What makes us yawn ?

Everybody yawns — from unborn babies to the oldest great-grandparent. Yawning is an involuntary action that causes us to open our mouths wide and breathe in deeply. We know it's involuntary because we do it even before we are born. Research shows that 11-week-old fetuses yawn. Yawn is a reflex of inhalation and exhalation that draws more oxygen in bloodstream.

CAUSES OF YAWNING ?
- A long-standing theory behind yawning is that there was too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen in the blood. The brain stem was assumed to detect this and would trigger the yawn reflex. The mouth stretches wide and the lungs inhaled deeply, causing oxygen into the lungs and thence to the bloodstream. This is not certain however: a more recent theory is that it is a form of bodily temperature regulation.
- Yawns "seem to be caused by the same chemical compounds (neurotransmitters) in the brain that effect emotions, mood, appetite and more - serotonin, dopamine, glutamic acid and nitric oxide. The more of these compounds activated in the brain, the greater the frequency of yawns.
- Yawning is also said to be caused by boredom, fatigue or drowsiness. Although we do tend to yawn when bored or tired, this theory doesn't explain why Olympic athletes yawn right before they compete in their event. It's doubtful that they are bored with the world watching them.

IS YAWNING CONTAGIOUS ?
No one knows for sure, but a study published in a recent issue of the journal Cognitive Brain Research theorizes that yawning in response to someone else’s yawn may be an empathetic response, similar to laughter. “A yawn can be triggered not only by seeing a person yawn but also by hearing, reading about, or even just thinking about yawns,” says Steven Platek, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Drexel University, in Philadelphia, who directed the research. Platek and his colleagues believe that contagious yawning may be a primitive way of modeling our feelings after other people’s.
Between 40 and 60 percent of the population seems to find yawning contagious. Researchers at the State University of New York conducted a series of yawning experiments. They determined that being self-aware (the ability to recognize oneself) and having the ability to see things from someone else's viewpoint means a person is more likely to find yawning contagious.

Interesting Yawning Facts :
* The average yawn lasts about six seconds.
* Your heart rate can rise as much as 30 percent during a yawn.
* 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn.
* Blind people yawn more after hearing an audio tape of people yawning.
* Reading about yawning will make you yawn.
* Olympic athletes often yawn before competition.

MCDONALD'S MENU AROUND THE WORLD

INDIA

In India, there are no Big Macs because the Hindu people don’t eat beef. However, they have the Maharaja Mac, which is a Big Mac made of lamb or chicken meat. There is also a vegetarian burger, the McAloo Tikki.

NORWAY
In fish-loving Norway, they have the McLaks, a sandwich made of grilled salmon and dill sauce.

GERMANY
It’s bottoms up in Germany, where McDonald’s serves - Beer!

CANADA
In parts of Canada, have a lobster dinner with the McLobster lobster roll. Pardon me - “McHomard” (in French).

JAPAN
Japan totally reinvents McDonald’s with its Ebi Filet-O (shrimp burgers), Koroke Burger (mashed potato, cabbage and katsu sauce, all in a sandwich), Ebi-Chiki (shrimp nuggets) and Green Tea-flavored milkshake!

CHILE
In Chile, you can dress your burgers with - not ketchup - avocado paste!

COSTA RICA
In Costa Rica, unsurprisingly, you can order Gallo Pinto, meaning rice and beans.

GREECE
It’s not Greek without pita, so when in Greece, have a Greek Mac, a burger made of patties wrapped in pita.

HONG KONG
Rice-loving Hong Kong, has - of course - Rice Burgers, where the burgers are in between, not burger buns, but two patties of glutinous rice.

ISRAEL
In Israel, McDonald’s has 3 kosher restaurants where cheeseburger and dairy products are not served because Jewish Law forbids serving “the child [cow/beef] in its mother’s milk [dairy].” They have McShawarma, meat in a pita bread roll.

21 Facts to Know

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions..

2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!

3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.

4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.

5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.

10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

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

12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.

17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.

18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot .

20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal..

21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

Things you never knew about the human brain

The human brain is the seat of thinking, of thought, it is the essence of a human being. Yet not many of us know too many details about the human brain, and here is a site (link) that provides a lot of such information:

Your skin weighs twice as much as your brain.

Your brain is made up of about 75 percent water.

Your brain consists of about 100 billion neurons.

At birth, your brain was almost the same size as an adult brain and contained most of the brain cells for your whole life.

A newborn baby’s brain grows about three times its size in the first year.

Facts about Pizza

Americans eat billions of slices of pizza each year;
the annual per capita pizza consumption is 23 pounds.

Saturday night is the biggest night of the week for
eating pizza. Americans eat 90 acres of pizza per day.

During TV news broadcasts, most pizza is ordered during
the weather, and the delivery folks report that women are
better tippers!

Post Columbus - Tomatoes were brought back to Europe
from the New World. Originally they were thought to be poisonous,
but later became accepted and added to pizza.

In the 16th century - Maria Carolina, the Queen of
Naples convinced her husband, King Ferdinand IV to allow the
peasant dish pizza to be made in the royal oven.

