Temporary Auto Pilot Technology by Volkswagen

Volkswagen has taken the automobile industry a step up with its new technology called Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP). For all those of us who think that we could use our hands for doing other things while driving the vehicle, have a reason to rejoice. This technology would allow the driver to get around the town while keeping his/ her hands free. Imagine you could utilise the time you to the fullest without fearing accidents now. Isn’t it great?

But even though the technology would allow hands free driving, you would have to keep a tab on the system. This is the first attempt by the company which allows semi automatic driving but in near future drivers would be able to enjoy automatic driving. With a little monitoring, you could have a relaxing drive while your Volkswagen moves at a speed of 130km/hr.

TAP is a smart system which controls the speed of vehicle while making sure that there is safe distance with other vehicles. If this did not amuse you enough, the wonder car by Volkswagen would also make sure that vehicle maintains central position as per lane markings, drops speed before any bends and the best part is the driver could deactivate the system if need be. Wondering how such a technology works? TAP works with the help of sensor platform that consists of camera, radar, ultrasonic sensors supported by electronic horizon and laser scanner.

TAP is the perfect rescuer in the situations like traffic jams and with the routes that are speed limited. Volkswagen has tried to turn many of our dreams into reality but the head of the group advises the drivers to be vigilant. The technology is still semi automatic and the driver is supposed to monitor the TAP constantly to avoid any types of mis-happenings.

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Transparent Screen Nano Technology

Today’s, advance technology all around us, and it begin to grow rapidly day by day. People keep on updating their gadget and information up to date as it is very helpful especially for people who is dealing with busy life. I am going to introduce you a future transparent screen technology.

Just hold it and frame the building or places that you want to know more about. It will show you the information you needed on the screen.

With this thin features screen, it is portable and easy to be carried anywhere you go.

You can easily translate any language you want to read. You do not have to search for word by word in the dictionary. Student for example can done their assignment faster with the help of this nano screen technology as their translator.

In addition, it can be your guider to direct you when you lost. Even you are new at one particular place, you still can manage your life to go anywhere you wanted. It will direct you whenever you ask them to do so. From a big city to your dream shop, hotel, restaurant or even to the rest room provided within the place.

On the other hand, this NaviQ digital city guide might have the same usage like transparent screen technology. It gives local and tourist the information bout the city, the location of places, weather forecast, current news and public transport routes.

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Scientists who Were Killed by Their Own Experiments

These are the great people whose discoveries have changed the world but they were unfortunate as they died or injured themselves while performing their experiments. The advances they have made to science are incredible and many of them opened the doors for some of man’s greatest discoveries and inventions.

Sir David Brewster

Sir David was a Scottish scientist, and a writer. Optics and light polarization was the field of his interest. Optics is a a field requiring excellent vision. In 1831, Sir David performed a chemical experiment which almost blinded him. He remained affected with eye troubles until his death. Sir David Brewster is well known as the inventor of the kaleidoscope – a toy that has gives joy to millions of children over the years.

Alexander Bogdanov

Alexander Bogdanov was a Russian physician, philosopher, economist, and a science fiction writer. In 1924, he started experiments with blood transfusion. After performing 11 transfusions himself, he stated that he had suspended his balding, and improved his eyesight. Unfortunately, Bogdanov forgot to test the health of the blood of the donor which he was using. In 1928, Bogdanov took a transfusion of blood infected with malaria and tuberculosis which made him died shortly.

Karl Scheele

Scheele was a pharmaceutical chemist and had discovered many chemical elements. The most notable of his discoveries were oxygen, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese and chlorine. He also discovered a process very similar to pasteurization. Scheele had the habit of taste testing his discoveries and managed to survive his taste-test of hydrogen cyanide. But he was unfortunate while tasting mercury and died from the symptoms of mercury poisoning.

Elizabeth Ascheim

After the death of the mother, Elizabeth Fleischman Ascheim married her family doctor, Woolf. Woolf was very much exited about the new discovery of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen x-rays. His wife also became equally interested in it and she gave up her job as a bookkeeper to continue studies in electrical science. Finally, she bought an x-ray machine and kept it in her husbands office which was the first x-ray lab in San Francisco.

Using themselves as subjects, She and her husband spent some years in experimenting with the machine. Unfortunately, they did not realize the consequences of their lack of protection to x-rays and Elizabeth died of an extremely widespread and violent cancer.

Jean Francois De Rozier

Jean Francois was a teacher of chemistry and physics. In 1783, he witnessed the world’s first balloon flight that created a passion in him for flight. After testing various flights of a sheep, a chicken, and a duck, he took the first manned free flight in a balloon. He traveled at an altitude of 3,000 feet using a hot air balloon. Later, De Rozier planned a crossing of the English Channel from France to England. He took the flight but unfortunately after reaching 1,500 feet in a combined hot air and gas balloon, the balloon deflated and made him to fall to his death.

Sir Humphry Davy

Sir Humphry Davy was a brilliant British chemist and inventor. He got a very rough start to his science career. As a young trainee, he was fired from his job because he caused too many explosions while performing experiments. He was so much passionate about chemistry that he took it up as the field of his career. He had a habit of inhaling various gases while dealing with them. Luckily this habit led to his discovery of the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide. But, unfortunately, this same habit led to him nearly killing himself on many occasions. The frequent poisonings of gases made him useless for the remaining two decades of his life. He had also damaged his eyes permanently in a nitrogen trichloride explosion.

