Ten things you didn't know about Google

10 October, 2008

Ten things you didn't know about Google

1) The name Google is a spelling error. The founders of the site, Larry page and Sergey Brin, thought they were going for 'Googol.' Googol is the mathematical term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense amount of information available on the web. Initially, Larry and Sergey Brin called their search engine BackRub, named for its analysis of the of the web's "back links." The search for a new name began in 1997, with Larry and his officemates starting a hunt for a number of possible new names for the rapidly improving search technology
2) The reason the google page is so bare is because the founder didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just kept sitting staring at the screen, waiting for the rest toappear. To solve the particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as an end of page marker.
3) Google started as a research project by Larry page and Sergey Brin when they were 24 and 23 years respectively. Google's mission statement is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The company's first office was in a garage, in Menlo Park , California . Google's first employee was Craig Silverstein, now Google's director of technology. The basis of Google's search technology is called PageRank that assigns an "importance" value to each page on the web and gives it a rank to determine how useful it is. However, that is not why it is called PageRank. It is actually named after Google co-founder Larry Page.
4) Google receives about 20 million search queries each day from every part of the world, including Antarctica and Vatican . You can have the Google homepage set up in as many as 116 different languages -- including Urdu, Latin , Cambodia , Tonga , and Yoruba. In fact, Google has the largest network of translators in the world.
5) In the earliest stage of Google, there was no submit button, rather the Enter key needed to be pressed. Google has banned computer-generated search requests, which can sop up substantial system resources and help unscrupulous marketers manipulate its search rankings.
6) The Google's free web mail service Gmail was used internally for nearly two years prior to launch to the public. The researchers found out six types of email users, and Gmail has been designed to accommodate these six. The free e-mail service recently changed its name for new UK users. Following a trademark dispute with a London-based Independent International Investment Research, the mail account has been renamed Google Mail.
7) It would take 5,707 years for a person to search Google's 3 billion pages. The Google software does it in 0.5 seconds. Google Groups comprises more than 845 million Usenet messages, which is the world's largest collection of messages or the equivalent ofmore than a terabyte of human conversation
8) The logos that appear on the Google homepage during noteworthy days and dates and important events are called Google Doodle. The company has also created an online museum where it has all the logos it has put on various occasions so far. Dennis Hwang, a Korean computer artist in the United States , is the guy behind these witty Doodles. Hwang has been drawing the face of Google for over two years.
9) You have heard of Google Earth, but not many know there is a site called Google Moon, which maps the Lunar surface. Google Moon is an extension of Google Maps and Google Earth that, courtesy of NASA imagery, enables you to surf the Moon's surface and check out the exact spots that the Apollo astronauts made their landings
10) Keyhole, the satellite imaging company that Google acquired in October 2004 was funded by CIA. Keyhole's technology runs Google's popular program Google Earth that allows users to quickly view stored satellite images from all around the world





10 Amazing Facts About Chocolate

Chocolate is made from beans derived from the cacao tree. These beans are very bitter, so the cocoa solids and the cocoa butter has sugar added to it, along with some other ingredients in order to make the chocolate that is available to the general public.Chocolate is particularly popular at certain times of the year, such as Easter, Valentines Day and Christmas. As such, chocolate shaped gifts are popular. Hearts for Valentines day and cute bunnies at Easter are two high up on the gift selection list. Here are 10 interesting facts about chocolate:
1. Chocolate is lower in caffeine than tea, coffee and coca cola. A one ounce bar of chocolate contains about 6mg of caffeine, whereas a five ounce cup of regular coffee contains over 40mg.
2. Chocolate was regarded as an aphrodisiac by Aztec Indians.
3. Chocolate contains antioxidants which may help prevent cancer and heart disease.
4. Chocolate is the favourite flavour in the United States Of America.
5. The shelf life of a bar of chocolate is approximately one year.
6. In 1842 Cadbury's in England created the worlds first chocolate bar.
7. The Swiss eat the most chocolate. The average person eats 19lbs a year.
8. Chocolate contain theobromine, which is a mild relative of caffeine and magnesium. This chemical is found in some tranquilisers. Because coffee also contains caffeine, it both picks you up and calms you down.
9. It is widely believed that chocolate consumption releases a chemical into your body very similar to what is produced when you are in love.
10. Chocolate manufacturers use 20% of the worlds peanuts and 40% of the worlds almonds.Chocolate is mildly addictive, but a bar now and again is not going to hurt. With all those great antioxidants it contains, it may even help you live longer. After all, as the saying goes, “A little of what you fancy does you good”.

