Sunday 30 June 2013

Carrots – A Colourful History From Purple to Orange

Originating in ancient Egypt, carrots didn’t start out so orange. Can you imagine how Bugs Bunny would look chomping down on one of these?

When you think of carrots what is the first thing that comes to mind? One thing is for sure, you don’t think “Gee, you mean that long purple vegetable.”  Well here’s news for you, the original colour of the carrot was not orange! Carrots originated in Middle Asia with some historians believing that they were known as far back as Ancient Egypt over 5,000 years ago. It is not clear if they were actually cultivated at this time, however by the 10th century in Afghanistan, they were being grown in the colours purple or yellow.These weren’t the only colours around, however. In addition to purple and white, carrots were grown in red, yellow and even black. In fact to begin with carrots were not favoured as a favorite vegetable, but rather in the times of the Ancient Romans, as a medicinal herb and even as an aphrodisiac. A “green” aphrodisiac at that.

Lemons will repel spiders

Homemade Spider Repellent

Citrus- Natures Spider Repellent!

Through my research on spiders, I found out that spiders actually taste with their feet, and as you know, they have eight of them! That makes creating a spider repellent more interesting. You have to repel spiders by using their sense of taste against them. Okay...so lets get ready to get rid of spiders!

What do spiders not like the taste of? What repels spiders through their sense of taste? Easy!

Spiders do not like the taste of citrus! Lemon, orange, lime, all repel spiders. It will not kill them, but it will discourage them from setting up home where their little feet can "taste" it.

Chocolate can kill dogs, as it contains theobromine, which affects their heart and nervous system.

Chocolate poisoning usually happens around the holidays—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter—when lots of candy is available. Chocolate is made from the roasted seeds of cocoa plants and contains theobromine, a stimulant related to caffeine, and both are toxic to pets. Eating too much chocolate shifts your puppy’s heart into overdrive and can kill him.
All pets are at risk for chocolate poisoning. But puppies get into chocolate most often because of their curious nature. And their smaller size increases the risk for chocolate poisoning even if they munch a small amount.

What Happens When Dogs Eat Chocolate?

The main use for Cola

The main use for Cola - is as a beverage, but there are other things it can be used for. Learning the other uses for Cola can save you money on purchasing several different products. For example, Cola can remove stains and rust on metal. That’s now two products you don’t have to buy.

*Removing Rust and Hard Water
Cola can remove rust from nails and from the bumper of your car. To remove rust on a small object, fill a plastic cup with Cola. Then add the rusted metal object. Leave it overnight and then wipe the rust off with an old rag. To remove rust from larger metal you will need a sheet of aluminum foil. Roll the aluminum foil up in to a ball and dip in the Cola so that it is covered on all sides with the liquid. Rub it in a circle over the rust. You may need to apply the Coke a few times and then rub, but it will work.It is also used in removing hard water from your bathroom tiles and toilet bowls.

The most expensive dessert

The Frozen Hot Chocolate Ice cream "SUNDAE" costing $25,000 (Rs.1345500), which was added to the menu of the Serendipity 3 restaurant, New York, USA on 7 November 2007.

The dessert uses a fine blend of 28 cocoas, including 14 of the world's most expensive. The sundae was made in partnership with luxury jeweller Euphoria New York.

The dessert is decorated with 5 g of edible 23-karat gold and is served in a goblet lined with edible gold. The base of the goblet is an 18-karat gold bracelet with 1 carat of white diamonds. The dessert is eaten with a gold spoon, itself decorated with white and chocolate-colored diamonds, which can also be taken home.

Rare Golden Tiger

A golden tiger, golden tabby tiger or strawberry tiger is one with an extremely rare color variation caused by a recessive gene that is currently only found in captive tigers. Like the white tiger, it is a color form and not a separate species. In the case of the golden tiger, this is the wide band gene; while the white tiger is due to the color inhibitor (chinchilla) gene. There are currently believed to be fewer than 30 of these rare tigers in the world,one of them is in Pakistan

Saturday 29 June 2013

Barack Obama was the first president to ever brew beer in the White House.

