19 Amazing Body Facts That Will Blow Your Mind

  The Human Body Facts listed below are surely gonna blow your mind!!!

Blood

 An adult man’s body contains about 5 litres of blood. A woman’s body contains about 4.5 litres. The blood travels along 100,000 km of blood vessels, which is equal to going 2.5 times round the equator. It contains 25,000,000,000 to 30,000,000,000 red cells. The life span of red cells is only about 120 days, and 1,200,000 to 20,000,000 of them are made every second. In a human lifetime you will make 0.5 tonne of red cells. Red cells are made and destroyed at a rate of 2-3 millions per second.

Cells

There are 50 trillion cells in your body and 3 billion of them die every minute. Most of these are replaced. You have a total of 1,000,000,000,000 white cells, which help fight germs and infections.

Digestive system

Your stomach produces up to 2 litres of hydrochloric acid a day. Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve metals, but it does not damage the stomach linings because 500,000 cells are replaced every minute. The small intestine is about 5m long and is the longest part of your digestive system. The large intestine is a thick tube, but is only 1.5 m long.

Breathing

 The average person inhales 6 litres of air per minute or 8,640 litres a day. You take 13-17 breaths a minute when sitting and up to 80 during vigorous exercise. If you average 20 breaths a minute, you breathe 28,800 times a day.

Brain power

 You lose 100,000 brain cells every day! Luckily you have 100 billion altogether. If the surface area of your brain could be ironed out it would measure 2,090 sq cm.  

Heartbeat

Your heart pumps 13,460 litres of blood around your body in a day, enough to fill 40,000 drink cans. An average heartbeat pumps 59 cc of blood. An average heartbeat rate of 70 beats a minute adds up more than 100,000 beats a day.

Nerves

There are about 13,000,000,000,000 nerve cells in your body, transmitting messages at speeds of 290 km/h as fast as the world’s speediest road cars.

Sweat

Human Body

You lose about 0.5 litres of water a day through 3000,000 sweat glands. In hot climates you may lose as much as 13.5 litres a day. 

Urine

You will pass between 400 and 2000 millilitres of urine every day depending on how old you are, your body size and the outside conditions, especially temperature. 

Skin

Your skin weighs up to 4 kg and covers an area of up to 1.3-1.7 sq m. Getting dressed and undressed, rubbing body parts together and even breathing cause flakes of skin to fall of at a rate of 50,000 flakes a minute. In a lifetime you will shed a total of 18 kg of skin. Up to 80% of house dust is made up of dead human skin cells.

Chemicals

There is enough carbon in your body to fill 900 pencils, enough fat to make 75 candles, enough phosphorous to make 220 match heads and enough iron to make a 7.5 cm nail.

Sleep

In 7.5 hours of sleep, you will sleep lightly for 60% of the time and deeply sleep for 20%. You will dream for 20% of the time.

Skeleton 

The human skeleton makes up about one fifth of a person's weight. An average adult weighing 70 kg will have a skeleton that weighs 14 kg.

Gas

On an average, a person will release 2 litres of gases from his intestines today as burps and farts.

Mouth

You will produce 37,800 litres of saliva in your lifetime.

Nails

Your nails grow 0.05 cm a week, which is 4 times faster than your toe nails.

Nose

Your sneezes can travel at a speed of 160km/h as fast as a train.  

Eyes

You blink about 20,000 times in a day.

Hair

Hair grows 0.5 mm every day.

Predictions and Prophecies

Good Luck and Bad Luck Signs

 

Ladders

A ladder leaning against a wall forms a triangle. Some people believe it is disrespectful, and unlucky, to walk underneath one because triangles symbolize the Holy Trinity. The bad luck is supposed to be warded off by crossing the fingers or making a wish while under the ladder.

Mirrors

Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven year's bad luck. This idea may come from the old belief that your reflection is an image of your soul, so anything that changes the reflection may bring evil. The length of the period of bad luck may come from the Roman belief that life renews itself every seven years.