In 1889 Raffaele Esposito, the most famous PIZZAIOLO
(pizza chef) created a pie for Queen Margherita - tomato,
basil and cheese, (to resemble the Italian flag) which
remains the basis for American pizza.

Company names and their origins

There are many companies / brands / products whose names were derived from
strange circumstances:

Mercedes -> This was actually the financier's daughter's name.

Adobe -> This came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the
house of founder John Warnock.

Apple Computers > It was the favorite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was
three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to
call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a
better name by 5 o'clock.

CISCO -> It is not an acronym as popularly believed. It is short for San
Francisco.

Compaq -> This name was formed by using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to
denote a small integral object.

Corel -> The name was derived from the founder's name Dr.Michael Cowpland.
It stands for COwpland REsearch Laboratory.

Google -> The name started as a joke boasting about the amount of
information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally
named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100
zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry
Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque
made out to 'Google'.

Hotmail -> Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web
from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the
business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in
'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" -
the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred
to as HoTMaiL with selective uppercasing.

Hewlett Packard -> Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide
whether the company they founded would be called
Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.

Intel -> Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore
Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain so they had to
settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Microsoft -> Coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted
to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was
removed later on.
Motorola -> Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company
started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time
was called Victrola.
ORACLE -> Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project
for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). The code name for the project was
called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all
questions or something such). The project was designed to help use the newly
written SQL code by IBM. The project eventually was terminated but Larry
and Bob decided to finish what they started and bring it to the world. They
kept the name Oracle and created the RDBMS engine. Later they kept the same
name for the company.
Sony -> It originated from the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny'
a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SUN -> Founded by 4 Stanford University buddies, SUN is the acronym for
Stanford University Network. Andreas Bechtolsheim built a microcomputer;
Vinod Khosla recruited him and Scot t McNealy to manufacture computers based
on it, and Bill Joy to develop a UNIX-based OS for the computer.
Yahoo! -> The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book
'Gulliver's Travels'. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance
and action and is barely human. Yahoo! Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo
selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.

ARE YOU NORMAL?

- Only 30% of us can flare our nostrils.
- 21% of us don't make our bed daily. 5% of us never do.
- Men do 29% of laundry each week. Only 7% of women trust their husbands to do it correctly.
- 40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.
- 3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations.
- 91% lie regularly, so you can just throw away statistics like these based on their answers *grin*
- 27% admit to cheating on a test or quiz.
- 29% admit they've intentionally stolen something from a store.
- 50% admit they regularly sneak food into movie theaters to avoid the high prices of snack foods.
- 90% believe in divine retribution (but apparently not for lying)
- 10% believe in the 10 Commandments.
- 82% believe in an afterlife.
- 45% believe in ghosts.
- 13% (mostly men) have spent a night in jail.
- 29% are virgins when they marry.
- 90% men have an eye for their sister-in-laws.
- 65% indulge in incest.
- 58.4% have called into work sick when we weren't.
- 10% of us switch tags in the store to pay less for an item.
- Over 50% believe in spanking - but only a child over 2 years old.
- 35% give to charity at least once a month.
- How far would you go for $10 million? 25% would abandon their friends, family, and church. 7% would murder.
- 69% eat the cake before the frosting.
- When nobody else is around, 47% drink straight from the carton.
- Snickers is the most popular candy.
- 22% of us skip lunch daily.
- 9% of us skip breakfast daily.
- 14% of us eat the watermelon seeds.
- Only 13% brush our teeth from side to side.
- 45% use mouthwash every day.
- 22% leave the glob of toothpaste in the sink.
- The typical shower is 101 degrees F.
- Nearly 1/3 of U.S. women color their hair.
- 9% of women and 8% of men have had cosmetic surgery.
- 53% of women will not leave the house without makeup on.
- 58% of women paint their nails regularly.
- 33% of women lie about their weight.
- 10% claim to have seen a ghost.
- 57% have had deja vu.
- 49% believe in ESP.
- 4 out of 5 of us have suffered from hemorrhoids.
- 44% have broken a bone.
- 14% have attended a self-help meeting.
- 15% regularly go to a shrink.
- 78% would rather die quickly than live in a retirement home.
- 46.5% of men say they ALWAYS put the seat down after they've used the toilet, yet women claim to ALWAYS find it up. What's up?
- 30% of us refuse to sit on a public toilet seat.
- 54.2% of us always wash our hands after using the toilet.
- 28.1% pee in the pool. Think about that next time you go swimming!
- 39% of us peek in our host's bathroom cabinet. 17% have been caught by the host... whoops, "uh.. just looking for the uh..."
- 81.3% would tell an acquaintance to zip it (his pants).
- 71.6% of us eavesdrop.
- 22% are functionally illiterate. [Reminds me of the lady who said, "My son ain't illiterate. We was married two weeks before he was born!"]
- Less than 10% are trilingual.
- 37% claim to know how to use all the features on their VCR.
- 53% prefer ATM machines over tellers.
- 56% of women do the bills in a marriage.
- 2 out of 3 of us wouldn't give up our spouse even for a night for a million bucks. Now, make it TWO million and half the night... : )
- 20% of us have played in a band at one time in our life.
- 40% of us have had music lessons.
- 66% of women and 59% of men have used a mix to cook and taken credit for doing it from scratch.
- 53% read their horoscopes regularly.
- 16% of us have forgotten our own wedding anniversary, mostly men, (and they say statistics don't lie. See 91% men lie regularly for details. Yeah, we know the rest of you men just have wives who TELL you the anniversary is coming up!)
- 59% of us say we're average-looking.
- Blacks are more than twice as likely to call themselves beautiful.
- 90% of us depend on alarm clocks to wake us.
- 53% of us would take advice from Anne Landers.
- 28% of us have skinny-dipped. 14% with the opposite sex.
- 51% of adults dress up for a Halloween festivity.
- On average, we send 38 Christmas cards every year.
- 20% of women consider their parents to be their best friends.
- 2 out of 5 have married their first love.
- The biggest cause of matrimonial fighting is money.
- Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.
- 1 in 5 men proposed on his knees.
- 6% propose over the phone, [but that includes only of those who were accepted over the phone, not those who were hung up on]
- 71% can drive a stick-shift car.
- 45% of us consistantly follow the speed limit. [Must be the over 55 crowd : ) ]
- 2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light.
- 1/3 of us don't wear seat belts.
- 12% of men never use their car blinkers.
- 44% of men tailgate to speed up the person in front of them.
- 25% drive after they've been drinking.
- 4 out of 5 sing in the car.

