30 Jan 2012 - Top ten movie births

I was reading The Age online and found a link to The Vine's list of top ten movie births. I thought, okay this might be interesting, but it turns out that it wasn't really all that interesting. It was a random list of movies that spanned a few decades, but it appeared that the author of the article had just decided what he thought was the best births and included very little information, if any, as to how he had come to his conclusions, or as to why one birth was higher up on the list than another. The number one movie was a horror movie called 'The Fly' with Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum. The reason that this movie was number one was because Geena Davis dreams that she gives birth to a maggot!

Reading this list got me to thinking, what makes a good top ten list? Based on the evidence it seems that anybody can create a top ten list. The problem that I see is that nobody seems to explain how they got to the conclusion that these items beat all the other items who could content for inclusion on the list. I believe it comes down to the type of list, for example the other day I was reading about the top ten largest public companies. This list was made up of quantitative data and so there was a tangible reason and a list of criteria that each company is measured against in order to make the top ten list. I understand this list and it makes sense to me. However when it comes to a qualitative lists such as the top ten all time greatest movies or the top ten movie births, what is the criteria that measures these lists? You never get to know how each item reached their lists most of the time, in some cases they say, 'a list as voted by you,' but usually it just appears to be one person's opinion. If that is the case then I could come up with a top ten list, how about the top ten all time greatest blogs, I know which one would be number one! I guess what I have learnt today is that The Vine believes that The Fly contains the all time greatest movie birth, but the lesson I am taking away is that anybody can make up a top ten list about anything they choose. I guess this should have already been obvious to me considering David Letterman has been doing it for years!

The top ten list was on The Vine website.

29 Jan 2012 - Top ten Largest Publicly listed companies

I read an article in The Age online to day about Facebook being floated as a publicly listed company and that it is expected to become one of the largest companies in the world. It said that Facebook would be alongside, Bank of America, McDonald's and Amazon.com. I thought that was an interesting combination of companies and it got me to thinking, what are the largest companies in the world? I decided to do a little Googling on the subject. It turns out the information is actually quite easy to find, it is all listed on Forbes.com.

After taking a look at the list of the top ten companies I noticed that banking, finance and oil companies predominated. Four of the top ten were banks (Citigroup ranked 1, Bank of America ranked 3, HSBC Group ranked 5 and JPMorgan Chase ranked 9), three of the top ten were oil & gas companies (ExxonMobil ranked 6, Royal Dutch/Shell Group ranked 7 and BP ranked 8), one was a financial company (UBS ranked 10), one an insurance company (American Intl Group ranked 3) and the last was a conglomerate who also has a financial services division (General Electric ranked 2). All the data on the Forbes website was current and so it seems that in a climate of economic uncertainty, Banks and Oil companies are still making huge profits. I guess it is not surprising really, no matter the economic climate people will still drive their cars, trucks, boats or bikes. It is the same for Banks, even if people are defaulting on loans, everyone still needs the services of a Bank, so Oil and Banks are always going to be essential services, regardless of the political or economic environment.

Check out the top two thousand global companies on Forbes.com.

28 Jan 2012 - How to Boogie (Body) Board

I am currently on a beach holiday with friends of mine and have been struggling with how to use a Boogie (Body) board. I just can't seem to consistently catch the waves or ride very far. To help me better use the board my friend gave me a lesson which I found to be very helpful. Firstly I needed to put one hand on top of the board so that the force of the wave wouldn't push the board out from under me, the other hand should be on the side of the board, I chose my right hand on top and left to the side, because I am right handed. Next I need to get on the board with my lower chest, but not too much of my body on the board or I will push the nose of the board down and the wave will toss me down instead of forward. I should maintain the top of the board by my body weight at one end and push the board with my top hand to balance it out and keep the nose just on top of the water. Also to keep your body low to the board, so do not have your elbows on the board, you need to be as aerodynamic as possible. Then finally I need to jump forward when the wave is just about to break. Now I admit, these tips are all well and good, but when the wave is coming it is hard to keep them all in mind, so the best thing to do is practice!

I spent a couple of hours practicing today and managed to catch four waves all the way to the beach. The feeling of the wave picking you up and you hurtling along to the beach is a great feeling and was worth all of the failed attempts. The failed attempts were still heaps of fun! The more I practiced the more I got to know when to jump, and to notice that not all waves can be ridden all the way into the beach, some waves just die down a long way from the sand and are impossible to ride all the way. Overall I would recommend for anyone to try Boogie boarding, and to fail as well. I am still not consistently catching the waves, but I am catching more than I was before and having much more fun along the way!

27 Jan 2012 - American Army's Successful Slogan

I was reading my book today, "The men who stare at goats", having finished "Fall of Giants", and I read an interesting fact. The American army's slogan, "Be All You Can Be", was once voted by Advertising Age magazine the second most successful advertising slogan in America. The most successful slogan was from McDonalds, "You deserve a break today", which was used in the early 70's and again in the early 80's. Reading this got me to thinking about how much advertising slogans are a part of our lives. I still remember slogans for Cottee's Cordial (My Dad, picks the fruit, that goes to Cottee's. To make the cordial, that I like best), Vegemite (Happy little Vegemites, as bright as bright can be) and of course Aeroplane Jelly (I like Aeroplane Jelly, Aeroplane Jelly for me). If an advertising slogan or song is done well, it will remind you of the product when you think about any related topic, not just think of the slogan when you think of the product.