Amazing facts about Human body

The Skeletal System
The largest bone is the pelvis, or hip bone. In fact it is made of six bones joined firmly together.The longest bone is the 'femur', in the thigh. It makes up almost one quarter of the body's total height.The smallest bone is the 'stirrup', deep in the ear. It is hardly larger than a grain of rice.The ears and end of the nose do not have bones inside them. Their inner supports are cartilage or 'gristle', which is lighter and more flexible than bone. This is why the nose and ears can be bent.After death, cartilage rots faster than bone. This is why the skulls of skeletons have no nose or ears.
The Muscular System
There are about 60 muscles in the face. Smiling is easier than frowning. It takes 20 muscles to smile and over 40 to frown.The longest muscle in the body is the sartorius, from the outside of the hip, down and across to the inside of the knee. It rotates the thigh outwards and bends the knee.The smallest muscle in the body is the stapedius, deep in the ear. It is only 5mm long and thinner than cotton thread. It is involved in hearing.The biggest muscle in the body is the gluteus maximus, in the buttock. It pulls the leg backwards powerfully for walking, running and climbing steps.
The Circulatory System
The heart beats around 3 billion times in the average person's life.About 2 million blood cells die in the human body every second, and the same number are born each second.Within a tiny droplet of blood, there are some 5 million red blood cells, 300,000 platelets and 10,000 white cells.It takes about 1 minute for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.Red blood cells make approximately 250,000 round trips of the body before returning to the bone marrow, where they were born, to die.Red blood cells may live for about 4 months circulating throughout the body, feeding the 60 trillion other body cells.The brain looks like a giant, wrinkled walnut.Unlike other body cells, brain cells can not regenerate. Once brain cells are damaged they are not replaced.The brain and spinal cord are surrounded and protected by cerebrospinal fluid.
The Immune System
The skin secretes antibacterial substances. These substances explain why you don't wake up in the morning with a layer of mold growing on your skin - most bacteria and spores that land on the skin die quickly.Tears and mucus contain an enzyme (lysozyme) that breaks down the cell wall of many bacteria.Lymph nodes contain filtering tissue and a large number of lymph cells. When fighting certain bacterial infections, the lymph nodes swell with bacteria and the cells fighting the bacteria, to the point where you can actually feel them. Swollen lymph nodes may therefore be a good indication that you have an infection of some sort.
The Digestive System
Adults eat about 1,100 pounds of food per year.About 3 pints of saliva are produced each day.The esophagus is approximately 10 inches long.Muscles contract in waves to move the food down the esophagus. This means that food would get to a person's stomach, even if they were standing on their head.An adult’s stomach can hold approximately 3 pints of material.Every day 3 gallons of digested food, liquids and digestive juices flow through the digestive system, but only about 3 ounces of fluid are lost in feces.In the mouth, food is either cooled or warmed to a more suitable temperature.We get two sets of teeth. Our 20 'Baby Teeth’ are replaced starting at around 6-7 years of age with our 32 ‘Adult Teeth’.
The Respiratory System
At rest, the adult body takes in and breathes out about 1.6 gallons of air each minute.The right lung is slightly larger than the left.Hairs in the nose help to clean the air we breathe as well as warming it.The highest recorded "sneeze speed" is 102 miles per hour.The surface area of the lungs is roughly the same size as a tennis court.The capillaries in the lungs would extend 1,000 miles if placed end to end.We lose half a more than two cups of water a day through breathing. This is the water vapor we see when we breathe onto glass.A person at rest usually breathes between 12 and 15 times a minute.The breathing rate is faster in children and women than in men