With public excitement about White House beer fermenting such a buzz, we decided we better hop right to it.

Inspired by home brewers from across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen. After the few first drafts we landed on some great recipes that came from a local brew shop. We received some tips from a couple of home brewers who work in the White House who helped us amend it and make it our own. To be honest, we were surprised that the beer turned out so well since none of us had brewed beer before.

Sleeping on your left side might help you relieve heartburn

Also known as pyrosis or acid indigestion is a burning sensation in the chest, just behind the breastbone.It’s a very annoying pain we get from the regurgitation of gastric acid. This causes a pain that often rises in the chest and may radiate to the neck, throat, or angle of the jaw! And what’s worse is that it could indicate a gastroesophagael reflux disease (GERD), or something worse.

Most of us have had that horrible sensation before, but there is a solution to cease the pain and the symptom itself. Several studies suggest that sleeping on the right side aggravates heartburn, while sleeping on the left tends to calm it.

This is what your supermarket would look like if all the bees died off

From bee-killing companies pretending to love bees to researchers frantically trying to create a disease-resistant superbee, it’s been kind of a rough week for bees, who have already been having a rough couple of years due to dying off left and right. But why should you care? It’s not like bees are delivering your mail or making you dinner or sewing your clothes, Cinderella-style.

But bees DO pollinate a bunch of shit that you probably like to eat. Need a visual? Check out these before and after pics from Whole Foods that illustrate the amount of produce that would vanish if all the bees died off.

When an elephant finds a place infested with bees, they make a sound called the 'bee rumble!'

Elephants are fleeing their destroyed habitats in Africa and trampling onto the land of farmers destroying fences and land. Researchers are looking for ways to end the problem. Since elephants avoid chili plants, they are planting them along the perimeter of farms. They are also putting heavy duty fencing on the farm lands.

Another approach they are studying is bees. Elephants are deathly afraid of bees. Bees in Africa are much more aggressive than those in Europe and North America. They're known for chasing their antagonists for over a kilometer. Elephants have pretty thick skin, but there are certain areas like the belly and inside the trunk that have softer skin and tissue vulnerable to the bee stings.

Friday 28 June 2013

The Three Sisters of New South Wales

The Three Sisters are a rock formation in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. They are close to the town of Katoomba and are one of the Blue Mountains’ best known sites, towering above the Jamison Valley. Their respective names are Meehni (922 m), Wimlah (918 m), and Gunnedoo (906 m).

The Sisters were formed by land erosion as wind, rain and rivers chipped away at the soft sandstone of the Blue Mountains.

What your handwriting means ?

If letters slant to the left: Indicates introspection and a lot of emotional control.

If letter slant to the right: Reveals a person who’s outgoing, friendly, impulsive, and emotionally open.

If letters are straight up and down: The sign of someone who’s ruled by the head, not the heart.

Letters that slant in more than one direction: Indicates versatility and adaptability.

An erratic slant: Usually means a lack of flexibility.

The longest bridge in the world is Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge, China

Here are some interesting facts about this great bridge..

* Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge total length is 164.8 KM..!!!

* Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge situated in between in East China’s Jiangsu province.

* Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge longest span is 260 feet.

German student builds electromagnetic harvester to recharge a battery

Dennis Siegel, a student at the University of the Arts in Bremen, Germany has built what he calls an electromagnetic harvester—it converts electromagnetic fields in the immediate environment into electricity to recharge a common AA battery. He's won a 2nd place award in the HfK Bremen Hochschulpreis 2013 competition for Digitale Medien, for his efforts.

Electromagnetism is all around us of course. In addition to natural sources, such as lightning, it's also given off by virtually every electronic gadget, device or machine humans make. Siegel (and many others) have noted that the electromagnetism around us all could be converted to electricity and used for some purpose.