Michael Faraday

After the injury of a brilliant British chemist Sir Humphrey Davy’s eyes, Faraday became an trainee to him. He made efforts to improve Davy’s methods of electrolysis and to make useful discoveries in the field of electro-magnetics. Unfortunately, Faraday also suffered damage to his eyes in a nitrogen chloride explosion. He spent the rest of his life suffering with chronic chemical poisoning.

Louis Slotin

Slotin worked on the US project to design the first nuclear bomb. While performing experiments for his project, he accidentally dropped a sphere of beryllium on a second sphere causing a prompt critical. It is known from other scientists who were in the room that they had witnessed a blue glow of air ionization and felt a heat wave. Slotin was rushed to hospital where he died nine days later.

The amount of radiation he was exposed to was equivalent to standing 4800 feet away from an atomic bomb explosion.

Marie Curie

Curie along with her husband Pierre discovered radium in 1898. She spent rest of her life performing radiation research and studying radiation therapy. Her constant exposure to radiation led to her contracting leukemia and due to which she died in 1934. Curie is the first and only person who received two Nobel prizes in science in two different fields, chemistry and physics.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo also referred to as the “father of modern physics”. His work on the refinement of the telescope was brilliant. It opened up the doors of the universe for future generations. But it also damaged his eyesight. He was fascinated with the sun and spent many hours staring at it. As a result of which, he got extreme damage to his retinas. This was the most likely cause of his near blindness in the last four years of his life.

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Computer Mouse: A Brief History

First Mouse

In the 1960′s, a relatively unknown inventor Douglas Englebart, wanted to create a way for people to interact with a computer screen.

With the help of Bill English, a pioneer of human-computer interaction, he came up with all sorts of ideas, including a giant metal track ball and a knee operated device- which looked more like a medieval torture device than a computer peripheral, but these devices lacked speed and accuracy unlike his personal favourite-a mouse which was nothing more than a carved block of wood with some electronics inside.

Roller Ball Mouse

In September 1972, Englebart’s project partner-English-built the roller ball mouse, it could navigate a pointer around the screen with ease, and it was so succesful that despite advances in technology, you can still buy a basic no frills roller ball mouse today.

Over the years the amount of buttons on the mouse has fluctuated, one was supposed to be most simple for new users; three gave more options, but in the end the majority of users have two buttons on their mouse.

Optical Mouse

The roller ball mouse has gradually been phased out over the past ten years, replaced by the optical mouse, and more recently the laser mouse, both these types beat the roller ball mouse hands down, you don’t require a rubber mat for them, with the laser mouse if you had the inclination, you could surf the internet on your laptop whilst doing a bungee jump, brushing your hair and singing the national anthem at the same time it is so accurate.

Laser Mouse

These days there are mice that are specifically designed for games, allowing you to tailor their feel depending on the game you are playing.

Logitech released a mouse recently that uses gyroscopic technology so that you can make changes to applications in Windows Vista by moving your arms about, despite the advances of the mouse, the humble roller mouse will be missed by many, it’s hover like skills that saved you from having to dust your desktop.

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Go Green with Bamboo Laptops

Next time you hear someone saying that a Panda ate his presentation; do not just giggle it away. With debut of Bamboo laptops, this is quite possible. Do not be amazed as this unusual laptop comes with a beautiful bamboo cover.
Already a hot cake in eco-friendly market, this laptop is here to stay for sure. Asus has made a remarkable attempt to offer an ecobook. They have replaced plastic with renewable and a green resource- bamboo. The machine helps in reducing the CO2 emissions and also uses the hybrid engine that saves battery life. The components of the laptop are made of non hazardous material too. Display, lids, cover, palm rest, frame- one could find bamboo finish in every corner of the machine.
The laptop blends style, feature and eco-friendliness perfectly. One can find various models including Asus U33JC-A1, U43JC-A1, U43JC-X1, U53JC-A1 and many others. In spite of so much diversity, there is a range of similarities that add to the delight of its users. Hybrid battery, great connectivity and LED display along with beautiful finishes makes the laptop a hit.
By using a bamboo laptop, one can do his bit towards saving the ever deteriorating environment. A pat on the back of all the manufacturers and designers, who offered this ecological and aesthetically pleasing laptop. Use of plastic is ruled in these laptops as it uses a combination of fast growing resource, bamboo with metal. Dell also offers the eco bamboo computers. Invest in one such laptop to appreciate the effort of transforming technological world in an eco-friendly one.

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Clever, clever Quotes

The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending, and to have the two as close together as possible.
George Burns

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
Mark Twain

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
Socrates

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.
Groucho Marx

My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
Jimmy Duran

My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying.
Rodney Dangerfield

Until I was thirteen, I thought my name was SHUT UP.
Joe Namath

I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.
Bob Hope

We could certainly slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress.
Will Rogers

Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. . as you grow older, it will avoid you.
Winston Churchill

By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he’s too old to go anywhere.
Billy Crystal

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Wind Turbines: Facts

Wind is the movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. In fact, wind exists because the sun unevenly heats the surface of the Earth. As hot air rises, cooler air moves in to fill the void. As long as the sun shines, the wind will blow. And as long as the wind blows, people will harness it to power their lives.

