocolate is lower in caffeine than tea, coffee and coca cola, it stimulates our brain and makes it to work active
6. Chocolate contains Theo bromine, which enhances the nerve impulses faster
7. Chocolate works like energy booster because chocolate consumption releases a chemical into the body. This chemical is similar to what is produced when you are in love.

40 amazing facts about sleep

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

- It's impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.

- Anything less than five minutes to fall asleep at night means you're sleep deprived. The ideal is between 10 and 15 minutes, meaning you're still tired enough to sleep deeply, but not so exhausted you feel sleepy by day.

- A new baby typically results in 400-750 hours lost sleep for parents in the first year

- One of the best predictors of insomnia later in life is the development of bad habits from having sleep disturbed by young children.

- The continuous brain recordings that led to the discovery of REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep were not done until 1953, partly because the scientists involved were concerned about wasting paper.

- REM sleep occurs in bursts totalling about 2 hours a night, usually beginning about 90 minutes after falling asleep.

- Dreams, once thought to occur only during REM sleep, also occur (but to a lesser extent) in non-REM sleep phases. It's possible there may not be a single moment of our sleep when we are actually dreamless.

- REM dreams are characterised by bizarre plots, but non-REM dreams are repetitive and thought-like, with little imagery - obsessively returning to a suspicion you left your mobile phone somewhere, for example.

- Certain types of eye movements during REM sleep correspond to specific movements in dreams, suggesting at least part of the dreaming process is analagous to watching a film

- No-one knows for sure if other species dream but some do have sleep cycles similar to humans.

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

- Some scientists believe we dream to fix experiences in long-term memory, that is, we dream about things worth remembering. Others reckon we dream about things worth forgetting - to eliminate overlapping memories that would otherwise clog up our brains.

- Dreams may not serve any purpose at all but be merely a meaningless byproduct of two evolutionary adaptations - sleep and consciousness.

- REM sleep may help developing brains mature. Premature babies have 75 per cent REM sleep, 10 per cent more than full-term bubs. Similarly, a newborn kitten puppy rat or hampster experiences only REM sleep, while a newborn guinea pig (which is much more developed at birth) has almost no REM sleep at all.

- Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain's sleep-wake clock.

- British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers' body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers' retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo.

- Seventeen hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%.

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

- The NRMA estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents.

- Exposure to noise at night can suppress immune function even if the sleeper doesn’t wake. Unfamiliar noise, and noise during the first and last two hours of sleep, has the greatest disruptive effect on the sleep cycle.

- The "natural alarm clock" which enables some people to wake up more or less when they want to is caused by a burst of the stress hormone adrenocorticotropin. Researchers say this reflects an unconscious anticipation of the stress of waking up.

- Some sleeping tablets, such as barbiturates suppress REM sleep, which can be harmful over a long period.

- In insomnia following bereavement, sleeping pills can disrupt grieving.

- Tiny luminous rays from a digital alarm clock can be enough to disrupt the sleep cycle even if you do not fully wake. The light turns off a "neural switch" in the brain, causing levels of a key sleep chemical to decline within minutes.

- To drop off we must cool off; body temperature and the brain's sleep-wake cycle are closely linked. That's why hot summer nights can cause a restless sleep. The blood flow mechanism that transfers core body heat to the skin works best between 18 and 30 degrees. But later in life, the comfort zone shrinks to between 23 and 25 degrees - one reason why older people have more sleep disorders.

- A night on the grog will help you get to sleep but it will be a light slumber and you won't dream much.

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

- Humans sleep on average around three hours less than other primates like chimps, rhesus monkeys, squirrel monkeys and baboons, all of whom sleep for 10 hours.

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

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

- Snoring occurs only in non-REM sleep

- Teenagers need as much sleep as small children (about 10 hrs) while those over 65 need the least of all (about six hours). For the average adult aged 25-55, eight hours is considered optimal

- Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.

- Feeling tired can feel normal after a short time. Those deliberately deprived of sleep for research initially noticed greatly the effects on their alertness, mood and physical performance, but the awareness dropped off after the first few days.

- Diaries from the pre-electric-light-globe Victorian era show adults slept nine to 10 hours a night with periods of rest changing with the seasons in line with sunrise and sunsets.

- Most of what we know about sleep we've learned in the past 25 years.

- As a group, 18 to 24 year-olds deprived of sleep suffer more from impaired performance than older adults.

- Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.

- The extra-hour of sleep received when clocks are put back at the start of daylight in Canada has been found to coincide with a fall in the number of road accidents.

