Interesting & Fun Facts About Great Britain

Interesting & Fun Facts About Great Britain







•The official name of Great Britain is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


•England, Scotland, and Wales, together make up Great Britain.


•It is the largest island in the European continent and the ninth largest in the world.


•The capital and the largest city of Britain is London, while the capitals of the three countries forming Britain are London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff, of England, Scotland, and Wales, respectively.


•Christianity is the major religion practiced in Great Britain with over 5 million believers across the entire island, divided into 4.5 million in England and Wales, and 750,000 in Scotland.


•The official language of Britain is English.


•The currency used in Great Britain is pound sterling.


•Ben Navis, at 1,344 m (4,409 ft), is the highest point in Great Britain in Scotland, while the lowest point is the Fenlands which is 4 m below sea level.


•Interestingly, with a population of 60 million people, Great Britain is the third most populous island in the world, after Java and Honshû.


•Though the island has been named ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’, it includes only England, Wales, Scotland, and many other small outlying islands, namely, Isle of Wight, Anglesey, the Isles of Scilly, the Hebrides, and the island groups of Orkney and Shetland. However, it does not include Northern Ireland.


•The word British is used to refer the people belonging to the entire Great Britain, Britain for short. However, they are referred to as Welsh, Scottish, and English in their respective nations.


•The longest river is The Severn, measuring 322 km long, that rises in central Wales and flows through Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester in England into the Bristol Channel.


•The official name for the British flag is Union Jack, while the English flag is called the Flag of St. George, the Scottish is called the Flag of St. Andrew, and the Welsh flag is called the Flag of St. David.


•Did you know that the world-famous pop music band ‘The Beatles’ that changed the music scene across the globe are from England?


•Britain is the only country in the world that does not have the country’s name on its postage stamps.


•Surprisingly, there are more chickens than humans in England.


•Of all the mammal species found in Great Britain, rodents constitute 40% which include squirrels, mice, voles, rats, and the European beaver. Others comprise of rabbits, hares, hedgehogs, shrews, moles, and several bats species.


•The deer is the largest land-based wild animal found in Great Britain. The largest species is the red deer, followed by roe deer and fallow deer.

A few interesting facts about Australia.

1. Australia is now the most obese country in the world, just pipping the US at the post with a 26% obesity rate to their 25%. Despite Australia being a sport loving nation there’s obviously a whole lot of armchair sport loving going on, with beer, soft drink or greasy takeaway in hand!






2. Just over 25% of Australians were born in another country, making it the developed country with the highest proportion of migrant settlers in the world, aside from Luxembourg with a third of their population born elsewhere. Australia’s capital cities are where the highest proportions of new arrivals can be found and to say the country’s culinary landscape has benefited enormously from immigration is an understatement.






3. One of Australia’s former Prime Ministers, Bob Hawke, holds a Guinness World Record… not for some kind of political feat, but beer sculling! Fortunately it was well before his term as prime minister (1983-1991), occurring in 1963 during his university days at Oxford where he skulled 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. To this day Bob Hawke is remembered fondly for his beer skulling antics, which he still wheels out in public now and then at cricket matches. Oh, Australia!






4. The Australian state of Victoria gets a public holiday, i.e. government sanctioned day off work, in honour of a horse race. The Melbourne Cup is known as ‘the race that stops the nation’ and that it does, with workplaces all across the country wheeling out a television and popping champagne to barrack on the horses. There’s usually a sweepstake where everyone pays a dollar or two and draws a horse name out of the hat, with the spoils going to the place-getters.






5. Many visitors to Australia are surprised to discover kangaroo meat is actually eaten. While nowhere near as mainstream as chicken or beef, it nevertheless pops up on some restaurant menus and is sold in many butcher shops. The meat is touted as a much leaner and healthier alternative to beef or lamb, with a 1-2% fat content.






Read more






A taste of the Middle East in Sydney’s Lakemba


Natalie: An Australian filling in the missing links to her own story in Vietnam


How Irish am I? An Australian on her Irish roots

10 Interesting facts about India:

10 Interesting facts about India:



The famous board game, called Chess, was invented in India.


In India's 100,000 years of history, it has never invaded any other country.


India is the 7th largest country in the world, the largest democracy and one of the oldest civilizations.


India was one of the richest countries in the world before the British invasion in 17th century.


The value of "pi" used in mathematics was first calculated by the Indian mathematician Budhayana in 6th century.


India is one of the largest exporter of computer software products. It exports software to over 90 countries.


India is home to the world's largest pilgrimage destination called the Vishnu Temple. The temple is located in the city of Tirupati. About an average of 30,000 people visit this temple donating about $6 million US dollars, everyday.


India originated Yoga about 5,000 years ago.


India has the most number of mosques. It has 300,000 mosques which is much more than the Muslim world.


Christians and Jews have been living in India since 52 A.D. and 200 B.C. respectively. Read more...

More interestinf Facts.

