Did Ya Know

[Rhonda]

Did Ya' Know:

1. On the evening of each Sept. 15, Mexico's president traditionally rings a bell and recites a famous speech called the "Grito de Dolores," preparing Mexicans to celebrate Sept. 16 as their Independence Day. A republic for nearly two centuries, Mexico has many traditions dating to the Maya and Aztecs.

2. The "Grito de Dolores" called for a rebellion against Spain in 1810. Late on Sept. 15, 1810, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a priest in the town of Dolores, made this speech in his church. "Grito" means "cry" or "shout." Although independence was not won until 1823, Hidalgo's speech is viewed as Mexico's declaration of independence from Spanish rule.

3. At nearly 760,000 square miles, Mexico's less than one-fourth the size of the U.S.

4. With about 105 million people, Mexico is 11th in the world, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's international database.

5. Guatemala and Belize border Mexico on the south.

6. Mexico City is the home of North America's oldest university. The National Autonomous University of Mexico was founded in 1511 under a different name.

7. The elections of 2000 marked the first time since 1929 that the Institutional Revolutionary Party lost the presidency. Vicente Fox belonged to the National Action Party.

[Rhonda]

;D Here is something you car buffs probably didn't know ...

The 3 Goldberg brothers, Norman, Hiram, and Maxwell invented and developed the first automobile air conditioner. On July 17th, 1946, the temperature in Detroit was 97º. The 3 brothers walked into old man Henry Ford's office and sweet-talked his secretary into telling him that 3 gentlemen were there with the most exciting innovation in the auto industry since the electric starter. Henry was curious and invited them into his office. They refused and instead asked that he come out to the parking lot to their car....

They persuaded him to get into the car which was about 130º - turned on the air conditioner and cooled the car off immediately. The old man got very excited and invited them back to the office, where he offered them 3 million dollars for the patent.

The brothers refused, saying they would settle for 2 million but they wanted the recognition by having a label "The Goldberg Air-Conditioner" on the dashboard of each car that it was installed in.

Now, old man Ford was more than just a little bit Anti-Semitic, and there was no way he was going to put the Goldbergs' name on 2 million Ford cars. They haggled back and forth for about 2 hours and finally agreed on 4 million dollars and that just their first names would be shown.

And so, even today, all Ford air-conditioners show on the controls: The names "Norm, Hi, & Max"............

[Rhonda]

Man Made
~ Machines ~


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The cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.




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The first motorbike, built in 1868 was not powered by a gasoline engine, but by a steam engine. Its builder was Sylvester Roper. His steam-powered bike did not catch on, but it anticipated many modern motorbike features, including the twisting-handgrip throttle control.




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The electric chair was invented by a dentist.




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One day, in 1945. The Big Ben in London was slowed by five minutes. There was no mechanical defect. It was not manually switched off. A group of Starlings decided to rest on the minute hand




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It took engineers 22 years to design the Zipper.




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The first traffic light was installed at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1914




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You might think that coin operated vending machines were invented during the industrial revolution, but actually the first one was installed in ancient Greece around 215 BC.

Its inventor was a mechanical genius named Heron of Alexandria, who came up with a way to dispense holy water in return for one of the Greek coins used in those days. The heavy coin would drop onto a lever, causing a cork to be pulled out of a spigot just long enough to release a trickle of holy water.

Since then, vending machine technology has advanced quite a bit. Today's machines contain microprocessors that use sophisticated software to detect even the tiniest deviation from the expected weight and size of genuine coins.




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Here's something not many people know. Had the Titanic turned 15 seconds earlier, they would have missed the iceberg. Had it turned 15 seconds later, it would have sustained little damage, but not nearly enough to sink it.




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Since March 2000, the largest man-made structure in space has been the IMAGE (Imager for Magnetosphere to Aurora Global Exploration) spacecraft. This science exploration satellite has a cross-shaped radio antenna that is 500 meters (about 1600 feet) across, slightly wider than New York's Empire State building is tall.

The radio antenna of the IMAGE spacecraft is made of four long wires that can be reeled out from the main hull, which is about the size of a small car. To keep the wires straight, the spacecraft spins.

IMAGE's mission is to take visible light and radio pictures of the fields of energized plasma that surround the Earth, studying the interactions of that plasma with the Solar wind during the current
Peak of the 11-year Solar activity cycle.




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Photocopier



Oklahoma office

Worker George C. Beidler thought up the world's first photocopier back in 1903 but, because it was painfully slow, it attracted minimal attention. Then, in 1938, American patent lawyer Chester Carlson improved upon the invention but he too struggled to find a research institute interested in developing his idea. It was not until 1959, 57 years after Beidler's dream of an office copier, that the first automatic photocopier, the Xerox 914, came onto the market.


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Vacuum Cleaner -



In 1902 Hubert Cecil Booth formed the Vacuum Cleaner Company Ltd. But, rather than sell his new invention, he chose to provide a service to the public. The huge apparatus arrived at a customer's house on a horse-drawn van and was parked outside while long hoses were threaded through the windows to suck up the dust. Apart from being cumbersome, the appliance was very noisy and frightened passing horses, which led to Booth being sued by cab proprietors


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In 60AD, Heron of Alexandria, harnessed the power of steam and built the aeoliopile.