Worlds Ugliest Women is Actually Wonderful , Graceful and Beautiful , Indeed ! : ( Worth reading, Inspiring )

But Beauty isn't about having a beautiful appearance. Its about having a beautiful mind, good heart, kind soul.

Lizzie Velasquez was born without any adipose tissue, meaning she does not have body fat and cannot gain weight.


The 23-year-old reveals she has been bullied by strangers online.
Despite this she says she would not want to look like a beautiful celebrity.

WHY IS FACEBOOK BLUE IN COLOR?

Facebook went via a few main renovations within the previous couple of years however 1 portion which has more or less remained the identical in every those yrs is the site’s blue colour.
Every thing is very blue regarding Facebook from the creating an account page to the logo, their cellular application as well as the website pop-ups which have shades of blue. Why?
A New Yorker tale on Mark Zuckerberg describes the reason why Facebook is completely blue in colour. This says the youthful Facebook creator is actually colour blind however can easily see blue:

Thursday 27 June 2013

The fish with a transparent head!

Very little light reaches the dark depths of the ocean. Consequently we see many adaptions regarding light among deep-sea organisms, from extreme sensitivity to bio-luminescence. But as strange as they can seem, the barreleye fish blows them all away - it has evolved to see through its own head.

The green orbs you see are its eyes, which spend most of their time gazing upwards through its transparent "forehead" for prey. This "forehead" is actually a fluid-filled sack. When it spots something it likes, it rotates them forward so its field of vision and mouth are now aligned to hunt. Until 2009 it was thought that these eyes were fixed staring upwards, but finding a live specimen revealed their mobility.

Gun Lake in British Columbia, Canada - Frost Flowers

When these photographs were taken "the air was extremely cold and extremely dry, colder than the ocean surface. When the air gets that different from the sea, the dryness pulls moisture off little bumps in the ice, bits of ice vaporize, the air gets humid - but only for a while. The cold makes water vapor heavy. The air wants to release that excess weight, so crystal by crystal, air turns back into ice, creating delicate, feathery tendrils that reach sometimes two, three inches high, like giant snowflakes. The sea, literally, blossoms."

The Mantis Shrimp

It is one of the most incredible creatures found in our oceans. Over millions of years, it has equipped itself with an arsenal to rival that of any other organism, besting the limits of human technology on more than one front.

Firstly, it packs the biggest punch of any predator, with a sophisticated muscle mechanism allowing speeds in excess of 50mph to be attained. Couple this with the ability to create extreme low pressure behind it's extended arm, causing the water to spontaneously boil, no prey stands a chance. This action releases intense energy, enough to break sheets of glass.

Have you ever seen a GLASSWINGED BUTTERFLY (Greta oto)?

You might think that this creature is a figment of one's imagination, perhaps a Photoshopped composite shot of a butterfly blending into a serene setting, but the truth is that it exists! The aptly named insect is a brush-footed (or four-footed) butterfly whose wings appear to be made of glass, though they're not. The tissue within their wings lack the usually colorful pigments found in other butterflies; thus, they have a glassy, transparent appearance. Found primarily in Central America (Mexico through Panama), the glass winged butterfly's name in Spanish is Espejitos which translates as little mirrors. In certain lights, the translucent wing parts have a glossy, almost reflective quality to them that makes their Spanish name effectively accurate.

Earth was originally born as a twin to the planet Theia.

Its called "GIANT IMPACT HYPOTHESIS"

The giant impact hypothesis states that the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from a collision between the Earth and a body the size of Mars, approximately four and a half billion years ago
.

The giant impact hypothesis is the currently favored scientific hypothesis for the formation of the Moon.

Researchers find Human hybrid

Believe it or not, a team of researchers claimed to have sequenced three Bigfoot genomes and concluded the 'mysterious creature' is a human hybrid. Their research was published recently in a peer-reviewed journal. What happens when pseudoscience makes it scientific journals? Dustin Welbourne explains.