Cliche is something that has been repeatdly used to the point of losing original meaning. The word "cliche" comes from the days of moveable type, where each letter had to be set by hand into a framework before printing. Commonly-used phrases were kept, pre-set in clamps so they could be regularly used without having to reset all the letters individually each time. The clamp that keeps letters together to form these oft-used sentences or phrases is called a cliche. Some of the popular cliche's include:







Good things come to those who wait.






Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back. The End.






A penny saved is a penny earned.






There's plenty more fish in the sea.






You can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Johnny Campbell was the first to cheer the football team in 1898 in Princeton. Cheerleading is almost 100 years old when most of the cheerleaders were men. Now 98% of cheerleaders are females. The estimates tell that around the world there are more than 4 million cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are generally in the age group of 5 to 13 years. Most of the cheerleaders are gymnasts and 12% are dancers. In US 80% schools have cheerleading squads. The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders is the most famous squad. Football is most popular sport for cheerleading. Cheerleading is no doubt a dangerous sport as it involves injuries like broken bones, busted lips and serious injuries. Though cheerleading is to rouse the interest of match watchers, cheerleading in itself is a competitive sport. The competitive cheerleader must be a high level gymnast as she is to perform without any safeguards.

VERY INTERESTING UNKNOWN FACTS

1. The Statue of Liberty's index finger is eight feet long.



2. Rain has never been recorded in some parts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.


3. A 75 year old person will have slept about 23 years.


4. Boeing 747's wing span is longer than the Wright brother's first flight. The Wright brother's invented the airplane.


5. There are as many chickens on earth as there are humans.


6. One type of hummingbird weighs less than a penny.


7. The word "set" has the most number of definitions in the English language; 192 Slugs have four noses.


8. Sharks can live up to 100 years.


9. Mosquitos are more attracted to the color blue than any other color.


10. Kangaroos can't walk backwards.






Attribution: http://www.citehr.com/67426-very-interesting-unknown-facts.html#ixzz217DRltVh

Funny , but interesting facts

Even though they may seem unbelievable to many, our world is just filled with things which are amusing and weird as well as true. Below are some funny interesting facts which you will probably enjoy.




A turtle can breathe through it’s butt. Hahaha, Funny!


Their were once restrictions on showing toilets on television.


The old American sitcom television program Leave It To Beaver which originally aired from 1957-1963 is said to have been the very first TV program to show a toilet and even then they only got approved to show the top of the toilet tank, not the actual toilet bowl.


All In The Family was another program which originally aired from 1971 to 1979 in the U.S and was the very first TV program to air the sound of a flushing toilet.


The Brady Bunch which was a show about a mother and father raising 6 children originally aired from 1969-1974. The whole family shared one bathroom which was shown often but it contained no toilet. There’s just something about funny interesting facts and toilets lol.


In the Republic of Albania shaking your head no means yes and nodding your head yes means no. It’s a fact.


Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States between 1923-1929, He played the harmonica and it’s said he enjoyed having vaseline rubbed into his scalp and forehead while eating breakfast in bed.


Walt Disney was scared of mice. That’s funny!


Before he was named Bugs Bunny, he was known as Happy Rabbit.


Long ago in Japan they held contests to see who could fart the longest and loudest. The winner received gifts and high honors, and no, matches were not given out.

INTERESTING FACTS TO INCREASE YOUR GENERAL KNOWLEDGE –

Interesting facts about Grham Bell.

35 Interesting Facts About Alexander Graham Bell



World's Greatest Scientists/Inventors






One of the most famous inventors of all-time is Alexander Graham Bell. He is well remembered for his invention of the telephone. Here’s a list of interesting things about this very intellectual inventor.






1.) Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847 in Edinburgh, Scotland.






2.) Alexander Graham Bell is an American inventor and teacher of the deaf.






3.) Bell is most famous for his work on the telephone.






4.) He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and London.






5.) Bell immigrated to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871.


6.) In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing the system called visible speech.







7.) In 1872, he founded a school to train teachers of the deaf in Boston, Massachusetts and became part of Boston University






8.) Bell was appointed professor of vocal physiology in Boston University.






9.) He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1882.






10.) Since the age of 18, Bell had been working on the idea of transmitting speech.

11.) In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he developed the basic ideas of the telephone.







12.) On March 10, 1876, his experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally became a reality.






13.) The statement that Bell transmitted was “Watson, come here; I want you.”






14.) At the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, telephone was introduced to the world.






15.) The Bell Telephone Company was established in 1877.



16.) In 1880 France bestowed on Bell the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention.







17.) He used the money in founding the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and invented the photophone with his associates.






18.) Other inventions include the audiometer, the induction balance, and the first wax recording cylinder, introduced in 1886.






19.) Bell was one of the cofounders of the National Geographic Society, and he served as its president from 1896 to 1904.






20.) He also helped to establish the journal Science by financing it from 1883-1894.