Ancient mariners used sails to capture the wind and explore the world. Farmers once used windmills to grind their grains and pump water. Today, more and more people are using wind turbines to wring electricity from the breeze. Over the past decade, wind turbine use has increased at more than 25 percent a year. Still, it only provides a small fraction of the world’s energy.

Most wind energy comes from turbines that can be as tall as a 20-story building and have three 200-foot-long (60-meter-long) blades. These contraptions look like giant airplane propellers on a stick. The wind spins the blades, which turn a shaft connected to a generator that produces electricity. Other turbines work the same way, but the turbine is on a vertical axis and the blades look like a giant egg beater.

The biggest wind turbines generate enough electricity to supply about 600 U.S. homes. Wind farms have tens and sometimes hundreds of these turbines lined up together in particularly windy spots, like along a ridge. Smaller turbines erected in a backyard can produce enough electricity for a single home or small business.

Wind is a clean source of renewable energy that produces no air or water pollution. And since the wind is free, operational costs are nearly zero once a turbine is erected. Mass production and technology advances are making turbines cheaper, and many governments offer tax incentives to spur wind-energy development.

Some people think wind turbines are ugly and complain about the noise the machines make. The slowly rotating blades can also kill birds and bats, but not nearly as many as cars, power lines, and high-rise buildings do. The wind is also variable: If it’s not blowing, there’s no electricity generated.

Nevertheless, the wind energy industry is booming. Globally, generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006. At the end of last year, global capacity was more than 70,000 megawatts. In the energy-hungry United States, a single megawatt is enough electricity to power about 250 homes. Germany has the most installed wind energy capacity, followed by Spain, the United States, India, and Denmark. Development is also fast growing in France and China.

Industry experts predict that if this pace of growth continues, by 2050 the answer to one third of the world’s electricity needs will be found blowing in the wind.

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99 Fun Facts About . . . Dogs

1. All dogs can be traced back 40 million years ago to a weasel-like animal called the Miacis which dwelled in trees and dens. The Miacis later evolved into the Tomarctus, a direct forbear of the genus Canis, which includes the wolf and jackal as well as the dog.^g
2. Ancient Egyptians revered their dogs. When a pet dog would die, the owners shaved off their eyebrows, smeared mud in their hair, and mourned aloud for days.^b
3. Small quantities of grapes and raisins can cause renal failure in dogs. Chocolate, macadamia nuts, cooked onions, or anything with caffeine can also be harmful.^c
4. Apple and pear seeds contain arsenic, which may be deadly to dogs.^c
5. Rock star Ozzy Osborne saved his wife Sharon’s Pomeranian from a coyote by tackling and wresting the coyote until it released the dog.^d

Dogs have sweat glands in between their their paws

6. Dogs have sweat glands in between their paws.^e
7. In 2003, Dr. Roger Mugford invented the “wagometer,” a device that claims to interpret a dog’s exact mood by measuring the wag of its tail.^d
8. Dogs have three eyelids. The third lid, called a nictitating membrane or “haw,” keeps the eye lubricated and protected.ⁱ
9. A dog’s shoulder blades are unattached to the rest of the skeleton to allow greater flexibility for running.^e
10. Puppies are sometimes rejected by their mother if they are born by cesarean and cleaned up before being given back to her.^c
11. The phrase “raining cats and dogs” originated in seventeenth-century England. During heavy rainstorms, many homeless animals would drown and float down the streets, giving the appearance that it had actually rained cats and dogs.^d
12. During the Middle Ages, Great Danes and Mastiffs were sometimes suited with armor and spiked collars to enter a battle or to defend supply caravans.^h
13. Pekingese and Japanese Chins were so important in the ancient Far East that they had their own servants and were carried around trade routes as gifts for kings and emperors. Pekingese were even worshipped in the temples of China for centuries.^b

The shape of a dog’s face can help predict how long a dog will live

14. The shape of a dog’s face suggests how long it will live. Dogs with sharp, pointed faces that look more like wolves typically live longer. Dogs with very flat faces, such as bulldogs, often have shorter lives.^d
15. After the fall of Rome, human survival often became more important than breeding and training dogs. Legends of werewolves emerged during this time as abandoned dogs traveling in packs commonly roamed streets and terrified villagers.^d
16. During the Middle Ages, mixed breeds of peasants’ dogs were required to wear blocks around their necks to keep them from breeding with noble hunting dogs. Purebred dogs were very expensive and hunting became the province of the rich.^d
17. The most dogs ever owned by one person were 5,000 Mastiffs owned by Kubla Khan.^d
18. The American Kennel Club, the most influential dog club in the United States, was founded in 1884.^e
19. The most popular male dog names are Max and Jake. The most popular female dog names are Maggie and Molly.^d

Some scholars speculate that Dorothy’s dog, Toto, may represent the Egyptian god of death, Anubis

