Facts Chamber: November 2013

Crazy facts about Human Brain

The brain is actually suspended in the cerebrospinal fluid present inside skull.

The human brain consumes nearly 20% of total energy required by whole body even though its weight is just 2% of total body.

This post will be updated soon ….. Meanwhile read our other posts.

Open Colleges Presents Your Brain Map: 84 Strategies for Accelerated Learning

An interactive infographic by Open Colleges

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Awesome Facts about Mount Everest

Mt.Everest is named after George Everest in 1856, a retired British Surveyor General of India.Ironically George Everest never even saw the peak and didn't even know that the peak existed during his term.He also objected naming the peak after him.

Mount Everest was not known to outside world until 1847 because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners.Before that Kangchenjunga was considered the highest peak in the world.

Nepalese and Tibetans were aware of it in the name of "Chomolungma" for centuries.But they didn't know that Everest is the highest peak on the earth as they had little contacts with outside world.

In 1852,height of the Mt.Everest (8848 m) was calculated by Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor,without even going near to it by using trigonometric calculations.

Everest is the highest mountain on earth but it's not the tallest mountain on earth!!.This is because Mt.Everest measures 8848m when measured from sea level. But Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base.Its height is 10,200 m from its sea base but it projects to only 4205 m above sea level.

The international border between Nepal and Tibet (part of china) runs exactly across the summit point of Mt.Everest.

Due to Tectonic plates movement,the height of peak is increasing by 4mm per year and location by 6mm/year towards northeast.

On 26th may 1953,just 3 days before the historic ascent by Tenzing and Hillary, a pair of climbers (Bourdillon and Evans) came within 100 m of summit but (,bad luck,) lack of oxygen forced them to return back.

Sir Edmund Hillary also explored both the Poles in the late 1950s. This made him the first person to have reached both poles and climbed Everest.

At least one person died every year on Everest from 1969 except on 1977 and 1974. In fact in 1974 no one climbed Everest!

At summit,the amount of oxygen available will be one third of what a human being requires because of less pressure.

Temperature at summit is always below freezing point ranging between -36C to -18C.

By the end of 2010,there had been 5104 ascents,of which 633 were made in just year 2007.

World's tallest manmade structure (by end of 2013),Bhuj Khalifa is 829m high.So man should develop ten times the present to 'reach the GOD'!

Everest has now even been mapped by Google,although it did not get to the summit.Just the base camp and regions around it are mapped at present.

Wanna see 2 billion megapixel resolution image of Mt.Everest (made by combining 477 images): Visit this

There is a 4G network coverage at 5200m of Mt.Everest.And here we are struggling to get 3G coverage to post this article :-)

A weather station was started at 8000m height on mount everest in 2008.This ofcourse makes it the world’s highest automatic weather station

There's a webcam that live covers the Mount everest.It located on another peak (Kala Patthar) at 5675m,making it highest webcam in the world. See Live Stream on this

More than 50 tonnes of rubbish is present on top of Mount Everest, making it world’s highest rubbish dump.Eight tonnes of rubbish including remains of a helicopter were collected from Everest that were turned into works of art and sculpture.It took 65 porters and 75 yaks to carry down that rubbish.

There's a controversy that George Mallory and Andrew Irvine are the first to successfully ascent the peak in year 1924 but died while descending.The reason behind this belief is that Mollary was first person to reach 7000 m mark on Everest and the one who discovered the northern approach to climb the mountain.They were known to have carried a Kodak camera with them.
Mallory's body was found in 1999.The only way controversy can be settled would be if the camera were ever found.

The most controversial moment in Everest's history: a climbing party and many others had passed a distressed,oxygen deficit climber (David Sharp) without rescuing him because they too will become low on oxygen.

First on Mt.Everest - (chronologically)

#Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India was first to notice this peak in 1847.

#Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and surveyor of Bengal was first to calculate the height of peak in 1852.

#George Finch,the first time a human climbed higher than 8,000m in 1922.

#Col. Felix Norton,the first time a human climbed higher than 8,000m in 1924.

#Douglas-Hamilton and David Fowler,first to fly a plane (Westland PV-3) over the summit in April 1933.

#Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay,first to reach the summit on 29 May 1953.

