Fascinating Facts

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Wow - will look at the statues in a different light now ..

Very interesting. I had no idea about this.

Rose, a good 'find'.

Although a cow has no upper front teeth, it grazes up to 8 hours a day, taking in about 45 kg (100 lb) of feed and the equivalent of a bath tub full of water. A healthy cow gives about 200,000 glasses of milk in her lifetime.

A cow has four stomachs: the rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum. The rumen is the largest stomach and acts as a fermentation chamber. The abomasum is last of the four and is comparable in both structure and function to the human stomach.

Cows and global warming

With all its grazing and many stomachs, it is no wonder that cows are one of the main contributors to the hole in the ozone layer. Apart from CFC, the biggest culprit is hydrocarbon emissions from cars and cows. Yes, cows! Cows release some 100 million tons of hydrocarbon annually – by releasing gas. To give you an idea of how much gas a cow emits: if the gas of 10 cows could be captured, it would provide heating for a small house for a year.

But unlike what you think, cows release hydrocarbon mostly by burping.

Cow factoids

The average lifespan of a cow is 7 years but when left to roam the average lifespan of a cow is 15 years. The oldest cow ever recorded was Big Bertha. She reached 48 in 1993. She also holds the record for producing 39 calves.

The average height of a cow is around 55 inches but Dexters are 36 to 42 inches. The smallest cow in the world is Swallow, a Dexter cow from New Yorkshire, England. She stands only 33 inches (84 cm) from hind to foot. Swallow (b. 1999) is a normal healthy cow that already had nine healthy (normal size) calves.

There are more than a billion cattle in the world, about 200 million in India.

Cows that are called individually by name and cows that are played classic music to provide more milk.

Twelve cows are known as a “flink.”

Leaning Tower of Pisa has never been straight

Soon after building started in 1173, the foundation of the Pisa tower settled unevenly. Construction was stopped, and was continued only a 100 year later. It then became visibly clear that the Tower of Pisa is leaning, tilting to the south.

Since regular measuring of the tower began in 1911, the top of the tower has moved 1,2 millimetres (0,05 inch) per year. Today the top of the Tower of Pisa is some 5,3m (17,4 ft) off-center.

After the bell tower of the Cathedral of Pavia collapsed in 1989, the Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa (Tower of Pisa Project Consortium) commissioned engineers to stabilize the Leaning Tower. Because the Tower tilted in different directions in its first years, it is slightly curved, like a banana. Engineers are working on the footing of the Tower rather than the structure, hoping to ease the top back about 20 cm (about 8 inches). But it means that the 800-year old tower will remain leaning.

Re, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I had no idea that there was a slight banana shape to it. Now that it's been mentioned, I can see it quite clearly.

As for cows, my general knowlege is lacking. Either that or I've forgotten everything that I learned in primary school. All very interesting but what stands out for me is ' ... if the gas of 10 cows could be captured, it would provide heating for a small house for a year.' I'm shocked.

I'm loving this thread.

The right side of a boat was called the starboard side due to the fact that the astronavigators used to stand out on the plank (which was on the right side) to get an unobstructed view of the stars. The left side was called the port side because that was the side you put in on at the port. This was so that they didn't knock off the starboard!

I had always wondered 'why'. Now I know.

A cup of drip brewed coffee ( ? ) has about 115 milligrams of caffeine, an espresso (and percolated coffee) about 80mg, while instant coffee has about 65mg of caffeine. Decaffeinated coffee is not totally caffeine free, containing about 3mg of caffeine. A 8oz can of Coca-Cola has about 23mg of caffeine, Pepsi Cola 25mg, Mountain Dew 36mg, and TAB 31mg. Tea has about 40mg of caffeine, while an ounce of chocolate contains about 20mg.

Go Chocolate ..

For me it's an expresso or nothing as far as coffee is concerned. I never drink instant.

One of the greatest achievements of Edward the Confessor, who ruled England from 1042 to 1066, was the construction of Westminster Abbey. Born the son of King Ethelred the Unready and Emmaat at Islip in Oxfordshire, Edward was driven from England by the Danes and spent his exile in Normandy. The story goes that Edward vowed that if he should return safely to his kingdom, he would make a pilgrimage to St Peter’s, Rome. When he returned and was crowned at Winchester in 1042, he found it impossible to leave his subjects. The Pope released him from his vow on condition that he should found or restore a monastery to St Peter. This led to the building of Westminster Abby in the Norman style to replace the Saxon church at Westminster. Edward determined that the Minster should not be built in London, and so a place was found to the west of the city, hence it is called “Westminster

The Westminster Abbey was consecrated on 28 December l065, but Edward could not attend due to illness. He died on 5 January l066 and was buried in a shrine before the High Altar in his new church.

