So You Think You Know Everything

A long time ago I read this and kept it. I think it was sent to me in an email. I find it interesting and just thought I would post it here. I don't know how accurate  these things are or where the info came from but it's still pretty cool.

“Stewardesses” is the longest word typed with only the left hand and lollipop with your right.  

Maine is the only state whose name is  just one syllable. 

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

“Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters MT.

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

The sentence: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every letter of the alphabet.

The words ‘racecar,’ ‘kayak’ and ‘level’ are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes).

There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous” - stupendous,
and hazardous, tremendous and horrendous.

There are two words in the English language that have five vowels in order – abstemious and facetious.

Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of 
the keyboard.

All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back of the $5 bill.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

A goldfish has a memory span of 3 sec.

A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time 1/100^th of a second.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

A snail can sleep for three years.

Al Capone’s business card said was a used furniture dealer.

Almonds are the member of the peach family.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than it’s brain.

Babies are born without  kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.

February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.

In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

If the population of China walked in a line, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the flag flying over the parliament building is an American flag. 

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. 

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara falls froze completely solid.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.

Special Video Message

This is a touching message that singer/song writer Darren Hayes done not only for his fans but for anyone to share with the ones they love. Last Sunday Darren sent out a message on Twitter & Facebook for anyone who wanted a free hug, to look out for a tweet where he will be & he would give free hugs to anyone who showed up. These hugs were recorded by a friend of his & his husband. The video clips were then put together in a video to send a touching message.

The song that plays in the video his Darren's newest single called 'Bloodstained Heart' from his new album 'Secret Codes and Battleships'. This song is about being there for someone you truly care about. That no matter what someone is going through, you are willing to do be there as they fall, wanting to take their pain away. It could also be how you need someone to catch you when you are falling. The meaning & message is powerful. To share that love & hugs with someone is priceless & is something that no amount of money can buy. I wanted to share this video with anyone & everyone. If there is someone out there you feel this about, share this message with them. You can also check out the full song & original video on youtube which is just as powerful. At some point I will have my own review on the album in my reviews blog (hopefully soon).

 

School Issues #2 - Bullying Part 2

(Continued)

The Solutions 

Oh where to start. I know I don't have all the answers but what the schools are doing isn't working at all and they really need to change. Like I said in part 1, the "No tolerance" thing needs to be gone. To many schools are taking this "no tolerance" thing to far & in the end it just does nothing. It's like THEY get to choose what is to far & what isn't instead of going by, well the law. Talking NEVER does a damn thing, it just makes things a lot worse. You know, sometimes I think school officials forget what it is like to be a kid/teen and I wonder just how many of them were bullied or the one doing the bullying when they were in school. Anyways, sometimes a victim will get punished if they decided to protect themselves instead of taking the beating. This is one of the stupidest things ever. That is also when they like to pull the "no tolerance" card out. Every single person has a right to protect & defend themselves, PERIOD. If there is evidence that the victim was only defending themselves, they need to be protected by not getting into trouble. I think this is one reason some kids don't fight back, knowing they will get into trouble & they don't want to. Out in the real world, if someone was to come up to you & start hitting you, you would have the right to do what it takes to protect yourself so why can't these kids? After all they are people too, we are trying to prepare them for the real world after all and what exactly are we teaching our kids by telling them to not defend themselves?

What is even more heartbreaking is when I kid does tell the school what is going on & it gets ignored. It doesn't matter how they get ignored, the fact that it happens is mind boggling and uncalled for. Why on earth would someone ignore bullying? I also hate it when people at the schools blame the victim by saying it is there fault by the way they act, talk or maybe they should stop being gay if that was the case in the bullying. They need to stop putting their own beliefs into situations & deal with the problem for what it is. It's not their right to judge the victim & not help them. It is the schools responsibility to help & protect the kids regardless how they personally feel. Every time a school official turns away a kid that is being bullied, that alone is telling the kids they are not worth it, not important & that there is something wrong with them. What does this teach the kids?

