14 Simple Ways to Super Charge Your Brain

Have you ever felt exasperated when you bumped into someone at thestore but absolutely couldn't remember their name? Sure, it happens to all ofus.

Despite being the strongest computer on the planet, our brains dolapse. It's hard to blame them really. As humans, we spend much of or existencestuffing our brains withstuff. Some stuffis worthless, some of it's meaningful, some of it, well, it's just stuff andthere is an endless amount of it.

No matter how powerful our brainsare, they need recuperation time, to be kept in shape, and even an occasionalcharge. Think of it as a tune up for your brain. Skipping brain maintenance isas silly as the person wandering the parking garage because they forgot wherethey parked. Is that you? Are you that person? Sure. We all are at some point.No worries, there is hope.

Now I am not a brain surgeon and I am notgoing to suggest you do anything surgical or dangerous. I am however an astutestudent of human behavior, so I always look for simple ways to super charge mybrain.

Here are some things you can begin doing as soon as today to beginthe great brain tune up.

EatAlmonds
Almond is believed to improve memory. If a combinationof almond oil and milk is taken together before going to bed or after gettingup at morning, it strengthens our memory power. Almond milk is preparedby crushing the almonds without the outer cover and adding water and sugar toit.

Drink AppleJuice
Research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML)indicates that apple juice increases the production of the essentialneurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain, resulting in an increased memorypower.

Sleepwell
Research indicates that the long-term memory is consolidatedduring sleep by replaying the images of the experiences of the day. Theserepeated playbacks program the subconscious mind to store these images andother related information.

Enjoy simplePleasures
Stress drains our brainpower. A stress-ridden mindconsumes much of our memory resources to leave us with a feeble mind. Make ahabit to engage yourself in few simple pleasures everyday to dissolve stressfrom your mind. Some of these simple pleasures are good for your mind, bodyand soul.

Enjoy music you love
Play with your children
Hug a stranger
Appreciate others
Run few miles a day, bike or swim
Start a blogTake a yoga class or Total wellness routine

Fast for aday
Fasting cleans and detoxifies our body. It is known fact thatheavy food not only causes stress on our digestive system but also drains ourbrainpower. Fasting relieves toxic emotions such as anger, grief, worry, andfears - before they accumulate and cause disease. By cleansing toxic emotions,fasting strengthens metal clarity with increases memory, concentration,creativity and insight.
Exerciseyour mind
Just as physical exercise is essential for a strong body,mental exercise is equally essential for a sharp and agile mind. Have younoticed that children have far superior brainpower than an adult does?Children have playful minds. A playful mind exhibits superior memory power.Engage in some of the activities that require your mind to remain active andplayful.

Play scrabble or crossword puzzle
Volunteer
Interact with others
Start a new hobby such as blogging, reading, painting, bird watching
Learn new skill or a language

PracticeYoga or Meditation
Yoga or Meditation relives stress.Stress is a known memory buster. With less stress, lower blood pressure,slower respiration, slower metabolism, and released muscle tension follows.All of these factors contribute significantly towards increases in ourbrainpower.

Reduce Sugarintake

Sugar is a non-food. It’s a form of carbohydrate thatoffers illusionary energy, only to cause a downhill slump once the initialburst has been worn off. Excess intake of sugar results in neurotic symptoms.Excess sugar is known to cause claustrophobia, memory loss and other neuroticdisorders. Eat food without adding sugar. Stay away from sweet drinks orexcess consumption of caffeine with sugar.

Eat wholewheat

The whole wheat germs contain lecithin. Lecithin helps easethe problem of the hardening of the arteries, which often impairs brainfunctioning.

Eat a lightmeal in the night
A heavy meal at night causes tossing and turningand a prolonged emotional stress while at sleep. It’s wise to eat heavy mealduring the day when our body is in motion to consume the heavy in-take. Eatinga light meal with some fruits allows us to sleep well. A good night sleepstrengthens our brainpower.
Developimagination
Greeks mastered the principle of imagination andassociation to memorize everything. This technique requires one to develop avivid and colorful imagination that can be linked to a known object. If youinvolve all your senses - touching, feeling, smelling, hearing and seeing inthe imagination process, you can remember greater details of the event.
Sex
Oursexual imagination often empowers our ability to daydream, which strengthensour brainpower with greater imagination, visualization andassociation.