A great example is the Blue Ribbon Ice Cream ad. This ad was aired a number of years ago and I loved it. I tried to find the YouTube clip, but couldn't locate it, so I will have to describe it to you. A family is sitting around the table, and the son says, "Hey Dad, can you please pass me the ice cream." The grandmother, who seems a little senile, pipes up, "He's not your dad, we never knew who your Dad was!" Then the scene cuts to tub of Blue Ribbon ice cream, with the words "Some things are just not meant to be shared." Then it cuts back to the mother leading the grandmother out, and the grandmother bangs on the table. It was a great ad and to this day I still laugh when I think about it and even feel the need to share it with others when it comes to mind. It usually comes to mind when I think of a secret, or when someone mentions something they shouldn't have and obvisouly when I see Blue Ribbon Ice Cream. I think this ad, and many others like it, are examples of great slogans, because you think of the ad not only when you look at the product, but also when you think of things associated with the slogan.

I have no references for this blog, as I was unable to find the YouTube clip for the Blue Ribbon ad!

26 Jan 2012 - Coloured Cigarettes

I have always been against cigarettes and people smoking, I can believe that it is addictive and hard to quit but what I don't understand is why young people, who have been taught the risks associated with smoking, are still taking up this filthy habit. Previously cigarettes were seen as cool, and the advertising for cigarettes were everywhere, you could see them in magazines, on television or radio. I could believe in this environment that the advertsing would have kept them in the forefront of your mind and the image of cigarettes being cool would have contributed to people smoking. However, these days, there is no advertising, as it has been banned, and they are even looking to ban any type of branding on packaging of all cigarettes to make them seem generic. Smoking is becoming more restricted and the image of a smoker is no longer considered cool. In this environment of bans and restrictions on cigarettes, it surprises me that the cigarette companies are not looking for other ways to make their cigarettes distinguishable, which is why I was surprised to learn my fact for the day.

Today whilst having a conversation with my friend and her family, I discovered that in the 60's and 70's there were a brand of cigarettes called Cocktails which came in 5 different colours, as in the actual cigarette had a pastel coloured paper instead of white, and the filter was a gold colour. These cigarettes were apparently quite fashionable at the time. It got me to thinking, today everyone is looking to personalise their products, different colours and styles of phone covers and different coloured personal computers.  Also many other products that used to come in standard colours are now being produced in different colours to personalise their products to suit consumer tastes. It struck me as odd, that the idea of changing the colour of cigarettes has not occurred to these companies, when in fact, this kind of product has existed for almost as long as cigarettes have been around. Then I realised that cigarette manufacturers spend millions of dollars, if not billions, fighting different law suits against their companies, and millions of dollars fighting governments, such as the Australian government for reducing their market share with their laws around plain packaging. They are an inductry that is just fighting to maintain their position and probably don't see any point in trying to differentiate or excite people with the products, they are realistic that their companies are in decline, as more and more people quit smoking and more and more restrictions are being placed on smokers. What is the point in trying to excite people with their brand, if they try, someone will just shut their ideas down, so why try. I must say that this attitude suits me fine, because the sooner cigarettes are gone from this planet, the sooner everyone can breathe easier.

The brand of cigarettes were called Sobranie Cocktails, there is an article about them on wikipedia.

25 Jan 2012 - Buckley's chance

I was speaking to another work colleague today about Point Lonsdale, and she told me a story about Buckley, a convict that lived with the local Aboriginal people in the area in the early 1800s. This story, she said, was the origin of the saying, you have "Buckleys chance". I had always heard the saying but I had never associated this story with the saying, so I did a little further research on the subject. It turns out that there is a dispute regarding the saying's origin. A department store called Buckley & Nunn opened in 1851 and continued until 1982 when it was purchased by David Jones. When asking if something was possible, the old saying was you have two chances, Buckely's & None, meaning you don't really have any option because Buckley's & None (Nunn) are one and the same thing. This is the story I had always associated with the saying.

Today however I was told of the other version of the origin of Buckley's chance. William Buckley was an escaped soldier from a colony on the Mornington peninsula, as the area was poor for farming it was decided to abandon the colony. Buckley and some other convicts escaped via boat and landed in the area near the site where the city of Melbourne was later settled. The other convicts went North to Sydney (not realising it was 1000 kms away) but Buckley decided to strike off on this own. He moved around past where Geelong now stands and found a spear sticking up out of the ground, which he adopted as a walking aide. Buckley had originally avoided the local Aboriginal population, however in picking his walking stick he had unwittingly taken the spear from the top of a local Aboriginal's grave. Some local Aboriginal women recognised the spear and believed that he was the returned spirit of their departed relative. Buckley remained living with the Wathaurung people for the next 30 years, until he spotted a ship off the coast and decided to approach the camp who had disembarked from the ship. This improbable tale of survival lead to the saying, you have Buckley's chance or Buckley's and no chance of that happening. Implying that the possibility of something happening was very improbable, if not impossible. After hearing both stories, I much prefer the origin involving William Buckley, for me it fits better with the saying.

If you would like to read more about William Buckley you can on Wikipedia or the Australian Dictionary of Biography. There is also a Wikipedia article on Buckley & Nunn, which contains a section on the saying, Buckley's chance.