Horseshoes

A horseshoe is a piece of metal fixed to a horse's foot. Some people think that if you find a horseshoe and the open space is facing you it will bring you luck. Traditionally, people also hang horseshoes above the doorway of their home to bring good luck. In many European countries, the horseshoe is hung downwards- that's believed to let the luck flow out into the house. In Britain and Ireland, the shoe must be hung with the opening at the top to keep the good fortune.

Black Cats

In the UK, people think black cats are lucky, particularly if they cross your path. The opposite is true in the USA and several European countries, where a black cat is seen as a bad omen. In the USA a white cat is a sign of very good luck, while in the UK it is a sign of bad luck.

Spilling Salt

Salt was once valuable and spilling it was thought to cause bad luck, unless the person who spills it throws a pinch over their left shoulder. In his painting of the Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci shows Jesus's betrayer Judas knocking over the salt cellar.

Magpies

Magpies are generally thought to be unlucky. This belief is said to come from the Bible, as the magpie was the only bird that refused to enter Noah's Ark. In China, however, the magpie is a good omen, and should never be killed.

Clovers

Four leaf clovers are very rare. Anyone who finds one is said to be able to recognize evil influences and avoid them.

Number 13

Number 13

The belief that the number 13 is unlucky is very ancient. The Romans believed the number 13 was a symbol of death and destruction. Norse legends claimed that the thirteenth guest at a banquet is the spirit of evil. The Christian belief that the number brings bad luck is often said to come from the Last Supper, when Christ sat down with his 12 disciples- making 13 people. Some people think that the first person to leave a dinner table at which there are 13 diners will die before the end of the year.

Unlucky for some?

• On Friday 13 September 1928, a hurricane killed 2,000 people in Puerto Rico, Florida and the Virgin Islands, and caused approximately $25 million in damage.
• The 13th of the month costs the USA about $1 billion a year through cancellations on trains and planes, absenteeism from work, and reduced business activity.
• The thirteenth Apollo space mission was known as Apollo 13. On 13 April 1970, there was an explosion on board and the spacecraft began to leak oxygen. This happened two days after it took off at 13:13 (1:13 pm). The spacecraft only just made it back to Earth.
• Italy omits the number 13 from its national lottery.

Lucky for others?

• The number 13 was sacred for the Mayans and Aztecs of Central America, and it is traditionally a lucky number in China.
• Buddhists pay homage to 13 Buddhas, and the orthodox Jewish prayerbook holds 13 principles of faith

18 Most Unusual Deaths Of all Time

 Although there are many ways to die these 18 unusual deaths will make you glad to be alive.

William III

This British king died in 1701, after a fall when his horse stumbled over a molehill. His opponents drank a toast to the mole, calling it "The little gentleman in black velvet".

 Sir Thomas Urquhart

Urquhart was the Scottish author of books with extraordinary titles such as Logopandecteision. He died laughing when told of the Restoration of Charles II in 1669.

 Thomas Midgley

Midgley was an American inventor who was strangled in 1944 by a machine he had invented to help him move after contracting polio. He invented three products that have since been found to be environmentally harmful: lead in petrol, CFC's in fridges and aerosols, and the insecticide DDT.

 Prince Philippe

Prince Philippe, heir to the French throne, was killed when his horse tripped over a pig in the streets of Paris in 1131.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

This Italian- French composer died in 1687 after accidentally stabbing his foot with a stick while beating time.The short conductor's baton came into use soon afterwards.

Pliny the Elder

Roman writer Pliny was choked by the fumes of the erupting volcano Vesuvius in AD 79.

Lord Carnarvon

Poster for Houdini's Show

Carnarvon was an amateur Egyptologist who financed the excavation of  Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922. Several months after opening the tomb, Carnarvon died suddenly from a mosquito bite. This began the legend of the curse of Tutankhamen.

Hilaire Belloc

Although born in France, Hilaire Belloc was an English writer and member of parliament. He died in 1953 after a burning coal fell out of his fire and set him ablaze.

