Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
Peachgal

Facts of the day ...

Recommended Posts

i'm getting old and all these late nights aren't doing me any good. when i'm working, i'm like in a limbo.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Why does wet fabric appear darker?

When fabric gets wet, light coming towards it refracts within the water, dispersing the light. In addition, the surface of the water causes incoherent light scattering. The combination of these two effects causes less light to reflect to your eyes and makes the wet fabric appear darker.

Why does water not calm the tongue after eating hot spicy food?

The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don't mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices.

What can you do to calm your aching tongue? Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called "casein" which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Alcohol also dissolves oily spices.

Why is blue for boys and pink for girls?

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

Why do people kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas?

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

Why are there bunnies and eggs at Easter?

The ancient Anglo-Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a carnival commemorating their goddess of offspring and of springtime, Eostre. The word carnival possibly originated from the Latin ‘carne vale' meaning "flesh, farewell" or "meat, farewell." The offerings were rabbits and coloured eggs, bidding an end to winter.

As it happened, the pagan festival of Eostre occurred at the same time of year as the Christian observance of the Resurrection of Christ and it didn't take the Christian missionaries long to convert the Anglo-Saxons when they encountered them in the second century. The offering of rabbits and eggs eventually became the Easter bunny and Easter eggs.

If blood is red, why are veins blue?

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

Why did Columbus and others try to sail around the world?

You probably know that people native to the Americas are called "Indians" because early explorers like Christopher Columbus thought they had come across the Indian spice islands. Traders were forced to sail westward after the spice route to the East by land was blocked for Europeans by Muslim uprisings.

Why is it called a "loo?"

The British word for toilet, "loo", derives from the French "garde a l'eau!" In medieval Europe people had little conception of hygiene and threw the contents of their chamber pots out the window into the street below. In France the practice was preceded by "garde a l'eau!" ("watch out for the water!"). In England, this phrase was Anglicised, first to "gardy-loo!", then just "loo", and eventually came to mean the toilet/lavatory itself. The American word for toilet, "john", is called after the John Harington mentioned above.

Why is the sky blue?

When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules. These molecules scatter the light. The shorter the wavelength of light, the more it is scattered by the atmosphere. Because it has a shorter wavelength than the other colours, blue light is scattered more, ten times more than red light, for instance. That is why the sky is blue.

Why does the setting sun look reddish orange? When the sun is on the horizon, its light takes a longer path through the atmosphere to reach your eyes than when the sun is directly overhead. By the time the light of the setting sun reaches your eyes, most of the blue light has been scattered out. The light you finally see is reddish orange, the colour of white light minus blue.

Why do onions make you cry?

Onions, like other plants, are made of cells. The cells are divided into two sections separated by a membrane. One side of the membrane contains an enzyme which helps chemical processes occur in your body. The other side of the membrane contains molecules that contain sulfur. When you cut an onion, the contents on each side of the membrane mix and cause a chemical reaction. This reaction produces molecules such as ethylsufine which make your eyes water.

To prevent crying when you cut an onion, cut it under a running tap of cold water. The sulfur compounds dissolve in water and are rinsed down the sink before they reach your eyes. You can also put the onion in the freezer for ten minutes before you cut it. Cold temperatures slow down the reaction between the enzyme and the sulfur compounds so fewer of the burning molecules will reach your eyes.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Cool it

Question

Microwave ovens allow us to heat food and other matter quickly. Is it possible to cool food equally quickly and, if so, why isn't there a machine which does so?

MIKE HULME, University of Norwich

Answers

Microwave ovens radiate high-energy waves with a short wavelength towards the food substance. This energy is absorbed in the form of heat. The higher the energy of the waves, the less time it takes to heat the food to the desired temperature.

The questioner asks why it should not work the other way round. But it does... sort of. When you put your hot chicken in cold surroundings, such as a fridge, it will radiate waves, transferring thermal energy until it eventually reaches thermal equilibrium with the cooling system. But although you can make a microwave oven radiate a lot of energy as highly energetic microwaves, there is no way to make your food radiate microwaves in order to cool itself more quickly. It will only produce ordinary infrared waves.

So is it possible to make the food produce larger amounts of infrared radiation in order to cool it sooner? The rate of heat flow from the food to its surroundings is proportional (alongside other factors which remain constant during the energy transfer) to the temperature difference between the cool and the hot object. So, if you can provide a large temperature difference, your food will initially cool relatively quickly, with the rate of heat flow gradually dropping as thermal equilibrium approaches. But as it would be very expensive to keep a large cryostat in your kitchen, the largest possible temperature difference available for domestic use is that provided by your freezer.