What is Eggnog

Eggnog is a popular drink throughout The Americas, and is
usually associated with winter celebrations such as Christmas
and New Year. Eggnog has long been believed to be an excellent
source of magnesium. Eggnog is also very popular in Central Europe,
but only its cognac version, which can be bought almost everywhere,
mostly in Christmas-markets, during November and December.
Commercially, non-alcoholic eggnog is available around Christmas
time and during the winter.

Eggnog may have originated in England, It is believed to have
been developed from a medieval beverage made with hot milk, called
posset. The Nog in Eggnog comes from the word noggin, a phrase to
describe a small, wooden mug used to serve alcohol. While the Egg
comes from an English drink called Egg Flip. It was shortened and/or
slurred into egg'n'grog, then eggnog.

Body stats

It takes food seven seconds to get from your mouth to your stomach.

One human hair can support 3 kg (6 lb).

The average man's penis is three times the length of his thumb.

Human thighbones are stronger than concrete.

A woman's heart beats faster than a man's.

There are about one trillion bacteria on each of your feet.

Women blink twice as often as men.

The average person's skin weighs twice as much as the brain.

Your body uses 300 muscles to balance itself when you are standing still.

If saliva cannot dissolve something, you cannot taste it.

Women reading this will be finished now.

Men reading this are still busy checking their thumbs.

Details about pizzas, tacos, and Sandwiches

About Sandwiches, Pizzas, & Tacos

Hamburgers, hot dogs, and sandwiches make up our great movable feast, the foods that can be eaten with the fingers and on the run: at the desk, in the lunchroom, at ball games, and at picnics. While there is no need to decry the fast-food vendors, it's far better to prepare these foods yourself from the highest-quality ingredients. Since portable foods constitute about 1/3 of the American diet, they should be prepared with great care, and attention should be paid to both their taste and their nutritional quality.

Sandwiches

What makes a good sandwich? Good bread, generous filling, contrasting textures, and the mysterious mating of the right filling with the right bread. There was a time when you couldn't get a sandwich in this country on anything but soft white bread: the choice was to have it plain or tasted. Now Americans have not only adopted French, Italian, and Portuguese breads, Greek pitas and Scandinavian flatbreads and ryes, but revived whole-grain breads to the great enrichment of the noonday meal.

What makes a bad sandwich? Dryness, a poor proportion of filling to bread, staleness, incompatible combinations, and wet greens that make everything soggy or untrained tomatoes that sit too long on the bread. Firm, tastily ripe tomatoes are wonderful in sandwiches, adding moisture and goodness.

Unless you must, don't make sandwiches until just before they are to be eaten. When they have to be made in advance for picnics or lunchboxes, wrap each sandwich individually, making an airtight package with plastic wrap or foil. A good idea is to put the lettuce and sliced tomato in a separate plastic bag, to be tucked into the
sandwich just before eating.

Pizzas

And then there is pizza, once Italian, now the quintessential American meal. Far more nutritious than our children imagine, pizza is a worthwhile combination of bread, cheese, and tomatoes. In addition to the familiar garnishes of sausage, anchovy, and mushrooms, pizza can serve as a delicious base for chopped leftover meat and vegetables.
Even people who hate leftovers will eat them spread over a bed of yeasty dough and tomato sauce, covered with a blanket of bubbling mozzarella cheese.

Tacos

Tacos are fried tortillas, the Mexican pancakes made of a flour ground of cooked corn grain, called masa harina. You can make them yourself if you have either a tortilla press or a lot of expeditious: they are tricky. Luckily, many markets now carry tortillas in the frozen food section and some markets even have them fresh, so it isn't necessary to create your own. Tacos are usually made very crisp. They are
folded in half while they are being fried and are then removed, filled, and served.

An article on separation anxiety w/tips for dogs

1. Exercise your dog well before you leave. A tired dog has less energy with
which to be anxious and destructive. End exercise sessions 20-30 minutes before you go so he has time to settle down.

