Thursday 25 February 2010

Did you know?

Why is blue for boys and pink for girls?
In ancient times, it was believed that certain colors could combat the evil spirits that lingered over nurseries. Because blue was associated with the heavenly spirits, boys were clothed in that color, boys then being considered the most valuable resource to parents. Although baby girls did not have a color associated with them, they were mostly clothed in black. It was only in the Middle Ages when pink became associated with baby girls.

Go to the webpage: www.didyouknow.org

Watch the video: Did you kow?

33 comments:

  1. NOSTRADAMUS, the French Christian Jew who lived in France in the 16th century, made many accurate forecasts, including the two World Wars. 18 of his 950 quatrains refer to a third world war. Some Nostradamus experts had given the date for the start of such a war as mid-1999, referring to the Balkan conflict surrounding Kosovo. They obviously misinterpreted the quatrains. Their attention then turned to the 11 September 2001 terrorist attack on
    the World Trade Center in New York.

    NF

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dinosaur diets

    Plant-eating dinosaurs did not eat grass, because there wasn’t any – so it is thought. During the Mesozoic Era, when the dinosaurs lived, conifers – cone-bearing trees and shrubs – dominated the landscape. They included redwoods, yews, pines, palms, cypress and the monkey puzzle tree. Flowering plants and grass evolved only later.
    By the way, a plant does not look like its parents, but will always resemble its grandparents.

    17

    ReplyDelete
  3. What is called?

    A building in which silence is enforced, like a library or school room, is referred to as a silentium.

    17

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Why do people kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas?

    In ancient myth, when the son of the Norse goddess Frigga was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe and then brought back to life, she blessed the mistletoe and bestowed a kiss on all who passed beneath it. In the 18th century, the legend was adopted as a promise to marry. At Christmas a lady standing under a mistletoe may not refuse a kiss. If she does, she cannot expect to marry the following year. So it is told.

    22

    ReplyDelete
  6. What cigarettes contain?

    Tobacco is a $200 billion industry, producing six trillion cigarettes a year – about 1,000 cigarettes for each person on earth. And this is what you’ll find in cigarettes:
    Life insurance companies charge smokers nearly double the amount they charge non-smokers for term assurance. Some tobacco companies also own shares in life assurance companiesSmokers are ten times more likely to suffer from lung cancer than non-smokers, three times more likely to have a stroke, and twice more likely to suffer a heart attack.Tobacco causes more deaths than those caused by all the wars of the past 100 years, including World Wars One and Two. More than three million people die each year as a result of smoking.Nicotine is a drug.
    Nº1

    ReplyDelete
  7. LOST NUCLEAR BOMBS:
    The very first bomb that the Allies dropped on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo, it is said. The NATO attack on Serbia in 1999 killed more animals than people. One skimmed over the house of a small farmer a few miles off target, straight up a track, through bushes, and exploded in the farmer’s field, killing seven sheep, one cow and a goat. The farmer kept the missile nosecone as a souvenir.
    Nº2

    ReplyDelete
  8. Why do you get hiccups?

    Hiccups happen when the diaphragm, the muscle that control our breathing, because irrited and start to spasm and contract uncontrollably. The air passes through the voice box, epiglottis closes behind the rush of air, shaking the vocal chords, causing the "hic" sound.
    The irritation can be caused by rapid eating, emotional ...
    - The best cure?
    Is breathing into a paper bag, because this calms the diaphragm.

    A.Y. 25

    ReplyDelete
  9. People never thought that it would never be possible to make a machine that thinks as humans do.The human brain consists of more than 100 billion neurons. this seems unbelievable , but it`s true. many people say that robots will dominate the world.

    nº9 A.G

    ReplyDelete
  10. If blood is red, why are veins blue?

    Blood is bright red in its oxygenated form and a dark red in deoxygenated form. In simpler terms, it is bright red when it leaves the lungs full of oxygen and dark red when it returns to the lungs for a refill. Veins appear blue because light penetrating the skin is absorbed and reflected in high energy wavelengths back to the eye. Higher energy wavelengths are blue.
    10

    ReplyDelete
  11. Valentine’s Day In 391AD, Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity as the official religion of the Rome. The fertility festival was celebrated until 496AD when Pope Gelasius replaced it with a similar celebration. For patron saint of the celebration, he chose the “lovers” saint, St Valentine. He also moved the date of the celebration from the 15 February to the date of St Valentine’s death, 14 February. Through the centuries, Valentines Day became to be remembered more as the festival of love instead of a religious day. In 1969 it was dropped from the Roman Catholic calendar as a designated feast day.