William Huskisson

Huskisson was a British member of Parliament. He was run down by a train during the opening of the first railway in 1830.

Madeleine-Sophie Blanchard

Madame Blanchard was the widow of pioneer balloonist Jean-Pierre Blanchard. She was killed in Paris in 1819, when fireworks set fire to her balloon.

Harry Houdini (Erich Weiss)

Houdini was a famous escapologist who claimed he could withstand being punched in the stomach. He died in 1926- after being punched in the stomach.

Jerome Cardan

Cardan was an Italian physician, mathematician and astrologer. He starved himself to death in 1576 to make sure that his own prediction of his death would come true.

Isadora Duncan

This American dancer was strangled in 1927 by her scarf. It became caught in the wheel of a sports car in which she was a passenger.

Frederick, Prince of Wales

Frederick was the son of George II and heir to the British throne. He died in 1751 after being hit by a cricket ball.

Francis Bacon

This Elizabethan philosopher caught a chill while trying to deep-freeze a chicken by stuffing it with snow. He died in 1626.

Aeschylus

Aeschylus was a famous Greek dramatist who died in 456 BC. A prediction that he would be killed by a blow from heaven came true when an eagle carrying a tortoise dropped it on his head.

King Alexander of Greece

He died after being bitten by his pet monkey in 1920.

Anton Dvorak

The Czech composer died in 1904 of a chill which he caught while train-spotting.

The Unexplained Files

The Nazca Lines

Nazca Geoglyph

The Nazca Lines are enormous drawings on the ground (called geoglyphs) that stretch across the Nazca Desert in southern Peru. They show more that 300 geometric patterns, spirals and animals. The lines are so vast (one extends 65km) that they can only be seen properly from a height of about 300m. The lines were first noticed when commercial aeroplanes began to fly over Peru in the 1920s. Most experts agree that they were made by the Nazca Indians who lived in the region between 300 BC and AD 800, but there are many questions yet to be answered about them. For example, why were the pictures made and how are they so precise if their makers had no means to view them from the sky?

The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle

The Bermuda Triangle is an area of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida. It is famous for being the supposed site of many unexplained disappearances. The three points of the triangle are Miami, Bermuda and San Juan in Puerto Rico. In the 15th century, Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen a "great flame of fire" falling into the ocean in the area. The mystery of the Bermuda Triangle first began to attract attention in 1945, when Flight 19, a training mission of five US bombers, vanished off the Florida coast. The plane that was sent to find them also disappeared, and around 100 boats and aircraft have also been lost there. Explanations include Magnetic fields, sea monsters and abduction by aliens, but most experts agree the disappearance are caused by bad navigation and/or extreme weather conditions.

Easter Island

Easter Island

Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) lies in the South Pacific between Chile and Tahiti, and is one of the most isolated islands in the world. By the 16th century, Easter Island had nearly 10,000 inhabitants, who made huge statues known as moai. The 887 moai were carved from the island's volcanic rock and have long, angular faces. Some have eyes made from coral. The average moai was about 4m tall and weighed over 14 tonnes, so they would have been extremely difficult for the islanders to transport. Archaeologists believe that the statues symbolize the spirits of Easter Island's most important inhabitants.

Stonehenge

 

Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a circle of 17 upright stones called sarsens which stand on Salisbury Plain in southwest England. The stones weigh up to 50 tonnes and have other stones, called lintels, laid across the top. There is also and inner circle of smaller bluestones weighing up to four tonnes each. Stonehenge is the only stone circle in the world with lintels across the top of the stones, and experts think it was completed in about1500 BC. They believe that the sarsen stones were transported from 32km away and the bluestones came from an incredible 250km away. At least 600 men would have been needed to move each sarsen stone on some of the steepest parts of the journey. Nobody knows exactly why Stonehenge was built, but it may have been a druids' temple or even a kind of astronomical calendar.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan

In AD 600 Teotihuacan in Mexico was the sixth largest city in the world and about 200,000 people lived there. Just 150 years later, Teotihuacan was almost deserted, and plants had begun to grow over the city's huge pyramids. Nobody knows why Teotihuacan was abandoned, but it may have been devastated by a huge fire in AD 650.