It’s not the first peer-reviewed Bigfoot DNA paper. In 2004 an international team of geneticists, led by Michel Milinkovitch, published an analysis of “clearly identified … [yeti] hair”. They concluded the yeti, though genetically closer to ungulates, looks remarkably similar to primates.

MUSHROOM THAT TASTES LIKE CHICKEN

Laetiporus is a type of edible mushroom found in the wild that has been to taste like chicken. Commonly known as sulphur shelf, chicken of the woods, the chicken mushroom, or the chicken fungus, this type of mushroom can be found on the wounds of oak trees but has also known to grown in sweet chestnut, yew, eucalyptus and some more.

In some parts of North America and Germany, this mushroom is considered as a delicious diet.

Beluga whale saves drowning diver in China

(2009) Terrified Yang Yun thought she was going to die when her legs were paralyzed by crippling cramps in arctic temperatures. She had been taking part in a free diving contest WITHOUT any breathing equipment. Competitors had to sink to the bottom of an aquarium’s 20ft arctic pool and stay there for as long as possible amid the beluga whales at Polar Land in Harbin, north east China.

But when Yun, 26, tried to head to the surface she struggled to move her legs. Lucky Yun said: “I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me - I was dead. Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface.”

2,000-Year-Old Seed Sprouts, Sapling Is Thriving


A sapling germinated earlier this year from a 2,000-year-old date palm seed is thriving, according to Israeli researchers who are cultivating the historic plant. "It's 80 centimeters [3 feet] high with nine leaves, and it looks great," said Sarah Sallon, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization's Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center (NMRC) in Jerusalem.

Sallon's program is dedicated to the study of complementary and alternative medicines. The center is also interested in conserving the heritage of Middle Eastern plants that have been used for thousands of years.

Sallon wants to see if the ancient tree, nicknamed Methuselah after the oldest person named in the Old Testament of the Bible, has any unique medicinal properties no longer found in today's date palm varieties.

Queen Elizabeth II will become the longest ruling British monarch in September 2015!

As of now, Queen Elizabeth II is the second longest reigning British monarch in over 1,000 years of history. She ascended the throne in 1952 and has ruled for the past 61 years. In September 2015, she'll surpass the current longest ruling British monarch.

Queen Victoria is the longest reigning British monarch as of now. It's interesting that those who've reigned the longest are women. George III takes third place in British monarchy reign. Queen Elizabeth II is very private and rarely gives interviews. She takes her coronation very seriously and holds deep civic and religious zeal.

An Inspirational Real Life Story!

Binti Jua is a western lowland gorilla female in the Brookfield Zoo, in Brookfield, Illinois. Binti is most well known for an incident which occurred on August 16, 1996, when she was eight years old.A three-year old boy climbed the wall around her zoo enclosure and fell 18 feet onto concrete below, rendering him unconscious with a broken hand and a vicious gash on the side of his face.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

The Smelll of Space

A while ago we posted about the smell of space (original caption below). Now someone's gone and made a scented candle so you can experience it for yourself!

"Astronauts who have gone on spacewalks describe the smell of space as an "acrid aroma of seared steak, hot metal and welding fumes". They can't smell it while they're out there as space suits are (obviously) airtight. But when they return and take off their helmets, this is the odour that greets them.

Lake Baikal

Located in Siberia, Lake Baikal contains the worlds largest body of unfrozen fresh water; approximately 20% of the worlds total. And at over 1.6km deep at the deepest point it's also the deepest freshwater lake in the world. And that's not all, it's also believed to be the oldest freshwater lake in the world, with estimates placing it at 25 million years old.

Lake Baikal has formed in a rift valley created by the Baikal Rift Zone, a divergent plate boundary. So far geologically, there has been no volcanism associated with the rift underneath the lake, but there are hot springs present both on land and under the lake. Close-by volcanic activity on the Udokan Plateau is believed to be associated with the Baikal Rift.