Renaissance & Elizabethan Inventions and Inventors Timeline

Renaissance & Elizabethan Inventions and Inventors Timeline







1450: Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press with movable type in Germany






1510: Leonardo da Vinci designs a horizontal water wheel






1510: Peter Henlein invents the pocket watch






1513: Urs Graf invents etching






1537: Tartaglia's gunner's quadrant for aiming cannon, 1st firing tables






1540: Toriano invents a mandolin-playing automaton






1543: John Dee creates a wooden beetle that can fly for an undergraduate production - one of the first robots






1550: John Dee, 'the guiding spirit' of the English school of mathematicians wrote a notable preface to the first edition in English of Euclid's Elements of Geometry






1565: Conrad Gesner of Switzerland invents the pencil






1568: Bottled beer is invented in London






1569: Gerard Mercator invents Mercator map projection






1582: Pope Gregory XIII invents the modern, Gregorian calendar






1583: Leonard and Thomas Digges invent the telescope






1589: William Lee invents the knitting machine






1590: Dutchmen, Hans & Zacharias Janssen invent the compound microscope






1591: Sir John Harington invents the flush toilet in England






1593: Francis Bacon invented the frozen chicken






1593: Galileo invents a water thermometer






1600: William Gilbert publishes treatise "On the Magnet". William Gilbert is referred to as the father of the science of electricity and magnetism






The first telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey (c1570-c1619). The telescope was introduced to astronomy in 1609 by Galileo Galilei

The Flush Toilet--Interesting Facts on an Amazing Invention

The Flush Toilet--A Great Invention



In most developed nations today, people take some important inventions for granted. Prior to the modern period, most people in urban areas lived in filthy conditions. One of the things that led to these horrible conditions were the methods of waste removal--a toss out the window into the street, regardless of who may have been walking in front or below the window. With no real sewage systems to get rid of such rubbish, it festered and bred more pathogens to infect the unsuspecting. It is no wonder that Norman Cantor's Civilization of the Middle Ages pointed out that the first thing that those entering a medieval town would have noticed was the smell.






This awful situation was largely alleviated with the re-adoption of mass sewage systems and flush toilets that removed such waste from the general population (although there was then the problem of sewage-infested rivers).
Interesting Facts on the Flush Toilet



1. The first flush toilets in world history were apparently developed by the Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley. Archaeological digs in sites known as Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day India revealed that most dwellings in these fairly sizable early cities were in use in the mid-2000s BC, in other words about 2,500 years before Christ, give or take a few years.






2. This wonderful technology diffused to European civilization with the Minoan civilization on Crete. The flush toilet was a widespread technology in the Roman Empire, and there is evidence that the flush toilet even made its way to Britain at Hadrian's Wall. Unfortunately, this wonderful invention was lost to Europeans after the fall of the Romans. What did the Romans bring to Europe, in addition, to roads, the Pax Romana, and aqueducts? Of course, the flush toilet.






3. Elizabeth I of England actually had a flush toilet, introduced to the sovereign by her godson Sir John Harrington. While this toilet flushed, there was no trap to keep out the wonderful gasses and odors that build up. This was quite an improvement over the medieval English "castle garderobe," which was basically a toilet-like stand built in a small room that hanged over a moat. Falling in a moat in England at this time was obviously not a terribly positive experience, although with the lack of bathing in Europe during the medieval period, these poor souls probably fit right in.






4. At about the time the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, a Brit by the name of Alexander Cummings patented the S-trap to keep out the stench that a straight pipe allowed to seep back into the privy.






5. Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. That urban legend needs to be ...well...flushed down the crapper, as did his advertisement that he had patented an improvement to the flush toilet.





6. In 1994, the US government mandated that flush toilets should only use 1.6L per flush, rather than the 3.4L previously the standard. Interestingly, the two flushes needed to unstop large (or even not-so-large) clogs would have been avoided by simply leaving things the way they were.






A Holiday for the Flush Toilet--World Toilet Day


This interesting fact on the flush toilet needs its own heading, rather than being merely relegated to the rest of the list. Yes, the flush toilet has its own special day. November 19 is World Toilet Day, and the celebration of the flush toilet is meant to "raise global awareness of the struggle 2.6 billion face every day without access to proper, clean sanitation.WTD also brings to the forefront the health, emotional and psychological consequences the poor endure as a result of inadequate sanitation." (WTO website) World Toilet Day is such a big deal that Time magazine even felt the need to promote it.






Well, dear readers, I hope you found this short venture into the wonderful world of the flush toilet. Be glad you don't live in the medieval period and happy flushing. If you found this Hub especially entertaining, please share, because everyone needs to remember the importance of this wonderful invention that greatly improves our lives.






Important Links about the Flush Toilet


Thomas Crapper - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


World Toilet Organization - World Toilet Day


World Toilet Organization (WTO) is a global non- profit organization committed to Improving sanitation conditions for people globally through powerful advocacy, inventive technology, education and building marketplace opportunities locally.


World Toilet Day Raises Sanitation Awareness - TIME


From outhouses to water closets, humans have been devising creative ways to go to the bathroom since, well, the first person crossed his legs with an urgent need to go


Flush toilet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia