Some Interesting Geography

Nothing political here…just some interesting facts. Thought you might get a kick out of reading them…The one about the Interstate Hwy System surprised me the most.


SOME INTERESTING GEOGRAPHY

Alaska
More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.

Amazon
The Amazon rainforest 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 70% 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, that is), 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 1930s 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.M.O.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 ..

It has been said that one should learn something new every day. Unfortunately, many of us are at that age where what we learn today, we forget tomorrow. But, give it a shot anyway!

Just something to Thing about

1. If you take an Oriental person and spin him around
several times, does he become disoriented?
2. If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't
people from Holland called Holes?
3. If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
4. When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
5. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a
person who drives a racing car not called a racist?
6. Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
7. Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
8. Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?
9. 'I am' is reportedly the shortest sentence in the
English language. Could it be that 'I do' is the
longest sentence?
10. If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked,
doesn't it follow that electricians can be
delighted, musicians denoted, owboys deranged,
models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners
depressed?
11. What hair colour do they put on the driver's licences
of bald men?
12. I thought about how mothers feed their babies
with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered what
do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?
13. Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office?
What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they
just put their pictures on the postage stamps so
the postmen can look for them while they deliver the mail?
14. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.
15. No one ever says, 'It's only a game' when their team is winning.
16. If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhoea, does that mean
that one enjoys it?
18. Why if you send something by road in a car, it is called
a shipment, but when you send it by sea in a ship, it is
called cargo?
19. If a convenience store is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
365 days a year, why are there locks on the door?

Read this one all the way through . Wow.

Musician playing violin in a Washington DC
Metro Station on a cold January morning
in 2007.

He played six Bach pieces for about 60 minutes. During that time approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After:

3 minutes
A middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.
4 minutes
The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, continued to walk.
6 minutes
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.
10 minutes
A three year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly, as the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced them to move on.
45 minutes
The musician played. Only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.
1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

This is a real story. The Washington Post, as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities, arranged the entire scenario. Playing incognito, no one knew the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days prior to this, Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the tickets averaged $100 per seat.

The questions raised:
In a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty; do we stop to appreciate it;
do we recognize talent in such an unexpected context?
One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ....... How many other things are we missing?

The best complaint letter ever?

The best complaint letter ever?
Tue Jan 27 03:01PM

This is a letter recently received by the Virgin Atlantic customer complaints team and is currently being hailed on news blogs, such as this one on The Telegraph as possibly the funniest customer complaint letter ever.

We called the Virgin Atlantic press office and they confirmed they received the letter and that Richard Branson himself called the author to thank him for the feedback.

Here's the letter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr Branson

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow 7th December 2008

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at the hands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it:




I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don't get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it's next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That's got to be the clue hasn't it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in:




I know it looks like a baaji but it's in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you'll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It's only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what's on offer.

I'll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it's Christmas morning and you're sat their with your final present to open. It's a big one, and you know what it is. It's that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it's not in there. It's your hamster Richard. It's your hamster in the box and it's not breathing. That's how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this:




Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking it's more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It's mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it's baffling presentation:



It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn't want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on:



I apologise for the quality of the photo, it's just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson's face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel:



Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I'd had enough. I was the hungriest I'd been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations:




Yes! It's another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

Richard.... What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I'd done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.

So that was that Richard. I didn't eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can't imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It's just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it's knees and begging for sustenance.

Yours Sincererly...

65 year old police trainee

Proven Philosophies

The Effective and Successful Leaders are assumed to have displayed some or most or all of below traits:
#Actions really do speak louder than words. When you seek to engage others, your choice of phone call over email, particular seat at the table, your choices of words, your gestures all must stay on message.
#Academic intelligence will get you in the door, but Emotional and Social Intelligence are the difference-makers on a path to a Leadership position.
#Actively seek out a group of mentors who will invest in your professional success.
#Intense preparation creates confidence. Let the value of your preparation fortify you to manage the inevitable curveballs you will encounter.
#Active listening is rooted in Perspective Taking. Learn to stand in someone else’s shoes and look through their lens.
#Know who you are, what you alone can offer, and who your consumers are. It’s your job to manage your brand’s perception and how you are consumed.
#Embrace Talent, Even When It Exceeds Your Own. Building a strong team is a reflection on your own confidence & credibility and it will ensure you are always growing. (1+1=3)
#Today’s loses are a blueprint for tomorrow’s gains. Your ability to recover from setbacks isn’t as important as your ability to profit from them. Use mistakes and roadblocks to inform future success.
#No one is good at everything. Your job is to know your strong areas and your vulnerable spot, and to use one to strengthen the other.
#Business success, like life, is defined by the quality of your relationships. Building strong relationships creates longevity that outlasts the daily highs and lows. Time and time again, it proves to be the most valuable currency in business.

Inventors of the Modern Computer

The Harvard MARK I Computer - Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper

Howard Aiken and Grace Hopper designed the MARK series of computers at Harvard University. The MARK series of computers began with the Mark I in 1944. Imagine a giant roomful of noisy, clicking metal parts, 55 feet long and 8 feet high. The 5-ton device contained almost 760,000 separate pieces. Used by the US Navy for gunnery and ballistic calculations, the Mark I was in operation until 1959.

The computer, controlled by pre-punched paper tape, could carry out addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and reference to previous results. It had special subroutines for logarithms and trigonometric functions and used 23 decimal place numbers. Data was stored and counted mechanically using 3000 decimal storage wheels, 1400 rotary dial switches, and 500 miles of wire. Its electromagnetic relays classified the machine as a relay computer. All output was displayed on an electric typewriter. By today's standards, the Mark I was slow, requiring 3-5 seconds for a multiplication operation.

Howard Aiken

Born: 9 March 1900 in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA
Died: 14 March 1973 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA

• Howard Aiken was an electrical engineer and physicist who first conceived of an electro-mechanical device like the Mark I in 1937. After completing his doctorate at Harvard in 1939, Aiken stayed on to continue the computer's development. IBM funded his research. Aiken headed a team of three engineers including Grace Hopper.
• The Mark I reached completion in 1944.
• In 1947, Howard Aiken completed the Mark II, an electronic computer. The same year he founded the Harvard Computation Laboratory.
• He later published numerous articles on electronics and switching theory and started Aiken Industries.
• Howard Aiken loved computers, but even he had no idea of their eventual widespread appeal. "Only six electronic digital computers would be required to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States," he said in 1947.


Grace Hopper

Born: 9 Dec 1906 in New York, USA
Died: 1 Jan 1992 in Arlington, Virginia, USA

• Grace Hopper studied at Vassar College and Yale and then joined the Naval Reserve in 1943. In 1944, she started working with Aiken on the Harvard Mark I computer.
• Grace Hopper is responsible for the term 'bug' for a computer fault. The original 'bug' was a moth, which caused a hardware fault in the Mark I. Hopper was the first person to 'debug' a computer.
• In 1949, Grace Hopper started research for the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation where she designed an improved compiler and was part of the team which developed Flow-Matic, the first English-language data processing compiler.
• She invented the language APT and verified the language COBOL.
• Grace Hopper was the first computer science "Man of the Year" in 1969.
• In 1991, Grace Hopper received the National Medal of Technology.

The Dont Quit Peom

Life-Risk-Motivation

Heavy Heart

Be thankful when you don't know something,for it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times,During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations,because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes.They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you're tired and weary,because it means you've made a difference.
It's easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,

and they can become your blessings.

Author Unknown