Rare pink bottlenose dolphin

A rare pink bottlenose dolphin has been spotted in a Louisiana lake. The albino dolphin has been making a splash with locals and visitors to the area since it was first spotted last year.

The animal has been photographed by local charter boat Captain Erik Rue, 42, who has been studying the dolphin since it first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in south-west Louisiana. Rue originally saw the rare albino dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins.

"I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter ... I had never seen anything like it. It's the same colour throughout the whole body," said Rue.

The fish that eats crocodiles!

When your name is Goliath, you'd better be one humongous, ferocious creature, and the Goliath tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath) definitely lives up to its moniker. A native of the Congo River basin, the Lualaba River, Lake Upemba and Lake Tanganyika in Africa, it's the largest member of the tigerfish clan, a genus of fierce predators with protruding, daggerlike teeth. The biggest one on record was nearly 5 feet long and weighed 154 pounds, the equivalent of a super-welterweight prizefighter. And it outclasses other African game fish in speed and power.

Bat-eating spiders..!!!

They exist on every continent except Antarctica, with bats falling prey more often than expected.

Though bats are typically preyed on vertebrates (with hawks, snakes and owls are their most common predators), there are some invertebrate species quite partial to the taste of bat. We've previously written about the giant Venezuelan centipede Scolopendra gigantea, which hangs from cave ceilings and snatches bats as they pass. However, spiders eating bats was thought to be quite rare.

When two recent studies both reported spiders having bat for dinner, researchers wondered if this behaviour was common than suspected. After analysis of over 100 years' worth of reports, together with interviews from bat and spider researchers, they found over 50 cases of spider attacks on bats occurring almost globally.

The Giant "Honey Mushroom" (Armillaria ostoyae)

It started from a single spore too small to see without a microscope. It has been spreading its black shoestring filaments, called rhizomorphs, through the forest for an estimated 2,400 years, killing trees as it grows. It now covers 2,200 acres (880 hectares) of the Malheur National Forest, in eastern Oregon.

The outline of the giant fungus stretches 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) across, and it extends an average of three feet (one metre) into the ground. It covers an area as big as 1,665 football fields.

Intel reveals what happens in a single Internet minute.


In a single minute of Internet time, 204 million e-mails are sent. Online denizens view 20 million photos on Flickr. Twitter processes 100,000 new tweets and 320 new Twitter accounts are created. That's more than five new Twitter users per second.

If you thought Twitter was busy, then check out the stats for YouTube. An Internet minute is filled with 30 hours of videos uploaded and 1.3 million video views (most of which probably involved "Gangnam Style" last year). Social media is certainly popular. Though people might say they're taking time-outs from Facebook, there are still 6 million Facebook views and 277,000 logins every minute.

Tuesday 25 June 2013

The Underwater Stage

The Underwater Stage is an underwater film studio stage at Pinewood Studios in Iver, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. It is the only one of its kind in Europe.

The stage was opened in 2005 after four years of planning and development. The stage’s water tank is permanently filled, and the water is constantly heated, maintained at 30 ?C (87 ?F). The water is filtrated using an ultraviolet system which creates crystal clear water and a comfortable environment to work in, for both cast and crew.

"Shila Ghosh"- a determined women and deserves our respect

A lady 83 years old who lives at pali in West Bengal. Every evening she comes from Pali to kolkata to sell the fries.The pedestrians out of respect buy the fries from her.

After lung cancer took away her only son from her 5 years back,to make ends meet she works.Her nephew aged 30 works as a mover on meagre wages in pali.

When asked if she has a problem in travelling,she weakly smile ans says “No,the bus gets me here and my health is not that bad”.

Underwater Park - The Green Lake, Syria!!


There is a place in Austria that is a dry park in the Winter, and a 10m deep lake in the summer!