Crop circles

 

Crop circles

Crop circles are complicated geometric patterns, usually in wheat fields. Some people believe that the patterns are left by the imprint of an extra-terrestrial craft, or that they are a message from extra-terrestrials themselves. Another theory is that natural forces such as tornadoes, heat or strong winds create the patterns by flattening the crops, but the regular shapes of most crop circles makes this unlikely. The most likely explanation is that the circles are made by people as a hoax. They gradually build up a design by flattening the wheat, using very basic equipment such as rope and planks of wood.

The Loch Ness Monster

 

Loch Ness Monster

The Loch Ness Monster, nicknamed Nessie, iLoch Ness in Scotland. The monster is generally thought to be a long necked creature with flippers, like a prehistoric reptile. Many people have reported seeing Nessie, and in 2006 it was claimed that it might have been a circus elephant swimming in the Loch! However, there is no real evidence that the creature exists.

s said to live in 

Yeti

Yeti

The Yeti, also called the Abominable Snowman, is believed to live in the Himalayan mountains. People say this legendary creature measures up to 1.4m, is covered in long brown hair, and walks upright like a human being. Everest mountaineers, including Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, have reported seeing mysterious footprints in the snow.

Elvis sightings

Elvis sighting poster

Singing legend Elvis Presley died on 16 August 1977, but many people all over the world have claimed to have seen him since- in supermarkets, at petrol stations, even working in burger bars. There is a society devoted to Elvis sightings and an " Elvis is Alive Museum" in Wright City, Missouri, USA. If Elvis were alive today, he would be over 72 years old.

The Legend of Mythical Creatures

Almost every culture on Earth has legends of imaginary beasts. Some are like humans with supernatural powers; some are part human, part animal; while others are unlike anything we know.

Some of them are listed below:

Dragons

Dragon

Dragons appear in the myths of many cultures, especially China, where the dragon was a symbol of the emperor. A typical dragon has a serpent-like body covered with scales, large wings, and can breathe fire. in legends, dragons often guard a cave of treasure.

Giants

Giant

Giants or ogres are huge human shaped creatures. They are
usually seen as fearsome but crazy monsters that feed on human flesh. Famous giants include Goliath in the Bible, and Cyclops, Atlas and the Titans in Greek mythology.

Centaurs

Centaur

A centaur is a half-horse and half-man, with the head and arms of a man and the body of a horse. It is one of the best known of all Greek mythological characters and is said to have come from Thessaly in northern Greece. The myth may have arisen because of the skillful horsemanship of the people there.

Leprechauns

Leprechaun

Leprechauns are small Irish fairies who bring good luck. They are helpful creatures, usually shown wearing green clothes, with an apron, buckled shoes and a red cap. They are fun loving and are very fond of music and sports, but they are also mischievous and love practical jokes. Other "little people", including elves, gnomes, dwarfs and pixies, appear in many European fairy stories.

Fairies

A Fairy

Fairies also feature in many tales. They are usually sweet and kind creatures. In the Middle Ages, however, people believed that fairies stole children and replaced them with fairy beings known as changelings.

Mermaids

Mermaid

Mermaids are creatures with the head and body of a woman and the tail of a fish. The first mermaid legend is thought to have been the story of Atargatis, a Syrian moon goddess of about 1000 BC. Atargatis had a child with a human. She then killed her lover, abandoned the child and jumped into a lake, where she took the form of a mermaid.

Unicorns

Unicorn

A unicorn has the body of a horse, a lion's tail, a goat's beard, an antelope's legs and a single, often twisted, horn growing from its forehead. The unicorn is a popular subject in medieval stories; it is ferocious but good, and can purify water- or neutralize poison- by dipping its horn into it. The way to catch a unicorn is to use a young girl as bait, as a unicorn will lie down peacefully next to a maiden.