2. Five minutes before you leave give him a well stuffed Kong to take his mind off your imminent departure. -- we fill ours with small treats and peanut butter.

3. Make your departures and returns completely calm and emotionless. No huggy/Kissy "mummy luvs you" scenes. If he gets excited and jumps all over you when you return, ignore him. Turn your back and walk away. When he finally settles down, say hello and greet him very calmly.

4. Defuse the pieces of your departure routine by also doing them when you are not leaving. Pick up your car keys, and sit down on the sofa to watch TV. Dress in your business suit and then cook dinner. Set your alarm for 5 a.m. on a Saturday, then roll over and go back to sleep.

5. Mix up the pieces of your departure when you are leaving, so his anxiety doesn't build to a fever pitch as he recognizes your departure cues. We are creatures of habit too, so this is hard to do, but can pay off in big dividends. Eat breakfast before you shower instead of after. Pick up your keys and put them in your pocket before you take your dog out for his final potty break. Put your briefcase in the car while you're still in pajamas. Make the morning as unpredictable as possible.

6. Use a "safe" cue such as "I'll be back" only when you know you'll return within the time period your dog can tolerate. As suggested in Patricia McConnell's wonderful booklet on separation anxiety titled "I'll Be Home Soon," this helps your dog relax, knowing he can trust you to return.

7. Explore alternative dog-keeping situations to minimize the occasions when you do have to leave him alone - doggie daycare may be suitable for some dogs, but not for others. You may be able to find a neighbor or relative who is house bound and might appreciate some canine companionship.

8. If you are considering adoption of a second dog, try borrowing a calm, stable, compatible dog from a friend, to see if that helps to relieve your dogs distress.

9. Try using Comfort Zone (DAP) plug ins and sprays in his environment to help ease his anxiety.

10. Remove as many other stressors from your dog's world as possible to help him maintain his equilibrium in your absence. No choke chains, shock collars, physical or harsh verbal punishment, (especially in connection to his anxiety behaviors.)

11. Consider working with a behavior professional to be sure you're on the right path - and to help you explore the possibilities of using anti-anxiety medications to maximize the effectiveness of your modification efforts.

Fixing separation anxiety is hard work. It's all too easy to get frustrated with your dogs destructive behavior. Remember the he's not choosing to do it out of spite or malice - he is panicked about his own survival without you, his pack, there to protect him. It's not fun for him either, he lives in the moment, and the moments that you are gone are long and terrifying. If you make the commitment to modify his behavior and succeed in helping him be brave about being alone, you'll not only save your home from destruction, you will enhance the quality of your dog's life immensely - as well as your own - and perhaps save him from destruction too.

10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes

Quick: who is the richest man of all time? Bill Gates? Warren Buffet? Not even close, though there's no denying they're very, very rich. The richest man of all time, when wealth is measured as a percentage of the national economy, was John D. Rockefeller, whose fortunes made Gates' and Buffet's look downright puny.
Keeping score of who's wealthier is like a spectator sport with Forbes magazine as its official referee. Last year, Forbes counted 946 billionaires (there are too many millionaires to count, so they don't bother with that anymore) with combined net worth of $3.5 trillion. That's larger than the GDP of Germany, the third largest economy in the world.
But the richest people ever belong in their own special club. These people (all men) have built fortunes of legendary proportions when calculated at the peak of their wealth. Here is the list of the 10 Richest People of All Time and How They Made Their Fortunes.1. John D. Rockefeller

Peak wealth: $318.3 billion (based on 2007 US dollar). Age at peak wealth: 74
As a young man, John Davison Rockefeller said that his two greatest ambitions were to make $100,000 and live to be 100. He died two months shy of his 98th birthday, but boy did he make good on the first goal.
Rockefeller wasn't born to a rich family. His father, William Avery "Big Bill" Rockefeller was a shiftless man who spent most of his times thinking up schemes to avoid actual work! Nevertheless, thanks to the guidance of his mom Eliza - a homemaker and devout Baptist - John D. grew up to be quite a hardworking man.
Rockefeller started out in business as a wholesale grocer and went on to found Standard Oil, which through shrewd business decisions and some say predatory and illegal practices, grew to be a gargantuan monopoly. At its peak, Standard Oil had about 90% of the market for refined oil (kerosene) in the United States (in the early days of Standard Oil, gasoline wasn't an important component of the oil industry - indeed, gasoline produced by the refineries were dumped in rivers because they were considered useless!)
In 1911, the US Supreme Court declared Standard Oil a monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered it to be broken up into 34 independent companies with different boards of directors. By that time, Rockefeller had long since retired from the company but still held a large percentage of shares. Ironically, the busting up of Standard Oil unlocked share values and his fortunes doubled overnight.
Rockefeller got his first job at 16 as a bookkeeper. In a move that portended his lifelong commitment to philanthropy, he tithed 10% of his income - from his first paycheck on - to charity. As his wealth grew, so did his charitable contributions. When he died in 1937, Rockefeller had given away half of his amassed fortune, and established philanthropic foundations to continue giving after his death.2. Andrew Carnegie