20. Scholars have argued over the metaphysical interpretation of Dorothy’s pooch, Toto, in the Wizard of Oz. One theory postulates that Toto represents Anubis, the dog-headed Egyptian god of death, because Toto consistently keeps Dorothy from safely returning home.^d
21. Weird dog laws include allowing police offers in Palding, Ohio, to bite a dog to quiet it. In Ventura County, California, cats and dogs are not allowed to have sex without a permit.^d
22. The first dog chapel was established in 2001. It was built in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, by Stephan Huneck, a children’s book author whose five dogs helped him recuperate from a serious illness.^c
23. Those born under the sign of the dog in Chinese astrology are considered to be loyal and discreet, though slightly temperamental.^h
24. In Iran, it is against the law to own a dog as a pet. However, if an owner can prove the dog is a guard or hunting dog, this restriction doesn’t apply. Muslim reticence concerning dogs is perhaps due to the fact that rabies has always been endemic in the Middle East.^d
25. The Mayans and Aztecs symbolized every tenth day with the dog, and those born under this sign were believed to have outstanding leadership skills.^d
26. The ancient Mbaya Indians of the Gran Chaco in South America believed that humans originally lived underground until dogs dug them up.^b

Plato once said that ”a dog has the soul of a philosopher”

27. Plato once said that “a dog has the soul of a philosopher.”^d
28. French poodles did not originate in France but in Germany (“poodle” comes from the German pudel or pudelhund, meaning “splashing dog”). Some scholars speculate the poodle’s puffs of hair evolved when hunters shaved the poodle for more efficient swimming, while leaving the pom-poms around the major joints to keep them warm.^b
29. The name of the dog on the Cracker Jacks box is Bingo. The Taco Bell Chihuahua is a rescued dog named Gidget.^d
30. The first dogs were self-domesticated wolves which, at least 12,000 years ago, became attracted to the first sites of permanent human habitation.^f
31. Dachshunds were bred to fight badgers in their dens.^d
32. Laiki, a Russian stray, was the first living mammal to orbit the Earth, in the Soviet Sputnik spacecraft in 1957. Though she died in space, her daughter Pushnika had four puppies with President John F. Kennedy’s terrier, Charlie.^d
33. Dalmatians are completely white at birth.^d
34. The term “dog days of summer” was coined by the ancient Greeks and Romans to describe the hottest days of summer that coincided with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius.^b
35. Alexander the Great is said to have founded and named a city Peritas, in memory of his dog.^b
36. In ancient Greece, kennels of dogs were kept at the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus. Dogs were frequently sacrificed there because they were plentiful, inexpensive, and easy to control. During the July 25 celebration of the kunophontis (“the massacre of dogs”), dog sacrifices were performed to appease the ancestors of Apollo’s son, Linos, who was devoured by dogs..^g
37. Dog trainers in ancient China were held in high esteem. A great deal of dog domestication also took place in China, especially dwarfing and miniaturization.^d
38. The ancient religion Zoroastrianism includes in its religious text titled the Zend Avesta a section devoted to the care and breeding of dogs.^b
39. The earliest European images of dogs are found in cave paintings dating back 12,000 years ago in Spain.^g
40. The dog was frequently depicted in Greek art, including Cerberus, the three-headed hound guarding the entrance to the underworld, and the hunting dogs which accompanied the virgin goddess of the chase, Diana.^b
41. During the Renaissance, detailed portraits of the dog as a symbol of fidelity and loyalty appeared in mythological, allegorical, and religious art throughout Europe, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Diego Velázquez, Jan van Eyck, and Albrecht Durer.^b
42. A puppy is born blind, deaf, and toothless.^c

The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog

43. The Basenji is the world’s only barkless dog.^e
44. A dog most likely interprets a smiling person as baring their teeth, which is an act of aggression.^f
45. The origin of amputating a dog’s tail may go back to the Roman writer Lucius Columella’s (A.D. 4-70) assertion that tail docking prevented rabies.^d
46. One of Shakespeare’s most mischievous characters is Crab, the dog belonging to Launce in the Two Gentlemen of Verona. The word “watchdog” is first found in The Tempest.^d
47. President Franklin Roosevelt created a minor international incident when he claimed he sent a destroyer to the Aleutian Islands just to pick up his Scottish Terrier, Fala, who had been left behind.^d
48. Within hours of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, specially trained dogs were on the scene, including German Shepherds, Labs, and even a few little Dachshunds.^d
49. It costs approximately $10,000 to train a federally certified search and rescue dog.^d
50. The smallest dog on record was a matchbox-size Yorkshire Terrier. It was 2.5" tall at the shoulder, 3.5" from nose tip to tail, and weighed only 4 ounces.^d
51. Hollywood’s first and arguably best canine superstar was Rin Tin Tin, a five-day-old German Shepherd found wounded in battle in WWI France and adopted by an American soldier, Lee Duncan. He would sign his own contracts with his paw print.^d
52. At the end of WWI, the German government trained the first guide dogs for war-blinded soldiers.^d
53. A dog can locate the source of a sound in 1/600 of a second and can hear sounds four times farther away than a human can.^c
54. Touch is the first sense the dog develops. The entire body, including the paws, is covered with touch-sensitive nerve endings.^e
55. Eighteen muscles or more can move a dog’s ear.^e
56. The names of 77 ancient Egyptian dogs have been recorded. The names refer to color and character, such as Blackie, Ebony, Good Herdsman, Reliable, and Brave One.^d
57. In Egypt, a person bitten by a rabid dog was encouraged to eat the roasted liver of a dog infected with rabies to avoid contracting the disease. The tooth of a dog infected with rabies would also be put in a band tied to the arm of the person bitten. The menstrual blood of a female dog was used for hair removal, while dog genitals were used for preventing the whitening of hair.^h
58. In early Christian tradition, Saint Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, is sometimes depicted with a dog’s head.^g
59. The oldest known dog bones were found in Asia and date as far back as 10,000 B.C. The first identifiable dog breed appeared about 9000 B.C. and was probably a type of Greyhound dog used for hunting.^g
60. There are an estimated 400 million dogs in the world.^d
61. The U.S. has the highest dog population in the world. France has the second highest.^d