It's All About Words: A List of 30+ Word Facts

It is said that words, when used skillfully can be more powerful than actions! Words make actions possible and they can give meaning to actions which the latter is incapable of expressing vividly. No wonder why people always resort to words. This article brings you not just to actions but to great enlightenment of certain facts about some English words.

The white part of your fingernail is called the lunula.

The term "dog days" has nothing to do with dogs. It dates back to Roman times, when it was believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, added its heat to that of the sun from July3 to August 11, creating exceptionally high temperatures. The Romans called the period dies caniculares, or "days of the dog."

Nice once meant silly, lazy, lecherous, and strange. Back in the 1300s, if a man told a woman he was "a nice guy," the lady was liable to slap him and run the other way.

Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."
"Polish" is the only word in the English language that when capitalized is changed from a noun or a verb to a nationality.
The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.
The verb "cleave" is the only English word with two synonyms which are antonyms of each other: adhere and separate.
The highest scoring word in the English language game of Scrabble is 'Quartz'. This will score 164 points if played across a red triple-word square with the Z on a light blue double-letter square. It will score 162 points if played across two pink double-word squares with the Q and the Y on those squares.

The English word with the most consonants in a row is latch string.
The word "robot" was created by Karel Capek. It came from Czech/Slovak "robotovat," which means to work very hard.
The only word that consists of two letters, each used three times is the word "deeded."
A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.
The word "karate" means "empty hand."
The word "girl" appears only once in the Bible.
Switching letters is called spoonerism. For example, saying jag of Flap an, instead of flag of Japan.
"Rhythm" and "syzygy" are the longest English words without vowels.
'Strengths' is the longest word in the English language with just one vowel.
The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It is a a pneumonia's caused by the inhalation of very fine silicate or quartz dust. The only other word with the same amount of letters is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses, its plural.
Alma mater means bountiful mother.
No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple.
The language Malayalam, spoken in parts of India, is the only language whose name is a palindrome.

The words 'sacrilegious' and 'religion' do not share the same etymological root.
The phrase "sleep tight" originated when mattresses were set upon ropes woven through the bed frame. To remedy sagging ropes, one would use a bed key to tighten the rope.
The word denim comes from 'deNimes', or from Nimes, a place in France.
"Freelance" comes from a knight whose lance was free for hire, i.e. not pledged to one master.
The term "devil's advocate"comes from the Roman Catholic church. When deciding if someone should become a saint, a devil's advocate is always appointed to give an alternative view.
When two words are combined to form a single word (e.g., motor + hotel = motel, breakfast + lunch = brunch) the new word is called a "portmanteau."
Avocado is derived from the Spanish word 'aguacate' which is derived from 'ahuacatl' meaning testicle.
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
Lucifer is latin for "Light Bringer". It is a translation of the Hebrew name for Satan, Halael. Satan Means "adversary", devil means "liar".

There is a word in the English language with only one vowel, which occurs six times: Indivisibility.
The letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that doesn't have 1 syllable... it has three.
"Bookkeeper" and "bookkeeping" are the only words in the English language with three consecutive double letters.
There is a seven letter word in the English language that contains ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein": the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, here, ere therein, herein.

"dream t" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".
There are only three words in the English language with the letter combination "uu." Muumuu, vacuum and continuum.
The oldest word in the English language is "town"
The word "Boondocks" comes from the Tagalog (Filipino) word "Bundok," which means mountain.
There are only four words in the English language which end in "-duos": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
The word "samba" means "to rub navels together."
The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.
The word "queuing" is the only English word with five consecutive vowels.
The shortest French word with all five vowels is "Roseau" meaning bird.
Pinocchio is Italian for "pine head."
The infinity sign is called a confiscates.
The only word in the English language with all five vowels in reverse order is "subcontinental."
A poem written to celebrate a wedding is called an hypothalamic.
Cannibalism, eating human flesh, is also called anthropology.
Rhythms" is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.
The plastic things on the end of shoelaces are called eaglets.

Truly, the facts above are really fascinating. It's really more than intellectually satisfying to delve deeper into the world of words.

50 Facts that Should Change the World

Here are 50 facts worth knowing concerning our world, will they make us want to change it?

1 THE average Japanese woman can expect to live to 84; her counterpart in Botswana will die at 39.

2 BLACK men born in the US stand a one-in-three chance of going to jail. For white men the odds are one in 17.

3 ONE in five of the world's population - 1.25 billion people - is undernourished.

4 NEARLY half of British 15-year-olds have tried illegal drugs and nearly a quarter are regular cigarette smokers.

5 CHILDREN living in poverty are three times more likely to suffer mental illness than children from wealthy families.

6 EIGHTY-ONE per cent of the world's executions in 2002 took place in just three countries: China, Iran and the USA.

7 SUPERMARKETS in the UK know more about their customers than the government does. They use loyalty cards to determine your income and what your interests are.