Trolls

Troll

Trolls are grotesque, malicious and rather dim witted creatures in Scandinavian folklore. They are said to steal sleeping children, sometimes replacing them with one of their own. Trolls have poor eyesight, and are active only at night because sunlight turns them into stone.

Vampires

Vampire are the half dead who drink the blood of the living to survive. Ideas about vampires include the belief that plunging a wooden stake through a vampire's heart can destroy it. Some people also think that you can protect yourself against vampires with garlic, holy water, crosses and bibles.

Werewolves

 

Werewolves or lycanthropes are mythical creatures in folk tales of many cultures. They usually appear an men by day, but may turn into wolves on the night of the full moon. The werewolf is bloodthirsty and ruthless. It devours its prey and shows none of the remorse that it might have felt in the human form.

Werewolf

Biggest Transport Disasters of History

SHIPWRECKS

Shipping disasters as a result of collisions, fires, explosions or military action are among the most famous of human tragedies. Some wrecks were carrying treasures that has since been discovered by divers. Some famous ship disasters are mentioned below

Remains of Titanic lying at the bottom of the ocean

Mary Rose 

 This Tudor galleon sank in 1545 as Henry VII watched from the shore. She was found in 1968, raised in 1982, and is exhibited in Portsmouth.

Spanish Armada 

Between August and October 1588 military action and storms combined to destroy the Spanish fleet off the British coast. About half the 130 ships that set out were wrecked, killing about 4000 people.

St George Defense and Hero 

On December 4th 1811 these three British warships were stranded off the Jutland coast. More than 2000 people died.

Tek Sing 

This chinese junk carrying 2000 passengers amd 350000 pieces of porcelain sank in 1822. It was found in 1999 and its treasures sold at a high price.

The unsinkable Titanic

Sultana

On 27 April 1865 a steamboat from USA was destroyed bya boiler explosion. This was the USA's worst ever marine accident and a total of 1547 people died.

Princess Alice

On September 3 1878 this pleasure streamer was taking people on a holiday trip down the Thames in London. She collided and 786 people died.

Titanic

On the night of 14 April 1912 the "unsinkable" Titanic struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage and sank killing 1517 people. The wrecks were discovered in 1986.

Lusitania

The British liner was torpedoed on January 30 1945 by a soviet submarine, S 13. Between 5348 and 7800 people died.

Dona Pez

It sank off the Philippines  on 20 December 1987, killing upto 3000 people. This was the world's worst ferry tragedy.

AIR DISASTERS

The Twin Towers

Worst ever

The two terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, New York, on September 11, 2001, killed all the passengers and crew on the both hijacked planes. More than 2000 people also died in the buildings. 

On the ground

On 27 March 1977, two boieng 747's collided and caught fire on the runway of Los Rhodeos airport in Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The aircrafts were carrying 614 passengers and 30 crew between them.

Single craft disaster

On 12 August 1985 a JAL boeing 747 on an internal flight from Tokyo to Osaka crashed, killing 520 passengers. Only 4 passengers survived.

Mid air collision

At Charkhi Dadri, India on November 12 1996, a Saudi airways Boeing 747 collided with a Kazakh Airlines. A total of 349 people died.

The Hindenburg disaster

Hindenburg

The Hindenburg was the world's biggest airship at 245m long. The airship made several successful transatlantic crossings, then flew from Frankfurt, Germany to Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA. She arrived on 6 May 1937 after a 3-day trip. As the airship was moored, she caught fire and turned into an inferno.

RAIL DISASTERS

 

Rail accident

Rail travel is one of the safest ways of journeying from place to place, taking into account the large number of passengers carried and distance travelled. But there have been accidents. One of the earliest rail disasters was at Versailles, France. It happened on 8th May 1842, when the Versailles to France train crashed.