Dog nose prints are as unique as human fingerprints

62. Dog nose prints are as unique as human finger prints and can be used to identify them.^c
63. Bloodhound dogs have a keen sense of smell and have been used since the Middle Ages to track criminals.^e
64. It is much easier for dogs to learn spoken commands if they are given in conjunction with hand signals or gestures.^a
65. Dogs in a pack are more likely to chase and hunt than a single dog on its own. Two dogs are enough to form a pack.^a
66. Dogs can see in color, though they most likely see colors similar to a color-blind human. They can see better when the light is low.^c

Studies show that petting a dog lowers blood pressure

67. Petting dogs is proven to lower blood pressure of dog owners.^a
68. Dogs have lived with humans for over 14,000 years. Cats have lived with people for only 7,000 years.^h
69. Zorba, an English mastiff, is the biggest dog ever recorded. He weighed 343 pounds and measured 8' 3" from his nose to his tail.^d
70. The average dog can run about 19 mph. Greyhounds are the fastest dogs on Earth and can run at speeds of 45 mph.^c
71. One female dog and her female children could produce 4,372 puppies in seven years.^c
72. The most popular dog breed in Canada, U.S., and Great Britain is the Labrador retriever.^d
73. Greyhounds appear to be the most ancient dog breed. “Greyhound” comes from a mistake in translating the early German name Greishund, which means “old (or ancient) dog,” not from the color gray.^g
74. The oldest dog on record was an Australian cattle dog named Bluey who lived 29 years and 5 months. In human years, that is more than 160 years old.^d
75. Most experts believe humans domesticated dogs before donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, cattle, cats, or chickens.^h
76. A person standing still 300 yards away is almost invisible to a dog. But a dog can easily identify its owner standing a mile away if the owner is waving his arms.ⁱ
77. Dogs with big, square heads and large ears (like the Saint Bernard) are the best at hearing subsonic sounds.^c
78. Dogs can smell about 1,000 times better than humans. While humans have 5 million smell-detecting cells, dogs have more than 220 million. The part of the brain that interprets smell is also four times larger in dogs than in humans.^a

Studies show that some dogs can detect cancer by smelling a person's breath

79. Some dogs can smell dead bodies under water, where termites are hiding, and natural gas buried under 40 feet of dirt. They can even detect cancer that is too small to be detected by a doctor and can find lung cancer by sniffing a person’s breath.^c
80. Dogs have a wet nose to collect more of the tiny droplets of smelling chemicals in the air.ⁱ
81. Dogs like sweets a lot more than cats do. While cats have around only 473 taste buds, dogs have about 1,700 taste buds. Humans have approximately 9,000.^a
82. Different smells in the a dog’s urine can tell other dogs whether the dog leaving the message is female or male, old or young, sick or healthy, happy or angry.^a
83. Male dogs will raise their legs while urinating to aim higher on a tree or lamppost because they want to leave a message that they are tall and intimidating. Some wild dogs in Africa try to run up tree trunks while they are urinating to appear to be very large.^a
84. In Croatia, scientists discovered that lampposts were falling down because a chemical in the urine of male dogs was rotting the metal.^a
85. Dogs are about as smart as a two- or three-year-old child. This means they can understand about 150-200 words, including signals and hand movements with the same meaning as words.^a
86. Countess Karlotta Libenstein of Germany left approximately $106 million to her Alsatin, Gunther III, when she died in 1992.^d
87. A lost Dachshund was found swallowed whole in the stomach of a giant catfish in Berlin on July 2003.^d
88. In Australia, a man who was arrested for drug possession argued his civil rights were violated when the drug-sniffing dog nuzzled his crotch. While the judge dismissed the charges, they were later reinstated when a prosecutor pointed out that in the animal kingdom, crotch nuzzling was a friendly gesture.^d
89. The Beagle came into prominence in the 1300s and 1400s during the days of King Henry VII of England. Elizabeth I was fond of Pocket Beagles, which were only 9" high.^d

Golden Retrievers may improve a person’s chance of attracting a date

90. The best dog to reportedly attract a date is the Golden Retriever. The worst is the Pit Bull.^d
91. The Akita is one of the most challenging dogs to own. Some insurance companies have even characterized it as the #1 “bad dog” and may even raise an Akita owner’s homeowner insurance costs.^d
92. The Beagle and Collie are the nosiest dogs, while the Akbash Dog and the Basenji are the quietest.^d
93. One survey reports that 33% of dog owners admit they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on answering machines while they are away..^d
94. Thirty percent of all Dalmatians are deaf in one or both ears. Because bulldogs have extremely short muzzles, many spend their lives fighting suffocation. Because Chihuahuas have such small skulls, the flow of spinal fluid can be restricted, causing hydrocephalus, a swelling of the brain.^d

