| Believe
it or Not |
| |
| Pachydermic
Branding |
The
elephants of Sri Krishna temple in Udipi in Karnataka, India drink pots
of coffee after their breakfast and seem to love it. The coffee is supplied
by a local manufacturer but is not entirely free. After they have refreshed
themselves with the brew the pachyderms go around town advertising the brand.
The boards strapped to their sides say: "You can be as strong as an elephant
if you drink our coffee."
The campaign is said to have boosted the sales of the coffee, but the effect
on the elephants is debateable. |
| |
| How
a Stamp changed the course of the Panama Canal. |
| The
US originally meant to build the canal through Nicaragua. When a French
company offered to sell it canal building concessions through Panama, the
US was in two minds. That's when the Panama lobby stepped up pressure by
releasing a stamp showing an active volcano in Nicaragua that could erupt
any time. The diminutive stamp swung the vote in the favour of Panama. |
| |
| How
Nursery Rhymes came about |
Jack
be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over
The candle stick. |
| In
medieval England, if a person wanted to know what Dame Fortune had in store
for him, he would leap over a lighted candle placed on the floor. If the
candle remained lit, good luck was forecast; if it went out, it indicated
bad luck |
| |
Ring-a-ring
o'roses.
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down. |
| More
than 70,000 people dies in the Great Plague of London on 1664-65. The 'ring-o'roses'
refers to the circular rosy rash that was one of the early symptoms of the
disease. People carried herbs which they believed could ward off the disease
in their pockets (pocket full of posies'). |
A-tishoo!
A-tishoo!
We all fall down. |
| This
refers to the final sneeze, after which the victim fell down dead. |
| |
| Weird
Facts |
- The Atlantic
Ocean holds 17 million quadrillion gallons of water.
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
is the fear of long words and Phobatrivaphobia is the fear of trivia
about phobias.
- The largest
orchestra ever to play together assembled in Oslo, Norway in 1964 -
an orchestra of 20,000 musicians.
- There are
now over 5,000 known different languages and dialects spoken in the
world, with 845 of these spoken in India alone.
- The lithophone
is the oldest musical instrument.
- Screwdrivers
were first used to help knights put on armour.
- The most
common surname in the world is Chang.
- The first
known pizza shop, Port 'Alba in Naples, opened in 1830 and is still
open today. Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in North America
in 1905 in New York City.
- Apples, not
caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
- Your feet
are bigger in the afternoon than the rest of the day.
- When you
sneeze, all bodily functions stop...even your heart!
- The fear
of beards, is known as "pogoncophobia".
- The first
person to wear a wrist watch, was Queen Elizabeth 1.
- Charles Chaplin
insured his feet for US$ 150,000.
- Half a kilo
of cotton can be spun into 3300 kms of yarn.
- Peanuts are
used in the manufacture of dynamite.
- A snail can
travel over a razor blade without cutting itself.
- The smallest
known fish is the pygmy goby, about the size of an ant and almost transparent.
- Rats can
survive without water longer than camels
|