This leads to my next thing, the teachers that let these acts happen when they know what is going on. I don't understand this. Are they afraid of getting fired? Personally I wouldn't want to work for a school that allowed such behavior. Even if it meant I had to work fast food & let me tell you, I HATE working for fast food. Or how about the teacher that bullies the kid? Seriously? You are there to teach & protect the kids. Again ones belief should not interfere with what is going on. If you have anger issues, issues with kids, stressed out ect, you should not be working with kids. A teacher who bullies a student needs to be fired. The problem is even if a kid tells on a teacher, that teacher could say it didn't happen & still work there. This is one I don't have a real solution to except for an investigation needs to be in the matter & watched closely. I forgot to mention in the first part that when I was in high school, I had a PE teacher that looked down upon those who were not good. She once told me to keep doing an exercise because my asthma would not effect it (we were sitting on our butts pushing our feet back & forth in the air). Another time when I got hit in the lower stomach with an indoor soccer ball which hurt REALLY bad (and for days), she told me to get over it, that it didn't hurt that bad & a few kids were laughing at me. This is a huge problem that needs to be dealt with also.

Doge ball, some people don't see the issue with this game but it's there. This game gives the bullies the advantage of getting out the "weaker" ones first & really hard without getting into trouble since throwing the ball at someone is part of the game. This game is just dangerous & I honestly think it needs to be gone from schools. What kind of game is it anyways, to throw a ball at someone to get them out??

If you stop and think about it, bullying, intimidation, harassing etc is a form of assault. Assault is against the law, period. I think the law needs to step in to bullying at schools. The bullies need to be punished by law. Different degrees for different situations just like in adult life. I get that if there are extreme cases, the bullies can be charged but I think it shouldn't just be during extreme cases. After all, aren't we supposed to be teaching our kids right from wrong? Having them miss some days of school or getting kicked out isn't working. They need the law to do the punishing even if it's just a fine for harassing or intimidation. If the bullying is a racial thing, color of skin, gay, religion etc, the punishment needs to be worse. If schools are made aware of an issue and they don't do anything about it, they need to be fined. If a teacher or another school staff knows of the incident & doesn't do anything, they too need to be fined. If a teacher does the bullying etc, they too can be fined & that is just for the first time. The second time fired. If the schools don't do something about another staff member being a bully etc, the school can be fined. All of these things need to start taking place. It won't stop bullying but it sure as hell would bring the numbers down. Every single kid has the right to go to school and learn, to be & feel protected. What these bullies do is a crime & needs to be handle as such. 

If one needs evidence of bullying, get a cheap digital recorder & record it or do it from a phone. I guess this is all I have to say on the issue. If you have stuck through & read all of both parts, I thank you! When I have something on the brain, it pours out like a storm. lol What are your thoughts?

School Issues #2 - Bullying Part 1

School bullies have always been an issue and schools have always been trying new things to "stop it". Something tells me they really don't have a clue what to do & some of the things they come up with like the "No tolerance" is total bullshit. To start off, NO ONE ANYWHERE  can put an end to bullying so that thought needs to be tossed right away. People are people & kids are kids, it's going to happen. The most we can do is get the numbers down and let the bullies know that it isn't tolerated anywhere along with protecting the victims as much as we can.

The Problems

Schools take different approaches but all seem to do nothing including protecting the victim. There is something wrong with this picture. Sometimes the kids (both bully & victim) just gets talked to, sometimes the victim also gets in trouble when all they were doing was protecting/defending themselves (more on that later), the victim is not believed or is told they deserve it or they need to man up/get over it, the victim gets told something will be done but nothing does or not much of anything gets done. Oh and can't forget how the bully gets time off from school when they bully someone. : /  Please, what kid wouldn't like time away from school? The bully just keeps on doing what they do and sometimes gets worse. The victims feel helpless, scared & alone. What is a victim to do when they feel like they have no where to go & no one to turn to? 