Control yourtemper
Bleached food, excess of starch or excess of white bread canlead to nerve grating effect. This results in a violent and some timedepressive behavior. Eat fresh vegetables. Drink lots of water and meditate orpractice yoga to relieve these toxic xemotions of temper and violent moodswings.
vTake VitaminB-complex[/b]
Vitamin B-complex strengthens memory power. Eat food andvegetables high in Vitamin B-complex. Stay away from the starch food or whitebread, which depletes the Vitamin B-complex necessary for a healthymind.

Read More

Strange Facts about Human Body which You Did Not Know

Your Stomach Secretes Corrosive Acid

There's one dangerous liquid no airport security can confiscate from you: It's in your gut. Your stomach cells secrete hydrochloric acid, a corrosive compound used to treat metals in the industrial world. It can pickle steel, but mucous lining the stomach wall keeps this poisonous liquid safely in the digestive system, breaking down lunch.

Body Position Affects Your Memory

Can't remember your anniversary, hubby? Try getting down on one knee. Memories are highly embodied in our senses. A scent or sound may evoke a distant episode from one's childhood. The connections can be obvious (a bicycle bell makes you remember your old paper route) or inscrutable. A recent study helps decipher some of this embodiment. An article in the January 2007 issue of Cognition reports that episodes from your past are remembered faster and better while in a body position similar to the pose struck during the event.

Bones Break (Down) to Balance Minerals

In addition to supporting the bag of organs and muscles that is our body, bones help regulate our calcium levels. Bones contain both phosphorus and calcium, the latter of which is needed by muscles and nerves. If the element is in short supply, certain hormones will cause bones to break downeupping calcium levels in the bodyeuntil the appropriate extracellular concentration is reached.

Much of a Meal is Food For Thought

Though it makes up only 2 percent of our total body weight, the brain demands 20 percent of the body's oxygen and calories. To keep our noggin well-stocked with resources, three major cerebral arteries are constantly pumping in oxygen. A blockage or break in one of them starves brain cells of the energy they require to function, impairing the functions controlled by that region. This is a stroke.

Thousands of Eggs Unused by Ovaries

When a woman reaches her late 40s or early 50s, the monthly menstrual cycle that controls her hormone levels and readies ova for insemination ceases. Her ovaries have been producing less and less estrogen, inciting physical and emotional changes across her body. Her underdeveloped egg follicles begin to fail to release ova as regularly as before. The average adolescent girl has 34,000 underdeveloped egg follicles, although only 350 or so mature during her life (at the rate of about one per month). The unused egg follicles then deteriorate. With no potential pregnancy on the horizon, the brain can stop managing the release of ova.

Puberty Reshapes Brain Structure, Makes for Missed Curfews

We know that hormone-fueled changes in the body are necessary to encourage growth and ready the body for reproduction. But why is adolescence so emotionally unpleasant? Hormones like testosterone actually influence the development of neurons in the brain, and the changes made to brain structure have many behavioral consequences. Expect emotional awkwardness, apathy and poor decision-making skills as regions in the frontal cortex mature.

Cell Hairs Move Mucus

Most cells in our bodies sport hair-like organelles called cilia that help out with a variety of functions, from digestion to hearing. In the nose, cilia help to drain mucus from the nasal cavity down to the throat. Cold weather slows down the draining process, causing a mucus backup that can leave you with snotty sleeves. Swollen nasal membranes or condensation can also cause a stuffed schnozzle.

Big Brains Cause Cramped Mouths

Evolution isn't perfect. If it were, we might have wings instead of wisdom teeth. Sometimes useless features stick around in a species simply because they're not doing much harm. But wisdom teeth weren't always a cash crop for oral surgeons. Long ago, they served as a useful third set of meat-mashing molars. But as our brains grew our jawbone structure changed, leaving us with expensively overcrowded mouths.

The World Laughs with You

Just as watching someone yawn can induce the behavior in yourself, recent evidence suggests that laughter is a social cue for mimicry. Hearing a laugh actually stimulates the brain region associated with facial movements. Mimicry plays an important role in social interaction. Cues like sneezing, laughing, crying and yawning may be ways of creating strong social bonds within a group.

Your Skin Has Four Colors

All skin, without coloring, would appear creamy white. Near-surface blood vessels add a blush of red. A yellow pigment also tints the canvas. Lastly, sepia-toned melanin, created in response to ultraviolet rays, appears black in large amounts. These four hues mix in different proportions to create the skin colors of all the peoples of Earth.

Read More

How to Keep Teeth White Naturally

There are many effective methods of teeth whitening available, but some come with heavy price tags. Here are some steps you can take at home to whiten teeth naturally without breaking the bank.