24 Jan 2012 - Shoichi Yokoi survived three decades

Today I was talking to one of my work colleagues and he told me about this Japanese soldier who survived for nearly three decades in the jungles on a small island called Guam. I read the article, Shoichi Yokoi was the name of the Japanese soldier and back in 1944 he was stationed on the small island of Guam. In July of that year, US forces stormed the island, when the battle was lost and the command left the soldiers to fend for themselves, Shoichi and his men went into hiding. Having no way of contacting anyone, they took to hiding and removing all traces of their passage. It was considered the greatest shame to be captured by enemy soldiers, so avoiding the US forces and local populace became their way of life. Feeling that they would be easily detected in the more populated areas they moved into the jungles and fed on poisonous toads, river eels and rats. Many of the soldiers died in the first few years, shrinking the group to a few dozen. In 1964 the last of his men died, leaving him as the sole survivor. As Shoichi was a resourceful man he managed to survive until 1972 by  building himself an underground shelter and using his eel trap, made out of reeds, to catch his meals. When he was discovered by a local hunting group in 1972, he was still fearful for his life. Thinking that the hunters were US soldiers sent to capture him, he fought with them, but due to years of poor diet, he was easily captured. He returned to Japan to a hero's welcome, however he never managed to settle into modern life in Japan.

I found this story fascinating but also quite sad. On one hand he makes Bear Grylls seem like a bit of a part timer, and the way that he survived for so many years is astonishing. He was obviously a very resourceful man. However the story is quite sad if you think of the many years that he remained hidden, well after the war was over. The war ended in 1945, just over a year after the original battle had been fought, however Shoichi remained hidden for another twenty-seven years. Most of the prime of his life was spend hidden underground in the jungle on a small island, when it could have been spent with his family on the Japanese mainland in relative comfort. In our society was complain about the 27 minutes wasted whilst we wait for a meal at a restaurant, time we say we will never get back, or time wasted in traffic, or in a bad movie. I myself am guilty of voicing similar complaints, but if you add up all the times that I have complained and wished I hadn't wasted my time, I don't think it will ever in my lifetime add up to 27 years! Keeping that in mind, I think it is probably time for us all to stop complaining! 

If you would like to read the article it was on the BBC News online.

23 Jan 2012 - Kevin Rudd blends tea

I admit that I have never been a fan of Kevin Rudd, as Prime Minister I always found him to be commenting on the most bizarre topics. I would often think, I wish our Prime Minister would spend more time commenting on issues that I are important to our country, such as the Global Financial Crisis, and leaving topics, such as the topless sunbather who put out a fire, to shows like Good News Week. Unfortunately for me Kevin felt that it was his job to comment on everything and even went as far as appearing on Good News Week a few times. It seems that perhaps his version of what is acceptable for a Prime Minister and mine are at odds and since only one of us has been Prime Minister, I guess he gets to decide which. The only real explanation for his behaviour I can come up with, is that at some point in the past Kevin must have joined a competition to become the most popular politician, unsurprisingly, no other politicians entered, but Kevin decided to compete anyway.

Supporting this theory I today discovered that Kevin has blended his own brew of tea, and won a competition against other celebrities to have his tea packaged by Twinings and sold to the Australian public, with each tin sold raising ten cents for the RSPCA.  To support his entry into the  Twinings competition he made a YouTube video where he gets his cat and dog to drink his blend of tea. I found this odd behaviour for a politician, however the five pages of comments, on his YouTube video, are very supportive of his entrance in the competition and of his video overall. This has got me to thinking perhaps my view of what is appropriate is out of date? Then I think, I can't imagine Barack Obama making a YouTube video of his cat drinking a blend of tea, in order to enter a competition against other celebrities, so, perhaps I am right after all!

You can watch Kevin's YouTube video, or read the original article in The Age. I also discovered the original article about the tea competition in The Australian.

Some facts are interesting to learn.

22 Jan 2012 - Definition of Dilettante

Once again I have been reading 'Fall of Giants' and I came across another word to which I didn't know the meaning. One of the characters was referring to the Russian Officers in the army under the Tsar's reign and referred to them as dilettantes. Now as I said previously I would normally be able to work out the meaning of the word based on the story line and events in the book and in this story the Russian army's leadership was looked on poorly, so I knew that the word would be derogatory towards the officers. However I was still not able to ascertain the exact meaning, so I again turned to my good friend Dictionary.com!

It turns out that a dilettante is "a person who takes up an art, activity or subject merely for amusement, especially in a desultory or superficial way". This did fit the description of the Russian military leadership of the Tsar throughout the book. It reminded my of a conversation that I had years ago, when I was at University, where a girl was arguing with me that there were too many words in the English language for people to learn and that we needed to restrict our vocabularies so that everyone could understand each other better. I argued the opposite, that we should all widen our vocabularies so that our communications with other would be more succinct and accurate. We agreed to disagree in the end, however the more that I learn new words, such as dilettante and learn their meaning the more I agree with my original argument. Even though I had to look this word up to determine the meaning, upon learning the definition, the author chose this word and it conveys exactly the right impression of these officers and I don't think any other word could fit the situation as perfectly. This further strengthens my thoughts that we should always be expanding our vocabularies not contracting them!

If you wish to look up the definition of dilettante or other words, check out Dictionary.com.

21 Jan 2012 - Tough Mudder

Previously I had seen on my Facebook that some of my friends liked Tough Mudder. I assumed it was some new comedy routine about some guy who pretends to be tough, similar to that guy who pretends to be Chopper, I mean he was funny I guess but I wasn't interesting in finding out any details of similar comedy. Today however I was having lunch with a friend of mine and she told me she had entered Tough Mudder. I was a little confused, so obviously I asked more questions. It turns out my initial thoughts we way off! Tough Mudder is in fact a hardcore obstacle course designed by the British Special Forces! It consists of an 18-20km track that tests your strength, stamina, mental grit and camaraderie and contains 15km of hills, mud, water, ropes, electric shocks and fire! 