In 1534, King Henry VIII decreed the Act of Submission of the clergy and an Act of Succession followed, together with an Act of Supremacy which recognised the king as “the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia.” In 1540, he dissolved the Benedictine monastery and despoiled Edward’s shrine. Edward’s body was buried in some obscure spot in the Abbey. In 1557, Mary I restored the shrine with the bones of St Edward the Confessor behind the High Altar. However, the Confessor’s coffin still lies in a cavity in the top part of the marble structure.

Since William the Conqueror was crowned in Westminster Abbey in 1066, and, with the exceptions of Kings Edward V (1483) and Edward VIII (1936), all coronations have taken place there. Most recently the funeral of Princess Diana was held at the Abbey in September 1997, although she was buried at Althrop, her family home in Northamptonshire.

At last!!! I know most of that as it's one of the periods of history that I studied at university.

one of the coffee bars I frequent always serves double shot capuccinno unless you ask them not to. I like my coffee STRRRONG...

A hamlet is a village without a church and a town is not a city until it has a cathedral.

Today, Chelmsford became the first city in Essex.

I see that Eddy - was it an "honor" thing from the Queen or have they now got a cathedral. ?

You can live without food for almost a month but survive no longer than a week without water..

An honour from the Queen. Also honoured in this way was a small town of about 6000 people.

Leap Year - as this is one ;

It takes the earth one day to complete one spin on its axis. The time it takes the earth to complete one trip around the sun is a year. But these units of time don’t divide evenly, resulting in our calendar year being 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and a little over 45 seconds long. Every 4 years we take those extra hours and minutes and fit it in an extra day, on February 29th, which we call Leap Day. Every fourth year thus is Leap Year. If we did not have the extra day every 4 years, in 100 years our calendar would be off by 24 days.

2012 is a Leap Year. As was 2008 and 2004 and the year 2000. Normally, a year that can be evenly divided by 100 is not a Leap Year but if it is divisible by 400 then it is. Thus the year 2000 was a Leap Year but the year 1000 was not and neither would be the year 3000.

The Chinese calendar has a leap month about every 3 years and the name of the leap month is the same as the previous lunar month. The Jewish calendar has a leap year 7 times in a 19-year cycle.

The chance of being born on Leap Day in the Gregorian calendar is about 680 out of a million (1 in 1470). Which means little more than 4 million people (out of a world population of 7 billion) have their birthdays on Leap Day whereas on average approximately 19 million people share a birthday every day other than Leap Day. Because Superman always appears so young and because nobody knows for sure how old he is, tradition has it that he is a Leap Year Baby.

Ladies, if he did not pop the big question on Valentine’s Day then February 29th is your day because tradition has it that a woman can propose to a man on Leap Day

During the 6th Century, it was customary to congratulate people who sneezed because it was thought that they were expelling evil from their bodies. During the great plague of Europe, the Pope passed a law to say “God bless you” to one who sneezed.

Rather like a religious insurance policy.

The wool from a 6- to 12-month-old sheep is called lamb’s wool. The fleece from a sheep that is 12 to 14 months old is called hog wool. After a sheep has been sheared for the first time, its wool is called wether wool.

In the 17th century, wool fabrics accounted for two-thirds of England’s exports. Today, the leading wool producers are Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and China. There are more than 150 million sheep in Australia, a nation of 21 million people. New Zealand is home to 4 million people and 70 million sheep

I love this thread.

The first parachute jump was made from a hot air balloon by Andre-Jacques Garnerinthe in France in 1793. But Leonardo da Vinci had made detailed sketches of parachutes in 1485. He also sketched studies for a helicopter, a tank and retractable landing gear. The first helicopter that could carry a person was flown by Paul Cornu in 1907. Tanks were first used during World War One in Cambrai, France in 1917. The first airplane with retractable landing gear was built in 1933. Da Vinci also suggested underwater breathing methods. Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Emile Gagnon introduced scuba diving only in 1943, 458 years later


Clever chap that Leonardo da Vinci ..

I've seen those sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. They are amazing given the time that they were drawn.

Peter the Great (1672 ¨C 1725) was proclaimed Tzar at age 10, but due to a power struggle had to rule under the patronage of his sister Sofia. He seized control from her when he was just 17. His real name was Peter Romanov.

He encouraged smoking, but taxed tobacco. Because European men usually were clean shaven, he taxed Russians wearing beards

In 1715, at the funeral of a favorite court dwarf, lines of ecclesiastics were followed by 24 pairs of male and female dwarfs arranged by height, followed by Peter and his ministers.

Peter was a big strong man, 2,04 meters (6ft 8 inches) tall, and unlike previous monarchs, not afraid of physical labor. In November 1724, he dived into the cold northern ocean to assist in a ship rescue. It led to his illness and death.