8 EVERY cow in the EU is subsidized by £1.40 a day - three out of four Africans have less than that to live on.

9 SAME-SEX relationships are illegal in more than 70 countries. In nine - including Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia - the penalty is death.

10 EVERY hour, UK households throw away enough rubbish to fill the Royal Albert Hall.

11 THERE are 27 million slaves in the world.

12 A THIRD of the world's population is at war. In 2002, 30 countries were fighting in 37 armed conflicts - a combined population of 2.29 billion people.

13 THE UK has the second-highest rate of teen pregnancies in the developed world, behind the US. There are 30.8 births for every 1,000 teenagers. Teenage mothers are twice as likely to live in poverty.

14 ONE in five people live on less than 50p a day.

15 THERE are 44 million child laborers in India, some working 16-hour days.

16 PEOPLE in industrialized countries eat between six and seven kilograms of food additives every year. A ham sandwich can contain up to 13 E-numbers.

17 GOLFER Tiger Woods is the world's highest-paid sportsman, earning £44million a year, including £30,000 a day for wearing Nike caps - which Thai workers get £2.20 a day to make.

18 EVERY week an average 88 children are expelled from US schools for carrying a gun.

19 LAND MINES kill or maim one person every hour.

20 THERE are at least 300,000 prisoners of conscience, often held in appalling conditions, sometimes tortured, simply for peacefully expressing their own beliefs.

21 CARS kill two people every minute.

22 THE US owes the United Nations $1bn in unpaid dues. Yet it spends the same amount on its military pro gramme every 23 hours.

23 TWENTY-SIX million people voted in the 2001 UK General Election. More than 32 million votes were cast in the first series of Pop Idol.

24 IN Kenya, bribery payments make up a third of the average household budget.

25 THE world's trade in illegal drugs is estimated to be worth around £225bn - about the same as the world's pharmaceutical industry.

26 TO fly a kiwi fruit from New Zealand to the UK means five times its weight in greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere.

27 MORE than 150 countries are known to use torture.

28 AMERICANS spend £5.6bn on pornography every year - the same amount their government spends on foreign aid.

29 THE average urban Briton is caught on camera 300 times a day. With 10 per cent of the world's 30 million CCTV cameras, we are the most watched nation in the world.

30 IN 2001, 13.2 million Americans and 2.5 million Britons had plastic surgery.

31 BRAZIL has more Avon ladies than members of its armed forces. Physical beauty is so highly prized that calling someone vain is a compliment.

32 EIGHTY-TWO per cent of the world's smokers live in developing countries.

33 THE world's oil reserves could be exhausted by 2040.

34 MORE than 70 per cent of the world's population has never heard a dial tone. In Africa just one in 40 people has a phone.

35 A QUARTER of the world's armed conflicts of recent years have involved a struggle for natural resources.

36 ALMOST 30 million Africans are HIV-positive. By 2050 the disease may have claimed as many as 280 million lives.

37 TEN languages die out every year.

38 MORE people die from suicide than in armed conflicts. In the past 45 years, suicide rates have grown by 60 per cent worldwide.

39 SEVEN million American women and one million American men suffer from an eating disorder.

40 THERE are 67,000 people employed in the lobbying industry in Washington DC - 125 for each member of Congress.

41 SINCE 1977, there have been 80,000 acts of violence or disruption at abortion clinics in North America.

42 THERE are 300,000 child soldiers fighting in conflicts around the world.

43 MORE people can identify the golden arches of McDonald's than the Christian cross. The same goes for the Shell oil logo, the Mercedes badge and the Olympic rings.

44 A THIRD of the world's obese people live in the developing world. Campaigners blame Western countries for dumping cheap, processed, fatty foods on poorer nations.

45 IN 2003 the US spent $379bn on its military. This was 22 times the combined military spending of the seven "rogue states" - Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

46 MORE than 12,000 women are killed in Russia every year as a result of domestic violence.

47 SIXTY-ONE per cent of British teenagers believe aliens have landed on Earth, while 39 per cent have any belief in Christianity.

48 TWO million girls and women are subjected to genital mutilation every year.

49 IN China, as a result of the preference for sons over daughters and the country's one-child-per-family law, there are 44 million fewer women than men.

50 SOME 120,000 women and girls are trafficked into Western Europe every year. The UN estimates the trade is worth £4bn a year.