Intense grief over the death of a pet dog is normal and natural

95. The grief suffered after a pet dog dies can be the same as that experienced after the death of a person.^a
96. There are almost 5 million dog bites per year; children are the main victims. Dog bites cause losses of over $1 billion a year.^d
97. A person should never kick a dog facing him or her. Some dogs can bite 10 times before a human can respond.^d
98. The most intelligent dogs are reportedly the Border Collie and the Poodle, while the least intelligent dogs are the Afghan Hound and the Basenji.^d
99. One kind of Pekingese is referred to as a “sleeve” because it was bred to fit into a Chinese empress’ sleeves, which was how it was often carried around.^d

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The History of Cell Phones – A Vision Realized

Samuel Morse was a man of vision. His vision, his dreams, have become the paving stones for what is now known as the information superhighway. The leading technology in the creation and progress of this telecommunication spectacle is the cell phone and its derivatives. So you may wonder how we got from Samuel Morse to where we are today…and where we’re going tomorrow. To ease your curiosity, following is a history of cell phones. Sit back, relax and enjoy.

Samuel Morse invents the telegraph

Any history of cell phones starts with Samuel Morse. He conceived of an electromagnetic telegraph in 1832 and constructed an experimental version in 1835. Then, on October 18, 1842, Morse laid wires between Governor's Island and Castle Garden, New York, a distance of about a mile. Part of that circuit was under water because Morse wanted to show that an underwater cable could transmit signals as well as a copper wire suspended on poles. But before he could complete this demonstration a passing ship pulled up his cable, ending, it seemed, his experiment. However, undaunted, Morse proceeded without the cable, passing his telegraph signals through the water itself. This introduced the concept of wireless by conduction. Quite simply, Samuel Morse’s telegraph was the first device to send messages by electricity.

And the ideas started pouring in

So now there was the know-how to send messages. And the possibilities of exactly how to do this were abounding. Now it was known that water could conduct electricity and carry messages, other conductors were sought out.

In 1843, a skilled analytical chemist by the name of Michael Faraday began exhaustive research into whether space could indeed conduct electricity, using the principles already established by telegraphy.

In 1864, James Clerk Maxwell released his paper "Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" which concluded that light, electricity, and magnetism, were all related. All of these worked hand in hand, and all electromagnetic phenomena traveled in waves.

Then, in 1865, Dr. Mahlon Loomis of Virginia, a dentist, may have been the first person to communicate through wireless via the atmosphere. Between 1866 and 1873 he transmitted telegraphic messages at a distance of 18 miles between the tops of Cohocton and Beorse Deer Mountains in Virginia. He developed a method of transmitting and receiving messages by using the Earth's atmosphere as a conductor and launching kites enclosed with copper screens that were linked to the ground with copper wires.

Over the next thirty years, most inventors and developers concentrated on wire line telegraphy, suspending wires between poles, which eventually became what we know as telephone poles. Few tinkered exclusively with wireless since a basic radio theory had not yet been worked out. Several experiments conducted on a trial and error basis produced no results. Telegraphy, however, did produce a good understanding of wireless by induction since wires ran parallel to each other and often induced rogue currents into other lines. So now they knew that electromagnetic messages could travel through the air.

And the cell phone is born

We’ll now fast-forward a bit in our history of cell phones. The principles necessary to send messages had been set. And then along came another man with a vision – Martin Cooper, known by many as the father of the cellular phone. Hired by Motorola in 1954, Mr. Cooper worked on developing portable products, including the first portable handheld police radios, made for the Chicago police department in 1967. He then led Motorola's cellular research.

In the meantime, AT&T's research arm, Bell Laboratories, introduced the idea of cellular communications in 1947. But Motorola and Bell Labs in the sixties and early seventies were in a race to incorporate the technology into portable devices.

Martin Cooper won that race! Cooper set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac (see picture below). After some initial testing in Washington for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Mr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public.

On April 3, 1973, at a public demonstration and using a heavy 30-ounce phone, Martin Cooper placed the first cell phone call to his rival at AT&T Bell Labs from the streets of New York City. Mr. Cooper commented, "As I walked down the street while talking on the phone, sophisticated New Yorkers gaped at the sight of someone actually moving around while making a phone call. Remember that in 1973, there weren't cordless telephones or cellular phones. I made numerous calls, including one where I crossed the street while talking to a New York radio reporter - probably one of the more dangerous things I have ever done in my life."

First Cell Phone (1973): Motorola Dyna-Tac Size: 9 x 5 x 1.75 inches Weight: 2.5 pounds Display: None Number of Circuit Boards: 30 Talk time: 35 minutes Recharge Time: 10 hours Features: Talk, listen, dial

This first cell phone call caused a fundamental technology and communications market shift toward the person and away from the place. It also created another vision for Martin Cooper. His vision was for personal wireless communications. "People want to talk to other people - not a house, or an office, or a car. Given a choice, people will demand the freedom to communicate wherever they are, unfettered by the infamous copper wire. It is that freedom we sought to vividly demonstrate in 1973," he said.