Strange but true facts about the Earth

In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above
Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park, USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.
The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk. The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah'. It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

its amazing ...read it

Clapping with One Hand & with both Hands separately at the same time: Navneet Singh performed my Unique Talent of Clapping with Only One Hand at the " Famous Reality Show named, SHABAASH INDIA" which is being telecast on Zee TV. I have made a Record of Clapping 284 times in Just 1 Minute with Only One Hand. The T.V. Channel have also issued a Certificate stating " Record of Clapping with Only One Hand". An article has also been published in News Paper "The Tribune" Chandigarh, about this achievement.
The US produces 25 per cent and owns 35 per cent of the world's cars. Fifty per cent of vehicle trips in the US involve only the driver.
Antarctica is COLDEST continent, averaging minus 76 degrees in the winter.
Paris, France has more dogs than people.
The heaviest apple weighed 1.849 kg (4 lb 1 oz) and was grown and picked by Chisato Iwasaki at his apple farm in Hirosaki City, Japan October 24, 2005.
The highest accepted named number in the system of successive powers of ten is the centillion, first recorded in 1852. It is the hundredth power of a million, or 1 followed by 600 noughts. The number 10100 is designated a googol. The term was suggested by the 9 year old nephew of Dr Edward Kasner (USA). Ten raised to the power of a googol is described as a googolplex. Some conception of the magnitude of such numbers can be gained when it is said that the number of electrons in some models of the observable Universe is of the order of 1087.The highest named number outside the decimal notation is the Buddhist asankhyeya, which is equal to 10140 and mentioned in Jain works of 100 BC.The highest number ever used in a mathematical proof is a bounding value published in 1977 and is known as Graham’s number. It contains bi-chromatic hypercubes and is beyond description without the special arrow notation, devised by Knuth in 1976 and then extendedto 64 layers.

Amazing Language Facts

There are more than 2,700 languages in the world. In addition, there are more than 7,000 dialects. A dialect is a regional variety of a language that has a different pronunciation, vocabulary, or meaning.The most difficult language to learn is Basque, which is spoken in northwestern Spain and southwestern France. It is not related to any other language in the world. It has an extremely complicated word structure and vocabulary.All pilots on international flights identify themselves in English.Somalia is the only African country in which the entire population speaks the same language, Somali.The language in which a government conducts business is the official language of that country.More than 1,000 different languages are spoken on the continent of Africa.Many languages in Africa include a “click” sound that is pronounced at the same time as other sounds. You must learn these languages in childhood to do it properly.