World's worst

On June 1981 a train plunged off a bridge crossing the Bagmati river, India. The driver may have had to brake sharpely to avoid hitting a sacred cow. The train was overcrowded and almost 800 people died.

UK

On 22 May 1915 , a troop trai crashed head into another another at Quintinshill near Gretna Green, Scotland. 227 people died and 246 were injured.

USA

Two USA accidents both resulted in 101 deaths. On 10 August 1987 a bridge at Chatsworth, Illinois caught fire and collapsed as a train was passing over. In the crash, 81 people were killed immediately and another 20 died later. As many as 372 were injured. The second accident happened on 9 July 1918 at Nashville when two trains collided head on.

American Underground

America's worst subway accident was on 1 November 1918 at Brooklyn, New York. A train was derailed in the Malbone street tunnel leaving 97 dead.

British Underground

British's worst tube disaster took place on 8 March 1943 at Betnal Green, London. About 173 people who were trying to enter the station were killed in the crash.

ROAD DISASTERS

 

 A Tragic Road Accident

 

 

Many people were killed and injured on the roads. More than 40,000 a year in the USA, but accidents involving more than a few drivers or pedestrians are rare.

Worst road disaster

On 3 November 1982, a petrol tanker collided with a Soviet army truck and exploded in the 2.7km Salang tunnel in Afghanistan. Around 2000 or perhaps 3000 people were killed.

US road disaster

The worst US road disaster took place on 15 December 1967. The silver bridge across the Ohio river from Kanauga, Ohio, to point Pleasant, West Virginia, collapsed during heavy rush hour. 60 vehicles plunged into the river.

British road accidents

On May 27 1975 a coach crashed near North Yorkshire, killing 33. 

The Journey of Calendars

The Calendar Timeline

Most of the world's countries and cultures use the Gregorian calendar, but some base their calendars on more ancient systems. Other countries have adopted an alternative calendar at some point in their history.

3761 BC - Jewish calendar starts

2637 BC - Original Chinese calendar starts

    45 BC - Julian calendar adopted by Roman Empire

           0 - Christian calendar starts

          79 - Hindu calendar starts

        597 - Julian calendar adopted in Britain

        622 - Islamic calendar starts

      1582 - Gregorian calendar introduced in Catholic countries

      1752 - Julian calendar abandoned, Gregorian calendar adopted in Britain and America

      1873 - Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar

      1949 - China adopts the Gregorian calendar

THE MAYAN CALENDAR

The Mayan people lived in the present day Mexico and the neighboring parts. They built amazing pyramids and temples. They also had an astonishing knowledge of astronomy. Their culture had declined by the time Spanish invaders occupied their territory in the 16th century, but we know something about it from the remains found. The Mayan pyramid Chichen Itza, Mexico, built around 1050, has four stairways, each with 91 stairs makes a total of 365, the number of days in a year.  The stairways also divide the nine terraces of each side of the pyramid into 18 segments, representing the 18 months of the Mayan calendar. The Haab or civil calendar had 18 months made up of 20 days each. Five extra days-considered unlucky- were added at the years end, known as Uayeb, giving a year of 365 days.

Chichen Itza- The Time Pyramid

MONTHS IN A MAYAN CALENDAR

1. Pop

2. Uo

3. Zip

4. Zotz

5. Tzec

6. Xul

7. Yaxkin

8. Mol

9. Chen

10. Yax

11. Zac

12. Ceh

13. Mac

14. Kankin

15. Muan

16. Pax

17. Kayab

18. Cumku

The Mayan calendar uses three different dating systems in parallel, the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar), and the Haab (civil calendar). Of these, only the Haab has a direct relationship to the length of the year.

A typical Mayan date looks like this: 12.18.16.2.6, 3 Cimi 4 Zotz.

    12.18.16.2.6 is the Long Count date.
    3 Cimi is the Tzolkin date.
    4 Zotz is the Haab date.

THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR

The Gregorian calendar is the one most used nowadays. It is named after Pope Gregory XIII who introduced it in 1582. There is a leap year every four years. This means that the year corresponds closely with the astronomical year (365.24219 days) so that it is just one day out in every 3300 years.