#Junko Tabei,first women to ascent Everst in 1975.

#Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler are the first to climb the mountain without bottled oxygen in 1978.

#Again Messner was first solo climber to reach summit without bottled oxygen in 1980.

#Andrzej Zawada, Leszek Cichy, and Krzysztof Wielicki became the first to reach the summit during the winter season in 1980.This is a record because all previous succesful attempts were made only during summer monsoons.

#Jean-Marc Boivin,first to descent by paraglider on 26 September 1988.

#Peter Hillary, Sir Edmund Hillary's son, climbed the mountain in 1990, making the pair the first father and son to do so.

#Tim Macartney-Snape,first person to climb from sea level to the summit in 1990.

#Davo Karnicar,first to completly skidown in 2000.

#Marco Siffredi and Stefan Gatt,first to snowboard down Everest in 2001.

#Didier Delsalle,first to land a helicopter (Eurocopter AS350) on the summit of Mount Everest in 2005.

#Rod Baber,first to make a voice call (2G) and send text message from summit in 2007 (used a motorola's mobile)

#Kenton Cool,first to send a tweet and first to make a 3G call from top of summit (used Samsung Galaxy S2) in 2011.

#Daniel Hughes, made first ever video-call (live to BBC news) in May 2013 (used HTC one).He is also the first person to place a red nose at the top of Everest.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Interesting stories behind Corporate Logos (Automobile Companies)

Toyota:

Toyota company was earlier called 'Toyoda' derived from the name of its founder.It was changed to Toyota because the number of strokes required to write it in Japanese is eight, which in Japan is a auspicious number, suggestive of increasing prosperity.
If carefully observed one can notice that all the letters of 'Toyota' are contained by the logo.

BMW:

The Bavarian Motor Works' logo contains blue and white color which are actually the colors of the Bavarian Flag.
One famous myth that fooled many generations is that "A German advertising agency in the 1920s produced an ad that showed the [BMW] roundel against the spinning propeller of an airplane to reflect the company's origins as an aircraft engine manufacturer which eventually turned into BMW's logo" but actually the logo has nothing to do with the propeller or company's origins [as said by Dave Buchko,company spokesman for BMW North America].

Ferrari:

Cavallino Rampante (Prancing Horse),the emblem of Ferrari is best known and it first appeared on airplanes flown by Italian pilot and hero of World War I,Francesco Baracca,who died before the end of war.In 1923 after a race,Enzo Ferrari met Francesco's parents where they suggested Ferrari to use their son's prancing horse badge on his race cars—both for good luck, and as an homage to Francesco. The yellow color background signifies official color of Modena,Italy,Enzo's home town.The horse's tail was redesigned to point upwards.The letters SF represent 'Scuderia Ferrari',the racing team of Ferrari.

Audi:

In 1909 August Horch left the company that bears his name and established another automobile company in Germany.But as a company in his name is already registered,he couldn't legally name it after himself.His surname (meaning 'listen' in German) when translated into Latin will become 'Audi'.So that's the story behind its name.

The four interlinked rings logo came into existance in 1932 which represent four companies Audi, DKW, Wanderer and, surprisingly, the original Horch.Those companies were in financial troubles and thus came together under the corporate banner of Auto Union.
Hey just a second, don't they look similar to Olympic rings?Yeh even the International Olympic Committee found/thought that.That's why in 1995 they sued Audi in International Trademark Court.
Audi is now fully owned subsidiary of Volkswagen.

Lamborgini:

The raging bull of lamborgini was insprired from Taurus,the bull zodiac sign of the company's founder (Ferruccio Lamborghini).Also he was a fan of Spanish Bull fighting.That's why most of the car models were named after Spanish Bull breeds.
Some stories say that Mr. Lamborghini purposefully copied the Ferrari shield and then reversed the company's yellow and black colors to prod the ego of Enzo Ferrari.
The company is now subsidiary of Audi,which inturn is subsidiary of Volkswagen.

Porsche:

Porsche's company logo was designed based on the coat of arms of Free People's State of Württemberg.It is used to be part of former Weimar Germany, which had Stuttgart as its capital.
Porshe is responsible for Volkswagen beetle,the most successful car of all time.Now Porshe is now owned by Porshe and Volkswagen together.