General interesting facts ...really amazing

• No piece of normal-size paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.The first product to have a bar code scanned was Wrigley's gum.
• Earth is the only planet not named after a pagan God.
• A Boeing 747s wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.
• Every day is about 55 billionths of a second longer than the day before it
• Venus is the only planet that rotates clockwise.
• The Himalayan gogi berry contains, weight for weight, more iron than steak, more beta carotene than carrots, more vitamin C than oranges.
• Fingerprints of koala bears are similar (in pattern, shape and size) to the fingerprints of humans
• Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
• SCUBA divers cannot pass gas at depths of 33 feet or below
• Pele has always hated his nickname, which he says sounds like "baby-talk in Portuguese".
• As of 2006, 200 million blogs were left without updatesUrban birds have developed a short, fast "rap style" of singing, different from their rural counterparts.The lion costume in the film Wizard of Oz was made from real lions.Fathers tend to determine the height of their child, mothers their weight.The Pope's been known to wear red Prada shoes.Donald Rumsfeld was both the youngest and the oldest defense secretary in US history.Coco Chanel started the trend for sun tans in 1923 when she got accidentally burnt on a cruise.Up to 25% of hospital keyboards carry the MRSA infection.In ancient Greece, children of wealthy families were dipped in olive oil at birth to keep them hairless throughout their lives.Sex workers (Prostitutes) in Roman times charged the equivalent price of eight glasses of red wine.As of 2006, more than one in eight people in the United States show signs of addiction to the internet.More than 90% of plane crashes have survivors.The Mona Lisa used to hang on the wall of Napoleon’s bedroom.Barbie's full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts.Eating a packet of crisps a day is equivalent to drinking five liters of cooking oil a year.Plant seeds that have been stored for more than 200 years can be coaxed into new life.For every 10 successful attempts to climb Mount Everest there is one fatality. (As of 2006)Watching television can act as a natural painkiller for childrenForty-one percent of English women have punched or kicked their partners, according to a study.The more panels a football has - and therefore the more seams - the easier it is to control in the air.Music can help reduce chronic pain by more than 20% and can alleviate depression by up to 25%.The egg came first.Modern teenagers are better behaved than their counterparts of 20 years ago, showing "less problematic behavior" involving sex, drugs and drink. Britain is still paying off debts that predate the Napoleonic wars because it's cheaper to do so than buy back the bonds on which they are based. In Bhutan government policy is based on Gross National Happiness; thus most street advertising is banned, as are tobacco and plastic bags. The best-value consumer purchase in terms of the price and usage is an electric kettle.Camel's milk, which is widely drunk in Arab countries, has 10 times more iron than cow's milk.Iceland has the highest concentration of broadband users in the world.The age limit for marriage in France was, until recently, 15 for girls, but 18 for boys. The age for girls was raised to 18 in 2006.The brain is soft and gelatinous - its consistency is something between jelly and cooked pasta.The Himalayas cover one-tenth of the Earth's surface.A "lost world" exists in the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of hitherto unknown animal and plant species.The two most famous actors who portrayed the “Marlboro Man” in the cigarette ads died of lung cancer.
• All US Presidents have worn glasses. Some just didn't like being seen wearing them in public.
• The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off.
• Walt Disney was afraid of mice.
• The inventor of the flushing toilet was Thomas Crapper.
• The average bed is home to over 6 billion dust mites.
• The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
• The average chocolate bar has 8 insect legs in it.
• Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people do. (Makes you think about ambidextrous people)
• Its impossible to smoke oneself to death with weed. You won\'t be able to retain enough motor control and consciousness to do so after such a large amount.
• Every drop of seawater contains approximately 1 billion gold atoms.
• The US national anthem actually has three verses, but everyone just knows the first one.
  During World War II, IBM built the computers the Nazis used to manage their death/concentration camps.
• The total combined weight of the worlds ant population is heavier than the weight of the human population.
• The deadliest war in history excluding World War II was a civil war in China in the 1850s in which the rebels were led by a man who thought he was the brother of Jesus Christ.
  Just about 3 people are born every second, and about 1.3333 people die every second. The result is about a 2 and 2/3 net increase of people every second. Almost 10 people more live on this Earth now, than before you finished reading this.
• Happy Birthday (the song) is copyrighted.
• The number of people alive on earth right now is higher than the number of all the people that have died. Ever.
• The doorbell was invented in 1831.
• The electric shaver was patented on November 6, 1928.
• Japan is the largest exporter of frog's legs.
• There are seven points on the Statue of Liberty's crown.
• Napoleon was terrified of cats.
• The first Lifesaver flavor was peppermint.
• The typical American eats 263 eggs a year.
• The parking meter was invented by C.C. Magee in 1935.
• The oldest known vegetable is the pea.
• Jack is the most common name in nursery rhymes.
• The avocado has the most calories of any fruit.
• The first zoo in the USA was in Philadelphia.
• France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.
• The shortest English word that contains the letters A, B, C, D, E, and F is "feedback."
• The state of California raises the most turkeys out of all of the states.
• George Washington Carver invented peanut butter.
• Iceland was the first country to legalize abortion in 1935.
• The dumbest domesticated animal is the turkey.
• Russia has the most movie theaters in the world.
• The most fatal car accidents occur on Saturday.
• The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.
• The mongoose was barred live entry into the U.S. in 1902.
• Goldfish swallowing started at Harvard in 1939.
• Dry fish food can make goldfish constipated.
• The stall closest to the door in a bathroom is the cleanest, because it is the least used.
• Toilet paper was invented in 1857.
• Alaska could hold the 21 smallest States.

20 Amazing Facts about Voting in the USA

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.
14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.)
17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

How far can a spacecraft fly in one year?

When Deep space 1 flew past asteroid Braille on July 29, 1999, both the spacecraft and asteroid were about 188 million kilometers from Earth! How far is that? If you had a piece of yarn that long, it would weigh 80 million kilograms (about 88,000 tons), or about as much as 40 fully fueled space shuttles.That's more than enough yarn to make sweaters for every person in the United States!If you made a ball of that much yarn, it would be 100 meters (330 feet) high. That's as tall as a 32-story building or over twice the height of the Statue of Liberty!