Things You’ll Need:

• Straw
• Toothbrush
• Lemon Juice
• Salt
• Baking soda
• Hydrogen peroxide
• Strawberries

Step 1:
Limit your consumption of drinks that stain tooth enamel. A few of these include coffee, tea and red wine. If you simply can't cut back on these beverages, consider drinking them though a straw to limit the amount of liquid that actually comes in contact with teeth.

Step 2:
Brush your teeth immediately after eating, especially if eating foods that stain easily, such as berries.

Step 3:
Rub raw strawberries on your teeth, preferably pureed. There is an enzyme in strawberries that acts as a whitening agent. You'll want to brush and rinse after applying the strawberries to remove the natural sugars and acids they may leave behind.

Step 4:
Eat crunchy foods that require a lot of chewing such as carrots, celery, broccoli and apples. These foods are abrasive and will remove built up plaque, which dulls the appearance of teeth.

Step 5:
Dip your toothbrush directly into baking soda and brush. The results are worth the lousy taste.

Step 6:
Combine lemon juice and one teaspoon of salt to make a paste-like substance. Brush your teeth and rinse. Again, not so pleasant on the palate, but your teeth will thank you.

Step 7:
Use hydrogen peroxide to brush your teeth. Dip your toothbrush into a small capful of the peroxide and brush as you would with regular toothpaste, being careful not to swallow. Rinse with water.

- Tips -

• Consider using one of the several whitening toothpastes on the market that have all-natural ingredients.
• Brushing after every meal and flossing regularly are the first steps in maintaining a healthy smile.

Read More

**DID YOU KNOW*_*

**DID YOU KNOW*_*

__._,_.___

Read More

some known and unknown facts

1. MOPED is the short term for 'MotorizedPedaling'. 2. POP MUSIC is 'Popular Music' shortened.

3. BUS isthe short term for 'Omnibus' that means everybody.

4. FORTNIGHTcomes from 'Fourteen Nights' (Two Weeks).

5. DRAWING ROOM wasactually a 'withdrawing room' where people withdrew after Dinner. Laterthe prefix 'with' was
dropped..

6. NEWS refers to information fromFour directions N, E, W and S..

7. AG-MARK, which some productsbear, stems from 'Agricultural Marketing'.

8. JOURNAL is a diarythat tells about 'Journey for a day' during each Day's business.

9.QUEUE comes from 'Queen's Quest'. Long back a long row of people aswaiting to see the Queen. Someone made the
comment Queen's Quest..

10. TIPS come from 'To Insure Prompt Service'. In olden days to getPrompt service from servants in an inn, travelers used
to drop coins ina Box on which was written 'To Insure Prompt Service'. This gave rise tothe custom of Tips.

11. JEEP is a vehicle with unique Gear system.It was invented during World War II (1939-1945). It was named
'GeneralPurpose Vehicle (GP)'.GP was changed into JEEP later.

12. Coca-Colawas originally green.

13. The most common name in the world isMohammed..

14. The name of all the continents end with the sameletter that they start with.

15. The strongest muscle in the body isthe tongue.

16. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be madeusing the letters only on one row ! of the keyboard.

17. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!! You know why !!!!

18. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

19.It is impossible to lickyour elbow.

20.People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because whenyou sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

21.It isphysically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

22.The"sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language. * If you sneeze too hard,you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you canrupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

23.Eachking in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history.
o Spades - King David
o Clubs - Alexander the Great,
oHearts – Charlemagne
o Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

24.Horse Statue in a Park…

· If a statue of a person in the parkon a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.
· If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as aresult of wounds received in battle
· If the horse has all fourlegs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

25.Whatdo bullet proof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers and laserprinters all have in common? Ans. - All invented by women..

26.A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

27.A snail can sleep for three years.Nice animal, I like it very much………..

28.All polar bears are left handed.

29.Butterflies taste with their feet.

30.Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

31.In the last 4000years, no new animals have been domesticated.

32.On average, people fearspiders more than they do death.

33.Shakespeare invented the word'assassination' and 'bump'.

34.Stewardesses is the longest word typed withonly the left hand.

35.The ant always falls over on its right side whenintoxicated.

36.The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

37.Thehuman heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

38.Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months,two rats could have over million descendants.

39.Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

40.The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

41.Most lipstick contains fish scales..