Volvo:

Volvo logo of ring with an arrow pointing to the top right used to signify the planet,Mars in Roman Empire.In Sweden(the home country of Volvo) this symbol was used to signify their then supirior iron processing industry.
The diagonal streak across the grille (in blue color) was originally only a mounting point for the badge, but now it has become integral part of the iron symbol. [as said by Daniel Johnston, Product Communications Manager at Volvo Cars North America]

Mercedes:

The three pointed star signifies elements air,water and land.The star first appeared in a personal letter written in 1872 from company founder, Gottlieb Daimler, to his wife. Mr. Daimler.He used it to mark the location of his family's new home in the town of Deutz, Germany. Later his sons adapted the emblem as the Mercedes-Benz logo from 1910 onward.
There's a story behind the silver color of the logo.In 1934,during very first grand prix,one of the mercedes benz's cars exceeded the eligible weight.So the night before the race the offcials spent polishing offthe paint to reduce weight.The car finally reached its raw silver color and thus shined while running on track.It was termed as 'silver arrow'.So to mark this event the logo is still produced in silver color.

Ford:

Henry Ford in search for unique logo asked his old friend,Harold Willis,who worked in printing industry.His friend made the logo with rarely used typeface which became the font of logo that still appears on its cars.

Aston martin:

The wings concept was borrowed from the logo of the Bentley cars. Basically, these wings were supposed to represent speed which Aston Martin cars are known for.

Rolls Royce:

Rolls Royce's second iconic emblem, the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, is linked to a tragic tale.The model for the emblem was Miss Eleanor Thornton, the personal secretary of John Scott Montagu,friend of company co-founder Charles Stewart Rolls. In 1915, Miss Thornton died at sea while traveling to India.

1 comments:

Post a Comment

Unusual Phobias in Humans

> Triskaidekaphobia- fear of the number 13
13 number is considered bad omen in Christianity.Historical contexts like not numerating the 13th law in Babylonian 'Code of Hummubari',like Judas being his disciple who betrayed Jesus was 13th in order to sit at table of 'The last supper' and like Loki, the 13th God of Vikings actually conspired the murder of Balder who in turn is the 13th person to attend the funeral.This might be the reason for the superstition that if 13 people gather at a meal, the one of them will die the next year.

> Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4
The fear originates because the pronounciation of 4 in chinese sounds similar to death.That's why this Phobia exiats mostly in Korea,China and other south-east chinese countries.Even Finnish Mobile Company NOKIA also has this fear!That's why none of its mobile models have the number starting with 4(Nokia 4000 series doesn't exist).

> Xanthophobia – fear of the colour yellow
It's the fear of anything that is dominant yellow like sun,daffodils,yellow walls,paints,yellow pages.It is the reason why sea turtles (which contain Xanthophobia) provokes them to visually find the sea (fearing the sun) after hatching.

> Porphyrophobia- Fear of the color purple.

> Leukophobia- Fear of the color white.

> Melanophobia- Fear of the color black.

> Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers.

> Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

> Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body.

> Eleutherophobia- Fear of freedom.

> Pogonophobia- fear of beards

> Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope

> Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge

> Trypophobia- fear of holes

> Nomophobia- fear of being without mobile phone coverage

> Somniphobia- fear of falling asleep

> Uranophobia or Ouranophobia- Fear of heaven

> Tropophobia- Fear of moving or making changes

> Papyrophobia- Fear of paper

> Pogonophobia- fear of beards

> Omphalophobia- fear of the navel

> Geliophobia- Fear of laughter

Fictional Phobias that are famous but don't actually exist.
They were just mentioned in some literature or films.These fears has been made real and famous in many websites quoting facts but the fact is that they are just fictional.

> Anatidaephobia – the fictional fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you. From Gary Larson's The Far Side.

> Sciuridaephobia – the fear that somewhere, somehow, a squirrel is watching you.

> Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia – fear of long words is mentioned as one of Tickle's Teasers in the an episode of Brainiac Series.Actually fear of long words is called Sesquipedalophobia.

> Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth used in 'Peanuts' comic strip.

> Chromophobia or Chromatophobia- Fear of colors.It has been mentioned in a film of same name.