Martin Jaros, Tvrdosin Slovakia

Machines for cooling food do exist and they work by moving the food (usually a liquid or paste) across a metal surface which is held below freezing point. A special scraping/mixing blade is used to prevent freezing at the interface, which would slow down the cooling of the rest of the material. In industry such a device is known as a scraped-surface heat exchanger. Versions are available for domestic users in the form of ice cream makers. More rapid cooling can be achieved by liquid nitrogen or, for small quantities of food in an emergency, even a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher.

M V Wareing, Braintree Essex

A microwave oven causes heating by increasing the kinetic energy of the water molecules in the food which, at a macroscopic level, manifests itself as an increase in temperature. The radio frequency energy of the microwaves is converted into thermal energy, so the degree of disorder of the system, and hence its entropy, increases.

Cooling implies the removal of heat (energy) and a decrease in entropy. Hence, a microwave cooler would contravene the second law of thermodynamics. While a hot object will cool until it reaches the same temperature as its surroundings, any further decrease in temperature can only be achieved by means of a refrigerator. So unless the microwave energy were being used in some way to drive a refrigerator and I doubt that this is what the questioner had in mind it cannot bring about cooling.

R N Richardson, Institute of Cryogenics University of Southampton

The desired effect can be achieved simply with a standard microwave oven. All that is necessary is to cause time to run backwards. This effect cannot, of course, be realised locally. It is necessary to be consistent, first regurgitating the food and finally selling it back to the supermarket. Remember to walk backwards on your way to the shops.

T J Stevenson, Bracknell Berkshire

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The spices in most of the hot foods that we eat are oily, and, like your elementary school science teacher taught you, oil and water don't mix. In this case, the water just rolls over the oily spices.

What can you do to calm your aching tongue? Eat bread. The bread will absorb the oily spices. A second solution is to drink milk. Milk contains a substance called "casein" which will bind to the spices and carry them away. Alcohol also dissolves oily spices.

darn! i knew my mum was bullshitting when she told me tat i should drink warm water to cool off the spicy sensation. if anyone here hav tried it before, it absolutely sucks. thanks for clearing the myth!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The American word for toilet, "john", is called after the John Harington mentioned above.

ooh, i dunno tat. any johns in here?? i will remember not to name my kid tat. fish.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The female ladybug eats much more than the male, which is not surprising since she is larger in size. She may eat up to 75 aphids a day, while the male only eats up to 40. One larva may eat up to 350 aphids during its life span!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The domain of validity of the familiar universal gravitation (F=GMmr^-2) has shrunk to the confines of the solar system. Stars in the Milky Way more nearly obey F=GMmr^-1. And with the discovery of intrinsic redshifts, galaxies in clusters obey F=0. Gravity is going extinct! The universe is losing its "essential vertigo": Instead of falling apart in a Hubble recession, galaxies simply hang in space like some analogue of ball lightning. A truly universal theory is needed to replace the provincial idea of gravity.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
do you know that you cannot have stereo sound with one speaker but you can have mono sound with two speakers?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
do you know you're not as stupid as you think you are and you're also not as smart as you think you are?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

dya believe bout tis article bout guys having "period" like gals too except we dun do blood donation....but according to researcher we have mood swing like gals do every month. smartass.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sleeping Beauty, a beautiful tale in which they all live happily ever after. Or do they?

In 1697, a French author named Charles Perrault published a classic book titled Tales of Times Passed. Today the book is better known as Mother Goose Tales.

Seven of its eight tales have become classics for children. I'm sure that you know some of these: "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" (Sleeping Beauty), "Little Red Riding Hood", "Blue Beard", "The Master Cat: or Puss in Boots", "Diamonds and Toads", and "Cinderella".

Perrault, however, did not write any of these stories. They were all re-workings of stories passed from one generation to the next.

These stories were actually very cruel and downright nasty in their original form. Perrault simply cleaned them up and let everyone live happily ever after.

The earliest known written version of Sleeping Beauty was actually published 61 years earlier by an Italian named Giambattista Basile.

Here is how the story was originally told:

A great king was forewarned by some wise men that his newborn daughter named Talia was in great danger. It seems that a poison splinter was in the palace's flax, and it would destroy her. The king immediately ordered a ban on flax inside the palace walls.

But, as all great fairy tales go, Talia somehow encountered a flax-spinning wheel and got that nasty splinter in her finger.

What happened?

Talia dropped dead.

As a result, King Dad placed his daughter's body on a velvet cloth, locked the palace gates, and left the forest forever and ever.

Enter the great nobleman, who turned out not to be so noble.