42.Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different

Read More

World's Only Immortal Animal

World's Only Immortal Animal

Turritopsis nutricula is the world's only immortal animal. It's a tiny jellyfish, 4-5 mm in length. When the jellyfish reaches sexual maturity, it transforms its old cells into new ones through the process called transdifferentiation. By renewing the cells continuously, the jellyfish stays young forever. It dies only when it gets killed or eaten by other animals. As of today, this jellyfish is the only known immortal animal on Earth, capable of reversing the aging process.
Here is how it looks:

Read More

Glory Of Indian Civilization - Millions of years and beyond

HMV had once published a pamphlet giving the history of gramophone record. Gramophone was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in the 19th century. Edison, who had invented many other gadgets like electric light and the motion picture camera, had become a legend even in his own time.

When He invented the gramophone record, which could record human voice for posterity, he wanted to record the voice of an eminent scholar on his first piece. For that he chose Professor Max Muller of England ,another great personality of the 19th century. He wrote to Max Muller saying, "I want to meet you and record your voice. When should I come?" Max Muller who had great respect for Edison asked him to come on a suitable time when most of the scholars of the Europe would be gathering in England .

Accordingly Edison took a ship and went to England . He was introduced to the audience. All cheered Edison 's presence. Later at the request of Edison Max Muller came on the stage and spoke in front of the instrument. Then Edison went back to his laboratory and by afternoon came back with a disc. He played the gramophone disc from his instrument. The audience was thrilled to hear the voice of Max Muller from the instrument.They were glad that voices of great persons like Max Muller could be stored for the benefit of posterity.

After several rounds of applause and congratulations to Thomas Alwa Edison, Max Muller came to the stage and addressed the scholars and asked them, "You heard my original voice in the morning. Then you heard the same voice coming out from this instrument in the afternoon. Do you understand what I said in the morning or what you heard in the afternoon?".

The audience fell silent because they could not understand the language in which Max Muller had spoken.It was `Greek and Latin' to them as they say. But had it been Greek or Latin, they would have definitely understood because they were from various parts of Europe . It was in a language which the European scholars had never heard.

Max Muller then explained what he had spoken.He said that the language he spoke was Sanskrit and it was the first sloka of Rig Veda, which says "Agni Meele Purohitam" . This was the first recorded public version on the gramophone plate.

Why did Max Muller choose this? Addressing the audience he said, "Vedas are the oldest text of the human race. And Agni Meele Purohitam is the first verse of Rig Veda. In the most primordial time, when the people did not know how even to cover their bodies and lived by hunting and housed in caves ,Indians had attained high civilization and they gave the world universal philosophies in the form of the Vedas”

Such is the illustrious legacy of our country.

When “Agni Meele Purohitam” was replayed the entire audience stood up in silence as a mark of respect for the ancient Hindu sages.- this verse means:

"Oh Agni(Fire), You who gleam in the darkness, to You we come day by day, with devotion and bearing homage"

So be of easy access to us, Agni(Fire), as a father to his son, abide with us for our well being "

Read More

Strange & Unexplained - Flying Humanoids

Strange & Unexplained - Flying Humanoids

[- Are these also called Mothmen? -]

When a mysterious object passed over Mount Vernon, Illinois, on the evening of April 14, 1897, 100 citizens, including Mayor B. C. Wells, saw something that, as press accounts had it, "resembled the body of a huge man swimming through the air with an electric light on his back."

Reports of flying beings of human or generally human appearance are among the rarer anomalous phenomena, but they occur periodically. A "winged human form" was observed over Brooklyn on September 18,1877, according to W. H. Smith (New York Sun, September 21). Almost exactly three years later the New York Times (September 12, 1880) remarked on reports from Coney Island of a "man with bat's wings and improved frog's legs ... at least a thousand feet in the air ... flying toward the New Jersey coast ... [with] a cruel and determined expression." In a 1947 book Russian writer V. K. Arsenyev recounted this July 11, 1908, experience in the Sikhote Mountains near Vladivostok in the far eastern region of what would be the USSR:

The rain stopped, the temperature of the air remained low and the mist appeared over the water. It was then that I saw the mark on the path that was very similar to a man's footprint. My dog Alpha bristled up, snarled, and then something rushed about nearby trampling among the bushes. However, it didn't go away, but stopped nearby, standing stock-still. We had been standing like that for some minutes.... Then I stooped, picked up a stone and threw it towards the unknown animal. Then something happened that was quite unexpected: I heard the beating of wings. Something large and dark emerged from the fog and flew over the river. A moment later it disappeared in the dense mist. My dog, badly frightened, pressed itself to my feet.

After supper I told the Udehe-men about this incident. They broke into a vivid story about a man who could fly in the air. Hunters often saw his tracks, tracks that appeared suddenly and vanished suddenly, in such a way that they could only be possible if the "man" alighted on the ground, then took off again into the air.