Once my friend had explained what she knew of the event, my initial thoughts were, "OMG what are you thinking of to want to run this course!" I later looked for further details on Google and after more investigation it looks like this Tough Mudder course is not only a physical challenge but also heaps of fun. I am now wondering if I could be fit enough to run this course! I am still not convinced that I want to, but the more I think the more I wonder! Maybe I need to ditch the marathon idea and replace it with the Tough Mudder course!

If you are interested to know more about Tough Mudder, check out the FAQ page.

Some things you learn are not what you were expecting!

20 Jan 2012 - Spy Rock

I vaguely remember a scandal from back in 2006 where the Russians claimed that the British were using a rock to spy on them. I don't think I even read the article, it just seemed far fetched and at the time I wasn't even interested. Today however there was an article in the paper about a spy rock, I don't know what has changed in me (probably I am now looking for material for my blog without knowing it) but this article intrigued me! The Russians claimed back in 2006 that the British government had been using a fake rock hidden outside on a Russian street (presumably near an suspected intelligence building) to download and store sensitive information until such time as a British agent could retrieve the data. The Russians had video tape of alleged British agents walking past the rock and kicking it, presumably because it wasn't working correctly and even of a British diplomat picking the rock up and removing it.

Back in 2006 the British government laughed this incident off as a joke, but apparently nobody was really fooled and what I learnt today was that in a recent interview Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's chief of staff in 2006, has admitted that the rock was in fact their "spy rock". Powell said, "There's not much you can say. The spy rock was embarrassing. They had us bang to rights. Clearly, they had known about it for some time and had been saving it up for a political purpose." Upon reading this I thought it was hilarious but also fantastic, it is all very James Bond or Mission Impossible. I had always loved the gadgets in these movies and TV shows, especially those in Get Smart like the 'cone of silence'. The 'spy rock' has restored my faith that one day soon we will all have shoe phones!

The article was on The Age website.

Some facts learnt are more fun than others!

19 Jan 2012 - Interpreting dreams of Facebook

I have always been interested in the interpretation of dreams, as I believe that they are the link to our subconscious. I have often thought that we ponder things in the back of our mind to which we don't necessarily give much conscious thought, but that may be worrying us. Our conscious mind doesn't pick up on these thoughts until our subconscious has pondered enough and perhaps come to a solution. In my opinion dreams are the link between our conscious and subconscious and might be able to offer us an insight into the things that might be bothering us of which we are not aware. This theory is strongly supported by that fact that we have recurring dreams. This isn't a new theory, and my opinion is shared by others, which is why I was able to discover, via Google, a dream dictionary online, which has interpretations as to subjects on which our subconscious might be focused, based on the topic of our dreams.

I have often read this dictionary after I have had a memorable dream and the interpretation of what I was dreaming made sense to my everyday life as something to which my subconscious might have been focused. Today however I was just flicking through the dream dictionary and I noticed an interesting addition, it appears that people who dream about Facebook are desiring to expand their social circle. My first thought was 'Are you serious!' To give you a bit of context I will tell you two other examples, dreaming of tape (such as sticky tape or scotch tape) represents limitations or perhaps that you feel you need to show restraint in your life. A soiled tablecloth signifies disobedience and quarrels. Two examples with meanings that don't necessarily relate to the topic, which is the kind of thing that I would expect from a dream dictionary. Facebook is a social networking site, it is not a great leap to assume that if you dream about it, then you might be wanting to expand your social circle. Was the work experience kid in charge the day the Facebook entry was added? I don't put much stock into the definitions overall, but as with reading your star signs, I like the read the meanings and try to puzzle out if this relates to my life and how. The Facebook entry doesn't require any puzzling and it has made me lose what little faith I did have in the dream dictionary. To be honest I will probably keep looking and trying to interpret my dreams, but I don't think it will be as much fun anymore!

If you want to interpret your dreams check out the Dream moods Dictionary.

Still learning, but also getting disappointed with some of my findings!

18 Jan 2012 - Autological words

I was looking at my blog today and I noticed a comment from a friend of mine, it was in response to my post about the word Poltroonery, and it mentioned autological words. I had never heard of this concept and so searched further. I found a website that clearly described what an autological word was and it matched with my friends definition. There was also a list of autological words and a definition of a heterological word. If you are a bit of a word nerd you might be thinking the a heterological word, is a word that only dates Antonyms (words that is opposite in meaning to that word), but that is not the case (you may not be laughing, but I found that amusing).

Basically an autological word is a word that describes itself and a heterological word is a word that does not describe itself. Most words are heterological, only a few are autological. An example of an autological word is common, because common is a common word, or short, because short is a short word, also finite is a finite word. So if you can use the word in a sentence describing itself, then it is an autological word.

Here is a website with a list of autological words, some clear cut, others that may be less clearly autological.

Now my blog about learning something new, has helped me to learn something new!

17 Jan 2012 - Skyscrapers trigger financial crisis?

After reading The Age online today I discovered that some of the world's tallest buildings were completed shortly before a huge financial crash in the region in which they were built. The completion of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1997 preceded the Asian financial crisis and the Equitable Life Building in New York when completed coincided with a 5 year recession. Other tall buildings and their links to a financial crisis were mentioned and after reading the article all I could think was, whoever performed the study is obviously a genius! I would never have thought to link the two, it makes perfect sense! It makes me wonder what other links we are missing, like the price of fish in China, there is probably a link between that and whether there is Life on Mars! We should spend millions of dollars investigating these and other implausible links. Okay, so I couldn't write all that without cracking towards the end, I apologise!