Martin Cooper started the 10-year process of bringing the portable cell phone to market. Motorola introduced the 16-ounce "DynaTAC" phone into commercial service in 1983, with each phone costing the consumer $3,500. It took seven additional years before there were a million subscribers in the United States. Today, there are more cellular subscribers than wireline phone subscribers in the world, with mobile phones weighing as little as 3 ounces.

What’s the next development?

With wireless number and home-to-cell phone portability now live, wireless dominance is now inevitable. Over the next few years, your telephone number can be just as important to you as your social security number - you may only need one. Expect in the next few years the idea of area codes to lose its importance of identifying the city and state you live in. Change states, keep your number. Move 10 times, keep your number!

Other progressive changes will occur. For example, reception areas will increase – worldwide. The concept of anytime minutes will no longer exist. Several technological improvements with the phone itself will help cut the landline cord. Imagine this:

• A cell phone will be more like a PDA, with large address books, calendars and the like.
• Internet access ability - DSL on a phone? Broadband through a cell phone is coming.
• Cell phones interact with appliances. Forget to start the dishwasher? Set it with your phone.
• Store files and documents - your cell phone is now a desktop computer.

And this completes the current history of cell phones. But history is being written daily. Technological advances are going to seem overwhelming. But hang in there! You can participate in the history of cell phones.

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Sudoku: A Brief History

Sudoku has a fascinating history. “Su” means number in Japanese, and “Doku” refers to the single place on the puzzle board that each number can fit into. It also connotes someone who is single—indeed, one way to describe the game is “Solitaire with numbers.” Sometimes it is mis-spelled as “soduko” or “sudoko.” Although its name is Japanese, its origins are actually European and American, and the game represents the best in cross-cultural fertilization. Unlike many games which spring from one culture and are then absorbed by others, Sudoku’s development reveals it to be a true hybrid creation.

The 18th century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler apparently developed the concept of “Latin Squares” where numbers in a grid appear only once, across and up and down. In the late 1970′s, Dell Magazines in the US began publishing what we now call Sudoku puzzles using Euler’s concept with a 9 by 9 square grid. They called it Number Place, and it was developed by an independent puzzle maker, Howard Garnes.

Mr. Maki Kaji

In the mid-1980s, the president of the Japanese puzzle giant Nikoli, Inc., Mr. Maki Kaji , urged the company to publish a version of the puzzle that became a huge hit in that country. Nikoli gave the game its current name, and helped refine it by restricting the number of revealed or given numbers to 30 and having them appear symmetrically. Afterwards the game became increasingly popular in Japan and started becoming a fixture in daily newspapers and magazines. Yet almost two decades passed before the game was taken up by The Times newspaper in London as a daily puzzle. This development was due to the efforts of Wayne Gould, a retired Hong Kong judge originally from New Zealand. He first came across a Sudoku puzzle in a Japanese bookshop in 1997, and later spent many years developing a computer program to generate them. In the fall of 2004, he was able to convince The Times to start publishing daily Sudoku puzzles developed using his software. The first game was published on November 12, 2004. Within a few months, other British newspapers began publishing their own Sudoku puzzles.

Once again, Sudoku’s popularity crossed the oceans. By the summer of 2005, major newspapers in the US were also offering Sudoku puzzles like they would daily crossword puzzles. It is interesting to note that while software is critical to being able to supply the growing demand for Sudoku puzzles—it can take hours of processing time to generate one unique puzzle—it was old media in the form of newspapers that have done so much to spread Sudoku around the world. In the US, the New York Post, the San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today offered Sudoku puzzles to their readers by September 2005.

Sudoku’s future development is unknown. While the 9 by 9 grid is the most common form of Sudoku, there are many variants of the game. Four by four (4 x 4) Sudoku with 2 by 2 subsections are simpler, fun for younger audiences, and easy to deliver to mobile devices like cellphones (this site offers a 4 by 4 variant). There are 5 by 5 games, 6 by 6 and 7 by 7 games. For the truly addicted, there are even 16 by 16 grids, not to mention a 25 by 25 grid apparently offered by Japanese game developer Nikoli. Sudoku puzzles using letters and symbols, some even spelling words in their final solutions are also becoming available. Other variants require computational skills.

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Funny Error Messages

Here’s a collection of Funny and edited error messages for a good laugh.