One night in 1952 U.S. Air Force Pvt. Sinclair Taylor, on guard duty at Camp Okubo, Kyoto, Japan, said he heard a loud flapping noise. Looking up, he saw an enormous "bird" in the moonlight. When it approached, he got frightened and put a round into the chamber of his carbine. The "bird" now had stopped its flight and was hovering not far away, staring at the soldier.

"The thing, which now had started slowly to descend again, had the body of a man," Taylor recalled. "It was well over seven feet from head to feet, and its wingspread was almost equal to its height. I started to fire and emptied my carbine where the thing hit the ground. But when I looked up to see if my bullets had found home there was nothing there." When the sergeant of the guard came to investigate and heard the story, he told Taylor that he believed him because a year earlier another guard had seen the same thing.

Another soldier's tale of a flying humanoid came to ufologist Don Worley from Earl Morrison, who served with the First Marine Division in Vietnam. While stationed near Da Nang in August 1969, he and two other guards reportedly saw an extraordinary sight just after 1 o'clock in the morning. They were sitting atop a bunker and talking when they noticed something approaching them in the sky. Morrison told Worley:

We saw what looked like wings, like a bat's, only it was gigantic compared to what a regular bat would be. After it got close enough so we could see what it was, it looked like a woman. A naked woman. She was black. Her skin was black, her body was black, the wings were black, everything was black. But it glowed. It glowed in the night-kind of a greenish cast to it.... She started going over us, and we still didn't hear anything. She was right above us, and when she got over the top of our heads, she was maybe six or seven feet up.... We watched her go straight over the top of us, and still she didn't make any noise flapping her wings. She blotted out the moon once that's how close she was to us. And dark-looked like pitch black then, but we could still define her because she just glowed. Real bright like. And she started going past us straight towards our encampment. As we watched her-she had got about 10 feet or so away from us-we started hearing her wings flap. And it sounded, you know, like regular wings flapping. And she just started flying off and we watched her for quite a while.

Morrison thought the covering on her skin was more like fur than feathers. "The skin of her wings looked like it was molded on to her hands," he said, and the movement of her arms suggested they had no bones in them.

Read More

World Largest Diamonds of the World

World Largest Diamonds of the World

1. KOH-I-NOOR ("Mountain of Light"):




Koh-i-noor is one of the world’s largest diamonds,

it weighed in at 186 carats when it was first

discovered *in 1304*. This oval shaped cut stone

is believed to have been set in the famous peacock throne

of Shah Jehan. Recut during the reign of Queen Victoria

it now weighs 108 carats and forms part of the British Crown Jewels.


2. Cullinan I The Star of Africa

Cullinan I, the Star of Africa is the

largest diamond in the world:






Cullinan I - also known as The Star of Africa was named after

Sir Thomas Cullinan, owner of the mining company, and

currently claims the title of largest cut diamond in the world.

Of all the worlds largest diamonds Cullinan I is the largest.

It was cut by Asscher in Amsterdam, weighs 530.20carats,

and has 74 facets. The Cullinan now resides in the Tower of London

and is set in the sceptre of King Edward VII.


3. The Excelsior – world’s second largest diamond:







The Excelsior *which means higher* is not only one of

the worlds largest diamonds it is the second largest diamond

ever found. It originally weighed 995.2 carats.

The diamond was cut into ten pieces, the three largest

weighing 158, 147and 130 carats. These pieces were then

cut into 21 gems ranging from70 carats to less than 1 carat.

An African mine worker found the diamond as he was loading

his truck, he kept the find secret until he could safely

turn it over to the mine manager who rewarded him

with some money, a horse and a saddle.



4. Orloff the world’s third largest diamond:






Orloff - the worlds third largest cut diamond weighs 194 carats.

It was once one of the eyes of the idol Sheringham,

in the temple of Brahma, later it was acquired by the Shah Nadir

who desired to own one of the worlds largest diamonds.

In 1775 it was given to Catherine II. of Russia by Grigori Orloff,

one of her ex-lovers, and has been called the Orloff  since then.


5. The Great Mogul:






The Great Mogul is one of the world’s largest diamonds.

The rough diamond was discovered in the 17thcentury,

weighed 793 carats and was named after Shah Jehan...

builder of the Taj Mahal.


6.The Idols Eye large diamond:







The Idols Eye is a famous pear shaped diamond,

its polished size weighing in at 70.20 carats makes it

one of the worlds largest diamonds. The name of the stone

comes from the legend claiming that the Sheik of Kahmir stoleit

from an idols eye to pay the Sultan of Turkey a ransom

for Princess Rasheetah.