MONTHS IN A GREGORIAN CALENDAR 

January             February                 March                 April                  May                    June

July                    August                 September           October              November           December

Some non- Catholic countries like Britain refused to adopt the Gregorian calendar at first. The Julian calendar based on a solar year, the time taken for the Earth to rotate around the sun, was used previously in Britain.This is 365.24219 days, so the calendar steadily fell out of line with the seasons. in 1752. In 1752 Britain decided to correct this by adopting the Gregorian calendar. By doing so, 3 September became 14 September- and, as a result, nothing whatsoever happened in British history between 3 and 13 September 1752. Many people protested in the streets, demanding, " Give us back our 11 days!" because they believed that their lives would be shortened.

THE CHINESE CALENDAR

Present day China uses the Gorgian calendar for most purposes, but traditional festivals such as Chinese New Year take place according to the ancient Chinese calendar. Legend has it that this was started during the reign of Emperor Huangdi in 2637 BC, and relates to the position of the Moon and the Sun. It follows a 60 year cycle which combines a heavenly stem and earthly branch, represented by a zodiac animal. The first year of the cycle is jia-zi, the second yi-cho, and so on; the 11th year is jia-xu, 12th yi-haiand 13th bing-zi. This continues until the 60th year (gui-hai) and then starts again.

  

Chinese calendar and Gregorian equivalents
                                     
Heavenly stems    Earthly branches        Zodiac Animal    Gregorian year beginning

   1. jia                     1. zi (rat)                          Dog                        10 Feb 1994

   2. yi                      2. chou (ox)                      Pig                          31 Jan 1995

   3. bing                  3. yin (tiger)                      Rat                         19 Feb 1996

   4. ding                  4. mao (rabbit)                  Ox                            7 Feb 1997

   5. wu                    5. chen (dragon)               Tiger                        28 Jan 1998

   6. ji                      6. si (snake)                      Hare                        16 Feb 1999

   7. geng                7. wu (horse)                     Dragon                      5 Feb 2000

   8. xin                   8. wei (sheep)                    Snake                      24 Jan 2001

   9. ren                   9. shen (monkey)              Horse                       12 Feb 2002

 10. gui                  10. you (rooster)                Sheep                        1 Feb 2003

                             11. xu (dog)                       Monkey                    22 Jan 2004

                             12. hai (pig)                       Rooster                      9 Feb 2005

THE HEBREW AND ISLAMIC CALENDARS 

The Hebrew (Jewish) and Islamic (Muslim) calendars are based on the Lunar (Moon) cycle. Every month starts approximately on the day of a new moon, or when a crescent is first seen after a new moon. But because the visibility of the Moon varies according to the weather, the start date cannot be determined in advance, so printed calendars may vary by a few days. Tishri/Muharram corresponds approximately with September/October in the Gregorian calendar, Heshvan/Safar with October/November, and so on.

       Hebrew months                                                  Islamic months

          1 Tishri                                                                 Muharram

          2  Heshvan                                                           Safar

          3 Kislev                                                                Rabi'a I

          4 Tevet                                                                 Rabi'a II

          5 Shevat                                                               Jumada I

          6 Adar                                                                   Jumada II

          7 Nisan                                                                  Rajab

          8 Iyar                                                                    Sha'ban

          9 Sivan                                                                  Ramadan

        10 Tammuz                                                             Shawwal

        11 Av                                                                      Dhu al-Q'adah

        12 Elul                                                                    Dhu al-Hijjah

LADAKH-- A perfect travelling destination

Ladakh is a part of Jammu and Kashmir in the north of India. It consists of two districts, Leh and Kargil. The districts are surrounded by two mountain ranges, the Karakoram in the north and the Great Himalaya in the south and also by two other parallel chains, the ladakh range and the Zanskar range.