Peak wealth: $298.3 billion. Age at peak wealth: 68
Andrew Carnegie immigrated as a young child to Pittsburgh from Scotland and began working at 13 years old as a bobbin boy in a textile mill. He changed spools of threads for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for a weekly wage of $2. At 16 years old, Carnegie became a telegraph messenger boy, and soon after was promoted to be a telegraph operator.
Carnegie became a personal assistant to Thomas Scott, superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company and learned the ins and outs of the railroad business. It was Carnegie who invented a brutally efficient way to clear the tracks after a railway accident: by burning the railroad car!
When he was 20, Carnegie mortgaged his mother's house and made his first gutsy investment of $500 for 10 shares of the Adams Express company - sort of the Fed Ex delivery company of the 1800s - and was handsomely rewarded. He then invested in a company making sleeping cars for the railway. By the time he was 30, Carnegie had expanded his investments to iron works, steamers, railroads, and oil well.
But the real money came from steel. In the late 1880s, Carnegie built his steel empire to become the world's largest manufacturer of steel rails, pig iron, and coke.
In 1901, at the age of 66, Carnegie retired by selling his shares to John Pierpont Morgan for more than $225 million (a large sum today and an astounding amount of money back then) in form of gold-bonds. When the bonds were delivered, a special vault had to be built to physically house them!
Carnegie was big proponent of philanthropy - in a famous 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth," he wrote that wealth should be distributed to promote welfare of other people and enrich society. True to his words, Carnegie gave away more than $350 million or almost 90% of his fortune.
Note: At the end of the Spanish American War, the United States bought the Philippines from Spain for $20 million. Carnegie was appalled at what he perceived to be an imperialist move and personally offered $20 million to the Philippines so it could buy its independence from the US (they didn't take him up on his offer).3. Nicholas II of Russia

The last Russian Imperial family
Peak wealth: $253.5 billion. Age at peak wealth: 49
Nicholas II of Russia (born Nikolai Aleksandrovich Romanov) was the last Tsar of Russia. He ruled (badly) from 1894 until he was forced to abdicate in the Russian Revolution of 1917 by the Bolsheviks. His reign was marked with antisemitic pogroms, a crushing defeat by Japan in the Russo-Japanese War, revolutions, internal unrests their bloody suppressions, undue influence by the mystic Rasputin and World War I. A year after he was deposed, Nicholas and his entire family were executed by Lenin's order.
The life of the last tsar of Russia was filled with fascinating myths, legends, and history - and readers interested in it are encouraged to read more about Nicholas II and the Romanovs. Suffice it to say that Nicholas II became the third richest man in history the old fashioned way: he inherited his wealth.

4. William Henry Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $231.6 billion. Age at peak wealth: 64
William Henry Vanderbilt had a pretty good start in life: he inherited nearly $100 million from his father, the railroad mogul Cornelius "The Commodore" Vanderbilt (if you want to read a rags to riches story, Cornelius' is pretty good - see below).
William Vanderbilt was groomed by his father to be a businessman (at times harshly - the imperious and domineering Cornelius liked to call his eldest son a "blockhead," "blatherskite, " "sucker," and "good for nothing") and William turned out to be quite an able businessman. He expanded the family's railroad empire and thus the family fortune, finally earning his father's respect and friendship.
When William died in 1885, he was the richest man in the world.

5. Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII
Peak wealth: $210.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 50
Asaf Jah VII (whose given name was Osman Ali Khan Bahadur) was the last Nizam or ruler of the Princely State of Hyderabad and Berar, before it was invaded and annexed by India in 1948.
By most accounts, "His Exalted Highness" the Nizam of Hyderabad was a benevolent ruler who promoted education, science and development. He spent about one-tenth of his Principality' s budget on education, and even made primary education compulsory and free for the poor. In his 37-year rule, Hyderabad witnessed the introduction of electricity, railways, roads, and other development projects.
In 1937, Asaf Jah VII was on the cover of Time Magazine, labeled as the richest man in the world.

6. Andrew W. Mellon
Peak wealth: $188.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 80
Andrew William Mellon was the son of a Pittsburgh banker Thomas Mellon (who founded the Mellon Bank). Andrew got his start early: he started a lumber company at the age of 17 and by the age of 27 had taken over his father's bank. He also got into oil, steel, shipbuilding, and construction business.
In 1921, President Warren G. Harding appointed the financier Mellon as the Secretary of the Treasury, where he served for 10 years (under three U.S.. Presidents). At that post, Mellon increased federal revenue by decreasing the taxation rate and cutting federal spending.