7. Sefadu one of the world’s largest diamonds:







Sefadu was found in Sierra Leonne in 1970 and is owned by

American diamond company Lazare  Kaplan.The uncut stone

weighs 620 carats which easily makes it one of

the world’s largest diamonds.


8. Centenary -






One of the world’s largest diamonds The Centenary,

was discovered at the Premier Mine of South Africa on the

17th of July 1986 and joined the ranks of the world’s largest diamonds,

it weighed in at 599.10 carats in rough form. Master-cutter

Gabi Tolkowsky took almost three years to complete its

transformation into the world's largest, modern-cut flawless diamond.

The Centenary has 75 facets on top, 89 on the bottom and

83 on the girdle, for a total of 247 facets. It weighs 273.85 carats

and now forms part of the British Crown Jewels.


9. Premier Rose








One of the world’s largest diamonds The Premier Rose

became one of the worlds largest diamonds when it was

discovered in 1978. The diamond weighed 353.9 carats

and was cut into three diamonds known as the Premier Rose family.

All of them qualify to be one of the worlds largest diamonds.

The largest of the three kept the name Premier Rose and

now weighs 137.02carats, is cut with 189 facets, and is

the second largest pear shaped diamond in the world.

It was sold in 1979 for$10,000,000.00.


10. The Regent -







One of the world’s largest diamonds The Regent

another of the worlds largest diamonds was discovered in

1701 by an Indian slave near Golconda, it weighed 410carats

in the rough. Once owned by William Pitt, the English Prime Minister,

it was cut into a cushion shaped brilliant of 140.50carats

and, until it was sold to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France

when Louis XV was a boy in 1717, was called The Pitt.

It was then renamed The Regent and set in the crown Louis XV

wore at his coronation. After the French revolution, it was

owned by Napoleon Bonaparte who set it in the hilt of his sword.

It is now on display in the Louvre as one of the worlds largest diamonds.


11. The Blue Hope -






One of the world’s largest diamonds The Blue Hope

another of the worlds largest diamonds was once owned by Louis XIV

and officially designated the *blue diamond of the crown*.

It was stolen during the French Revolution but showed up again

in 1830 and was bought by Henry Philip Hope of London,

the diamond was named after the new owner. The Blue Hope Diamond

is believed to carry a curse, two of the owners had their

entire family die just one year apart. It now resides in the

Smithsonian in Washington where it is recognized as one of

the world’s largest diamonds.


12. The Sancy -









One of the worlds largest diamonds The Sancy is named

after one of its owners Seigneur de Sancy, a French Ambassador

to Turkey in the late 16th century. It was first owned

by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, who lost it in battle in1477.

He loaned it to the French king, Henry III, who wore it in

The cap with which he concealed his baldness. Henry IV of France

Also borrowed the stone from  Sancy, but it was sold

in 1664 to James I of England. In 1688, James II,

King of England, fled with it to Paris and it has never been

found since. The  Sancy weighed 55 carats making it one of the

smallest of the worlds largest diamonds.


13. Taylor Burton -







One of the world’s largest diamonds The Taylor-Burton diamond

was found in the Premier mine in1966, the rough stone

weighed 240.80 carats. The famous diamond was purchased

by Harry Winston who commissioned the stone cleaved into two pieces,

the larger piece weighed 162 carats and was eventually

cut into a pear shaped 69.42 carat diamond. It was

later auctioned for$1,050,000 and named the "Cartier". The

diamond was then purchased by Richard Burton and given to

Elizabeth Taylor and renamed  the Taylor-Burton. In 1978,

following her divorce from Richard Burton, Elizabeth put

one of the worlds largest diamonds up for sale to raise funds

for a hospital in Botswana. The current owner is

Robert Mouawad, President of the Mouawad Group.

Read More

Some of these things that we didn't know

Some of these things that we didn't know

1. Q: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs? A: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense orange clay called 'pygg'. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as 'pygg banks.' When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a bank that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

2. Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches, while pennies and nickels do not? A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals. Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren't notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

3. Q: Why do men's clothes have buttons on the right while women's clothes have buttons on the left? A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid's right! Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left. And that's where women's buttons have remained since.

4. Q. Why do X's at the end of a letter signify kisses? A: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

5. Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called 'passing the buck'? A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility, he would 'pass the buck' to the next player.

6. Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast? A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host's glass with his own.

7. Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be 'in the limelight'? A: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and stage lighting by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theatre, performers on stage 'in the limelight' were seen by the audience to be the center of attention.