Ladakh is a land of high passes, a resting point for travelers on the ancient trade routes to Central Asia and beyond. This is a buddhist land having greater cultural similarities to Tibet than the lowlands of the south. Many villages have a Gompa or monastery, a complex of temples and prayer halls. The mural paintings in the monasteries, decorate the walls with images symbolizing various aspects of Buddhism. Buddhism reached Tibet from India via Ladakh. We do not know when Buddhism was introduced into Ladakh.

Stories based on the life of the Buddha are the main theme of the traditional theatre. Drama is an essential part of the Ladakhi heritage, as are the Gompas which are an important part of the lives of people living here. These Gompas serve as places of worship, meditation and as schools.


Some of the most famous fairs and festivals are celebrated around these Gompas. Losar is celebrated as their new year. Shey Shrupla is celebrated to mark the bringing home of the harvest. Hemis Chheshu is the biggest summer festival held in Ladakh.

The festival symbolizes the victory of right over wrong, good over evil. Many of the annual festivals of the Gompas take place in winter. These take the form of dance drama. Lamas, dressed in colorful robes and wearing masks, perform here. Cham, the sacred masked dance is performed on these occasions by monks dressed in brocade robes and masks. Long horns are blown with cymbals. People come from near and far to see these events.

 

Archery is an ancient sport of Ladakh. It is in fact a part of the culture. In Leh and its surrounding villages, archery festivals are held during the summer months. Polo, a game played here, differs in many respects from the international game of Polo. Traditionally, almost every major village had a polo-ground. Even today, the game is played in many places besides Leh, especially in Dras and Chusot, near Leh.

 

Ladakh has very limited sources of water. A community of metal workers still follow their ancestral profession, working with silver, brass and copper. Items of daily use such as cooking pots and bowls, as well as agricultural implements are supplied by the local blacksmiths. Since products made from fresh milk are important and necessary, each family owns some goats, cows and dzos (Yak-cow). Sheep are important in Ladakh because they produce pashmina wool. The wool is sold to traders from Kashmir.

Ladakh is also home to some rare animals and plant species. These include the mountain goat (Ibex), the Snow Leopard, Brans Drong (wild yak), Kyang (wild horse), Nyan (large horned sheep), Musk Deer and the Tibetan Antelope.

The best time to visit Ladakh is in summers when you can enjoy the natural beauty and the different cultural events here. It has also become a very popular destination for the newly weds. Kashmir offers a variety of honeymoon destinations among which Ladakh is becoming the most popular and the most loved destination because of its calm and spell bound natural beauty. It feels like heaven when you step on this land.

Myths about Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a massive circle of stones, on the Salisbury plains in Wiltshire. It is Britain's most famous and impressive prehistoric site.

 There are several myths attached to it. One story says that the wizard Merlin transported it from Ireland to England. Another says that it is a druid temple where human sacrifice was offered.

According to the archaeologists, Stonehenge was built in the late Neolithic and early Bronze age periods. The earliest construction was an outer circle 321 feet in diameter, surrounded by a ditch. Just inside the bank 56 pits were dug up, but are filled up now. These are called 'Aubrey Holes'. In the northeast a gap forms the entrance. There is a large flat stone which is known as the slaughter stone o sacrificial altar. Along the pathway called the 'Avenue' is another large stone called Heel Stone. in about 2400 BC, the early Bronze age people or the Beaker folk added two circles of blue stones in the center of the site.

Later in about 2100 B.C. the blue stones were replaced by the massive sarcen sand-stone blocks. Some of these stones were 30 feet long and weighed 49 tons. These were replaced in a perfect circle, of 30 uprights capped with horizontal or lintel pieces. The lintels are dove-tailed into each other and held in position by mortice and tenon joints. The blue stones were again added just around the altar stone.

It is likely that it was a place to worship Sun but it might have also functioned as an observatory, proving that the bronze age people had an advanced knowledge of geometry and astronomy.

The BODY BUILDER Monkey

Ever seen a Monkey doing push ups and crunches? NO? Check out the video