It's a pretty strange natural phenomenon, but an area located at the foot of the Hochshwab Mountains in the Austrian region of Syria is a part time park, and part time lake.

In the winter months, the park is pretty dry, and provides a good time hiking far from a city. However, in the summer months, it's a 10m deep lake. The reason for this is because in the summer, the snow and ice around the mountains melts and floods the park. The Green Lake, as it is called, attracts divers who are curious to see how the park looks like underwater.

15 year old Jack Andraka invents new method of diagnosing cancer

15 year old Jack Andraka invents new method of diagnosing cancer, thus saving the lives of millions of people around the world.

Here are some of his facts:

-His test is 168 times faster than what is currently available.
-It’s 26,000 times less expensive. That’s not a typo.
-And it’s potentially almost 100% accurate.

Pipefishes and seahorses are the only species in the animal kingdom to which the term "male pregnancy" has been applied.

Let us see how a male seahorse becomes pregnant.

* The male seahorse has a brood pouch in which he carries eggs deposited by the female.

* The mating pair entwine their tails and the female aligns a long tube called an ovipositor with the male's pouch.

* The eggs move through the tube into the male's pouch where he then fertilizes them.

* The embryos develop in ten days to six weeks, depending on species and water conditions.

Florida Man saves drowning bear


In 2008 a black bear was shot with a tranquilizer dart in a Florida neighborhood. He bolted into the water and after 25 yards he began to struggle against the effects of the dart. When wildlife biologist Adam Warwick saw what was happening, he raced into the water after the 375 pound bear and pulled him to safety. The bear was later released into a preserve.

Cell Phones Are Much Dirtier Than Public Restroom Toilet Handles

Cellphones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats, so it shouldn't be surprising that a man in Uganda reportedly contracted Ebola after stealing one.

He stole the phone from a quarantined ward of a hospital, near the site of a recent Ebola outbreak, reports said.

But regardless of your proximity to an Ebola outbreak, your cellphone is still probably pretty grimy, said Charles Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona.

"They've got quite a bit on them," Gerba said. "When's the last time you cleaned your cellphone?"
While toilets tend to get cleaned frequently, because people associate the bathroom with germs, cellphones and other commonly handled objects — like remote controls— are often left out of the cleaning routine.

The place where two oceans meet in the Gulf of Alaska, But do not mix

A picture from the Gulf of Alaska that has been making the rounds on the Internet for the last few years -- though particularly in recent weeks -- shows a strange natural phenomenon that occurs when heavy, sediment-laden water from glacial valleys and rivers pours into the open ocean. There in the gulf, the two types of water run into each other, a light, almost electric blue merging with a darker slate-blue.

Informally dubbed “the place where two oceans meet,” the explanation for the photo is a simple one, though there are many misconceptions about it, including that catchy title. In particular on popular link-sharing website Reddit, where users have on multiple occasions erroneously attributed the photo’s location as “Where the Baltic and North Sea meet” and the two types of water as being completely incapable of ever mixing, instead perpetually butting against each other like a boundary on a map.

Writing down worries boosts your performance

Worried about your upcoming exam? Just jot down all your anxieties, as this simple act before a stressful situation could help boost your performance greatly, a new study has claimed.

Researchers at the University of Chicago found that the exercise of writing down worries appears to clear the mind and allows it too focus on the job in hand.

The technique is so powerful that students taking an exam showed a 20 per cent improvement in their marks if they used it just before sitting down, they found.

"People are in this stressful situation and they worry about it and the consequences," said Prof Sian Beilock, who led the study.

We actually live about 80 milliseconds in the past

If you think you're living in the past, you're right – and science can tell you just how far behind the times you are. According to a new Salk study, it's at least 80 milliseconds, just slightly longer than the blink of an eye.

"What you think you're seeing at any given moment is actually influenced by the future," said David Eagleman, lead author of a study in the current issue of Science. "This doesn't mean the brain is clairvoyant, however."