While hunting in the woods one day, he just happened to stumble on the abandoned palace and Talia's dead body.

One would think he kissed her at this point, but no such thing happened.

Instead, he raped her.

He planted the noble seed and nine months later Talia gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Their names were Sun and Moon and the fairies took care of them.

One day, the boy was sucking on mom's finger and sucked out the poisonous flax splinter.

Talia awoke from her death bed.

Many months go by and the horny young nobleman returns to the woods to have another encounter with the princess. To his surprise, he found her alive and well.

He confesses that he is the father of her children and they enjoy a hot weekend fling in the hay.

The nobleman then returns home to his wife. Somehow she learns about his illegitimate children.

The wife orders the capture of the children. Her cook is then told to slash their young throats and to cook a hash with their flesh.

At dinner that night, the wife gleefully watches her husband eat his meal. When he has finished, she announces "You are eating what is your own!”

flax noun (flaxes) 1 a slender herbaceous plant that usually has blue flowers and is cultivated in many parts of the world for the fibre of its stem and for its seeds (flaxseeds). 2 the fibre of this plant, used to make thread and woven into linen fabrics.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Research shows a negative correlation between estrogen level and spatial functions, especially in the mental rotation test in females. This means females do better in spatial task when their estrogen level is low, and vice versa. With this, females are said to have increase spatial skills during their menses when their estrogen level is low, and will perform poorly during their midluteal phrase where they have high level of estrogen circulating in their body.

Source: Hausmann, M., Slabbekoorn, D., Van Goozen, S.H.M., Cohen-Kettenis, P.T., & Gunturkun, O. (2000). Behavioral Neuroscience, 114, 1245-1250.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

3 recently discovered mould-eating beetles have been named after President George W. Bush, VP Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The beetles are named Agathidium bushi, Agathidium cheneyi and Agathidium rumsfeldi by their discovers, entomologists Quentin Wheeler and Kelly Miller of Cornell University. One of the entomologists said he admired all three men for "having the courage of their convictions" and standing up for freedom and democracy.

The beetles that are named had nothing to do with physical features of the politicians.

Source: BBC News

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

from a blog that i read:

Very interesting ...

IN CASE YOU WANT TO KNOW.......

Odd but true facts.

1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for

Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper

manufacturer.

2. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up

and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

3. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.

4. 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy

Meals.

5. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

6. On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parentsdaily.

7. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart

and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized

dog.

8. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

9. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

10. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World

War II were made of wood.

12. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

13. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10

years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

14. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film

down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

15. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

16. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't

sink in quicksand.

17. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray

blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

18. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet

away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the

flush.

19. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

20. The first owner of the Marlboro company died of lung cancer.

21. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

22. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

23. Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion

but was talked out of it by her doctor.

24. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro,

Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

25. "Stewardesses" is the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand.

26. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers

into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

27. A mathematical wonder: 111,111,111 multiplied by 111,111,111 gives the result 12, 345, 678, 987, 654, 321.

28. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

29. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

30. The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

31. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the

cat.

32. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

33. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

34. "Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".

35. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

36. In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as

"eat your fingers off".

37. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

38. European women didn't wear underwear until the 1900's.

39. We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

40. Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

41. Coca-Cola can be used as car oil.

42. Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

43. Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

44. Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

45. When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying"yes" in Sri Lanka.

46. There are more chickens than people in the world.

47. It's against the law in Iceland to have a dog.

48. The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

49. The only word in the English Language with all vowels in

reverse order is "subcontinental".

50. There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

51. Beethoven poured ice water over his head before he composed.

52. In Pakistan, it's rude to show your feet.

53. 90% of those read till this line are very free.... are you?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

you cannot sink in the Dead sea.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

7. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart

and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized

dog.

does choc kill cats then..?? hehe...it juz came across my mind as i hav a cat at home~ smile.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

A Duck's Quack Doesn't Echo, and no-one knows the reason why?

to find the truth click the link below. tongue.gif

The duck's quack echo myth

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

30% of Filipino couples are unaware that babies result from having sex.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

i wonder what else they arent aware of? something peculiar!!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for

Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper

manufacturer.

very interesting, and nope, i'm not tat free. well, i've always tought tat ykk is the initial of some chinaman who owns the zip company. rolleyes.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

does choc kill cats then..?? hehe...it juz came across my mind as i hav a cat at home~ smile.gif

i remember when i was five, feeding peanut m&ms to my cousin's dog. it was the doggie's fav snack and i was told not to feed him too much to prevent constipation... not tat it matter now but he ate the entire packet. hmmmm....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...