    Cupid has always played a role in the celebrations of love. Those whose hearts are pierced by his arrows fall deeply in love. In Greek mythology he was known as Eros, the young son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. To the Romans, he was Cupid, son of Venus. But where there’s love, there often is jealousy. Venus was jealous of the beauty of Psyche, a mere mortal, and ordered Cupid to punish her (for being so beautiful). Instead, Cupid fell deeply in love and took her as his wife.
    8

    ReplyDelete
  12. Why is the sky blue?
    When sunlight travels through the atmosphere, it collides with gas molecules. These molecules scatter the light. The shorter the wavelength of light, the more it is scattered by the atmosphere. Because it has a shorter wavelength than the other colors, blue light is scattered more, ten times more than red light, for instance. That is why the sky is blue.
    Why does the setting sun look reddish orange? When the sun is on the horizon, its light takes a longer path through the atmosphere to reach your eyes than when the sun is directly overhead. By the time the light of the setting sun reaches your eyes, most of the blue light has been scattered out. The light you finally see is reddish orange, the color of white light minus blue..
    nº18

    ReplyDelete
  13. Most expensive items sold on eBay

    Worldwide some 200 million people buy or sell 1 billion items on eBay every year, trading $2 000 worth of goods every second. More than a million people trade on eBay as a full time job. And while the eBay auctions are best known for finding bargains there also have been some very expensive items sold on eBay:

    1. Gulfstream II jet: $4.9 million.

    2. 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card: $1.65 million.

    3. Shoeless Joe Jackson’s “Black Betsy” baseball bat: $577,610.

    4. Diamond Lake Resort in western Kentucky: $1.2 million.

    5. Round of golf with Tiger Woods: $425,000.

    12, 23

    ReplyDelete
  14. Valentine’s Day


    Valentine’s Day originates from the ancient Roman fertility festival of Lupercalia, which was celebrated on 15 February in honor of the gods Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. During the festival, young men would draw the names of women from a box, and each couple would be paired until next year’s celebration. Often they would fall in love and marry.

    At around 270AD Rome was facing battles and civil uprising. The men were not keen to join the army. Emperor Claudius II believed that the men did not want to leave their loved ones and summarily canceled all marriages and engagements. Two priests, Valentine and Marius, disobeyed the decree and secretly performed marriage ceremonies. Valentine was caught on 14 February and dragged to jail. Later in the day he was clubbed to death and beheaded. It is said that, before his execution, Valentine himself had fallen in love with the jailer’s daughter. He signed his final note to her, “From your Valentine.”

    Through the centuries, Valentines Day became to be remembered more as the festival of love instead of a religious day.
    19

    ReplyDelete
  15. 2000 effect in the play station 3! Some play station didn’t work online.




    Two days ago, people who has got play station 3, woke up with a sad notice: some plays station 3 couldn’t work because of a kind of a 2000 effect. Players who used to play online, could lose some prize they won… as if they had never won anything.

    It happened in chain, suddenly, 1st of March 2010 was 31st of December 1999 and it was impossible to change the date.

    It happened just to the consoles which were made before 2009, so I 2000 effect in the PS3 didn’t affect me.

    Now everything is OK, Sony, the brand that make these consoles has apologized in the net and everyone has got their lovely prizes and is perfect now.

    I am happy because my play3 is new and it didn’t affect to my console, anyway I don’t play so much online and I wasn’t worried.
    6

    ReplyDelete
  16. The Tower of Pisa has never been straight!


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

    Since regular measuring of the tower began in 1911, the top of the tower has moved 1,2 millimetres per year. Today the top of the Tower of Pisa is some 5,3m off to the center.

    Progetto Torre di Pisa (Tower of Pisa Project Consortium) commissioned engineers to stabilize the Leaning Tower. Engineers are working on the footing of the Tower rather than the structure, hoping to ease the top back about 20 cm. But it means that the 800-year old tower will remain leaning.
    14

    ReplyDelete
  17. A grand piano plays faster than an upright piano


    The king of instruments, the piano has 88 keys, each producing a unique tone. The black keys represent sharps and flats. The white keys are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet. Starting at the left, the first white key is A, with the lowest tone. The second is B, and so on through G, and starting with A again at the eighth key. The distance between any piano key of the same name is an octave. The highest tone on the piano is the eighth C. A piano covers the full spectrum of all orchestra instruments, from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo – which span the frequency range 27.5 Hz (A0) to 4186 Hz (C8).

    A grand piano can be played faster than an upright (spinet) piano because it has a repetition lever that allows the pianist to repeat the note when it is only half way up. An upright piano requires letting the key all the way up to reset the hammer action.
    23

    ReplyDelete
  18. Largest cruise ships in the world

    Ferdinand Magellan was the first person who led the first circumnavigation of earth in the 16th century. His float, 5 ships, where about 33 metres, and with a 10 knots speed. Today, ships and cruise liners exceed 300 metres and 30 knots. The Queen Elizabeth was the longest cruise liner when she was launched in 1938, being 314 metres long.
    The Grand Princess, which cruises the Mediterranean, is one of the biggest. She accommodates 2,600 passengers. The Carnival Destiny entertains 3,400 passengers at a time in the Caribbean. The two 142,000 tonnes sister ships Voyager of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas are not shy of their size. They cruise in at 308m in length. The Titanic, built for $10 million in 1911, was 265m long.
    In November 2009 Royal Caribbean introduced their Oasis Class of liners with the launch of the Oasis of the Seas setting a new standard for cruise ships. With Gross Tonnage at 220,000and 360.9m with aprox. 6,292 happy cruise addicts who will be served by 2,290 staff. The Oasis of the Seas is longer than any US aircraft carrier and features the Central Park with 12,000 real trees and plants. She is the world’s largest cruise ship.


    Nrº 13

    ReplyDelete
  19. PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

    I have seen a one did you know? in a video.
    This video was about technologies and social innovations: future.

    Visits to page views for the reading of newspapers, has increased for 5 millions, until his paper circulation has decreased for 7 millions about 25 years ago.
    Has noticed a strong decreased in cable television, radio and magazines specially.
    Also speaks of music downloads, of record sales decrease and ilegal music downloads increase.
    The video talks about mobile use thanks to new advanced technologies, and the amount of text messages wich people send on a day.
    The 90% of emails that people send now a day are spam.

    LP.15

    ReplyDelete
  20. Mercedes cars are named after an Austrian girl

    In 1897, Austrian businessman Emil Jellinek, he decided to enter it into a local touring competition, under the name of “Mercedes” after his favorite 9 year old daughter. Realizing the business potential for the new car, also secured the franchise for selling them in several countries. Gottlieb Daimler also agreed to having them sold under the name of “Mercedes.” The Mercedes trade name was registered after Daimler’s death in 1900 and the 3-pointed star became the trade mark. Daimler had once drawn the emblem on a postcard to his wife, the star symbolizing the growth of the business. After the First World War the Daimler and Benz companies worked closer together. They amalgamated in 1926, combining the laurel wreath and 3-pointed star as their trade mark.


    V.G.

    ReplyDelete
  21. PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

    I have seen a one did you know? in a video.
    This video was about technologies and social innovations: future.

    Visits to page views for the reading of newspapers, has increased for 5 millions, until his paper circulation has decreased for 7 millions about 25 years ago.
    Has noticed a strong decreased in cable television, radio and magazines specially.
    Also speaks of music downloads, of record sales decrease and ilegal music downloads increase.
    The video talks about mobile use thanks to new advanced technologies, and the amount of text messages wich people send on a day.
    The 90% of emails that people send now a day are spam.

    15

    ReplyDelete
  22. 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.

    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.



    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.



    The Leaning Tower of Pisa stands in the Piazza dei Miracoli (Miracle Square) in the town of Pisa, Italy. There are 296 steps to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

    ReplyDelete
  23. IN A RECENT SURVEY IN BRITAIN, OVER 25 PER CENT OF TEENAGERS SAID THEY FELT STRESSED AT LEAST ONCE A DAY. AND NOTHING, THEY SAY, MAKES THEM FEEL MORE STRESSED THAN EXAMS. OVER 90 PER CENT OF TEENAGERS REPORTED SUFFERING FROM STRESS AT EXAM TIME. THEY COMPLAINED OF HEADACHES, LOSS OF APPETITE, AND INABILITY TO SLEEP.

    FEAR OF FAILING IS AN OBVIOUS REASON. FAILING AN EXAM MIGHT MEAN YOU MISS OUT ON THE SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OR EVEN JOB OF YOUR CHOICE. HOWEVER, STUDENTS ALSO SAY THAT PRESSURE FROM PARENTS AND TEACHERS CAN REALLY ADD TO THE STRESS.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hello!These things are quite interesting.I like them, I didn't know why pink is for girl and blue for boys, but now lots of boys have clothes pink, like t-shirts and shirts.
    Congratulations for your blog, I like too much.
    My class have a blog too is:
    http://www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com
    Bye Bye!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi!
    Congratulations for your post!
    Its interesting to know why boys are asociated with blue and girls with pink.
    We also have a blog:
    http://www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com
    I hope you have a look at it
    bye!

    ReplyDelete
  26. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hi!
    Congratulation for your post,I like it very much,is very interesting,I think that blue doesn't have to be for boys and pink for girls,boys and girls can wear the colour they want.
    I have a blog with my class too is:
    www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hello!!
    Your post is relly interesting I like them, but I don't know why the boys use the blue colour and the girls use the pink colour, but I'm a boy and I don't use the blue colour so much.
    I have a blog with my class too the address is: www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  31. Hello!
    I like the article, it shows something interesting. Well, I don't know why girls are identified with pink colour and boys with blue colour, but I think that this is changing because now boys use more pink colour and girls blue colour. I have a blog with my class too, I hope you visit it:
    www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  32. Hi!!

    I´m Lorena Gomez.
    My high school is Parque de Lisboa and we have a blog too!

    Your entry is very interesting!

    I didn´t know why the blue colour was associated with the boys and the pink colour with the girls!

    You can sign there if you want:
    www.englishinbrunete.blogspot.com

    Bye! :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. hello!!

    i like this post and it is a very good question, but i don't know why the colourblue is associated to boys and pink for girls.
    I like blu but i dont have only blue clothes...

    My class have a blog too is:
    http://www.englishinbutarque.blogspot.com
    Bye

    ReplyDelete