8. Q: Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use 'mayday' as their call for help? A: This comes from the French word m'aidez - meaning 'help me' â€" and is pronounced 'mayday.'

9. Q: Why is someone who is feeling great 'on cloud nine'?
A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

10. Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called 'love'?
A: In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called 'l'oeuf,' which is French for 'egg.' When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it 'love.'

11. Q: In golf, where did the term 'Caddie' come from?
A. When Mary, later Queen of Scots, went to France as a young girl (for education & survival), Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scot game 'golf.' So he had the first golf course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her. In French, the word cadet is pronounced 'ca-day' and the Scots changed it into 'caddie.'  
Now YOU know just about everything!

Read More

Superb General Knowledge Questions

1) Longest English Word:

Praetertranssubstan tiationalistical ly has 37 letters.

2) Book Without Letter "e" :

GADFY, written by Earnest Wright in 1939 is a 50,000+ word book, which doesn't contain a
single word with 'e' in it

3) Word without Vowel:

Rhythm

Sky

Fry

Cry

4) Human Brain:

Organ of body which has no sensation when cut.

5) Crocodile :

Only animal & reptile which sheds tear while eating.

6) No:of Alphabets, which SOUND AS WORDS :

They are
** **B* Bee *
** **C* Sea*
** **G** * Zee*
** ** I* Eye *
** ** Q* Queue*
** ** R* Are *
** ** S* Yes *
** **T* Tea* **
** ** U* You *
** ** Y* Why

Fascinating Animals, Birds, Trees :

1) SNAILS have 14175 teeth laid along 135 rows on their tongue.
2) A BUTTERFLY has 12,000 eyes.
3) DOLPHINS sleep with 1 eye open.
4) A BLUE WHALE can eat as much as 3 tones of food everyday, but at the same time can live without food for 6 months.
5) The EARTH has over 12,00,000 species of animals, 3,00,000 species of plants & 1,00,000 other species.
6) The fierce DINOSAUR was TYRANNOSAURS which has sixty long & sharp
teeth, used to attack & eat other dinosaurs.
7) DEMETRIO was a mammal like REPTILE with a snail on its back. This acted as a radiator to cool the body of the animal.
8) CASSOWARY is one of the dangerous BIRD, that can kill a man or animal by tearing off with its dagger like claw.
9) The SWAN has over 25,000 feathers in its body.
10) OSTRICH eats pebbles to help digestion by grinding up the ingested food.
11) POLAR BEAR can look clumsy & slow but during chase on ice, can reach 25 miles / hr of speed.
12) KIWIS are the only birds, which hunt by sense of smell.
13) ELEPHANT teeth can weigh as much as 9 pounds.
14) OWL is the only bird, which can rotate its head to 270 degrees.

What are They :

1) If we say 'MUMMY', they come together & go apart when we say DADDY':

LIPS
2) What goes up & never comes down:
AGE
3) Patches over patches but no stitches:
CABBAGE
4) What is that we cannot see, but is always before you:

FUTURE
5) What goes up & down a hill, but never moves:

ROAD
6) You can never wet it:
SHADOW
7) What belongs to You, but used by your friends more often you do:

YOUR NAME

In 24 Hours Average Human:

1) HEART beats 1,03,689 times.
2) LUNGS respire 23,045 times.
3) BLOOD flows 16,80,000 miles.
4) NAILS grow 0.00007 inches
5) HAIR grows 0.01715 inches
6) Take 2.9 pounds WATER (including all liquids)
7) Take of 3.25 pounds FOOD.
8) Breathe 438 cubic feet AIR.
9) Lose 85.60, BODY TEMPERATURE.
10) Produce 1.43 pints SWEAT.
11) Speak 4,800 WORDS.
12) During SLEEP move 25.4 times



Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Read More

Map Of India During MahaBharata Time

Read More

Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

pluramas
Above:
TheXM-25 grenade launcheris equipped with a laser rangefinder and on-board computer. It packs a magazine of four 25mm projectiles, and programs them to detonate as they pass by their targets. That feature will allow soldiers to strike enemies who are taking cover. By 2012, the Army hopes to arm every infantry squad and Special Forces unit with at least one of the big guns.
In August, a lucky soldier got to pull the trigger, and fire off a HEAB, or High Explosive Air Burst, round at the Aberdeen Testing Ground in Maryland. Those projectiles pack quite a punch. They are purportedly 300 percent more effective than normal ammo, and will be able to strike targets as far as 700 meters (2,300 feet) away.



