Unbelievable Facts: Flags

Short Unbelievable Facts - Did you know?

A Water Strider can stand on water surface and its legs are designed to support up to 15 times its body weight. But a single mosquito leg alone can support 23 times the mosquito's body weight.

You can actually send mail to Santa Claus. Just write it to Santa Claus, North Pole, H0H 0H0 CANADA. H0H 0H0 is a reserved postal code for Santa. Every year, approximately 13,000 volunteers known as Postal Elves helped Santa to reply to these letters in 16 languages and Braille. Santa can also receive email through a special website at www.canadapost.ca/santascorner

The adult stage of a dragonfly can last up to 4 months, but at larval stage they spent as long as 5 years beneath the water's surface, using internal gills to breathe. Around the world, they possessed unique names like mosquito hawks, devil's needle, devil's horse, horse killer, ear cutter, snake doctor.

On June 6, 2007, Persil, the first self-acting laundry detergent, celebrated its 100th anniversary. The detergent was launched on June 6, 1907, and was given the name Persil. The name derived from the two most important chemical raw materials in the product, PERborate and SILicate.

Frogs cannot vomit. If they swallow something toxic or indigestible, some species actually chuck up their entire stomach, wipe it clean with their front legs and then swallow it again.

The King of Hearts appeared to be stabbing himself, but originally the king is wielding an axe. Due to poor copying by blockmakers the axe lost its head over the centuries and the shaft was turned into a sword which appears to be driven into his head, hence the nickname "Suicide King".

The largest animal ever lived is the blue whale. The heart of a blue whale is the size of a small car and it's tongue is as long as an elephant and weight as much as a small one. Its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 tonnes of food and water but despite that, it cannot swallow an object wider than a beach ball due to the dimension of its throat.

Ducks are never male. The males of the species are called drakes.

Burma are the only country where the cars are right hand-driven and driven on the right side of the road. As a former British colony, now named Myanmar drove on the left until 1970, when the military regime of Ne Win decreed that traffic would drive on the right. In spite of the change, most passenger cars mainly from Japan are right hand driven.

The oldest breed of domesticated dog is the Saluki, member of the sighthound family. They are found in the Egyptian tombs of 2100 B.C.

The first vending machine was invented by Hero of Alexandria around 215 BC. When the coin was dropped into a slot, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which dispense a fix amount of holy water. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve.

An Octopus has 3 hearts. It抯 got two smaller hearts to force blood through the two gills and then a main heart called the systemic heart to force the blood everywhere else.

FALSE rumors claimed that the number 57 on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of varieties of pickles the company once had. Not true, in fact in 1896, Henry John Heinz noticed an advertisement for '21 styles of shoes.' He decided to add the numbers '5' and '7' since the number held a special significance for him and his wife, he adopted the slogan '57 Varieties'.

Contrary to what schools have taught for years, Thomas Edison neither invented the light bulb nor held the first patent to the modern design of the light bulb. Joseph Swan from England, invented and obtained the first patent for the same light bulb in Britain one year earlier, in 1878.

A young coconut can be used as a substitute for blood plasma. It was done during World War II when blood supplies were low. Coconut water is identical to human blood plasma which makes it the universal donor. By drinking coconuts we give ourselves an instant blood transfusion.

Walt Disney was afraid of mice. In the book The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Steven Watts says Disney was afraid of mice but found them Sympathetic.

Hummingbirds are the only bird that can fly backwards.

Babies have 300 bones, but adults only have 206 bones due to some bones fused together during their growth.

Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible.

Coca-cola used to contain cocaine because in it's early years, it's a tonic drink and not a soft drink.

Canned food was patented and introduced in 1810 by a British merchand Peter Durand. However, can opener was invented only 48 years later. Before that, canned food includes instruction "Cut round the top near the outer edge with a chisel and hammer."

Tea was accidentally invented in 2737 BC when Chinese Emperor Shen Nung spotted some tea leaves blew into a pot of boiling water and produced a pleasing aroma.

In 1314, the mayor of London banned football (soccer) and the law remained for centuries, but failed to slow the popularity of the game and now it became the most attended or watched sport in the world.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Flags - Did you know?

Switzerland is the only country with a square flag.

Nepal is the only country that doesn't have a rectangular flag.

Cyprus is the only country to display its map on its national flag.

Libya is the only country its national flag contain just one color and no design or any other details.

Philippines is the only country in the world that its flag flown in wartime, is different from how it is flown at other times. The flag is displayed with the blue field on top in times of peace, and with the red field on top in times of war.

Paraguay is the only country its national flags have different emblems on its obverse and reverse sides. Upper picture is obverse, lower picture is reverse.

2 comments:

Boat Bird said...: I have to tell you you're wrong on this one!

The flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland- known as the Union Flag- is flown differently in times of crisis to how it is flown in times of peace.

Please see the following link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Flag
and scroll down to the section on 'Specifications for flag use'.; September 6, 2008 at 5:58 AM
Dominic said...: Thank you for your comment, but I'm not wrong. Not yet at least.

According to Wikipedia, “Traditionally, flying a flag upside down is understood as a distress signal”. But the Philippines flag are not flown upside down. Only the blue field and the red field exchanged position. You may ask what’s the difference?. Take a look at the 3 five-pointed stars. There’s 1 tip pointing upwards, and 2 tips pointing downwards. When the red & blue field exchanges position during war time, the star position remained the same, evidence that the flag is not flown upside down.

I appreciate your comment and I hope I’ll get more in the future. If any part of my post were found to be not true, I’ll immediately edit/change the article.; September 27, 2008 at 5:21 PM

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Sunday, September 23, 2007

Flags - Did you know?

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