Another problem is when teachers turn the other way when they know a kid is being bullied. They pretend they don't know what is going on for whatever reason (I know not all teachers are like this & the other things I will talk about, I am talking about the ones that do do these things). It could be, "it's not that big of a deal, they deserved it, I don't want to/can't deal with it when I got a whole class to deal with" whatever else they say as an excuse. What is just as bad is when a teacher themselves are the bully or just becomes apart of it. Like if a student tells a teacher what is going on but the teacher tells them to "ignore them, it will go away, soon you won't have to deal with them, stop being a wuss" ect ect. In a case of a kid being gay, a teacher may even tell that kid that they need to stop being gay or acting gay & that there is something wrong with them & that is why they are being picked on. Whatever the case may be, this really needs to stop.


Some PE games cater the bullies. I don't know about every PE game that is played but I do know of one and that is dodge ball. To me, this game is violent & gives the stronger people a chance to try & over power the "weaker" ones. I hate this game. 


Bullying is done in elementary, middle, high and even in colleges. It's there & there is no way around it. Bullies are just people who are afraid themselves, gets beat up at home & needs an outlet, have their own issues of insecurities but won't admit it, likes to feel powerful over others, has been taught to look down upon those who are different & just for someone reason feels anyone who is different is a freak. This of course is not an excuse but they are reasons why it happens.

I hate when I hear/see some people sit there and say "well I was bullied & turned out ok so the kids today just need to get over it" or something to that extent. Yes a lot of us make through being bullied BUT those feelings have a lasting effect. Sometimes you can't just get over it. Some cases are a lot worse than others. My generation & those before me only had to deal with face to face bullying which was bad enough. Today, kids get bullied by so many different ways that it has a different effect on our kids then it did us older people. Kids now get bullied & degraded through the internet. So even once home from school, they are still being attacked through cyber space. They don't have a safe place anymore. 

I have had my fair share of being bullied through my years at elementary school and by a dean in high school. In elementary I had kids pick on me for no reason, causing me to spend every recess of every day  alone. I was told I was slow & had a learning disability by my teachers (which I don't, I just learn different) and for 1 year was bullied by my special ed teacher. I was cast aside for 7th grade because there wasn't enough room in the class room. Instead of making room, they kept me & a few other minorities out since we were slow anyways & had to sit in the 6th grade class to learn 7th grade work on our own. Then put in 8th grade with no 7th grade education. In high school during my 12th grade, a girl was saying threatening things. I went to the dean to let them know so they could handle it & I was told that if I went to him with any more about this situation, I would be suspended & not be able to graduate! I went to him BECAUSE I didn't want to get suspended if I had to face this girl. So I know how these kids are feeling when no one listens.

Since this is so long, I will continue on another page.  (continued)

Misc. History: Rock Paper Scissors

Rock, paper, scissors, a game played by everyone young or old. So where did it come from? Well I found this on ask yahoo:

"According to Wikipedia, the game has its origins in China. It was popular among warlords (!) during the Han Dynasty. It's not exactly clear whether it was used to idly pass the time, to make cavalier decisions, or as something more akin to gambling.

Another source offers an extensive (and somewhat convoluted) history of a Japanese game called "jan ken pon." It's believed this game (basically "rock, paper, scissors") evolved from another Japanese game called "honken," which involved two players simultaneously extending zero to five fingers. With both hands hidden, each person would then guess the total number of fingers. Whoever guessed correctly won."

It isn't much but it is all I could find. I think it's interesting how things like this start out & evolve into something a lot different over the years. I wonder what things that are started today, will evolve into something different in the future & just how different.

Misc History: Origin Of Words & Sayings

I recently read a book called 'I didn't know that' by Karlen Evins. This woman gathered words & sayings throughout her life, did her best to find out the meaning/origin of them & put them in a book. She gathered her info before there was Google, no internet. The info inside the book is based on what she found in her searches. I didn't read all the words & sayings but I did find a lot of interesting history on the ones I did read. I thought I would share some of those. I will type word for word that is in the book.