Seriously though, why did anyone ever decide to study the correlation between the completion of a skyscraper and the start of a recession? Have we really run out of things to study, here I was thinking that we didn't have a cure for cancer, but we must if we are wasting our time studying correlations such as these! The fact that I learnt today was that a few of the worlds tallest buildings were completed around the time of a financial crisis, the lesson I have taken away however, is that we really need to stop wasting our time on useless studies!

If you would like to read the article, it is on The Age website.

Still learning but now questioning whether I really need to retain all the information that I discover!

16 Jan 2012 - The definition of Poltroonery

I have always loved learning the definition of big words, especially when they give nothing away to their meaning, such as defenestrate, which is the act of throwing a person out of a window. Another of my favourite words is sesquipedalian, which is a person who is given to using long words. I think it is quite fitting that the way to name a person who uses long words is to use a long word yourself! 

Today I was again reading my novel "Fall of Giants", and in a speech given by one of the characters they used the word poltroonery. Usually when I am reading a novel, based on the events of the novel and what the characters have been saying, I can guess at the meaning of a word, even if I don't know the exact definition. However today when reading the word poltroonery, I didn't even have a hint as to what the character was implying by using the word. In the end I had to refer to my good friend dictionary.com! It turns out that a poltroon is "a wretched coward", and to accuse someone of poltroonery is to accuse them of wretched cowardice! I liked this word, it fitted with the speech given in the book and now I know the meaning, I can add it to my vocabulary along with defenestrate and sesquipedalian. All I need to do is to find an opportunity when I can call someone a poltroon!

If you want to check the definition or other definitions I suggest dictionary.com.

16 days of learning so far!

15 Jan 2012 - Two pairs of runners for marathon training

Last year I decided that I wanted to run a marathon, so I worked out a schedule for my running and basically just started. I have always been the kind of person to just throw myself into a new thing and training for a marathon was no different! Unexpectedly (or perhaps it should have been expected and it just wasn't) I injured my knee and I thought maybe I am trying to much and I should rest a little then start again. So that is what I did, funnily enough my knee still hurt after the rest period, eventually after resting and then running again a few times didn't work out, I decided to give up on the running a marathon idea for the year and rest.

Today I learnt that when training for my marathon, I wasn't necessarily doing the wrong things, it was just there was more that I had to take into consideration. Among other facts, one that I learnt today is that when training for a marathon or even just running a few times a week, it is a good idea to have multiple (at least two) different pairs of shoes. I was told this is a good idea because when you are running, you should be also working on building up muscles in your legs from exercises and stretches aside from your running so that it reduces the stress on your joints when you run. By running in the same shoes with the same motion if you have any irregularities in your gait you will be continually stressing the same areas. Whereas if you alternate shoes then this should change your motion slightly and hopefully reduce the risk of you acquiring a repetitive motion type injury. Doing this in conjunction with leg exercises and stretching is a great compliment to other training that I was already doing for the marathon. Hopefully soon I will be ready to run again and I can get onto this running a marathon thing!

I don't have any additional information on this topic like I usually would, however I am sure Google will have an answer!

Learning something new strikes again!

14 Jan 2012 - Paris did not fall in World War I

"Fall of Giants" is proving to be a great source of facts, today I read how France fared during Word War I (WWI). I had heard the joke many years ago about a antique French rifle being for sale, it was in mint condition, it had never been fired, but it had been dropped twice! This was in reference to the fact that France fell so easily during both World Wars. Until I had read "Fall of Giants" I had no real reference to where the war took place in Europe mainly because I am not that great with geography in general. I knew the countries involved but as their borders had changed so much over the part 100 years, and early in the 20th century they differed greatly from today's borders, it was hard to keep track. 

Today by reading "Fall of Giants" and a quick Google search, I learnt that most of France, including Paris, had not been occupied during WWI, when I had always believed that the majority of the country had been occupied! This has redefined my view of French participation in WWI. I had never really taken the joke about the dropped rifle seriously because I have read about the French resistance during World War II (WWII) and knew that they fought hard, but I believed that even in WWI that they had fought as more of a resistance movement as they had in WWII, rather than as an army in the trenches. The book however has shown me otherwise!

I highly recommend reading "Fall of Giants", or alternatively you can check out Wikipedia.

Learning something new still!

13 Jan 2012 - Big Ben is the Bell

Today I was reading my book 'Fall of Giants', I am only about a quarter of the way through it but I am learning much about the events preceding world war one. What I learnt today, however, is more in the realm of general trivia. One of the characters in the book was discussing Big Ben in London and how he likes to point out to people that it is not the clock tower that is called Big Ben but rather the bell inside the clock tower. I did a bit of a double take! I had to reread the line because I had always believed it was the name of the clock tower! Then I had a feeling of deja vu and thought, 'did I already know this', but I cast my mind back and don't recall ever hearing this before, so counted it as learning something today! 

I Googled as usual and read that the name Big Ben has generally extended to include the clock and tower and when people refer to Big Ben they are usually referring to the entire clock tower, as I have always done until today! Although even after today I am sure that I will refer to the clock tower as Big Ben, I will just annoyingly point out to people that it is actually the bell not the clock tower that is called Big Ben!

Thinking of this fact cast my mind back to when I visited London a number of years ago and I still remember my first sight of Big Ben, which is an amazing building! My sister took me via the tube into the city and we exited at Westminster underground station, I had no idea where I was and we walked out onto street level, I was focused on not getting mown down by people around me, which many people try to do in busy cities like London, and my sister said, 'look at that' and pointed up. I glanced up and there it was, Big Ben. Like so many other landmarks from foreign countries, I had seen Big Ben on TV many times, and I remember this moment as the first foreign landmark that I had seen in the flesh, so to speak. Seeing it so suddenly and not expecting it, has made the moment all the more vivid in my memory.