It's the first jet engine!

Heron also developed pistons, cylinders, and valves ­in other words, all the parts for a steam engine! But he never put all the pieces together. Some say he died trying.

It took until the 17 hundreds for James Watt to build the first steam engine ­ and it spawned the industrial revolution. But what if Heron had succeeded?

Imagine...there might have been a Roman Industrial Age. And all history since might be very different.


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Built between 1929 and 1932, the largest pipe organ in the world is the Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is also the largest and loudest musical instrument ever constructed.

The monster music maker has 336 stops (tuned sets of pipes that form musical voice settings), and is powered by blowers totaling more than 600 horsepower. The exact number of pipes is not known; the quoted figure is 33,112.

The main playing console, which is surrounded by art-deco columns with stylized flames on top, boasts seven keyboards and rank upon rank of stop controls. There are six large foot pedals and dozens of small ones. The pipes are located in chambers that fully surround the auditorium, so the audience is completely immersed in the musical experience.


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The rickshaw was invented by American Baptist missionary Jonathan Goble in 1871, while serving as a missionary in Yokohama. Japan. He had a Japanese carpenter build the rickshaw for his invalid wife.


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Just what IS that "new car smell?"



Thes e days it's probably your own perspiration odor, the result of piling one more heavy-duty debt on your credit card while the value of your investment portfolio resembles a yo- yo at best and even more likely, a sinking ship.

Actually, you're smelling alkanes, benzenes, aldehydes and ketones. (Wasn't that last one an old doo-wop group?) These VOCs, or volatile organic compounds, come from the sealers and glue used on the plastic and fabric inside your new toy. The smell gradually fades after a few months, but is strong enough that if you stay inside a new car on a hot day with the windows closed and the AC off, you may start feeling dizzy and nauseous. Then again, you might die first from heat stroke.

If you worked in the chemical industry, you'd wear a OSHA required respirator to keep from inhaling these VOCs.

New buildings have a similar smell. I dunno about you, but I'd rather snort mine on the open road than at the office or plant.


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It's true that the new Lamborghini Murcielago will set you back $273,000 and will get only 9 miles per gallon in city traffic. On the other hand, it's got 571 horsepower, and you can push it up to 200 miles per hour. But don't try THAT in city traffic.


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You don't need a speedometer on a train. To approximately gauge the speed, just note the number of clicks you hear in 20 seconds (not guaranteed accurate if someone nearby is using a computer mouse or keyboard.) That number will be close to the speed in miles per hour.

But this will not work in Europe or places where speed is measured in kilometers per hour.

Ok, so there you'll count the klicks.


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A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.


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Wow! I coulda had a V8
The first Harley Davidson motorcycle was built in 1903, and used a tomato can for a carburetor

[Rhonda]

This is interesting.





How to Verify the Purity of Honey




Fake and impure honey have become commonplace in the market today, despite many people's preference of 100% bees' honey. The problem with this is, unfortunately, fake and impure honey can be passed off as pure very easily. When viewed on the shelf, it is very hard to pick out what is pure, and what is not. There are, however, a few ways to figure this out.

Steps
Check the label. You would be amazed at how many people neglect to look closely at the label of food products before buying them, and then are dismayed to find they bought something they really didn't want. Check around the brand name, and the ingredients list (if there is one) for a mention of additives. The company should be required to list them if you are shopping in certain countries. If there are no mentions of additives, buy the honey.
Taste the honey. If it seems off, and yet the label claims it is pure, there are a few simple tests you can run to check the purity of the honey.


The water glass test.


Get a glass of water. This and a tablesthingy of honey are all you need for the first test.
Empty the honey into the water. If the honey is impure, it will dissolve in the water- the most common additive to honey is syrup of jaggery, which dissolves. If it is pure, the honey will stick together, and sink as a solid lump to the bottom of the glass.
The flame test.


Get a lighter and a candle with a cotton wick. This test is better if you don't have as much honey to spare.
Dip the cotton wick of the candle into a bit of the honey, and shake off the excess.
Attempt to light the wick. If it burns, then that is completely pure honey. If it refuses to burn, then the presence of water is not allowing the wick to burn. (If there is only a very small amount of honey on the wick, though, it might still burn. It will produce a crackling sound, and it would be best to blow out the wick and try again if it does, this time with more honey.)
The absorption test.


Pour a few drops of honey on blotting paper and observe whether or not it is absorbed. If it's absorbed, the honey's not pure.
If you don't have blotting paper, pour a little bit of honey on a white cloth, then wash the cloth. If there is any stain left by the honey, it is probably not pure.
The mixture test.


Mix equal part honey and methylated spirits.
Stir well.
Pure honey will settle to the bottom. Impure honey is more likely to remain dissolved and make the solution milky

[aka]

No I didn't know. Well I did know some of it, but not much.

Thanks for enlightening me, I found it very interesting.

By the way, my grandfather, had all his family booked on the Titanic, but owing to sickness in the family, he cancelled the trip.
Which was just as well, or I most probably would not be here today.