1) Crocodile tears - Those insincere tears we've come to know as crocodile tears quite literal in origin. For you see, a crocodile does indeed cry over it's meal as it eats. But the crying has nothing to do with the croc's sense of the situation. Instead, as a crocodile eats, his food is pressed to the top of his mouth, causing pressure against the glands known as the lachrimals. These secrete a tearlike substance that flows from the eyes. From this biological activity of the reptile, we today draw our meaning for crocodile tears.

2) God bless you - Ever wonder why we would have "God bless you" after a sneeze? Well, in much the same way that it was believed man could part body & spirit & be beside himself, the ancients believed a good sneeze could literally blast your soul right out your body! To ensure that no bad spirits moved into the vacancy, "God bless you" was said to clear the way so soul & body could reunite.

3) Goose pimples - Also known as gooseflesh, goose pimples are those bumps you get when your skin takes a chill. For obvious reasons, goose pimples were named for their similarity to the skin of a plucked goose. Long ago, goose feathers were used for a myriad of things; thus, some birds were plucked up to five times a year. From these pluckings, farmers soon noticed the reaction of gooseflesh to the cold, as the birds' skin contracted to pull up what would have been feathers. This gooseflesh was soon associated with the same bumpy-skin effect that cold or certain emotions had on humans.

4) Knock on wood - So why would knocking on wood be a symbol for luck? It goes way back to pre-Christian times, when pagan religious beliefs held that good spirits resided in trees. To knock on a tree was to call upon those spirits to protect you as you journeyed through life (and especially through the forest!)

5) Paparazzi - Any freelance photographer who aggressively pursues a celebrity for the purpose of obtaining that perfect candid shot is said to be a part of the paparazzi, but what exactly is paparazzi? Well, the word is Italian in origin and, literally translated, means "buzzing insects." (Anyone having seen the hoopla surrounding the better known celebs of our time knows exactly where the word gets it's meaning!)


6) Raining cats & dogs - It was during the heaviest of rains back in 17th century England that the remains of dogs & cats were often seen floating through the streets. The reason had to do with poor drainage systems & even poorer health - control laws. As these animals often drowned when there came a flood, it was soon said that it had "rained cats & dogs" (though at the time, the saying pertained more to pole cats & dogs!).


7) Skeleton in the closet - Back in the dark ages it was long held by superstition that a doctor could not cut into the body of a dead person, for fear of disturbing it's ghost. As a result, cadavers became hot items on the black market for doctors longing to study human anatomy. When grave robbers began to supply the goods, many a good doctor became suspected of having a skeleton in his closet, which gives us today's meaning of "private of hidden secrets".


8) Wearing your heart on your sleeve - Wearing your heart on your sleeve was customary among knights at one time. In reality, the actual heart worn was a scarf or handkerchief given by a damsel to her knight, prior to his going off to fight. The scarf, worn by the knight as an armband, was a symbol to his fellow soldiers that his body might be in battle, but his heart was somewhere else.


9) X for a kiss - The original X used to designate a kiss dates back to medieval times, and believe it or not, it was a legal custom. In attempts to show good faith, the X (symbol for Saint Andrew) was placed after each signature on papers of importance. To further reinforce the pledge made in the documents, the signee was required to kiss the X as a guarantee of his or her obligation. Over time, the association with the legal profession has been long forgotten, but the X we still remember as the sign for a kiss.


10) Xmas - While some consider it disrespectful to substitute an X for the Christ part of Christmas, others know that the letter X was in fact the symbol used long ago for Christ. X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the initial letter of the Greek word for Christ. And according to 1st century history, the early Greek Christians used the letter X to stand for Christ, much as they used the fish with the X in the tail to represent Jesus.


11) Zip code - We refer to it every day, but how many of us know that the ZIP stands for "Zone Improvement Program"? Okay, so you may have known that, but do you know what the 5 digit code represents? Well, according to our reliable postal people, the first 3 digits indicate a district, usually a city, while the remaining 2 digits correspond with a local zone.


I may do my own research on some words because I am always curious about things like this. :)