He compared the timing of conscious perception to the broadcasting of a live television show, "which is actually not live. The show is delayed by about three seconds, so it can be edited if something happens. The brain does the same thing."

The world's shiniest living thing is a fruit

Pollia condensata is a fruit and it's the shiniest living thing in the world. The principle behind P. Condensata‘s gorgeous finish is basically the same as behind an iridescent beetle’s wings. The cells in the fruit’s husk contain layers of fibers that run parallel to one another, with each layer turned slightly relative to the one beneath it.

Each layer reflects some of the light that hits it, and the spiral structure makes the reflected light waves line up so that they intensify each other. The wavelength of the light may be different from cell to cell, but all of them reflect extra-intensified light.

Mercury Craters Look Like Mickey Mouse in NASA Photo

Craters on Mercury appear to form the image of Mickey Mouse. This scene lies to the northwest of the recently named crater Magritte, in Mercury's south. The image is not map projected; the larger crater actually sits to the north of the two smaller ones. Forget Pluto, a hidden Mickey Mouse lives on Mercury. A NASA spacecraft has captured a spectacular photo of Mercury craters arranged in a shape that looks just like Disney's iconic cartoon mouse.

The photo comes from NASA's Messenger spacecraft in orbit around Mercury and shows a giant crater topped with two smaller impact basins to create the recognizable shape.

Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying

I’ve never tried this, and I guess nobody I know has ever either! Although I’ve heard that a slice of bread in our mouth will keep you from crying while peeling onions. Guess all these grandmothers’ tricks come from people who know their onions well.

Thinking about chewing gum or holding a slice of bread (although with some peanut butter on it) is an interesting way of keeping the tear glands safe and sound while chopping up the layers of this sulfurized cyclic amino acid rich veggie.

Girl Makes Wedding Dress Out Of Divorce Papers

Demi Barnes, a 15-year-old art student from the small town of Crawley in England, has received a lot of international buzz for a project she thought no one else but her friends and family would see. In order to ‘symbolize the fact that too many people rush into marriage and end up getting divorced,’ she made a dress out of 1,500 divorce papers. In order to do so, she ‘printed a divorce form from the Internet, filled it in and photocopied it 1,500 times to create the dress.’ I didn’t really know how to do it at first. It was quite a challenge,’ the teenager said, but in all it took her about ten hours to complete the entire work of art.

80 percent of US packaged foods may contain dangerous chemicals

Six common food additives found in an estimated 8-out-of-10 products sold in American stores are banned outside of the US, the Mail claims, putting millions of Americans at risk of consuming chemicals considered too dangerous for humans in other countries.

Grocery shop items including best-selling soft-drinks and cereal sold in the US contain additives such as brominated vegetable oil, olestra and others that have been banned in the European Union and elsewhere.

The Daily Mail cites ‘Rich Food, Poor Food,' a recently published book by Jayson Calton and Mira Calton, as the source for their claim that the majority of American groceries contain the additives.

Fisherman catches massive 30lb Goldfish

It might look like an enormously generous fairground prize.  But no goldfish bowl in the world could contain this catch.  The orange koi carp weighs 30lb – the same as an average three-year-old girl – and is thought to be one of the largest of its kind ever captured.

What a whopper! Angler Raphael Biagini got the surprise of his life when he landed this gigantic koi carp on a fishing trip to France. At 30lb it’s thought to be the largest of its kind ever caught in the wild

Monday 24 June 2013

Mexican Walking Fish

Most Adorable Endangered Creature Ever?

We're saddened to learn that the alien-looking Axolotl salamander (Ambystoma mexicanum), aka Mexican walking fish or Mexican water monster, is seriously threatened with extinction because of habitat destruction and water pollution.

One of the coolest things about Axolotl - apart from their appearance - is they ability to regenerate most body parts.