If you want to read more about Big Ben, and learn some great facts, such as that it is the largest, four faced chiming clock in the world, check out Wikipedia.

I learnt again!

12 Jan 2012 - The Mafia is Italy's biggest bank

Today I learnt the Mafia is now Italy's biggest business and biggest bank! I guess it is not that surprising since Italy is the home of the Mafia, but to think that organised crime is actually a bigger earner in Italy than any other profession! There goes the saying crime doesn't pay, it seems in Italy it pays big time! The article says that they have cash reserves of €100 billion, about 7 percent of Italy's total Gross Domestic Product, and that the Mafia loan sharking arm or the Mafia Inc bank has liquidity of €65 billion.

I do question the legitimacy of the data gathered because I do not understand how they managed to work out the liquidity and size of the Mafia's finances. I always assumed that the Mafia would keep secret records of their loan sharking and other businesses, but perhaps they are not secret any longer in this day and age, where gangsters are businessmen with smart phones not hoodlums with machine guns. The article says the study was released by an employers association, Confesercenti. I don't know what this company actually does, even after reading it's website, but it apparently knows much about the finances of the Mafia. Or perhaps what they know is actually only the tip of the iceberg and the Mafia is even richer than estimated by Confesercenti? My final thought on the subject is that perhaps this is all a ploy by the Public Relations division of the Mafia (I assume there must be one, everyone is doing it these days) to give them a bit more of a legitimate feel by calling them a bank!


If you would like to read the article, it was on The Age, you can also read Confesercenti's website

I am surprised that I am still learning!

11 Jan 2012 - Portugal occupied Timor for hundreds of years

Today I read an online news article about a 12 year old boy who discovered a antique Portuguese swivel gun near Darwin. What first struck me about this story was the wording of the opening line "boy may help re-write Australia's history after unearthing what he believes is a 500-year-old Portuguese swivel gun." The part that I focus on is 'he believes', reporters are known for the level of research they supposedly put into their articles, and I don't know about you but as a 12 year old I had trouble getting my mother to believe that I had cleaned my room when I actually had, and this reporter seems to have based his entire article on what a 12 year old believes. I hope it doesn't turn out that his imaginary friend advised him it was a Portuguese swivel gun! 

I did in fact read further into the article and it appears that the reporter has done a little more research than just asking the little boy, it appears that what he found is actually genuinely thought, by the Darwin museum, to be a Portuguese swivel gun. The museum has yet to examine the find closely to verify this fact, but will do so in the near future. Anyway I digress, this was what I thought about reading the article, what I learnt was that Portugal occupied Timor from 1515 until 1975 and it has been a hotly contested supposition that Portugal may have visited Australia prior to Captain Cook or the Dutch! This I never knew, I had only heard about Timor in regards to Indonesia wanting to occupy East Timor and Australia moving in as a peace keeping force a few years ago, I had no idea that it had been occupied by the Portuguese until less than 40 years ago! The more I learn about modern history the more I realise that the world as I know it today has not really looked this way for all of even my short lifetime, and makes me wonder when I am twice as old as I am today what the world will look like!

If you would like to read the article it was on The Age website.

Another random learning!

10 Jan 2012 - Quinoa

Today I went for a lunchtime walk with a friend of mine and I asked her what she was having for lunch, she replied, 'kinwa'. I thought that she had misinterpreted the question as, 'What is that new form of karate you have just taken up?' After asking her to repeat herself, she did in fact say kinwa, which is actually spelt quinoa. It turns out that this is some form of grain, which can be boiled and eaten much like cous cous or rice, however quinoa has a much higher protein content and so is better for you. I thought this would be a very bland lunch, but she explained that you can mix other things with it, such as tuna, to form a more varied meal, which upon reflection probably should have occurred to me without having to ask.


Now I can't say that it sounds that appetising (because I usually don't choose my meals based on them sounding like they could take me in a fight) but maybe one day I might try this quinoa with one of my meals and then I can blog about how I learnt what quinoa tastes like firsthand!

I located a Wikipedia article on quinoa and you can also see some recipes for it on Taste.com.au.

Has anyone started betting against me learning something new each day?

9 Jan 2012 - Russian Revolution not as simple as I thought

I am currently reading a book called 'Fall of Giants', it is written by Ken Follett and set in the early 1900's. He is an author who researches his books in great detail and so I knew whilst reading this book that the historical setting would be very accurate. During one of the chapters he retold from the eyes of one of the characters the events of Bloody Sunday in Russia in 1905. This event seemed shocking to me as basically a large group of about 300,000 workers were staging a peaceful protest regarding their rights and the army opened fire upon them, killing many and injuring hundreds. I say killing many because depending on the source the number killed varies, the official version was less than 100, however anti government sources say 4,000. It is generally agreed that at least 1,000 were killed. The book didn't go into this level of details , it was written as a narrative, today however I Googled, as I am want to do, and read some further articles. 

I actually read about Bloody Sunday yesterday in 'Fall of Giants', but I was giving you the background as to how I came to discover my fact for today! What I learnt from further searching about the time frame and details of Bloody Sunday was that the Russian Revolution of 1917 (I always thought the revolution was earlier in history, so I learnt two things) actually ended in a provisional government being created with the long term view of transitioning the country to a liberal republic. The provisional government failed to perform the tasks set out when it took power from the Tsar and the Communist Bolshevik party took the opportunity presented, by the failure of the provisional government, to seize power and create a communist state.

I had always thought the the Russian people chose a communist government after overthrowing the Tsar, I didn't realise that they had actually wanted a Republic, which they didn't get until many years later.