7. Henry Ford
Peak wealth: $188.1 billion. Age at peak wealth: 57
If Henry Ford's father had his way, Henry would take over the family farm and become a farmer. But after the death of his beloved mother, Henry, who didn't particularly like farming, left home in 1879 at the age of 16 to work as an apprentice machinist.
At 28, Henry Ford became an engineer at Thomas Edison's company and started experimenting with gasoline engines (with Edison's approval). In 1896, at the age of 36, Ford started his first car company, the Detroit Automobile Company, which went bankrupt two years later.
Soon afterwards, he set up his second company, the Henry Ford Company. A year later, his partners hired Henry M. Leland to troubleshoot problems on the shop floor. Ford clashed almost immediately with Leland, and was forced out of the company bearing his name with only $900 cash. The Henry Ford Company was renamed Cadillac, and Ford went on to form his third car company, the "Ford Malcomson" company ...
.... and immediately got into trouble when he couldn't pay his suppliers, the Dodge brothers. Ford's partner, Alexander Malcomson was able to convince the Dodge brothers to invest in the company instead and the company was reincorporated as the Ford Motor Company. And a good thing they did because third time was the charm. The Ford Motor Company made Henry Ford a very rich man.
Henry Ford's name became synonymous with automobiles for good reasons: he introduced the Model T, the first inexpensive car for the masses. He also popularized the use of assembly lines in mass productions, high workers' wages to attract talent and discourage employee turnover, franchise model car dealerships, and even the 5-day workweek.
One interesting note about Henry Ford: he didn't believe in accountants. On one occasion, his son Edsel contracted the building of a new office building with much needed space for the Accounting division. When Henry asked what the space was for, Edsel acknowledged that it was for the accounting department. The very next day, when the accountants showed up for work, they found their office had been stripped - no desks, chairs, or telephones; even the carpeting was gone - and that Henry had fired them all. (Source: Edsel.com)

8. Marcus Licinius Crassus
Peak wealth: $169.8 billion. Age at peak wealth: 62
Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115 BC to 53 BC) is the earliest historical figure in this list. He was a Roman general and politician who defeated the slave revolt led by Spartacus.
If you think the rest of the businessmen on this list were ruthless - in reality they've got nothing on Crassus. The Roman general became wealthy when he bought the homes and belongings from the victims of Sulla's sacking of Rome (Crassus was one of Sulla's generals) for cheap. He then re-sold them at a princely profit. Crassus then expanded his wealth through the slave trade, silver mining, and real estate, especially by buying houses of those declared enemies of the state for next to nothing.
But it was Crassus' acquisition of burning houses that earned him his lasting notoriety. He maintained a troop of 500 skilled builders - and when a fire broke out in Rome (back then a frequent occurrence), he negotiated the sale of the burning properties and those nearby for cheap. Once he obtained the properties, he called upon his men to demolish the burning property and save the nearby buildings (that was the preferred technique of fighting fire during Roman times). He then rebuilt and leased back the property to the original owners! At one point, Crassus owned a large part of Rome and some wondered whether the fires might not have actually been his doing ...
Crassus was so greedy that when he died, his enemies had his head severed and molten gold poured into his mouth as a mark of his greed .

9. Basil II
Peak wealth: $169.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 67
Basil II (or Basil the Bulgarslayer) was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 976 to 1025. For historians, Basil II's reign represented the apex of the Middle Byzantine Empire - he expanded the territory of the empire by annexing Bulgaria, making it the largest and strongest it had ever been in nearly five centuries.
Basil had no heir, and within half a century of his death, the Byzantine Empire crumbled.

10. Cornelius Vanderbilt
Peak wealth: $167.4 billion. Age at peak wealth: 82
Cornelius Vanderbilt is a true rags-to-riches story: he quit school at the age of 11 (famously saying "If I had learned education, I would not have had time to learn anything else") to work on ferries in New York. By 16, persuaded his mom to loan him $100 for a boat to start his own ferry business carrying freight and passengers between Staten Island and Manhattan. He repaid the loan with an additional $1000 one year later. It's from this business operating ships that he got his nickname "Commodore" that stuck for the rest of his life, even after he started getting into the railroad business.
Vanderbilt was ruthless in business. He once wrote a short (and now famous) letter to Charles Morgan and C.K. Garrison of the Morgan Garrison company. The two men manipulated his steamship company's stock in his absence and took it over. The letter read "Gentlemen: you have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you. Yours truly, Cornelius Vanderbilt." True to his words, two years later Vanderbilt forced them out of business by running a competing business.
Despite of their wealth - or perhaps because of it, the Vanderbilt family wasn't a happy one. The Commodore was constantly thinking of his will, which he called "that paper." He wanted the money to remain intact, and thus it must be handed down to a single heir. Indeed, he disowned all of his sons other than William (see above), believing that only William was ruthless enough in business to be capable of maintaining his empire.

About Cereals

In the last decade Americans have become more and more health-conscious, and fiber is the latest cure-all. Cereals, rice, beans, and pasta: there are whole-some foods that fill the stomach and warm the heart, that provide energy for a snowy
morning and restore courage at the end of a long day. Basic foods for the world's poorer nations, they often replace meat on the American table as well, for, in the right combinations, they provide a valuable source of low-fat protein.

Grains are the dried seeds of grass plants; those that are used for food are called cereals. About one-quarter of our diet is made up of grains such as wheat, rice, corn, oats, barley, and rye.

All cereals contain a high percentage of carbohydrate, with varying amounts of protein, minerals, and vitamins. Although they don't provide complete protein by themselves, they become highly valuable foods when they are mixed with milk products, eggs, dried beans, or animal proteins. In many parts of the world where meat is scarce, people live largely on grains.

