Thursday, January 15, 2009

Lincoln - Kennedy Coincidence

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
Both Presidents were shot in the head
Now it gets really weird.
Lincoln ’s secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy’s Secretary was named Lincoln .
Both were assassinated by Southerners.
Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln , was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
Both assassins were known by their three names.
Both names are composed of fifteen letters.
Now hang on to your seat.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named ‘Ford.’
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
And here’s the kicker…

25 things that are not what they seem

1. A firefly is not a fly - it is a beetle
2. A prairie dog is not a dog - it is a rodent
3. India ink is not from India - it is from China and Egypt
4. A horned toad is not a toad - it is a lizard
5. A lead pencil does not contain lead - it contains graphite
6. A douglas fir is not a fir - it is a pine
7. A silkworm is not a worm - it is a caterpillar
8. A peanut is not a nut - it is a legume
9. A panda bear is not a bear - it is a relative of the raccoon
10. An English horn is not English and it isn’t a horn - it is a French alto oboe
11. A guinea pig is not from guinea and it is not a pig - it is a rodent from South America
12. Shortbread is not a bread - it is a thick cookie
13. Dresden China is not from Dresden - it is from Meissen
14. A shooting star is not a star - it is a meteorite
15. A funny bone is not a bone - it is the spot where the ulnar nerve touches the humerus
16. Chop suey is not a native Chinese dish - it was invented by Chinese immigrants in California
17. A bald eagle is not bald - it has flat white feathers on its head and neck when mature, and dark feathers when young
18. A banana tree is not a tree - it is a herb
19. A cucumber is not a vegetable - it is a fruit
20. A jackrabbit is not a rabbit - it is a hare
21. A piece of catgut is not from a cat - it is usually made from sheep intestines
22. A Mexican jumping bean is not a bean - it is a seed with a larva inside
23. A Turkish bath is not Turkish - it is Roman
24. A koala bear is not a bear - it is a marsupial
25. A sweetbread is not a bread - it is the pancreas or thymus gland from a calf or lamb
Anonymous said...
Correction: The Giant Panda is a bear.
The Red Panda is not closely related to the Giant Panda but is close to the racoon.

Simple Quiz

Below are four (4) questions and a bonus question.
You have to answer them instantly.
Let’s find out just how clever you really are….
Drag your cursor after the Answer to see if you got it right.
First Question:
Second Question:
If you overtake the last person, then you are…?
Tell me, how can you overtake the LAST Person?
Third Question:
Did you get 5000?
Answer is actually 4100.
If you don’t believe it, check it with a calculator!

Fourth Question:
Answer: Did you say Nunu? NO! Of course it isn’t.
Her name is Mary. Read the question again!
Okay, now the bonus round:
A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing his teeth he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and! the purchase is done. Next, a blind man comes into the shop who wants to buy a pair of sunglasses; how does HE indicate what he wants?

Coffin Nails

House could be torn down over 20-inch discrepancy in position

A £500,000 house in Wiltshire could be torn down after planners ruled it had been built 20 inches out of position.
The four-bedroom detached house in Devizes was set to go on the market later this month after building work was completed.
However, a whistle-blower discovered the property had been built outside the original plans and contacted Kennet District Council to complain.
When planning officials investigated they ruled the house had been built 20 inches out of position. The district council claimed the property was "too close to a byway" and was "oppressive and harmful" to residents.
Developer Danish Homes UK put forward a retrospective planning application - but this was also rejected after planners branded the changes "unacceptable".
Kennet District Council is now taking enforcement proceedings - which could result in the house being torn down.
Councillor Philip Brown said: "We could put a full enforcement order on them to pull the whole house down. We could order them to demolish it, or we could tell them to take it back to the original footprint of the house.
"They must have known the house was built in the wrong place. The house must be built as in the original application."
The mistake came to light when three objectors sent in letters of complaint to the district council.
The Trail Riders Fellowship and the Wiltshire Bridleways Association both objected to the plans - claiming the building encroaches into the public byway running past the house.
Keith Bennett, of agents for the site Bennett Architectural Designs, said: "I do not know how the mistake happened. They could order us to demolish it, in theory they could."
He said even if the council agreed to pull the house back by the required distance of it would be forced to take a huge chunk off a bedroom and the lounge.
"That would cost us up to £30,000 and it would knock thousands of pounds off the value of the house," Mr Bennett said.
Mr Bennett added that he is now set to appeal to the Secretary of State for Communities and Amenities Hazel Blears in a bid to keep the house as it is.

Spinning ice disc phenomenon seen in British river for first time

A rare phenomenon normally associated with Scandinavia has been recorded on the River Otter in Devon for what could be the first time.
It was of perfect circle of spinning ice spotted in River Otter in Devon.
The giant spinning disc of ice was spotted near Honiton by Roy Jefferies who was out walking his dog along the riverbank on Wednesday, January 7.
The slowly rotating ten foot wide and perfectly circular phenomenon which was stationary in the current and about six foot from the bank near where a stream joined the river. Mr Jefferies immediately called his friend, Graham Blissett, who lives nearby and has an interest in phenomena of this kind.
Mr Blissett said such discs were "very, very rare" and he had never heard of one forming in England before.
"I couldn't believe it when he told me," Mr Blissett said.
He grabbed his camera and raced to the river, where he captured photographs of the slowly turning disc of ice.
"I saw the most perfect circle of ice about two metres from the edge of the bank," said Mr Blissett.
"It was about three metres in diameter and, on timing it, we discovered it was completing a revolution in four minutes and ten seconds.
"The air temperature at the time was sub-zero and the weather had been bitterly cold for the past week."
After returning home, Mr Blissett carried out some research.
"Ice discs can vary in diameter from under a meter up to an astonishing 200 metres seen in the River Ljusnan in Sweden," he said.
"It is thought that they are formed when a slow moving river current creates a slow turning eddy in which a rotating disc of ice grinds out its edges forming a gap between it and the surrounding ice."

PET Project: Coke's Big Recycling Plant

Roughly 75 percent of plastic soda and water bottles end up in landfills, by some estimates. What a waste. We could argue about whether to blame lazy consumers, governments that fail to promote recycling, or the beverage industry. We could debate whether bottle bills will solve the problem. (They won't, by themselves.) We could try to persuade people to give up bottled water. (They won't.) Or we could look for market-based solutions, and see if they have the potential to scale.
That's what the The Coca-Cola Co. is doing. This week, Coke stages a grand opening for the world's largest bottle-to-bottle recycling plant in Spartanburg, S.C. (The plant's been running at less than full capacity for months.) The facility is a $60 million joint venture of Coke and the United Resource Recovery Corp. (URRC), which calls itself the world leader in transforming waste bottles into new ones. URRC has a patented process for recyling food and beverage containers made of polyethylene terephthalate, or PET.
The plant will have the capacity, when fully operational, to produce 100 million pounds of recycled PET plastic chips—enough to produce 2 billion 20-ounce bottles of Coke or Dasani or whatever.