If you are interested in this period of history, I recommend 'Fall of Giants' as a great way to get historical information whilst reading an engaging story. Otherwise I read more detailed articles on New World Encyclopedia and Wikipedia.

Another new fact!

8 Jan 2012 - A new fire prediction system

I went to visit my Aunt this evening and she was watching the news as I entered, I only caught the end of the piece but she filled me in on the high level details. It seems that they have invented a new fire prediction system. Basically what they do is build a model of an area in a sand pit, including the geography and topography, then use computer imaging to map the area out and pick locations where the fire might be located. Then they add in wind and other factors and use it to predict how the fire will react and which direction it will take. I found this fascinating and I wanted to know more but I haven't been able to locate anything on Google or the news online but I hope to have a more in depth look at a later date.


Whilst hearing about this and I am not sure if you thought this too, but one of my first thoughts was how did they come up with this idea. I used to play in my sand pit all the time as a kid and I was thinking, maybe a fireman was sitting watching his kids build a sand castle but thinking about work and hey presto, he thought if my kids could build an exact replica of the ground surrounding this castle I could predict how best to prevent it from being consumed by a fire! I am sure if was a much more mundane thought process than that, but that is how I like to think the idea came about!


I have no further information on this topic and I don't know which station the news broadcast was on, so sorry but I can't add anything further!


Can you believe a whole week has past and I am still learning each day!

7 Jan 2012 - How to bake a lemon tart

I am not really much of a baker, I see all of these delicious deserts out there and I assume they must be extremely difficult to make because they look so good and taste so amazing! I do make a mean triple chocolate brownie and chocolate pudding but that is about the extent of my talent. This morning however I observed a friend of mine baking a lemon tart! Now admittedly she bought the pastry pre-made to save time but I never really assumed that the pastry was the difficult part, I always thought that it was the lemon mixture in the middle, my friend however has dispelled this myth forever, I even fell confident that I could bake a lemon tart!


I am not going to go into great detail about how to bake a lemon tart, if you want that in depth knowledge I suggest you take a cooking class or as lemon tarts are so simple just Google it and give it a go! What I will share with you is that you don't have to follow the recipe as strictly as I always thought you must, my friend was very slap dash about quantities and method and it still turned out amazingly. So my lesson learnt for the day is not just how to bake a lemon tart, but that maybe all the recipes I have been following strictly don't need to be adhered to so stringently and that I shouldn't stress if I stray a little, as things will most likely turn out for the best! I am not suggesting throwing away the recipe and working from nothing, I am suggesting that we should adopt a more trial and error approach to baking, some baking will work out fine if you stray from the recipe, some might work out better, others will fail, but in the end they will all taste great!


The recipe my friend used and I plan to try baking one day is from taste.com.au


Who knew learning could be so delicious!

6 Jan 2012 - "Supersoldier" ants created by science

The Age is proving to be a great source of learning for me! Today I learnt that scientists have worked out how to create a race of "supersoldier" ants. There are currently already some of these ants in the wild in the deserts of Mexico and America. The ants have huge heads and jaws which they use to protect their nest from predators by blocking the entrance with their huge heads and fending off attackers.  However scientists have now discovered that by activating ancient genes in the existing ants they can breed these "supersoldier" ants whenever they want.


My first question is, why? Why would we want to create super ants? I mean have you ever had your kitchen invaded by ants? Why would you want to create a race of super ants to invade our kitchens? At the moment they take out a little sugar and you can kill them with ant rid or a handy shoe. These super ants would be taking the whole bag of sugar and needing a bucket of ant rid or a giants shoe to kill them? Should scientists even be trying to create such a race of super ants, surely there are better uses for our science money?


If you would like to read the article it is on The Age website.


Still learning!

5 Jan 2012 - Amazon Movie Studios

It seems that all of my facts are learnt by reading the news online! Again today I read an article about Amazon.com the shopping website launching a movie studio. Many of you who already knew this may think I am behind the times, as it has been going for nearly a year, but I say to all of you 'You're right I am sometimes, which is why I am cataloging what I learn now!' Anyway the idea is that there will be a million dollar prize for the winning movie of the year and a meeting with Warner Brothers executives and monthly competitions with smaller cash prizes. The winner is determined by the public submitting votes, it is a case of asking the people what the people want. On the surface I thought this seemed like a good idea, but the more I think about it, the more I think, is this really going to work?

I mean look at all the reality TV we have where the public votes for a singer or the best talent or the best dancer. Are any of the people that win these shows any good? Most of them don't seem to be around for long, so maybe the public doesn't really know what it wants or is it that the people that watch and vote for these shows are not a good representation of the public? For example, I love music but have never voted on Australian Idol and I am sure that I am not the only one out there. Also you have to take into consideration that people from all of the world can submit scripts, but how many people actually know about this competition? I am one of the movie going public and I only heard about this today! Are the voters on the Amazon site really a good representation of the movie going public around the world? I guess we just have to wait and see if the Amazon movie studio actually creates something that is going to last the distance or just something that flops after a brief surge in popularity due to a massive marketing campaign!

For more information I read the original article on The Age website and more details are on the Amazon Studios site.

Again I have learnt something new!

4 Jan 2012 - Man made island in Port Phillip Bay

Today I was once again reading the news online and I came across an article about a man made island, I thought, I didn't know we could do that, so I opened the article to read more. It turns out in the 1870's that Port Phillip Bay needed protection from potential marauders looking to steal it's gold , and so they dumped 14,000 tonnes of blue stone onto a sandy shoal and built a fort on top. South Channel Fort was used in defense into the 1900's when it was outdated by longer ranging guns, and at the point of retirement had never fired a shot in anger.