Some bots have been defusing bombs for years, but none have seen combat. That’s a shame, according toLt. Gen. Rick Lynch, who believes that 122 men could have been spared if combat bots had been working in their stead.
Remotely operated weapons are showing up everywhere. Israel is building anautomated kill zone. An American firm, More Industries, offers aturret that can aim and firetwo automatic shotguns.
There was a set of armed robots sent to Iraq. They never fired a shot, however. They weren’t allowed to. No one could guarantee that the bots wouldn’t go berserk and mow down friendly troops or otherwise malfunction, even though theyhave lots of safeguards.
Considering how much firepower they pack, safeguards are really important. The Maars system (above) can be equipped with four grenade launchers and a machine gun that packs 400 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition.
But its manufacturers like to point out its less-lethal capabilities. Instead of mowing people down, it can stick to the fine print of the first law of robotics and fire tear gas canisters, smoke grenades, smoke bombs and perhaps even Taser’supcoming 40mm people-zapperprojectile. Three were deployed to Iraq last year.





On a rainy day, water droplets will disperse the beam, and it may feel warm and refreshing instead of frightening. On a hot day, the cooling system might give out. The problems don’t stop there. Raytheon’s baby is bulky, and despite repeated requests to send it into battle, shipments of the energy weapon have been delayed. Themilitary is lookingfor a stronger, lighter weapon.
The Active Denial System fires a beam of millimeter-wave radiation. It make people feel like their skin is burning without causing any permanent damage. Though promising as a nonlethal weapon, the pain ray has some serious limits.

Read More

You Need to Know

1) Longest English Word:

Praetertranssubstan

tiationalistically has 37 letters.

2) Book Without Letter "e" :

GADFY, written by Earnest Wright in 1939 is a 50,000+ word book, which doesn't contain a
single word with 'e' in it

3) Word without Vowel:

Rhythm

Sky

Fry

Cry

4) Human Brain:

Organ of body which has no sensation when cut.

5) Crocodile :

Only animal & reptile which sheds tear while eating.

6) No:of Alphabets, which SOUND AS WORDS :

They are
** **B* Bee *
** **C* Sea*
** **G** * Zee*
** ** I* Eye *
** ** Q* Queue*
** ** R* Are *
** ** S* Yes *
** **T* Tea* **
** ** U* You *
** ** Y* Why

Fascinating Animals, Birds, Trees :

1) SNAILS have 14175 teeth laid along 135 rows on their tongue.
2) A BUTTERFLY has 12,000 eyes.
3) DOLPHINS sleep with 1 eye open.
4) A BLUE WHALE can eat as much as 3 tones of food everyday, but at the same time can live without food for 6 months.
5) The EARTH has over 12,00,000 species of animals, 3,00,000 species of plants & 1,00,000 other species.
6) The fierce DINOSAUR was TYRANNOSAURS which has sixty long & sharp
teeth, used to attack & eat other dinosaurs.
7) DEMETRIO was a mammal like REPTILE with a snail on its back. This acted as a radiator to cool the body of the animal.
8) CASSOWARY is one of the dangerous BIRD, that can kill a man or animal by tearing off with its dagger like claw.
9) The SWAN has over 25,000 feathers in its body.
10) OSTRICH eats pebbles to help digestion by grinding up the ingested food.
11) POLAR BEAR can look clumsy & slow but during chase on ice, can reach 25 miles / hr of speed.
12) KIWIS are the only birds, which hunt by sense of smell.
13) ELEPHANT teeth can weigh as much as 9 pounds.
14) OWL is the only bird, which can rotate its head to 270 degrees.

What are They :

1) If we say 'MUMMY', they come together & go apart when we say DADDY':

LIPS
2) What goes up & never comes down:
AGE
3) Patches over patches but no stitches:
CABBAGE
4) What is that we cannot see, but is always before you:

FUTURE
5) What goes up & down a hill, but never moves:

ROAD
 

6) You can never wet it:
SHADOW
 

7) What belongs to You, but used by your friends more often you do:

YOUR NAME

In 24 Hours Average Human:

1) HEART beats 1,03,689 times.
2) LUNGS respire 23,045 times.
3) BLOOD flows 16,80,000 miles.
4) NAILS grow 0.00007 inches
5) HAIR grows 0.01715 inches
6) Take 2.9 pounds WATER (including all liquids)
7) Take of 3.25 pounds FOOD.
8) Breathe 438 cubic feet AIR.
9) Lose 85.60, BODY TEMPERATURE.
10) Produce 1.43 pints SWEAT.
11) Speak 4,800 WORDS.
12) During SLEEP move 25.4 times

Read More