Cornmeal

The only native American grain, corn was used by the Indians before Columbus and was introduced to Europe by the early explorers of this continent. Cornmeal is made of ground corn kernels. Water-ground meal retains the vitamin-rich germ, while commercially ground meal is made from only the starchy part of the kernel. As with all ground kernels, the texture of the meal can range from coarse to fine, depending on the dish being prepared. A coarse grind is ideal for Italian polenta, while finer grinds are usually used for American southern favorites such as spoon bread, muffins, and mush, although some prefer a coarser texture in these dishes as well. Cornmeal
dishes are traditionally cooked in heavy iron pans to encourage the formation of a thick, dark crust. Both yellow and white cornmeal are available. The difference is really only in the color, but there are strong partisans of each kind in different regions of the country.

Angel Falls (no photo)

Angel Falls, Venezuela (also called Salto Angel) is the Earth's highest uninterrupted waterfall. It is 979 metres (3,230 feet) tall - think of it as 2.5 times as tall as the Empire State Building and full 15 times higher than Niagara Falls!
Located in the Canaima National Park, in southeastern Venezuela, the falls start from the nameless creek that meanders through the series of highly-fractured crevices and gorges on top of a "Tepuy", or table-top mountain. The water then bursts into the void and plunges uninterrupted 2,421 feet to the river and more cascades below.
In a season of highest water, the single waterfall splits into three streams - sometimes even more, which together become a giant veil of water.
How to get to the Angel Falls? Not so easy. You would need to hook up with a flight from Caracas or Ciudad Bolivar to get to the Canaima camp, from where you'd start your trip along the river to the base of the falls.

Making of Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower is an iron tower built on the Champ de Mars beside the River Seine in Paris. The tower has become a global icon of France and is one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Parisian landmark is the tallest structure in Paris and one of the most recognized structures in the world and is named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel.

The structure was built between 1887 and 1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle, a World's Fair marking the centennial celebration of the French Revolution. The structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tons. Depending on the ambient temperature the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7 in) due to thermal expansion of the metal on the side facing the sun. The tower also sways 6-7 cm (2-3 in) in the wind.

The tower was inaugurated on 31 March 1889, and opened on 6 May. Three hundred workers joined together 18,038 pieces of puddled iron (a very pure form of structural iron), using two and a half million rivets, in a structural design by Maurice Koechlin. The risk of accident was great, for unlike modern skyscrapers the tower is an open frame without any intermediate floors except the two platforms.
Yet because Eiffel took safety precautions including use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one man died.

At the time the tower was built many people were shocked by its daring shape. Gustave Eiffel was criticised for the design and accused of trying to create something artistic, or inartistic according to the viewer, without regard to engineering. Eiffel and his engineers, as renowned bridge builders however, understood the importance of wind forces and knew that if they were going to build the tallest structure in the world they had to be certain it would withstand the wind.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the tower has been used for radio transmission. Until the 1950s, an occasionally modified set of antenna wires ran from the summit to anchors on the Avenue de Suffren and Champ de Mars. They were connected to long-wave transmitters in small bunkers; in 1909, a permanent underground radio centre was built near the south pillar and still exists today. On 20 November 1913 the Paris Observatory, using the Eiffel Tower as an antenna, exchanged sustained wireless signals with the United States Naval Observatory
which used an antenna in Arlington, Virginia.

SOME FACTS

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions!!!!!!!!!!

2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!

3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.

4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.

5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.

6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.

7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.

8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.

9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.

10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.

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

12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.

13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.

14. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.

15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.

16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.

17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14. 4 calories per hour by breathing.

18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.

19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk rightfoot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot...

20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal.

21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

22. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on the watch is 10:10 because then the arms frame the brand of the watch and make it look=20 like it's smiling.

23. The color blue can have a calming affect on people.

24. Depending upon the shade, the brain may send up to 11 tranquilizing chemicals to calm the body

25. Leonardo da Vinci could write with the one hand and draw with the other simultaneously. Now we know why his pictures were exquisite!!

26. Names of the three wise monkeys are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru(Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).

27. The only 2 animals that can see behind itself without turning it's head are the rabbit and parrot.

28. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable.

29. Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age

30. The names of the continents all end with the same letter with which they start.

31. Electricity doesn't move through a wire but through a field around the wire.

32. All U.S. Presidents have worn glasses; some of them just didn't like to be seen wearing them in public.

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

Some facts

1. Chewing on gum while cutting onions can help a person from stop producing tears. Try it next time you chop onions.
2. Until babies are six months old, they can breathe and swallow at the same time. Indeed convenient!
3. Offered a new pen to write with, 97% of all people will write their own name.
4. Male mosquitoes are vegetarians. Only females bite.
5. The average person's field of vision encompasses a 200-degree wide angle.
6. To find out if a watermelon is ripe, knock it, and if it sounds hollow then it is ripe.
7. Canadians can send letters with personalized postage stamps showing their own photos on each stamp.
8. Babies' eyes do not produce tears until the baby is approximately six to eight weeks old.
9. It snowed in the Sahara Desert in February of 1979.
10. Plants watered with warm water grow larger and more quickly than plants watered with cold water.
11. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
12. Grapes explode when you put them in the microwave.
13. Those stars and colours you see when you rub your eyes are called phosphenes.
14. Our eyes (Pupils) are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing.
15. Everyone's tongue print is different, like fingerprints.
16. Contrary to popular belief, a swallowed chewing gum doesn't stay in the
gut. It will pass through the system and be excreted.
17. At 40 Centigrade a person loses about 14.4 calories per hour by breathing.
18. There is a hotel in Sweden built entirely out of ice; it is rebuilt every year.
19. Cats, camels and giraffes are the only animals in the world that walk right foot, right foot, left foot, left foot, rather than right foot, left foot .
20. Onions help reduce cholesterol if eaten after a fatty meal.
21. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually the sound of nitrogen gas bubbles bursting.