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Burj Khalifa facts and figures

Basic facts

1. Burj Khalifa is located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

2. It’s 828 metres tall (2,717 feet).

3. The exact height was not revealed until final stages of the construction.

4. It was officially opened on Jan 4, 2010.

5. It was previously known as Burj Dubai.

6. Burj means Tower in Arabic language.

7. It’s renamed after Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi.

World records

8. Tallest building – previously Taiwan’s Taipei 101 (509m).

9. Tallest free-standing structure – previously Canada’s CN Tower (555m).

10. Tallest man-made structure – previously USA’s KVLY-TV Mast (629m).

11. Tallest man-made structure ever – previously Poland’s Warsaw Radio Mast (647m).

12. Building with most floors (160) – previously USA’s World Trade Center (110).

13. Highest elevator installation.

14. Highest outdoor observation deck (~440m)

15. Highest mosque at 158th floor.

16. Highest (insert here) which requires another long list to be completed ;p

17. Fastest elevators at speed of 64km/h, or 18m/s.

18. It would take just a minute to reach from ground level to top floor.

Architecture facts

19. Burj Dubai has more than 162 floors.

20. It has 49 office floors.

21. It houses 1044 residential apartments.

22. It has a floor area of 334,000 square metres.

23. There’s 57 lifts in the tower.

24. There’s 28,261 of glass-panels on the exterior of the tower.

25. Its top spire can be seen from 95km afar.

26. The architecture features a triple-lobed footprint, an abstraction of the Hymenocallis flower.

27. The Y-shaped floor plan aims to maximize views of the Gulf.

28. Over 1,000 pieces of art from prominent Middle Eastern and international artists will adorn the tower and the surrounding Emaar Boulevard.

Environmental facts

29. The tower’s peak electricity demand is estimated at 50MVA, equivalent to roughly 500,000 100-watt light bulbs.

30. It’s expected to use an average of 946,000 litres of water each day.

31. During peak cooling conditions, the tower will require around 12,500 tons of cooling, equivalent to the cooling capacity of about 10,000 tons of melting ice.

Construction facts

32. Construction began in September 2004.

33. The tower’s architect and engineer is Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (Chicago).

34. The main constructor is Emaar Properties, a joint venture by Korea’s Samsung C&T, Belgium’s Besix and UAE’s Arabtec.

35. The construction project manager is Turner Construction Company.

36. Bill Baker is the chief structural engineer.

37. Adrian Smith is consulting design partner.

38. It took some 22 million man-hours to be completed.

39. On downside, foreign construction workers were pay as little as $4 per day.

40. Over 45,000 cubic-metres of concrete, weighing more than 110,000 tonnes, were used.

41. Concrete used was enough to lay a 2,065km-long pavement; and equivalent to the weight of 100,000 elephants.

42. Total weight of aluminium used is equivalent to that of five A380 aircraft.

43. Total length of stainless steel bull nose fins used is equal to 293 times the height of France’s Eiffel Tower.

44. The foundations were dug to depths of 50m.

Financial figures

45. Total cost estimated at US$1.5 billion.

46. The price for the offices spaces reached as high as US$4,000 per sq ft.

47. Residential spaces as high as US$3,500 per sq ft.

48. The building is part of the a 490-acre flagship development called Downtown Burj Khalifa.

Random stuff

49. Burj Khalifa is about twice the height of Empire State Building (443m).

50. It’s taller than Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak (552m).

51. It’s the first world’s tallest structure in history to include residential space.

52. It will feature the world’s first Armani Hotel, which occupies 15 of the lower 39 floors.

53. The exterior temperature at the top of will be 6°C cooler than its base (some say 10°C).

54. Jan 4, its opening date, was the birthday of Sir Isaac Newton.

55. Around 12,000 people are expected to live and work in the tower when it’s fully occupied.

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Interesting Facts about Facebook

1. 1 in every 13 people on Earth is on Facebook
2. 35+ demographic represents more than 30% of the entire user base
3. 71.2 % of all USA internet users are on Facebook
4. In 20 minutes 1,000,000 links are shared on Facebook
5. In 20 minutes 1,484,000 event invites are posted
6. In 20 minutes 1,323,000 photos are tagged
7. In 20 minutes 1,851,000 status updates are entered
8. In 20 minutes 1.972 million friend requests are accepted
9. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 photos are uploaded
10. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 messages are sent
11. In 20 minutes 10.2 million comments are posted
12. In 20 minutes 1,587,000 wall posts are written
13. 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over New Year’s weekend
14. 48% of young Americans said they found out about news through Facebook
15. 48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook right when they wake up
16. 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
17. Average user has 130 friends
18. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
19. There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
20. Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
21. Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
22. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
23. More than 70 translations available on the site
24. About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
25. Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
26. Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
27. People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
28. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
29. Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
30. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites
31. There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
32. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
33. There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
34. Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
35. One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
36. The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks included Apple and Microsoft
37. The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
38. There is an ‘App’ to see what’s on the Facebook cafe menu
39. Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” when in fact he didn’t graduate (apparently his reply is that “there isn’t a setting for dropout”)
40. Australian’s spend more time per month on Facebook than any other country at over 7 hours on average
41. A Facebook employee hoodie sold for $4,000 on eBay
42. Facebook was initially bank-rolled by Peter Thiel the co-founder of PayPal for $500,000
43. It is the second biggest website by traffic behind Google (at the moment)
44. Facebook is now valued at approximately $80 billion
45. Facebook makes money through advertising and virtual products
46. Facebook was almost shut down by a lawsuit by ConnectU who claimed that Zuckerburg stole the idea and Technology for Facebook (the issue was settled out of court)
47. The USA has the largest Facebook user base with 155 million people which represents 23.6% of Facebook’s total users
48. There is over 16,000,000 Facebook fan pages
49. Texas Hold’em Poker is the most popular Facebook page with over 41 million fans
50. More than 650 million active users

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