Things you didn't know

When it comes to the state where I can't find anything else to do, I'll look up the internet to read up on random things that I didn't know were facts. This is actually a great opportunity to learn things that schools did not have the time to teach, and also a great way to use the computer a little longer.


I searched up on Google, on "Things I didn't know" and to my surpise, there was actually a lot of sites providing brief information about things. And did I feel like a dumb person as I read through the sites! Constantly going "wow, I did not know that!" really got reality smacking me hard in the head for lacking General Knowledge.


And well, I'd like to share some information that I did not know, till now!

Here goes..

• The phrase "It's not over until the fat lady sings" is actually a mis-quote. The correct phrase is "It's not over until the fat lady sinks" and has its origins in the game of billiards. The black eight ball was commonly referred to as the "fat lady" so no matter how bad the game was for a competitor it wasn't over until the "fat lady" sank.

• If you freeze a bee you can tie a bit of string to it like a leash. Let it de-frost and it will be totally unharmed by the freezing and you can then take your pet bee for a walk (or take it for a fly) in your local park.

• Cut an onion in half rub it on the sole of your feet. An hour later you will taste onion in your mouth.

• if you extended all the neurons in the brain out flat, it would come to 40 miles long

• The saying "saved by the bell" comes from the old days when they used to dig up graves and find scratch marks on the inside of coffins. People used to attach a piece of string to the inside of the coffin and this used to run up through the earth and was attached to a bell. If the person was still alive they could pull the string hence "saved by the bell" Also the saying "dead ringer" and "graveyard shift" come from the same thing!

• Bugs Bunny was based on the actor Cary Grant whom Friz Frehling had seen nibbling a carrot at a party.

• In 1994, Los Angeles Police arrested a man for dressing up as the Grim Reaper - complete with scythe - and standing outside the windows of old peoples' homes and staring in.

• The artery of a blue whale is so large that a human can swim in it

• No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, and purple

• parasites live on your eyelashes

• If colouring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.

• Giraffes can lick their own ears.

• A kangaroo can't jump unless its tail is touching the ground

• Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

• Lemon Juice kills HIV virus but would also kill humans at the dose needed to be effective

• In 1980, a Las Vegas hospital suspended workers for betting on when patients would die.

• It is possible to become so fat you can actually become bulletproof

• A fly, after landing will always "take off" going backwards. thats why its easier to swat at a fly from behind

• Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

• women blink twice as much as men

• It's impossible for kangaroos to fart

• A cat is more likely to survive a 30 foot drop then it is a 3 foot drop

• If you were given all the presents in the sone 12 days of Christmas you would have 364

• A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance by holding its head down against the ground, and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken.
  
  If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain immobile for somewhere between 15 seconds to 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line.
• Alien hand syndrome (or Dr. Strangelove syndrome) is an unusual neurological disorder in which one of the sufferer's hands seems to take on a life of its own.
  
  AHS is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after other brain surgery, strokes, or infections. The HAND is after you!
• Fatal hilarity is death as a result of laughter. In the third century B.C. the Greek philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter after seeing a donkey eating figs (hey, it wasn't THAT funny).
  
  On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye". After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant.

• The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from public libraries.
  

• Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
  

• An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!
  

• By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.

• The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

• The original name for butterfly was flutterby.

• If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
  

• Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
  

• Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.

Now these information may not be correct and if just so happen to find the right information, do buzz me to correct these yeah.

And if you're really interested in learning more facts, I suggest you google or head to these sites:

(Credits)

http://www.robinsweb.com/humor/strange_things.html

http://www.2spare.com/item_39909.aspx

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/twdk.do





It's pretty late now. Mother Nature hasn't lifted her curse off of me when she showered me with her blessings.

Loves!

Museum Of Life

Okay, I have heard of the "Temple Of Life" in modern days, sung by Avril Lavigne. I am sure most of you heard the song too.


But, have you heard of the "Museum of Life"?No, it's not another song done by Avril Lavigne. In fact, it is not a song at all!



What I am talking about is Thailand's Life Museum.





Now what is so interesting about this museum is that, unlike the other museums that we go to, that has photos and antiques of the past, this museum actually has corpses of humans displayed there!


These are not normal humans, but actually of those who suffer from Aids. Working alongside this museum, is a temple called "Aids Temple". This temple was initially a Buddhist Temple, but was later converted "into a small hospice to care for fully blown AIDS patients".





If you want to read more about the temple, and would like to lend a helping hand, Click Here!



You can also watch a video of a documentary done with a few patients living in the temple.





Do read the website as it has many interesting facts about the reason as to why "Thailand is ranked as the Fourth in terms of most AIDS patients per head of population".


Simplified version:

• Rural area, education level is low, thus farmers have no idea as to how to protect themselves against Sexually Transmitted Diseases.
  
• "It has long been in the Thai culture for men to sleep with prostitutes". The females are mainly the wives who contracted the diseases from their husbands. In turn, the kids are affected.
• "Thailand is a society where conservative appearances are deceiving. Drug use is rampant and there is virtually no education towards the use of needles".
  
• "The support for AIDS patients is negligible". Families are basically afraid of catching AIDS by being around the AIDS infected ones.

Sad but true.


Read more of it here!


* The ones that are placed "like this" are quotes lifted off of the site.



Anyway, as we all know, AIDS is not a joking matter. And to end this post, I would like to "enlighten" you by displaying photographs of the life in the museum and temple. The bodies were donated to the Life Museum by AIDS patients that have passed away.




Here goes.





These are cremation ovens.



And these are the thousands and thousands of bags of ashes. These are the ashes of the HIV patients.



"9 Thais die from AIDS every hour. 500 Thais contract HIV every day. It is estimated that there are one million HIV positive people in Thailand", as said by Dr. Alongkot Dikkapanyo.




Speaking of innocent children who die, this is Panida Kumrat. She was one year, three months and 21 days old when she passed away. Her mother had infected her with the deadly virus.




This is also another child, James, who died at the age of five.











This is the corpse of Miraporn Chindatong. "She died of AIDS at the age of 24. She was infected by "providing sex" as it says on her vitreous coffin. Miraporn's last will had been to donate her body to science, for "educational means" to help others".







Now if you think that contracting AIDS is a joke, then see how this man suffer(ed) as he spend his last few days in struggle. There is in fact, 10 000 people who are on the waiting list to get care and a bed in the hospice.



Now on more photos. I'll let them to the talking, or at least the frightening.




































*Credits: - http://www.aidstemple.th.org/Historytemple.html
- http://www.pbase.com/cyberholz/temple

AND TO SHARIFAH RAUDAH WHO EMAILED ME ABOUT THIS MUSEUM! (see?!!?!?!? Hahah)

Take care of yourself. Love not only yourself, but your family.



Loves.