Trivia story

Can you tell a horse's sex from it's head?
You can tell the sex of a horse by its teeth. Most males have 40, females have 36.

When is something risible?
Something that is funny, or is able to or inclined to incite laughter, is "risible."

What unique ingredient can you get on a pizza in Iceland?
In Iceland, Domino's Pizza has a reindeer sausage pie on its menu.

How many people live in Greater Tokyo?
The area of Greater Tokyo -- meaning the city proper, its port, Yokohama, and the suburban prefectures of Saitama, Chiba, and Kanagawa -- contains less than 4 percent of Japan's land area but fully one-fourth of its 123-plus million people.

How did the poinsettia get its name?
The poinsettia flower is named after a 19th-century ambassador to Mexico, Joel R. Poinsett, who first brought the poinsettia plant to America.

All About Mustard

Mustard is the oldest condiment known. No one knows who first used mustard to flavor food. Mustard seeds have been found in tombs of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs and the ancient Romans used mustard seeds in some of their crude sauces. But mustard as we know it, a condiment sauce made from the seed of the mustard plant in combination with some liquid (water, wine, beer, etc.), goes back to the 14th century and perhaps even earlier.

The earliest reference to mustard in the Dijon region of France dates back to 1336, but we can assume that the early monks had developed the art of mustard making many years earlier. The ruling leaders of France enacted strict laws to govern the methods of making mustard and the ingredients allowed in its manufacture. Even today, French law regulates the making of mustard; only the brown or black seed is permitted in the manufacture of Dijon mustard. The French have brought mustard making to new culinary heights over the years. Today, Dijon mustard is the standard (for many) against which all mustards are measured.

The English developed their own style of mustard throughout the ages. It was originally made in homes or in monasteries, with little commercial activity involved. In the mid-1600's, the town of Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire became famous for its thick horseradish mustard that was the rage of English cookery. Shakespeare (a mustard lover himself) wrote of this famous mustard: "His wit's as thick as Tewkesbury mustard!" (Henry IV, Part II). For reasons we may never know, the mustard industry of Tewkesbury vanished nearly as quickly as it had appeared.

The greatest name in English mustard came upon the scene in 1804 when Jeremiah Colman began milling mustard seed at Norwich. Through the use of brilliant marketing techniques, Colman's mustard became the quintessential English mustard. Its most famous advertising campaign was "The Mustard Club," a whimsical fictitious club of odd characters (Master Mustard, Lady Di Gester, and its president Baron de Beef, to name a few).

The American mustard scene was different. We used very little mustard until the beginning of the twentieth century. Francis French, a New York spice merchant, developed a mild yellow mustard sauce that quickly caught the attention of the consuming public. French's "Cream Salad Mustard" became the national rage. At the same time, J.W. Raye was producing prodigious quantities of a similar mustard sauce for the sardine packing industry. Some claim that Mr. French and Mr. Raye entered into a "gentlemen's agreement" under which French would stay out of the then lucrative sardine market and Raye would stay out of the then speculative domestic household market. French's, of course, is America's largest producer of mustard but the Raye company has survived with its own line of specialty mustards.

Mustard in America has developed its own daring voice over the last thirty years. People have taken a strong interest in "gourmet" cooking. Chefs like Julia Child and James Beard turned America on to fine cuisine. Grey Poupon, American-made but decidedly French in style, took advantage of this new trend and brought a new kind of mustard to the American scene, aided in large part by a brilliant advertising campaign ("Pardon me, but do you have any Grey Poupon?).

Today, American mustards are as varied and numerous as the cuisines and restaurants across the country. Flavors such as curry, chocolate, merlot wine, cranberry, and even cheese may be found in gourmet mustards. They may sound "weird" but they taste great.

Mustard has always been a versatile and healthful (low in calories, with virtually no fat or cholesterol) condiment and fits in with today's active lifestyle. It is truly an international condiment, as countries put their own distinctive mark on the mustards they make.

The Mount Horeb Mustard Museum, in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, holds the largest collection of prepared mustards in the world - more than 4,600. The Museum also is home to hundreds of items of great mustard historical importance, including mustard pots and vintage mustard advertisements; the French's ad to the right is from the April 1936 issue of Good Housekeeping.

Did you know that there is even a day set aside to celebrate mustard? National Mustard Day is held annually on the first Saturday in August at the Mustard Museum in Mount Horeb and in communities around the country.

Should you refrigerate mustard? Even though mustard is a very safe food and is not likely to grow anything harmful if left unrefrigerated, I recommend refrigeration of all mustards in order to keep the flavor brighter and fresher. Keep mustards tightly covered but if you discover that your mustard has dried up, do not panic. Add a little water and it will bounce back to life.