Today the island still exists and South Channel Fort is still standing on top and apparently doesn't even have a crack in the structure, despite being built on the constantly moving surface of the man made island. I was astounded because it seems we can't even build a three bedroom house these days to stand for more than a year without a crack, even though it is built on solid ground! And here these people were with over 100 years less technology and they can not only build a defensible fort but they can build the island on which to hold it! It makes me wonder if our years of ever developing technology is perhaps making us lazy and less concerned with the longevity of the products we create?


If you would like to read more, there isn't much out there in a ten minute Google search but the original article was on The Age website http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/little-island-protector-was-made-by-man-but-embraced-by-nature-20120103-1pjox.html and as usual I also found a Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Channel_Fort.


Another day, another fact!

3 Jan 2012 - Mastication as a method of dieting

Ok, so today I was reading the newspaper on my way into work and I noticed an article on dieting. I have always believed that fad diets get you nowhere and this article really just confirmed what I already thought. However there was an interesting line in the article that said one such fad diet was mastication. Now I know what you are thinking and first, get your mind out of the gutter, go on, pick it up, ok, now a mastication diet is a chewing diet (in case you, like me, didn't know the definition of the word) and I thought, chewing as a form of dieting, what the!?! So I did a little further research into the topic.


As it turns out in the late 1800's and early 1900's there was a man called Horace Fletcher, also known as "The Great Masticator," who preached to the world that you should chew your food 32 times per bite or until the food became liquid. It was said the prolonged chewing prevented overeating and led to better systemic and dental health. 


The extreme chewing diet was known as Fletcherising but was never proven to produce any of the advertised benefits. I for one don't see Fletcherising as a new thing and am not surprised that it didn't produce any of the benefits stated. I mean cows have been practicing this mastication diet for years by chewing their food for hours on end and they are one of the fattest animals I know! What more proof do you need that this diet is a failure and it was proven long before Horace Fletcher. However, you do have to hand it to the man, it is considered a great insult to imply someone is overweight by calling them a cow and old Horace convinced hundreds of people to adopt more behaviours of a cow in order to lose weight? He must have been a marketing genius!


If you would like to read more about Fletcherising then here are some websites that I again found in a ten minute Google search - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9693596, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Fletcher and http://www.ehow.com/info_8096711_chewing-mastication-diets.html


Still learning each day!

2 Jan 2012 - Valentine's Day Origin

Ok so today I found myself with some spare time and decided to watch the movie Valentine's Day. Please don't judge me for my taste in movies, I thought this one might be a good no thinking evening flick, which it was. I wouldn't rate it as the best film I have seen but still worth a watch on a quiet evening. During the film I learnt something new, which was, aside from a few funny one liners and a laugh out loud funny line from Julia Roberts referring to her role in Pretty Woman, the origin of Valentines Day.


Now in the film it was told that there was a law in Ancient Rome passed that prohibited young men from getting married in order to increase the army of Rome, however there was a priest, Valentine, who secretly married young men and women despite this law. He was eventually caught and executed on 14 February, hence the date for Valentines day. I found this interesting and so I decided to do a little further digging (not too much as it was getting late and my interest was waning due to my desire to sleep) and discovered that while this story could not be substantiated in historical fact (I didn't do a full historical search, just ten minutes on Google) it is the generally accepted story of the origin of Valentines Day. This is of course not taking into account the fact that there were two Valentines recorded as living at the same time and that Saint Valentine is linked to both individuals, who may or may not be the same person. However it is a nice clear cut version which is easy to remember and given people's trust in Hollywood always presenting an accurate portrayal of history, I am sure it will be the only known version of the story in years to come!


If you want to read more about Saint Valentine, here are the links that I discovered in my ten minute Google search -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day and http://www.novareinna.com/festive/saintval.html.


So far I have learnt something new each day!

1 Jan 2012 - How to create a blog

I have always been interested in the saying, "You learn something new everyday", I use this saying all the time and it got me to thinking, do I actually learn something new everyday? I decided this year to actually try and take note of things that I learn throughout the the day to see if I do in fact learn something new each day. 

Now a few ground rules are needed to determine what I learn each day, for example my manager told me the other day that if she didn't go to the bathroom right then that she was going to wet her pants. Technically that is something that I learnt for the day, however when I use the saying, "You learn something new everyday", I would never use it for that type of revelation. When I was told the other day what a Braxton Hicks contraction (false labour) was, I actually used the phase, well you learn something new everyday! Now there are going to be some grey areas amongst what I learn, and my rule of thumb is going to be, if I think I learnt something I will use again, whether it be a fact or a revelation about the world around me, I will include it in this blog. If I learn more than one thing, I will write the one that I found most fascinating, which may or may not be boring to you, but hey I can't please everyone.

Okay, with the ground rules established, what I learnt today was how to create a blog. I had always imagined that blogs were some part of a cyber world in which I had no place, a place where computer savvy individuals could spout their ideas to the world at large. As it turns out anyone with an email account can easily start one thanks to Google! The mystery has been dispelled for me and the world will never be the same, or more likely it will be exactly the same but now I will be able to spout my ideas to the world, which may not be a positive thing!

So that everyone can learn with me, all you have to do to create a blog is have a gmail account, click on the link www.blogger.com and follow the prompts, I had mine create in under 5 minutes! It took me much longer to write this post though, so you might also need an idea of what you want to blog about, it doesn't have to be interesting, just as long as you want to write about it, that is the beauty of blogs!